My "one good thing" of 2020: "Converting" sports, i.e. downhill skiing => cross-country & pool swimming => ocean swimming

During the COVID pandemic, I've tried hard to go outside and run around. It's a bit of escape for me and a way to get out of my home office - AKA upholstered cell. Unfortunately, many of the activities that I like doing outside are now very difficult to do, viz: pool swimming, going to the gym, taking bike and skiing trips, &c. Luckily, I've "converted" a number of these to related ones that are relatively easy to do. In particular, I've been able to convert my pool swimming into wetsuit ocean swimming and my downhill skiing into cross country skiing. Also, I've enjoyed lots of hiking. For me, this has been the "one good thing" about the 2020 pandemic - quoting the words from Nature's Coronapod podcast.

For reference, I've just listed below some key tidbits for myself related to these activities.

1. Ocean swimming

The key things here are the air and water temperature, the tides, and wave height. I list below some of these parameters with timings for some swims I took during the summer and fall. You can see with a wetsuit, particularly a thick one, it's possible to go in when it's pretty cold.

https://linkstream2.gerstein.info/tag/routestimings210114

2. Cross-country skiing

Here I was delighted to find that a nearby bike path can easily be turned into a nice cross-country ski trail with an appreciable amount of snow. This is about a 10-minute ski from my house, and I list the timings back and forth on the trail, with a picture.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pn24qyl5a82ti00/P1000117.Branford-trail-for-cross-country-ski.JPG?dl=0

https://linkstream2.gerstein.info/2021/01/14/check-out-my-cross-country-classic-skiing-activity-on-garmin-connect-beatyesterday

3. Hiking

I've tried to explore many neighboring New Haven-area trails. I list some below.

https://linkstream2.gerstein.info/tag/hiking

Thoughts, Facts & Pics on the Recent Tobay Triathlon

This is my second consecutive year doing the Tobay Triathlon. Last year I did it for the first time after a number of years, and I was really exhausted. This year I had a lot more practice ahead of time. I was also a bit more careful about training and then thinking about the course during the event. Overall, this paid off greatly and my times were much better, showing that experience and training can perhaps triumph over a year of age!

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Pictures and Links

Some panoramic pictures and maps from the event (both this year and '15)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mbgmbg/tags/seriestobaytriathlon

Links
https://linkstream2.gerstein.info/tag/triathlon

Older Events
http://blog.gerstein.info/2007/09/triathlons-i-done.html

Tweet
https://twitter.com/markgerstein/status/770048289475624960

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Some things I thought that were helpful and useful to remember were:

(1) HR Mon. and Pacing

The heart rate monitor on the run was helpful in pacing. Last year I got rather exhausted after the swim going up the hill at the beginning of the bike. This year it was a breeze, that was just carefully paced. I think the run went a little faster too because I took sprints and then stopped a bit and walked and rested. (The intervals are diagrammed on the map of the course.)

(2) Light Food

Overall, I found that I didn't really need to eat that much. I just had a bar before the event and then just 2 Gatorades during the event with a little bit of water during the bike ride. More than that I think would have slowed me down. Also, I had lots of carbohydrates the night before.

(3) Route

Being used to the swim course really helped, so I knew to turn 3 times (see map). Often in the open water, I found it very disorienting. Having now done it the second year in a row, I found it much easier.

(4) Water Bottle

Finally finding a supermarket water drink that would fit into my bicycle's water bottle cage. See the picture in the image collection. This is from the Propel brand (with a 9 3/16" circumference). Note that these other two brands in the picture don't seem to fit (eg Poland Spring is too small at 8 7/8".)

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Private Links

Private Mailbox Archive Link
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/tobay

swim
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1325729532

cycle (480' total elevation gain, getting to max of 275')
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1325729584

run (185' elevation gain)
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1325729679

Experiments in Self Quantification and Anonymization

In this post I thought I'd explore some of the issues with publicly displaying personal health information while simultaneously attempting to analyze one's own biological and medical measurements. Like many others I've become quite interested in what can loosely be described as the "quantified self movement" -- trying to record a lot of measurements about your physical being throughout the day in an attempt to improve your health and just learn interesting things. I have procured a variety of devices such as heart rate monitors, pulse oximeters, and peak flow meters and have tried to use these systematically to record various bits of information.

The question is what is this useful for? To find out, I have tried to do a number of correlations -- in particular trying to correlate my heart rate with my weight as well as with my peak flow. At the same time that I am interested in doing this -- and perhaps posting it and sharing it because I am putting so much effort into it -- I am very conscious of the privacy of this type of information. So I have also wanted to make an attempt to post it and make it available while also anonymizing it to some degree.

