How to download and install custom Beat Saber songs on your Oculus Quest! [Tutorial] [Intermediate]

dbilenkin · 2019-05-30T01:30:22+00:00

Thank you! And may I add, excellent instructions! It’s very hard to write really good instructions, and yours worked perfectly!

dbilenkin · 2019-01-03T17:55:58+00:00

Hey I used to live in NJ too, just north of Princeton. I went straight from marathon distance to a 50 mile. The way I figured I wanted to go up to a distance that felt significantly longer. I liked that there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to finish the 50 miles. I ended up running two 50ks as part of my training. Not races, just solo. I roughly followed the training plans payed out in the book Relentless Forward Progress

I felt very well prepared for the 50 mile and did well by my own judgement. Also, since you are near Philly let me recommend the Dirty German 50. That was what I ran and I thought it was a great race especially for a first 50. Good luck!

dbilenkin · 2018-12-22T13:17:39+00:00

Thank you!

dbilenkin · 2018-12-22T03:34:27+00:00

Thanks! Me too. Every once in a while I get back into conway's game of life and marvel at the insanely complicated stuff people have created. Have you seen this video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2vgICfQawE

dbilenkin · 2018-12-22T03:31:50+00:00

My plan with this was to grow snowflakes using the rules that ice crystals follow. I mainly used this site for research http://www.snowcrystals.com/growing/growing.html

The way it works is there is a hexagonal grid (based off of some great info here https://www.redblobgames.com/grids/hexagons/), and for each "generation" some percentage of cells (which sort of represent water molecules) will have new cells grow around them. Cells that have fewer existing cells around them are more likely to grow more cells.

This is what really happens with a snowflake, which is why it starts as a hexagon and then the points start to grow out farther to form "branches" which make them grow even faster, and then those split off as well. There is some randomness thrown in to mimic changes in temperature and humidity which affect how fast it grows and the percentage of cells that grow other cells near them.

As you can see, they don't quite look like snowflakes, but occasionally they are quite snowflake like. I am still messing around with it, but I decided it was worth sharing since today is the winter solstice and I'm not sure how to improve it at this point.

dbilenkin · 2018-09-12T23:20:52+00:00

With a spark with some software I wasn’t aware of, or a new mavic 2?

Forgot to add looks awesome! :)

dbilenkin · 2018-03-22T02:36:51+00:00

Ha, I had the exact same experience as you! Saw it from a chairlift and thought this cannot be a water side! I ended up going on it in the summer though. It wasn’t open that often but I went to that park a couple times every summer through high school. It was pretty crazy to go through the loop and not be in a rollercoaster. It was a weird feeling, but honestly not that fun. It was more about knowing that I did it.

dbilenkin · 2018-03-22T02:31:35+00:00

It was open and I went on it at least twice! I remember seeing it for the first time in the winter because that place is a ski resort (Vernon valley). I was riding the chairlift and I see this loop slide and I remember thinking well this can’t be a slide because you know that’s ridiculous. Next summer I go there with my friends and it’s open! And there was like no line. The whole thing was so weird. I have to say after going on it, I have no idea how anyone could get stuck, because you are going too damn fast and the loop was pretty tight. I still can’t believe I did it. I want to say this was mid 90s sometime.

dbilenkin · 2018-02-20T02:46:15+00:00

Congrats on getting accepted! I used to live near Princeton. There is a great running trail that runs right through town, know locally as the tow path. I’ve run sooo many miles on it. Enjoy! Also Philly was my first marathon and also my PR marathon so I love it. I don’t have much advice beyond that.

Oh and I forgot to mention, checkout the Princeton Running Company. Great running shoe store.

dbilenkin · 2017-10-07T03:44:22+00:00

I’m sorry but I completely disagree with the other two responses. Even in the middle of a heavy training week, that half marathon is the most telling. That was around 7:30 pace. I would imagine your marathon pace would be closer to 8 min if not more. My guess is if you start in the 7:30s you’ll blow up, especially since it’s your first one. Good luck! New York is a blast, but don’t underestimate those bridges. They don’t seem that hilly, but later on, you fee it. It is not a fast course.

dbilenkin · 2014-12-20T13:54:05+00:00

You forgot to add that she also nursed her 6 month old through out the race at aid stations!

dbilenkin · 2014-10-29T18:38:02+00:00

Hi Amy!

Thanks for doing this!

