There was a bit of faffing about before registration but once it got started it went quickly. Transition was good as it was mostly grass and easy to run in bare feet on. The cycle was 80% uphill and with the head wind for the 2nd half was a killer. The run was also hilly and very hard but both these made it a good event to test yourself.

Competitors

A good mix of experience and novice people at this one. Once more there were plenty of the fitter competitors offering encouragement to this fat boy.

Supporters

There were some round the pool and some encouragement from the marshals and the occasional person round the cycle and run tracks.

Freebies

We got a free backpack and race belt. Backpack will be handy but the race belt doesn’t have any tags so I’ll probably not have any use for it.

My Race

I was injured for 6 week over the summer and therefore went into this race with only 3 full weeks training, as such I was way below power but was happy enough with my performance considering. Here’s the breakdown:

Swim - 15:18  (53rd)
I wasn’t expecting a great swim as I’d only been in the pool a couple of times and was struggling to get under 15mins. However there was quite a distance to run before transition so my swim must have been about 14:45 in the pool.

T1 - 1:02
This is my fastest time for T1 and I managed a great flying mount onto the bike, got my feet in and strapped up quickly after that.

Cycle - 45:11 (105)
Very hard windy cycle that was 80% uphill. I struggled to keep pushing on and lost concentration a few times.

T2 - 0:38
Very happy with this transition. My dismount was flawless and I got the shoes on quickly but forgot to take my glasses off I don’t like running with them on so I tucked them into my belt.

Run - 25:37 (135)
Killer run was two laps 0f valley park which was a hard hill. I struggled going up te hill both times but found some extra energy for the last 3/4mi downhill. It was a little shorter than 5Km but I wasn’t complaining.

Overall - 1:27:45 (95)
Considering the build up I’m very happy with this. I would have been much much quicker had I been training all summer as before I got hurt I was really going well.

There were 173 people entered in this triathlon which put me in the top 55% which is my best place in a triathlon so far, with the other events being  Roe Valley 2010 top 72% , PortLaoise 2010 top 58% and Quarryman 2009 top 60%.

Ian Courtney was doing his first tri and did very well beating my by about 2mins and Dave once again showing his fitness beat me by over 6mins even after a few week of not training.

Teacher

I’ve got a feeling everything is about to change. On Tuesday I start a new job as a teacher, I’ll be teaching ICT, Media Studies and other general form class type stuff at the Belfast Model for Schools. I can see this will bring about many changes in my day to day routine.

What’s going to change?

• Since finishing university 5 years ago I’ve always enjoyed known I was getting home at the same time every night. I’ve a feeling this will change.
• Since finishing university 5 years ago I’ve always known that I didn’t need to take work home. I know this is going to change.
• Since finishing university 5 years ago I’ve not really had much job satisfaction in my work. I hope this is going to change.
• For the past seven years I’ve been working on a computer all day long and spent many a distracted 5minutes checking facebook, email, twitter, digg, bbc etc. This is going to change, I’ll not have time but I’ll not be have time to be bored either.
• For the past 9 years people have been able to phone me at anytime and I was able to answer them right away, often giving advice on something technical. This will not be able to happen as I can’t answer my phone in class.
• My evenings have been my own apart from committee meetings and a little bit of study for university the past two years. My evenings now belong to marking and preparation.

It’ll change in many more ways but all in all I’m very excited and feel very privileged to have this opportunity to share my passion for Information Technology Communication with the next few generations.

Sub Teacher

This year I’m only being paid as sub, which means although I have a full timetable all year I won’t be getting paid for holidays (and there’s a lot of holidays) so I’ll need to tighten my belt on the spending. Generous Dermo will be away for a little while.

I have really felt led in this direction over the past 5 or 6 years and in fact 17 years ago before I found out I was dyslexic I wanted to be a teacher but didn’t think it would be possible and my GCSEs only helped to make the point still further. It was a series of coincidences (or as I believe God’s guidance) that worked together to bring me here. In short:

1. University placement in Education Department at UUJ
2. 1st Job post degree Education Department BBC NI online, met Andy who introduced me to moodle
3. Next job webmaster Girls’ Model
4. Line manager took the PGDFHE route and advised it was possible to do
5. Accepted for PGCFHE/PGDFHE through Education Department at UUJ (my old boss was my course director)

I just hope I can do the job now but thankfully I have loads of people in work who will help and keep me right.

I went up to the middle dam at Woodburn for my second post injury run. After the first lap I was feeling pretty good so I did a second lap, felt good going up the hill at the end but was a little worried about my calves the whole time. Post run they are a little sore but not too bad.

