Ah, the end to probably one of the most active weeks of my life! I will sleep well tonight.

This weekend was packed full of activity. Saturday, Rini took me out for some outdoor rock climbing in Cragmont Park in Berkeley. This park kind of popped up out of nowhere in the middle of a very residential area. There was one porta potty there, which was nice, and the park was full of climbers. We got there around 2:30, and after a half hour everyone cleared out and we had the place to ourselves!

I need to give another special thanks to Rini, because she taught me a lot, and was brave enough to have me belay her (first time outdoors). Honestly, it was terrifying. I'm not used to climbing on a wall without noticeable holds. It didn't help that I started out with a 510.b for my first climb. I was hoping for like...a 5.4 ladder. Did I mention that I have a slight fear of heights? What you can't see from the static photo is that my legs were visibly trembling. I was also pretty scared to hold someone's dear life in my own two hands, using a device that was new to me. :| Luckily, the simplicity of the device, combined with my sheer terror resulted in the safety of my friend. 

After a handful of climbs to get myself a bit more used to it, a couple of Rini's very experienced and buff rock climbing friends joined us, and we decided to try out some bouldering at Indian Rock which was four blocks away. 

If you don't know all the climbing terms, what we did with the rope was top roping. Bouldering is without a rope, and you have these portable pads that you bring to land on. I prefer bouldering in the gyms for speed, technique, and independence, but outdoor it scares the daylights out of me because the pads aren't as thick, and you have to land more precisely on them. If you land wrong, you can hurt yourself pretty quick.

The thing about Indian Rock was that the climbs were pretttttty long. I definitely start to get nervous after about 13-15 feet. Some of these climbs reached a point beyond no return, so I decided to stick with either the super easy stuff or playing around with traverses (just sideways climbing). Once I build up some confidence, I'll come back to give it another shot.

Prior to all this climbing madness, Jon and I drove to the nearby Wunderlich County Park for a "quick" trail run. I wasn't feeling the run, and almost chose to sleep in and not go at all. I seem to have a lot of inner conflict when it comes to choosing whether I want to wake up early to run or not.

Following Jon through the eucalyptus and redwood trees

I have to say that I think Wunderlich might be bumped up to my new favorite trail to run on. I still love Huddart's shaded and soft paths, but Wunderlich varied a bit more, and I feel like the ascent was more gradual but regular. 

After two miles in, I really started to get into the groove, and my original plan of doing 5 miles turned into a 9 mile run. 

The best part of it was getting to the 4.5 mile mark, and hitting the cloud line. I thought it was raining! The forest looked so eerie and mystical. Not to mention that's when I turned around and coasted the 4.5 downhill miles. 

Entering the eerie forest

This awesome burnt stump was probably over 5' across.

Jon and I ended our Saturday with some food at Mission Heirloom. It was a bad time for a paleo dinner, because all I had eaten before this were three eggs and a protein bar. PROTEIN PROTEIN PROTEIN. I wanted to gag. I also wanted carbs. BAD. We had an extremely active day and a burger salad wasn't going to cut it.

After crashing from all that activity, I woke up bright and early to head out to a Superhero 10k Fun Run for a Cure (benefiting blood cancer research). Rini and I had won spots in the race through our premium active.com membership. I will definitely be donating to the cause though, because it was well worth it and a very cute and fun race!

We jogged two miles to the start from my house, and then went all out for the 10k. I tried keeping up with Rini but apparently her cape gave her superhero powers and she was uncatchable. She moved even faster on the 2nd loop around!

My heart was PUMPING. I have a hard time pushing the pace now a days, so this was a real effort for me. My hr average was 173! It seems about right for race pace.

The funny thing is that Rini and I actually finished 1st and 2nd overall in the 10k race! Granted, I doubt many people even signed up for the 10k race. And it's the same day as the super duper popular Bay to Breakers race, that attracts tens of thousands of participants. I'll still take it though.

I loved seeing all the little kids dressed as super heroes. They had their own kids race around a small circle, it was so cute! Amazingly almost everyone that ran had dressed up! It was really fun, and I'll be back for more next year!

Alright, that's enough out of me. Time to hit the hay to start another crazy week! I'm going to try my best to focus on slowing down and giving my heart a break. :)

10k race bouldering cragmont park indian rock race rock climbing running top roping trail running wunderlich park

Rock Climbing, Trail Running, and a Superhero Fun Run 10k

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You know what's nice? Well yes, sleep, but also not having to train for anything specifically.

