December 2010

I'll be honest, December kind of sucked. Or at least I thought December sucked, but that was before January. The combination of physical injury/pain with stress from work and holidays made for a rough beginning of the month. What happened at the end of the month (which I'm not going to get into) made all that pale in comparison.

Photo of the Day

For the first, second, and third time in over two years I missed a day taking photos. I'm trying to get my act together. I don't quite have the same joy for this project I once did. I'd like to regain that.

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Running

December didn't exactly go as I'd hoped. My knee problems made running difficult and I basically had to stop until my knee gets better.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	109.05 Mile	10	10.905 Mile
February	76.18 Mile	8	9.5225 Mile
March	84.86 Mile	10	8.486 Mile
April	83.15 Mile	9	9.23889 Mile
May	57.95 Mile	7	8.27857 Mile
June	17.98 Mile	3	5.99333 Mile
July	54.62 Mile	8	6.8275 Mile
August	65.78 Mile	9	7.30889 Mile
September	107.4 Mile	13	8.26154 Mile
October	144.087 Mile	17	8.47573 Mile
November	131.57 Mile	15	8.77133 Mile
December	10.8 Mile	3	3.6 Mile
Total	943.427 Mile	112	8.42346 Mile

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Cycling

Cycling made my knee hurt even worse than running. I ended the year with roughly half the miles I would have hoped.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	166.25 Mile	20	8.3125 Mile
February	140.67 Mile	12	11.7225 Mile
March	508.83 Mile	18	28.2683 Mile
April	318.98 Mile	13	24.5369 Mile
May	365.89 Mile	20	18.2945 Mile
June	447.97 Mile	22	20.3623 Mile
July	390.59 Mile	19	20.5574 Mile
August	223. Mile	15	14.8667 Mile
September	146.5 Mile	17	8.61765 Mile
October	303.29 Mile	19	15.9626 Mile
November	128.21 Mile	14	9.15786 Mile
December	5.6 Mile	2	2.8 Mile
Total	3145.78 Mile	191	16.4701 Mile

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Walking

I began walking a little more later in the month, as it wasn't as hard on my knee as either running or cycling. Working from home, having no disposable income, and knowing practically nobody in area, my daily trips taking Will to and from daycare are often the only time I leave the house. Spending some time outside walking the 3.6 miles round trip seems to be preventing craziness from setting in. On the other hand, how would I know?

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	37.26 Mile	11	3.38727 Mile
February	51.45 Mile	16	3.21563 Mile
March	34.7 Mile	10	3.47 Mile
April	44.35 Mile	11	4.03182 Mile
May	48.75 Mile	14	3.48214 Mile
June	64.2 Mile	16	4.0125 Mile
July	56.3 Mile	15	3.75333 Mile
August	56.75 Mile	16	3.54688 Mile
September	28.84 Mile	7	4.12 Mile
October	32.1 Mile	12	2.675 Mile
November	15.9 Mile	4	3.975 Mile
December	20.4 Mile	8	2.55 Mile
Total	491. Mile	140	3.50714 Mile

I would walk 500 miles...

I'm on a bus

Well, I'm on a long ride from Champaign to St. Louis and this Greyhound bus has WiFi so I might as well use it. I spent a few days back in the office this week for the annual Wolfram Technology Conference. Mathematica 8 was officially announced and will be released next month. I actually did put a fair amount of work into this release before I refocused my efforts on mobile products a year ago. Of course, I'm having trouble remembering what my contributions to Mathematica 8 were since I've been so consumed by other projects for so long. The conference went fairly well though, and I even had a few productive days of work while I was there.

I spent the first night at our old house (which hasn't sold yet, anybody interested?) before staying the next two nights with Cara, John, and Ashlynn at my previous house. I can't seem to ever move away!

In addition to friends and coworkers I also made it to a Second Wind Fun Run and even saw one of my cycling friends randomly on the street as I was riding my scooter from the bus station to work on Tuesday. After spending so much time alone, or with just Team Ragfield, it was really great to see everyone again.

