11 posts tagged “weekend wrapup”
This weekend was fantastic! I took Friday off and on Thursday night, Mike and I drove down to see Lance Armstrong race in the Tour of California. We stayed in Santa Barbara on Thursday night (I'm no longer allowed to pick hotels... it was nice inside, but when we woke up in the morning we discovered a homeless camp right next door). On Friday morning we headed in to Solvang to watch the race. We had breakfast at Pea Soup Anderson's (delicious french toast!) and then took the shuttle into Solvang. The city was really cute! They had all sorts of fun stuff set up - a whole little vendor expo which was cool to walk through. They make bikes that weigh 11 pounds! Yes, the whole bike! The best part was the Gu booth - Mike and I both got free samples (hooray for vanilla bean!) and stickers (already on Mike's bike). After that, we walked around through the team bus areas - that's where they set up the bikes and eventually the riders come out to warm up. Here's the Jelly Belly bus and the Columbia Highroad bike setup:
Here's Michael Rogers signing autographs (he's a 3 or 4 time world champion):
Here's Mike and I at the finish line:
And, of course, here's the video I took of Lance Armstrong riding by us:
It was really cool to see how all of it works - I have to admit that before Friday, the only name I knew in racing was Lance Armstrong, but Mike was great about telling me who everyone was!
After the race we headed up to Pismo Beach to dip my feet in the ocean... it was so beautiful! We hunted around for some sea shells and then headed home. It was a blast!
Today was probably the worst run in the history of runs. It was pouring when I woke up, so I decided to be brave and to do my 11 mile run at the gym. Biggest mistake of my life. Here's why:
1. The gym was freaking hot. I don't know why they don't air condition it a little more, but I was pretty damn sweaty the whole time.
2. I felt a whole lot like a hamster on a wheel. I tried to watch TV, but about 15 minutes after I got there, the TV went to infomercials. Even my iPod didn't help with the boredom.
3. I had to visualize my normal trail to get myself through the run. The good news is that I did it. The even better news is that I have a new no more than three miles on a treadmill rule.
Marathon Update
Miles This Week: 17
Total Miles: 118
Well, this weekend pretty much sucked. I had some pretty cool plans with Mike for Valentine's Day on Saturday (hooray for wine tasting), but somehow managed to come down with the flu. Fantastic timing, right? Let me rewind to the one cool part of the weekend...
Dad decided to surprise Mom and fly in for the weekend, which was awesome. He had to fly into Oakland late on Friday, so Kati and I drove to pick him up. Mom had no clue (despite some pretty terrible lies on my part) and was completely surprised. It was awesome! I got back to my house at about 1:30am and went to bed. I had been feeling pretty tired that whole day, but I was figuring it was from my 10 mile run. Saturday morning I woke up with a fever, a rash, and a headache. Definitely not Valentine's Day material. As much as it killed me (and those of you who know me know it killed me) I stayed home in bed. I pretty much slept the whole day, went to bed at 9pm and still slept until 8am on Sunday. Crazy. Kati was awesome and made a delicious Valentine's Day meatloaf and we watched movies together until I passed out. The good news is that the fever is gone now and I'm feeling a lot less tired. I spent all of Sunday at Mom and Dad's house relaxing and most of today reading and napping. I guess my little body needed some rest! Shadow was a trooper... he was more than happy to hang out in bed with me and take lots of naps... I have to admit, it was pretty relaxing!
Marathon Update
Miles This Week: 19
Total Miles: 101!
I know, it's not Sunday night, but tomorrow night is the Grammy's, so I'll be doing my "Grammy's In Your Jammies" blog, so I thought I'd update on the weekend now.
