Good morning everyone! I hope all of you had a wonderful Memorial Day. We are so blessed to have so many men and women who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom. I am always appreciative of our troops, but even more so on a day where we remember what was given for us to be able to enjoy a day off of work, school, and to spend it with our loved ones. I wanted to share 10 best things from our three- day weekend. 
1. I am loving our dog park visits with Elle. She has a blast running around and meeting other dogs, and Anthony and I get a nice mile walk in every time we take her. Fresh air, time together, and extra cardio for all of us! 
2. Reunion with Beta Alumni! Anthony and I were both heavily involved in Greek Life as undergrads. This past weekend, his fraternity had an alumni and active members reunion. It was so great seeing all of his friends again, meeting some of the new chapter members, and being back on campus. Not to mention I was sweetheart for this fraternity, so they have an extra special place in my heart! 
3. Meeting up with Beta’s new chapter sweetheart, Megan! A fraternity sweetheart is a female that goes above and beyond in her friendship and loyalty for a particular fraternity. She is the definition of sweetness, kindness, and I am so happy to have passed the torch onto her. 
4. Poke Bowls! I am glad San Diego has finally caught onto the poke and sushi-burrito craze. In the past two years, four poke food places have opened up. The way the restaurant works is kind of like Chipotle. You pick a base layer of either rice, salad, chips, or a mixture, and then start adding layers of goodness ranging from various types of raw fish, to cucumbers and onions, to seaweed salad to top it off! I grabbed a poke bowl with a friend on Sunday to celebrate my birthday: layers of salad mix, salmon, shrimp, potato salad, radish, seaweed, and ginger sure hit the spot! 
5. I finally got my tri-bike fitted. Since I’ve gotten my new bike, I’ve been told of the importance of getting it fit to your body size. Even though there are general frame sizes for everyone from a certain height range, the fit customizes so you are as comfortable and efficient as you can be on your bike. Especially with triathlon bikes, you will have to be in aero bars and you want to make sure your reach isn’t too far or too short. After my accident, some of the balances issues I had were attributed to how my bike was fitting me, so before getting back on the roads, I wanted to make sure I didn’t have this problem anymore. Gregg from Pro Tour Fittings did an awesome job and made a bunch of adjustments in my seat, aero bars, and suggested for me to get a new crank for my pedals. I can’t wait to put it to work at Turbo tonight and then ride on the roads in a couple of weeks. 
6. Playing fetch with these two. Elle is finally getting the hang of the game! 
7. Uhm I have a big public announcement to everyone on this blog. CPK just brought back their strawberry shortcake dessert for the summer. This is not a drill. Go out and eat one ASAP and report back on how amazing it is!!! I can eat this dessert a million times over. 
8. Anthony and I did a little bit of exploring in North Park this past weekend. I love their hip little coffee shops, restaurants, and this pretty wall of succulents. Can I have this in my apartment please? 
9. Discovered this weekend that Elle likes popsicles! Finding little sweet treats to give to her and poor baby is teething right now, so the cold probably helped a lot in alleviating some of the pain in losing her baby teeth! 
10. Summer sangrias and date night with this man. What more could I ask for?
What did you do over Memorial Day weekend?
Favorite summer foods/ desserts that are coming back in season?
Since it was a work day, I was spent most of the day answering emails but took a short lunch break to go to Cody’s La Jolla, a delicious brunch place in Downtown La Jolla with my roommate. They had the best hand cut onion rings to start with. 
For the main dish, I got their chopped salad. It’s one of the first times I’ve ever gotten a salad for brunch but I knew that I would be indulging a lot the rest of the day and weekend to celebrate. If you are ever in San Diego and need a good brunch place, let me know! I am your girl. 
After lunch, I worked until 4:30 and started getting ready for my first track practice back after my injury. I was really nervous because I know that I get really competitive, especially at group practices but had no idea where my fitness levels were in terms of track workout paces. Happy to report that I am not completely out of shape and was able to keep up with the majority of the team throughout the workout. 
