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Fitness Hobbies Me Ross Running

I love #parkrun!

parkrun-StrathclydePark-20111210

I have never been a fast runner – but parkrun has always been a competitive event for me.
If I have not been chasing a personal best (PB), I have at least been trying to shave a few seconds off my time for the previous week or trying to pass the runner just in front (truth be told I always aim for the person two in front, to make sure I PASS the person in front of me).

This year, what with a series of coughs, colds, splutters, work commitments and various slight injuries; my running has really suffered and my head has not been in the right place either so I have really neglected my marathon training schedule.

I was supposed to be tail running at Strathclyde parkrun event 99 but John Edge asked if he could take my place – he is tactically planning to run his 50th parkrun at our 100th event next Saturday. This left me free to run the event at my own pace! I’m still nursing a slight pull to my hamstring and I was supposed to be running the Alloa half marathon the following day, this left me free to pick my own pace.

Just as we started there was that ominous sound from my Garmin – No Battery, my watch died. Nothing left for it but to just run and listen to my body – run at a nice comfortable pace and enjoy the view and enjoy the company.

This resulted in one of my best parkrun running experiences ever – comfortable enough to have a conversation and enjoy the view. Running in a different part of the field from normal allows you to meet completely new runners, I’m privileged to be a regular volunteer so I do get to see most of the runners but maybe not have as long a chat as I would like.

So why don’t you try it – experience a parkrun at a completely different pace!

Disclaimer : I’m on the core team for Strathclyde parkrun and am always on the lookout for new runners to join our event or do one of the easy volunteer roles that enable our events to be enjoyed by so many.

Categories
Fitness Marathon Running

Help Me Stretch Myself

head, shoulder, knees and toes, knees and toes
Creative Commons License photo credit: aye_shamus

After my first ever #parkrun DNF (Did Not Finish) due to pulling my hamstring I have finally LEARNED my lesson.

A Warmup/Cooldown and stretching regime is MANDATORY!

My question is this:

What do you consider to be the “best” options?

  • A gentle run
  • Static stretches
  • dynamic stretches

Feel free to send links to YouTube etc as appropriate.

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Facebook Google+ Technology Twitter

Social Media – How I Make It Work

Social Media – there are so many sites out there all wanting my input.
There are so many other web sites that produce content that want me to read their content.

You can see what my plumbing looks like here.

Continue reading “Social Media – How I Make It Work”

Categories
Fundraising Marathon MND Motor Neuron Disease Running

1000km Almost There

Ross At Edinburgh Marathon
Thanks to Marathon-Photos.com

For those that don’t know, my eldest daughter Emma Berry Goodman passed away in September 2008 from Motor Neurone Disease. Whilst she was with us we were greatly helped by three fantastic charities: MND Scotland, Marie Curie Cancer Care and the Childrens Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS).

For the last three years I have dedicated a years fundraising to each of these charities. This year my challenge was to run 1,000km in 2011 for Marie Curie Cancer Care.
If everything goes to plan then I will achieve my 1,000th kilometer when I run in Strathclyde Parkrun –  event number 86 on Saturday 17th December.

I know that this is an expensive time of year but if you could see your way to giving a donation at https://www.justgiving.com/1000k-in-2011 or by texting “Ross70 £5” to 70070 – feel free to adjust the amount as you see fit!
Every £20 raised helps to provide 1 hour of nursing care and I can personally vouch for how invaluable the Marie Curie are!

Thank you all for your donations and your support and encouragement in this past year!

If you would like to see just how far 1,000km actually is have a look here.

Categories
Fundraising Running

The Home Straight

As you should know I set myself the challenge of running 1,000km in 2012 to raise money for the fabulous folks at Marie Curie Cancer Care. I have been slightly tardy with my updates but I am please to report that I’m getting close: I have just 110 km to go. i.e. I have run 89% of the planned distance with one month to go.

I had hoped to be able to raise £1000. Every £20 raise helps provide an hour’s nursing, £1,000 would equate to 50 hours care! Unfortunately I’m only at £766 or 76% of target. I am putting a big push in, I’m planning to run every day in December to guarantee that I hit my km target but I need some help from you to make sure that I hit my £ target!

I understand that these are financially trying times and December is an expensive month but this is exactly when we should be thinking of others. Any donations at all will be gratefully received at https://www.justgiving.com/1000k-in-2011 or you can donate via your mobile phone by texting “Ross70 £5â€? to 70070

Categories
Me Misc Productivity Ross

A Personal Manifesto / Dashboard / Scorecard

Those that know me will agree that I’m a bit of a “geek”.

Whilst I don’t always chase the latest and greatest geek toys or gadgets I do like to try and find a practical application of how technology can help me. This is a side effect of being a Business Intelligence consultant where I am striving to maximise (and measure) the benefits for my clients.

During a quiet moment I pondered – If I was to build a dashboard to measure/motivate/incentivise “ME” what would be on it?

Oops
Creative Commons License photo credit: churl

Continue reading “A Personal Manifesto / Dashboard / Scorecard”
Categories
Oracle Work

Oracle SQL Developer and Commas

Just found an interesting feature in SQL Developer 3

I created a dataset that contained two columns of numbers that I wanted to quickly get into excel. I choose, export in CSV format to clipboard so that I could quickly paste it into an existing spreadsheet.

My dataset contained:

1234, 5678
2345, 6789
3456, 7890

The data that was exported was:

12,345,678
23,456,789
34,567,890

Have to export to an xls file, open it then copy and paste – YAWN !

Categories
Microsoft Office Windows Work

Microsoft Office–VBA Editor Keeps Opening

For weeks now I have had the mild annoyance that the VBA code editor for various Excel spreadsheet’s appear to be opening at “randomâ€?. I finally tracked it down to me unlocking my PC. If I have excel running then lock my PC, when I unlock it, the VBA code editor appears.

I’m using Office 2003 SP3 on XP Pro SP3.

Turns out that there is a VERY easy fix – don’t maximise the VBA code editor.
If the editor is maximised, it appears on unlock, if it is not maximised it does not appear automatically on unlock.

Categories
Microsoft Office

Changing Excel Cell Values To Uppercase

A nice quick tip, I had lots of cell values in a mixture of cases that should have been uppercase.

Create a macro:

sub MakeUpper()

for each myCell in Selection

  myCell.Value = UCase(myCell.value)

next myCell

end sub

Add a menu item to your toolbar and then assign this macro to it.

Select the cells you want to upper case then press the button!

Categories
Fundraising Marathon Ross Running

Edinburgh Marathon Festival 2011

OK it’s been a week since I finished my second marathon:
Ross Goodman Edinburgh Marathon 2011 Finishers Medal
This was the first “big” race in my year long 1,000km in 2011 for Marie Curie.

To just add an extra element to the marathon my friend Andy from Reynard Nursery asked me to tweet every mile. I knew every mile would be very offputtingbut I thought I would give it a go. My marathon day tweets start here. I had experimented with VLingo for my BlackBerry which I was carrying anyway. My pre race day tests were all fine – press a button – speak – translated into text – press a button to confirm sending it to Twitter – easy. On the day, being a little breathless and having a howling gale (more of that later) things didn’t go quite to plan. “Four Miles” was translated as “F******* Hell” and “Five Miles and Feeling Good” was translated as “Hi Smiles and Feeling Good”. I reverted to typing after that.

Continue reading “Edinburgh Marathon Festival 2011”