Next weekend, S will turn 26 years old. My man is all growned up.  Oozing with maturity.

For his birthday, Stephen asked that we go somewhere.  I looked around, but since his actual birthday was on Labor Day weekend, most things were booked.  Including my first choice of destinations:  a campsite somewhere in Northern California.  I’m not being vague – I looked for a spot in every single campsite in Northern California and they were all booked.  However, a coworker of mine had a campsite reserved at Mt Madonna park this weekend, rather than next, and she was about to cancel the reservation because she wasn’t going to use it.  So I bought it from her!  Last Wednesday, I put a note in S’s lunch to let him know that we would be going on a surprise trip for the weekend.

He had no idea where we were going or what we were doing.  We had never been camping before, so I had to make some sleeping bag purchases in advance.  Luckily, my coworker let me borrow lots of camping gear (thanks, Debbie!!!) including a tent, cooking materials, a cooler… the works. 

Friday after work we left.  The park was just an hour from our house, and I made S hustle so that we would get there while it was still light.  I anticipated some beginner’s difficulty in putting the tent up, and wanted to at least give us the benefit of not having to try to put it up in the dark!  This guy was on the antennae of the car as we left the house!

Can you believe this guy?  So bright!

We started to drive and he didn’t want to let go!  Eventually he gave up trying to hang on.  But I think the fella was a good camping omen

Traffic wasn’t that bad, and we arrived at the campsite with plenty of daylight to spare.

S was a tent guru!  He had our tent up in just a few minutes.  I was really impressed!  I knew I married that guy for a reason.

Next up:  FIRE!  We had bought some firewood at Safeway and once again, my husband shined with his impressive caveman skills.

We relaxed around the fire – talking, drinking, and roasting dinner and smores.  It was dark outside before we knew it.  The stars were amazing!

The next morning, I woke up to this:

S was awake before me, and already had the fire going!  Gor ready, had breakfast and coffee.

And went for a hike.  It ended up being a 4 hour hike with crazy hills!

We were constantly checking the map so we didn’t get lost.

We were exhausted but proud of ourselves by the time we finished and got back to our campsite.

And starving!  Enter:  mid-afternoon feast.

Post-feast food coma.

And post-hike dirty feet!!

We relaxed for the rest of the day and the evening.  More smores-making ensued.

It was a fabulous adventure for me and the birthday boy.  We are already looking for our next camping adventure!

When I woke up Sunday morning to do my long run, I did not feel like running.  Like, at all.  I was tired and fairly grumpy (who, me?  I know… right??)  The only way I could get out of bed was to promise myself that I wouldn’t do the full 19-20 miles I had planned.  Just start running, I thought to myself, and go from there.  So that’s what I did.

I have read several articles that have articulated the benefits of twice-a-day training and running, and stated that breaking up a long run during marathon training could be just as effective as doing the complete run at one time, if it is done occasionally.  It can also help to increase mileage without the same risk of injury associated with continued long runs. 

It can also help get lazy chicks out of bed to start running, because they are fueled by the knowledge that they don’t have to run as far as they had planned.  At least not that very second.

Same sh*t, different day.

Don’t I just look ecstatic?  I did wear one of my favorite bondi bands.

That’s my TOUGH COOKIE face.  Or at least my tough cookie eyes.  When I stepped outside, look who I saw.

That’s when I knew I made the right decision to get out of bed.  Love my snails!  Or slugs, or whatever they are.  And in the summertime, I only get to see them in the wee hours of the morning before it gets too hot. 

I headed out to the street with no plan and just ran.  While I was running, I did a little bit of math in my head.  Which I do not recommend – trying to do math while doing long runs is no fun, especially at 7am on Sunday mornings.  I digress.  I figured if I did at least 13 miles then I could do between 5-7 miles in the evening and reach my goal of 18-20.

I ended up doing 14 in the morning. 

I was disappointed in myself, rather than being happy that I got out of bed and did any running at all.  I have got to work on that!  The problem was, I had a feeling that I was not going to finish the remaining mileage that evening.  Which, I did not.

