Mt. Tam Calling

Oh, Amy?  Here...........  It's for you...............  Oh, it's no big deal.  It's just Mt. Tam.

Climbing Mt. Tam was a lofty/unrealistic goal Billy and I set for ourselves back in 2012 when we first started riding bikes more seriously together.  That year we ventured to do a few slightly less leisurely rides like climbing up to Skyline and riding the American River Trail from Sacramento to Fair Oaks to visit my parents.

We have hyped Mt. Tam FOR-EH-VOR.  We watched youtube videos.  Discussed getting our brakes changed.  Went back and forth about tentative dates.  And thoroughly psyched ourselves out completely about this 12 mile climb until finally Billy got it out of his system the day after Thanksgiving 2013.  I remember him skype-recapping this experience with mixed emotions (smiling and swearing and smiling again...).

Since returning from France I've invested even more time in the saddle alongside Billy and dreamed of making the Mt. Tam trek...  to the point where it seemed like every time I crossed over the Park Street bridge I heard Mt. Tam whispering my name in the wind... "Amy!  Amy!  Come ride me!"  Ha!  Maybe I built it up a little too much???  Well you can imagine my surprise when an impromtu Saturday morning ride with a friend who races for Dolce Vita turned into a group ride up to the *tippy* top of Mt. f#$^*ing Tam!  OMG

So.......  I get off BART at 16th & Mission Street to meet my new *fast* female friend who I had been emailing with all week about doing a long-ish endurance ride (3 hours/50 miles-ish, but I was thinking easy, maybe Tiburon loop or something like that).  Uhhhh.... First thing she says to me is "Did you get my email?!"  I was like "I'm sorry I didn't" thinking to myself "Well, *that's* because you were in bed like a granny at 8pm last night," so.....  She was like, "Well, Mei - [Ding!  Bright orange synapses fired full-speed strava signals to my pleasure center like I'm about to meet a celebrity...  ALL HAIL!  Mei, queen of San Francisco segments!] - invited us to join her on the Bespoke ride, but they are taking off from Pac Heights in fifteen minutes."  Well, ignoring every alert my body was sending to go ahead and abort this mission I jumped on her wheel and we jammed up the wiggle to meet the group.

When I squeaked up on my ten-year-old death-metal-bumper-stickered Specialized tank to 20 geared-out astronauts in their fancy pants kits straddling some of the nicest bikes I've ever seen I looked like such a newb and - I tell ya - the oops-I-pooped-my-pants smell coming from my worn out spandex didn't help much.  About ten seconds after we arrived, Justin, the apparent leader of the pack started to explain the route.  He never actually said "Mt. Tam".  Oh no.  While he dropped names like "Pantoll" and "East Hills" and "wait - did he just say Alpe d'Huez - what?!?"  I focused most of my attention on keeping my breakfast down...

We took off and, oh you know, just that feeling when you are all the sudden on a group ride and you have to quietly ask your friend if he was talking about GOING UP TO THE TOP OF MT. TAM!?!?!

LOL





Once we started climbing we didn't stop.  The road just kept going up.  For an hour.  Between expletives I managed to cough questions at cyclists passing me by about how much further it was to Pantoll.  They just laughed or told me to not worry about it or pedaled faster to clear the stench.  I couldn't even believe it when I arrived at the top, though - I gotto say - can't beat the view!

While the rest of the group rode down to Stinson Beach and back, I climbed at a conversation pace the rest of the way from Pantoll with a few other ladies who agreed that tacking another .5 miles of vertical climbing was insane (but not Mei - no way!).  Haha!  The three of us split up about half way down the hill and my new friend (who turns out is the sweetest woman in the world - and she speaks French!) picked up lunch and a coffee together in SF.  I didn't get home until after 4pm!  What a beautiful ride though.  Oh man.  Though I was overwhelmed and beat, I actually don't think I've ever felt better.

Catch Up If You Can

On Tuesday morning I met a good friend from college to jog along Shoreline Drive in Alameda.  It's a beautiful and bustling trail along the southwestern coast of the island that has breathtaking views of the San Francisco bay. We jog/walked and went about 3 miles in thirty minutes.  It was a great catch-up session where I heard all about her new pet sea turtle, her path to buying a home in the Bay Area, and tales of grandbabies and middle management and losing 50 lbs in a year.  Incredible!  When we said goodbye we agreed to a weekly meeting when the weather is nice.  This turned out to be a mini-brick (which means a bike and run workout back-to-back) which is fantastic - and it was oh so fun to see an old friend's face!

This week I'm looking forward to tagging along with Dan for a Thursday morning workout with the Vitruvian club at Lake Merritt *and* Billy and I are also talking about going on a long ride this weekend (somewhere between 40 and 60 miles) so I can barely contain my excitement for that.

