5k and a new PR

I wanted to tell you all about this 5k that I did this morning. There were some awesome things and definitely some weird things.

I got up around 6:15 after sleeping horribly through the night. I had dreamt that I already ran and ran it in about 10 hours. Yikes. I also dreamt that I slept through my alarm. Ugh. I eventually just gave up, got up and got dressed.

Breakfast was a bagel thin with peanut butter and some water. I showed up and got registered and got a sweet shirt. Although, I think I might have misjudged my size. Oh well.


And my number, of course.


And wanted to take a nap since I was there so.early.


See that water on the back window? Yeah, it was drizzling which is completely fine by me. Much better than blazing hot.

I was a little bummed because I didn't know anyone there. There were only about 100-130 people there total, which was the first weird thing. I couldn't believe the group was so small. Also, a lot of these people looked like pros. You know how at some 5ks there are groups of people who are just there to walk it? Like, putt along plugged into their ipods? Yeah, there were about 5 of those people. The rest were track teams and triathletes. Kinda crazy.

We take off and I'm running a pretty steady clip but I'm noticing that I'm falling further and further back in the crowd. I just had to keep reminding myself that I was running my race, not someone else's. I got super excited at the 1st mile because I hadn't stopped running yet!

Another nice surprise at mile 1 was seeing the Hubs at the corner, in our giant lawn chair with the camera! I had left him about an hour before, all curled up in bed. I got a huge smile on my face and it gave me a big boost of energy that pretty much got me through to the end. I thought I would see him at the finish line but it turned out to not be the case.


See that couple in front of me? I paced off of them. They were running at such a good rate that in keeping up with them, I managed to run the whole. thing. I only stopped to walk for about 5 seconds but I was feeling so good that I realized I didn't need to.

That was the cool thing about this 5k. I felt amazing the whole time. I didn't cramp up, my legs didn't hurt and I didn't feel tired. I wasn't even really out of breath the whole time.

I finished and started looking around for the Hubs but it turned out he didn't know where it ended and just went back home. Totally fine by me, it wasn't like I was stranded or anything and I was just so excited to see him there!

Here's the weird thing. I don't think my finish time was that slow... 32:37. I had run a 5k two years ago and it was something like 45:00 but there were TONS of people behind me. When the Hubs pulled up and set up his chair, he caught sight of the first runners. So many people passed by him that he thought he missed me. I guess the crowd had really thinned out by the time I rolled by which made it look like our group was going super slow.

I think it was just the fact that there weren't a lot of people at this race. I mean, I was getting passed up by people with prosthetic legs, for crying out loud, so I know there were serious athletes but I also know I'm not super slow.

Another weird thing was that it was also a triathlon. Almost EVERYONE who was there was participating in it. Except for me and a couple of 8-year-old kids. So yeah, it just seemed like I was one of the only amateur runners out there.

My husband thought it was because there was no "cause" we were running for, like breast cancer or AIDS walk and that would explain the lack of a crowd. It's also only the 3rd year of the event so that could mean something as well.

Whatever! I had fun, felt great and got a new personal PR which I'm proud of. I came home, showered and went to church but I was clearly dehydrated and hurting. I have had a ton of water, took a quick nap and just made Branny's sweet potato and black bean burritos for dinner. Yummmmm. Back to new and proud of myself for branching out and trying something on my own.

Workin' on my Fitness

About a month ago, I just got sick of it. Sick of feeling like a blob, or a plop as my former coworker would say. So I decided to change that and really get back into a routine. Hubs and I were faithfully doing p90x for about a month and a half and then it got insanely hot here so we stopped.

My job has me coming in at 9 which is perfect for me since I like to work out in the morning. I was thinking some people might be interested to see how I mix up my fitness routine. I skipped 3(!!!!) days last week and I felt horrible. I'm pretty sure it added to my spectacular snit last weekend. Seeing those effects, I'm more committed than ever to keep up with this routine.

Monday: Wake up at 7. Throw on work out clothes. Stagger downstairs and do a session of p90x. I'm not really doing any of the cardio ones because I'm running as well. I'm mostly working on my arms, shoulders and back. Finish at 8. Hop in the shower. Run downstairs and make breakfast. I get into food ruts and this week has been a bagel thin with microwaved egg whites and onion. I'm pretty sure that will get old fast.

Tuesday: Wake up around 7:15. Throw on running gear. Grab ipod. Do C25K. I'm on week 4 right now... almost at week 5! I have my 5k coming up on November 14. Finish around 7:45-7:50. Hope I'm not locked out of the house. (Note to self. Get another house key made) Same morning routine as Monday.