July 2010 Stats

I guess the big news is that we're moving to St. Louis. We've been traveling back and forth a lot. We found a house nice and close to the Washington University campus, Forest Park, and The Loop.

We had a fairly successful garage sale early in the month. We're gradually getting organized, packed up, and ready to move. I won't lie, it's pretty stressful. On top of that I'm once again busier at work than ever before. Let's hope we all keep our sanity in the coming weeks.

Photo of the Day

Running

Photo by Melissa

It's too hot to run, though somehow I wound up with more mileage in than last month.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	109.05 Mile	10	10.905 Mile
February	76.18 Mile	8	9.5225 Mile
March	84.86 Mile	10	8.486 Mile
April	83.15 Mile	9	9.23889 Mile
May	57.95 Mile	7	8.27857 Mile
June	17.98 Mile	3	5.99333 Mile
July	54.62 Mile	8	6.8275 Mile
Total	483.79 Mile	55	8.79618 Mile

Cycling

Photo by epon

It's almost too hot for cycling. I think the people I ride with are getting tired of the steady stream of sweat dripping off my face and flying back onto them.

August 2010 Cycling by bike

Bike	Distance	# Rides	Avg per Ride
Bianchi	21.6 Mile	6	3.6 Mile
Big Red	22.9 Mile	3	7.63333 Mile
Pocket Rocket	51.36 Mile	4	12.84 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird	294.73 Mile	6	49.1217 Mile
Total	390.59 Mile	19	20.5574 Mile

January-August 2010 Cycling by bike

Bike	Distance	# Rides	Avg per Ride
Bianchi	278.6 Mile	43	6.47907 Mile
Big Red	49.4 Mile	8	6.175 Mile
El Fuego	40.9 Mile	11	3.71818 Mile
Lynskey	31.8 Mile	2	15.9 Mile
Pocket Rocket	266.1 Mile	13	20.4692 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird	1672.38 Mile	47	35.5826 Mile
Total	2339.18 Mile	124	18.8644 Mile

January-August 2010 Cycling by month

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	166.25 Mile	20	8.3125 Mile
February	140.67 Mile	12	11.7225 Mile
March	508.83 Mile	18	28.2683 Mile
April	318.98 Mile	13	24.5369 Mile
May	365.89 Mile	20	18.2945 Mile
June	447.97 Mile	22	20.3623 Mile
July	390.59 Mile	19	20.5574 Mile
Total	2339.18 Mile	124	18.8644 Mile

Walking

It seemed like I walked more than usual, as I frequently walked to work last month whilst listening to live Tour de France coverage on my phone. I guess the previous month's trip to San Francisco added more miles than the Tour.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	28.66 Mile	9	3.18444 Mile
February	51.45 Mile	16	3.21563 Mile
March	34.7 Mile	10	3.47 Mile
April	44.35 Mile	11	4.03182 Mile
May	48.75 Mile	14	3.48214 Mile
June	64.2 Mile	16	4.0125 Mile
July	56.3 Mile	15	3.75333 Mile
Total	328.41 Mile	91	3.6089 Mile

Hello St. Louis

As you may or may not have already read, Melissa has accepted a job at Washington University in St. Louis. We will be moving to the St. Louis area in mid-August. I will continue my current job, working from home (much as I did for the year we lived in Nicaragua).

It will be a little sad to leave Champaign-Urbana where I've lived for 13 of the last 14 years. However, this job is a really great opportunity for Melissa and we're both excited to be starting a new adventure. Wish us luck.

The many hills of San Francisco

Last week the whole family was out in San Francisco while I attended Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). This was my ninth WWDC (two in San Jose and seven in San Francisco), missing out only in 2006 when Apple held the conference in August (for some reason) the week after we moved to Nicaragua.

The conference was good, even if the ridiculously growing size does get a little more frustrating each year. The technical sessions are all covered by non-disclosure agreements, so I won't discuss any of them (as if you cared).

