Here in flyover country

and squat for the last week.

2011-11-01T12:53:00.000-07:00

So a brief good start a week ago... then not much else after that. Partially bad timing, partially a gout flare up (makes it hard to run when you foot feels broke) and mostly lazy.

So on the gout front... I get a couple flare ups a year. Somtimes (like this time) it occurs in a part of my foot that I don't realize in time is gout. So 3 days later or so, when I realize no the pain is not going away, I finally treat it. Adding to the overall recovery time. sigh. Normally it is the main "knuckle" of my big toe, bu this time it's nailing the bottom of my right foot. So lots of ibuprofen and water. All controllable through diet, so ate too much of something in the last week (I have theories, but gout is mostly controllable through diet, so if I overdue a food, or get out of balance it can flare up.)

Exercise... hope to be decent enoug to go to iaido tomorrow, missed 3 weeks of it so far and need the calming influence of swinging a sword and not cutting my self in the process.

New motive for a 5k ... Going to sign up for the Dreidel Run. Just debating 5k or 10k we'll see, looks like a fund run.

Next time I'll talk about some of the software/websites I'm using.

Reboot...

2011-10-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

O.K. time to get serious and try to blog more. :-) cough, yeah right...
Focus for this blog will be more about diet & exercise... I need to loose weight, get into better shape, and generally improve my health. No there have not been any great warnings from a doctor or anything. Just the self realization that my general shape has slid way down hill, I have bad knees, and a heart that's been patched up twice in my life.

So the goal is to both blog about what I'm doing and what sort of software/web sites I'm going to try out...

So first of:

Exercise -
Yesterday started out on a modified Couch to 5k program. The goal is I'd like to get back to where I could run for a full 30 minutes (eventually more) at a time. So I'm starting with Cool Running's program (http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml) but w/ slight modification. I know I have some stamina I'm starting at week 4. I misread it so my run yesterday was a 3/5/3 pattern. I did that twice then finished w/ a 3 min run. I'll repeat that twice more this week and then follow the rest of their plan.

Strength wise I'm looking at the basic combo of pushups/situps/squats using my own body weight. It's a start and I'll probably use the http://hundredpushups.com/ charts for starting points and goals.

In addition I'll still do martial arts. But those are actually more about relaxation and body movement for me.

Next - Nutrition/Food
I refuse to use the term diet, the goal is to improve what I eat and how much I eat. Yes I will still be tracking calories (http://www.fitbit.com) in and out. But I'm going to try to be more mindful of my eating. Following advice from Michael Pollen's Food Rules. Like "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.", "Eat meals.", and "Avoid foods you see advertised on television.". Essentially basic advice on eating better and getting away from the food=nutrition only crowd.

Along with that I'm going to utilize what I learned from The Hacker's Diet (www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.htm) as well as The No S Diet (www.nosdiet.com) to try to improve what and how I eat.

Well that's a start... next I'll start diving into some of the software/web sites I've mentioned to help out.

Duathlons, aikido, and the like...

2011-08-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

hmm... been awhile (june) since i last posted...

Any how first off once again this year I participated in the Minneapolis Duathlon. Even with a lack of training I actully did my best time wise this year (2 hours 24 minutes). Yes I was sore the day after, but overall felt pretty good. Now to try to make the running more regular. Really need to do it to get and stay in shape...

Aikido wise went to a "double" class last week (regular, followed by a beginner class). Sore legs on the day after, but again good overall.

Long term goals right now...
Test for "pre" 2nd Kyu in Aikido in December
Run a full 5k (or longer) this fall. Run as in I still walk part of a 5k, used to be able to run theh whole thing and want to get to that point again.

Cycling has been on the low side... if the weather is good try to sneak in a ride Sat. morning.

On Running... (random ramblings and observations.)

2011-06-20T08:53:00.000-07:00

I have this Love/Hate relationship with running... I added it to the "repertoire" 5 years ago when I weighed less and was in better shape. Figured it would be a nice secondary thing to do beside cycling. Plus I can handle running in winter, unlike biking.

So the hate...
Pain... I have bad knees so I have to watch how I run. Now I'm lucky in that I'm not a heel striker and have a neutral gait (no over/under pronation). But still I have to be careful. I'll walk steep downhills to save my knees and shins.

I suck at it... really at this stage I can go about 12 to 14 min before I need to walk for a minute. I know I'll get back to doing a solid 5k maybe more if I keep at it... but its also a mental thing. O.K. done with the pounding sort of annoyance.

It's hot (at least in summer)... unlike cycling if there is no breeze I can get overheated easily. Hence why I think I prefer running in fall/winter.

O.K. the "Love"

I get to see things... on a bike you really have to pay attention to the road/traffice/etc. Running, I use trails and sidwalks, I actually get the time to look around, enjoy the scenery, etc.

I like the rhythm... though I can get into rhythm on the bike the pounding of the feet adds a little more feedback. Once I'm in a groove it feels pretty good.

Kicks my a** aerobically... Running is very inefficient, in a good way. You end up putting a lot of energy in for not a lot of forward momentum (vs. say a bike where you have all those lovely gears to help you.) So it actually is a good, quick way to get the heart going, get the blood flowing more effectively.

So overall... I'll continue to think of my self as a cyclist first, but will make sure to keep running part of the repertoire as it were.

Tameshigiri

2011-06-14T18:22:00.000-07:00

So last Saturday I finally had a chance to do tameshigiri and let me tell you those mats had it coming!

Seriously though... I'm part of a small iaido club of about 4 to 5 members total. We do musoshinden ryu iaido, a fairly common style.

Couple times of year, when it's warm enough we go out to Wisconsin where one of the fellow members lives and practice test cutting in his yard. Makes clean up nice and easy.

This was my first time so wasn't sure how well I would do... in my opinion my cuts suck. But hey that is why we practice. on the 3 matt rolls I did o.k. My kesagiri was so/so (some good some bad). My ichimonji with two hands worked well once I forgot about the target being in the way. Same cut from nuki tsuke not so hot. I did put a nasty gash in the mat, but didn't cut through it.

On the rolls we did that were 7 to 8 mats thick my cut really fell apart. Again that's why we do this it's a good feedback mechanism so we know we are cutting correctly. Sadly it's at that point I bent my sword too, normal hazard of tameshigiri. Luckily the guys who's house we were at had a piece of wood with a notch in it so he was able to straighten it out pretty well. Still needs some fine tweaking but it goes into its scabbard.

Overall a good experience, finally have some idea of how things should feel with feedback as it were... and tempted to try in my back yard in the future... but first need to get a back up practice blade. :-)

Saturday's class and such

2010-02-20T12:20:00.000-08:00

Youth Aikido
Daughters got more bokken practice in... giggle. And the technique was a shihonage which can be bit on the complex side. But all of the students were coming along nicely. Considering that it was Marian's third class and Laura's seventh, I think they're making nice progress. Lot of mistakes but they are starting to show muscle memory and getting some of the etiquette down. Most importantly they are both still having fun.

Beginners Class
Actully did a technique my body remembers from the old days. Chest grasp second control pin... pin was a touch different. But still felt good. Straight forward class overall, nothing odd or strange from my "elderly" point of view. :-)

Annual Demo
The annual opening of the dojo was today so they had an "in house" demo...

Genbu Sotojutsu
This is a sword style passed down through the Kushida family. It consists of both iaijutsu and kenjutsu forms from my point of view. Lot of little differences from my Musoshinden point of view. Like not a lot of saya biki on the noto, They seem to lean forward a titch after the kiri oroshi. Foot is turned out slightly. But nothing major. The two person forms were interesting with a mix of iai and some fencing (as most two person forms are.)

Might see if I can watch a class as I didn't get a sense of the arts main focus (e.g. 80% iaido in practice or more kenjutsu, etc.)

