Äntligen har Google Navigation släppts för bl.a. Sverige! Många har vi varit som har väntat på detta och nu fungerar det äntligen. Jag blev så glad när jag upptäckte detta i går kväll att jag tom tog bilen till jobbet för att testa den ordentligt.

Den fungerade mycket bra. Den har kanske inte alla finesser hos alla betalapparna men den gör det den skall väldigt bra. Navigationen är mycket smidig och det är lätt att hitta alternativa vägar om man vill jämföra lite olika vägar till sitt mål. Den är väldigt snabb på att räkna om rutten ifall man väljer att köra en annan väg än den föreslagna (läs: kör fel) och jag är väldigt väldigt nöjd med den.

Jag har tidigare testat ett antal olika navigationsappar för Android men de flesta har fallit på antingen orimligt pris (ofta får man en 30 dagars prövotid eller liknande) eller så har de helt enkelt fungerat rätt dåligt. En som har fungerat bra för mig är annars NDrive men jag kommer nog inte nyttja den jättemycket nu när Navigate fungerar så bra.

Jag har inte hittat fartkameradata och liknande till den ännu men skall undersöka vilka add-ons som finns där ute.

I was prompted on Twitter to test out the Android mobile app “iMapMyRun” and so I did today. My first impression was that the software is not there yet, it has not reached a mature enough state to seriously compete with BuddyRunner or Endomondo or CardioTrainer or to be used even for beginners.

When registering I got buttons to select imperial/european units but none of the buttons seemed to work when I pressed them and in the end I had to chose to move on. When I did so I could not find another way to go back and change the settings, nor could I update my personal data such as weight and so on.

Today I took it for a test run and I used other tracking software at the same time. After about 2/3 of the way the iMapMyRun software stopped recording it seems and instead it just plotted the last position when I turned it off at my finish. Therefore it just went in a straight line for the last 1/3 of the run. Definitely something fishy was going on there. Neither did it record the GPS elevation data for some reason, the accompanying web site says “There was an error retrieving the elevation”, I have no idea why. Of my 5 km run this app recorded only 3.

Both other recording apps (Google Tracks and Endomondo) worked fine through all this. On top of all that it feels unintuitive and quirky and a little backwards but that may be just me expecting things from being used to the other apps in this field.

When the workout finished I got a ridiculous question about peanyut butter, an ad that felt intrusive and out of place. Peanut butter is hardly the stuff for athletes so it felt rather misplaced. The whole app and the accompanying web site is riddled with ads. If you are viewing your runs, you have to upgrade to the payed version or wait 15 seconds before you can see your run. Again it is not on the level with the competing softwares in this respect.

My recommendation is to wait and see if this app matures. In the mean time check out BuddyRunner or Endomondo, both very mature and well working GPS tracking apps for runners.

It gets one running shoe out of five for now.

Senaste veckan har det förekommit en debatt om att förbjuda samtal i mobiltelefon under färd med bil. I Sverige finns ingen sådan explicit lagstiftning vilket det gör i ett antal andra länder i Europa. De flesta tillåter dock samtal via handsfree men forskningen visar att problemet med att förare tappar uppmärksamhet har nästan inget att göra med om de håller telefonen i handen eller inte. Problemet uppstår när man kör och pratar med någon som inte är närvarande, det är en psykologisk faktor och inget som löses så enkelt. De flesta förare har inga större bekymmer med att prata med en icke närvarande person under färd normalt sett, det är om det sker ytterligare saker omkring em det kan bli problematiskt.

Blir samtalet för intensivt brukar de flesta välja att avbryta samtalet för att koncentrera sig på körningen eller stanna bilen för att prata klart innan man kör vidare, jag har en känsla av att det är mycket få som inte löser problemet när det uppstår. Det är nämligen en naturlig reaktion när man blir stressad. Det här kan man se själv, när man kör lugnt och fint på en väg där man hittar kan man ha radion på, man kan samtala med sina passagerare eller liknande. När det börjar bli svårt är den naturliga reaktionen hos i stort sett alla människor att begränsa intrycken. Radion skruvas ned, samtalen tystnar, mobilsamtalet läggs på och uppmärksamheten riktas mot att navigera trafiken och hitta till destinationen. I vissa länder är det helt förbjudet att prata i telefon under färd, handsfree eller ej, här har man i stället observerat ett beteende där folk tvärbromsar och stannar på mindre bra ställen när telefonen ringer – för kommunicera – det kommer folk inte att sluta med – det strider mot hennes natur. Jag anser nog att en specifik lagstiftning på detta område är galen. Ta yrkestrafiken då, skall taxibilar inte få svara i sin kommunikationsradio under färd? De flesta sådana är ej utrustningsbara med handsfree även om det blir mer vanligt nu för tiden med tex blåtandsteknik att det faktiskt går.

