running

Running Abroad

When Jeremy and I were first planning our trip, I was in the midst of half marathon training. I ran four halfs last year, and generally felt super fit and in shape for the majority of the year (I was actually in the best shape of my life thanks to running and the Jenny Schatzle Program). I had all these daydreams about running multiple half marathons in Europe, and eventually running my first full marathon here too. I even registered for one (the Cork City Marathon) and got my parents to work it into their traveling plans so that they could be at the finish line with me on that special day. A couple months passed, I developed runner’s knee, and my parents decided they couldn’t fit Ireland into their trip. If I’m being honest, I had a feeling in the back of my mind that it wouldn’t happen. Marathon training is such a huge commitment, trying to do it while traveling the world might be too much to take on. But I’ve actually been running a good bit (considering), so my blog name and tagline is not a total lie. And I still plan on running a half marathon or two while we’re over here, it’s just a matter of which ones fit into our itinerary the best. I get butterflies all over again thinking about choosing which race will be my first full marathon (my hometown Santa Barbara Marathon? Napa? San Francisco? Los Angeles? ahhhh) and picturing myself crossing the finish line with my family waiting for me and cheering me on. I’m especially motivated after watching the Boston Marathon on my computer from Switzerland on Monday.

Running in the Swiss countryside.

For the first time in two years, I have no races on the horizon. I am not following a training plan, but merely running just to run (and to try to counteract at least a small portion of the amount of bread, cheese, and wine I’ve been stuffing my face with). It’s also a wonderful way to explore these towns and cities we’ve been visiting.

For safety purposes, I don’t run with earphones (which is very new for me), I carry my phone on me, and I tell Jeremy where I’m going and how long I’ll be gone. I try to map out my route beforehand, and luckily I have a really good sense of direction so I don’t get lost easily. But I usually do out-and-backs so that I can just follow the same way home.

I’ve noticed that I’m MUCH thirstier on my runs here, and I know it’s because of the change in eating habits we’ve had, and I just need to drink more water throughout the day. Jeremy and I had a very healthy diet back home and didn’t eat much salt, and all that changed when we started traveling. I also used to have my Lifefactory glass water bottle with me at all times, and would drink water all day without thinking about it. I find myself not wanting to drink a bunch for fear of not being able to find a bathroom while we’re out, or only finding one you have to pay for. I need to work on hydration, because getting dehydrated and feeling like I need water NOW two miles into a run where I don’t know where a water fountain is located, has not been fun.

Here are some running highlights so far!

Running in London (or, my first run abroad)

I tried not to be too hard on myself that I didn’t actually run until we got to London, but we had been walking so much up until then (6-10 miles a day), I thought that adding running to the mix might be a bit too much. I finally got out the door of our friend’s flat and ran to the local park, Peckham Rye, for a nice run. It actually wasn’t THAT nice, since the smog levels were so high, London officials were warning people about going outside. And my run didn’t feel great since it had been a few weeks since my last one, but hey, at least I got out there.

Pretty Peckham Rye.

I love seeing these public exercise centers over here.

Running in Kent (or, the one where I found a castle by accident)

My runs in Kent were a different story. The weather was great, the air was fresh and crisp, and my legs felt good. The thing is, I had to run on the roads that scared the crap out of me and Jeremy due to the speed at which cars were driving (read more about that here). I didn’t enjoy that aspect of it, but during one run, I saw a sign pointing to Chiddingstone Castle, and immediately turned down the road toward it. It took a couple miles to get there, but it was so fun to just run down the road and not know what to expect. I happened upon Chiddingstone, a really pretty Tudor one-street village that dates back to the 16th and 17 centuries, named after the Chiding Stone, which I also visited. I finally made it to the Chiddingstone Castle, and it was early morning and so beautiful, and I was the only one around. I had a Downton Abbey moment before turning around and heading back.

St. Mary’s Church in Chiddingstone, which dates back to the 13th century.

A cemetery near Chiddingstone.

Love those trees.

Entering the one-road village of Chiddingstone.

Chiddingstone Castle.

The Chiding Stone, where the village reportedly got its name.

The National Trust owns the village of Chiddingstone (except the castle and the church), and according to the Wikipedia page, it is “the most perfect surviving example of a Tudor village in the county.”

The fields and church near the house we were housesitting.

I love the English countryside.

I couldn’t get enough of these fields.

Symmetry at its finest.

Running in Zurich (or, my favorite run to date)

Zurich is a beautiful city (see my post on it here). The scenery is beautiful, the weather when we were there was perfect, its impeccably clean… I could go on. Jeremy sat by the lake while I ran around it for an hour, and I didn’t want to stop. I had a view of the lake pretty much the entire time, and I found some neat things along the way. When I got done with my six-mile out-and-back, I had such runner’s high that I didn’t want to stop. I ended up leaving Jeremy again and running, actually sprinting, the opposite direction for another mile. I just kept going faster and faster, dodging all the tourists, and feeling better and better with every step. It was one of the best feelings in the world, and reminded me why I love running so much.

The view from Quaibrücke.

Looking over Zurich Lake.

This drinking fountain was a sight for sore eyes.

Jean Tinguely’s idle machine sculpture.

