running

Done!

Half marathon number three is done, and I couldn’t be happier. Not with my time, but just the fact that it’s over. I came down with something yesterday (second time in two months, that is so not normal for me), and was up all night last night feeling horrible. I ran the race even though I felt awful, and I’m glad I did. And I beat my PR by a whopping 19 seconds! I’m still in San Diego, posting from my phone, and I’ll do a recap when I get home.

Also, I finally got the Runner’s World Challenge figured out and Liz, who has been dealing with all my emails, has been so nice and helpful. I’ll start getting the daily emails next week. Hooray! Hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

Sisterhood of the Bloggers

So, I finally got an email back from Runner’s World Challenge after I emailed inquiring where my training plan was, since I was supposed to start on Monday. When I first registered in November, it asked me what plan I wanted and what the date of the race was, so that the emails could automatically start coming in four months before the race. I didn’t see anything in my inbox on Monday, so I emailed them. I finally got a response asking which marathon training plan I wanted to sign up for. Which is frustrating because I already chose one when I paid for the plan and told them in a separate email after that! I responded, and was sent the training plan I requested. I guess this is my mistake, but I could have sworn I read that it was one of those plans where they email you every day with details about training for that day. That’s honestly the only reason I paid so much for it. But this is one of those printed-out plans, which is okay. I’m resting up this week for my race this weekend, so I’ll start next week. Anyways, I hope it was worth it to buy the plan, fingers crossed.

Last night we were at work late and Chinese food was ordered. I just had a taste since I had already eaten soup for dinner, but I did eat two fortune cookies, and the fortunes inside were very appropriate:

On a side note, I don’t know if anyone has had either of these from Trader Joe’s, but they are SO GOOD. Especially together.

Sisterhood of the World Bloggers

Cori over at She’s Going the Distance was so sweet and nominated me for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers award! I have seen this one floating around, and am excited I get to fill it out now. You’ll find out that I’m super indecisive and can’t choose just one thing, hooray!

Questions:

1. What is your favorite color?

I don’t think I have a favorite color really, but when it comes to real people’s clothes, I pretty much wear charcoal/black/other dark colors. But when it comes to running clothes, I LOVE bright colors, and don’t have enough.

2. Favorite animal?

As a pet, a dog. Other than that, anything miniature, like a hummingbird for example. And these micro pigs:

(source)

Or anything on this list: 24 of the Smallest and Cutest Animals in the World.

3. Favorite non-alcoholic drink?

I’d have to say it’s a tie between coffee and the Greens and Ginger juice from Juice Ranch.

4. Facebook or Twitter?

Facebook is great for keeping up with old friends and posting pictures. I’m just now getting more involved with Twitter again, so maybe that’ll change.

5. Favorite pattern?

I love stripes and plaid, but like I said before, I pretty much only wear greys/charcoal/black.

Stripes and plaid all in one outfit! (Portland, 2013)

Fifty shades of grey.

6. What is your passion?

I have a terrible fear of looking back at my life when I’m old and realizing that I didn’t do everything I wanted to do (I think about it all the time, it’s really healthy). My passion is to not let that happen! Traveling is a huge part of that passion, and I’m so glad that Jeremy and I have made the time in our lives to make this dream come true. I can’t wait to experience new cultures, talk to people from other countries, get to know customs, etc. I think that it’s so important to experience things like that, and I can’t imagine how enriched we’ll feel throughout the process.

It’s a big ol world out there (Switzerland, 2009)

My nominees (my apologies if you’ve already done this!):

For Each Wind That Blows

A Breakthrough and Some Motivation

Well, I am quite proud of myself today. I got up this morning determined to have a good run after the past couple bad ones, and a good one was had for sure. Today was the first time in the history of my running that I had an average pace under 9 minutes!! I know that my fast pace is a million people’s real slow pace, but for me this is a huge victory. I guess taking it easy the last few days has helped. I had zero knee pain, and I was sort of uncomfortable at times since I was pushing more than I’m accustomed to, but for the most part it felt really good. At one point I had been running almost a mile at an 8:45 pace, and I thought to myself, this isn’t so bad. I will take this victory, and use it as confidence in myself during this weekend’s half, even though I’m going into it with no expectations, but just to enjoy it.

