This morning my friend Andrea and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 7am and met up at the Panhandle for a bike ride. She and I have been going the past couple weeks as we try to ramp up our mileage and get ready for a century ride sometime this fall. We’re both out of shape- it’s almost comical. The hills I have to walk up- they’re so small! It’s sad… and funny. But, I can already feel the improvement. Getting back on the bike is really nice. I even dragged my rollers out of the garage yesterday and used them on our patio. Poor Earl had to come outside and “support” me- physically and emotionally- while I got my groove back on them. I did about 10 minutes yesterday on the rollers- gonna work up to an hour, I hope.
Anyways- today Andrea and I biked over the Golden Gate Bridge, to Sausalito and then around Richardson Bay to Tiberon! We took the ferry back. It was super fun! Sausalito seems like a really cute town- it would be fun to go there and poke around for an afternoon. Andrea and I stole into a little cafe along the waterfront for a while mid-ride to warm up with some hot drinks. It was pretty foggy and cold in the morning.
The whole ride was really nice- lots of bike-only paths and really not much heavy traffic. Here we are waiting for the ferry:
Our total distance today was 27 miles. Andrea rides a hybrid/mountain bike type bike, so she gets extra points for bad-assery. I think we’ll try and add 10 miles per week, with about 2 weekly rides. Pretty chill schedule, but we have the time and I think getting back up to speed is a slow process!
Ps- here is Linus being cute with his tennis ball about 5 minutes ago:
Each purple “X” is a day I worked out. So any day with a purple x on there represents either yoga, running, or lifting. If there’s a star or more than 1 star, that means more than one workout!
Slow going at the beginning of the month was because of my quad strain and recovery time period. Then right around the mid-month I got caught up in some ALS training at work and prep work for a PHTLS class. HOWEVER… once that was done instead of just giving up on streaking and calling the month a wash I got right back into things and managed a pretty nice come-back.
Even though my weightloss has kinda plateaued, I’m pretty psyched and proud of my constancy through April! I’m starting to feel like an “athlete” again… or at least getting back into the mindset where I feel athletic. And when I DON’T workout for the day now, I miss it. That’s a HECK of a lot better than where I was last summer
All in all, I worked out 20 of 30 days. Not too bad! Also, I’m really digging the accountability of marking it on the calendar and attempting a streak. I’ve gotten into the swing of things at work and really gotten my schedule down to the point where I can work a 12hr and also get in a good workout. Generally, I work a morning 12- say 5am-5pm, then meet Earl at the gym at night. When I work a 24hr or a 36hr (which is rare unless people call out and I opt to pick up shifts), I bring a jump rope and a blanket and get some leg work and abs done.
As far as streaking, I know it is extreme, but it does suit my personality. Maybe I’m just one of those people who needs crazy goals and gimicks to motivate themselves. As my friend Steve, who is also on a crazy streak, writes:
I’m 33 years old, and I’ve come to the conclusion that, no matter what it is, if I do it in moderation, I lose interest and ultimately fail. Don’t ask me why, it appears that it’s just the way I’m wired. I can give you example after example of how my life is like that.
I think I’m in the same boat. My streak attempt is a tad different than Steve’s- whereas he is attempting to RUN every single day, I am just trying to WORKOUT every. Here are my May Fitness Goals:
Workout every single day! Streak for the whole month! Workouts can be any of the following: jogging the dog (recovery day), long run, SPEEDWORK run, yoga, lifting, or softball. Lift 3x a week consistently.
lose 10lbs
keep tracking my workouts in my training journal. This is tedious, boring and a time sink, but I think the benefits of tracking over time and being able to go back and see your progress and plateaus is invaluable
build base miles for my Mt. Diablo 25k on June 5th. Get up to an 18mile long run. Do lots of hill work because that race has 4,450′ of climbing. Ack!
And some general Future Fitness Goals, most of which I think can be accomplished before 2010 is up (except for Scorpion pose, I’ve heard that takes about 3 years to master):
bench my weight! my bench will have to go up to hit this, and my weight needs to get down to somewhere under 150lbs.
