Tag Arvhies: Personal

My running progress over the last year

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I started running again just over a year ago and have been using RunKeeper for all of that time. I find it pretty motivating to track activities and compare with previous runs. However, RunKeeper doesn’t make it so easy to track your progress over time – at least not in the free version*

While RunKeeper allows you to export your data, they also have an API – so I knocked together a graph (using Flot) of my running history that will automatically update as I do more exercise. Perhaps I’ll write about how I made this in a later blog post and share the code. The graph below shows distance and pace for my running activities – either as raw data, averaged by month or a moving average

Data type:
Show distance as:

When I first made this, I’d run just shy of 200km in 40 running sessions. I’m pretty happy with that! What’s particularly pleasing is that I’ve been managing to run consistently – apart from a blip in January. Over the last few years, I’ve often tried to get back into running but usually had niggly knee issues. It seems that reasonably regular gym sessions have helped to keep other muscles strong – though I should also get back to yoga

It’s also nice to see that my distance has generally been increasing and pace has improved a little. Here’s to the next 200km!

*I suppose the Pro version (which is crazy expensive, but that’s another matter) might have support for this. Since I’m just using this for my own personal data, I don’t think I’m doing against their terms

Back to blogging

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I have never really got into blogging. The last blog posts I wrote are now over four years old and were just to document a summer research project.

I’ve decided to try now though, for a few reasons:

  • Presenting some of my PhD work in a more accessible way is a valuable skill
  • It will hopefully encourage me to work on side projects in my spare time

A quick overhaul of this old WordPress had the lower barrier to entry. A new theme (Decemberable – slightly customised, without the mug shot it seems a little impersonal) makes things look more modern. I was surprised by the number of ‘popular’ WordPress themes that weren’t responsive; looking OK on mobile/tablet is really a must these days. Maybe in the future I’ll look at different blog software or roll something custom though.