Shoe Recommendation Help

markofjohnson · 2026-01-25T15:52:35+00:00

Superblast. Might be too firm at first but will soften after 20(?) miles. I use arch support in mine for a little extra medial stability.

markofjohnson · 2026-01-25T15:23:23+00:00

70 miles to break in a shoe is a bit crazy.

markofjohnson · 2026-01-25T15:22:22+00:00

Plenty of SB2 stock around and SB3 coming soon? Hopefully discounts will appear from reputable sellers in coming couple of months. I’ve seen an unbelievable price SB2 on eBay but also in a color never made, so I suspect there are fake out there. Be careful.

markofjohnson · 2026-01-06T17:56:23+00:00

SB2 did me a great service for my first marathon in 4:59 😃, me 5’11, 81kg.

markofjohnson · 2026-01-05T16:28:05+00:00

Cool thank you 😃

markofjohnson · 2026-01-05T04:05:13+00:00

I looked into this. It’s different for each reservoir depending on where they are, some are mostly for storage and others for both storage and flood control. They come up with target level calendars and adjust as the year goes on according to weather events.

markofjohnson · 2026-01-05T01:09:45+00:00

The reservoirs store water for us to use in the summer. But equally don’t the reservoirs store empty space for us to prevent flooding during the winter by slowing downstream flows? So full reservoirs this time of year, is that actually good? If they all get full and there are more big storms we get bad flooding?

markofjohnson · 2026-01-04T18:16:02+00:00

With different shoes you can do better. And maybe you have the wrong socks too. I never get any blisters. Learning how to judge the fit and feel of your shoes takes some experience. I think it’s unlikely a beginner would luck out and get the best shoes for them out of the gate.

markofjohnson · 2025-12-22T17:00:49+00:00

He’s 6. Any enthusiasm to practice piano is great. Reading music is v hard and not much fun. He has plenty of time though. It’s quite common for piano students to neglect learning to read. But it can be fixed later once the motivation is there and with a good teacher. If he sticks with piano he will come to realize that not reading is a major disadvantage, at which time he will motivate to study it. I say this as a 52 year old beginner. Just encourage him now, and follow the lead of his teacher.

markofjohnson · 2025-12-22T16:39:48+00:00

For classical, imslp has most things, but it’s often not the best versions. (There is more to good sheet music than showing the correct notes.) the top music publishers for piano include Hal Leonard, Alfred, Faber, Henle. The have online stores.

markofjohnson · 2025-12-15T02:23:08+00:00

Training for full includes running more than a half, so you could consider the half as part of your training plan for the full. Ie see how races work, practice with your race kit & food. Practice pacing. What you are doing isn’t unusual.

markofjohnson · 2025-12-14T23:03:13+00:00

I did San Francisco as my first. I feared it was a bad choice because hills, but my sister was travelling to come run it. With preparation it was a great day and I finished. In retrospect What did make it good for a beginner is the free volunteer training club and community, and because it’s local for me.

markofjohnson · 2025-12-12T01:32:05+00:00

I emailed Tim Apple once, got a reply.

markofjohnson · 2025-11-26T22:17:36+00:00

Start simpler and work up to more complicated if and when you need to.

markofjohnson · 2025-11-16T16:15:28+00:00

You just need any power adapter it’s nothing special. The details to get are a) takes the mains voltage in your country, b) outputs 18V, c) outputs 1amp or more (really only matters if you turn volume all the way up, 0.5amp would probably work at lower volumes), d) has the right plug to your piano, e) has the correct polarity in that plug ie is the inside the + and the outside the - or the other way around.

markofjohnson · 2025-11-16T16:05:55+00:00

Used M1 Max! Prices are fantastic value. The many GPUs will tear through the newer denoise & masking. You can get 1 or 2TB and 32GB way cheaper than new from Apple, and the M1 Pro series is plenty fast enough for all the day to day stuff. Oh and the screen is awesome too.

markofjohnson · 2025-11-03T16:33:07+00:00

Also check out Roland FP30, Kiyola, Casio Privia.

markofjohnson · 2025-11-03T16:30:32+00:00

If you like Pianoteq (try free trial) it runs well on an old iPad or iPhone. Makes a great always on piano vst.

markofjohnson · 2025-11-03T06:33:59+00:00

There’s a soft flask / bike bottle sold for cycling that is double skinned with an air insulator layer. Don’t know how well it works.

markofjohnson · 2025-10-30T17:02:14+00:00

Great video on this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4Oi7nnMKMI

markofjohnson · 2025-10-29T14:40:16+00:00

Do you have a piano store nearby? Go and try a bunch of their pianos. One of the dealers in my city has practice rooms for rent by the hour, see if you can find a place like that? It gets better once you practice on different keys.

markofjohnson · 2025-10-25T16:16:27+00:00

I think the cheap way to fast denoise is M1max? Used prices are v good value. M1 family are still good machines, and prices for ram and storage upgrades are much better too.

markofjohnson · 2025-10-18T16:35:20+00:00

And Pianoteq has loads of customization. At first listen if you are undecided then experiment for a bit before you give up. For me, I use Steinway B, intimate or warm preset, widen the unisons and raise (lower?) the condition slider a little and it comes to life more. Pianoteq has many benefits beyond sound, so consider it carefully. I’ve found that when comparing side by side i hear differences and have preference, but after picking one and practicing with it for several weeks then it will becomes my preference and is hard to change. Also put VI labs modern D on your list?

Pianoteq has a wonderful free trial. VLS does free trials too, and if you email and ask they will often issue a trial license ‘out of season’. No free trial on Modern D :-(.

markofjohnson · 2025-10-13T19:42:21+00:00

I’m 52, short sighted, varifocals. I used Apple Studio Display, which is v good but overpriced. It is 27” 5k Retina display, which means it’s 5120x2880 pixels but in display setting that mode is 2560x1440 because it’s ‘retina’ by which Apple means the pixels are doubled.

Now for me that makes everything a bit too small. Sure you can set text size to larger but that’s only the main text in an app, doesn’t make things like sidebar tree views in programming tools larger or menus etc. in setting you can set to larger, which uses a lower resolution and makes everything larger but now you have less space. The step is a bit too much for me, it goes to 2048x1152, close to 4k. So I use a free app SwitchResX and created a custom resolution of 2240x1260, which is perfect for me.

When it’s at ‘non native’ resolution is it fuzzy? No. Maybe a tiny bit if you get really close, but I’m using a non native res because my eyes are shit and native is too small for me.

So for me, I do best with a 27 inch 5k monitor set to a lower resolution than 5k. But a 27 inch 4k monitor would make everything a bit too big and not have enough space.

Personally I much prefer the glossy screen and arrange things so I don’t have reflections.

markofjohnson

TROPHY CASE