Time: 35:27
Distance: 3.93mi
Pace: 9min/mi
Energy: 658Cal

View on Garmin

That’s the update, sorry it’s not very exciting.

Firstly why do we need ProPresenter on multiple computer when we only really use it on the iMac in the church? Well there’s a couple of reasons:

1. It’s cold in the church meeting room during the week and our church administrator needs to be in constant tropical heat. Remote access to the library allows her to stay in her office.
2. Often Elia or I have to set make sure the songs are there and then add any missing songs needed for this week so it’s nice to do this from home.
3. We sometimes use Laptop computers outside of the main church building.

The plan still has it’s flaws as we need the PC version to be released to allow for Tracy (church administrator) to do this on her PC but hopefully it will be out soon and before the end of the summer, when it’s gets so cold in the church building even I would need to wear a long sleeved shirt and full length trousers.

Anyway it’s actually quite simple, first of you need ProPresenter (if you’re not using this then why waste your time reading this) and secondly you need Dropbox (it’s free).

Setting up Dropbox

You might be wondering what Dropbox is, so here’s my explanation. Dropbox is a little taste of “cloud computing”, that is it stores files you have on your computer on another computer (server) that you can access from anywhere on the Internet. Obviously it’s all protected by encryption and passwords so it’s a safe way to do this. But more than this is you have the same account on multiple computers, Dropbox will automatically synchronise the files from you’re other computer via the Internet on to the the computer you’re now on. To some it’s sounds a little like magic and to be honest I think it’s pretty awesome (you can even access files on your iPhone). You can also watch the videos to get a clearer picture.

As to how to install Dropbox please see their own instruction on the download page. I would suggest that you use a Dropbox account for each person involved and another one for the main shared computer. The raseon for this is some people will already be using Dropbox and any others will want to use as soon as they start using it. Dropbox allows you to share folders between users and therefore can give everyone access to the sync library area without giving access to other files you might use Dropbox.

Setting up a shared folder in Dropbox

1. Create a new folder in your Dropbox folder on your computer.
2. Right click on the folder and select Dropbox > Sharing options … (this opens up your web browser)
   
3. Add the eMail addresses of the people you want to to have access to the folder. The person at the other end will need to accept the invitation.
   

Setting up library sync in ProPresenter

The great think about syncing the libraries is that they don’t overwrite the actually files you use with out giving permission. It’s really very simple and is covered on the Renewed Vision tutorials.

The libraries only sync when you tell them to by clicking on the “sync” button in the “sync” tab in preferences control in ProPresenter, (ProPresenter > Preferences).

So to repeat in clearer English the files don’t actually change in your ProPresenter library until after you have clicked “Sync Files” and even then until after you have selected the files you want to allow to update. The “server” is the Dropbox folder and the “local drive” is the computer you are using’s own ProPresenter library.

Making it all work

So with all the technical things in place you need a standard practise to ensure people don’t overwrite the wrong files, however thanks to Dropbox allowing you access to older versions of files this isn’t that big a problem. I would suggest that everyone get’s trained and given the same set of standards i.e. how to name the songs & how to format them.

For this we name the songs with their first line (and sometime put a title in brackets) and the songs are split up with max 6 lines per screen (preferable 4). We have colour coding for verses 1 – verse 4, chorus, bridge, pre-chorus, endings and each of the verse 1-4 and the chorus have a continuation lable. The colours are hideous but effective.

After each service, it is advisable to save all changes and then sync the library before shutting down (to ensure any changes you made spelling fixes etc. are updated). Also before you go in to edit any songs do a sync to make sure you are working on the latest versions of all song.

Any questions just leave a message below.

Focus in church

I was just cutting the hedge and listening to a sermon as I worked. The preacher mention George Whitefield’s advice on listening to a sermon, pointing out that we can do full degrees in communication but this doesn’t include listening. In order to share the useful advice I’ve just lifted this entirely from the Mongerism site – http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/howtolisten.html. Enjoy…..

How to Listen to a Sermon
by George Whitefield

Keys for getting the most out of what the preacher says

Jesus said, ‘Therefore consider carefully how you listen’ (Luke 8:18). Here are some cautions and directions, in order to help you hear sermons with profit and advantage.

1. Come to hear them, not out of curiosity, but from a sincere desire to know and do your duty. To enter His house merely to have our ears entertained, and not our hearts reformed, must certainly be highly displeasing to the Most High God, as well as unprofitable to ourselves.

