Tumble

During my run in Golden Gate park on Saturday, I took a tumble. It was near the crowds and mass chaos for the museum opening.

I was running on the dirt path right next to the sidewalk because too many people were on the sidewalk. There was a bike following behind me in the path. I guess I was running too slow because the guy on the bike ran into my back leg.

This started me on my tumble/fall. I rolled over my right shoulder/head and onto my back and landed in the dirt. Everyone around us stopped to look at me. The guy on the bike apologized and helped me up. A lady gave me a baby wipe to try to clean off a bit (didn't help much because I was covered in dirt). I got up and felt ok. I wanted to yell at the guy, but I was wearing Team in Training gear, so I didn't want any bad press going out.

I continued on my run. I was having a hard time breathing deeply because it would expand my ribcage and that would hurt. My right side stiffened up from the fall and started to really hurt. I walked when I needed to and tried to get past the pain. I should have gotten a ride back from one of the waterstops, but I wanted to finish my 14-mile run.

I finally got to the finish and broke out in tears of frustration. I was having a good run up until I was knocked down and running through 6-miles of pain was really frustrating for me. I'm sure my blood sugar was low too since I didn't eat or drink much after the fall because it hurt to reach around to my waterbottle.

I'm very sore today. I went to the doctor and he doesn't think I did any serious damage, but he thinks I should take the next 4-6 weeks off. Obviously that's not going to happen...

Rock Concert?

Is this a picture of people in line for a rock concert?

Nope, it is a line in Golden Gate Park for the grand opening of the CA
Academy of Sciences museum. Yes, a museum opening.

The entry was free. The line was 2 miles long (I was running with my
GPS watch, so I measured the length of the line).

It's as if they were giving away free money inside!

Posture

When I was in 8th grade, I was diagnosed with scoliosis. It was so severe that I had to wear a back-brace (waist to neck for 23 hours a day!) into my Junior year in High School to prevent the scoliosis from getting worse. The back-brace forced me to sit up straight, so when I got out of wearing the brace, I slouched all-the-time. Sitting up straight reminded me of being in the brace so I purposely would not sit properly.

Ever since then, my posture has gotten worse and worse. At work, I slouch/lean/sit crooked... I never sit the way our ergo guys tell us to. I've noticed recently that my back and hips are achy when I get up from my chair. Maybe it's from getting older or exercising more, but most likely it's because of my bad posture.

Today, I decided that I must start working to correct my posture. It won't be easy, but the first step was ordering an exercise ball to replace my chair. If I slouch or sit crooked on the ball, I'll fall off. Maybe I should wear a helmet for the first few days...

Nightmares

I haven't been sleeping well recently. I blame two things for this.

1) Having to wake up for my 1AM conference calls this week. That means my sleep is broken up already.

and

2) Because I've been watching TV just before I go to sleep. I installed Tivo in my bedroom when I hung the TV on the wall. While I like having the TV and Tivo in my room, watching Law and Order SVU just before going to bed is probably causing me to have strange dreams and nightmares.

Next week, I won't have calls in the middle of the night, so I'll see if my sleep is still disturbed. If it is, I may need to get rid of the TV in my room...

Nails

I HATE it when people cut their nails at work. I hear it all the time. Clip, clip, clip...

I think it is inappropriate and gross to cut your nails at your desk. Ok, I make concessions for those people who break a nail and need to trim it. But for everyone else, cut your nails at home!

Maybe this is why I should travel constantly. When I sit at my desk too long, I start finding things that annoy me!

A Bit More

This is a very bad picture of my friend's microwave oven. It has all the normal buttons, but then it has the button that says "COOK A BIT MORE". When you press it, it adds anywhere from 3-10 seconds radomly to the cooking time. I'm not sure who invented this button, but I loved it.

Home theater

My speakers are installed and TV is on the wall. It wasn't as hard as
I thought it would be. Hope the TV doesn't fall off the wall.

I need an electrician to run the wires in the wall for the TV. Anyone
know a good electrician?