Samma förslag var också ute och cyklade på en helt anna punkt nämligen användandet av GPS i bilen. Den ville man också förbjuda eftersom det tar uppmärksamheten från vägbanan. Låt mig då påpeka att en modern talande GPS inte alls nödvändoäigtvis gör det. När jag själv använder en sådan kör jag mer på de talade instruktionerna än kartbilden när trafiken blir stressig och jag inte hittar men även om man tittar på skärmen för att se om det är här eller i nästa korsning man skulle svänga, så är det hundrafallt mycket bättre än när man satt med några urrivna blad från en telefonkatalog vid en telefonkiosk i knät under körning och försökte hitta till en god väns adress i Göteborg. Snacka om trafikfara! Skall paketbud också hänvisas till papperskartor igen som förr? Det är ju detta som återstår om man förbjuder specifika apparater som användningen av GPS-navigator under färd. Samtidigt håller jag med om att det kan vara olämpligt att sitta och programmera in sin destination under färd. Det kan vara smartare att ha gjort i förväg för det är en helt annan division när det gäller att navigera menyer och mata in adressfält jämfört med att följa instruktioner.

Vore det inte bättre att se över lagstiftningen om vårdslöshet i trafik, samt att se hur den lag vi i dag har tillämpas? Det är ju redan kutym har jag förstått att kolla om föraren hade ett uppkopplat samtal (genom teleoperatörernas loggar) om det finns minsta misstanke om att det kan vara det som är orsaken till olyckan. Jag tror GPS-apparater hjälper för vad är mer trafikfarligt än en stressad människa som inte hittar till sin destination, bilatlasen uppslagen och ett samtal uppkopplat för körinstruktioner?

Dessutom finns det ett annat problem med så specifika förbud som detta handlar om, och det är att det ger ett intryck av att andra saker som inte är förbjudna då plötsligt är tillåtna i stället. En så specifik lag måste också hela tiden förändras med tekniken vilket bara är dumt, detta eftersom det hela tiden kommer nya tekniker, man kan vara ganska säkert på att GPS kommer ersättas av något ännu smartare på sikt.

Är man orolig över folks bristande uppmärksamhet i trafiken borde man radikalt förenkla skyltningen i stället samt se över användandet av reklamtavlor och framför allt de här nya ytterligt ljusstarka videoskärmarna som man nu sätter upp lite överallt. Här finns definitivt saker att göra och även om jag tycker moralpaniken när HM kommer med nya underklädesreklamen på trafikreklampelarna är ytterligt överdriven så kan jag hålla med om att det stjäl uppmärksamhet i någon mån. Är det då trafikfaligt? Nja, inte nödvändigtvis.

En annan sak i sammanhanget är ju att en av de viktigaste faktorerna för att förhindra olyckor är ett väl fungerande vägunderhåll något som äntligen börjar uppmärsammas mer och mer. En mer generell lag om bristande uppmärksamhet i trafiken vore bättre – och det har vi redan så låt oss i stället se över hur den lagen är skriven eller kanske hur den tillämpas, det kommer definitivt vara tillräckligt.

Week 28 started out with a good contiuation of the previous couple of weeks with a 5 km run on Monday before I left for the Summerhack meeting in Skutskär. While there I found this beautiful bike/jogging trail going all the way to Rullsand, one of the finest beaches in whole of Sweden so I started out on Tuesday by running almost all the way there and then back again, making some 6,5 km.

Then one day of resting the legs and hacking in the night (Carpe Noctum as we say) before setting off on my next run all the way out to Rullsand and back again completing a full 10 km if I include the warmup and cooldown walks as well, it was a beautiful run with loads of energy and the kilometers just ticked away as the legs moved. Not too fast either just a great running experience with the exception of the mosquitoes and flies that set on in the woodland parts of the track.

That was it for week 28.

In wk 29 I started on Monday with a tempo based run with lots of hills, the ordinary long track at home 3,5 km one lap and did a pretty good time despite being intervals and kept a 7:23 tempo on average. On Tuesday I did my second 10 km PLUS warmup/cooldown (Kallhäll-Ängsjö-Kallhäll) so in total about 12 km actually but the running part was 10,9 km. This was asphalt for the full length with the exception of the first and last km that was gravel road.

This run was also a really good one, I even though parts are extremely hilly on this run but I managed with a few walks to get the pulse down again to jog at a really steady pace most of the time. Tempo was about 9:07 min/km which is slow but still, for being me not bad at all, I was really happy but very tired when I got back home. A bit overtraining here if I believe the training watch I am using.

On Thursday I tried jogging again but it was terrible, I just went home after 2 km that felt terrible. Bad sleep from the heat and not enough fluid as well as the 10 clicks from 2 days earlier was still in the system, it was better just give it a rest actually.

Saturday I visited a friend in Täby, Jenny B and “borrowed” her usual track. Took a few wrong turns there so her 5 k run turned out to be a 6 k run for me but did well and it felt really really good!

Sunday was another first for me, running trail! I have heard much about it so I did myself a map over the trails in the area and laid out a 7 km run on them. It was not fun. It was just BRILLIANT! I have never really had so much fun running. Roots and fist-sized stones, slippery boulders, wet pine needles and loose branches as well as mud, cold water streams to jump across, a little bit of old forgotten gravel road and then back into the woods again.

There was a mist all through the woods, permeating everything and the really tricky parts I had to negotiate half crawling but it was challenging, hilly, technical, lovely and just something I really really enjoyed doing.

Challenging is an understatement. Compared to running on even ground this is so much more difficult, you got to keep a cool head and THINK all the time in order to not put yer foot in the wrong place and slip leading to a sprained ankle or even breaking something. When you get tired you have to be even more careful of the footing but it was just great.

I am going to keep doing trails more often now that I know how fun that is!

I did it! My first 10 km run tonight. Not very fast at all, instead I forced myself to run really really slow keeping the heart beat low and not considering the pace or the time really just letting the kilometers drop away.

