And ....

another week has gone by! I have to say B is complaining about routine and monotony, about the fact that our days, week blend in together and he is right.

Life is hectic yet very boring and repetitive! So I didn't alter my routine of taking a whole week off exercise after a race and thus I didn't workout once since last sunday. It will be even 10 days without exercise since tomorrow I'm working 60% since MAC's school is closed and the day after I have a dental appointment yikes.

This week end was all about relaxing my brain. We all have been really busy at work since coming back from our break. I am no exception but boy working at 90%-95% working capacity is sure tiring on the brain. Thus on friday my brain was tired eventhough I gave my body plenty of rest the night before. Saturday after the swimming lesson and some homemade blueberry buttermilk pancake and some chatting with my friend we headed out to Mission trails for some hiking with the kids. They had their like a bike which are bikes with no pedals. They went for almost 4M. MEC was pretty dead beat at the end and the last few yards were on Mama's shoulder with the bike in mama's arm.

After that we hit San Diego Brewing company at 3pm where I had a few chicken wings since I had dinner with some friends at 6pm!

Came home, got ready and en route to celebrate a friend's birthday in Hillcrest/north park. Since I am not familiar with the area I used my GPS to get there. What I always forget is that things seem a lot closer on the computer screen than real life. So we ended up walking a few blocks to the restaurant. This is almost totally OK at 5:30pm but much less so at 10pm.

We had dinner at Urban Solace and I shared the lamb meatloaf and a salad. The food was delicious, the company delightful and the wine delicious. We finished the evening at the North Pole a club next door. Eventhough I am not much of club person I had a good time.

After hitching a ride to the car I was in bed by midnight....

Carlsbad Half Marathon replay...

So here it is my second half marathon. I had a pretty agressive goal of an 9:30min/miles avg which is about a 2:05 finish time. I didn't think I was going to make it since my training although serious has been a little finicky. I had a lot of slow and painful runs.

The main goal of the day was to give it all I have.

Since B ran his first half marathon we sent the kids on a sleep over. Seriously first time without the kids and we get to wake at 5:40am! But hey we get up, get ready get there I thought 1h00 early was enough but so another 1000 people. We parked in the mall across the street and walked to the start line. It was chilly this morning but with the walking we kept warm.

I bumped into my GoTribal friends and B got to his wave start since he is much faster than me and I stayed behind with my friend. Started running, kept the pace reasonable. I was feeling pretty good my knees hurt and let me tell you the person who said Carlsbad half is flat was smoking crack! OK it isn't La Jolla half but it isn't flat either! Lots of small but nonetheless painful hills. Anyways I took my gus, felt decent until mile 9 where I just hit a wall. My last GU never kicked in! I had no energy but I didn't stop. I went slow but I went and it was hard.

So my finish time was 2:12 10:04 since it was actually 13.2 and not 13.1M not the PR I had hoped for but honestly today that's all I could give. I am very proud that I didn't stop and walk the last 3 miles because oh boy did I want to do that. On the other bright spot, I did go pass than the people I wanted to pass.
I have to admit that deep down I wish I was a better/faster runner, I guess I just have to continue trying, training and racing. I do have to do something about my nutrition because I do believe it was partly the problem. I finished my 12M run with B a couple of weeks ago way way stronger than I did today.

Anyways very tired and emotionally drained I found B at the finish line which is pretty overwhelming with like 4000 people around you. He had an awesome race he finished his first half marathon in 1:44 which is 7:55min/mile.

After that I dragged myself back to the car and we picked up the kids who had a great time! Went out to our favorite breakfast place Beachgrass Cafe then shower, bed while the kids played around us.

Around 3pm I dragged myself out of the bed and went grocery shopping because life goes on and we still want to lose 5-10lbs like everyone else. I cleaned the kitchen and now I am ready to go read on the couch.

Next week rest rest rest maybe some spinning, some swimming some running..... because triathlon season is going to start soon....

Butterflies

This morning we went to pick up our race bibs for tomorrow's half marathon. I have the jitters, butterflies in my stomach. We drove up the turn around point and this "flat" half marathon is false advertisement. Yes it isn't La Jolla Half but it isn't flat either.

Anyways I am scared. It is going to be interesting as I will be running alone probably. B will be starting 1 or 2 waves ahead of me. I hope I will be strong mentally I hope I will get in my groove and just push through the miles. I hope to get into my sprint triathlon mindset.

