Month: November 2022

Posted on

I Ran 1000km in 2022

Running track with 1000 written on to signify the fact I run 1000km in 2022

I started running at forty-two and on telling my wife about my new soon-to-be obsession, she laughed at me! The idea of me running was funny but my wife should have known better. As per the title, at the time of this post I have run 1000km this year.

The beginning

The first two years did not go well. I ran around 200km in 2020 and the same again in 2021. I wasn’t very consistent and even though I got a little faster and hit some self-set milestones, I didn’t feel like a runner.

This year came with a change of mindset, I decided to become a runner. This was a me problem, everyone that runs is a runner. I ordered a new watch (Garmin 945 – thank you wife) and decided to start taking things more seriously. I was going to up my mileage and follow all the advice – run easy, build up gradually, warm up, you know the drill.

The new goal

I decided I needed a goal, so I set myself a goal that was challenging and yet seemed achievable. I was aiming to run a total of 400km in 2022, so doubling the mileage of the last two years.

I did not follow all the excellent running advice, none of us do. Slow easy running does help but I’m terrible for wanting to always hit a new personal best.

1000km of running

As of today, I’ve run 1000km, well 1067km. I’m well on target to triple the goal I set for myself at the start of year. I’ve taken 6 minutes off my 5km time, hitting 24 minutes and got my 10km time down to 52 minutes. The impressive part, to me at least, is that neither of those times are race times, they were set during training, and both started off easy. I’ve no idea what my go for broke times are.

I’m forty-six next year and before I get there, I’d like to get my 5km time down to 21 minutes and my 10km time down to sub 48 minutes. Both targets seem achievable and according to my watch I’d be able to hit those times today given perfect race conditions, so we’ll see, I guess.

Next year

Next year I don’t think I will be able to reach the same mileage. I’ve been freelancing this year and am free to run when I choose to as I can do my work any time of day. I’ll be contracting next year so it will be slightly more difficult to fit the runs in.

I’m aiming to enter two ultramarathons next year, both 50km. That’s a new challenge and I’m really looking forward to them. It’ll be a big step up for me as the longest single run I have done so far is 20km.

Early next year I will write a progress post explaining how I got on this year.

Posted on

Budget Pro is in development

I started playing around with Budget Pro at the end of October, initially the landing page and ideas for the design. I’m still very much in the preliminary stages but I don’t think development will take too long as I have the experience of Budget behind me.
Originally, my intent was to take a copy of the Budget code and build all the new features on top and although possible, I’ve realised that long term this just isn’t going to work too well.

Budget is capable but there are two core features which should really be accounted for up front and not tacked on to a working design. Adding support for sharing and multiple budgets means I need to create some sort of “Budget Manager” that knows who owns a Budget and what controls each user has. Additionally, I need a way of surfacing a summary from each Budget rather than just visually as per the free version of Budget.

I’m not going to throw away the Budget code and start again, that would be stupid. The tested Budget service code works well and will just need the odd tweak here and there, it is more about how the service is wrapped and returns data and lessons I’ve learned during the development of Budget.

Budget and Budget Pro are both going to be supported for the foreseeable future, but they are their own products. Budget will get new features and even borrow features from Budget Pro, but it will not become Budget Pro.