Pieces of me...in motion

June 01

More extreme running

I seem to be on an extreme running kick lately (reading, rather than doing.) Today, I discovered an article in The Seattle Times about ultrarunning.

Yeah...I think I'll pass on this type of running. It's a bit much for me...for now ;-)

Racing to bring technology to the next five billion

Wow! I ran across this post over the weekend and my jaw dropped. A group of folks from Microsoft's Unlimited Potential team are going to Western China to raise awareness of the technological gap facing emerging markets.

Not only are they raising awareness, but they're running across the Gobi Desert. Seven days, 250 km. Roughly, that's 6 marathons....in a DESERT! Way to go Unlimited Potential!

For more information about this race, and the initiatives from Unlimited Potential, here are some additional resources.

Unlimited Potential: Racing Across the Gobi
Inside UP: Western China Project
Helping Rural Chinese Communities Reap the Benefits of Education, Training and Technology - Orlando Ayala

For information on how you can help with recent disasters in China and Myanmar:
Providing Support for Victims in Myanmar and the China Earthquake

May 26

Vancouver 2008 race recap

It's been a few weeks since the marathon, and I feel like I'm still running (with work and buying a home..but that's beside the point.)

In terms of the marathon, here's my time -- 4:03:34

How do I feel about that? I was really hoping to finish in under four...but eh…I can live with it.

before I forget, here's a race summary...

The first 10 miles were great. I was feeling strong, my right leg wasn't hurting. Felt a little weird, but it wasn't hurting so I felt good. I was running a bit fast at about an 8 minute mile. I knew I had to slow down and proceeded to the rest of the way.

Anyway, after mile 10…I started thinking that i wanted to be done. Not so good given that there were 16 miles to go! It wasn't so much a physical tired, but I think it had more to do in that at that point the race was in the park and there weren't too many folks cheering during certain sections. Anyway, the park section didn't last too long and i got my energy back.

With my new found energy, I was running with a couple of different packs of runners. There were a lot of folks from Team in Training easily recognizable by their purple gear. Many of the runners personalized their gear by writing the names or pictures of loved ones with them. Others wrote inspirational words. The one that really stands out was one woman who ran past me. On the back of her shirt, it said "Dad can I borrow your wings to help me fly today?" I don't know what it was about that, but that message really moved me.

After that, it was mostly uneventful for me until mile 20. From mile 20 on, the water stations seemed to be a lot closer. And for whatever reason, I started to slow down and walk through the water stations. not a good idea in retrospect. between mile 20 and mile 23 I had bad leg cramps. Fortunately there were first aid stations and i was able to get assistance. At the first first aid station, they were able to massage out my quad cramp. they also gave me some advil. At the next aid station I got some calcium and some rubbing alcohol (not to drink, but on my legs). At that point, I was starting to feel better and I was able to get into another groove. for the rest of the race, being cheered on by bigger and bigger crowds (and perhaps thanks to the drugs) i was able to run the rest of the way and finish strong.

thanks to Laura for always being there (and now running with me!)
thanks to all the first aid folks
thanks to all the other volunteers
(thanks especially for the gummi bears around mile 20 -- they were delicious!)
thanks to all the others who made the race run smooth
but thanks especially for the crowds -- you really help keep folks like me going!

May 02

ready or not...

Sheesh, I'm horrible at keeping up with this. Sometimes I wish I had the nike+ipod thing so I can update people with my running without typing a word.

Anyway, the marathon is less than two days away. We'll be headed up to vancouver sometime tomorrow. I think I'll be ok, though training has been tough.

It's been awhile since I've posted so here's a quick recap:

Been doing physical therapy for awhile. They think it's a combo of a back and ankle/hip thing
I am now wearing green superfeet
I went to NYC and ran in Central Park (it was 70 degrees!)
My last long run (20 miles) was when I got rained, snowed, and hailed upon
Despite the weather I felt pretty good
I've only run about 3 miles since then
For the last week, I've been trying my darndest NOT to get sick in spite of all the people around me and me being tired/stressed/swamped

To say that this was a rough training season is an understatement.

All in all, I am looking forward to the run. At minimum because my wife and I are running together (sorta as she's doing the half). And, we love going to vancouver.

thanks to everyone who has provided encouragement through this training. back in a few days!

