The pain with my veins

Ok, I know this is a weird picture that I posted today…It’s the crook of my arm. It all started in 1993, when I went for my annual physical checkup. The doctor wanted to draw blood but couldn’t see any of my veins. After the 3rd attempt and me slowly starting to fade, he finally found a vein to draw blood... In 1999, I decided to donate blood at a blood drive at college. They looked at my arms and sent me back out right away. Every doctor that saw (or didn’t see) my tiny veins recommended that I should do some cardio exercise (I wonder if that would really help? What if my veins are just “deeper” in my arm? And who said that couldn’t be a good thing from an "evolutionary point of view"?). In 2008, I went to a check up in San Francisco. I really don’t have a problem with needles or syringes, but after a certain number of failed attempts of a needle poking in my arm going left and right and back and forth, yes I do get dizzy, too…They tried 4 times (2 nurses) to draw blood, they failed 4 times. It seems like there is a law in CA that you are only allowed to try a couple of times to protect the patient or something (at least that’s what I said). I even offered the veins exposed on my wrist but they refused to give it another try. As a consequence, I had to go to a “special” doctor’s office to get the blood drawn…the nurse was great, she only needed one attempt (clearly a winner!!) and hit the vein right on the spot. The drawback of this place was that it was in the Tenderloin and I was probably the only non-drug-addict in there (which probably explains why the nurse was so good). A scary experience! So if you are a doctor and have to draw my blood, I won’t blame you if you need several attempts, I know it’s difficult. Anyway, yesterday I was sitting at my desk at work, looking at my arm and what do I see??? Veins!!!! Just like that, no squeezing, no belt around the upper arm, no pumping hand. I have never seen them so clearly. I know this might sound ridiculous but I was quite happy to see them. I wonder if this is linked to my running and the bootcamp workouts…may be, may be not, it’s probably boring for the rest of the world but I am clearly thrilled.

Today was day 3 at bootcamp, we worked out with Michael & Michael II. Michael II is new and I think he had a hard time with us… he was really friendly and tried to be funny, but somehow, our group wasn’t exactly responsive. But hey, it’s not that easy at 6 am in the morning jumping over little orange cones for minutes and still keep a smile on your face… ;-) We worked out at the Crissy Field center, focusing on legs (many squats, jumps, sprints and runs) and arms/back (pull ups, rows, tricep extensions, plank). I think I pulled a muscle in my back, it hurts a little… I tried to run faster than usual when we were going back to the parking lot… it worked, I was surprised, but at some point I thought I start hyper-ventilating… clearly, there is still a lot of room for improvement! I went to a Bar Method class with Keryun tonight, my legs are really tired now (especially my thighs) but I really enjoyed it.

Basic training, day 2: Lyon Street stairs

Ouch! Today I had another fun but hard workout with Basic Training. I woke up this morning, crawling out of my bed, my upper thighs were really sore. I guess it doesn’t help to do Bar method in the evening in addition to Basic Training in the morning to avoid soreness…But what do they say??? No pain, no gain!

I met up with Basic Training at 6 am, Michael and Charles were the instructors. Many people joined the class today. We ran up to the Lyon Street stairs. I still fear them but not as much as I did 12 weeks ago…it’s getting better. We ran the bottom stairs a couple of times and the upper ones only once, it was hard but manageable. When we were not running stairs, we did a lot of core- and arm/shoulder workout, mainly doing all kind of different planks and variations of static push ups. Added a few exercises for the abs and some more push ups and you get a great full body workout! It was fun, I liked it. It wasn’t my strongest day ever but considering that I did 2 workouts yesterday it was actually better than expected. The running felt much easier today, probably because we ran so fast yesterday…. Now I just had an egg-white-veggie omelet and a cup of coffee for breakfast, I feel great and I am ready for another day. Bring it on!

A home-made cherry-marzipan-cake

Since this blog is not just about crazy workouts but also about food, I'd like to post a picture of a cake I made today. It's a cherry-almond cake with marzipan in it (it was the last package of marzipan I had from Germany...the one that's made with with real almonds...). I never made this cake before, it looks ok, I hope it'll taste fine...We'll see tomorrow!

After a late class at the Bar method and the hard workout this morning my legs are about to fall off right now...I had broccoli with marinara sauce for dinner...great, isn't it? It was all that I had left in the fridge and after adding a little bit of peccorino on top it was actually eatable...I feel a little bit like a student again... well at least I can claim that I baked a cake.

Curious to see what Basic Training will come up with tomorrow. I'll pray for a miracle hoping that it won't be a "leg workout"...

Basic Training, week 1/day 1 - here we go again!

Today, a new bootcamp session with Basic Training (www.basictrainingsf.com) started. Week one, day 1 – and it was brutal. You think after 2 completed sessions (6 weeks per session) it should get easier for me at some point – it really doesn’t! Today, we worked out with Sandra. Monday is usually a “running workout”. We ran along the Marina Blvd with multiple stops for many many squats, lunges, push ups, crunches, burpees, mountain climbers and more squats. It was really exhausting, we were all sweating a lot and my legs feel really tired now. We were a small group (I think 8 or 9 people), the group ran a fast pace (it felt fast for me at least…). I really don’t know how they all do it, I wish I could run faster or push myself harder. And if I just mentioned last night that it feels so good to not be the last in the group, I have to take that back for today…I hope I’ll be better tomorrow! I am going to another Bar method class tonight, we’ll see how that goes. I hope that by then, my legs will recover a little bit… I bought a “soy-protein-drink” to fuel my exhausted muscles with protein and to eat healthy (this is considered my breakfast). I have to say, after having this drink…I do not understand the hype about soy milk. It doesn’t even deserve the name “milk”; it is an insult to a cow’s milk I think. It’ll better make me strong and beautiful because otherwise, there is really no reason for me to buy this again….

