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New PR!

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

Course map

I got a PR on today’s SF Half: 2:08:30, which is 9:49/mi. (About 12 minutes faster than my SF Half time last year!) I felt pretty good through most of the run, though my left Achilles/ankle was bugging me on the bridge. Amanda and I ran together for about 10.5 miles, but I pulled slightly ahead when Amanda took a walk break on one of the hills after the bridge. There’s a long downhill after that when I was feeling great, but the gradual uphill for miles 11-13.1 nearly killed me. I was feeling nauseated around mile 12, so I ate another Gel, which helped a bit. (As an aside, as I was grabbing the Gel from my waist pack, I heard someone yell my name, and I looked up to see Ross, one of my pace group members from my marathon training in ’05!) I was feeling pretty wiped as I entered the park, but seeing all the finishers and hearing all the spectators gave me a bit of an energy boost, and I was able to sprint in to the finish. I grabbed a bottle of water and turned around to wait for Amanda. I overheard the announcer say that someone who just finished was born in 1933, and looked up to see an elderly man cross the finish line and start yelling, “Catch me! Catch me!”, followed by a younger woman yelling “Catch him! Catch him!” so I grabbed him and basically bear hugged him until he was able to stop and stand up. Then I patted him on the back and said, “Nice finish!” A few seconds after that, I saw Amanda cross the finish line and cheered her in. (She got 2:09:30, exactly 1 minute behind me.)

My time was certainly a long way from the sub-2 I was originally aiming for, but I’m still feeling really proud, especially since this was not just training for a half, but really just getting back into running shape. Considering I went from basically zero running about 3 months ago to a PR without totally injuring myself, I’m feeling pretty good.

GPS data here.

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Posted in Fitness | San Francisco, CA | | 3 Comments »

Almost time

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

Apologies for the lack of updates, friends. Not too much has been going on this week except tapering down for race day tomorrow! I did my last run on Thursday morning, an easy 3-miles. My left Achilles has been hurting a bit, but not so much that I’m worried about it. It does never cease to amaze me, though, how my body constantly finds new and exciting way to hurt. If you like, you can sign up for text message alerts (my bib number is 12691) for when I cross 7-miles and the finish line. Keep in mind that both of these text messages will be coming in before 8am tomorrow, so I’ll understand if you want to just check the results later in the day. :) [Edit: Man, I just realized it costs $5 to sign up for the alerts. F-that! Just check the site later.]

Last night Walter threw a birthday party for Sprog, and he got pies from Z-Pie! Yum! Happy Birthday, Sprog, and thanks to Walter for organizing!

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Posted in Fitness, General | San Francisco, CA | | No Comments »

Backpacking in the Desolation Wilderness

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Reflections

For a few weeks, Amanda, Sara, Jeff and I had a backpacking trip planned for this past weekend. The original plan was to stay two nights, but all four of us were busy with work, so we decided to cut it down to one. Friday night, Amanda and I headed up to Sacramento and spent the night at Sara and Jeff’s. While packing our gear, we decided to save some weight by not taking the rain flies, since Jeff and I both checked the weather forecasts, and they never made any mention of rain. (This, dear readers, is what we call ‘foreshadowing.’ Pay attention.) After everything was packed up (including Dora’s doggy backpack), we picked up some sandwiches for lunch, and headed out. We got to the trail head around 1:30, and after a slight off-brand hydration pack debacle (damn you, North Face,) we were on our way! The hike was pretty strenuous, but it didn’t bother me too much because 1) I think I might actually kind of be in shape, 2) my pack was the lightest out of everyone’s (hooray being tiny!), and 3) the scenery was totally mind blowing and distracted me. The weather was beautiful, and the trail took us through the forest, across creeks, scrambling up rocks, and around several beautiful lakes, and I had a blast taking pictures. I decided to take my 20D instead of my 5D both to save weight, and so I could use my (crop-sensor-only) 10-20mm lens.

After about 5 miles, we reached a potential campsite, and Amanda, Sara, and I took a rest while Jeff went to check out a different campsite at slightly higher ground. As we were resting, the wind started to pick up, and a bank of ominous looking clouds started to blow in. After a little while longer, it started to sprinkle. Eventually, through a series of indecipherable hand signals, Jeff told us to come up to the higher campsite where it was a little more protected from the wind and rain. By the time we got to the second campsite, we were pretty soaked, but decided to try to wait it out before making a final call. After 20 or 30 minutes, it became clear that it wasn’t going to let up, and none of us really wanted to sleep in a non-waterproofed tent, so we turned around and headed back to the car. On the way back to Sacramento, we stopped for pizza, and all basically passed out once we got home.

