A California Hike

Well, I hate to admit it, but one major problem that I am now facing since moving down to California is lack of sufficient exercise. Okay, so there’s really nobody to blame but myself here – I could very easily force myself to get up a bit earlier and complete my standard (yet admittedly lacking) morning workout routine; however I must admit that I seem to have lost a bit of the will power…

I think the boredom and lack of results with my current social endeavors is slowly, but surely, turning me back into my old, boring, somewhat reclusive self. This is not good as I do remember that my old self had issues – not only social issues with low self esteem, but health issues as well. At one time I was a full 225 pounds of heart attack waiting to happen and I’m starting to think if things don’t start improving soon that I’m pretty much heading down a fast path back to that wreck. But I am aware of this and I am also not going to let this happen without a fight.

Oh it’s not going to be easy – I can guarantee that. I had a very hard time prying my ass out of bed this morning. I did, however, complete a minimized version of my workout. Unfortunately I’ve not been able to do that much as of late due to tweaking my back a few weeks ago; however the back seems to be much better and I need to get back on track. I’m hoping to get back to my full morning workout soon although I am being a bit cautious – I don’t want to screw up my back again…

Now my patented (okay, so it’s not patented) morning workout used to consist of the following, in the following order: 50 of those silly extended arm rotations (both forward and back for a total of 100) that we used to do in gym back in the day, several iterations of side stretches (whatever it’s called when you raise one arm and stretch it toward the ceiling while bending your body sideways), a few body rotation stretches, 50 toe touches (I think this might have been where I screwed up my back when I increased this to 100 a few weeks ago…), 25 push-ups, 20 crunches, 20 leg lifts (while lying flat on the floor – another candidate for the back issue…), 50 jumping jacks, 20 more push-ups and finish it all off with another 20 crunches. I’m actually not too sure about how healthy a routine this is, but it seemed to be working decently for me – I am down to a 32” waist. Oh yeah, and when I was living in the apartment, I would replace the second set of push-ups and crunches with a round of weight training (2 sets on three machines) every other day. I’ve lost the use of the weights and been forced to return to my weightless routine since moving; although it’s been quite some time since I’ve completed the whole routine…

Right now the jumping jacks are gone, the toe touches are down to 20, the leg lifts are down to 10, the crunches have been cut to one set and the second set of push-ups was a measly 5 this morning. I’m hoping to return to the entire routine soon enough; however I’m going to need a bit of a boost in my will power… Wish me luck…

Apart from the minimized (often excluded) morning workout, my life here in California has also become much more sedentary. When I was living back in Colorado, Todd and I would often partake in physical activities – hiking, disc golf and even ping-pong at times – however, now that I have purchased a car and actually drive to work each morning, the physical activities have dwindled quite a bit. Last Friday I decided to do something about that…


Now that I’m living on the CSUCI campus, I’m basically surrounded by mountains. The negative aspect of this is that my cell phone has a hard time getting service. The somewhat positive part is that I can actually do a bit of hiking. I believe that there is a total of one trail up the mountains around the campus and I decided to take a walk up this trail last Friday – soon discovering that my gazelle-like prowess is a bit questionable when it comes to this trail. I was thinking that it would be much easier than hiking in the Rockies (heck, you start off more than a mile below the Rockies’ trailheads) but quickly discovered that there was more to it than just elevation…

For starters, I was wearing my New Balance cross trainers (basically tennis shoes…) – most definitely not the foot apparel of choice for this trail. Turns out this trail is quite steep in several areas with the added advantage of being comprised of mainly loose stones and pebbles. It wasn’t at all like the much more refined trails that I have hiked in the Rockies. Worse yet was the discovery that I’m not good at walking (well, mainly sliding as I remember it…) down these steep trails. When I informed Chris of my difficulties on descending the trail I was informed that he basically just runs down – yeah, that would be the end of me if I tried that … I ended up on my ass a couple times just attempting to walk it…


I am, however, proud to say that I was able to make it to the summit and back without killing myself. It was pretty good exercise and the views were spectacular. I asked Jessica if she wanted to join me prior to heading out but she opted not to – leaving me to go it alone. Nothing new there, but it was probably a good thing in hind sight – I think anyone that was with me would have been a bit dismayed at the extremely slow rate of my descent – Hell, Chris runs down when he goes…

I was able to get some decent photos on my hike – took a few videos as well but doubt I’ll be doing anything with those. As is always the case, the photos are poor substitutes on actually being there but I figured I could post a few to show my blog readers where I am currently living. It should most definitely highlight the point I was trying to make earlier about being in the middle of nowhere… I am miles away from pretty much any “life” – which I guess makes sense when you consider that this used to be a mental hospital. You will notice, however, that construction is currently underway and the area is currently expanding. Who knows … perhaps this will turn into a “happening” campus sometime in the future…? For now it’s basically regarded as a commuter college…

And that’s about all I have to report today. I realize that this is a boring post and seriously doubt that many (if any) will even be reading these words; however this did give me something to do as I was running through various experiments with the clock tree synthesis for this chip I am working on. Anything to make time pass a bit quicker…

bis später,

Coriolis