Yup.  It’s also my new post injury distance PR. 

Splits:

1 8:47

2 8:51

3 9:07

4 9:08

5 9:02

APPM: 9:00

Time: 44:57

Well hydrated with both water & Gatorade, washed down an antacid & properly fueled, I didn’t feel sick like Monday’s run.  #winning

I’m way slower than I used to be, and have positive splits, but I figure if I can get miles in, speed will come with it.  Eventually.

Best part: ZERO PAIN!!!!!!!

I noticed the gate to get inside my complex was closing and decided to play chicken.  I made it.  Barley. 

Hey, after I run 5 miles, I’m totally invincible. 

Can you believe I actually iced my foot when right when I got home?  I don’t even know who I am anymore.

I was actually waiting for the oven to pre heat so I could bake this pizza. 

Dairy kills my stomach & I was so excited when Mike showed a dairy free pizza at Trader Joes.  I really like it a lot.  I almost don’t miss the cheese.  Almost.

I added turkey pepperoni to it.

Shower->Starbucks->Ulta->Target->Staples->car wash->home->walk the dogs->blog

Whew.  And before all that, I managed to wash the sheets & start the dishwasher.

Deal of the day:

$3.00 @ Target

Just made this Taco Soup for dinner.  I suck at cooking, but for some reason I do a pretty decent job at making soup.

I 86ed the beans, added a can of chicken broth & pasta, sub ground turkey.  Can you tell I was a server years ago?  Hated the job, loved the scrilla. 

It actually turned out really good. 

My training “plan” is almost complete.  I’ll post it in the next few days.

Go for a run & eat cupcakes for me!!

P.S I’m diggin’ dailymile.  If you are too, friend me.

I’m stoked to be running again & arrived to the point where I’m building my fitness & endurance back up.  I’ve been making some changes & thought I’d blog about them. 

• Run as consistently as I can.  I shoot for every other day or so.  The only exception is when Mike’s home.  He works so much, so missing a training run is so worth missing.

Today ~

I started out feeling great & ready to run.  I wanted to do 30 minutes or 3.50 miles until the last half mile or so I felt sick.  I guess I need to work on the hydration thing a bit more.

• Clean eating~ Lot’s of fresh produce and protein. I cut out all dairy ever since I figured out it was the reason my stomach was upset almost every day.  I totally feel like a new person now! So I’m working on taking my calcium/D chews.

On a side note, I’m so happy I stopped by the farmers market Saturday. I’m feeling inspired. 

• Hydration~  Water & Gatorade.  I swear by the powdered lemon-lime. I drank 2 glasses when I got home from my run this morning and felt so much better.

• Juicing~ (Not the Barry Bonds kind) To help increase my produce intake I’m juicing about 3 times a week. There’s a lot of parts to clean and it definitely takes extra time to clean up, but so worth it.

My current favorite is 3 small apples, 3 stalks of celery & 1 small lemon.

Things I still need to work on:

• Icing.  When it’s in the 40’s outside, the last thing I want to do is put ice on my feet.  Ughh
• Come up with a training plan.  We all know I’ll never follow it, but I use it as a guideline.  Working on it this week & I’ll be sure to post it when it’s ready.
• My upcoming race page.  I’m still new to this area & it’s a little tough for me to find local races, but I did find a few good ones.
• Mizuno Wave Rider 15 review.  Just got these babies for Christmas and LOVE them so much I feel like I’m cheating on Mike.  If you liked the 13’s, don’t wait for my review, just get ‘em. You won’t be disappointed!

If you thought I was gonna cut out cupcakes, well then your freakin high!!

I mean, who does that?  It’s too sad for me to even think about. You might as well just end it all right now, there is no reason to live.

Live, Run, Laugh……….eat cupcakes!

With a helmet.

I was going to tell you about my day and include some beautiful pictures I took.  And laughed.so.hard. 

I took the dogs to the dog park by the bay and then a nice walk along a lake. 

I’d like to know who gave me the “special” dogs?

Gruummmpppyy

I don’t know why I even tried.

Oh well at least we had fun. 

Even the picture of my afternoon juice looked like there was a floater in it.

FYI it’s a piece of apple skin.

Dinner was freaking awesomesauce though.

I didn’t snap a picture of it, but this girl did. 

Lucky you.  

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I really need to read  this post on how to take decent pictures.

It’s been a long time since I ran.  Mike gave me his boy germs and I entertained Lu for a week. 

