New Exercise bag 8/21/04

I am a bag freak. I usually have a backpack for teaching, a bag for walking the dog, an exercise bag and a swimming bag, not to mention various sizes of suitcases I use while traveling. After much agonizing, I settled to choose this yoga mat bag to make my main exercise bag. Why carry a yoga mat when I am not going to need it? I dunno. It is just me, I guess. You have it all in once place or not at all. But this bag is a great deal. You can even forget about the bag and just keep the mat for the price ($14.99). I haven't used the mat yet, but it looks pretty sticky. In fact, I had to call to order and I was actually asked to pick the color of the mat. I probably should have picked something other than purple, because all mats at the gym are purple. But my US-based yoga concept led me to purple anyway.

Just in case, if you are like me, who want to find out exactly how this bag looks before purchasing, here is what it is. What you see is actually the back side of the bag. The mat seems to be able to go back OK. I tried it a couple of times. But don't count on your existing mat fits there. I gave away the old one to a friend who is starting out because the old one didn't fit. There are two side zippers (you see in the photo) that has its own compartment. This is big enough to have my bunch of keys (remember all or nothing, so it is a BIG bunch) or eyeglass case and a chapstick, but not big enough for my checkbook wallet (it is big, remember all or nothing). One handy thing that I didn't notice was that there is a little ring outside that is perfect for padlock for gym locker. There is a long strap with official key hook inside the bag, too, which I am not using. Single strap is rather tricky to use: It goes over the part that opens (practically the main compartment) and if it is heavy enough, the velcro gives up when you try to pick up the bag with the strap. The main compartment can be reached in two ways. One vertical zipper on the side that you don't see, but that is not long enough to shove my 1.5 liter water bottle, but good enough for my checkbook wallet. There is a horizontal zipper that serves as the bottom of the triangle shape and that is just a right size for putting my workout log, magazines and a wired hanger. The back strap is only one and has no padding. I don't think it is good enough for a heavy load (but they never promise that on the description anyway) and having one in center is rather awkward until I get used to it.

So how long will I be happy with the bag? Let's see.

Swimming goggles with corrective lenses 8/20/04

Not because I was watching Michael Phelps, but I had to go swimming because I had to break my new swimming hat and swimming goggles, with corrective lenses! If you are an English reader, you can get a quick press release here. I found the exact product on the Internet. Although they don't look like they are selling, VC-511 and VPS-501 on the bottom of this page. You use two lenses to snap to the kit. The web site says it takes 20 seconds to put together. I didn't time it, but it was easy enough. When I glanced at the instructions, I noticed that they claim the goggles don't fog and cut UV! Swimming in clear view was a revolution! Not only while swimming, but before and after going into the water. I no longer have to worry about leaving my glasses by the pool side. Now that I have a sturdy swimming cap that bundles my long hair nicely, a handy watch that keeps the number of laps (I can't count.) and this pair of mighty goggles. Gee, I better be swimming more.

Fall routines 8/19/04

Now that I know I am here for the fall, I am glad to settle with the workout routines. Once TVI's fall semester starts, I will start the routines. I teach Mondays-Thursday nights and take TVI yoga class Tuesday and Thursday morning. Monday and Wednesday classes are 5:30-7:20 in Main campus. This should let me go to Will's yoga class in San Mateo on Monday at 8:00 and Juan Tabo on Wednesday at 8:15. Tuesday and Thursday yoga classes are 7:00-8:15. Perfect time for yoga! I rest from weight training on Tuesday and Thursday morning, which I often can't decide when to do. Salih took Sunday 1pm yoga class permanently and may take Saturday 12:30pm, too. When I am not out of town (which is only half the time during the fall), I plan to attend those. This will make 6 days a week yoga, 5 days a week weight training, but no Tai-Chi. I guess I will have to wait for a holiday, namingly Labor day, to attend Tom's Tai-Chi class in Riverside. The challenge will be Wednesday morning. I teach until 9:20 and it is in South Valley. It takes just about 25 minutes to come home on the Interstate, so it will be 10pm before I know it. Then I am talking about waking up before 6 to do weight training. But if I get this over, Friday is a no-class day. Let's see how I do...