March 19

PT Revisited

PT update -- I went to physical therapy the other day and apparently my back is messing with my right leg. It seems that when I run, I over rotate my upper body to the left (counter clockwise) so one side of my back is a bit stronger than the other -- no need for hunch back jokes. Anyways, long story short...I now have back exercises to help my leg. I'll be doing PT for a little while...and I'm still running (thankfully).
...
After my PT session today (second one), I ran for 5 miles on the treadmill. At first, it didn't feel all that good but then realizing I needed to rotate clockwise, I decided to change my gaze to the right. I found that by looking at 2 o'clock, my leg didn't seem to hurt as much. Is it psychological? Is it physical? both? I don't know but i figure I'll keep doing these exercises and keep looking towards 2 o'clock. Weather permitting, I might shoot for a 14miler this wknd.

March 10

possible setback?

I've been trying my best to keep at this running thing, despite some travel and lack of motivation. When I was in Hawaii, I was able to run (about 3-5 miles) about 5 times. I was surprised at how hilly and windy it was where we stayed. Anyway, since getting back to Seattle in mid-Feb, I've been out on some longer runs -- 8, 12, and 12. Unfortunately, my right leg has been bugging me as of late. I got a new pair of shoes (New Balance 768s) after years of Brooks GTS.' I made the switch in part because my leg has been bugging me. Anyway, I ran in my new kicks, and while it was better...my leg still bothered me. Anyway, I now have a meeting with a physical therapist (first ever). Let's hope for the best. I'll let you know how it goes.

Running tours

In reading through my feeds the other day I saw this running tour site. They don't have one in Seattle, but for all I run here it wouldn't matter. This sounds similar to the bike tour of NYC I took a few years ago with my brothers and Laura. Knowing how much my brothers love the city and history, it seemed like a unique way of helping them explore the city in a different light.

Indeed, running, walking, biking or the like are all great ways of seeing parts of a city that you would never see when in a car or some other mode of transport. When I was in China, it was great to run across the pedestrian walkways and see people getting ready to go to work. I think folks must have thought I was nuts to be out that early and to be running. Running in Barcelona and seeing the street cleaners hosing down the streets from the night before, or running in Hawaii and seeing the grounds crew get ready for work. All parts of life that one would not otherwise see.

Anyway, next time I go to NYC, I may have to explore this possibility...

January 19

needing to get into gear

in planning a work trip, i realized that i need to start ramping up my training for the vancouver marathon. for the past few weeks i've only run max of 17 miles a week. that's running 5 miles one day, and then four on two other days. it doesn't sound like much, and indeed it isn't. really it's just how much i can run before work at the gym in a short amount of time. to get up to speed, pardon the pun, i need to start getting way more milage in the next few months. fortunately, i don't think that should be a problem. after my 5 mile runs, i still feel like i can go longer. maybe not on a treadmill, but in general. as for my shorter, 4 mile runs, i've been ramping up the pace/speed on the machine. i used to run at a 7ish pace (setting 8.5 for those interested). this seemed to work fine, but now i've been running at a 9.0 setting. i've also been messing with the %age elevation on the shorter runs to mixed results. two weeks ago i did a week of more of an incline. this past week, i increased pace. maybe next week i'll do both? who knows...

anyway, i'll post more on my progress in the weeks ahead

December 27

Look for 764 to cross the finish line

A few friends from Seattle Works have been talking about doing the Vancouver half-marathon next year. And I've been wanting to do this since I've started running in earnest. So it is with that in mind, and an eye on my wallet (prices go up January 1st), I just signed up for the Vancouver 2008 marathon.

This will be good. I now have a race to train for, rather than running half-heartedly the last few months. At least I got to run a bit during recent travels to China and Barcelona.

In terms of recent running, my wife and I ran our first "race" together at the Jingle Bell Run the other day. To call it a race may be generous. Given the sheer number of people there, it was all we could do to not trip over other people. Needless to say, it wasn't a fast time for either of us, but we sure had a lot of fun. It even snowed (the pretty kind, not the wet sloppy kind) a bit during the race. Running with her made me recall the times we ran together back in college in the summer time. Before going to work, we'd run a few miles on the quiet streets of Northfield, MN...

