#ECSON

[fitfriendruns]

Trail triumphs, and trail recovery observations

You wouldn’t know it from my inactivity on this blog, but yesterday I achieved something that's been on my goal list for many years...to place overall in a 5 Peaks trail running event! I’ve placed many times in my age group, but placing overall has seemed impossible sometimes. 

When I was running a lot of these events 5-7 years ago, I couldn’t keep myself uninjured enough to train well enough to break the top 10. Plus even if I could, most of the top runners were way above me, the kind of runners with 70-80 minute half marathon times. Based on what I’ve managed to stalk on Athlinks.

Yesterday I managed to place 2nd overall in their “half marathon” event at Albion Hills. I want to write a recap on this, and also last week’s North Face ECS Ontario marathon relay (I ran leg 1 for our team of 4, and we finished 3rd out of 25 teams). For now, I just want to note some differences in what I’m experiencing in leg pain the day after each of the 2 events:

Even though I raced twice as far on the trails for yesterday’s 5 Peaks 21k vs last weekend’s ECSON 10k relay leg, I woke up way less sore today.

From what I’ve experienced with racing trails, there could be a few reasons for that. Elevation, intensity, and the body adapting.

Muscle adaptations aren’t likely after only 1 week/workout, so that’s not a major factor. But it could be a very minor one.

The bigger factors are elevation and intensity on the trails.

Hard intense efforts over uneven terrain over 5-10k, leave me sorer than longer efforts at a slightly lower intensity.

Once you add a greater elevation to this, well that also adds to the intensity. Yesterday had less net elevation over twice the distance, but it did seem to have about 100m more raw GPS elevation. I’m not sure which is more accurate, Strava’s algorithms or my Apple Watch. 

I know of a manual way to accurately gauge the elevation by studying the map contours of each race, but it’s time consuming and I don’t care enough to do it.

Both races were hard in their own way, I went as hard as I could. Average heart rate was almost the same for both (178 yesterday vs 181 for the ECSON 10k leg).

Noting the difference that elevation and intensity over distance has, is definitely a factor in recovery the week after. In conclusion, this week I may need less recovery despite racing longer. 

[gacetapuecodane]

La Voz

Todo lo que quería era dormir. Después de una noche en vela, lo necesitaba. No podía, miraba incesante el techo vacío mientras se repetía constantemente que debía levantarse. Pasaron horas en lo que se levantaba, pronto se dio cuenta de que podría haber dormido y lo lamentó. Se sentía dormitando, como si no fuera él quien controlaba su cuerpo, pensó en ello y rio, pero esta fue una risa nerviosa, cuyo eco no escuchó.

Después del baño, sintió el sueño como no lo había hecho antes, pensó de pronto en tomar una siesta en el patio, sin embargo, se dirigió a su habitación. Acostado otra vez, vio que eran las 5:20, y que tenía tiempo de sobra, pero no dormiría, no podía hacerlo ya. Decidió entonces jugar como todos los días, un juego inocente y a la vez divertido, imaginar. Imaginaba muchas cosas, desde un perro hasta una vida completamente distinta, “un día”, pensaba, “un día podré tener un perro”. Pero toda imaginación sucumbía ante la realidad, y la realidad dictaba que debía ir al patio. Caminó por los fríos pasillos hacia su destino, caras conocidas lo saludaban constantemente, sin embargo, él no respondía, nunca lo había hecho y no era el momento de cambiarlo.

Ya en el patio, pensó en tenderse en el pasto y dormir, pero en cambio, caminó hacia el árbol de siempre y sacó un libro. A pesar de no leerlo, seguía pasando las hojas como si lo hiciera, aburrido, comenzó otra vez a imaginar. Esta vez imaginó que tenía una familia, imaginó a sus hermanos, a sus padres y a su perro. Pronto estaría ya inmerso en esta fantasía, las voces se mezclaban en su cabeza mientras pasaba las hojas del libro sin cesar, pero de pronto, una voz se alzó por sobre las demás, asustándolo. Aún después de esa experiencia siguió imaginando, después de todo, no había peligro si no era la realidad, siguió, entonces, escuchando a su hermano contar cierta historia sobre cierto niño en cierto hospital, pero ya no podía concentrarse, sentía que la voz seguía ahí, recitando el poema que estaba sobre el papel que tenía frente a sus ojos.

