iHealthyFitness

The morning run club at lululemon Cow Hollow was a led by Jennifer Pattee today. Wow, what a warrior!

From what I heard, she’s an ultra hardcore runner (that does 50 mile races)! Very impressive and very motivating. We pretty much stuck together as a group today instead of going on a set route. Things were pretty improvised and fun!

She led the group in a nice dynamic warm-up, which was awesome. I really liked the way she warmed us up with a light jog up a hill, followed by a stretch, followed by a jog, more dynamic stretches, jog, some lunges, etc. Then we headed through Cow Hollow to the Alta Plaza Park in Pac Heights. Here we did some air squats and then ran around, up, down, over, and through the park. At one point she had us back peddle up a hilly block! Talk about making you focus on what you’re doing in the moment. Good stuff! Then it was back up through the neighborhoods back to the store.

What a great run and workout! What an awesome way to start the weekend. Thanks so much to Jennifer Pattee and lululemon Cow Hollow!

Happy World Health Day! Today, the lululemon Grant Ave run club brought back an encore session of ROGA! It was awesome!

A good 4.5 mile flat run along The Embarcadero followed by a yoga session with Caroline Almon. Started out at a nice pace and really tried to focused on my breathing to avoid the side stitch. I was trying a breathing pattern where I take two inhale breathes (fill and fill to max), slight hold, followed by a strong exhale. I wanted to see if this would allow my diaphragm and side to stretch more to try to reduce the onset of cramping. But around mile 4, I still felt a bit of a stitch coming on again on my right side. Maybe I lost focus towards the end, but still… boo, haven’t found a solution yet.

Thanks to Jan Alotte for the warm up and keeping the 4.5 pack energized all the way through! Jan talked to us about trying not to drag our feet while running, which creates an over hunched posture because our feet are not landing directly below the body. I think I do drag a bit because I think I’ve been running with a shorter stride than typical runners of my height. I guess it’s me subconsciously trying to conserve energy and pace myself.

Yoga afterward was good as always. The poses are not too intense, which is nice after a run. I think running makes me pretty tense actually, so yoga really allows my body to cool down and stretch out nicely. This is proven by me not being sore the next day.

Lastly, good luck to everyone running the US Half Marathon this weekend!!!

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4408079

Finally, a weekend that is not wet! This morning, went to the lululemon Cow Hollow run club for a 4mi run around the Marina.

The pace was good and the 4 milers stayed together for the most part, so that’s good. There was a lot of exercise groups out at the Marina green. Inspiring stuff. There was also a kids soccer camp going on there, cute!

I think we cut the original route a bit short, but me and another runner made up for it by going up the Lyon Street steps! I powered up the first flight like Rocky. But then I realized there’s like a whole other set! Oh my! It was a killer. Managed to crawl my way up to the top and was winded! Started getting a side stitch so I had to walk it off a bit. And with that uphill comes the dreaded downhills. I walked those for the most part. Overall a great and fun run!

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4394004

Today was the last of the 5 session ROGA series at lululemon Grant Ave with Caroline Almon. I was lucky to be able to make it to 3 of these over the past month. ROGA, as the name implies, is Running + Yoga. An awesome combination!

There were some down power lines on the 101, so major traffic jam getting to downtown SF. I got there late, rushed and changed and then went straight out running to try to catch up with the group that had already left.

The 4.5mi run was a tough one. It went up the Leavenworth Street hill. I had to just walk those hills, but even walking up them puts strain on the calves. Then it was down hill on Union St., ugggh… too steep for downhill sucks too. Hard for the knees and my foot started getting numb and cramping up too. Had to stop to stretch it out a bit. The route was a strange one, it went through the Stockton tunnel (which I thought was the Broadway tunnel). First time going through there.

Finally made it back to the store in time for yoga. Yoga was great! I’m loving yoga more and more now. I never really did it before, but would like to try it more in the future. It was relaxing and when we did the corpse position, I nearly fell asleep!