If the water was a little warmer…

Running in Wünnewil-Flamatt (or, the one that turned into a trail run)

Going on a run in the countryside has its positives. There are less people, less cars, and beautiful scenery. But on the other hand, it’s a lot easier to get lost. My run through the countryside in Wünnewil-Flamatt, outside Bern, was not as easy as I was hoping it would be. The good people of Switzerland care about hikers and bikers, and there are little yellow signs all throughout the country pointing them in the right direction to get to neighboring towns or nice hiking trails. I tried to follow these signs from the Airbnb we were renting, but soon came across a closed road with huge cattle being led across it. I’m sure that hikers are meant to go around the crossing, but I’ve watched enough episodes of Locked Up Abroad to know to not risk breaking any rules. A few times during my run I had to turn around due to a sidewalk ending, and I saw no other runners the entire time. I got many stares from the townspeople, looking at me like I was an insane person. I found myself on a highway-type road with cars going really fast, but suddenly spotted that familiar yellow sign pointing to a trail. I braved crossing the highway, and starting trekking up the steep mountain. When I got to the top, there were dairy farms, pretty fields, a golf course, and a small village. Luckily the yellow signs continued, and I had to walk through some rocky terrain for fear of twisting my ankle, but I made it a good ways before deciding to turn around and head back.

Shortly before being made to turn around due to a cow crossing.

If it weren’t for those little yellow signs, I’d be living at some dairy farm among the cows by now.

The trail up the mountain (it was steeper than it looks here, I swear).

It continued…

Celebrated not getting lost in the countryside by popping the cap on this exclusive, probably vintage, red wine so expensive the convenience store simply named it ‘Red Wine’ and some Swiss cheese.

I haven’t been running enough to need to carb-load, but I’ve been doing it anyway. Bigtime.

Running in Geneva (or, the one where I felt like Maria von Trapp)

(dramatic reenactment)

Like I said, Switzerland cares about hikers/walkers/cyclists. Surrounding the house we were sitting outside Geneva, there were miles and miles of nice paths through beautiful fields, complete with horses, vineyards, and views of the Alps. It was pretty much a runner’s dream. There were no cars to worry about (my favorite), and all you had to do was watch out for people riding horses. Not to mention, everyone I passed gave me a huge smile and a friendly “Bonjour!” On one of my runs, I took a path going up a big hill covered in vineyards and got a really nice view of the valleys below. I got no less than three bugs in my eyes during my runs, but it’s the price you pay for running in the beautiful Swiss countryside.

View of Mont Blanc on the right from the top of the vineyard-covered hill.

Prepared for rain, but it never did.

The hills are alive…

An ominous scene.

Another view from the top.

If you look closely, you can see a horse with a rider at the top of the trail, where I ran at one point.

My new friend.

I’ve had such a good timing running through Europe, and I can’t wait to see where else I’ll get to explore!

Housesitting in Geneva

The reason we decided to go to Switzerland so early on in our trip was because we secured a housesitting assignment in Geneva for a week surrounding Easter weekend. It’s been really great to be given these assignments so we have certain things to plan around. Otherwise, I worry that we would feel a bit lost as far as deciding where to go next. But luckily, we’ve worked it out so that we have plans up until the end of August. A lot can happen during that time, so we’ll see where we are at after that’s over.

Jeremy and I took the train from Wunnewil to Fribourg, then changed trains for one that went directly to Geneva. We like to have some red wine for train rides, but we didn’t have plastic cups to use for the ride. Jeremy MacGyvered some out of the bottom of a water bottle we had. We were sharing the “cup” that had a really sharp lid from where it was cut, and the lady pushing the minibar cart up and down the aisles put two real plastic cups in front of us as soon as she saw us try to drink from the makeshift one. It was greatly appreciated. We’ve also been living off Barney’s Best peanut butter (the only kind I’ve seen in Switzerland), and it’s so sugary. It’s basically dessert. Delicious.

Our fancy wine glass fashioned out of a plastic water bottle.

Much better.

The view of Lausanne from the train.

I really enjoy train rides, but we had a bit of trouble on this one. There weren’t reserved seats, and when the train pulled up we mistakenly got in a cabin that was for first class passengers only. We went through the inside of the train trying to find the second class cabins, but during the time it took us to do that, the other cabins had pretty much gotten filled to the brim. We spent the first twenty minutes of the train ride going up and down the aisles with our luggage looking for empty seats. We finally found some and were able to relax. I remember that happening years back when Jeremy and I met up in Europe only a few months after we started dating. It’s really stressful for me to do things like that, because I’m such a planner and I like to know exactly where we’ll be sitting and what to expect.

Our housesitting host picked us up at the Geneva train station after we walked around a bit, and we were off to her house right outside the city.

Geneva Lake.

Vineyards outside Geneva.

After we got settled in the house, our host took us over the border to a grocery store in France. I have never been so excited and relieved. The fact that there were things for sale under a euro and we could actually buy vegetables and wholesome food (instead of just pasta and bread) was so great. Not to mention bottles of red wine from Bordeaux for about two dollars. Our host was waiting for us outside so we made a rushed job of our grocery shopping, which was a mistake. We didn’t get nearly enough food, and ran out of it quickly. Another thing about visiting the grocery store was that I got to use my French for the first time this trip. It was really exciting!

I love French grocery stores. I could live in this cave, if it didn’t smell so much like farts.