I did go to Peets and have a spectacular iced coffee while reading my kindle.

I also went for a walk on our street and found this cute little bookshelf that someone was giving away for free.  And promptly picked it up and carried it back home made S pick it up and carry it back home.

I see some furniture painting in my future.  Suggestions on color are welcome.  I would actually like to strip off the paint and just have it be the wood underneath, but that seems too scary.

JB did some yoga.

And then relaxed.  I kid you not – this is how my cat relaxes.  On his back, spread eagle on the carpet.

Classy.

The problem with the twice-a-day long run?  It very easily becomes a one-a-day long run.  Luckily, I woke up this morning and did the extra 5 miles, so I totaled over 19 within a 24-hour period.  That counts as 19 miles in one day, right?

Weekend is over, back to the grind.  On the agenda for this week?  Closing on a mortgage refinance, 6am German school, 2 doctors appointments, and figuring out what to do for S’s birthday, which is quickly approaching! 

On ice. 

A few weeks ago, Godiva sent me two bags of Godiva coffee as a part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program.

Hazelnut Crème and Chocolate Truffle.  And coffee!    I was psyched.  I wanted to try something new and special with this coffee.  I have my regular, hot coffee each and every morning without fail.  And lately I have been slurping up iced coffee at coffee shops like it’s my job.  But I have been itching to create a my own iced coffee at home, which I have never done. 

This afternoon, I was craving iced coffee.  And I was also craving… cake.  So I created a Godiva party cake protein iced coffee!

I used:

• 1/2 cup iced coffee
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/2 scoop cake batter protein powder
• whipped cream and sprinkles for topping

I couldn’t decide which coffee flavor I wanted to use – the Chocolate Truffle or the Hazelnut Crème – so I used both!  Half-half.

The finished product was delightful.  Colorful sprinkles make everything prettier, no?

It was perfect – I didn’t need to add any sugar or sweetener because the protein powder sweetened it just enough.  The whipped cream and sprinkles were an added bonus

Better than a coffee-shop iced coffee.  Plus I save $3 and get a serving of protein to boot!

I used my stainless steel straws to drink it.  These are perfect for drinking a whipped-cream topped drink!

Thank you, Godiva and Foodbuzz, for this opportunity!  I will be making this again for sure, and other exciting coffee combos.

This week has been pretty darn crazy.  I’ve had doctor’s appointments up the wazoo, and have projects coming out of my ears at work.  And I have my German class.  And we are in the process of refinancing our house and changing the title.

I love being so busy….  And hate it.

My new German class is awesome.

I am taking it from Berlitz, and I am taking a virtual class so I meet with the teacher online – twice a week, for 2 hours and 15 minutes each time.  It’s one-on-one, just me and the instructor, which is perfect because we are always going at my own pace and I am able to ask questions any time I need to.  We can go quickly through things I already know or pick up quickly, and can take more time on other things that I’m slower to pick up (which is a lot… heh!)

However, on Tuesdays I have my class at 6am!  The Berlitz teachers are on the east coast, so I had trouble scheduling classes after work.  It is very difficult to wake up at 5:30 and speak English, let alone a foreign language!  Oh, the things I do for my Swiss husband! 

Because of my lack of time, and thus my desire to be completely lazy when I do have any free time, we have been enjoying a lot of convenience meals.

Last nights dinner was one that I got off the Pillsbury website.  If it comes courtesy of my friend, the dough boy – it must be good.  It just required a few ingredients:

1. refrigerated crescent dough
2. italian blend shredded cheese
3. olive oil
4. tomatoes
5. basil and/or your choice of italian seasonings

All together now:

I love meals like this.  Sometimes you just gotta go quick and dirty.  And while it’s not exactly health food, it’s better than fast food or takeout!

Oh, and it’s delicious.

On the new purchases front, this hair dryer has recently become an important part of my life.

I first used this ceramic hair dryer in the locker rooms at work, after using the gym.  It’s awesome – it does a great job drying quickly.  And it’s powerful – I hate those dinky hair dryers that barely blow any air out.  I want power!!  So when my trusty, 10-year-old hair dryer kicked the bucket last week, I purchased this one on Amazon.  Love it.

