Feb Photo Fun

I am still working on the February Photo Challenge.  I have some posts in the works about other activities from this week, so until I get my butt in gear (and my mind!) you will be entertained with #febphotoaday only!

Day 16: Something New

I recently swapped books with fellow blogger Suz. I was so excited that my box arrived! 

Hurray for new books! This also falls within the guidelines of my 12 in 2012 book challenge.

Day 17: Time

I spent most of this day driving to the Bay Area to see friends and run the Bay Breeze. 

Day 18: Drinks

Post race wind down beverage

Day 19: Something I Hate to Do

Laundry.

 

Day 20: Handwriting

My planner.

 

 Day 21: A Fave Photo of Myself

Bottling beer with the broski. 

This one is a Stout. My favorite!

Obviously.

 

Day 22: Where I Work

 

Day 23: My Shoes

Same shoes, different closet.

 

Day 24: Inside My Bathroom Cabinet

Actually, this is my roommate's cabinet. She likes to have fresh smelling armpits.

My cabinet is a toiletry bag.

 

Day 25: Green

Running in Oakland yesterday.

You can't quite see it, but that glow in the distance is San Francisco. 

It was a gorgeous day!

In a few minutes I am heading to San Francisco for an Oscar party with friends. I have no idea what movies are nominated, but it will be fun to see everyone anyway! Also, my friends are on a fast; no dairy, booze, sugar, sodium, bread or caffeine (as well as a long list of other things), so it should be an interesting (and grumpy?) party!  What do you think? Should I bring a huge bottle of wine and a cheese platter?

How was your week? Did you do anything fun this weekend? Are you going to any Oscar parties?

Bay Breeze Race Recap

Race #2 of the 2012 Running Challenge went well overall. The Bay Breeze Half Marathon, held in San Leandro, was also a Brazen race, just like race #1. If you recall, I really liked the last one (Race #1 recap HERE), so much so that I signed up for another. They are pretty cheap, compared to other races, and a lot of them are on dirt or gravel trails or paths rather than asphalt. (photo credit)

So, I know you are all wondering: how did it go!? The race was scheduled for 8 o'clock, which was not as nice as the 9 o'clock start that the last one had. A friend of mine went with me and getting her and the baby out the door and to Peet's as well as driving the 40 minutes to the start, was difficult.  We made it, but I would have rather started a little later. 

The weather started off windy, as the course was right near the water. As always, I was confused about what to wear, and not in the girly sense. We went to pick up the packet and it was a madhouse. Even though the lines were marked with letters for last names, people were everywhere and it was not well organized. It was such a difference from the last one! Last time I just walked right up and got my bib with no problems. Also the shirt line (separate from the bib line) was a mess as well, so I decided to get it after the race. 

The race went well; after the first mile the crowd was thinned out enough that I didn't have to worry about passing people, or them passing me. Most of the course was right on the water and was a nice, flat, out and back. The only thing I could say I didn't like was that the gravel in certain areas was big pieces of gravel and my feet started to be a little sore by the end. You can kind of see it in the below photo.

photo taken by race volunteer

Once I finished, I went to the t-shirt line, which was still pretty unorganized and they only gave us shirts, no other goodies. So that was a little disappointing. I always like the little samples you get afterward and I need a new pair of running shoes, so one of those Sports Authority coupons would have come in handy. However, I was not too sad, since I knew there would be Its-Its to make me forget. I went toward the food and coffee area and was wondering what all the people were in line for, until I realized...that was the food line! There must have been 200 people in line! Next time, get the darn 5k people out of the way by the time the half marathon people come in! I couldn't even get a water!

I decided that I could just go and buy myself a $2 Its-It and my friend and I left to find one. So, I wish the packet pickup, swag and after party had been a bit more organized. Other than that, the course was great. And I finished. The End.

Photo taken by my friend K's and her iPhone

Just kidding. I got a new PR, and I am very proud to say that my average time per mile was under 8 minutes! My final official chip time was 1:42:40 or 7:50/mile. So I got under the 1:45 mark and the 8 minute mile mark. This is exciting because when I was in High School, my fastest mile was about a 7:55. So I beat my High School self! Woo hoo. Take that. I guess the course was flat and fast, just like they said. No wonder it's called the Bay Breeze! (funny fact: the slowest mile was mile 1 at just over 8 minutes; the fastest mile was mile 13 at 7:37. I guess I wanted to get it over with!)

I am still kind of bummed about the Its-Its though. Did you know they've been a "San Francisco experience" since 1928?  

