Belated Donut Celebrations and Back to the Long Runs!

Happy Monday! Ready to start a great week? I am so excited to get through Monday-Thursday because from Friday- Sunday, I am going up to San Francisco! I am going up for a work event and Anthony is coming. When I’m not working, I’ll be visiting all of my friends that moved to San Francisco after graduation. Favorite city with my favorite friends- it’s going to be a good time!! The lines for all donut shops on National Donut Day were crazy!!! I postponed the celebration until Saturday morning. After an hour and twenty minutes on the trainer, this coconut chocolate donut sure hit the spot. The rest of Saturday consisted a lot of relaxing, time on the couch, and with my good friend, Netflix. Bo Burnham just came out with a new comedy piece that Anthony and I found hilarious. Near tears at some of his jokes!! This Snapchat was pretty accurate with a cute snoozing pup next to us:) Sunday ended up being a lot more of a productive day, starting with an early puppy training class, then acai bowls in Pacific Beach. Does anyone else have problems with their name being spelled correctly? Happens to me all the time no matter where I go. Post acai bowls was time to go up to Encinitas for a new bike helmet at my favorite bike shop, Nytro Multisport, and then a visit to the best dog park I’ve ever been to. Anyone in San Diego with a pooch, I highly recommend the Encinitas Community Park. It is family and kids friendly with baseball and football fields, play areas, and a skate park!Does anyone know how we can get a puppy to look at the camera? Since we don’t end up in Encinitas very often, we wanted to take advantage of local hot spots and of course, had to cross of a brewery on our list, the Lost Abbey. And finished off the day with 7 treadmill miles. Great way to end the day and I’m so happy to be incorporating long distance running back into my schedule 5 weeks after surgery. I was feeling pretty bummed when I woke up this morning because it was the first time in 4 years I wasn’t doing some version of the Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathon or Full Marathon. Excited to get back out there soon stronger than ever. Had to sit on the ground for awhile after that one. Thank goodness for a cold bottle of water and Miss USA playing at the gym to keep me entertained during my stretch and cool down period.

A Great Day to Ring in 23!

Hello everyone! I’m officially 23 and I have got to say, Blink 182, what were you talking about? Plenty of people like you when you’re 23! I’m so thankful for all my wonderful friends and family who messaged, emailed, texted, or called me. Makes you really appreciate all the wonderful people in your life even more! 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.

Spending the rest of the weekend celebrating with Anthony, friends, and family. What do you have planned?

Tales of the Day and Things that Happen During Marathon Training

I hope everyone is getting a chance to enjoy the wonderful spring days and it’s not just Southern California stealing the rays :) I have some tales of the day from yesterday as well as thoughts on my run today of things that happen during marathon training. Almost 2 months until the big day!Continuing my cereal obsession for breakfast with Go-Lean Crunch, Cheerios, bananas, and almond milk. Anthony’s mom is always really great at stocking up on super healthy foods she knows I will enjoy when I am at their place. I just feel bad that I eat like a teenager and basically everything in sight in their house. 5.12 miles yesterday with 2 tempo miles thrown in. I had a co-worker review and edit my marathon training plan. He’s only done one marathon but 16 full Ironmans, so I trusted his judgement in what I should be doing. Starting this week and every week here on, it’s time for tempo runs, starting with 2 yesterday at 8:10 min/ mile and 7:45 min/mile. The 8:10 felt perfect, and the 7:45 felt like a little too much, so hopefully I can get my tempo times between 7:50-8:05 by the end of this training cycle. Anthony and I had a lot of work to get done, even though it’s spring break. Both of us are planning summer programs that needed some planning. We hit up Starbucks because either of us had the attention span to work at home where there are couches and beds for napping… I’m that girl who brings a bunch of snacks wherever I go. An apple, blackberry Chobani yogurt, and a nonfat sugar free caramel latte. I keep thinking I’m going to like these fun drink flavors and I’m always wrong. Sorry for betraying you, black coffee! The greatest dinner ever. I love Costco’s spinach and cheese raviolis. And okay, so I had more food after dinner too… Almond milk, peanut butter, and whole wheat bread because Anthony ate the last of the ravioli. I really need to have an eating competition with him one day. And again before bed… The blackberries are totally justified! I went with Anthony and his mom to get froyo last night but since I couldn’t have any because of Lent, coming home to sweet blackberries was almost the same thing.

I realized some things are very consistent that happen during marathon training and was thinking about them today on my run. I think I was also reminded because one of my toes was aching, which reminded me of my first point…

– Losing toenails, getting blisters, and chafing: The more miles you run, the greater the chances are of these things happening. I am not as prone to chafing as some, thank goodness, but blisters and not having toenails have definitely been big doozies for me. The blisters seem to happen whenever I am running too long and the toenails… well who knows. I just know one of them has got to go.

– I’m tired… Always tired: Seriously. I can fall asleep on the ground, in class, at work, on a run… But in all seriousness, I really wish it was possible for me to get over 6-7 hours of sleep a night. It would definitely improve the training and recovery process, but it is pretty difficult as a college student balancing classes, work, social life, and the whole marathon training thing. I’ve definitely made it a greater priority to get more sleep, especially with 20 milers coming up!

– I’m eating like I’m going through puberty again: Even though I peaked at 5’3”, I still remember eating a lot when I was going through puberty. It’s like that now… but worse. I am trying to work more hours to pay for my grocery bill. 

What are some things that happen to you during training?