This one is totally lame and a complete vanity thing, but I’d love to master the scorpion pose at yoga. *sheepish*
Run 50 miles
Do 10 pull ups
Do 100 pushups
By the way, isn’t my corgi calendar great? The photo for May has me completely charmed:
Oh- just one more thing that’s an exciting aside from the gym last night. My lifting workout goes like this: bench, leg press, lat pull downs, skull crushers, shrugs with bar, seated row, bicep curls, calve raises and abs. I’ve added jumping rope on the end of it, mostly because Earl is always finishing something up or got there late or is taking forever to get done, so it’s nice to have a “variable” at the end to kill time and wait for him to wrap up. I think jumping rope is so neat. It’s fun, and it’s some cardio at the end, and it’s sort of “old school” in a hardcore, Rocky-esque fashion. I really like it! Anyways, I’ve worked up from tripping over the rope every 10 jumps to doing sets of 100 jumps and working in different styles and whatnot. I do side to side, skipping, criss crossing the rope in front of me, etc. Like what this chick does, only more fat rolls bouncing around, a lot sweatier and lots more huffing like a dying waterbuffalo.
Much more tripping over the rope and whacking myself on the butt and arms with it as well. She is gorgeous and graceful and has the technique I am aspiring for with the jumprope!
ANYWAYS… when I was there last night doing my jumprope last night, I was huffing and sweating up a storm, but managed to do a bunch of different types of jumping without too much tripping and stopping for eight minutes and thirty seconds. Which is WAY MORE than when I started and could only go for 30 seconds total! When I was done I was really breathing fast and almost keeling over when I went to hang the rope back up on the wall. This in-shape looking dude, who had been doing crossfit stuff in the same area, comes up to me and says, “Wow, that was impressive! I don’t think I could jump rope for more than 10 seconds!” So that was nice Accolades for my hard-won jump rope skillz!!! I was practically floating the whole ride home. Thanks random dude!! I hope to work up to 20-minute jump rope sessions over the next couple months.
Well, it’s not really fall anymore, but I’m still on a bit of a fitness challenge (can it be called a kick when it’s really more of a daily life at this point?) I guess I’ll just deem it a healthful lifestyle.
I’m not *thrilled* with my progress, but it’s something. No huge gains, but at least moving a bit in the right direction and I guess you could see it as a sloooow step forward. :-/ I miss that huge leap from the fall, though! Perhaps I hit a plateau, although I really think it’s more that I became rather lax with my diet and also stopped running completely for about a month and a half when I had my bilateral quad strains.
Going for accountability, here are my stats since my last check in on December 23rd:
Pounds lost: 5.1
bf % lost: 5%
mile pace test: haven’t run it yet (I’ll do it tonight before the gym)
Inches lost off tummy: .5
Inches lost off hips: .5
Inches lost off bustline: .5 (sensing a trend? lol I’m all in the 5s today)
Inches lost off thigh: no change
Inches lost off wrist: no change
Inches lost off upper arm: no change
Like I said… not a whalloping change, sadly. But I guess it’s slow progress. At least it’s not gains
Other progress I’ve had has been in learning and doing a lot of yoga. I really enjoy it! With my work schedule out for the month of May, I’m aiming to do yoga 5x a week.
Oh, we can talk about the weightroom, too. Here are my gains at lifting over the past couple months. These are all for 3 sets of 10 reps.
Benchpress: @ 85, no increase
Leg press: @ 410lbs, increase of 180lbs (!!!!! HOLY COW!!!)
Lat pull downs: @ 100lbs, increase of 10lbs
Skull crushers: @30lbs, same
Shrugs with bar: @ 100lbs, increase of 10lbs
Seated row: @ 80lbs, same
Calve raise: @ 135, increase of 30lbs
Curls: @ 20lbs each hand, same
This is all from going to lift about 2x a week. My goal for May is to get there 3x a week.
On the recommendation of my friend Rune, I’ve started reading Arnold’s weightlifting book. Once I get through it (might take a while, the thing is 800 pages!) I might try to vary up my routine and implement some of Arnold’s advice. Earl thinks I don’t need it, and that I should just concentrate on just getting there 3x a week and being consistent with my all-body workout. I think that has merit, however it doesn’t account for my natural inclination to get bored and want new challenges.
To sum up, I could be a lot more happy with where I am, but at least this is something. I’ll take it. Hopefully my next check in will be a lot more progress!
I open up my newsletter today from our little yoga studio, and who can you find spotted in the crowd at the yoga demo during last week’s Celebration?
Let’s see….