!!!!!

My reward this morning.

It was such a nice way to start the day.

In other news, I’m pretty sure I was supposed to start my Runner’s World Challenge marathon training yesterday (it’s a four-month plan), and I still haven’t received anything. They are supposed to send me an email with my daily training plan every morning. I wrote them an email and haven’t heard back yet, and they never responded to one I sent a couple months ago, so that’s a little frustrating. I paid good money for this plan! Hopefully I’ll hear something soon.

And now, some motivation for your Tuesday, from The Luthas Corporation blog:

19 Hard Things You Need To Do To Be Successful

You have to make the call you’re afraid to make.
You have to get up earlier than you want to get up.
You have to give more than you get in return right away.
You have to care more about others than they care about you.
You have to fight when you are already injured, bloody, and sore.
You have to feel unsure and insecure when playing it safe seems smarter.
You have to lead when no one else is following you yet.
You have to invest in yourself even though no one else is.
You have to look like a fool while you’re looking for answers you don’t have.
You have to grind out the details when it’s easier to shrug them off.
You have to deliver results when making excuses is an option.
You have to search for your own explanations even when you’re told to accept the “facts.”
You have to make mistakes and look like an idiot.
You have to try and fail and try again.
You have to run faster even though you’re out of breath.
You have to be kind to people who have been cruel to you.
You have to meet deadlines that are unreasonable and deliver results that are unparalleled.
You have to be accountable for your actions even when things go wrong.
You have to keep moving towards where you want to be no matter what’s in front of you.

Stop… Taper Time

(I thought I was being really creative with this title, but with a quick Google search discovered I am not as original as I had hoped.)

Although my knee feels okay, I’m still being careful with it, since we all know pushing through a slight injury could lead to a more serious injury, which would lead to sadness and no more running for a bit. It’s also kind of good timing since it’s taper time before the Mermaid Series half marathon this Saturday. Now, it’s good to look back on past races and think about what worked and what didn’t, and I remember clearly that I felt like I tapered too much and carb-loaded too much before the Santa Barbara International Half Marathon in November. So hopefully this heavy taper won’t affect me as much since I feel like my mileage has been better this training period. But we shall see! I just know I won’t be stuffing my face with only carbs for the entire two days leading up to the race.

A few randoms:

– We ran out of coffee yesterday so I didn’t have any this morning before getting to work. This is probably why I accidentally drove to my parents’ house instead of work this morning. Oops.

– I was trying to clear out pictures that I didn’t use in my WordPress media bank and ended up deleting all my pictures, which looks like it deleted them from all my past entries as well. Hooray.

– This week is my and Jeremy’s last week at work. Pretty weird.

– Last night, Jeremy and I had our first Thai dinner together (somehow we went five years together without it). We went to TAP Thai here in town and it was SO GOOD. It will have to become a more frequent occurrence. It also really got us pumped up to visit Thailand, hopefully next year.

I JUST missed a double rainbow. There’s a slight rainbow though in the middle there… I swear.

Santa Barbara looked so pretty after a much-needed rain.

Happy Monday!

Weekend Update

This weekend has been pretty lazy, which is really nice sometimes. It’s actually raining at the moment (!!!), so it’s nice to sit at the desk and watch the rain fall outside. Friday night, Jeremy and I went to get a beer at Telegraph Brewing Company. It’s a local brewery that opened up a tasting room recently, and all the fresh beers are inexpensive and delicious. We talked to a guy from Amsterdam for about an hour, and it was fun to talk to him about all his favorite things about his hometown. Georgia’s Smokehouse food truck was out front, and it was really tempting. It’s not healthy food, and since I don’t eat meat there’s not much for me on the menu, but it smelled good nonetheless. I wanted to hire them to cater our rehearsal dinner because of our Southern connection, but it didn’t work out.

