Tag Archive: footwear

How the interview went

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Sat. February 5, 2011

The whole process of going from first contact to interview was a speedy one. I responded to the cold call mid-week, and managed to get an interview scheduled at the end of the following week. Like I mentioned, when all of the fuss started I had just finished revising my résumé. In response to the voicemail, I sent an email expressing interest, and that was followed by one of those awkward phone calls requiring me to slyly slink away from my desk. I suppose the slinking was optional since walking away to take the call would have sufficed. Once I got all the info I needed, I sent over my document. Later that night I got a note saying I was presented to my prospective company. That’s when I started freaking out because I didn’t have anything to wear to any future interview. That’s why I took advantage of that sale at Moore’s.

By the following Wednesday I got confirmation that they were interested in interviewing me. It would involve a written test, a verbal presentation on a given topic followed by general questions. I was asked by the recruiter whether I needed more time to prepare for all of that. I gave it some thought but I ended up just scheduling the interview for Friday. Two days seemed enough for me. The topic for the presentation wasn’t too hard, and I felt like I could make it through the written part with whatever knowledge I already had on hand. I thought, if I had to study hard for the written part can I really consider myself as being qualified? Good question. As such I took a confident stance and just took the jump.

The day of the interview came quickly. I was decked out in my new suit, looking sharp. I made a conscious decision not to shave though in order to not raise too many alarms when I would later arrive late for work. I gave myself 40 minutes to drive to the company, not knowing what morning traffic would be like. I actually made it there in about 20. I chose to drive around the block to kill a bit more time. When I got to reception I noticed that no one was there. I started doing a head to toe check and noticed that one shoe was laced differently from the other. That’s what I get for not checking that out before dressing up. In haste I relaced the whole thing. I was under pressure because I didn’t want to be the guy that had one shoe off in reception for an interview. That would make for an interesting first impression, no?

The interview itself was interesting. For the Perl section I managed to hold my own, but as is the nature of the beast there were maybe one or two things that made me curse at myself: Why the hell did I know that type of special syntax? I just wrote down any assumptions and carried on. The linux section was a mild bust. The database section was OK. Overall, it wasn’t 100% but I didn’t embarrass myself. The verbal presentation went well. I wrote out notes the night before, and rehearsed things a few times. I tried to keep it to 10 minutes but I kept going over. In person, I spoke with as much clarity as I could muster. I am prone to mush mouth if I’m not careful. I think I made it through without getting lost. The follow up questions weren’t bad. I think apart from one odd question I gave them all the info they wanted. I left the office feeling like I didn’t screw it up horribly. I knew that even if I didn’t get the job the interview was a good experience. Win-win if you ask me.

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Running log: 2009/07/05

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Sun. July 5, 2009

It’s only been recently that my learn to run group had started running ten minute intervals. I’m overjoyed and quite proud of the ones that persevered through the program. It just shows that, yes, I must be doing something right. For this morning’s run, I gave them a 4.8 kilometre route to complete at a slow leisurely pace. Everyone was doing their thing, and it went really well. There are a couple of features about this route. For the first 1.5K the route is a gentle uphill climb. It’s good for making the quads work a little harder than usual. From there, apart from a small incline at the 3K mark it’s all downhill and flat. Now, as I was running with the group up the hill at the beginning, noticed that my legs just weren’t into it. My shins were achy and I just wasn’t feeling great.

Due to the increased focus on the discomfort, I began to notice just how damn hot the sun was this morning. Seriously, it was an especially clear morning giving the sun clearance to just pound down. Whatever–I just pushed through. After some time though I just knew that it wouldn’t be great. I was running with one person up until the first walk break. At that point, another student came back from the front group to join her friend. I was satisfied at that point with the fact that everyone had someone to run with, so I just let them go ahead. There were some people behind me, so I was pretty much loosely sandwiched between a mid group the back. Even so, it was one of the first times I decided to run alone in the LTR clinic. Usually I start out running with the front group and make my way to the back as the run progresses. That allows me to talk to everyone in the group. For a group like this, having the encouragement is helpful. Now that everyone has progressed, I feel comfortable allowing people to set their own pace.

So, while I was running on my own, I was mentally examining where the aches and pains were originating from. Sure, my shins were aching, but from what? Why would they suddenly be uncomfortable during this run? It wasn’t long before I noticed that my feet were feeling tight across the top. I immediately deduced that I had tied my laces far too tightly. Crap! I’m the type of person that needs to have my laces a little bit more loose, but secure. When I tie my shoes too tightly, my feet can’t flex at the ankle without added pressure. That causes my shins to absorb more of the impact. That’s where the discomfort and the resulting decrease in speed came from. See! After all this time, I really have learned something.