The keynote (which some of you may remember I participated in back in 2005) was also good. Unfortunately, due to the size of the conference I keep showing up earlier and earlier to get in line for the keynote and I keep ending up farther and farther back in line. I showed up a little over three hours early this year. The line was nearly one mile long, and I barely squeaked into some of the back rows of the conference room filled with over 5,000 people. The new iPhone looks pretty awesome. In fact, William just bought me one for Father's Day. Wasn't that nice?

While we were there I purposely didn't adjust to the different time zone so I would continue wake up early to go for a ride on the Pocket Rocket each morning before the conference. The first morning I tackled Twin Peaks, which, at over 800 feet above sea level, is one of the highest points in the city. Shortly after the climb begins it kicks straight up to 17%, which was a tough first hill for someone who lives in Illinois. It stays steep for a good long three city blocks before leveling out to a more reasonable 11-12%. Of course, it was super foggy that particular morning, so I couldn't see anything at the top. If I could have seen anything it would have looked like this (photo from last year).

Anyway, I had to hurry straight back in order to stand in a really long line for hours. It was just eight miles with a total of 850 feet of climbing entirely in the third and fourth miles.

The next day I rode up one of the steepest hills I've found in the city (Kearny between Broadway and Vallejo, the road is closed to traffic). It's somewhere in the ballpark of 25-30%. I had to lean really far forward to keep from tumbling over backward. Yes, that steep... but only for a block. After that was Telegraph Hill up to Coit Tower. This climb was used in the prologue of the Tour of California the first few years of the race.

But that was just the first few miles. I followed the bay shoreline to the Golden Gate Bridge and rode across to the Marin Headlands. I intended to climb Hawk Hill, but the road was closed half way up so I took a detour to somewhere I'd never been before, which was amazing.

Tuesday's ride had 2200 feet of climbing in 26 miles.

Wednesday I took a break because I felt a little twinge in my calf after Tuesday's ride and I didn't want to risk making it worse. Fortunately the twinge only lasted a day and by Thursday morning I was back at it. I hit Twin Peaks again, this time better prepared for the steepness. Instead of turning around there I continued on through Golden Gate Park, Ocean Beach, past the Cliff House, the Legion of Honor, the Presidio (along the bike course for the Alcatraz Triathlon I did in 2003), across the bridge to the Marin headlands, and partway up Hawk Hill before turning around and heading home. Just for kicks I rode up Russian Hill and Nob Hill on the way back through town. Russian Hill on Hyde street is 23% for a few city blocks--too steep to sit, too steep to stop (you wouldn't be able to start back up).

Thursday's ride was 2800 feet of climbing in 27 miles.

Friday I tackled Mt. Tamalpais for the Nth time. Last year I rode Mt. Diablo instead, so I was happy to be back on familiar ground. After cool weather all week it was super hot on Friday. This made the mountain that much more difficult. I doubt I made my fastest ascent of the mountain that day, but I steadily knocked out each of the 10 miles from bottom to top.

Mt. Tam may not be as high as Mt. Diablo, but it sure is a lot more scenic, offering a lot more wooded areas, as well as ocean views.

San Francisco from the top of Mt. Tam

Here's the opposite view: Mt. Tam from San Francisco

Friday's ride was 4114 feet of climbing (2500 on Mt. Tam) in 50 miles.

Saturday I skipped a ride in favor of lots of walking and hiking with the family. Here's William and me hiking the coastal trail, which was part of the run course for the Alcatraz Triathlon I did in 2003.

We all had a great trip. Check out William's blog for lots more family photos.

Robot 1-X

Six weeks ago Apple announced the iPad, a portable touch screen computer. It runs the same operating system and application software as the tremendously successful iPhone and iPod Touch devices, but it has a larger screen and faster processor. A lot of geeks panned it as just a big iPod Touch. Sure, an iPad is just a big iPod Touch in the same way a swimming pool is just a big bathtub.

The geeks didn't get it. I got it, but that's because I had actually used one. This device doesn't do everything a geek would want to do with a computer, but it does everything a non-geek would want to do on a computer. And it does so in an easily understandable way, without software installation/configuration headaches, viruses, malware, etc. In other words, it's not targeted at the geeks, it's targeted at everyone except the geeks.