It was a little too far to walk from the house to the city center (especially with Jeremy’s injured knee), so we took the week to explore the plentiful walking paths around the house and stayed close by. Everything was closed for Easter Sunday and Easter Monday (aka Marathon Monday), so when we ran out of food, I took the dog we were looking after on a hunt for a gas station to find something to eat. I ended up stumbling upon a patisserie a couple miles away that was like walking into heaven. The amount of baked goods and desserts was overwhelming, and even though it was hard to resist, I ended up just walking out with a baguette. I found a gas station and bought some Swiss cheese and chocolate, and that managed to hold us over until dinner. Our time in Geneva was really nice and relaxing, Jeremy was able to rest his knee some more, I got some great runs in, the animals were really sweet we were caring after, and our hosts ended up coming home a day early and cooked us dinner, gave us nice wine, and we talked for hours.

Walking Sam the dog with the Alps in the background.

Walking Sam the dog with Mont Blanc in the background.

The reward of my miles-long hunt for an open gas station on Easter Monday.

The reward of my miles-long hunt for an open store on Easter Monday.

Our adorable abode for the week.

A neat antique store I found in the neighborhood.

Morning in Geneva.

Sam the cutie.

Cats can’t resist Jeremy (part one).

Cats can’t resist Jeremy (part two).

There was wisteria everywhere.

Our neighbors.

Watching the Boston Marathon!

Bern, Switzerland

I had been to Bern, Switzerland once before with my parents, and even though the weather was pretty cold and dreary, we still enjoyed ourselves. So I knew I wanted to go back with Jeremy. As I’ve mentioned before, Switzerland is extremely expensive, so it’s been kind of a struggle doing everything we want to do, without feeling like we are breaking the bank. I didn’t realize when booking our trip just how pricey everything would be, including public transportation, so I figured we’d spend three nights in Zurich, then three nights in a smaller town to experience something else. We also got such a well-priced apartment in Zurich that I still didn’t realize, even after buying the plane tickets. Once we left Zurich and got to our Airbnb in Wunnewil, we kind of stayed put. We knew we wanted to go into Bern, but after being at the train stop and using the machines to buy tickets, we saw that it would $40 round trip for us to go into the city, and it was already the afternoon. We decided to stay back so Jeremy could rest his knee, and I went on a run. The next day, we made it out of the apartment slightly earlier (we have trouble getting out of our temporary residences early for some reason), and headed to Bern, the capital of Switzerland.

Beautiful Bern.

No visit to Bern is complete without visiting Zytglogge, the town’s main clock, at the hour to see the little show the moving figures put on.

The astronomical clock was built in 1530. The king on his throne waves his scepter in one hand and turns an hourglass for each hour in the other.

Bern has some really great fountains.

Where Einstein lived from 1903 to 1905. I took a tour of the apartment with my parents a few years back, but skipped it this time around.

Jeremy doing his best Einstein impression outside his house.

We hiked up to the Rosengarten to get a really nice view of the town below.

Those rooftops kill me. I love them.

View of the Alps from Rosengarten.

Another main attraction is the Barengraben, or Bear Pit. Bears are the symbol of Bern (and its literal translation), and bears have historically been placed in a concrete pit in the city center. Thankfully, the city opened up BarenPark in 2009, a much larger piece of land that includes some of the River Aar for the bears to play in. You can see the BarenPark in the left of this photo.

Even though they have more room to roam now, I still couldn’t help but feel bad that these huge, majestic creatures were in captivity. But I feel that way whenever I’m at a zoo, too.

I much preferred this statue of a bear I could ride.

How to disembark from a bear statue with perfect form.

Of course Jeremy and I had to have a picnic, so we picked this nice square near the Parliament building (these public squares that people sit on are so incredibly clean, it’s very impressive).

Picked up a can of Prosecco at the market… Jealous, Lis?

Blusecco advertisement.

Jeremy getting our picnic ready.

After our picnic, we walked around some more, stumbling across this square with the coolest church in it I’ve ever seen.

The crazy detail of the church. Too bad the sun was hiding half of it.

Jeremy admiring the church’s details. There was haunting organ music coming from inside…

This guy was on the ledge of the church when you looked up.

Another pretty church.

I really like seeing people play huge games of chess.

Self portrait.

The beautiful opera house and theater.

Historical Museum of Bern.

Everywhere you turn, there are nice views.

I would not mind if that was my backyard.

I would also not mind if someone bought me a huge slab of chocolate.

One last look at the clock tower.

This was actually in Zurich, but I forgot to include it. I looked at a vending machine to see if I could afford anything (I couldn’t), and saw that above the cannabis drink there was a pregnancy test (the MaybeBaby pocket), and this was outside the Zurich Zoo:

Iceland Part II: Geysir, Seljavallalaug, and the Northern Lights

After exploring some of the south coast of Iceland, Jeremy and I wanted to go north from our cabin to see a geyser and another waterfall we heard about. The lady we were renting the house from also gave us directions to the oldest swimming pool in Iceland, and we were determined to go, even though it was in the opposite direction.

Driving in Iceland was really fun for me, mainly because our 4×4 was awesome, there weren’t many people on the roads, and the scenery changed dramatically with each turn we made. What we didn’t realize about driving in Iceland was the price of diesel. Every time we passed a gas station and saw the prices we thought, no that can’t be right, we must not be understanding it. When we finally had to fill up, we ended up getting a half a tank for over $100. It was painful.

The Great Geysir

After recovering from filling up the tank, we made our way to the Great Geysir (Jeremy and I called it the OG, “original geyser,” since it’s where geyser got the name), where there was a beautiful restaurant and shop. Even though we didn’t eat anything due to the high prices, all the food looked and smelled delicious.

At least they have a sense of humor about their financial collapse.

