Running For A Reason

I am training with David (virtually via DailyMile) for the Marine Corps Marathon which will be on October 25, 2009 in Washington DC. David and I have decided to make this race more meaningful to us by fundraising for an organization called Back On My Feet which helps homeless people put their lives back together by engaging them in running and providing them with a support group that teaches them skills to help rebuild their lives.

I first read about Back On My Feet in an issue of Runner's World (click here for article) and was really moved by the efforts of the woman who started the organization, and I was amazed by how something as simple as running could bring strangers together and help those who are struggling find a way back to a better life.

We have 10 weeks of training left before the marathon and have given ourselves a goal of raising $150/week for a total of $1500. If you are interested in helping with our fundraising effots, please check out our fundraising page at:

http://www.active.com/donate/backonmyfeet/davidandmonika

Also, if you want to learn more about the organization that we are fundraising for you can check out their website at: http://www.backonmyfeet.org/

Fueling for the Long Run

David and I completed our long run together last weekend when I was in Maryland and we both tried a new racing fuel to get us through our 16 miles of fun in the blazing sun. We tried an energy gel called eGel.

I’d received samples of this gel a while back but hadn’t gotten high enough in my mileage to need it until last weekend. We both really liked the gel and noticed how different it was from our staple Gu. As I thought about this new gel I thought back to all of the other gels and chews and bars and beans and drinks I’ve tried in the past.

Learning about Fueling & Hydration

Back when I was training for my first half marathon I didn’t know what you were supposed to eat during your long distance runs. Actually, I didn’t know that you were even supposed to eat during your long distance runs! My training plan for my first half had me scheduled to run up to 11 miles as my longest distance. When the day came to do that longest training run, I endured it in total misery and came home feeling a bit sick. I took a shower, had some water and almonds, and then laid down. Soon after the room was spinning and not too long after that I was throwing up almonds. (So gross... so so gross.) I was somewhat alarmed and started looking online for an answer to my sudden illness. I posted a question on the fitness section of the craiglist message board asking if anyone knew why I would feel sick after such a long run.

The responses came in quickly.

How much did you hydrate and eat during your run?

How often did you do so?

Huh?

Drink and eat while running? How would that have happened? I was training out in my “desert preserve” community in Cave Creek, Arizona. Where would I have stopped for water and food? I responded back to the helpful message boarders with my answer of “nothing” and was immediately admonished on the boards. It was obvious to everyone except me that I was dehydrated and underfueled, and it was totally not surprising that I got sick!

Monika Meets Gu (ewe)

I talked to a friend of mine who had run marathons in the past and she recommended Gu to me. I had never heard of this product and her description of the chocolate Gu tasting like chocolate pudding sounded appealing. I tried one out during the actual half marathon and agreed in my head that chocolate pudding was probably the closest thing you could compare chocolate Gu to, but the distinction between chocolate pudding (which I like) and chocolate Gu (which tasted a bit off and had a thick, hard to swallow texture) was obvious.

After my first half marathon I was hooked on distance running and quickly set my sights on a full marathon. The idea of running twice as far was so daunting to me, and I felt that I needed more guidance than just downloading a schedule from the internet like I did with the half marathon. I searched around online and found a local training group that trained mostly marathoners and triathletes. In this group I finally learned about hydration and nutrition for distance running. What to eat before a race, during, and after. How often to drink, when to drink, and when to choose water or Gatorade.

Bringing the Fanny Pack Back

But sadly not Sexy Back...

I found out about Fuel Belts, these great waist belts that hold 2-6 small water bottles to help you bring your water with you on long runs. Over the years I’ve bought many variations of these belts. I’ve had a 2 bottle + pouch belt, a 4 bottle belt (soo heavy when full), a 3 bottle + 1 gel flask belt, and now my favorite a 2 bottle + puch belt. (Great to keep keys, chapstick, tissues, etc.) Wearing a Fuel Belt on my long runs solved my hydration problem, but I still struggled with the various fueling options.

The problem was that as much as I looooooove to eat, eating while running or right after running is the last thing in the world I wanted to do. I tried the various race foods and found that energy gels were the most palatable.

Foods I’ve Tried That Didn’t Work

Power Bars
I first tried carrying a power bar with me and eating it at two points in my long run.

Pros: I like power bars!

Cons: They take some work to chew and are hard to chew while running. Walking while eating a whole Power Bar wastes too much time.

Sports Beans
The idea of eating Jelly Belly jelly beans which include electrolytes sounds like a great treat! Until you try popping a few while you’re running.

