Half Marathon, middle of the night

Jun 13

Ow.

Run for Tuesday, 2007-06-12: Half Marathon

I’m too tired to tell the complete story tonight, suffice it to say that I just … kept jogging. No competition. No real reason. No moon.

Oh, and Apple Cinnamon Hammer Gel? Surprisingly good, especially after 5 miles.

4 Comments

Ben Nadel
Jun 13 2007 at 07:10

Hey, that’s a really cool graph. Is that some sort of running program that syncs with a pedometer? Or are you just awesome at creating graphs :)

I have always wanted to try the gels just to see what they taste like. Last time I went into GNC, I was looking for those, but they didn’t have them so I ended up getting some caffeinated energy supplement which kept me up all night :(

Anyway, nice run!

Rick Osborne
Jun 13 2007 at 10:57

Ben-

The Nike+ chip for the iPod nano is a (rather expensive) pedometer/accelerometer. If you know where to find it, you can read the workout data from the iPod, which is in a nice XML format:

Nike+ XML data

I then have an Excel spreadsheet that takes that data, which is really just a measurement of how far you’ve run in 10-second intervals, and does some math to figure out instantaneous and average speed and pace. I have to smooth out the data a bit, though, as the sensor is somewhat twitchy.

Nike+ data imported into Excel

I have another sheet that generates the SVG instructions for the line graph:

SVG from Nike+ data

I copy that SVG into Inkscape, and there you go.

I could automate the process more, which is essentially what I’ve been trying to do with NiP/Track. But, normally by the time I get around to thinking about it, I’m post-run and too tired to think straight. So the progress is … halting.

Dan Vega
Jun 13 2007 at 23:45

Rick,
Great stuff & Nice Run! Do you like the Nike+? I have been looking into it but like you said it is kinda pricey.

Rick Osborne
Jun 14 2007 at 00:11

Dan-

I love my Nike+, and it has been extremely helpful in keeping up my motivation for running. I’m not inclined to run in races, so my only competition is against my own pace. In that capacity, the Nike+ is excellent.

However, in the interest of a balanced opinion, I will say that it is not without its drawbacks. I find that the Nike+ website is lacking for what I want. (Hence the spreadsheet gymnastics I outlined above.) But, if you’re willing to muck about in the internals, it’s got a lot more data than the website shows you.

Also, either the chip isn’t all that precise, or measuring pace with a little piece of plastic is an insanely hard engineering problem. At any rate, if you start poking at the raw data, you’ll see that it requires a bit of massaging to get nice data out of. Remember to calibrate your chip early and often.

But, yeah, I’d recommend it to just about anyone, whether they are just starting out or are hardcore ultramarathoners.

No, I am better than that!

Striving to subdue the mediocrity.

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Half Marathon, middle of the night