Today was my fourth session with my new trainer, Alhaji Turay. After spotting him by the marina green monkey bars while teaching boot camp recently, I was sold. It didn't take much convincing before Basic Training founder Jennifer Pattee and I both decided to work with him three times a week. Holy crap.
The first three days introduced us to a bunch of challenging moves focused on power, as well as some agility drills. Turns out I kind of suck at the fast, agility-focused, quick footing type of stuff. Can't say I'm surprised. Master P over here is actually just a big clumsy white girl tryin to be a ninja. Some things just don't come naturally to my kind.
As long as we're complaining... I'm nursing a little case of achilles tendinitis right now. Really frustrating!! Fortunately, with the help of Dr. Robert Minkowsky and his combination of cold laser therapy and skin rolling (along with lots of resting and stretching, and wearing my super sexy Thermoskin plantar fasciitis sock at night), it's gotten way better. I've now started jogging gently on it. Yay!
Anyway. Today with Alhaji was entirely different. I met him and Jenn at 12:30pm with my mountain bike expecting an hour of hill repeats and resistance training or something like that. Not so much. After destroying the pull-up bars (one of my goals is to be able to do 10 pull-ups so he's got me working hard on those) and some of the other wooden equipment there for a bit, the next three hours were spent biking through the presidio, past Lincoln Park golf course, out to ocean beach, back through Golden Gate park, and finally back to the marina green.
Along the way, there was a lot of riding through bumpy grass and on trails. At one point we were running and attempting (but usually failing miserably) to jump and climb over the big brick walls by the St. Francis Yacht club (it was low tide), and another time we stopped to do bunny hops and backwards bear crawls up a steep grassy hill.
I am now mushy-legged, mud-spattered, and totally stoked after an unexpectedly long and tough beating. Much to my own surprise, I'm also starting to wonder if I'm actually a biker and not a runner. As much as I heart running (even when I'm injured and not allowed to do it, grrrrr) there is something so care free and exhilerating about riding that I'm falling for it rapidly. Road biking vs. mountain biking? Jury's still out. So far it's a tie.
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