Bojutsu
On wednesday nights they have a bojutsu class and so the group demoed what they do. I don't have much experience so no clue what style they are, as they didn't say. Based on 9 sets of forms, techniques come off one of the sets. The sets consist of four strike/blocks that you do before the technique. Kinda like doing kihon dosa before a technique. Again interesting and would like to hear more about them.

Aikido Instructor's Demo
Nice demo, they ran through bits of each kyu level and then did some round robin at the end. Most of the group seemed stiff but I think it was more a choreography stiffness, e.g. they had just learned some of the moves and such. Third through first kyu seem fairly complex this year, and even some of the lower kyu levels had some complex choreography. But looked good overall. Nice to see some throws show up that I normally only see in high level demos. And a good overview of what I'll have to work through if I want to test again.

Overall happy to be back in it, both Aikido and Iaido... Next up need to find time to go to a Ki Society beginners class to finally see what is different and similar.

NHK Series - Samurai Spirit

2010-02-18T04:57:00.001-08:00

NHK did about 4 of these...

First part on Iaido (my wednesday night thing...)

and the first part on Yoshinkan Aikido (which I do an off shoot of on Saturdays w/ the daughters...)

Though the english speaking presenter is being directed to act like a new guy, he does get in some good questions... the other two parts of the series are on Kyudo and Kendo which I also suggest watching.

Update on Aikido/Iaido training

2010-02-16T18:00:00.000-08:00

Youth Aikido class -
Laura is still liking it... I think her favorite part is playing tag before class thought. :-) But after about 8 classes or so (really starting in Jan.) she is showing improvement. Her backwards roll is starting to come together. It's still a way off, but in a short time she is showing that she is getting elements of it down. Her bokken work in improving (my daughter likes swords, wonder where that came from) too. She is remembering basic etiquette and how to do a front strike.

In Feb we started Marian in the youth class also. She has only had two lessons so far, but she is also liking it. Also she seems to be grasping shite's part, and uke will come along in time.

As long as they are both having fun, we'll continue to take them (which I hope is for a long time.)

Beginners Aikido class (a.k.a. Paul remembers that he is old now) -
Slowly coming together... in my opinion they are doing more complex techniques for the equivalent level from when I practiced in the late 80s early 90s. More movement, more little details than I recall. Feels good and its slowly coming together. I miss that for kihon dosa they don't do shumatsu dosa (finishing exercise or after class exercise ). Now maybe it's done in the regular class or just to emphasize a technique being taught that day... dunno.

Rolls are o.k., just trying to get the body back into it.

Iaido -
Slowly coming along... I'm up to doing the first four forms of the shoden waza. The fact that I can do atarito (180 spin, draw, from kneeling) and not fall over makes me happy. Class is small so there's a lot of one on one with the instructors. This is still the most calming art of the two I do (and couple others I've tried.) At least for me...
Just have to make sure I don't cut my thumb. :-)

This week in Aikido

2010-01-09T11:15:00.000-08:00

So went to Aikido with eldest daughter this Saturday. She had fun in the Youth class and then I attended the beginners class that comes after hers.

It was... interesting. The warm ups, basic exercises, and weapons practice were all what I'm used to. For the weapon portion we stuck with bokken and basic front strike.

The open hand technique was the odd part, to me at least.
Cross wrist grasp - o.k. standard opening I remember those.
Elbow power #1 and then finis breaking their grip with your off hand - hard to explain, but again nothing new
Cross step, step-in-throw - interesting, in "the old days" I don't know if that would have been a 6th kyu technique but memory fades.
After throw move in for Achilles tendon pin- and my head when waaaaa??? I don't recall any leg pins from back in the day, let alone having a pin off a throw be on something as low as 6th kyu. Wow....

Talking with some students after class (brown belt, and a shodan) found out there are now choke holds, some sort of cross body pin, and a host of other things. Plus more is being added.

So yeah post split in the 90s Yoshokai has gone in an interesting direction imo. My current feeling is they are trying to go more into the pre WWII style of Aikido. We'll see though.

But overall class was good both daughter and I had fun. Still like it. :-) (oh and the brown belt I worked with had wrists as big as Mr. Bedor's!)

Diet and Exercise update

2010-01-09T11:09:00.000-08:00

So... After the Jan 1 Polar Dash 5k I got on the bike twice this week. Too short 30 min. rides. The basic routine is 10 min warm up (big ring/19) than 3 sprint/intensity things (forget the formal name). Essentially start in big ring and 19 than over 30 seconds keep shifting gears till I'm in the 13 in back. Trying to "sprint" during that and shooting for a solid 10 seconds of being in the 13. Then a 30 second rest and repeat.

Overall a decent work out, and I'm way out of shape.

Diet has been going so so... trying to cut calories and succeeding most days. Weight is slowly coming down.

Finally... yes we got a Wii with the balance board. I'm using it to track my weight and having fun with the balance and reaction games. Not so big on the aerobics but that's because I'm picky on that front.

So overall feeling pretty positive... next post, a return to Aikido.

Polar Dash Jan 1 2010

2010-01-02T10:03:00.000-08:00

Started out the New Year with a 5k (no where near ready for a 10k). Time was slow as expected, walked parts of it, and finished in 38 minutes or so.

But, as usual, Team Ortho organizes a good event. Temp was around 4 degress F (-15 C), sunny with a very light breeze. As usual once the run started I warmed up pretty quickly.

So avg HR was around 130, peaked on hill at 166. Not bad, but not good...

Later today I'll set up the bike, and try to ride the trainer today.

Aikido Yoshokai curiousity...

2009-12-15T13:12:00.001-08:00

So started back at Aikido with eldest daughter... and now the "academic" brain has started going...

She had her second class this last Saturday, and I attended my first beginners/basic class in ooooo... 18 years give or take (my 3rd kyu test was back in 90/91 just before the split.)

Eldest had a good time (the important thing at this stage) and even convinced the instructor to show her the use of the bokken. The instructor just showed her basic etiquette, which was a good call. I attribute going for the weapon as being indicitive that she's my daughter. :-)

As for the basic class, it went pretty well considering I'm out of shape and out of practice. The technique was familiar, nothing new except the ending pin. It was slightly different than what I expected (but don't have any recollection of what I might have done in the past.)

So the academic part I mentioned. It's been just shy of 20 years since AYANA split from Yoshinkai and became Yoshokai. I'm curious if any differences have developed, at least noticeable ones. Somme pins seem different, but just curious if anything else has changed especially since Kushida Sensei's son is pretty much head instructor (though there is is a claim that there is a governing body too.) What little I find on line seems to think there is little difference between the two except that AYANA is still highly centralized and controlled. For example test standards are very strict and still are sent out from the head dojo in the case of AYANA.

Also wondering how IYAF is doing, as there were some concerns, back in the day, that standards for dojos were going to become a little more loose (or allow for more independence depending on you view.) So wondering how that is going.

And again I view this as very academic as what matters on the ground is that the dojo I go to is run by good teachers, and that my daughter and I find it fun to do. Also eventually we'll introduce daughter #2 to Aikido, once I have #1 fully hooke. :-)

and on it goes...

2009-12-06T09:34:00.000-08:00

So went to the YWCA for weight training this AM... been ages (o.k. months) since I've been there. They moved the Kids' Fit Room, so took a couple minutes to figure out where to drop the daughters off. To explain this Y provides a general supervised play room to drop off you 5 to 10 (iirc age range) for an hour or so while you go do weights, aerobics, or a class. Nice option to have on a Sunday morn...

Y was busy, no surprise, but the free weight area had the usual number of regulars. So easy to rotate in. Did squats, dumb bell press, lat pull, back extension, and leg lifts. Then some stretching.

Overall pretty good but I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow...

