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These days, Beto and I have been doing some really “fun” runs through Cd. Satélite. Our “fun” runs consist of jogging at the slowest pace possible (just above trotting) and over the flattest terrain available. Obviously, the word “fun” applies because of all the non-sense & stupid talk we manage to have along the course.

I think that if after all of this “effortless” training the heart rate doesn’t get tuned, at least the humor will

Inside the box, was another leather-covered box which contained a beautiful (& heavy) star-shaped glass tower, there was also an envelope with a letter from John Linwood (SVP of International Engineering) and a couple of tabs with my name and project affiliation in them. It was a Yahoo! Odyssey Award. Yay!

Lucas and I won this Team Award due to our work at designing and implementing the Sports Stats Engine, a common platform to retrieve, parse, store and share sports statistics among Yahoo! markets/regions.

Yeah, we feel good of being rewarded for what we consider to be a well-done hard work. We’re proud and very happy…

Today at noon, I bailed from an attempt of running a nice mixed street/trail 21 km course. I felt so heavy, slow and exhausted. I was at the 6th km when my body rang the alarm to stop and get back before things went wrong.

Along with a couple of badly attended common runner injuries, I haven’t found a way to rest properly or better said, I haven’t made the effort. This week, my heart rate has been so accelerated while exercising that I’m unable to maintain a moderate effort over an extended period of time. I feel like being in “the wall” forever…

The workout wasn’t very good at all. My feet were really clumsy (probably due to Tuesday’s run) and constantly slipping off the wall, plunging me directly to the ground without avail, dangerous at some sections of the wall… Fortunately, I had enough arm strength to hold myself during such dynamic exercise.

After almost an hour of fighting gravity, I decided to stop “training” and go for a cup of coffee instead. Wise decision.

Question to self: Why you didn’t stop at the end of the 1st lap when everything was still being fun?

Answer from self: Because I was feeling like Superman, I could fly!

*sigh*

I didn’t plan the run to be so long, but as I progressed along the first lap of the course and got close to its end, I was feeling so good that -all of a sudden- I decided to run another 13 km lap in the opposite direction.

Big mistake! I finished the run dragging my sore feet and chafed inner thighs (I wasn’t appropriately “equipped” in my delicate parts) to my parents place, which I entered with an alarming pale look and hallucinating pink elephants.

Next time I start having such great ideas, I’ll try to switch into “ignore your thoughts” mode and only focus on the initial objective, I don’t promise anything though. I never learn…

Despite the clouds and our lack of cojones, we managed to climb 2 pitches of Sirenos (5.10a), then rappelled and headed to Las Dalias (5.8).

Once at ground level, a strong rain started to pour and for a couple of minutes it transformed to snow. We waited below an overhang until the storm ceased for a bit, then ran down the mountain and got to the car, we drove home then. Another climbing adventure came to its end…

I’m slowly recovering the strength in my fingers, which have become kind of weak because of not climbing much in the past months. Hopefully, after a couple of weeks of constant workout I should be sending a couple of known old boulder problems…

Note to self: be constant!

The night is fresh, with a clear sky and a beautiful quarter Moon in the middle of it. At some point in the middle of the run I entered that extremely pleasant state of lightness in my body & legs. I felt like flying, I felt so good!

Researchers have made an important leap in designing DNA-based circuits, reports this week’s Science. They’ve created the first system that allows amplification of desired DNA sequences without using enzymes — a step towards creating artificial biochemical circuits inside cells…

The Scientist: A programming language for DNA

Dianne Newman is exploring the deep connection between bacteria and rocks — specifically, the possibility that some varieties of ancient microorganisms gave rise over millennia to vast mineral deposits. She’s intrigued in particular by enormous banded iron formations found on every continent that contain rich evidence of the important role of bacteria…

MIT World: From Rocks to Genes and Back: Stories about the Evolution of Photosynthesis