Following the closure of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 a few days ago, I wanted to take a look at the track record of Armand “Mondo” Duplantis, one of the dominant athletes of our times that set a new world record in the pole vault competition with 6.25m. For that purpose I used the website “Track and Field all-time Performances” (maintained since years ago by Peter Larsson).
With the data of all-time men’s best pole vault I plotted the chart below with the best 3,754 jumps (jumps from 5.80m and above) and their dates, highlighting the jumps by Sergey Bubka, Renaud Lavillenie and Duplantis (dark colour for outdoor vaulting, light colour for indoor).
Bubka dominated the sport in the 1980’s and 90’s (first competing for the Soviet Union and later for Ukraine) when he set up to 35 world records (17 outdoor and 18 indoor), won 6 gold medals at the World Championships and 1 at the Olympic Games. Lavillenie also won a gold medal at the Olympics in London and won several World Indoor Championships (among other medals) and set an indoor world record (which was the absolute record for 6 years). Duplantis, competing for Sweden, at the young age of 24 has already won 2 gold medals at the Olympics (Tokyo and Paris) and 2 World Championships (among other medals) and has already set 9 world records (6 outdoors and 3 indoors).
Some comments after looking at the chart:
Bubka holds 249 of the 3,754 jumps (6.6%) at 5.80m and above
Lavillenie holds 271 of the 3,754 jumps (7.2%) at 5.80m and above
Duplantis holds 259 of the 3,754 jumps (6.9%) at 5.80m and above
Of those jumps of 6.00m and above (222 jumps):
Bubka holds 46 of the 222 jumps (20.7%) at 6.00m and above
Lavillenie holds 21 of the 222 jumps (9.5%) at 6.00m and above
Duplantis holds 86 of the 222 jumps (38.7%) at 6.00m and above
If we focus at outdoor jumps of 6.00m and above (134 jumps):
Bubka holds 28 of the 134 jumps (20.9%) at 6.00m and above
Lavillenie holds 4 of the 134 jumps (3.0%) at 6.00m and above
Duplantis holds 57 of the 134 jumps (42.5%) at 6.00m and above
24 men have vaulted outdoors at 6.00m or above, only Bubka and Duplantis jumped 6.08m or above (7 and 14 times, respectively)
Sergey Bubka
Bubka achieved his best jumps when he was between 27 and 30 years old. Duplantis at his 24 years has already twice as many high jumps as Bubka in his entire career. If Duplantis continues his progression up to 27-30 years of age the best is still to come, something that might have been deemed unbelievable for those of us who witnessed Bubka in his prime, but we are now going through the same dominance yet with higher heights and more pronounced (Sam Kendricks, silver at the Olympics in Paris, achieved 5.95m… 30cm less than Duplantis!).
Esta es una pequeña entrada futbolera para compartir la gráfica de debajo tras la consecución de la decimoquinta Copa de Europa de fútbol por el Real Madrid.
La gráfica presenta la evolución de las Copas de Europa conseguidas por el Real Madrid y todos aquellos clubes que en algún momento de la historia han sido el segundo equipo con más copas. Por orden: Benfica (Lisboa), Internazionale (Milán), Milan AC, Ajax (Ámsterdam), Bayern Munich, Liverpool y de nuevo Milan AC.
Algunas curiosidades que se observan en la gráfica:
Es ahora, en 2024, cuando con 8 la distancia, medida en Copas de Europa, entre el Real Madrid y el segundo club con más títulos es más grande.
Históricamente la distancia media ha estado en 3,1 copas.
La moda, es decir la distancia más veces repetida entre el Madrid y el segundo, ha sido de 3 copas. Esa fue la distancia en 24 años, el 35% de estos 69 años de Copa de Europa (ver histograma debajo).
La distancia mínima se dio entre 1994 y 1998, tras ganar el Milan AC su quinta Copa de Europa en Atenas y hasta la consecución de La Séptima por el Real Madrid en 1998 en Ámsterdam.
A partir de esas curiosidades, me surgieron después otras tres ideas muy visuales que incluyo más abajo:
Un histograma con el número de años que se ha dado cada distancia en Copas de Europa.
Una tabla donde se muestra en cada momento qué clubes eran los segundos en el palmarés.
Otra tabla donde se muestra cuántos años ha sido cada uno de esos el segundo en el palmarés.
I just realized mid February that Airbus market capitalization was higher than Boeing’s. At that point one was just above $125bn while the other was just below $123bn.
This is just a quick post to update those figures with today’s (March 11th, 2024) values at the closure of markets in NYSE and Paris, plus adding some historical perspective and evolution.
March 11th 2024
Airbus stock price: 156.8€, outstanding shares ~790.46 million (787.4 million at the end of 2023 as per the 2023 annual financial report), exchange rate 1.0926 $/€ … Airbus market capitalization ~ $135.4bn
Boeing stock price: 192.49$, outstanding shares ~610.1 million (610.1 million in January 2024 as per the 2023 annual financial report)… Boeing market capitalization ~ $117.4bn
Airbus market cap is 15% higher than Boeing’s
(This is not the first time that this happens. Looking back at the evolution of both stock prices and exchange rates, around mid May 2022 Airbus market cap was around 20% higher than Boeing’s.)
