Ambitious aspirations make great accomplishments

I'm Running Across America!

2012-01-22T17:52:00.000-08:00

Well, actually I'm only running across 4 states but STILL that's FOUR states, approx 600 miles and mucho elevation gain. I kinda gleaned over this goal when I did my post about goals for the year. Guys, this is HUGE!

Why am I doing such a crazy thing? Rev3's charity organization is the Ulman Cancer Fund and our run across america is to raise money for Ulman. Unfortunately, almost everyone I know has had cancer impact their lives.

Too many of those we love have battled cancer. I've never run for a charity before and I'm not usually big on fundraising but for this cause at this particular time in my life---I'll be out there running my heart out and raising all the funds I can for this cause. I'm respecting the wishes for privacy but know that someone dear to me is in a battle with this disease right now. This is something I can do to show support and my own way to cope.

If you're in a place where you can donate, please click on the link on my sidebar or go HERE. Every little bit helps and I thank you for your contribution. For those that aren't in a position to make a donation I hope that you'll follow my journey and keep those battling this disease in your thoughts.

I leave Portland bound for Phoenix, AZ on March 29th and will be running from Arizona to Texas, returning to Portland on April 2nd! I know it will be an amazing experience. Never having done a relay before I kinda jumped into the ultimate of all relays. As the run gets closer I'll post more about the logistics etc...if you're interested in virtually running with us or meeting us along the course definitely drop me a note in the comments or email me: ambitiousalisa@gmail.com.

For more information on Ulman, please check out their website: http://www.ulmanfund.org/

Basement Progression

2012-01-18T07:56:00.000-08:00

As you know Mr. Pi and I have been hard at work finishing our basement. Here are some photos to show the progression. I'm planning to do more of an in depth post with approx cost calculations (ala Young House Love-style) but I'm still pretty buried and don't have time for anything more in depth than photos right now.

BEFORE:

Before Looking North

Before Looking West/South

STEP 1: Conrete

Pouring concrete

Finished concrete

STEP 2: Sealing the concrete

Sealing the concrete

STEP 3: Starting tilework

Starting the tiling

Cutting tiles

Finished Tile! (why don't I have a picture of just the floor...you'll be able to see it in the next few photos)

STEP 4: Buy stuff

Home depot + Ikea = Full CRV

STEP 5: Painting

North wall (finished tile)

Looking East

View from West/South (finished tile)--this is the same view as one of the "before" photos scroll up for comparison.

STEP 6: Molding

To be finished

STEP 7: Furniture and Artwork

To be finished

Three Things Thursday

2012-01-12T11:10:00.000-08:00

1. I have worked late every night this week and am feeling incredibly overwhelmed. While I like my job I don’t like 10+ hour days every day. I also think working long days would be more bearable if I could access my gmail account from work and not just on my phone. I feel like all my personal emails are backing up and I can’t keep up.

2. Our furnace officially broke last weekend and we still don’t have heat in our house. I called 2 different companies and neither returned my calls so I called another 3 places and finally yesterday I started getting phone calls back. So far, the cold isn’t too horrific, I come home and take a hot shower, put on my layers and bundle up in a blanket. Sleeping is super comfortable as we have electric wall heaters upstairs. Technically we could spend all our time upstairs and be totally fine, downstairs has been a bit nippy.

3. I need to start consistent morning workouts. I have been doing well with consistency for all my workouts and mostly following my build plan but I need to work on getting up and out of bed. Any thoughts on how best to do this? I wish my local friends belonged to my gym, it’s easier to meet someone for sure!

I have so many exciting posts to share but b/c of #1 (above) they are going to have to wait...but expect:

a basement update!

a post on my running (partway) across america and what you can do to help!

my return from injury!

my upcoming race plans!

2012 Goals & January 2012 Goals

2012-01-09T07:20:00.000-08:00

Eeeek, it’s the second week of January and I don’t have goals up yet, I have no posts about New Years…guess that’s a sign 2012 has been a busy year already!

Here are some of my goals for the year…and some of my goals for January (at the bottom).

2012 Goals

1. Believe in myself. (I consider myself a decently confident person in day-to-day life but there are certain circumstances where my confidence falls apart. Certain work situations cause me to doubt my brainpower, certain terrain on foot or via bike make me throw tantrums/get depressed. This is going to stop! Of course, everyone has good days and bad days BUT I’m going to work hard to believe in myself, my brains, my feet, my legs…and my heart.)

2. Finish the basement project! (We have already begun. A basement post is to come.)

3. Be an amazing party planner. (You all know I’ll be throwing AMY an EPIC baby shower in March. I love to party plan and am looking forward to other opportunities that may crop up this year.)

4. Finish my second 70.3!

5. Make one new PR this year. (I don’t care if it’s a 5k, half marathon, marathon or a tri…one PR WILL happen this year.)

6. Have an amazing experience being part of Team Rev3! Including RUNNING (PARTWAY) ACROSS the COUNTRY! Across 3 states to be exact (more to come later). I already feel so honored to be on the Team. I know this will be an easy goal to accomplish!

7. Go to Europe. (Looking like September 2012! Likely France and Italy…maybe another country too. Mr. Pi and my Pi mother-in-law will likely all be jetting to Europe together!)

8. Go to a C3 class at CorePower. (I’m comfortable in C2 but sometime this year I want to bump it up to C3!)

9. Cross one thing off my life list.

10. Swim a 5k. (Even if it just in the pool. I want to go the distance.)

11. Be less anxious. (I sometimes get anxious about the silliest of things and it often manifests in being grumpy or snapping at someone close to me (mostly hubby, sorry hubby). I want to work on thinking calm thoughts, whatever it is I’m anxious about is probably NOT a big deal.)

12. Push myself out of my comfort zone. (This doesn’t necessarily mean in training. I am a person of routine and sometimes when that routine is interrupted I’m out of my comfort zone, sometimes leading to #11. Mr. Pi the other day when asked how he has energy to do all the things he does, aka stay up late, run 20 miles followed my an entire day of home improvement project work, etc…said something like “I love life and like to fill each day as much as possible as to not miss out.” I really liked this statement. While I’m not sure I can be quite as life loving as him, I would inevitably crash or be cranky all the time if I didn’t get enough sleep, I do want to take his statement into consideration more often. I feel like I love life but sometimes my routine gets in the way. I want it all this year! I want to keep my routine but also push myself outside the bounds once in awhile, it’ll be good for me.)

January Goals

1. Racing Weight here I come…continue to eat Paleo and be conscious of how I’m fueling my body. I would like to lose 3-5 lbs this month—however; I care less about the actual pounds and more about losing bodyfat/getting leaner. I’m planning to start doing measurements once a month.

2. Have a relaxing MLK Day Weekend. With the holidays, our amazing trip to the coast for New Years and having my Dad in town…I’m ready for a weekend of catching up on house stuff and relaxing (read mopping the floors, mowing the lawn?, watching TV…).

3. Finish the basement floor. We are already well on the way to finishing the floor and I’m excited to move on to the painting stage.

4. Finish one spin/trainer ride of 2 hours (or more).

5. By the end of the month run 7 miles.

6. Follow my build plan. (So far, first of January has been tough with work getting busy and company in town and a house project going on all at the same time. Starting Jan week 2 will need to carve out more time for myself which may mean getting up earlier.)

December 2011 Goals Recap

2011-12-30T05:00:00.001-08:00

I went back through my blog archives to find my 2011 year long goals and realized I never really made any for the whole year. I think this may be the first year that I didn’t make any specific year-long goals. I did do monthly goals so we’re going to roll through Dec 2011.

1. Make wreaths. (Spoiler, didn’t happen in November).—SUCCESS! I made about 6 wreaths.

2. Get in the holiday spirit.—SUCCESS! The little tree Mr. Pi brought me really lifted my spirits and from then on it was all Christmas music and CHEER.

3. Start basement project!—SUCCESS! We have bought supplies and prepped the space.

4. Christmas cards?—FAIL! I’ve decided if these aren’t in progress or done before Thanksgiving I’m not going to do them. Things get too busy.