"Working" from home

Today, I am working from home. Why? No real reason. I just didn't feel like sitting at my desk all day.

This morning I planned to go for a bike ride. I was still tired when I woke up, so I let myself sleep more. I got up a little while later and started getting ready to go for a bike ride. The plan was to ride 50+ miles. While I was getting ready, I kept thinking "I don't FEEL like going for a ride today". In spite of my head, I got on my bike and headed out the door. About 3 miles into the ride, I was not enjoying myself. I just didn't feel like being out so I turned around and went home. I've had a rough week with late night conference calls and I think it caught up to me today.

Other than a few errands I need to run, I'm planning to stay home the rest of the day. I think it's time to sit and watch a few movies on my new home theater system. Oh, and answer a few work e-mails, of course...

How to Patch Drywall

The picture above are "exploratory" holes I had to drill to find the studs in my walls. Yes, I have a stud finder, but the builder used two layers of drywall, so it makes my studfinder basically useless on this wall. Luckily, I was able to cut the holes for the speakers and fish the wires into the right locations, so I was pretty happy.

Below is a picture of the speaker install in-progress. The blue tape is a general guide of where I wanted things. Unfortunately, there are studs in the way, so I wasn't able to get everything exactly centered. Oh well.

Now I just need to get someone to install the wiring for the TV and my home theater system will be complete!

Home Theater System

My home theater system is being delivered one item at a time. The first day was the receiver. Yesterday I got some speakers. Today, I hope the other speakers come. At some point UPS will deliver the subwoofer and the US Postal Service will deliver the universal remote.

Last night I decided to install the two in-ceiling speakers. It seemed easy enough even though I had never done anything like that in the past. I spent a lot of time measuring and then re-measuring everything in that room to make sure I didn't have crooked speakers.

Then came cutting into the drywall. I didn't have the right tool, but the saw on my Swiss Army Knife worked just fine. Yes, I used my Swiss Army knife!

I managed to install the two speakers and was very happy when I plugged them in and sound came out! Apparently I'm pretty handy when I want to be!

I'll take pictures once the mess is cleaned up.

Yoga

I've started going to yoga class during lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Our company gym offers it (free) and it's a good excuse to leave my desk for a while. We do a lot of stretching and some strength exercises. Today, yoga helped stretch out my hamstrings and hips... the two parts of my body that were most sore and tight from this weekend's workout.

I'm not very bendy, but hopefully that will come with time. Maybe I'll be able to touch my toes sometime in the near future...

Darkness

This morning, it was quite dark when I rode my bike into work. The darkness actually surprised me. I know the days have been getting shorter and I left a bit earlier than usual, but it is normally light out when I ride to work.

After I opened the garage and realized it was still dark out, I had to decide if I was going to change to drive to work or still ride in. I decided to ride, so I went into the house and dug through some boxes to find my gear.

After finding my reflective vest and head-lamp, I headed out. I'll need to find my blinking red light when I get home tonight. The only problem is that I have no idea where I put it when I moved.

That reminds me. I should really finish unpacking soon...

Sports Psychology?

After taking the past 9 months off from serious exercise, it has been quite difficult to get back into a routine. From my last marathon in December to the beginning of August, I only exercised a handful of times. There were some good reasons behind this and lots of not-so-good reasons.

I've been working out regularly for a few weeks now. My muscles are getting stronger, but I'm still struggling with my head. I feel like my running pace is slow even though I know it is not (I confirmed it with a GPS watch) and I end up walking more during the runs because of my head. I'm not having as big of a mental block with cycling, but it's there.

This is the first time I've had such a strong "mental block" with exercise and I have no idea how to get rid of it. For now, I keep pushing myself to stay on schedule for the Solvang Century in November and Cal Marathon in December, but it's been a struggle.

Hopefully my head gets back into shape soon. Maybe I should see a sports psychologist and maybe they can prescribe steroids to make me stronger and faster... Oh, I mean maybe they can help me get through this mental block.

Travel Restrictions

My company is currently on travel restriction. This happens every August when upper management realizes how much cost there is associated with a "global" business structure. Now, each of our travel requests has to be approved by one of our VPs.