After our beers, we headed to Whole Foods to get stuff for dinner to bring back to the apartment. We then watched Your Sister’s Sister, which we really enjoyed.

On Saturday, in between doing laundry, I went for a six-mile run. It really sucked. I was proud of myself though, because after doing three miles and just telling myself I should keep going since I took two days off, I realized that no, this is supposed to be fun and I’m really not enjoying myself. So I turned around and just finished the six. That night, we watched another movie, this time Prince Avalanche.

This morning we met a friend at The Shop down the street, and had a delicious breakfast. Tonight I think we’re going to get some Thai food (we were inspired after doing research about traveling to Thailand), and meeting a coworker for a drink at our favorite bar. Nice and easy weekend, just like I like ’em.

Oh yeah, I’ve also been trying to learn how to say some Icelandic phrases to prepare for our trip… hjálp!

I also realized that I’m running a full marathon four months from today!!!! Which scares the crap out of me. Once again… hjálp!

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

Links I Like

Happy Friday (and last day of January)! Here are some links around the web that caught my eye recently.

I finally took this dialect quiz everyone was taking and I got Oxnard, California, 35 minutes from where I’m from. Pretty crazy.

I’ll be making this toasted kale and pan-fried chickpea salad soon.

I’ve given up about ten bags of clothes in the past couple weeks, which was really hard for me. I get really attached to my clothes. Reading this helped.

Top five reasons to keep running.

Has anyone heard of oil pulling? It’s kind of the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. I’m intrigued.

I thought this was pretty funny.

Aaand this is why I’ll never go on a cruise.

I am on the search for the perfect pair of jean shorts to bring on our trip. I like these a lot.

The reality behind Instagram feeds. We’re all guilty.

I took yesterday off and am going to take today off too, and hopefully I’ll feel right as rain to run tomorrow, and be ready for the Mermaid Series half next weekend. We had a work function at a brewery last night so I didn’t get as much sleep as I’d like, so I’m kind of tired today. It was worth it though. And this morning Jeremy and I went to get breakfast at this great place called The Shop down the street from us.

Nice day for a delicious breakfast.

My breakfast date.

This weekend, we’re going to try to get more stuff done on our to-do list, a friend is coming into town tomorrow, and I’ve got a bunch of laundry to do. Not too much planned other than that! What are you guys up to this weekend?

Moving On

This morning’s bootcamp was probably the hardest I’ve ever done. I’m not sure if it’s because I lost some fitness after not doing it for a month during Christmas or what, but I have never sweated that much. It’s pretty high impact and we do more jumping than I’d like, but normally it’s okay. However, all day I’ve had some tenderness behind my left knee, and it just feels kind of strained or overextended. I iced it and foam rolled, and will probably take tomorrow off just to give it a rest. This is not the first time this has happened, so hopefully it’ll feel fine tomorrow like it normally does.

After bootcamp, Jeremy and I got a nice surprise as we were walking out the door to go to work. His name was Monk:

We had to wait a bit for his owner to come get him, but he was such a sweet dog, I didn’t mind at all.

I notoriously make huge salads, and today was no exception:

Complete with Trader Joe’s egg white salad with chives, two thumbs up.

We gave our notice to our landlord today, which was really bittersweet. This is the first apartment Jeremy and I have lived in together, and we’ll always remember it as the first place we lived after we got married. There were plenty of problems with it, but right now it’s hard to remember those things, all I can feel is a bit sad that we are giving it up. But I have to remind myself why we’re doing it, and all the things I want in our next home that this place doesn’t have. I just love the location, and our neighbors are the sweetest people I’ve ever met. Luckily we have become friends with them and are going to meet up in Europe this summer after they spend a few months in Africa (!!). Since we have now given official notice, we really need to start tackling all the stuff that needs to be done – selling furniture, obtaining a storage unit, canceling cable and gas service, etc. All that fun stuff.