First of all, I'm happy to say that I've regained my will to run, thanks to a little prodding from Jess and one great article in Runner's Magazine. The article was about this fireman that was an Ironman, marathoner, etc and was hit by a bus... he should have been killed, but somehow, he survived. He fought back through crazy surgeries and ended up running the New York Marathon with some of his buddies (in the disabled category because one of his legs was shorter than the other and the other one was basically made up of metal rods). I figured, if he can do it with a beat up body, well, me and my not so beat up body could do it. Which leads me to my nine mile run on Friday morning. That would officially be the farthest I've ever run in my life. Pretty much every long run from here on out is going to be the farthest I've gone, which is pretty cool. Jess met me out at the trail and ran a mile with me, then jumped in her car and met me at different spots on the trail. Talk about a great friend... poor girl is pregnant and has awful morning sickness, but was still willing to risk it on the trail with me! It was the best long run I've done so far... I don't know if it was the change of scenery, that I had someone out there with me or my new water pack, but it felt great. Before I knew it the run was over. Now if only I could do that three times, I'd be done with my marathon!
Today was fix up the house day. I had a leaky toilet, which was a little bit daunting, since I know nothing about plumbing. Over the weekend I was told it was probably the "wax ring". Keep in mind, I know NOTHING about plumbing. But I figured, how hard could it be? So I headed over to my friendly Lowe's where I bought the ring, some caulk and a caulking gun. I then headed over to Home Depot to pick up some ground cover for under my roses and a hibiscus tree to replace the weeping cheery that decided it didn't want to live. I did all that planting, met Mike for lunch and then headed home to face the dreaded toilet. I turned off the water and flushed a lot. Now came the scary part, actually unhooking, picking up and moving the toilet. It probably would have been helpful for me to read up on toilet anatomy so that I knew what I was getting into, but sometimes I guess it's all about flying by the seat of your pants. Once we moved it, I stared at, well, a hole in the ground. For all it's fanciness, that's really all that this is about. A big fat hole with some pretty porcelin on top. Without contemplating what's been down said hole, I started prying off the wax ring (which was a little smellier than I expected) and replaced it with the new ring. Kati and I then put the toilet back, screwed it down and flushed. Water everywhere. We took it off, dried the floor and I molded some of the old wax with the new wax to make a bigger ring (and a better seal). This time, when I flushed, no water! Woo hoo! I then caulked around the base (which was a little messier than I had planned, but it was my first time...) and attempted to take a nap...
... which leads me to confess that I'm as addicted to the "Twilight" books as everyone else on the planet. I laid down in bed and 150 pages later it was 4:30 and definitely past prime nap time. I recommend the books - and I'm only ~200 pages into the first one. I can't wait to find some more time to read (maybe tomorrow afternoon?)!
Tonight the girls and I are headed out to see "He's Just Not That Into You". I've heard it's supposed to be really funny... I can't wait!
Marathon Update
Miles This Week: 18
Total Miles: 83
This weekend was a marathon weekend (no pun intended)! Friday night, Mike and I went to the Tesla concert. I didn't really know who they were, but it was an awesome show... I really like their music. In fact, I might get their new CD... there were some great songs that they played at the show and I liked them a lot! Here's Mike and I chillin' at the show:
That crazy look in my eyes is because I ran eight miles earlier in the day thinking I'd have lots of recovery time sitting at the show. As it turns out, we had general admission tickets, so we were standing the whole time. Now, some of the best shows I've seen have been standing, but definitely not after eight miles!
