Walk/Run

50mins

to the second bridge and back

it's getting hot out!

A real bikeride

I biked to the beach with Janet, then we walked the length of the beach and then I biked home


bike:25km
walk:about 4km

dusting off the cobwebs

The bike is out!

I biked to the beach and back -not all at once...there was a lot of eating and drinking in between...but 25k total.

run/walk

20min run to the 2nd bridge
30min walk back

Eep, my last post was March 9!?!

Last week I started up yoga again after a month off due to family and illness.

Yesterday I managed to go for a nice 90 minute walk.

The Kanazawa relay is a couple of weeks away and the Kurobe Road Race is in a month!

Fun.

Boarding

Sunday was another trek to Seaside Valley.
Janet and I headed out in the morning and despite the sunny, hot weather, the snow was pretty good! We met up with 4 other friends by chance and spent the day making fun of each other and having a great time.

Yoga

Today Chika and I were joined by Janet and Susan. It's nice to have someone else who is just as inflexible as I am for Chika to laugh at!!

Boarding

The shoulder NEEDS attention.

In the mean time, I'll continue boarding.
Sunday was sunshine and fresh air. The hill was dead so lots of room to play.
Lee, Yuki and I had a great day.

Yoga

20minutes of walking around the track.
60minutes of yoga.

I had an off day at yoga last night. I thought we were going to be in the big gym so I dressed really warm (they don't head the gyms in Japan). But instead, we were in the small aerobics/dance room, which IS heated...needless to say I was hotter than Hades.

Boarding In Akakura

I spent Saturday and Sunday fighting crazy snow and wind so that I 'could enjoy'.

The weather was terrible, but the company was great.

Walk

Walked home from work today.

30min.

Snowboarding tomorrow!!!!

Swim

800RIM
400 kick

that's all I could do.

now I remember why I stopped : my shoulder is killing me. can't wait to be back in CA so I can go see a specialist.

Yoga

I went to the Nyuzen gym and walked on the track for 35 minutes, then joined Chika for YOGA!

It was great, the instructor did a lot of balance poses, which I love.

A warm welcome back to the pool.

Went to the pool for the first time in months today. I haven't had the urge to go in a while since my shoulder is still chronic. I got a warm welcome from a creepy guy in the lane next to me. The first time I stopped he did a turn and blatantly paused to stare at me under water, the second time I stopped he stopped too and then dunked his head under the water and stared at me. I held my flutter board in front of me so he couldn't get a view of anything. Then the 3rd time I stopped he was at the wall and as I was getting out of the pool he turned to me and said, 'Sexy!'. I ignored him so he said it louder two more times. What a great way to start up at the pool again!

800RIM
400 Kick
4x100 pull (ouch - I am out of shape)
400 Kick nb

Also went snowboarding yesterday at Seaside. The powder was incredible and I spent half my time digging myself out of the snow. It's nice to have days when you can just tear it up and if you fall you know that you aren't going to do any damage.

Back at it.

It's time to get back at this. I have 5.5 months before I head home and want to make my time remaining here count. Time to restart the mileage meters and start taking account of what I'm doing again.

What I have been doing since the fall.

Pretty much a whole lotta nothin'. I've stopped swimming. Not that I really wanted to, but until I get the shoulder properly looked at, I'm not going to risk further injury. I might start up some kind of schedule in the spring, but for the remainder of the winter I will stick to boarding and yoga.

Chika and I started yoga a couple of months ago. We try to go once a week to a power yoga class in Nyuzen. It's an hour long, the instructor is great and it's something that I look forward to every Wednesday. I think I'm improving, although I don't really have anything proof to confirm that, other than my toes are getting a little closer to my fingers and I can hold a pose for longer. I have good balance, but zero flexibility. I bought a couple of good books while I was home and the goal is do be doing it regularly at least 3 times a week.

On the weekends I head to the mountains. The snow is a lot better this year and I have been out 6 times this season. I have good days and I have bad, but the idea of being outside all day keeps me motivated during the week.

A double

Biked to work and the beach today: 33km
Swam: 1600m

Makes sense

that if you sign up for a relay marathon, you should probably go running once in a while.