It’s such a conflict of emotion because my excitement for our adventure is mixing with my sadness with leaving my family and our apartment (it takes me awhile to process big changes), but I know that it will be worth it, and it doesn’t have to be forever if we don’t want it to be. California will always just be a plane ride away.

Liebster Award

Lis at 26.2 x 2 nominated me for a Liebster Award! I feel so honored, and it is such a sweet gesture. It’s a really great way to get to know other bloggers and to discover new ones.

Rules:
Mention the person who nominated you with a link in their blog.
Answer the 11 questions provided by the person who nominated you.
Nominate 11 other bloggers with less than 200 followers.
Create a new set of 11 questions for your nominees to answer.

1. How long have you been running for?

I started running after taking a jogging class in college and kept it up for a couple years then dropped it. I started up again when I moved back to California in September, 2011.

2. What’s the furthest distance you’ve ever run?

About 13.1 miles.

3. What’s your p.r.?

5k: 27:54, 10k: 56:07, 10-miler: 1:36:44, half marathon: 2:04:22

4. Where’s your favorite place to race?

I’ve only ever raced in Santa Barbara and San Diego, and I loved them both, so it’s a tie.

5. Where’s your least favorite place to race?

I’ve loved all the courses I’ve raced, so I feel like I can’t answer this!

6. What’s your favorite time of year to go running?

I’m spoiled because the weather is nice year-round here so I don’t have to worry about that. But when I was in Georgia, I loved to run in spring.
7. What’s your favorite “naughty” food to eat that you don’t mind sneaking in on long run days (we all have one!)?

Chips and guacamole or cheese and a baguette. And alcohol.

8. If you could enter a race ANYWHERE, which race would it be?

I think I’d love to race in Vancouver, Seattle, or New York City.

9. What’s your favorite running song?

This changes often because I get sick of songs easily, but right now it’s M.I.A.’s “Y.A.L.A.”

10. Do you have any pets? If so what kind and how many?

I had a dog, who was my absolute best friend, almost my whole life but lost her two years ago. I still think about her every day. My parents still have a chihuahua mix, Pez, who my brother found in a box as a puppy when I was 16, and I feel like she is partly my dog:

Pez

11. Name one hobby you enjoy other than running.

I love photography, and just recently got a new camera that I’m REALLY excited to use on our trip.

I’m going to hold off on nominating people until I follow more people… most of the blogs I follow have a ton of followers or have already been nominated! Time to do some research. I hope this doesn’t disqualify me…

Also, I’m on bloglovin‘, if anyone else is into that!

Tough Morning Run

I had a feeling this was going to happen, and I’m sure that’s half the reason it did. This morning’s run was so tough. It’s weird that sometimes a shorter run can feel easy, then other days it feels like the hardest thing you’ve ever done. I have slept well the past couple nights, which is a huge deal for me. I woke up this morning looking forward to getting up to run. As soon as I started to move around, I realized just how sore my butt was. In bootcamp yesterday, we did sprints on a treadmill with an incline of 10, then we did hills on the stationary bike. I’m the kind of sore where you grunt and show pain in your face when you try to sit down. I procrastinated around the apartment for longer than normal, so I didn’t have time to drive down to the beach to run my usual route. Instead I ran from my apartment, which I’m not a fan of. I can’t go a couple blocks without encountering a hill, and there are streetlights and cars and crosswalks, which equals a lot of stopping and going. People are notoriously bad about stop signs here too, so you just have to assume people are going to try to roll through them and not let you go. You just have to be extra aware the whole time (I only almost got hit one time, that must be a record). The good thing about running this route is that it’s where I ran when I first started running. I remember exactly where I had to stop and walk, and now that I can run so much further, it makes me feel good to see it so obviously. That’s one of the best parts about running; seeing your progress is very easy.

Other things were just off too, I was super hungry when I woke up which is not the norm for me, my iPod nano was dead so I had to take my phone instead (the thought of running without music was too much to bear this morning), I couldn’t find any of my good socks so I had to wear old cotton ones, one of my hairbands broke (I have to wear three since I have so much hair) so my hair was loose the whole run, etc. These are just little things, but combining them with having really tired/sore butt/legs, it was just one of those runs that felt like no matter how fast I felt like I was going, I was actually just plugging along quite slowly. But the important part is that I did it! And I had these waiting for me when I returned:

Yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised when jury duty ended three days ahead of schedule, and I was released around 11:30am.