5. Continue return to running plan.—SUCCESS! I’m up to comfortably being able to run 4 miles and have done as many as 5 (with a walk break).

6. This is going to sound cliche and also super hard to do in December but start losing weight.—SUCCESS! Starting the Paleo diet was actually a good thing. This is the first time in a long while that I lost weight over the holidays. Not a ton but about 3.5 lbs.

7. Keep Mr. Pi's gifts a surprise.—Half SUCCESS! He did end up guessing a couple of them. I tried.

8. Continue going to yoga.—SUCCESS! I am still loving CorePower.

9. Plan out my 2012 season!—FAIL! I haven’t really planned my season yet but I have races in mind. For me, “planning” only fully counts when you’ve pulled the trigger and registered.

10. Create a "build" plan in anticipation of #9. Part of my build plan is #6 but I also want to have some good base mileage and yardage before I start "real" training for my upcoming 2012 races.—Mostly SUCCESS! I have my 8-10 build plan but I need to actually start writing down specifics.

11. Stress less.—Work in Progress!

12. Limit my netflix watching.—Mostly SUCCESS! I didn’t have a lot of time this month to watch a lot of Netflix.

2011 was a year of some ups and downs. I started the year with the Goofy Challenge and had a blast. By mid-spring I was injured and through summer at a low point with the BOOT. However, I rebounded and am finishing the year strong.

2012, I am ready for you! Bring it!

Three Things Thursday (EPIC Adventures of Past, Present and Future!)

2011-12-29T08:08:00.000-08:00

1) PAST EPICNESS---Christmas with the Pi’s is always EPIC! With Mr. Pi’s 4 siblings and all their little ones running around the house it’s always merriment (with some screaming children thrown in the mix).

It’s no secret that I like to run with family and friends…this year I asked ~~conned~~ my sister in laws into a day after Christmas bootcamp. We loaded up and headed to the local highschool where they proceeded to liken me to Jillian Michaels (totally a compliment) and I lead them through a booty busting workout. We ran stadium stairs, we did push ups, we planked, we crunched, we squatted, we lunged and we ran speed intervals. It was EPICly a good time. My sister in laws are amazing women, each with very unique lives and all with super strength.

2) PRESENT EPICNESS---We’re gearing up to tackle the basement. We have prepped the room and painted the floor with a special sealant. My Dad is flying in next week to help with the project. We have days where we think it won’t be a big deal and days where we feel we are WAY over our heads. As soon as the action begins, I’ll be posting photos of the chaos that is soon to be had.

3) FUTURE EPICNESS---Remember that post where I said I’m starting a base building plan, well, I better kick it up a notch because I’ll be participating in Rev3’s Run Across America!

Unfortunately, with work obligations I can’t commit to running the whole country (but how cool would that be?!?!) BUT I will be arriving in Phoenix and running from Arizona to Texas (eeeek, did I really just say that out loud?). The team is raising money and awareness for the Ulman Cancer Fund. I’m not usually one to push fundraising, in fact, I never have on the blog but in the New Year, I will add a donation widget (our team goal is $100k)---donate if you’d like or ignore the widget and keep reading. Cancer is a disease that has affected many and unfortunately, some that are very close in my life. I’ll be posting more about the EPIC adventure in the months to come but at the end of March I’ll be heading south for my part of the Run Across America! If you need to visualize what my run might look like, see below…minus the trucker hats and add full Rev3 compression gear (I’m going to need it!).

Winner: It's a New Years Giveaway!

2011-12-28T08:37:00.000-08:00

Sorry this took me so long everyone! I thought I’d have time to choose a winner and post results while I was done in CA with family but clearly that didn’t happen! However, a winner has been chosen via a random number generator.

The lucky winner is: Audrey!

(Audrey, email me your mailing address and I can get your package out to you.)

New Schedule

2011-12-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

Like many of you, I’m putting together my schedule for 2012. My foot rehab has (so far) been successful, I am almost ready to start committing to races. I have already promised my sister-in-law that I’d run a half marathon with her this year so that’s in the works already and I know she is going to do great! I also want to smash my 70.3 time this summer/early fall. At this point, I have many races to consider.

I’m going to be starting an 8-10 week pre-build schedule in the next couple of weeks, most realistically after the new year. My fitness level right now is decent but I know I need to kick it up a notch before I start a half iron training plan. I haven’t been on any sort of formal training plan in months, it’s been go with the flow. Here are the facts and the future of my plan:

FACT: I’m comfortable running 3 miles at about a 10:30 pace, which isn’t fast by any means but is pretty solid for me.

FUTURE: In the next 8-10 weeks, I’d like to build that 3 miles up to about 8ish. To do this I plan to continue lunch running during the week with my co-workers and push these runs from 3 miles to 4 miles and time permitting up to 5 if possible.

FACT: I’ve been consistently doing 2-4 spins/trainer rides per week.

FUTURE: Given that the bike is my weakest sport, I’d like to consistently average 3 spins/trainer rides per week and build my “long ride” to 3 hours.

FACT: My swimming has been very inconsistent, sometimes non-existent. I’m comfortable with swimming and after spending so many months not being able to run or ride I’ve been more excited about those activities.

FUTURE: 2 swims per week. Eventually I’ll need to bump this up a notch but like I said, I’m comfortable with swimming and I’d rather use this time to focus on riding and running.

FACT: I have been loving YOGA.

FUTURE: Continue attending yoga, at least once a week.

FACT: Strength training is happening but sporadically.

FUTURE: In the next 8-10 weeks, 2 strength sessions per week. At a minimum this means 20 minutes of push-ups, abs, squats, lunges, other stuff you can do at home.

Alright, there it is! I’m going to put this into a more serious “schedule” and post on my training & racing tab but for now these are my general principles.

Three Things Thursday

2011-12-22T09:36:00.000-08:00

1. I’m leaving in a few short hours for California. I cannot wait to see my family. Mr. Pi and Zoey left a few days ago and I miss them dearly. I won’t get to see them until Friday. Vacation is going to be short as I leave today and am back at work next Wednesday but it’s going to be wonderful. I’ll be sure to capture all the craziness and chaos of the Pi Household over Christmas and post the pics. It is always an adventure with all 21 of us under one roof.

2. I’ve started eating Paleo. I’m not 100% on a strict “diet” per se but I’ve been incorporating “caveman” changes into my diet. I have pretty much ruled out eating anything that comes in a box. I am still eating dairy, mostly b/c I love greek yogurt and cheese! I’ve been doing this for about one week so far. I allow myself one “cheat” day a week. So far, so good.

3. This is the time of year to start planning your 2012 racing schedule. I’ll be posting about mine soon. It’s also the time of year to start thinking about plans/coaching. Rev3 is doing a new group coaching schedule for their races. I’ve never had a coach however, it is something I have considered. The Rev3 group coaching is a great way to try out a coaching program targeted to your specific Rev3 event. I’ll be doing another post with more in-depth details but here are some of the highlights.

Rev3 Group Coaching: At Rev3Tri, every athlete matters! You guys know this is true b/c this organization picked me, a mid/back of the packer for their team. They want everyone to succeed no matter if your time is 5:00 or 7+ hours.

What each program will include:

* Monthly training program to include race specific guidance, equipment tips and nutrition suggestions.

* Password protected forum available to each athlete in the program. Rev3Tri Team, Rev3 Race Director and Rev3 Staff will all be available on the forum for continued support.

* Advanced information given before the general public is told to include: course updates, course maps, race director tips, coach tips, race weekend schedules

* On-course training days (If you’re local to Portland, I’ll be at the course previews and am hoping to organize some of my own rides/runs on the course. If you’re not in Portland, you’ll be getting a first hand look at the course from my perspective as I’ll be posting course preview photos/thoughts/elevation/etc. Course previews are a HUGE confidence boost, even if it’s a virtual “preview” through my photos/thoughts/elevation profiles. I’ll be keeping it real peeps. Remember there is tailored coaching for all Rev3 events, not just Portland, however, that’s the one I’ll be focusing on since I live here.)