Pros: I like jelly beans!

Cons: Can I just say choking hazard?! They also get stuck in your teeth which bothers me.

Higher Calorie Sports Drinks

Pros: Drinks go down easily and you don’t have to worry about chewing.

Cons: I don’t know what they put in those drinks to add carbs, but they taste terrible. I’ve tried a few variations and don’t really like anything but plain old sports drink.

Foods I’ve Tried That Did Work

Energy Chews/Gummies
Clif Shot Bloks were the first gummy chews that I came across. They were chewy cubes that tasted like gummy candy. Recently Gu has come out with their own chews called Gu Comps. (Cute name!)

Pros: Taste good, easy to chew.

Cons: Its hard to carry more than one or two of the packs on a long run due to their bulk.

Energy Gels
Something about eating goop out of a packet has always bothered me a bit, but energy gels by far are the winner in the fuel category as far as I’m concerned.

Pros: You can easily carry multiple packets with you, the gels go down easily and can be consumed while running, there are a variety of flavors available.

Cons: The consistency of the gel is hard to swallow (har har) sometimes. The gels are usually fairly thick and sometimes I feel like I have to drink sooo much water to wash it all down and clear the pasty goop out of my mouth!

I discovered a new energy gel recently that has solved the consistency problem! eGel!

A month or so ago I received a sample pack of eGel. Two samples of each of the four flavors. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to try them (due to the low miles I've been running) until last weekend. Prior to trying the gel I read a comparison online of how eGel stacks up to the other energy gels and it really looked like a clear winner. Taste, consistency and portability would be how I would rate the gel compared to others and I was curious to see how the eGel would compare.

Pros: The “thin consistency” was great! The eGel went down so much easier than all of the others I’ve tried. (And I’ve tried them all!) The flavors were unexpected but after getting past the initial surprise I really liked them. Most energy gels are flavored like pudding. Vanilla, chocolate, berry, kiwi-strawberry, etc. eGels on the other hand came in mysterious flavors such as Mountain Rush and Tropical Blast. What does that mean? I soon found out it aligned with similarly named products and flavors … eGel tasted like sports drink! It was a bit tangy and had a tart fruity flavor like Gatorade and Powerade.

Cons: The gel packs were bigger than most other energy gels, but each pack contained 1.5 times as many calories so technically carrying 4 eGels would be the equivalent of 6 Gus. I was afraid that the packs wouldn’t fit into my Race Ready shorts but they actually did! They just barely peeked out the top which was great!

So net Cons = None!

I have two packets of eGel left which should be great for my long run tomorrow. After this I'll probably have to place a bulk order to have enough gels to get David and I through the next 10 weeks of our training up to our first marathon together the Marine Corps Marathon on October 25th. 70 more days left!

Anyways, if you’re looking for an energy gel, you should try out eGel! I've tried many products over the years and this is by far my favorite energy gel.
http://www.cranksports.com/products/eGel/

Also, if you too want to look like a running nerd with a fanny pack and are looking for a way to carry your water with you while on the run check out Fuel Belt. These belts are awesome and I can't do a long run without one. http://www.fuelbelt.com/

Life Comes Full Circle in August

As I flipped from July to August on my wall calendar at work I stopped and thought (for the 100th time) about how quickly this past year has gone. Especially since the prior year seemed to drag on at a snail's pace. As I was looking at my calendar and what I had planned for this month I thought oh wow, its been a year this week since I sold my house! And then thought hmm, actually it has been five years this week since I bought it! And then I tracked back in my mind to Augusts in between and further back and realized a lot of significant events have happened in my life in August.

Ten Years Ago - August 1999

Ten years ago in August of 1999 I started my first "real job" out of college. Wow - its hard to believe that it's been ten years since I finished my undergrad! I actually graduated in April but didn't find a job until August. In those months in between I was a receptionist at Standford Home Care and Hospice. The people there were nice, I only worked Monday - Thursday which gave me Fridays to look for a job and interview, but something about having an engineering degree and no job to use it at yet was somewhat unsettling. So, needless to say, when I started my job in August I was extremely excited! I remember my boss at the time calling me when I was on the way to 24 Hour Fitness with my best friend Garley and him letting me know I got the job as we were walking across the parking lot. I wonder if Garley remembers?

Curious about what I did? Well its something that takes about two seconds to cause someone's eyes glaze over with boredom. I was an Applications Engineer at a software company who made off-line CMM programming software. This company was a division of an industrial robot manufacturing company. Sounds exciting right? :o) Actually it really was. I loved that job, what we did, the customers we worked with, and everything I learned while I was there.

