I’m Presenting my Master’s Thesis Tomorrow.

The last obstacle between me and my M.S. is my Capstone presentation. It’s tomorrow, Friday, May 1, at 1:30pm in Informatics West room 130 (the big lecture hall).

My Capstone is called “Designing Undergraduate Instruction in Music Informatics.” In my talk, I’ll discuss why I chose this topic, why there is a need for developing Music Informatics instruction, my research methods, and the end result.

If you’re in Bloomington and have an interest in either Music Informatics or education, I would highly recommend you stop by. If you’re out of town, contact me on Skype (martin.mccrory) and we can probably work out a way for you to see my talk over Skype.

For reference, or if you can’t make it, my Capstone materials are all available for download on my website at http://www.martinmccrory.com/capstone, including my Capstone paper, my Powerpoint and other presentation materials, and some other miscellaneous items.

I’m a bit nervous, but mostly I’m very excited to share with you something about which I feel very passionate, and which I believe is an extremely important topic.

Shoot me an email if you have any questions. Hopefully, I’ll see you tomorrow at my talk!

RACE REPORT: Purdue Duathlon, 4/26/2009.

I got my multisport season off to a good start this morning with a 2/12/2 mile duathlon in West Lafayette, IN. The weather was great (70s and overcast at the 10am start), the course was challenging and I did pretty well.

The run course was challenging, with a steep climb and descent half a mile in. I split the first run at 15:45, slightly slower than I had wanted, but acceptable. My legs were not feeling 100% during the warm-up (maybe about 90%), so this was not unexpected.

I got on the bike and started to spin, spin, spin! I was surprised to find my comfort zone at about 110rpm today. Good thing I run compact cranks–I would have had to make some awkward gearing choices on a 53/39!

The bike course was deceptively challenging, with shifty wind conditions, shady road surfaces, unmarked turns and two significant climbs, one about 1/6 mile long, one about 1/3 mile long, each at about 6-7% grade. This forced me out of the aero position on both occasions, and also got rid of any shot I had at breaking the hour for the race. In the end, I finished the bike in about 36 minutes, including both transitions. I was never passed, and passed about 10 people on the bike leg.

The second run was on the same course as the first. I slowed over the climb more than I wanted, but was able to kick it in with a slight (30 second) negative split on the two runs. I was never passed, and passed one person with about one mile to go.

My time of 1:05:56 was good for 8th overall (it was a small field of about 30-40 racers), which I believe is my highest overall finish in a multisport event to date. However, I learned today that I have some work to do in the next few months to get my body ready for Ironman Wisconsin:

1. I need to lose weight. I don’t like what I see in the pictures that Lana (awesomely) snapped of me. I’m strong and fit right now, but the extra 10-15 pounds I’m carrying around hurt me, most noticeably on the bike and run climbs.

2. I need to do more intense training. All winter, I piddled along at 16mph on the bike and 9:30 miles on the run. My base of Long Slow Distance is sufficiently built. It’s time to bring on the pain if I want to get faster.

Check out the pictures Lana took of me on Facebook!

RACE REPORT: IU Mini Marathon (13.1), April 4, 2009.

Time: 1:43:36
Pace: 7:54 minutes/mile
Weather: 38 at start, warming up to 45 at finish. Partly cloudy.

This year, the IU Mini Marathon in Bloomington, IN had a new course. Instead of going south of town and hitting the rollers on Windsor Road, we instead ran north on the SR45/46 bypass, which made the course a bit easier. Basically, the bypass is a long, 2-mile gradual uphill with about 150 feet in elevation gain, whereas Windsor road has about 250-300 feet of elevation gain spread out over many small steep rollers.

I arrived at the race and got a good warm-up in. When you are like me and can run as fast as KENYANS, you need to get in a good warm-up so that the legs are ready for the ONSLAUGHT OF SPEED I was about to put them through.

At the start of the race, I immediately began kicking ass. As much as HALF THE FIELD was behind me after the first mile! No one has ever done so well in a running race!

The first few miles were predominantly uphill, so my superior intellect came up with a perfect gameplan–take it easy on the first 5 or so miles, up the pace for the middle four, and CRUSH DREAMS SEVERELY in the last four. As expected, I executed this game plan to perfection.

My goal for the race was to finish between 1:40 and 1:45, which would mean that I’d need to be under 8:00/mile at the end of the race. After the first 5 uphill miles, I was (as expected by my superior intellect) a bit off that pace, but being the cool customer that I am, I simply went faster. Almost reaching KENYAN speed at this point.

Also, at this point I became too hot for my shirt so I took it off. THAT WAS ATTRACTIVE TO LADIES AND SOME MEN.

Each mile after mile 7 was under 8:00/mile, with the miles generally getting faster as I headed toward the finish. I was passing so many people at this point I could barely count them on one hand.

Miles 12 and 13 had a few nasty little mini-hills but I crushed those with minimal effort and maximal CRUSHAGE.

I got to the finish line in 1:43 and change, which was one of the top SEVERAL HUNDRED times of the day! I immediately claimed my winner’s medal (they don’t give those to just anyone, you know) and enjoyed a victory lap to the banana counter where they had some bananas.

It seems that my winter of running has really paid off for me. Though this year’s course was easier than last year (by perhaps 3 minutes at my pace), it’s still a significant improvement over last year’s time of 2:02.

Also, thanks to my chiropractor, orthotics, new running socks, newskin and Body Glide, I had ZERO foot problems. I should be able to run again tomorrow, which is the true hallmark of someone who is unstoppable at running.

SUMMARY OF THIS POST: I AM GOING TO KICK SO MUCH ASS IN MY RACES THIS YEAR BECAUSE I AM THE BEST RUNNER YOU HAVE EVER SEEN.

Appendix A (for Awesome): Mile splits
Mile 1 – 8:16.54
Mile 2 – 8:09.11
Mile 3 – 8:36.06
Mile 4 – 8:07.96
Mile 5 – 8:09.20
Mile 6 – 7:47.11
Mile 7 – 8:11.91
Mile 8 – 7:40.81
Mile 9 – 7:58.78
Mile 10 – 7:38.49
Mile 11 – 7:26.20
Mile 12 – 7:27.49
Mile 13 – 7:17.46
Mile 13.1 – 0:49.57

Total: 1:43:36 (7:54 pace)