Yesterday AM took the eldest to her first Aikido lesson. She was really nervous as she had no idea what it was going to be like. But once there she relaxed and started having fun. Helps that the lead instructor and his back up are really good at what they do. It was my daughter and four boys, the funny part being that daughter was one with shorter hair in the class.

Was able to say hi to an instructor I worked with many moons ago, she of course didn't recognize me but no surprise there.

Weight wise things continue to go in a good direction, so happy about that. Just need to be diligent about intake.

Tomorrow... conditioning/aerobic day in other words I'm going to try to run. :-)

first day or so...

2009-12-03T06:03:00.000-08:00

Did well on the first of Dec (around 19k calories) but not so hot on day two... gave in to my weaknesses and had take out Chinese for dinner. Overall calories are o.k. but it was way too much food late in the day (did fine until dinner, around 600 calories tops).

So weight will inch down and just need to let the gout clear up enought so I can exercise again... hoping Monday.

getting back on the wagon...

2009-12-02T09:26:00.000-08:00

Weight is way up...
Had (and still recovering from) the worst gout attack for me. Of course didn't recognize the symptoms, and it started just before Thanksgiving. So 4 days of not really managing it... But that's changed and the foot is starting to feel better.

So diet front, Started on Dec 1...
Hacker's Diet (www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html) essentially keep track of what you eat, but from an engineering approach as it were. Once again I'm using Google Docs for the spreadsheet. Goal is 2000 kcal a day or less. Snuck in at 1950 yesterday, essentially if I can behave at work and not snack at home, I'll be fine. I'll also try to use rules from the No S diet to help change habits (www.nosdiet.com). These two approaches are probalby my fovorite for no nonsense, no tricks, diets. Not easy to follow, but no fads, etc.

Once the gout eases up I'll start running again. First event is a 10k on Jan 1. Should be doable... Then we'll get the rest of the schedule firmed up.

Finally hope eldest daughter likes the martial art I'll be taking her to this weekend. If so I'll attend the intro class that happens right after the youth class.

Wed AM Run

2009-11-11T05:46:00.000-08:00

The Route -
http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/mn/minneapolis/176125794718692797

This is one of my "default" loops... around 3 miles give or take...

15 on - 2 off (mostly flat, or slight downhill)
7 on - 2 off (some hills on 54th)
8 on - 4 off (heading back home, long cool down purposeful, plus the final five includes forgetting to turn the HR off when until I got into the house, etc.)

Overall decent considering it's been a week and a half since Monster Dash.

HR Stats:
Time: 0:39:11 (h:mm:ss)
kCal: 474
Avg HR: 137
Max HR: 153

2009 Monster Dash - 10 miles

2009-10-31T13:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks Team Ortho, overall good event management as always... (some nitpicks, but nothing major.)

So this morning it was 35 degrees F (2.2 degrees C) with a nice brisk wind coming off Lake Harriet. But only partly cloudy, so some nice sun poking through.

First 5 miles I was able to avg a 12 min/mile pace. Yes slow, but I was woefully unprepared, so I was happy. Ran for the first 17 minutes or so, then did some walking, but mostly running.
Second 5 mile my legs fell apart as planned (yes, planned, cough.) So more walking, poor running, evil hills. :-)

Overall satisfied... I didn't make my sub 2 hour goal, but I finished.
route map: http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/mn/minneapolis/548943438722
run info: http://www.teamortho.us/Monster_Dash

HR Stats:
Time: 2:04:20 (h:mm:ss)
kcal: 1612
Avg HR: 142
Max HR: 158

afternoon run on Tuesday...

2009-10-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

Sunny, light breeze, cool (54 F / 12 C) nice running weather for me at least...

3.08 miles with following pattern
15 on - 3 off
5 on - 3 off
5 on - 2 off
2 on - 5 cool down

so not too bad... felt good about it. Still not ready for Sat. but I don't think I'll keel over dead. :-)

HR Stats:
Time: 0:40:07 (h:mm:ss)
kcal: 506
Avg HR: 140
Max HR: 161

Sunday afternoon run

2009-10-25T12:45:00.000-07:00

Cloudy, damp, 47 degrees F (8 degrees C). Good for legs, hands were cold at first but warmed up. Total distance was 2.98 according to "MapMyRun"...

11 min run, 4 min walk
4 min run, 4 min walk
then 5 on couple off after that.

Legs did o.k. mainly HR was spiking... don't want to ruin the repair job. :-)

HR Stats:
time: 0:36:48 (h:mm:ss)
kcal: 513
Avg HR: 148
Max HR: 168

today's run in Appleton

2009-10-17T07:55:00.001-07:00

Cool (upper thirties), some drizzle... overall o.k. run. Went up Lawe St. again, steep but good for the legs. I didn't use the stairs but followed the well worn path that other runners have created. Though it's terraced it still spikes the HR.

So ran the first 12 minutes, then walked the next 4. After that alternated, but seemed to run more than walked.

HR stats:
Duration: 0:30:00 (h:mm:ss)
kCal: 394
Avg HR: 143
Max HR: 167

again to heck with "zone" as it doesn't really apply... same for % fat calories burned as that turns out to be based on a off the cuff observation in a larger study, e.g. no real data behind it.

reboot the execise blog..

2009-10-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

First off tech blogging will be over here -> http://geekswithblogs.net/edgaralgernon/

Meanwhile follow my sorry attempts at running, etc here :-)

Ran today, did not track distance, first real run since the duathlon.

So 30 minute run/walk
10 run
4 walk
2 run (up a steep hill, Law St in Appleton)
2 walk
3 run
3 walk
3 run
3 walk

probably covered a mere 2 miles... but hey its a start...
HR details:
kCal: 404
Avg HR: 145
Max HR: 166 (it was a steep hill :-) )

and I don't track being in the "zone" as due to my HR issues (on Toporol) it doesn't quite apply.

Tue Afternoon Ride

2009-06-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

87 degrees F, Cloudy and a 17mph wind out of the south... at least it was cloudy. :-)

Good ride, standard river road route so short... last half into the wind, of course.

Stats -
Dist: 16.24 miles
Time: 0:58:36 (h:mm:ss)
Avg. Speed: 16.63 mph
Max Speed: 28.31 mph
kCal: 758
Avg HR: 140 bpm
Max HR: 152 bpm
In Zone: 0:32:43 (h:mm:ss)

Sun AM ride

2009-06-21T05:08:00.000-07:00

So met up with Bjorn for our TCBC "Early Morning Madness" ride... We were the only two that showed up, so another nice ride with Bjorn, except for that flat tire I got on Shepherd road. Mid way down Shepherd (near ) is when my rear wheel sound funny. I pulled off the road in in seconds it went from soft to flat. Then I had to bum an inner tube from Bjorn as the stem of mine was too short... sigh. Sadly I took Bjorn's advice and inspected the tire, finding a couple of small cracks (where stones, etc, could get through.) So deciding discretion over valor we headed home.

Then it got fun... :-) As we were having a good conversation Bjorn forgot we had to make a right hand turn to get to the Nokomis Parkway. So suddenly I am using my arm (shoulder to shoulder) to push him away while hoping neither of us crashed. From now on I'm going to call him McEwen from now on. :-D (http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/photos/2005/tour05/?id=tour053/BOONEN22)

71 degrees out (about 22 C for non-US citizens), overcast, and 63% humidity. Enough to be sticky out...

Stats -
Dist: 21.42 miles
Time: 1:16:22 (h:mm:ss - this is on bike time, not including tire change)
Avg Speed: 16.83 mph
Max Speed: 28.03 mph
kCal: 750
Avg HR: 112 (forgot to stop it during the tire change)
Max HR: 139 (didn't hit any really hard hills...)
In Zone: 0:23:56 (h:mm:ss - I don't really believe in the "zone" anymore...)