In the following web accessible chart and tables I have tried to post the data and some of the correlations but at the same time to partially obscure aspects of the underlying measurements.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnSCkRiRBZ5KdDl6ZUwwR05HMnBKQzBIMnR6cHFxYXc#gid=0

In particular, this is what I have done:

1. For the field called “Date” I have listed a number of days that I took these measurements; however I have shifted them slightly so the temporal ordering remains the same, but you cannot see the exact date that I performed the measurement.

2. For the fields called “Heart Rate”, “Weight” and “Peak Flow” I have tried to rescale these to a population mean. I think you can do this rescaling and still keep the correlation between the quantities as the correlation is invariant to linear transformations. In particular, I have tried to adjust to a population mean that would be appropriate for roughly a person of my height, weight and age but not exactly. So again you can get a rough sense of the numbers that I have and a rough sense of how they correlate without knowing my exact weight and peak flow at a particular date.

At the end of the day, here's what you get for the correlations:
r(HR v PF) = .47
r(HR v WGT) = .22
So it appears that heart rate is a bit more correlated with peak flow than weight.

I am curious to get a sense from people if they think this type of posting of data is at all useful and whether they can glean more about me from this information than I think they can. In any case I would welcome feedback.

---

Some useful links:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/344100-the-maximum-heart-rate-in-a-45-year-old/
http://www.medicinenet.com/exercise/page4.htm
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~aair/asthma_PEF.htm

[My underlying files are gsheet "Merge of Health and Exercise Data" & big-merge-of-health-n-exercise-data-reworked-25aug12.xls]

Driving Around the Northeast, Spring '11

Trip to Boston: Pics + Talk

Trip to DC & PA: Pics + Talk

Trip to Montreal: Pics + Talk

Everything on a map and a closeup of some sculptures at the MFA

(My tags:  i0menc,i0mcg,i0bossvanal)

Trips to Calif. in early '11 (talks, pics & links)

In early 2011, I took 2 trips to CA (both Southern & Northern parts). This post has a collection of information related to this.

* Lots of photos that I took :

Flickr (map),  Picasa (map)

* Some talks I gave :

Non-coding annotation + SVs (1 & 2), Just Non-coding annotation, Networks

* Links to related stuff (with my tag definitions) :

[[* i0at10 *]], [[* i0eags *]], catripsfebmar11 (overall tag for this collection)

Summer Trips '10

* Pictures
- Trip to London [flickr][picasa]
- Trip to the beach [flickr][picasa]
- Trip to Litchfield [flickr][picasa]
- Additional miscellaneous summer trips [flickr][picasa]
- (More photos related to CSHL sculptures)

* Videos. I made some initial attempts at posting these. (I'm just learning here!)
See my flickr video set. I also put one of falling water and another of London on youtube.

* Link clusters & Tags
http://www.delicious.com/mbgmbg/i0royalh
http://www.delicious.com/mbgmbg/hamptons2010mg
http://www.delicious.com/mbgmbg/TripLitchfield0mg
- Further notes on the Litchfield trip in another post and via email tag "TripLitchfield0mg"

Trips to Europe '09

Here I've collected various things related to some trips to Europe in 2009.

* Pictures

Flickr photos galleries from London in Jan., Belgium in Oct., and Paris & Cambridge in Dec. (The analogous links in picasa: London, Belgium, & Paris .)

In addition to the usual tourist shots, I took some fairly abstract photos and some more general "concept" ones. My photos also added significantly to my burgeoning McDonald's photo collection.

* Tags & Routes

I tagged my photos quite extensively. Here's a listing of some of my more commonly used tags on the trips. One 'tag group' that was particularly hard to shoot were the panoramas and nighttime photos , where I was aided by my trusty new Sony. Here's an almost 360' panorama of the Louvre.

As might be expected, I geotagged many of the photos as well; thus, each of these galleries is associated with a nice map link -- e.g. here's an one for Paris . The geotagging has the side benefit of providing some tracks of where I went, viz: walking around Paris, Paris to London (via Chunnel), & walking around London (not necessarily in order).

* Links & Lectures

Here's a general collection of links of random information associated with the trips.

