- Slept in. 7AM. I slept SUPER hard. Resting HR was 48 this AM which is a bit elevated from the typical 44. Next couple days will be about recovery.
- Leadville Trail 100 is overhauling their site significantly. Good stuff in the comment thread as to how race web sites need to catch up in general.
- 11 miles in the rain. It was wonderful. Beautiful. I was soaked to the core when I was done. Average HR 140. Max 149. Average pace was right at 8 minute pace over a rolling course. Yeah – I’d say temps make a difference! Felt great!
- The Mountain Running blog conversation on the CM race has some interesting posts today. No doubt about it – MC has a take.
- Rock has an RT article on running and meditation. Thanks for the tip AA.
- My current training load TSS/CTL/ATL info that I am trying to make heads or tails over. I am just observing the data here … not changing anything (yet) based on these data – but it is interesting. I am looking right now for correlations between workouts (how does a 15 miler on the Mesa Trail in the heat correspond to a 20 miler in the AM and how does that correspond to a 18 miler in the mountains where I run the downhill hard?) and how easy days set up for hard days. As you can see the data really started getting collected at the end of May.
- This has two of my favorite guitarists ever, the Edge and Jimmy Page (I tried to play as much of their stuff as I could in HS, along with Alex Lifeson from Rush) -- and what Jack White is doing in the front of this trailer is pretty cool (I might try to do that) – I am pretty sure I will go see this flick.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Thursday 070309
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Have you ever worn a HR monitor while sleeping? I'd be curious to see what the graph would look like.
ReplyDeleteI have put it on in the AM to get a HR, but never worn it overnight for a curve. I like that idea though!
ReplyDeleteLooks like the overhaul is all about the bike race and selling the Webcast. Now that is a new development in the ultra world: pay per view. I believe New York Road Runners were the first to introduce the pay-per-view webcast in marathoning ... the year Lance ran the race. He is a one man marketing machine.
ReplyDeleteCapitalizing on the Lance factor? Would seem so. However, if they can produce something worth watching then fair enough. If it is no more than split times, and cams at aid stations, then it may not have legs.
I just want them to get the official marathon results up with splits. Only been waiting two and a half weeks now. Am I asking too much?
Nick - totally agree. Most races, and particularly ultras, are ridiculously poor with their display of results. They seem to live in a world where the tacking of a piece of paper to the wall of a gazebo a few hours after race day is still appropriate.
ReplyDeleteMy other favorite is when they just give you a pdf with the results parsed by age group - so you have to bounce around to figure out who was actually what place!
I compare it to what the BTMR has done with their historical results and just shake my head.
I guess I am so desperate to see races catch up on "web 2.0" technologies like twitter, facebook, gps, - heck the web - that when I see SOME progress by races like this I get a little excited.
Conversely, I thought what WS100 was doing this year was pretty cool.
I don't think the subscription model is going to get them much ... but they will figure that out.
Not all races are stuck in the 20th century, but many are. WS100 has been an innovator with regards to web coverage for years. Hardrock and Badwater do great jobs, too, as do a few other ultras that post 'live' splits, but the vast majority (every race I have run this year, seemingly) do a horrible job at getting results online in a timely and coherent manner.
ReplyDeleteI know these things are generally run by volunteers, and the logistics involved in putting on an ultra are such that it may not always be possible to get to posting results that night with limited human resources, but it should definitely be a focus of race organizers wanting to establish their events as serious races.
When you have two championship-type races in one weekend (USATF 50, Cheyenne Canon) failing to get results online same day, I just shake my head. These races should be setting examples if they are chosen to showcase the sport - or so it would seem.
Someone should tell them to fix the typo on the front page - Leadville TrIAl Mountain Bike Race.
ReplyDeleteI'm often confused at the lack of results on many of the websites. Even trying to find the previous years results can be a hit and miss.
ReplyDeleteMy wife was trying to find out how a friend did at a rather large race in San Fran last year. It was a womens only marathon and had a rather large 4 letter shoe company associated with it. 20,000 runners, chip timing, slick website, etc, etc. It took them a week to post the results. A week! Given the size, cost and technology they were using it should have been real time.
I guess I'm spoiled by what the TCR, PPRR and BTMR crew do down here in the springs. Results are posted within an hour or so of the conclusion of the race. (heck, last year they were dumping the raw results on the ppm message board every 10-15 minutes) They have a report for m/f overall, age group and award winners. They even flag folks who break records and list which time/year the previous record was set. Historical results are easy to find. And they do it all using the good old fashioned pull-tag. And this is for races with over 1600 runners in it.
As for other races like Cheyenne Canyon, I had a hard enough time just trying to find the race entry form and information when it was first announced. So knowing who did the timing for that race, it was probably ready to go by 11am but took the website folks a week to find the passwords to upload the information. :~)
John - Nick ...
ReplyDeleteI have been forced to wonder if the lack of posting results in a timely manner is simply because the market will bear it. Geeks like us are the corner case.
In other words, the generalist runner - the person who does the marathon in 4:30 - do they care if they get their results posted that night? Do they care if they have historical results posted?
I think not. In fact, they are probably happy with just having water out there, getting the t-shirt, and saying they finished.
We are the exception. We expect to see the results right away. And they better be right (we actually bitch if the results are off by 2 seconds). We want to see how the race spent their money to the charitable organizations. We expect splits. Good aid stations. Good race organization and the course needs to be marked damn well.
When we see a race like BTMR and we get all that stuff for 15 bucks, we scream when we see half marathons on a road charge 70 bucks for a t-shirt, some bananas and water and results posted a month later. But most people I know who run don't give a crap.
So the races get away with it. I ain't saying that is right. I am saying that is what I think I am seeing.
I am stoked we got guys like Matt C who listen to the feedback of racers and look to improve the races for the racers. I love that Benji D still gets much more accurate results with manual (non chip) timing, has the results posted while the race is still going on - and then on the web that afternoon. We need to make sure these guys and gals - good race directors know how much we appreciate their direction - and be sure to bend the ear of the folks who are lacking ... they typically don't want to hear it because we are thought to be the outspoken minority, but if they hear it enough ... well, maybe they will change.
Again, I am stoked to see Leadville taking what could be a step in that direction (although I ain't paying five bucks for it).
Like I said, I'm spoiled. I expect good aid stations, results posted before I get home, well marked trails and most importantly, food at the end that makes me want to stick around for the awards (this gives them more time to post the results before I get home :-)
ReplyDeleteEven Joe Average is spoiled. They get to enter races like the BTMR for $15! The Garden of the Gods 10M is only $20! And those include a tech-T that would cost that much alone at REI! (ok, the GoG is on the road but it makes up for it with the scenery).
In some cases, it does impact the average racer. A a poorly designed web site that makes it difficult to even figure out how to enter is probably my biggest gripe. Others that charge way too much will also turn back folks unless there is some huge draw Races like Boston and even Disney can charge whatever they want, which at current rates is 2x more than the marathon I just registered for this evening. But a road race that charges $70 and provides a cotton T-Shirt? no thanks and I think that your average rec runner will start to think the same thing once they start to compare notes with their friends and realize they just bought a yugo at BMW prices.
So yeah, some of it can be attributed to us geeks who like results now, but I think that that metric can be used as a gauge for how the rest of the race is run. Does the site have a good course description, is it easy to register, will they pay attention to the aid stations?
I would hope Joe Average does care about some of these things, and races that get one right usually get the rest of them right too. Otherwise they get tossed to the wayside and never reach their full potential, kinda like the runner who spends more time watching sports on TV than actually running.