Sat Morning Ride

2009-06-20T08:19:00.000-07:00

Met up with Bjorn at 6:00 AM and headed out. The plan was a two hour flat ride and then hook up with group to do a two hour hill ride... the reality...

So 67 (19.4 C) degrees out warmed up to 77 (25 C) with just over 50% humidity... it's summer in MN. We headed over to Minnehaha Park. Went north on Minnehaha Ave to the round about and then to the Ave back south... all the way to the Mendota Bridge (so through Fort Snelling, etc.) On the other side of the river we got on Old Hwy 13 and then on to the bike trail headed east. Turned around at Lillydale (I think) and reversed our route. From there we went all the way back to West River Road to the Greenway and too that west to Louisiana (Bjorn will have to confirm... forget how far west...) Then u-turned back to Nicollet where we were supposed to hook up with the other group. But... They never showed (waited 20 minutes or so, sigh.) So took Greenway back to West River Road to Minnehaha Park and then back home.

Good flat ride, though the 20 min. break was odd... At the end tried to ramp up the speed on a straight away but didn't have the legs to keep up with Bjorn when he passed me.

Stats -
Dist - 44.2 miles
Time - 2:40:26 (h:mm:ss)
Avg Speed - 16.53 mph (feel pretty good about that.)
Max Speed - 31.18 mph
kCal - 2106
Avg HR - 147 (need to exercise more...)
Max HR - 168 (while serving as Bjorn's 'lead out' man, yeah that's it.)
In Zone - 0:36:32 (h:mm:ss) (zone, what zone)

Tomorrow... early morning hill ride.

Sat. Afternoon Ride & Movie Review

2009-06-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

First the ride -
77 degrees out, clear, light wind (seemed mostly out of the south...) Nice ride overall. From my house headed towards Lake Nokomis, then down Minnehaha, and over to the River Road. Took West River Road to Franklin, crossed over the Mississippi and took the East River Road down to Ford Prkwy. Then home from there. On the way home I took 60th Street so I could get a clear view of the C.F. that is Hwy 62, due to 35W being closed this weekend. :-)

Stats
Dist: 17.86 miles
Time: 1:04:04 (h:mm:ss)
Avg. Speed: 16.73 mph (I'm slow. :-( )
Max Speed: 26.72 mph
kCal Burned: 867
Avg HR: 143
Max HR: 158
In Zone: 0:30:01 (h:mm:ss)

Movie Review -
Twilight Samurai (a.k.a. Tasogare Seibei) - came out in 2002
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0351817/
Seibei Iguchi is a low ranking samurai in a small clan in 19th century Japan. After the death of his wife he finds himself in debt and caring for his two young daughters and senile mother. To the consternation of his peers he cares more about his family then he does his appearance and going out to drink with the other samurai of his clan. While trying to struggle on in life, the head of the clan taps him to carry out a mission to kill another samurai.

Overall this is a wonderful, and sad film. We follow the life of a man who just wants to care for his family. Who even admits to a close friend that if it came down to it he would prefer to be a farmer over a samurai. The final scene where he is having a conversation with the man he suppose to kill is wonderful.

Its kinda a classic everyday man struggles and tries to adapt to the changing world around him. Iguchi, you quickly discover, isn't a wimp, but just wants to have a decent life and care for his daugters. (hmm... nope no identification there. :-) )

Side benefit... there are two choreographed fight scenes and both are done very well. From showing distinct fighting styles to being well filmed. Like the other scenes in the movie very little goes to waste visually. It all creates a wonderful tapestry along with a great script and great acting.

Highly recommended and available on Netflix (as soon as I mail my copy back :-) ).

Sunday Morning ride as a TCBC "ride leader"

2009-05-31T07:52:00.000-07:00

According to the bike comp... did 40.36 miles this am at 14.79 mph average.. slow but then again I suck on hills. Weather was nice, started around 50 degrees and warmed up a little bit. Overall a good ride.

Fun thing is it just wasn't Bjorn and I. Another TCBC member showed up so there were three of us. He tried to get us into a good rotation, but since Bjorn and I mostly ride with each other we didn't catch on right away (c'est la vie). He and Bjorn did the extra 5 mile loop, but I decided to skip it. The legs were just dying on the hills. As it was I was quite slow on Smith, Sibley/13 and Ohio. Ended up walking up Summit (got about midway up before the knees decided to inform me I should stop.)

Here's the route at MapMyRide: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/mn/minneapolis/883124213854090246 Mileage is off as Map My Ride can be a real pain to use... plus I rode to and from the start so that adds about 6 miles.

Dist: 40.36 miles
Time: 2:43:38 (h:mm:ss)
Avg. Speed: 14.79 mph
Max Speed: 29.79 mph
kcal: 1497
Avg HR: 120
Max HR: 143
In Zone: 0:50:48 (h:mm:ss)

Riding last week...

2009-05-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

so rode the bike on 5/18, 5/20, 5/21... All felt pretty good. The 5/18 ride was just under 20 miles (19.9 or something) and I averaged around 16.7 or so. Other two days were commuting to work and back. So 10 miles one way averaging, overall, around 16 mph.

So next up... need to find time to do some longer rides (40 mile plus) to see if the stamina is there and if my avg speed will stay steady at 16 to 17 mph.

Along with that... need to loose weight as usual... and somehow get to the gym. With the new gig that's going to be hard.

Thursday ride - 3/7

2009-05-07T13:42:00.001-07:00

Did the river road route including lock & dam #1... bit of a head wind on the way back helped kill my avg mph.
On the upside was running anywhere from 17 to 19 mph avg on river road. On the leg of Minnehaha Ave I was able to keep the speed at 24 to 25 mph, so that felt good... then I hit the wind out of the west... sigh.

Weather
71 degrees F
Mostly Sunny
Winds out of the west averaging 12 mph with 18 mph gusts... and of course I head west at the end of the ride.

Stats
Dist: 16.76 miles
Time: 1:01:04 (h:mm:ss)
Avg Speed: 16.47 mph
Max Speed: 28.03 mph
Kcal: 779
Avg HR: 139
Max HR: 152
In Zone: 00:41:31

Sat afternoon ride...

2009-04-18T14:21:00.000-07:00

Well after bailing out on Bjorn and the 30 mile ride this am (cause I was lazy)...

Got out for a shorter ride on the River Road route that Bjorn and I do on various weekday mornings.

Good weather 63 degrees Fahrenheit with winds out of the North at 8 mph. So not too bad... some sun. Overall a good ride. Still suck on minor hills... need to work on that a lot. But HR is in a good range and I think my cadence is up, will need to test that.

Stats:
Dist - 15.61 miles
Time - 0:55:18 (h:mm:ss)
Avg. Speed - 16.94 mph
Max. Speed - 28.03 mph
kCal - 725
Avg HR - 137 bpm
Max HR - 155 bpm
In Zone - 0:26:56 (h:mm:ss)

wed commute

2009-04-16T03:12:00.001-07:00

Rode the bike to and from work on Wednesday...
Good weather. The morning was clear, light breeze and in the 40s. Choose the wrong jacket, so got a tad warm.

Afternoon was low 60s, with a 13 mph wind out of the SE, which is of course the direction I have to go to get home. Oh and the route home is more uphill, but enough with excuses...

Ride to Work -
Dist: 10.26 miles
Time: 0:37:56 (h:mm:ss)
Avg Speed: 16.24 mph
Max Speed: 25.53 mph
kCal Burned: 465
Avg HR: 135 bpm
Max HR: 151 bpm
In Zone: 0:32:03 (h:mm:ss)

Ride back Home -
Dist: 10.5 miles
Time: 0:41:43 (h:mm:ss)
Avg Speed: 15.12 mph
Max Speed: 29.26 mph
kCal Burned: 556
Avg HR: 135 bpm
Max HR: 153 bpm
In Zone: 0:29:06 (h:mm:ss)

Finally rode outside today...

