No worries, it’s just a computer virus, I’m absolutely fine.

It’s a kinda of embarrasing, working in IT, telling everyone: “don’t open emails or files from unknown sources!!”, “update your antivirus and scan your computer once a week”, etc… and I opened a suspicious file convinced that my 50 euros/year Norton System Security license was a good investment and… the virus killed my antivirus and any other software to detect spyware or virus I had installed and also killed any attempt to install a new software to detect and remove it.

Because my computer was very slow and I wasn’t sure what virus was and how could affect my files, it has been a long week installing software in a removable disk read only protected, restarting thousand of times and finally this weekend with more time on my hands I managed to remove it.

Well, this blog is not meant to be a techie blog, so I will just say FYI that the virus was one of the variants of the Beagle/Bagle. It’s a trojan and disconnect the internet connection it’s one of the first things you should do.

Now, back to business… and nothing better than this picture I took coming back home from work:
Due the lovely weather we are having in UK for the last few days, I rode a longer route than usual through the Plym Valley with the awesome sunset we had today in Plymouth.

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Today I ran a race called: “Oh My Obelisk!”. It was an almost 11 miles race hilly, very muddy and windy and in the 6 miles point there was meant to be an obelisk that gives the name to the race.

I was looking forward to see the obelisk and shout “Oooohhhh, my obelisk!!”, but I didn’t see it and I was wondering if I was so focused trying to find the best path of mud to run over it that I missed the obelisk. So, once at home I did my google maps search and…

Due the weather conditions and the mud it was a quite tough race, but I loved it, it’s my kind race, mostly off road and hilly and I usually make a lot of progress running uphill because it’s less “shin splits” killer for me. The mud was allright, just made it a little bit messy but nothing that can’t be fixed with a shower and a washing machine.

I finished in the 100th position of 314 finishers and congratulations to my mate Dave that finished 49th overall. Also other usual mates like Tony, Neil, Sarah, Jo, Jean and Nick where running and I was the last man of us finishing, but happy to be there.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 01/13/2008
• Time: 11:01:00
• Total Time: 1:32:22.00
• Average Heart rate: 166
• Max Heart rate: 189
• Calories: 1535
• Distance: 17.55 km
• Average Pace: 5:15.79/km
• Max Pace: 3:40.99/km
• Ascent: 496.5 m
• Descent: 498.7 m

PS: I’ve just found a picture of the race two years ago and the obelisk was part of the route.

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Today I ran the first race of 2008 here in Plymouth after my deserved holidays and christmas races in Spain. A mixed road 10k race that was meant to be a brick session with 24 miles cycling first thing in the morning before heading to the race start and do the race. Finally, it ended in a steady 15 miles due the slow pace and a puncture of one of the mates and just on time to get changed, register and start the race.

I started stronger than usual, running the first kilometer in 3′54″ (too fast for my shin splits) and trying to keep 4′30″/km to achieve a sub 45′. It went quite well, but I struggled between the kilometers 6th and 8th with 4′41″/4′44″/4′49″ thinking “David, you are pushing too hard”, “these shin splits are killing me”, “why did I cycled before the race?”… but then I was having a fight with that other runner, he overtook me in the flat bits and I overtook him going uphill so I thought I could try to keep his pace and see at the end if at least I could win him and forget about the sub 45′ mark.

Finally, I made it in 45′12″ (73th of 278 finishers) but I win the other runner for 3″, woo hoo . However, I’ve just seen that he is 22 years older than me… does that count as a fair challenge?

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I was talking to my training mate Dave a couple of months ago to guess how the new Forerunner would be called and when would come up and 405 was the name that first pop up on the top of my head and Spring/Summer 2008 the release dates and… here it is! the Forerunner 405 was announced yesterday by Garmin and it will be shown in the coming CES 2008 in Las Vegas.

Finally, the Forerunner will have a proper watch look, but I never wear a watch so it doesn’t really bother to me if it’s a big device or not. The screen seems smaller and I can’t see anywhere if the route map will still be there. Looking at some pictures, I can see the elevation profile is still there so I guess the map could be there although it’s going to be even smaller than already is.

It will also keep the other nice features included in the Forerunner 305 including my favourite one, the virtual partner. Some of the buttons are located in the rim around the watch to make easier to change between the different screens.

Basically the biggest advantage is the smaller size compared to the 205/305 but there are some other negative aspects that will make me think before buy the 405 :
- No multisport functionality (very useful for duathlons/triathlons)
- No routes (I use this feature a lot)
- No pace and time/distance alerts (I could survive without it though)

Suggested price is $299, still much cheaper than the Polar GPS gadget.

Find below some links with more information:
Forerunner 305 & 405 comparison
Official Garmin announcement
Engadget first review

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Today is one of those days that I really understand why people here is so desperate to escape to warmer and sunnier countries as much as possible and I also understand why they are so keen to buy houses thousands of miles away from their places. Today is raining a lot but it’s ok… but there is also a strong wind and that’s not ok when you cycle to/from work.