So I did.

45 minutes -walked to the first bridge, ran down to the second bridge, over and back to the first, then walked home.

approx 4km -not much but it felt pretty good for having been away so long.

Bike to sports day

Only 6km.
It's usually 5, but I forgot my camera and had to go back for it.

not a very exciting, or productive, day.

Paddle paddle

Went for a short Friday night dip -my life is so exciting...

800RIM
400 kick
10x50 scull/pull by25
100 breast w/ 2 uwp


1800m

Where are my freakin' goggles? Soap inna eye, soap inna eye! Get out of my lane buddy or I'll run you over! -ack! leg cramp!

That's how my swim went today. I forgot to put my regular goggles back in my bag, so I pulled an old pair out from the depths of some inner pocket of forementioned bag - strap discolored, lenses scratched...and slimey with soap or some other beauty product that had oozed out into the pocket at some point. I thought I had rinsed them well enough. But apparently not. 25m in and my eye was stinging and watering and miserable. I kept swimming thinking it would get better eventually, but it didn't. That didn't stop me though. What stopped me (besides the guy who insisted on pushing off the wall EVERY FREAKIN TIME I was coming in for a turn) were the leg cramps during the last rep of my main set. Not just one leg -both. Calf seizing, toe curling agony is what it was. I managed to finish the set and then kick it out a bit for cool down.

A big swim nonetheless:

800RIM
4oo Kick
5x 200 Free pull/100 IM on 1:00 Free was build, IM was long and strong.
300 cool down

3000m

6km straight up

One would think that living in the mountains would mean that coming out of the mountains, one would go DOWN. This, however is not the case if you head southwest from my apartment. It's all up hill baby. Well, at least for 6km. Then once you're at the top, it's straight down to my school -4km worth. It took 25min for the first 6km and 8min for the last 4. I will not be taking that route again. Or at least not until I'm more fit.

On the way home I skirted around the mountain, still managed a hill or two, but it was a much more even pace.

20km to Taie Elementary School and back.
yahoo.

Sea Swim

Went for a swim in the sea. Nothing strenuous -except for the jellyfish stings.

30minutes of paddling around.
I wasn't going to go in, but how can you resist this!

Evening walk

I walked to my Jr. High school and back tonight, just to see how long it would take.
Exactly 30 minutes at a good hard pace.
That meant 30 minutes back.

1hour ~5km

30min yoga

stretching out

got in and did 1500m today, long and strong, just to stretch.
fly felt great, so did breast for that matter. hm. that's odd.

1500m

Yoga and Pool

Yoga

I finally plugged in one of K's yoga videos that she left for me.
I got through some basic standing poses -enough to feel a good stretch.
40 minutes worth today. Will hopefully get to it again tomorrow.


Pool

800RIM
400 kick
2x400 free pull -focus on finishing, since my tris are killing me from surfing yesterday.
400 kick
200 cool down

2600m

Surfing

spent the day in the Japan sea learing how to surf. how surreal.

kayaking and surfing both in one week -crazy.

Swim

800RIM warm up
400kick
2x400 free pull
300 cool down

2300m

Kayaking and Frisbee

Went to Gokayama this weekend, did a little frisbee and a lota kayaking!!!


Fun Schtuff!

To work and back

I had to play at the children's center today. I say 'had to' because it wasn't by choice, but rather a demand by our BOE. I resent it, even though we are here not only in the capacity of 'teacher' but also under the guise of internationalization. There are other ways I would rather 'internationalize' for 2 hours, than playing dodgeball in an over heated gym with children who would be playing dodgeball regardless of my presence. I guess what gets me is the way it has been advertised. It's hard to translate the nuance of the title but it's something like 'come play with big brother and big sister'. I find it hard to take on the role 'big sister' for these children because most of them are my students during the rest of the year. I'm sure this is the only reason it bothers me so much. I don't want to be their 'friend' - yet of course I want to be friendly. The bottom line is that I see it as the BOE's view of my status here. It demotes me from the status of 'teacher', and puts me on a level where I'm just here to entertain.

Whew.

Bike: 16km

Bike to Ikuji Festival

it's a straight line from my apartment to Ikuji, an fishing area of Kurobe City.