My next 12 in 2012 race will be the Bidwell Classic on March 3rd.

Don't forget to stop by Jill's for Fitness Friday! Also, if you are following this site using GFC, don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to this blog manually so you can keep seeing me in your Reader! You can also do it using the "subscribe" button on the left sidebar.

Have you ever had an Its-Its? Do you like ice cream sandwiches? What was your fastest mile in high school?

Wine and Love (4)

I have not done one of these in a while! In case you forgot, or you haven't done this before, here is the scoop. You list what things this week are making you reach for the wine and what things you are loving! Easy, right? You can go over to Nora's site for a linkup!

Things that are making me reach for the wine this week:

- People who walk three abreast on the bike trail and don't even consider moving when you try to pass by them, turning sideways and trying to be as skinny as possible.

- Drivers who drive 55 in the fast lane. In their Prius. So they can get optimal gas mileage for their car. I am all for you getting good gas mileage, but do it in the right hand lane please.

- The unknown. The fear caused by it. This may actually warrant a martini. Or a shot of whiskey.

- Pet hair. I went to visit my brother and now I look like a walking lint brush advertisement.

- That BMW driver on the freeway. Why is it that they are always jerks? 

Things that I am loving this week:

- Visiting my brother and his girlfriend. We had a great time hanging out, cooking, eating and catching up on Kitchen Nightmares.

- Spending quality time with K & A. Every time I go and see them, that little girl is bigger and bigger! I feel like time is flying by when I see her!

- Running in a new place each day! I like to map out different runs depending on where I am staying, so I ran in 4 different places this week! It keeps it from getting boring, even if it does take a bit more time to plan.

- Going grocery shopping. Yes, I love it. It makes me happy to buy food, prepare dishes and eat them! When I am having a bad day, cooking is my stress release.

- Being in the Bay Area. Near my friends and family and Trader Joes.

- Spring. Or whatever this is. It was 70 degrees today.

Overall, this has been a great week! I have more plans to see friends this weekend so it's shaping up to be another great week again!


How was your week? What made you want a glass of wine? What do you love about your week?

Snack Time!

Every chance we get, we take a trip to the city for a food bonanza. We love to go to all our favorite restaurants and order a couple items at each one. We all share the couple items, which allows us to go to three or four different places in one trip. We love it because it gives us the chance to eat several different things in one go. We decided this time to try a new place each time we go.

You can see our previous SnackaPaloozas HERE. This time we started in my favorite San Francisco neighborhood, The Mission, which is where I used to live. It was originally the Latino area of the city, but has recently become more of a mish mosh of cultures. 

The first stop was Balompie, where we ordered three types of pupusas. 

A pupusa is like a really thick tortilla with filling inside.

My favorite: bean and cheese! Yum.

If you have never had a pupusa, I suggest you get one immediately. They are great. 

Next, we took a walk down Sycamore Street, where they allow street artists to do their thing, which results in some really fun stuff.

Then we went to Frjtz, a Belgian place with many beers, crepes, waffles and fries. 

I was disappointed because they changed their fries from skinny ones to steak fries. 

But the crepes are delicious! 

And the bathroom mirror was amusing. 

We try to get a little exercise between restaurants; this way we can eat more.
So we walked to the Bi-Rite Creamery.
There is usually a really long line, so we said that if the line was short, we would check it out. 
The line was short, so we got an ice cream.
Toasted Coconut.

 

No trip to the Mission would be complete without a walk to Dolores Park, where you have an excellent view of downtown and the Mission Dolores. 

 

Last but not least, A La Turca, one of our favorites, which has some of the best hummus ever, as well as super great Pides, which is a cheese, meat and bread pocket.

We totally stuffed ourselves with great food! Afterward, we could barely move. So it was a success! 

Have you ever had a pupusa? Do you prefer skinny or fat fries? What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

Shoes and Taxes

Welcome folks...to another edition of what I did last week: in pictures. The #febphotoaday is still going on and I have so far not missed a day! Hurray! To see what it's all about, you can head over to Fat Mumslim's page and check it out. 

Day 11: Makes me Happy

Nordstrom.com -- Via Spiga page

Day 12: Inside my Closet

Flats: Anne Klein

Flip Flops: Reef

Boots: MIA

Day 13: Blue

Camelback Nalgene -- it goes with me everywhere

Day 14: Heart

I saw this on my run the other day. 

Perfect timing. 

Day 15: Phone

Stickers for planner.

