Running in Tokyo

I have started running seriously again in the last two weeks. After some problems with my Achilles' heel, it was time to finish my almost 2 month recovery period and start running again. I have started running between 10 and 15km almost every two days around Bunkyo, the ward in Tokyo where I live. I usually start running towards Tokyo University and go to Ueno Koen from there, sometimes passing by Bunkyoku city office. Then back home.

Yesterday, Sunday, i decided to go for something longer and went from Sendagi to the Imperial Palace and Kitanomaru Koen, turned around them twice and back home. It was a little bit more than 24km and the pace was good until the 20th kilometer, when I got too tired. It had been a long time since I last ran more than 20 km after all!! In total, more than 2 hours running non stop around a very beautiful area in Tokyo. Quite a satisfying experience.

Running log

I have recently found a nice tool in the Internet to measure the distance I run. In addition, I get a nice map and if I input the time, I get my average pace (mpk) and elevation profile of my run. It is quite nice. This is my run today: 14km in 1h14min (around 5.10 mpk), going up the strongest slope in Pasadena (Shenandoah St) and going up and down all the time.

Karate... almost one year...

I just found some nice pictures taken when I practiced karate last year... good memories...

First time baseball

Last Saturday, I went to see a baseball game for the first time in my life. I went with Manuel from Venezuela and Bernardo from Argentina, to the Angels Stadium in Anaheim to see the Los Angeles Angels-Seatle Mariners game. We went there without tickets, but could find good ones from a dealer in the entrance.



The first thing I saw when coming into the stadium was Ichiro Suzuki warming up. This guy is one of the best players in history and almost a god in Japan! So, it was pretty interesting to see him there! So near!




In USA, sport becomes show... And everybody goes to the stadium to have fun!



Yes, I was there... ;)



Some popcorn to enjoy the movie? :)



Some kid cheering up the local team with a typical #1 hand!



And a close-up on the game! Sometimes, there are so many things going on around you, that you even forget they are still playing!!



The three of us!



There were even fireworks when the local team got a home run. That happened twice during the game.



Finally, Mariners defeated Angels by 9 to 8. But everyone came back home with a smile. It is just the beginning of the regular season anyway!

Back in the right track!

From time to time, I write a little bit about my running plans and performance:
- October 2008
- October 2007

After coming back from the Fulbright Seminar in New York City, I have started running seriously again. Last year, I used to run quite a lot and I got a good training balance. Just before Christmas, I used to run more than 10km three times a week. However, the effect of nice Spanish food during Christmas feasts (those were not normal dinners...) on my weight and inactivity during a really hard academic term at Caltech, made me stop running for a while. From last Tuesday, I have gone running almost everyday and I am a bit surprised about the progression.

I ran last Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and yesterday. That is 5 days out of 7. At the beginning, feelings were bad. The first day, I just ran in the streets for 2.5 km and had to take a break and go to the gym to run a little bit more in the running machines... However, little by little, I have been feeling better and better and the last three times, since last Thursday, I have been running 5.5 km regularly. The times are also improving. The first time I completed those 5.5 km, it took me almost 30 minutes. Next day, around 26. Yesterday, it was the best day. I ran 6.4 km in 24min 10 sec. That means 3min 46sec /km which is pretty nice!! So far, I have been trying to go as fast as possible to be in good times quickly. Now, I have reached the times I wanted to get, and it is time to start running longer.

Another good thing, and which I was pretty concerned about, is that my legs are not complaining too much. Of course, the first days were really bad: some cramps, tired... the typical things after a 3-month inactivity period! However tired I felt, I kept on working and as you may know, the pain disappears if you run regularly. Or maybe you just get used to it!! Now, as I am writing, I feel no much pain.

So... from today on, I will start training distance. I do not want to loose speed, so from time to time, I will try running 5.5 km as fast as possible. Today, I have planned to run 8.25 km, which I consider doable. If everything goes fine, I will try to increase it and start running 11 km regularly before the weekend.

This time, I want to take it more seriously and start fixing some real objectives: I would like to run a half-marathon soon. If I can run around 15km several times a week, I guess it would not be too hard to run a bit more than 20km!! A more distant objective, and my real dream, would be running a marathon... but there are many intermediate steps before getting there, and now, it is not a realistic objective!! I will keep on the hard work though!!! :D

10.10pm: I am back from today's training. I ran 11 km in 49 min 39 sec!!