Now, looking back in time, at the end of 2012
Airbus stock price: 29.4€ (Dec 28th, last day of business), outstanding shares ~822.14 million (as per the 2012 annual financial report), exchange rate 1.3072 $/€ … Airbus market capitalization ~ $31.6bn
Boeing stock price: 75.36$ (Dec 31st, last day of business), outstanding shares ~755.6 million (as per the 2012 annual financial report)… Boeing market capitalization ~ $56.9bn
Boeing market cap was then 80% higher than Airbus’
Evolution from end 2012 to March 2024:
Airbus market cap has increased by x4.29 in these 11.19 years… share price increased by x5.33, hence yielding a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.1%
Boeing market cap has increased by x2.06… share price increased by x2.55, yielding a 8.7% CAGR
As a final note, I leave here a link to an article from Leeham News and Analysis “Pontifications: A contrarian view of Stock Buybacks“, where they include a table with the cumulative investment by Boeing between 2013 and 2019 (both inclusive) in share buy backs, which amounts to $43.5bn.
Time to look back and reflect on how the year which is about to end developed. Brief recap of my 2023. (*)
The main experience that has marked our lives in this 2023 has been hosting Lena and Karina in the second half of the year. They had to leave Ukraine following the Russian invasion in February 2022 and had been hosted at different homes in the region for the previous year and a half, the previous months at my friend Alex’s from which they moved to our place in the summer. Even if it is not possible to put ourselves in their shoes, sharing with them the news, the daily routines and trying to make their life a bit easier has been very rewarding.
Family. Andrea is now 10 years old and David, 7. Andrea loves drawing, doing manual work and researching for her school homework. She continues to learn piano and this year she volunteered to be junior librarian. She is in her second year of Spanish lessons, on top of the Dutch lessons they both take every second week. David loves building Lego sets, helping with whatever task we have at home and football. He is very fond of reading and maths and this year he also has started taking piano and Spanish lessons.
Flying. This year I went flying with kids again! Since a couple of years ago, and following some uneasiness they experienced in some flights, both Andrea and David had refused to fly small aircraft. But since the last spring, first David and then also Andrea, they have been wanting not only to fly but to be in the front seats. Those have been some of the most rewarding experiences of the year. This year I also flew for the first time with Manuel, Alex and Karina. I am sure that in 2024 I will have the chance to fly with more colleagues.
In all, this year I have flown just over 17 flight hours, 13 flights and 23 landings. This takes my total experience to 210 flight hours and 324 landings I started taking lessons back in 2011. At the end of November I renewed the SEP (single-engine piston) qualification and that allows me to fly for two more years.
Together with our Aviation Society we were planning some excursions for the summer time but for different reasons a couple of them were cancelled (to Morocco and Corsica). However, with the family we quickly organized a weekend excursion to l’île d’Oléron (see related post here), that was another memorable experience of 2023.
Travelling. Leaving behind the prolonged the travel restrictions during the pandemic, we continued to visit some new and old places: Arles, Aix-en-Provence, Vars, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Beauvais, Vic Fezensac, Helsinki, Paris, Copenhaguen, Odense, Roskilde, Frederica (we spent a great week in Denmark visiting my sister!), Dublin, Madrid, San Sebastián, New York (first time with the kids, they loved it! Especially travelling to a place where everybody speaks English), Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou (first time in China for me), Istanbul, l’isle d’Oleron, Versailles, Amiens, Wijchen, Ghent, Rouen, La Rochelle…
Running: After a good 2022 when I got to run two marathons, this 2023 has been a frustrating year on the running front. In June I got injured in the left Achilles tendon, from which I seemed to be recovering between July and August but I then got injured in the left calf… and I haven’t retaken running in the last 4 months. In all, I ran just over 520km in 2023, the least since 2011…
Following a mantra I try keep to the letter (when in good health), “the running shoes, always in the suitcase”, the year 2023 caught me running in: Galapagar, Dublin, Helsinki, San Sebastián, Licques (France) and New York, plus the tens of times I trained in my village, Blagnac and Toulouse. I finished 2022 with the hope of increasing mileage from the 1,200km I had run in that year, now I finish 2023 just hoping to leave the injuries behind.
Skiing. In 2023 we went again with the family for a week to our favourite resort at Vars, in the Southern Alps. This year we could enjoy much more time skiing with the kids out of their skiing lessons. And to be honest, being much more daring than we are, it is sometimes difficult to keep pace with them especially when going off track. This year Andrea got her 1ère étoile medal and David his Flocon one (levels from the French ESF).
Real Madrid. We enjoyed watching a few football matches together supporting our favourite team and on top of that we visited the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in summer for the first with the kids. They loved it despite of the construction work going on at the time. Now we are looking forward to attending a first match together.
Work. Since January 2023 I changed the scope of the job within the same department, now focusing on the A330neo product marketing (back to the A330neo after having spent 4 years (2015-2019) working in its development!). In this role I have been working hand in hand with Anna, Raphael and lately Yohann.