Proud Engineer in a Cube

If you look closely you can see me working on a
3D drawing of a 6-axis robot. Nerdarific cool!

Something else that came about that first week when I started that job was that I met my now BFF Kris who worked in our Farmington Hills office in Michigan. He and a few other AE's (that's the cool way to refer to Application Engineers you know) were in our office for the week for training. It was a fun week getting acquainted in the job and getting to know new people, and it was fun because that week was the birthday of the same year "birthday twins" Kris and Tamara!

Happy Birthday to you guys next week by the way!

And Happy Friend Anniversary Kris, you've been a great friend to me all these years and have been with me through good times and bad. Luckily mostly good, and I thank you for always making me laugh. Well, except for when you're trying to make me laugh by practicing your stand-up on me and then I don't laugh and then you get offended and rush off the phone with me... sorry!

Me & Kris

Five Years Ago - August 2004

So fast forward five years and now we're up to August 2004. What happened in between 1999 and 2004? Well, I moved to Arizona to go to grad school, working as an IT Project Manager at a mold lab (so random, I know), left to go work at a start-up MMORPG game company (yes, even more random), and was about to do something I had never thought possible at that age having grown up in San Francisco... I bought a house!

Working Hard at the Video Game Company

Wondering what MMORPG stands for?
Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game!

Me & My Parents at My MBA Graduation

So back to the house, wow that was a hug event for me! I closed on the house on August 16th. It was a really exciting time and I felt proud to have reached that next level of "adulthood". Growing up in San Francisco meant that the dream of becoming a young home owner never even crossed my mind. Houses were going for close to a million dollars in the bad neighborhoods, and I never could have afforded a house or even a condo in a decent neighborhood. In Arizona though things were very different, and buying a small house or condo was something very normal for people in their mid-20s.

My Little House in Cave Creek

Soon after buying the house I also got my second dog Kona the Pekepoo. Can't say my first dog Mika (who was 1 1/2 at the time) was too excited to get a younger sister, but after a couple YEARS she finally warmed up to her and now they're a close little ying-yang pair. A week after buying Kona I then started my first job in Marketing at a dental company in Phoenix. And so my life in the world of dentistry began! I hear from many people there is only entry into the dental industry, no exit. I'm still not sure if people say that with warmth or fear. Hmm.... undecided.

Kona My Pekepoo (Pekingese/Poodle)

One Year Ago - August 2008

So after working at the dental company in Phoenix for 3 1/2 years it was time to move on and I took a job at a larger dental company and moved out to San Diego where I currently live. A couple months after I moved out here and after many trips back to Phoenix to have my house painted, yard relandscaped, and miscellaneous things fixed, I finally listed the house in April.

Well, in April of last year the housing slump was already sliding belly first down the slip and slide mat, and my chances of getting out of my house and breaking even were slim. Many months of stress piled upon more stress, I was able to sell the house! I truly think it was an act of God that everything happened the way they did on the timeline that they did. While it felt like eons were passing as I paid the mortgage on an empty house while also paying to live the California lifestyle out here in San Diego, the whole listing and sale process actually went pretty quickly in comparison to what was happening on the market.

I closed on the house sale on August 1st almost exactly five years after I bought the house. Kind of crazy how that happened! That was one of the first things I thought of when I flipped to the August page of my calendar this week when I thought about what I was doing this time last year. And then I thought about what I was doing in August the year before, and the year before that. And then I thought, its time for another blog! To the computer! Haha. So here I've been.

It's Just Stuff Right?

The Late Night Call

Last Saturday I received a call late at night (while I was on my way home from a boat party - talk about a downer to ruin a good night!) from Public Storage saying that there had been an "incident" down at the facility and that I needed to come in as soon as possible to open my unit. And oh yeah, I was also told to make sure I brought a camera for insurance claims. :-O AHH!

Background

So backing up a bit, let me address why I have a storage unit. When I moved from Arizona back to California I went from a 3-bedroom house to a 1-bedroom apartment. While I didn't exactly take the entire house with me, I took a large majority of it. I actually got rid of a lot of clothes and books and crap when I moved, and then even more once I arrived in San Diego and unpacked .. but still, I had way more stuff than I had room for. Why? Um, I moved into a 500 sq-foot "modern" and "space-efficient" apartment. Do you have any idea how small 500 square feet is??

Moving Truck w/All My Belongings From AZ

Yeah, that's all my stuff.