In addition to attending a lovely party with free massages, reiki, and lots of (surprisingly good!) vegan chow, we were fortunate enough to watch some very special instructor demonstrations. We saw this:
and this
a partner yoga demo (how cool!) This might have been my favorite part.
These guys were so impressive
I feel like with enough practice I could accomplish this
and maybe the one on the back right
The yoga demonstration was phenomenal and inspiring. Just watching the instructors move their bodies was so beautiful! I love that my yoga school offers everything from really gentle, beginner classes (which I am in now) all the way up to strict, “Hard Work” Iyengar classes. If you are looking for a yoga studio in San Francisco, I highly recommend them. You can also see a few more reviews here on yelp. Oh- also they instruct LOTS of pre and postnatal yoga, which seems to be one of their specialties. Not exactly applicable to my life right now, but always rather cheerful to spot a gaggle of so-pregnant-they-seem-about-to-pop ladies waddling around outside of the studios
Yuuuck. Fortunately, I think this means I will only miss ONE softball game because we have a bye next week, so that will give me three weeks total to recoup. Also, starting some pilates-based physical therapy 2x a week for the next month which should help as well.
Oddly enough, this injury hasn’t affected my running all that much. I think it’s because I am such a slow jogger that I use mostly my hamstrings to putter along. So in the meantime I’m allowed to keep running, just no hill repeats or sprinting.
I’m just happy to know what was causing my thighs so much pain! And… now I have a legit reason WHY I couldn’t run the bases or squat down to field grounders at the softball game
Specifically, the Dr. thinks I have a vastus intermedius strain, which is a “deep” thigh injury. I met with the sport’s medicine clinic physical therapist today who showed me a bunch of quad-stretching and strengthening exercises to do twice a day every day. Combined with longer warm ups, cool downs, icing after use and the 2x a week physical therapy, hopefully I will heal up well and be back playing second base and batting “clean up” in the lineup!!
Softball, by the way, RULES and I have been having crazy fun playing on my work team. It really is a blast! I will be cheering the team on from the bleachers for the next game.
Oh- one other amusing thing- I ordered Linus a softball jersey, too! He’s going wear it while he comes to the game and “cheers.”
Linus by the lake:
We were done with skiing for the day and checking out Tahoe City. It was cool how you could run around by the water!
Check out Earl’s beard:
Someone was a Good Boy and got a “cookie” at the upscale pet shop in Truckee (he also got a new dog bed!)
There was some drool happening
Finally!!
We skied with our friend Dom for a few days at Squaw (myself in yellow, Andrea in the middle and Dom in red)
Dom splits his time between Truckee and SF, and knows Squaw really well. He led us down this pretty scary slope called “The Attic.” Being… not on my best ski game this year, I was just happy I made it down!
Near the top of Granite Chief, our friends Andrea and Mattius who live down the street from us near UCSF. Mattius was REALLY FAST on his snowboard. We played Chinese downhill to high camp and he creamed everyone by about … 20 seconds! His strategy was to go straight and not turn. They must breed ‘em fast in the Alps. Then again, this is the same guy who got ticketed for speeding on the autobahn, so…
And finally, here is Linus running in the snow just south of Carson Pass. We were stopped by CalTrans waiting for the pass to open that morning, so decided to have a romp!
Oh, and just so she doesn’t feel left out, here’s a little video I shot of Lucy chilling in her box:
This roasted corn is quite possibly the tastiest thing ever!
There is a guy with a grill who sells it at the base of the mountain. We all get an ear to munch while we walk to and unload our gear at the car. It is STUPENDIOUS! Almost (almost) takes the place of beer for first place “Best thing apres-ski.” Even Linus has gotten in on the corn action before.
Man I am tired. We had such a fun daytrip today! We skied from bell to bell, after getting up to drive to Tahoe at 4:45am. Then, after getting back to the city we headed straight to Emmy’s Spaghetti in the Mission to chow some ENORMOUS spaghetti and meatballs. All four of us brought home to-go bags. I think I’ve got lunch and dinner taken care of tomorrow.
According to our dog walker’s note, Linus had a fun day today, too. She apparently took him on multiple walks and he hung around at her house all afternoon. So funny. She is such a nice woman. Anyone who needs a dogwalker rec in SF, please ping me.
Sorry if this post is incoherrent I am pretty tired. Off to snooze
Well, not so much “our” window, but the window of my uncle’s ski cabin, where we spent the weekend ensconced with my cousin’s family (and Linus) while it snowed and snowed and snowed.