Now it’s time to start training for spring races. 

Only problem is I’m severely lacking motivation.  I usually don’t have this problem, but I figure the best way to get back into running is to get out there and well, run.

Today I planed to do 20 minutes.  I struggled mentally the whole first mile, which is pretty much the norm for me, but by mile 2 I finally settled into a nice groove.

It was going so great in fact, I was going to run a 5k.  Well that was until I got to the top of a bridge & saw a creepy dude look at me & jump into the bushes.  I stopped and watched him as he peeked out to see if I was still coming and shoved something in his waistband. 

I always run with my iFitness belt and cell phone so I ran the other way & called Mike to see if he was in the area.  He forgot his work phone at home and I knew he would be by to pick it up soon.  Thank goodness he was and came to rescue me.

As I was talking to Mike, the creeper came out of the bushes with a bike and started riding towards Mike.  I knew that was the only way out of the trail so I waited a bit & started running that way too.

Mike said he saw him and knew he was definitely UTI.  Something was way off with him.

I wasn’t freaked out.  More alert than anything.  I was born & raised in Fresno so this kind of stuff doesn’t even faze me.  I think I’m pretty street smart, I tend to notice strange activity right away. The biggest thing is to know your options (alternate way out) & think logically.

This is usually a heavily populated & safe trail.  Just so happens no one was around when it happened. 

Figures.  

You can bet I’m still going to run that same trail again.  I refuse to let anyone make me feel like I need to alter my life in any way.    

Stubborn much?

In other news, Christmas lives on…

I’m just not ready to let it go yet.

Last week Lissy Lu came up to spend some time with us.  That girl kept me so busy and we had so much fun! 

I miss my little sidekick already.

She was really looking forward to the ice skating rink in Union Square so we made a special trip.

We got there early so we could walk around and do a little shopping and sightseeing. 

I’ve been dying to find out what Niketown is all about. 

Basically it’s 3 stories of every piece of Nike gear you can imagine.  But no deals as you’d expect in the city.

Finally it was time to skate!  We got there a half hour early and it was perfect timing.  The line was so long 10 minutes later.

It was crowded but fun.  This is something you do more for the experience than anything else.  And to cross another thing off my bucket list. 

The weather was perfect.  Sunny & 60.

I had one very happy girl.  And her day only got sweeter when she realized where I pulled into on our way home.

The See’s Candies factory in South San Francisco.

You see a few days ago I asked her to think of something she’d like to do.  She came up with chocolate tasting. 

I knew it was on El Camino Real so we drove north forever and couldn’t find it.  Turns out we gave up & got on the 380 freeway.  I ended up taking her to Teacake in downtown Burlingame for cupcakes, which she LOVED.

After Mike came home from work he informed us we gave up a few blocks too early.  Gahhh.  I was going to make her wish come true and this was the perfect opportunity to do it.

Then we decided one cupcake just wasn’t enough, so we made a batch after dinner.

This is the last picture with our Christmas tree.  We took it down the next day. 

Oh well only 357 days until Christmas.  Not that I’m counting or anything.

Happy New Year!! 

I wish I could tell you how cool my NYE was, but if you recall I’m a 31 year old trapped in an 80 year olds body.  Member…you member.

Mike & I hung out all day and went shopping.  Oh and to the See’s candy factory in South San Francisco, where 50% of their candy is made. 

Then we came home, made dinner and chilled on the couch.  I went to bed around 9:00 and the fireworks woke me up.  Well actually a very scared & shaking Pookie dog woke me up.  :/

Mike told me to pick something for us to do today.  We love being outside so we took the dogs for a hike.

I just read my recap from our NYD hike in 2010 and it brought back so many memories of Bo.  <3

Does it get any better than this!?  The answer is no!

It was the perfect day, sunny & 65*.  I was a little worried about how Pookie would hold up since she’s very old but she did great.  I think she plays me, yo.

We stopped at an outdoor produce shop to pick up a few things for dinner.  Mike’s currently in the kitchen cooking lemon pepper chicken with a side of potatoes, peppers & mushrooms in a butter & white wine sauce.  It smells amazing.

Hope you all had a wonderful day!

Oh boy am I so excited to write about this digital camera. 

I love photography even though I don’t think I have the “eye” for it.  

I bought my first digital camera 5 or 6 years ago, and it was the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T5. 

It was my first and only camera so when it died last month, I started researching new ones.  Mike had the brilliant idea to stick with the newer version of the Sony since I loved it. 