* Race weekend meet ups, racing tips, motivation & strategy, meeting Team Rev3

* Webinars and online chats on specific training topics

Cost of program:

Initial $200 start-up fee which includes a Rev3Tri training kit, $25 off Rev3 entry coupon, sponsor goodies, and your username & password for your schedule and forum access. After the initial start-up fee, each additional month is $50.

Coaching is expensive however, look at the value you’ll be getting for your money with this program. $25 dollar off entry is HUGE, especially if you miss the early bird pricing. Having interaction with other athletes training for the same race as you is a big PERK. Team Rev3 will also be available for chats/emails via online forums—not all the team members are like me, we have some SUPER SPEEDY folks who have been involved in the sport for many years. They have already passed on helpful tips and practices to me and I know they would do the same for any and all of you.

When will programs start?

Knoxville January 16 (16 week program for both Oly and Half)

Quassy January 16 (20 weeks) February 13 (16 weeks)

Portland February 20 (20 weeks) March 19 (16 weeks)

WI Dells March 26 (20 weeks) April 23 (16 weeks)

Maine April 9 (20 weeks) May 7 (16 weeks)

Cedar Pt March 26 (24 weeks) April 23 (20 weeks)

Anderson May 28 (20 weeks) June 25 (16 weeks)

Florida June 11 (20 weeks) July 9 (16 weeks)

Questions? Feel free to email me directly at ambitiousalisa@gmail.com

*** Don’t forget to enter my GIVEWAY, see this post. Your chances of winning are pretty good as I don’t have that many entries yet. Entries close on Christmas Eve!

It’s a New Years Giveaway

2011-12-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

2012 is already shaping up to be an amazing year for me. My foot is on the mend, I’m a FitFluential Ambassador which allows me to share my love of fitness with even more of the online community and I have an amazing new family of Rev3 Teammates to inspire me every day. Add those three things to an amazingly supportive and wonderful husband, kick ass local friends/training buddies, a loving family, a good job, a sweet house, the most adorable dog ever and my life is truly grand.

Why not spread the love! This is my opportunity to do a giveaway for you! So what am I giving away? I’m starting with this box

and I’m going to fill it with some of my fitness/healthy living favorites! This box may or may not include items like sports nutrition, my recipe favorites, item from my favorite running store...

Once I pick a winner, I’ll start filling it with goodies. This is a non-gender specific goodie box, all are welcome to get in on the giveaway goodness, I’ll be tailoring some of the items to whoever is the lucky winner.

Here’s how you enter:

1. Leave a comment telling me one of your fitness favorites. (An activity, a recipe, a product...)

2. Follow me on Twitter. (@dunlapa) If you’re already a follower, just let me know.

3. Name one fitness or healthy living goal you are thinking about for 2012.

Bonus entries for:

1) “Liking” FitFluential and Revolution3 on Facebook. If you “like” them tell me you did! (1 entry for each like);

2) Tweeting this giveaway (make sure to include me in your tweet so I can see it too).

Giveaway entries will close on Christmas Eve (12/24) at midnight Pacific Time. Winner will be announced Monday or Tuesday, Dec. 26^th or 27^th.

Here’s to 2012!

Let the Basement Fun Begin

2011-12-14T11:45:00.000-08:00

I love my house, I love being a homeowner. One of the best parts of being a home owner is home improvement projects. Never in my life did I imagine I would think spending an afternoon or evening at home depot would be a fun event. Well, it is! I’ve been talking about next big house project for months. We went back and forth about building a patio in the backyard last year and by the time we got our act together the short window for doing projects like that in Portland (read: non-rainy season aka August and if you’re lucky maybe part of September) had closed in on us. All in all, probably a good thing since we never could decide on exactly where we wanted the patio or the shape, size, etc. Instead we decided to tackle our basement!

Our basement is finished, minus the floor. Since we moved in we basically treated it as storage space and have gone back and forth about what we wanted to do with the space. Ultimately, we decided to turn it into an extra guest space/exercise room/??? The big decision was what to do with the floor. Ideas we considered…leveling the concrete and painting it or tile. We ruled out carpet for several reasons and we never considered wood. What did we decide?

That’s right, tile! Mr. Pi selected a “hopscotch” pattern, which is basically two different sized tiles in a pattern. We convinced my Dad to fly up for a week in January to help out and we started planning out supplies. We made a couple of trips to different places to look at tile and bought a few to test out.

Ultimately we decided to go with tile from Home Depot and Sunday started making the many trips to and from HD to buy supplies. Turns out, one box of tile weighs about 70 lbs, meaning it took a few trips to carry it in our car (due to the weight capacity of our car). We still need to buy the leveling concrete that goes under the tile and some various tools, etc but we’re well on our way to starting this project. (Carrying boxes of tile from the car to the basement is a workout, right?! I definitely felt it in my biceps the next day. I'm calling it "real world strength training.")

Once we get the floor finished we will turn our attention to painting! This is a whole separate project really. After painting we will still need to put finishing touches like an area rug, a futon/pull out couch, shelving(?), artwork (aka race bibs) and probably many more things to finish the space.

I’ll be cataloguing the project as best I can. The goal is to be finished with the floor and painting by March 3^rd---this is the day before I am hosting a very important party for a very important friend—AMY’s EPIC BABY SHOWER!

Ready, set, finish the basement!

Wishlists and Fitness Favorites

2011-12-12T14:47:00.000-08:00

Oh the Christmas wishlist. As we close in on the last 12 days before Christmas I thought I'd share some wishlists and fitness favorites!

As kids many of us wrote down toys, crayons, legos and maybe a pony or two. As adults some of us write down practical items and some of us write down our favorite indulgences. My wishlist is usually a bit of both! This year I had some practical items on the list: home depot gift cards, new dish towels, a shoe rack…and some indulgent items: Uggs (or ugg-like shoes, I’m not a brand snob on this one just something cozy), work clothes/gift cards, waterproof MP3 player.

The holidays are a great time to give the gift of fitness. Many people are gearing up for a New Year’s resolution or two. I for one am firm believer in goal setting, why not help them reach their fitness goals. Here are some of my fitness favorites:

For the swimmer--

1. Gift Card to Swimoutlet.com. Great place to buy swimsuits, goggles, caps, fins, pool buoys, etc. The site carries lots of name brands and some discount off-brands.

2. Tri-Swim products! I LOVE my Tri-Swim body wash. It’s the best product out there to get rid of that chlorine smell. There is also shampoo, conditioner and lotion! Your swimmer won’t be sorry.

For the cyclist—

1. Chamois butter. This stuff keeps cyclists of both genders happy on long rides. If you don’t know what it is google it.

2. Bento box. Bento boxes are easy to find at your local cycling store, outdoor sports store (like REI) or online. I got my PINK one on Amazon. Bento’s are great for rides of any length—for long rides you can store extra food and for short rides it’s a great place to keep a camera, your cell phone, a wallet, etc.

For the runner—

1. Nike Tempo Track Shorts. It’s no secret that I LOVE my Nike Tempo Track Shorts. I probably have at least half a dozen pairs in multiple colors. They are lightweight, they don’t ride, they come in fun colors and they aren’t that expensive, I can find them at the local Nike outlet store for under $20.

2. Headsweats hats/visors. Both Mr. Pi and I have headsweats hats/visors. Their products are lightweight, breathable and sweat wicking.

For the yogi—

1. Punch card for their favorite yoga studio. Yoga studios can be expensive so why not help out your yogi by giving them the gift of classes.

2. Yoga mat bag. Yoga mats can be a hassle to carry to and from class, they can unroll and become unwieldy. Yoga mat bags keep your mat in check and usually have a strap so you can throw your mat over your shoulder. I got mine on Amazon, there are a plethora of colors and types out there, do a little searching and you’ll be sure to find the perfect one for your yogi.

