For these reasons, I was looking for a GPS + heart rate monitor watch, it endures the rain, and has a better coverage of GPS signals. In addition, I previously ran without a heart rate monitor, and sometimes it’s interesting to know the heart rate while doing sport. I was looking at different options, and taking into account quality, comments from people, and price, my preferred choice was a Garmin Forerunner 305. So I bought it.

The only drawback I saw was the connectivity. With RunKeeper, the mobile application automatically synchronize with the web service, it was to save your workout and everything was done. With the Garmin, you need to connect it to an USB adapter to get the data. You need some drivers and a Garmin plugin that only works on Windows/Mac, while the main operating system I use is GNU/Linux.
So there was a small dilemma: I wanted to use the Garmin to log the workouts, I wanted to continue using RunKeeper web service because I think that RunKeeper guys are doing a good job and are providing a great service, plus I have a paid RunKeeper Elite account, and finally, I also wanted to continue using my favorite OS, GNU/Linux.

Fortunately it’s possible to combine all three.
The first thing to do is to copy the training data from the Garmin to the computer using GNU/Linux. To do this, I found a great reference at braiden.org and I did everything, more or less, following the same steps, but our goal is to upload the data to RunKeeper.

To copy data from the watch you need several things:

• Garmintools. You can use the upstream version, or for example, if you use Ubuntu (like me), just install garmin-forerunner-tools from Synaptic.
• Java. You can find it from Synaptic too (sun-java-jre).
• Some scripts from braiden.org (you can download the latest code from the SVN: svn co http://linuxnerd.net/svn/trunk/projects/garmin-dev)

After you have these requirements met, the following thing to do is connect the Garmin Forerunner to the USB. I think it must be turned on, before transferring data, but it could work being off too.

1. Run the following command: garmin_save_runs

This will copy the training data in the folder where you run the command, with a folder hierarchy similar to year/month/workout.gmn
This data is in a binary format, and RunKeeper won’t accept it, so you have to convert to .tcx format.

2. We go into the directory where you placed the scripts from braiden.org, and run: ./gmn2tcx /path/year/month/workout.gmn> workout.tcx

The data will be converted to the appropriate format and will be saved to the run.tcx file (or the name you want).

3. Now with the .tcx format will be possible to upload it to RunKeeper. To import the workout to RunKeeper, follow these steps:

In your RunKeeper profile press “Post New Activity”, select the right sport, and in the screen “Add map”, press “Import Map” button. Then, select the right file using the chooser from the left side of the screen,  “Import from a GPX or TCX file”. And if everything is correct, all data from your workout (even heart rate data) with the Garmin will be available on RunKeeper.

It’s possible to automatize this process further and do it much easier, even with a small graphical application using simple steps. If the RunKeeper guys publish an API of their service, probably I can create something for that.

As the only drawback I’ve found so far is that RunKeeper doesn’t differentiate the total time from the elapsed time. Sometimes you need to stop at a light traffic or something else, and the Garmin watch auto-pause . That time is token by RunKeeper as training time. But hey, it’s not something very important because the pause time is usually very little. By the way, this is my RunKeeper profile, if you want to check my workouts.

Microchip Capillary Electrophoresis

A microchip or integrated circuit is basically a very small device on which electronic circuits are fabricated.

In the case of the microchips for Capillary Electrophoresis, our electronic circuit is a conductive liquid solution, so the microchip instead of a printed electronic circuit, will have small channels where the liquid solution is placed.

Capillary electrophoresis is a separation technique based on the differential movement of charged molecules in a conductive medium to which we apply an electric field. Each specie will have a different migration velocity depending on their  charge/radius ratio, hence the different species will be separated. The Electroosmotic flow also influences the separation.

Therefore, Microchip Capillary Electrophoresis will be the implementation of the Capillary Electrophoresis technique inside one of these microchips.

The main benefits of this technique are several, such as: low cost, small size (it’s a microchip!), fast analysis times (seconds or minutes), microchips consume only picoliters of samples, can be added other techniques in the pre-sampling phase or after it (for example, PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) can be coupled, or even solid phase extraction, etc.).