Some sports in a busy period

Once again, busy time... Now, I am starting getting familiar with the idea of many sleepless nights working in my apartment or at the lab. Yesterday, I finished late and that was good for me to watch a bit of the final of the Australian Open of tennis: Rafa Nadal vs. Roger Federer, the two best tennis players in the world in the last years. The match was amazing once again. It was really long, so I slept around the middle. When I woke up I checked the results and a satisfaction smile appeared in my face... Nadal had done it again, he had defeated Federer once again. And he had become the first Spaniard who had won the Australian Open. Nice!! And in the celebration, when Federer started crying, Nadal behaved as a real gentleman.

This afternoon was time for the SuperBowl, one of the most important events of the year in the United States. I did not know it was held today, so I was a bit surprised when I saw a party starting after lunch! I asked and they told me about the event. I was too busy to watch it, but I could go to the Rec House just for the last half hour. It was the first time I watched American football seriously, and actually, I liked it. The final minutes were amazing. In a couple of minutes, the team winning changed a couple of times! And Pittsburg Steelers won with a touchdown around 40 seconds before the end of the game! A nice first exposure to American football, or simply football for them... ;)

Table tennis

I just played one of the best ping-pong games in my life!!

My brother Javier and I used to play a lot during summers in my countryside house. Basically, summers meant ping-pong and swimming pool. ;) During those long hot summers, we ended up playing quite well. At some point, we started competing at amateur level and I won some under-15 tournaments. And my brother was always second or third (and he was under 10 maybe!). So the thing is we stopped playing for some reason.

After many years, I started playing again from time to time at ISU and I realized I was still good. Actually, there were only one or two people who really had a chance to beat me. Really good games down in Strasbourg. Then, I played some more games a bit everywhere, wherever the opportunity appeared: Naoko's mother in Tokyo, in some youth hostel somewhere in my trips...

Now, we have a ping pong table just downstairs, in the recreational room of my apartment complex at Caltech. I started playing more often, like once every other day, and I am getting back in a good shape. Today, I played with one of my Chinese housemates and it was amazing!! So fast, hard and tricky!! It was one hour and in the end we were really sweating. Just like in the good times with my brother. We can both attack and defend quite alright and we have to smash really hard so the other cannot put it back in the table. In the end we played a real game and I won 21-14. Really nice game! Next time I will loose! I was playing at my very limit!

My running track

I already told you one of my main hobbies: running. At university in Spain, running was my main outlet and a nice way to stay in good shape. Little by little I started liking it more and more and it became an addiction. Afterwards, in Toulouse, I tried to continue and I went running a couple times a week in a canal near my appartment there. Strasbourg was different. My life changed radically and I literally stopped going out for nice runs. I just went out a couple times and it was so cold... I had to quit. And I lost a nice habbit. In the Netherlands, it was hard, but little by little, I started again around Leiden and this nice habbit came back to my life. I used to run around the city in this track. Now, in Pasadena, running conditions are optimum. A warm weather and huge distances between places :) I have started running quite seriously again. Now, I run along this course:



It is basically Caltech's perimeter and it is several km long. My whole path from my house in South Catalina Avenue, along Del Mar, Wilson, California, Hill and back to Del Mar twice is around 5.6 km and I am running that 3-4 times per week in less than 25 minutes; which is not bad for a start. This time, it is not a temporary thing... I feel comfortable running and I enjoy. The old vice is back. I know i will suffer at some point of the path (there are some slopes), but the craving is more important than any detering factor :)

Little by little, I will try to increase the distance I run, by decreasing a bit my pace. Later on, when I can run around 10 km quite frequently, I will work on speed again. I don't have any objective by now, but some half marathon can be a quite realistic objective in the near future. I will try to keep it up!

Gasol, Ruddy and Sergio

Now some photos of Spanish players...

Ruddy Fernandez adjusting his shot before the game. It apparently worked! He scored quite a lot of 3s and nice long shots.



Sergio Rodriguez:



Pau, this guy needs no introduction!



LA Lakers' big three: Bryant, Gasol and Bynum.



Ruddy defending a counter-attack.



Kobe Bryant. People love this guy! and he deserves that love! ;)



Gasol and Bynum, warming up...

Famous people in the game

A Lakers game is one of those few places where you can see quite a lot of famous people together: actors, sportmen, politicians... Everybody wants to be there.

Yesterday, for the opening game of the season, there were several of them in the Staples. They appeared in the big screen and we looked for them until we found them! These are the photos I took! Quite a paparazzi ;)

Jack Nicholson:



Jack Nicholson, Arnold Schwartzeneger (right spelling?) and Denzel Washington.