2. Give diligent heed to the things that are spoken from the Word of God. If an earthly king were to issue a royal proclamation, and the life or death of his subjects entirely depended on performing or not performing its conditions, how eager would they be to hear what those conditions were! And shall we not pay the same respect to the King of kings, and Lord of lords, and lend an attentive ear to His ministers, when they are declaring, in His name, how our pardon, peace, and happiness may be secured?

3. Do not entertain even the least prejudice against the minister. That was the reason Jesus Christ Himself could not do many mighty works, nor preach to any great effect among those of His own country; for they were offended at Him. Take heed therefore, and beware of entertaining any dislike against those whom the Holy Ghost has made overseers over you.

Consider that the clergy are men of like passions with yourselves. And though we should even hear a person teaching others to do what he has not learned himself, yet that is no reason for rejecting his doctrine. For ministers speak not in their own, but in Christ’s name. And we know who commanded the people to do whatever the scribes and Pharisees should say unto them, even though they did not do themselves what they said (see Matt. 23:1-3).

4. Be careful not to depend too much on a preacher, or think more highly of him than you ought to think. Preferring one teacher over another has often been of ill consequence to the church of God. It was a fault which the great Apostle of the Gentiles condemned in the Corinthians: ‘For whereas one said, I am of Paul; another, I am of Apollos: are you not carnal, says he? For who is Paul, and who is Apollos, but instruments in God’s hands by whom you believed?’ .

Are not all ministers sent forth to be ministering ambassadors to those who shall be heirs of salvation? And are they not all therefore greatly to be esteemed for their work’s sake? (1 Cor. 1:12, 2:3-5)

5. Make particular application to your own hearts of everything that is delivered. When our Savior was discoursing at the last supper with His beloved disciples and foretold that one of them should betray Him, each of them immediately applied it to his own heart and said, ‘Lord, is it I?’ (Matt. 26:22).

Oh, that persons, in like manner, when preachers are dissuading from any sin or persuading to any duty, instead of crying, ‘This was intended for such and such a one!’ instead would turn their thoughts inwardly, and say, ‘Lord, is it I?’ How far more beneficial should we find discourses to be than now they generally are!

6. Pray to the Lord, before, during, and after every sermon, to endue the minister with power to speak, and to grant you a will and ability to put into practice what he shall show from the Book of God to be your duty.

No doubt it was this consideration that made St. Paul so earnestly entreat his beloved Ephesians to intercede with God for him: ‘Praying always, with all manner of prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and for me also, that I may open my mouth with boldness, to make known the mysteries of the gospel’ (Eph. 6:19-20). And if so great an apostle as St. Paul needed the prayers of his people, much more do those ministers who have only the ordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit.

If only all who hear me this day would seriously apply their hearts to practice what has now been told them! How ministers would see Satan, like lightning, fall from heaven, and people find the Word preached sharper than a two-edged sword and mighty, through God, to the pulling down of the devil’s strongholds!

This excerpt is adapted from Sermon 28 from The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield. Published by E. and C. Dilly, 1771-1772, London. George Whitefield (1714-1770) was a British Methodist evangelist whose powerful sermons fanned the flames of the First Great Awakening in the American colonies.

Picture taken during a wee cycle

Since my last post I’ve managed to get in a few cycles which climbed a lot of hills!! I haven’t been exercising as much as I should have and have only really started training properly again last week, with a couple of swims, a couple of cycles and a couple of runs.

Last weekend I was at a Christian Conference in Castlewellan Castle, @TheCastle is a great bible teaching weekend and well worth going to. We were looking at 2 Timothy and I was really challenged about how I approach my leadership roles.

Dave at Spelga

This weekend coming I have my first cycling event of the year. The Coastal Challenge is a 100Km cycling round the Ards peninsula. It’s my first time doing this run but with 700 people I’m sure I’ll find a group going at my speed to sit with. I’m not even gonna try and keep up with Nev, Steve and co.

My Car was due it’s MOT  yesterday and I don’t have a date for it until tomorrow so I’m making the most of the good weather by cycling to work. It’s lovely but would be better without the wind, when did Northern Ireland get so windy, it was never like this when I was a lad and wanted to play with my stunt kite.

Chai Seed with Weetabix

So you’ve read the title and you’re wondering what Chia is? Well it’s a type of seed. It’s a wonder food with lots of great stuff in it. Read here for more info at Raw Living, Healthy Fuel and I bought it at Funky Raw. The great thing about them is the slow releasing energy, this is great for long events or even just to help me not snack.

I’ve found it’s best to take it on it’s own after the food but it’s great when added to a smoothy.

My race preparation for this triathlon included spending the weekend before it in bed with some sort of chest infection (it’s still causing the odd cough three weeks later) and about two weeks with minimal exercise. On the plus side the lack of exercise meant my calves weren’t sore.