As the most important problem is the control of the surface chemistry of microchips CE devices, since this surface chemistry is not very well known.

These microchips are highly related to lab-on-a-chip devices, but we’ll talk about it in another post.

Materials

Most used materials for manufacturing these microchips are glass and different polymers. Polymers are cheaper.

Injection

The injection of the sample and the mobile phase is integrated into the system. There are different ways of injecting the sample into the separation channel, but we will not comment about it in this short summary. Check the references for more information.

Separation

The separation of the different species occurs in the same way as in capillary electrophoresis, being able to apply one of these techniques (adapted to the microchip format):

• Micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC).
• Capillary electrochromatography (CEC).
• Capillary gel electrophoresis (CGE).
• Capillary isoelectric focusing (CIEF).

Detection

The most common detection modes are the following ones:

• Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF): very sensitive but not every analyte is fluorescent. Also, the equipment is expensive.
• Mass spectrometry (MS): Expensive, and large size equipment. But, well, everyone knows the MS advantages.
• Electrochemical detection: in my humble opinion is, generally, the best option (I’m biased for Electroanalysis). It’s cheap, easy to miniaturize and can be integrated in the microchip. Moreover, many molecules are electrochemically active. Of course, not everything is perfect, and sensitivity can be a problem for some applications.

Applications

There are many applications for the MCE, and each day new applications are being researched, with an increasing use of these microchips and the related miniaturized techniques.

Among the most important applications, but not the only ones are:

• DNA separation.
• Protein analysis, aka Proteomics.
• Many biological, environmental, and industrial application.

References

• Microchip capillary electrophoresis: methods and protocols By Charles Sherman Henry.
• Microchip-based capillary electrophoresis: sequencing and beyond by Anthea Hammond.
• Microchip Capillary Electrophoresis: Progress Toward an Integrated Forensic Analysis System by Susan A. Greenspoon, Stephanie H.I. Yeung, Jeffrey D. Ban and Richard A. Mathies.
• Polymer Microchips for Capillary Electrophoresis and Electric Field Gradient Focusing of Biomolecules by Ryan Thomas Kelly.
• Capillary electrophoresis on microchip by Vladislav Dolník, Shaorong Liu, Stevan Jovanovich. Electrophoresis, 2000, Volume 21, Issue 1.
• Capillary Electrophoresis in Wikipedia.

These are my workouts for the past week:

• Monday 13th: Resting

Rest day, for not special motive.

• Tuesday 14th: Running – 8.18 km – 47 min – 5:46 min/km

I was a little hasty, and I didn’t want to get very tired today (I ran at 7:30), so I did a little less than the last times. Good feelings, I didn’t run as fast as I could, but ended quite proud with this run.

• Wednesday 15th: Swimming – 2.0 km – 1h 04 min

First time in the pool after 2 weeks (or practically third time in the last month), so I didn’t feel very good. I got tired pretty soon, and the rest of the workout wasn’t as productive because of this. Anyway, I managed to do 2000m, combining series of 50 and 100 m. Most of them to crawl, but about 500m in backstroke and breaststroke.

• Thursday 16th: Resting

I did want to go to the swimming pool today instead of Friday, but finally I didn’t go, so I decided to rest finally.

• Friday 17th: Swimming – 2.8 km – 1h 24 min

I felt very good this day. 500m crawl as warm up. I’m starting to swim more important distances without stopping, which is a good sign. After that, I did series of 100m, crawl, backstroke and breaststroke, and some series of 50m crawl at a faster speed. To finish the workout I swam again 500m crawl. That’s great, because I was tired after 2300m, but anyway I was able to swim the last 500m without stopping.

• Saturday 18th: Resting

Some sleeping is good occasionally.

• Sunday 19th: Cycling – 38.30 km – 2h 31 min

Good cycling day. It was cold at the start, even if I started at 9:30 today, and the sun was shining. I think I need to wear more clothes, because I’m not comfortable with the cold, specially, cycling downhill. The route was to La Reigada, from an altitude of 7m, to about 530m, and back. I felt very good, with good legs, and after the workout I wasn’t very tired.