With the oppening up of aviation markets and the picking up of travel, the year 2023 marketing our Airbus widebody aircraft has meant lots of fun and a great learning experience. The everyday work is already quite interesting and exchanging with the team I learnt new things everyday. On top of that we had a very good year in terms of sales which should be confirmed in the coming weeks.
Reading. On this front, 2023 has also been a frustrating year. I started 2023 reading at a good pace until I got stuck with Notre Dame de Paris (Victor Hugo) with which I have been dragging for months. In all I have just read 4 books, the least by far since I started to keep track of it in 2010. For the detailed list of books, see the post I wrote about my 2023 reading list with a brief description of each book.
Other cultural activities:
Bullfighting. This year again together with Luismi we went to Vic Fezensac to attend its corrida concurso, which even if it doesn’t provide for the best of the shows it’s a good atmosphere to be part of. I also renewed my membership to the foundation Toro de Lidia to keep supporting the art.
Museums. This year again we took benefit of every road trip to visit as many museums and castles as we could, among them: Ellis Island, Liberty Island, American Museum of Natural History (New York), MOMA, Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, Château de Fougères-sur-Bièvre, Château de Versailles, Museo Real Madrid, Jules Verne house (Amiens), Roskilde Viking ship museum, Hans C Andersen museum (Odense), Tivoli park, Kronborg castle, Foundation Vincent Van Gogh (Arles), La Coupole d’Helfaut Wizernes…
Blogging. This is the 14th year since I started the blog, but I didn’t manage to write much, only 3 blog posts in 2023. The blog received just above 18,200 visits in 2023 (the least since 2012) and over 491,000 since I started it in 2010.
Not everything was positive in 2023: the mother of one of my best friends passed away, plus the already mentioned ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine which created havoc in many families, including the many refugees host in the region. Hopefully in 2024 that war comes to an end.
On the positive side, some colleagues and friends had new babies and got married in this 2023!
Now it’s time to rest, celebrate with the family and hope for the best in 2024. For the moment we have just a few days in Madrid to enjoy with family and friends and a planned skiing week in Vars; hopefully that will be just the beginning of another memorable year.
In this post I wanted to share the list of books I read along the year (1) with a small comment for each one. I have also included a small rating from one to three “+” depending on how much I do recommend its reading.
“La familia de Pascual Duarte” by Camilo José Cela (++): this is the first book I have read by the last Spanish author awarded with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1989. The novel is an exponent of “tremendismo” (from tremendous). It centers on the life of Pascual Duarte, who coming from a very poor background is haunted by bad luck, misfortunes, bad decisions and an inability of self-control. [Twitter thread]
“Discurso del Método” (Discourse on the Method) and “Meditaciones Metafísicas” (Meditations on First Philosophy) by René Descartes (++): a key influenceing book on modern philosophy and the scientific method, mostly know by the famous quote “Je pense, donc je suis” (“Cogito, ergo sum“, “I think, therefore I am“). The four precepts of the method are: (1) not to admit anything as true without evidence, (2) to divide difficulties into smaller parts, (3) to think in an orderly manner, departing from the simplest and (4) to do a final integral review to be sure that nothing has been omitted. He then uses the method to proof the existence of Good, and the duality of soul and body. [Twitter thread]
“L’autre fille” by Annie Ernaux (++): this is the first book I have read by the French author who was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2022. The book is a letter the author writes to her older sister, who she never met as she passed away when she was six years old, before Annie was born. The existence of that sister was never discussed in the family, first out of avoidance of touching a family tragedy up to the end of her mother’s life, remaining always as a big elephant in the room. The author shares some feelings with her deceased sister, among them the realization that had the sister not passed away she would not have been born, therefore she cannot lamment her passing.
“Chevreuse” by Patrick Modiano (+): this is the first book I have read by the French author who was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2014. This novel follows the character of Jean Bosmans, a writer that goes back to a house he lived in decades before, rememering addresses, names, telephone numbers, a hidden treasure… the novel had a very good reception but I didn’t connect to it.
This is the year I have read the least by far since I started to keep track of it in 2010. I started 2023 reading at a good pace until I got stuck with the “Notre Dame de Paris” (Victor Hugo) with which I have been dragging for months (still reading it!). Due to that I lost momentum and only read a couple of other books at the end of the year while travelling.
A resolution for 2024 will be to recover the good habits, for which there is no other secret than coming back to the rigorous approach I used before, following these two tips:
a blog post from Farnam Street blog “Just Twenty-Five Pages a Day“, which was published well after I had adopted such an approach to reading but captures it very well,
the Wikipedia article about the Pomodoro Technique, which enables you to efficiently use the last hours of the day.
Last weekend, with Luca and our children, we took one of the aeroclub’s DR-400 to make a flight excursion from Toulouse (France) to l’île d’Oléron, a small island close to La Rochelle.
