I’ve lapsed yet again in the weekly writing requirement of the Iron Blogger project at Noisebridge and so feel compelled to give a core-dump type post to recount the happenings of the last two weeks.

I made a real breakthrough in my running in the last two weeks, after picking out some advice from /r/running on Reddit. I was absentmindedly browsing looking for training plans when I came upon a “beginners guide” of sorts which I scrolled though. All of it I was familiar with, except a very good point about pace: that you should run at such a pace as allows you to have a conversation throughout. Previously I’d run run intervals and push myself to the point of being out of breath, which sucked as I knew that I knew my legs could carry me further but my cardiovascular system could not. Slowing to a more comfortable pace has made the experience much more enjoyable: I find it easier to get into a groove where I can run for a while and let my mind wander. I’ve set a personal goal of running a 10k this summer with a friend, but have yet to nail down a particular race event. In the meantime I’m following a 10k training program and running 2-3 times a week.

I started riding my bike to work the other day, and it’s very enjoyable. I’ve been feeling a bit sedentary in recent times, so a more active morning and evening commute is a really welcome change. I’d kinda forgotten that nice feeling you get post-exercise, and it’s made me realise that I should do this more often.

I find it easy to fill time with non-exercise related things, so coupling exercise with my daily commute will hopefully facilitate this becoming a habit. Usually with new changes like this I’m not very successful in consistently carving out the time to dedicate to it. Swapping out a MUNI ride for cycling is a perfect alternative.

As I write this I’m back in Dublin having been at 31C3 these last few days. It was a fantastic time meeting a whole range of new interesting people, as well as getting to know better the wonderful friends that I’ve made this year.

Running into the end of the year I was feeling a little burnt out, mostly due to fire-fighting interpersonal drama in Noisebridge. I was very much looking forward to the break from SF and the commitments I have there in the hopes that I’d be re-energised, and as it turns out it has done exactly that.