Total week 37:  Swimming: 4.8 km – Cycling: 38.30 km – Running: 8.18 km

Next week I’ll try to improve further in the swimming pool, and run two times a week (probably Monday and Thursday). Let’s see if the periostitis doesn’t return even doing these two running sessions.

These are my workouts for the past week:

• Monday 6th: Running – 10.20 km – 55 min – 5:24 min/km

I got up at 6:45, and after eating some light food (fruit and some juice), I was to run about 7:15. Well, I started running a little later after heating and stretching, but it was earlier than other days anyway.

The run was from a slower pace to a faster pace. I ended up happy with what I did, a little over 10 km, but at a pace high enough to my conditions. I did the 10k in about 54 minutes, not bad for a training and running at that hour. I think I could do less than 50 minutes easily, having rested and preparing it a bit better. This gives me a good feeling to do a good San Silvestre race (December 31th). Race that will be my first competition. It is 6.5 km, and I can probably go at a pace of 4:30 min/km considering that distance, and with a bit better training than I do now. That’s my goal for December 31th.

• Tuesday 7th: Resting

I had to do some administrative tasks in other city, therefore I lost the morning, and I didn’t anything later.

• Wednesday 8th: Cycling – 31.93 km – 2h 15 min

Not very much to say about this bike ride. Climb to Pulide, non-stop, it took me less time than other times, even taking into account the windy day and the difficulty to ride in this way.

• Thursday 9th: Resting

I had to be in home for some stuff, so I couldn’t do any sport today.

• Friday 10th: Resting

I didn’t do any sport today, but I walked like 7-8 km in the morning. It should count

• Saturday 11th: Resting

Well, today, I didn’t even listen the alarm to wake up. Surely, it played, and I turned off it without realizing it.

• Sunday 12th: Resting

I got up very tired, I wanted to go for a bike ride anyway, but it was raining enough to turn me back. Fail.

Total week 36:  Swimming: 0 km – Cycling: 31.93 km – Running: 10.20 km

Next week I will start my Master classes and I’ll have a better understanding of my schedule during the coming months. It will be difficult to ride with the bike in weekdays because when I come home (or very early in the morning) it is very dark. So, biking will be done during weekends (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), probably I am not going to have class the Fridays. Considering these circumstances, I will be running more than one day a week, during weekdays, and also I hope to find some time for going to the pool in weekdays.

I’d like to move forward in my sports training and not lose everything I’ve achieved so far. Let’s see how it goes.

If you read the message, there are some keys before the description of the fixed bugs, for example, NB#190995. For the people not following the Nokia scene, these codes mean that the bug report is from the Nokia internal bugtracker, which is not public. Nokia uses a private bugtracker to handle bugs for open source projects.

My main concern about this is the fear that something similar to what happened with Maemo in the past happens now in MeeGo. The story is quite simple:

• Nokia announce Maemo and opens a public bugzilla at maemo.org
• 10 Nokia developers/architects (well, it isn’t the exact number) use the public bugzilla, the rest use the private bugtracker.
• The community feels that they’re spending the time talking to a wall, and report a bug so that developers become more involved in the public bugzilla and a true collaboration happens.
• This bug report is still open after more than four years. Of course, most developers weren’t never involved in the public bugzilla.
• Maemo Community members aren’t happy with Nokia.

I fully understand that Nokia uses an internal bugtracker for closed software or software that hasn’t been revealed yet, but I can not understand how they use the internal bugtracker for things like MeeGoTouch which is developed openly (or not?).

Robin already asked the reasons, and even wrote a bugreport in meego.com. But there isn’t any good excuse for this, an open project should be discussed openly (MeeGoTouch is) and the bugs should be managed openly too.

Meego is in a very early period of development, and of course we must be patient and give it time, but it is better to do things right from the start because if not it will be much more difficult to change later.

These are my workouts for the past week:

• Monday 30th: Resting

Well, after the weekend with party in this part of the world, I needed a day more of resting. I did some pending errands, and no sport.

