Steve Gets A Life

What a loser

man, i haven't been training for like a week now. i ride to work, sure, but thats less than a mile each way, and its well under cardio speed.

my problem is an over-dependence on sleep, i think. the whole morning workout routine sounded like a good idea until i stayed up past 9:00pm and couldn't drag myself out of bed.

i think i need to start hiking. or some other sort of exercise that doesn't feel like exercise, and and start doing it after work.

..or during work. yea, thats it.

back on the road (bike)

went on my first real ride since moving up here to SLO (since before this blog, really). got home from work and took off down Broad St, wondering what was past the airport. after a few minutes of nervousness, hearing funny sounds on my bike, hitting a few good-sized potholes, and an overall fear of traffic, i relaxed, remembing how to ride. i found myself on the way to Arroyo Grande and decided to try to make it to the pool where andria was working before she left at 7pm (by when the sun would be going down, so i'd better make it or else id be riding home in the dark).

i got there at about 6:15, plenty of time. i was so tired after climbing that huge hill and almost getting run off the road on the way back down. i sat there and ate a balance bar until andria saw me and was all surprised. it was fun.

i decided to take off then and try to make it home before dark. i started to bonk on the way into SLO, just barely rolling on South Higuera. but by the time i hit Marsh St i knew i was home and felt alive again. i pumped up the hill and made it home just at dusk.

andria was home by that point, afraid i had crashed or something. we went to Woodstock's for dinner and came home and crashed. that was a good night.

keep on runnin

andria and i have run two mornings in a row now. slightly on the way to constancy. that makes two weeks of pseudo-training for me and it feels pretty good. for some reason, i decided that not only should i run, but I'm also going to do pushups and pull-ups. so far i really suck. in fact, i can barely do ten pull-ups and no more than 25 pushups at a time. what a loser.

in order to motivate myself, i had andria cut my hair really short (armstrong-length) and stepped back into my triathlete shoes and buzzed my legs. thats right, im baldy-legs again. maybe its dumb, but it reminds me to go work out, or else i feel like an idiot who shaved his legs for nothing. that and when i put on my bike shorts i dont have leghairs poking out all over the place, which is good.

i actually have a picture of me with one shaved leg (pretty funny looking) so ill try to post it up here when i get home.

latest runs:

• santa rosa -> foothill -> train tracks -> home
• santa rosa -> foothill -> poly track (sprints, pull-ups, pushups) -> train tracks -> home
• santa rosa -> foothill -> poly -> "bleachers" at the football stadium -> train tracks -> home

i'm going to try to keep track with my HRM and look for improvement over these courses over the next few weeks. in case you were wondering.

daily run

i've been trying to get back into the routine of running every day. i started last week and got maybe 3/5 days in. this week is looking about the same. not bad for coming off a yearlong break from regular training.

i'm developing a "regular" run to go on in the morning, and tracking it with my hrm. hopefully i can see some improvement, maybe even discover why i feel faster on some days than others. should be interesting.

in case you care, here is what i did this morning (the latest revision of the monrning run):

1. Mill to Santa Rosa
2. Santa Rosa to Foothill (towards poly)
3. Foothill onto campus, to track
   • one lap easy/normal pace
   • pullups, pushups
   • one lap normal
   • pullups, pushups
   • one lap fast
4. back home via the train tracks

it took about 45 minutes this morning. run felt fine, pullups sucked (only could do 20 total). pushups did also (only did about 40), but didn't try as hard on those. really need to work on upper-body strength.

bici bella

rode Monte Bello (in Palo Alto, CA) with Brian over the weekend. awesome. he kicked my butt to the curb (well, no curbs, maybe to the trailside) and back again. if you look at the graph, you can see we had fun going downhill, then it was a giant climb for over an hour (ok, some drops, but not much). note the drops in heart rate in the middle of the climbs. thats when i wussed out and had to stop cause i was gonna puke. to be fair (to me), i think we were going pretty damn fast, i mean i held 170bpm for 1.5 hours. thats pretty rough. anyways, enough whining. it was a great time, i really enjoyed riding a real trail with someone who can really push me (i hope i pushed back a bit too).