The past two weeks I've just been winding down, and then slowly returning to a regular schedule. I don't know if I'll ever be a morning person, but damnit, I'm trying. There's been a lot of changes going on lately too, mainly because I think I'm just burnt out of the whole MAF and low carb thing. Girl's gotta live, yo.

So what have I been doing with this newly found freedom? Running, climbing, and eating lots of food, glorious food (including rice! And cake!)! Guess what? I'm still alive! Is anyone surprised? I've also been gardening which is a serious work out in itself. But look, RADISHES! They don't come fresher than this, folks.

Breakfast Radishes!

Just a portion of the gardening I did.

I also had a group of friends over for a steak night! I wanted to share my absolute love for US Wellness steaks. Sure, they aren't cheap, and it probably isn't the best way to spend my artist's salary, but I think that the buttery, bloody, melt-in-your-mouth goodness is worth every penny. We also did some blind wine tasting. We had five different types of red wines (Malbec, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pino Noir, and Zinfandel), and we tried to figure out which one was which. This confirmed my assumption that I know absolutely nothing about wine, because I don't think I got any of them right, even though I had to taste everything at least twice (FOR SCIENCE). :|

Also, I am a lightweight, and my body hated me deeply for eating crappy food and drinking. It's almost never worth it.

Tuesday I went climbing for the first time in several months. I used to go to the indoor gym to boulder (not with a rope, but on a shorter wall and a pad to fall on) a couple times a week. I never really excelled at it to be honest, but it is a great way to exercise without really feeling like you're exercising. If you like to solve puzzles and problems, then you should definitely give climbing a shot. I think it's a great compliment to running, except for the fact that you have to jam your swollen and abused feet into teeny tiny climbing shoes.

It felt amaaazing to climb again, even though my body felt about 3x's heavier than normal, and the calluses on my hands have disappeared. I went with my friend Diana that I haven't caught up with in AGES, so the session was mostly yapping about life with some sad (on my part) climbing in between topics. I managed to scoot up a few V2's though, so I'm happy to know my muscles haven't completely disintegrated.

With our remaining energy, we decided to do some planks and lunges. Lunges are a good way to make yourself stupidly sore the next day if you haven't done them in months.

Despite the sore inner thighs from the lunges, and the swollen forearms from the climbing, yesterday I decided to wake up at the crack of dawn to get a 10k run in. I was feeling particularly feisty, so I joined my boyfriend on his run of the day. Just like, a mile behind him.

We did a 10 min warmup followed by a 30 min moderate effort, and then a cool down. Apparently moderate effort is around 165-170hr for me. I found it WAY easier to keep a 170 hr than my MAF of 149. I think this was the average heart rate I used to run at on a DAILY BASIS. I felt so free running that pace, even though it was only a 9 min mile. I think I would normally be faster if I wasn't so sore, and had just ran a 50 mile race, and the wind wasn't gusting, but who knows.

I haven't completely given up on MAF. I intend on doing MAF for 80% of my running, with the remaining 20% at harder levels with mixed intervals, tempo runs, and hill sprints. Matt Fitzgerald has a book out called 80/20 Running: Run Stronger and Race Faster By Training Slower. I haven't read it (yet), but I listened to a podcast with him discussing the contents, and it seemed like a solid middle ground for those that want to live a little but still be injury free. Despite what it may look like, I don't plan on blowing everything I worked so hard for, or ignoring everything I've learned.

It was also great just to participate on a run with my boyfriend again. My MAF training has not only made my runs lonelier, but his as well. I'm looking forward to pushing myself on the trails again, and tagging along with him.

I'm still trying to figure out my next major goal, but for now I am going to really focus on building my speed back up, and reviving my long neglected muscles. I also want to get back to a V3/V4 level of bouldering, and hit some tough trails for running. The next race I have is the Double Dipsea, then in July I want to do a 6 hour race and see how far I get. There's talks of a trail Ragnar in Tahoe in August, and a possible trip at the end of July full of running! It's looking like a fun summer!

Oh, last but not least, the next book I'm reading is Christopher McDougall's Natural Born Heroes, which I believe actually touches on some of Maffetone's philosophies. Very interested to read what he has to say. At the rate that I read, you might just want to read it yourself before I write a review.


Later, Gators!

bouldering gardening LCHF low heart rate training MAF maffetone method rock climbing tempo run

Feeling free!

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