What does this mean for ME?
It means I get to stay in the country for an extended period of time. Part of me misses the travel (it has been almost 6 weeks since I last left the country), but I'm happy to stay here. I was traveling so much that I didn't realize how disruptive it was on my life. I'm glad to have a regular schedule again.

What does that mean for YOU?
Well, it means you have to continue to read these boring entries about not traveling and about how I worked out so hard that I can't walk the next day... at least until mid-October when I should be leaving the country again.

Don't Do It.

I saw this "Don't Do It." bumper sticker in Half Moon Bay. I really need small versions of this to paste over the top of my credit cards.

First, I spent a lot of money signing up for Ironman Canada last week. Then, yesterday, I decided to buy a home theater system for my new house. And, of course, I didn't go cheap.

IM Canada Slot

A week (or so) ago, I got an e-mail saying there were a limited number of slots for next year's Ironman Canada (IMC) race and there would be online sign-ups starting at a certain time/date. This is a rare occurrence because slots for Ironman Canada are usually difficult to come by.

I decided that I was going to try for a slot, but that I wouldn't be upset if I didn't get in. After all, if it was meant to be, it would happen. Then my obsessive-compulsive nature took over. I started thinking about it and WANTING the slot. Boredom at work definitely didn't help in this case.

So, about 30-minutes before the sign-ups would start, I got on the website and started refreshing the screen every 5-minutes. Then, in the last 5 minutes, I refreshed every minute (good thing I learned that from my days of buying stuff on Ebay). With two minutes to go, the link was posted!

I clicked on it and the 3rd time (it created an "error" the first two times), it finally worked. I typed as fast as I could and was glad I had my credit card information memorized. I hit the submit button and got my slot!

And my first thought after I got the confirmation? "What have I done?"

The second thought was "This is gonna be fun".

I'm looking forward to my 3rd Ironman race!

Stairs

My new house has a lot of stairs. And today, I went for a long, tough bike ride. After yesterday's 10-mile run, short swim and today's 53-mile ride, my legs are toast.

Going up and down the stairs is already painful today. I hope I can still walk tomorrow...

Shoes

I have been struggling with finding running shoes that work for me. I was wearing the Asics 2120s, but I was told by multiple people that I needed a "stiffer" shoe and that I'd break down the 2120s too fast. I was buying shoes very often, so I figured it was worth a shot.

So, earlier this year, I switched shoes. I tried the Kayanos and they never felt like they were broken in. When they finally felt ok, I was told that there was no more support left and I needed new shoes. It was the same story with two other types of shoes.

Because of the uncomfortable shoes, I ran less and less. I didn't push myself to run on business trips and I didn't run much when I got back. I felt like I was nursing an injury, so that led to even less running. You get the picture.

Last week, I decided to go back to my original shoe and absorb the cost of getting new shoes every two months.

During my 10 mile run this morning, I didn't have any feet or leg problems! My fitness was lacking, but I'll take that over leg pain anyday!

Goo Goo

In Chinese, "Goo Goo" is the way to address an aunt on your father's side, so my niece calls me "Goo Goo". She's speaking more, but sometimes it hard to tell "Goo Goo" from "boo boo" and "poo poo". Ha ha. =)

But she's clear when she wants something. "Goo Goo Help Peas" (That's "Auntie Amy, Help Please" for those of you who don't speak 2-year old). I had a great time hanging out with her.

Here are some pictures from the Children's Discovery Museum in San Diego:

Luckily, she didn't get too much paint on herself thanks to the full body apron they provide.

This is a turtle made out of clay.
We showed her this picture later and she said "turtle", so it really is a turtle.

This is the climbing area at the museum. My niece climbed up that wall at least 10 times. And she was using the hand and foot holds too. I helped her a bit, but mostly I was only there for safety. In this picture, I (in my pink top) am holding her for safety, but she was supporting her weight by grabbing onto the top of the structure.

Gas prices

Gas prices in southern California...