Mi brillo aquí y una chispa allá

Sippin' on some moringa tea right now to conclude the day. Forecasts seem to indicate a thunderstorm tomorrow, so I might have to move the session until after work. 

This song will be my inspo for data analysis all week:

Excelsa

Here's the training menu. 

Monday

 6 miles + 10 x 100m strides

The morning humidity was suffocating. Ran with El Guero & El Chaparro --mostly discussing what it means to be self. Achilles pain wasn't as bad during the strides. 

Tuesday

AM: 2 miles + 4 x 400m w/ 400m jog + 1 easy + 4 x 400m w/ 400m jog + 2 miles

PM: strength training

Workout at the lake in the afternoon. Splits were 1:23, 1:33, 1:20, 1:25, 1:27, 1:23, 1:21, 1:22

After the 400s I decided to add 4 x 60m uphill sprints for speed development

Wednesday

9-10 miles + 8 x 100m strides
3 miles in the morning. 6 in the afternoon + 6 strides. Achilles pain some what more intense today.

Thursday

5-6 miles

*Rest

Friday

AM: 2 miles + 4 x 200m w/ 200m recovery + 3 mile tempo + 4 x 200m w/200m recovery + 2 miles

PM: Strength training

*Switching Friday & Saturday 

Went out for an easy 4 miles with strides on the soccer field. Felt surprisingly great! 

Saturday

2 miles + 4 x 200m w/ 200m recovery + 3 mile tempo + 4 x 200m w/200m recovery + 2 miles

Felt like shit. Likely from the round delight we call pizza I consumed the night before. Legs died after the first set of 200s and tempo was basically a nightmare. 

200s: 39.6, 38.6, 39.1, 37.6
Tempo: 6:35, 7:11. 7:21 *Note: done on an extremely hilly route

200s: 40.4, 42.6, 38.2, 40.0

Sunday

12 miles

Cloudy day with the Aztecs. Achilles wasn't as bad from yesterday, but a little painful. 

10:04 PM. Just in time, 

Tristan

Goes and it goes and it goes

Good morning from East Dallas. 

It's currently 9:57AM and the temporary threshold shift from yesterday's concert has me typing in silence to start off the day. 

I'm hoping the energy from this concerts lasts me until tomorrow's race because these England blokes knew how to orchestrate the crowd's feelings. 

Let me explain.

The set started off with two tracks: IDEA 01 & Colossus.

Putting these two tracks together was like creating a thunderstorm. The eerie bass drum and piano sprinkles in IDEA 01 reminded me of taking small sips of C4 under a cloud build-up. Almost meditative and preparatory. The transition into Colossus was like the growing itch in your face from beta-alanine and feeling the droplets touch your skin. The rim shots, grimy whole note bass, assertive vocals against toxic masculinity, desperate guitar riffs, and eventually the full use of the drum set. It was a roaring downpour.

Experiencing this made realize something:

Outward aggressiveness has never come naturally to me. My approach to a goal or problem, especially with running, has usually been done with the spirit of Carl Rogers in my chest. I am aggressive in my preparation, but sometimes I feel like I am missing that explosiveness in my performance. In fact, 10 years ago, when I started this blog and competed frequently, I remember coming across this exact problem, so I would  have to journal the night before races, writing phrases that would put me in a headspace ready to "die an honorable death." Sometimes it would work; sometimes it wouldn’t. Hell, even some of the posts before my marathon were written in a Mishima-esque style.

After hearing IDLES perform live, it brought back feelings of always wanting to run the way they sounded. 

Lately, I've been approaching life with a strong sense of self. While I'm aware that the self is constantly changing, I'm confident that I can use what I have now to engineer my experiences into a unique form of self that is true to me. 

Anyway, perhaps that's the level of force I want to take from yesterday. G2G to the restroom from all the water I've been taking for tomorrow!

生々流転,

千の色

Eres

My staycation from work started on Saturday with a rare family gathering. Remember when I talked about the soda pop sentimiento? Behold, a photographic marvel. Plotted across this tableu is my dad, mom, sister, and brother-in-law sipping on a few beers, and me? a coca-cola. 

1 hour before this shot was taken, we diligently worked on the foundation bed with the aerator and auger.