andria and i were up there for Karen's (Brian's fiancee) bridal shower. andria hung with the girls and did whatever it is they do, and brian and i went and got dirty and tried to kill each other.. what guys do.

note: the above graph is missing about 10 minutes off the beginning. so there was more downhill than you see there. which was nice.

bunny hop

so i rode over a mountain yesterday after work. it was pretty awesome.

after work, i rode over to the base of madonna mountain (aka Cerro San Luis) in the suburb area behind albertsons (up a big hill, there's a trailhead at the end of the road clearly labeled "no mountain access" with a big trail running down it.) asked a guy which way to go, ended up being a bit off. i rode around the mountain (as opposed to up it), until i almost ran right into the middle of a pack of horses. confronted with giant mammals and barbed wire, the only way was to go straight up, so off i went (look for the first steep incline in the image above with associated cardiac arrest).

that brought me onto the "real" trail which was really more for hikers: a lot of gravel and large rocks (no traction, hard to maneuver), so i ended up carrying my bike for a while. i finally ran into the guy who gave me directions in the first place and he explained that i turned too early. oh well. continued to the top, checked out the view until i got cold (note to self, bring a camera next time), then went down via the fire trail.

the descent was fun and fast (check the graph to get an idea), but pretty loose gravel and my hands cramped up from braking so much. i finally got down to the base and rode into town, rode into Farmers' Market, bought some awesome strawberries and avacados, and a decent steak sandwich.

who knew thursday evenings could be so entertaining?

poly canyon, finally

so i finally figured out that there is plenty of daylight left after work for a good ride up poly canyon. i also finally figured out how to get out past the barns onto the "real" trails. i think i rode up and back down the "dirty slide" (or something) trail. it was pretty fun, at one point a huge cow blocked the trail (on a single track, nowhere else to go), so i had to yell and make big arms at it. that was interesting. when i got back to campus (to meet up with andria) i felt so much better, having actually worked out (climbed about 600ft, total ride time was about 45 minutes). kinda scratched up my leg a bit on my crappy pedals (an unfortunate side effect of having giant calves). fell once (at about 2mph uphill), wimped out on one decent, and finally remembered how to ride a mountain bike again :)

knobbys

back on the ol' mountain bike.

i went for a ride up Poly Canyon. i got lost, jumped about a dozen barbed wire fences, almost spooked a few herds of horses, got stared down by one particularly big horse (then rode the long way around him), rode through countless cow patties, climbed some serious hills, almost stacked coming down those hills with tired legs and worn-out brakes.

felt great when i got home. a bit muddy, tired legs, heavy lungs. took a cool shower and laid down to read. got about ten pages out of "The Martian Chronicles" before i passed out for a good hour. awesome.

note to self: do that again, but try to fix up the bike first. and bring the camelback again. that was key.

back on the bike. hopefully.

i need to get back on the bike. that is, i need to start riding more than my daily one mile to and from campus. i got a map from a SLO bike group (im not sure which) that reminds me a lot of the map i got when i first started riding in SB.

im obviously feeling the urge because of my recent trip to Austin, seeing people race, fit people. i don't really feel the motivation to go out and train for triathlon, so i think i should find some good local trails and become a mountain biker (again). those hills can really work you, plus its a lot of fun. less car exhaust or potential to get run over and more trees, creeks, and mud. well, creeks and mud in places where it actually rains, unlike here. so im looking for trees, dirt, and dust. or something.

anyways, i've also realized that i don't have to allocate a full two hours or so to train like i used to. instead, i should just go run for 30 minutes and get it done with. i'll be happier, fitter, and spend less time watching TV. which would be nice.