The Silicon Valley Geek

Yesterday, I joined my running club, the PARC, for intervals training.

The runs are every Tuesday at  Angell Field track at Stanford University.

This was the second time I joined in the Tuesday runs. Normally, Stanford U is a little far from home and where I work (both in San Jose). But this Tuesday was a special event. We were celebrating the time change (to daylight savings) and the availability of “more sunlight”, and so there was a raffle of interesting items from various sponsors etc. I won myself a little running cap from Zombie Runner.

Readers of this blog will know that I have been trying to get faster. This, for me, means an 8 min/mile pace for a 1/2 marathon sometime this year. The long term goal is to qualify for Boston, which means the same pace for 26.2 miles. Oh yeah, I am insane, all right…

So I have been doing some interval training. Generally, I have been doing laps of 400 meters at less than 2 min/lap followed by a recovery lap. Last week, I started running 800m intervals with Phil (a colleague). The target pace then was something like 1.50 min/lap. One lap is 400m or one round of the track.

Now, with the PARC folks, 1.50 min/lap is REALLY slow.

Picture this: I was doing intervals with the group of “slow” runners. I did the 800m runs at something like 1.35-1.40 min/lap pace and I was DEAD LAST in the group. Everyone else was at least 20 yards ahead.

Man!

Not only was I running faster (than with Phil), I was also running more. My own training is for 2×800. These guys were doing 5×800.

I am now quite motivated to drive to Stanford every Tuesday. Yes, I just love the pain. And the speed, of course.

I have been using a 2.4GHz Penryn-based 15″ MacBook Pro for slightly over a week. Previously, my computer was a 2.16GHz MacBook (May 2007 version) with a 13.3″ screen and prior to that, a 12″ last generation PowerBook.

How do I like the MacBook Pro so far?

Positives

The nice:

• Large screen and resolution. With the 12″ PowerBook, it was hard to see the big picture on anything I was working on. The MacBook as a little better, but I still felt constraint by the vertical resolution. With the 1440×900 resolution of the MacBook Pro, I feel a little more liberated.
• Disk space. I paid $43 more to get a 250GB hard drive instead of the standard 200GB (on the lowest end model). The MacBook had 160GB, which was also a build-to-order option at the time I bought it. This is probably psychological, but again, I feel more liberated in the sense that I did not have to check free space often. I spent the weekend working with Final Cut Express to process high definition video files and still had 80GB free. I would already have run out of space on the MacBook.

The “better than I thought”:

• Weight. When you look at the specs, the MacBook Pro is only 0.4 lbs heavier than the MacBook. In practice, I do feel a little more downward tug on my bag, but not a lot more.
• AC Adaptor size. The first MacBook Pros had a much larger AC adaptor than the MacBooks. The one I got with my MacBook Pro was only slightly larger although it had the same wattage (85W) as the older models.

The best thing about the MacBook Pro, in my opinion, is Leopard.

Okay, you are going to say that I could have bought Leopard for the MacBook and save myself a chunk of change. That’s true, but there’s nothing like having something installed from the factory. The good thing about Macs is that, unlike Windows PCs, you don’t get a lot of factory-installed junk and demo-ware that will actually slow down your brand new machine.

What I like about Leopard is Spaces. This is the old Unix X-Windows workspace concept. Think about Spaces as a multitude of virtual video monitors.

With Leopard, you can have up to 16 Spaces. Usually, that would have been a nightmare to deal with. Would you remember where you application is, after switching from one Space to another?

As usual, Apple has thought of everything. Pressing F8 will give you a birds eye view of all the Spaces and what’s in them.

Better still, you can force applications to open only in pre-defined Spaces.

For example, I have Parallels open only in Space #1. So when I want to access work email or work on Windows-based Microsoft Office applications, I go to Space #1. Space #2 is reserved for personal communications (Mac Mail, Yahoo! Instant Messenger, Skype etc). Space #3 is for Final Cut Express and iDVD for video editing work. Space #4 is for iTunes.

In this way, I am able to arrange my workspace such that there is no clutter or confusion. I can also leave all application windows open and at a glance, see everything I need to work on etc.

Leopard also provides user-configurable shortcuts to quickly switch between Spaces e.g. for times when your boss pops in when you are web surfing…

Spaces is still not quite perfect. Parallels, in particular, does funny things to it, especially when you use Parallels in Coherence mode: you keep getting switched back to the Space in which the Windows application is running. Sometimes OS X system or application dialog boxes get lost in all the Spaces and you have to go through each Space to look for them. This is especially when you are using a trialware software and it pops up a “do you want to register” dialog box when it starts up.

Negatives

What don’t I like about the MacBook Pro?

• Heat. I have not dared to use the MacBook Pro on my lap yet. The bottom part of the machine does get a little hot. If the hard disk does a lot of churning, the left palm rest will get warm too.
• The other thing I don’t like is the way to open the lid/LCD. This mechanism dates from the PowerPC days: you press a button to release the lid. Maybe, it’s habit, but I prefer the MacBook mechanism. With the MacBook Pro, I end up using my finger nail to press the button: not as elegant as I would like…
• The MacBook Pro has a pair of light sensors that detects ambient lighting and dims the LCD/lights up the keyboard if necessary. The sensors are located under the speaker grills. The problem is that my hands tend to cover the speaker grills and so the screen darkens and keyboard backlight comes on at inopportune moments…

That is all the pluses and minuses so far. I think it has been money well spent. Well, at least until the credit card bill arrives…

I finally got around to doing a 20-mile run today. I got up late (after 7am), didn’t start running until about 9.15am and did a solid 3 1/2 hours of running.

It was hot in San Jose today, so I was a fair bit slower than my last 18-mile run; running mostly at a pace of 10 min/mile or more.

Like the 18-mile run, I did try to push hard on the last two miles to do a strong “finish”, running at better than 9:20 min/mile. But that was really pushing my limits.

After the run, I was completely out of it and ached all over.

Boston is looking further and further away…

The good thing is that my ITB didn’t bother me before or after the run. So it looks like I have just one more session with the physiotherapist and that will be it. Yay! I am healed!

Next week, I will do a 16-mile run, followed by a 22-miler the week after. Now, that will be a killer.