My favourite lap times five, it’s about 1800 meters and then down towards the beach and back going home again.

And it actually felt quite nice. Right now my feet hurt a little but during the running it just felt good. Strange that, I hardly thought I could make it and then it even felt good. I’ve been training at a too high pulse as usual before.

Not the same thing as streaking that is, but I have been running every day since Sunday and I am starting to notice results. Condition goes up very fast and now I need to let the muscles and ligaments catch up. I am back at about 6 km and are working my way up to 10 km slowly in low tempo but still jogging. Yay.

Finally gotten the act together again to do some serious workouts. Three workouts this week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the treadmill at work. And also one last week, the first one in 8 weeks! Great running actually and does not feel that bad.

As usual the first run after a down-period was terrible, but I soon found my pace back and the condition is growing on me and I managed after just 4 runds to do a 5 km run again. Which is the goal distance of the C25k programme of course. I feel great but need more time to really get into the habit. They say that the workout habit needs about 5 weeks to form so I need to keep doing this.

The really good things is that the running at the gym from work is not bad at all and with the kind of temperatures that we are having and the treacherous ice and snow out there, trying to run trails in these conditions will probably just end with me needing a hip replacement or something, better to stay indoor another couple of months.

The treadmill actually interfaces with my el cheapo pulse watch. Not bad for a 59 SEK watch and HRM band actually, and that’s great. I can set a time, a speed and a target heart rate and the machine will then adjust inclination to achieve the target heart rate, all I need to do is to keep running the distance. When the time is upp there is a cooldown period.

My feet are a little sore after each workout but that’s just to be expected, I’ve gone all “tenderfoot” again after the break from my workout routine. Back on the bandwagon again is the melody.

Speaking of which, I have designed a Spotify playlist for 30 min running with warmup and cooldown which will be useful both in the gym and in the woods when that day comes. Another playlist for 45 min running and so on will be added.

Here is a mixtape list for running 30 minutes that includes a 5:43 warmup and 7:09 cooldown and 30 min of actual running. I originally had a James Last song live here but it did not fit well with the audience applause and stuff so it has been replaced.

Most of these songs have a really high bpm to get your tempo and step cadence up to close of 180 steps a minute but they vary a little which your running also should.

• WARMUP: Clint Eastwood – Gorillaz
• RUN: Born to Boogie – Hank Williams Jr.
• RUN: Vaterland – Melotron
• RUN: Up Tempo – Leo Kottke
• RUN: Rocka På – Markoolio
• RUN: Bloodshot Eyes – Pat Benatar
• RUN: Breakthru – Queen
• RUN: Shame, Shame, Shame – Aerosmith
• RUN: Lakeside Drive – Nitzer Ebb
• COOLDOWN: Jamo – Cooldown Mix – Skyway

Warmup: 5:43, running 30:00, cooldown 7:09, total 42.9 minutes

And of course, here is the spotify link. Load your mobile spotify client up, select to use offline for the playlist and then keep running! Off-line mode is great since it does not drain your battery as fast and you can keep running even if your 3G coverages is not so good where you are running.

I’d love more tips on good running songs!

Running taken up again. Two times now on a treadmill at work and that’s actually not bad at all. I thought I would hate it dearly but it does work actually.

Bonus is that the machine can read my pulse belt so it means I can do really good pulse training without effort, it is really easy to regulate speed and incline on the machine whilst running so you can keep the pulse in the zone all the time.

Doing round of about 3.5 km in 30 mins at the moment, will set out to increase over time up to 5 km and my goal is still to run “Midnattsloppet” in August which is a 10 km run.

A summary of each week’s training will be posted. I am aiming for three runs with one day of rest between them and then two days of rest in the weekend. Right now the runs will be the same all three but I will later divide them into shorter runs with intervals for speed, longer runs with slow tempo for distance and recovery runs.

I am so bad at the running and exercise things right now that I ought to be ashamed of myself, or at least a little embarrassed.

I will go down to the gym at work on monday and see if there is some way to start jogging again. Outdoors is just too slippery right now although the cold is nit si much a problem for me.

Wish me luck…

Monday: 3 km run

I then had muscle pains for a couple of days and then the christmas party time set in full fledged! I had no less than three christmas parties to attend to this year, from work, with friends and again this weekend with more friends. It has been fantastic in every way and then finally the snow came as well. It now does look like christmas but it has not done me well in the exercise scheme, the roads are perilous to run now but since it is close to christmas I will see if I may sneak down into the exercise gym at work and find a cross trainer or something similar to work out on.

I mean it, I need to get more exercise and the weather and road conditions are just not really that fit for running right now. Fortunately snow rarely lasts that long here in Stockholm, it will be fine for running in no time.

I had one proper quality jogging last week but that was a really good one, my ordinary 4 km run.

Apart from that life just got in the way a lot training wise and I managed to squeeze in some long walks. All in all a not so good week but I will do better.

Been awfully bad now for the last couple of weeks again. Feet has still had problems with the urtikaria rashes which has made it hard to run and I don’t really fancy other forms of workout that much. Swimming would be an option but it takes a lot of time to go there and do the workout and come back showered and all.

But, I did another 4 km today and it felt pretty good. My usual track around the Slammertorp cottage (2 laps on the easy path) and the time was about 8:30 min/km so not bad for not having been out much the last couple of weeks.