Work has been ridiculously busy the last six weeks. I've been laboring, around the clock at times, to enhance my company's iPhone app (WolframAlpha) to work as well as possible on an iPad. About halfway through that time we hired another employee to help with this project (and future projects). It was a little slow at first, as I had to spend some valuable time actually training the new guy. By the end he was working productively and actually made significant contributions to the project. We ended up with an app that works pretty well.

When the app was initially launched last October it was priced at a premium, $50. I only found out about this price literally minutes before the app went on sale. I was a bit upset. I figured nobody would buy it and all my hard work would have been wasted. I was wrong. It sold remarkably well (close to 10,000 copies), which completely blew away my meager expectations. It was a lot, and the company made money on the app, but the app wasn't serving the exact purpose they wanted.

A few days ago the company announced a radical shift in the direction of the project. Instead of making money on the app directly they wanted to get more people using the service. Presumably they're making money somewhere else. I don't know about these things, I just write the code. Anyway, as of a few days ago the new price of the app is $2. It runs on both iPhones and iPads. Within hours of the announcement (humorously made on April 1st), the WolframAlpha iPhone app became the top selling application in the entire iTunes app store. A few hours later it became the top grossing app (total money earned) in the iTunes app store. It stayed at the top of the charts for a couple days. As of right now it's still near the top, at #12. In other words, the response has been incredible.

On top of the tremendous success of the WolframAlpha app, I was somewhat involved in another side project. My boss, Theodore Gray, collects chemical element samples, photographs them, and writes books about them. Theo saw the potential of the iPad as the killer electronic book platform and put a huge effort into making a really amazing eBook: The Elements. The text and photos are largely the same as the printed edition of the book, but the images are not static, they are interactive, animated, and rotatable with the touch of a finger. It's hard to describe, you really just have to see it.

Anyway, in addition to giving advice and answering technical questions, I worked to create an embedded version of the WolframAlpha app that pops up from within The Elements app.

It would be nice if that was the end of the story, but there is still much work to do, features to add, problems to fix. Hopefully the hours will be a little more sensible for the foreseeable future.

Robot 1-X is a character from Futurama. It is the new model of robot that immediately made all other robots obsolete.

March 2010 Stats

Photo of the Day

I'm still going with this, tough at times this month it was a real struggle (and I think the quality of photos reflects that). I was super-busy with work, and busy on top of that with marathon training, oh, and cycling season is here (first race next weekend).

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Running

March was a good month. My training quality has continued to improve, without much change to the quantity. I'm doing my runs a little bit faster without really feeling the extra effort. I ran a 5k race at 5:59 pace and I did a 20 mile training run at 7:30 pace. Aside from my weekly long runs and the race, I've done virtually all of my running wearing Vibram Fivefinger (barefoot-like) shoes and they're feeling really good.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	109.05 Mile	10	10.905 Mile
February	76.18 Mile	8	9.5225 Mile
March	84.86 Mile	10	8.486 Mile
Total	270.09 Mile	28	9.64607 Mile

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Cycling

While my running steadily improved in March, my cycling made a huge leap. Notably, I rode over 100 miles two times in March 2010, after only riding that distance two times previously in my entire life.

March 2010 by bike

Bike	Distance	# Rides	Avg per Ride
Bianchi	42.75 Mile	8	5.34375 Mile
Pocket Rocket	3.6 Mile	1	3.6 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird	462.48 Mile	9	51.3867 Mile
Total	508.83 Mile	18	28.2683 Mile

January - March 2010 by bike

Bike	Distance	# Rides	Avg per Ride
Bianchi	60.75 Mile	13	4.67308 Mile
El Fuego	40.9 Mile	11	3.71818 Mile
Pocket Rocket	31.27 Mile	2	15.635 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird	682.83 Mile	24	28.4513 Mile
Total	815.75 Mile	50	16.315 Mile

January - March 2010 totals

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	166.25 Mile	20	8.3125 Mile
February	140.67 Mile	12	11.7225 Mile
March	508.83 Mile	18	28.2683 Mile
Total	815.75 Mile	50	16.315 Mile

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Walking

Despite the better weather I've continued walking on a regular basis. I don't know, I just feel like it helps me in my long distance running.