For the gym go-er—

1. Gym bag. It’s no secret that I love going to the gym. I like the classes and the option to workout indoors if the weather isn’t cooperating. I also cart a bunch of crap to and from the gym. If I didn’t have a good gym bag it could be a hassle. There are TONS of gym bags out there. I know places like Ross, TJMaxx, Marshals usually have good low-cost options. If you want high-end and a large selection sporting goods stores will carry bags and places like Lululemon have really high-end tote bags.

Also applicable to most of the categories above is race registration. Signing up for a race is one way I stay motivated!

Now that you’ve read about my wishlist and suggestions for your fitness freak be on the lookout for my GIVEAWAY coming to the blog this week!

5 Things Friday

2011-12-09T12:30:00.000-08:00

1. I am FINALLY feeling normal. I do not wish that cold/flu on anyone—it was miserable.

2. Every day I am OVERWHELMED by the amazing, supportive, inspiring and hilarious emails and I get from my REV3 team members. I am still in shock that I was selected from all of the capable and equally deserving triathletes that applied. Thank you Rev3! (I’ll be adding tab that lists all my teammates blogs once all the announcements have been made for 2012 so you can get to know them too!)

3. 2012 is going to EPIC as not only did I get accepted to be on Team Rev3 but I was also just selected to be a FitFluentialAmbassador!

Look for a post on beginning story and some tips on getting started/maintaining. Check out FitFluential for yourself on their webpage and twitter feeds.

4. The weather has been really cold here in Portland but DRY! I’ll take cold and DRY over wet and warmer any day. I am loving that the sun is out and that the incessant, dreary, crappy Portland weather has stayed at bay. Can you tell I LOVE the weather here?!? SUNSHINE makes me happy!

5. I am incredibly grateful to have met my husband. Sometimes I don’t think he gets enough mention on this blog. He is truly a great man and I am so very lucky to have him in my life. (Love you honey!)

Finding my Holiday Cheer

2011-12-06T10:00:00.000-08:00

I think I mentioned in my last post that I've been having a hard time finding my holiday cheer. This is weird. I love the holidays. I love the Starbucks red cups, I love Christmas lights on houses, Christmas trees, the cheesy music, all of it! For some reason I just wasn't getting into it this year. I don't know why really but it just wasn't cheery. I thought maybe it was because I've been feeling so under the weather for the past few days.

I came home from work early again on Monday and basically took off my work clothes and got straight into bed. I proceeded to sleep the afternoon away, even though it was a gorgeous day out and all I wanted to do was be outside, I couldn't get out of bed. About 4:00 pm Mr. Pi was getting ready to head out to a meeting and then to his dodge ball game (yup, dodge ball. Don't laugh, it sounds super hardcore! I was supposed to spectate Monday night but I postponed to the following week as clearly I was not in any shape to be watching a game in which spectators often get hit in the face with runaway dodge balls.)...anyway, as Mr. Pi was about to leave I came downstairs after a few hours of sleep to find that he had bought me a Christmas tree! We said we weren't going to get one this year but I couldn't have been happier to see our little guy. And yes, I mean little, last year we had a tree taller than us, this year we went with little and charming. I love all 4 feet of him though.

Our little guy

I think it was just what I needed to perk me up from my sickness and non-holiday cheer funk. Mr. Pi knew exactly what I needed. He's pretty great like that! He proceeded to leave I proceeded to holiday cheer the house for about an hour and then I had to take a nap. Ugh! I got a second wind after my nap and finished decorating and even started present wrapping all with a background of lovely Christmas tunes, thanks Pandora for the plethora of holiday stations.

Here he is all spruced up! All of our ornaments didn't fit but I chose my favorites.

This was one of my grandma's. She always had a pink and white tree every year.

Mr. Pi and I got this after Goofy in January. Those running Goofy in 2012 they had good sales on ornaments last year, keep your eyes open.

An ornament to celebrate buying our house! Can't believe it's already been a year and a half (almost, January will be a year and a half).

Almost every year we get a "Dunlap's" ornament with all of us on it, I love these. Mr. Pi's parents wrote on the back of this one for us. My mom has also gotten these type of ornaments in the past...like this one from when we lived in Boston, before we got Zoey, before we were married.

Our first year there we lived about mile 22 of the Boston marathon, it was awesome. I wish I had been more of runner when I lived there!

How could a house full of runners/triathletes not have an ornament like this?!?! Thanks Kristen!

All I need is a tree skirt looks like I tossed the one I bought last year. Oh and PRESENTS! More pictures of tree with presents to come.

I'm now all holiday cheered and ready to get back to some workouts especially with my Christmas running playlist. Yup, I have one, if only I could find it, iTunes seems to have hidden it from me this year! It's full of Little Saint Nick by the Beach Boys and Glee Cast holiday music. Hooray!

Maybe I'll have to do some more holiday cheer posts!

(P.S. I was able to add photos to this post b/c I went through and deleted some old photos out of old posts. I'm still undecided if I want to move to wordpress or stay on blogger.)

December

2011-12-04T18:02:00.000-08:00

It’s December?!?

Wow, it’s the end of 2011, crazy! The first weekend of December was not a good one for me. I came down with the worst cold/flu that I've had in years . I started feeling icky on Thursday afternoon and it got worse from there. I came home from work early on Friday and Saturday I stayed in bed until 11 only to move to the couch. I slept on and off all day. It was awful! Sunday was better but still no picnic. I'm ready for this to be gone and for me to get back to sweating!!!!!!!

12 goals for 12^th month!

1. Make wreaths. (Spoiler, didn’t happen in November).

2. Get in the holiday spirit. (I love the holidays but for some reason this year I haven’t been in the spirit. We decided not to get a tree since we weren’t home for Thanksgiving, won’t be home for Christmas or New Years—maybe the lack of tree has something to do with it, I dunno, it’s weird.)

3. Start basement project!

4. Christmas cards? (Going along with number #2, I’m just not in the mood to do Christmas cards this year. Though, I so love receiving them!)

5. Continue return to running plan. (I’ve varied a little bit from the Pfitz plan but using it as inspiration.)

6. This is going to sound cliche and also super hard to do in December but start losing weight. (I am on a quest to get to racing weight. Right now I'm not there. I'm active and I eat mostly well but I know there are areas I can trim stuff out. Say no to holiday office goodies will be easier knowing I have a long term goal of getting to racing weight.)

7. Keep Mr. Pi's gifts a surprise. I am notorious for spoiling presents ahead of Christmas, this year, my lips are sealed.

8. Continue going to yoga. I absolutely love the hot power yoga I found at Corepower.

9. Plan out my 2012 season! Eeeee, this is exciting and scary. I have a few races in mind!

10. Create a "build" plan in anticipation of #9. Part of my build plan is #6 but I also want to have some good base mileage and yardage before I start "real" training for my upcoming 2012 races.

11. Stress less. I'm trying to be less anxious in general. I get anxious about the silliest things, I'm working on letting it go. This is one thing I think yoga really has helped with, it does give me that relaxed yet worked feeling that not many other activities can do.

12. Limit my netflix watching. I'd say TV watching but I don't watch that much regular TV it's almost all netflix. I'm not quite ready to state a particular limit but less than I watch now =).

November, how’d it go?!

1. DailyPlate track for one week.--SUCCESS! Going strong.

2. Make a wreath.--FAIL!

3. Christmas cards.--FAIL!

4. Finish Christmas shopping.--Basically SUCCESS. I have a couple small gifts left but that's it!

5. Start gathering supplies for the EPIC baby shower I’ll be hosting for AMY!--SUCCESS! nuf said.

6. Design basement project.--Mostly SUCCESS! We mostly have a plan and we've even looked at tile.

7. Continue to attend 2 spins per week.--SUCCESS!

8. Continue Pfitz return to running plan.--SUCCESS!

9. Go to yoga.--SUCCESS! I have found a love for COREPOWER yoga.

10. Go to a weights class.--Does scuplt class at Corepower count? If it does, there are weights involved, then SUCCESS!

11. Consciously be thankful for one thing every day.--SUCCESS!

Turkey Trots, Trails, Thanks and Tags

2011-11-28T11:37:00.000-08:00

Turkey Trot: I, like many of you, spent Thanksgiving morning turkey trotting. There were several of Mr. Pi’s brothers and sisters and our nieces and nephews trotting along with us. Since I took 4 months off from running and have only been running again for about 4 weeks I didn’t have any lofty goals for this race other than to have fun. I finished in 31: 33 which is about a 10:20 avg. certainly not fast but I’ll take it. Mr. Pi was the impressive finisher—13^th overall and 2^nd in his age group with a time of 18:52! Speedy!!!!!!! One of my brother-in-laws took some photos for us however, blogger says I’m out of photo space. Anyone run into this issue? I’m considering moving to wordpress, thoughts, advice?

