Tag: running

GROWING SICK OF THE ‘NET YET AGAIN: INCOMING MEDIA FAST

I’ve been disciplining my body these days more than I ever have. Namely, I’ve been following Reddit’s Starting Stretching, Bodyweight Fitness Training Routine for beginners and I finally restarted going for runs, aiming to relive the “glory days” of being able to run up to 10 kilometres, which in fact I managed to do exactly one year ago while I was in Sofia (post about me finally running 8k).

For the past few weeks, I’ve been going to the Alsos almost every day, rotating the bodyweight fitness (push-ups, pull-ups, handstands, L-sits etc) with the running. And it feels grrreat! Daphne has been helping a lot with cooking healthy and nutritious vegetarian meals with lots of protein, not that I’m shy of the stoves, but  I tend to cook the same three or four things, not experimenting unless in the mood, and with her in control we’ve been eating like vegetarian kings. It activates me and it’s bringing in some good skills to have. I don’t know if I would be doing it if I didn’t have all the free time I have now, but that’s beyond the point. Having a workout and exercise routine helps me bring some (illusion of) order to my disorganised life, and with some much appreciated visible results.

Nevertheless, what I haven’t been able to organise, discipline and harness at all– seriously, AT ALL — is my mind.

In June last year, apart from running 10k, I posted this little write-up I’m still proud of:

I’M SICK OF THE INTERNET – AREN’T YOU? GETTING THROUGH INTERNET ADDICTION

Trouble is, I didn’t go through with what I pledged I would do. As far as I can remember (which isn’t a lot, because, as typically happens when you regress to addictive behaviour, your memory-forming functions give way to the reptilian dopamine-releasing pleasure centres, quite conveniently, too, because you don’t really want to remember in shame the ego-shattering moments when you and your actions fail to hold up to your initial intention), ten days later I was again browsing the web, free as a bird — or, to be more precise, free as a bird enclosed in a cage made of invisible walls.

A few days ago, while I was running no less, the thought came to me: why don’t I try again with this whole less internet, less  media thing? I could use the extra time to think and create. I seriously miss creating…

The next 4 days I’m going to be in Loutra doing a media fast with Daphne: each day, we will be allowed to use the internet for just 30 minutes, and that’s just for e-mail, practicalities and Rights4Water. The rest of the time, anything with a screen will be off-limits. No movies, no games, no TV, no smartphones — I will switch mine to battery-saving “dumbphone mode”– no distractions from the interestnet. The only exception will be my Sansa Clip Zip I will be using for audiobooks, podcasts and music for when I’m doing exercise. The idea is to limit options, minimise distractions and allow for deeper thought and even boredom, which will force us to be creative instead of us automatically turning to the mind-numbing net for excitement and stimulation.

Let’s see how it goes.

POLYGLOT DIARY – 6/6/2014

Es wird schwieriger und schwieriger, alles im Gleichgewicht zu bringen. Und, wenn ich “alles” sage, meine ich: mein neuestes Experiment mit NoSurf, dass ich erst für 4 Tage versuchen habe (und es ist nicht so schwer, wie ich gedacht hatte); die 7×7 Anforderung, Bulgarisch – so viel wie möglich-, ausgehen, mein kleines Rakun denken, jetzt noch mehr, wenn ich mit ihm nicht so leicht reden oder chatten kann. Ich frage mich, ob alle diese Spannung (und vielleicht die wichtigste Sache von meinen Monaten in Bulgarien underbewusst vermeiden) lohnt sich.

Diese Tage waren hier ein Paar von Zandas Freunde, die den ganzen Weg von Latvia bis hier mit Autostopp gefahren sind. Ich habe es sehr interresant gefunden – sowieso finde ich Autostopp sehr toll – also habe ich ihnen gebeten, einen Interview mit ihnen machen. Einer Tag wird ich ihn hochladen, wenn ich mit den anderen Teilen des Podcasts fertig bin… Sehen sie, was ich meine, wenn ich sage, dass es schwieriger und schwieriger wird? Ich habe auch andere Aufnahme von einem Paar Konzerten, wohin wir heute und gestern gegangen sind. “Langsam langsam!”, als wir in Griechenland sagen mögen. Ich frage mich, ob etwas ähnliches, im Geist und in der Mentalitát, auch in Deutschland geben könnte… Bin ich ein bisschen zu stereotypisch?

