Running in North Korea

Back in September I took a trip to North Korea, or DPRK, just for fun. I had read a lot about it for the past decade or so and I wanted to see what it was like for myself...my thoughts on that are long and not related to cycling or running.

So while there I just had to run. Problem is, visitors are not allowed out much on their own. Luckily, I was allowed to go out alone just around the parking lot of our hotel, Yanggakdo International Hotel. It's not big, but it was enough to get a mild workout done.

Situated on a tiny island on the Taedong river, the river that runs through Pyongyang, the Yanggakdo has a guarded gate. That was the limit to where I was told I could wander / run.

Google Maps view of the Yanggakdo Hotel

I explored the limits, running up to the gate, as far as I possibly could, without crossing it - despite the fact that the 'guard' was asleep.

It wasn't clear whether or not I could leave the boundaries of the hotel and go right up to the water, on the sidewalk along the river. This would mean leaving the hotel but where could I go? So I tried it and found it to be a great run - a well-maintained waterfront walkway, circling the outermost edges of the hotel.

A fairly pleasant place to run

Of course I recorded the run on Strava. No GPS devices are allowed in DPRK, so instead of bringing my Garmin 910xt (the watch) or the much-more-GPS-like Garmin Edge 705, I brought my phone, and used it in airplane mode (GPS signals are still available).

I created a segment from the hotel entrance to the gate, and I believe this was the first segment ever created in North Korea - I could find no others. Check it out here: Escape from Yanggakdo. However, others had run this route before I had, as evidenced by the segment results. There was even one other tourist out for a morning run while I was.

Turns out Pedro Queiroz has me beat by 10 seconds.

Here's a short video I shot of my run:


The locals run too, but they do it more freely. (I suppose "freely" is a relative term.) On a trip around the city I spotted a cool picture of a runner in front of one of the many stadia.

A painting of a heroic runner at the Kim Il Sung stadium

Also, the Pyongyang marathon is on 13 April, two days before Kim Il-Sung's birthday. Unfortunately, I will not be able to make it, but would love to.

Trips to the Pyongyang Marathon are run by Koryo Tours, the same group I went to DPRK with. Find out more on their site.

Interview with Strava Co-Founder Michael Horvath

In December on a trip back to the US I had to opportunity to visit the Strava headquarters, in downtown San Francisco.

Being from a digital agency, the office looked familiar to me - a big open space with lots of Macs, Ikea desks, and coffee mugs. A tech team, a business development team, a user experience team, and a kitchen in the back.

The Strava office looks ordinary...

...but does your office have a bike rack?

What was different was the big bike rack and loft area with training equipment. Oh, and also the signed poster of Greg LeMond at the entrance.

I caught up with Michael Horvath, co-founder and Fearless Leader.

Here's Michael on the right

What gave you the idea of Strava? Was the original concept more or less the same as it is now? How has it changed or evolved since that first idea?
I started Strava with Mark Gainey in 2009. We both rowed crew at Harvard and thrived on the camaraderie and motivation of training with teammates. The idea for Strava came simply from our need to recreate those positive forces in our lives when we no longer had the structure and support of a team around us. In its simplest form, we imagined a "virtual locker room" where we could share workouts among our athlete friends. With GPS technology and mobile apps things got interesting very quickly when we bumped into Davis Kitchel who had been working on some similar ideas. Together we created the ability for friends to compare times on rides and runs automatically. It's not just maps and stats at that point, but a motivational experience that makes all the time we spend training and racing, much of it alone, more fun and more social.


How did you get the first prototype running? Who built it? Was that a very rudimentary project that grew on its own or did you have a formal business plan and fund it from the beginning?
Once we created the prototype with Davis Kitchel, we convinced two friends and Strava users, Mark Shaw and Chris Donahue, to join the team and upgrade the prototype into a publicly available website.  Things were pretty informal back then and a lot of that early engineering work was done in Mark’s living room.  In 2010, we took our first round of outside financing, began hiring more aggressively and by 2011 we started to see rapid growth in our user base.