Bike: 21km (in the dark -my headlight is out!!)

pedal pedal

did the loop again this morning and added an extra km.
baby steps, baby steps.

Bike: 13.5km

Bike loop

I went for another quick spin on my bike today. Not a great distance, but lots of climbing. I'm thinking if I get used to doing this loop a couple of times in a row -with a bit of speed, I'd consider doing another sprint tri next year.


Bike: 12km from my apt to funami and back

Bike

I headed to the beach on my bike in the middle of the day. The temp was above 35 degrees, but biking parallel to the river is a bit cooler as the air blows off the water. The bike down to the beach -not technically a beach I'm sure, but a small area where the river flows out into the Japan sea - is a beautiful one. I follow the river from Unazuki and the road meanders, dips, switches back, and floats me down to the sea. Along the way there are all kinds of parks and recreation areas built into the somewhat narrow floodplains. There is REAL grass where the park golf (a hybrid of golf and mini-golf) course is. There is a place designated for remote control helicopters to be flown. A stretch of pavement for skateboarding, a baseball diamond, soccer pitches and picnic areas.

Because of the intensity of the heat today, I made it half way to the beach and decided to stop at a small park area, lay down my towel and sit in the sun with my book instead. I enjoyed a good half hour read then strolled to the river to cool off before heading home.

A great way to spend an hour outside.

Bike:12km

Thwarted by a holiday

Tried to go to the pool tonight but it was closed -I think because of the holiday week. Blah. So I went home and walked to the grocery story for some fresh air. It was pitch black already and I nearly walked into a gaijin trap! Next time I'll bring a headlamp or something -this tiny rice field roads are dangerous!

Swim

2200m

800RIM
400kick
8x100 alt IM and Free
200 scull

to the beach and back

25km exacally

A bike to the beach.

It's twelve km from my new apartment.
The ride there is great (from mountains to sea), the ride back is another story...

With a couple of detours: 25km

Back at it, finally.

I made it to the pool today, the first time in over a month. It felt great and I wasn't as out of it as I thought I'd be. I hope I can begin to get back into it on a regular basis this month...we'll see.

1600m

Toyama Driving Range

Went to Toyama and hit another 200 balls tonight. It's not cheap, but it's FUN FUN FUN!!!

A week until tee time

Went to the driving range with Tomo yesterday and hit about 300 balls. I'm feeling it today. I'll go again on Wed with Omi and then Saturday in Gunma with Tomo...then we'll tee of on Sunday.

Today I went to the pool for the first time in a long time.
Swam 1300m.

swim

800RIM
400 kick


supposedly there's a long course meet at the end of next month - what to do, what to do...

Dontcha hate it when you forget your towel?

Luckily I had a chamois in my bag -although it's only 20cmx30cm...

Warm up 800 RIM 400kick
20x50 of free tech.

Busy night, not much room for much else. Felt good to get in.

Ultimate Frisbee

It's about bloody time we had a game of Ultimate.

I'm not sure how long we played, at least an hour with no breaks.
It was a bit spontaneous so I ended up playing in a skirt and bare feet- oh yeah!
I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow.

Good luck Sista K

K's competing tomorrow in the Toyama swim meet. Go go go!!!

Swam on Friday - 1hour, lots of tech work, flip turns and sculling. Glad it's not me in the water tomorrow!

good luck K!
xox

quick dip

1000m just to stretch out

i like to ride my bicycle

22km -to work and back

Kurobe Road Race

What not to do before a 10k run:

-stop training two weeks before the race

-spend a long weekend in Canada the week before the race (returning 3 days before...)

-bike 10k the morning of the race.


What to do during the race:

-have fun!!!


thanks for the pic K!
xox

perfect riding weather

A summery day today. I hopped on my bike this morning despite being a little stiff from yesterday. I road to Ishida Elemetary School, then back to Nyuzen, did a few errands and cruised home.

32km on the bike today. Not bad.

Kanazawa Relay Marathon

Another one to add to the list...

This year there were 11 of us so we only had to run 2 laps (1.9km each). We lucked out on the weather and we had a great time watching all the other teams in their wacky costumes.

