Pilates on Fridays hasn't worked out so well since I finish at 10am, making me kind of late for work (even by Google standards). Today I tried an alternative means of Friday exercise: walk to work. Remember that I work in SF on Fridays, so we're talking a 3.5 mile walk vs. a 35 mile walk.
This is an attempt to boost my amount low-intensity aerobic activity in a week. The dance conditioning and nutrition books I've been reading explain that dance is a combination of high intensity anaerobic activity and very low-intensity pauses. While these descriptions were geared towards western-style dance, this applies directly to Bharatanatyam. In general, pieces are either combinations of alternating jathis (fast, intense dance sequences) and abhinaya (very low intensity miming sequences), or strictly abhinaya. This scientific model explains why, in spite of excercising for 10 hours a week or so and eating a very healthy diet, I still have a muffin top hanging around my tummy.
As a bonus, Google donates money to charity for every self-powered-commuting days, so I earned some charity $30 for my trip. Awesome!
At 9:15am, I left my house.
This is an attempt to boost my amount low-intensity aerobic activity in a week. The dance conditioning and nutrition books I've been reading explain that dance is a combination of high intensity anaerobic activity and very low-intensity pauses. While these descriptions were geared towards western-style dance, this applies directly to Bharatanatyam. In general, pieces are either combinations of alternating jathis (fast, intense dance sequences) and abhinaya (very low intensity miming sequences), or strictly abhinaya. This scientific model explains why, in spite of excercising for 10 hours a week or so and eating a very healthy diet, I still have a muffin top hanging around my tummy.
As a bonus, Google donates money to charity for every self-powered-commuting days, so I earned some charity $30 for my trip. Awesome!
At 9:15am, I left my house.
Sunny and pleasant: so far, so good
I rounded the corner, and hit Valencia. It was a typical quiet morning, with hipsters waking up to get their morning Ritual lattes and whatever else jobless style fiends do in the morning.
Don't be fooled - it's not all this nice
For those unfamiliar with San Francisco, the Mission (where I live) has a mixed reputation. The part I live in is strictly nice. Houses are well kept, commercial space is occupied. However, the north and east Mission are a different story. Sure enough, I crossed 16th street and BAM! A woman stumbling around with no pants (or underwear or anything covering from the waist down). Good morning!
A few more blocks and I was in the scenic Tenderloin/Civic Center area. This is where I really expect to see the pantsless and stumbly. This morning was pretty tame, though. Nothing unusual to report.
Things don't get rolling here until the strip clubs open
There was a touching moment when a non-homeless guy (I'm stereotyping, but yeah) helped a homeless and disabled guy fix his broken walker. San Francisco is very sweet sometimes. Another couple of blocks and I hit another problem area: Tourist Town.
How do I get to the Hard Rock Cafe?
I quickly dodged over a block to Mission street. There were a few people wandering about trying to find a conference they were attending, but otherwise is was fine. Cutting through Yerba Buena park, I made it over to the SoMA/Financial District where Google is.
A mix of tourists, yuppies with dogs/babies, and snoozing homeless people
The financial district was a bit of a mess with a ton of construction. I think it's for the new transbay terminal. The upside was that there were a lot fewer vagrants than I remember in the neighbourhood. Mostly just shiny buildings with finance-looking people.
I'm glad I work in engineering
Another few blocks and arrive at Google at 10:15am. Exactly 1 hour. Not bad for a 3.7 mile walk.
No comments:
Post a Comment