The movers almost fainted when they saw my apartment!

My apartment has only one closet meaning things like a suitcase and vacuum have to share space with my clothes. Or well, in my case I decided to put my bigger two suitcases in storage and just keep the one I needed most frequently in my trunk. Yep, you got it. I drive around with a suitcase in my trunk! Ghetto!! Its much easier for me to keep it there where I have access to it than to have to drive 15 minutes to my storage unit whenever I need my suitcase to go on a trip. My apartment also has no swinging doors besides the front door. That's how small it is! The doors between the living room and bedroom, and bedroom and bathroom are frosted sliding doors. It looks kind of neat and modern, but honestly its a necessity over anything else.

Sliding Doors

View from bedroom to bathroom & living room

My "Dining Room"

Aka the stools by the kitchen counter

Living Room

I'm seriously the only apartment w/o a flatscreen! There are hook-ups behind the two pictures. The living room is so small you need one!

Bathroom Designed by a Man

Pedestal sink = no storage. There is nothing but a tiny medicine cabinet in the wall! Where are you supposed to put even a hair dryer?

What I Stood to Lose

Anyways, enough about my shoebox apartment. Back to all of my belongings that didn't fit into my apartment - there were a lot of things! And a wide variety of things to. Here is what I have in storage:

• Luggage
• Bookshelves & shelving units
• Wardrobe box of coats
• Wardrobe box of dresses
• Books & Old Textbooks
• Artwork I didn't have enough walls for anymore
• Dishes, small kitchen appliances, glassware, etc
• Blankets & Extra Bedding
• Two big tubs of Christmas decoration and all my childhood ornaments
• Files of work from previous jobs

Last Year When I Moved Into Public Storage

I have suitcases and a few other things in there now. Its almost full to the ceiling!

Okay I suppose in all honesty a lot of that stuff I don't really "need". Especially the wardrobe of coats. Growing up in California and then living in Arizona for 5 years I've had little need for coats in my life. Maybe one coat for chilly days in San Francisco or short trips to the east coast. I don't know why I have so many coats. I have a black pea coat, a black mid-length wool coat, a long grey wool coat, a tan belted wool coat, a few ski jackets.. I think that's it. Can't totally remember right now since I haven't seen that box in a year!! I've somehow collected a new coat every few years or so and since I rarely wear them they don't wear out. I'm also pretty boring when it comes to choosing styles so none of them look really outdated. (At least I hope so! I hope I'm not the girl with the ugly wool coat walking the streets of Manhattan!)

What I Realized

So prior to coming to asses the damage, I started doing a mental inventory of all the things I had in my storage unit. Things like the coats and dresses I would be very disappointed to lose, but didn't have a huge emotional attachment to. Other things like my books and childhood Christmas ornaments would really hurt me to throw out if they were ruined. I kept thinking over and over again about what it was that could have gotten wet in the unit and what I would do with it. Its not like I even have anywhere i could have taken the stuff to dry!

As I obsessed over all my stuff, I thought a few times to myself, wow, what bad luck I have. This sucks! What a crappy call to get late on a Saturday night! And then suddenly, it all fell into perspective. Of all the unexpected calls to get on a Saturday night, this really wasn't one of the worst ones. I could have heard that my apartment burned down, or worse yet that someone I loved was in the hospital or worse. Soon, I realized that if losing every thing in that storage until meant that I wouldn't instead get a call saying someone I love was sick or hurt, I'd take it!

I kept thinking about that the rest of the night, and then the next morning up until I drove there. I think poor David was on crisis support alert for me as we texted that morning, but by then I'd already come to peace with losing my stuff. I really had. I was sad to lose things with sentimental value, but I could deal with it.

At Public Storage

So the next morning I drove over to Public Storage to check things out. When I walked in I was instantly asked to sign something releasing Public Storage from any liability for my things being ruined. WTH? I was shocked for a minute and said how is this NOT your fault?? The lady at the counter told me that someone's storage unit on the second floor was overloaded with textbooks and the floor had collapsed taking a pipe out along the way. This whole incident was the "renters fault"! Or so she said. Um honestly, I can't possibly imagine how stacks of books made a floor collapse, but okay. Fire those structural engineers!

After grudgingly signing the paperwork I went over to look at my unit. The manager was there telling me how most likely it wouldn't be too bad since my unit was all the way down the hall from where most of the flooded water went. So we unlocked the unit and opened it and....