On Saturday we went to the Make-A-Wish Food & Wine Festival. Me, Mike, Kati, Brigitte, Dan, Jeremy, Steve, J and Jen all ended up going. Kati had the fantastic idea of renting a limo so that no one had to drive. Our limo driver dropped us off at the wrong place, but we got a cool picture in front of an old car:
The event itself was great - you paid $85 to get in and they had 60 wineries and 60 local restaurants offering you all the food and drink you could possibly consume. I think it's safe to say that we all drank our $85 dollars worth! Here's me a few drinks (and some delicious truffles) in:
This afternoon we had a Super Bowl party at my house. It was a blast! I've been craving all things summer, so I barbequed chicken, corn on the cob and we made pasta salad. It hit the spot! I thought the commericals were so-so. This year really didn't seem to have a ton of great ones. The group seemed to like a couple - here are the ones that made us laugh. Apparently we like when people get smacked:
As well as cartoons:
And finally, ones about hating work:
Marathon Update
Miles This Week: 17
Total Miles: 65
Friday was a pretty nifty day... I ran seven miles, which for some reason (along with 26.2) just sounded like a lot to me. The mileage went really well... the legs are holding up and so far I haven't had any repeat performances of the disaster from last Monday. The best part of my run (besides it being lucky number seven) was that I discovered the wonder that is GU. Let me preface this with the fact that I suck at eating and drinking while I'm running. I'm getting better with water, but I have a very hard time with sweet stuff, such as sports drinks. The problem with that is once you're doing this kind of physical activity, you need to replenish your carbohydrates, electrolytes, and calcium levels (along with a ton of other stuff that helps with recovery). I was terrifed that this stuff was going to make me barf... it's pretty much got the consitancy of snot. The good news is that it comes in like a zillion flavors (I picked up Chocolate Outrage, Vanilla Bean, Tri-Berry, Espresso Love and Strawberry Banana as testers). I decided that my inaugural run should be something I would think I would like, so I went with the safe choice of Chocolate Outrage. Around mile 3.5, I popped the packet open and sqeezed it into my mouth. It was like eating chocolate frosting... and seriously, after about 3.5 miles, who on earth doesn't want chocolate frosting? A few minutes later, I no longer focused on my legs hurting and focused more on how I could squish that last little bit of GU out of the packet. And sure enough, little energy boost. I spent the rest of my run pondering whether it would be safe to have Mike hook up a GU IV.
Saturday I did some EMT work in the morning - there was a kids duathlon out at Folsom Lake. It was a blast - some of these kids were so tiny that their bikes got stuck when they tried to go off curbs. Fortunately, I had no patients and just had to deal with the chilly wind. After the race I headed out to Back Wine Bar for Jessica's surprise party. It was loads of fun - in fact, Andrea brought her twin boys out (they're six months old) and we got to play with them! Then Mike and I headed out to see "Gran Torino" starring Clint Eastwood. Now, I'm not a huge Clint fan, but I have to say, this was an awesome movie. Until the very end when he sings for the ending credits. Imagine his rough sounding voice talking. Now imagine that same voice singing. Yeah. But seriously good movie... I think it's going to win awards!
Today Mom and I headed out to the Home and Landscape Expo... it was a blast! They basically had all sorts of contractors, vendors and demonstrations on how to improve your home. Of course, I love all of the little gadgets! I did buy some awesome flowers - they're plumerias (the ones that they use in Hawaii to make leis) - this San Diego based company was selling a bunch of different varieties. They smell great - so I got the yellow and the fuschia. They are bare root right now, but should bloom in 8-12 weeks. I can't wait! We also found what I've been looking for since I moved into my house... a key rack that makes sense:
For those of you that don't know, I have these great little frogs that live in my backyard almost all year. They jump up and stick to the screen door and all over the side of the house. Shadow loves to chase them and tries to eat them. They sound beautiful - my own personal symphony - when it rains!
You might notice that that's a very clear and crisp picture of the frog key rack. Well, that's because I finally got my new camera today! It's the Canon PowerShot SD790 IS. I absolutely love it... I still have some reading through the manual to do, but it's super easy to use and takes amazing pictures:
I'm so excited to have a new camera - my old Sony was good, but it's been fading over the last couple months. The picture quality definitely hasn't been there and the battery hasn't really been holding the charge. This new camera also takes video, which is something I wanted again (it came in handy in Europe!).
I plan to spend the rest of tonight totally relaxing... I've done all of my running for the week, all of my blog/Facebook updating and am going to take some time to just chill and watch TV!