I once searched Strava for the names of every 2012 Olympic cycling athlete in Strava and found quite a few there. Who are some of the most famous cyclists that use Strava?
There are quite a few pros on Strava like Tim Johnson, Ted King, Lea Davison and Taylor Phinney to name just a few.  You can see a longer list here: http://app.strava.com/pros.  It’s important to note that elite athletes enjoy Strava because the product is useful to them - it’s fun and motivating and also provides a way to connect with fans.  We’ve never approached an athlete and offered a bucket of cash in exchange for using Strava.


I work in a digital agency in Singapore and am very aware of user experience and the processes needed to create a good one. The Strava UX and interface is excellent, especially considering its complexity. Was it hard to put together a team that could do this so well?
We realized early on that one of the ways we could distinguish Strava from the competition was through stellar design.  I think with any function, the first hire is the most difficult.  If you can hire someone truly talented, he or she can attract a like-minded team.  I believe that we have one of the strongest design teams in the world and they are truly passionate about delivering a world-class experience to our users.


Where do you see Strava going in the future? It's very clear that you have passed your tipping point in getting new registrations, segments set up, and the daily usage of Strava, as I see it growing organically here in SE Asia. So that will continue. But where else can you see Strava going? 
We remain focused on the same objectives as when we started: Serve the athlete with a fun and motivating user experience built on really great software that works and is simple to use.  In the short term, that means adding more functionality for runners and we have plans for adding triathlon in the near future.  We take each sport seriously and try to build the functionality that someone dedicated to that sport would value and say “this is built just for me!”


I'm sure your analytics and the sheer amount of data you collect are fascinating. Do you have any thoughts on this? Maybe data visualization, or even just the ability for a user to compare his performance (segment-independent) with others of his age, weight, sex on a chart?
We have no shortage of data so the challenge for us is finding that perfect balance between performance features and social features.  We think that balance is critical and part of what makes Strava unique.


I know you have built an API. What are some of the most interesting uses of the API others have implemented?
Paul Mach built the site raceshape.com using our API.  We thought it was so interesting that we offered him a job and were happy to get him onto our Engineering team last year.  We’ve been incorporating some of the features he built for raceshape (like additional performance analysis) into Strava.


Does it surprise you to see segments in places like Easter Island, Antarctica, and Siberia? (There's one in N. Korea but I think it's erroneous!)
Our mission is to serve and motivate the global community of athletes so we’re ecstatic to see Strava being used all over the world.


Finally, I'd like to add that I didn't think I was a very competitive person, but now with Strava I am far more competitive than I thought. Also, by using Strava, I feel I am making a kind of social commitment or promise, and feel obliged and motivated to ride and run. Would it be a stretch to say that Strava has made the world a better (healthier) place?
There are a lot of different ways to describe Strava and what the product does but one thing we hear over and over is “Strava helps me get out of bed in the mornings.”  Whether it’s performance related (competing on segments, going for PRs, scrutinizing your Suffer Score) or social (receiving kudos and comments, knowing your friends will see your rides and runs), Strava provides motivation and an extra layer of enjoyment for athletes.  We’re really proud of that and hope that we are improving people’s lives in some small way.

Half Marathon with almost no Training

I detest running. I only started running as a way to keep in shape while I was off the bike due to bike-specific knee pain.

To me, running is the most painful, boring, worst, and hardest form of exercise. But I do it to keep in shape for road riding, which I do to keep in shape for cross-country mountain biking. That's the hierarchy. Running is only a necessity; a means to support my off-road habit.

Biking is thrilling. And fun. It is fast. You can coast. You can jump. You can skid. Cycling is awesome. Running is horrible. Or so I thought.

Over time, I started getting some degree of satisfaction from running: I set PRs on Strava, saw new things that I'd miss while cycling, and even did okay in the running leg of a triathlon with my brother and a friend.

Then Strava came out with their February 2013 Half Marathon challenge. When I saw this I figured I should give it a try. Running may suck, but here's another reachable goal, another key accomplishment, another physical limit - that I knew I could conquer. So why not?