The Damage

As I started to open the door I seriously felt sick. Agreeing in my head that losing my stuff wasn't the worst thing in the world to happen is one thing, but to see all my stuff wet and ruined was another. BUT ... everything was fine! Oh my goodness ... I literally almost started crying. I had to compose myself. I was sooo relieved! I was afraid that from the front we might not see water damage in the back so one of the movers pulled some boxes out so I could see in the back. It was all fine!

Wow, did I feel blessed. I was prepared for the worst and nothing actually really happened. A part of me almost thinks that because I was able to have a good attitude about the whole scare, that I was spared. WHEW!

Deep breaths... deep breaths ...

I'm really not kidding when I say I was close to tears with relief. I can't believe how much these "things" mattered to me, but they did.

So we put everything back inside, I locked the unit back up and drove off. I was the happiest little girl ever! Suddenly all that stuff I was so ready to leave behind .. well it was mine again! Yay! My obscenely large collection of coats was intact! Ha!

So the moral of the story is .. I don't know. I was scared, I was angry, I felt like a victim, I moved past it, I realized what things are more important than physical belongings, and then in the end all of my belongings were fine!!!! For now! jk There better not be a fire down at that building... that's been one of my nightmares for a while now! Knock on wood for me! :o)

I Admit It, I'm a Twihard!

Yes, I'm obsessed with Twilight. How did this happen? I have NO idea!!

How It All Started

I can't totally remember how it all started. I think it was a month and a half ago when I was emailing/texting with my cousin Donna about me driving up to LA to visit. I think she asked what I was doing that night before I said nothing, watching Twilight on DVD. OMG .. suddenly intervention stepped in!

She insisted.. no TOTALLY insisted I not watch the movie but send it right back to Blockbuster and then read the books instead. I though oh, how silly. I can just watch the movie, and then read the books later right? NO. She was soo soo dead set on me not watching the movie before reading the book that I finally agreed and put the DVD back into its envelope, sealed it up, and dropped it in the mailbox. The next time I saw her she handed me a big bag of the four books in the series. HOLY MOLY they were big! Each book was 2 or 3 inches thick! I was really taken back. I'm a casual airport reader. I read some fiction, some business books, mostly magazines. The last time I sat down with a book that size was when I read War & Peace in high school! Oh wait, I never really read it and copied a paper off someone else! Sorry Dad! I knew you knew! Who cares now? I have two college degrees! See kids, cheating pays off! TOTALLY KIDDING!

Anyways, Donna gave me the books and I kind of forgot about them for a bit. Honestly I get so many magazines (Runner's World, Running Times, Time, Shape, Self, Pharma Executive, Medical Marketing & Media, dental magazines.. wow I'm a party!) and usually read those at the beach and I really don't read books as often. Mostly when I travel. So she asked a few times and I felt kind of bad saying no, I hadn't started then yet. Then, when I was packing for my trip to Paris to visit my mom I put the first book Twilight in my bag, added some magazines, and then added another book my friend Jenna gave me just in case Twilight wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I mean come on, vampires? Teen romance? *eye roll*

But I was wrong.. so wrong!! :o|

The Flight to Paris

I was flying from Phoenix to Charlotte and Charlotte to Paris. On the PHX - CLT I started to read Twilight about halfway through the flight. I never put it down! Seriously! I have major airplane ADHD too. I was lost in the story almost immediately. Its been years.. many years since I was in high school, but reading Bella's first encounter with Edward, and then all the times after that hoping he'd be in class, hoping she'd see him in the cafeteria, looking for his car in the parking lot.. oh wow, it brought back the memories. Both in high school and college I pined away after a guy, and 10-15 years later I'd almost forgot about it. But reading this book and hearing Bella's thoughts and it striking so clearly with my own personal memories.. well I was a goner! I was swooning over Edward myself before I was halfway through the book.

Not to say as you get older things get less exciting, but honestly I think they move faster. You don't spend months exchanging looks, glancing and looking away, going to school, hoping, waiting, etc the way you do when you're younger. We grow up, become more bold, get more confidence, and usually make some type of move if we're interested. But deep down inside all of us have to remember back when we were younger, unsure, shy... and totally enamored with someone we didn't know would ever talk to us, much less think would ever fall in love with us! (I least I hope everyone feels that way and *I* wasn't the only starry eyed 15 year old dreamer!)

So I read all the way to Charlotte, got on the flight to Paris, and read all the way to Paris. I then arrived in Paris at 630am the next day and attempted to keep going the next day without a blink of sleep. I was rudely awakened! Or should I say instantly sedated! Due to reading Twilight the whole way and not sleeping on the way to Paris I had horrible jet lag for 4 days in Paris! I was only there for 7 days! It was horrible!