North side of l’île d’Oléron
I had often heard about this destination from different members of our Aviation Society, so we wanted to give it a try as an easy plan for the weekend. We departed on Saturday morning from Toulouse Lasbordes (LFCL), flew to Saint Pierre d’Oléron (LFDP) in about 2h30′ and stayed overnight in the island, to come back the following morning.
In both flights we flew by the Dune of Pilat and Cap Ferret in order to enjoy the views of the coastline from that point all the way to l’île de Ré.
Cap Ferret
For the preparation of the flights and the navigation we relied on SkyDemon (I took again just 1 month subscription for 15€) from an iPad Mini (using an external GPS connected to the iPad). SkyDemon provides the GPS logs that afterwards can be viewed in Google Earth.
We did not reserve anything in advance, therefore upon arrival at the aerodrome we booked a couple of bikes at the aeroclub (20€ per bike per day; now I would suggest to book them in advance, as there were only 2 bikes left when we arrived) and a night at the hotell’Hermitage (very good breakfast, silent, nice warm swimming pool at the end of September and accepting payments with cheques vacances), close to the beach Sables Vignier Plage. We had packed light, just 3 light back packs, thus, we rode the bikes with the kids to the hotel and biked as well to and from the beach.
Biking to the hotel
Sables Vignier Plage
As an alternative airport I had selected La Rochelle, from which we could have taken a taxi to l’île de Ré. A third option would have been l’Île-d’Yeu which also has an aerodrome, but after a previous quick search in Booking.com I found that more hotel options with availability would be found at l’île d’Oléron. But I suggest to keep all options open, as if no hotels are found there, the other airports are at a short hop distance.
Saint Pierre d’Oléron (LFDP)
The kids preparing the airplane for the return flight
Time to look back and reflect on how the year which is about to end developed. Brief recap of my 2022. (*)
The personal memory from this 2022 was having my father back at home after nearly two months in hospitals, including a couple of days at the emergency room. He suffered a heat stroke at the end of June and only came back from it mid August. Those were testing times for him but also for the family, especially for my mother and brother who lifted the lion’s share of the caring for him during those months.
Family. Andrea is now 9 years old and David, 6. Andrea has been learning piano for most of the year, she enjoyed very much climbing, reading, singing in the school choir, drawing anddoing handcraft. She also started taking Spanish lessons once a week since the fall, on top of the Dutch lessons they both take every second week.
David is now nearly fluent in English and they both talk to each other in that language. He is improving with his reading and writing and very eager with maths. He started to play video games, is very fond of football and wants to help with anything, especially if it involves the use of tools (that probably comes from his maternal grand father).
Sports
Back to marathoning! After not having taken part in any marathon in 2020 and 2021 (breaking a 9-year streak), in 2022 I completed 2 marathons: Sevilla and Bucharest. Those were great and emotional experiences. With them I have now completed 23 marathons.
This year, together with some work colleagues we participated in a month-long sports (running and biking) challenge fighting against hunger in the spring and in the fall we ran the 15km-long Airbus charity run.
I ran 1,200km in 2022, around 100km less than in 2021. You can see below that I alternated periods of heavy training with some weeks of not running, due to illness, injuries, travelling or resting after the races.
Following a mantra I try keep to letter, “the running shoes, always in the suitcase”, the year 2022 caught me running in: Galapagar, Singapore, Seville, La Châtre-Langlin, Fontainebleau, Wijchen, Pontoise-lès-Noyon, Isla, Derby, Hamburg, London, Torrelodones, Almuñécar, Hyères and Bucharest, plus the tens of times I trained in my village, Blagnac and Toulouse.
With those 1,200 kilometres run in 2022, this is the sixth year in a row that I struggle to add more mileage, as I used to do between 2011-2016… One would say whether it is due to the arrival of the second child (spring 2016), the moving of houses (summer 2017) or just getting older (!), but something has made it more difficult. Hopefully in 2023 I can break that trend.
Other sports:
Skiing. After the cancellation of our plan in 2021, in 2022 we could go back with the family for a week to our favourite resort at Vars, in the Southern Alps. If in 2020 it was the first time I descended some tracks with Andrea, in this 2022 it was the first time that the four of us descended some tracks altogether. That was a great experience. This year Andrea got her Flocon medal and David his Ourson one (levels from the French ESF).
Swimming. On top of enjoying the pool at home, this year we went to the beach at three different locations: Isla (North of Spain), Almuñécar (South of Spain) and the Presque-ile des Giens (France). The kids loved it. During the holidays, they also took some swimming lessons to improve their style.
Golf. The whole family started taking golf lessons last year and for half of the year 2022 we continued doing so, though after the summer the kids wanted to quit.
Climbing. Both Andrea and David are very fond of climbing, so now, at almost every school holidays break they follow some climbing stage.
Real Madrid. Even if David and I did not have to play for it, we did enjoy watching a few football matches together supporting our favourite team all the way to winning the 14th Champions’ League, another memorable hapenning of this 2022.
Flying. Unfortunately, this year I haven’t flown much, just 7 flights and 13 landings (the least in 12 years of flying). This takes the total to just above 192 flying hours and 300 landings since I started taking lessons back in 2011.