It feels so good to be training again.  I can feel my body coming back one day at a time.

I'm baaaaaa-aaaack

After five excruciatingly long weeks of rest, ice and heat, yesterday I met an old friend who I haven't seen since our high school graduation for a jog along the beach in Alameda.  I am pleased to report that my strained achilles tendon (which landed me in bed rest since mid-January) has finally healed.  We did a 3 mile out-and-back and *man* it felt grrrrreat to be back!  I'm already looking forward to my next buddy run tomorrow morning with a friend from college who I haven't seen (again) since graduation.  It's so incredible to be able to get back in touch with these fit friends to gather a little momentum for hoisting this bag of potato chips back on the tri-training horse.  As long as I stay healthy for the next month I'll be training for the Oakland Running Festival - a half marathon - which takes place on March 22nd.  Woohoo.  That's all for now.  More later!

Castle Country

First things first!  The bike shop in Tours had a whole range of contraptions with two wheels.  After we wiped our drool off of the race bikes and asked about their rentals, they rolled out this lime green dream.  I couldn't stop laughing at the thought of Billy riding with upright handlebars and pedals with no clips...  Haha!  Seeing this clunker, at least, gave me hope that I might in a million years be able to keep up with him.  We laughed all the way home.  It was so good to be back on bikes with Billy.  I've seriously missed riding with him so much.

As soon as we got home we started planning day trips to the nearest castles to our east and west.  We spent the next three weeks exploring castle country on a beautiful bike route that spans from Nevers to Nantes.  The well-marked La Loire à Vêlo signs kept us pedaling in the correct general direction AND on the right route (for the most part - ha!).

Chenonceau is the one in the bottom right.

We narrowed our desired destinations down to lunch in Montlouis (round trip 30km/20mi), crepes and castle tour in Amboise (30km there only), Valentine's day lunch in Villandry (20km/13mi there only), and a half day to check out Chateau Chenonceau (heeding warnings about the hilliness of the route to Chenonceau we opted for the train).  Actually, Montlouis turned out to be the only place close enough to do a there-and-back (the only restraint being how long we could stay in the saddle if you know what I mean...).

Don't those seats look comfortable?!

Thankfully, all of these locations were conveniently served by the SNCF (a local train which is a cross between Amtrak and BART).  I was really amazed to discover that, apart from Villandry, train lines picked up five minutes walking from most of these castles and stopped service smack dab in the middle of beautiful downtown Tours.

Even though we took the train to Chenonceau, we still took our bikes with us that day and it's a good thing we did because our train back was delayed.  So, that evening, instead of freezing our butts off at the (outdoor) station, we made our way east past Chateau Chissay and went all the way to Mont Richard and back (another 20km/13mi).  So, just as a side note, yeah...  No banks in these parts.  Not even an ATM.  Do all those people bank in Tours?  Off shore accounts?  Shoe box under their bed?  We may never know.

Almost as awesome as being back on the bikes and taking trains through the scenic Loire River Valley were the looks we got when we told people that we have been riding our bikes to these places.  Haha!  Priceless.

Merry Christmas from Paris!

Today after breakfast I set out to run to the Eiffel Tour, and you’ll never believe this, but I ran for twenty minutes in the wrong direction.  Haha!  I was at the Place de la Bastille before I realized my mistake.  Due to this blind trust of my terrible sense of direction, what had started out as a forty minute there-and-back fun run turned into an hour and a half knee-grinding, hip-popping mini-marathon.  Oy!

When I did finally make it to the Eiffel Tour, I found it crowded with tourists from all over Europe and Asia.  I heard so many different languages: Arabic, German, Russian, Chinese, Korean, you name it!  Globalization at it's best?  My cold Christmas jog back along the Seine brought on the starkly contrasting feeling of solidarity with local hardcore athletes who were also running along the river alone.  Church bells all over town were ringing and a half moon hung in the day sky, making this particular Parisian morning just a tad more magical.  

I made it back to the hostel and realized that if I was going to get to yoga, I required a nap.  After a quick lunch, I conked out for a good two hours straight.  Yoga was calling, but first I had to turn the town upside down to satisfy my intense craving for banana nut bread (Thanks, MacDonald’s).  The five o’clock class was crowded, so we sweat a lot!  My back bends were back (Woohoo - I saw the tip of my mat!), but my legs felt like lead throughout the entire rest of the standing series.

I grabbed a mushroom and emmental cheese crepe from a vendor outside the Pompidou on my way home and made it back in time to skype with my family Christmas morning.  

