I have been trail running a lot recently and feeling great on the longer distance runs and the uphill climbs. Given my very busy work and weekend schedule, my goal is to run a half marathon at least once, preferably twice a month to keep in running shape. Interestingly, I would never have thought I could do this a couple years ago. Now, I can get up and run a half marathon any time of the day. Except when I have a whole in my shoe, no traction left and it's raining on a steep trail :) Unfortunately, confidence can sometimes lead to overconfidence, which is a bad idea on long steep trail runs. Table Rock race, organized by La Sportiva was set in the Mt. Tam region in Marin (north of the Bay Area). The first 3 miles of the Table Rock run wound up ~2000 feet and subsequently descended 2000 feet in 3 miles to near the start line. At this point, the half marathon continued up 1500 elevation game for 3 miles and the final 3-4 miles was the descend down to the finish line. On the first part of the race up 2000 feet, my pace was strong and I was passing several people along the way. On the way down, I passed several runners as well, until two ladies refused to give way to people, undeterred by their own slow pace. I tried to run fast on the downhill and ended up twisting and subsequently spraining my ankle around mile 5. Luckily, the start (and finish) were near the end of mile 6, \xde5so I was able to exit the race to rest my ankle. Here's our course map. We started with the Pink course and then went out to the orange course Take a look here at our brutal elevation map: Even though I wasn't able to finish my race, I had a great time and an awesome exercise! The best part? Justin finished 5th in his age group at the 10K! That's the pink look above :).
Here's Justin looking awesome with his
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I HATE to be writing this post because I love how hidden and quiet this wildlife preserve is! My friend described this area as a "Gem in the Rubble". The Preserve is located on the East Bay side of the Dumbarton bridge and has miles and miles of running, hiking, biking trails. There are usually very few people around here and they're always the friendly sort. Being on the bay, there is usually a cool breeze, but not quite as bad as the one in San Francisco. This area is marshlands, so the smell of salt and sea is very heavy - but I find it refreshing. Throughout the running trails, the views of the bay and the dumbarton bridge are stunning. Several wild rabbits run around the trails, so keep an eye for them. The area is mostly dog friendly and I have brought my pup, Snow, for many runs around here. Here's my usual afternoon run route: Here are some pics of the gorgeous views along the way! Hope you enjoy this hidden gorgeous part of the SF Bay Area!
Last night's workout was very challenging and I am really glad I got through it!
Here's the synoposis Strength Back squat at 50% of maximum: 5 reps every 6 mins for 6 mins on the minute (This is called EMOM: Every Minute On the Minute) WOD Row 500m 10 Thrusters 10 Box Jumps over 10 Thrusters 10 T2B Rest 8 mins 20 Burpees 20 Burpee Box Jumps 20 Burpee Pull Ups 20 Wall Burpees Needless to say, I was exhausted and my legs were jelly at the end. I paced myself really well so I kept going without taking very long breaks. After the first set of WOD, my hands were cramping in the closed position because all the exercises involved gripping something tightly (rower, bar, etc). I ended up taking a 10 min break to run water over my hand so it stopped cramping and then finished the second part of the WOD. At the moment, Jackson Hole is getting dumped with some serious snow. But a couple days ago, it had been nearly 2 weeks since the last snow storm and fresh snow on the mountain. Nonetheless, its always just so wonderful to get outside on the slopes and see what the day and the mountain has to offer. Saturday turned out to be a gorgeous day on the mountain with bright blue skies and not super crowded slopes. The snow, however, was pretty crap. but nothing you can't fix with a few swiggers of schnapps!
Get out on the mountain and enjoy your share of pow in the next few days! Another PERFECT Yoga evening at the Idaho Falls Yoga Co-op. But only to find out that the teacher I had just started falling in love with is leaving.... Booo! Well, I guess I will have to find another teacher who is pretty, has a gorgeous voice, is super accommodating and encouraging, is better at yoga than me (yeah, I know I am modest) and most importantly, doesn't mind charging me a little bit less than the listed price. Sigh.. life is tough.
The class today was full and we practiced a great flow routine. I am super relaxed now (this might have a little to do with the wine permanently full wine glass) and I look forward to going back to the co-op at least once more this week. Also, sorry folks, I was too relaxed to remember to take a picture of the studio. It will happen one of these days! Namaste! Saturday workout was quick but super fun!
