Geoffrey's Latest on Running
Progress, Nutrition, and Next Marathon Ambitions
October 28, 2024
A year has flown by—filled with ups, downs, all in the pursuit of one goal: getting faster. Life, especially with family responsibilities, has been busy. But with a 5K and 10K PB, things are progressing. So let’s recap the year, look at what helped me run these PBs, and announce the start of training for the 2025 Ghent Marathon.
Pushing the Pace: 12 Seconds to Go
December 21, 2023
Hi there! It’s Geoffrey again. Last week, I continued chipping away at setting a new 5K personal best. As you might know from reading my blog, I have been following a relatively regimented weekly workout routine, which includes sessions like 8-Second Hill Sprints and 1K Repeats while also trying to balance recovery. Five weeks into the journey, and according to Strava, on Saturday at the Velopark Torbay Parkrun, where I met up with the Jog On Crew, I ran within 12 seconds of hitting my 5k PB. Today, I’ll look back at week 5 of my training and discuss an unexpected twist in my VO2 Max results, which gave me food for thought.
Embracing the Wind: A Week of Racing, Resting and Learning
December 13, 2023
As I stepped into last week’s training, I focused on the City Runs Exmouth 5-Mile race on Wednesday, 6th December, a challenge I eagerly anticipated. Reflecting on the importance of listening to my body, as emphasised in my previous training, I approached this week with a relaxed view. I stepped away from the routine I had been following over the previous weeks to prepare for Wednesday fully. So here is how week four went in my journey towards a new 5K personal best and a seemingly valuable lesson learnt.
My Third Week on the Road to a 5K Personal Best
December 4, 2023
In the third week of my journey towards achieving a new 5K personal best, I found myself in a challenging dance between rest and vigorous training. The intensity of this balancing act came to a head by Thursday, serving as a stark reminder of the crucial role that listening to my body plays in training. The week’s standout moment was the Cranbrook Christmas Cracker – a festive Santa run that, while slower than anticipated, was still a moment of joy. Reflecting on this week’s experiences, I am keen to delve into what worked, what didn’t, and how I can apply these lessons to not only the coming week but also to my broader training strategy in pursuit of my goal.
A Runner's Second Week Towards a 5K Personal Best
November 27, 2023
In last week’s post, I revealed my strategy for chasing my next 5K personal best. In this week’s post, I will recap the strategy, and talk about how I have applied it, and reflect on the adjustments I will make for next week. From rigorous intervals to strategic recovery, this week’s effort culminated in a 5K course PB at the Cranbrook Parkrun, bringing me one week closer to the 5K personal best I am chasing.
VO2 Max and Reclaiming the Pace
November 23, 2023
In pursuing our passions we often find ourselves veering off track occasionally. This year’s spring and summer months were a whirlwind of family commitments and garden landscaping that took me away from the roads and trails. In this post I would like to reflect on this period discuss how VO2 Max testing served as a wake-up call and share with you the new goal I am chasing down.
Geoffrey's Latest on Computing
Notes on Successfully Running Ubuntu in VirtualBox
January 26, 2024
As a Software Developer who likes to use Ubuntu for Development but can sometimes only run it as just another window in Windows, I would like to share some nuanced VirtualBox configurations I built up over the years.
Setting Default Values in GitHub Actions Workflows
October 20, 2023
GitHub Actions is a powerful platform for automating workflows and tasks in your software development process. When creating workflows, you often need to set default values for variables or parameters, especially when certain values are not always going to be provided. In this blog post, let’s explore two techniques to set default values in GitHub Actions workflows, including a handy ! contains() approach and the double pipe || hack. We’ll also discuss the potential limitations of the double pipe hack.
Triggering a GitHub Actions Workflow with a Slack Slash Command
May 10, 2021
In this post I am going to show how you can trigger a GitHub Actions workflow with a Slack Slash command.
Serving Static Assets from Bloomreach CMS
June 19, 2019
Serving a static files with Bloomreach (formally known as Hippo CMS), such as BingVerify.xml, is not as simple as dropping it in the webapp folder. However, with a little extra configuration Bloomreach CMS will serve the file.
Java JUnit: Reset a singleton
February 28, 2018
Java singleton’s are hard to unit test because the state of the singleton is altered as each test runs. But for testing sake you can reset the singleton’s state use reflection. Here is an example that worked for me.
Java Stream API: ArrayList to JsonArray
February 3, 2017
You can convert an ArrayList to a Java EE JsonArray using a Java Stream in the following way.
About Geoffrey Hayward
Running has always been a part of my life, but my journey as a runner didn’t truly begin until I stepped onto a gym treadmill at age 34.
Personal Bests
| Distance | Time |
|---|---|
| 5K | 21:46 |
| 10K | 45:17 |
| Half-Marathon | 1:39:50 |
| Marathon | 3:59:51 |