Strangest souvenir we’ve seen.

The gift shop at Geysir.

Traveling on a strict budget = eating a cucumber in the car.

We didn’t realize that it was going to cost money to get into the area to see Geysir, so we stayed near the road and waited for what we thought was going to be a smaller geyser… We really thought we tricked the system and were going to see something cool, but after 30 minutes of standing there watching the ground smoke and water bubble, we finally asked someone if it was going to off. He told us that it wasn’t a geyser and nothing more was going to happen. We ducked our heads in embarrassment and ran back to the car. We ended up seeing the actual Geysir go off as we were driving by (but sadly didn’t get a picture), so it all worked out.

Waiting on a nonexistent geyser.

It was still a pretty view while we waited.

Gullfoss

The drive to Gullfoss from Geysir only took about 10 minutes, and we didn’t know what to expect since we hadn’t seen pictures beforehand. Gullfoss (“golden waterfall”) is Iceland’s most famous, and we could see why. Along with everything else we saw in the land of fire and ice, it was difficult to believe that what our eyes were seeing was real.

Another rainbow/waterfall combination at Gulfoss.

Seljavallalaug

Weather in Iceland is very unpredictable and changes quickly, just like the scenery. We got lucky and had pretty much clear skies the entire time we were there, but the day before we arrived was extremely stormy, we heard. As we were driving back from the Golden Circle, where Gulfoss and Geysir were located, we saw dark clouds and rainstorms near the coast, which is where we were heading to get in the geothermal pool. Jeremy and I went back and forth on deciding if we should make the drive to the location (it was an hour out of the way), but ultimately decided to risk it. For me, this was the best decision of the trip. I’m not a huge risk-taker in life (except when it comes to dropping everything and buying a one-way ticket to Europe, apparently), and normally I would play it safe. We didn’t know exactly where the pool was, we knew it required about 20 minutes of hiking, and we had no idea what to expect when we got there, or if we would even find it. The weather cooperated and stayed beautiful, we found the parking area, and headed out on foot with our bathing suits.

The hike did require a lot of jumping on rocks and climbing up hills, but it was easier to find than we were expecting. When we finally arrived, I was so, so happy that we decided to make the journey. There were a few other people there, and there was a structure where you could change (which apparently was just a sheep shed). The experience in the pool is one of the best things I’ve ever done, for sure.

When we first got in, it wasn’t quite as warm as we thought it would be, but enjoyed it anyway. One of the other people in the pool came over and introduced himself and let us know that the reason everyone was in the opposite corner of the pool was because that’s where the pipe that the hot water was coming out of was located. We joined the others, and were relieved to feel the VERY hot water pouring in. The people we met were so nice, and all traveling. Only one guy was from Iceland, and he was hitchhiking around the country because he had a few days off from work. It was so fun to be around other travelers and to talk about what we were doing and where we were going, and to hear their stories. They even shared their vodka with us.

Making the journey to the swimming pool, not knowing where we were going or what to expect.

The magical pool.

The sheep shed where we got changed into our bathing suits.

The view from inside. I never wanted to leave.

The Northern Lights

Jeremy and I reluctantly got out of the warm geothermal pool and trekked back to the car to make the drive back to our house. We went the same road as we went the first day, when we saw all the horses. Luckily they were still there, and we got out to take more pictures of them.

When we got home, we made our dinner of a pizza we picked up at the grocery store (turns out we didn’t have an oven so we put it on a pan on the stove and it worked out really well surprisingly), some Icelandic beer for Jeremy, and some red wine for me. Some of the vegetables at the grocery store were really reasonably-priced, but then all of a sudden there would be four tomatoes for $25, or three peppers for $20. Since everything was listed in Icelandic Krona, we were really careful about what we were getting, and probably spent an hour just figuring everything out. We made some great choices though, and only spent about $40 on food for the entire time we were there, not including the alcohol we picked up at the duty-free shop at the airport (which was recommended to us).

I could live here.

I figured our day couldn’t possibly get any better, but as we were going to bed, Jeremy looked out the window above our bed and noticed the Northern Lights had appeared. I was giving up hope that we would see them, but as soon as he said that, I jumped up, went down the ladder, threw as many layers on as I could, and grabbed my camera and tripod. We ended up staying outside for almost an hour, after discovering how fast the lights were changing. We were SO cold, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to go back inside because every few minutes there was a new scene. It was kind of difficult to figure out how to photograph them since I’m still learning about my camera, but I was able to get a few good ones with some long exposures.

Reykjavik

It was very hard to say goodbye to our little perfect cabin, but alas, it was time to return to civilization. As a side note, Icelandic folklore is so incredibly interesting, and we found a tiny elf house outside our cottage, which is very common in the country. People put these little houses outside for elves to live in, and Jeremy and I read that sometimes you even see tiny churches meant to convert the elves to Christianity. We saw many elf houses on our travels, and loved every one of them.

The tiny elf house we found outside the cabin.

We decided to head to Reykjavik before getting to our Airbnb in Keflavik near the airport, since we hadn’t spent any time there yet. The city was really nice, clean, and beautiful. We walked around a bit on the main shopping street, and started our quest to find the famous hot dog stand we’d read so much about. We finally found it after asking three different people for directions (Icelanders give interesting directions, we discovered: “take a right and then go a bit, and then take a left and then another right,” with no street names or any more details). The hot dog was made of lamb and had crispy onions and honey mustard on it, along with other spreads we couldn’t identify. It was delicious.

