A first: 26.2 km

I'm not yet sure about my next race goal - half-marathon or marathon - but I still decided to try a new distance which can be helpful in either case (thinking overdistance training). Before yesterday, my longest run had been the half-marathon distance, around 21 km. After the first 11 km of my run, I committed to a distance of 26 km, which required me to turn around after the initial 13 km (I toyed with a goal of 28 km, didn't want to push too hard though).

The first 21 km had been relatively easy, the last 5 km however were very difficult and continually prompted me to give up and be satisfied with the half-marathon distance. The energy was still there, my legs were killing me though, I already saw cramps coming (although that never happened). After 26.2 km and around 3 hours of non-stop running (or jogging), I finished the workaround and managed to reach the goal of completing 26 km, quite satisfying indeed :)

This workout provided me with a foretaste of what to expect throughout a marathon and definitely made me appreciate the challenge of 1) finishing a marathon and 2) doing so in a reasonable time, more than ever before. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but quite frankly I didn't expect 5 km more to become much of a problem.

My previous training strategy was to run new distances for as long as they represent a major obstacle, so I'll do more 26 km workouts throughout the next weeks until I can safely say that I master the distance.
Thereafter, the next milestone might be the dreaded 32 km mark - where a marathon is said to begin and work against the runner. We'll see about that :)

OMV Linz Marathon 2008

I've been running for more than a year now, with around 1,100 completed kilometers. I don't know why I had decided to start running in the first place, what I do know is that this was one of the best decisions of my life. Being a stressed-out software engineer, I enjoy the relaxation and energy boost running brings along, it's also the simplest (run anytime, anywhere) and least expensive workout possible.

My racing debut was the "Linzer Sparkassen Citylauf 2007", a half-marathon. In contrast to today, I was less prepared for the race as well as the pace required to complete it in a satisfying time, the result was 02:16:46. I completed the first 10k in around 57 minutes, however, I was forced to slow down during the second half because my energy depot was practically empty. 

Today, 6 month after my HM debut, I participated in the "OMV Linz Marathon 2008", my competition of choice was once again the half-marathon. I was unsure about participation because f a foot injury I contracted one week ago during training. During a 5k test run yesterday, the injury was fine during the beginning, but was clearly noticeable in the end. Today morning, one hour before the race, I was in doubt about participating as my foot got worse. Nevertheless, I decided to pull through!

At 9:15 am, the raced started on a freeway bridge with around 14,000 participants. My intention was to finish before the two-hour mark, my training was based on a plan from Herbert Steffny for 1:59:00. To ensure a steady and adequate pace, I was using the Garmin Forerunner 305, which not only records the course via GPS, it also provides an instant pace average that is accurate enough for relying on it during the race.

The first 19k were comparably easy, way easier than last time as well as during training runs and way faster than ever before. I completed the 10k in around 57 minutes and still had a chance to easily finish within the first 2 hours. Between 19k and 21k, I increased my pace to make sure I wouldn't miss my goal. The "hammer-man" tried to intervene at that point, however, I managed to maintain the pace (around 5:00) while heading towards the finish line. It's true, the cheering audience does help quite a lot. I passed the finish line with an official net time of 01:57:35, slightly better than expected and with relatively little effort during the first 19k. I was very satisfied with the result, particularly considering my injury, which could have completely thwarted my plans!

Paricipating in a race amongst 14,000 fellow runners was a fantastic experience, finishing in 01:57:35 was excellent and exceeded my expectations for the day. In contrast to last year, I took carbo-loading seriously this time. On a retrospective note, I think the full depot of carbo-hydrates enabled my effortless run until the 19k mark, it clearly showed.

It's always interesting to analyze the race by means of the data recorded by Forerunner. My average pace was 05:30. While I did not plan for it, I managed a negative split - the second half page average was slightly higher than the first. Here's a chart covering pace and heart rate during the race:

The following image shows the course based on GPS data:

The OMV Linz Marathon was excellent, I thoroughly enjoyed every second (well, almost ;) ) and will take part again next year unless another, more interesting event turns up.