Gonna do better now, I promise. Feet feels nice tonight actually.

So two runs this week. Starting to get back into the habit is hard however. I really miss the shape I was in a month ago but I will get there soon!

Did two runs this week, both of them were horrible, the first was a 4 km run at an extremely low pace, 9:15 min/km and today I did another one at 8:40 min/km but that was only a 3 km run. My body really did not want to run today so it was all in my mind really. I had set out to do 4 km today as well but my body refused to do more than 2. So we reached a kind of compromise on 3 km. Not that good really but I think it is going the right way slowly. Next week it will start feel better I’m sure.

My last logged run was september 7 and today is october 7. I set out not knowing what my condition would be like but my usual warmup walking rendered about 15 bpm higher heart beat than I remembered so that was definitely an indication that it was going to get tough.

And it did. I managed to get around 2 laps of my usual track and it took 37 minutes to complete 4 km. However even if the tempo of 9:15/km is just a sliver better than walking real fast, I actually did it. I tried to keep my pulse around 160-165, I have found it gives me the best burn workout I can get. At this heart rater I can keep going for some time without stopping and it gives me a good workout with plenty of sweat.

Today it was difficult to keep that rater even with the really slow running. On the second lap it started to creep up beyond 170 bpm and several parts of the track was done around 170-175 bpm rather than the 160-165 that was my goal.

So definitely I have lost condition. I have also gained weight these four weeks but that is about to come right off again as I start running more regularly so I am not too worried about that right now. And condition comes rather fast, especially when you start low

Even though my 7 km run looks distant right now I am sure that in 3-4 weeks time I might be able to repeat it if my health stays okay, that is.

Still nothing but things are getting better. Now the flu is gone and I have only the urticaria to battle. Right know I have a blood filled blister under my left foot but I hope it is gone soon.

Then I’ll go jogging again!

No training this week either. Really crappy. Went to the doctors on tuesday and got cortisoned badly, that worked, kept the rash and itch in check pretty well, could get some sleep but then I went back to work on wednesday and that was a bit too soon. The cortisone treatment was for 4 days, so that made tuesday to friday special days indeed but then I was setting out the cortisone and going for the antihistamines and what happens?

By Saturday night I was covered in urticaria all over my head and face, looking like something straight out of a 1950ies creature feature movie. Not a pretty sight. And it hurt — and the itching is hard to describe. Can’t give in to it though, that just make things bleed and scar.  I have had a rough night now but I have woke up feeling a little better actually. This might be because the human body produce it’s own cortisone in the morning or … perhaps I am slowly getting better.

I even played with the thought of putting a photograph of my horrible looks on my home page but then decided against it, the world might not be ready for that kind of disfigurement yet.

My better half Jeanette is having the flu and I believe that is what onset it this time for me as well. She’s feverish and coghy and tired and have all the classic symptoms. Even though I probably had a bit of that (last night my throat was a little sore) I think I got off the flu easy. Let’s hope this leads to something good, like immunization to A(H1N1) better known as the bacon plague.

My hands still hut a bit and I still don’t dare that perhaps I will now start to get better because I know when nightfall comes and cortisone in the body is switched to melatonine instead then these kinds of rashes usually gets worse. I go from cold sweats to hot spells regularly still.

And now the time has passed enough that I no longer longingly pass my sneakers in the hallway. I have forgotten the joy of running. I need to nurture the addiction once more and learn how to start slow. Not that I think I have lost everything but I believe there will be a couple of weeks of build-up before I can get back to where I was.

If I get better now…

Delvis baserat på en artikel av Tom Clark (W3IWI) som heter “How a GPS Receiver Gets a Lock”.

En GPS-mottagare som skall låsa på en satellitsignal för att kunna beräkna sin position behöver utföra en två-dimensionell sökning efter signalen för att kunna hitta den. Den första dimensionen är i tiden — signalstrukturen hos en GPS signal består av en 1023 bitar långt pseudo random number (PRN) i en sekvens som sänds ut med en hastighet av 1.023 megabit/sekund, dvs hela sekvensen sänds en gång per millisekund.

För att kunna låsa i den här dimensionen måste mottagaren ställa in en intern klocka till det korrekta av alla 1023 möjliga värden inom en millisekund dvs timeslots (tidluckor) som kan innebära starten på telegrammet. Det görs som regel genom att man provar sig fram med möjliga värden och försöker hitta det som stämmer. De flesta mottagare behöver ett par millisekunder för att avgöra om en viss timeslot är den rätta eller inte så detta innebär att denna sökning tar ungefär 1-2 sekunder per satellit.

Den andra dimensionen är frekvens. Mottagaren måste korrigera för dopplerskift genom att försöka finjustera mottagningsfrekvensen till signalens frekvens och doppleravdriften. Genom anledningar som vi inte går in på här — men de involverar ovan nämna 1 ms timeslot samt en gammal kändis som hette Nyquist — så är de grövsta möjliga stegen man kan ta när man försöker finjustera signalen 500 Hz.

Mottagarens oscillator är dock oftast inte bättre än ± 10 kHz ungefär och det innebär att ca 20 olika frekvensinställningar kommer behöva provas av. Också denna process görs för varje satellit som skall användas och därför är den initiala proceduren för att erhålla en låsning ganska tidsödande och arbetsintensiv. Det är inte förrän de senaste åren som man faktiskt lyckats bygga relativt strömsnåla mottagare, delvis pga detta.