So upon arriving in Paris I was then occupied with being on vacation, sightseeing, and catching up with family. But during the slow times, I thought about Twilight, and was dying to continue reading. Unfortunately I didn't bring the next book with me! So ... each time we passed a bookstore in Paris I asked if they had books in English. NO! :o( At one point we walked by a big bookstore and I saw the next book New Moon in French and honestly almost bought it. Um, my French is really sub par. It would have taken me weeks to read in French and translate/understand in my head.

Finally - I went home, and was able to start reading again. Halfway through reading New Moon I decided I really wanted to watch Twilight the movie to bring more vividness to what I'd pictured reading the book.

The Movie

So I watched the movie.

*crickets*

*crickets*

*crickets*

Wow, I was so disappointed. :o( I thought the movie was terrible. The acting wasn't that great (Kristen seemed so awkward, I didn't feel the chemistry), the special effects were horrendous (Edward running and jumping from one tree to another was on the King Kong movie level of prehistoric), and the meat of what makes you love Twilight and the love story it portrays and the appeal Edward draws was totally missed in the movie! In the book I felt the way Bella felt (I think) and felt anticipation, excitement, apprehension. In the movie.. I just watched an awkward girl and a guy with too much lipstick act oddly around each other and then suddenly kiss. :o( boo. Fail.

The Next Three Books

I was really disappointed by the movie and just wanted to go back to the books. I went back into reading the second book, but felt rushed just to get to the third. No spoilers I promise - but in the second book things weren't as I wanted, but I knew for there to be a third and fourth book they had to get there. So I just wanted to rush through and get to the next book!

So I finally finished the second book, then the third, and finally the fourth. I took to bringing the books to work with me and reading them at lunch. I swear the universe was against me the weeks that I suddenly would have lunch meetings 3 out of 5 days in the week. Usually I'm excited for those. Free food! Good food too! But at that point I saw the free lunch and some meeting as just time wasted that I could be using reading Twilight! YES! I was obsessed!

Life After Twilight

So finally a week ago I finished the last book Breaking Dawn. :o) Yay! I was happy with the way the series ended, but was sad that the series had ended. It was kind of like watching the series finale of Friends. I was happy how it worked out, but sad to let go.

I had heard mid-4 books that there was a 5th "book" in the works that had been abandoned and I could read that. It was an unfinished manuscript that had leaked showing the story from Edwards perspective. Oooh.. Edward.... sigh..

I was a little happier to hear there was more to come, but again, still sad to leave this fantasy world. Since finishing Twilight I hate to admit I think about the stories and books more than I'd like to admit. It still hits me as strange that a teenage vampire love story could appeal to me so much, but in a way I like that it has. I can't even think of the last story, show, movie, whatever that I have been so into. The books are great, its a great story and world, and I'm sooo happy that my cousin talked me into reading the books.

It strikes me as odd when I talk about Twilight and about half of the people I know suddenly stop and touch their heart and say, wow, its about as good as Harry Potter. Really? I've seen the first Harry Potter movie but that's it. I can't imagine the big appeal behind the books. I think with Twilight everyone can relate to their first love, or their first infatuation. What is it that is so great about Harry Potter?? I'm on the fence now about starting that series.. at least that one has so many books it will keep me entertained until 2010! But oh no! Who will read the stacks of Pharma Executive I have piling up?! haha.

Anyways, I love Twilight. Too much. For anyone who hasn't read Twilight, I wish they would.

Thank you Donna ... you've introduced me to a new addiction! Maybe I can finally get over marathon running now! haha jk.

Chills, Church, & Chili

Chills

I am currently training for the Marine Corps Marathon (10/29/09) with my favorite training/running partner David! This will be his first full marathon and I'm really excited that we will get to run it together! Last weekend we planned for an 8 mile run on Saturday. We ended up oversleeping a bit and decided to hit the beach soon after breakfast. We tossed around the choices of running later that afternoon or early the next morning. I always do my long runs on Saturdays and love getting them over with, so I talked David into doing our long run after lunch, after the beach. Oh what a mistake! Roasting in the sun for 2 1/2 hours left us totally dehydrated. Unfortunately neither of us realized this until halfway through our run.

