Thursday, November 29, 2012

Running analysis

I was in the gym yesterday morning before work. It's normally really
quiet so a great time to use it.

There were a couple of blokes in there, one of whom was on the
treadmill. I normally don't really notice people like that but he got
my attention as he was running very weirdly. His left leg was coming
down so heavy that it was noticeably different to his right. I started
watching and he was running with a forefoot pattern in his right and a
heel strike on his left. Hence the different sound. I clocked his pace
as he looked laboured and he was just going at 8:30 mile pace so not
tearing up trees.

I watched some more and could see that his left hip was pulling and
causing mis-alignment in his stride.

As I watched I actually wanted to say something to him because I
thought this guy is heading for injury as he's so unbalanced but
didn't really know how to approach it as I'm not qualified and wasn't
really sure of the remedy.

My advice would have been for him to consider his form more and get a
consistent stride base I.e. forefoot on both feet with perhaps a
slower pace for a while. I'd have also got him to do some work on his
hips in terms of strengthening and also looked at the length of his
hamstrings as figure the left one would be considerably shorter hence
the pull on the hip. Then I started thinking about his lower back and
overall core stability.

This is a symptom of the many injuries I have had and the amount of
research I have done on how to cure them and prevent them. It's
essentially borne of frustration.

But was my thinking correct?



Sent from my iPad

Sunday, November 4, 2012

O2 oh dear.....

I have just had a very interesting experience with my iPhone 4 and O2.

Having used my iPhone a lot this morning for calls, texts, emails, twitter, spotify and photo's it just stopped working. I put it into my pocket working then 5 minutes later its dead. Bricked.

I tried connecting to power and various docking stations in the house. Nothing.

So i called O2. The guy on the line told me that (and i paraphrase) that "...if the phone isn't responding to power or synch with a computer it's probably just broken and that it happens..." He then continued that "...coincidentally it's your contract renewal today and so you are eligible for an upgrade..." Hmmm...my less than trusting side thought that maybe they had broken it but then can't do that can they?

He put me through to the upgrade team who offered me a new phone at a good deal but with another 24month contract. something i wasn't really keen on just doing. So i deferred and came online, initially intending to see what deals there were on iPhones with, potentially, other providers. As i fired up the laptop i thought i'd check for any advice or information on how to fix the problem i had. A quick google and there was the advices i needed

"...Try a Reset... press the home and sleep/lock buttons until you see the Apple logo, ignoring the slider. Takes about 5-15 secs of button holding and you won't lose any data or settings..."

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4162061?start=0&tstart=0

I did this and guess what. Phone fixed. So thankyou PaulCB but why did O2 not ask if i had done this or recommend it themselves? Not great customer service and if i were being cynical again i'd say that maybe the option of selling me an upgrade overtook everything else.

Very disappointed in O2 right now.
 

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Spitting

If you were walking down the street and a young man, say 25'ish
dressed normally, was coming towards you and spat what would you do
and think?

Now imagine the same scenario except the man is wearing running gear
and, er, running.

Do you view them differently?