Month	Distance	# Workouts	Avg per Workout
January	28.66 Mile	9	3.18444 Mile
February	51.45 Mile	16	3.21563 Mile
March	34.7 Mile	10	3.47 Mile
Total	114.81 Mile	35	3.28029 Mile

Earth, Wind, & Fire

This morning was the Earth, Wind, & Fire 5K on campus. This three year old race coincides with the Institute of Natural Resources Sustainability expo (which coincides with Engineering Open House). I ran this 5K two years ago when it when it was 13˚ with 25 mph winds. Today we only had to contend with the misty morning. I've been ridiculously busy at work lately. In fact, I didn't get much more than four hours sleep any night this week. 7:30 came way too soon this morning.

The start is less than a mile from home so I ran over, registered, stretched, and headed to starting line. There would be no practice start this year. One guy immediately shot off the front and built a huge lead in the first 100 meters.

It took me a good ¼ mile to settle into a good rhythm, after which point I held the leader in my sights at roughly the same distance for about 1½ miles.

I slowed significantly in the second half of the race. The leader pulled away from me, but there was also quite a bit of space behind me. The gaps were large.

Despite fading at the end I still finished in a respectable time of 18:33 (5:59/mile pace). This isn't where I would want to be in August, but for March I'll take it. In order to keep things interesting I do mostly long distance training (with very little speed work) during the winter and I do mostly short/fast training (with very little distance) during the summer. Coming up with a little speed this early in the year is encouraging.

I finished 2^nd overall and 1^st in the 30-39 age group. The awards were a unique (for a race award) plaster cast of a Trilobite fossil.

After the race I ran home with my Trilobite, gulped a bit of water, then headed back out for another 9 miles (14 total). You see, there's this marathon coming up, and running a short race doesn't get me off the hook for my weekly long run (though apparently a 108 mile bike ride does?).

Many thanks to Melissa and Will for coming out to cheer me on and take photos. The bright/distinctive shoes/gloves/shirt sure must make it easy for them to spot me out on the course.

Commuteski

We got a fair amount of snow last night and into the day today. I skied the 1.8 miles into work, which in these conditions was A) faster than walking and B) safer than cycling.

Most of my trip follows Kirby/Florida Ave which has a lot of grass off to the side, perfect for skiing. It gets a little tough around the Assembly Hall where there's a whole lot of pavement and not much grass.

I expected to be pretty sweaty by the time I arrived at work, but I wasn't that bad. I had a brutal headwind the whole way there.

The Thorn

If you don't have answers to your problems after a four-hour run, you ain't getting them. -Born to Run

The Tecumseh Trail Marathon is coming up on December 5. Rather than the typical 16-week training program I would follow for a big road marathon, I adopted the less conventional 5-week crash course training program for this race.

I ran this race last year and it was incredibly difficult. The course is very hilly, with thousands of feet of ascents and even more of descents (it's a point to point course with a net loss in elevation).

I'm not terribly worried, for a few reasons.

I feel no pressure. This isn't like the 2001 Chicago Marathon or 2009 Illinois Marathon, where I worried about the race for months and choked on race day. This is more like the 2008 Tecumseh Marathon or 2009 Rockford Marathon where I didn't concern myself with place or time and just went for a run. Those were two of the best races of my life.

I feel better on the long runs than I ever have before. This is fairly surprising given that I took the summer off from running and ran only short distances in the early fall. By mid-October I decided to push myself and run 11 miles (the farthest I had run in 5 months) on the Allerton trails and I was sore for a week. Somehow things just magically came together.

Since the Allerton Trail Race I've alternated long runs at Lake Mingo and Forest Glen, running 14.2 at Mingo, then 16 at F.G., then 21.3 at Mingo, then 16 at F.G. These are 2-3.5 hour long runs on fairly challenging trails, yet the miles have passed so easily for me... easier than they ever have before.