Fun -as always.

Swim -barely

A rainy windy day - I hopped in the pool - did my 1200m warm up, gabbed with Sista K and went home!

Commute

Rode to work and back today - 30km, not bad.

Sunday swim

800RIM warm up
800kick - alt free/breast and free/fly
3x 200pull/100IM
100 cool down

3000m - yay

dejavu

Biked, swam and biked again today -with a hangover! Go me!

Thanks for the nudge K xox.

bike swim bike

K and I rode to the pool, swam for 30 min the biked home.

Felt grrrrrrrreat!

random activities

spent the day at the beach, so i walked to the grocery store for goodies (30min).

played frisbee

Swimming in the sun

I love it when I get a chance to swim in the sun. The pool in Kurobe is like the pool in Grand Cache; big windows with a view of the mountains. OK the view isn't quite as good as GC, but it's still fun to swim with sun beams in the water.

3000m today.

800RIM
400KICK

4x 200pull/100IM/100kick

200 cool down

Saturday swim

K and I went for a Sat swim this morning.

another 2000m

felt good - especially the fly.

we tried the walking lane for a bit, it's good resistance training, but unless there's some good music playing it's pretty boring, I'd rather my head was under water....

A real swim

got 2000m in today -yahoo, I'm excited to get this show back on the road!!

I hope this gets easier...

I biked to work today. 16km one way. the morning bike wasn't so bad, but the return trip was tough. Took me about 35 minutes to get there, 45 to get home.

Yesterday I ran for 30 minutes.


Gettin' in a groove (I hope).

Wii ---------

Went bowling, entered a homerun derby and played 9 holes of golf - all on a Sunday afternoon!

I went to a friend's house and her family has
Wii. I am not a video game player, but I could def have fun with one of these...

home home on the range

I think I'm going to try to make the driving range a weekly thing - I said that about climbing too but I'm still giving that and my rib another month.

Jake and I hit around 100 balls on Thursday.

I got up Friday and ran for about 25 minutes before school -should have biked to work, it was the first nice day in ages (actually felt like spring) but I had a meeting in the afternoon and couldn't be bothered to change my clothes 3 times.

It's Sunday afternoon, no goals yet for the week, but the Kanazawa relay marathon is only 3 weeks away and I should really get down to work.

short swim short run

it's better than nothing

swam for 30 min last night, didn't even think about the rib.

ran this morning - feel like a smoker....

Kanazawa relay race is the 13 of May

Kurobe road race is on the 27th...

Slowly but surely healing

The rib is about 90% healed and it's time to get serious again. The weather is slowly warming up and I've got to get back on my bike and back in the pool.

I've swum a couple of times in the past week, nothing hard, only 30 minutes. It's about all I can do before the discomfort sets in.

I went to the driving range on Sunday and hit about 200 balls. The first 100 without a tee and it sucked. I was hitting maybe 20%. One the tee I got into a groove and was hitting them hard and straight. I need to go more often.

Still wary about the climbing wall. I think I will give that another full month.

The bike will hopefully be a regular mode of transport to school after this first week of self introductions is finished and I don't have to lug books and stuff around with me all the time.

I still do daily bungy cord work for arms shoulders and legs, i'm not building, just toning for now.

Will try to make regular posts again soon.

A Weeks Worth

Sunday Feb 25: Snowboarding

Monday Feb 26: Bike ride to school = 20km

Wednesday Feb 28: Walk to the grocery store = 30min

Thursday March 1: Drinking and eating.

Saturday March 3: Snowboarding

Sunday March 4: Walk to the grocery store = 30 min
Bike ride = 30km

another walk to the vid store

the nights here have been clear and warm lately, i plugged in my iPod and walked to Geo to return my dvds last night.

total walking time: 30min

Let's Enjoying H2O

Swam on Sat - 1400m

Boarded on Sunday - played in the board park all day. It was so foggy you couldn't see the jumps until you were right in front of them. Crazy. When we tried to actually ride the hill it was surreal. The visibility was so poor that we couldn't see each other if we were more that a few meters apart. Sometimes you couldn't tell if you were moving up or down the mountain.

