Zen, Two, Three, Four, Hup!
I did not want to get up this morning. I slept poorly. My allergies have been kicking my ass lately. I was having night sweats and the roof of my mouth was itching. Mind you, I couldn’t sleep, either, but laying in bed feeling sorry for myself seemed like a good option. I got up anyway, with the promise of my Tokyo breakfast awaiting me.
My Zen partner helped get me motivated with toast and tea and the parking gods shined on us and we got a parking spot right up front at Auditorium Shores. My stomach started cramping on the way there but walking seems to relax my belly and by the end of the training I felt just fine.
We started off our training with a brisk ten minute walk, down to Stevie’s statue, turn the corner and back around. That loop is a bit less than half a mile. After that we met on the grassy area and did our plyometric drills. We did butt kicks, skipping, two types of high knee kicks and we walked backwards.
From there we moved on to speed training. These were our first speed training exercises. Speed training, also called interval training, is all about short bursts of high intensity training followed by a slower rest speed. We took the same half mile we started with and broke it up into 4 sections. That’s fairly easy since the loop around Stevie’s statue is basically a square. We started at one corner and walked hard and fast up to the next corner, from there we walked leisurely to the next corner, then fast and hard again and finally slow and leisurely. We did this circuit 3 times. Our trainer, Patrick, said we should push ourselves to the point where we were almost glad to slow down for the next portion. It was a good workout but I managed it fairly easy. I’m sure that’s due in large part to the amount of walking I’ve been doing. I’d say I’ve been averaging pretty close to 3 hours of walking a week. This is thanks to my walking partner because without him to push me I’d never get up. I still don’t think I’ll ever be one of those “feel the burn, isn’t that fantastic” kind of people, though.
When we finished the speed work Adam Weisberg, the owner of Zen, introduced us to a young guy who is starting up a new gym in Austin called Revolution. I think his name was Justin. Justin took us through a set of cool down exercises. He talked to us about the importance of doing these exercises every time we train.
And then…..drumroll….. Tokyo Breakfast! Woohoo! They also have blackberry green tea that is very refreshing.
We sat chit chatting and eating our breakfasts. I talked with one of the “Chosen”, a very nice lady named Ingrid. I told her a bit about the whole drama surrounding the Chronicle and the shitty way they’d treated the rest of us. She said she didn’t think they meant to be shitty to us, they were just a bit ignorant and unorganized. That made me laugh!
Now I’m home and tired and sweaty and getting ready to hit the shower and pack. I’m headed to Dallas this weekend with Adam to attend the engagement party of some friends.
Have a great weekend everyone!
If you’d like to read more about my Zen training:
Week One Review
Week Two Review
Week Three Review
Week Four Review
Week Five Review
Week Seven Review
Week 10 Review ( I missed 8 & 9 )
Exercise, running, Team Zen, Zen Japanese Food Fast, restaurant, tokyo breakfast, Austin Chronicle, Challenge, Auditorium Shores, Fitness, plyometric, drills, speed, training, interval
October 20th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
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October 21st, 2007 at 11:02 am
Kyla,
I think what you are doing is fantastic. There are so many fit people in Austin - up with the sun and dancing to the dawn. And Austin is a great place to be active. Even so, like you, I have my own challenges with food, and motivation, and working out, and not spending time petting my TiVo instead of moving. So anything we can do to help avoid the stasis and embrace what is best for ourselves is fantastic.
It’s also brave to share that journey with others online. You are a good writer and it shows in your passion and candidness.
Which makes me wonder why you would devote so much energy and time to the choices the Chronicle made. I mean, it’s the nature of entering those types of things that a few will be selected while the vast majority won’t. It’s part of the game. Whether you were notified or should have been notified may be an issue. I don’t know. I do know that the Chron got well over a hundred applications for the slots and they have a very limited marketing staff who is managing this as well as their regular jobs. I don’t work for them, nor am I their apologist. They can speak for themselves, but the anger or disappointment seems out of balance in my opinion.
Even so, what are you missing? You get the exact same workout. You get Zen’s great food. Do you want the Clif Bars, or the space on the Chronicle site? Is there a presumption that being picked adds some gravitas to being up and in shoes at 8AM on Saturday? Using terms like “The Chosen” is really divisive and, in my opinion, unnecessary. There is no competition here. We are all struggling.
And maybe that’s the thing. Maybe I am not helping. Yes, I was one of the people picked. I am no better than anyone else. Nor am I any worse. That’s just the cards this hand. And it’s because of the struggle, and the endless cycle of starting and stopping that causes me to perhaps overcompensate. Perhaps it is yet another chance that I will fail, but this time publicly that fills me with dread.
So maybe when that god awful alarm sounds so very early on Sat morning and I strap in and go to the park, I am loud. I talk. I try to keep it light. Because to not do that just reminds me how early it is and how much I hate what I am forcing myself to do and how I hope that I will do it again next week.
I apologize if I annoy you. I am sure you aren’t the only one. But here’s the thing. I am right there on Saturday morning with you. I can be addressed with a “Good morning” or a “shut the hell up”. The second to last thing I need is drama on Saturday morning. The last thing I need is judgment and name calling. Because annoying or not, I am still made of nougat on the inside.
I wish you well as you continue your work. You’ll se me again next weekend. Perhaps then you will introduce yourself and rather than being “Annoying Guy” I will become Greg.
October 21st, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Hi Greg,
I’m taking it that it was you who was searching for my name in conjunction with the Zen team. Thank you for commenting on my blog.
A couple of thoughts…
Writing my blog is cathartic for me. It is how I blow off steam and in doing so, it is how I get over things. You’ll note that I did not refer to you as “Annoying Guy” this time and that’s because I’m mostly over it. Yes, I still have a bit of bitterness over the experience, hence the “Chosen” comment, but it’s getting better. Sometimes anger can be used as motivation. For me, being angry has been my motivator for continuing. I’m not going to let the Chronicle cheat me of the experience and if that’s what it takes to get my butt out of bed, then so be it.
Part of your annoyance factor was due to the situation and I do feel that the Chronicle set those of who they failed to notify up to feel some resentment towards you. I could pretty up my posts and not show the negativity I feel but that would be less than honest with myself and my readers and I’d definitely have less to write about.
I did open up with Ingrid on Saturday and told her about my anger with the Chronicle and how it made me feel and how some people had quit the team over the debacle. That made me feel a bit better and less bitter about the situation overall. Sometimes things just take time. Perhaps it was Ingrid who shared my story with you?
I did say even when I was most angry that your enthusiasm may be a positive and I’m sure that it will be. I was just angry which is obvious.
I will stress this once more, though, I am not in the least angry for not being chosen. I don’t care about your free gear. I’m angry about the lack of professionalism and the lack of kindness shown by the Chronicle and most of all I’m angry that some people left because of that poor treatment. People who needed it and may well have stayed if they’d been treated more kindly.
Lastly, I apologize for calling you “Annoying Guy”. I’m grumpy in the mornings and I was angry. I’m not always nice when I’m angry and name calling isn’t nice.
I don’t believe I’ve created any “drama” at the Saturday morning meetings. If you seek out my blog and feel upset over it’s content, well, that’s not entirely my fault, is it?
I’ll feel free to tell you to “shut the hell up” in the future. You may feel free to tell me to “just get over it”.
Deal?
p.s. Readers love drama, use it to sell yourself as the contest winner. Heh.