Day 53 – Day 2 of the Entrepreneurs Organization Barcelona Retreat
Read About Day 1 of Retreat
On Friday, the second day of the Entrepreneur Organization Retreat, started off with a presentation from one of the members on company culture and another coach rounding everything up. We had lunch and headed back to Barcelona. The kids had off of school that day for a teacher professional development day. Jonah had a full day of soccer, Leila was at a friend’s house and Josh and Kelli had their alone day exploring Plaza Catalunya and La Boqueria Market.
We laid low on Friday night and had dinner at home. The boys and I watched another episode of I Shouldn’t Be Alive. Stayed tuned for a future post on what we have learned from watching that show.
Day 54 – My Longest Run to Date
I started the morning off on what turned out to be my longest run to date. I went down Avenue Diagonal straight to the water and back which ended up being just over 10 miles (over 2 miles longer than my previous run).
A couple things helped make that happen:
1) I planned it ahead of time by creating a route with MapMyRun which gave me purpose.
2) As I was hitting mile 4 and kept moving forward I felt fear. Knowing every step I was going to have to retrace. I started running slower as a result and thought about turning around. Up ahead I could see the ocean’s edge. I then started saying a mantra in my head I picked up from Jesse Itzler, “I did not come this far to come this far.”
He is 51 and just ran two, 100 miles races within 30 days of each other. I could handle 10 miles. Mantras are important in life when you need that extra push to get out of your comfort zone. In The Fast Forward Mindset, I share my Magic Mantra I say when I feel fear coming on, “I am going to NIP Fear in the Bud.”
3) I went the wrong way back. At first it sounds like a bad thing, especially since it made the run longer, but on the positive side it was a new route. When you are running a new route your mind tricks you to think it will be shorter than it is and makes it easier to keep pushing forward.
Kelli went on a playdate with a friend of Jonah’s from his school. The family is from Barcelona and they decided to send their child to an International school to give him exposure to other cultures. Sound familiar? After that, they all went to a carnival with rides and then went back to another family’s house to have lunch. That family just lived in China the past 8 years.
I was with the twins in the apartment, as Josh had a friend over. After his friend left, we came up with a creative cooking contest like Master Chef. Then Leila even created a cool still-frame video of her drawing. Josh ended up having a second play date with another friend whose father who took them to the mall. When Kel got home I went to the gym to get a quick workout before our date night. Only the second alone night since we arrived.
Kids made a video with their babysitter that was really good. It was actually a horror movie.
We had a great time starting at a SpeakEasy bar and ended up at one of the restaurants we ate at in June when we came to find an apartment.
We came home on the earlier side (for Barcelona) and had a nightcap on the terrace.
Day 55 – Sunday was a Down Day
We did not rent a car for the bday party Josh and Leila’s were going to about 8 miles away so Kel once again took a taxi. This time they were going to a friend’s house and their parents were driving the kids 1.5 hours away to Girona to do indoor skydiving and then back. Kel got a ride back from a friend and we were lucky that they dropped the kids off at our house around 8pm. The kids had an amazing day!
Without a car, it was hard for us to motivate to do something with Jonah. We had no destination in mind so we did not motivate and just had a lazy Sunday. When it was close to 3pm, we went to Turo Park. Noticing that Jonah was not in the mood to move, I got him to race me around the center of the park like I did with Josh a month before. Once we did that he was game to play, and before we knew it, he was climbing on the horse statue at the edge of the park.
After hanging for a while and we got a bite, Kel and Jonah went home and I went to the gym and for a 5 mile run for the sole purpose of having my max milage week with 23 total miles. The kids came home and we had dinner ready.
Day 56 – Monday – The Day of the Verdict
Did my usual kid drop off and then Spanish class. During class we learned that the leaders of the Catalan separatist movement from 2017 were sentenced to 9-13 years in jail. Our teacher expressed her concern of what that might mean for the city. Protests for sure. She said to stay away from major areas the rest of the day and week, just in case.
I continued my routine by going to the gym and then coming home to have lunch with Kelli. Then I joined my company’s weekly huddle and had a couple of meetings via zoom. I went on a run at the end of the day and got caught in the rain which reminded me of my marathon training days.
Kel went out to dinner with Leila and her friend and her friend’s mom, following Leila’s dance class. I was alone with the boys and had a fun night with dinner, hide and seek, and then finally watching another episode of “I Shouldn’t Be Alive” with some popcorn. This one was with two mountain climbers who were on a skiing holiday in the French Alps with their girl friends, and decided to take 3 days “off” from skiing to scale one of the largest ice climbs on the French side.
They got stuck on top of a cliff with a sheer 3000 foot ice wall in a 100 year storm that lasted 7 days. Unfortunately, one of them died of frostbite and the other was rescued with hours left to live. What makes this show so intense is that you live through each day with them as it gets worse and worse.
In Barcelona, the expats are on many WhatsApp groups to communicate and get together. Through these groups I learned of some large protests throughout the city, the main one being at the airport. Many flights were cancelled and lots of people had to walk with their bags on the highways to get to the airport. There were some clashes with police in other areas as well. Hopefully things will calm down over the next week.