5 hours before that, I awkwardly introduced myself to a gal I found admirable while out for an easy 9-miler. Something never attempted in my existence. The interaction filled the air with hilarity and seemed fitting for another Café Tacuba song —or perhaps a Ogden Nash poem. Additionally, I fought the naco urge to say: 

"Y que? Tienes un vato o que?!"

Kidding. I would never. 

Sunday was marked by an easy 10.5-mile jog with the Mexicas, followed by a lax 4 miles at the lake on Monday, accompanied by some light reading on Canova.

And then on Tuesday, after a night of sweating and shivering (food poisoning?), I began my morning to this workout:

2 miles easy

4 x 200m with 200m recovery jog

    41.6, 41.5 40.3, 40.3

4 x 400m with 400m recovery jog

    1:25, 1:22, 1:23, 1:21

2 x 200m with 200m recovery jog

    37.5, 38.3

1 mile easy

And now, the Ennis Polkafest 5k this Saturday.

Go all the way,

Erik

Me Pongo Belikon

A few months ago, for my chamba, I was asked to take a strengths assessment developed by the grandfather of positive psychology, Don Clifton. The assessment is designed to rank your top strengths out of 34 possible strengths, helping you understand what you naturally do best. Now, my first thought was, ¿qué son estas Sorting Hat mamadas? But after going one-on-one with the assessment and getting the results, my psychometric brain was like... oh shit! Feels like something off of the jujutsu kaisen world.   

Listos? Ponganse pilas

Observe my formidable quintet along with a screenshot of the full findings.

1. Learner

2. Empathy

3. Intellection

4. Individualization

5. Connectedness

Nombre… la mera neta, I feel like I just discovered glasses with convex lenses for hyperopia. 

In a technological contemporary society, screens tell you what your strengths should be. Not the other way around. Ponder that and never ever doubt yourself again. 

Desde Morro

If you were to visit my childhood home today, you'd find along the living room window a stack of my mom's collection of interior design magazines like Architectural Digest, House & Garden, Dallas Style & Design, and many more. When I was a kid in the 2000s, I remember seeing my mom in our lemon yellow-kitchen in the evenings looking through those magazines, collecting and placing Home Deport color cards next to each other, and asking my sisters and me, "¿Cuáles colores se miran mejor juntos?"

As my mom built the aesthetic nature of our house and developed an obsession with interior design, I realize now I was learning what process looked like.

The collection

The resourcefulness

The playfulness

The family influence

The patience

The execution 

Growing up, I knew I always wanted to represent my family in this form of ambitious learning. 

Asa youngsta' from the ages of 12-16 this meant: 

Learning music

    Studying DJs like N-Verse, Ralphy Ralph, Moreno, & Panik

    Software like FL Studio & Sony Acid Pro

Learning dance  

    Breakin' 2, Tutting, B-Boying, Choreo Cookies & Mr. Wiggles

For what purpose?

To understand my taste. 

Because that's how you unconsciously learn to eventually invent something new away from that learning environment. Do you see the cycle?

Anyway,

Each day only gets more cutting-edge for you, 

E.T

Un libro sin final

No sé por qué últimamente tengo apetito por el sentido del soda pop.

Noto que ahora, cuando busco una canción para caminar después de la cena, para mi 9-5, o para limpiar mi apartamento, busco canciones que tienen sentidos simples y pegajosos. Antes para mí, cualquier momento que tenia para escuchar música, era para analizarla y encontrarlo algo profundo. Banda, esto es evidente, pero el cerebro sabe cómo ir siempre más allá de una situación. Cuando te la pasas analizando cada pinche cosa que se te cruza en la vida, te pones a pensar, verga, voy a ver el fin de esta introspección? Tal vez un análisis temático de estos escritos míos revelara que me repito mucho o que e hablado sobre esto en otra forma, pero pues aveces eso pasa cuando vives en el siglo 21.

No estoy diciendo que es malo pasártela como Socrates, pero ando viendo que tal vez mi propio cognición necesita ver otro lado. 

Este sentimiento de soda pop que busco no mas es para sentir. Sé que cuando saboree este sentimiento, sabré el siguiente paso para ser más yo mismo.

Siempre seré bravo para aprender y pensar. Eso nadie me lo quita. Lo vez?

Mil Colores

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