Spiderman or Tinkerbell ...

Bandaid that is because today I was neither one of these cartoon characters on the trails.
Well if you remember a few posts ago I posted a video where you kind of see me flip over my bike. Well I wish today's fall was as painless. Same stupid hill kicked my butt big time today. To make matter worse this hill is at the beginning of the ride.
I wailed so loud that I was expecting someone to come running out of the neighborhing house. I am not proud of myself but I wailed, cryed, wimpered blobblered for a while. But I climbed back on the bike and continued to ride!
The fall I think shook me more mentally than it hurt physically although I'll be sporting some nice bruises for a while and have a nice trail rash on my forearm.

Anyways I will get back on this demon once the rear derailleur is fixed and well I think I'll be walking that steep little portion until I can ride it safely down.
Tomorrow's run will be interesting but if I can run after that I can run a half marathon!

Toughen up!

After this we needed some light food and a glass of wine was in order. We were going to Epazotte in Del Mar. When we got there we realized that it had been replaced by a new place called Flavor. It looked nice and happy hour was just starting so we sat down. Great great place not cheap but really nice. We both loved the decoration.
I'm thinking of recovering the vagina chair instead of making a slip cover. An olive green microsuede or mediterrean blue would be quite nice I believe..... My oh My another crazy project! Why on earth can't I just sit still.....

quick one well maybe not so

I know I'm overdue for a blog post and a race report. Well lets summarize quickly and then will do the real one. Last sunday was our yearly half marathon... didn't specifically train for this since I just train no matter what and Les well just kicks my butt.
We were quite tired the week leading to that race, we even went to bed at 8:30pm the night before, unusual for us.
Anyways it as hotter than last year but I PRed by 1 min over last year slowly inching my way towards 2H00... Hey at that rate in 10 years I'll be there ;) 2:11:36 was my time. Since the garmin recorded 13.17M my pace was 9:59,61 and NO IT IS NOT OK to round up to 10min/mile. First 6M of that race I was feeling awesome then I started feeling nauseous and couldn't think of drinking any more water nor eating any more blocks. So I trudged along. At mile 9 my IT Band started to remind me that stretching is just not an option. Oops I guess I can't forgo stretching for 3 months while training! So all in all it was a decent race, I had to walk a little but still finished 1min faster than last year.

B had the exact same race than last year and finished in 1:44... speedy.
The race kicked our butt and we were in bed at 8:15pm that night!
Well to get to the 2:00 a bit faster I decided to race a bit more often and so I am signed up for my next half on 2/12/2011 a saturday heaven. B wanted to join me but it is a women only race so I signed him for San Dieguito Half the next day!
I don't know what to expect from that race. I have always had plenty of time to recover and train in between races so I'll just do it. At least it is flat.

So well this was a longer race report than I expected. Since then, well training has started again wait it never really stopped. Doodled on the bike on tuesday, yesterday didn't make my workout because I was taught what I need to eat, when and how much. Today I went for an easy run at lunch decided to come back through the canyon hot hot hot!

On the nutrition side, I now know all the things I'm doing wrong. I will adopt certain changes such as more colorful veggies and fruits and more grains and dietary fibers. However I will not give up my wine. I also now know that I'm 20.1% which puts my at the botton of the athlete categorie woot woot!
So on this I'm going to go to bed.

What do I eat

When I'm alone!
Some people go for easy when they are alone well I'm the complete opposite. I like inventing new dishes when I'm alone. On Friday night I had a bike workout, so I decided to start cooking while the kids were watching a show. That way when I was done I could just cook the pasta add the sauce and eat at a decent hour. Well that was before I knew my bike workout would start at 9:10pm! Nonetheless it was perfect for the mood I was in when done.
Saussage Mushroom pasta with blue cheese.
(Excuse the lack of exact measurements)
Handful or more of white Mushrooms choped in small pieces
1-2 cloves of garlic chopped
1tbsp fennel seeds crushed
1 cup of white wine
chicken broth
1 italian saussage
1tbsp of heavy wipping cream
2tbsp blue cheese
pasta

Put some olive oil in a hot pan
Sautee your garlic
Add the fennel seeds and let it cook for bit
Add the crumbled saussage and cook for 5min
Add the mushroom cook for 5 min
Add the wine cook for a bit
Then add the chicken broth (not too much so that it isn't too soupy but enough so the sauce isn't too dry)
Let it cook so the flavor develop.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
You want a sauce not too dry not too watery.
Just before serving add the cream and the blue cheese. Serve with pasta.

