The Weekend and The Goods.

Had a wonderful yet sweaty balls weekend. I can't believe it was 112 on Sunday. Hoooooooot!!! It was the gathering of my girls over the weekend, too! I was in dire need of some girl time. Haven't seen or spent time with them in days.

We decided to have a little tea gathering at my house since a couple of them haven't seen my new digs yet. Spent about 4 hours of just gabbing away about absolutely nothing. Absolutely loved it and can't wait to see them again!

I finally purchased a fuel belt for my long runs. I'm officially a jogging nerd. I never thought I'd be one of those people that would be sporting these and I have a confession to make. I used to make fun of those people. Sooorry!! I know, this is the time where you can slap me silly and roll your eyes at me. Dam karma!

I purchased the Amphipod RunLite Waist Race Fuel belt. What I like about it is that it's not really bulky and I can add on some little bags for some extra stuff I need to carry like gu's and such.

The only concern I have is that it doesn't have a snap belt. Instead, it has velcro. So, I'm hoping that when I run, it won't start to slowly unvelcro. Knowing myself, it probably would do that. Remember my falling pants incident?

I also got to purchase some sport gels. REI was having a sale on them for under $1. So, I bought a few. I got a couple of chocolates and a apple cinnamon. Let's just hope that my stomach can take these.

Annnd, my favorite part, I got my first running hat!!!! Heh. My friends keep raving how much better a running hat is than that of a regular hat. Usually, I run with the hub's Cal hat and I finally pluckered down for one.

I also have to mention that I got my little Maddie a backpack for when we go camping next month. She looks absolutely petrified in this picture, I know. Like, wtf? You are making me carry my shiz and YOUR shiz? HAH.

The packs only came in red and blue. I wanted to get her the red one since she's, duuh a girl. But, dam, the hubs and his Stanford hating didn't want to get red. F. Whatevs.

Plan on doing a long run and testing out my new goods this Friday. Stoked that the weather is going to not be in the 100's. It's going to finally start to cool down, just a tad bit.

Planning Out Your Running.

Call me crazy, but I enjoy and prefer working a night shift schedule. I've tried a day shift schedule for about a month and absolutely hated it. I had to sleep early, wake up early, get my ass kicked, and do it all over the following day. Yucks. No thank you.

So, I went back and I became a happy bee.

Now, I'm having the frustration of combining my work schedule with a running schedule. I feel as though when I work that I lose out in running. Take for instance, this past weekend. It was my weekend on and I worked 4 nights in a row, which meant, I lost 5 days of running. 5 days!! F.

Here's my running schedule this week. What do you think?

Tuesday: Run 4 miles
Wednesday: Run 6 miles
Saturday: Run 4 miles
Monday: Run 6 miles

Total Mileage: 20 miles

This morning, I was so anxious to get out there. I woke up around 6:30 with the encouragement by the hubs because he knew that I've been wanting to get a morning run in. Got up, had a whole wheat toast with some peanut butter and a glass of OJ and I was out.

I thought, dam, 7 am is a bit too late to get out there and run. So, I'm going to try my hardest to wake up at 6:00 am and be out the door by 6:30 am. It's going to be hard to wake up this night shifter, but I'm sure going to give it a good ole' try.

Talk about Anti-Climatic!

Have you ever pumped yourself up for something for so long and then come to find out that you can't do it. It's a no freakin' go. Nada. Zilch. Nooooooooooooope!

So, I work the night shift schedule which is a sometimes grueling 12 hour shift from 7pm to 7am. It's really hard to plan a workout schedule, yet alone a running schedule during the summer months ( I'm finding this out REALLY quick since I live in sizzling Sacramento!).

I had every intention last night to go for a 4 mile run after work. I kept telling myself that I could do it. It's the best time to go since it'll be semi-early in the morning where the sun isn't so much beaming on my skin. It'll be perfect!

Well, I get home. Debate whether or not if I should go or not because I was getting sleepy on the drive back home. ( I have about a 30 minute commute). Decide, what the heck. I'm going to do it. At this time, the adrenaline is pumping from the excitement of me daring to go for a run despite me having to return to work for another 12 hour shift.