Some lectures that I gave during the trips: 1a, 1b, 2, 3, 4

Some of my own cryptic internal IDs with yet more links: i0wtsysbio, i0gencwinter08, i0vib

Biking in Fairfield County

Routes (Overview image)

BikeNFairfield [28-Jun-08]
BikeWestport [12-Jul-08]
BikeNWestport [14-Jun-09] (27 miles)
BikeGreensFarms [31-Jul-09] (~20 miles, cut short by rain) (Route is Google-Map KML ; also, route directly in Google Map)
BikeDarien [8-Aug-09] (~20 miles)
BikeNewCanaan [16-Aug-09] (21 miles)

Photos
General Flickr and Picasa collections (with map). Closeup on New Canaan .

Links
http://delicious.com/mbgmbg/FunBikeNFairfield
http://delicious.com/mbgmbg/FunBikeNWestport
http://delicious.com/mbgmbg/FunBikeWestport

See also earlier post on this subject.

Trips to the West Coast in Spring '09 [TripSF + SeattleTrip]

Visiting Bay Area (+ Tucson)

Photos: Picasa, Flickr (including some shots of rows of grapes)
Google Maps: Running, Cycling
Lectures: 1, 2, 3, 4
Links

Visiting Seattle

Photos: Picasa, Flickr (including some shots of famous artworks juxtaposed on a map with analogous ones from the East Coast)
Google Maps: Cycling
Links

Trip to Greece

Pictures
* Overall ~100 pictures of things in Greece, organized on Flickr and Picasa
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbgmbg/sets/72157610294361788
http://picasaweb.google.com/bluehat/GreeceThings02 (map of this)

* Some nice subsets of the images

- Just of Santorini: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbgmbg/tags/santorini
(Map of the above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbgmbg/tags/santorini/map)

- Visiting and looking at Parthenon
Some of the ruins in Greece were a bit beaten up (tag "ruinedruins")

- A particular specialization of the above is a focus on rather dynamic graffiti interposed with iconic architecture and well known sites. See tag "graffiti" and map of it. (This includes images in other locations than just Greece.)

- Some other fun tags to look at are "abstract" and "landscape"
(These include images in other locations.)

Collection of links
relevant to the trip (includes some useful guidebooks)
http://delicious.com/mbgmbg/fungreece
http://delicious.com/mbgmbg/funathens

Rough track
of walk up to Parthenon

Trip to Toronto (TripToronto + TripISMB08 + Fall08)

* Public shots of buildings and other stuff

http://picasaweb.google.com/bluehat/TripTorontoThings#
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbgmbg/sets/72157607038288351/

* Some relevant links to fun stuff and things at the conference

http://delicious.com/mbgmbg/FunTripISMB08
http://delicious.com/mbgmbg/link_ismb08
http://delicious.com/mbgmbg/bioinfoconfmg

* Some Lectures that I gave:

http://lectures.gersteinlab.org/summary/ismb08pub-20080723-textmining
http://lectures.gersteinlab.org/summary/ISMB08-SS-20080721-Nets
http://lectures.gersteinlab.org/summary/ISMB08-SIG-20080721-GenomeTechAnnotate
http://lectures.gersteinlab.org/summary/ISCB-SC-20080718-motions

* Interesting quote

we should == I will

* Rough GPS track of a long Sunday Walk

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://gerstein.info/gps/TripISMB08-SunEdit.kmz

(Addendum)
Some more pictures from another visit in the fall
http://picasaweb.google.com/bluehat/AP20081109TorontoFallThings#
http://flickr.com/photos/mbgmbg/sets/72157610352978523

Memorial Day Sightseeing and Cycling in Brooklyn [MemDayBklyn]

Cycle route on Google maps:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://gerstein.info/gps/MemDayBklyn-May08.kmz

21 miles without linker between West Side and Williamsburg bridge, which is about 7 miles.

Related links:
http://del.icio.us/mbgmbg/FunBikeBklyn

Photos from the weekend:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbgmbg/tags/kwmemdaybrooklyn
http://picasaweb.google.com/bluehat/MemDayBklyn

Photo Maps:
http://picasaweb.google.com/bluehat/MemDayBklyn/photo#map
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbgmbg/sets/72157605990175832/map

Collection of Brooklyn Bridge Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbgmbg/tags/brooklynbridge

(Keywords for the day include: kwmemdaybrooklyn, kwmemdaybklyn, MemDayBklyn.)

Cycling Through Fairfield [BikeFairfield]

25 miles in total. Gentle roads near beach plus a trail near Pine Creek Road. Lots of interesting houses.

Route taken on Google Maps:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://gerstein.info/gps/BikeFairfield-Jun08.kmz

Useful additional routes and points of interest:
http://del.icio.us/mbgmbg/FunBikeFairfield

Some photos of the trip (many geotagged):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbgmbg/tags/bikefairfield

Driving Directions to Claire's in New Haven

Here's how to get from GW bridge to Merritt.