I didn’t want to stop to re-tie my shoes so I just ran through it. I got back, but in all honesty I felt like my run was a hell of a lot sloppier than I would have liked. I felt my posture going toward the end–I was a slumping mess. It’s lucky that I was running alone because that would not have been a good show. Oh well. Such is life, right? I tell it to my students all the time: some days are better than others. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes and move on. I’ve learned from mine. Tomorrow will be better.

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Small running lessons learned

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Sun. May 17, 2009

It’s now a week after my big race and frankly I feel pretty well recovered. The rule of thumb that I keep hearing is that you require one day of rest for every mile you race. That means that after a half marathon you’d probably need two weeks of recovery time. That’s all well and good, but the interesting thing for me is that I really didn’t have much chance to just not run for a few days. Why? Well, I had to take my “learn to run” (LTR) class out.

If you recall, I’m teaching this season’s LTR for the next ten weeks. What a large class! I’ve been understandably nervous, but really they’re all just as nervous as I am, so it all works out in the end. Everyone’s enthusiastic and energetic. It really is a pleasure leading so many people interested in something I’m keen on. I suppose the word I’m looking for is “passionate.” Is that a bit extreme? I don’t know. Whatever the case, if it hasn’t been obvious in this blog, I love this activity!

Anyway, today was my third time taking this group out. We all did the intervals and we were back at the store in half an hour. My watch said that I’d covered about 2.3 kilometres with them. I was about to go home when I realized that, hmm, I really should get some more mileage in. So, on my own I went for a leisurely outing. With it I was able to tack on another 6K+ to today’s distance.

Part of me wanted to go farther, but honestly I wasn’t feeling my greatest. I was a little bit surprised to feel like I was putting in way more effort doing my run than I should have been. Why? What was going on? Some cursory analysis made me realize that my feet were horribly uncomfortable, and the discomfort was travelling up my body. Blaaaaargh! I reasoned that it was due to the socks that I was wearing. Yeah yeah, sounds like a dumb reason, but hear me out. When I was in Arizona I picked up a few pairs of Nike sports socks from Ross. I usually ran in cotton socks which everyone says is a big no-no. Whatever–that’s what I found comfortable. Anyway, when I spotted the socks I thought I’d just get some and that would be my introduction to the world of proper socks. Well, it’s only now that I’ve put it all together and deduced that the socks just plain suck. They feel padded under foot, and that doesn’t agree with my already flexible feet. They’ve got this weird constriction thing going around the arch part of the foot. I suppose they’d be great for people with average feet. For me though, my feet need room to spread out. Any constriction would just be counter productive, know what I mean? All of that discomfort, paired with the fact that I was wearing pants (hey, it was cold this morning) made for a more difficult outing.

When I got home, I ended up making myself breakfast before getting ready to go out. That’s a little bit different from what I’ve been doing over the past few Sundays. Lately I’ve been making sure to follow up my runs with a protein shake to encourage better recovery. I’d like to think they’ve been helping because I’ve been getting less post-run headaches. I also haven’t been ending up in bad Sunday afternoon comas as much. Today though? I was hit hard! Apparently breakfast wasn’t enough. I was nodding off in church. After lunch I fell into a long 5-hour nap. I wasn’t feeling the greatest after that nap either. So anyway, after next Sunday I’m going to be sure to get my recovery drink in and I’ll compare how I feel afterwards.

I guess all of this shows that I still have a lot to learn about how my body reacts to this act of running. It’s attractive in its simplicity, and yet even the slightest thing can make what’s supposed to be an easy run into something several times difficult. Crazy that.

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One month to the half

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Fri. April 10, 2009

From today, the Mississauga Half Marathon is one month away. I’m not feeling particularly jittery as I’ve been with some other races, but I guess it’s still early. I’m sure I’ll feel all of the chemical rushes closer to the end of April. At this point, I’m ready, though I’m mildly concerned about doing better than I did last September. Of course, since then, I will have finished two more half-marathon clinics. I’m relatively faster and stronger than I was back then, no doubt. I just don’t want to fizzle out somehow and end up running a shitty race. Doing so wouldn’t invalidate the gains I’ve made in training, but really if there’s any time to perform that would be it. The Chilly Half Marathon in Burlington was supposed to be my barometer of progress, and it would have been up until my ankle injury. So now, 7 months later, I’m left wondering if I’m going to get that personal best. I don’t want to let myself down. That’s all.