Now that I've officially signed up for the Vancouver full, maybe I can convince her to run in the half marathon like she's been thinking :-)

August 18

Covey Run 10k recap

Whew...I finished the first ever Covey Run 10k and it was good. While the official results are not up yet, I finished in about 45 minutes according to my watch. I'll post the time when it's live. In terms of the race itself, it's a pretty flat course that starts at the Red Hook Brewery, goes north on the Woodinville Redmond road, turns onto the Sammamish waterfront trail and loops back around to the brewery. Not having run on that trail before, I have to say it's pretty nice. Reminds me a lot of the Burke Gilman trail in terms of the look and feel.

My run...I started out way too strong, running a sub 7 minute mile. By mile two I slowed it down a bit but I was still running a faster pace than what I'd typically run in a marathon. I don't know what it is, but I always tend to speed up in races as opposed to training runs. Anyway, knowing I was going too fast, I slowed it down best I could. There were two other guys running at about the same clip so I stayed with them the whole time.

By the time mile 5 came about, I felt really good and I picked it up a little bit. I could sense that my running mates were doing the same. Unfortunately for me, I think I peaked a little too early, and I certainly wasn't anticipating a *slight* incline towards the end. At this point, one of them pulled ahead. No matter...I muscled on, and pulled ahead of the other one to finsh strong. All in all, it was a nice way to start the day.

Oh, and as this was the first ever Covey Run, I would suggest they have more port-a-potties available prior to the race. While it all worked out, the line was pretty darn long. Other than that, I had a good time and would certainly do it again if the timing worked.

August 16

Covey Run, run

Wanting to stay in shape, I've been doing some fun little runs as of late. The other week, I ran in the Torchlight Parade for Seafair. And now, I signed up for the Covey Run run this weekend. Originally Brent and Jana signed up, but Brent bailed :( I'm pretty sure Jana is still game. Afterall, who can turn down an all you can eat grape contest?

A new focus...

I'm going to be taking a cue from Jana and I will start blogging more about my running exploits, observations, adventures, etc here instead of community related thoughts. For those looking for community related posts, check out the "Pieces of me" section --> Those are pointers to my other blogs. I don't know if it's the change of seasons or what, but with running being a bigger part of my life, it seemed only right to share.

April 02

Microsoft.community flup

def. flup = follow-up. hold over abbreviation from a former life...

My colleague Dave pointed me towards a recent question from Robert McLaws.

"What if I want someone else providing the structure? Will the owner of the blog or forum be able to define their own default view of their content?"

Here's my response...As all users will be able to define their own views, we are looking at the possibility of having owners setting new default views. Given that the custom views will be new to many folks, such a feature will likely take some time to be fully realized. Hope that helps!

Microsoft.community

With all these milestones, it would be easy to feel happy and proud of all that has happened, however that would be premature. You've heard talk about the future of forums and blogs...well, that future is fast approaching. With an upcoming beta of Microsoft.community, we are embarking on an integrated approach to community that is based upon discovery, rapport, and discussion services. What does all of that mean? Well, without going into too many details, discovery is the foundation for our tagging and social bookmarking services. Rapport services all deal with the presentation of one's self, how your community contributions are managed, etc. As for discussion services, ah well, that's something near and dear to my heart -- blogs and forums.

At this point, I have to talk a little bit more about blogs and forums, given how closely I've been working on them the past few months. With the deep integration of discussion services with tagging and rapport, we are able to present a wider range of experiences for you (either as a content contributor or a content consumer) to be better informed, better connected, and more productive. In non-marketing speak, what do I mean by this? From the forums side of things, an example of this is having your own custom forum based on tags. No more searching through multiple forums wondering where content may live. If there is content tagged with things you're looking for, those threads appear in your custom forum.

Theoretically this custom view works for blogs as well -- where you can find all blog posts tagged a certain way to have your own custom blog view, but that's not nearly as interesting (to me) as tools meant to help blog authors know what to write about. A common theme expressed by prospective blog authors is that they don't know what to say. Well, we're providing some tools built in to our blog solution that help authors identify what is being discussed by those of importance to them, and they can then choose to write about that topic, or something entirely different. For the author, this means they are able to join into conversations with others prepared with the most relevant information about what others are saying. For readers of this blog, people are able to be better informed (by extension of the author being better informed), in addition to being better connected to these other blog authors, and lastly, the readers are more productive because they are able to get information from a wide variety of sources by just reading one -- the blog author who was assisted with "knowing what to write."

