A foolish consistency

IE7 Beta 2 Preview released

Read about it on the IEBlog. 

Install it from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/ie7/default.mspx.

Talk about it on Channel 9.

The IE team started January with one major focus - release this Preview by Jan 31st.  We had promised "first quarter 2006" and we wanted to beat that.  I'm super happy that we did.

Note that this is not the full fledged "Beta 2" but rather a preview of Beta 2, aimed primarily at site owners, web developers, tech enthusiasts and early adopter types.

Training Update - 10 weeks to IMAZ

Wow, it's been a month since I last gave a detailed update.  All of January has zipped by, a super busy month at work and at home.  I've spent quite a few hours on the bike, on the treadmill, and in the pool. I purchased a treadmill for my home last week so I could save a couple hours a week; I have it in my garage along with my bike trainer.  I've also started attending a Mon & Wed TI triathlon swimming class at the ProClub.

This last week's training was:

Mon: swim 1500 yds total (triathlon class)
Tue: off
Wed: swim 1300 yds total (triathlon class)
Thu: run 1:35 (first run on my new treadmill!)
Fri:  bike 1:00 tempo pace, swim 1000 yds
Sat: bike 1:00 (until I packed in because of the rain), run 2:20 (14 miles, treadmill)
Sun: bike 3:00 (endured the rain this time)

I've finally figured out whole stroke TI swimming and where to breath in the stroke.  Now I need the pool time to get faster than my current 2:35 100 yard pace.  At that rate, my 2.4 mile swim will take nearly two hours, which is a long long time to spend in the water.  I hope to get under 90 minutes for a 2.4 mile open water swim.  Of course, I've never even come close to swimming that yet - my longest open water swim was a mile about 2 years ago.

Triathlon Training in Cape Town, South Africa

Earlier this month I went on a business trip to Cape Town, South Africa with several collegues on the IE team and HR staff.  You can read more about it on Scott's blog.  Our purpose was recruiting, but there was enough time in our schedule for some sightseeing.  I also took the opportunity to focus on my run training.

It's summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and man oh man was it gorgeous in Cape Town.  We stayed at the Radisson Waterfront which as the name says is right on the waterfront, near the major shopping district called the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront.  And here's a shot taken about 5:20am one morning as I headed out for a 2 hour run.  This is the harbor at the hotel, facing east toward Granger Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.  (click for a larger view)

Yes, it really was that beautiful.  See why I fell in love with Cape Town?

My triathlon training in Cape Town consisted of visiting the nearby Virgin Active gym (complementary for hotel guests) for weight lifting and swimming, and running along the waterfront and around the local neighborhood.

I discovered that gym etiquette was different than the States.  For one thing, it's expected that you bring a "sweat towel" to drape over the equipment rather than use a spray bottle and towel to wipe them down. I didn't bring such a thing my first visit and had to bend the rules.  On my second visit, I brought a sweat towel, but when swimming I found out that swim caps are required.  Even for men with short hair like me.

I really liked the Virgin Active gym.  Lots of equipment, a good pool, and fun high energy technopop music blasting at a "pump you up" volume throughout the gym.  Plus they had a Kauai juice bar where I could get a protein enhanced banana blend smoothee after each workout.  Delicious!

My running was mostly along the Beach Road waterfront pedestrian walkway in the Granger Bay / Sea Point / Green Point neighborhoods.  This is about a 5 mile long brick paver / asphalt walking and running trail, right along the Granger Bay waterfront.  I ran in the mornings before our interview day would start - once from 6am to 7am, and twice from 5:15 to about 7:15, for a total of about 30 miles.

Here's more of what I enjoyed seeing on my runs:

Facing south toward the Sea Point neighborhood with the Lion's Head in the background:

The Green Point lighthouse:

Finally, facing north back to the Radisson (the leftmost building you can see in the distance) which sits on Mouille Point.

Goals & Resolutions for 2006

I am generally a goal-oriented person, although I'm not all that much for New Year's resolutions.  I'm seeing a lot of other people's resolutions on their blogs so I thought it would be fun to share mine.

Resolution: Apply sufficient effort to finish the task or accomplish the goal.  That sounds vague, but what I mean is this: I sometimes fall into the trap of applying "necessary but not sufficient" effort to a task such that the task never gets closed or the goal never gets reached.  I don't often do this at work, but too many of my personal projects fall victim to this pattern.  I put work and effort into something, but it's just pushing it along and not getting it done.  For example, selling my boat. I put some work into it in August (cleaning it, fixing a problem with it, putting a "for sale" sign on it).  All of those things were necessary to sell the boat, but not sufficient to sell the boat.  I needed to do a lot more than that to actually get the task done.  In 2006, I resolve to avoid "necessary but not sufficient effort" situations.