Trails: On Saturday, my sister-in-law and I went for a trail run in Upper Bidwell Park in Chico. I’ve only been trail running a few times here in Portland in the famed Forest Park. While Mr. Pi and some of my other friends love it, it’s never really been my thing. However, I didn’t want to pass up an opportunity to run with my sis-in-law so off we went. In hilarious trail running spilt fashion I think our splits were something like 11:30, 15:12, 13:40, 11:10. Again, I have photos but can’t upload them at the moment, such a bummer!

Thanks: I am so thankful for the wonderful family I was born into and the amazing family I married into to, I am truly a lucky girl. I’ve updated my thankful page on the blog with my thanks for last week. I’m really glad I took this challenge; it was great to be reminded to be consciously thankful for at least one thing a day.

Tags: I was tagged by Laura, one of my new Rev3 teammates, to post 21 random facts about me. Here we go!

1. I was vegetarian for 3 years b/c my Dad dared me that I couldn’t go a month without eating a burger. (I’m not vegetarian anymore but I don’t eat a ton of meat, mostly b/c I don’t like to touch raw meat.)

2. I’ve lived on both coasts (Boston, DC, California, Oregon) but never in “the middle.”

3. I used to spend Christmas in Hawaii with my Dad and Grandma.

4. I go to bed really early, my husband makes fun of me. I’m usually in bed by 9:00ish. Sleep is good.

5. All of my close friends in Portland I met through my blog.

6. I cannot function without coffee—all it takes is one cup of bold, black coffee and I’m good to go.

7. I struggle with consumerism. I wish I didn’t like stuff so much.

8. I don’t really remember what my natural hair color looks like anymore. I highlighted my hair for a long time and was blonde for many, many years; my hair is dark now but you never know when I might make a change for blonde again.

9. I’m sometimes a Debbie downer, I wish I was more of a glass half full type of person.

10. I’m an only child. My husband is 1 of 5.

11. I CANNOT STAND mayonnaise, it’s disgusting.

12. I had never mowed a lawn until we bought our house in July 2010.

13. I won’t eat oranges from the grocery store since I grew up with an orange tree in my backyard, store bought oranges taste gross.

14. I’ve known my best-friend for over 20 years! We met in third grade and are still close today.

15. My parents divorced when I was 6 but attended all my dance recitals, sporting events, graduations…together. Even now, we still do Christmas as a family including their new spouses.

16. I love the sun! Living in Oregon can be tough for me.

17. My first date with my husband was a blind date. (I had seen his picture but we had never met.)

18. I love to travel and wish I could do more! I’ve been to Australia, New Zealand, France, Canada, Mexico and Tahiti. High on my desired places to travel is Africa!

19. I struggle with confidence.

20. I’ve never slept in my own bed before any major race, I like destination races.

21. I enjoy cleaning, I find it calming.

Now, I’m supposed to tag 10 people I think. Most the people I would tag have already been tagged but here are a few that I don’t think have been tagged yet. If you have, sorry!

Kristen

RoadBunner

Aimee (awesome IMAZ FINISHER!!!!!!!)

Age Group Rocks

Another week to be thankful

2011-11-21T08:14:00.000-08:00

I had such a great week last week. I got in great workouts, spent time with friends and my wonderful hubby and I MADE THE TEAM! Just like hearing about my return to running, you are all going to be hearing a lot more about the team!

I didn’t end up doing anything for NOV-enture this week =(. I wanted to check out a kickboxing class at the gym since it’s one of the only classes I’ve never tried but the times aren’t that convenient, boo! This week is a short week at work for me as Mr. Pi and I are headed down to California for Thanksgiving. I’m not looking forward to the LONG drive but I haven’t seen his parents since July and I’m looking forward to seeing them and all the other Pi siblings and kiddos making the trek for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday BY FAR and I can’t wait to gobble some turkey on Thursday.

Workouts this week were great. I did 4 runs including two at 4 miles or longer (thanks Jen for run/walking with me on Saturday, can’t wait to do that route again—yay neighborhood running). Foot is still cooperating and not causing me any pain—hooray! I also got in a bunch of yoga trying to make the best of my free week (including a yoga + weights class a couple of times which I’ve decided totally counts toward my goal of going back to weights). I’ll probably curb the yoga back now that I bought a pass and want it to last as long as possible. I got in one measly swim and sadly no spinning this week. I am loving not being on a strict training schedule and am enjoying doing workouts when I feel like doing them.

Anyone have any good suggestions on workouts they love? I’m still in Nov-enture and am looking for ideas. Bring it!

Here are my daily thankfulness posts for last week:

Nov. 14 - Today I am thankful for winter meals. I am a fan of soup and made a tasty gumbo-like meal that I enjoyed for lunch after a cold, windy, wet run.

Nov. 15 - Today I am thankful for morning workout buddies. I probably wouldn't have gone to weights class if I hadn't had someone I was meeting.

Nov. 16 - Today I am thankful for a quiet evening at home.

Nov. 17 - Today I am thankful for book club and the intellectual discussions that come from the group and the silly tangents we sometimes go down. I am also incredibly thankful for being given the opportunity to be part of the Rev3 Tri family!

Nov. 18 - Today I am thankful for relaxation. After another busy week it is always great to find some space to just relax and let go of stress.

Nov. 19 - Today I am thankful for an amazing day spent with my wonderful husband and two of wonderful friends. There was good food, great conversation and tasty samplings of wine.

Nov. 20 - Today I am thankful for sunshine. It was a gloriously sunny day!

If you're interested, early bird pricing for Rev3 South Carolina and PORTLAND ends today.

Three Things Thursday

2011-11-17T07:48:00.000-08:00

I didn't miss it this week! Hooray!

1. Rest days. Now that I’m not injured it’s been tough for me to allow myself rest days. With my new found love for yoga and all my other activities I haven’t wanted to waste a single second of healthy-ness. I know that’s a recipe for putting me back in the boot so today I’m taking a rest day. No yoga, no running, no swimming, no spinning, nothing! Tomorrow I’ll be back at it! Anyone else have a problem with this? I didn't use to, I loved rest days but lately all I want to do is be sweating. I guess I have some Emily in me!

2. Holidays. I do love the holidays however, I heard Christmas music in a store the other day and was really disgusted. I’m all about Christmas music, I even have a running Christmas playlist BUT not until AFTER Thanksgiving is it okay to blare the Christmas tunes.

Of all the holidays, Thanksgiving is my favorite. It’s all about food and spending time with friends or family without the stress of gift giving and crowded shopping malls. I can’t wait to stuff myself with some serious turkey next Thursday!

3. Running. So it’s going really really well! I pretty much have no foot pain and I can feel my endurance coming back. I have great lunch time running buddies to keep me motivated (even as the weather has turned cold, gray and rainy). Since I’m not going very far lunchtime is a great time to run. It’s light out and it breaks up the day. I have semi abandoned the Pfitz return from injury plan. I’m using it like I use recipes, for inspiration, but I’m charting my own path. After Thanksgiving the lunch crew is going to start incorporating some speedwork into our runs. Yay!

Week of Thankfulness

2011-11-13T18:37:00.000-08:00

I packed a lot into the week from my Nov-enture of the week with CorePower to all my regular workouts + spending time with friends it was a busy but great week. Here are some fun photos from the weekend adventures.

