2023.01.14
Usually such posts are created at the end of a year, not in the middle of the next’s January. The reason of this delay is that I had to set up my new tablet-PC, a Microsoft Surface (5 Pro) and configure Git, gpg to sign the commits and Jekyll to pre-check the modifications on the site. I wanted a clear, simple solution. Well, I learnt there’s no such.
Let’s get to the point: the top sport I recorded the most time with in 2022 is running, moved my legs for 125 hours and 55 minutes, accomplished 1304.05 km during that time. I think the hardest run was the Generali Night Run in Budapest where I aimed a 5/km pace, and I finished with a very close result, 5:08/km.
For that many runs I also stretched a lot: 27 hours, 20 minutes and 6 seconds altogether and with that I avoided the injuries. I also spent time doing calisthenics, 16 hours, 17 mins and 37 seconds. Not much, but we had very hot summer and the (dark red) rubber floor burnt my hands, so after a time I gave up going there to do my regular push- and pull-ups.
In ‘22, I (finally) fixed my bike. It got a new color and every failed or damaged part got replaced; 12 hours and 7 minutes were spent in the saddle. Well, it’s clear biking isn’t my main activity (yet).
There were a few hikes, but their amount were insignificant. Summarising, I did sport for 248 hours, 45 minutes and 24 seconds during the 352 activities I recorded with my watches. I wanted to compare this results with 2021, but I bought the Polar Vantage M2 at the end of April, hence the first 5 months aren’t covered in Flow.
Going forward, Christmas brought me a suspension trainer, so I’ll surely have more core trainings in 2023, plus I plan to run around the Lake Velence this spring. That’ll be 30 km, and my longest run so far. Let’s see how this year will end.
2022.11.16
Faster than I believed. I just checked and the last article here is from February, 2021. Phuhh. Time really flies. I remember I had a lot of ideas what I will write about. The truth is that in April our second daughter was born and with her arrival, things became a bit unorganised; as expected. Tons of things happened since that, the memories flooding my mind now.
My older daughter, Lizi started the kindergarten and goes for a training twice a week; the smaller one, Mili runs and chit-chats all day long, expresses herself in sentences. They are smart, very kind and cute, both loves walking out after the Sun sets and it gets dark.
To be able to find the time for the exercises, my runs became more structured and much shorter, so I remained available during the day for work and the family. In July (2021) started doing calisthenics regularly (takes about half an hour), but at the beginning of this year I subscribed for a half marathon race and prioritised running over calisthenics. The race was good, my target pace was 5/km and I finished with a 5:08/km average.
In the summer I read a lot about bonsai and trees in general and last week we planted ~34 acorns with Lizi. Now we have 74 in soil in the house and on the attic. We’ll have a forest if they sprout :D
2021.02.10
I’m very sure if you do sports on a regular basis you already read and heard a lot of times that warming up before and stretching after the activity are very important. I’d like to share my recent experience that taught me they really are and I should take them seriously.
In November, the weather here was around -5 ˚C. My runs were not long, 8 km top, but I always rushed. Closed my notebook finishing the work for the day, gear up, run, take off the dress, be with the family. What can go wrong? Nothing, if you are 20 years old. But I’m over 35.
At the end of November, going down the stairs was very painful. I felt something between the shin and the calf on the inner side of my right leg. Even walking wasn’t comfortable, not that much as climbing the stairs, still, I felt it. What I did? Rest and tried to give it proper massages with an SMR foam roll. It got better after a week, thought it’s all over, I can go and run again; but I was wrong. After the 3rd km it was painful again and the next day I barely managed to go down on the stairs, again. Due to the COVID situation I didn’t want to visit a doctor nor a hospital, I decided I’ll rest my legs in the whole month, won’t run, and before I go to sleep cream with comfrey and use a bandage. At least I can get ready for Christmas.
Between the two holidays I had a discussion with my neighbor who I usually run with and he asked how’s my leg doing, can I run? I told him that it got better, however I still feel the pain when I walk. He had injuries earlier and knows a physiotherapist, told me I should visit her.
In the beginning of the new year I went to the therapist, explained since when I do sport (and what kind of them), plus since when I run. The first question she had was: “and how long you stretch after every run?”. Well, about 1 minute. She did some examination and concluded my calf is stuck so much on my sin that it can’t move even a bit, I must massage the calf off the bone, and buy a massage ball to soften the muscles I didn’t care about through the years.
I had a checkup today, on the 10th of February, so more than a month passed by for now. I can walk, go downstairs without pain, run 8-10 km without being worried I can’t go further, but I must still stretch and foam roll my legs, and I think it will be a long way until I don’t feel anything while I have an exercise.
2021.02.09
So far no search crawler discovered my site. It is because I didn’t spend much time for SEO, I’m not a publicist nor journalist, writing articles in various topics is just a hobby for me; however, they might help others. So, I just enabled the jekyll-sitemap plugin, what means, search engines will find my page. Woo-hoo!
Because I use the GitHub Pages, it could not be easier. Really. I had to edit the _config.yml file and append “jekyll-sitemap” in the plugins section. That’s it.
2021.02.05
Due to COVID, I’m working from home for about a year (and will remain home for another 8 months as it seems). I didn’t expect I must do it so long, and during this time a lot of things changed. For example, I don’t have the 2 hours commuting (walk, train, metro) every day. I tried to adjust to the new situation as much as I can, picking up new habits, moving sleeping schedule and so on.
Because I’m always at home and I receive a lot of messages, my phone was beeping continuously. Telegram (sonar sound), Facebook Messenger (the old MSN sound), Viber (tweeting birds), e-mails (Diablo 2 portal enter), SMSes, calls, etc, and there’s no feature to mute the phone for a set timeframe between two messages. My daughter (21 months old now) noticed them too: when somebody pinged me on Viber, she said “tweet-tweet, daddy”, for every other noises “oh, oh! Daddy!”. Their nerves are sensible for such things and I also wanted some peace, not to be distracted when I play with her or working on something. I know, I can turn on the do not disturb mode but then my phone vibrates for every notification and everything silenced, not only the chat platforms. So I did the followings:
in the system settings - Apps & notifications - Notifications I searched for those apps I wanted to be silent and one by one set the notification sound for “None”. However, there was one rebel, a tricky. Facebook Messenger.
Because if the “None” is placed for sound, it used the one what is configured in the application. When I checked if it’s possible to choose “None” there, I was surprised I couldn’t. Either I turn off everything and then I really don’t get anything, or I use something what isn’t disturbing. No, I want to mute that while having the sliding alert from the notification bar and displaying the message on the lock screen. I had an idea: if I create an empty “sound” file (for example nothing.ogg) I might be able to set that and then nothing is played. But it didn’t work; empty, 0 byte file cannot be chosen for such a purpose. Next idea: 1 sec long silence. There are a lot of such videos (?) on YouTube. Downloaded one with NewPipe, without the visual experience, set it and voilà, success. No more sound while having the messages on the lock screen and in the top bar.
Now, after a week I find it very good. No more beeps, distractions, annoyances (I want to keep the touch with others, but I don’t necessarily need alerts for messages). Only the calls, SMSes and e-mails aren’t muted.