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Archive for November, 2006

Thursday, November 30th, 2006

Night adventures

Last night Beto & I enjoyed some nocturnal climbing in Ciudad Universitaria.

Some months have passed since the last time we did some of it and despite of the city chaos that we had to go through to get there, the place was as always really quiet, peaceful and illuminated by moonlight. We climbed in a relaxed mood rather than the usual “full training” mode. The setting was great for meditation.

I encountered a lot of tiny creatures all along the wall: centipedes, spiders, flies, crickets, etc. All of them were having their daily night adventure, just like us…

Tuesday, November 28th, 2006

Going home

I’m leaving Coatepec in a couple of hours. I’ve spent some great days here, visiting Gina & Güero and looking for an apartment to rent. Hopefully I will be moving here by the beginning of the next year, maybe before, who knows?

For now, I’m going home…

Sunday, November 26th, 2006

Dripping nose

Güero, Gina, Edgar & I spent Saturday’s afternoon exploring Rio Pescado’s canyon by Monte Blanco’s side. We saw some cliffs with good potential for climbing, but must of all, we found a bunch of places for trail running. We’ll have to go back there to continue exploring the zone.

This morning we ran the route that goes down to Mahuiztlán and turns back to Xalapa. Despite of the great weather, my nose didn’t stop from dripping due to the slight flu that I caught a few days ago. I hope it goes away soon…

Thursday, November 23rd, 2006

Winter in autumn

After a few days of bad and really cold weather (for Coatepec’s standards), the sky finally cleared up and let us enjoy the awesome view of the nearby snowy covered mountains: Pico de Orizaba & Cofre de Perote.

Obviously, Güero & I took advantage of this to do our usual trail run in the surrounding forest. Since I sprained my thumb a few months ago, I haven’t done any trail running because I was keeping away from injuries in order to be ready for the marathon.

It’s great to be running here again, enjoying the mountains…

Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006

Structural variations common in human genome

Regions where large segments of DNA are gained or lost cover at least 12 percent of the human genome, far more than previously thought, an international consortium of scientists report in four papers in three journals this week. The findings could help scientists identify new traits with medical or other phenotypic relevance and understand human evolution, Wan Lam at the British Columbia Cancer Research Center in Vancouver, who did not participate in the studies, told The Scientist…

The Scientist: Structural variations common in human genome

Sunday, November 19th, 2006

Exploring the coast

Gina, Güero and I had a small trip this weekend. We went to Costa Esmeralda in Veracruz to rest at the beach and search for climbing/running/exploring projects in the sierra.

The weather wasn’t very good due to a storm coming from the gulf, but that didn’t stopped us from having a very enjoyable 11 km morning run at the beach

Saturday, November 18th, 2006

Fresh dawn

Just wanted to do a quick post of the beautiful and inspiring view that I had of my beloved volcanoes while I drove all the way to Coatepec this morning

Thursday, November 16th, 2006

Interactive Tree Of Life (iTOL): an online tool for phylogenetic tree display and annotation

This looks like a great tool for phylogenetic studies:

The Interactive Tree Of Life (iTOL) is a web based tool for the display, manipulation and annotation of phylogenetic trees. Trees can be interactively pruned and re-rooted. Various types of data such as genome sizes or protein domain repertoires can be mapped onto the tree. Export to several bitmap and vector graphics formats is supported.

Interactive Tree Of Life (iTOL): an online tool for phylogenetic tree display and annotation

Wednesday, November 15th, 2006

Unbalanced strength

This evening I struggled while bouldering at Chiluca. I went with Ana & Cova to the cave and while they are making progress (Ana is getting better at basic movement and Cova is healing from his sprained ankle), I suffered the results of exercising only my legs. I could barely finish a couple of traverses until my forearms got completely pumped. I must get back to regular training!

Too much running, very few climbing…

Sunday, November 12th, 2006

Slowing the pace

This morning Beto, Lula, Güero and I ran the Nike 10K 2006 race. Each of us did it at our own pace due to the different training and activities that we have been doing lately.

To me it was an excellent opportunity to test my speed and cool down after last week’s NYC marathon. I logged a very good time of 51:24 and really enjoyed this year’s route, it was by far better than last year’s one. After the race, we met Gina at the finish line and went to Chapultepec for having breakfast.

Back at home, I felt the urge to go climbing since I haven’t done any for a couple of weeks. By mid-day I had logged 400 meters of endurance traverse at Espacio Escultórico. I was really happy of having my complete dose of training for the weekend