Team in Training: Oh My...

So I needed a quick break from working and decided to finally look up the course for the Kaua'i Marathon. In hindsight, I probably should've done so as soon as we started training. That said...here it is: http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=251760.

If you check out the Maps API on Satellite View, it looks as if it'll be gorgeous. That is, until you click on the Elevation Profile underneath. Eeks! The first 7+ miles are uphill!!!!!!

It's a good thing we're training in San Francisco; at least there are plenty of hills to train on. That said, the Kaua'i climb is ~825 feet, just ~10% shy of the tallest elevations in San Francisco. That might make it tough to simulate the actual course during training, but maybe we'll work a run up Twin Peaks or Mt. Davidson into the schedule. It'll be a much sharper incline, but still a good wake up call for what lies ahead. Then, I can roll back down, as I likely will if/when I make it over the hump in Kaua'i.

Team in Training: Days 8-13

**Don't forget to visit my fundraising page and donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society today!

This week flew by. Work was busy, so I was stretched for time to train. Still managed to get in a couple of good workouts and a mediocre one.

Day 8- Saturday, June 13- Mentor Run

Woke up pretty early for a Saturday to meet at Marina Green for 9 a.m. I got there and thought maybe I'd mixed up the times because I saw a bunch of Team in Training shirts out running. Turns out they were the Spring class. They looked pretty sharp, which got my hopes up for where I might be in a few months' time. It was an active morning, as vendors set up for the next morning's Escape from Alcatraz triathlon. Now that's hard core.

The mentors upped the ante on us. This week we chose between a 3 mile or 5 mile run. I went with the 3- a big enough challenge for me at this stage. The first half of the run went by pretty smoothly, though we did stop about 1/2 mile in to stretch. That probably helped by breaking it up a bit. We we staring at the Golden Gate Bridge for the first half, and then out on the bay on the way back. The 2nd half wasn't quite so easy, but at least the surroundings were beautiful.

My running buddy Fritz and I were jealous of all the dogs that people had brought out for walks. They made running look so natural, so easy. I wonder if any dogs can last 13 miles though. That seems like a lot for those little legs.

I had one scary moment on the back stretch as I stepped down on an odd angle and tweaked a toe. No lasting damage though. I think I was probably just getting used to my new shoes. It was our first run together. (all together now: "awwww, isn't that precious?")

Oh, I also met up with my friend Rachel from high school for dinner the night before. She was visiting town and mentioned she was going to walk to the bridge in the morning. As luck would have it, she passed by as we were running. So now I have teo witnesses! :)

Day 8 stats
2.9 miles completed (15.4 total- more than a half marathon!!)
4 pounds lost
1 new pair of shoes
$430 raised (11% of goal)


Day 12- Wednesday, June 17- Cross Training

Not a hugely eventful workout, but after working a few very late nights to meet an important project deadline and missing our Tuesday Coach's workout, it felt good to be active again. I was able to get in 25 minutes on the elliptical and cranked up the resistance a good bit to make the most of it. My eating discipline slipped a bit over the past couple days due to stress, so I needed to burn a few extra calories when I could.

In between these two workouts, Megan and I did make time to stock up on running gear. I got a few new workout shirts, some shorts and a nifty running jacket. So far I've been using an all cotton sweater that I love but isn't great for running- a bit too heavy. Oh, I also got a quality heat/ice therapy kit and broke it out immediately on Sunday. I have a feeling we'll be spending some quality time together soon enough.

Day 12 stats
2.2 miles completed (17.6 total)
4 pounds lost


Day 13- Thursday, June 18- Solo Run

Tonight I tried for my first solo run, but quickly missed the motivation of having someone else there. That definitely makes it easier to keep going. I went to run laps around a park near my house. It's rather hilly, which I thought would give my workout an extra boost. Instead, it zapped my energy pretty quickly. I was aiming for 35 minutes, but lasted about 25, a good chunk of which I walked. Next time, I'll need to seek some flatter ground and see if it makes a big difference. I have to admit that I feel pretty unsatisfied after tonight's run. Maybe the hills were just in my head and I only needed to push myself more. Hmm. Either way, I feel as if I need to make up for the lackluster performance today.

On the positive side, I dropped another 2 pounds over the course of the past 5 days. Woohoo!

Tomorrow is a rest day, which is good, because I'm taking a redeye at night. Of course, that means I'll miss a coach's workout Saturday morning. I think the plan will be to do a make-up run on Sunday. Am a bit afraid of traveling to a different climate though. Supposed to be in the low 90's during the day, so I'll need to wake up extra early to get out while it's still tolerable out.