Notice the "birthday" ones are all gone (the empty row).

(Notice the hair appt ones are all still there.)

Besides the Feb Photo, this week was spend doing responsible, boring things. Like...

Taxes

Going to the DMV

Cursing at my computer, as it decided to shut down and then the Microsoft Office Suite loses half the things I worked on over the last week. 

You can see my face in the screen.

It doesn't look happy.

It snowed this week. 

But it melted off pretty fast. 

The running trail. 

A shady section of the trail. 

How was your week? Do you try to cram all the boring, responsible things into one day or do you space them out throughout the week/month?

Running Stuff

When I first started running, I did it with only the shirt on my back. Now I have all kinds of things that I have tried, some that worked for me, and some that didn't. Here are a few of my favorites.

1. Fuel: 

I tried all the fuel: Gu, gu chomps, clif shots. I didn't really like them. I thought that most of them tasted like jelly. Nasty, cough syrupy sweet jelly. Thanks to Jill, who recommended the Honey Stinger Chews, I finally found one I liked (after much trial and MUCH error!) I have since also found out that the Gu Chocolate flavored Energy gel and the Clif Shot Blocks Black Cherry are not super horrible either.

source

2. Belts: 

After debating for a long time, because I wanted to buy a belt, but couldn't find very many in brick and mortar stores, but did not want to order online without trying them, I finally bought an Amphipod at REI (with a giftcard! Yay!) I love it. It does not slip at all, unless you have all the waters next to each other. But if you put them equidistant apart, it doesn't bounce at all. It has 4 - 8 oz bottles which can be taken off and one pocket for my iPod. The bottles snap in, which I like, since a friend told me that her Nathan belt started to lose the bottles out of the holsters.

The only complaint I have is that the pocket has a Velcro closure and has opened up once or twice mid run (when it is filled too full) and let my goods fall out on the road. If you carry less junk, you may not have that problem. It's also one size fits all with a Velcro closure, which I thought I would not like, but it has worked out just fine.

source

I also got to try the iFitness belt, which doesn't have water bottles. However, it does have a waterproof case for your iPod or phone, which has a zipper and works great. Not only that, but it has a pocket inside to fit your credit card or ID. It has a clasp with one size fits all adjustment and is comfortable and doesn't ride up. It also has a bib holder, which is great! Now I can take off my sweatshirt and not worry about where my bib is attached! I usually only use it for shorter runs though, since it doesn't have water bottles.

source

3. Headgear: 

I admit, I was skeptical. I have never worn headbands. I did buy some goody ones at Target once, but they were so tight they made my head hurt a couple minutes into the run. The Chica Bands, however, are great. I am still growing out my hair, so they are good for keeping those flyaway hairs out of my face. I am still not completely used to it and it has been pretty cold, so I have not had many chances to use them, but my initial review is that they are so far, so good. They don't seem to slip and only hurt my head when I put them too far forward (by accident!)

4. Footgear:

My first running shoes were Nike. They were too tight. I tried Brooks and they are too flat. So I tried Asics and have been using them ever since! I am currently using the Gel Fluent 4, but I pretty much buy whichever one is on sale when it's time for a new pair. As long as they are Asics, I don't discriminate!

These shoes now have 621 miles on them!

5. Garmin

Because of the price, I held off on getting a Garmin for a long time. I remember having to wait until the next mile when they would call out my time, to know what my pace was. I was an expert of multiplying 9 or 10 minute miles to figure out where I was. But when the Garmin 305 went on sale, I knew I had to get it. I actually requested it as a Christmas gift. I know, it's huge, and at first I wasn't sure I WANTED to know how fast (or slow!) I was going. But it has turned out to be a very great tool for me over the last year. I don't even use or KNOW how to use all of the functions, but just knowing my pace and being able to do intervals and tracking my progress has been great. Besides, its FUN to see how high that mountain I just climbed really was! I even measured my parent's driveway (.2 miles - 245 ft ascent).

source

Tomorrow I will be running the Bay Breeze Half, which will be my second half marathon for the 12 in 2012 Running Challenge! I will be back next week with a race recap! Don't forget to go over to Fitness Friday at Jill's each week to see some other great fitness related posts!

Disclosure: I was given the iFitness belt and the Chica bands for free for participating in the 12 in 2012 Running Challenge. However, all opinions stated on this blog are mine alone. 

What gear is a must have in your book? Do you use a Garmin or do you just wing it?