I bouldered on the small bouldering wall in my gym for 45 minutes. I am convinced, the route setters are 6 foot 5 super humans with hands as sticky as that of superman! Oh well, I will stop complaining about being a short rock climber because there are people like Ashima Shiraishi and Sasha DiGuilian running around...or shall I say, climbing around? Anyway, I still had a lot of fun climbing in a gym after ages, especially since the local climbing gym in Jackson closed a few months ago. After bouldering, I did some chin ups and several toning exercises with the dumb bell. This was great and my shoulders and upper body was feeling well worked. There was still ten minutes left before the gym closed so I jumped on the treadmill, turned up the elevation so I was essentially running uphill and went a steady pace of 8 minutes per mile. I was sweating pretty hard at the end of the ten minutes and according to the treadmill, I had burned off 135 calories! Not bad at all for ten minutes! Stay healthy friends! Friday Crossfit workout was fun, yet hard. I was definitely huffing and puffing by the end of it! The strength was to build to a heavy overhead squat but I decided instead to do 5 sets of 10 overhead squats (a total of 50) at a low weight for the purpose of toning and improving my technique. Above is the overview of the WOD and me doing the strength part of the workout: overhead squat The WOD was hard but really good fun and it was super quick. It took me 10 mins 27 sec to finish the WOD with a combination of double unders and single skips. Next up was back extensions. This was my first time doing back extensions in a workout so I tried to do a few before the actual WOD. Following back extensions, there were 20 toes to bar, which is probably my biggest strengths at the crossfit workouts. I always kip to do T2B and can do 10-12 before taking a break, so I can get through them relatively quick. Another first timer was sumo deadlift. I had to do 10 of these and I went for 25 lbs bar rather than the RX of 34. If I had to do another set of the sumo deadlifts, I could probably go up to 30 lbs. This was a really great workout but I felt like I could do another WOD at the end of it. I suppose that's a sign that I need to up the weights!
After a quad intensive CrossFit workout on Sunday night, I decided to take it easy last night and go for a heated yoga class to Idaho Falls Yoga Co-op. I have been pleasantly surprised by the interest in yoga in Idaho Falls and the Co-op has some great teachers and a decent ambience. Last night, I went for heated flow yoga. While the yoga wasn't all the "flow"-y or "vinayasa"-y, it was still great to be stretching out my wary muscles. The teacher, Nikki was lovely and went through a relaxing series of positions, encouraging all the students to take their time. Plus, the yoga mats were free!
The Co-op is great for people wanting to check out yoga in the East Idaho area and their rates are very affordable. I will definitely be going back next week! Sorry, no pics! I'll take some next time :-) Sunday CrossFit workout was short but hard. I love endurance type workouts that involve several repetitions because I have strong heart. This workout was all about endurance and pacing. I have been doing crossfit workouts by myself in the box thats in my gym. This saves a bunch of money that I would usually pay for my monthly memberships and I can go whenever I am done with work. So, here's the workout: Strength: 5 Reps of 3 backsquats with roughly 80% weight. WOD 10 min AMRAP: 60 Wallballs 30 Deadlifts 15 pullups I haven't done back squats in a while so I just did 70lbs. My usual 80% is roughly 82 lbs. For deadlift, I was way below RX and did 70lbs deadlift. 30 deadlifts is a lot!! For the AMRAP, I ended up doing one round plus 60 more wallballs. My quads are killing me today!! Here's me doing wall balls, deadlifts and super action shot of my kipping pull ups!
Our desk jobs and computer savvy lives make it very difficult to go and spend time outside. Even though I workout regularly, I find myself going from my office to gym to home with nearly no time spent outdoors. This got me thinking... A nature lover like me ought to be outside more! Several studies show that spending time outside is highly beneficial for health. So for all you couch potatoes and video game ninjas, try to get your butt out! You will be happier, focus better on work, gain some essential vitamin D (its science!) and enjoy what planet earth has to offer! Its time to unplug and reconnect my friends! Well, spending time outside can be harder in the winter if you live in the northern part of the US. Thankfully, I LOVE to ski! And being in Jackson Hole is the best type of skiing you could possibly do. So for the most part, I will be spending my at least 30 minutes outdoors skiing the badass slopes of Jackson Hole Ski Resort. For the days that I will be working, I will go for a winter run or walk or find some other winter activities to do. Walking and playing with my snow loving dog is also a great way to spend time outdoors! Here is what I did last two days to spend time outside: The first pic is from my 3.6 mile run around my house couple nights back. The second and third from last night walking my dog in super snowy weather in Jackson Hole! What did you do to spend your 30 minutes outside??
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MahimaNuclear Engineer, Product and Strategy expert, Vegetarian, Adventurer. Categories
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