Se sintió angustiado de pronto, la voz no se iba, por más que intentaba taparla con la historia de su hermano, seguía ahí. Decidió de pronto que dormiría, imaginó cerrar el libro, levantarse de la sombra del árbol de siempre, ir al pasto, tenderse, y dormir, dormir como no lo hacía hace semanas, dormir como nunca lo había hecho. En su imaginación dormía profundamente, y soñaba, soñaba con mundos maravillosos, mundos donde podía cerrar un libro cuando quisiera, mundos donde podía levantarse cuando quisiera, mundos donde podía vivir como quisiera. Lo interrumpió de pronto la voz, alzándose más fuerte que un grito, no podía ignorarla, intentó, entonces, callarla gritando. Gritaba y gritaba, mientras pensaba constantemente en que debía verse como un loco, sin embargo, miró a su alrededor y vio las caras tranquilas de personas que no tenían idea de la lucha que estaba tomando lugar en su interior.

Vio entonces, a través de esas caras tranquilas, la verdad, aunque decir que la vio sería incorrecto, él lo sabía, sólo trataba de cubrirlo desesperadamente, y ahora esa cobertura se caía a pedazos.

Seguía gritando, sin cesar, esperando pronto dejar de escuchar esa voz que su imaginación había creado, pero lo único que consiguió fue que ésta se hiciera más fuerte. Cada vez más fuerte, la voz contrarrestaba sus gritos. Se cubrió los oídos, esperando no escucharlo más, pero venía desde lo profundo de su ser, no podía escapar de sí. La voz entonces pasó de hablar a gritar, creando así la confusión de todos, él vio con terror la escena que pasaba ante sus ojos. Todos lo miraban, juzgando o quizás preocupados, mientras él callaba y la voz gritaba. A los gritos de la voz se sumaron los de sus amigos, a los que no había devuelto el saludo. Gritos y gritos y más gritos, esa era la escena que se desarrollaba en ese pequeño espacio, y entonces, al ver el desastre que había provocado, decidió escapar.

Corrió como nunca lo había hecho, y sin embargo se vio de pronto en el mismo lugar. Ya no quedaba esperanza, su mentira, su existencia, todo comenzaba a cobrar sentido, pero un sentido que él no quería, un sentido que implicaba que él no era él, y que nunca lo había sido, un sentido que implicaba que él nunca existió.

Él calló entonces, sin un sentido en su existencia, vio indiferente como llegaban personas con algún tipo de delantal a darle pastillas que en algún lugar había visto, pero no recordaba.

Ecson Lara

Padre Hurtado

Taller Peuco Dañe

Imagen: Mr. cerebro y su pandilla, de Javier Fernández

[aliworldtrade]

Xiamen Ecson Technology Co., Ltd.

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Xiamen Ecson Technology Co. Ltd. is located in Haicang District, specialized in manufacturing and saling electronic products and environment products.Ecson have invest factories located in Guangdong,Xiamen,Jinjiang and Zhejiang province all passed ISO9001:2008 enterprise. Our main products include: Intelligent electronic products, environment products,OEM/ODM BAP free plastic and rubber products.Facotry system: ISO9001:2008 enterpriseMarketing rules:Main market—European and American market ,committed to the development of the global market. Ecson use based network marketing system to open the global market , at the meanwhile we use e-mail, skpy, telephone and regular visits and other marketing methods to expand customer resources. The establishment of credit archives, customer classification management, adopt flexible payment to enhance the international competition.Development thoughts: Continious research different areas to meet customer demanding and popular trends. Developping international leading and function products, adhering to “Innovation, fashion, energy saving” to meet Europe, South America, Southeast Asia and other markets.Constantly improve the company’s reputation domestic and abroad.