Only one open question remains for the next event:

new half-marathon goal OR marathon?

Don't throw your Macbook Air out just yet, let there be silence

I've been waiting for my personal Macbook Air for around two weeks and could not wait to get hold of that machine extraordinaire. I expected to receive a notebook that is well-manufactured and manages to combine a minimalistic and elegant design with a solid level of performance.

I loved my new main computer - my Air - from the very beginning (yes, m-a-i-n computer, I know I'm crazy ;) ). Unfortunately, my enthusiasm faded after 1 hour of working with the default OS X installation. A Macbook Air is a beautiful machine, but I also expected it to be beautifully silent during "normal use". Well, much to my regret, it was not! Whenever the CPU load increased moderately (e.g. due to watching a YouTube video) and lasted for longer periods of time, the Air increased the fan speed to the factory maximum of 6200 rpm. At 6200, the buzz of the Air's fan can be incredibly annoying, particularly if you're sensitive to fan noise. At 2500 rpm, the fan is practically unnoticeable - the Air's pretty aggressive about cooling though, so, these low levels are rare in the non-idle-case.

My research lead me to believe that this NOT an issue affecting my Air in particular, it's behavior by design. Lots of Air owners seem to be annoyed by the fan noise, none of them have found satisfying workarounds and some even returned their Airs or got them replaced in hope for a "working" unit.

Rather than returning the Air or requesting a replacement to fix the issue, I investigated further and tried various ways to bring silence to the otherwise flawless and fascinating Air experience. I experimented with different energy saving configurations, software for controlling the fan rpm minimum as well as CPU voltage and frequency and also changed OS X kernel module configurations to alter the fan behavior. While all of these had noticeable effects on the situation, none of them prevented the fan controller from increasing revolutions to the maximum of 6200.

The fan is controlled by the so-called System Management Controller (SMC). Software allows you to modify the rpm minimum, that however could not solve the issue. Apple now provides an SMC firmware update that affects fan control. According to the release notes, this update could potentially worsen the situation because it apparently tries to lower CPU temperature further to avoid hangs and unexpected shutdown (of a single core and/or the whole system). I tried the update, it didn't have any noticeable effect in either direction.

Despite the 6200 rpm targeted by SMC, CPU temperature levels remain in a perfectly safe region (60 - 70 °C) at all times. So, knowing that the rpm increase is unjustified in respect to temperature levels, I changed the rpm minimum to 4500 and 6200. In respect to CPU temperature at 100% CPU utilization, the temperature diff between 4500 (maximum acceptable level that can be considered comfortable) and 6200 rpm is pretty much insignificant. Knowing that, my goal was to redefine the rpm maximum to fully address the issue at stake. I was unable to find any way to do that during the first round of research. Most utilities, including SMC Fan Control, merely allow you to change the minimum. As it turns out though, that software package provides a console application smc that can be used to changed all writable SMC parameters, not just the rpm minimum. With the help of the source of a Linux kernel driver controlling the fan via SMC, I identified the key representing the SMC parameter controlling the rpm maximum and gave the new maximum a try by executing smc as follows:

smc -k F0Mx -w $(python -c 'print hex(4500 << 2)[2:]')

Additionally, I reset the minimum to 1500 to conserve the fan at CPU idle levels:

smc -k F0Mn -w $(python -c 'print hex(1500 << 2)[2:]')

These commands only change minimum and maximum, revolutions still remain in control of SMC. The results have been fantastic, the Air has been quiet and cool ever since enforcing the new limits. Execute these commands in a startup item to make changes permanent (for the sleep / wakeup case, use SleepWatcher).

Now, I can finally say that it is a real pleasure to work with this elegant and capable notebook, I enjoy every minute of doing so. I strongly encourage you to give this workaround a try before throwing the Air out (at your own risk), you definitely miss something!