Day 13 stats
1.6 miles completed (19.2 total)
6 pounds lost

**Don't forget to visit my fundraising page and donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society today!

Team in Training: Day 6 - Team Social

Two updates today:

1) My fundraising page is now live and I've already reached 10% of my goal! Will you please donate and help drive up that number? http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/kauai09/dmaloney

2)Tonight was our first team social. As a result, I missed out on a planned 20 minute run; will have to make up for that tomorrow, which is supposed to be a day of rest. The social was held at Epi Center MedSpa in San Francisco. They really went all out, providing drinks, munchies catered by Palio and the location free of charge. Their office manager was a member of TNT in 2008 and felt this was a good way to give back. Great idea- and thank you!

I had a good time and got to know some more of our teammates. My favorite part, though, was this machine they had that uses a blacklight to show you all of the skin damage to your face from years of sun exposure. It was somewhat horrifying, as I grew up in Florida, so the verdict wasn't great. As a technie nerd though, I found it to also be pretty fascinating. I did it twice so I could spend some extra time studying the patterns. :)

Afterwards, we went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and I'm proud to report that I passed on dessert. So far, I've lost 1/2 pound per day since joining the team. I need to keep up that momentum!

Training for a Half Marathon and Saving Lives

Hello there! Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.

My girlfriend Megan signed up with Team in Training to run a half marathon in Kaua'i over Labor Day weekend as a warm up for the NYC Marathon in November. She started with TNT in 2006 and has already trained for the Chicago and San Diego marathons. She loved it everytime, so I was glad to see her sign up once more.

That said, I was always happy to watch from the sidelines. For years, I've been scared of running because my knees gave me trouble after playing high school baseball. My mind was made up: I just don't run. This year, however, I felt inspired to give it a try. After seeing the final four on The Biggest Loser run a marathon a mere 16 weeks after entering the show in much worse physical shape than I'm in, I realized that my excuses were lame. I'm also frankly reaching an age where if I don't get my health in order soon, it may just be all downhill from here.

So, I'm in. And better yet, I get to train while raising money for a great cause- supporting research to find a cure for blood cancers that claim all too many lives too soon. My application is still being processed, so my fundraising page is yet to arrive, but in the meanwhile checkout Megan's page.

I'll also be using my page to provide updates on my training. In the meanwhile, I thought I'd dust off the trusty old blog to record my experiences. So without further ado...


Day 1- Saturday, June 6- Coach's Run

The group met at Kezar stadium at 8:30 a.m. I was terrified. The week 1 run for BEGINNERS was listed at 2-3 miles; a distance I haven't run in 10 years. I had a million questions and peppered Megan with them on the way there. Some were serious, "will you be my emergency contact should I drop dead en route", others less so, "2-3 miles is like once around the track, right?" She was amused.

Luckily, it wasn't nearly as scary as I'd imagined. I thought everyone would be semi-pro runners who would leave me in the dust and never look back. I had images of getting lost in Golden Gate Park and eventually being trampled by a bison. Scary stuff. Instead, I realized that there were actually a bunch of other beginners and the coaches were happy to teach.

We started by covering some of the basic of running: cadence and the "five L's." Cadence is just a fancy word for the number of strides you take per minute. I learned 180 is optimally efficient, so we practiced running and measuring our natural cadence, then trying to bring it closer to 180. I started out at 160 and got up to 172 by the end of the drill. Megan got hers up to 176. Can anyone say rock star?

The Five L's are more about the mechanics for running:
1. Long - keep your body long ad your spine straight, run tall
2. Lift - many people run by shuffling their feet, which makes your calves to all the work; lifting your legs puts the burden on your quads, which are much bigger and stronger
3. Loop - as you run, focus on making small loops with your feet, putting one foot in front of the other
4. Lean - lean forward from your ankles to get gravity on your side
5. Loose - Keep your arms loose and in an L shape themselves

We practiced each for a half or full lap, and before you know it we'd completed our first mile. Woohoo!

Then the fun began. Group stretching and off into the park. We did the 2 mile loop, but I couldn't get the full way running. I probably wound up walking ~1/3 of it, but for a first try, I was happy just to make it. It was hard to keep up with the 5 L's on the run, as I was focusing more on breathing, but I suppose that's why I'll need to practice more before Kaua'i.


View Kezar Stadium Practice- 6/6/09 in a larger map

By the time I got home, my muscles were already sore and tightening. We went to see a movie in the afternoon and it was an interesting walk there. But, again, I made it.

