Well, Xiao Yu has come and left … and come back again!

I received a message on Monday evening that something came up back home and she had to take care of an “emergency”.  But she’s already back in Xi’an and had a talk with Yuan Min about my training.  The good news: It’s a go!  He said he’s happy to train me at 6 PM on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  According to Xiao Yu he didn’t want to charge me, but of course thats just silly and I ain’t no fool.  People might say “we’re friends, of course you don’t need to pay” but that is Polite-ese for “I’m not going to insist that you pay because it seems greedy”.  Yay!  I’ve been in China long enough to read between the lines.

So, tomorrow will be our first training session.  But before I get in to the future, let me recap this past week and see how I did.

Last week’s results

As you recall, this was my plan:

1. Daily stretching, strength and endurance training.
2. Make arrangements to have a private coach by September 5
3. Continue nutrition program for weight loss.

I would say that of the 3, one was a miss, one was a hit, and one was just okay.  In that order.

The first two days I was able to get in some strength training and stretching in the morning.  But after that I had a hard time getting up and realized a few things (that I already know but needed to be reminded of).

Get plenty of Z’s

First, that one of the best ways to lose weight is to get plenty of sleep.  In fact, it can make the difference in pounds per day.  So, I started to focus during the second half of the week on making sure I slept more.  I even got in a great early evening nap on Thursday which made me nice and alert for work on Friday.  I slept in a lot on the weekend too.

Make the time

The second thing I realized is that I didn’t have enough time in the morning to do any cardio or endurance training.  On Wednesday I was frustrated enough by this to decide to buy a bike and start biking to work (10 km each way).  Ruhi was very supportive of this decision so on Thursday I had my co-worker, Fod, help me figure out where I can get a bike.  It just so happened that this guy named Nemo (no, really, thats his name) was going to sell his bike.  He’s only had it a little while and he lived just a mile or two from work.  He was going to upgrade to a nicer bike, but this bike was certainly good enough for my purposes.  Here is a picture:

So, on Friday at lunch I bought a new bike.  I rode home from work with Fod, by way of a couple bike shops for accessories (gots ta get a helmet, y’know) and by the time I made it home I was drenched in sweat.  Certainly a good workout.  But more than that my legs were nice and sore.  I remember when I used to bike a lot in the U.S. that it was great for my stance work and leg strength.  I’m looking forward to a similar pay-off here.

Change of habits

The third thing I realized is that I’m a bit on the lazy side.  Okay, well, I already knew that so it wasn’t a “realization”.  But it is certainly an annoying quality.  I need to have things laid out for me in a fool-proof and super-easy way so that it is lazy-proof.  Especially meals.  I need to have a way to prepare or buy my meals so that there is a minimum of fuss, work and preparation, but also so that I get exactly what I need to eat when I need to eat it.

Part of this also has to do with my habit of going to a coffee shop in the evening.  I do that primarily because we have no internet at home so I have to get online somewhere.  But at the coffee shop I’ll slip up and get something I shouldn’t.

The solution to his is, of course, to stop going to the coffee shop.  But that doesn’t solve the issue of not having internet at home (and no, the free wi-fi signal doesn’t work consistently so that isn’t an option).  I’m going to look in to reactivating my wi-fi stick from China Unicom that I used last year.  If I can get it going, then I wil at least be able to do some simple e-mail checking and what-not at home.  Same with Ruhi since she can’t get online either.

OR, the other option is to stop going online in the evening and just go to bed earlier.  This is probably the wiser choice, even if it isn’t really the choice I’m leaning towards.  I like me some internet.  What can I say?  Anyway, some things to figure out this week.

Coming up …

This coming week it turns out that almost every evening I have something going on.  Monday night I will have wushu training with Yuan Min.  Tuesday night is free (my only free night). Wednesday night I have an English class I”m teaching (the last one!  yay!) from 6 – 8 PM. Thursday night is a formal dinner in Gao Xin for foreigners (Ruhi is coming too).  And Friday night is my 2nd wedding anniversary.  Ruhi actually suggested that I go do wushu on our anniversary, which as any wushu person will tell you is a small miracle wrapped in an impossibility covered in “no way!” sauce.

Her reasoning was that it was better for us to follow our dreams than do some random dinner and movie type of thing.  She wants to film my process of training, preparing for competition and going to all the various provincial teams to train (she’s a filmmaker, after all) so she thought it would be a good chance for her to film me and prepare for the film project.

The ending result was that we would wait to see how I feel after Monday.  For all we know my body will fall apart and I won’t be able to train on Friday anyway.

Another funny thing that happened on Friday was that, as soon as I bought a bike, I got entered in to the company’s bicycling club and was registered for a 25KM road race happening on Saturday the 10th.  They say things happen quickly in China, but that was still rather unexpected.  So, now I’m going to be biking to work all week to get myself in shape for the 25 KM road race on Saturday, which possibly will be the morning after my 2nd wushu training of the season.  Brutal.

So, here is my plan for this week

September 5 – 11, 2011: The Weekly Wu

1. Daily bicycling to work

This doesn’t require much explanation.  Bike to work and bike — rain or shine.  And this week is supposed to have rain … o__O;  8 km each way, or 16 km per day which is 80 km / week.

2. Train with Yuan Min on Monday 

6PM to 7:30 PM, arranged by Xiao Yu.  Wish me luck!  I’m gonna be sore!  On Tuesday I will make a determination about Friday’s workout.

3. 25 km bike ride race on Saturday

I don’t plan on coming in first or second … or 100th.  But I am planning on finishing it regardless.  My first-ever race.  Somehow I thought my first one would be a 5K in California or something, not a 25km bike race in China.  I guess you can never predict what will happen …

4. New daily schedule for sleeping and exercise

As follows:

• 6:30 – Wake up
• 6:45 – Breakfast
• 7:15 – Bike to work
• 8:00 – Work
• 11:30 – Lunch
• 4:00 – Snack
• 5:00 – Leave work
• 6:00 – Wushu, home, etc.
• 7:30 – Snack
• 9:30 – Prepare for bed
• 10:00 – Sleep

That means I will get 8.5 hours of sleep, at least 4 good meals a day (a “snack” is basically a small meal with some good quality protein, veggies and what not).

So, I think that will work for this week.  4 goals for the week and definitely an increase in physical activity.  A good preparation for future wushu training and my long-term goals.

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