Oh yeah, and my bouldering book came in the mail today!

Dang

It's been a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything.

I've snowboarded every weekend but last. Last weekend was a sorry attempt at snowshoeing -hard to do when there's no snow!

I've decided that if I want to rent videos I have to WALK to the video store which is 15 minutes one way on foot. I've done it twice so far.

I've also gone to the climbing gym once this month and have finally been able to wear my new climbing shoes. I've decided to take this new sport slowly and really gain technique before going crazy. So tonight I only worked on 'counterbalance'. I'm going to need a lot more leg strength for this sport!

swimmy swim swim

I went to the pool again last night. I was expecting crowded lanes since I went during swim club hours, but it was pleasantly empty!

1200 warm up and other swimmy things.

Snowboarding is Exercise -right??

IT'S THE MOST FUN YOU COULD POSSIBLY IMAGINE

Went boarding again on Saturday, the snow was great, the people I boarded with were fabulous.

I'm a happy happy girl.

Thursday, January 25

Another short trip to the pool.

1200m. But at least I went!

I have some resolutions for the year - I hope to post them soon.

Dusting off the cobwebs

Went for a swim last night. First time in 2 months.

swam 1600m

I felt like a smoker, wheezing and gasping.

It's not really adding up

I went to a mini meet today, and comparing my times to last year, I'd hardly say things are adding up...

Last year: 50Fly 40:40
This year: 50Fly 39.88 (at least I broke 40)

Last year:25Back 22:50
This year:25Back 22:78

I swim 100IM for the first time (I think) my time was: 1:31.01

I joined K and Kylie for this 2 hour event, and we had a blast. A lot of my students were there as part of the swim team they participate in.

I need to work on starts -oh, and also training...ha!

Sexy janai yo!!

While swimming tonight a guy got in my lane (which already had another person in it) and started swimming. Not a big deal, it was a bit busy tonight, but he wasn't of the same speed at all and there were only 2 people in the lane he moved over from.

I didn't think much of it, other than I noticed he was wearing a pretty tight speedo when he walked on deck (and it didn't suit him). Well, I did think much of it when he paused under water at the end of the lane and blatantly stared at my midsection before pushing off the wall (with his head still facing me...)

ugh.

He only go one chance though, then I made sure I was turned the other way when he got to the wall the next time.

I moved into the next lane as soon as possible. At one point I had stopped at the other end where he was also stopped and in front of all the swim club kids, he leaned over the lane rope and yelled "Sexy, ne! Sugoi!"

Oh brother. Give me a break.

anyway: 2200m tonight.

Vampires

While listening to a CBC radio program (my new addiction) on vampires I managed 30 min of bungy cord activity.

No aerobic work today, and my shoulder is not happy about yesterday's swim...oh well.
I have a wedding to attend in a month, gotta look good in a kimono. It's my new motivation.

Saturday night action

My life is dull.

Warm up: 800RIM 800IMkick -no board

4x100 alt pull and scull

10x100 @ 2:00

400 cool down


3400m

Another Day at the Driving Range

I bought a set of used clubs today and spent part of the afternoon swinging at golf balls in Toyama city.

Fun stuff.

p.s. you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find lefthanded clubs in this country!!!

In the Saddle once again

Went for the first ride in AGES today. Couldn't resist the sunshine and this beautiful, mild November weather that we're having here.

40km up, down and around Nyuzen, Funami and Asahi.

No bears...whew. I started up the road towards Fuami Castle, but then came across a bear warning sign...I didn't chance it.

A Wee Dip

Went for a short swim last night.

Just did my regular warm up -which I'm thinking of changing to get myself out of this funk.

800 broken RIM
400 kick

floated around for the rest of the night doing drill work and trying not to think about my shoulder.

Well. Hello there...

It's been way too long since my last post. Gomen.

I haven't been doing much, but at least I haven't been doing nothing...

I've been to the pool a couple of times...

OK, that's it.

I come home from work, thoroughly exhausted. But now I know it's not from work. It's from not working out!

Back to the basics. Back to regular cardio activities. Back to normal.

That's the goal for November.

Ganbarimas.

Healing...

