Archive for May, 2008
May 29, 2008 at 10:29 pm · Filed under Software, Technical stuff
So, here is the tube map showing progress to date, you may have to zoom out to catch the extremes, depending on the size of your screen:
**UPDATE** I’ve removed the image as it seems to be slowing the blog down and crashing folks computers, you can still view The Full Screen Map over here.
If you don’t know about google maps, it’s a particularly useful little gadget. Click on the “my maps” tab and then either plot a map manually or import a data file from SportsTracks or whatever GPS mapping system you have on the computer. There are a number of examples in the previous few posts. You can colour the map as you see fit and then copy the link to an embedded image. Very swish.
I’ve been including these embedded google maps to illustrate each section of the London Underground route but have been struggling to display all the sections together on one interactive block.
There are a stack of hacks for google maps out there as well but the two I have found particularly useful are, GPS Visualizer and Map Channels.
GPS Visualizer is an incredibly in depth utility. If you are into maps, you want to check it out. It enables you to plot multiple gpx tracks onto one image and will colour them according to an amazing array of variables such as speed or altitude. You could plot atmospheric pollutants with coloured blobs suggesting density or of course simple tracks showing how slow you actually run. I’m sure I could plot my geographical tube map using GPS Visualizer but to be honest I can’t be bothered to stay up all night trying to fathom out how to do it.
Map Channels is very easy to use. It requires you to have set up all your routes as google maps already but thats not a problem for me. You can then create maps with multiple map channels visible. If you set the colour and style of the track in google maps this will be replicated in Map Channel image. Incredibly easy and yet it includes a great number of style control options.
I’ve only just started playing with this one but I’m impressed by how well it has enabled me to display multiple, differently coloured tracks.
Popularity: 7% [?]
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Tags: google maps, GPS, gps visulaizer, London Underground, map channels, maps, tube
May 29, 2008 at 12:44 am · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Running, Salomon Challenge
At 5:15 this evening I threw my non-conforming budgets into the air and stepped away from the computer. I had a bus to catch and it’s becoming obvious that I won’t be able to maintain my usual level of commitment to the day job and still hope to complete this challenge.
It took an hour and a half for me to get from work to Holborn, all for the joy of having me run an hour and half back the way I came. This is the absolute worst kind of running commute, the sort that seems to bare so very little reason and might just have been created for the sole purpose of making me work, a true Cinderella task.
The planning for the run started yesterday evening as I packed my bag and then lay awake fretting for most of the night listening to the raging wind, rain and thunder. In the end I decided that a torrential downpour was the best I could hope for on the day I cover off the whole of Oxford Street.
The weather proved to be ideal. A perfect running drizzle welcomed me as I hit the bustle of Southampton Row and headed on towards Tottenham Court Road.
It was busy but perhaps not the worst I’ve seen it. I could run about two paces before having to jump in and then quickly out of the path of a bus, to avoid bizarre zigzagging shoppers, waving cigarette butts around.
I tried a few Oxford Street avoidance routes, such as attempting a parrallel route through Soho but almost as soon as I did that I spotted an interesting piece of graffiti back across the other side. I must have made terribly slow progress towards Oxford circus.
Despite myself, I began to enjoy the challenge today. I’m stopping at every station to take a photo, partly as proof of my journey but it’s having the result of turning me into a tourist and I’m happy to see areas in a new light.
I now know for example that Farringdon (from Sunday’s H&C line) has a better class of graffiti artist.
While this blog is turning into an art appreciation forum, I’m going to slip in a photo of the Barbara Hepworth sculpture, tacked onto the side of the John Lewis building, a little after Bond Street. Isn’t it beautiful?
So I’ve traveled about 400 yards and already taken 12 photos, you won’t be surprised to hear that this was another record breaking slow run. But at least I was calm and didn’t feel the need to throttle any shoppers which is what normally happens when I venture onto Oxford Street.
I was almost tempted to commit some form of maiming on a lad who insisted on walking faster than I could run though. In the end I managed to catch him on the long downhill stretch to Shepherds Bush but probably only because he stopped at a cash point.