Together with our Aviation Society we were planning some excursions for the summer time but for different reasons a couple of them were cancelled and I could not join another. Therefore all the flying this year has been around our South West region.
On the positive side:
I renewed the FCL055 qualification that allows me to speak in English to the ATC when flying abroad, this will permit me to attempt long excursions next year again.
This year I flew for the first time with a few colleagues: Iain, Scott, Emilio and Marcellin. I am sure that in 2023 I will have the chance to fly with more colleagues.
Travelling. After many restrictions during the pandemic, especially in 2020, in 2021 we started to travel more and in 2022 we had the chance to visit some new and old places: Singapore (first time for me), Spain (Seville, Santoña, Isla, Madrid (a few times), El Escorial, Bailén, Almuñécar, Las Navas de Tolosa, Tordesillas, San Sebastian), France (Gap, Vars, Avignon, Sully-sur-Loire, Fontainebleau, Péronne, Château de Blérancourt, Meung-sur-Loire, Nimes, Presque-ile des Giens (there we had great week at the beach in the French Riviera)), Germany (Xanten, Hamburg (first time for me, and where we were very warmly hosted by Burkhard!), Munich), the Netherlands (Wijchen), England (Derby, London (it was quite some time since the last time I was in London), Farnborough), Romania (Bucharest) and Pakistan.
In some of those trips we had the opportunity to meet some friends from the university and the high school that we had not seen in a few years. That opportunity to continue reconnecting felt good.
Work. The year 2022 marketing our Airbus widebody aircraft has meant lots of fun and a great learning experience. The everyday work is already quite interesting and exchanging with the team I learnt new things everyday.
This year, with the picking up of the aviation activity and the opening up of many countries, I had the opportunity to meet many of our colleagues working abroad, to give several presentations to customers about our products (remote or onsite), to welcome a few of them and show our A350 final assembly line, host in Toulouse and visit our colleagues from Rolls-Royce in Derby, fly with the press on one of our A350 flight test aircraft during the Airbus Summit, and especially take part in the air shows of Singapore and Farnborough, where I could showcase different A350s, from Singapore Airlines and ITA Airways, respectively. Those air shows have been real highlights of the year, at times showing the aircraft non-stop for hours to many different and varied groups of customers or institutional representatives.
These activities gave me the opportunity to fly for the first time on an A350 (!).
At the beginning of the year, one of our colleagues, Alex, switched departments and we reshuffled the activities within the team and that made it much more interesting, including the working hand in hand in particular with Raphael and Cedric.
At the end of the year, another of our colleagues, Florian, announced his departure and this offered another opportunity to grow. Following a recruitment process, in which a few colleagues participated, I was selected and from January 2023 I will change again the scope of the activity focusing now on the A330neo (back to it after having spent 4 years (2015-2019) working in its development!), working hand in hand with Anna and Raphael.
Reading. I started 2022 reading at a good pace until summer, then I got stuck with the second volume of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne and a series of trips interrupted my pace, and it took me months to recover it. In the end I completed just 13 books, the least since 2015 and read just above 4,800 pages, also the least in the last 6 years. For the detailed list of books, see the post I wrote about my 2022 reading list with a brief description of each book.
Other cultural activities:
Bullfighting. This year again together with Luismi, his family and my family we went to Nimes for a weekend to enjoy its Feria, and in particular to attend the corrida de toros with Roca Rey, currently the most successful bullfighter. The experience and his performance were simply splendid. Roca Rey performed together with José María Manzanares and Alejandro Marcos, and with bulls provided by García Jiménez. He was awarded three ears, hence, he was borne triumphantly aloft through the main gate, “Puerta de los Cónsules” at Nimes Roman amphitheater. The atmosphere in the city those days was ecstatic.
Museums. This year again we took benefit of every road trip to visit as many museums and castles as we could, among them: the Naval and Aviation museums in Madrid, the museum of the battle at Las Navas de Tolosa, the Great War musem at Péronne (finally! I had tried to visit it before but is always closed during Christmas), Château de Meung-sur-Loire, Château de Blérancourt (which includes the Franco-American museum), Château de Sully-sur-Loire, the visit of the roofs at Seville Cathedral and the Roman settlement at Colonia Ulpia Traiana (Germany).
Shows. In the past two years with the pandemic we had not gone to any show; in this 2022 I loved going to the cinema again, with some work colleagues to watch Top Gun Maverick (superb!) and the musical Malinche, about the conquest of Tenochtitlan, produced by the artist Nacho Cano, which was another great experience.
Blogging: This is the 13th year since I started the blog, but I didn’t manage to write much, only 5 blog posts in 2022. The blog received just above 21,200 visits in 2022 (the least since 2012) and over 473,000 since I started it in 2010.
Not everything was positive in 2022: a former work colleague passed away, so did the parents of other friends and colleagues, plus the Russian invasion of Ukraine which created havoc in many families, including the many refugees host in the region. Hopefully in 2023 that war comes to an end.
On the positive side, some colleagues and friends had new babies and got married in this 2022!