Wednesday: p90x

Thursday: C25K

Friday: Rest day! This is the only day I have to come in at 8am so I just use this as my rest day.

Saturday: I will either do p90x or C25K depending on when I wake up and how hot it is.

Sunday: Whichever work out I didn't do on Saturday, I'll do it today. Get ready. Go to church. Conduct the children's choir. Come home and do copious amounts of laundry and grocery shopping. Football is playing in the background (actually very soothing).

So yeah, I've got my fitness all worked out but I really need to work on nutrition and fueling my body in the best way possible. We still have crap lying around the house and I've been on the road 3 out of the 5 work days this week. I've been trying to make the best choices food-wise but it is kind of difficult. I should start packing my own lunches for when I'm on the road.

Half of this battle is just being prepared. I really like blogs like nhershoes and meals and miles because they show what they eat throughout the day.

UPDATE: Dude! I just got an email saying we're having a 5k on campus this weekend. Where the heck was I and why didn't I get the memo? I think I might sign up for it since it's only a freakin' mile away from my house. I think Active.com really needs to work on their race listings. I know of 2 in my area that aren't listed on there.

Are there any sites that accurately show what races are in your area? What are your favorite healthy things to eat? We go through bell peppers, avocado, onions, cucumbers, and spinach (especially when our blender was working. womp womp. Someone ::cough:: me ::cough:: broke it)

Up Up and Away!

This weekend I was fussy. You all know that from reading about my funk. A huge part of it was that it was so hot and I could never get comfortable.

So what do we do when it's really hot out? Go out to an airshow!

I kid, we had planned on going anyway. Unfortunately it was 91 degrees out, so that kind of sucked. But we saw some really great planes and the flying was out of control.

The Sky Typer


Mike Mangold's plane


I love it! It looks like a face!


Aaaaand apparently, you have to put your own gas in your plane.


Omg, this is as small town as you can get. RPD put together a fake car chase on the flight line and it was fantastic. They circled about 3 times and then the guy got out of his car and ran through a fake door and hid behind a piece of cardboard. The police then used a flash bomb to get him. It was fantastic.


Mike Mangold himself.


A fold-up plane! This guy was standing next to us with his two small kids and he was like "Hey, sweetie look, it's a fold-up plane! An EFFING fold-up plane!!" We weren't sure if that second sentence was pointed at us but we sure hoped so.


This was a really cool demonstration. This is the plane that does the water drops for fires.


And a video showing it in action. It flew so. slowly.



It was a really neat airshow and I was proud of our city for putting it on. There were definitely things to work on for next year (more vendors, more food booths) and cooler weather would have brought more people out for it. But it was very well attended and I look forward to next year.

Finger-lickin' good

So there's this place. It's in San Diego, it's BBQ and it's worth it. Anyone from San Diego knows that if you want BBQ, you go to Phil's. So for my brother's birthday in September, we went to Phil's.

It's actually kind of ridiculous because the line to GET IN was an hour long. And you just stood there in line, creeping towards the entrance. We got to see a family just sit there and rub it in us poor souls who just wanted to eat that they were there and they were not moving. Then, to add insult to injury, they pull these tiny dogs out of their bags and let the dogs EAT THEIR SCRAPS. In the restaurant. You should have heard us. Not only were they totally done with dinner and not budging but they brought their DOGS to the restaurant and then they let said dogs climb up on the table and eat their food. Luckily a staff member came by and told them to knock it off.

Anyway, the food. That's what you're all here to see right? Vegetarians, you may want to turn away.

Hubs got some random order of ribs that was really innocent in it's description but ended up being the biggest pile of ribs any of us had ever seen.


I got the pulled pork sandwich which was so good but honestly, I could only eat half of this. It was that much food.


The birthday boy, lovin' it.


The boys were all watching numerous football games.


We were so full!


So yes, 3 thumbs up for Phil's. If you're in San Diego, you gotta go!

Pull Yourself Together!

Something feels off today. Just this feeling in my gut, like I'm unsettled. I don't have anything to be unsettled about though.
1. Marriage is good? Check
2. Job is good? Check.
3. Groceries in the kitchen? Check
4. Friends? Check
5. Awesome family? Check.

