10 Years Of Working Out

This is the last time I’m going to mention my “gym anniversary.” After 10 years it’s safe to say that fitness (in some form or another) has become an integral part of my life. That’s not to say that I’m fit, but I do feel healthy and generally speaking I’m happy with my current look and form. And that’s all I really ever wanted.

For now I’m going to keep the same routine I’ve had for the past couple of years – an 11km run, twice a week. Maybe I’ll change it sometime, but that won’t really matter, as long as I keep feeling well :)

9 Years Of Working Out

I’m very busy so I’ll make it short :)

This is the 9th anniversary of me going to the gym for the first time. Same as last year, I’m running 11+ km (in about one hour) twice a week with the addition of some simple workouts at home for the upper body.

This has become part of my routine, so it’s not such a big deal. And that’s a good thing :)

Happy Birthday To Me. I’m 36

When I look at last year’s birthday post I realize how quickly time has passed. It’s like I wrote it yesterday. Compared to last year, 36 doesn’t come with thoughts about choices, but with a look to the future.

It’s been two years now working on Playrock. We released as beta without advertising and are improving it all the time to make it better and more appealing to our users. I think Playrock is a great idea and we get very good responses from people that hear about it.

However, if Playrock doesn’t do well enough, I will be forced to look for a job. It’s not optimal, but not bad either – it will be a good time for me to explore overseas job opportunities, as I previously wanted to but never had the chance.

I traveled to see The Prodigy for the 13th time in September and had an amazing time thanks to some new friends in Belgrade, Serbia.

As for side projects: I haven’t had much time to work on those. My ideas list is growing and I might start working on one of them soon. As always, it will probably be a niche project that won’t appeal to many people, but it’ll be fun to code. I didn’t manage to find a designer for the website I built for my online will idea that I already implemented, which is a shame because I was hoping to progress with that.

My workouts are still the same and I’m relatively happy with my fitness and health.

So for the upcoming year I hope that either Playrock will be successful or for a different kind of adventure outside of Israel. Other than that… life is pretty good as is :)

8 Years Of Working Out

Again I missed my gym anniversary by a day.

My current workouts consist of running 11+ km (in about one hour) twice a week and some simple workouts at home for the upper body, which help me avoid some lower back pain I’ve suffered from lately.

For some reason around this time of year running gets harder for me. I’m not sure if it’s weather-related or maybe DST-related, but it’s definitely there. Today’s run was relatively easy so that’s good.

I hope I can keep this routine for another year and maybe even go back to running three times a week.

Happy Birthday To Me. I’m 35

Wow. 35. This age comes with some serious what-am-I-doing-with-my-life kind of thoughts. Being unemployed, single and living with a cat at that age is hardly normative (at least in Israel) and despite being very content with the current situation it’s hard not to ponder other life choices.

In any case, it’s time for the yearly look back:

A year ago I left my job to start a new venture with a friend. We since grew to a 3-person team and by now we have a very early version of our product, while we’re still tweaking the requirements for the first release. Hopefully in a few months we’ll have something to show for. This is probably the year in which we’ll know for sure whether this project is destined to take off or not.

Being unemployed (and having no income) for so long is my biggest worry for the upcoming year. I was very willing to spend some of my savings on this project, but I was hoping it will be in a better place by now. Other than that, I don’t think there’s a lot to say about entrepreneurship that hasn’t been said before. The joys and sorrows of this road are well documented in countless articles. I’m otherwise happy with my life, something I wished myself a year ago on my birthday post.

Travelling: I was abroad twice – France/Germany and Switzerland. Both trips were great. Having already booked one trip for this year – to The Prodigy’s 3rd Warrior’s Dance Festival – I already made sure that I’ll keep “exploring the world” this year as well. Travelling has become one of my favorite things.

Side projects: I updated Dindy a few times in the past couple of weeks, hoping to address issues users have been experiencing for a while. I don’t plan to add any new features to Dindy – this was just to prevent it from rotting in the Android market. Unfortunately it hadn’t gained any new users for a long time now, yet it remains with a relatively high user score (4.2 out of 5.)

Another side project is my online will idea from nearly 3 years ago. I already have an almost fully functional version of it running on Google App Engine, but there’s still a long way to go as it lacks visual design (if you’d like to help me with that – let me know) and there’s still quite a lot of code to write.

Workouts: Having suffered some injuries I’m working out (running) only twice a week now. I’m not happy about it, but I’m still in pretty good shape so it’s not that bad. I hope my injuries will subside and that I’ll be able to get back to my 3-workouts-a-week routine at some point.

That’s about it, I guess. I hope you’re happy too.

7 Years Of Working Out

It’s a little bit strange to write about the 7th anniversary of my first day at the gym after not actually doing any physical activity in the past 2 weeks due to what turned out to be just an infection (which I’m finally treating with some antibiotics.) That’s why it’s also not surprising that I missed the actual date by a day. But I hope to get back to my running routine (3 times a week, 1 hour, ~11 km run) in a week or two considering that the pain is almost gone.

The big challenge over the past 8 months of workouts was running outside instead of in the gym. Running outside is considerably harder for me, especially when it’s hot, cold or raining. At some points during these months I’ve considered going back to the gym but eventually powered through. As winter is getting closer, I might reconsider.

So here’s to another workout year.

Taking The Week Off From Running Due To Pain

I’ve been doing the same running routine for quite a while now – 3 times a week, 11.5km. Lately I’ve been experiencing some pelvic pain that refuses to go away. In 2 days I’m going to see an orthopedic doctor but for now, after reading online about some of the possible ailments (like Osteitis Pubis), I’m taking this week off from running.

Every time I stop running because of pain I start fearing that following the rest period I won’t be able to get back to running. Even worse, I fear that I’ll regain the weight I’ve lost since I started working out nearly 7 years ago. These fears may be illogical, but I can’t help it.

Hopefully I’ll be better soon enough to go back to my running routine.

6 Years Of Working Out

It’s funny how this day turned out this year just as I returned from a trip and following almost two weeks that I haven’t been to the gym. Unlike years ago, I’m certain that I’ll be back to my workout routine (1 hour, 11 km run, 3 times a week) in a couple of days and I’m not worried about it at all. I’m more curious (and a little afraid) about how much weight I gained during these past two weeks. I hope it’s not a whole lot – that would freak me out :)

I guess this symbolizes the fact that I’ve made the workouts an integral part of my life. It’s no longer an effort, but a necessity.

By the way, I think I only missed one workout this year and made up for it later on. I have a rule that says “if I’m too sick to work out – I’m too sick to work.” There is no excuse for going to work while skipping a workout that is scheduled for the same day.

Knee Pains Update

OK, so I visited an orthopedic doctor and everything is fine. Apparently this isn’t an orthopedic issue at all – I presumably had a local sub-dermal cellulites infection very close to the knee area. It really hurt a few days ago, but now it seems to be passing.

I should be back to regular workouts in a few days. Yes!

Knee Pains

I’m suffering from severe pain in my left knee. It started out as an innocent minor annoyance on Sunday morning. In the past such annoyances hadn’t stopped me from working out and this one didn’t either. I went on to run my usual 11km and when I was done I thought the two following days until my next workout will suffice for my knee to recover, as it always did.

But I was wrong. My left knee is now swollen and inflamed and I’m having trouble walking, let alone running. It looks like I’m suffering from something called “runner’s knee” but I’m not sure. I’m worried about how long it will take before I’m back to running again. I’d hate to lose my aerobic fitness.

Anyway, it’s rest for my knee until further notice.