Day 1 stats
3.2 miles completed (3.2 total)
0 pounds lost
2 blisters
0 fatalities
1 post workout bagel


Day 2- Sunday, June 7- Rest

Oh, and I did. The soreness probably doubled over night, so even minor amounts of walking were tough. Luckily, I had plenty of work to keep me occupied and stationary.


Day 3- Monday, June 8- Cross-training solo

I almost missed out on this training session as I was working hard with my head down and lost track of time. Looked up just in time to see I had 35 minutes before the last shuttle left, so I ran downstairs and somehow still got in a shower before the shuttle. (If you know me well, you know that showering within 35 minutes is quite an amazing feat in itself.) The training calendar called for 20 minutes of cross-training, so that's what I did. Cycled for 20 mins, but felt the burn after 2. My legs were clearly still tired from Saturday.

Oh, I also made an effort to improve my eating habits throughout the day. After going through the pain of running on Saturday, I reasoned that I should focus on dieting to lose weight, so running will be easier.

Day 3 stats
6.5 miles completed (9.7 total)
? pounds lost
2 fewer pastries consumed vs. average day


Day 4- Tuesday, June 9- Gear workshop and Coach's workout

We met at the Sports Basement in the Presidio, where we'll be spending Tuesday evenings throughout the season. I'd honestly never heard of it before, but that's not surprising given I'm new to this whole running thing. Apparently runners in the Bay Area all know and love this place, though.

We were supposed to start with a gear clinic, but the schedule was flipped. My cabbie didn't know where the place was either, so I arrived a few minutes late and behind already. I rushed to catch-up to the group on the "warm-up jog," which turned out to be ~3/4 of a mile, up hill.

We wound up in a big parking lot in the Presidio, where we did some "5 L" drills, only a new L was announced: "Light," as in be light on your feet. "Loose was mentioned briefly, but I think has been officially kicked out of the 5 L Club for lameness compared to the others. Basically, for each L we ran up hill the length of the parking lot practicing it, then back. After that, we did a couple of laps around the lot practicing random combinations of L's, then jogged back in. Turns out we did 2.78 miles, and I ran probably 95+% of that. Already a significant improvement from Day 1.


View Sports Basement Practice- 6/10/09 in a larger map

Inside, we got our learn on about running clothes, shoes and hydration. I learned a lot about sports bras, in case you need some pointers. They key lesson, though was "Cotton is rotten." I'd already begun discovering this first-hand, as I tend to workout in all cotton. Hence, the blisters and some other side effects I won't mention. Afterwards, I got a sweet pair of new running shoes and some non-cotton socks. Will need to follow-up with some new shirts and shorts next time, but after the shoes it was late and dinner awaited.

In honor of our motivational show, The Biggest Loser, we went to Subway and had 6" subs with apples on the side. Advertising dollars well spent, Subway. Although you could've spent less online to reach a larger audience; give our display ad sales team a call; they'll hook you up. :)

Day 4 stats
2.8 miles completed (12.5 total)
? pounds lost
4 shameless plugs for Google products
0 minutes til bedtime

Find me on Twitter

As you can tell per the radio silence, I've confirmed my thoughts that blogging is just a bit too time consuming. Find me on twitter instead, username: danielpmaloney.

In other news, my LinkedIn profile is now #2 on Google results for the query "daniel maloney." Kind of cool. I didn't think I'd make page 1 for years, especially as there's an actor, former congressman and NHL player with my exact same first, middle and last name.

Live Election Results Map

Enjoy!

Obama Roasts McCain at Al Smith Dinner

Tiger Woods 09 - Walk on Water

Amazing! Tiger Woods replies to YouTube fan...

Conan O'Brien - ''Pilobolus''

Remembering Dr. Randy Pausch

This video was first passed to me soon after Dr. Pausch delivered his "Last Lecture" in September. Having been diagnosed with rather aggressive pancreatic cancer, he had months to live when he delivered the lecture, which has now been seen over 3 million times on YouTube. That's some big classroom...

Isn't amazing that today someone can leave a legacy like this to the world and their family after they're gone? It's a long video, but well worth the hour+; so check it out when you have time.

Mentioned in the video is another of his legacies, a program called Alice that is aimed at teaching high schoolers computer programming while having fun by manipulating a 3D world (middle school version TBA). I've downloaded the software and it's really quite cool. It's also a desperately needed idea. I only hope that schools around America will adopt this or other programs to bring meaning to math, science and engineering education in a way that connects with the students and inspires them to learn more.

Dr. Pausch passed away today; I hope you'll join me in honoring him by passing along these two gifts he's left for us.

