I know right! It’s been ages…I don’t even want to scroll back on my calendar to see when the last post was. Bleh.
If I have to make an excuse on my own blog I really do have a good one. It’s been super crazy town around here for the last few months. I got a promotion with my company and as a result we are relocating the entire family to Southern California! I had been balancing 2 jobs for almost a month and am now fully into my new role. I’m SUPER excited about new position and more excited that I’ll be working in the same building as the people who work on my team. I’ve been leading virtual teams for the last 6 years – it’ll be so nice to talk to people face to face, to grab them when I see them in the hall, or to have chit-chats at the coffee bar – rather than scheduling conference calls on everyone’s booked up calendar. 🙂
So with work all twisted…we’ve also been busting hump getting our house ready to sell. You don’t realize how much you just live with until you start looking at your house as a potential pile of money. 😀 We are looking to put it on the market on Monday…so it’s the last weekend of cleaning and straightening before hordes start traipsing through here. (HunBun is NOT looking forward to that at all).
The posting will be hit or miss for a while…but I’ll do my best.
Yesterday was full of rain, rain, rain. I dislike driving in the rain not only because the roads are slick but because of people who act like the rain requires them to drive as ridiculous as possible. It’s either folks driving really fast, switching lanes and kicking up walls of water OR it’s the folks who drive extremely slow no matter the lane and brake like 40 feet before any car or intersection (no matter if the light is still green). UGH!
The weather folks say that we had our last band of storms yesterday…so I’m expecting a return to normality on the California freeways and roads. Fingers crossed.
So I finally opened the swag bag I got at the Athleta store opening on Tuesday night…I know I took a while. Some pretty nifty stuff in there.
Athleta swag
I need to start using my regular camera to take photos for the blog. My Instagram App pictures are just not cutting it. Bleah.
Snack Attack
So yesterday I was in a snacky mood. So I poured a handful of cashews, dried cherries and dark chocolate baking chips onto a plate to eat while going through work emails. Then I made myself a Swiss Miss Dark Chocolate cup of cocoa. That instant mix is definitely one to try. Tastes rich and creamy even when made with water. I haven’t made with milk yet which I may try today with almond milk (cause of my tummy), if I’m craving cocoa later today.
Eats
I’ve been eating my normal protein pancake breakfasts and my random veggie lunches. I am always envious of folks who have left overs to warm up but usually make just enough to feed the family with maybe a teeny tiny bit that wouldn’t fill anyone’s plate for a next day meal.
Pumpkin pancake
Pancake with some new toppings
Veggie lunch
Sweats
I did a circuit workout yesterday morning to start the day right.
Warmed up with 2 minutes of sun salutations, followed by 12 sets of 60sec/10sec of plyometrics and old fashioned calisthenics (jumping jacks, high knees, etc.), then ending with 12 sets of 60sec/10sec of upper body exercises.
Whew! Sweaty delight. I like moving so quickly from one exercise to the next, doing that gets your heart pumping and keeps it pumping until the very end.
Then I went to Vinyasa Flex over at my yoga studio, Xplore Yoga. The instructor focused on hamstring flexibility – which is great for my half-marathon training. I always find I am more comfortable with my form when I continue with my yoga practice.
Finished the night by cooking some dinner for the family, trying to read all the blogs I subscribe to (didn’t) then falling asleep around 9:30pm. I pressed some button on my alarm clock and couldn’t figure out what was happening with it. It just showed 0:09. Wha?!? So after 10 minutes of fiddling with it HunBun said “hey maybe that’s the time you set for the snooze”. Der! As soon as I hit the snooze button the time showed up. ARGH!
This morning I did a hill workout on the treadmill followed by 10 minutes of upper arm/back exercises with 3lb dumbbells. I’m working hard to get that little jelly spot tightened up, you know that piece right under your arm pit? Yeah that one. It’s getting smaller…so I’m on the right track. 🙂
Anyhoo….gotta drop the boy off at school then get to working!
Saturday was “race” day…remember the air quotes around “running” on the last post? Well they were extremely appropriate. I would say I averaged 10 minutes of total run/jogging time on this trail. The rest would be better labeled as a power hike through the rolling hills of Danville, California.
We parked far away from the park and caught the shuttle the lovely folks at Brazen Racing provided for us. (No photo – fail) It took about 10 minutes to ride up the windy road to the race location. I sat next to a gal that was running the half-marathon; hope she did really well. It was super misty and chilly up at the top and it wasn’t your typical crush of people, which was nice.