Shrimp with Avocado

Shrimp deveined and peeled
Garlic chopped
Olive oil
Lemon
Cilantro
Avocado


Mix shrimp with some lemon juice, salt and pepper
Sautee the garlic in some olive oil, add the shrimps sautee until cook if it gets too dry add some lemon juice.
On a plate cut the avocado, drizzle lemon juice and add chopped cilantro.
Add the shrimp when cooked.

Bon appetit!

What does ...

A week end alone with the kids

+
a bare wall in a hallway

+

Too many books in an unsable bathroom which needs to be usable

+

A stack of wood

+

A bunch of power tools

+

Someone who never used above tools but has a nice friend to help her out

What does part 2

So this week end B had a snowboard trip to Mammoth with his work! So jealous! So here I am with a week end with the kids, training and the other billion things to do around the house.

That bare wall in the hallway has always been in my opinion the perfect candidate for a 6" wide bookshelf. The perfect size to store all our paperbacks while using empty space! B didn't really agree with me but as you can see in the past 7 months we haven't really made progress in the organization of our books front and the liberation of the kids bathroom!

So I decided that this week end alone with the kids would be perfect time for me to build a new bookshelf! Brilliant idea since I have nothing scheduled this week end... 2H00 run on saturday and 2h00 bike ride on sunday, as I said my week end was free!

Anyways I have to admit that while discussing with ChaCha at work the logistics of building a bookshelf such as going to store and buy the wood etc.. I almost backpedalled cuz lets face it a BWM station wagon with two kids in it isn't really the appropriate vehicle to transport the wood needed for a bookshelf. Well not unless you drop the backing right...

So after swimming lesson on saturday I am heading to Dixieline with my two monsters in tow and ChaCha who is much more used to this whole thing. I did spend some time the night before measuring everything and calculating everything.

I show up at the front desk to order my wood and I ask what I need right! Wrong you first need to figure out how many planks of which length you need then you tell them how you want them cut. Doh... took me like 10min to figure it all out.
From noon until 3pm, we managed to build the frame of the two bookshelves. I was left to put the remaining shelves, round the edges, stain and finish....

The baby sitter got there and I went for my run... Yeah I still had to run 2H00 and ride 2H00 during that week end. Since I only had a baby sitter for one of the days I decided to go run. I only did 1:15 and 6.6M but it was nice and I wanted to get back to the kids.
That evening we went to dinner to a new friend who is a runner/triathlete, has a full time job and two adorable kids. Moreover the boys are getting along great eventhough MAC is 2 years younger than HV! We had thai food and chatted until 10:45pm. The kids were exhausted and still woke up at 8am this morning.
Since saturday was spent in the garage I decided to be a nice mom and take the kiddos to Legoland... that plan went south when I realized that MEC had a light fever and was really grumpy. Instead we went to the toy store and I got them a little gift. MAC spent most of the afternoon building a new Hero factory and MEC played with polly pocket helped me sweep the floor in the garage and painted.
Everyone crashed at 7:30pm.
I spent time in the garage again and I almost finished the first bookshelf. It is stained and I just have to coat the "vernish" stuff sand and have B mount in on the wall.... can't wait!
Well the 2H00 ride didn't happen today and I'm not sure it will... because I'm baked. My legs are toast and I am tired.... So I think I'm gonna rest today and will do something tomorrow since chances are I will have to take some time off to watch over MEC.

This where we left off saturday afternoon



This is what I have tonight!

It isn't perfect but I'm still super proud. Now I know how to use a power drill (will get my own soon) and a sander (will get my own soon too)... It has nothing to do with wanting my own tool but you see I have micro hands seriously I have very short stubby fingers... and well my husband tools fit his hands. Maybe I'll get lucky and they make kids size tools ;)

So while my week end was really busy in a very productive way I can't help thinking as I am heading to bed that well I didn't really do what I was suppose to do workout wise but ah well there is always next week.... Speaking of which next week is Carlsbad and well in one hand I think I'm prepared and on the other I don't think I'm prepared. My goal this year is to run it 9:45min/mile pace or somewhere around there. Nothing spectacular but I think it is somewhat realistic. Most of all I want to cross that finish line and be proud of what I've accomplished.

Proud ???

So for this new year I decided to leave my bad brain somewhere in the dust... I decided to accept what my body gives me, it is hard though. Anyhow my training since last February is paying off not really how I imagined but is it ever.