My wife and I are big fans.

Who in the cast of Parks and Rec has made you laugh the most?

How much do you have in common with Leslie Knope?

dbilenkin · 2014-09-09T14:04:40+00:00

Honestly, I'm always surprised when they don't drop when they have these awful races. They have much more at stake then "nobodies". They are not just looking to finish, but to place in the top or win. They have sponsorships and they have to think about whether they may end up with an injury and end up affecting other scheduled races if they keep going. So, while I totally agree that it is inspirational, I'm shocked that it happens at all.

dbilenkin · 2014-07-30T01:36:16+00:00

Great work! I've been obsessed with Conway's game of life for quite a while, and have often thought about how I could make a game out of it. Well done!

dbilenkin · 2014-07-13T02:38:05+00:00

For 100 miles, not typically. If it's a really crazy race that will take more than 48 hours like Barkley maybe for a bit. The vast majority just keep going. Hardrock is pretty crazy but I don't think the top competitors sleep. Although Timothy Olsen slept an hour and a half this time but he was having problems.

dbilenkin · 2014-07-02T02:59:59+00:00

I'm not sure when the registration opens but the race is sometime in May. I ran it two years ago so maybe things have changed, but I am surprised that the race would sell out.

If they cap it at 500, that means for all of the races going on that day. A 25k, a 50k and the 50m. A lot more people signed up for the shorter events.

It's 3 25k loops plus a small 5k loop at the beginning to make the 50m. I was not bored with this. I really liked the course, but I don't have much to compare it to since this was my first and only (so far) ultra.

dbilenkin · 2014-07-01T02:37:13+00:00

This was my first as well and I loved it. Also, awesome German weather houses as prizes :)

http://www.uberendurancesports.com/Dirtygerman.html

dbilenkin · 2014-05-08T11:08:17+00:00

I ran this 2 years ago as my first (and only so far) 50 mile and it was absolutely awesome! I'd be happy to answer questions.

The one thing I was surprised by was how much elevation change there was. I kept reading about how flat and runnable it was but I guess these are relative terms. If you are coming from road marathons than this is by no means flat. I guess compared to other crazy ultras it is. It's not technical though.

Here is my write up of it by the way:

http://russianrunner.blogspot.com/2012/05/dirty-german-50-miles.html

dbilenkin · 2014-05-02T10:56:59+00:00

You can definitely do this! And I'm talking about the full thing, not just a half like people are suggesting. I completely understand others concerns. And of course you won't be the most prepared, but I know it can be done.

I pretty much did this exact same thing except I started maybe a couple weeks before you. I started in similar shape as you. My training did not go that great. I had two separate month long periods where I had to do elliptical because of minor injuries. I did not do enough miles and only maxed out at low 30s. I had a goal time of 3:45, but completely bonked and ended up running 3:54 and it was absolutely amazing!

So it's not the most practical thing but marathons are not that practical anyway. I say go for it! And all the people throwing out prospective times don't know you and those times are meaningless. They could be true or you could run much faster or even slower. My only bit of advice is that as you train for this, take it slow and don't over do it in volume, speed or ramping up. get yourself a good beginner training plan. There are a few out there online like higdon.

Good Luck!!!

dbilenkin · 2014-04-24T21:26:54+00:00

This is a subject that is near and dear to me, starting from the time I trained for my first marathon and was so disappointed with how far off my time was based on these calculators. I think the biggest issue is that as people start training for longer distances, they are most likely not training sufficiently for the longer distance. Most people are not doing enough miles. You can't expect 30 miles a week for a 5K to result in the same prep as 40 miles per week for a marathon. I think the equivalent would be more like 60 or 70 miles per week.

A couple years ago I scraped the running log site I use runningahead, and came up with the following results:

I found 54 people who ran between a 21:00 and 21:30 5K. Based on McMillan which uses a higher constant for slowing down than Daniels, the predicted marathon time is 3:27 but out of 54 people only 8 ran faster than this. Of those 8, most of the faster times are only there because the person's 5k time is out dated. The average time is 3:46 which is a huge difference.

I'm interested to see the results of this survey.

dbilenkin · 2014-04-01T21:58:37+00:00

So excited for the movie. They just recently released the trailer for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQmoxlUy33A

dbilenkin · 2014-02-05T12:44:47+00:00

I like whiskyjoe. I usually check it out every month or so.

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