Something else that’s going me a little bit concerned is the fact that the life of my running shoes is due to end sometime around my race date. My last pair of shoes lasted around 500 km (as expected) but I took them a little bit beyond that which was a bad idea. My current shoes have 417 km on them. I have my race (21 km), and four long runs left (18 km, 18 km, 20 km, 6 km). I also have my midweek runs. All of that combined will put me over 500 km by race day, and if there’s a time I don’t want to experience unnecessary foot/ankle pain, that would be the time. So, I need to pick up another pair of Asics Gel-Foundation 8 and intersperse their use with my old pair until the old pair gives way. Running shoes are really fascinating. When they near the end of their running life, sometimes there are obvious signs that the shoes are worn down, but more often there are no visible signs at all. I could be wearing a pair of shoes that look fine, then all of a sudden mid-run I’ll start experiencing ankle or shin pains that weren’t there before. Sure, it’s easy for me to blame my body for being stupid, but if I know that I’ve got close to 500 km on a shoe then I know that that’s the more likely reason. Crazy, no?

If I had my way I’d put off buying shoes until after the race/current clinic, that way I can make use of a fat discount I think I might get for being a pace leader. I just can’t wait that long though. I’m not going to put myself at risk–I don’t want another disappointing circumstance that takes me away from a race. I guess I’ll use that coupon to get some more running gear and technical clothing for the summer clinic. I need some new stuff, for sure.

One month. Gonna train long and hard.

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Winter denial

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Tue. January 13, 2009

I really think I’ve been in a state of winter denial. No kidding. I mean, I’ve been driving around in relatively good weather. The last few times that there’s been heavy storm I’ve either taken transit in to the office or had the fortune to be able to work from home. Today’s been the first time this season I’ve had to make the commute on snow-covered roads. Even without snow tires I didn’t do any slipping around because I think I have the good sense to take it easy. Today shouldn’t have surprised me, but it kind of caught me off guard.

In terms of running, I’ve been good-natured about all of this winter-training. I didn’t train last winter, and now after the interesting runs I’ve had I kind of wish I did. What’s a little snow? Sure, it slows me down considerably but it’s still rewarding. All this time I figured the whole season would be this relaxed, but tonight, hoo boy. The wind chill was entirely brutal when I was starting out. The temperature was the coldest I’ve had to run in in a long while. I felt it most in my toes. Maybe I need to buy woollen running socks, I don’t know.

Going to work, I’ve been wearing my usual casual leather shoes. I’ve been meaning to buy boots, but the shoes had been enough over the past while. They give me good enough traction in slushy conditions. I just put up with it all. Today though, after a few too many puddles I had to take them off, and remove my socks for them to dry out. I had them drying on my computer tower under my desk so as not to offend my colleagues. After taking a good look at my shoes, I noticed that the accumulated salt stains were starting to have an effect.

So, anyway, I’m bringing up all of these small stories as examples of me not acting as if I’m aware what season I’m in. In many cases I’m still quite season-inappropriate. This morning, while sitting in crawling traffic I was thinking about how it was fortunate that I wouldn’t have to drive through many more snowy days being that the season is almost over. Oh, but then I actually did the calculations and came to the realization that we were even one lousy month into the season. That should not have shocked me at all, but yeah, it did. It’s kind of like I’ve been entirely oblivious to mother nature. With the big clump of snowy days in December, it almost feels like we’ve been dealing with this season for a very very long time. Of course, this isn’t true.

Well, I’m here to say that I acknowledge that we are into winter, and that there are still a few months to go before tamer weather conditions will prevail. I am in winter denial no more.

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Dodging icy patches

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Sun. November 23, 2008

The other day my father was giving me a little grief for continuing to run in the cold weather. I don’t think that he actually knows that I’m training for a half-marathon at the beginning of March, but I think it’s better not to tell him because I know that he’s going to be endlessly worrying about how that’s going to affect my health. That’s really his basic worry: he doesn’t want me to develop some weird ailments when I grow old from running in adverse weather. He also doesn’t want me to put myself through the hardships of running in harsh weather. My response to him was that no one was forcing me to do any of this. It’s of my own volition that I’m out there pounding the pavement and dodging icy patches. If it was something that was really affecting me, I’d end it. As it is though, running out there is refreshing.

This morning we had to cover 9K; the air was nice and crisp making the run comfortable. I’m still trying to break in my new shoes. My shins, calves and ankles weren’t feeling bad, but the insteps of my feet were really feeling the correctiveness of the shoes. I didn’t run fast simply because the mild discomfort was holding me back. Since I was behind everyone, I decided that I’d just do a steady run instead of doing the 10 & 1′s. I was fine: my breathing was even, my heart rate didn’t spike, and I stayed constant. In my mind I was telling myself: if I can’t run fast, I’ll run steady.

The weather wasn’t bitterly cold this morning. It was around the freezing point, but with my generated warmth I didn’t feel horribly cold. I wouldn’t have imagined that I’d admit this, but running tights are actually quite comfortable. Who knew? I know I need a better base layer for my upper body when the weather gets colder, because a t-shirt and a light jacket eventually won’t cut it. It seems I’m spending a heck of a lot of money on running gear lately, but I seriously don’t mind. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so committed to an activity before, so I guess I just feel like all of this is worthwhile. Plus, it’s all necessary in order to stay safe over the next few months. The conditions are only going to get tougher over the next few months. I’m not going to be caught off guard. I suppose I also want to give my father some peace of mind.