The journey along the Central Line between Holborn and the new Shepherds Bush station was just under 9km so I felt fit enough to tag on a few extra stations and grab the westerly section of the Hammersmith and City line as well.
View Larger Map
View Larger Map
Salomon XT Wings Challenge
Today:
13 Tube Stations
10.56 km
Sports Tracker map with photos
Cumulative:
28 Tube Stations
25.72 km
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
17.2 miles total
Popularity: 8% [?]
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Tags: Central Line, commute, London Underground, Salomon Challenge
May 26, 2008 at 11:24 pm · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Running
Smack talk from the direction of JogBlog had me climbing out of my pyjamas and into my running shoes, ready to head out into the cold wet night.
I thought a quickish blast around the block would be sufficient to stop her thinking I was anywhere close to slacking off yet, and also I could use it as an opportunity to calibrate the Nike+ sportsband which keeps coming in short.
Heading towards the level crossing I couldn’t summon up enough of a sprint to beat the descending gates so had to take a sharp left and run up along the tracks. For calibration purposes you have to maintain a steady pace, so no hanging around waiting for trains.This curtailed route took me too close to my flat to ignore and as my own shadow was giving me the heeby jeebies I thought it was time to go back to bed.
Total distance, a whopping great 1.34 km and over that piddling distance the Nike+ and garmin decided to agree for once. They must be sniggering behind my back!
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
10.2 miles total
Popularity: 9% [?]
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Tags: calibration, Garmin, Nike, Nike+ Sportband
May 25, 2008 at 11:00 pm · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Running, Salomon Challenge
It would have been nice to lie in with a cup of tea and the latest omnibus edition of The Archers but unfortunately I have about 200 tube stations to visit over the next 30 days.
Still, if you have to follow any tube line on a gloomy wet morning, it may as well be a pink one.
I took the Hammersmith and City line and Central line (due to closures) as far as Mile End, the most easterly point in my challenge, and immediately regretted cutting my tube map beyond Liverpool Street. It’s a pretty grim area, not the sort of place you want loiter for long, not that the garmin pays any attention to mugging fears.
I start running along a huge long road until I reach Stepney Green and pass a man rubbing himself up against a wall. This is not improving my appreciation of the area one bit.
The world brightens a bit as you approach Aldgate East and gets positively exciting around Liverpool Street, although its also associated with a GPS black hole and I spend about 50 mins wandering around in circles hoping to stumble upon Moorgate.
I get bored of running up and down the same street so opt for walking up and down the same street until I finally give up by Kings Cross and hop on the tube home.
I accidentally forget to switch off sports tracker which is fortunate as it boosts my pace to an acceptable level.
View Larger Map
Salomon XT Wings Challenge
Today:
9 Tube Stations
9.90 km
Sports Tracker map with photos.
Cumulative:
15 Tube Stations
15.16 km
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
9.4 miles total
Popularity: 9% [?]
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Tags: Garmin, GPS, Hammersmith and City Line, London Underground, Salomon Challenge, tube
May 25, 2008 at 12:33 am · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Apparel, Equipment, Gadgets, Running, Salomon Challenge, Shoes
I was enjoying a nice leisurely Saturday evening when JogBlog reminded me that today was the start of our double challenge combo.
Some months ago, Salomon contacted me (and several others) with the offer of oodles of snazzy free stuff in return for the completion of some crazy running feat. I am quite prepared to commit to almost anything 2 months prior to any requirement to expend actual energy, so I said yes, thought up some crazy feat, then sat back and forgot about it while enjoying the snazzy free stuff.
Unfortunately decisions made in haste have a tendency to turn around and bite you and today is the start of that lesson.
My challenge is to recreate the central London tube line (zone 1 and most of zone 2), running between stations to create my own GPS version of the underground map. Over on the right sidebar you can see a my challenge widget kindly provided by Salomon. It suggests that I will be doing this in a mere 11 days. This is a LIE. The challenge was for a crazy running feat not a suicidal one. My aim is to complete the task within 31 days. I’m also not a “he” but I’m prepared to let that one pass.