[thursday7econlive]

You Thought Uber ran out of Business during the Pandemic?Hell No!(Supply and Demand)

Ecson Hsu (ID:79817999)

The Covid pandemic has been going on for a year, and it has subverted the way we work, shop, entertain, and eat. People tend to avoid going out to decrease the risk of getting infected, so the demand for delivery increases as the result of everyone staying at home. Matter of fact, the unemployment rate rises sharply during the pandemic, but aren’t you curious about who’s the winner during the huge loss? Even though the stock of Amazon has proven that they are doing “especially well” during the pandemic, I vote for Uber as the biggest winner during the pandemic in Taiwan.

Uber is a technology company that provides services such as ride-hailing, food delivery, package delivery, courier, and more. Everyone that I know of including myself has been heavily relying on Uber and Ubereats in recent years because this has made our life easier and more efficient simply by paying a small amount of delivery or ride-hailing fee. Having zoom meetings during the day limited my time going out for a meal gives me a fair reason ordering on Ubereats App for my lunch almost everyday. Also, if I’m too lazy wear mask and gloves just to buy a few ingredients from the supermarket, I will just use the app to have the delivery man delivery the stuff from the supermarket like Carrefour that I shopped on the app to my home. Such services offered by Uber has made my life easier and safer during the pandemic than without it. Taiwan has a population of 23 million, but the food delivery service was not so prosperous since the restaurants are mostly close to the areas where people live. So, restaurants would tend to save money by not hiring people to deliver food and forgo the delivery service that was not so necessary. Last year, the unexpected global crisis inverted the way people view food delivery services and rescued Uber’s businesses in Taiwan. According to the National Credit Card Center in Taiwan, UberEats, a food delivery service offered by Uber, recorded 195.3 million US dollar credit card spending (not including cash) in Taiwan from January to June last year. Note that the number of transactions increased from 4.5 million to 6 million between May and June, and it was expected to keep growing in the following months as mentioned by Ding Fan, Taiwanese economist, from Taiwan News.

As the demand for food delivery increases, the supply of food delivery follows up right away, since Uber pays bonuses to the couriers who reach a certain amount of delivery per day to keep up with the high number of orders during the pandemic. As the result of increases in both supply and demand, the new equilibrium does not change, but the quantity of food delivery order shifts rightward as shown in the graph above.

Now, let’s discuss what benefits this food delivery service has created in our community, and make a successful comeback for Uber’s business market in Taiwan. We all know that marketing is a very essential part of increasing the sales of a restaurant, and sometimes it’s difficult for SMB (small and midsize business) to promote their product without the right advertising platform. Ubereats solves this problem by providing a platform that any restaurant can promote and have the delivery man deal with the “distance concern” for the customers who would like to taste cuisines on the other side of the town. Moreover, Ubereats not only created new revenue streams for the restaurants, but it also provided a considerable amount of job opportunities for part-time workers. Last but not least, this business model ensures safety and flexibility for the users and the couriers. The “No Contact Delivery” feature that the customers can choose to have their food “leave in the lobby” or “leave at door” has effectively decreased the contact between the transaction, since the payment is through credit cards. No one knows how long this high demand will last, but I’m sure that the pandemic comes at the time when Ubereats was first introduced to the market.

                                                     Work Cited:

N Gregory Mankiw. (2021) “Principles Of Economics Ninth-edition.” Publisher: Boston, MA :Cengage Learning. https://ng.cengage.com/static/nb/ui/evo/index.html?deploymentId=5981412219562643605126663193&eISBN=9780357133576&id=1059170691&snapshotId=2196239&dockAppUid=16&nbId=2196239&

Taiwan News, S. (2020, December 15). Food-delivery businesses prosper in taiwan amid Pandemic: TAIWAN news: 2020/11/28. Retrieved March 04, 2021, from https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4064515

Eats, U. (2020, March 24). Uber eats announces support for taiwan AMID global pandemic. Retrieved March 04, 2021, from https://www.uber.com/en-TW/newsroom/supporttaiwan-eng/

[gbeprimarysoftwaresnetwork-blog]

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[gacetapuecodane]

La Perfección de un Círculo

          El Creador, aquel ser que hizo de la nada algo, ahora observaba. Tenía miedo, sabía que pronto sería tiempo, que tendría que probar una vez más a la humanidad y otra vez, como muchas otras, temía encontrarla contaminada.