Really impressive spread in the jury room.

Outdated courthouse bathroom selfie.

It was a nice day to walk back to my car.

Don’t these plants look like they belong underwater?

These tree/bushes always look like something out of Dr. Seuss to me.

Oh yeah and for some reason I had to take a written drivers’ license test to renew my license (and get rid of my absolutely horrible picture), and I was kind of nervous to take it. But I got 100%. I patted myself on the back.

Hope everyone is having a good week so far!

Spirit of the Marathon

I haven’t mentioned this on here yet, but a couple months ago I registered for my first full marathon, the Cork City Marathon, taking place on June 2 of this year. Occasionally I get excited about things and jump into them without thinking enough about them, but I’m hoping this was a good decision and that I can follow through. The main reason I signed up for it is because my parents decided they’re going to spend six weeks in Europe this summer, and I really wanted them to be at the finish line of my first marathon, whenever and wherever that may be. I scoured the internet for a race that fit into their travel plans well, and at first I wanted to do the Paris Marathon, but it was sold out, along with the London Marathon. I inquired about being on a fundraising team, but you have to raise $5,000 in order to do it, which is not really doable while traveling, I thought. These races turned out to be too early anyway, so it’s okay. Not to mention they are huge, and I feel like I would do better in a medium-sized race for my first one. But I could be wrong.

There is so much to consider when choosing your first marathon! There is a D-Day Marathon in Caen, France on June 15, which my dad really wanted me to do, but after some research it seemed like it was a little too small and fast, and races in France are a little more involved; you have to get a doctor’s note saying you are okay to race (I’m pretty sure). Then there was the Stockholm Marathon on May 31 that I considered, but my parents didn’t want to travel that far away from France (the main place they are staying for the six weeks). I was about to register for the Edinburgh Marathon on June 29, but after reading reviews and seeing that they didn’t allow racers to listen to music while running, it didn’t seem like the perfect fit. I came across the Cork City Marathon, and everything seemed to fall into place. My great-grandfather was Irish, and my family has always wanted to visit Ireland together (I’ve been to Dublin once for a few days, but I wasn’t with my family), so it seemed like the perfect time.

(source)

All in all, I did a ton of research (in case you can’t tell, I obsessed over this for a couple weeks, researching every race on the continent), and although I can’t really find out how many runners there will be, it looks like a really nice course, and there will be lots of people cheering (which I think will be important).

I’m pretty nervous, I mean, training for a marathon is a huge commitment on its own (I keep hearing “respect the distance” in my head), but doing it while traveling will be even harder. But it’s not impossible. And Jeremy has been so supportive, he’s going to really help me make it a priority and just make sure that we factor my training runs into our travels. I feel pretty lucky to have such a supportive partner that is up for anything and is as excited about this adventure as I am. I just keep picturing the finish line at the marathon and seeing him and my parents there waiting for me, and it really motivates me to do my best.

Motivational Movies

To get pumped up even more, Jeremy and I watched Spirit of the Marathon, and I definitely teared up at the end when the father-daughter duo held hands and crossed the finish line. It made me really excited to get to that point, but it also made me a little nervous, seeing how mentally and physically tough it is. But I know I can do it. I just have to keep a positive attitude and not put too much pressure on myself (I should probably stop the “your parents traveled all the way to Ireland to see you run a marathon, don’t eff this up” thoughts). I’m just going to take it nice and slow, as slow as I want to, and try to enjoy it as much as I can.

Are there any other good running movies you guys know of that I can watch to get pumped up?

