Just finished watching An American Crime on Netflix and I feel disgusted. A group of people turning a blind eye has to be up there in things that will leave me baffled. The conformity, moral disengagement, lack of empathy, and desensitization, tanto pinche cerebro y nada. While this was an extreme situation, I see it so often in the small understated scenarios life presents us with. Most days I feel Confucian, pragmatic, and optimistic, but when I see shit like this, I often think, am I not living enough to know what's really possible? I remember grappling with this feeling in my early 20s; it faded between 27 and 29, but now, at 30, I feel this frustration coming back.
When I would bring these thoughts in my runs, I remember using mantras to channel this feeling. The looping sounded something like:
"I want to represent something good. I want to represent something good. I want to represent something good."
Each time with more fury and intensity in my inner voice.
"Pinche, Erik. No estás sufriendo. No estás sufriendo. No estás sufriendo. No estás sufriendo. No estás sufriendo."
Last night I had, for the first time, a Moroccan dinner at a tiny spot in Dallas called Baboush. Picture the joint adorned with tear-drop lanterns with filigree detailing, mil colores like, sandy beiges, and burgundy reds, heavy draped curtains, and a gentleman in the corner riffing a mandolin so mystically. I couldn't help but feel like I was in an infinite loop in that part in Por Un Segundo when Santos says:
"Y ahora por un segundo me ahogo en los mares de la realidad,
Por un segundo acepto mi derrota, te perdí de verdad"
Sheesh! A dawg really fucked with the place!
Much love to those with the neurons to savor taste at a euphoric level. This feels like a first for me. How else can you experience the soothing melody which makes the soul waltz in jubilation, soften like twilight, and liberate itself like a drunken dance?
Anyway, today, I spent the meat of the day trying to develop a thematic function for text data using LLM APIs. About 2 hours of work and ended up hitting a wall with the Google API. Grr. More on this topic later because I'm really set on figuring it out.
Here's the training menu:
Sunday
Marathon Workout
2 miles E + 8 miles @ MP + 1 mile E + 3 miles @ MP + 2 miles E
The workout felt much easier from a couple of weeks ago despite the humidity and increase in stimuli. Went out a little too hard on the 8 mile section so I think next time I'll have to make better efforts to control myself psychologically. Left achilles hurt a bit on the 3 mile section, but overall felt decent.
Monday
AM: 6.8 miles E
PM: 3 miles E
Today we celebrated our labor efforts so no alarm was set this morning. Wanted to see how it felt like to wake up whenever my body decided to and have to say that it was the most refreshing feeling ever. Stepped out the door around 9:30AM and ran on the Santa Fe without a care for time. Evening run was equally enjoyable through my neighborhood hills.
Tuesday
PM: 5 miles easy + 6 x 100m
Picked up my mom from the bus station pretty early so missed the morning. Afternoon run with El Guero in the rain. Legs felt really heavy so cut it short to be ready for tomorrow's workout.
Wednesday
Threshold Workout
6 miles easy + 3 x (2 miles @ T w/ 2 min. rest) + 2 x (1 mile @ T w/ 1 min. rest) + 1 mile easy
Sunday: 1 mile easy + 6 miles @ marathon pace + 1 mile easy + 5 x 2km with 2/min. rest + 1.5 mile easy.
Total: 16 miles.
First marathon workout of a 3-week cycle accompanied by El Chaparro & El Guero. To have people just excited for an ass-beating like you is a privilege. Lost contact with Guero around mile 5 of the workout so from there to the finish was solo effort. Properly fueled this time so I didn't crash like the week prior. Thankful for the cloudy weather. Overall felt good!
Monday:
AM: Easy 5
Legs were so sore. Through the Lakewood hills with Abigail.
PM: Strength workout
Tuesday:
7 miles + strides
More Lakewood hills with Abigail.
Wednesday
AM: 5 miles
Dark humid morning. Abigail joined me on the latter part of the run.
