Category: Eat!

Baby Steps (out of my comfort zone)

Happy Friday!! Wow, this was a long week. But let’s catch up. I stepped out of my comfort zone in very little ways this week, but that still counts right?

First up, Wednesday, I hit the gym after work with NikeC with the intention of doing the circuit room. I have only done it one other time and that was about 2 years ago. Machines and I don’t get a long so well. I did a short 2.5 miles on the treadmill to warm up. I actually kind of liked the treadmill, either that or I was nervous about the circuit room. I had hydrated a little too well before hitting the gym that night so before moving to the circuit room I had to use the restroom. Why is this special? I had never used the restroom or been in the locker rooms before. I’ve belonged to the gym for 5 years. I did mention I was a germophobe right?

From the website source — From the website
source

After surviving that, we moved onto the circuit room. Where some people were using it wrong. Ok, I admit I don’t use it but come on, I can count from 1 to 20. Once that was straightened out, we got to working out. #bloggerfail- I don’t remember the names of machines nor did I take pictures. She went first and demonstrated. Other than the first machine, I think I did ok. You sat in the first machine in kind of V shape and the pushed yourself back. (see- blogger fail) Also a fail because I couldn’t move it at all- I look over and NikeC had it at 90 lbs, yeah umm no. She’s a bad ass and I am not. Backed it down to 40 and I was good. I also felt really challenged on the stupid steps in between each machine. Who forgets how to jump?! I was born in the 80’s, when did I lose my Jazzercise skills! After the circuit we moved on to the leg room. Those hip abduction things could be a good thing for running but felt really awkward. I could do pretty much nothing in the ab room, apparently my butt’s too big for my back to lie flat. 🙂 So that will be a challenge for another night, haha. Overall, we were there an hour and a half. Now if I can just make it a weekly thing.

Since I work Saturday again this week, I had another short day on Thursday. It was opposite this time, so I worked in the morning and left early. Knowing this on Wednesday I decided to try to do my long run on Thursday. Only problem was I didn’t know where. I thought about running on the beach but was warned away by a text about a bunch of leash less crazy dogs. (It’s a leash free beach) I am crazy dog bait, so I passed on that. I headed to nearby park in work town that says it has 2.3 miles of paved trails. Yeah, I could only find about half a mile. Any other day I would have just run around and figured it out but I had 12 miles to hit so I wanted a general idea of where I was going. I headed to the lake to get in some laps, planning for 6 miles before heading back to home town to finish off the second 6.

It was warmer than work town but still mid 80’s so I felt good. I’ve decided to always walk the playground section of the path. It gives me a little breather and as an added bonus, I don’t run over any wandering children. 🙂 I have to admit I look forward to that little break, it’s about .10 of a mile, but feels great. After 3 miles I needed water but I had also over hydrated that day as well. Was I really going to have to use another restroom? This one in a public park? Yes…it was only slightly sketchy. No mirrors and lots of padlocks, classy.

After surviving that I pushed on. It was warm but I felt good, so continued on to 7 miles. Woo hoo! I stopped to stretch before heading back to my car. This is where I became an obnoxious runner. A woman and her daughter were driving by and they stopped near my car. She asked how far I had walked. I said “run” probably not in the best tone. I’m sorry!! Blame it on the heat or the tiredness or something. And since I do walk the playground now, she could have only seen me walking. There is nothing wrong with walking. In fact, I think I am more consistent with scheduled walking breaks. See example above. 🙂

After driving back home, drinking some Nuun and snacking on some Honey Stinger bites, I headed out to the newer path with my mom. Again she was going to walk and I was going to run. Since I had already done 7, all I needed was 5 so I planned on running the same route as Monday. Same as Monday, I walked most of the first mile with my mom, so I was perfectly fine seeing a 13 minute first mile. I figured I would pick up the pace, ha! Never happened. Maybe it was penance for my earlier snarkiness. I didn’t schedule any walk breaks but maybe I should have. Miles 2 and 3 clocked in at 11:00, hey at least I was consistent. Finally got back down to 10 flat for mile 4 but I also knew 5 wasn’t happening. I cut out the one cul de sac loop and just headed back to the car. 4.5 miles later and I was done. Yuck. I don’t know if it was because the temp had jumped again or if I was just tired. Either way I was still feeling pretty good for hitting 11.5 miles. Even if that last missed .5 bugs me a little. 🙂 Apparently my Diet Coke is still spiked. 🙂

Today I have yet to hit my measly 10 minutes of exercise but I still have a few hours. I really should because I ate way too much today. I was freakin’ starving! I was a little concerned I would be sore at work today but I was actually pretty good, tall boots and all. And bonus, I’m heading into the weekend having already completed my long run! Now I just have work to get through tomorrow and an anniversary party for a friend tomorrow night. And sleep, I need sleep. And to maybe read a book.