Who knew Iceland would be known for its hot dogs?

Waiting in line at the hot dog stand.

Reykjavik has a lot of Norwegian design stores, and beautiful street art.

We stayed at a tiny, tiny cottage in the back of someone’s house near the airport, and had to be up at 4am the next morning to return our car and catch our flight to London. We were so sad to leave Iceland, and hope to go back to that magical place someday in the future.

*Another side note: It’s probably obvious, but I’m not running the Cork Marathon on June 2 anymore… With my knee issues derailing my training early on and not being able to run as much as I was expecting the past month, AND the fact that my parents told me they can’t make it to Ireland that week anymore, I’ve decided not to do it. I downgraded to the half just in case, but it is looking like Jeremy and I will be in Honfleur, France with my parents that week, and getting to Ireland is too difficult. I can’t wait until I run a full marathon, and I know that there will be a better time in the future where I can “respect the distance” instead of rushing it.

In Transition

Phew, Jeremy and I are all moved out of our apartment, I can use my right hand again, my knee is feeling good, and my neck is less painful. Things are definitely better than last week! I feel like I let myself feel a little too defeated, when I’m usually very optimistic. I guess moving is just always very stressful.

We are now living at my parents’ house until Friday, when we leave for San Diego. It’s really nice being back in the home I grew up in, and sleeping in my old room. There are always perks being home also, like my mom’s amazing cooking, being walking distance to my favorite beach, fine wine every night, etc. Not to mention spending time with my parents since we’re leaving so soon.

On Thursday, we rewarded ourselves with a moving break and walked down to our favorite neighborhood restaurant for breakfast.

Best breakfast.

We’ll miss this neighborhood.

After moving all day and taking many trips to our storage unit, our neighbors invited us to meet them for drinks for happy hour, and it was so needed.

On Friday, we finished moving and went out for a date night at a place in town called the Lucky Penny. After, we met up with two friends that did the same thing we are about to do, but with kids. They quit their jobs, packed up their house, and traveled the world. They came back after nine months, but are in the process of potentially doing it again. They blogged about it here, although the site is getting a revamp. They are pretty much the reason we had this idea in the first place, and we kept thinking, if they can do it with two kids, why can’t we do it, just the two of us? It was great to talk to them and hear stories, and for the first time I think ever, it hit me that we are leaving so soon and I started to get REALLY excited.

Dinner date.

Dinner at Lucky Penny.

On Saturday, the expected storm had started, and it ended up raining all weekend. It was great. Jeremy and I went down to the beach with my parents because we heard there were huge waves hitting the wall where we usually sit to eat lunch. There were tons of people watching the waves, and they were seriously gigantic. A video has been circulating around the internet from someone who was at a restaurant on Stearns Wharf here, when a big wave crashed through the window. You can see it here.

Stormy beach.

That evening, we headed up to Santa Ynez to have dinner with my brother and sister-in-law, their two kids, and a friend of ours. We ate at a delicious restaurant called Sides Hardware and Shoes. After dinner, Jeremy, our friend Trent, and my brother went to the casino to do a little gambling while my sister-in-law Jacqueline and I hung out at her house with my nephews. It’s hitting me hard that I won’t get to see them as much as I normally do, but we’ll just have to make up for it when we get back.

Yesterday, I helped my mom get ready for my parents’ annual Oscar party. They’ve been throwing them since I was a kid, and they are always a blast. It was more low-key this year, but my mom always goes all out with the food, and of course I overdid it at the snack table.

My mom’s a pro at making cheese platters.

Oscar party!

It was a really great weekend, and since it’s sunny today, Jeremy and I are going to walk to the beach and hopefully go hiking later. Happy Monday!

I ran! And Other Happenings

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Well, I’m pretty thrilled because I went out for a nice and easy three-mile run earlier today to see how my knee felt, and it went better than I expected. I could feel the uncomfortableness occasionally (it’s not really sharp pains, just dull pains surrounding the kneecap), but for the most part it was smooth sailing. If I ran over a curb and used my left leg to jump up on it, I did experience some pain, but not too bad. This makes me SO happy. I knew I shouldn’t push it so I tried to go slowly (although it did seem like the slower I ran, the more pain I felt), but it was hard not to sprint since I was feelin so good. I did some strength training when I got done, and I’m going to ice and stretch tonight. I’ll probably rest again tomorrow, but I’m feeling hopeful that I can run my half in two weeks. Fingers crossed!

Color coordinating.

I’ve been reading about runner’s knee, and the symptoms sound the same as mine. I remembered recently that when I was growing up, if I crouched down and tried to stand back up quickly, sometimes one of my knees would dislocate and it was super painful. I’d have to sit down and kind of wiggle my leg back into place and stand up slowly. This pain could be stemming from that, or just that my kneecaps have some issues. Rainy Writer let me know that there was a series on runner’s knee being written on Run Oregon blog, which was really helpful. I’m remaining optimistic that this won’t be a huge issue for me going forward, and that with strength training and taking good care of my body, I’ll be able to run forever.

Moving Along

On Thursday, Jeremy and I went out to lunch with a few coworkers (one of which was my brother), and we went to a restaurant at the Santa Barbara Harbor, which is always a treat. The running path I use for 98% of my runs goes by the harbor, and I love looking at the sailboats with the mountains in the background. SB sure is pretty.