PM: 2 miles easy + 4 x 1 mile w/ 1 min. rest. + 1 mile easy
First time doing a workout with morning miles under the engine. Wasn't sure what to expect, but did notice legs were completely dead at the warm-up. Surprisingly, once I got the workout started it was just a matter of controlling the threshold effort to the finish. Originally planned for 5 x 1 mile, but had to cut it do 4 =(
Good God! My quads are diminished today. Merely walking from my bedroom to the kitchen and onto my bar stool was unnecessarily difficult. Sitting here, my stomach is begging for lunch already, and from the looks of it, I may have to make a run to the grocer's. Yikes.
About a week ago I phoned El Guero to discuss workout plans for Sunday (today) and the consensus was to introduce longer reps at marathon pace every 3 weeks, and thus, today's allocation was 14 miles with 6km @ marathon pace, 1km recovery and 5km @ marathon pace inside the distance.
Not bad given that I was hovering around 10-12 miles on Sundays!
Starting on the 11th of August, I'll begin my official preparations for the marathon. Summer humidity is proving to be a significant opponent on top of the required training, so I'll be assessing quality week-by-week.
Closing the laptop for now. Might hop back on for some playful Sunday data analytics. Or not. Today is one of the rare days where I have the chance to sit and watch some k-drama, so I may make bigger efforts to catch up on It's Okay to Not Be Okay.
The start of Day 2 began rather late. After falling sick a few weeks ago, and what I suspect might have been covid, my slumbers have strayed far from the norm. Brain activity doesn't seem to decline until 2-3AM and that night was no different. Not to mention, running in general lately feels like I'm running on 10/100 health points, despite the low intensity. So while I had the full intention of exploring the city further through a brisk promenade at an early morning, I sadly missed all 4 of my alarms.
With 20 weeks left until the marathon, my urgency to exceed expectations is low right now.
Landing in a new geography offers the opportunity to lurk through literary rubble, an adventure made all the more enchanting by the company of my equally enthused sisters. We arrived at Damen station -possibly one of the most charming train stations I've ever encountered - and there, we arrived to this quaint bookstore.
Adelante!
Books acquired:
Zadie Smith - Intimations
Alfredo Echenique - Guía triste de Paris
Maya Angelou - Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now
Asa Barber - Tranquility Base and other stories
Ramen during a thunderstorm was brilliantly suggested by my younger sister. What you see here is a bowl with a volume surely to put you in a food coma if you don't adequately measure yourself throughout the day. Fuck it!
Aging seems to be creating distance from what we call home, and I can't help but rebel. I'm now 30. At the start of this blog, I was 19. My older sister was 22 (now 33) and my younger sister was 14 (now 25). If you know me, you'll note the weight of importance I place on understanding my family at every phase of their life. Being in Chiraq with my sisters afforded me the opportunity to do precisely that.
The first day could not have unfolded any better for us. We landed in Chicago around 3ish, settled into our lodgings, and proceeded to embark upon the blue line, traveling eastward towards the pier. The afternoon was filled with character. Check the photos:
From the pier, we decided to take a boat taxi to Michigan Avenue for further perambulations and lurk for sweet post-dinner cravings.
Every moment of this day was superb. The sight of my sisters laughing and reveling in the simple things this city had to offer is a memory I'll cherish forever.
Ran for the first time since last Friday this afternoon.
On Saturday morning, I was greeted by potent body aches I'd never experienced before. If I have, I can't presently recall them. Approximately 18 hours were spent rotting in bed, battling mucus from leaving my nostrils, and realizing how ungrateful I'd been for living a mostly healthy life so far.
It's now Tuesday, and I surmise my average rate of recovery to be 20% per day. How'd I get that percentage? When you look at datasets often, one develops an intuitive sense for such matters.
After assessing today's run, I don't think I'll do a workout tomorrow or Thursday, so I think I'll stick to easy runs until Sunday, but that could change.
Understanding training has been interesting to me before I even knew statistical software existed. The first time I ever input training data was with a V5 pen inside a composition notebook.
Consider something I've been thinking through:
We are a blob of networks.
