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Monday, March 9, 2015

San Francisco Dreaming

It's Monday, but it's also the last Monday before spring break. Beware, on any of my posts this week I will surely feature a countdown to spring break. I'm just excited. It's been a long while since MLK Day. And nine days without even thinking about getting on the Westpark Tollway is just what I need.

Workout

I planned on staying after school and attending another Boot Camp class at Meyerland's 24 Hour Fitness.  However, the weather has been consistently nasty, and I decided to get back to my side of town before I was fighting even more traffic after the gym. But just because the weather has been nasty doesn't mean I didn't hit up the MAC for a total body circuit workout, inspired both by last week's Boot Camp class as well as this workout created by Peanut Butter Fingers.



I spent six minutes on each round, repeating each exercise until the six minutes were up. When the first six minutes were up, I moved onto the next round. The jumping lunges and lateral burpees rounds absolutely killed me, just in case you were wondering. I was glad to get those out of the way early. And the circuit alone would take you half an hour, but I decided to spruce it up a bit. In between each round I headed to the treadmill. Not to run, but to shuffle. Yes, I get some interesting looks when I am shuffling sideways on the treadmill, but I would probably look twice if I saw someone doing that, too. So, I shuffled leading with my right leg for one minute, walked on an incline for one minute, and shuffled leading with my left leg for one minute, and then I headed back to my circuit station. With the shuffling, you're going to have to set the treadmill at a pace a lot slower than what you're probably used to. Especially if you're not used to doing this movement. While shuffling was once second nature for me, it has certainly been a while. So if you feel as though the belt is moving too fast, slow it down! You'll build the speed up over time.

And I think most of these exercises should be ones you are familiar with. The only one I feel the need to explain is the frog kicks. They're pretty easy, once you get the hang of them, and you can either choose to scale it back or up the intensity. Sit on the floor or a flat bench and bring your knees to your chest. You can either put your hands on the floor or bench behind you if you want a modified version, or you can gently clasp them in front of your chest if you're looking for more of a challenge. You will straighten your legs while leaning back at a 45 degree angle before coming back to your original position to make one rep.


(Source)
San Francisco

I mentioned very briefly in this post that I am going to be boarding a 6:00am plane to San Francisco with three of my best friends. Let me expand on that one a little bit. A couple of weeks ago, Mary Ellen, one of our dear friends who moved away from the great state of Texas to the beautiful and sunny state of California, told us to come visit her in San Francisco. If you recall, from this trip to San Francisco with my mom, I loved everything about the Golden Gate City, so it did not take me too long to say that I would be down to make that trip. Especially because we were talking about going in April, and that’s after STAAR, so I had no qualms about taking a couple days off of school to reunite with some of my best friends in one of the best cities. It took a little while to find a weekend that five girls with very busy schedules had in common, but we finally settled on going from April 10th to April 13th. Because we booked a flight that leaves at 6:00am from Houston, and we gain two hours traveling to California, we will have all of Friday to adventure.

Prom 2010
Tacky Christmas
We have already booked a Napa wine tour for Saturday, and we have started making a list of some of the things we want to do while we are there. My only request was that we rent bikes and ride them across the Golden Gate Bridge over to Sausalito, because Sausalito is the cutest little town, and bike riding is one of my favorite activities. And because I’ve already done a lot of the touristy things, I’m excited to have a local show me some of the hidden San Francisco gems. One of the English teachers in my department used to live there, and he has been giving me some must-do things. All I know is that we're going to be busy!

Homecoming 2009
Happiest moment - COMPLETING Wilderness 2009
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for good weather that weekend, because the weather gods were most definitely on my side when I went there with my mom two Octobers ago. And hopefully we can get some updated pictures, and maybe even one with all five of us in it.





I hope your Monday has been fabulous. And if it hasn't, hey, it's almost over! Stay dry!

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