Upholding a Moor Family Tradition

I woke up early this morning to skype with Billy and grab a decent breakfast downstairs: coffee, muesli, yogurt, and baguette with butter and honey.  Not bad! 

First order of business was to get some stronger coffee.  Then, buy some postcards.  Then, it was off to yoga.  Today, our instructor started the class in English and then asked me after the first posture of the standing series if she could teach in French for the sake of the French-speaking debutantes.  I, of course, nodded my head yes and we went along without another bump in the road.  I saw some minute progress in the back bends, but my triangle pose was really weak on the left side.  Again, a kink that will work itself out along the course of my ten days here.  After a nice shower, I started home, stopping into Sephora to shamelessly use all their testers (Sneaky or resourceful?  You choose!).  Maybe my lipstick was a little too pink because my remaining walk home resulted in blatant stares from strangers and a random guy (he must've been 20!) inviting me to a par-TEE.  I responded with awkward silence.

A restaurant in the neighborhood called Au Chien Qui Fume (At The Smoking Dog) caught my eye with a front window display of fresh seafood.  I thought, "What the heck!  It's Christmas Eve after all."  I sat down and enthusiastically ordered fresh oysters (a French tradition) and French Onion Soup (a Moor family tradition).  Though a little pricey and *a lot* lonely, this dinner treat felt right.  The service staff was nice and fast (a very unusual combination here by the way), and then the bill came.  Once I put my debit card down the staff ignored my table for a solid 45 minutes.  Were they giving me the cold shoulder? ...time to digest?  When I finally got someone’s attention, I ordered a petit café (espresso) to enjoy out on the heat-lamp-warmed terrace.  The people-watching on this night was spectacular.  A winter drizzle brought out fur collars, high-heeled boots, a million different color pea coats and the most elegant selection of umbrellas I’ve ever seen.  People were scurrying around with arm-fulls of last-minute Christmas shopping.

After writing and stamping a few postcards I walked to the Louvre courtyard where several glass pyramid structures lit up the dark stormy night.  The rain-soaked night air was refreshing, but my instincts (and my right hip) were telling me to turn in early.  So, I headed back to the hostel where a single bed warmly welcomed my yoga weary body with cotton sheets and a thin plaid flannel blanket.

Nutrition: Eat Like the Athlete You Want to Be

Sunday was the 10k & 20k de Tours!  A beautiful day... So, I wandered down to Tours Center to check out all the athletes and the cool booths and stuff.  I stood in line (forever) to get Paella and got to the front of the line only to realize that not only is there meat in Paella, there is *every kind of meat* in Paella (sausage, chicken, and seafood) - and I became a vegetarian (kind of) on Mother's Day this year...  Doy!  Ahahah!  I ate it anyway...  Ooops!  :)

Since I stopped eating meat (okay, fine, not entirely, but for the most part - haters...), I've been told more times than I can count that I'm probably not getting enough protein.  This inspired me to analyze my diet and, believe it or not, it turns out I'm getting more than enough protein, but could stand to DOUBLE my carbohydrate intake.  Insane!

Here's what a day looks like for me right now (a double day is when I workout for more than 4 hours total):
Breakfast - plain yogurt with honey and cinnamon, muesli (double days add eggs and toast)
Snack - fruit
Lunch - spinach salad (double days I get to eat whatever I want for lunch)
Dessert - plain yogurt with honey and cinnamon
Snack - fruit
Snack - peanut butter rice cakes with honey and cinnamon
Snack - bread with olive oil and vinegar
Dinner - vegetables + grains + beans or tofu (double days add pasta)
Dessert - plain yogurt with honey and cinnamon

This gets me to exactly 100g protein, 360g carbohydrates, and 100g fat (around 2600 kCal) on single days... and on double days I get to eat carbs like it's my job (like just throw in a whole baguette there somewhere, double the grains for dinner, and maybe even a pastry and coffee) to bring me to 800g of glorious, golden, crusty, delicious carbohydrates.

When I'm training, I also like to follow a few general rules:
1.  Low alcohol and low caffeine.  That's right.  Except for occasions, if I'm training right, alcohol becomes a distant memory and caffeine stays out of the picture as much as possible.

2.  High-protein post-workout snack:  nuts, hard boiled eggs, or apple with peanut butter...  My go-to post workout snack right now?  Rice cake with peanut butter, honey, cinnamon and banana - YUM!

3.  Hydrate!  I drink about 2 liters a day of water (at least).  When I'm back in the States, I'm drinking electrolytes like a coconut water, or gatorade diluted by 50% to keep that post-bikram head ache away.  Here, I've been drinking lemon water and diluted apple/pear juice with a little pinch of salt after workouts.

