Tomorrow is the day

I run my eight marathon tomorrow. I want to improve my personal record on five minutes. I already wanted to improve it on my last marathon and I was not able to do it. It is easy: I must run each kilometer in 5 minutes and 20 seconds. My training pace is under 5′/km. My pace in the latest 10 km race was under 4’30″/km. My personal record in a half marathon is 1h43′. According to these numbers, training tables and tests, I can do it.

So, what is the problem then? I have to maintain that race pace during 42 kilometers and 195 meters (or 26.2 miles). The initial 10 kilometers are easy. I run between 10 and 14 kilometers in each training at least. Even the first half marathon is easy. The main problem arises around the 30-34, the glycogen starts to run low and your body does not obey your brain. We call it the wall. You try to control that moment, you have an arsenal of things that you can apply, but you never are really ready for it. I have seen Paula Radcliffe cried like a child in the wall. Moreover, your brain starts to generate all kind of negative thoughts and you perceive pain in almost all your body. Your brain is lying to you (or not?).

The shoes, watch and the rest of the equipment is ready. I have also decided where to take the glucose gels. And the most important, we have decided the points in which my girlfriend and me will meet: each one of her smiles during the race refuels my deposits for several kilometers more.

All kind of positive thoughts are welcomed. I will need them.

Menger sponge

The Menger sponge is a fractal curve that was first described by Karl Menger while exploring the concept of topological dimension. It is described by an iterative algorithm. It begins with a cube that it is sub-divided into 27 small cubes, like a Rubik’s Cube. The inner 7 cubes are removed, the cubes in the middle of each face and the cube in the very center. The result is M₁. The process follows with each small cube ad infinitum.

The drawing corresponds to M₃, the third iteration. If we consider small cubes for making the sponge, it should be needed 20³ = 8000 cubes (20ⁿ where n is the number of iterations performed on the initial cube).

Blue bird

No time for painting this week, I was enjoying other activities. The summary of the guidelines for the Year 9, Week 32 in the Sunday Songwriters’ Group:

Your task this week is to write a song that features a bird, or birds, as the main character or image. Any style is fine. Any bird is fine! Let your imagination fly away with you!

Any style is fine… Any bird is fine… Twitter! I wanted to draw the Twitter blue bird long time ago. It is related to some changes in the blog that I will do in the next few weeks.

Stars

A summary of the guidelines for the Year 9, Week 31 in the Sunday Songwriters’ Group:

Johnny is a fairly normal person, leading a fairly normal life. But there is one thing that he (or she) can do better than almost anyone on the planet and it’s this one thing that makes life worth living, even the normal part. What is it? That’s for you to tell us in this week’s assignment!

We have enjoying several days in the beautiful island of La Palma. A friend of us rented a small telescope and we were watching the stars, clusters, galaxies, constellations. Another friend of us is also astronomer lover. They were explaining a lot of things about the cosmos. It is awesome. By the way, La Palma has a wonderful sky, in fact the GTC is installed in that island, currently the largest segmented telescope.

I know, I know, I must use the other paper when I paint watercolors…

Flowering tree

I got the inspiration from some postal cards and drawings I was seeing on Flickr. Good source of inspiration. This time I also used the the Stabilo Point 88 fineliners.

Faster and simpler

A couple of days ago, WordPress announced they were introducing changes to the dashboard. It looks a little different, but no drastic changes. It is faster. And also simpler. Just write… or draw!

The four elements

A summary of the guidelines for the Year 9, Week 29 in the Sunday Songwriters’ Group:

This week we conclude our exploration of the four basic elements by playing with fire! If you’d like a bit more of a challenge, try mixing a few elements together. Bonus points, of course, if you can get all four elements mentioned, even in passing.

Probably it is easier to draw about all four elements than to write a song about them. At least for me. This time I was experimenting with the colors. I was able to get a grey by mixing ultramarine (W&N 660) and burnt umber (W&N 076) and also many shadings of different colors like the blue. To work with watercolors is fun.

Electric sheep

I am reading the book Do androids dream of electric sheep? by Philip K. Dick. The film Blade Runner is based on this novel. I watched the film many years ago and I was always interested on reading the original novel. Words change their meanings over the time…