Remembering Dr. Randy Pausch

This video was first passed to me soon after Dr. Pausch delivered his "Last Lecture" in September. Having been diagnosed with rather aggressive pancreatic cancer, he had months to live when he delivered the lecture, which has now been seen over 3 million times on YouTube. That's some big classroom...

Isn't amazing that today someone can leave a legacy like this to the world and their family after they're gone? It's a long video, but well worth the hour+; so check it out when you have time.

Mentioned in the video is another of his legacies, a program called Alice that is aimed at teaching high schoolers computer programming while having fun by manipulating a 3D world (middle school version TBA). I've downloaded the software and it's really quite cool. It's also a desperately needed idea. I only hope that schools around America will adopt this or other programs to bring meaning to math, science and engineering education in a way that connects with the students and inspires them to learn more.

Dr. Pausch passed away today; I hope you'll join me in honoring him by passing along these two gifts he's left for us.

Charlie bit my finger - again !

Cutest video I've ever seen...sharing in case you're not one of the 40+ views so far

South Bay Apartment Hunting and Exciting News!

I've been waiting all week to post this, hoping I'd come up with something brilliant to say, but when it comes down to it, I'm just extremely happy. Last weekend, my girlfriend Megan was out here to look for apartments in the South Bay, and amazingly she found not one, not two, but THREE great apartments in 24 hours of looking. Yet, somehow it took me a month to find one...hmmm...

Anyhow, she had a bit of a decision to make on which apartment to take, centered around which neighborhood would feel most like home for her. It got me thinking a lot about what makes a home a home and how each persons' needs differ when choosing a new home. She wound up choosing an apartment in Santa Clara, which I thought was the right choice. It's by the university, ensuring an active neighborhood and, more importantly, near her aunt and cousin.

Looking back on my own transition this year, I feel that I have been able to make the bay area a home, but one thing has always been missing: my family. Having Megan out here will help a lot, but I certainly still miss my family dearly. More broadly, I wonder how greater mobility will impact the American (or global) family unit over the next few decades. More and more people are going away from home for school, moving often for new jobs, and even living abroad. I'd like to think that technology will enable more people to work remotely and remove the pressure to move away from family, or at least keep family more connected when apart, but thus far I don't see either happening as effectively as it should.

In the near term, though, I'm thrilled that Megan will be out here and that my best friend Mike (of I'm With Stupid fame) and my parents will be visiting this summer. Maybe I'll even convince them all to move out here, who knows? Last time my family came to visit was when my sister and brother-in-law came to see me in Boston- and they moved there months later. So, can't say it's so far-fetched. :)

Three More Years of The Office AND a Spin-off!?!? What a day!

Straight from Ricky Gervais' blog comes exciting news for fans of The Office:

Had some great news today about the American version of The Office.

Steve Carell (now one of the most bankable film stars in the world) has just signed up for another three years with us. He is the hardest working man in Hollywood and the harder he works the better it is for me. I mean... well done Steve you are wonderful.

I couldn't agree more. But perhaps even more exciting is word of a potential spinoff of The Office:

We are also working on a spinoff series of The American Office but I can't tell you anything about that yet.

I can't imagine what the spinoff would be. I hope they won't go the path of Grey's (i.e. ruining the show by removing one of your best characters and putting her into a horrible new show where her talent is wasted). But it begs the question: what character is interesting enough to have their own show? I could see a year-long spin-off of Ryan in jail, or perhaps a new life for Toby in Costa Rica, but would either have legs? The one pilot I've thought of for a while, but would be terrified to see is a closer look inside Creed's World.

Anyone else have ideas?

I'll leave you with one of many classic Michael Scott moments:

Would I rather be feared or loved? Um... Easy, both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.

Apple 2.0: Android vs. iPhone: ‘This is where the pain happens’

In the spirit of fairness, wanted to post a response to the Wired article that I shared, entitled Google's Open Source Android Phone Will Free the Wireless Web. This one comes from the Apple2.0 blog, written by Fortune's Philip Elmer-DeWitt.

The debate is really heating up over which platform will win the hearts and minds of mobile users and developers. Feel free to chime in by commenting here!

A snippet:

"Google’s plan may yet work. But for Wired, the timing of Roth’s piece could hardly be worse. Not only did it arrive in the middle Apple’s carefully orchestrated drumroll for the July 11 iPhone 3G launch, but it landed just as the Wall Street Journal was reporting that Google’s plans have hit two serious roadblocks.

The first roadblock is the carriers. As Roth reports, Google was already having trouble getting the mobile phone operators to play along. The country’s two biggest — Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T), with a combined market share of 54% — passed...So Google went with the third and fourth best, T-Mobile (DT) and Sprint Nextel (S). Now the Journal reports that T-Mobile won’t have any Android phones ready before the fourth quarter and has been sucking up so much of Google’s time with its demands that Sprint won’t have anything this year at all....