Now, S and I are off to drink the recreation of the giant drinks that we had in Las Vegas with my trusty Vitamix.

Las Vegas drink:

Tonight’s drink:

Close enough, right??

After taking last Sunday off as recovery after the SF marathon, I planned to get back out this morning to do a long run.  It’s just 5 weeks until the Norcal marathon, and I want to keep my mileage up so I’m prepared for it (without overdoing it.)  My plan is:

• Today – 16 miles
• 8/21 – 19 or 20 miles
• 8/28 – 22 miles
• 9/4 – 16 miles
• 9/11 – 9 miles
• 9/1 – RACE!

I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to stick to that schedule, though.  S’s birthday is on 9/5, so I will likely have to pay him a lot of attention during that long weekend   And the weekend before that I am actually trying to plan a weekend getaway to celebrate his birthday.  Since his birthday is on labor day weekend, the prices and crowds are out of control, making the weekend before more appealing for an excursion.

So… we’ll have to see how it goes.  Worse comes to worst, I’ll hopefully at least get a 20 miler in next week and hopefully should still be fine for the marathon.

But back to this morning.  I woke up at 6am to prep for my long run alone.  As I got ready, since it was just me, myself and I putting on all my gear, I realized what a ridiculous amount of “stuff” I wear when I run my long training runs.

Exhibit A:  My wrists.  RoadID on one…

Garmin on the other. 

Oh, by the way – like my new green Garmin?  Amazon had a sale on the Forerunner 405 a couple of weeks ago and S decided that he wanted one.  So, my loving husband took my old Garmin (after making me wash it ) and let me have the shiny new one.  Since the one I already had was black, I went for the green this time. 

Ok – now on to upper arms.  Bodymedia on the left arm:

iPod on the right.

Since I hate my headphone cords swinging around when I run, I  run them under my shirt and out the top.

On my head – a bondi band.  Occasionally I wear a hat, but I always feel like my head is smothering when I do.  And ever since I cut my hair short, the bondi band has been my favorite because it keeps the short pieces of hair that don’t fit in my ponytail off of my face.

Around my waist – my trusty spibelt:

Since I got this, I never run without it.  It carries my camera, my cell phone, gus, anything.  And it doesn’t bounce the way other waist belts have done for me in the past.

Finally, I have my water bottle.  I use the Amphipod Hydraform Handheld Thermal-Lite.

I used to use a water belt, but I gave up on it because it bounced so much and I found it really annoying to run with.  I also used the Nathan Quickdraw for a while, but got annoyed because it didn’t have any insulation around the bottle so you have to actually hold the bottle itself as you run.  And it gets all slippery and gross when you start sweating, and becomes annoying to hold.  I really love the Amphipod bottle and haven’t looked back since I bought it.

Phew!  That’s a lot of prep for long runs.  I also apply bodyglide, sun screen, and tape my toes.  It’s amazing I ever actually make it out the door!

So today it was just me and all my gear on my run.  I headed out a little before 7:30 and the sun was already heating up.  I was going to do an 8 mile loop, stop back at home, and then do another one.  I knew I would have to use the bathroom because it took an extra cup of coffee to get me out of bed this morning

However, I got bored of my usual loops and stayed on one road of my run for longer than usual to see where it took me.  So I ended up not stopping back at home, but was fine because I was able to stop in a bathroom in the park.

I ate 1/2 a larabar at mile 6, the other half at mile 9, and half a powerbar at mile 12.

Overall, it was a tough run.  My legs felt tired, and running that long by myself was boring after all of my long runs with the SF Marathon training crew the past few months.  But finally I hit 16 miles and was back at home. 

My splits were pretty consistent.  Don’t ask me what happened at mile 11… Somehow my Garmin started a new lap and from them on was lapping on the .47 mile rather than on the mile.  Oh well.

Post-run required some serious cooling:

Ahh… much better.