Raider II ist so ein tolles Lied, gerade höre ich es nach langer Zeit zu. Ich habe viele Male geschrieben, wie ich so merkwürdig finde, dass Steven Wilson als Musikant nicht weiter bekannt ist. Na ja, ich kann mir vorstellen, dass viele Leute das gleiche sagten, oder schon sagen, wenn ihren Lieblingssänger nicht von anderen gewürdigt wäre. Wer weisst, was von Musik das ich lieben würde, nie werde ich zuhören. Das Leben ist nicht so kurz, aber trotzdem ist es, um alles zu entdecken.

Am Dienstag bin ich nach vielen Tagen endlich gelaufen, aber ich konnte sogar nur 20 Minuten gehen – warum, weiss ich nicht. Ich war sehr enttäuscht darüber… Allerdings habe ich mich heute gefreut, weil ich 10,5km in weniger als 60 Minuten gelaufen bin. Das ist mein bester Tag bis jetzt.

Ich schreibe, und ich schreibe, und so geht es. Schreiben auf Deutsch braucht Zeit, weil ich alles so gut wie möglich beschreiben will, und wie wenige Fehler so möglich machen (eine Kindheit von Overcorrecting – das ist mich), und das Schriff und das Denken benutzen, um zu üben. Auch wenn ich deshalb sehr langsam schreibe, weil ich die ganze Zeit online Lexikons und solche Sache benutzen brauche, es macht mir vielen Spass. Deutsch gibt mir ein sehr einzigartiges Gefühl, dass ich damit komplett and kreativ mich äussern kann.

POLYGLOT DIARY – 23/5/2014

Opa! El proximo post en espaniol! Pfff, seguir escribir sin el enie se siente muy… extranio!

Pues, ahora puedo escribir con un poco mas detalles, asi que el ultimo post del diario poligloto era en bulgaro.

Estoy aqui en Sofia. Vicente no esta aqui, esta en Espania por estos dias y estar en la habitacion solo es una sensacion que casi habia olvidado. En lugar de el, Niina la finlandesa nos esta visitando. Las otras chicas de Shar Planina 55 y ella estan en todo tiempo juntas. Ahora mismo que estoy escribiendo estas lineas, han salido en los bares sofianos con intenciones salvajes! Despues las ultimas semanas, puedo decir seguramente que necesito mas tiempo solo con la presencia y la amistad de mi mismo. Eso creo que es lo mas que me falta aqui.

Hoy y el dia penultimo corri 9-10 kilometros, cerca una hora… Lentamente pero seguramente (se puede decir esto en espaniol?) me preparo para algun semimaraton. Encontre un bueno estadio de entrada gratis, y, aunque no esta en buena condicion, ya me gusta mucho ir alli, correr bajo del sol de mayo sin camiseta.

Siempre siento que tengo demasiadas cosas de hacer, y cada dia el estres de muchas obligaciones poquitas se anada y se hace grande. No se que podria hacer para organizar mi vida mejor. Incluso ahora me parece que he olvidado algo, algo importante… Sin embargo, mi nuevo libro sobre el MBTI lo dice: los INFPs tienen problemas con equilibrio entre todas las cosas que necesitan su atencion. El P… El P crea todos los problemas! Demonios!

Antes poco tratamos con Rena y Daphne jugar Civilization IV sobre el internet… Y lo conseguimos… por los primeros veinte minutos o tal. Mi laptop, que ya tiene casi 5 anios, no puede llevar un juego de casi una decada. Bueno, cuando lo compre, ya no estuviera muy actual para nada. No se, mi relacion con mi laptop es bastante mala estos dias. Dejo todos mis archivos en el escritorio, no trato de organizar ni mis fotografias.

Lei algo muy pertinente en el libro de Benny Lewis que estoy leyendo estos dias, Fluent in Three Months.Originalmente es en ingles, por supuesto, pero en espaniol seria algo asi:

La disciplina simplemente significa elegir entre lo que quieres ahora y lo que quieres mas.