How was your week?

Anyone racing this weekend?

Am I the only one who has had an #obnoxiousrunner moment?

A Little Truth

Since I joined the blogging world almost a year ago, I’ve that there are some thematic posts out there. Like What I Ate Wednesday, which I don’t understand. I mean I get the premise behind it but most everyone posts in the morning. So is it really “What I’ve been eating lately and I saved up the pics for Wednesday”? I will probably never do this post because I pretty much eat the same thing every dang day thanks to my lovely slow stomach and there’s no need to bore anyone else with that. I’m bored with that. I do post pics of pizza though, because, well, pizza rocks. 🙂

Another theme is confessions. I feel I’m pretty open and honest about things anyways. I’ve always said own your faults. Plus I’m pretty boring… and weird. 🙂 I won’t go as far to say that I am a stick in the mud but I am very set in my ways. My mother can’t stand it. But all that leads to this-

I have 2 little facts about me to share tonight-

I have never driven farther than 45 minutes for a race, at least not one I was running in. I did drive NikeC to Huntington Beach for Surf City a a few years ago. Does that count?
I have never booked a hotel room. I can’t even remember the last time I stayed in one. I am over 30.

Why do these matter? Other than I never get out apparently? This is happening –

13.1 Here I come! source — 13.1 Here I come!
source

Ok so, this race is not super far away so hypothetically I could have driven down super early on race morning. My mother even offered to drive so I could sleep on the way. However, I am too neurotic for that. What if there was traffic? So, instead we are making a weekend of it. I am trying to talk ML into it but no luck yet.

Now, naive little me thought that I didn’t have to worry about the hotel part until later. But I was bored some night last week, so I played around online. Why are there so many booking websites? I couldn’t remember which one I was using half the time. I think I may have mentioned before that I have germophobe tendencies, so I was trying to find what looked to be the nicest hotel that wouldn’t break the bank. The first 5 I checked were all booked. Umm, what? Crap, I better get on this. After lots of searching and talking to people who “kind of” know the area, I chose one and booked. Fingers crossed it doesn’t scar me for life. I am still trying to figure out how to do Rock N Roll- Las Vegas this year. That would definitely need a hotel. Whoever said running was cheap was crazy.

A bonus for this race? It’s primarily flat. Holy crap, I may have a shot at finally breaking 2 hours! I don’t see that happening in 3 weeks with all the dune sand; not that it won’t be fun. 🙂 The Ventura Marathon actually has a few perks that I think are cool. They have the option to defer to 2015 if needed and offer race day pick up for a fee. I haven’t seen deferment in a smaller race. I felt a little more confident registering early. I am usually a last minute registrant. Now I am torn between wanting it to be September now and wanting time to slow down. How is it almost July?!

Happy hump day!

What did you think of my little truths? How weird am I?

Any interesting facts you want to share?

Dirty Girl Hike & Brunch

A few of my friends have May-June birthdays, and a few of their friends do too. So it was decided to get a group together to do a hike followed by brunch. The hike chosen was Bishop’s Peak in SLO. This would be followed by brunch at a fancy shmancy hotel a few towns over- in our dirty hiking clothes. 🙂 So, bright and early Sunday Morning, we all met up and jumped in the car and headed down.

There were people climbing the backside of the rockface

I have hiked this peak before and there are 3 different ways to go up for about the first mile. From there they all converge into a narrow, rocky dirt track and switchback the rest of the way up to the top. The trail head we chose is located in a residential area and parking was easy. It starts of with an easy dirt road before it starts to get harder. There were 7 of us out there and we just kept an easy pace going up. It was fun getting to catch up and talk as we made our way up. By about halfway we had split into a group of 4 and then a group of 3 a couple hundred yards back. It was fun taking it a little easier too, I tend to be a little crazy on trails, so this time I was able to enjoy the view. And what a view it was- seriously, I took over 100 pictures!

