blurfus interactive

An email was sent to me today with these ‘reasons’ to do Long Slow Distance (LSD) running.  The original source of the article is unknown to me; Thus, I will not take credit for them.  Without further ado, here they are:

1) Increase in capillary density in the muscles. Capillaries are small areas where the oxygen-rich blood and oxygen-depleted blood are exchanged. When you develop more capillaries you become more efficient in getting fuel to the muscles and shuttling out the waste. That means you get faster and have more endurance.

2) Increased mitochondrial density in your cells. Mitochondria are responsible for the breakdown of sugars, which gives you energy. More mitochondria will help you go faster and have more endurance.

3) Gain efficiency in burning fat. Often in doing long rides, runs and swims you are in an aerobic state, which means you are mainly burning fat for energy. Over time, doing these work outs, one gets more efficient in the aerobic energy break down process.

Fat burning has been an area of confusion for many as they think what I have just said means they will burn the fat from their belly. However, the fat that is being burned is mainly from food. To burn actual body fat you need to burn more calories than you have taken in.

4) Increased artery and vein diameter. Exercise can make arteries and veins larger. This pumps more blood to and from the muscles and other vital areas faster. The muscles get more energy and are able to dump out byproducts quicker, leading you to be faster or more efficient.

What do you think?

Longest Run Yet - ~17Km - February 22, 2009

While not entirely ‘exciting’, I have finally decided to do something about the portfolio (always being in “under construction” mode).  I am glad to announce the integration of the “Next Gallery” plugin to the site that allows me to generate a simple portfolio gallery based my existing images (screenshots).

Go have a look! (hint: click on the portfolio link on the top menu bar)

I finally manage to get enough sleep deprivation to dedicate more time to this setup.

Got the plugin working and got a theme to avoid using the default one.  The theme does not work 100% well with some of the plugins and widgets so I am on the hunt for a new one. I.e. don’t expect this look to last much.

Else, I may have to code one up myself (*shudders*)

So I attempted one more time to have this thing setup.  ImageMagick libraries needed to be configured (turns out that /usr/bin/ is all I needed to know).

Gallery2 is now working correctly, with ImageMagick installed and working; I added two images of my cat for testing and it all seems good to go.

Next step: configure the Wordpress plugin to work with Gallery2.

Step after that: add content: images, blog posts, tidbits of info to make this thing useful and change that horrible default theme that is haunting me and teasing my inability to spare enough time to get it done quickly.  But I guess that’s the way it is when you have a full-time job, two dogs; two kids, a cat, and a wife each of them taking a slice of my time (and attention) pie ;)

So yesterday I gave up from doing it all at once.  Today, I figured I would try to install Gallery2 on the blog and, while at it, install the wpg2 plugin to hook it all up together (WordPress meet Gallery2, Gallery2 meet WordPress)

The install went smoothly, as wizards make it, with one (maybe two) hiccups: the image manipulation libraries need to be configured for the modules to work correctly.  No problem I thought; ’til I went to configure it.

Pulling my hair out right now and it’s time to bed.  I guess it will have to wait as well.

So, it begins.  It is 3:30am and I am attempting to have this blog setup.   The initial installation is pretty simple by many standards but I am running out of steam (and coffee) and decided against finishing EVERYTHING on the first try.

So long, for now.

Ok, so it’s not like I update this site often, but with a new kid and lots of work, I barely have time to look at other sites, let alone update mine.

At any rate, I found this new theme and immediately added it to the site - I do plan to update it shortly - but I thought you can have a sneak-peek of the before and after in the meantime.

cheers