            —¿Qué harás? —se dijo—. ¿Borrar acaso otra vez todo y formar algo nuevo? Sabes bien que no hay solución, mientras la imperfección exista, lo imperfecto tenderá a ella. El destino de los humanos lo escribiste tú, no con éstos, sino con todos, la simple idea de una vida que no termine en lo imperfecto es absurda. Pero creíste en ellos— continuó— creíste y sigues creyendo. ¿Quién, si no tú, podría ser tan testarudo?

            Así se dijo, y al tiempo preparó la prueba.

           La ansiedad lo dominaba, deseaba fervientemente que la humanidad, aquella a la que hizo su hija, aprobara pronto y siguiera existiendo. Para probarla mandó a su hijo, nuevamente, y éste, a los 33 años de vida, murió. ¿Cómo murió? Eso era lo que le interesaba al Creador, si fue muerto en una cruz, había aún esperanza. Si, estando en la cruz, su hijo fuese atacado por aquel que luego sería santo, había aún esperanza. Pero ninguna de aquellas fue su muerte, sino otra aún más brutal. Yacía muerto en la calle, ninguna marca de golpes, ni de ultrajes, sin vejaciones, sólo yacía.

        Cuando vio aquella muerte el Creador, aquella muerte que no fue por ira, o avaricia, ni siquiera odio, sino por la indiferencia, quedó sin palabras.

        Vio a su hijo, el más sacro de los hombres, vagar incesante de casa en casa, caer día a día sobre el asfalto ardiente de una metrópolis y luchar cada vez con el hambre y la sed. Vio como crecía su cabello, pues no tenía para cortarlo, como volvía cada día más delgado, pues no tenía para comer, y más débil, siendo su vida cada vez más deplorable, hasta aquel día en que cayó y, finalmente, decidió no volver a levantarse.

       No se llenó ninguno. Padre e hijo, de resentimiento alguno. Miraron ambos, lado a lado, aquel mundo maravilloso y, al tiempo, sentían en el alma aquel deseo de salvarla.

      —Aún hay esperanza— murmuró el Creador—aún hay esperanza para la humanidad.

      Su hijo lo observó, y lo comprendió, pues era a su vez él. Otra vez veía su sueño destrozado y, a la vez, debía terminar la existencia de los que sentía su familia, la única que no era en esencia una parte de él, la única que le permitía no estar solo en la infinidad, en aquel vacío infinito del que no se podía librar, su única limitación y su único dolor.

        Mantuvieron ambos el silencio, pero ambos, que eran el mismo, sabían que se debía cumplir, desde al principio, junto al Caos, la decisión era irrefutable. Era un trato, el Caos crearía seres fuera de cualquier jurisdicción y el Creador los acogería como sus hijos, sin embargo, en cuanto la imperfección en ellos se hiciera excesiva debían de ser borrados, pues no había caída más cruel que dejarlos darse muerte entre sí. Mientras este trato no se rompiera, el Caos seguiría creando humanos y el Creador dándoles un lugar.

         —¿Prefieres acaso los que vendrán a estos? — se recriminó—. ¿No fuiste tú mismo quien pensó que aún había esperanza después de que te crucificaran?

            —Lo sé —se dijo—. Pero tengo que hacerlo, no puedo seguir viendo cómo se hieren.

            —Pero también se aman, viven, sienten, y tú a través de ellos. ¿Acaso eso es lo único que te importa? ¿El dejar de sentir, el estar solo?

            El Creador temblaba, sabía que su amor a la humanidad era infinito, pero quizás era condicionado, condicionado a la compañía, a la vida. Se rebalsó entonces con amor y tristeza, un rebalse en forma de lágrimas, que le dolían en el fondo de su infinita alma.