This link is an amazing article written by US Anti-Doping Agency about the best diet for athletes:
http://www.usantidoping.org/files/active/what/dietary_intake.pdf
My targets are based off of this and this fitness calculator from active.com.

On that note, if you have anything to add - please leave a comment for me!  I love hearing about new recipes and things that work for others!!  Thanks!

Revised Goals for 2014

Same format, different goals are here and here.

Yoga In Europe

Maribor, Slovenia

Hotel Habakuk
11AM everyday
Language: Italian*
Level of Difficulty: Easy flow, poses, breathing exercises, and meditation.  Level was tailored to the group.
Location: Outside of town.  Best if you're already nearby (Ex Hotel Arena, Hotel Dras, or Hotel Habakuk).

*Teacher speaks five languages fluently and customizes her instructions based on the group.

Vienna, Austria

Bikram Yoga Wien Schottering
Daily Schedule Online Here
Language: English and German.
Level of Difficulty:  It's your basic bikram beginner series.  26 postures, 105 degrees, 45% humidity.  So, in other words, it's hell here too.  ;)
Location: Downtown Vienna.  Easy access to metro and bus lines.  15 minute walk from the center of town.

Tours, France

Ella Fit
Tuesday 9:30AM, Thursday 6:15PM, Friday 6:15PM
Language: French
Level of Difficulty:  Advanced, but not cardiovascularly. This class was difficult on a metaphysical level*
Location:  Tours proper, but more specifically, Les Halles.

*Can't quite describe it...  This teacher was extremely in touch with the intangible.  He really encouraged us to LET GO and explore our curiosity and acceptance of the unknown.  He kept saying stuff like "sense this, experience it as if it's for the first time and the last time", and we'd be doing something as simple as ankle circles.  Ahaha!  This was really good for me, but I miss the challenge of Bikram.  I'm gonna have to get into Paris very soon...

Day 12 - I Had a Dream

I awoke in a wet warmth on the pavement outside a Target store. When I came to, there were workers spraying psychedelic graffiti art of targets all over the walls outside, turning doors into walls, and covering up secret compartments… A sliding glass door opened nearby so I wrapped myself in a thick, rough white cotton blanket and ran deep into the hospital-white hallway. I sensed some movement behind me, so I dodged into a women’s bathroom. There I found a locker room and a shower where many women of all ages, shapes, and sizes were engaging in what looked like post-game clean up. I joined them and nobody noticed that I didn’t belong (including me). When we were ready, the owner of Strauss Carpets called us into an adjacent room to talk to us. As we entered the room I noticed the girls’ faces more… Some were plump with darker skin and hair, some were very young and skinny, some were older with wrinkled leathery skin and light hair. The owner of Strauss carpets, a short, fit older man with tanned skin and white hair, looked at us through wire glasses and spoke in a confident tone. The team had a tentative, scrutinizing air... I forget what he said, but he was looking right at me and I was immediately overwhelmed with the thought “I’m here because of his generosity”. My eyes welled up with joy and shame and fear and I couldn’t help it – the tears just flowed…

I woke up in the spare room where I slept last night - sunlight pouring in through the window. My whole upper body was covered in sweat and the deep sense of gratitude from my dream was still strongly present in my mind and body. The generosity of others has brought me this far. I wouldn’t be here without my incredible friends and family. I can’t believe this is happening… I tryout tonight. Wish me luck!

...

I ate breakfast at the house and then spent the day sight seeing in Tours. It really is beautiful here and there is so much that reminds me of home... Seriously, don't laugh, but I was super stoked every time I saw a gay couple (like absurdly glad that people are out here). Haha! I walked to the City Hall where there was an exhibition on the new tramway they've built here. Cool artist, Daniel Buren, conceptualized the whole project and he has some amazing ideas. You can read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Buren

I checked out the town, the shops, the markets, and the churches. At 8pm, I met six girls on the current team and started working out with them. Everyone is white, which bums me out a little, but at least we're all different ages (13-36!!!!)... And, yes, you probably guessed it already, but I was, in fact, aced by that thirteen-year-old!

Seriously though, I hit well, showed off my fitness and my attitude, but didn't exactly give them the best example of my serve-receive passing and serving. The coach is SO AMAZING. She's perhaps the fittest fifty year old I've ever met. Very even keel. Knows her shit... I know I would be so so lucky to be coached by her. After practice, I shared a snack and a drink with the leadership and gave them my terms: an apartment, a bike, health insurance, visas, USA Volleyball fees, a salary, and possibly a ticket home. They seem interested in my ability to coach. The work required would be two practices and one game a week until May of next year. Obviously, I would have to put the extra work in to improve my game. They are going to counter offer tomorrow before the last train back to Amsterdam...

Very exciting! More later...