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Running log: 2008/11/18

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Tue. November 18, 2008

Geez, man. Like my tweet says, I’m ready to throw my running shoes at the wall. I’ve already written about how the shoes have been giving me grief. I’ve just put up with it though. Today though, during today’s 4K run, I was pushed to my breaking point. At the start, I was running rather fast. I was feeling good enough to keep it up though. My breathing was even and I wasn’t too fatigued. As time passed though, I felt myself slowing down little by little. I was really feeling achiness in my lower shins, close to my ankles. Close to the end the discomfort was really pronounced. I was in a horrible mood and wanted to just block everyone out. That was plain miserable.

See, I know the types of discomfort that I can put up with. I can tell when it’s something that I can work through. This discomfort? Totally avoidable. With my old shoes I didn’t reach these levels of soreness. And hell, this is only on a short 4K jaunt. How am I going to fare on the longer runs? With these current shoes the results are just going to be painful.

When I got back to store, I spoke with the staff and they took a look at how I walked in my shoes. They told me that the shoes weren’t supporting me at all–I was pronating severely in them. Well, what the hell were the staff at the other running store looking at when they were watching my feet? Anyway, they put me in a pair of Asics Gel-Foundation 8 to try out. This series of shoe can be categorized as being “motion control” because of their high amount of stability. When I wore them I felt them keeping my feet from rolling inward. They felt awkward, but comfortably so. It’s the kind of thing that my feet just need to get used to because before they were never really “corrected” to that extent. Anyway, I’m going to give the shoes a good testing on the treadmill. I swear, if there’s even any mild unnatural discomfort I’m sending them back. I refuse to let this go on forever.

I hope pair #5 finally works for me.

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Running log: 2008/11/09

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Sun. November 9, 2008

Changing shoe models is always a difficult thing. Every shoe model is built differently so whenever I have to change my foot has to readjust. I go through a long period of breaking the shoe in just to get it comfortable. This often involves a lot of tying and retying in order to figure out where I need the shoe to be tight, where it needs to be loose, where I need it to flex, etc.

Last time I wrote about my shoes I was on the hunt for Asics GT-2130, Size 10 2E. Those shoes worked for me so well that I seriously wanted that exact same model. Why mess with a good thing, right? If you recall, Running Room didn’t have my exact specifications, and the mall vendors were being particularly dumb. Like I said I would, I ended up heading to Running Free to see if they had anything in stock. Well, the people there took a look at my worn out shoes and decided that my shoes were too big. See, there was a hole in the mesh were my big toe was rubbing against it. Apparently my toenail really sawed right through it. That’s not surprising–many of my socks have holes up there. They wanted me to go with a 9.5 2E but they didn’t have them for the 2130′s, so, they got a pair of 2120′s which are one model back.

I was pretty hesitant about getting a shoe in a smaller size. I mean, my instincts for this sort of thing tell me that given a choice between more and less room in the shoe I should go with the roomier choice. And it’s not like the size 10′s I had were horribly wrong for me–again, why change what works? Anyway, I tried the 2120′s on and my mind was telling me that they were great. They told me to try them out on a treadmill and to bring them back if they weren’t good. Well, I wore them around the house for a good while and I thought they weren’t bad. I was kind of feeling a mild discomfort under the arch of my foot, but I attributed that to not having worn in the shoe.

I brought the shoes out on a run before Angus Glen and I was feeling a bit of shin discomfort. Despite that, I felt like I was running faster. When I ran with them during the race, I was feeling muscle fatigue in the shins. I ran right though it though and I ended up with a good time. Thing is, during the reception after I had trouble staying on my feet because the shoes felt tight. I decided that I just need to loosen the laces to allow my ankle to flex. The laces were too tight and working against my shin muscles when they contracted. That was really causing a lot of the fatigue. When I loosened the laces a little I was feeling some relief. Still, something wasn’t entirely right because often my legs would feel like concrete blocks.

This morning’s run was only 7K. As I went along, I could feel myself slowing down from lower leg fatigue. My shins and calves weren’t feeling all right. I couldn’t figure out the cause. As much as I suspected the shoe, I considered that maybe it was the long uphill climb on the route or some other factor. No matter what the case, I’m sort of regretting not sticking to what I knew and buying the 2130′s in the size I wanted. I’m willing to work with this shoe a little longer to see if I can get it to work how I want it to work, but it really sucks to know that I have to go through this process at all after having a great pair.

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