Week in Review

First off, thanks for everyone’s congratulations on getting our plane tickets! It’s a really big deal for us and having a lot of positive reinforcement makes it that much more exciting. I’ve been discovering a lot of blogs online about people that are doing the same thing we are, which is always fun to read. They are filled with so many tips and travel advice, I find them a lot more helpful than regular travel sites or books. I’ve officially booked all of our lodging accommodations in Iceland for all but the last night. I have some pictures of the cottage we rented for three nights near Hella, in southern Iceland, and I would post them here, but I plan to take tons of pictures with my nice camera when we get there, so I’m just going to wait until then and not spoil the surprise. I look at the pictures on the website daily though… It looks absolutely incredible. And the woman we’re renting it from has been so friendly and sent along so much information about day trips from the cottage and the nearest town/beaches/geothermal pools. Plus it’s on a huge amount of acreage and there are trails all over the property, so finding places to run will be easy! I have read that weekends are pretty happening in Reykjavik, so we’ll spend Saturday night at Bus Hostel, which looks like it has a really cool common area and bar, and hopefully we’ll meet some nice people. This will be my first stay at a hostel (which is kind of ridiculous, after all the traveling I’ve done. But I was always by myself and felt safest just renting a cheap hotel room.), but I booked a private room, with a shared bathroom. I’m sure after we get in the swing of things we’ll start staying in the dorm-type rooms with bunk beds to save money, but I’m just easing us into it at this point.

I also found this website, which I think is the coolest thing ever. It’s two guys that have this company (not sure if it’s actually a company since it’s free) and basically you just call them up if you’re visiting Reykjavik and want to go on a run, and they’ll meet you and take you around on however long of a run you want. I’m thinking I’ll do this for my long run that Sunday morning after we stay at the hostel. Seriously, what a cool idea, and so selfless! If you can’t tell, I’m so very excited about our Iceland trip.

I love you already, Icelandic horses. Will you love me too?

(source)

Puffins are so dang cute, too. I hope we see some.

(source)

I love planning. If I could make a living planning things for people, I think I would love it. Even though wedding planning was super stressful and hard at times, I still loved the whole process. And planning trips? Even better. I get almost an adrenaline rush when I’m doing it (is that weird?). I just love all the researching that goes into it, and finding the perfect places to stay, the perfect itinerary, etc. It’s a good thing Jeremy is okay with me doing all the planning because I don’t think I could handle someone else taking the reins and me not being in control of it.

Weekly Recap

I had a bit of a different week, as I had to report for jury duty on Wednesday. Everyone told me that if I told the judge about my deadlines with the newspaper, he/she would excuse me. But it didn’t quite happen that way. I was among about 100 people at first, and they eventually called about 20 of us into the courtroom. Twelve jurors were already chosen, but they brought in the 20 of us to choose an alternate juror. Lo and behold, my name was randomly the one they chose (second after a woman that got excused because she had a moral issue with the jury system), and I had to go sit up in the juror’s box and get sworn in, then I was asked questions by the judge and two lawyers, while speaking into a microphone in front of everyone. I have pretty bad stage fright, but I surprisingly wasn’t too nervous for this. I told the judge about the tight newspaper deadlines, etc., but the lawyers decided to keep me on. So everyone got excused to go home besides me and the other twelve jurors.

So I spent most of the day yesterday in court, and the case is expected to go until Wednesday. It is pretty interesting stuff! Otherwise, my week of workouts looked liked this:

Monday – rest

Tuesday – bootcamp + sprints

Wednesday – bootcamp + sprints

Thursday – 6 miles

Friday – rest

Saturday – 11 miles

My long run this morning felt really good, I was even able to ramp up the speed at mile 10. I’m feeling good about the Mermaid Series half in two weeks. I’m going to go into it with reasonable expectations, and just enjoy the race and spending the weekend with my grandma. Hope everyone’s weekend has been going well!

Lily Runs the World

training while traveling

running

Done!

Sisterhood of the Bloggers

A Breakthrough and Some Motivation

19 Hard Things You Need To Do To Be Successful

Stop… Taper Time

Weekend Update

Links I Like

Moving On

Tough Morning Run

Spirit of the Marathon

Week in Review