• Tuesday 31th: Running 10.53 km – 1h 02 min – 5:56 min/km

There you have it, my first 10 km running. I’m beginning to get some reliability while running, and although I run only once a week, I already can do something interesting. It could seem a small step for many people, but it’s a big step for me. I am proud of myself

Other interesting information: I run again for asphalt, yes it is harder (and can be worse for injuries), but in the place where I live (and run) it is funnier because you can do different routes, have beautiful landscapes, etc. Here it is difficult to find a good place for running with a softer track (and near home). Also, like the previous week I had some knee pain, but it disappeared the next day too.

• Wednesday 1st: Swimming – 2000 m – 1h 20 min

I was back to the pool after some weeks without serious swimming, and obviously it was a bit complicated. It was difficult to breath after some meters, and, you know, little oxygen in muscles means high heart rate and it means low performance. At the end, I swam 2000 m, not bad at all in these conditions. I used my Swedish goggles for the first time, I need fix it perfectly because now it hurts a bit, but I know that I will find the right fit with a bit of practice.

• Thursday 2nd: Resting

I had to be in home for some stuff, so I couldn’t do any sport today.

• Friday 3rd: Resting

I got up for going to the pool, but I didn’t feel very good, so I went to the bed again. I was a bit dizzy all day, and feeling weird. Who knows why.

• Saturday 4th: Resting

I was better than the day before, but I didn’t do any sport anyway.

• Sunday 5th: Mountain Biking – 27.44 km – 2 h 21 min

After the weird last days, I got up early and I began to pedal. I did a route that I have done previously some times, to the Gorfolí mountain. You know, asphalt road at the start of the route, then the climbing is full of sand and stones, and the final part again is asphalt.

The weather was changing during the morning and while at the start I found a dense fog (and it was very cold and wet), when I began to climb the mountain the sun was shining, and it was hot finally.

Total week 35:  Swimming: 2.0 km – Cycling: 27.44 km – Running: 10.53 km

Although the next week I have to do some administrative tasks (it will be a couple of mornings), I hope that at the end it will be a better week than this one, and I can continue improving my physical shape.

But hey, better late than never, even in a summarized way and without explaining in detail each workout, only some key data when it happened.

These are my workouts for the week 32. The weekend I was travelling, so little action.

• Monday 9th: Resting

• Tuesday 10th:  2500 m – 1h 30 min – Swimming + 19.99 km – 1h 20 min – Cycling

Double session. The cycling part wasn’t very hard itself but having done it after the swim, it was a bit complicated. I got some pain in my right knee doing the breaststroke kick, it almost doesn’t bother during normal activities, but I can’t swim breaststroke with the normal kick.

• Wednesday 11th: 2500 m – 1h 30 min – Swimming

• Thursday 12th: 2500 m -1h 30 min – Swimming

• Friday 13 th: Resting

• Saturday 14th: Resting

• Sunday 15th: Resting

Total week 32:  Swimming: 7.5 km – Cycling: 19.99 km – Running: 0 km

These are my workouts for the week 33. In the place where I have been is really hot all day, so the workouts are very short. But at least I was a bit active. Also, I got about 1 kg of weight during this week.

• Monday 16th: 1.94km – 16 min – Running

Yeah, very easy workout. The excuse is that my brother-in-law was with me and it was his first time.

• Tuesday 17th: 2.78km – 16 min – Running  + 11.70 km – 1h 28 min – Cycling

Easy workouts too. But I biked with a bike similar to the one in the photo. Cool eh?

• Wednesday 18th: 4.68 km – 28 min – Running

No periostitis even running three days in a row. I know that the first two days it was short runs, but something is something.

• Thursday 19th: Resting

• Friday 20th: 1400 m – 55 min – Swimming

• Saturday 21th: Resting

• Sunday 22th: I was to the swimming pool to play mainly, and I didn’t do any workout, but I took some times for some distances. For example, I did 1:45 in 100m breaststroke, it is not a bad time considering the few workouts that I have had. Not knee pain today.

Total week 33:  Swimming: 1.4 km – Cycling: 11.70 km – Running: 9.40 km

These are my workouts for the week 34. The swimming pool is closed until September 1th so no-swimming until then. I’m doing some weightlifting with my arms to gain some strength when I swim again.

