pilates mat

pilates mat class with sergio novoa.
6:30-7:30pm

swimming

swimming 1000m, at YMCA embarcadero, 12:00-12:30pm.

first time i got to 1000m.

it was easy because i just repeated this 8 times:
50m freestyle
50m fly
25m kickboard

at 500 i was telling myself, "i should just get to 750, it's only 2 more cycles." then at 750 i really wanted to quit, but thought it would be pretty cool if i could finish a complete 1000m. so... there it is... too easy... maybe i'll do it again next thursday.

running

twin peaks loop. up to the lookout, down to burnett, then up parkridge.

6:21-6:38pm - 17mins

nick's upper body workout

nick's upper body workout @ gold's castro, 7-8pm

rear delt pulls (90, 140, 190)
bench press (95, 145, 165)
dips (10, 10)
rear delt extensions (60, 75, 90)
inverted cable fly (12, 10, 8)
lat pull downs (80, 110, 130)
pull-ups (3)
curls (30, 50, 60)
leonardo/cable shoulder extensions (20, 25, 20)

pilates mat

pilates mat class @ gold's castro with sergio novoa. 7:30-8:30pm. great class

vinyasa yoga

vinyasa yoga @ gold's castro with silvie hibdon (lip ring and vaguely eastern european & new zealand accent). she is a good teacher, i like this class.

4:00-5:30pm

walked home after this class.

pilates mat

pilates mat class @ gold's castro with sergio novoa. 6-7pm. this is my new favorite class.

spin class

spin class @ gold's brannan. was supposed to be joe mazza (my favorite spin instructor)... but he was on vacation. the substitute guy was okay, but not as good.

1 hour spinning, 6-7pm

iyengar yoga

iyengar yoga at gold's castro with arthur scappaticci, 7:30-9:00pm.

pilates mat

pilates mat with sergio novoa at castro gold's, 6:30-7:30pm. good class.

swimming

one of the perks of having a military ID, is the day use discount at the YMCA. tkday i went swimming in the pool at the embarcadero Y.

100m freestyle
25m kickboard
50m freestyle
50m breathstroke
25m kickboard
50m freestyle
50m breathstroke
25m kickboard
50m freestyle
50m breathstroke
25m kickboard
50m freestyle

550m total. i'm not a strong swimmer. i'd like to work up to 1000m workouts.

vinyasa yoga

vinyasa yoga at gold's castro 7-8am, with anita. she is awesome! will definitely try to take her class again

body pump

tuesday morning, body pump @ gold's castro, 7am-8am with matty perkins. not my favorite teacher so far.

jogging

2.1 miles in twin peaks, took about 20 minutes, down to clayton and back. i like doing downhill followed by uphill. the downhill gives you a way to ease into it, and the uphill makes sure you finish strong, especially the last section where i climb 100 feet of vertical in about 200 feet of sidewalk. this will be good training for my next 2-mile test, so i can sprint during the last stretch.

yoga

8am yoga with marie stanford at castro gold's.

so freaking crowded!

i went to this yoga class hoping it would help stretch out my legs, which were tight from the run i had done the night before. but what i encountered was an intense leg workout. there was more strength training than there was stretching in this class.

even though it wasn't what i was expecting, and there was barely any room, the teacher made it a good class.

food tracking and macronutrients

most people workout for 4 hours or less per week. that would leave you with 164 hours that you are not working out, but still could be doing good things for your body. one of the biggest choices you have in how you treat your body, is by what you put into it. granted, there are pricing constraints, but if you value health, you will probably be willing spend more on food, and reap the benefits of a happy disgestive system.

there are many discussions about food and its effects on your body. there are so many aspects of a diet, it's hard to juggle all of them at once. what i've always thought is the hardest thing to do, is to measure out and consume the correct amount of nutrients for your body.

setting aside the typical dietary concerns (organic vs. non-organic... soy-protein vs. lean animal-protein vs. dairy protein vs. non-soy vegetable protein... sodium/potassium balance... omega-3/omega-6 balance... whole grains/processed grains... evil corn syrup... real nuts/peanuts...) i decided to look at my specific macronutrient intake (protein, fat, carbs) for 24 hours, and write everything down as closely as possible. i tracked my results as a google doc.

i chose to go with 30% protein, 30% fat, and 40% carbs, as my macronutrient ratio. this is the zone diet ratio. i also wanted to stay around 2000C, since this is recommended for my specific sex/height/weight/age/workout-schedule, and my goal of losing some fat.

it was neat to put the nutritional value of my food under scrutiny. i almost never concern myself with counting calories, or splitting hairs with my nutrition. i will be doing this again in the near future, hopefully next time i can get closer to 100% in all three columns. i may also track my sodium and potassium intake at teh same time.

elevation jogging

at home. 3.8 miles, 45 minutes. 500+ feet of elevation. 6:25-7:10pm. royksopp.