Our self-efficacy, self-talk, nutrition, childhood interactions, parents, friends, taste in art, autobiographical memory biases, choice of music for the day, all of these relationships are constantly strengthening and influencing each other, and thus form a network within our selves. I then started to wonder, what would a network structure for an athlete look like? How does this network architecture of relationships change over time?
Achis? Y eso como, cabron?
Below is a completely fake and simple model built in R based off of variables like fatigue, confidence, stress, total quality distance ran, average pace, etc.
Let's say this is the network architecture modeled from 6 weeks (42 days) of training data.
From an analyst perspective, understanding how these variables interact over time to understand my athletic performance from a holistic view could help me address issues and improve my performance.
Since the above example is based off completely random mathematics, I will try to explain the parts that would make sense.
Node Centrality (Influencers) In a network, I'm interesting in understanding what variable (node) is the most important/influential. Here, nodes like confidence, total quality distance, pain, nutrition, and sleep quality seem to be the most central nodes, which in theory would let me understand that these variables are critical to my overall structure. Which variables are they influencing? Is it good or bad? Is it strong or weak? Are these nodes resilient?
Edge Weights
Understanding the strength of the influence is another thing. Edge weights in a network represent the intensity or significance of the relationship between connected nodes. Thicker edges typically indicate stronger relationships, while thinner edges represent weaker connections.
Peripheral Nodes Now, observe the weak relationship and isolation of the social support node. Theoretically, a lack of social support has a number of negative implications to an individual not only in athleticism, but in life in general, and would call for an intervention.
Well, how do we improve a person's social support?
How would the overall network architecture change?
It seems like this week's gloomy weather has been offering us tints of dark blue and bright green. How can you not step outside and savor the petrichor?
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:
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.
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!
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:
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.
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?
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?
Today feels like a rare day where I had every bit of freedom to get my weekly duties done and have time for absolutely nothing but enjoyment. It's now 7:34 PM, and I don't feel guilt slouching in the back of my brain. If I was always free from that feeling in my life, I wonder if I'd cherish it? Any who, you know the drill; I've just repositioned the chair and cracked my knuckles.
See my current ecosystem.
The Tristatorium
I had programmed my day to not go out, but I ended up venturing into the thunderstorm for some pho on Greenville around 5:00PM. The window seats at this spot faces on-going traffic, and something about the inconsistent white noise that cars make as they pass large puddles sounded appealing so I went with it (also because the last small table I had my eyes on was taken by the person who ordered in front of me).
What I've always liked about rainy days is that makes the world shimmer. We suddenly get an infinite amount of polished mirrors in places we never expect. I'll take different perspectives all day.
While I was sipping some caldito, I thought, in another life, maybe I'd be a man in Vietnam who owns a pho joint by the sea. I'd want it to feel like Novacane by Frank Ocean. Not sound... feel. I imagine tints of tiger orange stroked around the spot as well.
Anyway, I'm hoping the pho carbs find their way to my legs for tomorrow's long run. Guero and I are scheming 14 in total. Commencing with 7 around white rock, and the last 7 inside the Lakewood area for some hills. If we die, we die going up.
The month of love has given me a richness of moments to savior. Time has been limited to address all the flavors of my memories, so I'll let a few pics give you a feeling.
2023 continues to show me what life is capable of, and while the thought of losing such a vast feeling is scary to me, I try not to let these pensive-eyes miss the vista. You get me?
Training this week has shown me that a seppuku style race is approaching. When you process the world the way I do, you lean towards the very insanity that is yourself. The feeling of anticipation is like no other.
I apologize for the brevity of this post for I am following a 30-day classic pull-up plan, and the current time reads 9:38PM and I must do it quickly before bed.
4/5 of Mexicas headed up 75N for a 10k benchmark after 6 weeks of Bushido-style training this past Saturday. With this only being the first race of the year, I've already accumulated memories that set the shade, brightness, and color for my perspective of 2023.