Now it’s time to rest, celebrate with the family and hope for the best in 2023. This year we will participate again in the San Silvestre Vallecana in Madrid running along tens of thousands of other runners in the evening of this December 31st as a farewell to the year. For the moment we have just a couple of planned trips for 2023, to the Netherlands and another skiing week in Vars, but hopefully many more activities will make it memorable as well.
In this post I wanted to share the list of books I read along the year (1) with a small comment for each one and links to some Twitter threads where I shared some passages that caught my attention while reading the books. I have also included a small rating from one to three “+” depending on how much I do recommend its reading.
“Políticamente indeseable” (by Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo) (+++): The book is partly an autobiography and partly an essay where the author (a politician of the Spanish Popular Party) recollects memories from her childhood, to her settling in Spain around 25 years ago, her career as a journalist and to the current status of Spanish politics (to the end of 2021). The book is a call against nationalism, collectivism, tactics, and in favour of reason, freedom and individual responsibility. [Twitter thread].
“La revolución española vista por una republicana” (by Clara Campoamor) (+++): The author is described in the Wikipedia as follows: was a Spanish politician, lawyer and writer, considered by some the mother of the Spanish feminist movement. In this book she describes her memories and provides an analysis of the months prior to the onset of the Spanish civil war (1936-39) and its first months, with emphasis on the government rearguard that she lived through. The irrationality on both sides that she describes is devastating, to the point that she fled Spain fearing for her life, while she was a Republican, was in Madrid (under the Republican side until the end of the war) and she still felt in danger from the Republican side. [Twitter thread].
“Extremo centro: el manifiesto” (by Pedro Herrero and Jorge San Miguel) (+++): I started following the authors (who formerly worked for the Spanish political party Ciudadanos) in social media and in a podcast they started years ago. In this book they condensed many of the ideas they have come up along these past years. They offer many interesting analyses and various proposals around the caring for others, in favour of the creation of culture, creating ties with the community… Something special about the book is the fresh and provocative language they use together with a kind of “cards” that they have used to represent some stereotypes of characters of the Spanish public life. [Twitter thread].
“Emma” (by Jane Austen) (+): I wanted to read Emma as this is the book from Austen included in the GreatBooks curriculum for the bachelor in arts of Saint John’s College (see section at the bottom of the post). However, chronologically Emma came after Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, so I arrived to Emma after having read the other two. The plot is around Emma’s willingness to play matchmaking with her acquaintances (even if her skills on that front are unimpressive) and her own negative views on marriage. Once again, as with the previous two Austen books, I found the narrative very slow, quite dense and too detailed. On the positive side: the plot and Emma’s situation are turned upside down at the very end of the book. [Twitter thread].
“La matemática en el arte” (by Pedro Miguel González Urbaneja) (+++): This is a book from a collection of 40 short books on mathematics that my mother gifted me with in 2019. My idea is to read a few of those books per year. This one offers a review of the influence of mathematics and the Greeks on art since the Renaissance. Some of the artists that are looked at in the book are: Della Francesca, Pacioli, Alberti, Dürer, Leonardo, Raphael, Gaudí… [Twitter thread].
“Soumission” (Submission) (by Michel Houellebecq) (++): I remember that when the book was published back in 2015 it created some controversy in France. I only got interested in the book more recently after having heard some positive reviews of it. The book tells the story of a university professor during the fictional transformation of a France governed by the Muslim Brotherhood, where the public university becomes Islamic, hence the profressor first resigns from his position and then after wandering around France for some time he yields in to the times, submits himself, prepares to convert to Islam and comes back to the university. When reading it I did not find it so provocative as to create the noise it did in 2015. [Twitter thread].
“The End of History and the last man” (by Francis Fukuyama) (+++): First published in 1992, after the end of the Cold War and fall of the Soviet Union, the book’s case is that after old regimes and the failure of fascist and communist totalitarianisms, liberal democracy and capitalism stand out as the remaining system at the end of History. [Twitter thread].
“Air Wars. The global combat between Airbus and Boeing” (by Scott Hamilton) (+++): The author is the editor of Leeham News and Analysis, a reference blog on aerospace industry. This book starts out as a biography of John Leahy (former chief operating officer for Customers at Airbus – retired in 2017) and frames it on the background of Airbus and Boeing competition during the last ~40 years until 2021. It is a very good read for anyone who has been working in the industry in the past years as it will trigger many memories. [Twitter thread].
“Le Vicomte de Bragelonne“, tome II (by Alexandre Dumas) (++): This book is the second tome of the sequel to Twenty Years After and continues the Dumas’ story on the musketeers (see below). This is the book that I liked the least of the series. There is very little action with the musketeers and to my taste far too many amorous intrigues at the court of Louis XIV (I found it slow, almost as Jane Austen’s books). However, it serves the purpose of introducing the characters and jealousies that will be key in the development of the last book of the series.