Waiting for race start
This little one was so cute! He did the 5K and was like a jack rabbit…running then walking then running then walking. The funniest was when he would pass people he’d smile at them and say “Boo!”. I can say, with confidence since this was my second race with Brazen, you have the nicest people setting these races up and the sweetest people running these races. Everyone’s super chill and you can just start talking to random folks and potentially find your new race pal (Hi Belinda and hubby!).
We were the last group, as the 5K’ers so we said we were going to run until the first set of hills…well that was probably 4 of the 10 run time minutes. So you know what we were facing here’s a little photo montage (pardon the blurries, I was actually trying to race here 🙂 ).
On the trail…single file now
I’m running here!
Winding, winding, winding up up up
Like climbing Everest
New friend Belinda!
It’s all downhill from here!
The one thing we wanted was to not finish last…not to be jerks – but you know…we’re jerks. HA! Another thing was that we didn’t want the half-marathoners to finish before us either. So as we are heading down the hill for the last 0.5 miles of our 5K who do we see huffing it up the hill???? Dang HF’ers! Wholly Guacamole!!!! We were like, whu?!? These dudes were like zoned in – breathe was loud and their eyes were just blazing forward. We were in awe…like these 2 guys
We made sure to run around the last corner before crossing the finish line and picked up this Flavor Flav ready race bling!
Bling Bling
Flames and everything, right?!? So now that’s hanging up next to my tough Trail Hog medal from last month. It’s like a zoo in here! 🙂
Then we erased all the calories we just burned by pigging out at the post-race buffet. (Why did I not photo that again, Argh!) Smeared PB on half a bagel, grabbed some pineapple slices, a little cup of pretzel M&Ms AND the awesome cappucino It’s It ice cream sandwich! EEEEEEEEE!!!! That thing is so good!
If you’re in the Bay Area totally do the Brazen Racing series of local races. They are the best folks, both putting it on and participating in them. I’ve got a couple more through the end of the year…next one’s a 10K. Whee!
After the race LiLo and I headed to Downtown Danville for a street fair type of deal – food and crafter booths. (Of course no photos…although it’s more because my phone was ready to die on me but also because I forgot, DER). We stopped and ate a grilled chicken caesar wrap – so YUM. It also must have looked so Yum because we had 2 folks stop and ask us where we bought ours from.
Oh, I did get one photo. The kids were doing safe trick’or’treating at the fair and I saw this coolio kid…
I’m a Minecrafter
10yo totally wants to make a Minecraft costume this year so we’ve been saving boxes like mad fools (you don’t realize how hard these are to come by until you need them). So when I saw this kiddo walking by I had to ask his parents if I could snap a photo (and make sure they knew I wasn’t some perv skeeving out on their boy) so 10yo and I could use as a template. The mom said she bought both of the things on Amazon! Man, the things we spend money on now a days!
So that’s my weekend…and now it’s the week – so we’ll see how today goes. It’s starting off cold and rainy – so howdy do Fall!
LiLo and I are “running” the Brazen Rocky Ridge 5K this Saturday. I say “running” because this is the hilliest place we have ever seen! (We didn’t know what we were signing up for, that’s for sure.)
Being the two supersmart gals that we are, this morning we met at the race spot to get a ‘lay of the land’ only to find that they closed the trail we’ll actually be on to set up for Saturday. To feel like we didn’t waste our time we hit the Elderberry trail instead. OM-stinken-G!!!! If this isn’t the most vertical race route ever created! (Apparently it’s not, I ‘oogled “most vertical race route” and it spat back at me Badwater Ultramarathon, which starts at 280′ and ends at 8500′; so I guess I should stop acting like a baby.)
Las Trampas Regional Wilderness Park
We were huffing & puffing AND trying to carry on a conversation – like all good gal pals should. We did look around (to make sure we weren’t ambushed by a cougar or a crazy person (I did watch The Hills Have Eyes you know) and the views are absolutely GORGEOUS! I’ll be sure to take photos while we are “running”. Ha!
Here’s a video of 2010’s race so you can have an eyeball into what I’ll be doing on Saturday morning.
After our morning “hike”, we drove to downtown Danville’s Forward Motion Sports to pick up our race bibs and so I could check out a pair of Mizuno’s for my upcoming Half’s. With our race entry we got 15% off any purchase at FM when we picked up our stuff so I figured I would try to take advantage of saving a little dough. In addition to my sweet new kicks I also joined the cult of water belts.
MIzuno Wave Rider
Yes I drank the water…while I carry my own water… HA!
I know, I know…why’d I pick the most obnoxious looking one? Well the others looked weirder AND didn’t sit right on my waistline. But really, the real reason for buying into the water belt idea is an article I read recently (Runners World or Active.com or some other super smartsy place) where a tip to reduce your run time was NOT to stop at water stations. DER!