Den vanligaste strategin för att så snabbt som möjligt få låsning på satelliterna är att man börjar med att välja en oscillatorfrekvens baserat på vad man vet om sin position just nu. Den behöver inte vara exakt, några grader fel är inget problem. Detta baseras på att man antingen sparar ner positionen man hade sist man hade låsning eller helt enkelt frågar användaren var han befinner sig ungefär. Åtminstone vilken världsdel. Sedan gäller det att veta något om var satelliterna befinner sig och detta data finns också lagrat sedan föregående gång och nu behöver vi veta vad klockan är ungefär så det brukar också mottagaren kunna fråga efter.

När vi vet detta kan vi beräkna den apparenta hastigheten satelliterna bör ha och därmed välja en hygglig initial gissning för dopplerskiftet och sedan kan vi börja prova vilken time slot som verkar vara rätt. Då har vi 1023 kombinationer kvar att testa och sedan kanske vi behöver ändå skifta dopplerkompenseringen något eller några steg så i runda slängar behöver vi göra ett par tusen tester och de tar några ms var att göra. En sak till behöver vi också kontrollera och det är våran egen referensoscillators fel. Vi har kanske en uppskattning sedan tidigare kontakter med satelliterna men den driver med temperatur och kanske andra faktorer så vi måste eventuellt prova ytterligare kombinationer för att säkra att vi inte missar signalen vi letar efter.

Så mottagaren börjar på en kvalificerad gissning, hittar den ingenting provar den nästa time slot och så vidare. När den provat alla 1023 möjligheter lägger vi på en offset på vår referensoscillator baserad på den uppskattade felvisningen och nästa steg i vår dopplertabell som vi kan använda oss av. Sedan är det bara att testa ytterligare 1023 time slots.

Det här gäller förstås när vi vet något om läget. När vi gör en helt kall start och inte vet någonting måste vi gå igenom initialsökläget. Där får vi plötsligt väldigt många kombinationer att titta igenom och det här läget kan vi hamna i om vi trots vår kvalificerade gissning enligt tidigare inte hittar någon signal. Det kan hända att mottagaren har rest en längre sträcka, det kan hända att den har aktiverats inomhus där mottagningen är dålig, det finns inget sätt för oss att veta detta utan vi får helt enkelt prova kombinationer tills mottagaren hittar något som den känner igen som ett GPS-telegram.

Så fort mottagaren börjar hitta en signal som verkar stämma så etableras två stycken tracking loops eller faslåsningsslingor. En är en faslåst slinga i frekvensdomänen som skall försöka spåra satellitens doppler och justera mottagaren efter detta. Den andra är den tidslåst slinga som håller fast vid just denna kanals time slot eller tidslucka. Så målet är att vi skall alltid veta fasen och vilken kod signalen använder.

Så fort detta villkor har uppfyllts så börjar vi extrahera data ur GPS-telegrammet som skickas från satelliten. Telegramstrukturen innehåller ett 1500 bitar långt meddelande som skickas med 50 bitar/sekund och det tar 30 sekunder att skicka ett helt telegram. De flesta mottagarna kräver att man tar emot ett fullt obrutet telegram innan man får ut själva datat vilket betyder att om man kommer “in i” ett redan sändande telegram kan det ta upp till 30 s innan man får samma telegrams start igen, sedan måste man läsa in det telegrammet och det kan då ta upp till 60 s att få det första telegrammet “helt” ur mottagaren. I snitt sker detta alltså på ca 45 s för de flesta mottagare.

För att få en rå positionsfix i 2D krävs det att mottagarens klocka också går korrekt. Detta kan man få fram genom att man lyssnar på telegrammen från tre olika satelliter. Man kan då i ett enkelt ekvationssystem korrigera bort sitt eget fel och det förbättras om man väljer de satelliter som ligger högst i rymden. Efter att man har fått dessa första 3 satelliter kan man börja visa en position men fortfarande är noggrannheten oftast inte så bra, en upplösning på 25-50 meter eller så brukar man kunna förvänta sig i det här läget.

När man nu så har tre stycken katter i säcken kan man fortsätta och leta satelliter. Varje satellit man hittar och får lås på ger ytterligare tillskott till datamängden och minskar felet och man kan mer och mer korrigera sin egen klocka och använda sig av medelvärdesbildning mellan de olika satelliternas telegram och därmed också kunna öka noggrannheten ännu mer. Det tar ungefär 45 s att hitta varje satellit för varje mottagare som arbetar med att leta.

Varje satellit skickar också i sitt telegram en förkortad almanacka som ger information om satellitbanorna, eventuella deviationer som förekommer och detta lagrar de flesta mottagare pliktskyldigt för att underlätta låsningen nästa gång. Ju längre man lyssnar på fler satelliter desto mer komplett blir almanacksdatat och det blir då lättare att låsa när man startar upp sin GPS-mottagare igen.  Har den legat avslagen länge — ett par månader eller så — kan det hända att almanackdatat åtminstone för några satelliter inte stämmer längre så väl. Almanackdatat tar upp ca 25 av de 30 sekunder som varje satellits telegram sänds på och det tar totalt 12 minuter och 30 sekunder att få ner en full uppsättning almanacksdata för hela nätverket. Därför är det en bra ide att alltid låta sin GPS-mottagare vara igång en kvart eller så efter den fått låsning.

