I'm Lovin' THIS Life

Life has its ups and downs, and for whatever reason, there were a lot of downs last week. Thus, going into my volume block on Monday, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But sure enough the Universe provided: the sun, heat, breathtaking scenery, and a body that was willing and able. I put in close to 11 hours of training the past two days, and the goal is to hit a little over 30 hours this week. The timing couldn't be better for this volume block. I'm only teaching half days this week, and why half days? Well, our school abandons regular classes this week for alternate classes, and I'm leading a class on how to kitesurf, right on! And next week is Spring Break! For those of you who follow my blog, you know I'm all about making videos. The "creative" process goes something like this: once I hear the right song, I compose much of the video in my head, then, it's just a matter of going out and collecting the images. I collected these images from my training day on Monday. Enjoy the video and let it be a reminder that when life hands you nothing but downs, more than likely, an up is just around the corner.

Volume Block

Tomorrow will be my eighth and last day of this volume block. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and thus, that meant 12 hours of the cycling was on the trainer. I got to do my part and support documentaries, watching King Corn and Client 9: Rise and Fall of Elliot Spitzer. The Elliot Spitzer story made me even more disgusted with Wall Street and white collar crime. Another rant. With each day, more and more volume was added. By Friday, the sixth day, I thought the wheels would come flying off. They didn't. On Saturday, I told myself this must be the day the wheels come off. But nope. By Saturday afternoon, I was on a training high, and you know what that means...FACEBOOK status update: Kiet Tran is loving this volume block, bring it, I want more! Today, the wheels didn't quite come flying off, but they are definitely coming loose.

After living in Oakland for twelve years, I have only run around Lake Merritt three times, with today being my third. Now I know why. I had to cut my run short because I got sick of having cigarette smoke blown in my face, and the stench of homeless drunk people also did me in. And to add insult to injury, some random guy called me out. I decided to take Bella, my favorite pooch, along for the run. Bella is fit, she often runs 10+ miles with me. But as I ran by this guy for the third time (I was doing loops around the lake), he yelled at me saying that I was abusing Bella and that I shouldn't be running her that long. Bella was fine, in fact, she was still controlling the pace. But that was the final straw, I had had enough of Lake Merritt; time to cut the run short and call it a day.

The highlight of this volume block was that I got to wear my Zoot compression knickers. I love this thing! Too bad I only have one pair, thus, that meant a lot of washing. And speaking of washing, volume block means a lot of sweaty and smelly lycra. And with the rain and tons of indoor riding, my home was slowly being invaded by lycra hanging out to dry. The lowlight of the volume block is not making my bed. I'm a bedmaker, it's just my thing, it's the way I like to start my day, it's how I roll. I don't leave the house unless my bed is made and the curtains drawn open. But this week, I noticed that on four separate occasions, I came home to an unmade bed and the curtains drawn closed. I'm such a slacker.