Focus Deficit

From what I hear, installing the beta is going to kill my phone at some point, so I think I’ll wait until the consensus is that it’s a bit more stable.

Love what I’ve seen so far, and can’t wait to see it mature. Newborns aren’t always the prettiest…

Shame about the glass though. I prefer transparent aluminium myself.

So, huh…

The last time I did a commute it was 12.6mph average, after a couple of sportives and the spur of Strava, it’s 15.5.  

So that works then.

55 miles in total today and wasn’t in agony when I got back.  I really love my new rear cassette…

distance 45.6mi and climb of 3,470ft

found a few hills.  new 12 27 took away some of the pain.  still bailed on the bad one.  happy enough to sign up for mountains on saturday.

madness.

Well, that’s torn it… I might stop posting my times here, but think I’ll still long the miles.

Now my times are being posted to my mates.. it’s amazing how you suddenly find that extra 1mph isn’t it?

14.2mi Distance

869ft Elevation

Elapsed Time 00:55:43

Max Speed 52.3mi/h

Avg Speed 15.3mi/h

That top speed is wrong though, it was 36.5 on a downhill.  Lovely night, and I just wanted to recover from the weekend.

Next up, I’ve got a day off next week, a new 12 27 cassette to fit, and the possibility of another sportive in among the mountains next weekend.

Am rather excited…

After a deluge of predictions, backlashes to predictions and podcasts about predictions, our long dark winter of Apple-less proclamations is nearly over.

The new WWDC app makes me think Apple does understand that WWDC is too small for demand, but by keeping numbers at an optimum level for the conference itself, it has come up with what looks like a neat solution.

If the servers hold up.

Otherwise, I’m really excited by the look of the app and what it might mean for standard UI, and who doesn’t like thin fonts?

I’ve never given up on any sort of Sportive before, putting up with broken gears, wrecked legs and worn out limbs to get over the line, but yesterday I was worried I was running an engine with no oil in it, and having the sweeper van asking me if I wanted a lift back was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

I knew I hadn’t done enough training this year but figured the 80 miles of the etape Caledonia a fortnight before would get me through, but I underestimated what hills like that would be like, it wasn’t the gradient so much as the length and relentlessness of them.  

I’ve gone over the route now and found the bit that broke me, which was a 170m climb about 50 miles in.  After that I was in a lot of back pain which never eased up.

Looking at the final 14 miles on Google Earth, I probably could have completed it without any actual damage, and I’m just a bit achey today, nothing serious, but it was not knowing whether there would be a final climb I’d have to bail on that decided it, and as I’d slowed to a crawl I was in danger of not finding my way back.

Last night I was all “I’m never doing that again” but today I think I’m going to train harder next year.   On hills.

So, that’s quite a tough little course there.

Great organisation and a pie at the end.  My back gave out on me near the end though and I got swept up.  And once again reset my trip computer.  I think I need a new one that doesn’t keep resetting when I look at it the wrong way.

So, 88 miles, but a DNF.  

Quick spin round the block before resting for this weekend’s Sportive (excuses etc.).  Well, apart from the quick part.

1hr 2m, 14.58m, 14.0mph average (it says here).

Oh, and a bit windy and I wasn’t in the mood, and emmm, the tyres were a bit flat?

I’ve not written any tech stuff for ages, and Apple has certainly had a fallow period for new announcements, but then what would one expect after renewing the whole line in November?

I like the idea of a calmer UI, less busy, more focussed, and having a delight in the movement rather than the statics.  With more processing power given to the incidentals, the sort of grace associated with Letterpress or even Badlands rather than the punch in the eyes that is GarageBand, might be achievable, though I’m sure some would see it as a waste of resources.

So all that would be nice, and there are enough surface details to attend to that we could do that, be happy and leave.  

But what’s the theme going to be?

Less clunky UI is nice and everything, but not really worthy of a keynote.

How about sharing?

With rumours of Vimeo and Flickr having deep integration, maybe the original hope of deep Google services on pretty Apple coating could be born again, but with a less hostile pairing.  

So that would be Yahoo! just now?

The Tumblr. acquisition was, from what I gather, seen as at least as good a pairing as Tyron and Sansa, but a double hit of everything you do, write, snap or hear being not just Facebook or Twitter worthy, but Flickr and Tumblr. worthy makes the Yahoo! deal seem more timeous.

So, if I do take a picture, or save a link, or plot a bike ride, or geocache a treasure, surely I want to blog about it while having the picture saved on that lovely 1TB Flickr store?  What’s not to love?

If Apple can remove that friction and take those frankly weird touch targets on the notification pane and make them more sensible and more Yahooish, then they will make me happy at least.

What they do about MySpace and LinkedIn is another matter entirely…

Ugh, wet and windy on the way back, and I was carrying a ten ton laptop on my back so I’m in a bit of pain today.

In was foggy, wet, slow but nice: 1:55 h, 26.97 miles, 13.9 avg, 30.4 max

Back was heavy rain, wind and the third puncture of the week: 2:15 h, 28.53 miles, 12.6 average so 55.5 total.

Also duffed up the front derailleur again and am fast running out of inner tubes, so I’ll take a couple of days off to recover and fix things up.