David Marveling at My Hello Kitty Towel

Running in the late afternoon in the heat (~85F, not bad, but about 20 degrees higher than I'm used to running in the early morning) after sweating in the sun all afternoon was not a good choice. We both felt the effects and had strange heavy-headed headaches for the last half of the run. We powered through our 8 miles though (with some walking.. shh! don't judge) and agreed to try out a real ice bath when we got back to my place. We made a quick stop at the liquor store on the way home to pick up two bags of ice and some Gatorade and we were ready!

We dumped the ice in the tub and filled it with a few inches of cold water and were ready to soothe the soreness out of our muscles. We then added some Gatorade for electrolytes. No, I'm kidding, we drank the Gatorade. But back to the ice bath .... Um, have any of you sat in an ice bath before?? Well if so, hats off to you! Seriously! I stepped in and could barely stand the few moments my feet were in! I jumped back out and though crap! That hurt! I dipped my feet back in again and figured if I withstood the pain for a bit longer it would start to go away as my body adjusted. Um, nope! I had to step back out. My feet ached with pain and felt like there was an elephant stepping on each foot and crushing the life out of them.

Finally, I had an idea on how we could ice our shins but keep our poor sensitive feet out of the ice cold water. I found that if I kneeled in the water I could lift my feet back out behind me. The ice didn't hurt my shins like it hurt my feet, and the death bath, I mean ice bath was bearable that way. So we both kneeled in the ice, feet kicked back and up. Let me tell you, its pretty awkward to kneel in a tub of ice with your feet angled up and out of the water behind you, but hey - I do yoga. I can hold an awkward pose! About five minutes into the icing I had the bright idea that I could distract myself by reading more of the 2nd Twilight book. I started to engross myself back into the love that is Edward Cullen the vampire (sigh....) when David asked me to read aloud to him to distract him as well. So yes, two people kneeling in ice, with one reading Twilight out loud to the other. What a freakshow we were! Not sure I want to try an ice bath again anytime soon, but maybe if I do it will be less and less painful each time. One can hope!

Church

On Sunday David and I went to check out a church downtown San Diego. Yes, at the ripe age of 31 I've finally decided to try attending church on a regular basis. The first one I went to a couple weeks ago was really not up my alley. It was very doom and gloom and oddly political. The talk of the world ending due to moral decline and blaming part of our country's problems on "Obama not being friends with Israel" was way too much for me. I'm a Joel Osteen kind of girl. Learn to live a better life. Be positive. Do good. I like messages like that. Doom and gloom and fear? Not my bag.

Anyways, this church we went to last weekend wasn't political, but it felt wrong to me in its own way. Instead of the pastor there was a guest speaker, a lawyer. And he was angry! Very angry! Not being a church goer growing up, I really anticipated church to be a positive, growing place, not somewhere I should feel fearful and guilty as I did after the past two churches. This speaker gave an hour long presentation about how the media is attacking the Bible and faith by questioning the timeline and story that is told. The man presenting was very angry and gave example after example about how the media is trying to ruin faith. I wasn't quite sure what to think about his presentation, and wondered several times how they found him and if this church really aligned with his message and sentiment. I left this second church a bit disappointed again as I did last week. But oh well, the search will continue.

Chili

David was pretty excited that the Home Run Derby that was going on Monday night, and the All-Star game on Tuesday night. I'm not a big baseball fan myself but thought I'd try to get into the excitement by cooking a baseball themed dinner. Hot dogs were number one on the menu of course, and number two was chili! I love chili! Beans, meat, spices... you can't go wrong! I found a recipe online for a simple chili, substituted the ground beef with low-fat ground turkey, and also cooked some low-fat turkey dogs to go with them. Chili turkey dog home run derby night! I think it was quite a success! David did too, even with my low-fat substitutions! Hey, at least I didn't try to slip him a tofu dog! (That's what she said! Okay sorry, poor fit for that joke.. Sorry Michael Scott for not doing that justice.)

The Dogs Boiling

The Buns Grilling

The Chili Cooking

(Yes, that is a wok that my chili is cooking in. I need a Crock Pot! Christmas is only 5 months away! Don't forget to put it on your list for me!!)

The Finished Product

So one of the many great things about chili is that cooking a pot of chili for two people means you have plenty of leftovers. The All-Star game the following night became leftover chili night. It was just as good as the night before. I love chili!

Nothing else we did last week started with "ch" and fit with my title, so you won't get to hear about it. :o) Sorry! Well ...... fine, you dragged it out of me! We also went to the dog park! Actually if I use the French word for dog it fits my title - "chien!" It was a hot weekend and my poor little furballs were pretty tired, but they still had fun. Here are some pictures from that trip.