This afternoon, S and I decided to head to a coffee shop and do some reading.  I got an iced coffee,

And brought some chex mix from home.  This stuff is addictive.

For my reading material, I brought some childrens’ books (in German) that I got from the library.  It takes me FOREVER to read each one because I have to look up all the words I don’t know in the dictionary.  But it’s worth it!  And the books are really cute and funny.  I like reading childrens’ books!

S has been really stressed out at work lately.  So his reading material was this book he picked up at the library:

I thought the index looked interesting.  It had a list of the “types” of workers discussed in the book.

S said I was a pleaser.  I am 100% positive he is a Sabertooth at work   Seriously, though – he always thinks the world is out to get him and he has to prove himself.  I try to tell him that he has nothing to prove, he’s perfect just the way he is!

Ok, I’m off to do some grocery shopping.  Must buy more ice cream!

How much gear do you wear when you are running and/or exercising??

A few weeks ago, the kind folks at Popchips sent me a package to review!

I’ve always been more of a sweets person than salty.  I go for the ice cream, the cookies and the cake.  Things like potato chips don’t usually grab my attention as much, but when I do have them I always enjoy them and wonder why I don’t eat them more.  Especially when they are healthier alternatives like these.

These chips aren’t fried, like regular potato chips.  Nor are they baked.  They are “popped” using just heat and some pressure.  Pretty cool.  I wouldn’t mind having a “popper” of my own to make these kinds of chips!

They sent me six flavors to try:

• original
• sea salt and vinegar
• barbeque
• salt and pepper
• cheddar
• sour cream and onion

The ingredient list for the popchips wasn’t too shabby – I recognized all the all-natural ingredients.  Popchips barbeque ingredients:

Natural potato ingredients (potato flour, potato starch), Safflower Oil and/or Sunflower Oil, Barbecue Seasoning (Sugar, Whey, Onion and Garlic Powders, Salt, Torula Yeast, Brown Sugar, Tomato Powder, Yeast Extract, Spices, Natural Flavors, Natural Smoke Flavor, Citric Acid, Paprika Extract, Paprika, Rice Flour, Salt, Soy Lecithin.

For comparison, Lay’s barbeque chips ingredients:

Potatoes, Sunflower Oil, Barbecue Seasoning (Sugar, less than (2%) of the Following: Dextrose, Maltodextrin, Natural Flavor, Molasses, Onion Powder, Monosodium Glutamate, Autolyzed Yeast [Torula], Salt, Spices, Paprika and Extractives of Paprika, Garlic Powder, Tomato Powder, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Canola Oil, Yeast, Citric Acid, and Mesquite Smoke Flavor), and Salt.

I loved the fact that the Popchips didn’t have any partially hydrogenated oils.

When I opened the box, I was immediately intrigued by the sea salt and vinegar flavor.  My dad is from England, and he always used to love salt and vinegar flavored chips.  So I always thought that flavor was a European thing.  Sure enough, after doing a little research, I found that the world’s first flavored and seasoned potato chips were created by Joe “Spud” Murphy, the owner of an Irish crisp company called “Tayto”.  The first flavors he created were cheese & onion, and salt & vinegar!  Kinda interesting, I had no idea that a flavor I had always thought was weird had actually been around for so long.

So back to my first salt and vinegar chip tasting. 

I expected to dislike the salt and vinegar flavor, but was pleasantly surprised. The vinegar flavor almost knocked my socks off… but not in a bad way.   The texture of each chip is fantastic – crispy and light, I didn’t have to wipe any grease off of my fingers as I devoured the bag.  Knowing that I wasn’t eating any trans fat or cholesterol made them taste even better.  And look at the number of chips you get for 100 calories!  Good deal.

Next up I tried the salt and pepper flavor, because I was again intrigued.  Pepper, on a chip?

You could see the big pepper flakes on each chip.

These were delicious too.  The pepper gave them a spicy kick.

Loved the tang and flavor of the barbeque flavor:

I know that they sell popchips in 3oz bags, as those are what I have typically purchased at the store. However, I am in love with these little single-serve bags. Although I might not crave potato chis that much, I definitely do have the “once I start I can’t stop ‘til the bag’s gone” mentality. So these bags are great for me!