Which is slow and steady on the swim, push on the bike since it is one of my good sport finally get in the groove in the run. We don't stop, we can slow down but we just keep going. The whole things only takes 1:30 or a little less which is less than the half marathon and it is more diverse but I'm hoping to be able to apply the same mental attitude.

I did train for this thing. Maybe not as hard as I should but I didn't slack off either so I should be able to have a decent/good race.

What else is going on. On Wednesday I had lunch with Bunny which was nice since we haven't been able to chat much since she moved in the other building and since we are both overloaded with work. On thursday I went out with my neighbor to dinner followed by a chick flick. We saw leap year which was really nice, exactly what I was in the mood for.

Yesterday evening we had some friends over for dinner. At lunch time I had literally 5 minutes to throw the meat, wine and some herbs in the crockpot and leave. When I got home I sauteed some onions, garlic, mushrooms then the meat and the wine. I threw everything in the oven on 350 and finished to cook it for about 1 hour or 2.

I was hungry for biscuits so I made some. They are really easy to make and it was so yummy. As a side dish I made mashed potato/sweet potato. It was such a great rainy day dinner.

Tonight the kids are going on their first sleepover so MEC woke up last night and cried on and off for about 2H00. She finally went back to bed and fell asleep at midnight. I hope she will be good tonight!

Work has been crazy but I delivered my application and I started on my other tasks. Now on to some relaxation since the kids are completely into the "I Spy" book. MAC reading and the both of them trying to find the items.

weather

Aaahh weather in San Diego is always an interesting adventure! I arrived in San Diego Feb 1998 which if I recalled was a El Nino year. At the time I didn't know anything about El Nino just that I arrive in a new city, where I didn't know anyone. I was renting a room in someone house and they were away for the week end so the house was cold since it was not nice out.
Since then every year it rains more or less but not a drizzle instead it pours. Every year San Diego is subjected to flood, trees are broken etc... The thing about San Diego is that these 10 days of weather maybe a month of weather are quickly forgotten when the sun comes back.
So why am I blogging about the weather! Just because today at 2:45pm, lights and computers went pffft. That was the end of our workday. I know you gotta love technologie right, we lose power and we just are worthless!
So I left a little early picked up MEC who said "why are you here mama, where are we going?" You gotta love daycare kids.
Anyways since my machine is still off I can't work remotely tonight. This is great and I should not sulk but with my deadlines, the amount of work I am not too happy to lose a whole afternoon of work.
At lunch I went to the gym to get my last interval session. I did a 0.5m warm up at 10min/mile, followed by 4x0.25M at 8:15 the last 0.15M of the last interval I managed a 7:45min.miles!
I stretched a little since I haven't been too good and I'm pretty sure my knees are going to give me grief! Anyways sticking to my rule I won't drive to the gym I got completely soaked as I hurried back to my desk.
What else, I dyed my hair black! I was looking for a dark brown but when I didn't find the proper shade so I went black. Since Monday I got did you dye your hair a lot. Since I am facetious and sarcastic I have given a lot of different answers along the following lines. "No I woke up that way", "My kids colored my hair with black sharpie" etc...
Since we are the work subject. Last friday I walked to my desk just to find two donuts dangling from the ceiling in front of my computer. The thing is i really don't like doughnut. I feel that the taste doesn't offset the risk for my arteries. I'm pretty sure my boss is responsible for this but to this day I really don't know why,
Finally this weather has made me want to be very comfy and since I absolutely love my new birks I have been wearing my jeans, birks and a black sweater two days in a row. Unfortunately I'm not sure I can pull it off a third day! My sister will have an attack when she realizes that I am the proud owner of a pair of birkenstock.

Soooo

As I expected B categorized my shoes as granny shoes. I also received today the "narrow" pair of birkenstock which look really neat with bootcut jeans and are quite comfortable. So I'll keep the granola head shoes and won't buy the granny shoes ;)

Maybe you will see me sporting the yellow purse soon though!

Virtual Spending...

So at lunch I went to UTC to redeem a gift card at Williams Sonoma, which is still in my wallet. I quickly went to Nordstroms to look at their Marc by Marc Jacob purse to gawk a little since a 500$ purse is definitely not in my need to buy list. Actually now that I think of it that list is empty for a good reason so a lot of items can make it on the list but they will probably stay there for a while before materializing on my doorstep. This is besides the point really since we are in a virtual world right now.