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4388331

I sort of stopped going to the gym that often the second half of last year. I don’t really remember why I stopped going. I think it was in part that the company I worked for moved into a new building that had a small gym that we could use on the first floor. Therefore, I didn’t really feel the need to use my 24 Hour Fitness membership. But then again, that didn’t mean that I went to the gym in the building that often either.

I started going to the gym within the building a couple times a week or so. Boy is it boring there. No TV, no music, and barely any people! It was hard to keep motivated there. Then I tried going down to the gym for about 15 minutes during lunch to lift some weights. My flexibility definitely took a hit due to this change of exercise regimen.

Now that I work just a few blocks away from another 24 Hour Fitness, I started to go work out after work again. Every so often I change up my exercise routines. This often happens after a break from exercising or a change of goal. I feel this is one of those times.

I used to do dips and pull ups a lot before, but since have neglected such exercises. I will try to revisit those. Further, I will reincorporate balance and stability training. We’ll see how it turns out.

I weighed myself at the gym today, and to my surprise, I think I registered a pretty high weight of 157lbs. This is out of my typical range of 152-155. I should try to start keeping track of this and my workouts going forward.

Slept at 4AM last night, and woke up at 8AM! And off to lululemon Cow Hollow for their Saturday morning run! There was a nice group today as they’re doing a grand re-opening of their store.

The route was nice and the pace was just right. Sometimes, the group at Grant Ave are just so hardcore and fast that it’s hard to stay with the pack. It was a good run considering sleep deprivation. We went up around the Marina/Crissy Field area for a 4 mile run. The route went through the Palace of Fine Arts, which was beautiful. Luckily I made it back to my expired meter without a ticket!

Route: http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/29863196

The weather has been pretty ugly all week. I’ve also been eating pretty unhealthy and have been bad about sleep all week. That and I’m still trying to shake this cough that I’ve had for over a week.

Well thank goodness it didn’t rain during run club tonight though. I opted for the 5K instead of the 10K tonight because I think the 10K would have killed me. For real, the 5K was tough enough! We tackled a few steep hills on our way up to Coit Tower. Totally exhausted and out of breath up those hills.

Thanks to Lydia for keeping me motivated! Was playing catch up the whole time. I need to get my sleep back on track so I can better train and perform. Going to try to make the Cow Hollow run club Saturday morning. Hope it doesn’t rain!

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4371601

Woke up and rushed out to try to catch the lululemon Cow Hollow running club. I got there a bit late and I thought they already left because the store was closed. It turns out that they don’t open till 10 and didn’t have anyone show up, so they canceled the run. All’s well, went running anyway!

Luckily, even though rain was forecasted, it subsided while I was out. Off I went towards the Marina. I ran at a slower pace, as to not cramp up unexpectedly. Ran for about 5 miles at about a 10 minute pace. It was a nice run. It’s always motivating to see other runners out around Crissy Field.

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4394165

It was ROGA (Running + Yoga) night at the lululemon run club. There was a 4.5 mile and 3 mile option. I chose the 4.5, but man, I tried to catch up to the pack and overdid myself. Started getting a side cramp. It was weird because usually I get side cramps on my left side, but today it was on the right.

Last week, when I ran the 10K, I started to get a side cramp on my left side, so I tried doing the breathing technique where you breathe out when the foot, on the side where the cramp is, hits the ground. And to my surprise it worked! I felt the cramp subside with every breath and every step.

Soooo, I tried the same thing today with my right side, but no cheddar…

That and I missed a turn and ran too far before turning back, making me the slow-poke of the day. Bummer.

Well the yoga portion after the run was nice and relaxing (amid the loud music heard from the street from the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations).

lululemon Cow Hollow has a run on Saturday morning that I’m going to try to go to. I need to get more running into my training, cause 1x a week isn’t nearly enough. Happy St. Patty’s day everyone!

This year is the 100th Bay to Breakers! So to make it official and take a piece of history, I’ve registered for the race! Race day is Sunday, May 15. I’ll be in the last corral because that’s the only one that’s left!

I imagine this year is going to be even crazier than the past two years that I’ve ran this thing. Now I just need to figure out what costume to wear. Suggestions are open!