• Monday 23th: Resting

• Tuesday 24th: Resting

• Wednesday 25th: 8.91 km – 54 min – Running

Well, it has been my longest run ever. I thought in running about 45 minutes, but finally I changed the route, and then I kept running until the end of the route. The pace was good for me, 6:06 min/km. Later, resting, I had some pain in both knees, I think they were a bit overcharged, because the pain was over the next day. The periostitis didn’t appear, good thing after this long run, hopefully it won’t appear again. My legs are more muscled than before, and my weight is lower too. Also, now I only run about 1 day a week, it can be a determinant factor. I will be running more days every week when the weather will be worse and it will be difficult go with the bike, so let’s see if then the periostitis is back or is over forever.

• Thursday 26th: 39.32 km -2h 40 min – Cycling

It has been my longest run with the bike. I climbed La Reigada, good roads except the last kilometers of the climb. I had good sensations, even after my longest run from yesterday. The knee pain was almost over, and practically I didn’t note anything during the way.

• Friday 27th: 14.46 km – 56 min – Cycling

It was a very windy day, and it was very difficult to move forward with the bike, so I did a simpler route than planned. Something is better than nothing.

• Saturday 28th: Resting

• Sunday 29th: Resting

Total week 34:  Swimming: 0 m – Cycling: 53.78 km – Running: 8.91 km

Next week I will return to the normal routine with biking, swimming and running. Let’s see how it goes.

At first, just comment that I am not going to continue supporting the software I have written for Maemo. All this software was written in Hildon whose future is uncertain in MeeGo, and after several months there seems to be no one interested for change this future, even if Nokia donated $50,000 to Gnome, but apparently they still have not even decided what to do with this money. Cornelius did a very good suggestion here.

I am sorry for the users of my Maemo 5 applications, but you must understand that I can not keep spending time on something that is not going to have a future.

In other topic, my knowledge of Qt and C++ are increasing little by little, I’m writting working software, but surely the code is not as optimized as possible, something I hope to fix over time.

The main reason why I am writing software in C++ now is because I want it to be available at sites such as Ovi Store for Meego. The Ovi Store does not support applications written in Python, there is a request made by the Maemo Community for that possibility, but I doubt that Ovi supports it soon.

My plan is to market some of these applications, ie sell some applications, therefore the source code will not be available. I would love to sell an application and open the code, but if I open the code anyone can distribute the application for free. If anyone has an idea of how to do both without losing sales, I’m all ears.

Of course there will be free copies (and beta versions, etc.) for friends and people who help me to improve the software, testing it, reporting bugs, etc. and if the business goes well I will be able to give better gifts to these people and even create my own company (Yerga Mobile Solutions)

Without further ado, I will list the applications I’m developing so far with Qt and C++. There are more planned applications but those news will come when necessary.

Periodic Table

When I have to learn to program in a new UI platform, I always write a periodic table (I’m a chemist), and in the case of Qt has been the same way. If I fulfil the plans I have for this application it will be the most complete periodic table ever written for a mobile device.

Features working so far

• The Periodic Table itself, with data for the elements.
• Graphics of the properties of the elements.

Some TODO items

• 3D molecules from PDB files (with online search)
• Amino acids data
• Molecular mass calculator
• Hundred of small things

GTD app

This is the killer application I’m writing right now. It is a task management application using the GTD method (method I’ve been following for months). The application is written taking many ideas of Things for iPhone application, but in the end it will be different with different features.

Features working so far

• All task management (add, move, delete, complete, etc.)
• GTD *lists* (inbox, scheduled, next, someday, etc.).
• Projects support

Some TODO items

• Repeating tasks
• Improve landscape UI
• Attach files (audio, photos) to tasks.
• Desktop application (for Linux, MeeGo netbook, Windows and MacOS).
• Notifications.
• Search tasks.
• Synchronize with Remember The Milk, Tooedlo, Outlook, iCal, Evolution, etc. (yay, complicated).
• GPS integration (localized task).
• New, nicer icons.

Of course, I will continue writing open source software for Meego, for these cases the applications will be written in Python with MeeGoTouch libraries (when available). MaStory and CasualServices are the first applications that I will be porting to MeeGoTouch libraries.