On Friday, Jeremy and I had to get ready for the garage sale we had with our neighbors. We live in a complex comprised of two duplexes, and we have become really close with our neighbors. It was a lot of fun (not just because of the mimosas we started drinking at 10am), and we had a dinner all together that night also. The sale went on both Saturday and Sunday, and Jeremy and I sold a TON of our stuff. It was definitely successful.

Best neighbors in the universe.

Garage saling.

After the sale was over on Saturday, Jeremy and I headed to the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens for an event a coworker organized. It was a beer festival showcasing local breweries, and a specific beer was selected to complement each section of the gardens. It was really interesting, and a lot of the flowers were beginning to bloom so it was beautiful.

Learning about the redwoods.

Local beer + redwoods.

Magic hour at the Botanic Gardens.

Food was desperately needed, and fish tacos did the trick.

The packing up of our apartment is coming along nicely (we have to be out by Friday), and I feel like we are pretty far ahead of where I normally am when I move (I notoriously leave everything to the last minute… something about the pressure makes me work faster). We can start moving stuff into our storage unit tomorrow. Which means that this is all really happening. And it’s happening VERY SOON. It is insane. I haven’t really let myself realize that we’re leaving town a week from Friday for who knows how long. It could be six months, could be a year, could be longer. I’m going to miss Santa Barbara and my family so much (I always do), but I’m extremely excited to get some adventures in. It’s been way too long.

A Bump in the Road

I’m kind of at a loss and not sure what to do. My left knee is confusing me. About a month ago when it started hurting after a particularly jump-y, hard bootcamp class, any pain subsided within a few days of rest and I ran my half marathon a couple weekends ago pain-free. I honestly haven’t done much in the way of running since then (almost two weeks) except a couple shorter runs and one long run last weekend. It’s not that the pain is severe and causing me to limp, and it’s not always there. It occasionally hurts when I stand up if I’ve been sitting for a long time, or randomly throughout the day. I’d say 60% of the time there’s no pain. But it’s that 40% that has me pretty worried. I tried to think about things that have changed over the last month or two that could have caused this, and over Christmas there was a month-and-a-half-long period of time where I didn’t do any strength training. But after almost a year of strength training, I don’t think that too much muscle would be lost just in that time. I’ve given myself plenty of rest, I eat very healthy, I recover properly. I don’t eat meat (except seafood), but I make sure to get enough protein. I had blood tests last year and they came out stellar. This is why I’m confused. I’ve gained a little weight since I got married in June (about 6 pounds) and maybe that has something to do with it, but it’s not a huge amount. Maybe the muscles in my quads/glutes aren’t as strong as they should be and there was too much pressure on my knees. Maybe my form wasn’t perfect when I was doing all those jumping/burpee exercises over and over in bootcamp. Or maybe I’m just overthinking it.

I have the San Diego Half Marathon on March 9, that I really want to run. We have already gotten a hotel room downtown SD and my mom is going to drive down to watch me race. It’s still two and a half weeks away, and even after resting a week, I should still be able to do it. I’ll play it by ear, but I’m remaining hopeful.

I’m also supposed to be training for a damn marathon. These weeks are base-building weeks in my training plan and since I have a pretty good base built up, I hope it’ll be fine, but the more I don’t run, the more I know I shouldn’t push it and try to run my first full marathon (that my entire family has planned a trip to Ireland around… ugh).

Sometimes I honestly feel like crawling in a corner and crying; it’s just so frustrating to work hard and see yourself improving, only to have a setback. It’s okay though, I’m trying to stay positive and work on strengthening my leg muscles and glutes, ice, foam roll, stretch, etc.

My knee was feeling okay yesterday morning so I went out and tested out three slow miles. Sometimes I would feel the pain, sometimes I wouldn’t. Around mile two it pretty much went away completely. I did some stadium stairs at the local city college, with no pain going up, but with pain going down the stairs.

Not a bad place to do stadium stairs.

Other, Better News

I finally got a hair cut! I hadn’t cut it in a year, and it was definitely time. My hair stylist cut off a little more than I was expecting, but I’m so happy with it. All in all, there’s about 7-8 inches gone. It is thrilling to know that I can wear a tank top to run and not have the hair from my ponytail get caught in the FRONT of my armpits.

Before

After!

Short ponytail!

I also had a pretty exciting mail day the other day:

I ordered the Mizuno Wave Creation 15 and the Brooks Glycerin 11 to see which ones I liked better. Well, I tried on the Glycerin in size 10 at the local running store and they were too small so I ordered them in size 10.5, which is waaay too big. I had this problem with the Brooks Adrenalines in the past, which is unfortunate because I hear Brooks shoes are great. I wore the Mizunos yesterday and I really liked them. They fit perfectly, they are light, it’s a bonus they are cool-looking, and I am happy with them. I need to test them out more (whenever my knee feels better) to really get a feel for them, but I was happy after yesterday’s trial. Like I said in an earlier post, I’ve been told to get stability shoes for pronation the last few times I’ve gone to the running store, but I went on Friday and the lady working told me I tend to supinate and need neutral shoes. I’m hoping this is a breakthrough because I have never loved any pair of shoes I’ve worn in the past; each one has caused me problems.

Maybe, just maybe, a match made in heaven.

Has anyone had knee pain in the past and can offer up some advice? Thank you!

Lately, In Pictures

It rained recently and I got to wear my new rain boots. I was very excited.

Jeremy and I headed to the Patagonia headquarters in Ventura to scope out backpacks and rain jackets.

Jeremy found a backpack.

Downtown Ventura.

