Here are my slides from my introduction to mongoDB talk at the Brussels mongoDB user group.

http://speakerdeck.com/u/rozza/p/mongodb-brussels-mongodb-an-introduction

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Hurray! MongoEngine 0.5 has finally been released!

With many improvements and bug fixes means that MongoEngine is more powerful than ever!

Core improvements include:

• Efficient save
  Now when you save an existing object it atomically updates only what has been changed. Making it super efficient and so easy to use, without having to worrying about race conditions.
• Efficient Database Referencing
  MongoEngine saves you queries by intelligently identifiying and dereferencing DBReference fields.
• Complex fields
  Dictionary and List fields can store any complex data you require; other dictionaries, lists and other documents.
• Signal support
  pre and post save / delete.
• Subfield slicing
  For retrieving parts of subsets of lists, keeping data transfer down.
• Abstract Base Classes
  Helps keep your document definitions dry so you can easily extend Documents.
• Custom Object Managers
  When used with Astract Base Classes you can easily apply behaviour across all querysets.
• query_counter
  A context manager, that helps you determine the cost of some queries / code - great for testing!

If you are using Flask - then check out our Flask-MongoEngine library, which provides MongoEngine connection and WTForms support.

With Multi Database support coming quickly in 0.6, we promise it wont take so long between release cycles!  Checkout the documentation to get you started!

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For the last few months at work we've been adopting MongoDB as our main database. For those that don't know what MongoDB is and you're still reading this?! "MongoDB is an open source, document-oriented database designed with both scalability and developer agility in mind. Instead of storing your data in tables and rows as you would with a relational database, in MongoDB you store JSON-like documents with dynamic schemas."

Coming from a Django background, MongoEngine "a Document-Object Mapper (think ORM, but for document databases) for working with MongoDB from Python" seemed a natural choice. Since joining the project, as well as fixing numerous bugs, we've added many new features to MongoEngine core.

Here are some of my favourites:

• Added complex Dictionary / List fields - Which can store any complex data you require; other dictionaries, lists, references.
• Signal support - pre and post save / delete.
• Subfield slicing - for retrieving parts of subsets of lists.
• Abstract Base Classes - Helps keep your document definitions dry
• Custom Object Managers - When used with Astract Base Classes you can easily apply behaviour across all querysets.
• Delta tracking - Now save on an existing object, atomically updates only what has been changed. Making it super efficient and so easy to use, without having to worrying about race conditions.
• Select Related support - Now generic / reference fields can use select_related to minimise the number of queries to mongo.
• query_counter - A context manager, that helps you determine the cost of some queries / code.

Some of the above, I'll blog about in more depth in the near future as especially the delta tracking is pretty cool.  In the near future the 0.5 release will be out - its on the dev branch if you want to play with it now.  With more ideas / suggestions for improvements being added to github, it seems that MongoEngine will only get better. So why not signup to the usergroup and join in the discussion.

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Well after having a great camping trip at the start of a week holiday, the Lawleys decided to head off camping again.  So I failed to start off Juneathon :(  I have had a great and active June so far, country walks, loads off fresh air and my triathlon training is 6 days a week, so I wont be missing out, but alas I wont be blogging it all.

Good luck to the other Juneathletes!

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Roll up, roll up!  Juneathon is nearly on us sign up here: http://www.juneathon.com/

What is it?  Its a festival of exercise for the month of june!

It's primarily a running challenge, but if you can't or don't want to run every day, you can still join in by cycling, walking, rowing, weights, swimming, building sandcastles or whatever. Just do something every day in June

Sounds difficult?  It really isn't, just remember you don't have to over do it, just do a little bit of something every day.   I found janathon hugely rewarding and it really got me into the zone of doing more exercise in prep for my triathlons.  I covered 98.1 miles in a month, running over 50 of them, now I have a bike I'll smash those stats, but I still doubt I'll catch the winner of who ran an immense 450 miles in January!

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Thanks to Galeforce events for putting on a great event, it was my first real sprint triathlon - I did one back in 2003 but with no training I don't really count it.