The challenge

On the 1st of February, 2013, I had only done two runs the whole year (okay, the past month). The second of those was 13 km, the longest I had ever run in my life. An accomplishment at the time, but nowhere near the level I needed to be for a half-marathon.

So I went into the Runners World forum and asked around. At my age, with my level of fitness, and very limited background running, could I do it? The unanimous response was NO. There wasn't enough training time left for me, and I didn't have the base. I wasn't ready.

So the night of 1st February, before going to sleep and after a few pints, I made up my mind: I was going to run a half marathon the next morning.

I searched my Strava routes and found one that was perfect: 21.7 km, starting at my house, and ending at my house. A half marathon is 21.2 km.

I looked at my times and paces, and set a goal: 2 hours and 30 minutes. No stopping allowed, except for red lights or to eat/drink/take a leak. Walking allowed.

I had been experiencing excruciating knee pain for the past year, but it seemed to have subsided. I was very aware that it could come back during this run - during this test. That's all this was - a test.

I've been known to be a bit foolish at times in attempts to push myself too hard (see a previous post of mine where I describe how I put myself in the hospital in only 7 km). I knew I was at some risk. Risk of aggravating my as-yet-untested-and-maybe-unhealed knees, risk of dehydration, risk of twisting my ankle alone - anything.

The only support I would have was my Nathan running belt with two 10 oz bottles, $20 for a taxi, my phone, my Road ID, Hammer Endurolytes (electrolyte tablets), and the most important one: stashed water and food at the halfway point.

I woke up at 5:30 am, no alarm, and drove to the gas station by my house. I bought a banana, a bottle of water, and a sports drink. I also put peanut butter and raisins on a piece of whole wheat bread, and put it all in a plastic bag.

I drove to the halfway point, and stashed the bag under a giant tropical leaf by the side of the road. This was going to be my lifeline.

The start of the run was unremarkable. I suppose most half-marathons begin with a lot of noise, celebration, and hype. Like a bike race, there would be hundreds of other athletes, rallied into a frenzy, all competing for the best starting place, racing against each other more-so than the clock.

There would be checkpoints along the way with water, nutrition, and even medical support. There would be fans and spectators, cheering and encouraging the runners, friends and strangers alike.

For my run there was none of this, no medal, no placing, no encouragement. Just me, my shoes, and the road.

I tried to pace myself. In mountain bike races I can't help but get overly-fast starts, trying to secure a leading position in the pack. Pacing is not something I'm good at. But after 3 km, 5 km, and soon 10 km, I felt fine.

Ecstatic, in fact.

Immediately after my first half-marathon

The dreaded labor I associated running with had not even reared its ugly head. I was not bored. I was not tired. I was not counting miles, or wishing it to end. I had reached a running nirvana I had never experienced before.

And my mind was clear. No gears to worry about, or drafting to try to get right. I wasn't glancing at my Garmin every 30 seconds like I do on the road bike. I wasn't burdened with the thought and worry of traffic behind me, being on the sidewalk. Running, all of a sudden, became fulfilling.

At the 11th km, halfway, I retrieved my food and drinks. I refilled my bottles, strapped the banana to my hip pack, and started eating the peanut butter and raisin sandwich. It took me a good two minutes to stop, unwrap the bag, transfer the drinks, and start eating.

As I set off, I felt a tightness and burning in my hamstrings. I had cooled down too much. You can see in the image of my splits below how fast I was running up until km 11, and then how I slowed down. I believe it was because of that [critical] food stop.

Look how much my pace suffered after a 2 min food stop (km 11)

At around the 17th km, I felt my pace slow and the running became a lot harder. But I was almost home and knew I had it in the bag.

The last 2 km were the hardest, as one would imagine, but not the torture I had perceived.

I finished in 2:09, well ahead of my goal. My pace was 5:58 / km.

My new goal now is to do this in under 2 hours.