...Even more critical, if Google hopes to build a vibrant software platform, are the snarls developers are running into. As the Journal reports:

...“Some developers say it is easier to work with Apple’s programming tools than Google’s because of the familiarity with the company’s Macintosh operating system."

Read the full article, Android vs. iPhone: ‘This is where the pain happens’, here.

Thanks to Justin McCarthy for bringing this article to my attention.

The History of, and Prospects for Google's Android

I get a lot of questions about what "that Google phone is all about." What people are actually asking about is Android, the open-sourced software platform that Google is offering to wireless carriers and handset manufacturers to stimulate innovation in the mobile space. This morning I came across a great Wired article that explains (in language we can all understand) the history of Android, its prospects and why it matters. Here's a teaser:

"Is this interesting to Google?" That's what Andy Rubin was asking Larry Page. It was a spring day in 2005, and the two were in a conference room just off the main lobby at Google's headquarters. A simple yes and Rubin would have walked away happy...

...Rubin walked to the whiteboard and began his pitch. There were nearly 700 million cell phones sold each year compared with fewer than 200 million PCs — and the gap was widening. Increasingly, he said, phones were the way people wanted to connect with each other and with everything else. Yet the mobile industry was stuck in the dark ages...mobile was a tyrannical, closed system, repelling all innovators and disrupters who tried to gain entrance.

Rubin said his startup, called Android, had the solution: a free, open source mobile platform that any coder could write for and any handset maker could install...It would be a global, open operating system for the wireless future.

...Every year since 2002, the wireless sector managed to place at or near the top of the Better Business Bureau's tally of the most complained-about industries. Americans would rather do business with a used-car salesman or a collection agent than with a customer service rep for, say, T-Mobile or Motorola. And who could blame them? The plans were expensive, pricing was complex and capricious, and the phones never lived up to expectations. Constant innovation, the first principle of Page and Rubin's world, was anathema to phone companies. There had to be pent-up demand out there for something better.

So was Rubin's pitch interesting to Page? Absolutely. But he didn't want to stick his logo on Rubin's phone. Or write a supportive email. He had a better idea: Google would buy Android.

You can read the full article, Google's Open Source Android Phone Will Free the Wireless Web, by Daniel Roth here. Also, the response from Fortune's Apple2.0 blog here.

Efficient Solar Energy from MIT Students

Back in November, I posted some notes on a talk John Doerr gave at Google about the need for economically viable solutions in Greentech. Tonight, I read about an MIT team that would make him proud.

The students have made a dramatic improvement in the efficiency of collecting solar energy, producing an inexpensive parabolic solar dish that they claim could repay itself in under 2 years (vs. 10 years for earlier solar technologies). This piqued my interest, as a two-year time horizon could help solar energy fall within the investment criteria of many large corporations and governments, potentially accelerating adoption of the technology. Even better, as the students' professor explains, "all of the materials are inexpensive and accessible anywhere in the world."

You can read the full article here. Be sure to watch their video; to demonstrate the power of the dish they show it incinerating a wooden beam in seconds.

Also, read-up on Google.org's RE less than C initiative to fund the development of renewable energy sources that are cheaper than coal on a per-unit basis. Why is this so important? Watch this short video, which explains why replacing coal in a cost-effective manner will be critical as China industrializes.

Our Time Is Up

A therapist discovers he has 6 weeks to live and gets brutally honest, but what is the impact on his patients? An interesting commentary on the unpredictable nature of life and change, this short film is a well-made stab at the age-old question: "If you knew you had ___ to live, what would you do differently?" Naturally, it begs the question: what would the world be like if we all behaved as if we had 6 weeks to live?

Start-Up Spotlight: SpinVox on Newsnight

Thought I'd share this interesting 10 minute clip on a British start-up called SpinVox. I'm sharing in part because I think voice to text services such as SpinVox and Jott have massive potential, but also because the program does a good job of showing the issues that keep start-up execs up at night. If you're interested in the start-up world, it's worth a look.

And to comment on Christina's assertion at the end, I likely would blog much more frequently if I had a reliable voice to text blogging interface. That said, how would they monetize the service? Would it have to be subscription-based?

Tom Brokaw Reports Death of Tim Russert

Very sad news yesterday on the passing of Tim Russert, a journalist whom I've admired for years for his integrity and ability to cut to the core of political matters, exposing the often muddied truth on both sides of the aisle. He will be missed dearly, in this election cycle and many yet to come. My thoughts go out to his family in this trying time.