Har mottagaren helt felaktig eller saknar almanacksdata finns inget annat sätt än att göra en all sky search vilket kan ta 20 minuter eller mer. Då provar man slaviskt kombination efter kombination tills man hittar satelliterna så man kan få ner almanacksdatat och därmed börja bygga upp den information man behöver för att kunna erhålla låsning inom ett par minuter. Det är mycket ovanligt att mottagare idag startar i det här läget. Det finns nämligen vissa grundförutsättningar som är så pass vanliga att man direkt kan utesluta ett antal testfall man aldrig behöver göra. Och frågar man dessutom användaren ungefär var han befinner sig och vad klockan är kan man också dra vissa slutsatser baserat på grundförutsättningarna för GPS-systemet och dess satelliters grundbanor.

När man har hittat fler än 3 satelliter kan man även få en 3D-låsning vilket innebär att man kan börja kalkylera vilken höjd man befinner sig på. Denna kalkyl är dock inte riktigt lika noggrann som positionen, man brukar säga att felvisningen kan vara upp till 3 ggr så stor på höjden som den beräknade positionsfelet uppgår till.

Moderna GPS-mottagare som sitter i mobiltelefoner fuskar ordentligt. Om de har täckning går de helt enkelt ut på mobilnätet och kontrollerar vad klockan är. Många operatörer skickar också en grov koordinat till mobilen från basstationen (det är basstationens egen koordinat som skickas) och då har ju mobilen redan en hel del information att börja arbeta med när det gäller att hitta satelliter.

Det skall också sägas att mycket av det ovan beskrivna när det gäller att hitta satelliter och få låsning sker parallellt. De flesta mottagare på marknaden idag har åtminstone 12 parallella mottagare så de kan söka av de möjliga kombinationerna 12 ggr så snabbt som de tidiga enkanaliga mottagarna.

Dessutom har man lagt till ett nytt system som heter EGNOS[1] här i Europa med ytterligare satelliter som via markstationer skickar ut kompletterande deviationsdata. I USA har man en motsvarighet som kallas WAAS[2] Har man en mottagare som klarar EGNOS-signalen (och den är tillräckligt bra för att kunna användas) så får man ytterligare kompletterande information och noggrannheten på mottagaren kan då bli 2-3 meters felvisning vilket är helt otroligt egentligen.

För bilnavigation behöver man som regel en noggrannhet på runt 15 meter, blir den sämre kan det bli svårt att ha framförhållning och för den som går i skog och mark kanske man inte ens behöver ha bättre än 100 meters felvisning medan på sjön vill man gärna ha 5 meter eller bättre för att undvika en grynna.

[2] WAAS betyder Wide Area Augmentation Service som betyder ungefär service för förbättning av vidsträckt område och det är underförstått att det är navigationsdata man försöker förbättra.

Not good this week either. Got hit by Urticaria, a skin rash and are now on cortisone and antihistamines to get rid of it. Cortisone doses of the level I am getting right now drives my resting pulse up quite a lot and I was told by the doctor to not make too strenous exercise during that time. The cortisone will be just a few more days but after that I will keep on the antihistamines for a while which I am ok to take and run so I will give it a go.

I miss the running, my shoes are calling to me when I pass them by on my way out through the door. Tomorrow I am missing my sixth scheduled run in a row but I am not too worried about it.

This has not been the best week for me. I have gotten som kind of infection and feel terrible so I skipped the long run on saturday. I did the two shorter runs which went well though but I will probably miss some runs next week also as I am not feeling well at all.

Since I got my HTC Magic phone, the second generation Android operating system from Google and a lovely phone I have worked out using two different softwares that I would like to share.

These softwares are CardioTrainer and BuddyRunner, two wonderful applications to help you run well when doing exercise. Both offer similar features and are mainly aimed at runners that want to keep statistics on their exercise and perhaps also their competitions.

The Cardio Trainer Android application

But what do they do? To make a long story short they are both personal trainers and logging instruments that can upload your running data to a web site where you can review what you have done and compare runs over time.

They are using the GPS in the phone to log your position periodically and thus can calculate your speed. They also measure the time and therefore knows at all times your speed and pace, the distance you have ran so far and in what time you did it.  If you are using earphones and listening to music on your Android mobile as you run they will muffle the music or silence it completely and announce the running data periodically.

Feature-wise they are very similar, CT offers more settings to smooth out GPS positions during a run which can be good if you get bad measurements occasionally but won’t really help much in the long run, so to speak, but after testing the two producs side-by-side I can only conclude they are very similar in the distance they measure when running. The distance on both of them is perhaps a bit on the conservative side compared to distance measured on map or with a really good outdoor GPS (Magellan eXplorist XL) which shows a slightly longer track most of the time. Not certain why this is but they seem to be on the conservative side. My 2 km track registers as 1 850 meters roughly and that is 7.5% on the conservative side.

CT has a huge disadvantage for us Europeans, the tracks it records are shown in metric units on the handheld if you set it up to do so, but on the website everything is by imperial measurements which is really sad because it is otherwise a very good application. I have written them and they are looking into developing it. In fact there’s been two new versions of CardioTrainer released recently both with some small improvements.