I’m not entirely sure what I have committed to, beyond the obvious - hours spent wandering around in circles trying to find the shortest route to the next tube station on the brown line, heck, maybe I’ll even get to learn the names of all those tube lines. It’s very difficult to work out the distances between stations. The London tube map is not to scale so I’ve been printing off geographical versions, tracing pieces of string around the track and totting it all up on my abacus.
An incredibly inaccurate estimate of the track length is 100km, but when you factor in the above ground restrictions, I can imagine my total distance coming closer to the 100 mile mark. This then explains the second challenge. JogBlog is aiming to run 100m in a month as part of her Salomon challenge so we’ve decided to coincide start dates for a little bit of competitive rivalry. Can either of us actually hit the 100m target? Can I do it first?
If I win I may even be tempted to throw a game of scrabble for her.
Anyway, back to today. By 8pm the pressure has built up sufficiently for me to consider a run. I grabbed the Garmin, Nike+, N82 with Sportstracker and iPod. Tooled up with hundreds of pounds worth of gadgets I get on a bus and head towards one of the seediest areas of West London. I was not in slightest bit surprised that when I puffed past a group of lads on the North End Road one of them said “Shall we mug her for her….” I didn’t hear the what for part, I wasn’t really hanging around at the point. Maybe they took a shine to my incredibly red Salomon XT Wings?
I wanted to start off slowly today so aimed to tick off one of the smallest sections of tube line on my map. That’s the district line (green line), Kensington Olympia branch and Hammersmith branch. I made a bit of a bodge though and included West Brompton into the mix which, although part of the district line, is actually on the Putney branch. So I messed up on the easiest section of the whole month, I may have to write tube names up my arm for the trickier sections. As it is, I’m running with the Nokia N82 in my hand watching the little dot moving around the google maps image.
View Larger Map
So todays tally:
Salomon XT Wings Challenge
6 Tube Stations complete
5.26 km total
Sports Tracker map with photos.
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
3.3 miles total
…and in case you are all feeling sorry to be missing out on all these challenges, there is a third one starting on the 1st of June. Tis the annual Juneathon where you commit to run every single flipping day for a month. Head over to Joggerblogger’s joint to sign up and if you have a Nike+ thingummy you can join the challenge here as well.
Popularity: 14% [?]
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Tags: District Line, Garmin, GPS, London Underground, n82, Nike, nokia, Salomon Challenge, tube
May 20, 2008 at 11:32 am · Filed under Running
You may have noticed that I have not been running an awful lot of late. You may also have noticed that this downturn in activity has been matched by an awful lot of moaning of the “my back hurts, my leg hurts” variety.
I feel somewhat vindicated as, after a spate of trips to see the quack, I discovered last week that I have some fairly unpleasant goings on in my spine.
I have somehow managed to acquire a completely unpronounceable disorder called spondylolisthesis (spon-dee-low-lis-thee-sis) which involves one vertebrae slipping forward on another, see photo of lumbar region. So far mine has only slipped 2 mm which is still sufficient to create enough pain to impair everyday activities but in serious cases the vertebrae can slip off completely so I shouldn’t complain. Of course I spent the last week practically immobile, worrying that my spine would spontaneously concertina and I would find my waist somewhere near my ankles.
Apparently the cause is often related to a small fracture in the vertebra (pars fracture) and I had to undergo further imaging to check whether this was the case. The problem is quite common in athletes but not heavily associated with running in particular, here’s an interesting article if you suffer from low back pain.
The results came back yesterday and it seems that all is well, my back had been fractured but has now healed. Which seems to suggest that my spine should be fairly stable and that I ought to be able to continue without risk of coming face to face with my kneecaps.
Therefore running is back on, exams finish tomorrow so I will be back on the streets this weekend taking part in a month long challenge within a challenge. I will post further details of this in a non-sickness and injury related post.
Still wonder how you manage to break you back without even realising it?
Popularity: 8% [?]
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Tags: back, injury, knee, spine, spondylolisthesis
