Deep focus

In preparation for shooting the documentary that will eventually accompany this blog and a successful marathon run, I have been learning a little bit about film making. One of the things that I've learned is that with traditional film, there's typically one object (or character, or group) in a scene which has focus, while the rest of the scene is somewhat out of focus. To get an entire scene at the same focus level, the filmmaker uses a deep focus lens.

Shooting with digital equipment, such as consumer-grade mini-DV, has many advantages. One "problem" that I've discovered is that mini-DV suffers is that all scenes are in deep focus by default. This probably won't be much of a problem for a documentary. But if I were shooting a different type of movie, it might cause an issue.

I've read elsewhere that to make digital look like film, I move the camera further away from the action and use zoom. But I've also read in other places that it's always better to move the camera in close instead of using zoom. I'm a bit confused on this point, but, it shouldn't have an impact with the documentary. If I discover it does, maybe I can remove the "deep focus" problem in post ;)

Upcoming 5K race

I know from reading online that many runners will "train through" a race on their way to a marathon, and there's a local 5K coming up in just over a month. But I've heard others say to never train through a race, because training and racing are two distinct activities. What does everyone here think? Should I train through the 5K, or keep my eye on the bigger race in October?

Updates

I'm not sure how frequently I'm going to be able to post updates to the blog. I'm sure I'll be able to post at least once a week, but I'm not going to be able to maintain the once-per-day I was hoping for. With my limited amount of time this summer, I'd rather spend it actually running.

Shoes

When I started running a few weeks ago, I started with just my every-day shoes. I had read all the advise online about getting new running shoes before starting, but thought that what I had was good enough to start with. I couldn't have been more wrong. My lovely wife bought a new pair of running shoes for me (our feet are nearly identical, so she can always buy my footwear and know it's going to have a correct fit) as a gift, and I was finally able to tackle a mile on the hills around my home without stopping to walk at any point. I probably could have kept going, but I still had to shower and get ready for work. I'll save an attempt at a longer run until Saturday.

Running Fast and Injury Free

I've been reading quite a bit about the POSE method of running over on RunningMonkeys and decided to do a bit of a follow-up research on my own. What better time to learn a new running method than when you're first starting out? Less bad habits to break ;) In the process, I've discovered a free book online called "Running Fast and Injury Free" by Gordon Pirie. From what I gather, not being a follower of the running world, is that the method is the same, or very similar, to the POSE method, minus the drills. I'll start reading it this week and post a follow-up once I'm done.

Training: Week 2 Review

This week has not been a good week for training. I talked about the disruptions yesterday, and you could argue that this week has been a step backwards. But the fact that I've run at all this week is a positive note, so I'll build on that.

I've managed to do a couple of my short, 10-minute, runs this week, instead of the 30-minute daily runs I was hoping for. Tomorrow, I'll do at least 30 minutes at a local park like I did last Saturday, and then leave this week behind.

Disruptions

So far, this week has been full of disruptions from my routine. For some reason, I have felt exhausted. Last night, I may have solved part of this problem when I discovered that the humidity setting on my CPAP machine inadvertently was set at the lowest setting. When this happened is anyone's guess. Mine is that it happened right before I started feeling this way.

Also related to the CPAP machine: I thought the aerophasia was getting better and nearly a thing of the past. Boy, was I wrong?! I've woken up every morning this week feeling like I shouldn't move for about an hour. If I don't adjust soon, I should probably consider adjusting my running schedule instead.

Finally, this week is finals week at school. Even though I took a light load, two computer classes, I really didn't attend class regularly because of my familiarity with the subject. This means that I don't know the expectations of the instructor of those classes, so I have to actually study for the exams.

With all of the above going on, I've taken to running every other morning this week. While I'm a bit disappointed by it, and with only doing the 10-minute runs that I started with last week, I've stuck with it and run what little I can. In the past, I would have called this week a bust and pushed everything off until next week (making it easier to push it of until the next week, and then the next, and so on...) So maybe this week has been progress after all.