The Buddy Runner

BuddyRunner however has a really wonderful web site where you can see the run on a Google Maps interface, statistics on your run such as pace for each part of the run, and elevation. It is interesting to see the elevation go up and the pace time per km increase at the same time. You can compare several runs (up to three) download your running track and it keeps tracks of your records, longest, fastest and so on. Over all it is a much more developed web site than CardioTrainer has. However the application on the handheld is less sophisticated, it does not have the same filters and settings as CardioTrainer does and when it speaks to you it always abruptly pauses the music, the CardioTrainer can lower the volume but keep the music running which is better if you are trying to keep your pace to the music.

In the phone however both applications are very similar however and the settings screen also offers settings to change the announcer frequency and the contents of the announcing messages. BuddyRunner performs well int he background but CardioTrainer wants to run in the foreground, otherwise it pauses. CardioTrainer can also automatically play a certain playlist of music for you while BuddyRunner just leaves the music player alone.

Example of the website for Buddy Runner, click to check it out in reality.

Sharing your things with others is easy on the BuddyRunner, the application and webside can write RSS feeds to your Facebook, Twitter or Friendfeed site and so on, you may show your dashboard to anyone you like, they can’t manipulate it unless you log in but they can leave a comment on your run if they want to.

CardioTrainer has a secret passcode to the webside, you can not display it without this code and when you enter the code you may also remove runs and modify the content, so you would not want to post that publicly. There is also right now no integration with Facebook, Twitter and similar sites, no RSS feeds and the tracks can not be downloaded from the site.

In the end the factor that is the most deciding one for me is the website. BuddyRunner has a much better web site and I love the feature that you can download your runs in GPX format to have them displayed on Google Earth or some similar mapping software if you like. Great stuff!

Part I here. I had to split it into two posts because WordPress did not like the length of the first one any more. Here we go.

August 29: So I have graduated from the C25k programme. I am now capable of running 5 km continuously without any walking and resting. Although the pace is not great, I do it in just above 40 minutes I feel very happy about this and now the continuation is to keep doing it three times a week. Tomorrow I celebrate 5 months as a runner!

I will of curse run and alternate between shorter and faster runs and slower and longer runs. For the coming couple of months I believe that there is no reason for me to go beyond the 5 km.

After that I might keep adding to it to go for the full 10 km that I want to be able to do by next summer. I have plans on running the Midnattsloppet (the midnight run) here in Sweden by then.

Thinking back I never really thought I would be here. I still vividly remember the first time I put my trainers on and my running pants and jacket and went out to run 1 minuter, wallk 1 minute and so on for 20 minutes. It was really terrible and now a 2 km run is hardly something to think about and a 5 km run can be done although I admit that I will they feel more like routine than a maximum

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What I have used before…

So this is my new friend and toy. I have previously been an Ericsson fan until they released the ridiculous K600i telephone and then I switched to Nokia N95 for a short while and I detested the Symbian OS completely. So then I tried a Windows Mobile based HTC the Dual Touch model and my current work provides me with a HTC S740 which is also a windows mobile but with some nice features like GPS and so on. Last thursday however I went and bought myself the first big Android phone released in Sweden, the HTC Magic through the operator 3.

Just WOW!

I can honestly tell you that this mobile has become one of the best gadgets and most useful tools I have ever possessed and in a very nice package. The mobile looks a little bit like an iPhone, slightly smaller display area and with a few more buttons on the front side. However when it is started it is obvious that it har borrowed even more from the iPhone in terms of the interface but also it is far from the special locked down feeling that I get from all Apple’s stuff.

The great Google Mobile! Picture shows a Vodaphone mobile, mine is without that logotype but otherwise the same.

Connector

First of all the multiconnector contact on the phone is a slightly modified USB connector. The modification is only there so that you won’t insert audio connectors into a normal USB but they will fit your phone. However normal USB cables will fit the phone so you can connect it to any laptop or desktop PC or mac just like that with any normal USB connector.

The phone charges over USB and syncs really well. This has been the standard for HTC phones for quite some time now and I hope that other makers of phones will abandon their special connector solutions and just use a normal USB plug or a lightly modified one like HTC does.

Battery time

The battery is depleted quickly if you are surfing a lot, streaming music running the GPS and so on but if you are using it in stand-by mode it will keep you happy for a couple of days at normal use. In the beginning you will probably – like me – need to charge it nighly because it is just so fun to try all the features and bring up the GPS assisted maps, stream YouTube when you are bored and so on. Of course using heavy applications and lots of 3G and HSPA data networks will definitely use up the battery quickly.

But I have no complaints really, if you are conservative with you will probably not have to charge it more than every second or third day. It also recharges pretty quickly if you use the wall plug charger. Charging over USB from a computer that can only deliver 500 mA maximum takes of course much longer.

Software

The software for syncing and backing up is included on the phone. Connect it to your computer using the USB cable, then mount the SD card that comes with it and the sync application, manual et cetera is showing up on a removable disk volume. Just install the software straight from the phone and you are ready. Or look something up in the manual.

Adding your MP3 music is just as easy, just drag them to the music folder on your phone, allow the copy to finish and then you are done. The copying is pretty fast as well, seems to be USB2 which is so much faster than my older HTC mobiles that was taking forever to store music.

Oh, and the mobile can be used like normal whilst connected to the PC with the USB.

