Cheers to 2008!

I'm sitting on my couch watching the Rose Bowl game (boo USC...) on this Tuesday evening. Happy New Year! It's a new year a new look for my blog. Time to freshen things up a bit! Today has been a quiet day for me, but that is exactly what I wanted. I've mostly been taking the final days of my vacation easy, running few errands and meeting up with a few friends.

Yesterday was finally a sunny day in San Francisco. I decided I wanted to get outside for some exercise. I've been trying to be positive about getting to the gym to lift weights, but I miss the outdoors more than anything else. Around 1:30 PM I drove down to Crissy Field, a few miles away from my apartment. Crissy Field is a place where I used to run regularly and participate in the PacWest BootCamp program. It's ideal since it is mainly a flat, dirt path that runs from the Marina Green to Fort Point. It's great for people walking, pushing strollers, cute puppies, and fast runners. I woke up yesterday morning yearning for a walk and some sun. I thought it would be fun to do my own " mini boot camp." I got into my old boot camp clothes, grabbed my blue resistance band, my iPod, and I was good to go. There was a little hiccup when I realized my heart rate monitor watch battery was dead. I learned I couldn't replace it myself since it has a water-tight seal and will have to send it in for repair. Bummer, especially since my other stopwatch battery died several months ago! Oh well, I didn't really need the HRM for my walk and mini boot camp so off I went.

The sun felt great! It was still chilly outside, but such a nice day in comparison with the three previous rainy days. I walked the length of Crissy Field, then hoofed it up Long Drive (a short hill) and started with my resistance band wrapping it through a chain link fence for chest press and triceps exercises. Then, I walked through some eucalyptus trees doing lunges and side steps, which are some of my PT exercises. I headed back down towards to Warming Hut stopping on the stairs for calf raises. Then, it was a brisk walk back to my car near the Marina Green. Overall, I was out for over an hour. I went home and iced my knee.

Last night I met some of my old training friends for dinner and drinks and rang in the New Year. Good friends and yummy sushi, what's better than that? : ) Today, I am laughing at how sore I am! I think my knee is OK, as my muscle soreness is overshadowing anything else. Funny thing, is that my workout was not all that tough! Goes to show how out of shape I am. Hey, it's best to start out slow anyway. I would love to be able to get outside two mornings a week. It will probably take another workout or two to see if my knee can take it or not. This will be a test to see if I can actually participate in a PacWest BootCamp, maybe in the Spring session that will start up again 2 - 3 months from now. My biggest concern about it is that I don't think at this time that I could keep up with the amount of running required to get from place to place for exercises. For now, I'll do my own walking boot camp as I'm just happy to get outside. Yay.