adventures of a tired coder

I haven’t been the best blogger lately, but it’s a new year, and maybe I’ll actually post more! Jenni, Sandy, and I went to Disneyland over MLK Jr. weekend to run the inaugural Tinker Bell 10k. Sandy wanted her first event to be a Disney one, and we were all ready to sign up for the half marathon when we saw that they added a 10k option. Still a great shirt and medal, a cheaper event, a shorter distance to run, and a higher percentage of the run inside the parks. It made perfect sense!

 
Paradise Pier at night

After our arrival in Los Angeles and a quick stop at In-n-Out, we headed for packet pickup. The whole process was pretty easy and we had our shirts and bibs in no time. We checked out the merch section, but it was crowded and most of the items were for the half marathon, so none of us got anything. Maybe I’ve been spoiled with the other runs I’ve done, but I’m used to getting a lot more free stuff in my bag and at the expo, but that wasn’t the case with this event.

Left: People waiting in the corral for the run to start
Right: Characters in the park for pictures

After packet pickup, we spent an eventful day in the California Adventure park, ending the evening with World of Color. Since we were there too late to get Fastpasses, we did the lunch dining package at the Wine Country Trattoria to get preferred section passes for the show. The food wasn’t spectacular (it was edible), but it was definitely worth it. We managed to get the rides in that we wanted: Soarin’ Over California, Radiator Springs Racers, Toy Story Midway Mania, and California Screamin’ (twice). Also caught the Aladdin show, which had great singers and was a lot of fun. We did the Ariel ride when we were nearby, and we ended up stopped for awhile (probably because someone needed extra time to load or unload) at Ursula, who kept singing “Pour Unfortunate Souls.” From that point on, anytime we got stopped at a ride, we’d start singing that as well. The lines for World of Color formed way before they were supposed to, but we still managed to squeeze in some space in the very front. I also discovered that you’re allowed to buy alcohol and drink it anywhere in the park. The World of Color show was really amazing, but it did stop in the middle with technical difficulties (poor unfortunate souls…). I loved the lighting effects, the fountains, all the Disney characters, etc. We didn’t get wet, but I can see how people would if there was even the slightest bit of rain.

Right: Photo ops at the castle
Left: Running past the Tower of Terror

The next day, we were up bright and early to make the 6am start time. We started in Corral B, crossing the start line almost 10 minutes after the clock started. It was a lot of fun running through the parks because there was so much to see! We got to run through areas that were typically behind-the-scenes, and crew members were standing outside the buildings and cheering us on. There were some character photo ops (which we didn’t stop for because we wanted to make sure we’d finish before they started sweeping) and they had a few of the rides turned on. And of course all the costumes that people were wearing were fun to see as well. I think next time, we’ll try to coordinate some costumes as well.

Left: Running as the sun rises
Right: Inaugural medal and shirt

The last part of the run was outside of the park. We even passed by our hotel, and it was tempting to run back to bed! But we made it to the finish line with one final sprint and got our fancy inaugural medals! The medals are pretty and solid, and I noted that if Disney sold them in stores, they’d probably cost almost $50, so maybe that helps justify the steep race cost. We wore them proudly around the park for the first part of the day, and a few people asked us about them. The half marathon medal is really cute as well, but I’m glad we did the 10k this year because both the shirt and medal say “inaugural” on them. We also got a bottle of water (worth $3 inside the park… hah!) and a small box of snack food (which we took into the park later). Again, I’m used to there being more freebies at the finish line, but oh well… There wasn’t anything else to do, so we headed back to the hotel to shower.

Left: Monte Cristo sandwich from Café Orleans
Right: Desserts from Wine Country Trattoria

We made it to Disneyland not long after the park opened and quickly got in two rides at Space Mountain, Star Tours, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Indiana Jones. We stuffed ourselves with fried chicken and mashed potatoes at Plaza Inn, grabbed Fastpasses for Indiana Jones for the evening, then went back to the hotel for NAP TIME. After two days in a row of waking up around 5am, all of us were exhausted. When we returned in the afternoon, the park was noticeably more crowded, but we still got quite a lot in: Haunted Mansion, two rides at Matterhorn (one on each side), Buzz Lightyear, and Winnie the Pooh (which seemed more like Pooh on acid). The line finally got short enough for It’s a Small World for us to ride it, but near the end, the ride stopped for quite a long time. Unfortunately, this version of the Small World ride is a Small World + Christmas ride, so we had to listen to Deck the Halls and It’s a Small World over and over and over until we were about to go crazy (poor unfortunate souls). Dinner was at Café Orleans, which was very tasty. I got a bowl of gumbo and a salad for a very reasonable price – something that doesn’t usually happen at Disney! We stumbled upon the fireworks (and a very nice viewing spot for the fireworks) by accident, so we got to watch most of the show, which featured Tinkerbell and many of the rides in the park. For our last ride, we stood in the long line for Peter Pan (still 30 minutes at 11pm!) and enjoyed our short flight through Neverland.