So I went to cnet.com to compare ratings.  It took me about 3 weeks of research to pick the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX9.  It has one of the highest rating’s in it’s class & awesome reviews.

There are a ton of features I’ll probably never master, but I wanted to share my favorites so far.

I’ll start with my favorite setting, background defocus.  I freaking love this feature!

The soft skin setting makes skin look clear and balances out color.  Let’s poke fun at me fresh out of the shower with zero make up on shall we…

Before                                         After

Hanging out by water, use the beach setting to shoot waterside scene with rich, blue color.

Even at sunset.

I took this picture of the Golden Gate Bridge last week using the Landscape setting.  You may check out a lot more pictures from that shoot here.

Another uber cool setting is the panoramic setting.

Want to take a stellar photo in a restaurant?  Use the gourmet setting for a natural shot of food.

And inside my house

The only downfall to other consumers is the buttons are a bit small.  I have tiny fingers so it doesn’t matter to me at all. 

For around $150 I’d say go for it if your on the market for a new digital camera.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.  We sure did.  I am spoiled beyond what I deserve, that’s for sure. 

We drove home Christmas Eve morning and chilled in the hotel since I felt like death.  FYI if you have a head cold, try taking my favorite cocktail… 2 Sudafed & 2 Tylenol.  It works!  I took that and a nap and when I woke up, I felt so much better. 

It’s a good thing because Kevin & Ronda came by to see me.  I miss them so much so it was really nice to see them.

Ronda made me a quilt out of my race t-shirts.  I’ll do a post on it when I get a chance to snap a few pictures.  She did an amazing job.  I couldn’t love it any more!  Thank you Ronda!!

24 hours of Ralphy (A Christmas Story) & Norad Santa tracker kept me company too.

Lu is here with us this week so naturally we took her to San Francisco, her first time ever.

She picked the Rainforest Cafe in Fisherman’s Warf for lunch.  <—perfect choice if you ask me

We screwed around since they weren’t open yet.

Where we dined…

Clam Chowder bread bowl for the Lu

Blue Mountain Grilled Chicken Sandwich.  Served with bacon & grilled red pepper sandwich for yours truly.  Minus cheese, special sauce & lettuce, add pickles.  The cole slaw was donated to Mike.  Yuck.

After lunch we walked around Pier 39 and had to have these beanie headbands.  Hey, it was cold.

Then we took her to the main tourist spots like the Golden Gate bridge.

And waited an million hours in line to drive down Lombard street.

Then tried not to die while Mike navigated city traffic to get home.  It’s crazy how tight the streets are.

That’s a bus next to us stopped at a light.  That close.

Oh and how ridiculously rich and stupid people are.

Like their dog really cares about wearing designer tags!?  Just give ‘em love & cookies.  Works for my dogs. 

We’re making cupcakes now and I’m so ready for a bubble bath & bed so I’ll catch you later.

I’m a day behind on post’s so I’ll recap today tomorrow.  Or not. 

For the first time in years, I’m sick. 

Mike was so generous and shared his head cold germ’s had all week with me.  Gahhhh Merry Christmas to me. 

I’m so glad I finished our Christmas shopping a few days ago because this is what today looks like:

Lot’s of hanging out with the puppers, wrapped up in my warm fuzzy blanket, sipping hot tea on the couch watching Christmas movies on T.V.

I don’t feel too terrible (yet?) and we’re driving home tomorrow so I hope I don’t feel worse. 

Or give this nice gift to my family. 

Hope Mike get’s home soon, I have a small honey do list to pick up a few last minute grocery items for our trip.  And some blue stuff (cold medicine).

In other news, I’m expecting a very exciting delivery today.  My new obnoxious Mizuno Wave Rider 15’s!

Got a killer deal from runningwarehouse.com yesterday.  $94 out the door with free shipping.  If you use the coupon code skinnyd from skinnyrunner.com you’ll get an extra 10% off. 

Not bad considering they just came out this month and retail for $115.   

You better believe I’ll be doing a full review on these babies after I test them out.

‘Tis the season! 

It’s all about the simple things, folks. 

Like being able to talk to my little grandma every single day on Facebook.

Finishing my Christmas shopping & having it all wrapped under the tree.

Even when my fur children photo bomb & make the background defocus setting on my camera spaz out.

And going home for Christmas this weekend.

Even if they act like the Griswold’s. 

Merry Christmas!!