Denzel Washington saying hello to David Beckham... or maybe saying farewell now that he is going to Milano!

Lakers - Blazers. Intro Video

This is a video I just put together with fragments of the game intro. Quite a show as you can see!! Also some cheerleaders' dancing during the game has been included.

Evening in the Staples Center

Today, the 2008-2009 NBA season started and I went to the Staples Center to see the first match of the season in LA: LA Lakers - Portland Trail Blazers. That means that I have seen my first NBA match today!! and it has been Lakers!! One of my all time dreams has been accomplished today!

An NBA game is like a show. Every break, there are many games, cheerleaders shows, videos, etc. It is quite entertaining. The Staples Center is an amazing sports center. It looks more like a shopping mall: lots of shops, fast food restaurants...

Coming back to sports, today, it was the first match of Rudy Fernandez in the league. His game was amazing! 15 points (I think) and in my opinion, the best player in his team. Pau Gasol did play really good and as Lakers were comfortably ahead in the scoreboard, Phil Jackson decided to give him a rest during most of the second period. Tomorrow, they are playing again!

Some photos now!









As you could see, these photos are from the pre-game. To see photos during the game and with Gasol, Rudy or Sergio Rodriguez in them, come back tomorrow! :)

And we continue winning!!

Spain in football is unbeatable these days!! We haven't been defeated in a couple of years now and we won the last Euro2008. Yesterday, we played in Belgium and the weather was not too good for good football. And they scored first... but in the end we won 1-2! And what a goal by Iniesta!! And Villa can't stop scoring goals!! :)

And he is back!!

Yes!! He did it again! Nobody denies he is good, but now, it can be said he is the best!! After a nightmare year last season, with problems within his team, and this year with a bad car which didn't race properly at the beginning of the season... Yeah, after that, Fernando Alonso is back!! Bravo Alonso!!

He just won in Fuji speedway, Japan GP. And that is two victories in a row!! And the best thing: he is smiling again!!



PS: Personally, today was a long day of work... I reviewed many papers... but it was necessary. Tomorrow will be more relaxed! I hope!!

Fotos para la historia

Acabo de recibir unas fotos para la historia! Como ya os conte hace un tiempo, vi la final de la Eurocopa cuando visitaba Sofia, en Bulgaria. Alli me encontre con algunos espanyoles y vimos el partido juntos. Y ahora acabo de recibir esas fotos!!

29th June 2008. A date to remember!

Yes, we finally made it!!! Yesterday, Spain won its second EuroCup!! The previous one was won in 1964, by people like Gento, Zoco, Amancio... let's say... by legends... I think this new generation, Casillas, Xavi, Cesc, Villa, Torres, will be as famous as those! The good point is they are still really young and a good long-lasting group can be created.

Well, I watched the match in Sofia, Bulgaria. I went this weekend to visit Bulgaria (Sofia, Plovdiv and Rila Monastery) and I was still there for the match. Some locals told us where we could go for big street screens and we went there. I was wearing my Spanish jersey and some Spanish people saw it and came to talk to us at some point. I watched the match with Felipe, a French guy from the hostel (he came travelling from Egypt through the Middle East) and a guy from Barcelona who had just started his motorbike trip from Barcelona to Iran! And surrounded by Bulgarian people everywhere. At the beginning, I didn't know if they would support Spain or Germany, but soon I saw they were quite neutral or supportive for Spain, which was nice!

In the morning, when I arrived in the airport, many Dutch told me things like "Viva España!". They were really happy because we defeated Russia and especially, Germany. Later, in the train, I could browse the local press and this is the result:






Appart from the mis-spelling of some words, you can see they really supported Spain yesterday!

This morning in ESTEC, it was kind of the same, many people told me supportive things (because of my football T-shirt...). Besides, somebody in my corridor had put a little Spanish flag with a little bull in the middle in every Spaniard's office door!! hahaha... I was really surprised this morning when I saw that flag on my door! And another guy hung a Spanish scarf in his door knob! Not bad for the European Space Agency! :-)



And yesterday, many people were celebrating our victory in our usual football pub in Leiden, Bad Habits. They were kicked out of the pub after 2am! This is what it looked like during the match:





(These last two photos are courtesy of Paula Saameño. Gracias Paula!)

Can you recognise yourselves amongst the people there? Live some comments telling us your experience! ;-)



So, finally, we could and still can celebrate something important. PUDIMOS! :)