Trying on all my adventure gear.

We made tofu tostadas one night for dinner.

Recovering after my long run with compression socks, foam rolling and frozen corn.

Valentine’s Day consisted of this pizza and lots of red wine.

We took a picnic to the beach yesterday, and I got some serious reading done.

Sushi on the beach.

Walking around our neighborhood the other evening at magic hour.

This popcorn was delicious.

I love miniature things. These lemons were too much.

I’m in the middle of trying to get my French citizenship, so my mom, grandma and I drove to LA today to go to the French embassy. It was closed.

Crazy fog driving to LA this morning.

My second home.

I didn’t have a dog with me, but I appreciated this dog drinking fountain/treat dispenser all the same.

Fanciest Coffee Bean I’ve ever seen.

I took my mom and grandma to Real Food Daily in Santa Monica for lunch. I ordered the Mediterranean Bowl: Wild arugula, heirloom tomato and avocado in lemon herb Za’atar dressing with cucumber kalamata salsa, white bean basil salad, red quinoa tabouli, almond feta & whole wheat Za’atar flatbread. It was SO GOOD.

Driving through Malibu Canyon on our way home today.

Leaving Santa Monica.

Driving home on Highway 1.

Hope everyone’s week got off to a nice start!

Running the Neighborhood

Happy Wednesday!

I’m finally feeling better. This cold was nasty but short, thankfully. I don’t like to take any kind of medicine unless it’s 100% necessary, so I just rested up, drank some green juice, got some vitamin D, and tried to sleep it off. And that seemed to do the trick.

How to kick a cold.

Jeremy and I finished up our last week at the office last week (by working 38 hours in three days, it was intense), and now we have begun getting prepared for our departure. We are still going to be doing some work, we can just do it remotely. There are three apartment viewing appointments in the next few days, so we spent yesterday cleaning up and organizing some things around here. I wanted to go for a run since I wasn’t sore one bit from Saturday (I was pretty happily surprised. Hydration, stretching and compression socks work wonders), although after each race so far the top of the second toe on my right foot always hurts so badly. I think I get a blister under my nail or something. It’s black so I guess I’ll lose the nail soon, I just wish it didn’t hurt so bad to the touch. I hope it’s my shoes or something and it can be solved. I decided to run around my neighborhood since it’s pretty much all hills and because the course was so flat on Saturday, I figured I could work some other muscles. I only did a few miles and took it nice and easy, but it was very enjoyable. My toe hurt even more last night though, so I guess I’ll rest today, and fingers crossed it will feel better tomorrow (I’m really itching to get this marathon training underway, I’m getting a little nervous about it). Here are a few shots from my run yesterday.

The Mission.

Spring!

Tried out some new Mizuno shorts… they are much shorter than my normal Lululemon ones I wear all the time, but I liked them.

My ‘hood.

Jeremy and discovered this really great deal at Whole Foods where you can get a tofu entree and two sides from the prepared salad bar for only $6. It’s so much food, and it’s always super healthy, and we’re kind of hooked.

It originally came with three pieces of tofu but I ate one immediately.

One more note, I have been a Zappos fan for years, but I recently ordered a running cap and some insoles, and they came in the most gigantic box ever. After opening the huge box, there was another big box containing the hat that took up one little corner. It was so excessive! I still love them though.

Come on, Zappos.

How’s your week going?

Mermaid Series Half Marathon Recap

Like I said in my last post, I am definitely not feeling well. I felt sort of bad on Friday, but I figured it was allergies (I couldn’t possibly get sick twice in two months, right??). Friday night I was still feeling bad and Jeremy and I were at my grandma’s house in Pacific Beach, San Diego. The main reason I decided to run this race is because I am registered for the San Diego Half Marathon on March 9, but we were originally going to be gone traveling by that time. I found out about the Mermaid Series Half Marathon online, and it seemed like a good race to run that my grandma could be at. My grandma is one of my favorite people in the entire universe, and we have been close my whole life. She was able to watch me finish the SD Half last year and loved it so much, I wanted to make sure there was another race she could be at. We’re now planning on leaving for our trip the day after the SD Half, so I’ll just be running that one too (my mom is coming to that one also, so that’s exciting!).

Anyway, I ended up being up all night Friday night, and I probably got 1-2 hours of sleep. I knew I definitely had some kind of bug. A year ago, I’m pretty sure I would have just stayed home. But I decided to suck it up and brave the race, and I’m proud of myself for doing so. We left my grandma’s house at 6:30am (a little later than we had planned, but it was only about a 7-minute drive to the starting line), and that was a huge mistake. There was a gigantic line of cars on the freeway waiting to get off the exit, and by 6:55, we were just getting off the freeway (the race started at 7), and still had a couple miles to go until the parking area.

Right before I jumped out of the car.

At this point, I was stressing out. I was thinking maybe they would delay the start of the race because there were still hundreds of people in their cars. But then I realized that the 5K and 10K started later than the half, and all these people were probably parking for those races. I saw a girl with a bib get out of the car and start running, so I did the same. WELL, this was the worst part of the day. It turned out to be a mile from the starting point, and I booked it the whole way (I could hear the start of the race when I was running), and when I finally got to the starting line, I just ran over it and kept running and that’s how I started the race. So, really, I ran 14.1 miles or thereabouts (which is actually a PD for me, so yay), which meant that I was pretty worn out by mile 12 in the race.

