Thursday, November 30, 2006

Wish me speed!

Okay, I need all of you to send me speedy thoughts.

Tomorrow is my 'colleague day.' My company has this policy where you can pick an activity, say wine tasting, and if you can get at least 10 of your coworkers to agree to join you the company will allow a paid day off and give $50/person for the activity. You're allowed one paid colleague day/year. KUHL, no???

So my day is tomorrow and we are going Indoor Karting!

There are 30 people signed up, so we've been divided into 3 groups. One ultra-competitive and 2 less competitive. Anyone want to guess which group I'm in?? Anyone?? Anyone?? Bueller?? Okay, I'll tell you.....the ULTRA COMPETITIVE group. I can see that you're shocked beyond words.

But here's the catch, I'm the only woman and probably the lightest one. So although in theory my kart should have more speed, it will also tend to skid more. And the course we are probably going to be on is very curvy. So, more skidding. I think I'm doomed, but I am going to give it my all. And if I have to I'll bump some folks out of the way. ;-)

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Campin'

This week I started a new exercise experience. Boot camp!

I am using this as an alternative to personal training because 'our' trainer, Mike, at Bally's has gotten pretty expensive. Although Jeff is still working out with him and may continue to do so, I just can't see paying double. Boot camp is a 'smaller' class size and supposed to be challenging. My experience so far is that I like the variety and it is challenging, but no where near as challenging as a personal trainer. Or at least not as challenging as our personal trainer. It may sound gross, but at times when I've worked with Mike I've actually thought I was going to throw up. Okay, okay, I hear you saying "That's a bit of an extreme workout." And it might be over the line, but just slightly. What else am I paying him for if not to push me way more than I'd push myself?? I mean I've never worked out enough on my own to where I want to throw up....well except maybe with running. I've definitely wanted to throw up at times. Blah, enough about throwing up!

Anyway....boot camp. It's a good workout, but not exceptional. Also, I could probably do a lot of the same exercises on my own, or at the gym. But it's always good to learn new stuff and it is making me get out there in an attempt to stay in shape. Will I do another session? I don't know. So many activities, limited time. I still want to try Krav Magra lessons, but may have to wait until after the holidays to take full advantage of the free week. I'm all about the free samples.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Round out the weekend

Tina and I rounded out our weekend with another 10k run. We ran the Run Wild race to benefit the Cal Academy. We were hoping there would be lots of costumes to look at, but there just weren't that many. Our costume idea, which I can't reveal as we may use it next year, would have taken first prize for sure. :)

It wasn't a great run, but we did manage to finish before the rain started coming down. By one o'clock Jeff and I were home napping with the Bams! Rainy weather is perfect for napping, I think. Especially with a dog to warm your toes.

A good long weekend, but never long enough.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Can you trot, turkey?

No rest for the wicked, or so they say. Tina and I were up and at the Silicon Valley 10k Turkey Trot early this morning. When Tina came to pick me up, Bam got soooo excited and really wanted to go with us, but I made her stay home. When we got to the run there were dogs everywhere! But, it was really easier to run without worrying about where she was going or what she was doing.

Anyway, it was a really disorganized race, maybe because it's only their second year running it. It was hard to find stuff, like chip pick up and sweats check. Then the start was 'self-seed', which meant that people really had no idea where they should be! We ended up in a mash of people that included walkers, runners and people with strollers. Sheesh! It didn't thin out to quickly either.

Oh, they were also very disorganized with t-shirt distribution. We couldn't pick up shirts before the race and by the time we finished running they only had XL and XXL and XXXL. Yeah, you know you need a lot of those big sizes because runners tend to be on the large size. Sheesh. Okay, maybe a little bitterness there. At least the shirts weren't very attractive, so I don't feel bad about using it as a night shirt.

We finished the 6.2 miles in about 1:06. My legs were dead tired from the double workout yesterday, so not too bad.

Late afternoon we headed to Don and Mary's place for the Orphan dinner. Okay, it's not really for orphans, but for their friends who aren't going anywhere else for the holiday. Good food, good company, a good time. And guilt free dessert, because hey, we ran already!

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Spin spin spin

Against my better judgment I crashed the spin class Tina goes to tonight. It was fun and the instructor is really nice and funny. He also teaches at Bally's on Tuesday and Thursday. If I could ever drag my butt out of bed at 5:00, I'd try his class there. But it was a pretty tough class! Maybe I had issues because the personal trainer tried to kill me this morning already. So I was a little wiped before I even got to the class. What's really cool is he does the class at the Newark community center, but it's in a bus that has been converted to a spin studio. He has fans, a sound system and even disco lights. Very fun. But like I said....also challenging.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Take a Hike

Well, I see it's nearing a month since I last posted. We were on vacation for two weeks. Then trying to get back into the swing of things last week was pure hell. I know, excuses, excuses. I'll get some pics posted up of the trip, but probably not until this weekend.

Anyhoo..Tina, Matt, Bam, Teva, Hobie and I took off for Mission Peak this morning. It was a beautiful sunny day, not too hot, not too cold. Just right. We started off from Ohlone college. I had never been to the peak that way, I've only been up the Milpitas side. I think Milpitas is a little steeper, maybe shorter. It was a good hike tho for people and dogs. Bam was lagging a little by the time we got to the top, but quickly regained her energy for the trip down. She even had enough energy to go 'hunting' for ground squirrels when I let her off leash. She lost her off-leash privledges tho when she went up to a guy with two little kids and started begging for food from them. Silly dog, they were eating oranges!

Doh! I almost forgot the worst part of the whole hike! We made it all the way to the top and did we get to sit and relax and enjoy the view?!?! Hell no! There were nasty, gigantic, swarming gnats. They were all over us, all over the dogs, and when I started getting bit, I was ready to head out! So our reward for making it to the top was to almost immediately turn around and go back down. Bummer.

Total mileage: About 6.75 miles in 3 plus hours. A good hike. The dogs were mostly well behaved and so were the people. :)