Tai-Chi books, section I and Tom 8/18/04

When I was in Japan, I made a conscious effort in looking for Tai-Chi and yoga books. Yoga will be another entry, but reading Tai-Chi books has been enlightening. Although the bookstore I bought from was fairly small (Mom's hometown of Yasu), I think I picked pretty good books. One is about 太極拳 and the other is about 気功. From what I know from Bill's book, they are Tai-Chi Chuan and QiGong respectively. 太極拳 book happens to be written by a 揚 (I suppose this is Yang.) who spent most his adult life in Japan. After so many weeks of classes with Tom, I am only able to recognize Yang family Long Form, but I seem to have been right. Today, we went through section I in class and I kind of felt glad to with intuition know what the next move would be. Of course, imitating, following and recognizing is very different from actually knowing, but week of lesson got me somewhere. I haven't really closely looked at the book and I don't feel qualified to comment in details, but most of the book and Tom's Long form are consistent. The only thing I noticed is the greetings or bow at the beginning and end of class. Tom has this hand-fist combination (he says it is a sign of respect in marshal arts) and a simple bow whereas the book shows deep forward bend. Now that I have this book, Bill's book and his DVD and that should be enough to keep me going practicing by myself.

One more thing I noticed today while I was signing in for class is one of his brochure had his last name: Kao. I don't think I will bring this up to him because I already told me that he doesn't read Chinese, but QiJournal had an online dictionary and it made most sense to me if it is 考. I will look more into 気功 in English and Japanese and put another entry about that later.

Working out in the morning, Japan time! 8/17/04

I thought I was doing well adjusting US time, except I don't get hungry when I am supposed to, but I finally broke down this morning. I woke up around 6:30am then 7am and about one hour interval from there. However it didn't feel like morning, rather 10pm (which was Japan time). Today is one of those days self-employed can have a luxury of designing my own schedule and I said, 30 more minutes, several times and didn't actually start moving until 10:30am. By the time I know it, it was 11am!

I managed to motivate myself to put workout clothes and brought my laptop to the office. (Having it in the living room means weekend computing to me.) As soon as the computer hits the office, things start to fly in. Before I know it, it was 4pm. Just about the right time to start exercising in Japan!!! I was quite anxious going to the gym this time of the day. I overheard things get busy around 4:30 when people get out of work a little early to get workout done. I was also curious about age group who are working out. When I go to San Mateo gym for Will's yoga class, I am amazed with the ratio of young people there. I had to decide if it was because of San Mateo or the timing. Even at my regular Juan Tabo gym, a lot of young people were busily working out. When I was doing Leg Press, guys were walking around, snatching the machine one after another. I was never asked how many more sets I plan to do or anything, but don't think I got rest like I usually do. Maybe there are less social types, too.

Getting back to routines 8/16/04

Being not very good with airplane ride, getting rid of jet lag has been a big challenge for me. Over the years, I learned that it is better to pack things to do on the next day I arrive. The key is to stay awake early afternoon (makes about midnight the other way). In Japan, I was at a small gathering, presenting and listening to others. (I guess presentations were all interesting...) This time around I learned working out in the morning must make things even easier. I went to Riverside gym and the same wicked lady is taking up a flatbench and Tai-Chi class is full of familiar faces. I showed one of my Tai-Chi books from Japan to Tom. He said he doesn't read Chinese, but confirmed that the routine in the book is the long form that we have been working on. I know Will's yoga class will put me home immediately, but tightness in my body is unbelievable. Maybe I should go to Don's class tomorrow night, too.

Math, or more like addition 8/15/04

Asians are supposed to be good at math. Although I have a solid humanities background, until recently, I thought I had decent math skills than average Americans. Now I am not so sure. One of my favorite lower body exercises is Leg Press upside down. You are supposed to have weights on both sides identical. This put me as a challenge because I can't quite just increase five or ten pounds so easily. So when I started to feel easy with 90 pounds on both sides (two 45-pound plates), I had a hard time deciding what is the next move. And amazingly, having 45, 35 and 25-pounds plates on each side started to give me a headache to calculate the total weight. Now I am just doing three-45 pounds plates to make the calculation easy!

So it is no surprise to me that I still have no idea how I was doing with weight machines in Japan. As with the rest of the world, Japan has used kilograms as far as I remember. 1 kilo is a little less than 1/2 pounds. I think it is like 450 gram is a pound. I noticed that many weight machines are from Cybex and I could tell it is an import because some instructions in English were exposed. The way weight stacks looked familiar, too. Most looked like an increment of 15 pounds. Most of the time, it looked like starting from 6 kilo and goes up to sometimes, 5 kilos, sometimes 6 kilos increment. Even with previous log for about two weeks, I am still not confident if my conversion was right and I used appropriate amount of weights. Even if it is a same model of the same exercises, how you adjust the machine and other factors are quite unknown. That is why I start with very easy and remind myself that I am not the fittest person in the world. Next time, I will write down skills and use calculation tools, at least, to go back and forth to teach math, do addition. This is a scary thought for a former smart girl...