For a spanish like me, that I’ve been living in Barcelona for 30 years, constant hot weather can really piss you off and be quite dangerous specially for people like us, training under the sun at more than 30 degrees in the Summer. But also really admire when people run or cycle with under this awful weather.

Nobody forces me to be here and some people will think that I’m crazy and/or I’m a moaner and if I don’t like it I can go back to Spain but I’m not complaining, it was just a thought I had while I was fighting against cars, the wind, the rain and even some brave pedestrians. The best of all… the hot shower I’ve just had! it feels much better when you are soaked and cold.

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I’m back in UK and I’ve got some time now to write about this race that took place last Sunday. Almost 700 participants, in a sunny and warm day. The race takes place along the coast in a village 10 miles north away from Barcelona.I had due to run an off-road duathlon this day, but I couldn’t get a proper mountain bike before the entries were closed and my sister wanted to run the 8k race, so I will have to leave that duathlon again for next year

The goal was make my sister run the 8k under 40 minutes and I saw her very strong that she finally managed to do it in 38′48″ despite of that I estimated very badly our warming up time from my parents house (3 miles away from the start) and we almost got there late, but after a very fast warming up even faster that our race pace, we just arrived 5 seconds before the start!!

I think we could’ve ran faster but she had another race the day after and I didn’t want to waste all her energy and I wanted her to feel confident about her recovery and her improvement to run longer distances and faster.371th of 690 - 100th in my category
and my sister:
375th of 690 - 11th in her category
At the finish line I met some of my mates back in Barcelona, they were faster than me as usual

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 12/30/2007
• Time: 11:30:00
• Total Time: 00:38:39.00
• Average Heart rate: 167
• Max Heart rate: 183
• Calories: 720
• Distance: 8 km
• Average Pace: 4:49.86/km
• Max Pace: 3:02/km
• Ascent: 43 m
• Descent: 51 m

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Well organised boxing’s day race, I was trying to run under 40′ but sadly I managed to go only 1 minute faster than last year and ran in over 41 minutes (232nd overall). I really thought I was flying today, but I probably did it last year as well…
My sister ran today and she finished in almost 46 minutes (392nd), improving a lot since last time I ran with her three months ago.

Not cold neither warm day, perfect temperature, over 600 finishers. This race is getting more popular every year and next year the organisation wants to make it even bigger and use chip timing and change the route slightly to make a 10k race.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 12/26/2007
• Time: 11:00:00
• Total Time: 00:41:11.00
• Average Heart rate: 173
• Max Heart rate: 185
• Calories: 815
• Distance: 9.2 km
• Average Pace: 4:28.66/km
• Max Pace: 3:51.96/km
• Ascent: 63.9 m
• Descent: 58.5 m

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On Thursday I’ll be flying to Barcelona and I’ll leave the cloudy and cold United Kingdom behind, woohooo!!. I’ve got the feeling for some mates comments that is going to be cold as well, but I’m done to the English weather so I’ll be fine

Today I didn’t want to miss the chance to add some miles to my legs before heading to Spain and I had a good run despite of the chilly weather (2.5ºC). I ran 13km(8 miles) in the morning and 8km(5 miles) in the evening. That adds up a total of 1h:45m to my training and some bike tomorrow and my body will be ready from Thursday to eat all the delicious food my mum has ready for this Christmas

I hope my xmas present will be here tomorrow. I bought a second hand Garmin Edge 305 on Ebay so I can keep the Forerunner 305 for running and open water swimming training and use the Edge for cycling. Not sure which are the big differences between the Forerunner and the Edge, apart from the size, I’d like to do some mountain biking and I hope the Edge can be more helpful for navigation.

I’m also waiting for the new Edge 705, but still not released and it’s going to be very expensive.

Edge 305	Edge 705

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Today was hashing day, my favourite hash of the week, not only because the guys are bloody fast and the route are quite tough and that makes a good training but also because these hashings are usually close and I can go there and back home cycling and it’s a kinda of brick session-duathlon training.

Tonight: 5k bike - 7.5k run - 5k bike, it’s not a lot but I’m planning to race in the Cabrils off road duathlon during my xmas holidays in Spain on the 30th and every little helps!!

I also played 1h15m squash and I lost I think triathlon training and squash are not compatibles

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Last Friday, one week after I sent my 305 to Garmin, I received a parcel with a brand new Forerunner 305. Wooohoooo!!

Although the flat rate to fix it was quite high, I think it’s fair for the kind of damage my 305 had and also because Garmin has sent me a new one. However, if the Forerunner is IPX7 waterproof (IPX7 designation means the GPS case can withstand accidental immersion in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes), dip your wrist wearing it into the water shouldn’t be a problem

Not sure if I have a one year warranty now…

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