Went out for another long run this morning. I usually do them on Saturdays, but given that we’re off to Graeme’s for a BBQ and there’s likely to be a few beers had, I figured I should get the run out of the way today. I ran 13.25km last weekend, so I decided to aim for 15km today. Looking around for a route to run, I settled on the Vaucluse Variation (large GIF), one of the Sydney Striders’ routes.

As it turned out it was a bit too much. I decide to run it in reverse, and all went well until around the 10km mark, by which stage I was almost at Neilsens Park. I’d run up Heartbreak Hill which was a killer on the legs, and from then on it was slightly uphill, then slightly downhill, which never gave my legs a chance to rest. I hadn’t brought a map of the route with me, so after Neilsens I couldn’t remember exactly where to go. I ended up improvising, and chose to run up Villare Lower Road which is bloody steep. Just what the legs didn’t need! A quick detour down to the lighthouse and back to finish up at the shops for a much needed bottle of coke. I now understand what they meant when their ads claimed “Can’t beat the feeling”… there’s nothing like an ice cold coke at the end of a long run!

Another week’s long run finished without incident, in this case 14.6km (1:24:55). Fractionally short of the 15km I was aiming for, but it was a lot hillier than I expected, and it’s still further than I’ve ever run before, so I’m happy.

B: 74km – R: 28.5km

I ran in to work this morning.

Back when I started doing more exercise, I had to think about how I was going to fit it all in. The logical way was to make the daily commute part of my exercise program, so that’s largely what I did, cycling in to work where possible. I’d thought about one day running in to work as well, but it always seemed to be off in the distant future as running was never my strong point. However, after my long run on Saturday I realised that I’d have no trouble doing the run commute, so I resolved to give it a go this morning.

As usual, the first few kilometres weren’t great, with my lower legs doing their normal complaining while they warmed up. Although it doesn’t happen on every run, I’m used it now and can tell if it reaches the point where it warrants cutting the run short, which it rarely does. I ran down Old South Head, then Dover Rd., along the harbour-front by Rose Bay, then through the back streets of Double Bay to Edgecliff, then through Kings X, down William Street and finished up with a stretch in Hyde Park. All up it was around 9.3km in 51:28.

It was a tough run on the legs, as it’s basically all hills. I ran them all apart from the top 100m of the one from Double Bay up to Edgecliff and the final 150m into the X, as my legs were pretty tired from the hill cycling session I did on the way home yesterday. I plan on doing a run commute once per week, though I think next week I’ll try running via Bondi Junction and Oxford St. as it’s much flatter… well apart from that bit on Old South Head Road which I may walk to play it safe.

B: 74km – R: 13.9km

Israeli troops have a habit of shooting innocent Palestinian civilians, including children as young as three, then claiming that they were a threat, or that they were misidentified as justification for their actions. This is usually horseshit, as most people are killed by sniper fire, which implies that they were shot from a distance, and also that they were being watched through a high-powered scope. How you can’t recognise a three-year-old child through a rifle scope is beyond me.

Anyway, thanks to the dogged pursuit of the truth by the family of a murdered British peace activist, an Israeli soldier has received an eight year jail term for the crime.

Mr Hurndall said the Israelis had initially admitted someone had been shot, but claimed it had been a gunman who had opened fire first.

After photographs of Tom having been shot in the head emerged, the Israeli military later admitted that Hayb – a sentry who had won prizes for marksmanship – had shot him using telescopic sights.

“They just lied continuously,” Mr Hurndall’s father said. “It was a case of them shooting civilians and then making up a story. And they were not used to being challenged.”,1),
(

There had been a “general policy” for soldiers to be able to shoot civilians in that area without fear of reprisals, he added.

Cycled in and out of work yesterday, then went for a run. My calves are still a little sore after Saturday’s long run, but I still managed to get 4.6km in before it became clear that it wasn’t going to go away once I’d warmed up properly. I cycled in again this morning, but I won’t bother running this evening to give my legs more time to recover.

B: 42.4km – R: 4.6km

The nut-jobs in the US are at it again, making plans to attack Iran. It’s a repeat of the bullshit job done on Iraq, with the usual suspects claiming that Iran is a threat to global security, sponsor of terrorists, about to nuke Israel etc. Seymour Hersh has the details in the New Yorker.

“This is much more than a nuclear issue,” one high-ranking diplomat told me in Vienna. “That’s just a rallying point, and there is still time to fix it. But the Administration believes it cannot be fixed unless they control the hearts and minds of Iran. The real issue is who is going to control the Middle East and its oil in the next ten years.”

Another Iraqi official has said that his country is in the midst of a civil war:

Despite the violence, U.S. officials have discounted talk of civil war. However, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday that an “undeclared civil war’’ had already been raging for more than a year.

”Is there a civil war? Yes, there is an undeclared civil war that has been there for a year or more,‘’ Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal told The Associated Press. "All these bodies that are discovered in Baghdad, the slaughter of pilgrims heading to holy sites, the explosions, the destruction, the attacks against the mosques are all part of this.’‘

Even the U.S’s own assessments admit that the situation in Iraq is a mess, with only 3 out of 18 provinces deemed to be stable, though you’ll never hear the politicians describe the situation as a civil war. In fact, they’re all remarkably upbeat for some reason not supported by evidence. Propaganda perhaps?