After the swim with Sista K 2 Sundays ago, I finally feel like I'm on the mend. The pain actually subsided and there are moments when I'm not thinking about my shoulder! I even went for another short swim last Thursday. Other than that, I've rarely ridden my bike in the last week and even though I ran a relay marathon on the weekend, I didn't once go out for a run before the event. Good grief, how did my motivation get swept away so easily? Were my sights too high??

The Nyuzen run is a month away and I haven't signed up yet...I'm not sure I really want to run it. What's happening?

I'm still doing a bungy cord routine every morning, but the yoga has fallen by the wayside. I thought writing out my goals here would motivate me, but I'm in a bit of a slump. I hate to use 'being busy' as an excuse, but it's true, there aren't enough hours in the day. I thought riding my bike would solve that, but I find myself with too much to haul back and forth on my bike. I need my car. It's sad really since the weather has been so amazing.

Well, no promises, but I'm going to try to get back on track in the next week. Wish me luck.

Week's worth

Well, I haven't had a whole lot of cardio this week, but I've manange to get a bungee workout in each morning.

I rode my bike on Wednesday to Maezawa (8km via route 8, 10km on the way home via the mountain route), but most of the week has been pretty rainy -or else I've had to pack a ton of things to school, which I couldn't carry on my bike.

The shoulder is in a constant state of pain now -alseep or awake, mobile or resting, I can feel it. Sometimes it's right on top of the shoulder, but most of the time it's deep down under the shoulder blade.

I decided to try swimming tonight -the first time in forever!!. It felt good to be in the water. The shoulder held up through the warm up but I had to do kick without a board. I tried some scull, then just floated around for a bit. Finished with some 50s of fly/back (felt OK) and then a few underwater swims. Definitely nothing special. We'll see how it feels tomorrow. Damn, I miss the pool.

Thanks for swim K!!

I chickened out.

I was supposed to go to get my shoulder checked out this afternoon...but I didn't.
Another week of pain. I'm going to try swimming tomorrow I think. I'm hoping the severe pain I'm feeling today is just muscle soreness from the driving range yesterday. It has to be, I haven't done anything else!!

For those of you thinking that throwing a frisbee around was probably not good for my shoulder...I throw right handed - haha!!

Weekend Activities

This weekend I went camping up in the mountains. By camping, I mean we slept in tents, the rest wasn't really roughing it. We had a refrigerator at our disposal and all the other amenities, but none the less, I got to spend a majority of my time outdoors. On Saturday we played ultimate frisbee for about an hour. The teams were fairly even for talent, but I have to say the other team did have a slight height advantage...we lost 10-8.

Yesterday, after gorging on yakisoba and then soaking in the onsen we headed back to Toyama city. I met up with a friend and we went to the driving range for the afternoon. I miss golfing -even though I didn't do it that often at home I still had my own set of clubs and could go out the the driving range or shoot 18 holes whenever I wanted. Here, the golf courses are pretty limited and very expensive. I've been invited to play next month some time by some teachers that I work with, so now I've got a new focus! The thing is, I don't have my own clubs here, and I'm a lefty. We checked out a used equipment shop last night, but they only had a limited number of left handed sets -apparently it's really rare here to hit left. The cheapest set was around $170. I don't know if it's worth it. I've got to keep looking I guess.

TGIF

a.m.

Bungee cord work out



Bike to Chuo - 16km

Yoga

a.m.

Got up and click on the lastest yoga download I had -blech. It was a lot of arching poses for the back, I didn't like it at all. I guess I'm still really nervous about my herniated disc, I should find out if yoga is helpful or harmful for it.

20minutes worth, then I quit -plus the instructor was really annoying.

Bike to Maezawa

a.m.

bungee cord workout - abs, bis, tris, delts x 2



bike to and from Maezawa Elementary School 15km

Sporadic at best

I spent two days travelling this weekend and yesterday was a recovery day...

Today I rode my bike to all 3 of my schools. I went to Mikkaichi in the morning and walked around Kurobe for 3 hours with a group of students. The school had divided the students according to their neighborhoods and sent them out (with a teacher) to find and document dangerous areas where children could potentially get hurt or approached by strangers on their way to and from school. It was a warm cloudy day and I really enjoyed spending time with the students.

