Running is about rhythm. Rhythm gets you into that state when you start forgetting you’re running, forgetting you need to move both legs, need to pace your breathing, keep your back straight, look good (not kidding). It’s when you get into the flow. When running becomes easy, natural and you start thinking about everything but running.

New runners need to find their rhythm to start being good at running. And learn to enjoy running.

I am just starting to run again, after a break of a few months and I am completely out of running shape. I want to run at sub 1:15 half-marathon this spring so I better kick my ass now.

How one find his rhythm? Easy you feel it. Hear yourself breathing (too fast, too loud, not exhausted at all), hear how everything change when you reduce length of the your stride and hear the cadenced sound of your feet hitting the ground. Feel the difference when your arm trust in straight line instead of crossing in front of you. When your arms are in perfect sync with your legs.

I went out for my first over 5k run the other day and quickly remembered how fast you can get into proper rhythm by simply listening to the sound of your shoes hitting the ground. It’s yoga class music to my hears. Play with the length of your stride and it changes.

Get me right, I’ll be running with my iPod in 4 weeks. In the meantime, I listen so I can find my rhythm faster when I go out. You should try too. Next time, leave Steve Jobs gift at home.

Pitch this story to a new running chick and she’s going to fall in love with you.

To do that, you first need to determine who has some influence online around that topic. There is currently multiple web services to evaluate user ranking, and I’ve reviewed some here. Klout is another of those services and a pretty popular one. Main problem with most of them is that they usually have no concept of relevancy : they evaluate your reach, influence, activity and other parameters as a generic score, without any relation to a topic or domain of influence.

I’ve just performed a search for ‘Django’ in Klout’s topics search box. Number one influencer on this somewhat niche topic is … Tara Hunt aka MissRogue. For those who might not know here, MissRogue is a successful author/marketing consultant/entrepreneur with a somewhat decent audience of … 29757 (Dec 1st 2009)followers on Twitter. She probably knows more about Django than the average person, but I would have expected Jacob Kaplan-Moss or some of the bloggers in my Django links collections to be slightly above her in such ranking…

klout django influencers

What happened is probably that she tweeted that keyword several days ago and the Klout engine pick it up, putting here in their Django topic basket and by looking at the outstanding number of followers she has, promoted her to the top of the list. A more complete analyze of her tweets would have been enough to avoid this error. Further analysis of shared link would be even better, but slightly more complex.

User Ranking methods and technology will most certainly become ubiquitous in a near future and evolve into something solid and relevant enough to be used as a content and conversation filter, as well as for targeted advertising purposes. A great example of the relevancy concept can be found in Traackr from which I just got a demo. They still do some manual intervention for quality assurance, but they have included a relevancy score related to the queried domain, as I would expect. We talked a little bit about their roadmap and they seems to have some pretty interesting stuff coming up.

Are you planning to use some kind of User Ranking in your applications or web strategies ? How ? What are you expecting from such tools ?

I am supporting his claim and explaining why cycling his a good alternative for entrepreneurs.

I couldn’t agree more and my vote goes to cycling

1. Cycling is fast. 35-40kph is standard pace, going over 40 when riding in line is easy, sprints starts at 52kph and in a good descent you can  reach 80-90kph, if you can hold the bike !

2. Team is super important on a bike. Just try to ride by yourself with headwind and you’ll quickly understand the value of your team or partners. It’s all about a good lane and perfect execution.

3. Cycling is uber-competitive. Just goes on Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve pretty much every evening of the week or on Camilien Houde on any given afternoon. Nobody want to get passed by another rider. Especially by a girl

4. When both partners know each other style, tactics and strength, they quickly become more than the sum of their part.

5. Creativity. From riding style, sprint tactics and overall strategies, creativity is everywhere.
I would ad, that cycling will get you in MUCH better physical shape than golf, allows for ongoing conversation while riding, only interrupted by attacks if needed and will probably learn you more about a partner, client, investor, supplier or advisor personnality than golf would.

Any other cycling fan in the mtl tech community ?

After that comment, I started thinking about organizing yet another meet-up for mtl tech entrepreneurs cyclists. Something informal, just to meet new riding and business partners.

In the meantime, I went riding around Sutton and Jay Peak last weekend and met a nice guy who told me about ACDA : Association cycliste en développement des affaires, who organize monthly cycling/networking rides. Registration is full for this year, but I’ll surely check them out next year.

Any cycling tech fan in Montreal looking for new riding partners ? In for a new cycling group ? Let’s go rideand talk about circular dependency !

Les organisateurs du marathon de Québec l’ont saisi, comme bon nombres d’habitants de la ville, et en on fait une course de 15km comprenant 22 escaliers pour un total de plus de 2500 marches.

Je suis certain que même les plus grands explorateurs de la ville trouveront le parcours magnifique et découvriront quelques recoins moins connus de la ville. Pour les touristes, c’est une manière unique de voir Québec, ne serait-ce qu’en parcourir 5-6 km….

Carte du parcours du défi des escaliers

La première édition avait lieu aujourd’hui et plus de 600 personnes se sont présentés au départ. La formule contre-la-montre fût utilisée pour réduire l’engorgement dans les escaliers du parcours et les participants partaient donc en couple à chaque 5 secondes.

Dire que la course est difficile serait un euphémisme dont je me garderai, disons simplement que mon massothérapeute va avoir de la job cette semaine. Je n’ai jamais couru de marathon, mais un demi-marathon est sensiblement plus facile que cette course.

En tant qu’originaire de Québec, j’aurais bien voulu remporté le premier titre, mais j’ai dû me contenter de la 2e position ce qui devrait me forcer à revenir mieux préparé l’an prochain

Allez voir la carte et faîtes un tour unique de Québec !

Je me sens particulièrement interpellé étant donné que le CGV est le lieu numéro 1 à Montréal pour un entraînement cycliste sécuritaire, grâce à son excellent revêtement et au faible nombre de voitures présentes.

Sans vouloir reprendre l’argumentation et la proposition d’alternatives des auteurs de la pétition contre ces mesures, je vous invite à aller la signer,

Que ce soit parce que fréquentez vous-même le circuit Gilles-Villeneuve pour vos entraînements. Que ce soit parce que vous prônez la sécurité des routes et pistes cyclables de Montréal en concentrant les entraînements cyclistes sur le CGV. Que ce soit par encouragement aux nombreux athlètes en cyclisme et en triathlon qui s’y entraînent tous les jours. Nous demandons votre support en signant notre pétition.

http://www.velocgv.com/

Allo les crinqués de bécik ! On monte Camilien-Houde en Bixi, rendez-vous coin Mont-Royal et Parc avec vos Bixis !

On va voir ce que ces bikes là on dans le ventre !

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