While there I saw a cute cross body purse in yellow at a very decent price of 140$. Not sure if I will stay conservative and go with black or a little more fun and go with yellow or green. Since we are in virtual world lets say that I'm a fun crazy person who decided to go with yellow ;)

The other item that drew my attention and which will certainly replace my birkenstock is that pair of conservative classic shoes. Hey if they came in red I'd buy them. I like the little heel so that I'm not in flat all the time. They would go very well in my modern classic look and they are quite confortable.

That's it for now.. back to work.

Comfort food

So my favorite comfort food lately has been brown rice croquettes and chicken burrito.
The Brown Rice Croquettes are from when I was growing up. It is super duper easy simple, fast and good.

Cook some about 1 cup brown rice
Strain the rice
Add an egg, some cheddar cheese, salt and pepper
Shape the rice mixture into balls
Roll them in bread crumbs so that they are covered.
Heat some olive oil in a non stick pan
Cook the balls until they nice and crispy.

Enjoy with a green salad.
This has been the perfect replacement for the pirogis since Trader Joes discontinued them. It is also quicker to make on the go.

Our second favorite comfort food has been chicken burritos, especially since I discovered this great chipotle cinnamon rub at Vons. I'm usually not too into buying ready made rubs, sauces and such but this one was a great find.
The recipe is just as follow:
- Slice an onion dice some breast tenders (I like them better than chicken breast)
- In a bowl, mix the onion, the chicken, some rub, olive oil and lemon juice.
- Saute in a pan
- Cook some white rice (sorry I'm partial to white rice)
- Mix some cut cilantro to the rice like they do at Chipotle (love that)
- Put your burrito together, some cheddar, some beans, some avocado, some chipotle sauce (made with cream, mayonnaise and chipotle chili).

Voila ready to enjoy. This is too good!

Besides home cooking what has been going on in my life. Since our 12M run and my once again hard recovery I have been toying with the idea of seeing a nutrition. The problem is that each time I read about healthy eating and losing weight etc... It is all about going gung ho organic, no beef etc... I mean I'm all about eat as little process food as possible and make things from scratch whenever possible but I am not ready to give up my food habit. I mean I want to enjoy my wine, my meat any type of meat, my unhealthy carbs (as in white pasta, white rice, white bread), my butter in my cakes, the touch of cream in my sauces etc... I will happily give up the twix bar (don't remember last time I went to the vending machine), I will happily stop raiding the cube next door for gummy candy etc... Hopefully in the process I will lose those last 10lbs!

So in the mean time I'll try to learn as much as I can on how to fuel my athletic endeavors to not crash hard. If I can learn a thing or two on balancing my meals a little better without giving up my food pyramid.
Besides that it is tapering time before the half marathon yeah! We had a 4x0.5M intervals on wednesday tomorrow a 3M tempo.
Work has been busy but good.
Now I'm famished it is 9:45pm and we haven't had dinner yet!

A typical workday

This post was inspired by a blog post I read earlier tonight describing the day of someone I know. I decided to do the same. I don't know if that is of any interest to you and this is an exercize:
6:45am-7:45am

• alarm goes off --- really I have to get up now
• wake the kids up and give them their milk
• Slap some makeup, get the lunch box ready, help B get the kids ready, give MAC his breakfast
• Yell at the kids because we are late.

7:45-7:55am

• everyone out of the house
• Curse at the driver on the 5
• drop MEC off to daycare

8:15-8:30am

• arrive at work
• grab coffee cup and bread to get breakfast

8:40

• start work day drinking coffee and munching on dry toast

11:30am

• go to the gym/pool workout for 30-45min 3-4days/week

12:30am

• lunch at my desk

5:15pm

• run out of the door because I'm late
• pick MEC up
• Drive to MAC's school pray for no traffic.
• drag son out of childcare I think if he could sleep there he would

6:15pm - 8:30pm

• Finally homeHomework with MAC if it is homework day,
• unload dishwasher
• cook kids dinner
• feed them
• B take them shower - start on adult dinner or sit down in front of computer
• help B with night time routine - read stories

8:30pm - 11:15pm

• Either start cooking dinner for adult or finish cooking dinner or panick because starving, everything is frozen and nothing sound good. If it I am training I may do a bike workout while dinner is cooking and B is watching a TV show.
• Eat while watching TV Show
• Work while watching TV show or just watch TV show.
• Laundry fold dried load and put away (not always) start another load if needed
• Clean up
• Read
• Crash

11:15-midnight

• Either sleeping or should be sleeping

Go to sleep

How to...