The intensity level of the race nerves were higher than usual for this particular race. I missed my Monday run due to a busy work day, on Tuesday I dismissed my interval workout and opted for an easy run due to inclement weather, and on Wednesday I ran a short set of 300s with Guero on the Santa Fe trail after work. An overall easy week for me, however, once Thursday came around, no manchen, me sentí pal perro. As I walked up the stairs that evening after an easy 6, I noticed an astonishing layer of fatigue start to set in. I didn't direct my attention to much to it, but later than night, as I savored my lemon pepper salmon with rice & veggies, I felt flu-style sick. And to top off pre-race anxiety, my 3-mile shake-out Friday morning felt 10x more demanding than anything I had done that week.
Needless to say, as I was changing in the parking lot 10 minutes before the race, my ability to create a positive outlook was floundering through the density of the previous paragraph. Yes, ^^ that one up there ^^
But somehow my tale took a turn.
Even after a mental malfunction, I ended up establishing one of the best 10ks of my life: 37:16 (the course was a bit long, but that's okay). Unfortunately for me, with the race-day franticness stunting my cognitive abilities-- I forgot to put my ankle chip on before heading to the start line. No record exists. Only memories & feelings.
As I sit here during a winter storm warning, I can't help but think that I could have given more to this one. I rate my overall perceived effort to be be about a 7 out of 10. Physically, I felt whole the entire race, however, another thing to note aside from the mental components is that my warm-up was a little rushed. I kept wanting to attack after the 4th mile, but for the life of me, my legs wouldn't loosen up despite feeling great. Lots of things to work on these next few weeks before DDG.
For now, I continue to build my confidence through words, strides, and paint marks.
in-progress painting for my study 60-70% done maybe?
About 2-3 years ago I took up painting as a way to get in touch with my malnourished inner morrillo. Times spent in poverty affects cognitive planification of future self, but as Sandra Cisneros wrote in 1984, "They will not know I have gone away to come back". Perhaps then, it's not a malnourished childhood, but something that I've pressed pause on, and the probabilities of life have allowed me to still be physically here at 28 years old of age, and revisit so many of these internet mind tabs I've kept open for so long. Oi, what a blessing this randomness is, raza.
My version of a Greek Vessel
What a short time I have lived. The following of heart and savoring the consequences of this simple trusting act is a construction of a feeling you can't explain in 3-dimensional terms. More on the interplay of art on running soon. I'm really craving some watermelon right now.
Phase 1: Week 6 of 8
Monday, January 16th
9 miles + 6 x 100m
Great run around the lake with Isaque. Felt really easy for the pace despite still feeling a little off. Pretty much just chatted about culture assimilation the whole loop. Overall great day!
Tuesday, January 17th
2 miles easy + 20 x 150m + 2 miles easy
Felt a little off. Likely went a little too fast yesterday for 9 miles, but pulled through the workout. Legs were heavy during, but they felt a little more loose after finishing. Cough went away so hoping tomorrow is a better day.
Wednesday, January 18th
2 miles easy + 12 x (1 min/30 sec/20 sec) + 2 miles easy
Ran with Guero down the Santa Fe trail. Felt a little tired from Tuesday and Monday, but glad I didn't get dropped. Still found the workout a little tough despite it being at threshold pace.
Thursday, January 19th
9 miles easy
Cruising down the lake. Felt minor pain in left knee and heel. Likely need to work better on recovery later this week and next.
Friday, January 20th
6 miles easy + 10 x 100m
Have been wanting to run on Fridays, but lately I've woken up really tired and found it better to just rest and stretch.
Saturday, January 21st
2 miles easy + 6 x (800m + 400m) + 1.5 miles easy
Great Mexicas team workout. The team was feeling strong from the start with the first 800m at 2:47 and dropping down to 2:35 for the last one. 400ms were done at 1:16 and up to 1:18. For some reason I found the 400s a little harder than the 800m. Let's see how this plays out in the 10k next week.
Sunday, January 22nd
12 miles
Completely missed my first alarm Showed up an hour late for our team long run. It's been awhile since I've embarked on solo long run, but felt strong physically and mentally. Feeling exquisite!