2009-04-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

Went for a ride in the afternoon. Temp was around 55 degrees Fahrenheit with winds out of the east at 9 mph.

Overall a good ride... Did one of the short loops Bjorn and I normally do for our morning rides. Speed on the flats varied from 16 to 18 mph depending on whether or not I was heading into the wind. Average speed took a hit mainly due to me sucking at hills, slowing down for stop signs and lights on Minnehaha, and then the last block or so going down the alleyway at lest then 10 mph.

But felt pretty good.

Stats:
Dist: 15.71 miles
Time: 0:59:02 (h:mm:ss)
Avg Speed: 15.97 mph
Max Speed: 30.05 mph

observations on team dysfunction.

2009-04-03T13:12:00.001-07:00

When you add a "lead" to a remote team.

Have a clear idea as to what his roles and responsibilities are from the on site team's point of view. (oh... and _communicate_ that).

If you say "we're open to your ideas" but want it done your way... then don't say that.

If you are having a daily project stand up meeting:
1) It should be run by the pm
2) Only tasks, time and blocking issues should be discussed
3) If using a speaker phone be very clear about who is speaking and when a transition from one location to the other should occur, due to lack of visual cues.

Exercise & Diet Update

2009-04-03T06:07:00.000-07:00

Diet -
Getting better. Tracking calories at Livestrong.com 's The Daily Plate.
Not happy with the interface but it does track versus your goal for the day. So it helps.
Started at 236 and not the running average is around 230. My spouse is also using the same tool so that helps in the reinforcement area.

Exercise -
Also getting better, but still behind. On 3/21 did a 4 hour spin class, that went o.k. On 3/29 did 4 hours of a 5 hour spin class, that went well too. Cut out the last hour so I could have supper with the family.

Getting on the trainer more often and it feels like I'm improving. Now doing 3 sets of 5 intervals or the occasional Coach Troy DVD.

So slow work but headed in the right direction.

Great quote on fiction

2009-03-21T15:06:00.001-07:00

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

Spin class on Sat. morning

2009-03-21T10:50:00.000-07:00

Showed up before 7:00 AM. Got on the spin bike by 7:00 ish. First hour and a half (or a tad more) was at our own pace (no class, just show up, ride and watch the TdF where Lance gets his fifth win.)

Then short break and 2 hour class with instructors.

Uff and Daa.

Thighs are sore... mostly did my own thing as the instructors did things that either a) don't pertain to outdoor riding or b) are actually bad for you.

No heart data as my hr monitor picked up Bjorn's data and not mine.
Generally ran a 120 to 140 range with some minor spikes.

Overall a good experience mostly kept my reistance equal to road or better, but did start cramping near the end. Most likely an issue with bike fit, my fitness, etc.

Getting Safari Books Online onto the Kindle 2

2009-03-16T06:42:00.000-07:00

O.K. layout wise it still doesn't look great. But if you're in a pinch and need to get to your Safari library.

1) Go to the Kindle 2 web browser (under Experimental)
2) Press the Menu button
3) select Use Advanced Mode
4) Go back into the Menu
5) Select Settings
6) Select Enable Javascript

Now you're set just go to m.safaribooksonline.com to access the site.
You might have to play with font size but overall it works O.K.

Thanks to Mr. O'Reilly for Twittering the instructions in response to my question!

diet/exe reboot

2009-03-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

So starting on Mar. 1 rebooted the diet and started to get serious.
4/1 start weight - 236 (uff and da!)
4/7 weight - 234.8 (running average, 1.6 down for the week, yay!)

Shooting for 2 pounds a week on the running average (read up on the Hacker's Diet http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html for more info).

Also went for a short run (2.12 miles) today. Had to walk parts, so it took about 28 minutes. Given I haven't run since last July... not great but could be worse.

Ave HR: 149
Max HR: 165

Score card for week 1.
Hacker's Diet: 3 red, 3 green, 1 yellow
No S Diet: 3 red, 4 green
Exercise: 6 red, 1 green.

Red - missed goals (kcal intake 2500 or higher, etc.0
Yellow - sub optimal but "o.k." (kcal intake 2000 to 2500 or exercise skip day)
Green - goals met (kcal intake below 2000)

No S Diet is good if you don't want to count calories, but want to do some "life hacking". More info at www.nosdiet.com

Coach Troy Torture Fest

2009-02-17T14:46:00.000-08:00

a.k.a. haven't done squat since saturday and don't have much time today...

So did one of the 30 min workouts on the DVD that came with my Kurt Kinetic Road Machine (http://www.kurtkinetic.com/ - great product.) This was the second work out focusing on anaerobic threshold.

so after warm up 5 reps of
90 on at big ring/15
90 off at small ring/15

One rep of
90 on at big ring/13
90 off at small ring/15

One rep of
90 on at big ring/13
90 off at small ring/15

then a 2 minute rest followed by
1 min big ring/19
1 min big ring/15
1 min big ring/12

Cool down...

uff da. short but intense... yay endorphins.

more training...

2009-02-16T07:32:00.001-08:00

Rode Sat, did the Spinervals hill ride again (dvd #24.0). Went well, and I think I was able to up my pace just a tad.

Next up? Signed up for two classes at the YWCA... 5 hour spin classes to be exact. Yup sit on a spin bike for about 5 hours (bio breaks, etc. allowed) and try to simulate a long distance event.

Did it last year, and it seemed to help. I'll try to improve my performance this year.

Mon & Wed rides and other stuff

2009-02-11T18:38:00.000-08:00

So short ride monday
5 to 8 min warm up
2 sets of 4 for intervals
then 8 to 10 minute cool down.

Why... off to a sleep study. Got all hooked up and then couple hours of monitoring with out, then with a cpap.
Yup got apnea... cpap stops it.

Wed.
Normal routine
10 min warm up
3 sets of 4 intervals
10 min cool down.

will repeat on friday and maybe go up to 3 sets of 5...

cadence during rests seems to be around 80 to 85 so need to get that highe...

Tues night ride on trainer

2009-02-03T18:42:00.000-08:00

Did intervals tonight. 3 sets of 4. The pattern is:
10 min warm up in Big Ring/19 then...

a set is (in the big ring) -
30 seconds - go from 17 to 12 every 5 seconds, last 10 seconds in the 12 (yes that means skipping a gear or two.)
30 seconds - rest in 19
Repeat 4 times for a set.

rest 5 minutes between sets.

then cool down is 10 minutes in big ring/19 again.

So 42 minutes or so total (well did a little longer cool down so stats are...)
Time: 43:18
kCal: 538
Max HR: 158
Avg HR: 139
In Zone: 21:28

at best my cadence was 80 to 82 slowing down to the 70s near the end (in the 19...)

Spinervals - 24 Hilacious

2009-02-02T05:24:00.000-08:00

First off I still believe Coach Troy could be Henry Rollins' little brother...

Anyhow... rode the bike last night to Spinvervals DVD that is designed to help on hill climbing... Overall I like the Spinervals DVDs as they mix different types of interval training together so it doesn't get too boring. I've used this DVD before and find that it's a good workout.

The first two sets of climbs are O.K. (big ring / 14 or 13 in back 8 minutes each set.) Because I have a compact crank I try to remember to go one cog up from what the DVD says to get a similar workout. So though the DVD says to do the climbs in the 14 cog I follow the verbal advice from Troy and put it in the 13 cog. Seems to help.

Next up was 3 sets of 3 "rollers". Essentially high cadence while increasing resistance to simulate go over a series of rolling hills. Though it can be tough I like this part the best as you have to keep switching gears, keep the cadence high, etc. I do think the several minute cool down between sets is a bit long, so I'll just try to spin in a higher gear.