i guess i have a little bit of a runner's high, so i thought i'd write about the run.

twin peaks is a nice place to run. it's quiet, there's few cars, you have nice views, and it's cooler than most parts of the city. tonight i wanted to expand my run a little bit compared to what i did last time.

i started on a downhill -- so steep that i had to use an extremely short stride so i didn't trash my knees, but quickly it petered out to a gentle slope that allows my full stride. i stayed on this winding little street for about a mile. it's the same street as my bus to work. right before clayton, there's a construction zone where i had to dodge holes in the ground, and a construction guy stared me down as a passed through. not sure if he was pissed that he was working late, or worried i would kick dirt into the holes he had been digging. at clayton i turned *up* the hill. this was the first uphill on my run. felt like i'd suddenly run into an ankle deep pond of goo. i could have slowed down and to make it easier, but then i'd have been working that much longer... so i decided to push on and maintain my speed. a bunch of cars passed by, and i realized my dayglo windbreaker is pretty ridiculous. there's no way you could not see me with it on, and it was still daylight. a lady way up the street with a dog stopped and waited for me to pass. "thanks!" i muttered... (really i was thanking my dayglo, for making her see me from 200 feet away). after arriving at the intersection of twin peaks blvd. and clayton, i did an almost 180° left turn. it was less steep here, and foggy. the fog was a nice coolant, the antidote to my internal combustion engine which really started working hard when i got to the uphill. the sun poked through the fog. panting and overheating, i decided to take a quick break. and by "break", i mean brisk walk while i catch my breath. i realized here i should have slowed down when i got to the uphill. 20 seconds of walking and i got back on it. passed a young man with his old dog. i got to foggiest & windiest part of the run (the part that's in the photo), and a really good song came on. i really want to push through to the top, but needed a 10 second breather. as i was getting up to the top, i took a dirt trail for the very last part, and a song came on: "A Higher Place..." which is a song with no lyrics other than the title of the song. each time it was repeated, it felt like a mantra as i climb up to the top. i got up there and decided i should stop running and walk so i could enjoy the view, and have a nice break. i walked along rail from the north end of the lot. not many people here, except for two cars: one full of thugs with a driver taking a rip off a pipe, and another with a girl sitting shotgun taking bong rips from a short green plastic tube with her friend/boyfriend lighting it for her. apparently this was the weed-smoking section of the parking lot. wassever. i walked over to the viewpoint, and checked-in on foursquare/gowalla/facebook and posted a twitter photo. after a brief pause, i'm back on it. started running through the large groups of tourists on south side of the lookout. i got out to the road, and crossed a family of european-looking backpackers about to get to the trail that goes down to my apartment. as i run past them, i peered down the hillside to see the bus unloading people at the last stop on crestline. "they are totally going to miss that bus... sadface." i ran on, and came across a bicyclist, a harley biker, a jeep with staring passengers, then a shitty hatchback full of kids who are probably about to go smoke out. i noticed a bunch of trails. i got to a windier part of the road and it occurred to me that this might not be the best place to be running. passed more cars. i attempted to take a shortcut but halfway through the shortcut, the brambles got too thick and i didn't feel like getting my legs cut up so i had to abort my shortcut. i jogged the rest of the way down twin peaks blvd towards portola. there were long stretches of straightaways with newly paved road. i decided to alternate running backwards and forwards. 10 paces backwards/10 paces forwards, then 20/20, 30/30, and 40/40. i passed a red sleeping bag wrapped around some other stuff. not sure if it was a homeless person's abandoned goods, contributing member of society's lost goods, or someone's donation to the homeless. cut the corner of twin peaks blvd and portola on a steep deer path underneath eucalyptus trees. slippery. ran up the hill, and passed a firetruck, but didn't see any action. ran all the way up to the crest and took a walk-break. realized my windbreaker was completely soaked so i took it off... now sporting my nasty, sweaty wifebeater, passed a guy walking two schnauzers. i got off the sidewalk for them. passed a random woman. same thing. got to thee bus stop where i either [wait for] or [run to] the bus in the morning... keep running up parkridge. almost home. steepest uphill of the run! got up to the crest where i decided i'm at a good place to cool down, and noticed that my iphone has just started playing the song that i started the run with. i ran for the whole album! good run.

maybe i'll go longer next time, though the elevation really killed me. maybe next time i'll run all the way down the hill to the embarcadero, and take muni back home.

the google earth view is pretty cool:

here's what i saw when i got up there:

found a cool tool called gmap-pedometer.com, which allows you to create visualizations of the elevation gains:

nick's workout

gold's castro, nick's workout (weights, upper body)

yoga

yoga at gold's soma with stacey swann, 7:30-8:30

body pump

body pump at gold's soma with leslie. 7:35-8:35pm.

pilates

first time doing pilates - holy shit!
gold's castro, pilates with sergio novoa 6-7pm