Radio 4: The Philosopher's Arms - Sex Equality

I much prefer arguments that are based on  facts rather than 'urban myths' or extrapolations 50 years into the future. I was listening to the Philosopher's Arms on Radio 4 and heard (12min 55s in to the episode on Sex Equality) the often repeated claim that Women can run faster than Men over long distances. I think it was Beatrix Campbell talking and, in this case, the Daily Mail seems to be more accurate!

How much do I want that Snickers?

I was just mulling over one particular 'theoretical' benefit that might be gained by slow long runs. In my current case it is in the early taper stage before a marathon, but it applies to just about any time. One aspect that I thought would be interesting to guesstimate is what might the 'weight-loss' benefit to marathon improvement time be of a single run, since I don't have a 'ball-park' figure in my brain.

Where am I with my marathon training?

I don't know about you, but this is a question that I often ask myself at this point in my training. It is now just over 4 weeks to the Amsterdam Marathon and I have a target to meet - am I on track or not?

Evacuate the area - the last words you want to hear at an airport?

Mega stress at Check-in at Heathrow Terminal 3. Got to x-ray machines and my bags were stopped. First one staff member was called to the computer display and then within 10 mins 6 security staff were gathered around it. I was then ask for a list of all the items in the bag. Eventually it transpired it was a metal cup and contents that had been identified as a BOMB.

Cambridge - King's Parade

Many consider Cambridge as being a beautiful unspoilt small town with old buildings unsullied by the worst ravages of commercial excess. It is a view that I find myself expressing as I casually talk to people around the country. It is a viewpoint based upon what I see as I travel to and from work everyday not one from old photos or Disney-like recollections from visits long ago. Here is a photo that I took about two years ago of a portion of Downing Street just a few hundred metres from where I work. The view can hardly have changed in a hundred years. There are no satellite dishes, aerials, advertising posters or even graffiti - no plastic, no bollards, no sleeping policemen or helpful signs telling you something that you don't need to know. This is the view of Cambridge that is all too easy to lodge in one's consciousness - it is after all a view that is repeated in hundreds of locations around Cambridge. But, look more closely and there are signs of progress. There are lines on the road, there is tarmac and electric lights too and the stone work is mostly rather too clean. But, these are details that we filter out rather easily they are such an obvious part of normal life that they no longer warrant any attention.
There is something very privileged about cycling past King's College Chapel early on a Saturday morning when the students are still tucked-up in bed and tourists are breakfasting in their hotels. King's Parade is tidy, devoid of litter with green neat grass and clean stone buildings. From the vantage point of a twenty-first century cyclist, off to do a parkrun on a weekend, it looks splendid and well preserved - a town and University unchanged. A town very similar to that captured in this picture from June 1940 taken by my wife's uncle (Donald Smith) of his sister and mother walking down King's Parade. Of course war-time Britain was not entirely representative of the mid-twentieth century - there was much happening that made towns and villages look and feel much older and quieter than they had been only a few years before. In many old photos wartime austerity throws the scenery back decades or centuries to a simpler less clustered time.

On seeing the photo it stuck me that the scene must look almost unchanged today and I set out on a Friday afternoon to try and stand exactly where Don had and take a photo of the scene 70 years later. The 1940 photo was taken somewhere near midday as the shadows are pointing north and by the look of the length of the shadows, if the photo was taken in June, it must have been very early June. So, my photo late afternoon in October, 2012 was going to look slightly different. But, I didn't expect it to look quite so different.

 I have left the photo in colour and I have not cropped it to match the 1940 photo. It was taken from one of the entrances to the Cambridge Chop House looking towards Senate House. Looking at it, I think Don was a bit taller than I am or he was standing on something to get a better view of the buildings behind. The streets were no busier on the day I took my photo but the view is not as good. I need to retake the photo with the sun from behind as in Don's version. The tree is obviously much larger now and obscures the western frontage of Senate House and the street hoardings, advertising boards and outside tables clutter the view. The old lamposts in Don's photo hardly intruded on the scene, but the modern poles in my photo dominate. The car with its highly reflective paintwork demands attention - a very different effect from the matt sheen of the 1940s model reflecting off the elegant wheel arch. The hi-vis jacket of a workman presents an equal visual distraction as do the chrome reflections from the chairs. In Don's photo the reflection from the window  folds the image back on to its self framing the composition. In mine the reflections are hardly visible against the well illuminated interior. The change seems to be embodied by a rather gaudy 'look at me' mentality a presumption that more is better - more visibility and more shine. Perhaps this is the result of improved manufacturing and reduced costs making shine and attractiveness easier to obtain in individual items. Or, maybe it is the result of competition for visibility and custom such that mere functionality is no longer sufficient. Either way, from an aesthetic view it is hard to sustain the argument that individual advances in technology, communication, planning and commerce have been able to maintain let alone improve one of Cambridge's iconic views. But, maybe it doesn't really matter since these things only become apparent when faced with a direct comparison between old and new. To the hundreds of tourists who wander up and down King's Parade each day it is still a 'chocolate box' view.

The relationship between speed and heart rate on a run

Miles per gallon - or an equivalent?

We are all use to heart beats per minute, but it is not necessarily the best measure to use when looking at running data. In this post I will explain how speed and heart rate are related and why heart beats per km is a much better measure to use.

Bulk download of activityIds and GPX from Garmin Connect

[Updated 4pm 30/06/2012]
OK, problem solved. There was a flag that enables the untitled activities to be shown. I have added in a few more search terms including date, distance (with an accuracy) and location with accuracy. The locations are pulled from a long/lat table on a separate sheet. I have begun to populate it with the locations of the parkruns. The latest version 5 is available here.
I would also like to that David Jacobson for his help with getting this up and running. David has a blog here which lists some more sophisticated software for looking at Garmin datasets in other ways.

[Updated 1:23am 30/06/2012]
I can't correct the failure to display other people non-named activities - it is a problem with the whole Garmin Connect system....but, I have a better searching facility on this sheet. It now implements distance, location and date searches. I have entered a few parkrun locations to test it.

[Updated 12:41pm 28/06/2012]
My previous version ignored activities without a name. I hope I have corrected that problem....

The Garmin Connect website is useful, but often rather slow and limited in terms of data manipulation. To overcome some of these problems I have written a short Excel VBA script that pulls down all of the activity IDs and GPS files for any user (not just your own). The Excel file is here. Save the file somewhere sensible (don't open it from the link) and when you open it, enable macros. You need to enter your own Garmin Connect detail (username and password) and the user you want to download for. Then click the extract button.

The code is all visible, but not documented - anyone with a small amount of VBA experience should be able to tweak it for their own needs.