Things and stuff – Yohay Elam שטויות בשתי שפות – יוחאי עילם
Just general things
I try not to mix between this personal corner on the web and my professional forex blog, but here’s something I wanted to share. I was interviewed on Forex TV, a live broadcast.
I’m not very experienced with live media appearances, but I think it was OK. Feedback is welcome.
Running 10,000 meters isn’t easy. It takes a long time to complete and demands a lot from the body. Adding Tel Aviv’s humidity and a stupid race strategy, endurance and suffering are mixed together.
I had trained for the Tel Aviv night run for over a month. My final result in the lab (aka the air conditioned gym) was 53 minutes. I usually started with 4-5 minutes of a slower race, and then accelerate to a steady pace. This allows the body to make an easy transit from anaerobic effort to aerobic effort.
I expected to score the same result also in the field. I assumed that the adrenaline rush would compensate for the strong humidity. Well, I can blame the humidity, but I can mostly blame my bad running strategy.
Seeing about 10K runners and lots of noise, I started the race at a very strong speed, forgetting all my training experience. I finished the first 2K at a pace of 45 minutes per race. I was talking to the people around me, waving to the bystanders and running far away from the pacers that ran at 55 minutes per race.
My race metrics (very nice graph)
After about 3K, I began feeling tired. At such an early stage in the race, the rest became a struggle. I struggled not to walk, struggled not to go to bathroom, and struggled to keep up with so many runners that left me behind.
Well, I passed the test of endurance, and completed the race at 57 minutes sharp. After it was over, I felt great satisfaction and I regained my physical strength.
Finishing the race (I’m in the middle) – video capture
Both images taken from here.
Next time I’ll save my strength and I’ll break the 50 minute mark!
Last week, there was lots of rain. So, I spent more time at home instead of wandering around. But instead of clinging to the computer and writing blog posts, I stayed away from the computer.
Why? I guess it was because of the cold air and the spirit of winter. I just remained in bed. Books that were collecting dust found themselves in my hands. I remembered that I can occasionally enjoy reading a book, or a blog post in a hard copy.
Another outcome of the cold winter was listening to music. I listen to music all the time, when sitting in front of the computer at home or at work. But music sounds different when I really listen to it, and not only overhear it. I tried listening to some podcasts as well, but didn’t that medium very appealing.
Anyway, those are excuses for not updating the blog for more than a week. I intend to get back to the normal pace…
Ilana Bar suffers form lethal Leukemia. A transplantation of a suitable bone marrow could save her life.
Friends of Ilana have put up a site in Hebrew about her, and about how you can help.
So how can I help?
Go to Tel Hashomer hospital (near Tel Aviv) or to the Magen David Adom station in Haifa and spend 5 minutes for a simple blood test. Do it by Wednesday, May 2nd. That’s it!
By doing this blood test, your bone marrow details will enter the national database. You might be able to save Ilana’s life, or someone else’s life in the future.
More about Leukemia.
I’ve already written here that television is bad for you. It’s bad for me, and I prefer surfing the web than sitting idle in front of the television set.
Yet as I’ve mentioned in the past, we do download movies and television series from the web. One time, while grabbing something to eat, I was exposed to Battlestar Galactica that my roommate was watching. Since then, I’ve been following the series.
It combines scifi, politics, intrigue, personal relations, religion and more. I don’t want to spoil the story, that can be found here.
The production is very good, and I found myself highly fascinated by the show. The last episode of the 3rd season was brilliant. I can’t wait for the next season.
As far as I know, it isn’t shown on any channel here in Israel, and I don’t watch television anyway. We see it using a commercial-free torrent version of it.
If you lack time and are interested in one good thing that television has to offer, I recommend Battlestar Galactica.