We skied a few days at Dodge Ridge, which is a very cool little mountain. It’s not the most extreme or the biggest, but it has a really nice family vibe- great if you have kiddos in your crew, and man… the snow was GREAT. It was so fun hanging out with my cousin, his wife and their two kids. We did lots of family stuff including cooking pizza in and staying up late playing board games. Also, by far the two of the best days of skiing I’ve had this season. I’m really feeling like I’m getting my “legs” back skiing. The past two years I basically regressed in my skills and finally feel like things are on the upswing again. I’m able to go out hard and feel like I’m actually SKIING, not just huffing around the mountain in a state of exhaustion. Not exactly “bell to bell” yet, but at least an improvement.
Here’s E and I at the base. Not sure where my skis are- outside the frame I guess, but don’t I look like a (the horrors!) snowboarder here?
Have I mentioned that I’m officially “in training” for my ultra season this year? Did a 10k two weeks ago which kicked off the start and have been ramping up mileage ever since. I hope to settle in around (and how crazy does this sound?!?) a pretty standard 50 miles a week. I’m at about 30 right now and adding about 10% to that each week. My next race is a 20k in March, then a 50k in May, another 50k in July and finally my “A” race which is the Dirk Collin’s 50-miler in October.
All the running has been great. I’ve got my new running kicks, a coupla track buddies at work (one of my partners and I do sprint workouts and plyo stuff between calls at work), interesting places around here to run, an awesome and supportive “crew” and overall things have been splendid.
One problemo: Now that I’m a Serious Runner, what happens to my little jog with the dog?
See, Old Courtney used to roll out of bed, laze around with Nerd, meander into her day, and then when she felt like it head out con woof on a leisurely and fun little 3 mile jog. I LOVE our little jogs together. I feel like Linus gets a good chunk of his daily exercise, we explore all the sites and sounds of the hood, he gets to socialize at two dog parks, and we chitchat with our neighbors. But, it’s NOT a speedy run. We stop, we chat, we sniff butts, we attempt to eat leftover McDonalds wrappers from potheads toking up in Buena Vista Park, we shamelessly pander for pets, treats, and attention. We also have fun trying to trip me up in the leash by employing a wide array of darting and wrapping techniques. All this doesn’t exactly jive with a “focused training run.” I can’t really do a “legit” training run with Buddy.
Linus will still be my faithful running partner for all “easy” runs, recovery jogs, BRICK runs, runs on the beach and of course trail running. He’s fine with keeping up on the mileage (not sure if you recall, but I took him on a 14mile trail run last year), and he’s okay on pacing, it’s just the deadly combo of the leash and distractions that make him hard to run with en la ciudad.
So… what to do. For example, tomorrow on the boards: I’ve got a 6-mile “regular” run at 60% effort, and then 2 miles of hill repeats later. What I need to figure out is, where does “jog with Linus around the neighborhood” fit into that?
One idea I’m chewing on- what about if I take Linus out with me for a “warm up” … say- 2 miles, easy around the hood, like normal, then come back, drop him off and head right back out the door solo to bag some REAL miles? I guess I could do the same with a cool down… though I bet I would tend to cheat on the tail end and cut it short. Hmm… hmm…. Any thoughts?
Posted on January 31, 2010 in: Running, Sport|Comments Off
Heading out the door for an easy 4 mile recovery jog with con woofer.
Wearing this U Mad shirt which Earl snagged me when we visited his alma mater.
Wearing this shirt for a run really brings out the San Francisco peanut gallery. I never knew there was such Wisconsin pride around here until I sported this one day on a jog through Golden Gate Park. I’d say I get about… at least 5 or 6 people shouting something out to me per run.
Back of the shirt sports the same deal (writing on hat reads “Girdwood, Alaska” which is NOT reversed, the U Mad image actually reads backwards, flippy mirror trick).
Comments range from:
The obvious: “Go Wisconsin!”
“Go Badgers!”
“Yeah, BUCKY!!”
“Hey, I went there!”
“My boyfriend/girlfriend/mother/father went there.”
Accolades for my hard-won jump rope skillz!!! I was practically floating the whole ride home. Thanks random dude!! I hope to work up to 20-minute jump rope sessions over the next couple months. 
But I guess it’s slow progress. At least it’s not gains 
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