It really was great getting to talk to everyone. Bix and I were even able to reminisce about our loathing of switch backs (Firehouse 5K). About halfway up, at a particular tricky part, we cracked a joke that we should be singing “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus, but we couldn’t remember the words. Which was probably a good thing. 🙂 But we made it to the top! And I was crazy enough to climb up the last few rocks, too. After taking the obligatory top of the mountain pictures, it was all down hill from there.

I'm the only crazy one going up these rocks — I’m the only crazy one going up these rocks

Going down, we separated into a group of 5 and and a group of 2. D and ML and I got involved in a Supernatural discussion, more accurately our love of Dean. 🙂 More and more people were hiking their way up as well; quite a few made comments about our shirts, apparently we thought alike when we dressed that morning.

M and ML, a little blurry but I still like it

The way the trail wraps around, you can usually hear people long before you see them. About 2/3 down, we realized it had been a long time since we heard from the other 2 so we stopped and waited for them to catch up. It turns out they had gotten a little lost. Trail buddy fail!!!! We all met up again and then we had to step it up to get to the car, we had a reservation at 11! This is also where I couldn’t help it anymore and I ran. I love running downhill on trails, I really do. 2 miles up and 2 miles down and we were back at the start.

another selfie, D is more talented than I am

Then it was quick change time. Even though we had discussed going in our hiking clothes, 5 of us brought a change of clothes. So with the use of plenty of wet wipes (so handy!), we were changing in the car by the roadside. My apologies if I inadvertently flashed anyone. Then we were in the car and headed to brunch. The place was packed, we had to park on a side street. But as one of us pointed out, we had just hiked Bishops’ Peak, we could handle a few blocks.

Brunch was awesome. The company was amazing and the food was great. The service could have used some help and when the heck did brunch get so expensive? Then again, I don’t think I have been to brunch since the last century, so that could be part of it. We all ate too much and enjoyed our champagne and mimosas. I don’t really drink, so I’m usually the DD, but this time it was nice that someone else was. It’s still not my thing but it was fun. Overall, it was an awesome day.

I did have my Garmin with me on the hike. I didn’t care about pace but I had wanted the elevation profile. Well, this blonde had some problems. #1 was auto pause. I do not like that feature, I think that it was what tripped me up with my time at the SLO Marathon. During the hike, it paused when we were going through a cattle fence and never started up again. It took me almost 1/2 a mile to notice. Urgh. Bix had the great idea that I should just start it over at the top, so at least it would be accurate on the way down, and then I could double it. So I did that, but we stopped about a 1/3 of the way down so I paused it. Why? I don’t know but I forgot to restart it and didn’t figure it out until it buzzed with the power save warning. Ugh!!! So yeah, that didn’t work, but we went from around 350 to almost 1500 and back.

But like I said it was an awesome day and I can’t wait to do it again!

How was your weekend?

Different Kind of Marathon

After Tuesday’s run debacle, actually it was more of a phone debacle than a run debacle, I was anxious to get over it. After work on Thursday, I had planned on running there but the wind had picked up and I did not want cold ears. Seriously, why do my ears get cold so easily? I went to the park instead. Once there, I found that it was super busy. Well, there were cars everywhere but when I got on the path, there weren’t a lot of people.

I set out for three laps of the lake. With the construction still going on, I decided to walk that section every lap. I figured with my luck, I would trip over an orange cone. I tried to keep my pace as steady as possible while still focusing on my form. Why is that so hard? It was a pretty good run. I kind of looked forward to the little walk break each time it came around. I finished out my laps and checked my Garmin. My pace was faster than planned and I didn’t feel like I was pushing too hard. Sweet! If only it be like that all the time. 🙂 There was some big shindig going at the park, so as I was walking out all sweaty, I had to walk through groups of people all dressed up. Oops!

Hey, that's pretty good :) — Hey, that’s pretty good 🙂

At work on Friday we had a sandwich potluck. We were celebrating the arrival of a new coworker and anothers birthday. It was fun and a healthier option for a potluck. Well, not counting the onion dip, that was just tasty. Plus it wouldn’t be a Friday without my usual Friday breakfast- healthy food fail.

