10!

A new personal best!

Destination: Santa Monica 4th street stairs
ipod shuffle: selection courtesy of Carlos & Carrington's itunes catalog
Goal: 10 sets
Partner: solo - just the ipod.

Start time: 9:15 am - kinda late & rather crowded.

1st set
warmup
ipod - billie holiday
easing my way in.

2nd set
down immediately
pause before going up
ipod - led zeppelin - hey hey what can i do

3rd set
down immediately
pause before going up
this is usually a tough one but it wasn't so bad

4th set
down immediately
pause - getting winded - watch girl with red shoes do push-ups... i should be doing those too... but then she'd think i'm copying her... why do i think she'd care? why do i care... almost halfway done...climb up again
ipod - rod stewart - don't remember the song - something fun & upbeat though.

5th set
down immediately
halfway there! but i want to stop... no! musn't quit. go up sideways leading with the right foot. activate a different set of muscles.
ipod - rod stewart - i wish that i knew what i know now

6th set
wander around a bit - then down.
ipod - led zeppelin - ten years gone. good jogging tempo for me.
decide to jog to the concrete steps. it looked so odd going west. (lisa & i usually went from the concrete to the wooden set on entrada).
up - Archies - Sugar Sugar... it was peppy... there was a smile on my face, but boy was this tough.
jog back to the wood steps - stop at car to get a tissue (darned allergies).

view looking down from the middle of the concrete steps

7th set
down immediately after the break at the car.
up - sideways leading with the left foot.
ipod - Ozomatli - yes! just what i needed - a little funk.

8th set
down immediately - the Ozomatli song is giving me that groove i needed.
jog over to the concrete steps.
ipod - Madonna - Holiday. good song to workout to.
jog back to the wood steps.

9th set
down immediately
ipod - elvis costello - watching the detectives (or something like that)... i can't go up to this! unacceptable!
fine - jog to the concrete steps. up - this matches my last workout...
jog back to the wooden steps.

10th set
ipod - led zeppelin - not the lemon song but something else like it.
down - legs are shaky... but i keep going.
take a break at the bottom
up - steady pace...

can i go for one more? make it 11?
ipod - rolling stones - beast of burden

forget it - there's no energy in that song... go to the car to stretch - & enjoy the view. (this picture was taken a while back - but today's scene was quite similar).
End time - 10:35 - that was a long workout.

go to the farmer's market (no cart).
proceed to buy 5 pounds of apples (pictures and taste test results to follow), and a jar of blackberry preserves... and other heavy fruits... and i parked on the 5th floor... dummy! i take the stairs anyways.