PS. That are desktop screenshots for the Qt applications because launching a Qt app in the MeeGo Handset SDK it becomes a blank screen.

These are my workouts for the past week:

• Monday: 1000 m – 1h – Swimming

Well, after 10 years without swimming more or less seriously, today I have done it again. I have been to the pool sometimes in the last 10 years but never to swim, just to have fun with friends, and at most I did about 100 m in total in all this years.

I have done series of 50 m, stopping to rest between them, I still can not do many more meters without stopping, and I preferred to do more total distance with good rests, rather than do 200 m continuously, and be unable to move my arms more time. The feelings were pretty good, and finally I have done more meters than I had thought. In these series of 50 m, the first 25 meters I felt pretty comfortable and I could check the technique, in the second 25 m, I was only trying to raise my arms because they weighed a lot, and I could hardly with them and let them fall like a dead weight. But this is normal, and I know that in a few days I will be able to do better things. Most series have been in crawl, but I did some in backstroke, and some also in breaststroke. I felt particularly good swimming backstroke.

Talking about the kick, though I have stronger legs than the arms at the moment, I failed to be consistent with them, and there were times when I did a pretty good kicking, but at other times it was practically nothing. Breathing I felt better than I expected, I can do 25 m almost without breathing, which is a pleasant surprise.

On the other hand, the goggles I bought are really bad, and I am going to buy some Swedish goggles when I can, even if at first it takes time getting used to them, I know that eventually will be the best.

In summary, it has not been bad for the first day after so many years (and especially, taking into account that have been very unhealthy years).

• Tuesday: 29.34 km – 2h 45 min – Mountain Biking

The day dawned cloudy but it was opening, and eventually I had enough sun and hot most of the route. It did not affect me very much, just the water you lose with the hot (as sweat). I went to Gorfolí again, this time I climbed until the antennas (higher point). I went very well, perfectly controlling the pulse and breathing, so I had not to stop at any time because of this, my body is starting to take shape. Although I had soreness in the arms because of the swimming yesterday, practically it did not bother me on the bike.

The fact that this route I am doing now to go to Gorfolí is very interesting because it has the first part with nice roads and a couple of long climbs but widespread, then the final climb is a way with soil and stones, which becomes hard, but quite bearable. The last part of the route is almost all downhill or flat, good to recover.

• Wednesday: 1500 m – 1h 12 min – Swimming

Another day of swimming. I had enough stiffness in the arms, which complicates a little the mobility and technique these early days. The distance was not bad, 1500 m, which have been about 1200 m in crawl and 300 m backstrocke and breaststroke. It was in series of 50 m, except for the first 100 m that were continuous.

My feelings were a bit like the first day, the first 25 m of each series have been quite acceptable, taking care of the technique, but the last 25 I was happy to reach the wall and the arms had almost no strength to push the water. But I hope that eventually I will improve, and as I get better of the soreness of the first days, sure I can do better than now.

• Thursday: Resting

• Friday: 2000 m – 1h 19 min – Swimming

Much better today, almost no soreness in the arms, bringing the total meters more than the previous days doing just a little more time. I did most series of 50 m, but I also did about 500 m in series of 100 m. The distribution of strokes was about 1500 m in crawl, and the rest backstroke and breaststroke. Today I brought a watch to check the time of some of the series I have done, and yes, the times are pretty bad, as expected, the most important data it is that I did better times swimming breaststroke than backstroke, that means that my awesome breaststroke technique is perfectly, and when I can do all the meters with a stable force, I can do more interesting times.

• Saturday: 4.42 km – 35 min – Running

Running day. In principle, the periostitis do not bother me very much now, so running a day a week I do not think that it can reappear, and may be useful to further strengthen those muscles and have less problems in the future. The feelings I had were mixed, soon to start, I had some discomfort in the legs, and thought it was shin splints again, but it passed and I have not had any more trouble. When I was more time running, I had some discomfort in a knee and ankle, so I stopped running. I have not had any more trouble since that moment. At the end I ran 35 minutes at a lower pace than other times, and if not for these small pains I would have gone a little longer.

• Sunday: Resting

Many beers mean a bad hangover the next day, so you can not do very much.