Forest Glen 11 mile loop and 5 mile loop

Lake Mingo 7.1 mile loop

The past month or so I've been paying a lot more attention to my diet, eating a lot more higher quality, natural, unprocessed food--lots and lots of vegetables and fruits. My blood pressure has dropped noticeably, I've shed a couple of excess pounds, and I don't feel like crap after meals.

I've drawn a tremendous amount of inspiration from reading the book Born to Run. It's incredibly well written and covers everything from history and science to tips on form/training/nutrition/life, all while building up to the story of the "greatest race the world has never seen." I couldn't put the book down and when I finished I read it again. I haven't felt this hungry to be out on the trails since I was in high school.

The only thorn in my plans so far has been, literally, a thorn in my foot. 9 miles into my 21 mile run last weekend I stepped on a thorn, which isn't all that rare. This thorn, however, went all the way through my shoe and into my left foot. I felt the pain and immediately hopped on my right foot until I could slow down and stop. At first I thought it was just poking me so I gave it a tug and the thorn broke off flush with the bottom of my shoe. Then I tried to take my shoe off, but that required sliding my foot out, which I couldn't do because the thorn was still stick in both my foot and my shoe.

After about five minutes of trying to get a grip on the fraction of a millimeter of the thorn still sticking out I eventually just shoved a stick in my shoe (like a shoe horn) and pried my foot away from the shoe enough to get the thorn out and slide my shoe off. It was fairly unpleasant. With the shoe off though I was able to pull the thorn out of it and continue on down the trail. I didn't know whether I'd be able to walk, let alone run. It was tender for a couple hundred meters then I forgot all about it. I ended up running 12 more miles before calling it a day.

I thought my problems were all over, but after the 45 minute drive home I couldn't even walk on it my foot hurt so bad. I limped all day Monday and even stayed home from work on Tuesday. By Wednesday I could walk short distances, and by Thursday it felt just barely not-horrible-enough to walk to work. By Friday the pain was virtually gone.

Now that this scare is over I'm headed full steam ahead. It's still early to tell what's going to happen at Tecumseh, but I feel pretty good about it.

"Don't fight the trail," Caballo called back over his shoulder. "Take what it gives you." -Born to Run

The iPhone App

You may recall that I was slightly busy from shortly before Will was born until early October. Well, my big project was finally released yesterday. The Wolfram|Alpha iPhone application is now available in the iTunes app store.

The app has generated quite a lot of buzz over the past 24 hours, mostly because the price is significantly greater than the vast majority of iPhone applications. While I was intimately involved in the development of the application, I am completely in the dark about the business and marketing side of the product. On the bright side, most of the reviews speak relatively highly of the app itself, even though many are quite critical of the price.

Since I work primarily on Mathematica, I've been fairly uninvolved with the Wolfram|Alpha project prior to this iPhone app. I'm still not an expert on innards of Wolfram|Alpha but I do understand the big picture a little better than I did before.

If you've never used Wolfram|Alpha before, go ahead and give it a try on the website. It's kind of hard to describe what it does, simply because it's not like any other application you've ever used before. Despite certain visual similarities to web search engines like Google or Yahoo, Wolfram|Alpha is not a search engine. It doesn't find web pages that might be related to your query, it computes factual answers to your query (except when it doesn't).

Typically this means your query must be constructed in a slightly different way (perhaps using slightly different language) than you would use for a search engine. It's worth taking the time to experiment to see what works and what doesn't work. Perhaps my best description of Wolfram|Alpha is that it is a combination of a calculator and an encyclopedia.

The iPhone app features optimized input and output for the interesting and useful Wolfram|Alpha computation engine.

W|A knows all sorts of interesting facts. For instance, Robert was a more popular given name than William in the U.S. for most of the 20th century (though William recently overtook Robert... a sign of things to come?).

The app provides a number of ways to share the interesting results you find. Click the "share" button in the upper-right corner, or press and hold on a result.

The app also has numerous built-in examples to help you get started.

It also contains a complete history of all your queries.

Many of the computations have parameters that can be fine tuned for more precise results.

So there you have it. The app was a lot of fun to write, even if the release schedule was a bit hectic. The next version should be even better.