Hills, shmils!

Another Sausalito run. This time I went up farther.


Same view as before...
Here it is again.

Here it is again, but a little higher up.

And a little higher!

I got almost all the way to the top, when my alarm went off to say that it was time to go back and get ready to go pick up our daughter at school. It was actually getting foggy up there. Here's a cool house I saw.

Here's a cute little street I found as I descended. That big flowering vine is all jasmine. It smelled amazing. Honestly, I'll put up with all kinds of hilly terrain if it means I get to smell jasmine on the way down. :) 

Sausalito Studio and a hilly run

For the last two weeks I've spent my Tuesdays taking clients at a tiny, beautiful studio in downtown Sausalito. It's a gorgeous situation. I spend my morning rushing my child and the rest of our carpool to school, packing lunches and stuffing my work supplies and whatever she needs for school into the car. Then I get to the studio a short drive away. I park up one of the twisty streets and walk down. As I walk I can feel my breath starting to return.

There's no sign, just a quiet stairway decked with flowers. 

Go up those stairs and you'll see a lovely rooftop porch with flowers and a nice place to sit and read or sip tea. 

There are other quiet businesses on the second floor as well. Turn right and there's an unmarked screen door that is always locked. I've so far asked my clients to call or text me so that I can let them in. Beyond that door is another one, this time brown and also unmarked.

Here it is... Cute, huh? -->

 Afterwards I took a run...I forgot one major detail, though. Sausalito is basically a series of steep hills and I'm on my second week of training from a three month break. I took it slow and let myself rest when necessary. I spent as short of a time as I could on Bridgeway with its constant crowds. I turned off towards the Bay and ran for a while along the path there and the parking lots. Not too pleasant, though. Too much construction, and did I mention that the way by the Bay is entirely made up of parking lots?

I turned off and started to go up for a while. Here I am, nearly at the top of one hill...whew.

Here's my foot and a nice view. <grin>

This is, believe it or not, about half way down the hill from the last image.

Pilates Developments

I forgot to mention that not only am I back at The Body Gallery, but I'm also teaching for most of the day on Tuesdays up in Sausalito at a sweet little private studio on Princess Street.

The Body Gallery will also be moving to 47 Kearny Street in November. More on that as it happens...

Returning to Running

I'm back. It feels good, but boy, what a rude awakening it is when you're able to pretty easily run for an hour or so barefoot or minimally shod and then stop running for three months, then the first time back I started to feel that telltale foot-slap after about 10 minutes or so. By foot-slap, I mean when my shock absorbers seem to fail and my feet slap down onto the ground - not a great thing to do when you're barefoot on concrete!

I've been taking it slow and gentle, resting whenever necessary and keeping it short. I actually started the week before I went to the doctor's, (yeah, I know-but I was tired of chewing the furniture,) so i've run about three times since then. My first run was about 5 minutes. For my last run I cut myself off at 30 minutes, still focusing on form and footfall, barely challenging my lungs. It's a bit frustrating, but I'll be much better off later. At least on that last run I felt a little more elastic. 

All in all, though, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. It took me about a year to get the conditioning in my legs and feet just to BE barefoot, then to walk and run. That didn't actually go away. I'm still able to run without pain, but I can sense that the strength in my legs is just not what it was. My center is stronger now that the umbilical hernia is repaired, even after only 3 months, so in some ways running is actually easier. 

Here's a picture from September 26th, pausing on one of those crosswalk inclines to get a little SFMTA-sourced reflexology. :) I love those things.