Marathon Update
Miles This Week: 16
Total Miles: 48
On Friday, Mike and I drove down to Livermore for the Adventure Race that he and Sean were going to do on Saturday. We met up with Sean and his wife, Erin, for a delicious Italian dinner. Saturday morning we headed over to the park for the race. Now, for those of you who don't know, an adventure race is no ordinary triathlon. In this one, they had to kayak 2.5 miles, run 2.5 miles and bike 15 miles. Here's the catch... there is no real course. That's right - there are like 7 checkpoints that they have to hit, but no trail to get there. They can basically take whatever route they want - they all have maps and compasses. From what I saw, it was a pretty crazy, hilly course. Talk about crazy people. The race went well... here's the guys at the finish line:
It was a gorgeous day - somewhere near the 70s and I pretty much had nothing to do other than sit at a lake and relax. I know, it's a tough life I lead.
Today was pretty mellow - Kati and I ran this morning and then did a bunch of errands. Tonight consisted of delicious chicken caccitori and us watching "My Best Friend's Girl". I'm just about ready to head off to bed... it's going to be another long week!
Here's my marathon training update - so far so good. I was a little sore after my last long run, but it wasn't anything that didn't go away. I got a book today that was written by a woman who had never run pretty much anywhere and still managed to make it through. She goes through all the crap that no one tells you - apparently the marathon part is the easy part - it's the 300 miles or so that you run to get ready for it that pretty much destroy your body. I can't wait.
Miles This Week: 15
Total Miles: 32
Finally, a great big (and day late) HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Adam! I believe he was floating around in the ocean somewhere near Cuba (not a bad way to spend a birthday, is it?)... I hope it was a good one!
I'll start with an update on the marathon training. I'm proud to say this week I logged 14 miles... not bad for my first official week of training! I did a five mile "long" run on Saturday. Now, that's only a couple miles more than my daily short runs, but for some reason, it really pooped me out. I definitely need to work on building up my endurance! The good news is that I survived it and will be adding mileage this week. My feet are sore today (those darn second toes hurt!) but nothing else hurts too badly. I am a little nervous - my friends who have already done marathons are talking to me about rolling sticks and ice baths. I had no idea that there was this much to it - I just thought I had to get out there and run! We'll see how sore I get and if I end up resorting to any of that!
Friday night Kati and I met up with Brigitte and Alyse for a little catch up dinner at Red Robin. It's been a crazy few months for all of us, so it was nice to sit down, have some drinks and chat! Saturday I went to a CERT outreach meeting (we're doing some really cool stuff this year) and then over to Mike's to watch "The Godfather". Yeah, I know, I should have watched it a long time ago (ironically, Kati claims we did... I don't remember it though and I'm pretty sure you don't forget the horse head scene). I do have it say, it's a great movie! I really want to watch the next two and Mike says the book is great, so that's on my list of books to read!
Today Kati and I went into full house cleaning mode and got everything clean in the morning. It's so nice to have a helper now... it's amazing how much faster it goes! Then we met up with Mom for brunch and ran some errands. I did a little yard work and now I'm getting ready to try out a Coq au Vin recipe for dinner. "24" starts tonight, so I wanted to make something yummy and have a nice night in!
This was a much needed three day weekend - I'm finally feeling rested and ready to go - it's been a while since I've felt "caught up"!
On Friday I hung out at Mom and Dad's - Shadow had the most fantastic time swimming with Darcy and Tucker! I was hoping that all of the running, swimming and playing would poop him out and he would sleep through the fireworks. More on that later. Mom and Dad had Fran and Chuck over and we had a declicious BBQ - nothing says it's summer like chicken, corn and pasta salad!