Winter Games

Do you remember your favorite childhood memories from each season? As you may already know, my friend Lisa had an idea to blog about your favorite things from childhood and I loved it. You can find my Summer post HERE and my Autumn post HERE.

Here are some of my favorite things about Winter from When I Was a Child.

You may find this one kind of obvious, but number one is Snow. When I was younger, we used to get dumped on in the winter time. We would get days off of school and we would build snowmen and go sledding and have snowball fights. Then we would go inside and drink hot cocoa and dry out. It was great. Imagine that if it snowed today you could have the day off and you didn’t have to drive anywhere, do anything, or shovel. Wouldn’t it be a lot more fun!? It seems like through the years, it has been snowing in our area less and less. We still get a few good dustings, but not like we used to. 

Another one which is pretty much a given is Christmas. I already wrote an entire post about what Christmas is to me, but as a child, I remember cookie baking, decorating, staying up late waiting for Santa, reading the Night Before Christmas, cookie eating, advent calendar decorating and more! It was an entire month of great stuff. 

Skiing:  Since I was young, we always went skiing every year. I vaguely remember learning to ski and hating it for a little while since I couldn’t get it. Then I stopped whining and got the hang of it and after that I was unstoppable. We used to ski at a tiny resort near home that only had a Poma lift, which most people probably haven’t even heard of. It’s a long pole suspended from a cable and you stick the pole between your legs and it pulls you up the hill (if you look very closely, you can see it in the background in the below photo). Sadly that resort has been closed for years, due to the lack of enough snow and the competition from bigger resorts nearby (who make their own snow). 

Ski Team: This goes hand in hand with the last one, but deserves its own recognition. I started ski team when I was young; we had a Buddy Warner version. Then when I was older, I got on the High School ski team, which was a blast. We used to have meets every Monday, so we would get out of school each week and ride a rickety old bus up to the resort, laughing and singing the entire way. Okay, maybe I just made that part up, but the bus rides were fun! Then we had to do races in the morning, but the rest of the day was free skiing. We also had practice once a week. Twice a week skiing! Little did I know how lucky I was those days. Now I am lucky to go once a year. 

Hot Cocoa: I mentioned hot cocoa in regards to the snow already, but this was a serious drink for us when I was younger. First, you make the hot cocoa. Then you cover it with whipped cream. Then you eat the whipped cream. Then you cover it again with whipped cream. Then you eat the whipped cream again. You may do this up to 6 times. Once that process is complete, you make buttered toast, which you then dip into the hot cocoa until its gone. Then you drink the remains, if there are any.

Sledding: We had the wooden sled with runners, the plastic one with the handles on each side so you could steer and brake and the round plastic one.  We would take turns using them. The choice of sled depended on which kind of snow you had that day. 

Card Games: Oh the long, dark winter days. What better time for a card game? We used to sit and play cards for hours. We even made up our own rules, so the games would last longer. We made up a version of Rummy where the points are all higher but you have to play to 5000. If we had enough people, we would play Spades or Hearts.

Baking: Winter and Christmas are always about making cookies! Our favorite kind to make were chocolate chip, as evidenced by the batter splatters in the Joy of Cooking. The other thing we always made was Banana Nut and Cranberry Nut Bread.

Christmas Treeing: This may actually be done in fall, technically, but it reminds me of winter, so. There is something great about going up into the mountains and chopping down your own tree.  I apologize to the tree huggers now, but it’s fun. It’s cold, and sometimes your car gets stuck in the snow and your socks get wet, but you end up with your own little tree, the fruit of your labors, in the end. 

There are of course, many other memories and good times to be had by all, but they are for another day!

What is your favorite childhood memory from the wintertime? Did you have snow where you grew up? Do you like playing card games?

Le Plus Grande Pilgrimage

In France, there is a song about the pilgrimage of the Basques.

J’irai de Pampelune jusqu'a Bayonne (I’ll go from Pampalona to Bayonne)

J’irai de Dax jusqua Mont de Marssan (I’ll go from Dax to Mont de Marssan)

Je ferai le plus grande pelerinage, (I’ll go on the biggest pilgrimage)

Le plus grande que tout le temp! (The biggest pilgrimage of all time)**

**pardon me if I spelled any French words wrong or translated incorrectly. It's been a while since I learned that song OR spoke French!

I learned this song when I was living in Bordeaux. We went to Dax during the running of the Bulls and celebrated with hundreds of Basques, dressed all in white with a red kerchief around their necks.

