I signed a lease on an apartment in central Tel Aviv yesterday. Bought a table, four chairs, a simple computer desk+drawers set and a fridge. I move in on the 20th, which leaves me very little time to buy everything else, pack and get organized. Exciting!

Work has been exhausting lately. Late night maintenance, an angry boss (not angry with me, but we all suffer the ricochets), and change - a lot of change - that I’m not sure yet if it’s good or bad. Keeping my calm, looking at things in perspective is getting progressively harder.

So I’ve decided to learn to meditate. I already kinda use my long runs for it, but at this moment in life I need some meditation.

I’m also thinking of venting at one of the many, many, many notebooks that I have. 

And I want to learn to use chopsticks. That has nothing to do with anything, but in keeping with the “putting things in perspective” approach, I thought that it would be appropriate.

Sunday - Rest

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - 30 min run

Wednesday - 30 min run (+late night at work)

Thursday - rest/gym/abs workout

Friday - 45 min run

Saturday - 60 min run

Things might move around a bit, but that’s the general plan.

Wednesday’s run was super hot and humid, as usual, but somehow what started as an easy 30 minutes run turned into a quest to break my 4K PR. Done: 29:01 minutes. Awesome! Particularly when you take the heat into account.

Went to the gym on Thursday.

1. 20 minutes of stationary bike
2. 3x15 full squats on a Bosu ball
3. 2x super set - 10 seated leg curls and 10 lying leg curls
4. 3x15 calf drops (first set regular, second set with middle pause, third set with 2 second hold on top)
5. 2x10 back extensions
6. 45 crunches (15 with legs at 90 degree angle, 15 with straight legs, 15 crisscross)
7. 10 minutes on rowing machine
8. 5 minutes of glorious stretching

My legs are unhappy now, but I have a 45 minute run today and I don’t plan on giving up on it without trying.

A little late to post this but here’s the plan:
Sunday - 30min run
Wednesday - 30min run
Friday - 45 min run
Saturday - 60 min run

My Sunday run was super tough as it was 27 degrees Celsius with 50% humidity outside. I had to fight for breath for most of the run. I used to think that running in the rain was hardcore, but now I believe that running in 50% humidity is much more badass.
Blargh summer.

The review:

The pen body:

The needlepoint tip: 

Bottom line: this is a great pen, even if you prefer fine tipped pens. The tip is on the fine side and it’s a great writer - smooth, doesn’t skip or blot, and has dark dependable ink. Totally worth the buy.

My dad celebrated his birthday last week. Here’s the card I made him. It’s made of scraps of paper cut and pasted into a collage, and various stamps and stickers applied for a vintage look.

Outside:

Inside (minus the greeting):

As a followup to this post, I thought I’d post a recent sample of how I use my A5 Ochre Malden University Filofax:

The Projects tab is where I keep my projects filed. As you can see from this example each project has its own page, a required outcome and a list of next actions to do until the required outcome is reached. I oftentimes add more actions as I go as I think of new steps on the way to the required outcome, and I usually don’t map the entire set of next actions required to reach my goal right when I first plan my project. 

There’s a check box next to each item that I black out when it’s complete, or half black out if I’m working on it or cross out if it’s cancelled. This is just an easier way for me to see what still needs to be done, as checkmarks tend to disappear between all the other lines on the page.

I don’t always brainstorm, but when I do I find that Patrick Ng’s Chronodex is useful to structure my mind mapping and make it more productive. Different colours also help me group similar ideas together.

Finally the relevant actions get copied into the Daily Business A5 Filofax diary, with home life mundanities and my daily workout added to them. What must be done that day is marked, with either a star or highlighter (different notations for university work, home chores, and workouts, as it helps me decide what’s the priority at any given moment).

That’s it. Hope this was helpful and interesting. 

As part of Thursday night’s “White Night” celebrations in Tel Aviv (this time underwritten by protests agains the way City Hall handled the protests a few days ago) the Brooks concept store in the Yarkon Park held a night race. This was the fifth year that the race (a 5k and a half marathon) has been held and this year the organizers were caught off guard as instead of the normal few hundred people that enroll to it, they got 2,000!

So as you can imagine the organization was kind of sketchy - advance collection of race packages wasn’t available until Wednesday night (and notice of the option to collect your race package in advance was sent only on late Wednesday afternoon); there weren’t enough t-shirts of the most popular sizes (Large, Medium and Small), so many participants were stuck (like me) with XL and XXL shirts; there weren’t enough toilets so people queued for 30 minutes to relieve themselves before the race; they didn’t stagger the race start, so we had to walk for the first minute, and then, as there was a narrow bridge about 300 meters from the starting point, we had to walk again until we passed the bridge and started spreading out; there was no chip timing; there was great music and a great DJ, but the speakers were placed so as to deafen the runners as we passed them; there weren’t enough photographers, so many people didn’t get their photo taken during the race or at the finishing line; the promised food at the end of the race turned out to be nothing more than a popsicle - not something that’s very helpful after a race. 

This was the first race that I’ve participated in where the organization was so poor. This even though they took $25 from every 5k attendee and more from every half marathon one (for early enrollment). I was disappointed as the t-shirt that I got was neither a Brooks t-shirt nor anywhere near my size, and there was no proper medal (just a key chain without the date or name of the race). 

BUT - the atmosphere was great, the course was perfect (almost 100% flat), and my leg didn’t hurt, so I had a lot of fun running AND I SMASHED MY PR!!!  

My last 5k (run in the sand and summer heat) race time was 43 minutes, and my fastest training 5k was 38:31 (yes, I’m slow. I started 6 months ago from scratch. I’ll get there). I finished this race in 37 minutes! Felt pretty great after that, even though I was hot and tired. What a great feeling to look at the clock once I crossed the finishing line. 

Pre race (you can’t see the cool number that I had - 313):

Crossing the finishing line:

Post race me (after dumping half a bottle of water on myself):

More pictures afte the read more as this is getting to be a long post.

Read more …

I tried to run on Sunday, as I missed my Saturday long run (ran into friends at the exhibition I went to see, and went out for a prolonged coffee with them).

After 1km I stopped. The pain in my right leg was scaring me, and it got worse once I started running uphill. Decided to let my leg rest until the race on Thursday.

I really want to race on Thursday. I love the feeling of a race, and I need the “flying” feeling of running again - I’ve had a frustrating week at work, and have to pull a double shift tomorrow. 

So I am hoping that my leg will heal up some by then. 

I miss running.