Here's how to get from Merritt to Claire's.

Entrace to parking garage is between Chapel and Crown on College St.

Cycling in DC (TripBethesda)

Cycling from Bethesda into DC and back

Route taken on Google Maps
Summary: ~40 miles cycling
Geotagged images, served from [P]icassa or [F]lickr (also look at overall flickr map)

Cycling and Walking around Vienna, with Pictures (TripVienna)

Attempted to carefully integrated image and geo data on last summer's vacation to Vienna

Photos
(Geotagged images, served from [P]icassa or [F]lickr)

• All of the photos [P][F] (also look at overall flickr map)
• Various Subsets (sublime to ridiculous):

1. Interesting Architecture [P][F]
2. Street Art [P][F]
3. Generic, non-geotagged shots [P][F]
4. Graffiti [P][F] (alternate picassa with subset map)

• Shots of People [P] (need auth. key)

Cycling and Walking Routes

• Cycling along Danube near Vienna, ~58 km (13 July 2007);
  Route taken on Google Maps (Garmin HST file)
• Walking through city center (11 July 2007);
  Route taken on Google Maps (Garmin HST file)
• Walking through city outskirts, including Naschmarkt, Palace and Freud museum (12 July 2007);
  Route taken on Google Maps (Garmin HST file)

Useful Links

• Overall, FunVienna1, FunVienna2, FunVienna3, FunVienna4

Cycling near New Haven (BikeCT + BikeOrchard)

BikeCT
Cycling along CT coast near Guilford and Branford, with a lunch in Branford.
Route taken on Google Maps
(kmz colored by course heading)
Associated useful links.
Summary: ~52 miles cycling (7 hrs. of biking time)

BikeOrchard
Cycling to Lyman Orchard, with a lunch there.
Route taken on Google Maps
(kml colored by elevation -- note hills.)
Associated useful links.
Summary: ~41 miles cycling (7.5 hrs. of total time)

Triathlons I've done

2007 MADISON SPRINT TRIATHLON
Swim .5 miles/Bike 13 miles/Run 3 miles
Saturday Sept 8, 2007 | Surf Club - Madison, CT
Part of running route
http://www.madisonjc.com/trimaps.shtml
http://www.madisonjc.com/triathlon.shtml
Cache: C:\...\pers\misc\exercise\Sept07-triathlon\madtri07.txt + related

JONES BEACH TRIATHLON
SEPTEMBER 26, 2004
FINSIH LINE ROAD RACE TECHNICIANS - www.FLRRT.com
1/2 Mile Swim, 14 Mile Bike, 3.1 Mile Run
http://metrotri.com/document/45330
Cache: D:\...\y10.unzip\pers-pics\pers\clip\jones-beach-triathalon

VYTRA TOBAY TRIATHLON
TOWN OF OYSTER BAY, OYSTER BAY, NEW YORK
AUGUST 19, 2001
FINSIH LINE ROAD RACE TECHNICIANS, www.FLRRT.com
1K Swim - 15K Bike - 5K Run
http://bioinfo.mbb.yale.edu/~mbg/dom/fun3/tobay-triathalon
Cache: file:///D:/.../y6-021014-closed/y6/bikemaps/tobay-times/tri01m.txt

TRIATHLON IN MODESTO
Modesto, CA ; 13 October 1996
Pool swim, Bike, Run
Can't find any more details

Cycling along the Hudson

BikeNyack
Cycling through Palisades Park to Nyack, with a long lunch at famous Runcible Spoon.
Route taken on Google Maps
(kmz colored by elevation, note tough climb at end of park when one joins highway)
Associated useful links.
Summary: ~51.2 miles cycling (7.3 beyond that shown in KML)

BikeStormKing
Walking in StormKing sculpture park then cycling from there through Newburgh, over Hudson on I84 bridge, and into Beacon and then back.
Route taken on Google Maps
(kmz colored by speed)
Associated useful links.
Summary: ~23.1 miles cycling and 3 miles walking

BikeCroton
Cycling along Old Croton Aqueduct Trail, which is dirt. Trip aborted by rain in northern portion.
Route taken on Google Maps
Associated useful links.
Summary: ~18.5 miles

Cycling in the Bronx (BikeBx)

Into Bronx over Broadway Bridge and then to City Island
Route taken on Google Maps (kmz Color Ramped)
Associated useful links.
Summary: apx 10:30 AM-4PM, 26 miles