Here's where I f'd up. I opt to wear these running capri's that I haven't worn yet and head out the door. Set the Garmin and off I go................ to about 585ft. Throughout the entire 585 ft, my pants just wiggle down and I'm struggling to not make a fool of myself and pull them up. From a bird's eye view, I probably alread look like THE FOOL as I'm fidgeting with my pants throughout the entire 585 ft run. F. Boo.

I head back home in defeat. Call it a day and decide to give it a try the next day. But, right now, it's 11:17 am and I'm still up? What. The. Hell????? I hope it happens.


To guide me to sleep I made a pretty good potsticker salad. It contained organic red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, avocado's and ofcourse, the fresh beets that I cooked the other day.

Inspired by NherShoes' blog about trying to live the simple life challenge that she's been doing, I decided to see what's in my fridge/freezer.

It was a very delicious salad, if I must say so myself. The potstickers added a whole new level of a crunch texture. Ofcourse, what helped it even more was my favorite salad dressing in the whole wide world! Japanese Miso Dressing by Red Shell. I swear, if you haven't tried this dressing, I highly suggest you go out to your nearest Asian market or high end market and purchase yourself some. It makes any salad taste so yummy!!!!

I'm Beet.

The hubs and I have recently made a tradition of going to the Farmer's Market every Sunday and purchasing our vegetables, fruits, and breads. So far, we have been able to stick with this tradition for the past couple of Sundays and I love it.


I feel so Alice Waters when I am using the fresh ingredients bought at the Farmeris Market. Recently, I made the most delicious Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, and Avocado sandwich on whole wheat bread. All of the items were bought at the Farmer's Market sans the bacon. Although, I can purchase some bacon there, but it's a bit pricey. It's like $5.99. No thanks. I can get it on sale for $1.99.

It's very exciting for me (at least) to get up early, make my cup of coffee to bring with me, and see what kind of vegetable I can bring home that I've never tried cooking with before. Something that I would only eat at restaurant, but wouldn't have the courage to buy fresh and make something of it.

Last Sunday, we brought home fresh beets. They are quite a site to see in person. They have ginormous green leaves attached to them. It's unfortunate, that we have to chop them up and not use it. At least, I think we can't use them. Can we?


I didn't quite know how to cook these. I honestly thought we could just peel them and viola, we have beets! Not. It's a good thing I looked it up online because that's exactly what I would have done.


Turns out, you have to boil them for about an hour, just until you can stick a fork into them. Once you can, you take them and their skin easily comes off of them. Easy, but messy.

I plan on making a huge salad with these. I can't wait!

Now, that we go to the Farmers Market every Sunday, it got me re-thinking about subscribing to the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) that I blogged about. I find it more exciting to see what produce I can purchase in person. Plus, I'm still supporting the local farmers and not to mention, I can get homemade bread and cheeses from other vendors.

Gadgets and Gus.

I'm going to start doing more longer runs within the next few weeks which means trying out for the very first time those infamous Gu's. A little nervous, I must admit, as I have a sensitive stomach.

First though, let's discuss fuel belts.

I've been avidly perusing the internet for some cool fuel belts. I don't think I'm ready for the hardcore fuel belts that contain 2 or 4 bottles of water. I got enough jiggle I need to contain. But, this one sorta shouted out at me when I saw it.

It's simple. But, my question is, will it ride up as you run? The reviews were good and it didn't mention it riding up. But, then again, they weren't concerned about that. One reviewer was concerned about ensuring that it will securely hold his gels and it did as he tested it out on his marathon.

It comes in array of colors like black, surf blue, hisbiscus pink and kiwi green. It retails from $13.95.


I'd probably add a little pocket to hold my essentials such as iphone, keys, and ID. Lately, I've just been hooking my house key onto my shoelace and running with no iphone or ID. I know, bad, right?


I found these neoprene pockets that retail for about $10. I think I'd probably go with the large 5x5 Neoprene pocket pictured to the left.

I could just easily run with a fanny pack, which I've done in the past. But, I've found that it was a wee bit distracting as it would bang against me as I run. I need something lighter.

Onto Gu's. Any suggestions on what flavors?

I'm Back on Track.

Stayed true to my promises and ran my 4 miles this morning. Can I get a whoop, whoop?

The Stats:
407 calories burned
Highest Pace: 9:07
Average Pace: 12:35

I really enjoy running through our neighborhood. It's like a park in some ways. There are man made lakes around the houses and sometimes, I'll just pause and reflect here....wondering what it's like to live with a lake in your backyard? or Are you afraid of getting West Nile? You know... reflective things like that....