My friend Raquelita, and her friend M, went to Spain and did a hiking pilgrimage on the same route as the Basques, many miles over several days. They hiked a little bit each day in order to eventually conquer a great distance. They are both in academia, and when M suggested using this same principal to get some of their writing done, I jumped on board. Her challenge to herself and to others, was to write 400 words a day, at least, and to reward herself with a new pair of boots after she got to 10,000 words (I especially like that part!)

I don’t have any academic papers to write; I don’t have any homework. However, I do have a couple things that I am using M’s pilgrimage for.

Journaling: When I travel, I usually keep a journal, or try to. I really enjoy this for several reasons. Looking back over them is fun, as is remembering what you did and all the little things that you quickly forget about. Also, it’s a great way to keep your facts straight. I write down where we stayed and how much it was so if anyone needs a recommendation for a good hostel, I have it. I keep track of how much I spend, so later I can remember that, yes, Egypt WAS cheap. BUT, I often fall short on my journaling. I tend to start off strong and end up…well…nowhere. So, my goal #1 is to catch up on my journaling, not only for traveling/fun days, but for regular days. Luckily I have photos to help me remember each day! 

How’s it going so far? I started on the 8th, a week ago, and so far, I have written over 400 words each day. I plan to keep on with this for at least the month of February, and hopefully longer.  My end (optimistic) goal is to get done with my entire travel journal and start making my life journal an everyday thing (right now I maybe get it done once a week, usually when I have problems I need to hash out in my mind).

Goals: Sometimes I let my goals scare me. If they are big, they seem too big, too far away, unattainable even. I need to break them down into bite sized pieces instead of letting them get the best of me. My friend Karen uses the 52 weeks of the year to attain her goals. She makes 52 goals and tries to accomplish one each week.

Sometimes my biggest problem is the making of the goals themselves, not necessarily the accomplishing of the goals. Once I buckle down and decide what to do, I can get things done. But I don’t want to make a goal and then fail it, so my fear of failing the goal makes me not make goals, which is in itself failing anyway. So hopefully this challenge will help me to MAKE goals and to realize that if I work on them a little bit each day/week/month, I can get them done eventually!   

How's it going so far? Last week, I sat down and made three big goals. Now I need to break them into manageable bites and then get chomping!

Running: Some days I don’t feel like running. I have to talk myself into going out and just running a few miles, since that means I will still be able to run less miles per day to achieve my weekly goal. I would rather run 4 x 4 mile days than 1 x 16 mile day! I am usually pretty good at doing this, but I just want to keep it in the back of my mind for those days that I am feeling less motivated. 

Hows it going so far? This week I ran 5 times, rather than 4. It was great to have one day where I could do a shorter, "easy" run, instead of cramming all the miles into less runs! 

Do you have a pilgrimage of your own to conquer? What things do you try to do every day so that they don’t get out of hand in the long run?

Running Related Tidbits

I finally made a tentative training schedule for the 12 in 2012 races. I wasn’t really sure how to do it, since I will be racing every 2 – 8 weeks. Basically, I am going to stick to the same running schedule I used for the marathon, which is two easier days of 5-7 miles, and two longer days, one of them being mid-week and roughly 6-10 miles, and one being on the weekend, which will be 10-15 miles. I figure I may as well keep my mileage up as well as I can for now. However, I don’t really feel the need to run more than 4 days a week. I don’t want to get burned out or bored with it. It’s supposed to be fun!

_____________

In other running related news, I have been logging my miles into Dailymile by hand, since I haven’t always had the internet to upload my Garmin. Then I had the internet the other day, so I plugged my Garmin in and uploaded all 60 runs that I was missing. So now I have double miles on Dailymile. Does anyone know if there is a way to do a batch edit, instead of having to delete each run, one by one?

_____________

This weekend I ran for Sherry, who is a runner from Montana who went missing last month. You may have heard about it on the news. Her body was never found. They declared her dead just the other day. Her cousin hosted the run on her blog, and I was excited to take part.  As a runner, it makes you think twice about where and when you are running, even though you don’t really want to think about that kind of stuff. I usually tell someone where I am going and when I think I will be back and I wear a Road ID in case I get hit by a car, but unfortunately, you really can’t prevent everything.

I ran11 miles out and back on a nice clear, cold day in the mountains. This one's for you, Sherry. I hope that by having so many supporters running this run for her, her family and friends will feel the massive support of the running community. I know a lot of other people did this for her and I love being a part of such a caring group.

Did you run for Sherry?  Do you have any suggestions as far as my training schedule? Do you know if Dailymile has a group edit?