Me in front of the castle!

We didn’t do a Disney day on Sunday and slept in instead. Had a brief panic moment when the car wouldn’t start, but we got some jumper cables from the hotel and the guy parked next to us gave us a jump start, so we were good to go. We did continue the Disney theme by seeing Frozen, which we loved. Sandy promptly got the “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” song stuck in her head, but she only knew the first line, so she sang that over and over again. I think it’s been awhile since a Disney song has been so catchy!

Great weekend, and maybe we’ll repeat this (with a longer distance) next year!

When people learn of hot yoga, usually they hear of Bikram Yoga, a system of yoga developed by Bikram Choudhury. He’s a controversial figure, with people criticizing the safety of his yoga and how he copyrighted his yoga sequence (and has been aggressive about pursuing violators). He was probably the one who got the whole hot yoga craze going. Now you can find all sorts of styles of yoga in a hot room. Next to Bikram, the hot yoga style you’ll probably hear of the most is “power,” “vinyasa,” or “flow” yoga.

In Ayurveda, an Indian form of alternative medicine, there exists the concept of doshas. The doshas are types or principles that the body contains. They are vata (air), pitta (fire), and kapha (earth). People tend to have one or more primary doshas that voice themselves more prominently, but there is also the idea of dosha imbalances, where one (not necessarily a primary) voices itself excessively to ill effect.

Now, bear with me here. I am not an expert on Ayurveda, nor am I necessarily a believer in it. However, to me, doshas serve as yet another way of categorization, like Myers-Briggs types. And it suits the points I want to make, so I’m going to go with it.

My primary dosha is clearly pitta. My normal operating mode is go-go-go and I am goal-oriented. Challenges excite me. My schedule is frequently overbooked. I can be irritable and impatient. And since I carry plenty of heat inside myself, I do not deal well with external heat. When I first approached hot yoga, I was convinced that it would be difficult and wrong for me because of the heat. Well, it definitely was difficult. But it actually clicked with me remarkably well. Eventually, someone pointed out to me that hot yoga was a primarily Type A thing because it fed the fire, and then it made sense. Heat might make my body suffer, but a fiery practice makes pitta thrive. It was also pointed out that generally what you need most is what you want to do the least. For me, yoga-wise, that is restorative yoga. It’s slow, it’s full of long stretches, and it’s not really a workout.

Yeah, okay. But I need a workout.

Bikram Yoga was the first hot yoga class I tried. The second was power yoga, and I hated it. I didn’t have the arm strength to hold downward dog for very long without wanting to die, and I always had sweat dripping in my eyes when my head was inverted. But over time, I built up that strength, ignored the sweat, and learned to love the flow of power yoga. It got to the point where that was pretty much all I did.

When I did my 30 Day Yoga Challenge last March, I used a coupon for a month of unlimited classes at a Bikram Yoga studio nearby. Because of that and the good availability of classes, I ended up doing a lot more Bikram classes than usual that month. During this time, I noticed a persistent trend: I was never excited to go to class, but I almost always left with a great feeling. Not excited to go to class? Not that surprising. Bikram Yoga is kind of boring. It’s always the exact same class. 26 postures, most of them repeated twice. The teacher’s dialogue stays pretty consistent. It’s long: always 90 minutes.

It’s been a lot of months since then, and I just started another month unlimited at that Bikram studio. This time, after another few classes that felt the same way, I pieced the puzzle together. Like restorative yoga, Bikram Yoga is another thing that I don’t want to do but benefit greatly from. But rather than balancing out the pitta (which it definitely does not do), it balances out my secondary dosha, vata.

