A few things that I liked in 2023

Written on 30 December 2023, 05:54pm

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The #yearly_roundup of things that I enjoyed this year.

  1. Doing what I like. In 2023 I changed jobs. While remaining in the same field of IT security, the perspective, responsibilities and expectations changed. Combined with the working-from-home routine, it was a great year from a professional point of view.
  2. Sticking to a healthy routine. Less active compared to 2022, but kept the wheels moving. Next year aiming for 500 hours of exercise time, 5 million steps and 4000 km covered distance.
  3. Reading. Again a bit less than in 2022, but discovered a few good reads (Harry Potter among them ) and I enjoyed the new Kindle Scribe.
  4. Refereeing football games. Loving it, looking forward for more in 2024.
  5. The Worldle games (classic worldle, quordle, octordle, victordle, etc). Because sometimes you need to let your brain switch off.
  6. Discovering the Loire Valley. One of the best holidays of the recent years. All thanks to my trusty 5 years old Tesla.
  7. Two things that I am using for 16 hours every day: a Herman Miller Aeron chair and a Tempur mattress. None of them are cheap, but given how long I will use them I think they worth the investment.
  8. The Titanium iPhone 15 Pro. For the first time since owning an iPhone, enjoying the case-less joy of using it.
  9. A few series: Seinfeld, The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon. Some things will never change.
  10. No longer wasting my time on Twitter (or whichever letter it becomes). I replaced it with a combination of Substack, Reddit and Quora, because one must still waste their time sometimes…

A missed opportunity for the MacBook Pro to make it to this list, mostly because of the Finder and keyboard issues. To be revisited at the end of 2024.

A few things that I liked in 2022

Written on 29 December 2022, 11:44am

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The #yearly_roundup of things that I enjoyed this year.

  1. Getting over the Covid period. It felt good to be able to travel, socialize and play sports again. With the added value that the working-from-home routine continued.
  2. Reading. A bit less compared to the last year (according to Goodreads). I particularly enjoyed the “Three body problem” trilogy, which made my imagination run like never before. “In the future people will take neuro drugs that will selectively erase memories of this trilogy in order to be able to read them again for the first time.#
  3. Sticking to a healthy routine. More active compared to 2021. Smashed the 1000 days record for closing the Apple Health rings, kept doing 10.000 steps every day during the same period and played football 2-3 times every week. That’s a lot of dopamines 🙂
  4. Driving my Tesla. Almost 5 years in, and it doesn’t get old.
  5. Refereeing football games. I still regret not starting this earlier.
  6. The wallpapers on my phone. I know, quite silly ? but we need to look for thin slices of joy. The iOS 16 lock screen improvements made me look for colors and emotions and in the process, increased my appreciation for the digital artists.
  7. A few card games. Hearts and Spades from the Apple Arcade gave my mind some time off while bringing back some teenage memories.
  8. Learning a new foreign language. I’m nowhere near speaking Spanish, but I am quite happy with the progress I made this year in learning new words and understanding the language.
  9. A series: For all mankind. Because the third season is just as good as the previous two. And because it accentuates the impression that we’re leaving a new golden age for the space exploration (perhaps soon to be powered by fusion?).
  10. Attending the first concert with my daughter. Not planned, but it turned out to be awesome.

The anaerobic threshold and training

Written on 4 November 2017, 11:52pm

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This is a continuation of this post about aerobic (low intensity) vs anaerobic (high intensity) training.
A quick review of the two types of activities:
Aerobic: the energy is created by burning fat and carbs. This produces CO2 and water (breathing and sweating).
Anaerobic: to keep up with the additional energy requirements, the body burns sugar supplies (glycogen) in addition to the carbs and fat. This produces lactic acid (in addition to CO2 and water), and when this acid is produced faster than it can be metabolized, the muscle pain appears.

The anaerobic threshold (AT) is the point where the aerobic system can no longer keep up with the energy requirements. After this threshold, the anaerobic metabolism kicks in. Because of the lactic acid production, the AT is also known as lactate threshold.

The fitter you are, the longer you can fuel your body with the aerobic system before the anaerobic system needs to take over.
Interval workouts are effective for raising the AT. For the best results, vary your workouts between aerobic work (where duration takes priority over high intensity), and higher-intensity intervals (where you will be just under or at your Maximum Heart Rate).
http://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/training/tips-and-general-info/anaerobic-threshold

The AT is generally linked with the heart rate.
A quick estimation of your AT is 85% of the maximum heart rate (MHR). The MHR can be in turn estimated to 220 - age. So for a 36 year old person, the MHR=184, and the AT is 157bpm. Basically this tells that once this hearth rate is reached by a 36 year old, his body switches to anaerobic metabolism.

In order to push the AT, you can either:
– do HIIT (high intensity interval training), where you alternate low intensity with high intensity intervals (aerobic vs anaerobic)
– or do ATT (anaerobic threshold training), where you train just around the AT value.

Again, these types of training are generally linked with the hearth rate. A widely used concept is the training hearth rate (THR) (some gym machines also refer to the target heart rate).
In determining the THR, the following indicators are being used:
– the resting hearth rate – RHR. It can be determined with a heart rate monitor or Apple watch right after you wake up.
– the maximum hearth rate – MHR. It can be either measured with an ECG in a controlled environment, or estimated as 220-age (other formulas exists).
– the heart rate reserve – HRR defined as MHR minus RHR

Using the indicators above, each type of training can be associated with a certain THR range:
– the aerobic training (low intensity), 50–75% HRR + RHR
– the AT training, 80–85% HRR + RHR
– the anaerobic training (high intensity), 85-95% HRR + RHR

If RHR=52, MHR=184, HRR = 132 and age=36, then
– THR range for low intensity training: 118-151 bpm
– THR range for AT training: 158-164 bpm
– THR range for high intensity training: 165-177bpm


Image: sportograf.com