Mika Shoving Her Way into a Picture

My Girls Following Me Around in the Park

Mika & David Taking a Time-Out

Great weekend, lots of fun. Until next time!

15K for the 4th of J

This 4th of July I did what I did last year - I ran the Coronado Independence Day 15k!

I think the 15K is my new favorite race distance! Its a long enough run that it fits smoothly into my training schedule if I'm in the process of training for a marathon, but its also not so far that I end up sore from running harder at a pace much faster than I would normally train at.

I looked up last year's race results and my "official" race time last year was 1:21:48. I say "official" in parenthesis because this race doesn't use timing chips, so your time is only loosely accurate. I wanted to improve my finish time this year compared to last year, so I decided to set a goal for myself of a 1:15 finish. (That works out to a 8:04 minute/mile.) A six minute improvement over 9.3 miles is fairly significant, but its also realistic, so I was feeling good going into the race knowing that I had a good chance at an improved finish time this year thanks to the speedwork I had been doing preparing for my last marathon.

I arrived in Coronado with only 15 minutes to spare before race time and managed to find legal parking not too far from the start. I was pretty lucky with my parking spot. Last year I ended up parking illegally somewhere and I'm glad I didn't this year because when I came back to my car after the race I saw them towing several cars across the street from me! Yikes!

Anyways, I started off the race feeling pretty good and noticed that I finished the first two miles around a 7:48 pace. I knew I needed to average at least a 8:10 pace for the race to finish in under 1:16 so I slowed down a bit. I paced myself with various runners throughout the race who were running close to my goal time. I guess you can say I was a drafter! The miles ticked away and I felt good mile after mile, and towards the end of the race I stopped looking at my watch (obsessively) and focused on how I was feeling and pushed myself based on that.

As I approached the finish line I was so excited to see that my strategy had worked, I was going to finish in 1:15! According to my GPS watch I finished in 1:15:32. Unfortunately, according to the "official" race results I finished in 1:17:48. HMPH! I feel cheated! Oh well. I'm still happy with the results!

I think I can attribute my improvement in time to experience with the course, another year of experience with racing in general, and possibly the fact that I raced with my new Bite Tech mouthguard for the first time. I'm beginning to like the way it feels and have been wearing it to sleep each night in the place of my oringal big, rubber mouthguard.

As I ran the race I thought back to racing on 4th of July weekends in the past. Last year I ran this same race and really enjoyed the race becuase it was the first one I had run as a San Diego resident since moving to the area 5 months prior. Unfortunately, after running this race last year though I came home to do laundry, tripped and missed a step coming down the stairs, and severly sprained my left ankle! It was a pretty bad sprain and since it was a long, holiday weekend I didn't have my ankle looked at right away. I actually waited almost two months before I went to see a doctor when it finally got to the point that I realized that my ankle probably wasn't going to heal on its own. A number of xrays and MRI's later, my ankle was cleared of any possible bone damage, and I was sent off to physical therapy for a month.

I also raced another time on the 4th of July, back in 2002. Wow that was a long time ago! On July 4, 2002 I ran my second 10K and second road race ever. Its amazing to think of how many races of various lengths I've run since then. It feels good looking back on how far I've come with racing the past seven years. And run, literally. Ha ha.

After the race I went home, showered, did not make eye-contact with my evil laundry basket that tripped me down the stairs last year, packed a few things for the day including my dogs, and headed up to LA to spend the day with my cousin Donna and her family.

My Cousin's Family

We hung out at her house, went to two different playgrounds, watched Wipeout on TV, enjoyed a great homecooked meal from her husband, and then the dogs and I headed back South to San Diego late that night. There must be a lot of locations that sell fireworks in LA, because as I drove down the 5 freeway on my way home, I saw dozens of locations shooting off fireworks along the way. I wish I could have taken pictures, getting a long range view like that was really pretty. It felt like my own personal fireworks show!

The hands down cutest moment of the whole day was when my cousin decided that we were going to move from one park to another, and her daughter came up to me and said "Monika, we are going to the Washington Street park now. Do you want to come with us?" Awww, so sweet. I was going to be coming along anyways, but it was still cute to get a personal invite from an adorable 4 year old.

My Cousin's Daughter w/Kona
(Yep, she's dressed as a hot dog for the 4th!)

Overall this 4th of July was a sucess. I ran a race, hit my goal finish time, didn't sprain my ankle, got to spend time with some family, and was able to enjoy a beautiful fireworks show from the comfort of my car.