The venue was easy to get to and had ample parking, I was slightly nervous using my new bike rack on the car, but it was great (thanks Halfords!).  I got there with plenty of time to spare, got my transition area sorted.  I noticed lots of people using plastic boxes to carry / store their transition kit in - much easier and tidier than a bag, so I'll do the same next time.  The swimming pool changing rooms were open, but don't really have many facilities - there was always a queue for the gents (pre race jitters I suppose).  I put myself down for a 5:30 swim based on my training the week before, so I had a long wait before starting - over an hour.  A feel laps of the diving pool, did little to calm the nerves.

Swim - 400m (07:00)

I was expecting better from myself in terms of time, but it didn't click, my breathing was laboured and it felt far more tiring than I expected and I was over taken twice, so not great in the end it took me 7 mins to complete.  Not great at all, so next sprint I'll use that time and should get in and started sooner.

Bike - 24k (56:14)

The transition went ok, I decided against putting socks on, so just dried myself quickly, hat on and off.  The swim shorts felt really tight on my legs to begin with and I was worried that the rear tire was low / going flat.  I worried too much, clipped the curb and flew off into the grass / nettles / thistles in the verge - ouch.  I was all in one piece - grazed and had a burning sensation of the nettles but I got back on and got on with the ride.  The ride itself seemed uphill to the A6 then dips and then a short sharp uphill before a downhill into Paversham.  Then a nice downhill and fast on-in.

Run - 5k (25:51)

To me it felt a little shorter than 5k, but I did better than I thought I would and after 26mins I'd finished and felt like a triathlete!

Total Time: 1:31:12

Post Tri

Unfortunately, the bike incident hurt more than I realised, my shoulder took the brunt of the fall and ached, but worst of all was the itching from the nettles - took me ages to fall asleep.  Note to self, look where your going when riding the bike!!

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After a week of illness, that started with the kids and a norovirus style illness, I felt really fatigued and eventually got a cold,  so I took a weeks rest and off training, no fun but recovery is important.  

I've decided to start the training back at week 1 and first off on Sunday, I did the BHF's Knebworth house jog, a slightly disorganised and short 10k but a good hilly cross country run!

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Wow February is marching on and I feel like I've rested up for a couple of weeks after Janathon!  But in truth I have been to the pool and to the Gym a couple of times, I've cycled on boris bikes and on static (*yawn*) bikes.  But somehow not having the obligation to do something daily has made it feel like I've been resting!  

What I have been focusing on recently is planning my training for the London Triathlon in just over 20 weeks.

The full schedule can be seen / downloaded here: Tri Plan.pdf - based on one seen on TriFuel but tweaked to include gym strenghting as well (more on that in a future post).

Today, to start my focused gym sessions I went to the gym to calculate my One Repetition Maximums.  This is slightly embarrising as you have to calculate the absolute maximum you can lift for any given exercise.  As that could be dangerous the safe way to calculate it involves stacking the weights on and when you can only do between 3 - 10 reps you have a weight that you can used to calculate your 1 Rep Max.

I must have looked a sight, throwing weights on, huffing and puffing and only doing a few sets before wondering off to the next bit of kit. Anyway for prosperity here are my 1 Rep Maximums rounded down to the nearest actual weights for my current gym routine:

• Squat: 45KG
• Vertical Traction: 80KG
• Leg Press: 95KG
• Hammer Curl: 15KG
• Leg Curl: 65KG
• Push Down: 27.5KG
• Cable Lateral Lift: 8KG

The squat figure looks a little low given the leg press value, but I can always recalculate it.  One thing I noticed is my legs (knees?) are relatively weak, so hopefully strength training will really benefit them for future runs / cycles.

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Wow!  I've done it, I exercised every day in January! I started with a swim so I thought I'd end with a swim - not in the north sea but a few lengths of the swimming pool. I'm pleased with myself and I think it has set up a base level of activity that I can extend and improve over the coming months as I train for my triathlon in July.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere; the tweets and the posts about janathon. The community made it easier and it was good to see that others encouraged people on and offered advice as well - great work all!

Stats Distance: 98.2 miles

Run: 50.1 mi
Bike: 37.2 mi
Walk: 10.1 mi
Swim: 0.8 mi 

Stats Time: 19.1 hours

Run: 8.8 hrs
Bike: 4.5 hrs
Walk: 2.6 hrs
Swim: 0.8 hrs
Gym: 2.5 hrs 

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A quick commute today left me frustrated this morning as 2 local docks were all full and the map listed other ones nearby that didn't exist!  So it took nearly 10 minutes to find a dock!  This was all because I went to see the doctor this morning about my knee - it all looks fine but I've been referred to a physio which will take some time..

