Foot strike under a microscope

Foot strike plot borrowed from here 

I want to show that it's nearly impossible to perceive a running step exactly as it is happening and furthermore the idea of deliberately controlling your stride is perhaps harder than it sounds.

To begin at the end, it takes between 150 and 250 milliseconds from the moment your foot touches the ground until the tips of your toes leave during take-off. The time of your foot strike is proportional to your speed. As you run faster, your footsteps take less time. But even at a slow jog, the time it takes for a sin

gle step is short. For instance, assume you are running at 180 steps per minute. If each leg is taking 90 steps per minute then each stride cycle lasts 0.667 seconds. The time of each kick is at most half this time (because the opposite foot has to return to the start positing in the same amount of time) so that your foot landing, takeoff, and mid-air float last about 333 milliseconds.

Chess vs Running: prize money sharing

Green to play?

The 2013 world chess championships are underway, and although I do not much follow chess, I noticed how they shared their winnings is markedly different than running. By comparison, running is more of a winner take all. But there is a spectrum of distributions filling out the middle.

Below is the money distribution for Chess. The ratio from first to 8th is 115/21 = 5.47. Even more generous is the first and second-place ratio of  a mere 1.07.

• 1st place – €115,000
• 2nd place – €107,000
• 3rd place – €91,000
• 4th place – €67,000
• 5th place – €48,000
• 6th place – €34,000
• 7th place – €27,000
• 8th place – €21,000

By comparison, here's the prize structure for the 2013 Boston Marathon:

• 1st place – $150,000
• 2nd place – $75,000 
• 3rd place –  $40,000 
• 4th place –  $25,000 
• 5th place –  $15,000 
• 6th place –  $12,000 
• 7th place –  $9,000 
• 8th place –  $7,400 

The 1st/8th money ratio here is 150/7.4 = 20.2, and 1st/2nd ratio of 2. So in chess the runner up makes almost what the winner does, and 8th place make 18% of the winner, though not fantastic, compare to the runner-up for Boston who makes 50% while the 8th place makes only 5% of the winner. Boston is typical for running. For instance the ratios are similar to London, for which 2nd place makes 55% of the purse and 8th gets 7.3%.

But I wanted to see which, between chess and running, is more the outlier. That is, compared to other sports or competitions.

Title

Haven't been up to posting lately. Not for lack of things to say, but been busy. Here are cities of which I spent at least one hour in between Oct 19th and Nov 17th (i.e. Today)

London, Mumbai, Dhaka, Jaipur, Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow, Delhi, New Jersey, Fredericton, Sussex, Toronto, Hamilton, Napanee, Ottawa, Saint John, and Halifax.

Here's the total distances below. At 34,000 km total I almost, but not quite, circled the earth (40,000 km). If I ran this same distance at a rate of 20 km/day it would have taken me 4.7 years to complete.

City 1	City 2	Distance (km)
Halifax.	London	4631
London	Mumbai,	7200
Mumbai,	Dhaka,	1891
Dhaka,	Mumbai,	1891
Mumbai,	Jaipur,	928
Jaipur,	Agra,	239
Agra,	Kanpur,	278
Kanpur,	Lucknow,	83
Lucknow,	Delhi,	414
Delhi,	Newark	11768
Newark	Halifax	968
Halifax	Sussex,	344
Sussex,	Fredericton,	118
Fredericton,	Sussex,	118
Sussex,	Halifax	344
Halifax	Toronto,	1265
Toronto,	Hamilton,	70
Hamilton,	Ottawa,	478
Ottawa,	Saint John	753
Saint John	Halifax.	206
	TOTAL	33987

This was all pretty random, that's for sure. It'd take a while to explain all of it, but it include work, vacation, visitation and death. Opinions and whatnot, I'm sure there will be time eventually.

The real crossfit

I had an invitation to write something about the benefits of cross country (XC) skiing for a runner. Here's what I came up with:

In Canada, winter happens. Although many runners continue on their daily routes (now with tights and thicker socks), there is a second option: ski. I have been guilty of ignoring Canada's winter climate and running knee-deep in snow, but once upon a time I did ski quite often. Priorities have a way of changing, as does access to mountain trails, but growing up in Ottawa I competed in high school, then university, cross country skiing and running. While racing in one sport, I would see the other as "cross training". This continual back and forth gave me perspective on the benefits of form of training with respect to the other. So what does skiing have to do with the running?  

Banditing a run

What is a race bandit? Simply put, you run but you don't pay. I was mulling over the reasons one might see it right or wrong doing so. I felt it rational to post my ideas on the pros and cons of paying for a race. The coin is two-sided: Am I justifying an immoral act, and/or do races have much justification in claiming my money as rightfully theirs?

I run most every day without paying. What makes race day so much more special that I have to pay to run this day, this hour? Were I running on a private road, or indoors in a controlled environment, the rationale is clear enough; it's their turf, so they can charge whatever they want. If I own a private club I can choose to charge obscene fees for nothing more than the rights to exclusion. Outdoor road races are, however, an interesting beast. They cost plenty to enter, more power to them, but why pay at all? Let us consider what is rightfully owned by the race organizers.

This is SPARTA! (network)

I'm just testing the embedding of our site map for locations. I'm travelling to two of these places next month (Dhaka and Kanpur), so pretty excited about that.

How to make money in running

I have deceived you with this title; I have no idea how to make money running. I do, however, know how to spend it. Or at least that's what's been going on until now. I'm ending this practise.

Like many enthusiasts I bought the fancy merchandise, signed up for expensive races, and travel. Why oh why did I spend so much when a pair of ratty shoes and t-shirt was needed to accomplish a run? Unlike sailing or drag racing, there's little in the way of any equipment in running. But money, once earned from actual work (my day job), some law of nature declares it must be spent.  If I loved motorcycles I would probably spend what little extra I earn on touring the open roads. Maybe while en route I'd justify it with a little Zen philosophy. Were I a music lover, I'd equip my apartment with Bang Olufsen and a Yamaha sound mixer. Back to reality for a brief time I was a collector of hard-to-find DVDs (This includes the 8-hour Russian version of War and Peace and Decalogue). I also bought books plainly available at any library. Now I watch Netflix and borrow so progress has been made.