“Critón” (Crito) and “El Político” (Statesman) (by Plato) (++): These are two dialogues that show (1) the ethics of Socrates after being tried (the trial being described in a different dialogue, Apology) where he abides by the outcome of the trial even if unjust to the point that he resists Crito’s offer to flee and explains that he has to live up to his principles to the end; and (2) a criticism of politicians and the differentiation of what a statesman should be in contrast to sophists. Plato offers how the city should be governed and the preferences of some systems (monarchy, oligarchy, democracy) over others depending on whether the laws are respected or not, although he goes into less detail than in Republic. [Twitter thread].
“Le Vicomte de Bragelonne“, tome III (by Alexandre Dumas) (+++): This was the last of the five books that make up the story of the three musketeers, after The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and the first two volumes of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne. In all they make up for over 4,200 pages of reading and with no doubt it is among my favourite books or series of books. In this final book Aramis tries to strike a coup that could have changed the history of France with the man in the iron mask, the twin brother of Louis XIV, Philippe, who had been concealed and imprisoned from birth by his father, Louis XIII, and his mother, Anne of Austria. However, Fouquet (finances superintendent) rejects taking part in that plot even if he would have benefitted from it. That part of the book is thrilling. The last ~300 pages of the book are dedicated to giving an ending to each of the main characters: Aramais, Porthos, Athos and his son Raoul and d’Artagnan; some parts of this last section can be quite moving as by now one is attached to these characters.
“Confesiones” (Confessions) (by Saint Augustine) (++): The first half of the book is a kind of biography of Saint Augustine until his conversion to cristianism and the death of his mother (Saint Monica); there he confesses the struggles he goes through, how with the help of Saint Ambrose and some friends he quits his previous lifestyle and gets baptized. From that point the confessions take the form of shared reflections on memory, time, evil or how to interpret the Creation in the Bible (book of Genesis). [Twitter thread].
“Sobre la vejez” (Cato the Elder on Old Age) and “Sobre la amistad” (Laelius on Friendship) (by Cicero): Cicero was a Roman politician, lawyer and philosopher who lived first century BC. In these books and through dialogues he uses the characters of Cato the Elder and Laelius to explain the goodness of (1) old age, where different complaints against old age are addressed one by one, such as the lack of activity, strength, health…; and (2) friendship, which is shown as making life more enjoyable, bringing the best in people, not to be used as an excuse for wrongdoings and the only thing around which there is a consensus on its utility. [Twitter thread].
I started 2022 reading at a good pace until summer, then I got stuck with the second volume of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne and a series of trips interrupted my pace, and it took me months to recover it, as always, thanks to the rigorous approach following these two tips:
a blog post from Farnam Street blog “Just Twenty-Five Pages a Day“, which was published well after I had adopted such an approach to reading but captures it very well,
the Wikipedia article about the Pomodoro Technique, which enables you to efficiently use the last hours of the day.
Even so, in this 2022 I managed to read just 13 books, the least since 2015 (when I adopted the approach described above). In terms of pages I read just over 4,800 pages, also the least in the last 6 years. Fun fact: even if I only read 3 books in French language, they accounted for over 42% of the pages I read.
Another question that I have got a couple of times is about the source of the list of some of the classics that I read. That one comes from yet another blog post from Farnam Street blog. That post mentioned theGreat Books curriculum for the bachelor in arts of Saint John’s College in Annapolis. You can get the list from the Wikipedia or directly from the college website. As I am not reading exclusively those books I try to advance at a pace of 5 to 8 books out of that curriculum per year, thus it will take me around 20 more years to finish the programme.
Last Sunday, October 9th, together with my friend Juan and my brother Jaime, we traveled to Bucharest to take part in its marathon, with around 700 runners registered in the distance.
We picked Bucharest following our series of marathons abroad (to combine tourism with long distance running) that has taken some of us to run together in Paris, Berlin, Roma, Athens, Rotterdam, New York, Sevilla (x3), Madrid, Millau, Dublin (x2), Lisboa, Vienna, Krakow, Porto and now Bucharest.
To prepare for this marathon I followed the same 16-week training plan I had used in the past. Just before those 16 weeks of the plan, thanks to a running challenge we followed in the company, I cumulated ~240km in 4 weeks between end May and end June. Then I kicked off slow with the plan as I had some weeks in which I traveled due to family and work. In the end I arrived to Bucharest with less mileage (460km) in the legs in those 16 weeks than I would have liked. I trained quite well between August and especially September. In those 16 weeks I averaged 35km per week, completed 4 long runs (of 22km, 27km, 30km and 21km – with positive feelings especially in this last one) and a few sessions of series, though not enough of them to get a bit faster. I was confident in being able to complete the marathon in a time between 4h05′ and 4h15′ even if the final mark was uncertain.
The profile in Bucharest is rather flat. The organization prepared a circuit mainly composed of long avenues, allowing us to run at constant pace though there were up to eight sharp U-turns. The race started and finished in the Constitution square, in front of the iconic Parliament building. And we stayed the weekend at an apartment at walking distance from the place.