Last two sets were to simulate steep grades... this is where having a compact crank kinda hurts me. So even though I have it in the big ring and 12 on back, I just can't get quite enough resistance. Not big deal right now as I'm out of shape, but I'm gonna need to work on that to be able to do hills in the spring and summer. My response for this will be to increase cadence hopefully that will help.

Tonight, back to interval training and the "Smithers' Super Sekrit Plan".

got the training/biking bug... finally

2009-01-27T14:01:00.000-08:00

So road twice so far this week (Sun & Tue). Goal is to ride at least 3 times a week. Starting with interval training then we'll start mixing it up. In a month I want to add in running, but we'll take it one step at at time.

So Sun (1/25):
37 minutes...
8 min warm up
3 sets of 3 intervals with 5 min break in between
10 min cool down
kCal: 404
Max HR: 160
Avg HR: 142
In Zone: 17:38

Tue (1/27)
45 min total
10 min warm up
3 sets of 4 intervals with 5 min break in between
10 min cool down
(time discrepancy is because once or twice I was watching the tv more then the clock...)
kCal: 515
Max HR: 156
Avg HR: 133
In Zone: 23:05

Next ride I plan on repeating the 3 sets of 4 ... then increasing it by one rep each or ever other ride. Want to get to a point I can do 3 sets of 10. After that increase my cadence.

"Everything's amazing, nobody's happy"

2008-12-21T13:35:00.000-08:00

Pretty much sums up my opinion on a variety of target.

Monday night bike ride

2008-12-08T18:10:00.000-08:00

Short ride, as I had to do a podcast (http://www.thegeeklife.tv/ , check it out and let me know what y'all think).

so basic 10 min warm up. Some basic intervals (30 sec. of increasing tension, 30 rest. 5 reps, 5 min break, 2 more reps) then 10 min cool down... give our take.

Final tally on the Polar monitor:

Duration: 33:19
kCal: 417
Avg HR: 140
Max HR: 159
In Zone: 14:53

Watched about an episode and half of Cowboy BeBop. Good mix of action with fun plot and characters.

Good "motivational" poster...

2008-12-05T04:58:00.000-08:00

Friend of mine put this together:

Errol Morris does political ads...

2008-10-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

Morris is one of my favorite documentary film makers... He also does ads and when its a topic he cares about....

http://www.peopleinthemiddleforobama.org/

Good examples of his work to watch:

Thin Blue Line

Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.

The Fog of War

All excellent films.

sitting here in the er at childrens...

2008-09-23T21:31:00.000-07:00

This is my second trip Since December. Probably my fourth overall if memory serves... well fourth specifically to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis (the one on Chicago and 27th).

I almost have the protocol memorized, and am able to decipher a "good night" vs a "bad night". Little things like how quickly the doctor shows up, how quickly certain medications are ordered and administered.

Nobody wants to tell you you child is in danger, but after a couple trips to a place that specializes in children you start to pick up subtle clues. Some don't show up till after you child is on the mend. The doctors and nurses have a certain sense of relief, and you not sure why right away. Other clues, like a simple neb showing up within minutes of going to the ER room indicates yes there is a problem and it needs to be dealt with right now.

And every time I've been able to do the hardest thing... assure my daughter it's going to be o.k. I don't sugar coat it for her. I tell her there will be an IV, it will sting a bit. I agree with her that the neb mask sucks and let here know what a great job she's doing putting up with it.

But its a sad skill to be able to hide the worry and fear you have as a parent so that you child doesn't have more undue stress put on them.

Beer Review time...

2008-09-12T15:57:00.000-07:00

Thanks to smithersmpls.com I came across a beer called Urthel Hop-It (the sponsor of his team many years ago.) I went to Surdyk's and found out that Urthel makes several beers.

To explain...

Urthel is a contract brew labled as "Dutch with a Flemish Touch." What this means is that a woman by the name of Hildegard von Ostaden she started the Leyerth brewery but contracts out to a Flemish brewery to be able to meet demands. (I might not have my facts straight... feel free to correct me.)

The Urthel Hop-It is her verison of a Belgium/Flemish IPA. High hops with a touch of sweetness. The Urthel Triple is in the style of a Trappist Triple ale.

In Minneapolis you can find Urthel at Zipp's and Surdyk's

Today at Zipps I found the Quadrium, something I don't remember seeing before. Here is my opinion on it...

Color - nice dark copper color

ABV - label says 11% and it does show up in the flavor

Taste - It's a sweet a.k.a. malty beer. Heavy on the toungue, very sweet and almost cloying. I agree with another review that the sweetness has almost molasses like flavor. For some it might be too sweet. In my case, even though I prefer "dryer" drinks, I tend to like strong flavors. So I actually like the flavor a lot. But... for good or bad you do taste the alcohol. I don't mind this (kinda a reminder it's a strong beer.) But others might view it as a negative.

I guess this is supposedly done in a Trappist quadruple style. Not a style I have a lot of familiarity with versus say a triple. From what I've found on line... besides alcohol content going up, a duple is sweet, a triple tends to be less sweet, and a quadruple tends to be closer to barley wine. Which this version does come close too.

So overall sweet, high alcohol, tasty. But I tend to like the beers that Urthel is producing.

It is bottled conditioned so that helps. But... depending on transport and storage it can produce a lot of foam if you don't let it settle for a bit.

more info at www.urthel.com

Dairyland Dare 2008 - I wimp out report.

2008-08-18T08:01:00.001-07:00

Third year doing the Dairyland Dare (http://www.dairylanddare.com/). The wimp out was on distance... but I'll explain in a bit.

Rode down on Friday so I could stop in La Crosse... had a pleasant time. I can now say I've eaten at a Maid Rite, but did not have the signature sandwich. I was in the mood for a BLT at the time. Sat at the counter and had a pleasant lunch. Then went next door to The Sweet Shop and got a vanilla malt to go. The Sweet Shop still smells the same, after all these years and still has the same feel from when I used to go there as a kid. So quite fun.

Plan was to get up early on Saturday so we could hit the course by 6:00 AM. So B and I rode from the hotel (less then a mile from the start) at around 5:30. Got to the check in and picked up our timing chips. Then headed off with the 6:00 am riders. We quickly formed gaps... initially I was ahead of B and his brother was further back; but then I hit the first steep climb. The legs weren't feeling too good and worse the breathing felt off. I got off to walk and realized that the asthma was kicking in, mainly due to a spat of sinus infection from the prior week. So I hit up the inhalers, walked the bike a bit and rode the rest of the way of the climb. This is when the distance debate started in my head. This is also when B passed me... he stopped to check on my health and then headed on (he later finished the 100k in decent time, and his brother finished the 100 k too, first time for him.)

Mainly do I try the 100k (62 miles) or the 66k (41 miles) based on how my lungs felt. Well the second steep climb before Barneveld help to decide that debate. The lungs had the wonderful feeling of filling with fluid, so again I stopped, hit up the inhaler and walked a tad, then finished the climb.

Once I got to the first rest stop (21 miles in) I decided discretion was the better part of valor, as it were. I knew I was good for another 20 miles but another 40 would be a bit much (yes I'm a wimp.) But I also decided I would not 'sag' it back to the start. So I continued on the 66k route.

It was a pleasant ride, good weather, and quite nice with only one hiccup. I didn't have a map for the route. The turns are marked with color coded arrows, but a moment of inattentiveness means you can miss a turn. In the middle of nowhere Wisconsin, with farms to each side and no sign of life... I started wondering if I had missed a turn and was now lost. Fortunately just as worry was setting the next turn came into site.

Rest of the ride was good, but hard.

Hope they're able to put this on next year, there was rumor of financial issues, as I would like to shoot for the 133 or 200 k distance. Just need more prep.