Total week 31:  Swimming: 4.5 km – Cycling: 29.34 km – Running: 4.42 km

The next week I expect to do further progress in swimming, which is the sport that I will devote more time now. I expect to do three sessions during the week and in the weekend I will be on vacation, but I expect to do at least another swim workout there. I have planned going for a run one day, and the rest of the days I will bike. I could even do a double session, for example, swimming, then bike on the same day.

September is very close yet, I will have less time, so I have to improve in sports as much as possible now.

• Lunes: 21.05 km – 2h 41 min – Mountain Biking

Me desperté temprano, alrededor de las 7:30, y me levanté sobre 15 minutos más tarde, gracias a la fuerza de voluntad que estoy teniendo últimamente para levantarme a estas horas sin tener la obligación de hacerlo. Después de desayunar y prepararme, etc., abrí el Google Earth para ver donde podía ir hoy (tengo algunas rutas preparadas), y digo, pues voy a subir al Gorfolí.

Hay varios caminos para subirlo, y al final elegí un camino un poco complicado. No sabía que iba a estar en esas condiciones, al principio mucho barro y agua, y había sitios donde sólo había piedras grandes y era imposible ir montado en la bici, más arriba el camino estaba más seco, pero había tramos que eran bastante difíciles también. Así que me lo tomé con calma, sin prisa, haciendo unas cuantas fotos, y mirando el GPS cada poco, para no perderme por el monte. Al final no subí hasta las antenas pero estuve cerca, otro día que vaya por un camino más fácil subiré hasta allí. Bajé por Taborneda, hay un camino asfaltado y en buenas condiciones, con pendientes bastante interesantes, tengo que probarlo subiendo.

Un buen día de real Mountain Bike. Llegué con las piernas bastante embarradas y con mil picaduras de mosquitos, pero fue muy divertido.

• Martes: 20.10 km – 1h 28 min – Cycling

Un día de transición activa, haciendo menos kilómetros que las últimas salidas, y también con un recorrido un poco más fácil, con algunas subidas importantes también, aunque más cortas. Al principio me he encontrado bastante cargado del día antes, pero poco a poco me he ido soltando y he acabado la segunda parte del recorrido bastante bien, con un buen rendimiento en las subidas de la segunda parte del recorrido.

Ha hecho bastante viento, y con tanta mala suerte que me ha dado en contra en gran parte del recorrido, con el desgaste que ello supone.

Más tarde, ya en reposo, me ha empezado a doler (un pequeño dolor agudo) la rodilla izquierda cuando la flexionaba. Esperemos que no sea nada.

• Miércoles: descanso

El cuerpo me estaba pidiendo un descanso, así que se lo ofrecí gentilmente. Afortunadamente, el dolor de la rodilla se ha ido casi por completo.

• Jueves: descanso

Otro día de descanso, pero ha sido uno importante respecto al futuro de mi entrenamiento. Esto es debido a que he ido a comprar material para ir a la piscina, como ejemplo más significativos un bañador y unas gafas.

Cuando yo dejé la natación hace 10 años no había los bañadores que hay ahora, bueno sí que los había, pero no eran tan populares como son ahora. Y ahora lo menos normal es usar los que usábamos en aquella época, llámese bañadores de tipo slip. Obvíamente, ya no tengo los bañadores que usaba antes, aunque tampoco creo que me valieran, tampoco quería un bañador completo, buscaba algo de media pierna (jammer) o de tipo boxer. En la tienda que estuve no había bañadores de media pierna, por lo que me hice con uno de tipo boxer. Para lo que voy a hacer, por lo menos al principio, me basta y me sobra. El bañador que compré es muy parecido a éste, marca Adidas.