Sunday morning we slept in, made a delicious brunch, then went wine tasting. Quite a change from camping and backpacking, but I didn’t hear anyone complain.

Despite the rather abrupt change of plans, I had an awesome time, and I really hope to go back to the Desolation Wilderness again. Next time I’ll take a rain fly. :)

Photos ahoy:

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Posted in Fitness, Photography, Travel | Desolation Wilderness, CA | | 4 Comments »

AIDS Walk 2009

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

Once again, I’m participating in the AIDS Walk on July 19, so if you can spare any amount, please consider making a donation on my page. If you do make a donation, please check if your employer has a donation matching program, and you can have your donation doubled. It’s always a little awkward to be asking for money in economic times like these, but remember that any amount helps, and it will be going towards a very worthy cause.

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Posted in Fitness | San Francisco, CA | | 2 Comments »

Training update

Monday, June 29th, 2009

For those of you who are interested, I thought I’d give a quick update on how the half marathon training is going. I’ve decided to abandon the training program in favor of a more free-form, less rigid training program. At first I was feeling all right with the program, but by the 3rd week, on each run I did, I was feeling fatigued, I was hurting, and I became increasingly frustrated, to the point of giving up on a couple runs. I realized that there were a couple problems. First, my goal (< 2 hour half marathon) was way too ambitious for the shape that I'm in, and second, I was just overtraining. I don't really believe in running two days in a row, and while I know this means I'll never be an elite runner (that, and my stubby legs), it works for me. And I'd rather finish this half healthy at a slower pace, then faster and injured. That all said, since I've gone off the training program, I've had three of the best runs I've had in months, culminating with a great 11-mile run yesterday. So I think I'll continue on the Sha Training Program, and I'm confident that, while I won't make a sub-2, I'll finish this half feeling great.

run

(Image from the GPS data from my 11-mile run. Go here for more GPS data.

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Posted in Fitness | San Francisco, CA | | 2 Comments »

Up, Shinteki, and Fondue (Oh my!)

Monday, June 1st, 2009
up posterI saw Up in 3D last Friday, and loved it. Despite having pretty high expectations due to all the positive reviews (and the fact that it is a Pixar movie), I still thought it was amazing, not only because there are even more talking dogs than are shown in the trailer. I was surprised that there were actually a lot of adult themes in the movie, considering it’s relatively-mild PG rating. I won’t give anything away, but if the first few minutes don’t make you at least a little misty-eyed, you’re probably a robot. (In which case you may find this entry helpful.) Other exciting Pixar news was that they showed a teaser for Toy Story 3, which is apparently coming out next summer!

shintekiSaturday I nerded it up and participated in Shinteki Decathlon 5 with Matt, Peter, and Walter. Besides the fact that I didn’t realize it went until 10 pm, (and subsequently disappointed a few people…) I had a lot of fun. The game started in San Francisco (one of my favorite clues was inside the Exploratorium where we had to find a whole bunch of different exhibits and answer questions about them), went around the city a bit, went into the Marin headlands, and finished in San Rafael. We finished all 10 clues and took only 18 points in hints, and I even contributed some in a non-grinding way. Yay! I think we ended up placing somewhere in the middle of the 25-or-so team field, which I was happy with, especially considering 9 teams got perfect scores. As Walter put it, we’re near the top of the teams that suck. YES.

Sunday we went on an accidentally-too-long 8.5-mile training run, which was pretty rough, but we slogged through it. More importantly, we finally put the fondue pot YGB gave me to good use and had a fondue party! AllRecipes once-again came through with amazing cheese fondue and chocolate fondue recipes. I wasn’t involved with the making of the cheese fondue, so I can’t really comment on the recipe other than the fact that it was DERICIOUS, but if you decide to make the chocolate fondue, I took the advice of some of the commenters and used chocolate chips (half milk chocolate, half semi-sweet) instead of grated chocolate, and instead of instant coffee, about a third of a cup of brewed coffee, and it turned out great. The fondue pot performed like a champ and the glass insert was super easy to clean. Given how easy and delicious fondue is, I’m kicking myself for not doing it earlier.