Well, I got up for my long run this morning, setting off at 8am. Headed down Military Road to Bondi, then up Curlewis, down Newcastle to Rose Bay, along the promenade then back up O’Sullivan, down Newcastle again and up Albermarle. I decided to keep my HR under 150 and just see how things went and basically just run until I felt that characteristic tightness in my knees which signifies that I should stop soon or it will take a few days to recover. All up it was 13.25km in just under 1:19 which I was pretty happy with.

I had hoped for 10km or so, which would have given me just enough time to build up for the half marathon, so 13km+ was great and I now know that, barring injury, I’ll have no worries finishing the race. On the other hand, my original, somewhat fanciful, notion of running a 1:45 has been shown to be just that: fanciful. Realistically, I’ll be aiming for a sub-2hr finish time.

My legs feel fine now, but tomorrow will reveal how tough the run really was. This run also put me over 30km for the week, which is the first time I’ve run over 30km in a week. Actually, it’s the first time I’ve run over 20km in a week!

B: 92.5km – R: 30.6km

Some interesting stuff:

First up, The Blind Locksmith discusses the reconstruction, and use, of ancestral proteins to figure out how evolution produces complex systems:

Scientists reconstruct an ancestral protein by tracing its evolution into new versions carried by living species. Along each lineage, the gene for that protein picks up mutations, some of which alter the structure of the protein. Scientists can determine many of those mutations, and by working backwards up the evolutionary tree, they can determine what the original gene looked like. Thanks to powerful statistical techniques, they can determine how much confidence they can have in each letter in the genetic sequence they reconstruct. If they find a lot of statistical confidence in the overall sequence, they can then go to the lab and use it as a guide to build the corresponding protein. And once they have the protein in hand (or in beaker), they can see how it works.

Second, we have a news item from Nature on the discovery of a fossil in Canada which illustrates how fish came out of the water and evolved into mammals:

The beast has bony scales and fins, but the front fins are on their way to becoming limbs; they have the internal skeletal structure of an arm, including elbows and wrists, but with fins instead of clear fingers. The team is still looking for more complete specimens to get a better picture of hind part of the animal.

Finally, this one isn’t evolution-related, but rather an account of one guy’s trip to Los Alamos and the site of the first atomic bomb test. The Trinity site is only open to the public twice a year, so this guy went along, took some video and loads of photos, and wrote it up. It’s an interesting read:

Every August, Ed stands downtown with an American flag and a banner that reads WE ARE SORRY FOR HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI. It’s not a widely-shared sentiment in this city of bombmakers; sometimes Lab workers show up with signs that read NO WE’RE NOT, ED, and sometimes passers-by yell and swear at Ed. This may, in fact, be the only place that I’ve ever heard anyone express the opinion that nuclear bombs are a good thing.

The Macbook Pro is shaping up to be the perfect computer. My existing Powerbook is bloody good: fast, stable, no malware and extremely well designed, but I occasionally have to run VirtualPC to test out some Windows stuff in work, and that’s a pain in the arse. However, with the announcement of Boot Camp yesterday, the MacBookPro can dual-boot WinXP and there are a number of native-speed virtualisation products out there, and rumours that OS X 10.5 will have virtualisation built-in to the OS, meaning that the days of scratching my arse while waiting for VirtualPC to do something prrocessor-intensive are over. Tom ordered his yesterday, but I’m going to wait until just before the end of the tax year to get mine. Only two months to go ;-)

Apart from Tuesday, when I took the day off as I had stuff to collect my car from Tom’s, I’ve been cycling in every day and doing two laps of Centennial Park on the way in. Yesterday I cycled home via New South Head Road (NSHR), instead of the usual Oxford St., and while it’s shorter, it’s quite a bit hillier. I rode up NSHR to Vaucluse as well which I hadn’t done before as I always figured it was really steep. Turns out that it’s not too bad, and has the advantage of being a reasonably consistent slope, so I could settle in to a rhythm. It certainly feels easier than riding up Old South Head Road (OSHR) in the morning, though that could be a morning/evening thing rather than any significant difference between the grades.

Went for a run last night when I got home. 7.3km in 42:47 with an average HR of 149, right where I wanted it. After the usual 15mins of feeling weird until my legs warm-up, things settled down and it was a pretty easy run, with me having to force myself to slow down and keep my HR under 150. While my legs were pretty tired this morning, there’s nothing actually sore, so I plan on going for a short run this evening, taking tomorrow off, then getting up for a longer run of around 10-11km on Saturday. The race is in 6 weeks, so I really need to start building my long run up. If I can do 10km this weekend without too much issue, and then add 2km per week, then I should be fine.

B: 81km – R: 13.8km

Cycled home last night and then headed out for a run. I was adopting my current tactic of keeping my HR below 150 and just cruising along, but my times indicated I was running a bit faster than usual. I’d also noticed that my HR was very low when I hopped on the bike to cycle home, but I just assumed that the strap was a bit loose on my chest and thought no more of it. However, with my run HR being a bit lower, and me making sure the chest strap had a proper connection, I was left wondering what was causing my lower HR… and the only thing I could come up with was all the altitude training I’d done in Canberra last week ;-)

Legs feel pretty good this morning, so I’ll just do a shorter run of around 3km this evening, then do another 6-7km on Wednesday and see how that goes.

That’s rubbish BTW, as Canberra’s only at 600m or so, and there’s no real physioloigcal effect below about 1500m

B: 32km – R: 6.5km