The Course

To my great surprise, I actually felt okay while I was running (thank you, body). The course was nice and flat, and the scenery was pretty. I do 98% of my training runs along the ocean, so running by the water feels right to me. This course took place in Mission Bay, and it was a beautiful morning. I wore my Nike pullover so I could protect my neck from the cold air, and I was definitely too hot by mile 10, but it wasn’t too bad. It was also supposed to be cloudy and 55 degrees, and it turned out to be super sunny and about 60 degrees. There was not much in the way of crowd support, but it was a pretty low-key race and that was fine. I do have to say that there were lots of aid stations and they pretty much all had Gatorade, which I really appreciated. There were a lot of runners with tutus (this was a women-only race), and I saw one girl with long red hair with mermaid-looking running tights on, and she looked like Ariel from The Little Mermaid, and that was pretty cool. My legs felt good until about mile 10 when I thought I started slowing a bit. They felt heavy but I pushed on, and at mile 11 I was pretty worn out. I kept getting little bursts (I played Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose” over and over again the last few miles and tried to keep my pace up with the beat), and I slowed down a bit, but I continued on and pushed to the end.

Fueling

This was one of the biggest pros for me, I felt like I did a really good job with fueling for this race (which is probably why my stomach felt better the rest of the day afterward instead of being upset with me like it normally is after a half). I used to eat Clif Shot Bloks during long runs, and my stomach didn’t like them much. I switched to GU gels, and this seems to work better. The only kind I’ve had is the salted caramel, but it works pretty well. It’s crazy sweet so I can’t have a full one at one time because I get grossed out, so I had half at around mile 7 and some more at around mile 10 I think. I didn’t manage to eat the entire thing, but I did get Gatorade at almost all of the aid stations, and I carried water with me for the first time, which was so helpful since I could then eat the gel whenever I wanted.

Tastes like icing.

The Finish

As soon as I could see the finish line, I started pushing myself, even though my body knew at mile 12 that I had already run 13 miles and it wanted to stop. But the last little bit of the course was in the grass and as soon as I stepped on the grass a girl started passing me. I am SUPER competitive, and knew I didn’t want her to beat me to the finish line. I’m always glad this happens, because I end up finishing really strongly. We both raced to the finish, and ended up crossing the finish at the same time. I turned around to give her a high-five, but she was nowhere to be found, oh well. My finish time was 2:04:03, a 19 second PR! Looking at my splits, mile 10 and 11 were my fastest, which is something to proud of, and mile 12 I slowed down a ton (I’m going to blame it on my body knowing I had already run 13 miles).

Jeremy found me quickly after I finished, and I immediately asked where my grandma was, and he said he had to take her home and she wasn’t able to watch me finish. It turns out that the parking area was located 2-3 miles from the finish line. It was too far for my grandma to walk, so Jeremy drove around and tried to find a way to somehow drop her off at the finish area. He talked to a couple of the people directing traffic (volunteers?) and no one would let him drive through. He understood that they had to be careful with cars going through where the race was, but there were two lanes, and runners were only taking up one lane. They were letting cars go through to the hotel next to the finish line, and he asked if they could make an exception, just so he could drop my grandma off at the hotel (explaining that she couldn’t walk far), but they said no, it was for hotel guests only. So Jeremy had to take her home and she wasn’t able to see me cross the finish line. This was a huge bummer. I wish they had been a little more sympathetic.

Racing to the finish line.

My splits – pretty steady pace, and miles 10 and 11 were my fastest. Mile 12 I lost it… but overall not too bad.

BUT, one of the highlights of the day was meeting Kristin from STUFT Mama. I have been following her blog for a while, and she is the reason I found out about and decided to choose the Runner’s World Challenge training plan for my first marathon. I ended up asking her a question about it, and she emailed me some advice and encouragement, and I emailed her again last week when I had some confusion about the plan. Kristin has seriously been so nice and helpful and enthusiastic, and I really appreciate it! I saw her after the race, and I went up and introduced myself. She was so friendly, and she ended up taking a picture and posting it on her blog! Check it out here! She also took pictures of the race and finish and stuff, which I forgot to do. She finished third overall, and first in her age group. Her time was 1:33:37, and she was taking it easy. It is really inspiring to meet such an accomplished runner, and it makes me excited to work hard and continue to improve!

Picture taken from STUFT Mama’s blog!

Extras

I picked up my bib on Friday at the park where the finish line was. There was no expo, which I didn’t mind, and there was no line whatsoever. It was super easy and fast. The shirt that came with the event is by far the nicest shirt I’ve ever gotten at a race. The material is amazing, and the fit is perfect. It’s nice and long (which is my jam), and it is so comfortable. I didn’t wear it the day of the race for fear of looking like a newb, but there were actually tons of ladies wearing it, so I wouldn’t have felt abnormal. I’ll definitely be wearing it a lot.

There was no finisher’s medal for this race, there was a necklace instead. It’s pretty cute!

Finisher’s necklace.

They texted my results after the race, which was a nice idea, but this is what it said:

All in all, it was a nice, smaller race with a pretty, flat course. If I ran it again (which I probably won’t since my grandma wouldn’t be able to watch me finish and it’s a three and a half hour drive from Santa Barbara), I would just make sure I left earlier to avoid the massive clusterf*ck at the beginning, and so I could walk the mile to the starting line instead of run my ass off. Hopefully I will feel 100% for the SD Half in four weeks, and get closer to a sub-two-hour finish!

Third half marathon done and done!

Lily Runs the World

training while traveling