           Sabía cómo borrarlos de forma indolora, sin embargo, no encontraba el coraje para hacerlo, miraba a quienes iban al trabajo, a estudiar, o se quedaban en casa, todos humanos, todos diferentes, únicos y cada uno de ellos portador de su amor infinito. Temblaron sus manos, recordó algo que uno de sus hijos había dicho: “Deja de imaginar, imaginar te costará la vida” y así lo hizo, los borró.

            Se oprimió su pecho, aquella misma opresión de siempre, la nada lo rodeaba otra vez, el miedo de antaño volvió, y el Creador se remordió en el recuerdo, aquella realidad que era hasta hace momentos, aquella realidad en la que todo estaba corrupto, pero que era humana, aquella realidad que era lo natural, lo que sabía que pasaría y lo que condenó.

            Se odió. Se odió de tal manera que quiso morir, dejar de existir, pero aquello era también imposible, pues era el absoluto, la existencia era la única esencia real de la perfección.

          Desesperado, solo, llamó al Caos, implorándole que creara una nueva humanidad.

         —Ya lo has visto —Repuso el Caos—no deberían existir.

         —Sí, lo he visto, y es por eso que tienen que existir, hay mucho en ellos, mucho más que en nosotros.

         Los humanos fueron otra vez creados, otra vez hechos los animales, las plantas, los paisajes, todos distintos de lo anterior, pero con la misma finalidad.

         —Esta vez — se dijo—. Esta vez vivirán por siempre.

 Ecson Lara

Padre Hurtado

Taller Peuco Dañe

Imagen: Wassily Kandinsky. Estudio de Color con Cuadrados.

[fitfriendruns]

Race Recap - North Face ECS ON 2014

I love waking up on Monday with sore legs. I really do. That feeling of having run a hard race. I love it!

I didn't get that feeling when waking up on Monday. Despite racing the North Face Endurance Challenge Series' (ECS) first appearance in Ontario on Sunday.

Nope. I almost woke up fresh. Then the day went on, and there was a delayed onset of a sore heavy feeling in my quads. There it was! All was right in the world again. 

On Tuesday night they were still sore, and I don't think I was alone.

Carmy ran the relay on Saturday.

Christa ran the 21k on Sunday.

Now Alison and I had done this event in New York in May, and I couldn't wait for this crew to seek out and make a course of the toughest terrain that Ontario has to offer. That's what they do at North Face!

I was registered for the 10k again. I wanted to get a direct comparison of the differences between New York and Ontario.

It started raining heavily on the drive up, and I knew the course would be messy. Only thing that I didn't know, that it was a different kind of messy to New York.

There's me starting right behind 2nd place getter, Darren Weldrick in blue. The shirtless and bearded runner to the left was the winner, Mike Bentley. Photo credit to North Face.

It was a weird situation where it wasn’t that technical. It was super slippery.

I was hoping for a lot of mess from the rain out there, so that the elements would be similarly technical to how they were in New York. I need to remember though that in Ontario no matter how wet it gets, the mud is not deep. It can't give you that deep grip. 

Ontario mud is more of a thin layer of clay, that almost feels like melted ice. The only way to run well in this is with studded shoes!

That became apparent within the first 500 metres of the race, I had already dreaded leaving my studded Jalas shoes in the car. I tried wearing the Jalas's for a minute when we got out of the car prior to starting but I wasn't feeling it. They were instantly rubbing on my heel and I haven't trained in them all year.

The Jalas FLX studded orienteering shoes, that I didn't wear but should've worn. Which are starting to show their age now because I could hardly find them on the web. 

The Jalas shoes may have superior grip but they come at a cost - they've given me severe blisters every time I've worn them in a period without training in them. No matter how much vaseline I wear. 

So I chose to wear my goto of trail running shoes lately, the Merrell Ascends. I love these shoes, but it breaks my heart to say they don't have what it takes for slippery terrain. Uneven terrain? Yes, they fit like a glove. But we didn't get any of the boulder covered trails, deep mud, or endless pools of water that we did in NY.

Some people might call this making excuses. I call this addressing your flaws and being open with them, so you know what to improve on next time! I've seen that this is new for some readers to get their heads around in the blogging world, but this is just how most athletes talk in my experience.