First of all having a coach has made me increase my workout volume. I used to pull a 4H00 training/week maybe 5h00 on a good week. Now a good week looks more like 8H00. I was never able to run back to back. Now I do it routinely! I hated hills well I'm still huffing and puffing but at least they don't scare me as much. My easy runs were 30min now they are 1h00. I can run 2H00 any given sunday!

So I should be proud but well it is always hard to be stoked to run 10M in 2H00 when B can cover 14M in the same amount of time.

I don't know what Carlsbad will bring and I don't really care... These are my goals:

1- I'm having a great race would be close to 2:00

2- I'm having a good race would be between 2:10 and 2:05

3- I'm having an ok race would be whatever

However the main goal for this race is to cross that finish line with a big smile on my face and be proud of what I've accomplished no matter the pace!

So since this is 2011 I am proud that I ran 2H00 after a not so great 3 weeks training! I am so proud to not pull out of the race. So now onto sushi!

One step in front of the other

So training has been really now what I have wanted it to be lately. After the break I was mentally ready to go back at it and well I got sick. Nothing major but cough and congestion are not the runners best friend. So I took two days off. Yesterday I was able to do a 35min bike workout. Today I was planning on getting up early and go for a 6M run followed on Sunday by a 12M run. The Carlsbad half is coming up soon.

Last night I was planning on writing my self evaluation in front of the Blind Side. Well of course I was completely taken by the movie and my self evaluation laid there untouched. To make matter worse I did try to complete it between 11:30 and 1am... Hello how am I to get up at 6:30 am to go for a run when I go to bed at 1am! Not happening, so then I decided to go after the baptism we were invited to. I would sacrifice the wine in order to go run. I was utterly stuffed by lunch and so well running on a very full stomach isn't pleasant.

It is now 6pm on saturday, my self evaluation hasn't been turned in, I didn't go run my 6M run and my kitchen is a disaster.

Welcome, to my world of struggles, there will be many more battles and hopefully more won than lost. So today's run didn't happen lets make sure that tomorrow's is a good one.

Oh and to make matter worse my music device just quit on me!

Lets try again

So this is a short movie showing B going down a short steep hill gracefully on his mountain bike

This is how I chose to do it, look for my helmet just above the wall....

Blah

Cough cough sniff sniff, yeah I'm officially sick. I'm congested, I sneezed about 100 times today and coughed twice as much! I don't like being sick especially when mentally I was ready to tackle training again and I am grumpy!
But since life must go on I did make banana bread chocolate chip muffins with the kids tonight, we did dance as we were changing into our pj and I even managed my new fav for dinner, sauteed fingerling potatoes with crispy bacon and blue cheese served wiath a green salad.
Now time for bed...

Arghh...

So I've nurtured that scratchy throat since the beginning of my holiday and it was one of the reason I laid low on training. I didn't really want to be sick for our ski trip! B started like me but his scratchy throat quickly turned into drum roll please a sinus infection yikes! We need to get this under check! Me nothing just a little coughing at night and a bit scratchy in the morning.

Until I went running again! Ha as my dear dad would say too much exercise isn't good for you ;)

Anyways since not working out didn't really cure the scratchy throat I'm hoping that exercising will make it go somewhere right now it isn't heading to healthy but ah well.

Everyone has posted their new year resolutions and well I'm not super inspired. There is one thing though regarding training: I don't think I'm going to train for any races this year! I'm going to race to gauge my training. Maybe that will help me focus on what the coach tells me to do and do it rather than getting hung up on the slow ass pace that usually keep company to my 160 heart rate. BTW when I say slow I mean slow like 12:30 min/miles slow...

So today I printed my training and started with some strength, tomorrow is easy run and then we will see if I cough a lung or not. Now I'm gonna pop a cough drop and read a bit....

Today

I flew over my handlebar and landed flat on my back just in time to stop my bike from falling on my face! I admit I was a bit lot shaken after that and it took me a bit to shake things up and saddle back and go on! Thanks for my crash pads shorts I will only sport a minor bruise! Thanks B

You can see on the video how B went down and then you can see my face then me stopping the bike just above my head! ah well it didn't upload for some reason so the fall caught on film will be for another post.

Anyways that was the one of the two falls of the day the first one was caused by a small rock and I was able to un-clip and stop gracefully. I have to admit I almost flew above my handle bar once more when I hit the front brake hard.... I can tell you after that I barely used the front brake.

