Morning Swims- My new best friend

UC Berkeley's Hearst Pool at the old women's gymnasium

So I thought waking up at 6:20 to do a morning swim was going to be the worst idea ever and that by mid-day at work I was just going to crash from morning exercise and forcing myself to stay awake manually (i.e. NO coffee still!). But HOORRAH! I have found the joys of morning swims- and let me tell you they are amazing! It is like I have been awakened to a whole new world where I can work out AND still get home in time to cook dinner and have a little me time - which is highly essential for my sanity.

So my first morning swim was on Tuesday and after wandering around the UC campus for a while trying to find this gym I was finally in the pool by 7:30am. I didn't realize that the Hearst Gym was the old women's only gymnasium- ergo they had to make it look the most un-gym like possible, ya know to suit our womenly sense and all! It is a beautiful building totally done in the style of the late 1910's and 1920's of art nouveau and very well preserved. However, not what you are expecting to be a gym when you see it from the outside.

Inside it is a bit creepy and very sanitarium-esque. I do love the old signs that they kept about the place from the time when it was a women's only gym. Such as "MEN if you are here ring this bell for service". And the pool is gorgeous-I mean the pool is completely marble people! I have never swam in a full marble pool. It is pretty luxurious!

So of course I get there at 7:30 and they tell me that Tuesdays are the one day that they close early at 8:00 to do a pool cleaning. ::Sigh:: Oh well at least I got in a 30 minute work out and had the glorious revelation that working out in the mornings isn't that bad. And to boot I didn't crash mid day like expected even without the wonderful life sustaining fluid that is known as coffee.

A little Behind....

Okay, so this week I got a little behind on my blogging/ recording of training. However, I am going to do the best to catch you up on the training that I did this week.

To start, the running clinic actually wasn't that bad. I mean it wasn't fun- but it wasn't as painful as the first time I went running with Erica where we just did a few miles straight without stopping.

So the workout for the running clinic was so:

A warm up of a few stretches and lunges- nothing too intense and nothing to bring up the heart rate.

Then:

One 400 meter at a jog with a set of 4 stairs

One 300 meter run, 100 meter jog with a set of 3 stairs

One 200 meter run, 200 meter jog with a set of 2 stairs

One 100 meter run, 300 meter jog with a set of 1 stair.

That part was HARD - and I actually just ended up jogging the whole thing. I can't sustain that kind of a run and have anything left over for a set of stairs! It was a damn good set and one that I have to try again. When I am more fit...

We then moved on to a 1 1/2 minute plank followed by:

20 squat jumps and 100 meter sprint... we did this five times.

That actually wasn't that bad. Not that I am in any way a sprinter, but I am much better at bursts of energy then a cool down then a sustained long run that is slower.

After that we did 50 sit ups with a partner pushing us down and 50 leg lifts with a partner pushing our legs down. Those were great for the abs and was still feeling it even on Friday!

So that was the running clinic- not terrible, but still not on any level enjoyable. HA! I felt not triumphant- but good for getting through the whole thing and not being the slowest- until Erica told me that this teacher had let us off easy and that most trainings were harder :(

::Sigh:: What a total bubble burst!

3 Bears Panoramic

I know that it took me a long time to post this photo, but here it is! The panoramic shot from the 3 bears. The rolling hills of California just never get old! This was our pit-stop refuel break.

Week 2 Summary

So, I won't say that I completely failed on my week two training schedule.... but it definitely didn't go as planned. Life definitely got in the way last week. I am having a bit of a hard time trying to balance life and all of this training- and I have come to the horrid conclusion that I might have to start to do morning workouts. Not that I have anything wrong with getting up early, its just doing a morning workout at 7am and then going to work from 9 to 6, coming home cooking and doing everything else I am suppose to do sounds a bit exhausting! But I will be giving it a try tomorrow.

So, as you can see, I ended up taking the whole weekend off- Father's Day what can ya do? - as well as taking Monday and Wednesday off to buy groceries and to buy my bike. This week I definitely need to step up my game. Starting with running workshop today that Erica has tricked me into thinking I am in enough running shape to do.... Why do I let her trick me into such things?

I'll shamefully have to let you know how quickly I pooped-out during the practice tomorrow, that is IF I can walk to my computer....

New Bike!

So lady's and gent's I am officially the proud owner of a Cannondale Six Bike! Whoot whoot!

I went to the Mike's Bikes sale on Wednesday and scored myself an incredible bike for more than 50% off. It sure didn't hurt that it is a 2009 and right now it is currently more than half way through 2010!

But clearly I must have never been to a bike store that isn't a douchey NYC bike store- because this place treated me like a real person! Having all my previous bike experience be from NYC- and therefore I am now sufficiently scarred by bike store owners and fixie jerks- I was expecting not only a run around (that is pretty much expected in NYC) but also a bunch of jerks perpetually testing my "knowledge" of bikes and what is cool/ not cool in the bike world. (Clearly, as you can tell, I have some issues to work out in therapy with NYC and its biking culture...)

Luckily none of that was to be had at Mike's Bikes.

So three cheers for my new bike... as my wallet cries softly in the corner!

The specs are below if anyone is interested.

It is definitely more than just a beginner bike, but after riding it and seeing what a steal I was getting I figured that I might as well go for it. Since the 2010 Dolce Specialized were only selling for $100- %200 less.

After riding my friends Allez Specialized bike on the last ride and finishing with major upper back pain due to the handle bar being too wide for my shoulders and too far away from the saddle I decided that going with a women's bike was probably the way to go. Unless I wanted to completely replace the handle bars on a brand new bike- which just didn't seem worth it to me.