I always have to slow down to drink my water/’ade otherwise I will literally drown myself while standing up right on dry ground. (I think that was a CSI episode). I mean have you ever tried to guzzle a dixie cup full of liquid while jog/running? Your nose holes will be clean as a whistle if you try. So I can totally agree with the article’s opine that if you don’t stop your race time will decrease. (insert head smack here).
I won’t be using the belt for this weekend, but I will be using it for the Tinkerbell Half in January and the Princess Half in February…in addition to practice runs with my meet up group.
Anyhoo…super cool swag again and really neat-o t-shirt. Enjoy the pics…beam your “fast” thoughts my way around 830am pacific time.
We left the house super early Friday morning…I think we closed the garage door at 4:45am. The boys snuggled up in their blankets and tucked in for the ride down to Disneyland. The moon saw us off…it’s amazing how bright it is when it’s pitch black outside.
Good morning sunshine
I-5 wasn’t too crowded when the sun finally joined us for the trip. It was absolutely gorgeous to watch the sky brighten up and color with the morning rays.
We got to into Disneyland around 10:45am…the trip seems to take longer and longer every time. I mean it’s not like they added any roads or anything so not really sure why the car GPS told us it was a little over 6 hrs to get there when we were pretty sure it was a little over 5 hrs a couple months ago. We spent the entire first day in Disneyland – hitting up all the rides. Seems everyone was over in California Adventure waiting 2 hours + for the new Carsland rides. Good grief! We all headed to bed early as 12yo and 10yo were joining me for the Carsland 5K in the morning.
AM to PM in 4 pictures
Saturday was California Adventure day…starting the morning with the Carsland 5K. 10yo took off running right after the start while 12yo and I took a jog/walk approach. 12yo’s not as into fitness as I’d like him to be but I was so proud of him for sticking to the j/w plan. We crossed the finish at 41 minutes – which is not too shabby for his first foray into racing.
We got fast passes for Carsland – can you believe HunBun and 12yo waiting 20 minutes for the fast passes? 10yo and I rode Tower of Terror twice while they were waiting AND got pictures with the Incredibles and Minnie!
Minnie’s adorable!
Check out those guns!
Sunday was Disneyland day…and RACE DAY! I will admit I was a little worried about my run. After 3 early mornings and 2 full days in the park my ankles and legs were feeling a little woogly. I woke up at 3:45am and got dressed in the bathroom – while trying not to wake everyone up. SMART TIP: Always set up your running doo-dads in a pile where you can just grab & go. I had my clothes all set up on the dresser and my Garmin, Nano and Mickey Mouse visor right next to it. That way I didn’t have to fumble around trying to find everything I needed. I also put my Smucker’s PB&J pre-made sammy and bottle of water next to my pile of stuff. I always eat a Smucker’s Uncrustable PB&J frozen sandwich before my Half’s – it works for me.
I headed over to the start at around 4:15am…we stayed off-resort this year so my walk was a little longer than usual. This may have worked to my favor – got to warm up the legs a little with my trek across the way. I did a lot of stretching and a lot of port-o-potty visits. I’m always worried about having to stop and stand in long lines while on the route…so I visit the port-o’s a TON! They changed the corral set up…I think it lost some of the excitement because instead of a long line of corrals they had a U shape…so A,B,C were in line with the start while D to the end were around the corner. There was less screaming and cheering this year.
They had a lot of car clubs on the route this year…old cars, corvettes, mustang cobras – maybe to fit into the Carsland theme. It was really awesome to see all the locals supporting folks they don’t even know. The bands, cheer groups and dancers are always big energy boosters. It was really hot this year so I stopped for water at every station…did my swish and swallow with the Power-ade and water to cut the sweetness. I don’t know why they always choose blue Power-Ade…weird.
My Beans, Power-Ade and Water got me through the race and I finished at 2:11! I was super happy with myself as I only walked during water stops (I tried running with water the first time and almost drowned myself with the water sloshing up my nostrils – definitely not attractive).
I’m a Winner!
I love the Disney races. They are a ton of fun and I’m always ready to go to the parks. I can’t wait to do the Disneyland Tinkerbell in January then jet off to Disney World for the Princess in February. Hope you enjoyed this quick jaunt through our long weekend.
Hi! My name is Cathy and I'm working hard to balance health and life. Sometimes it's hard, especially with work, family and my own interests competing to fit into the 24 hours a day we've all been blessed with. This blog is a place where I can share what I'm doing to move - with direction and magnitude...on the vector.
Literature, more than anything inspires me to be the greatest version of myself. Through this blog and my teaching, I hope to share the love of literature that can only come from understanding that great literature is not just read, but demands to be felt.
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