Debo de admitirlo, tengo dificuldades hacer la distincion…

HIGH EXISTENCE AUDIOBOOK ONE

The HE Audiobook: 26 of Our Best Articles For Your Personal Evolution

3 months ago we set out to gather the best articles we’ve ever written and transform them into an audiobook.

We compiled a huge stash of inspiring, thought-provoking, ego-breaking, magical content and re-created them with the mesmerizing voice of Simon from SpokenMatter.com.

The result is a whopping 5-hours of audio content that transforms the way you absorb our articles.

You get our best 26 articles for less than two cups of coffee.

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You can listen to them while commuting or use them to get your grandma interested in DMT 🙂

They’re also DRM free so you can share them with anyone.

This is our first attempt at supporting HE through original content. Rather than ads or affiliate links, this audiobook further empowers us to do what we love without sacrifice.

This is where I, qb, come in. I bought and download this several months ago and it was quite worth it. I uploaded it on my server for sharing with anyone who might be interested but wouldn’t know where his or her $5 would be going. This is valuable info and each one of the 26 articles-cum-sound files are wonderful partners for walking and/or running.

Get it now.

POLYGLOT DIARY — 15/5/2014

Buenas tardes a todos! Disculpa mi omision de tildes y los significadores exclamativos y preguntativos (pronto voy a descargar una claviatura inglesa internacional, no solamente de los EEUU, pero por ahora no la tengo y es que de momento tengo prisa)! He prometido a mi mismo en forma de un challenge 7×7 de escribir algo cada dia; algo creativo, algo que me haga practicar poner mis pensamientos en papel – o pantalla – incluso si es algo pequeno! En otro post escribire algo por todo eso.

Bueno, estoy en Atenas estos dias, hace calor, es la semana antes de los eligos regionales (anadi esto solamente porque desde aqui en nuestra pisa podemos oir todas las hablas que suceden en la plaza central). Acabamos de ver uno de los ultimos capitulos de la temporada cuatro de Breaking Bad con Dafne y antes de eso me sali para correr. Hoy corrio una hora en punto en el Alsos de Nueva Smyrni – unas 12 vueltas – pero no exactamente 10km como queria. Es tambien que el Alsos tiene esta inclinacion de muerte, asi que quizas vale. En Sofia corria menos frecuentamente los dias previos pero ahora siento que tengo mas motivacion.

Ayer tambien salimos con Mario, y recordamos un nuevo podcast. Encantaria departirlo con todos vosotros pero hay mucho que debe hacerse, quizas una explicacion de que tiene que ver todo esto. 🙂 Ademas, me he puesto en una posicion que leo y acabo libros mas rapido de que peudo escribir criticas por ellos. Hm, creeis que estoy exagerando, quizas, o que cosas asi no son problemas importantes. Una tempesta en una taza de te, como dirian en ingles…

Si no hablais espanol, no os preocupeis. Pronto sеguiran otros idiomas. :Л

I Can Now Run 8K

It is done! Almost three months after I ran my first 5K, I’m now proud to say that the previous week was my last for Gateway to 8K, and it was a success. I managed to put one foot in front of the other, with one of them always off the ground, at 149BPM, for 50 minutes straight. And I did that three times last week. My bragging rights I’m exercising before you.

But I’m not stopping here.

I’m not telling  what I have in mind, either; they say that announcing your goals is the first step to not achieving them, because part of you has already derived satisfaction from the act of sharing and from the relevant -usually positive and supportive- reactions, thus making you less determined to actively work towards them.

On the other hand, of course, “publicly” announcing your goals can be used to hold yourself accountable if you give up. Saving face, even when it’s definitely only you and your ego who’s interested in whether you make it or not,  may be a good incentive for sticking to it when the going gets tough, uncomfortable or requires certain  sacrifices.

In any case, I generally prefer the former type of incentive, if only for the free drama build-up that comes along with it! >:}

For now, my thanks go to Zapaden Park, Sveta Troitsa Park, The Cracked Podcast and Podrunner for helping, in their own way, make running for 50 minutes not as tiring or frightening as it sounded at first but something to look forward to.