I had 8 miles on the schedule for today. I knew my mother and I were heading into SLO to go shopping early, so I figured I would be running them in the evening. That was until we were shopping and running errands until 7:00 pm. Does a marathon of shopping count? Yeah, I didn’t think so. We hit a few stores before lunch. Lunch was Firestone as usual. I enjoyed my usual kid’s burger with bacon wrapped in lettuce. I’m such a grown up. 🙂 But guess what this grown up did? She didn’t order any fries!!! I think that’s a first, they have awesome fries.

That is when things got a little busy. A Homegoods recently opened in SLO and we had been waiting to check it out. So had the rest of the county apparently. The place was packed. Plus the store isn’t really set up for carts but you need a cart to carry your haul! There is so much to look at, we were there for a while. 🙂 The line to check out was freaky long but actually moved pretty quickly. I behaved myself and spent under 40 bucks. From there, it was time for the Running Warehouse.

I did something that I have never done before. I returned a pair of shoes. I tried, I really did, to like the Adrenalines but I just couldn’t. They felt like bricks on my feet. Plus, they had so much cushioning that the first few times I wore them, I had troubles feeling the gas pedal. At the SLO Marathon, I think I counted more than 10 people wearing them. I wanted to grab them and ask why???? What was I missing? I haven’t even worn them in a month. I have been wearing my old pink Inspire’s even though they kind of hurt and my Waver Rider’s. I felt kind of weird returning them. The service was awesome as usual. The only questions asked were what didn’t I like about them. Then we discussed the replacement. Thankfully, he said what I had been thinking. My pronation is similar in minimum support shoes and moderate to max support shoes so I may as well go with what is comfortable. So here is my shiny new pair of… Wave Rider 17’s.

Yep, second pair. Now I just have to decide if I want to use these just for races (after breaking them in) or save them for when my current ones are worn out. I was leaning towards the race idea but then I remembered that my next 2 races are on the beach. They will get wet and dirty. But no, they’re too pretty!

So all that combined with the usual Saturday errands turned into a Saturday of no miles. 😦 But there’s tomorrow right?

How was your Saturday?

Anyone have a race?

Should I save the shoes or just break them in?

Keep Left

My week of self imposed torture is almost done! I’ve missed running and reading all your posts. I did manage to read some posts, I tried to hit “like” on what I did read, but my comments were kind of sparse. Sorry 😦 Since this week has been so off and all over the place, this post is going to be a little different-

Things I’ve Learned this week-

*Procrastinating is not as cool as you think and working under pressure does not make things more exciting. And, yes I knew that before but have been forcibly reminded.

*I found something slower than a treadmill mile- and a typo

I found something g longer than a #treadmillmile – an #LAfreewaymile – help!

— SlackerRunner (@SlackerRunner) May 16, 2014

*Compression socks are awesome for your circulation on a long drive. However, if you are wearing said socks under skinny jeans and are stuck in traffic in a poorly ventilated car- watch out! I was so flippin’ hot and I couldn’t loosen my pant leg enough to get the socks off. But Pro Compression did retweet me!

Love my @PROCompression socks for #running and #recovery how about a 9 hours in a car? #roadtrip pic.twitter.com/aPqOg6805F

— SlackerRunner (@SlackerRunner) May 16, 2014

*When your GPS app is telling you to keep left, you should keep left! Instead of making it have to recalculate and circle around. If the app could talk, I think it would have had some choice things to say.

*No matter how clean the rooms are or how friendly the staff is, care facilities are depressing. Just straight up sad and I don’t do well with that. 😦

*Why yes, I do eat my feelings. And it’s usually pizza.

*Running into a headwind doesn’t always suck. For example, when its 90º+ outside. I still walked a lot but thank you wind. Was it too hot to run? Possibly but after 3 days off, I really wanted to run. Saturday’s original goal was 6 but that wasn’t happening. 3.5 instead.

*Visor’s really do make a difference. Took a run break from the research today and realized I forgot my visor 1/2 mile in. I thought I would be ok as it was 10º cooler than yesterday. So not true. I was hot and sweaty and sweat was dripping in my eyes. I don’t think that has ever happened before. I did an uncomfortable 4 and called it.

*Finding said visor and dunking it water before taking the puppy out for a puppy jog-awesome! I was so much cooler. The puppy also had a really good walk/jog. She loves to roll in grass. I think this needs to be our weekend tradition.

I have 2 deadlines, one Monday and one Wednesday, and then freedom! Haha. I am sure something else will come up 🙂

How was your weekend?

Anyone race?

Am I the only procrastinator?