George Washington Mount Vernon

I made it to Mt. Vernon and back today! That’s the longest distance I’ve biked since I got my bike two months ago. Mt. Vernon is 16 miles away from the Arlington Memorial bridge where I tool the trail. On the way back I stopped at Old Town Alexandria (a little past the mid point), as I badly needed tylenol for a nasty headache (not enough water?). After some rest, Gatorade, and a Luna bar I had just enough energy to make it home.

I didn’t venture to look around Mt. Vernon because I was pretty tired at this point and wanted to make sure I had enough left to bike back. Plus the last 1-1.5 miles were a good (bad, that is) climb (while the rest of the trail is pretty flat with some rolling hills). I’m glad I didn’t know about this last mile or so (never mind that it is called Mount Vernon!)  because as they say blessed are the ignorant.

Tekki Shodan

For my Shotokan brown belt (3rd kyu) testing in a few months I’ve been practicing the Tekki Shodan kata (the name translates to “iron horse riding).” It is a difficult kata done almost entirely in a kibadachi stance (straddle-leg/horse stance, so the name), staying low and sturdy the entire time, and moving only side to side. Here is a little bit about the story of the kata from The Shotokan Way. One interpretation I’ve heard is that of the bodyguard – guarding someone behind without being able to retreat and stopping attacks from the front and flanks.

I find it very difficult to stay low and not go up and down when moving to the side and keeping my stance and posture steady. Worse, I end up wobbling. It is hard to generate power when the feet and most of the lower body stay put. This is done by moving the hips, sharply, but just enough to start the move. The hips have to stop moving (e.g., snap back) with the end of each technique (punch or block) and in my case they keep going (vibrating) with the end result that the little power I’ve mastered is not concentrated but dissipated at the end.

I checked my boxing cross punch and this extra movement still happens but to a much lesser extent: as I rotate the hip into the punch I can’t lock the hip in place at impact. It’s a tiny movement that I haven’t noticed before until I started doing this kata.

Luca Valdesi who has numerous European and world titles performs Tekki here and looks quite impressive.

Capital Crescent Trail

I went for a bike ride today along the Capital Crescent Trail that starts in Georgetown (33rd St and the Waterfront) and goes to Bethesda (map). The trail runs along Canal Road and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and splits north just before the DC Reservoir. The trail actually continues as an unpaved road for a few more miles towards Silver Spring and there are plans to extend it to downtown Silver Spring (where it could connect with Rock Creek Park and other trails). It’s about 7.5 miles one way to Bethesda but I again messed up my timekeeping.

This morning was the Nation’s Triathlon with the bike route on Canal Road and alongside the trail for a few miles. But I left the house late and missed the action (though you can’t really see the road from the trail but I could have gone to watch alongside the route). Not surprisingly I didn’t get passed by many aerodynamicly-equipped high-speed cyclists today.

Virginia viewed from the Georgetown Waterfront

Along the Capital Crescent Trail

Capital Crescent Trail

My bike and (not my) car

Downtown Bethesda

Monday’s bike ride along the Potomac

These are a few photos from my point-and-shoot Nikon of the Tidal Basin and the Washington Monument from a short bike ride to Haines Point (map from bikely.com) by the Potomac River. It had rained the night before and was a cool overcast morning. What better day to spend the American Labor Day holiday than to enjoy a leisurely ride by the Mall?

(It would have been nice if I was actually facing the monument on the last photo.)

View of the Air Force Memorial and Reagan National Airport from Haines Point

Washington Monument from Independence Ave SW

Jefferson Memorial and the Tidal Basin

Strength Training

I started lifting weights in a more serious manner with the goal of improving strength (and power) in April of this year. I was working out at the gym before but I had fallen into the low-weight/high-rep trap and found it hard to keep up with a routine (time constraints, getting bored, etc). But I’ve seen some improvement since April–before I used to work out with 8, 10, 12lbs dumbbells for all upper body muscles, whereas now I am using the 10lbs for warm-up and lifting the 15 and 20lbs when doing fewer repetitions.

I started with a 12-10-8-6-12 repetition sets that were recommended on the Body for Life website and this has so far worked for me to increase the weight: I do the 6 (or 3-4) reps with the heaviest weight I could manage sacrificing form and then, the last 12, at a comfortable weight but going for speed.

In July, I started doing squats and deadlifts and incorporating exercises from The New Rules for Lifting for Women (Lou Schuler).

The weight that I am able to lift is still quite pathetic but I couldn’t even imagine before that I could do the ass-to-ground squat with a barbell! The deadlift is the hardest for me, I think because my lower back is weak.

These are my stats at 6 reps in pounds:

• Squat: 65
• Deadlift: 40
• Bench press: 45
• Push press: 30

Based on the ExRx.net calculator, my 1RM (one-repetition maximum) are 75 (squat), 46 (deadlift), 52 (bench press), and 35 (push press). These place me at (much) below the performance standards for a novice (doing the exercises regularly for 3-9 months). A novice adult woman at about my weight is expected to do 1RM squat of 110, deadlift of 137, bench press of 82, and push press of 55. My numbers are closer to the standards for an un-trained person which might make sense as I have been doing them for barely 3 months now.

I’ll keep working on this and post the hopefully improved stats next month.