C25K Done!

A month ago I was halfway there; today, after the most exhausting run yet, I’m proud to say that I can run 5 kilometres and then some.

To be more precise, I finished Week 9 when I was in Loutra last week, but the distance I ran within the time limit of 30 minutes was 4k instead of 5. Today I did Podrunner’s Week 10 Graduation Run 1, which was 35 minutes long and at a higher BPM than usual (the whole idea of this podcast is to run with the beat provided – usually techno, house or electronic music indefinable by me). In the introduction for the graduation week it said that it would make me feel good about how far I’ve come and that I would find it easy to complete. It wasn’t easy at all, but I pushed through and finally did run 7 circuits of the Alsos in 35 minutes, with an unplanned 30 second pause to say hi to Alex and Ilias who I ran into while, um, running.

alsos_820m

7 x 820m, which is the length of the circuit, equals 5740m. Considering that the Alsos isn’t flat (the highest point is 20m higher than the lowest one, which adds a bit to the difficulty level), I think I did quite well.

I only began running less than 2 months ago. It was October 5th that I did Week 1, Day 1. I had to run 60 seconds for every 90 seconds I had to walk, for 20 minutes. I’ve come far. I didn’t expect I would make progress this quickly, but here I am. HabitRPG, the proximity of the Alsos to home and the variety of places to run in to shake things up a bit – I had runs in Prespes, Loutra and Ommen, as well as the Alsos – probably helped. Another factor I still can’t say with certainty whether it helped or not but my gut says it did, was my abistence from PMs since the beginning; still experimenting with that one.

Source: Tom Beginner
Source: Tom Beginner

I will continue running, probably starting next week with Gateway to 8K or Bridge to 10K, I haven’t decided yet. Sofia will definitely find me running in the parks and pumping those legs! That post by The Oatmeal… Now I understand perfectly what he meant. I feel the same. It’s a goal, it’s exercise. I’m doing it for myself. What could the next challenge for me be?

I don’t want to toot my own horn here – at least, not just that, for if I didn’t want to boast just a little bit for achieving what I thought was something I could never do, I wouldn’t be posting here; no: I mainly want to encourage everyone to re-evaluate what you think is and isn’t possible and start with small steps in order to become whatever it is you would like to change into, or do whatever it is you would like to do. We tend to see the best of the best on the Web – that guy who walked across China, the other person who draws amazingly, the girl who can play the piano and take everyone within earshot for a trip – and we forget that there’s hard work, discipline, failures, self-doubt and probably years or decades of dedication that we never see. However, everything starts with something, “Rome wasn’t built in a day” or “Even the longest journey must begin where you stand” and I’m thankful that the Web isn’t just teaching us to constantly compare ourselves with the world’s best, but also provides us with the tools and community to start doing what it had never even occurred to us we could.

I’m halfway done with C25K

I’ve always had problems with keeping fit. It’s a matter of discipline and a lack of goals: in some of my older attempts I would go out and run in the Alsos, do some exercise maybe, stick to it for a few weeks but I’d quickly get bored of it or would lose motivation because there would be no actual goal – no, “getting in better shape” doesn’t count as a real, tangible goal.

Then one day about a month ago I was playing around with Garret’s iPod when my eye caught an app with a weird name: C25K. He explained that it was a program that gets you off the couch (or the desk chair, as is the case with me) and ready to run 5 kilometres in just 9 weeks by slowly adjusting the equilibrium between the jogging and recovery walking times – more of the latter in the first few weeks, almost exclusively the former in the later ones.

I can proudly announce that today I did my midway run: I have as much left as I have done already and I got me a pair of new running shoes as a reward (and an upgrade) for making it this far. Another 4 weeks to go in total. Next time it’s going to be 20 minutes of running straight. I’m pumped. Bring it on I say!

If anyone wants to get fitter (but be careful, it’s not a good way to lose weight because you tend to eat more to build up those leg muscles) and running sounds like something you might enjoy doing, get off the couch (or desk chair) and  try C25K, it’s great.

For motivation: The Oatmeal: The terrible & wonderful reasons why I run long distances