I didn't quite get out the door at 6:00 am, although I wanted to as I felt the cool crisp wind pass by on my face, plus the lick of my puppy dog Maddie on my barefoot. But, I just couldn't get out of bed. Instead, I opted to go out at 8:30 am and it wasn't too shabby. The winds today were a bit gusty. At times, I felt as if I was on an incline because of the resistance.




Stupid me couldn't find my running socks, so I just picked up these regular ankle socks. Bad idea because I got these now!






I felt a bit stupid and these are one of the times where I wished I wore contacts. I left before the hubby took off to work. I was on a road that I thought I would run into him going to work. I thought I saw his car coming at me and so I was smiling and the guy smiled and waved back at me. So naturally, I yelled, " Hi Honey!" My so called hubby, rolled down his window and as soon as he peeped his head out, I felt like a complete idiot! Dam eyes.

Cramps = Fail.

I thought I could just go out there and just run. I promised myself that I would run the entire 4 miles at a slow pace since my cramps were still acting up despite taking some Ibuprofen. Then at about a mile, I said, " F, it." My cramps beat me and I ended up walking the entire 2 miles. Didn't do the entire 4 miles as I planned to.

So, on my way back, I thought a whole lot. I'm going to treat this as " cross training" day and give it a shot tomorrow morning. Wish me luck.

4 Months and Counting.

Shouldn't have drank that heaping cup of green tea at midnight last night. It sounded like a great idea at the time after reading that one of my friends on Facebook was enjoying her cup of tea. But, boy did I really pay for it for the next 3 hours throughout the night. I freakin' couldn't sleep and on top of that, I had huge excitement vibes going through me in hopes of getting up at 0600 to run.

By the time 0300 rolled around, I knew that there was just no way I was going to wake up at 0600. Oh, but I did because my cramps were really bad this morning. So bad that I layed in a fetal position and just cried silently. I was so disappointed that I couldn't go for a run this morning and be able to feel the crisp air hitting my face and body. Being able to run while it's still peaceful outside before the hustle and bustle of people getting into their cars and taking off to work. So, with that, I'm going to go this evening. Going to do a 4 miler around the good ole' hood.

I need to start seriously training because......

It's 4 months till the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco. This will be my very first {half} marathon I will be participating in. Heck, this will be my first marathon ever! So, I finally sat down and planned out my runs for this week. It was a bit tricky because I work night shift coupled with the fact that this coming weekend is my weekend ON which means that I'll be working 4 nights in a row.

Here's my plan.

Tuesday: 4 Mile
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 4 Mile
Friday: 4 Mile
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest
Monday: 8 Mile
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: 4 Mile
Thursday: 10 Mile

Total Mileage: 34 Miles.

Thinking about just signing up for a 5K in Elk Grove, CA. It's their Run 4 Independence Day Run and it looks like a cool flat loop. The cost is $25 and it'll give me a little peep as to how marathons are.

Bur, Bur, Bur. Bur is the Word.

Totally unrelated to running, but....

Totally blog worthy. I think.

I got in the mail a super, duper, adorable, make you want to scream OUT LOUD iPhone case. Okay, so I'm probably overhyping this thing up, but I can't help it. It's just too cute.


She's even got back. Oh yeah. Sexy thing, isn't she?

The Details: Purchased this online here.
Retails for $8.99. A heckuva lot cheaper than those rubbermaid thing-a-ma-bobs at the Apple store. Yes?






Peeped that they other cuties, but resisted the temptation to rescue them all.

Cramps.

I had every intention to run this morning and this evening. But, I had a visit that I was expecting not for another few days. Grrrreeeat. Rather disappointed a little bit. I wanted to run as I hadn't ran in a week or so. I gotta say that it takes a lot of motivation for me that makes me question, Do I even enjoy running?

Some days, I'll be on this high of being motivated to run, where on some days, I'm all about the couch and tv.

But, as I digress, my cramps are killing me. It always does the first few days and I wonder if I'm just being a big ole' wuss by using it as an excuse not to run. Hmmm, maybe since I actually said it, that perhaps it is true. I'll test the waters tomorrow and run through the cramps. I promise.