The final result

Strava have more challenges coming up. The next one is in March, and is a 20 miler. April will be a full marathon. Is there enough time for me to train up for them? Probably not, but I'll probably do them anyway.

Average Speeds in Strava and Garmins & Cheating Segments

Average speed can a good way to track performance over time, and also compare between riders. After all, how many of us are not a little bit competitive?

But average speed, if calculated in certain ways, can be very misleading. It can make you look a lot faster or a lot slower than you really are.

Example 1: Record only the fast parts
A group I ride with, which incidentally is very fast, likes to make themselves look even faster by only recording the core (fast) sections of their rides.

They don't start their Garmins until the ride has really begun - all the time coasting out of their driveways and around stop signs to get to the main road gets excluded.

Same goes for the end of the rides - they stop their devices before any cool-down, right after the final sufferfest and final sprints.

The result is high average speeds but low(er) total distances.

Don't get me wrong - there's nothing wrong with this. It's a matter of preference: Do you want faster or longer rides overall?

A real example. The ending is where the rider starts his slow section - the cool down.

These rides become apparent on Strava as the start and end are usually the beginning of the fast parts of a ride, not anybody's house. If the red line meanders into some small residential roads (the starting or ending of the ride) he's probably recording the entire ride, straight from home.

Or, like in the example above, the start and ending are at different places.

Example 2: Enable auto-pause
If you use a Garmin, you'll find the auto-stop feature under Menu -> Training -> Auto Pause/Lap. By setting "Auto Timer Pause" to "When Stopped", the timer will momentarialy stop when you are at red lights or stop signs.

The Auto Timer Setting in the Garmin Edge 705

With this setting off, at stop signs you will observe two things:
1. Your timer will continue
2. Your average speed will slowly erode. So if you are stopped for long enough, your average speed will eventually hit zero, or very close, even if you've been hammering it at 45 km/h for the whole ride.

Or, instead of selecting "When Stopped", you could use the "Custom Speed" setting, which will stop the timer whenever your speed is lower than the custom speed. For example, if you set it to 5 km/h, the timer will stop when you are going 4 km/h, for example. This is to eliminate any erroneous timing as a result of any minor movements while essentially stopped.

Protip: Some people claim is possible to cheat Strava by setting a custom speed and then completing a segment by moving slower than that custom speed. By doing so, you can get the KOM.

However, Strava's take differs: 

"...stopped time is included in segment time to keep leaderboards competitive. So using autopause does not allow for cheating on segments. We time segments based on the time stamp from when you enter a segment and when you finish it, it is not based on the "ride-time" that occurred on a segment but rather the elapsed time."

Source: Strava Knowledge Base

Personally, I record my entire ride, including the slow parts just getting to the main roads, and the cool-down coming home. This gives me a lower average speed.

I do enable the auto-pause; I don't think it's accurate to be recording stops, whether they are breaks or red lights.

However, if you are using Strava, most of this really doesn't matter. Strava will automatically crop out your stops, giving you that faster average speed. So you could have an average speed recording of 28.0 km/h on your Garmin, but 30.0 in Strava.

This seems consistent with the idea that you can cheat and get KOMs by completing a segment slower than your custom threshold speed. In fact, you can even set your custom speed to 99.9 km/h....

So next time you see a 40km/h average find out how it was recorded, and next time you see the slowest guy around getting KOMs which you know he's not capable of, ask him what his threshold speed is set to.

Knee Pain from Cycling

Background
Early in January 2012 I had a very painful knee injury, caused by too much low-cadence cycling in too hard of a gear (see Singlespeed and Knee Pain). So when I felt more pain in both my knees again, eight months later, I was worried.

The pain was different - this time it was a more bearable, dull, widely-spread ache. Almost like a mild headache, just in the knee. However, it was persistent, and not only when pedaling too hard like before. In fact it even hurt off the bike.

At about km 80 of a 128km ride last weekend, I suddenly noticed a [painless] clicking sensation in my right knee, and then later at home the same in the left, albeit less pronounced.