Android OS and Interface

The Android OS is developed by Google and this is obvious from start when setting up the phone since it asks for your Google online username and password. Once given to the phone it syncs the calendar and mail account with the online GMail and Google Calendar and many other services you might be using such as GTalk and so on. Lovely stuff if you like the G approach to online life then this phone is definitely for you! It also have mail applications that can handle Exchange mail and normal POP/IMAP accounts as well of course though I have not had much use with these yet and gmail is doing the job rather nicely for me.

The interface is smart, sleek and very fast. I have not been able to make the phone slow down yet with the applications I have been running. The menus just slides out and back again really smooth and nice. The settings in the phone is very logically arranged and it just takes seconds to find something you don’t have to hunt around in an obscure menu system and most of the things just works out of the box.

The on-screen keyboards

There are several of on-screen keyboard to chose from and whenever you touch something to type the phone gives a tactile response by a very short vibration. This is really great because most touch keys are difficult to see if you hit or not because even if the key gives a visual response the finger usually blocks the view! Great thinking here.

Swedish keys are located on one of the keyboards directly and in the others you will have to press the A button or O button down to bring up a row of accented characters and then slide your finger off to the Å, Ä or Ö characers as desired.

Sky map

The mobile features a GPS receiver, a magnetic compass and accelerometric sensors that can tell how you are holding the phone. And of course google has released a real killer app to go with that, the google stars. Go out on a starry night, give the GPS a few seconds to locate your position (or use the cell towers to triangulate your position down to a few hundred yards accuracy) and then start the Google Stars app and hold the mobile up to the part of the sky you are viewing. Instantly the mobile will show you the stars and their names, constellations, where the polar star is and show you the positions of the planets and so on. I can’t really tell you how fun this is – you just got to try this out yourself. Incredible!

Navigation for car and by foot

Oh I already mentioned the GPS. It loads information over the network where the satellites are so it aquires a position within seconds when outdoor. If it can not find a GPS fix it will still give you pretty accurate position based on information from the cell towers if your operator supports this. The magnetic compass shows where you are heading and the GPS plots your current position on Google Maps. Now just find where you want to go and it will take you there. Really good for finding addresses, stores, shops, people… searching on the map ties in to many other databases on the Internet and usually gives you really accurate information. I am a jogger as you might have come to know by now.

One of the more esoteric application is a metal detector that detects ferro-magnetic materials. It’s quite funny and uses the compass of course to do this but it is great fun. It may even be useful to locate  stuff in walls…

Geocaching

The phone with GPS and magnetic compass also have applications for Geocaching through the Application Market (where most apps are free) and I have tried out the GeoBeagle application which is a really great app. Press a key and it will take you to the Geocaching online site listing the closest caches for you that you have not already found. Select one of them and then press view as a google map and GeoBeagle snatches it up, shows you a directional compass where to go, distance, accuracy of your position and you are ready to go.

When you find it you just press a key to log your find (or DNF, did not find, as it may be) and you have logged another cache. So simple

Cardio Trainer application

Yesterday I found another killer app that you can use that plots your running on a google map, keeps track on your progress in tempo (minutes per km or mile) and distance and time in km or miles and minutes. The application can also be set to regularly announce the tempo you are currently keeping and how many kilometers you have been doing so far and on what time. So, with the built in MP3-player and this application I sat off. One minute later the mp3 music fades slightly, then a voice announces that I am doing 6:30 minutes per km. Later on when I reach my first km running the voice tells me that I have now done 1 km in 6 minutes and 52 seconds and so on. Makes you really aware on how fast you are going, if you are keeping a good tempo or slacking off or if you are pushing harder than you wanted. When finished you can upload your track to the web to have more information about it there, share with people or just compare several runs with each other.

I really really like this!

This is continued here in part II.

June 30: Three months celebration today! I have now been running for three months and know I can do 4 km of jogging at a slow pace. It is wonderful considering how I felt when I started on March 30! At that time I ran 1 min walked 2 min and then did that for 20 minutes. I had problems maintaining this and by the end of the first attempt I walked 4-5 minutes after running one minute.

Now I can run for 30 minutes without stopping and generally I could likely push myself more but at a gentle pace of around 7’45″/km I get around my jogging track in the woods. The terrain is hilly and there are a lot of up and downhills. Feels good.

I cut my feet last sunday when I was at the beach swimming. Some idiot had smashed a bottle or something where I went into the water so I got  several rather painful and deep cut on my left foot and one even deeper (and more painful) cut on my right foot. So today I was taking it easy.

I set out on my normal routine but decided to quit after my first lap on the 2 km track since I discovered I was not running normally, instead because of the extra pain I was not letting my feet work in the proper position so I realized I was probably doing myself damage if I’d continue that.

But I did 2 km in 16 minutes, that’s a slightly lower tempo than usual but I am happy of getting out at all tonight. I will have to see how it feels on thursday, my feet are okay now, don’t think the feet were damaged further by the running tonight but I think it was wise to get home instead of doing the second lap and downhill finale. It was more painful downhill than anything else.

June 29: No running today, my feet hurts too much from the cuts I received yesterday so I will postpone it until tomorrow and see what happens then.

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If you have not done so already, get the firmware files here to upgrade your favourite GPS unit. This upgrade adds several new features and modes, correct several well known problems and generally makes things much more stable.

And while you are at it, download and install Mapsend Lite if you have not done so already. Great software for planning your trips on the computer before you go outdoors.