During my lunch today I received a call from Guero to talk over the guild's fray for late winter/early spring. As we see the eve of the 6th week of this training block- and with it already being mid-January- now is the perfect time to take out the ol' debit card before we start to see the heartbreaking price increases of races.
Observe the upcoming challenges:
Jan. 28th - Plano Pacers 5k/10k
Feb. 18th - Form Follows Fitness 5k
March 11th - Dash Down Greenville 5k
April 8th - Heart of Heath 5k.
The lacing of racing flats before a race will hit different this spring. I feel us thinking as one assemblage of jujutsu sorcerers looking to build a unique fury on all who dare doubt us. As the group's psychological tactician, I aim to create a metamorphosis of Marito Aguilar's accordion & Mirtha Dermisache's asemic writing. Doesn't make much sense, right? It's never supposed to.
Sunset from la mamalona's left ear.
Phase 1: Week 5 of 8
Monday, January 9th
9 miles easy
Headed out to the lake for a loopy loop. Ran counter-clockwise to catch the sunset from the Winfrey Point side of the lake. Beautiful day for a run & legs felt amazing all the way through.
Tuesday, January 10th
2 miles easy + 20 x 150m w/ 1 min rest + 1 mile easy
Puta madre. First time doing this workout and for the shortness of the reps, it was pretty hard. The first 100m were supposed to be done at 98% perceived effort and the last 50m at a full-on sprint with a minute recovery. After the 13th rep I felt the lactic acid buildip and had to take a few extra seconds during the recovery jog. Done at Norbuck Park so doing it on the grass felt amazing on the legs.
Wednesday, January 11th
2 miles easy + 12 x 1 min. + 30 sec. + 20 sec. + 2 miles easy.
Oof. Similar story to last Wednesday. Met up with Guero at the Santa Fe trail. I knew from the start that I would run out of gas at some point. I'm wondering if maybe my nutrition was off these last few days or if it's a result of yesterday's workout. Called it off after the 10th set. Guero continued for the full 12.
Thursday, January 12th
7.2 miles
Feels like I'm catching some kind of illness today. Throat feels funny and I have a minor cough. The original plan was to do the full loop, but saw the homie Isaque exactly at mile 3.5 going the opposite way so I decided to join him. We ended up chatting quite awhile about our thoughts on running methodology and psychology. As usual, lots to think about for the future. Really glad I ran into him. Probably one of the few I can talk to at that level besides Abigail. Not even fazed I fell short of 2 miles.
Friday, January 13th
6 miles easy
Had not rested since Christmas so I decided to take today off after feeling a little woozie.
Saturday, January 14th
2 miles easy + 10 x 800m + 2 miles easy
Didn't get much sleep after a night of coughing, but got it done. Overall good Mexicas team workout. Body wasn't working as well as last week so fell behind the pack by 2-4 seconds in the later reps. Done on the Santa Fe trail going one up and one down. It'll be exciting to see how we do this workout on a flat route next week.
Sunday, January 15th
12-13 miles
Took NyQuil the night before so pretty much entered a sleep so deep I missed my first alarm. Showed up 20 minutes late for our team long run. Managed to find them around 4.5 miles in. Didn't feel too too bad. Legs were pretty tired from the 800s yesterday, but felt a sudden kick of energy around mile 10. Onwards to week 6 and then a race week.
The first week of 2023 has brought about many directions to push the limits of everything I do.
On Tuesday morning, I met up with Abigail for a track workout during her annual holiday stay in Dallas. Over the years, I've had the privilege of someone not only give me a listening ear as I pull a Socrates-esque harangue about my work on conceptualizing a psychophysiological framework for running, but as well as a proper diatribe on the subject. This year was no different. Discussion on future directions of running and life was encoded quite tactfully into my long-term memory system.
Tote bag full of spray paint for future expression
Gift from Abigail during her stay in Dallas
Running and poetry in one
Agradezco las conversaciones que hierven al correr a distintas intensidades. Uno nunca sabe el olor y el sabor que adquieren después de procesarlas todas. 'Amonos con todo!
Phase 1: Week 4 of 8
Monday, January 2nd
9 miles easy + 6 x 100m strides
Early morning loop around White Rock with Mexicas. First run together for 2023. Felt way better than Sunday.