The temperature was mild in the morning, the sky was clear and it would be a bit hot towards the end of the race, though the temperature did not exceed 22°C. My strategy was to start at a pace just below 6min per km, and then, if I felt well, accelerate the pace at mid-race so that I could target a time below 4h15′. There were pacers for times aiming at every 15-minute mark and even though I did not follow any of them they were useful as references at every U-turn (i.e., I could see how far I was from each of the 4h00 and 4h15 pacers as I ran always in between them).
The bad news of the weekend was that my brother Jaime fell sick and by Saturday afternoon the throat ache he developed did not allow him to swallow without strong pain. He stayed in the apartment and finally took the decision not to take part in the race on Sunday, as in a marathon you need to constantly drink and eat.
The race started at 9:30am and we ran together with the participants in the half marathon and the relay race. That made the first half of the race a bit more crowded. For the first 13-14 kilometres Juan and I ran together, all the way up to the Arch of Triumph and down to the Romanian Athenaeum. Up until then we had averaged ~5’50″/km including a technical stop. Then, Juan softened his pace and stayed behind.
I kept my pace for a few kilometres including the stretch in the Cișmigiu Gardens where I found it difficult to run with the narrower paths (compared to the big avenues of the rest of the race) and the irregular ground. From the km 18 I increased the pace and averaged ~5’40″km in the next 13 kilometres until the km 30 mark. In that stretch we ran long kilometres by the Dâmbovița river, we passed the half marathon by the Parliament, we ran by the iconic Bucharest Fountains (by then we were no longer a crowd but a flow of isolated runners and some small groups)…
At the km 31 the race circuit went back to the Bulevardul Unirii, where we first turned to the East all the way to the National Arena (by the km 36) and then took a U-turn to head West back to the Parliament building. The circuit was quite straightforward in that last quarter of the race. There I felt the legs a bit stiffer, but I managed to keep a constant pace which was only slowed down at a supply post and a medical stop that made me lose some 30 seconds. I averaged 5’55″/km from the km 31 to the 41.
In all those kilometres I had seen the pacers of 4h00 not very far away and the 4h15 at increasing distances behind me. I started to make the numbers in my head and realized that I could well be somewhat below 4h05 and set that as an objective for the last kilometres, to try to run a faster marathon than my previous one in Sevilla.
The last 3 km of the race are superb. The race goes back to the Bulevardul Unirii and you have the view of the imposing Parliament building at the end of it, where you know that the Finish line is located. I kept my pace along the 40th and 41st kilometres and only gave it all at the last 1,200 metres.
In the end, I clocked a net time of 4h04’09”, a time better than what I expected and a bit faster (45″) than in Sevilla earlier this year (where I finished stronger but did a slower first half). Bucharest 2022 has been my 23rd marathon completed, easy to say today but not so on April 30th 2000 when I started in the distance in Madrid.
With those 4h04’09”, I was again above the 4-hour mark and finished in the 317th place out of 640 finishers (50% percentile). That time makes it my 9th worst marathon, though with a better time than the last three marathons and with a very positive feeling all along the race (for a second marathon in a row), thus, I am already thinking on getting again more serious with the series training to target a time under 4 hours in the next marathon, possibly next spring.
The organization of the race was great. The circuit showed a magnificient and beautiful city. They could have included some more water supply posts, but at least we could get water bottles to administer the water ingestion in between posts. I also missed some gels provided by the organization or more isotonic drinks; but with what they provided and the three gels I took I could manage the race well. The finish line was great, the wardrobe service was close to the start and finish line, there were even some puffs where to sit and rest by the finish area… It was a great experience.
Looking forward to the next race, that one with Jaime running with us again.
Esta es una pequeña entrada futbolera para compartir la gráfica de debajo tras la consecución de la decimocuarta Copa de Europa de fútbol por el Real Madrid.
La gráfica presenta la evolución de las Copas de Europa conseguidas por el Real Madrid y todos aquellos clubes que en algún momento de la historia han sido el segundo equipo con más copas. Por orden: Benfica (Lisboa), Internazionale (Milan), Milan AC, Ajax Amsterdam, Bayern Munich, Liverpool y de nuevo Milan AC.
Algunas curiosidades que se observan en la gráfica:
Es ahora, en 2022, cuando con 7 la distancia, medida en Copas de Europa, entre el Real Madrid y el segundo club con más títulos es más grande.
Históricamente la distancia media ha estado en 3,0 copas.
La moda, es decir la distancia más veces repetida entre el Madrid y el segundo, ha sido de 3 copas. Esa fue la distancia en 24 años, el 36% de estos 67 años de Copa de Europa (ver histograma debajo).
La distancia mínima se dio entre 1994 y 1998, tras ganar el Milan AC su quinta Copa de Europa en Atenas y hasta la consecución de La Séptima por el Real Madrid en 1998 en Ámsterdam.
A partir de esas curiosidades, me surgieron después otras tres ideas muy visuales y rápidas de ejecutar y que incluyo más abajo:
Un histograma con el número de años que se ha dado cada distancia en Copas de Europa.
Una tabla donde se muestra en cada momento qué clubes eran los segundos en el palmarés.
Otra tabla donde se muestra cuántos años ha sido cada uno de esos el segundo en el palmarés.
The Blog by Javier 