The event was organised by the Triangle Triathlon Club and based out of the Roe Valley leisure centre. Here’s the report:

Organisation / Route

I arrived at the centre about 15mins before the advertised registration time and the organisers were busy setting up the transition area / finish line. I went in to register, there were no signs but a few Triathletes who were helpful as always and pointed me in the right direction.

After I registered I headed outside, got my bike and went round to the transition area. It was well laid out considering the space available and partly on grass which is always nice when you’re going to be running in bare feet. Once set up I went inside and found a locker (the advantage of being based in a leisure centre). The organisation was a bit ropey here as lots of people were running round wondering if they and missed the briefing but it turns out they were doing it just before each wave at the poolside. As for the waves this is where the organisation shined, it went like clockwork and we started on time.

The bike ride was well signposted and marshalled/policed, it was a lot more hilly than I thought it would be and on the day very VERY windy. It was out and in so at least every hill we went up we knew we got to come down it. The return into T2 was well marshalled also, but there was quite a distance to do on very cold bare feet before I got on to the grass (the Portlouise Tri had carpet all the way).

The run was nice and flat with a slight incline out but again this meant we got to come down it on the way back. It was marshalled at every turn except one and I know I wasn’t the only one to miss this and be corrected by passers by / car drivers.

Competitors

A good mix of experience and novice people at this one. Once more there were plenty of the fitter competitors offering encouragement to this fat boy.

Supporters

There was lots of people round the pool and a good handful made it out to the entrance/exit of the transition area. Karys Wilson was there to see a few people she knew and was in great voice, hearing her in the pool, and transition was a much needed boost.

Freebies

We were promised a T-Shirt but got a CD of some local country singer instead I like free T-Shirts but I guess they didn’t get it organised in time.

My Race

Like I said I wasn’t feeling great and had through of pulling out but then realised I was actually a man so got on with it. Here’s the breakdown:

Swim - 14:47 (90th)
I didn’t feel great in the swim but was in a lane full of people faster than me so I just tried to not be over taken much.

T1 - 1:24
Once again I took too long to get my shirt on over my wet back.

Cycle - 44:11 (113th)
I crossed the mount line gingerly got on the bike and the chain came off, rather embarrassing. I didn’t feel strong on the bike either and the wind made for a tough ride. Only got over taken a few times and actually over took a few people myself.

T2 - 1:34
My dismount was much better than my mount but my feet were cold and it was very sore on the concrete (I know I’m a wouse). Got my shoes on quickly and I was away.

Me leaving T2

Run - 24:52 (122)
The first half of the run I was happy enough but not overly pushing myself, when I got to the half way stage I realised that I actually felt really good and had loads of energy left. So I picked up the pace a little and actually kept under 8min/mi for the last 2.5Km (that’s good for me).

Overall - 1:26:45 (114)
With 158 competitors I was once again in my 2/3 – 3/4 the way down the table position but I knocked 3mins off my time in the last triathlon, however I’m far from happy with it. I had been putting in good swim times and cycle times before this and would liked to have been much faster in both. After I finished I spent about 10minutes coughing but felt okay apart from that.

The next day my calves were still fine and in fact the sorest part of me was my back from the go-karting I did after the Triathlon.

The past two weeks….

Through Karys I’ve made two more Twitter friends who were doing the Triathlon @lisam75 (windymillar.posterous.com) & @austinslide (couchpotatotoironman.blogspot.com/) they are both newcomers to the sport so it’s interesting watching their training. They’ve put me to shame over the past few weeks, keep it up you two. It turns out as I was leaving I stopped to offer @lisam75 help to get her bike into the car, it’s nice to make a good first impression but the crowd at Triathlon’s are always offering each other help and encouragement, it’s a very friendly sport.

It’s been two weeks since this triathlon and my cough has cleared up but I’ve not been doing much training, I haven’t swam yet, and yesterday was my first cycle. I have ran a few times and it’s been good. I’ve done a 3.4mi @ 8.13min/mi and a 1.5mi @ 7.08min/mi.

I’m planning to hit it hard the next few weeks. I’ve the 100Km Coastal Challenge on the 20th June so I need to get a few miles in before that and I want to work on the running see if I can get the 7min/mi to last for the full 5Km or get up to 10Km without the calves going.

Journey South

I’m going to try and do a “race” report on each of the triathlons I do this year, partly to document how I do and partly to give you info on the event should you wish to try it for yourself.