Saturday the girls did a ornament painting + dinner + movie while our hubbies played poker at Jen's house. It was a super fun girls night!

The girls ready to hit the town

Getting our creative-side on

My finished ornament (and no I don't wear glasses I borrowed them but I secretly want just clear framed glasses to wear every once and awhile--is that weird?!)

Creative table of chaos

After ornament painting we had a lovely dinner and then came back for a movie. We made it about 1/4 of the movie and decided to crash the guys party and call it a night. Great night with the girls.

This morning, Mr. Pi got up bright and early and got ready for a hiking/snow shoe adventure. We weren't sure about the weather so we each took half our closets. We got up to the mountain and found that there was snow but not really enough for snow shoes so out for mountain snow hiking we went.

Where we stopped by a lake to wolf down our PB&J's before we got too cold and had to keep moving

Pretty snow!

About 7 miles later we finished our hike. It was tough on tired legs but also great to get out and enjoy the outdoors, even if I was wearing half my closet.

All in all a great weekend to finish the week!

In keeping with my thankful posts...here are my thankful posts for the week.

Nov. 7 - Today I am thankful for my job. While Monday's can be rough I am lucky to have a good job that challenges me and allows me to work with good people.

Nov. 8- Today I am thankful for my public speaking experience. I had to give a mini presentation (unexpectedly) and I was thankful for my experience with Toastmasters to give me public speaking confidence. (Note to self: I need to find a new Toastmasters group, it's been too long.)

Nov. 9 - Today I am thankful for workout buddies. Amy and I have a Wednesday night tradition that combines swimming and hanging out, love it!

Nov. 10 - Today I am thankful for yoga. I would have said "trying new things" but I already said that once. I went to CorePower yoga and had a great workout and felt challenged and rejuvenated all day.

Nov. 11 - Today I am thankful for Friday's. While I am thankful for job (see Nov. 7) I am also thankful for the weekend!

Nov. 12 - Today I am thankful for girlfriends. I absolutely loved ornament painting, dinner and movie watching with my 4 close girlfriends in Portland.

Nov. 13 - Today I am thankful for nature. It was great to get outside today, even in the cold and snow for a hike. I'm not letting winter make me hibernate this year.

Workout recaps:
Monday: Lunch run with coworkers 3.1 miles (20 min run/2 walk/10 run/ sprints to finish 3 miles), skipped my Monday spin
Tuesday: PM spin!
Wednesday: Lunch run with coworkers same as monday/ PM Swim with Amy
Thursday: AM Yoga Sculpt at CorePower
Friday: Lunch run with the coworkers, first 20 minutes over 2 miles, total mileage 3.5!/PM CorePower 2 class
Saturday: AM 75 minute spin + 30 minute brick run (3 miles)
Sunday: 7 miles snow hiking

Did you read that?!? 4 days of running!!!!!! My foot is feeling good and I'm ready to tackle another week of workouts.

NOV-enture!

2011-11-11T07:32:00.000-08:00

And again I missed three things Thursday. Oh well. I think I am declaring November my adventure month. Some dudes are making it Movember and growing a stache, I'm making mine Noventure! I am loving trying out new classes and workouts. I'm really excited to have this time to keep doing the things I already know I love (swimming, biking, running) but also looking for new loves. Last week I tried CrossFit, this week I went to CorePower Yoga.

Adventure of the Week: CorePower Yoga

I go through brief flings with yoga and have always wanted to be consistent with it but since I like so many other activities it’s hard to make yourself go to something that you don’t love (and frankly, an activity that can be pretty expensive). I’ve often felt that yoga was either dullsville and not challenging or everyone was doing crazy headstands while their legs looked like pretzels. I’ve tried a variety of different types of yoga from basic Vinyasa, Yin, Bikram, Power Yoga and Hatha. I like elements of each but again never really loved any of them. Well readers of this running/triathlon blog I think I found my yoga solemate at CorePower. They have a variety of different types of classes which I plan to check out during my free week. Yesterday morning, bright and early, I went to CorePower SEpdx and took Yoga sculpt.

Yoga sculpt was a combination of sun salutations/flow, cardio, weights, ab work, deep stretching all at a heated temperature (not Bikram hot but warm) with awesome pop-y/hip hop music. Dude, this is my type of yoga! I dislike some of the pretentious enya-esque music that’s often played during yoga, I’d rather it be silent than listen to that stuff. Anyway, it was awesome. I was sweaty, I felt challenged, there was a good amount of stretching/flow to make it feel like a true “yoga” class but also an element of the infamous crazyweights class (aka 24 SET/BodyPump at 24 hour fitness). YogaSculpt was great.

I plan to try out a few other classes including just their basic CorePower series which is a more traditional yoga class with lots of flow but to (what I consider) good music and the room is also heated. They also have a Bikram Hot Yoga class that I’m interested to try as well as a restorative (yin-style) but I’ve heard they still play pop music and the room is heated for that class too. And finally, the last class I’m interested in trying is their Hot Fusion class, I’ve heard it’s a cross between Bikram, Yin and Power Yoga---should be interesting b/c those styles are all VERY different. Not sure how I’ll be fitting in all these classes by next Thursday but I’m going to milk my free week for all it’s worth before making a final decision on purchasing a package. If you live near a CorePower studio CHECK IT OUT.

What's my Noventure of the week going to be next week?!?! Any suggestions? Bring em!

New Adventures + Thankfulness

2011-11-07T09:24:00.000-08:00

I started my Consciously Thankful tab on the blog but I suspect many of you read blogs through google reader (as do I) so here is my first week of consciously thankful posts.

Nov. 1 - Today I am thankful for technology that allows me to keep in touch with friends both near and far. Yay for phone dates, emails, tweets and facebook.

Nov. 2 - Today I am thankful for friends who live nearby so I am able to have impromptu dinners.

Nov. 3 - Today I am thankful for trying new things.

Nov. 4 - Today I am thankful for my strength. My muscles are sore today but also showing their strength!

Nov. 5 - Today I am thankful for date nights with my husband.

Nov. 6 - Today I am thankful for sunshine. I truly believe I am solar powered and always feel energized and happy when I have sunshine hitting my face.

Nov 7. - Today I am thankful for my job. While Monday's can be rough I am lucky to have a good job that challenges me and allows me to work with good people.

In other news, I had another good week of workouts, highlighted by a trip to CrossFit which seriously left me sore (like marathon sore) from Thursday night to Sunday. I decided that now is the time to try a bunch of new things: CrossFit-bring it, Bikram-let’s get sweaty, CorePowerYoga-sure, why not? It’s before the New Years rush to get fit and I’m not training for any races, it is the perfect time for new adventures.

Adventure #1 CrossFit

Overall, I liked it and thought it was a tough workout (obviously from the soreness!). The workout consisted of a warmup, including two laps around the block, stretches, a little bit of what I’d call “yoga-like” poses (i.e. sun salutation-like moves). Then, you had about 15 minutes to “do your own thing.” Since it was my first class the instructor basically went through some moves with me that would be incorporated into the WOD (workout of the day). We did a little rowing, which was super exciting b/c that’s one of those machines at the gym that has intimidated me but now I know how to row, we did some squats, lunges and bar ab thingys. Next it was time for the WOD. Basically, the WOD changes every workout and it’s timed. Your name goes up on this board and you’re ranked by how fast you complete the workout—great for those of us with a competitive edge you can see how fast others have done the workout and try to beat them or beat your time from a previous WOD. Anyway, our WOD was: 1000M row, 20 squats with a weight bar, 30 bar ab thingys, 400M run (around the block plus a short out and back) and lastly 3 sets of walking overhead lunges (i.e. around the room 3 times with a weight over your head). I don’t remember my time but I was last in the group but that really didn’t matter. After you go through some stretches and that’s it. The whole class about an hour but I could see a scenario where the WOD took longer and the class went over. No one seemed too concerned about time at the start or the end time but it was about an hour long workout.