I decided to visit a doctor and have it looked at. What I was really concerned about was whether or not I'd be doing long term damage (and how to prevent this while still cycling), and whether or not I could still participate in the upcoming 8-hour endurance MTB race just a week away.

Diagnosis
I asked my friendly neighborhood GP who I should speak to - a sports doctor, a physiotherapist, a cycling expert, who? He said in a case like this it's best to start at the top and let him refer you to a specialist. So he told me to see an orthopedist, and suggested a good one.

The next morning I called him, and was happily surprised to be able to schedule an appointment with him that morning.

I explained to him my previous injury, and my cycling habits and when, how and what the pain is all about. He performed these few simple tests on me:

1. He pushed on the patellar tendon, directly below the kneecap, pressing up against the kneecap, almost under it. It hurt, suggesting damage to that tendon.
2. He put my foot on his knee and asked me if I could touch my toes. I couldn't even reach my ankles. This indicates a tightness in the hamstrings. The hamstrings bend the knee, and have tendons that connect to the knee.
3. He checked the lateral movement and pressed on the inside and outside and determined that the lateral ligaments were fine.

In short, my tight hamstrings are pulling the patella (kneecap) firmly - too firmly - against the femur and articular cartilage, creating unnecessary abrasion. This cartilage is supposed to be as smooth as glass, he said, and the scraping has roughened it up, making it bumpy, hence the clicks.

To me it's amazing to think tight hamstrings could be the cause of knee pain. But when you think about it, it's obvious, and just mechanics.

The pain comes from the patella rubbing against the articular cartilage too much, due to tight hamstrings.
Image source: Wikipedia

Solution

1. The first, and most obvious thing I need to do is stretch my hamstrings. A lot.
2. Next, I need to raise my saddle to keep the leg from having to be too bent too much. Think about it. The more my leg is bent, the more the patella will rub against the cartilage. When straight, the rubbing is minimized.
3. Last, he prescribed me some [expensive] glucosamine sulphate which will help repair the cartilage; 1,500mg a day.

I asked him if I should be taking chondroitin - as a few of my friends suggested on Facebook. He said that once you take chondroitin it is simply converted to glucosamine in your body. He said chondroitin is just good marketing.

My Riding Future
This is the thing I was most worried about. He told me to continue putting the same mileage in, no problem. Just stretch and take the medicine. He said if I can handle the pain it's OK (though not really good) and I could still do the 8-hour race next weekend.

Olympic MTBers on Strava

Following a post I did a while back about which Olympic cyclists are on Strava, which focused mostly on road, here's a full audit of the MTBers in the Olympics that are on Strava:

• Georgia Gould; American - Strava profile; Olympics profile - won bronze in women's MTB
• Lea Davison; American - Strava profile; Olympics profile
• Manuel Fumic; German - Strava profile; Olympics profile
• Nino Schurter; Swiss - Strava profile; Olympics profile
• Michael Vingerling; Dutch - Strava profile; Olympics profile

Here are a few more that have little to no Strava uploads or activity:

• Philip Buys; South African - Strava profile; Olympics profile
• Kohei Yamamoto; Japanese - Strava profile; Olympics profile
• Gerhard Kerschbaumer; Italian - Strava profile; Olympics profile
• Todd Wells; American - Strava profile; Olympics profile
• Periklis Ilias; Greek - Strava profile; Olympics profile

Training for an 8-Hour Enduro

The Challenge
In just four weeks I'll be racing in an 8-hour off-road enduro. It was just announced a few days ago and I'm not really prepared. This leaves little time to train, but enough time to develop a strategy.

I'm most concerned with the following:
1. Hydration & Nutrition
2. Pace Strategy
3. Psychological State
4. Training

Here I am finishing a lap in last year's 12-hour night race

Hydration & Nutrition
I tend to not drink enough water, which is a real mistake in this oppressive, tropical heat of Singapore. Last year I did the first few laps with no water - I felt fine - but then about 6 hours in I was too dehydrated to push on. The ultimate way to learn.