Life simplification is a goal I've been pursuing for several years.  By simplification I mean "less hassle, less complexities, fewer conflicts". Life complexity seems to grow just like the stacks of paper in my office. Three kids at home means three schedules to juggle and multiple places to be at the same time.  My job at Microsoft is obviously demanding, as is my triathlon hobby.  Life is complex enough. So I have two resolutions aimed at this goal.

Resolution: No new pets.  We lost Ginnie, our beloved German Shepard-Chow mix last summer.  With just our cat Snowball in the house it can seem a little quiet, so we've thought sometimes about getting another dog.  My wife and I both think this would be unfair to Snowball (imagine a 15 year old cat getting used to a new puppy) so we've planned to wait until Snowball passes.  But even if (heaven forbid) that happens this year, I think we should wait.  I've had a pet continuously since 1985; I'd like to see what life is like as a non-pet household.  This resolution may seem easy, but I'm a sucker for stray animals and the like.

Resolution: No new hobbies.  I excised boating from my life by selling my boat a couple of weeks ago.  Much as I'll miss the good times, I won't miss the moorage costs, the cleaning, the negative chi of owning something that expensive that I don't use enough.  I've toyed with the idea of returning to flying private planes, because stopping flying was my simplification choice when we upgraded boats.  But I'm not going to do that in 2006.  I have one time consuming hobby already (triathlons) and I don't need any more.  This also may seem easy, but I have a lot of interests and there are so many interesting things to do it.  It's hard for me to say things like "while I'm interested in scuba diving / rowing / flying / car racing, I'm not going to do it this year."

Goals are easier for me:

• Learn and grow at work.  I have a long list of work specific commitments that I'm not going to cover in detail, but they're about growing to the next level, adding value to the IE team by doing what I'm uniquely qualified to do, helping my reports and team grow and succeed, and shipping a great IE7 along with Windows Vista in 2006.
• Train for and finish Ironman Arizona without injury and without serious incidents on race day.
• Finish my reading list.  I have a large stack of business books, technical books, and some fiction I want to read in 2006.

Training Update - 14 weeks to IMAZ

This week had my first long brick training, a 5K, and lots of swim practice:

Mon: bike 1:30 tempo pace
Tue: run 1:25 moderate pace
Wed: TI stroke practice, 1:00
Thu: TI stroke practice, 1:30
Fri:  TI stroke practice, 1:00
Sat: Brick - bike 4:45 (52 miles), run 5K (treadmill)
Sun: 5K (Resolution Run)

I traded some cycling time for some swim practice, and luckily had no injuries or pain of significance.

I made a breakthrough on the breathing issues by analyzing the TI video frame-by-frame, identifying exactly what each swimmer was doing, and trying to replicate it in the pool. It really helped.  This next week I'm going to focus on the ZipperSwitch and OverSwitch drills (catchy TI drill names) and perhaps try some whole stroke swimming.

Resolution Run 5K

I started off the New Year with a great 5K today - the Resolution Run 5K at Magnusen Park in Seattle.  I ran with Malcolm and Tony.  Before the start of the race, we were busy cooking up our various ready-made excuses (Tony - "my shins still hurt", Malcolm - "I don't know how fast I run, I just run with my dog", and me with "I just did a brick yesterday, I could fall apart one mile into the race".  But all of that was unnecessary.  Each of us ran well, with Tony and I setting a personal records and Malcolm easily beating his "I think I can run 9 minute miles" by turning in an 8:15 pace 25:36.

The Resolution Run is in its 34th year, if I heard the announcer correctly.  Chatting with a fellow runner before the start, I found out that the last few years have been the current course, and for a number of years before that it was two loops down at Seward Park.  The current course is fast and flat, with the only obstacle today being occasional large puddles of standing water.  Luckily, it wasn't actually raining during the event.  The vibe for this event was much more hardcore than some of my recent 5Ks - many people were decked out in fancy running gear, and many people were wearing "finisher" shirts from various marathons.  Organization was good, and it was fun that the race started and ended inside an airplane hanger (Magnusen Park is a converted naval station).

I am very happy with my results; I set a personal record of 22:22 (beating my goal of 22:43).  I was 42nd of 199 men and 14th of 54 in my age group.  And this was despite having done a brick training yesterday of 52 miles cycling and a treadmill 5K.  I'm going to credit some of my performance to the free massage I had just before the start of the race.  I told the massage therapist that my legs felt a little stiff from my brick training, and she spent most of the 10 minutes working on my thighs and calves.  I felt great all through the race, although my heart rate started out in the 170s and as I approached the finish line is was steady at 193.

After the run we enjoyed the chili and beer garden.  We watched the kid's run as well.  I was impressed by the speed of some of those little kids.  I'm sure they'll soon be passing me on the run.