I am really excited for another session of Basic Training. I love Sandra’s workouts even though they are usually very hard and challenging. It’s funny how she tortures us 1h, but she does it with a smile on her face…and once the class is over, you will have that same smile on our face, too :)

The most beautiful cafe latte ever!

I ordered a "Vanilla-honey cafe latte" (yes, my European friends, I know....) at "Urth Cafe" in Beverly Hills 2 weeks ago. It is certainly the best looking cup of coffee I ever had! But unfortunately, it tasted horrible (who would have guessed...). But nonetheless, I wanted to share the picture with you :)

"Plank queen" getting ready for a new bootcamp session!

It’s time to write this blog a little more frequent again! Tomorrow, a new session of Basic Training bootcamp starts, so I will keep you updated on this again. Also, I signed up for another month of unlimited classes at the Bar Method. I started today and I have to say it was very painful…I didn’t do the Bar Method the last 7 weeks and I lost a lot of my strength… time to pick it up again, I am really excited! I want to get my abs back! Oh, speaking of abs… you can call me “plank queen” from now on :) You have no idea how proud I am! If you read my first blog (Sue’s 6 week challenge”) you might remember how hard the bootcamp was for me during the first 6 weeks – I was always the weakest member in the group. Last Friday, my second session ended and I am very happy to report that I am not the slowest/weakest person in the team anymore. It is amazing how much I improved over the last 6 weeks. I mean it is still very hard and I still have a lot of room for improvement, but I am getting faster and stronger and usually don’t come in last anymore. Last Friday, we did a little contest (it was the last workout of the session) and one of the tasks was to hold a plank as long as possible – guess who won? Can you believe it??? I held the plank for 4:20 min (4:19 min was when the last person still holding it gave up…); I never thought I am that competitive but I think Basic Training is revealing my competitive side…I guess I have to thank the bar method as well for giving me such a great core strength.

Two weeks ago, we did some timed runs – we had to run 1 mile at a fast pace, get a minute rest and then run another mile, but it had to be faster than the first mile… I ran 8:41min and the second mile 8:32min – I know I can do much better than this, I want to be able to run a sub-eight. The fastest person ran a 5:46min/mile, that was simply impressive. But considering that I usually run 10:30 min/miles I wasn’t too unhappy with my performance. So the next 4 weeks will be packed with Basic Training and Bar method workouts - the goal is to challenge myself more at Basic Training, get a better time on the mile, get my sugar addiction under control and - I am not going to lie - hopefully drop those last (really annoying) 8 pounds.

I still haven’t decided if I’ll run the Nike’s women marathon or not… somehow I have such a hard time to motivate myself for 15+mile runs…I love my current workouts so much that I wonder if I should really run 26.2 miles if I don’t enjoy it…And sometimes I feel like the marathon training takes the fun out of running for me because I feel guilty when I “only” run 8 miles – but that is a distance that I truly enjoy. So maybe I just shouldn’t go for a full marathon anymore…but then I also hate to quit…what shall I do? What if I only train for 15 miles… will I get through the race… will I be able to pick up my Tiffany necklace at the finish line…? I don’t know, we shall see!

Running SF Half marathon and gaining strength with Basic Training

Wow, the last 3 weeks just flew by! So many things have happened meanwhile but unfortunately I had no time to update my blog. But I will try to do better in the future. I ran the San Francisco Half Marathon 2 weeks ago, it was so much fun – until mile 10. In contrast, the last three miles were really hard. I guess this is because most of my training runs were around 8-10 miles, I only ran 2x 12 miles but that didn’t include as many hills as the course for the race. Oh well, I made it. My time wasn’t brilliant – I ran 2:16:25h, but at least it is 7 minutes faster than my last half marathon. I think I can do much better if I train a little more, I haven’t been doing a lot of running lately. I love running (and we run a lot with bootcamp as well), but I prefer runs that are 30-60 minutes rather then 2-3 hours…I have to decide soon if I'll run the full Nike women’s marathon in October (for which I am registered…) because if I do, I do have to ramp up my weekly mileage significantly. I’ll go for a run this weekend and make a decision…

I am still doing Basic Training (bootcamp) three times a week, I simply love it. We are currently in week 5 of the second session, and it is so amazing how much progress I have made during the last 6 weeks. In the first session I always used to be the slowest person in the group (being second to last felt like a victory...). It didn’t bother me too much because in the end, I do this for myself and I am fine with others being better. But now I am never in the last place – I am pretty much in the middle, it is unbelievable how much faster and stronger I am now. For sure, there is still a lot of room for improvement, but I can tell that I really benefit from my workouts. I also met so many nice people in the class, I am looking forward to see them and work out with them every day.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been doing the Bar method the last 3 weeks and I miss it terribly. But paying $250 for one month is just too much money if I only go 2 or 3 times a week. I hope to pick it up again in two weeks though, my abs start losing their shape and they got mainly formed by the Bar method. So overall, my workouts have been really good the last couple of weeks, I feel fit and happy. Life is treating me well at the moment :)