How to get over a stressful busy week ! Go for a 12M run with your husband, well 6M would have probably been enough but we are ending our Half Marathon training and we had a 12 miler todo.
We plotted along and finished this 12M without me stopping without me quitting without having B yell at me to not stop. I did want a couple of time, I had trouble with my knees but I managed my pain which is more than I was able to achieve last year.
This was the longest run without stopping even though I ran a half marathon last year!
Now to the Sophie suck section the average pace was a little slower than I hoped 10:23min/miles which is after all my long run pace.
Anyways my back isn't tight anymore, my nerve isn't pinched any more and I'm actually feeling pretty good.
It took about 3h00 though, about 30mn after the run a severe nausea settled in and fatigue as well. No matter what I tried to eat it took 3h00 for me to feel better and only after I drank a glass with a 1/4 tablet of electrolyte.
Anyways I'm feeling much better and can actually think about dinner and even a drink. I am glad this 12M run is behind me. Now I just have to survive the race without B in front of me pulling me along. I really hope that knowing he is waiting for me at the finish line will be enough to get me motivated and to not quit.
Tomorrow I have to complete my self evaluation and I absolutely abhorr those. Seriously though isn't my hard work enough why do I now have to go brag about all the great things I have achieved this year. It is just not me but I guess it is going to have to be me though.
This is for now because it is 9:15 and a nice filet mignon is waiting to be cooked and a cold pear cider or a nice glass of red wine is calling my name!

Oh by the way I'm utterly and completely jealous of my husband who just bought a pair of zoot running shoes. These are "triathlon" shoes and they look cool and I want a pair ;) Maybe these will my next running shoes!

Deadlines ....

I have to say that I hit the ground sprinting for 2010. Big deadline at work has been keeping me busy all week. My brain is mush, I have a pinched nerve in my back from the tension and finally my body is screaming can you please run so we can get rid of all the stress/tension.

I know the house rule is no whining but hey this is my blog so I'll whine away all I want. I mean at least the project is great and the people I'm delivering the software too are stoked so it is always nice.

As a result I didn't even realize my performance review/self evaluation was due like yesterday! I hate doing those well this year I don't even have the luxury to agonize and waste hours of work to write it. It will be what it will be.

Other than that I did two running sessions this week. The first one was kind of blah I think I ran about 3-3.5M on the treadmill and the next day I went for a make up interval session. I only had a little bit of time so I did a quick 2M. I started by warming up for 9.5 at 10min/mile pace then I did 4 0.25M interval, I started at 8:15 and increased the speed for each interval finishing at 7:50min/mile. (7.3-7.5 I think). That was really good.

On friday I wanted to go run 5M but my day was too busy that I skipped hence the pinched nerve. Today we have our 12M run. I was supposed to be running it with a friend but since her husband works I'll be running it with B. We will see how it goes. I hope the weather cools off a tad though.

I got my birkenstock but they were a little too wide. I ordered the narrow one and we will see how those fit. I'm not sure I really like the look though a little too granola for me but we will see.

More on the run later.

so over it

Over what.... our half marathon training! Yes I was so into it at first, I had these great hopes of new PR's etc... but over the last month my motivations has dwindled so much that a 4M run was both pitiful and painful. Since I am not really a quitter only sometimes ;) I pulled myself together and had a couple nice long runs. It is amazing what proper nutrition and hydration would do to you ;) I ran an 8M with B last Monday, then a 3.8M at 9:15-9:30 and today I did a 7.5M at I don't know the speed yet I'm thinking something around 9:45-10min/miles. I was glad that none of my knees hurt. Next week we have a 12M planned, then a 6M then half marathon!
Then I am done for long distance running and back to triathlon training! yeah. I haven't touched my bike at all during the break and I haven't put a toe in the swimming pool.

What else has been going on... On NYE we went to friends to share some cheese fondue and asian hotpot. It was a great evening. The kids had a blast and passed out in front of Kung Fu Panda. The adults shared good wine, good food and great company.

I am also ashamed to report that all our big staycation plans of cleaning the house have been left as plans. The garage is still super messy and full of stuff to get rid of. The laundry has been done but the two baskets are still full! Ah well vacation are for relaxing right....

Anyways of course MEC is sick. It is the last day of vacation we both have tight deadlines. Well after the motrin she is feeling better and B offered to stay home with her tomorrow although he doesn't have a choice cuz I really really can't get out of my deadline!
Anyways this was a very uneventful post. Sometimes I wonder why I keep posting maybe because I enjoy reading other people's blog soooo much.
On that note enjoy your last hours of vacation.