Final Stats -
Dist: 46.1 miles
Time: 3:33:51 (h:mm:ss) (Ride time only, add 30 minutes or so for rest stops)
Avg. Speed: 12.93 mph
Max Speed: 38.13 mph

Pro Bar - an initial review of a protien/energy bar

2008-08-14T05:30:00.000-07:00

If you have a need for 99% raw, 90% organic, etc. based energy bar. This is one for you. Costing just shy of $3.50 at the LBS I've now tried several of them.

Overall they're o.k. The flavor is subtle, in that they rely on the ingredients, so there's no strong flavor of what the package suggests. In other words the berry flavored ones are o.k. The chocolate one has a light chocolate taste to it, and the one marked "Kettle Corn" well.. it's sweet, I'll give it that.

Texture is good... since it's mostly raw ingredients mushed together it has a nice combination of chewy and crunchy (though the smaller seeds can get stuck in some bad places in you mouth.)
They are hefty in calories though ranging from 320 to 400 per bar. This is higher then a lot of other bars out there.

So overall o.k., good if you have certain needs (e.g. 100% vegan). On the other hand if you have mild allergies (look up oral allergy syndrome) like I do, this can trigger them.

Some Quotes for Today... On Calvin, Calvinism, Christianity

2008-07-31T05:28:00.000-07:00

"I can never join Calvin in addressing his god. He was indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was Daemonism. If ever man worshiped a false god, he did. The being described in his 5. points is not the God whom you and I acknowledge and adore, the Creator and benevolent governor of the world; but a daemon of malignant spirit."
...
"It would be more pardonable to believe in no god at all, then to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes of Calvin."
...
"Indeed I think that every Christian sect gives a great handle to Athiesim by their general dogma that, without a revelation, there would not be sufficient proof of the being of a god"

Jefferson To Adams
Monticello, April 11. 23. (1823)

mixing of roles - bad

2008-04-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

So the one thing that seems to bite me every time is when I'm on a gig and I have mixed roles.

No mixing a developer and architect is fine. So is mixing software engineer and architect or developer. In fact any of those three, mixed together is fine. They can overlap and switching from one to the next doesn't tend to impact productivity.

No the big one is Project Manager. You can't mix it with the above roles.

Why? Cause if you're in a P.M. role you have to be able to P.M. 100% of the time. Tracking you people, project, time. Communicating with the execs, making sure things are on track or if not on track making sure the right people know right away so they can decide what to do.

But... mix the programming side with the p.m. side and one slides... causing it all to slide.

Sure you could build a schedule around doing one set of tasks then another... but development doesn't really work that way. You need time to noodle around. The p.m. aspect also needs time, keeping track of who is doing what etc.

So you can mix some roles but the p.m. needs to be independent, imo.

Entity Framework - making life easier for my coders

2008-03-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

Set up wise it can be a bit frustrating... mainly because there are three xml files (well one big one with three sections.) One handles the SQL Server table layout, the second handles what your objects will look like, and the third maps between the to...

Now the neat bit...
To access your data you just need this...

NorthwindDbContext nwContext = new NorwindDbContext;

the class above is the autogenerated Entity Framework class (e.g. the huge edmx file it makes when you point it at you database...)

Want to get a client?

Client myClient = nwContext.Client.Where("it.ClientID = @id", new ObjectParameter("id", TheValueOfTheClientIDGoesHere)).First();

So... create a client object (based on what EF mapped...) then get said object from the "context" the rest is parameter passing... the .First() is simply to grab the top record. (it populates the object for you... yay.)

change the values of the properties of you client e.g. myClient.Name = "something new" and then persist it back... how? Well if you let EF do all the work then type:

nwContext.SaveChanges();

that's it... oh you're dba created fancy custom sprocs that return error codes? First you get to go back to the xml files, but at least they provide a nice interface now... right click on the entity (Client) in the big map and choose mapping details. You can then override the default Save/Update/Delete by mapping to the appropriate sprocs. Downside you have to map all three. Also you have to account for Foreign Keys even if you only do soft deletes. Minor annoyance, but hey after that all you coders have to type is:

try
{nwContext.SaveChanges(); //cause hey we re-mapped it to the sproc}
Catch (Exception ex)
{
//don't forget the db's error code is in the InnerException
ex.InnerException //do something with me...
}

That's it...
Adds and deletes are similar... more on those later.

So overall I'm warming to Entitiy Framework for ADO .Net. It's providing the right level of abstraction. Once the mappings are done the developer has less to worry about and can get down to coding and testing.

Now once MVC gets more polish the two together should be quite nice. Database abstraction and no more ViewState!

Not ready for Prime Time... MVC and Entity Framework

2008-03-14T08:55:00.000-07:00

Well not quite...
ADO .NET Entity Framework:
Entity Framwork is close, but has known bug. It can't update the schema from the SQL server properly. Kinda a major issue when doing green field development and the schema on the db server is still in flux. sigh... will have to hand edit xml files untill MS fixes it (real soon now tm).

ASP .NET MVC:
Had to decide not to use it on the client's project... but I still like where it's going and will need to play with it at home. They just updated it at Mix '08 but... The problem I have is you can't use ASP.Net controls. The reason is that the ASP MVC framework does away with viewstate (yay!!!) but to do that you have to use "plain" html componetns. In fact you have to use their special Html."component" in the HTML. So it starts to look like old school ASP. So right now to make a list of items you have to put the foreach loop in the html, not the code behind.

Not a big deal, per se, but readability sucks.

I'll have more on it later... suffice to say go to http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/ for a good overview of the framework. It has some neat capabilities, just not ready for a complex project yet.

How much to dump on them...

2008-01-31T10:39:00.000-08:00

So here's the situation...

We're redesigning the the client's application, piece by piece. Due to the amount of data they need to process, and how they process it, there will be a lot of code in the stored procedures.

Not a problem, we have a dba from my company on the job and he's doing great.

But... the application is currently in classic ASP. The team has mixed experience (e.g. two 20 somethings who's major OO experience is from college. They're willing to learn, just not there yet. Add to that one 60 something who's way behind tech wise... adds up to an immature team.)_

So part one, is introducing them to some basic processes like source code control, versioning and deployment.

Part two, as it were, is diving into major OO concepts. This app looks like it's a good candidate to use MS's new MVC framework for ASP .Net

Finally because of the sophisticated SQL backend this app also looks ripe to use LINQ to get data in and out with minimum fuss.

The issue? How much and how fast can I dump new concepts on the team. I'm worried about absorption rate of the materials (add to this the C# .Net training the will be getting by March 1.) They'r new to ASP .Net and add to that a ORM and MVC framework... could be a bit much (along with process and TDD).

I'm going to prototype as much as possible, I'm just worried they might have some problems siwmming as it were (well... the 20 somethings might do fine. But the 60 something is another issue..)

An Open Source Project that might temp me...

2008-01-11T13:57:00.000-08:00

Actually I sent them an email already, so I'll get notified once they have an SDK and thoughts about what they need...

www.quarq.us

Quarq is developing two products for the cycling community. The first is a power meter for you crank. This is a device that measures power output in watts. Usefull for training and such. The neat aspect is it uses the Ant+Sport wireless protocol. Ant+Sport is an attempt to create a unified protocol for wireless sports devices like heart rate monitors, bike and running computers, etc.

The open source part comes in for their bike computer. It's going to be Linux based and have gps built in (in theory.)

So don't know what they'll need but... if it fits my interests I'll pursue it (and maybe get a pre-production unit to test and play with!)

It's the little things...

2008-01-11T08:53:00.000-08:00

So current client has their machines fully locked down. No local admin access, no ability to install stuff etc.

Only problem I have is it means I can't effectively run IIS on my local machine... But thanks to MS I don't have to.