Yesterday I decided to make some cinnamon rolls and so I did. This morning I baked them and they were oh so delicious. For my next batch though I will decrease the amount of sugary filling. The kids loved them and I have to say we did too. We celebrated the end of our holiday by trying out a new sushi place in Oceanside called Harneys! It was delicious and we are now ready to tackle the daily grind!

Now I'm gonna try to put some new music on my mp3 player because well I don't really know what races I'm gonna do in 2011 all I know is that my main goal is try to keep up with what the coach ordered and maybe I will turn my "bottom heavy" physic into "bottom strong".

Adventures

Or lessons learned I'm not sure... Anyways we had a really quiet holiday celebrations this year as it was the 4 of us again. I did manage to cook all day but I love that so no surprises there.

I made bread rolls, orange cake, filet mignon and potato gratin for dinner. The dinner was delicious, we were all dressed up and it was fun.

Christmas day was spent lounging around the house and getting ready for a our trip. We were going to Las Vegas the next day for the night then continue to Brian Head UT for two days of skiing, then back home to spend the last few days of vacation in San Diego.

Great plan! Well traffic to Las Vegas sucks and so we got there late afternoon. Lets be honest Vegas with kids is just not right. We were just swallowed by an ocean of people and I wasn't really in the mood for it. We stayed at the Luxor which is a bit tripy. After settling into our room which was really nice, we ventured out to get some food.

The kids eyes were like saucers and they were just soaking it in. We went over the MGM and decided to eat at the Grand Wok which offered stir fry dishes and some sushi. That was one of the most expensive and worst dinner experience ever!

I have no problems spending money on food but 2 day old tempura in a roll that costs 18$ leaves a bad taste in my mouth....

We went back to our room where I settled with the kids reading some stories and trying to get them to sleep, while B went downstairs to gamble a bit.

He came back 1 hour and half later 60$ richer, soothed the pain caused by the dinner expense!

The next morning after a stop at starbucks we were on the road again direction Brian Head UT. As soon as we crossed the border into Arizona then later into Utah the scenery changed to a stunning view of mountains and canyons. It was truly beautiful.

After a lunch stop in St George we finally made it to our destination. Everyone changed into their snow gear and we played in the snow for an hour before dark.

We also stocked up at the local store which was a trip. I didn't realize that ground beef came in the 27% fat categorie! Since there wasn't much choice and we had to eat something I was able to whip out some pasta with meat sauce which without being the healthiest was at least quite tasty.

We then all settled for the night into our tiny winy studio at 9pm.

Next day we woke up to a beautiful blue sky and headed to the lodge to buy lift tickets, rent out gear and get the kids to their camp!

We were once more greated by a flood of people! Wait weren't running away from Mammoth crowd.

Anyways 1h00 later we were all set and off on the slopes. We had a great 5H00 of skiing for me snowboarding for B. We then made our way back to see the kids come back to the lodge after their day of snowboarding for MAC and skiing for MEC. They were both thrilled!

Unfortunately for us severe weather was on the menu for the day after. We also decided that instead of spending the last night then head back to San Diego we would leave right after the kids camp ended. Well that was without considering the weather and the fact that my low profile sporty station wagon wasn't really the right choice for this trip.

The next morning after waking up to snow and howling wind, we packed up our stuff, cleaned up the fridge and loaded up the car. The plan being lets drop the kids at camp for the morning go skiing a bit more and leave after lunch! Great plan right well that was until B came back saying that the car was completely stuck in the snow! Oops. After working on removing the snow packed under the car with a neighbor we were able to move it back to its spot. We then all went back to the condo. At that moment saw the plow guy come by and ran out to flag him. 5min later we were once more running out the door to get out of dodge! This time no attempt to ski a few more hours the goal was to make it down the mountain!

A couple of hours later found us striping out of our snow gear back into normal clothes and on the road back to San Diego. 9h00 later we were pulling in our driveway! What a trip!

Moral of the story need the right tool for the job! A low profile sporty station wagon isn't a good snow mobil! We drove 18H00 for one awesome day on the slopes! Hopefully next year will see us more on the slopes less on the road!

I am also one year older and entered the late thirties category and while I am still young I feel a bit older!

B did a great job on both the christmas gift, a padded shorts to help when I fall of my mountain bike and a beautiful purse for christmas and the leather jacket I have been looking for for ages for my birthday.

Now I must get ready for a run because well between a few health hickups, a bit of holiday laziness and the travelling I haven't worked out in 10 days! Oops.

Happy new year 2011 everyone