10 Best Things from a 3 Day Weekend

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?

Easter Weekend and Something Exciting

Good morning everyone and happy Monday! I hope all of you had a wonderful Easter (if you celebrate it) with your family and friends. And a wonderful weekend overall. My Easter weekend involved a lot of nature and time on my feet, just how I like it :) Saturday morning started with a long run- my first twenty-miler in this training cycle. Boy, was that hard! Luckily one of my friends was kind enough to agree to pacing me on his bike. He knew that meant riding 4 very slow loops around Lake Miramar in some uncomfortable heat and boredom, but he did it anyway. It made a world of a difference on completing the run! 20 miles at a 9:05 avg. pace, about what I want if I want to sub-4 this upcoming marathon. It’s so weird how your pace and how fast you can run changes with varying distances by so much. My marathon pace time is a little over a minute slower than my half marathon pace! Sunday morning started with Easter Brunch with Anthony. We went to a restaurant called The Patio on Lamont Street, a small little restaurant in Pacific Beach with beautiful outdoor seating, a full bar, and delicious food items! I got the Vegetarian Skillet with egg whites and vegetables. It was definitely a hit and I think every restaurant should offer pineapple on the side now. A walk along Pacific Beach, looking out into the water and everyone surfing, tanning, and even an outdoor yoga class. One of the greatest things about Easter- LENT IS OVER. I can have desserts again! Anthony and I split an ice cream sandwich from Baked Bear. One funfetti cookie, one snickerdoodle cookie squishing cookies ‘n cream ice cream in the middle. This is what dreams are made of. My legs weren’t tired enough after my Saturday run, so I thought a 6 mile Easter hike on Sunday would be how I wear them out! Just kidding- Anthony and I picked Los Pensaquitos Canyon for the purpose of it being flat and easy for me. Still a long hike, but no hills or elevation gain made it a wonderful way to talk, recover, and appreciate nature. I will have another blog post about the canyons and why its a wonderful place to go hike!

And something exciting… LEAVING FOR RAGNAR THIS FRIDAY! I am beyond excited for the greatest running adventure of my life!

Favorite places to go hiking?

What did you do for Easter if you celebrated?

If not Easter celebration, what did you do this weekend? 

When I’m Not Running, I’m Eating

Has anyone tried Bai 5 yet?! It’s an antioxidant rich caffeine drink with natural flavorings and only 5 calories per serving (10 total for this bottle)! I love it as an afternoon pick me up and taking selfies with it.
I was done with finals on Friday and still had to go to campus for work. Picked up a bottle of Bai 5 to keep me energized throughout the day- the Tanzania Lemonade Tea is my favorite flavor! Reminds me of an Arnold Palmer without the extra sweeteners and sugar! I was so excited to go to bed Friday night because I was done with finals and work, officially on spring break, and since my long run got pushed to Sunday because of the race, I could sleep in! Well, my body had other plans for me… like still waking me up at 7AM even though I had no where to go… I put on my compression socks anyway as if I was going to run. It just felt right. When I’m not running, I’m eating. Eggs and kale with ketchup as my second breakfast. What else are you suppose to do on spring break ;) On Saturday, Anthony and I went Downtown to pick up my race bib but also to explore a little. He found this really cool park awhile back in the city and wanted to show me! I was actually super amazed by the park! There were rock climbing walls, huge slides, crazy monkey-bars and different obstacle courses. It was the playground of the future. Dear future children, when I take you to a playground… it’s probably going to be because I want to play on it. Not enough balance for the wobbling skateboard! Luckily I caught a picture right before he fell. Supportive girlfriend, I know. Just taking our relationship to a whole new level (and this blog) by fixing his forming unibrow. More pictures of Pieology. Anthony got every kind of meat possible on his pizza Saturday night! I think he loves carboloading nights more than I do. Giving up desserts has been so hard for Lent. I’m just happy I have Sundays to indulge a little bit… or a lot of bit, depending who you ask :P Having a Yogurtland open close by has been such a blessing and a curse.  And I’ve been craving In-n-Out for about 2 months now! Time to cure that craving. Anthony got the double-double cheeseburger, a milkshake, I got a regular hamburger, and we decided to split the fries. This really hit the spot before we made the two hour drive back to his hometown for the rest of spring break!

Favorite place to go on the weekends?

Three foods you wish you could eat all the time.