Run, Forest, Run!

Published: December 29, 2020 / Updated: December 29, 2020 Ihor Hadzera Misc

Hi you there. This time I decided to share the story how I started running, why it is important and why I’m going to carry on.

Before January 2020, the last time I’d run longer than 100 meters to the bus station was a high school and from my memories, it wasn’t a very enjoyable process (probably because when I was 15 I wanted to do nothing, but just playing video games). Probably everyone had these times at school when the teacher asked you to do something, which was completely outside of the area of your interest.

First time I started considering jogging a year ago, in December 2020. At that time I was up to my ears in work because of very tight deadlines and was spending up to 15 hours daily with the computer. After a week or so, I started to feel annoying pain in my back. I thought that just short breaks during the working days will help, but they didn’t. At that time some gossips started spreading among the people about the new viruses, so I decided to omit gyms and other public places. And you know, after a brief analysis I figured out, that there are not so many things you could do on your own, without very special equipment and with a quick start. I had a few options to choose between: cycling, home workout, yoga, running. For the first option, I didn’t have a good bike, for the next two options – I didn’t have enough willpower to do any physical activities right near my favorite sofa where I used to spend evenings with Netflix, so my choice was running – I had some old snickers and shorts – that was enough for start.

My first run wasn’t at any point fast or long, in addition, it was cold (January 25) and foggy. Probably at that time I made all possible mistakes before the run – wear 3 warm layers of clothes, forgot about warmup, had breakfast right before the running. So if you want to start running, please be smarter than me and read some How-Tos before (example here)

My first “adult” jogging

BUT, after even such failed run, I fell in love with running and it is still true.

So bellow I want to put my personal points, why running rules:

  1. The pain in a back is gone – that was my initial reason to run and after even the first run, I was feeling much better than before. I know, that not because of the miracle power of running, but rather overall physical activity, but for me this activity was running.
  2. That was a big discovery for me, but running helps a lot against daily stress. After full of stress working days, running helps to “refresh the head” and switch the focus to something else (this aspect is certainly very important for me, because there were dozens of times when I was thinking about work for a long time after working hours)
  3. Thanks for running I’ve met new interesting people and improved contact with people I already know. This includes common running events (in a workplace we organize “running Thursdays”, when we do ~5km with colleagues in before lunchtime) as well as some public races (this year I’ve participated in 3 such events and each of them was full of positive emotions and people)
  4. Running helps me to be in a good shape 😉 Well, I’m a pretty skinny guy, but even though I had a few extra kilograms, so after a year of running I did my -10kg (which for sure were extras one).
  5. Last but not least – it helped me do not get out of my mind because of the 2020 year and a half of the year on self-isolation. There were moments (especially in April-May) when everyone had to have a very solid reason to go outside and luckily jogging was one of such reasons (at least in Poland). So especially in times of COVID, running is a very good option.

I’m not a running coach neither a doctor and could not advocate running for everyone, because it also has a lot of cons. But at least for me, running works perfectly and I could recommend it in case you don’t have any contraindications to do so.

The last thing I want to share with you is probably my achievements during 2020 in terms of running. I know they are not gigantic, but it was my first year with running adventures and I will do my best to beat myself next year.

You could also follow my on Strava here.

Stay tuned Guys, Bye

P.S. bellow I will share a few photos from this running year 🙂

Retrospective of 2020. Plans for 2021.

Published: December 28, 2020 / Updated: December 29, 2020 Ihor Hadzera Common, Misc

I’ve never done such analysis before, but this year I found that planning actually works (at least for me). So this time, I want to share my achievements in 2020 and plans for 2021.

Achievements of 2020

  • This blog was created this year. Sometimes I’m too lazy to add new articles, but despite that, every time a new post added, I have a feeling that I’ve found something new in that topic. It doesn’t matter if it is a book review, short programming article, or digression about life – always new insights and thoughts are popping up in my head during writing. I highly recommend blog posting for people, how sometimes moving too fast in their life to analyze previous events and use that knowledge in the future.
  • I started running and reached 100 runs and 800km in 2020. You could read more about that here. This is a really big achievement for me because it is something, which requires a big commitment in a long term.
  • I’ve read 7 books. Well, not too much be honest, but each of them was certainly amazing. Especially I want to highlight Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World—and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling. Highly recommend it to everyone! (my full profile on good reads here)
My 2020 in books
  • 3/5 courses in Leading People and Teams Specialization was finished. I found it very important to develop not only “hard” skills as a developer and a technical geek, but also “soft” skills. In the end, we don’t live in Matrix where we communicate with computers only. Cooperation between team members is crucial for the success of any project (not only software one).
  • Since September I’m a proud Samoyed’s owner. That’s not my personal achievement, but rather a big event in my life. A dog changed my life in many aspects and brought a looooooot of positive emotions. Also, thanks to Maya (my dog’s name), I have a more organized day now, which helps me to be more productive.

Plans for 2021

Here I create a list of all goals I want to achieve in next year, not every one of them will be SMART, because I’m not so good at planning for the whole year ahead, nevertheless as time will go and goal will be achieved – list item will be marked as checked.

  1. Finish the Leading People and Teams Specialization
  2. Recieve Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certificate
  3. Run at least 100 runs with a minimum of 500km distance and take part in a race
  4. Read at least 10 books
  5. Solve 30 HackerRank problems
  6. Learn 1 additional programming language
  7. Post at least 12 new posts in the blog
  8. Contribute to at least one open-source project on Github
  9. Receive a Professional Scrum Developer certificate
  10. Get English certificate (IELTS minimum 6.0 or similar)
  11. Visit at least 2 new countries.
  12. Hike to Gerlach peak
  13. Sleep at least 1 night in a tent
  14. Donate at least 1.5 liter of blood (3 times)
  15. Complete First Aid Course
  16. Meaningful work-related change
  17. Visit a technical conference or meetup (min 2)
  18. Start investing money
  19. Sleep 8+ hours
  20. Do some crazy adrenaline rush thing (paraglide, glider)
  21. Do some gym (at least 1 per week or 52 in a year)
  22. Do skying (3 times+)
  23. Add at least 2 new board games to the home collection

Some of these points are more important, some of them less important. Known fact, that a lot of the New Year’s resolutions fail (actually success rate is only about 8%) and as Doris Day sang – “You can’t have everything”. So achieving >= 50% of goals might be a reasonable approach.

Final thoughts

2020 was very special in many aspects. COVID-19 turned the life of almost every person on the planet upside down and I wasn’t an exception – social distance, restrictions in travel and movement, canceling 95% of the planned events, work from home, etc. All these things probably have changed our vision of the world for decades and now is impossible to predict all consequences of the pandemic. But the only thing every one of us could do – make this world a bit better, every day, peace by peace! Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope that in 2021 all our plans will be fulfilled!

Happy and Healthy New 2021 Year! 😉