So what the hell? What's up with me? I think this is just one of those funks that people go through. Where you can't find a single thing that's wrong but something doesn't feel right. I feel as if I need to cry it out but what is "it"? Is it the fact that date night didn't go as planned or that it was hot as heck today at the Air Show? (ooo more on the air show later) Is it because I couldn't find my sunglasses?

I could have just woken up on the wrong side of the bed today. MAYBE it's because the weather teased us last week with chilly temps and yummy rain. Then it was 92 degrees today. ::Sigh:: Maybe it's because I want nothing more than to sit on the couch and veg tonight but we've got plans.

Guys, do you ever get in weird funks like this? Hopefully, I can wake up tomorrow and bound out of bed, drawn forward by some big gust of energy and happiness. I've been doing great for awhile but this could have been my "off" day. And that's ok. Everyone has off days once in awhile.

Have you had an off day lately? What did you do to snap out of it?

Where I Throw it All Out There

So I've been seriously slacking on this here blog but it's good! It means I'm busy and happy and just plugging along. So this post is going to be one of those "stream of consciousness" (totally had to spellcheck that, btw) posts.

1. Work is going great! I'm really liking my job, I'm picking it up sort of quickly and feel like I'm making a difference already. I appreciate my boss and her guidance and that's good because I'm going to be spending a lot of time with her the next week.

2. I'm going to be working a lot of nights pretty soon but that's ok because it means my weekends are always open. What a luxury that is!

3. Well, except for Sundays when we have the church choir gig going on. We had our first rehearsal last Sunday and I was a little disappointed in myself because I don't feel like we had a grasp on the situation. But it just means we get to try again this Sunday. We've never done this before and it sort of showed but we worked on stuff tonight and I know next week will be better. No one said we would know it all in a week!

4. The house is all decorated for fall and I love it. The weather dropped 50 degrees in a week. Nope, not a typo. Last Monday it was 117 here and it was about 65 degrees here today. What the hoo-ha hell is going on around here? I'm totally not complaining because I love this weather and wish it to stay (sorry weather! Don't be mad and run away!). I can't tell you how awesome it was to turn on our oven tonight and then actually stand next to it for more than a minute before running away.

5. We have a lot to look forward to in the upcoming months. I got into "Scrooge" at the local theater and can't wait to work with my friends again. The children's church choir. Work. Halloween parties. Christmas parties. Oh! My mother-in-law is coming for Thanksgiving which is going to be really fun. So yeah, lots of stuff to get excited about.

6. Pumpkins pumpkins pumpkins. I love them. In all forms.

7. I got to second shoot an absolutely gorgeous wedding with my friend Lyndsay this weekend. How much fun was that? SO much. And because I don't like posts where there aren't any pictures, here's one of my favorite shots of the night, straight out of the camera:



Gorgeous couple, gorgeous night.

8. Something I have refrained from telling a lot of people is that I started training for a half marathon! My dad and I are going to run the San Diego Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon next June. I'm so excited and I'm really excited we're going to do it together. I'm starting out so slow, a 5k next month, a 10k in April and the half in June. I'm trying to look for other races in the area that line up with my schedule which is a little tricky since we have to be at church every Sunday.

What about you? What great exciting things have been happening for you?

Greedy

I'm a greedy greedy girl. There was a time in my life where my mom would ask me what I wanted for Christmas or for my birthday and I couldn't think of a thing. SERIOUSLY? I can list of tons of things I want now. They are definitely not needs but man, I want want want all the time.

1. Unlimited shopping sprees at Target. Holy smokes, every time I go there I find about 15 things I want. Do I need more clothes? No but they are very clever at getting me to think I do.

2. New camera equipment. I'm doing all my stuff on a Nikon D40, which is a great starter SLR. But I covet. Ohhhh how I covet the Nikon D700, with a 50mm 1.4. Ooo and a 24-70mm but now I'm just getting greedy. I also want a nice flash but I don't want to start buying flashes and lenses that aren't compatible with what I have now.

3. Photoshop and Kubota actions. Yummy. I would buy an expensive package for the Magic Sharpener alone.

4. This necklace. You see the name of it?? It's like it was meant to be!

5. An external hard drive and a DVD burner for CDs. You know, so my computer can run at a normal speed.

6. A pair of TOMS shoes. I really like the grey ones. yum.

7. A Garmin 305 since I'm trying to really stick with the running thing. And a couple more running capris.

hmmmm, is anyone seeing a trend with my gimmie-gimmies this week?

Anyone else a greedy cakes this week? Because, oh man, I would feel awful if I was alone in this!!