I think some of the down sides to the workout for me were the lack of structure. I guess once you know how to use of the interesting looking equipment like the ropes and rings and stuff it’d be better but when I take a class at the gym I like to be told exactly what to do. For me the biggest downside is the cost. The first class was free but I just learned that drop-in classes are like $20 and a one-month membership is like $175---YIKES those are steep prices for a girl on a budget. I think the cost would deter me from becoming a “crossfitter” as I love trying all kinds of things and already have a gym membership.

If you get the chance to go to a class definitely try it! First class is free!

Week in Review:
Monday: Spin! + Halloween always fun to see all the neighborhood trick or treaters
Tuesday: AM Yoga video
Wednesday: Lunch Run
Thursday: Lunch time walk + PM CrossFit
Friday: OFF felt like the day after a marathon…so sorrrrre! I did manage to go for an hour walk at lunch to loosen the legs
Saturday: Recovery spin 70 minutes + very short jog on the treadmill (like 15 minutes)
Sunday: Rest (walked the dog and in general tried to be up and moving and did lots of stretches finally getting less sore from CrossFit)

Overall less activity than last week but still decent.

Hodge Podge

2011-11-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

First, I put up a tab on the blog with my consciously thankful thought of the day. I know I read a lot of blogs in google reader so many of you may not see my thankful thought of the day. Maybe I'll do a Monday post with the thankful thoughts from the past week.

Anyway, I had intended to do a Three Things Thursday post yesterday but I just ran out of time. So today you're going to get some bullets on events from the week and some awesome photos I took while running (they aren't too blurry--hooray).

- New running pals. There are a few women at work that I hang out with for coffee and lunches that have been asking me about running. Last week we started a “running club” together. They were cool with following my Pfitz rehab plan and now we’re running together a couple of times a week over lunch. It’s been super fun to run with new people and to get out over the lunch hour. So far, we’ve been treated with nothing but great weather. I know that’ll change come next week when the foreseeable forecast is high of 45 and rain every day. However, even when it gets rainy at least it’ll be light out over lunch. Hooray for new running friends, rehabbing my foot and getting out over lunch and running into other friends on their lunch break!

View from the Hawthorne as we were running across on Wednesday

On the bridge

Eastside looking southwest

- New adventures. One of the women I started running with over lunch is a HUGE crossfit person and convinced me to check it out with her. We went last night and it was a total blast. It was probably one of the hardest workouts I've ever done and I'm definitely sore today, sporting my compression socks, but it was awesome. The people were really friendly and the workout was mostly stuff I'd never done before, like hanging from a bar and doing these twisty things. I was glad that the workout didn't consist of rope climbing b/c that would have been an epic fail for me! Anyway, my bum and legs are pretty sore today but I definitely think I'll give Crossfit another try. Anyone out there a crossfit nut?

Next week, I've agreed to try CorePowerYoga with a different friend from the office. Here is to new adventures and sore muscles!

-Eating well. I feel like the fall hasn’t had a calm moment and I’m on the go quite a bit. I’ve been trying to eat healthy meals but it doesn’t always work. However, last night I made a super yummy, quick and easy, vegetarian meal (hope Aimee and Marni are proud).

My recipe:
1 can garbanzo beans (rinsed)
handful of tomatoes (I used the last cherry tomatoes from our garden)
Splash of red wine
1 tbsp olive oil
Cup-ish of spinach
Fresh garlic pressed
basil
red pepper flakes and dried oregano

Basically, I heated the oil, tossed in the beans, tomatoes and garlic-- let them hang out for a bit. I poured in the wine and added the spices and let that sit for a bit. Finally I added the spinach and wilted it down. I smashed the beans with a fork and set every on low.

While that was hanging out in the pan I sliced up fresh sourdough that Mr. Pi made and tossed a few thin pieces in the toaster.

I also fried up an egg and cut up some avocado for a topping.

YUM!

-Date nights. I love date nights with Mr. Pi. Since we both have busy lives I like to try and schedule at least one date night a week. Saturday night is our date night this week. I'll be making a yummy dinner (butternut squash risotto). It'll be a nice night at home probably complete with a movie on the couch =).

Happy Friday Everyone!

November Already (Goals and Recap)

2011-11-01T07:50:00.000-07:00

Seriously, where did these last few months go?!? Alright, well, it’s the 1st of the month and I’m ready to post 11 goals for the 11th month. (I think next year I may need to re-think the number of goals per month number as I’m sure come January I’ll have more than just 1.)

1. DailyPlate track for one week. (I’m leaving this goal on here b/c I think tracking consistently for one week per month really helps me keep track of my eating. I feel like it’s a good balance between no tracking and obsessing.)

2. Make a wreath. (Last year I made a wreath out of corks, I may make another one, bigger perhaps but I’d also like to make a different one.)

3. Christmas cards. (We didn’t send them last year and I missed sending them out. I’m hoping I can convince Mr. Pi to do a simple one, like just a photo card. He likes to write messages, which I like to but it can get overwhelming. Hmmm, may we’ll do a 12 months of the Pi’s card, channeling our inner 12 days of Christmas. Honey, what do you think?)

4. Finish Christmas shopping. (Spoiler, I didn’t finish all my shopping in October but I made great strides and am ready to finish.)

5. Start gathering supplies for the EPIC baby shower I’ll be hosting for AMY! (I’ve got a theme and several ideas and I’m ready to actually get the party planning started. Yes, the shower won’t be until March-LOL.)

6. Design basement project.

7. Continue to attend 2 spins per week.

8. Continue Pfitz return to running plan.

9. Go to yoga. (I have a friend who teaches at CorePower who has asked me to go with her and I bought a Groupon for Bikram yoga so no excuses.)

10. Go to a weights class. (This is staying on here til I actually GO!)

11. Consciously be thankful for one thing every day. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday but sometimes I think I forget about the thankful part and focus too much on the food (especially the turkey and pumpkin pie). This is my chance to be consciously thankful for something in my life every day this month.

How did October go?

1) Attend at least 2 spins per week. (I finally tracked down where my favorite teacher is teaching now and I’m committed to Monday spins for sure!): SUCCESS! In fact, most weeks I did 3 spins.

2) Go to weights class.: FAIL. I did do my own weights circuit but haven’t made it to a class.

3) No shopping for myself. (I just bought new boots and a sweater and a scarf. That’s enough. It’s hard to resist as I LOVE to shop and fall shopping is something I really enjoy.): SUCCESS!

3) Finish my Christmas shopping. (Yup, I’m ambitious!): HALF SUCCESS. Out of the 16 people I need to buy for I’ve crossed off 6 completely and 2 halfway.

4) NO running until my foot is 100% for at least a few days. (I need to keep putting these goals on here b/c I’m not to a point where I REALLY want to run but know that it would be better for me to just let it heal 100%. It’s been 10 weeks, what’s another 2-3. At this point I’m hoping to be running again by December.): SUCCESS. Well, I went and tested out the foot and I’m on week 3 of the Pfitz return to running plan.

5) Cook and POST a recipe of the week.: FAIL.

6) Look at artwork with Mr. Pi.: SUCCESS. We didn’t buy anything but we did look.

7) Track on DailyPlate consistently for an entire week.: SUCCESS.

8) Read three books. (It’ll probably be book club book TBD next week, Art of Racing in the Rain and The Help---since those are all next on my list. Any other suggestions that I should add to the list!?): ALMOST SUCCESS. I finished State of Wonder, read The Help and am halfway through Art of Racing in the Rain.

9) Try a kickboxing or zumba class at the gym.: FAIL.

10) Decide on our next house project.: I think SUCCESS. I believe we have decided on the basement, how we are going to finish the floor is still up in the air.