Stats (Bike Totals):

Distance: 4.51 mi
Duration: 00:31:28
Avg. Pace: 6:74min/mi

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Back to the gym for a core strength workout. Its amazing that in just 4 sessions my strength at some of the machines seems to have improved markedly.  Probably more to do with getting use to dealing with lactic acid build up when doing weights, rather than an increase of strength but I'll take any rewards as they come!

The best bit about today was I ran to the Gym did a work out and then ran back - a real win as doing cardo work in the gym isn't as fun and psychologically the gym has got a whole load closer to home!

Stats:
Weights: 35 mins
Cardo: 20 mins

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A crisp Saturday afternoon led to a great 30 minute run, on a route I first did last summer - when I was first starting out with running, I picked a half marathon as my target and wanted to include a bit of a hill and cross country to keep the training varied.  This short run soon became a favourite before work run but had long been abandoned due to not enough light.

A good blast round, my right knee was still giving me some gyp but not as bad as last week.  So I finished off by doing a long session of stretching afterwards. I'm hoping for more answers on Monday when I'm off to see the doc.

Stats:

Distance: 3.75 mi
Duration: 00:36:28
Avg. Pace: 9:44min/mi

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Back to normal on the cycling today, all and I mean all the lights were red this morning and I had to stop.  Only other thing of note is all the docks in Kings Cross were full and I had to go find another dock to put the bike.  Wow, living the dream!

Stats (Bike Totals):

Distance: 3.52 mi
Duration: 00:24:58
Avg. Pace: 7:06min/mi

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Wow - what a cycle ride this morning!  All the lights were green and it was smooth riding all the way - under 10 mins!  Cycle home was less good but its all helping me get used to cycling. I love running and cycling still feels alien but if I'm to do a triathlon its something I have to master.

Stats (Bike Totals):
Distance: 3.36 mi
Duration: 00:21:38
Avg. Pace: 6:16min/mi

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Well it was up and at em today!  I was in the gym for 6:30 so I could get my janathon fix in for the day.  I still feel self conscious at the gym - hoping that will wear off as I get used to the equipment and the gym.

Focusing on upper body / core strength I found it a little easier this time than last!

Stats:
Weights: 35 mins
Cardo: 5 mins (rowing to cool down)
Stretches: 5 (very self conscious) mins (I haven't noticed anyone else doing stretches..)

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Nothing much to report today, cycled to and from work to the station.  The only thing of note is all the bikes in on dock were bust, so I had to tappy lappy over to the next nearest dock.   Apparently, there is a convention is to turn the seat facing backwards if its bust, so from now on I will do!

Oh and the other thing of note, is really a note to self; when going from a new dock think about the route before you end up being stuck on a one way stretch sandwiched imbetween two buses...

Stats (Bike Totals):
Distance: 3.42 mi
Duration: 00:25:04
Avg. Pace: 7:19min/mi

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Up with the larks this morning to go for my weekly run with Adam. Still very dark in the mornings, so the first off road section was slightly hazardous.  It seems to have got so much muddier in the last two weeks the fields have changed into a quagmire of mud and puddles. So not too dissimilar from last weekend!

The run felt great, in fact managed negative splits.  By the end my legs were so tired I decided a cold bath would help them.   Now for my momentous moment of the day: I managed a cold bath without screaming like a girl!  As my legs were so muddy, I didn't stretch out after the run big mistake as after the cold bath my legs felt too cold to stretch out...

Stats:

Distance: 8:02 mi
Duration: 01:26:28
Avg. Pace: 10:47min/mi

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Well today I went to the gym for 45 minutes.  The plan for the gym is to focus on upper body and core strength, I figure the running is good for the legs and cycling will be to!  So after beasting myself on the weights (doing relatively small weights on the various torture machines) my arms, chest and back are now tender (read f'ing hurt).  So much so I'm really glad I have power steering, as I could really feel it straight after on the drive home!  I'm hoping this is a newbie thing and that I will soon get used to doing weights and be able to lift weights that someone my size should be able to!

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Not much to report, a good days cycling on the commute, no instances, no drama!

Stats (Bike Totals):

Distance: 3.49 mi 

Duration: 00:25:14

Avg. Pace: 7:14min/mi

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