Lucky for me, I have a good friend to coach me and monitor me for this race who knows what he's doing. He'll be racing vicariously through me - he's down with a broken ankle (from being drunk in Korea I hear). He has been racing and riding for maybe 20 years (me - only 4) and if I follow his advice I'm sure I'll benefit tremendously.

Because this race is in the format of laps around a course, with the winner determined by how many laps he or she completes over the period of 8 hours, I'll see him each lap. We'll have a pit and he'll be there (drinking beer I'm sure) and ordering me to follow his instructions on what to eat and drink.

For my long road rides (100km or more) or off-road races (usually about 45km) I fuel myself with Hammer Perpetuem. It provides me with the sustenance to feel neither full nor hungry, and prevents me from bonking. I've tested it enough to know that I need one scoop (135 calories) per hour.

Hammer recommends drinking a few sips of water after each slug of Perpetuem; I consume about 600ml of water per 4 scoops, which would amount to 1.2 litres over this race. This is following Hammer's "Multi-Hour Bottle" approach. Obviously that's not nearly enough water for hydration, just to make the solution go down.

Another approach Hammer offers is "The One-Hour Bottle", which they say is best when racing with support. For me, (one scoop per hour) it'll mean I mix a scoop in a bottle, fill it with water, and drink one an hour.

The benefit of this over the "Multi-Hour Bottle" is that it fulfills more hydration requirements. The drawback is it will only last one hour, not four. But that's OK because I'll have the option of stopping in the pit every lap, which is 6.8 km long.

In addition, I'll need plenty of other liquids, specifically more water and some kind of energy drink with electrolytes.

Then I'll need some more immediate energy source, like gels or some other sugars.

Pace Strategy
For all the mountain bike races I've ever done, even one 12-hour night race (which I didn't finish), I've always thought the best pace strategy is to start hard and fast, and grab a good position early on, and hold it till the end, if possible.

However, for a race this long, I think I'll just treat it like a ride. I will not attempt to secure a leading position at any time. I will just pace myself, steadily and consistently. I hope that my first few laps are not much faster than my final laps. Unless, of course, I somehow find that I have energy during those last few laps. Then I can nail it. But I don't foresee this happening.

I know myself. I will burn myself out too early if I'm not careful. 8 hours is a long time.

If I really pace myself so consistently, I believe others will drop out towards the end and I will be able to finish (respectably - say, the top half)! I'd be happy with that.

Psychological State
This relates to the pace strategy, in that I need to be mentally relaxed, and not over-anxious to hammer it when getting passed by dozens and dozens of others.

Last year - at this stage, late into the night, my psychological state was bordering on delirious

I need to strike a balance between staying competitive, to place as high as possible, yet having fun and still enjoying it. Once it stops being fun it's not worth it.

Next, I need to leave all mechanical and nutritional burdens to my crew, and not let them weigh on my mind.

Finally, some athletes use imagery or visualization to imagine the course, the lines, the actions, from a first-person point of view. This is said to reinforce the pathways between the brain and the body and can result in better coordination and technique. I'm not too sure about it but I can try it.

Training
Given the fact that I only have one month, I won't be able to train to a state of being fully ready to complete this race, on form, at a high level of fitness. But I have built up a decent base of mileage over the past 6 months. Last week I only did 162 km (exactly 100 miles), and I lack the endurance needed for this race.

I'll raise my plan a bit to include more frequent morning rides, and even longer weekend rides. I normally only do two morning rides (35-45km each), and a 120km weekend ride. I should do three morning rides and 162km for the weekend.

This weekend I will recon the course with my crippled alcoholic coach and try to find out the exact course. This will help me in the earlier point - psychological state - in that if I am keenly aware of the turns, berms, boulders and flats - the whole topography - I'll have that much more of an edge.

Last, one bold thing I could attempt ("could" and "attempt" being key) is my own 8-hour ride. Go to the course one weekend and see how many laps I can complete! That would be the ultimate and would set a real, actionable and meaningful benchmark for the final event.

The Course