I can honestly say that I enjoyed each of the flavors that were sent to me.  However, my favorite for sure was the cheddar.  So cheesy and delicious with an explosion of flavor in each bite. 

I was so excited by each of the flavors that, when I was at the grocery store and saw an additional flavor that I hadn’t tried yet, I had to pick up a bag. 

Parmesan garlic.

A word of warning – if you excitedly open these immediately in the car on the way home from the grocery store, be prepared.  They have a very strong garlic scent that quickly filled the confined space of S’s Ford Mustang.  Which, in our case, wasn’t a bad thing because in my opinion the car stinks.  It’s a combination of sweat and oil and grease and other boys-that-use-their-cars-to-do-stinky-boy-things smells, which of course is undetectable by the husband’s manly nose.  But to my delicate, feminine nose (*cough, cough*) the delectable smell of parmesan garlic was a wonderful relief.

Oh, and the flavor tastes delicious too.

And now, just when I thought of myself as a Popchip connoisseur, I saw on the Popchips web site that there is a new flavor I have yet to try.  Jalapeno flavor, I’m coming for you.

Thank you, Popchips, for giving me the opportunity to review your chips!  You have a new fan.

Remember last week when I had the tapering blues?  Well, now I have the post-marathon blues. 

I was pretty darn sore for the first two days after the marathon.  My coworkers enjoyed making fun of me as I staggered my way to meetings looking like a bow-legged wild wild west cowboy.

The hills of this marathon really did me in.  So this week I took it easy to try to let my body recover.  Plus, I have the Norcal marathon coming up in 7 weeks.

Oh, did I forget to mention that?  I have registered for two upcoming marathons:

1. Norcal marathon on September 18th – I got a LivingSocial deal for half price entry and couldn’t resist.  This is a brand new marathon in downtown San Jose and is supposed to be a flat, fast course.
2. Nike marathon on October 16th – this race has been on my list of races to do for quite a while.  It was pretty expensive ($150 plus processing fees) but I rationalized it because I got half off the norcal marathon and got free entry to the San Francisco marathon.

So… I was and am taking it really easy this week to make sure I don’t over-train and get injured before I become a 2011 triple threat!

The problem is, as I mentioned last week, when I don’t run or work out  I have no physical or mental release.  And then I start to go a little nutso.  And usually my craziness manifests itself in food and eating.  Enough said. 

New food try of the week?  Potato Knishes from a boxed mix.

Quick, easy,

And great paired with pork tenderloin.

And… marathon pics:

Tomorrow I’m going on the longest bike ride I have ever been on – 30 miles!  I am meeting my friend Debbie from work.  I can’t wait to do something active!!

I can’t believe the San Francisco Marathon is already over.  It seems like just yesterday that I signed on to be a pacer for the San Francisco Marathon training program.  At that time we had just started planning our wedding and I was nervous to volunteer because I knew I would have to miss at least 2, possibly 3, of the long runs for the wedding and the honeymoon.  Luckily, the ones that I missed were pretty close to the beginning of the program so I didn’t fall behind on my mileage.  And the other pacers in the program were awesome and covered for me while I was out.

Anyhow, back to the race.  After carbing it up last night and trying to go to bed early, I dreamed of running a marathon.  I’m not kidding. In my dream, I had to run a marathon around a track.  Each lap around the track was 1 mile (and thus I had to run it 26.2 times).  I finished, feeling great, and achieved a PR!  Then I left.  A few hours later, I realized that in fact I had only run around the track 24 times, not the mandatory 26 times, and thus got disqualified.

What a nightmare!!!

Our alarm clock went off at 3:15am.  (No – that is not a typo.)  I got up, got prepped, had 1/2 a cup of coffee.  I can’t go without my coffee… but didn’t want to make more visits to the race porta-potties than was necessary!  At 4:10 we were out the door.

One hour later we arrived at San Francisco.  S was able to drop me off just a block from the starting line.  I beelined straight for the San Francisco Marathon Training tent, which was right at the starting line.

