Duathlon

Sometimes I am wondering why I am so stupid. Especially, so stupid to try to participate in different races. Recently I got this idea that biking + running (=duathlon) might be a good idea. It may push my physical limits.

Well, I was right. I severely underestimated biking part. 700m of ascent does not seem to be a big deal, except that 700m of ascent on unpaved road is ... hell. And even when I really tried (and my heart rate suggests that I tried), I was very slow. But the real bonus was running. After being completely flattened out during the biking, I was unable to run. It was just impossible. I just walked all uphill parts.

In total, it was a devastating experience. But one thing still bugs me -- with this perfect speed, how did I manage not to be the last? (I was the second last :-))

First real bike trip

(English text below)

Mon première réelle route à velo a été. J'ai commencé à Aigle et je suis monté vers Corbeyrier. Après, j'ai continué à Les Agites. Il y a un tunnel juste avant Les Agites et vous pouvez aller qu'une seule fois par heure. Ce fut la première ascension, 1000m en tout. Après, je ai descendu vers Lac de l'Hongrin. Le lac est joli et il y a un grand barrage au bout. Apès le lac j'ai continuè vers Les Cases et je suis monté Col de Jamal. Le montée a été très diffucile -- 500m sur route des champs. Mais il a valu la peine. Le dernière descente a été 1000m sans interruption.

My first real bike trip was real success with two major climbs 1000m and 500m. I started at Aigle and climber through nice vineyards towards Corbeyrier. After that, I continued climbing up up to tunnel to Les Agites. After this initial 1000m climb, the route was better. I gradually descended towards Lac de l'Hongrin, went along its shores, near the big dam and down the valley towards Les Cases. Here I started my second ascent. This time only 500m. And with a bonus part  blocked by cows. Anyway, on unpaved road and after the previous climb, this one felt more like several kilometers. But after reaching Col de Jaman it was clear that the sweat was worth it. The last part of my trip was descent. Plain, one kilometer of altitude descent. I briefly stopped at Caux to see a ibg meadow full of daffodils. And by full I mean full -- the daffodils made it pretty clear to any other flower that this is their territory. The final few kilometers were on flat -- in Montreux I learnt that I just missed my train so I continued on bike to Vevey.


Trip route (this is the plan, the actual route was a bit different from Caux)

Photos

Even running can be beautiful

English text below.

J'ai un joli parcours pour la course. Le parcours se commence a Bussigny et il se termine a EPFL. La longuer est neuf kilomètres.
Au début, vous pouvez voir petits jardins. Après un certain temps, les jardins se transforme dans la forêt. Un joli forêt. Il y a beaucoup de fleurs différentes. Le plus belle est ail des ours. Il se trouve le long de entier parcours. Après la forêt vous vous trouvez près de la plage. Vous pouvez voir les Alpes françaises. Le dernière partie de la route est dans les roues de Saint Sulpice. Vous vous approachez l'église de St Sulpice, un parc et vous pouvez vous retrouver devant l'EPFL.

Even running can be beautiful. I thrice went running on a track from Bussigny back to EPFL and each time I was really stunned with the scenery. The route is incredible. It starts at the trains station Bussigny but very fast it leads first to back of small gardens and then into the forest. But that is just the start. The forest is (at lest in this time of the year) really green. Combined with the orange color of setting sun, it looks really nice. After running for a while, one cannot miss the the scent of bear's garlic. The sigh of these little blooming flowers is spectacular. It reminds me the white fireworks frozen in time. And there are tons of them, along the whole forest part of the route.

After several kilometers in the forest and alongside the river (didn't I tell you? The whole route is alongside the river), we finally say goodbye to the forest. Instead, the river is becoming slow and the the silent decks for ships are witness to the ever-nearer river mouth. The route ends up on a bridge near the lake. From this point, it continues alongside the lake where you can have a good look on Alps.


The final part of the route is going back to the EPFL. The route goes through the narrow streets of St Suplice with old-style village look. As a bonus, you can see the Swiss Reformed Church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine and Priory. From there, it is just a matter of minutes to be at the finish line before EPFL.


So, did you like it? If yes and you are not from Lausanne -- well, you should reconsider the place where you live. And if you are from Lausanne then just join us the next time will be running. It is worth it!

Round and round around the floats

Isn't rounding numbers easy? Well, not always. And not always consistent:

Python (the same for C/C++,):

>>> "%.1f" % 0.05
'0.1'
>>> "%.1f" % 0.15
'0.1'
>>> "%.1f" % 0.25
'0.2'
>>> "%.1f" % 0.35
'0.3'
>>> "%.1f" % 0.45
'0.5'
>>> "%.1f" % 0.55
'0.6'
>>> "%.1f" % 0.65
'0.7'
>>> "%.1f" % 0.75
'0.8'
>>> "%.1f" % 0.85
'0.8'
>>> "%.1f" % 0.95
'0.9'

But that is nothing compared to results obtained from MySQL today:



+--------------+----------------+
| sum(penalty) | count(penalty) |
+--------------+----------------+
|         5091 |             24 |
+--------------+----------------+

+------------------------+--------------+
| ROUND(avg(penalty), 2) | avg(penalty) |
+------------------------+--------------+
|                 212.12 |      212.125 |
+------------------------+--------------+

+-------------------+-------------------+

| ROUND(212.125, 2) | ROUND(5091/24, 2) |

+-------------------+-------------------+

|            212.13 |            212.13 |

+-------------------+-------------------+

The nightmare is over

IPSC, the nightmare of my dreams (or more precisely of their lack) is finally over. And I am really glad. Preparing tasks D (data mania) and J (jukebox) was really hard. Especially the former will be haunting me for a while and I will never ever look at SQL statements with the same eyes. During the final preparation night, we found so many differences and stupid mistakes in seemingly easy SQL statements that it it impossible to count (ok, it is possible. Roughly as number of a commits affecting inputs/outputs of that task). Just check the solutions for a quick peek over this nightmarish world of queries and results.

So what to do now? Just continue with the second nightmare -- my candidacy exam for which I need to finish my writeup in one week.