MS has nicely included a little asp.net web server that will do what I need. It's not full featured (e.g. no complex security, etc.) But it will get the job done for local development. Then it's just push the code to a test server for QA & integration testing.

Oh and getting to sqlexpress almost looked like a pain until I remembered it's a named instance. So you have to use computername/sqlexpress, not just computername to get to it.

So looks like I will be able to set up a development environment in a locked down OS.

Next up MVC vs. MVP...

CI and DB development part II the deploy....

2008-01-09T11:35:00.000-08:00

Well lets see... got CruiseContorl .Net working with msbuild so not to automate the deployment to a test server...

Easy enough (as we tested this manually with MSBuild). The only change is to create a build configuration that has the CC .Net working directory as its build output path. That way when the Deploy target is selected MSBuild will know where to grab the correct sql file and use that to update the test server.

Results... so far so good. I've got it so I can update the db project, deploy it locally to test on "my box", then check it in. CC .Net takes over and pushes it to the test server.

Next is to figure out the best way to unit test it...
One approach is to create a test project and have it run the tests. The only trick is making sure it points at the right server. E.g. the developer's box when he is testing locally, then switch to the test box when CC .Net / MSBuild run the code. We'll see...

CI and DB development... part I

2007-12-28T12:23:00.001-08:00

Continuous Integration and DB Projects in MS SQL and VS 2008
The start...
I'm using a vpc and my main machine to act as build and dev boxes along with the ability to deploy from one to the other. essentially, for testing, you will need at least two machines. One as a dev enviroment, one as the source control and test enviroment.

The goal is to have developers use SQLExpress on thier local machines to develop and test db procedures, etc. Then upload those to a test db and have a suite of tests (e.g. unit, regression, etc.) run and make sure nothing has broken.

Here's what I have so far:

Dev Box Install

VS 2008 (C# default)
SQL Express
Subversion Client

Test/Source Control Box
- VS 2008 (just what is need to support MSBuild, and test abilities
- Subversion server
- Cruise Control .Net
Initial Test
- Set up repository on server (with preferred diretory structure, e.g. root or trunk, etc.)
- Install Subversion client on box and test to make sure you can get to Subversion server
- Create DBProj and check it into Subversion
MSBuild Test
- Create two configurations in the Project properties, one for the dev build and one for the test build
- Build for Dev - example -
  MSBuild /t:Build /p:Configuration=devServerBuild SandBoxDb.dbproj
- Build for Test - example -
  MSBuild /t:Build /p:Configuration=testServerBuild SandBoxDb.dbproj
- Deploy test To Test - example
  MSBuild /t:Deploy /p:targetDatabase=SandBoxDb /p:BuildScriptName=TestSandBoxDb.sql /p:TargetConnectionString="Data Source=TestBox\SQLEXPRESS;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=admin;Pooling=False" SandBoxDb.dbproj

CruiseControl .Net
Download and install as recommended.

Make sure ThoughtWorks.CruiseControl.MSBuild.dll is in the .\CruiseControl.NET\server directory
Edit the ccnet.config file, replace with your values where appropriate....
<cruisecontrol>
<project name="SandBoxDb">
<sourcecontrol type="svn">
<username>admin</username>
<password>password</password>
<trunkUrl>svn://localhost/sandBoxDb/root</trunkUrl>
<workingDirectory>C:\ccProjects\dbSandbox\build</workingDirectory>
</sourcecontrol>
<tasks>
<msbuild>
<executable>C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\MSBuild.exe</executable>
<workingDirectory>C:\ccProjects\dbSandbox\build</workingDirectory>
<projectFile>SandBoxDb.sln</projectFile>
<buildArgs>/noconsolelogger /p:Configuration=TestServerDeploy /v:diag</buildArgs>
<timeout>60</timeout>
<logger>C:\Program Files\CruiseControl.NET\server\ThoughtWorks.CruiseControl.MSBuild.dll</logger>
</msbuild>
</tasks>
</project>
</cruisecontrol>
Edit the dashboard.config file, adding the msbuild logging info
<buildPlugins>
<buildReportBuildPlugin>
<xslFileNames>
<xslFile>xsl\compile-msbuild.xsl</xslFile>
</xslFileNames>
</buildReportBuildPlugin>
<buildLogBuildPlugin />
<xslReportBuildPlugin description="MSBuild Output" actionName="MSBuildOutputBuildPlugin" xslFileName="xsl\msbuild.xsl"/>
</buildPlugins>
finally correct a bug in the .\CruiseControl.NET\webdashboard\xsl\msbuild.xsl file

delete the DOCTYPE and ENTITY section at the top
Replace all nbsp occurences with #160

start up ccnet on the test box
edit your project and check it in, watch to see if ccnet updates and rebuilds it

Left to do...Automate deploy of the db to test servercreate a "standard" database for testing (e.g. scripts to repoputlate with test data etc.)

create way to run and report on tests, integrating with ccnet

sql, source control, and continuous integration

2007-12-21T12:32:00.000-08:00

Well the new gig has given me a chance to set up something form scratch...

The pieces?
Suberverion - code repository
Cruise Control .Net - continuous integration
MSBuild - scripted builds

The hitch? A good portion of code will be in SQL because of the nature of the product. (Working with comparing large amounts of data, stuff like that.) So I want to make sure the team can actually track edits to the variou stored procs in such.

Step one:
In Visual Studio set up a dbproj and import the needed schema.
Next on the project properties set up two types of build. One as a local "dev" build so that the developer can test locally. The other as a build targetting the "test" server. Make sure that the two types of build have different names for thier script files.

Step two:
Test the builds from the command line using MSBuild. Make sure everything is going where it is supposed to go.

Step three:
Add source control. Set up Subversion where ever you like an then check in the Db Project with all it's files. Now you have source controlled sql.

Step four:
Cruise Control .Net... I'm still setting this up but the goal would be something like...

Developer Tasks:
1. Performs "get latest"
2. Rebuilds the system locally
3. Edit/add what ever is needed
4. Creates/performs unit tests
5. Once happy with code, checks the code into Subversion.

Cruise Control Tasks:
6. Sees that Subversion has changed
7. Gets the latest code
8. Builds the code
9. Deploys the code to the test server

From that point I'm still working out how and where to automate the test process.

But if this works I can bring the db development side in line with the regular coding side. Then all the team will have to worry about is doing actual work as opposed to the repetitive side of developing...

Starting up the tech blog...

2007-12-14T12:23:00.000-08:00

Thought I try to give it a go and post on more nerd/geek topics here.

So, due to another conversation, in another blog, I thought I start off with the following age old debate.
Contractor vs. Consultant.
(o.k. not a tech thing but, it does matter.)

I'm a consultant... specifically I work for an IT Consulting company (Magenic) and my title says "Senior Consultant". But... in another post somebody alluded to the idea that when they were out of work they became a "consultant" for a while...

Well here's where I have an issue... I don't agree with that. So here are my definitions...

Consultant - an individual, independent or part of a firm, that is hired to aid and/or lead project based work. In other words, work that has a beginning, middle and end. In addition this person is brought on due to a specific set of skills to aid in the project. Analysis, design, project management, QA Testing. They have a skill set that makes them an asset to the project.

Contractor - an individual, independent or part of a firm, that is hired for the sake of getting work done. In other words staff augmentation. You have a project and you only have three developers and need three more due to the size of the project. The only qualifications, for example, are that they know how to program in the target language and have 3 to 5 years of proficiency. In other words warm bodies to fill seats to get stuff done. But... you do not expect them to add value to the project beyond that.

So that's my thoughts on the two roles... yes they can blur together. But I generally see a consultant as having either a better skill set, or a targeted skill set vs. a contractor.

So want to be a consultant? Want to work for a company that actually views it's employees as investments? Like to work in the world of Microsoft and .Net?

Then check out www.magenic.com