For my first triathlon of the year I opted for the PortLoaise Try-Athlon organised by the Trilogy triathlon club. I basically picked this one because the date suited and I did my first triathlon there last August. Also I wanted to do one more as a 32 year old since I turned 33 today. The 170Mi journey down meant I needed to stay overnight in a hotel the night before but I enjoyed spending part of my evening flitting between the swimming pool and jacuzzi.

Organisation / Route

Trilogy opened the registration the night before which allowed me to find the leisure centre and get registration out of the way, letting me concentrate on the event and setting up my transition area on race day.

With 200 competitors for a pool based swim they needed to arrange 8 waves, with mine being the first to head out. This had the obvious problems with so many people but we started just after the planned time and my lane worked quite well. As for the groupings there’s wasn’t a huge difference in our swim speeds, therefore I was only overtaken twice and only had to over take twice so no one was particularity hindered, unlike one of the triathlons last year when I had to over take a guy 10 times in 20 laps. The counters were very clear and aided the overtaking process.

Transition Area

The transition area had plenty of space and operated on a first come first serve basis meaning I was able to pick an easy to remember spot to set up my bike. The pool exit was only a few meters from the transition area but the transition of the bike was about 300meters. They had plenty of mats down so running in your bare feet was comfortable.

The bike ride was well marshaled. It was a single loop which included some country roads with twist and turns as it rolled up and down some small hills. Not overly tough but not perfectly flat either.

The run was also well marshaled with some water handed to you at the half way stage. It was an out and in course that climbed on the way out leaving a comfortable downhill run in before a lap of the astroturf pitches round to the finish line.

The race was a sprint 750m swim, 19Km cycle and 5Km run.

Competitors
The people involved ranged from total beginners -> vets and as it was also the event for an inter-varsity competition there were lots of university Triathlon club competitors there. I was talking to some the QUB guys, they were very friendly and finished around 1h 10m. The winning time was 1:00:44 and no surprise it was one of the inter-varsity competitors.

Supporters

There was plenty of buzz around the pool but outside there wasn’t as many people, however I was in the first wave and wave 3 was still in the pool as I finished so maybe this picked up later on. The marshals all offered support as we passed and as always with triathlons the other more experienced and fitter competitors were full of encouragement.

Freebies

You get a nice running shirt.

My Race

The lead up to the event wasn’t great with the previous two weeks hindered by injury, bad weather and stupidly timed training change. 1) the week before the week preceeding the triathlon I did circuits in work and could hardly more for 4 days lol, 2) Very bad weather meant I didn’t get out on the bike that week either, 3) I was in a road race the Monday before the triathlon and my right calf went again about 2.5Km in, I ran another 2.5Km on it and stopped due to the pain. After a week of ice and rest the pain it had eased but was still sore on the morning of the Triathlon. Anyway excuses over….

Not looking my best (photo from http://www.trilaois.ie/Photos.html)

SWIM – 14:35 (52nd)
The swim went great I beat my PB by 30sec to finish it in 14m 5s , with the run to transition taking this to 14:25.

T1 – 1:09
This went well, since all I had to do was put on my t-shirt, gasses and helmet (the shoes were on the bike). However the t-shirt got stuck on my back and I put my arm through the neck at the start.

Cycle – 43:06 (111th)
My calves were sore when I tried to push too hard and on any other day this would have been  faster, so I’m a bit disappointing at this. The positive I can take is that getting into and out of my shoes on the bike worked well, even though I’d only practised it a sum total of two times. The run from the dismount to the transition area hurt really bad and I really did think about giving up here but just remembered Mark’s effort last year after he put his back out before the Triathlon and still finished (trying to forget that he’s still having problems) and Lance’s quote about failure. I averaged 16.7mph on the Garmin but definitly was holding back.

Starting run in some pain (photo from http://www.trilaois.ie/Photos.html)

T2 – 47sec
I was really limping through T2 so not the fastest. Also I had take off an extra shirt i had put on for the cycle but in hindsight I would have been fine without this.

Run – 30:33 (157th)
I forced myself through the run by taking small steps. It was sore and my time was about 5-6mins down on what it should have been.

Over all – 1:29:58 (116th)
My target was 1h 30m so I guess I should be happy I hit it, especially considering the injury but I’m really feeling the best I’ve done in every other way so it could have been much quicker.

It was a great day, great event and hopefully something to build on over the summer. Good one to use for your first triathlon or if like me you’ve only done a couple.

Compress PDF

This again is more for me than you, unless you have found this page through searching the Internet on how to print / save files as compressed PDFs in Snow Leopard. This works for PowerPoint/ Keynote and anything else that allows you to print in Snow Leopard.

A workflow can be downloaded fro the Apple website. It basically adds a new option onto the PDF drop down menu in the print dialogue box.