Mom, Fran and I headed out to the Folsom Rodeo - I got tickets through work. I'm not gonna lie, it's not the best rodeo in the world. In fact, none of the bull riders stayed on the bulls for the full 8 seconds. Most of them were bucked off in about 2. I did get to watch the Folsom Fire Paramedics hard at work - they had a few people in the stands that needed attention and a cowboy who took a nasty fall. My favorite part on that one was the announcers medical play by play ("Ladies and Gentlemen, as you can see, they're putting the collar on. This is just a precaution in the event of a spinal injury"). My favorite part of the whole rodeo was the parachuter that they had - he's done over 5,000 jumps and specializes at landing in small spaces, while pulling a gigantic American flag behind him. As he came down, they played "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood - the ENTIRE stadium was singing along and the whole thing gave me goosebumps. I managed to get some pretty cool video of it:
After the rodeo ended, they did a nice little fireworks display and we headed home. For those of you who missed out on last year's play by play, I had just adopted Shadow and thought I would take him out to see the fireworks, to get him used to it. The whole thing ended up being a total nightmare - he barked and went completely insane and I ended up having to go home. This year I decided to put him in his crate in my room with some music on since I know lots of people do fireworks in my neighborhood. The plan worked brilliantly - when I got home from the rodeo, he was totally calm and happy to see me. I then made the mistake of letting him out into the backyard. At which point some neighbor down the street decided to set off a piccalo pete (Shadow's absolute FAVORITE) and he went nuts. It was all downhill from there. The neighbors did fireworks until 2am and he barked the entire time. I even put him back in his crate with music on, but by then he was all worked up. I ended up sleeping in my guest room.
I had to work a CERT event the next morning at 9am - which amazingly, I was not exhausted for. It was a nice event - nothing really major happened and I got to show a lot of little kids the ambulance. It was still exhausting... I think it was being in the sun and being tired that all hit me on the drive home. I ended up going to bed at about 9pm.
Today was fantastic - I slept in, went to the mall, and took a nap. Shadow got a walk and got to play ball in the yard. Tonight I decided to give him a treat, so I mixed some peas and carrots (from my dinner) into his dog food. Being the genius that he is, he took a mouthful, spit it out on the floor and then sorted through for the peas and carrots. Eventually, he ate the rest of it, but he took his time. Crazy little dog.
What a great weekend!
Friday night was my first paying gig with the event medical services company I joined. I worked a mountain bike race at the lake and it was quite an eventful shift! We saw the typical scrapes, cuts and bruises followed by some more serious injuries. The last one of the night was pretty bad - we ended up sending the patient to the hospital! It was definitely the right call - we checked on him the next day and he had a severe concussion and dehydration!
Yesterday we drove out to the Bay Area for the day - the Myers were having a party to celebrate everyone's graduations (Jake and Emily from college and Jared from high school). It was so good to see everyone again and to hang out with the family! I'm hoping to get pictures - I took my camera but then forgot to take pictures.
Today I went over to Mom and Dad's house to cook Dad a pfankuchen breakfast for Father's Day. Kati and I got him this really cool computer game, so the rest of my gift was to leave him alone for the day so he could play in peace and quiet (Mom is still in the Bay Area with Oma).
The scary news of the day happened this afternoon. I took a little nap and then Julie asked me if I wanted to go to the gym. I said yes (of course) and she said she'd come pick me up. When she knocked on the door, she asked if the snake in my yard was fake (to keep birds away). I said "what snake"? She said, "That one!":
Now, snakes don't really scare me, but I don't love them. Julie thought he was dead, but about three pictures into his photoshoot, he decided to take off. Let me tell you, that sucker is fast! I've identified him as a California Striped Racer, which happens to be a non-venemous snake. He was about three feet long and decided that a much better place to hang out would be the bushes. I'll let the gardeners discover him tomorrow. :)
P.S. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!
Confession: I'm addicted to "Deadliest Catch". Holy crap. I love that show. Now back to your normally scheduled weekend wrapup.
This weekend was another awesome weekend - on Saturday I went to Amy's bridal shower, then Chasie's graduation party. This morning I worked a 4am to 10:30am EMT shift at the Relay for Life. I can't say that I love getting up that early, but it was for a really good cause, so I sucked it up. It was really inspiring to see all of the survivors and heartbreaking to see the illuminated paper bags that represented all of the people who lost their battles.
I pretty much spent the rest of the day sleeping. Followed by laying in the sun and reading. It was wonderful. Tonight I made a delicious parpadelle dinner and some brownies. I'm a happy girl!