I did test drive a Dolce before buying the Cannondale, but it was a bit too upright for me- and not as aggressive as I would have liked the frame to be. I think after using guys bikes that have always been a bit to big for me I am used to a more horizontal feel. And the Ruby Specialized was just too expensive. So that I how I ended up with the Cannondale.

Also, after test driving a bike that had ultegra gears... there really was no going back-shifting was as smooth as butter!

But I don't have the bike yet- they needed to bring my size in from another store. And I am having some serious separation anxiety. You know the kind where you stare at pictures of it on the internet or when you want to brag about it to other people, but no one even understand why the hell you spent that much money on a bike no matter how you try and explain that it is carbon with amazing gears.... ::sigh:: The with drawl is hard!

But I get it on Tuesday and then Wednesday I have to do a crash course in how to use my new pedals and shoes. Hopefully that does not turn into a literal crash course on the subject...

Also one of the employees at Mike's Bike suggested that I try them out first on a grassy field so as not to hurt myself or my bike if I do happen to take a tumble. Good points all around!

http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/BikeSpecs.aspx?ItemID=17502&Type=bike

Week 1 Summary

So this is how my first week ended up being in comparison to my earlier schedule. Not too bad, but definitely not as full throttle as my original schedule mandated.

By Friday I could barely walk down the stairs properly, so I figured that if I was going to actually do a ride that Sunday I needed to rest up. Basically the run killed me and I am NOT looking forward to the next one that I am going to do (i.e. this evening). I've figured that if the running is going to make me that sore I needed to start doing it earlier in the week if I have any prayer of doing my rides on the weekends.

Also, I was able to give up coffee for the whole week! Whoot whoot! But have recently fallen off of the no-caffeine band wagon. Having coffee on Monday was like having a religious awakening... god, coffee is good! ::Sigh::

On that note I have been pretty exhausted at work since I started training. I can't tell if it is because I am working out more and not sleeping enough or if it is more because I am a bit stressed out from work and trying to maintain my social life WHILE training. Hopefully I will stop feeling so tired all the time and thus be able to kick my coffee habit again.

I have also been very very good about my resolution to drink more water, but not so good about cutting down on the red meats. However, this grocery trip I did buy some beans and lentils (which I don't really know how to cook yet...) so hopefully that will get me started down the lesser meat eating path.

So this week taught me a few things: A. Exercise is tiring, B. Coffee is a gift from the gods, C. I am a totally out of shape runner, D. BUT I am in pretty good cycling shape for someone who has never done it before and E. There was no way I was going to be perfect on my first week and actually keep to the schedule I made.

So, keeping all of that in mind I think it was a pretty successful first week!

Wildcat Canyon and the Three Bears

Today was Sunday and the first day that I was able to walk successfully down stairs without looking like I had pegs for legs. Ever since that run on Wednesday my inner and outter quads have been killing me! So much so that my work has decided to give me the nickname of peg legs, since it looked like I had peg legs for the past few days.

Luckily I woke up today in not perfect shape- but being able to walk down the stairs like a normal human being sure was a plus!

Originally Erica and I were going to do a 30ish mile ride out in Pleasanton, but it was just WAY to hot for that. So we decided to do an easy ride early in the morning. Little did I know that the ride Erica was going to make us go on was any thing but easy!

She decided that we should do Wildcat Canyon and the 3 Bears and since when it comes to biking I just do whatever Erica tells me to do... at 9:45am we started back up Spruce toward Wildcat Canyon.




As you can see it was a pretty intense ride, but I am really glad that I had not seen it on a map before I did it or else I think I would have psyched myself out of it.

This time I had invited Andrew's cousin's husband, Eric, and one of his friends, Dirk to join us. It was really fun to ride with them and they definitely pushed us (or me!) to ride a little bit harder. Unfortunately they didn't stick around for the whole day- but it was fun for the part that they did join us on!

Riding down Wildcat canyon was awesome and you were able to have some amazing views. Once you got all the way down the hill and were trekking around the dams the hills (there are three of them hence the name the 3 Bears) were moderate- but with no shade. It was a full 85 degrees or higher, but with a nice wind at times and going back up Wildcat canyon was in the shade. For me, a So-Cal girl and someone who has lived in Thailand, I thought that the weather was perfect! And I got to work on my tan along the way! But Erica, and I think Eric and Dirk, might have thought it was a bit too hot to be riding.

The 18 or so miles around the dams were really beautiful and the path dumps you right out in farm and horse country. That was quite a treat to bike through those areas.

In front of some hay bales half way through the ride!

What is also great about the ride is that there a long stretches of road that open up where you can bike up and down baby hills in a higher gear- which is always just such a great feeling! After a few miles in a really low gear it is nice to once again feel the resistance of the bike and really feel like you are in control.

But of course what goes down must come back up again... meaning Wildcat canyon. After getting up Spruce with sore quads and the bike around the dams I really was scared that I wasn't going to make it back up that mountain! But Erica being the great Jitensha Sensei (bike teacher) that she is was able to instill enough confidence in me that I was indeed fit enough to make it back. Besides, we had no other way of getting home! It was a BITCH of a ride back up- I am not going to lie to you. Especially at the end of a long ride. But some how we made it back up to Inspiration Point. And Erica was right in the end- this was a perfect ride to challenge me, but at the same time a ride that I was able to do, even when I doubted myself.

Of course we needed a photo op with the beautiful rolling
Cali hills behind us!

After Inspiration Point the rest were easy mini hills that you could get through with enough momentum and then the down hill along Spruce- that was just fun! At by the end of it we reached home around 1:45ish which rounded out to about 4 hours to do the whole thing. I needed to take some stops to refuel and rest, but I am not going to begrudge myself that since it was only my second time cycling!

All in all Erica, like the story of the three bears, was able to pick just the right ride for the day. Even though at times I thought she was trying to kill me!