I then biked to Chuo in the afternoon and taught two classes and then biked to Maezawa after work to drop off a book before heading home.


25km in total today, not bad.

Hat Trick

a.m.

Bungee cord arm workout
-bis tris delts pecs



p.m.

Commute to Chou Elementary School: 13km

Same Same

a.m.

30 minutes YOGA for hikers and runners



Commute #3

18km

a.m.

30minutes YOGA for Mountaineering


Commute #2 -Maezawa

20km

Hiking

Hakusan 2702m

Just a stroll up a mountain and then back down.

Took a whole day -go figure.

Two Days before the HIke

a.m.

40 minutes of YOGA FOR MOUNTAINEERS

my first bike commute

a.m.
bis and tris -hardly worth noting.
3x15 at 3kg.


I biked to work for the first time since I started working in Kurobe. I only had one school today, so I didn't have to worry about changing in and out of my bike clothes...

It's exactly 8km to Mikkaichi Elementary School, so in total I biked 16km today. It took me 25min to get there this morning via Rte 8 (which is the bane of my existance, but the fastest, most direct route - I might have to invest in a mask though). It took only 20 minutes on the way home, I was cruising at a nice 28.8km/hr until some idiot turned in front of me and I almost landed on my head again.

Say it with me now,

I HATE ROUTE 8!!!

Note the lack of aerobics...

a.m.

30 min YOGA

TGIF

Woke up at 6:00 WITHOUT my alarm today - didn't need it since a cicada decided he'd serenade me instead...urg.

I got up at 6:50, was yoga-ing it up by 6:15! Did 30minutes worth.

This afternoon -after teaching 4 classes K and I went for a 35km bike ride up to Unazuki town. A great day, cloudy, but still pretty warm -the roadside temp was 27 degrees Celcius at 6:00!!

I turned over 800km on my odometer. Not a great feat, but it's something!

Wednesday's Weights

rolled out of bed, folded up the futon and had time for a quick bis tris and abs set.

no aerobic workout today

Tuesday

I started downloading iPod yoga workouts and I did my first one this morning. Well, I did half of it, they're an hour long and I didn't get up until 6:30...It was pretty good, helped me wake up, warm up and focus a bit. I' have terrible flexibility in my legs, it's true, I can't touch my toes. I'm workin' on it.

Before work: 30min YOGA



Afterwork I hit the pool:

Warm up: 800RIM 400Kick

2x 4x100 alt pull and kick 5sec RIB

cool down

Floating, Floundering, Failing

What I failed to mention in the last post is that I got slightly inebriated on Saturday night and am still suffering the consequences of too many glasses of wine...so today there was NO YOGA in the morning, but my arm got a workout...

a.m. workout:
5x1 hit of the snooze button @5:00


p.m. workout:
warm up 800RIM 400Kick
floated around, did fly drills with one of the masters swimmers -OK, she did the drill, I kicked and watched.
floated some more -had a lane to mysef, can you tell?
got tired of being tired so I got out.

still crippled on my left side. i'm trying to work up the courage to see the chiropractor again...

if I had to rate today's energy levels -I woke up at about a 3, got up to about a 6 during my first elementary school lesson, and am now hovering at 3 again.

Weekend Workouts

Saturday

Weights:
bis and tris 15x3 @3kg
delts 9x3 @3kg
upright rows 9x3 @3kg

abs: reverse curls x100


Sunday

Bike to the beach @35km/h return (in the wind) at 22km/h.

Yogarific -not really

Couldn't move my head to the left again this morning. But I got up anyway and did what I could. Today's the first day of school for me and I needed the meditative part of yoga more than anything else.

By this afternoon I had slightly more movement and felt like I needed to stretch out my body - the best place for me to do that is the pool. I went and did the first 600 of my 800RIM warm up, then did 2 25s fly and 50 kick and I was basically done. So I worked on my T-line (a balance theory I learned during my tech III course years ago). I basically did as an excuse to stay in the water longer and to make people curious, but it IS a good technique to practice once in a while.

So now I'm sitting in my apartment with an ice pack strapped to my shoulder. Yay...