Being able to chill in this tent before the race started was awesome.  First of all, it was warm in the tent while it quite cold outside in pre-dawn San Francisco.  Second, there was food, water and coffee for us while we were waiting.  Third, and perhaps best of all, we had our own porta-potty for the tent!  So we didn’t have to wait in the mile-long lines with everyone else.  Score! 

It was pretty cool waiting in the dark for the race to start.  This is a blurry shot of the starting line right by the Ferry Building.

Getting closer..

I was able to start together with some of my pacer friends, which was awesome.

We were in Wave 4.  So at 5:52am exactly – we were off!  But we quickly spread out and separated.

The first part of the race was relatively flat.  It was along the Embarcadero and up past the Marina Green.  Then came the first big hill climb up to the Golden Gate Bridge.  Before I knew it, we were on the bridge!

This was a much better experience running across the bridge than my previous experience. I had to be careful though – they had the two righthand lanes closed off for the runners, and had car traffic in the two lefthand lanes.  And since the runners were going out and back, each direction had one lane.  It was fairly congested and I had to pay close attention not to run into anyone or trip.  So I didn’t get to admire the view much.  But I still enjoyed it!

After the bridge was really when the hills started.  And from then on out it was up and down the whole rest of the way.  I felt pretty good until around mile 18 when all of a sudden fatigue started to set in in my legs.  I ran through it and waited for it to go away but… it didn’t.  Each mile got progressively harder.  Never in my previous marathons did my muscles get fatigued so early.  The funny thing was that I still had endurance and didn’t feel exhausted, it was just my legs that were tired.  And usually it’s the other way around!  I think I went out a little too fast in the beginning and the hills just did me in.

I was determined to keep running for as long as I could.  As I passed mile 20 and 21, I thought that I would soon have to stop and walk.  The downhills were especially killer, the pounding HURT so bad in my legs.  But I just kept trucking.

Going into this race, I had the following goals:

1. First goal – beat my time from my last marathon (4 hours and 15 minutes)
2. Stretch goal – break 4 hours

Somehow, I was able to keep running.  When I hit mile 24, that was when I decided that I was going to run it all.  At that point in time I was at 3 hours and 35 minutes and I knew if I kept running I could break 4 hours.  So I gave it all that I had.

My final time was 3 hours, 56 minutes.  Getting that time took everything that I had – I was exhausted at the end.  But I am so proud of shaving almost 20 minutes off of my last race time!  Especially on a hilly course.

Although I felt like I was dragging at the end, my splits were actually pretty consistent throughout the entire race:

Mile 1:  8:36
Mile 2:  8:34
Mile 3:  8:38
Mile 4:  8:21
Mile 5:  8:44
Mile 6:  9:21
Mile 7:  8:45
Mile 8:  8:36
Mile 9:  8:47
Mile 10:  8:49
Mile 11:  8:35
Mile 12:  9:10
Mile 13:  9:10
Mile 14:  8:38
Mile 15:  9:04
Mile 16:  9:01
Mile 17:  9:22
Mile 18:  8:55
Mile 19:  9:15
Mile 20:  9:04
Mile 21:  8:56
Mile 22:  8:52
Mile 23:  9:33
Mile 24:  8:59
Mile 25:  9:05
Mile 26:  8:47
Mile .2:  8:24

And what did I get for all of my trouble?  Why this beautiful, HUGE coaster medal!

It’s really a coaster!

That was worth the hurt, right? 

A special thank you to my SF Marathon Training program pacer team who provided a few of the pics and who helped to make this race awesome.

Also – I wanted to mention one cool thing that S and I did was use an app called “Where’s My Droid” so that he could track my location throughout the race.  The SF marathon did have their own app, but you had to pay in order to use it and we were able to use the “Where’s My Droid” app for free.   Basically, S set it up so that when he texted me a specific word of our choice (we made it “SFrun” for this race) it would text message him back my specific location.  So he tracked me all along the race route!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to feed my raging post-marathon appetite.  It’s already the next day and I’m still starving!