Vata is the ether, the wind, the air. Characteristics include creativity, excitement, anxiety, movement, etc. When unbalanced, vata needs grounding. And that’s why Bikram Yoga is so good for me sometimes. The regularity of the routine itself is grounding, and in addition to that, there’s the entire standing series. Tree pose. Locked knees. Holding poses for a period of time instead of moving with the next breath. Everything about Bikram Yoga feels solid and stable.

Maybe one of these days I’ll be more successful about going to restorative yoga classes. But at least now, I know I’m doing myself good by going to Bikram Yoga on days where my mind won’t stop running in every direction it can find.

West Tiger 3
6 miles, 2100 ft elevation gain
Trailhead directions and other information on WTA.

I’ve done a lot of hiking over the last two years, but people are often surprised to hear that I haven’t done the popular hikes closer to Seattle, like Rattlesnake Ridge, Mount Si, and until this weekend, Tiger Mountain. Instead, I’ll drive an hour or more to go hike elsewhere.

Why? Mainly because what I get to see is more spectacular when I hike in the Cascades, and the hikes closer to Seattle tend to be extremely crowded due to their convenience.

But this time, Mike and I wanted to take a hike before going to the Seattle International Beerfest, and all the hikes I’d normally consider were buried in snow except one in Eastern Washington. So we went for the most popular hike on Tiger Mountain, West Tiger 3 – a short but challenging hike to one of the three summits of West Tiger Mountain.

The convenience of hiking close to home can’t be denied. As you can see from the map above, West Tiger is just minutes away from Seattle’s East side suburbs. A short drive + a short hike = time to do other things that day. It was a quick 1.5 hours up to the summit and about 1 hour coming down, with stops.

Most of this hike is in lush, green woods, and the shade and the well-maintained trail make the elevation gain easier. It’s not an easy hike, though… it’s the same amount of elevation I gain on my other hikes. A bit after mile 2, it opens up to sun and mountain views. It was pretty at the top, and I was happy that there wasn’t too many buildings visible in the panoramic view. But I still prefer seeing a lake at the end. :) This trail would probably also be more scenic in a few weeks as more flowers bloom.

Well, that was a good warm up hike for the season. Now I’m ready to see some alpine lakes! Hopefully the warm weather will stay and melt away all the snow in the mountains.

A very kind marathon runner gave me a Nike+ SportBand for my birthday to encourage me with my running progress. Ever since my 5k events last year, I’ve maintained the ability to jog 3 miles, but I haven’t pushed myself further. In fact, before today, I believe the longest runs I had done were the two 5k events. Even though I’m not actively training towards something now, I knew it was time to take it up a notch.

I do not run in Nike shoes, which is what the sensors that go with the Sportband are designed for. In order to use the sensor without a Nike+ enabled shoe, you have to find another way to attach the sensor to your shoe, preferably in a flat-laying position (NOT how the picture shows it). There are many pouches available, like this one or this one. I ended up getting the the Grantwood pouch because it was inexpensive and had good reviews. Unfortunately, it looks like it won’t make it to me for another few days, and in the meantime, I was eager to try out the Sportband.

There are a bunch of tutorials on how to attach your Nike+ sensor to your shoe online. Going for the easiest solution possible, I tried the “Quick Tape Method,” pictured above. While it did get the sensor to lay pretty flat, it did not end up working out well. Not only does tape make really annoying noises when you move, it also doesn’t stay on the shoe well. I got about half a block before the tape fell off.

For today’s run, I tried a lace-in approach similar to the one described here, and it held perfectly. I went for my first 4 mile run, which took me into Bridle Trails State Park, a wooded equestrian park close to my normal running route. It’s fun to see horses, and the trees made me feel far away from the city. It’s not the best place to run during the winter because the rain makes the trails muddy, but once summer comes, I’m sure I’ll be spending more time in there.

It’s really easy to upload running data to the Nike site, which also provides you with cool visualizations of your running habits, social features, and challenges to keep you motivated. I was a little frustrated at first by the speed and a few bugs on the site, but I will admit that the designers did a great job making it look cool. If you’re hooked on Farmville, there’s Nike+ Active, where you use “fuel points” from your activities to conquer the world. You don’t even need the Sportband to use these features if you have a compatible iPod or iPhone and the Nike+ sensor.

As you can see from my screenshot, the run data isn’t accurate. Since the technology doesn’t use GPS (and since I’m not using it in the intended way), there’s potential for inaccuracy. Supposedly once it’s calibrated against a real run, the accuracy improves. We’ll see how it goes on the next run!