On to the course:

The 1st km started on a slight incline, but it was mostly contouring around the mountain.

Then it would take us up for another 2 km's. Nothing but up. 

It would plateau out for the 4th, 5th, and 6th km's.

In km's 7 and 8 there was a gruelling set of uphills with moderate downhills.

Finally the main descent would start in the 9th km, and into the 10th, down a series of high stone steps.

The 10k course map. I should've take this out with me.

Not that you can't tell from the contour lines in the course map, but here's the elevation profile on it's own. 

Long story short for the first 3km's, there was a lot of up! The slippery surface made it harder to get a grip. I tried to maintain a steady pace and not go into the red zone, but I was still questioning my fitness towards the end of this. 

Dana Ferguson, the 1st placed female, passed me here at about 2km's. I let her go for a bit and was hoping I could catch her once I could find my rhythm on flatter terrain up top.

But that wasn't going to happen. At the 3km point it started to flatten and I tried to increase my cadence, but the sharp corners of the winding trails upset my speed a lot. My shoes now had a layer of clay on the bottom and had 0 grip. So I had to slow down and completely reset my stride coming out of every corner. I think you get what I'm going to say next, this wouldn't have been a factor if I was wearing better shoes. 

Another runner caught up to me right at the top wearing a Guelph Victors shirt, Robert McRae. He would be my main tussle for most of the race. My tussle person, I always like to have a tussle person!

We would get our first taste of a downhill at about the 4th k. But it would just be a pullback into a sharp 400 metres of steep climb. This is where I started to feel that my problems went deeper than the shoes. 

Once I recovered, I actually got into a nice rhythm here. The 5th and 6th km's were bliss to run in. I pulled away from McRae and concentrated my focus on pulling in Dana again. 

I could see her come out of some of the corners ahead, and then finally saw how far in front she was when we came out into a clearing and ran down another hill. 

Here I was thinking "could we please just start the descent already". For the 7th and 8th km's we ran up a series of short and steep hills, only catching our breaths on fast downhills. This is where I was running into trouble. McRae had caught up to me again. Gina Wong had also caught up to me here. 

The first half of the course I was blaming my wrong shoe choice. But as I ran further, this shifted to blaming my lack of hill fitness. I was slowly jaunting up the remaining hills, and broke into walks on the last 2. But I still had that heavy breathing like "whaaaaah ewwwhh!". I was working hard but walking slow. 

For all my talk above saying that it wasn’t that technical overall didn't mean there weren't any technical challenges at all - those came in the final mile of winding steps and people as obstacles! 

It's hard to picture this without photos. The back pack of the 21k and 5k runners had all merged onto our course at this stage. Trying to run fast down a slippery mountain on a short width trail, became a matter of luck of who you had in front of you. 

I found myself saying "on your left, on your right, excuse me, running fast" a lot. Whatever worked. 

Somehow I pulled away from Gina here. But I was then alone, there was nobody in front of me either. So I ran the final 800 metres in the clearing as hard as I could and tried to finish striding out.

Crossing the finish line. Photo courtesy of ultraracephotos.com

I was instantly disappointed.

With my lack of hill fitness. With my bad shoe choice. With my lack of tapering coming into the race. 

I didn't really care what I came and just wrote off the race as not my best.

Looking back into the crowd at the start, and after the race to the right.

I had fun though, this is the kind of event I want to see more of in Ontario! It was a perfect course, and even that cluster of people at the end just added to the challenge.

So it wasn't until a couple of hours after the race with a beer in my stomach that I bothered to look at the results. One of the guys I've met through Twitter, Andrew Chak, told me I came 1st in my age group and 7th overall. That was a surprise!

Post race atmosphere by the lake, and celebrating on the podium with Alison.

It was easy to feel down about not being able to run well up the hills or on the clay. But I have to keep things in perspective - although I'm passionate about this race, this is a base building year for me. I wasn't the fittest that I've been, but it was never going to be the case. 

I will be building for this next year though. This race will be a main focus on my calendar.