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Posted in Entertainment, Fitness, General | Redwood City, CA | | 2 Comments »

Turning a corner

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Recently I feel like I’ve turned a corner with Getting In Shape 2009. I’ve exercised 9 times in 10 days, which I’m not sure I’ve ever done: Monday 3-mile run, Tuesday top-rope climbing, Wednesday 3-mile run, Thursday bouldering, Friday 3-mile run, Saturday a 6-mile (and terrible, might I add) bike ride, Monday a 6-mile run, Tuesday terrible top-rope climbing, and today 3.25 miles of interval running. (As an aside, I really liked my interval training! This is the first time I’ve ever done it, and it made the miles fly by. It’s sort of makes running a game, and I didn’t even notice that I was working hard.)

In general, I’m happy that my runs no longer feel like torture, and even though I have the occasional terrible day of climbing, I do feel like I’m slowly getting stronger. I think the difficulty with exercising so much (besides the ever-present threat of injury) is that my body is usually tired. During climbing on Tuesday, I think my legs were still tired from Monday’s run, and they were shaking while I was up on the wall. Hopefully I’ll build up my strength and endurance and get my body used to being so active. That, or I’ll just be terrible at everything. Always. Whee! Project Eating Mindfully is going really well, too, and I feel good after meals instead of super stuffed. If I can stay healthy (read: uninjured), I think I could soon be in the best shape of my life!

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Posted in Fitness | San Francisco, CA | | No Comments »

Eating mindfully

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

Now that work as slowed to a normal pace, I’ve been trying to get back in shape. I’ve been running and climbing more regularly, and to help, last week I decided to try to start eating mindfully. That is, not eating when I’m not hungry, and when I am hungry, only eating enough for me to stop being hungry, not until I’m overly full. This is a pretty large departure from the way I usually eat, which is quickly, and until I’m uncomfortably full. I’ve also been trying to be better about not eating just because other people are eating, which is something I’m usually pretty bad about. This isn’t a diet, per se, (though it’s as close to being on a diet as I’ve ever been) as it’s not as much about what I eat, just about how much of it I eat. Like Julia Child said, “Everything in moderation.”

It’s actually been going pretty well, and it’s kind of nice to feel good after a meal, instead of uncomfortable. Hopefully I’ll eventually retrain myself so that this becomes the norm, not the exception. That said, some friends and I have reservations for this coming Friday at Alexander’s Steakhouse, so we’ll see how that goes. It’s probably not a good sign that we’re calling it “The Great Meat Extravaganza”…

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Posted in Fitness | San Francisco, CA | | 9 Comments »

Goals, Update #1

Friday, January 30th, 2009

So, it really was severely misrated, buuut…I don’t make the ratings. :)

1) Memorize one phone number from my cell phone’s contact list per week.
2) Get back into running shape (half marathon at least)
3) Shoot pictures more in Manual
4) Finish my photography website
5) Beat Mario Galaxy and Mass Effect
6) Finish the many, many wedding albums I have on my backlog.
7) Go camping
8) Climb an 11b
9) Get a puppy
10) Think of a #10 for my goals list.

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Posted in Fitness, General | | No Comments »

Adventures in biking

Friday, December 12th, 2008

This Sunday I had a bit of free time, so I decided to take a bike ride through the park. I intended to take my long run route of going into the park and heading west until I hit Ocean Beach. Unfortunately, instead of crossing the 1 and heading north on Transverse to JFK boulevard, I turned onto 1 and started biking up a 6-lane road that eventually turns into a highway. I realized my mistake, but couldn’t really do anything about it because of the divider. So I continued up in the right lane, pedaling as fast as my little legs and my 8-speed bike would take me, but soon a line of cars appeared behind me. Most of them were able to go around me, and eventually I found a safe-ish place to pause and jump up onto the sidewalk, but not before a car passed by as the driver yelled, “Ever hear of a bike path??” Yes, yes I have.

So I turned around and headed back, went past the Academy of Sciences, which took me onto JFK. I somehow found myself back at a stoplight, so I decided to just call it a day and turn back, but not before another biker yelled at me for turning around in the middle of the road. It just wasn’t my day, apparently.

In other news, I’m pretty sure there’s a dead rat in the walls of my bedroom.

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Posted in Fitness | | 1 Comment »

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