El tema gafas es más complicado, ya que es algo muy particular de cada uno, hay que sentirse bien con ellas, que no te molesten en la zona de los ojos y nariz  y que su rendimiento sea el adecuado, como por ejemplo que no entre agua dentro, o que no se empañen demasiado. Al final elegí unas gafas arena, que eran de lo mejorcito que había y parecían cómodas. Veremos como funcionan en el agua. Son las de la imagen. En el futuro me gustaría volver a usar gafas suecas, como usé los últimos años de nadador, pero son bastante más incómodas en los ojos, así que esperaré a acostumbrarme de nuevo a llevar algo puesto en esa zona, y luego ya podremos mejorar el equipamiento

• Viernes: 31.87 km – 2h 24 min – Cycling

Quedan dos días de entrenamiento, así hay que forzar un poco para llegar a esos 100 km totales en la semana, una cifra mágica. Por lo que estos dos días serán salidas largas de más de 30 km.

Hoy la ruta fue hasta Pulide otra vez, la verdad que me gusta mucho esta ruta, ya que hay tereno de todo tipo, y la subida final es muy guapa entre árboles, en medio de la hermosa naturaleza asturiana. La mañana estuvo bastante nublada, algo menos de 20 ºC, y con algo de orbayu en algunos momentos pero que venían muy bien, especialmente cuando la carretera picaba hacía arriba. Estrenaba coulotte que también compré ayer, antes usaba unas simples bermudas, pero la verdad que cuando estás más de 2 horas en bici las bermudas te empiezan a rozar en todos los sitios y son muy incómodas. Además el coulotte con la protección que tienen, ayudan bastante a que la dureza del sillín no sea tan importante, y acabes con el culo dolorido por tanto tiempo encima de la bicicleta.

El recorrido me llevó unos 15 minutos menos que la anterior vez que hice esta misma ruta (el día 20), de ellos sobre 12 de esos minutos fueron en la subida, que hice mucho mejor, aunque por supuesto que sigo sufriendo con este tipo de subidas, y todavía tengo que parar en algunos momentos a bajar pulsaciones (hoy sólo paré dos veces).

El dolor en la rodilla izquierda volvió a aparecer al estar en reposo.

• Sábado: 28.32 km – 2h 31 min – Cycling

De nuevo subida al Gorfolí, pero por una ruta distinta que la que hice el lunes, también de tierra y con piedras pero el camino estaba en mejores condiciones que por la otra zona. El dolor de la rodilla estuvo presente desde casi el principio, parece que no le dió tiempo a recuperar desde ayer, aunque en mitad de la subida el dolor fue a menos y pude hacer más de lo que pensaba. Quizás es que haya aumentado mucho el kilometraje en poco tiempo, y la rodilla se resienta.

A parte de eso, las sensaciones que tuve han sido muy buenas durante gran parte del recorrido, ya que he ido controlando las pulsaciones muy bien en las subidas (y especialmente en la subida final al Gorfolí), y nunca se han pasado de la cuenta, por lo que no he tenido que parar en ningún momento por esa razón. Yo pienso que el desgaste (y la quema de grasas) es mucho mayor de esta manera que si haces un esfuerzo muy intenso durante menos tiempo y luego bajas el ritmo o te paras. Ha sido la primera vez que me ha entrado hambre durante el ejercicio, y eso contando con el desayuno que hago es, por lo menos, sorprendente.

En otro tipo de asuntos, es estupenda la corporatividad que hay entre la gente que hace MTB, y la educación que existe entre este colectivo, ya puede ser que alguien esté casi sin poder respirar subiendo y tenga capacidad para saludarte de todas maneras

En reposo continuó el dolor en la rodilla izquierda, pero tampoco es una molestia muy grande

• Domingo: descanso

Total semana 30:  Cycling: 101.30 km

La próxima semana se presenta bastante apasionante ya que voy a volver a la piscina (a nadar en serio) después de tantos años, sé que los primeros días me va a costar muchísimo y el ácido láctico va a aparecer en forma de agujetas, pero ya tengo ganas de que eso llegue. He pensado medir algunos tiempos y así ver en que estado de forma me encuentro y poder diseñar un entrenamiento a medida de estas condiciones.

En principio, esta semana de entrenamiento será de 3 días de piscina, 2 días de bici, y 1 día que voy a intentar correr un poco. Ya no tengo dolor en las tibias de la periostitis, y sé que forzando me volvería a aparecer, pero creo que 1 día a la semana de carrera me puede venir bien para seguir fortaleciendo los músculos de esa zona, y no tener problemas de periostitis.