Tuesday, January 3rd
2 mile warm-up
4 x 200m w/ 200m recovery jog + 4 x 400m w/ 400m recovery jog + 4 x 200m w/ 200m recovery jog.
1 mile cool-down
Overall great track workout with Abigail. Felt strong from the first 200. Great life discussions during the recovery portions that gave me a lot to think about. Closed the last 200 in 33. Maybe the fastest split since the summer?
Wednesday, January 4th
2 mile warm-up + 10 x 2 min. hard/2 min. easy +1.5 mile easy cool-down
Legs were really feeling it today. Thought about skipping the workout and doing easy instead, but had Guero come out with me, and managed to complete it. Jodidos pero lo hicimos.
Thursday, January 5th
8 miles easy
Down and up the Santa Fe trail. My stomach felt a little funny during. On course to reach 60 weekly miles by Sunday.
Friday, January 6th
4.5 miles easy + 4 x 100m strides
Ran quickly during lunch. Stomach has not been feeling the best this week, but legs felt surprisingly light.
Saturday, January 7th
2 miles easy + 5 x 1 mile w/ 4 min. recovery + 2 miles easy
Great Mexicas team workout. Alternating between going uphill & downhill on the mile. Read a section from the Hagakure beforehand that really helped me let go during the hard sections. Splits were: 5:48, 5:50, 5:24, 5:55, 5:26.
Sunday , January 8th
12 miles + 6 x 100m strides
Ran on 4 hours of sleep. Took me awhile to wake up and felt really low cognitive energy for the first few miles. We all felt surprisingly good after mile 6 and dropped the pace effortlessly! Great way to end week 4.
Total/// Weekly Mileage: 5\\
The reason for excess slashes in previous sentence
Tomorrow will be the start of 2023 according to the Gregorian Calendar. 112 according to the Juche Calendar. 2776 as marked by Ab urbe condita. You see, time in a way is always irrelevant from a sequential quantitative perspective. It's constantly starting and ending, allowing us an exponential amount of moments to reflect and resume from modern life's absurdities. The present and past are always vaguely meshing in our heads, thus, allowing us to experience a qualitative intensity of life.
For me, 2023 running frame started 4 weeks ago after a Mexicas post-long run confab. Discussion of this guild of iron neuron brains lies ahead.
If there's one thing that I have a boundless appreciation for this year, it is a knitting of collective growth through running with the two-legged broncos pictured above. Experiencing qualitative intensity alone has never been an issue for me. In fact, it has been my preferred mode of operating since I was a young child. I thrive in independently creating networks of behaviors & lenses that aid in achieving & seeing my life goals. What's occurred in my life this fall is an addition of life to elevate my love to something close to my heart.
Mexicas is a class of lads hailing from different birth years who have arrived at the same mental pathway. Somos una colección de piernas ansiosas de vida y muerte. Without fail, you will spot us every Saturday & Sunday at 5:30-6:00 a.m. shivering in the cold at the following coordinates: 32.814125, -96.727576.
Do honk at us if you see us discussing the art of lucha libre masks.
Mexicas are no strangers to me. My introduction to them began in 2013, roughly around the birth of this blog. The invitation to join was always open, but when you have tendencies of a hyper independent individual, you don't realize that a preferred mode of operating in some shape or form has been holding you back. I won't go too far into this now, but understanding the machineries of my operation has led me to work on a few things things in 2022.
Ah, the infinite work of understanding, eh? How she makes us feel like complete suckers sometimes.
To put it quite simply, I've been having a crack at understanding my fears a little more... once again. Fear is a common human emotion that is quietly swaying the behavior of our everyday lives. When it comes to running, understanding the infinite influence this emotion has on our intellectual framework is a step to building what my sensei used to say, una mente de hiero. Training sessions as a group serve as that opportunity for exploring solutions. It is a chance to be observed by a different mind other than one's own.
Anyway, g2g. Enjoy one of my top songs from 2022 according to Spotify.