It was a beautiful day to run. Anthony and Elle came as well because Anthony wanted to do a mile trial time. Don’t tell him I’m telling you all, but for someone who does not run very often, he had an incredible time for his mile- 5:54 min/mi! Now we are slowly but surely trying to convert him to the dark side, I mean light side, of running and triathlon ;) 
My coach is awesome at taking action shots. Do not let this picture fool you though. I was dying on the inside and struggling to keep my 6:30 min/mile pace. Surgery and injury really takes a lot out of you! You just have to remind yourself that you have time to get back into it and you are doing this for fun. There is no rush and you’ll be back in no time. 
We were nervous to take Elle to our workout because we didn’t know how she would do tied up. She cried a couple of times but there were enough people on the team like coaches and friends, who gave her attention and eventually, she was just having fun chewing sticks on the sidelines. We can’t wait til our little sidekick can run too. As a reward, we let her dig a huge hole near the track after… Don’t tell the school! 
After track, I figured the best way to refuel was with Sprinkles Cupcakes… I definitely used my birthday as an excuse;) Somehow forgot to take a picture of my cupcakes but remembered to take one of Elle with hers. Love that Sprinkles makes cupcakes for dogs as well. 
Ended my birth date night with a cup of Yogi tea. I love the little quotes that come with their tea packets. I definitely needed that. 
Oh and on the topic of celebration, my sister one uped my birthday yesterday with a middle school celebration! She is graduating and going to high school in a couple months and one of 14 who got straight A’s all throughout middle school! She got a special trophy and everything. So excited for her and love watching her grow up, even if it’s from afar as she is in Florida right now.
REUNITED WITH TWO OF MY BEST FRIENDS ON FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY! If the all caps wasn’t enough of a giveaway, I was extremely excited to see them. In college, the three of us, plus two others were inseparable and lived together pretty much all four years of college. Since graduation, Demi on the right and I are the only ones that stayed in San Diego. Our schedules rarely match up, so it was great to see her along with Maheen, who now lives in the Bay Area. These two might potentially kill me for uploading this photo on our blog, but after a whole weekend of doing nothing but catching up, this is the only photo of them I have! 
We all met up for sushi on Friday night and ordered quite the spread! If you could eat any one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? I think I would have a lot of trouble deciding, but sushi would probably win.
Woke up Saturday morning with a puppy on my head! When we first got Elle, it was very common to have her work her way up from the foot of the bed to the top of my head by the time morning rolled around. Ever since she’s gotten bigger (from 11 lbs to 23lbs in the month we’ve had her), she’s started sleeping in her bed more and ours less. If she could talk, she would probably say it’s because I kick and move way too much when I sleep. It has made me sad so I was more than okay to find her resting on my head on Saturday morning! 
The tri bike is all tuned up with new wheels and hooked to the trainer. After cuddling the pup, I spent Saturday morning watching Friends and getting in some time on the trainer. Since breaking my collarbone, I haven’t been on my tri bike a lot. I think for me in particular, the mental healing process is going to take a lot longer than the physical healing process. Decided yesterday on my injury monthaversary, I want to be brave and ready to get back out on the road in 2 weeks. Time to get pedaling!
After my workout, Elle got to get her workout in with her first puppy play date! We have been following all the protocol in making sure we got all her vaccinations in before taking her to dog parks or having her interact too much with other dogs. When Arya, the other pup came over, Elle was more than ready to do a little socialization! Arya wasn’t as sure and after a lot of back and forth, sniffing, and patience, the two finally started to play! It was adorable watching them run around, jump off of one another, and use the human in the back (hi Rannah), as a springboard for their shenanigans! 
After Elle’s puppy play date, I spent more time with Maheen and Demi before going back to Anthony’s hometown for the rest of Saturday evening through Sunday. Anthony’s first dog still lives at his home in Apple Valley and she was going to get to meet Elle. To say the other dog, Vellosa, was less than enthused by Elle’s presence is an understatement. The entire weekend consisted of Elle trying to be friends with Vellosa and Vellosa running away from Elle’s attempts. It’s a good thing they have a lot of future opportunities to bond!
RunMileswithSmiles 