These are just some of the many new experiences we're providing with Microsoft.community. Look for more updates from the team about new developments to Microsoft.community in the weeks ahead.

Additional posts from our team on Microsoft.community

Milestones for forums

Recently, Joe Morel in the Developer Division called out some wonderful stats for forums on MSDN -- we reached our 1,000,000th post :-) Forums on TechNet and other branded sites also continue to do well.

We also deployed a recent update to forums.microsoft.com (this includes all forums on MSDN, TechNet and other properties). Aside from regular fixes, perhaps one of the most exciting things is the introduction of a new "code snippet" (thanks, Joe and team!) tool that helps with inserting code with the proper formatting.

pit stop on the way to Microsoft.community

it seems some folks are pointing to this blog, and this blog for my thoughts on Microsoft.community. what to do, what to do?

as neither of these will likely be my final home, I suppose the logical thing to do at this point is to cross-post relevant messages. When we are ready to role out a new site with a wider release of Microsoft.community, I'll then set up my permanent home (er, work) presence.

thank goodness for livewriter.

January 09

...back to our regularly scheduled program

With 2007 just over a week old, we're off and running in terms of getting new forum and blogging solutions out the door for Microsoft. As you may recall, I've been working with some great folks to revamp the existing Forums and Blogs for Microsoft.com.

Moving forward, I'd like to share our thoughts on where the various products are headed, in addition to random musings "On community."

October 15

Third Space Inspiration

Now that I've been in my new job for a little bit, I thought I'd introduce some more of what I'm working on nowadays. The easist way to describe what I do is to say that I am helping to design the next generation of Third Spaces online. What exactly is a Third Space? Well, this notion of Third Space is related to the concept of "Third Place," but modified so it does not connote stack order by any means. Third Place represents an area that is neither home nor work, but rather, some place in between. This can include, but is not limited to, the places where membership organizations, social clubs, professional organizations and the like gather. Ray Oldenburg described this concept in The Great, Good Place. For the purposes of my work, the Third Space will represent all areas, or venues where community "happens." As of the time of this writing, these venues include blogs and forums.

September 28

Wallop is pretty slick

Ok, I'm a fan. For the past few days I've been messing with Wallop, and I am a fan. For starters, the text editor for the blog component reminds me of OneNote in that you can pretty much drag and drop text, images, music and the like where ever you want it to go. Try doing that in your standard rich text editor :P Another nice feature is the network browser. Maybe I'm just a sucker for visualizations, but essentially you get to form little groups of people in your network and it displays their avatar. People outside your network, are exactly that. They appear outside of your circle. To get a better sense of what I mean, check out some of the screens captured by Don Dodge (thanks for the tip/invite Lawrence!)

Anyway, I'll be exploring more of the features on Wallop. As I run across things of note, I'll be sure to post it here.

September 19

Dating, Tags and Niches, oh my!

First, a little background reading:

Dating niches a la Corante
The Long Tail of Tags from Alex Barnett
Some earlier questions on The Long Tail and community

These themes keep on popping up -- niche vs the whole; individual vs group. When I talked with Nancy White over the weekend, we also discussed this seeming trend in tech away from the group notion of community to a community of individual. Perhaps this notion of vs. is a bit dramatic, however there does seem to be a gradual shift in the emphasis and energy of where all the community hype is nowadays.

From a pure knowledge sharing standpoint, finding your niche(s) is a wonderful thing. Not only do you find information from others, but you are afforded an opportunity to then engage, interact, share, and perhaps even care about others in that particular niche.

Beyond the knowledge sharing bit though, I have questions about how this all plays out on a day to day basis. Given that we do not live in a vaccuum, how do all of the niches interact with one another? Are there enough people who belong to multiple niches to help serve as a bridge builder? A guide? Maybe even a translator? To what extent is there interaction between niches? To what extent is there friction, or even a complete disconnect between niches? Whether it's on a discussion forum, or in politics, we see what happens when tight knit groups disagree with another tight knit group.

Abraham Lincoln once said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Are the niches and the search for community via individualistic means driving us all further apart?