Trick or Treat

2011-10-31T07:41:00.000-07:00

It’s that time of year when all the ghosts and ghoulies come out—Halloween. To be honest, it’s not my favorite holiday. It is fun to dress up in silly costumes but I prefer good ol fashion Thanksgiving—a holiday all about eating and merriment without costumes and without the stresses of gift giving that come with Christmas. Give me turkey and pumpkin pie any day…actually, I probably could eat those two things every day. Despite it not being my favorite holiday, it is a favorite of one of my friends and she throws one hell of a party, thanks Amy! There was a cheese skull, which was creepy and yet also very tasty. I’m sure Amy will have all sorts of awesome photos from the party…there were pregnant nuns canoodling with monks, a cowboy, a ballerina, Joan and Don Draper from Mad Men, SOOOOOkie and Bill from True Blood, a crazy ultra runner in stripper heels, a cub scout complete with a coon hat and some folks from the 1920’s (aka Mr. Pi and me). I don’t have any pictures of the rest of the group unfortunately, but I’m hoping Amy got photos of everyone. Here is me and Mr. Pi.

Last week was a bit rough as I came down with a cold and really didn’t want to do any working out. Luckily, I had friends who didn’t let me sit on my bum too much and the cold was mostly short lived! Highlight of my week was probably running on Friday at lunch with 3 co-workers! It was kind of a last minute thing but they invited me along and asked me to “lead” the workout. That meant we did Pfitz return from injury week 2 day 2—warm up, 3 x (10 min running/2 min walking), cool down. It was a great day to be running the Portland waterfront, we even saw a group of costumed runners. Everyone did great and we finished with 3.3 miles of running at about an 11:30 pace overall. I foresee many more lunchtime runs with these gals in the future.

Portland Waterfront

Since I want to be able to look back at my progress here is my weekly recap:
Monday: 1 hour of sweaty Monday spin
Tuesday: Rest day (hoping to sleep off my cold)
Wednesday: 1600 yd swim with Amy (I really really didn’t want to do anything that night but I was so glad I had committed to swimming with Amy, I took the swim nice and easy and felt great when I was done, thanks Amy for keeping me accountable!)
Thursday: Run! 2.9 miles [3x (8 min run/3 min walk)] + abs
Friday: Lunch run with co-workers 3.3 miles
Saturday: 1.5 hour spin + abs and leg weights
Sunday: 4 miles running! [3x (12 run/2 walk)] + 1800 yard swim

Friday night we carved pumpkins with some of Mr. Pi's friends, here is mine...Happy Halloween!!!

Three Things Thursday

2011-10-27T13:37:00.000-07:00

1. Cold season. This has more than one meaning. The first, it’s cold outside. This morning the car temperature read 38 degrees. Also, I kept my coat and scarf on at work this morning for about the first hour I was here and had three people make fun of me. Brrrr….. The second, is the lovely rhino-virus or the common cold. Ugh. I definitely have a bug but I’ve been trying to push through and keep my spirits up but also not push too hard and get run down.

2. Leaves! There are still some amazing fall colors around these PacNW parts. Here are two photos I took from my office a couple mornings ago (one isn’t of leaves but Mt. Hood sunrise never gets old, right?!)

3. Workin’ it. I’ve been keeping up with my running and other workouts, though I am taking it easier this week given my cold. I’ve been loving being able to run again (I’m sure you guys are already sick of my saying that!). I met up with Amy last night for a swim which was great! As she was driving me home we chatted about how it’s hard not to push ourselves. Right now I’m really trying hard to stay in the base building phase and not try to push myself too hard too fast. I don’t have any events on the calendar and I’m not planning to put anything on the calendar any time soon. I need to build my running base back up and continue to swim and cycle. I keep saying I need to do weights class again, and dang it, I do but so far I haven’t been able to get myself there. While I’ve been focusing on baby steps with running, it’s hard not to plan for 2012. I can’t be the only person with this problem!

Return to RUNNING!

2011-10-24T09:07:00.000-07:00

I’ve watched probably half a dozen of my friends, fellow bloggers and Mr. Pi zoom to a marathon PR using Mr. Pfitz. So when Kristen sent me a Pfitz return from injury plan, I knew I had to try it. This guy has helped many friends to PR glory I was hoping he could help me return to running. So, last week I started the Pfitz plan. Here’s what the week looked like:

Monday: Spin class! (lunch time walk!)

Tuesday: 25 minute run/walk with Jen + 1200 yards of swimming with Mr. Pi and Jen (short lunchtime walk)

Wednesday: 2.75 mile walk with Amy (no lunch walk, barely got to eat lunch super busy day at work, stressful and not fun)

Thursday: 20 min spin + 28 min run/walk (running at 10:30 and a few fast pickups at 9:30)

Friday: REST

Saturday: 1.5 hour spin + 30 min weights + long walk with the dogs

Sunday: 33 min run/walk (all running was 10:00mm or faster) + 2500 yd swim

Honestly, the week couldn’t have gone better. My foot is feeling good and my runs felt strong. While I am still run/walking I felt like every time a running interval would end I totally could have kept going. I was also running at a 10 min mile and wasn’t really breathing hard. I know I was only running at most 10 minutes at a time but a 10 min mile is pretty speedy for me. I am curious about my heart rate b/c even that didn’t seem very high. Maybe I’ll have to borrow Mr. Pi’s heart rate strap and his Garmin one of these days. Something that did surprise me—I was SORE! I know I have a long way to go when I got sore from a 25 minute run! However, along with the soreness I also got a “runners high”, yes, “runners high” from 25 minutes. I’ll take both the sore and the high thank you very much.

I’m moving on to week 2 of the Pfitz plan this week. Week 3 gets a bit more intense and moves to 4 days a week of running, I may repeat week 2 or pare down week 3 when I get there. So far so good though! If I continue to feel this way I may be able to run a turkey trot on Thanksgiving! I would love to run one but at the moment I’m just seeing how things go. Even if I don’t do an official race on turkey day morning, I would love to run any kind of run!

I cannot believe it’s the last week of October! I took a peak at my goals for the month and I know I’ll be checking a couple more of them off the list this week. Happy Monday everyone…only a few more days til it’s Friday again.

Three Things Thursday

2011-10-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

1. Fall. I mentioned a few posts ago about how I’ve been trying to enjoy fall activities and not get bogged down in the changing weather patterns and return of gray skies. Well, it wasn’t hard to do last weekend and the early part of this week—Portland was given a fall treat---clear skies! Sure it was chilly in the morning and evenings but sooooooooo clear. Sadly, I have only one picture from the weekend and it was at dusk so it doesn't really even look sunny out but here is Mr. Pi and I at a dinner hosted by a winery to say thanks to its wine club members. Let's just say I might not look it here but I was pretty toasted thanks to the free flowin' wine and a hubby that offered to be DD for the night.

2. Return of the lunchtime walks. Since my foot is finally healing I’ve gone for a few lunch time walks. This used to be such a BIG treat for me. It would break up my day and I could spend time outside breathing fresh air. I’m still planning to take it easy and probably not walk every day but I’m glad to know that my foot can handle a couple of lunch time walks per week again. The neighborhood near my work sure has some pretty signs of fall. These were taken on Monday, when the skies were the clearest blue I’ve seen in awhile.

3. Returning from injury. How could I not mention my triumphant return to running again. It is amazing to be back out there, even if it’s just run/walks for now. I’m loving it and trying not to get carried away as that can be easy to do. I’m taking it slow and every day remind myself I don’t want to end up back in the BOOT!

12 weeks and 5 days...

2011-10-19T14:01:00.000-07:00

No, no, no, I’m not pregnant I went RUNNING. Well, run/walking, for the first time in 12 weeks and 5 days and guess what?!? My foot feels exactly the same as it did yesterday. I can still feel a little twinge of pain sometimes but it’s more of an annoyance than a real hurtful type of pain. I’m following the Pfitz return from stress fracture plan that I got from Kristen (thanks chica!). It starts off with just three days a week of run/walking and in true Pfitz form it ramps up to like 5 days a week with speedwork. I’m not sure how many times I’ll have to repeat the first few weeks or if I’ll even get to the more “advanced” weeks but for now I’m going to follow the plan.

I feel great and I’m so happy that I had a wonderful friend to accompany me as I ran/walked to glory for a whole 25 MINUTES—thanks Jen.

After running we picked up Mr. Pi and checked out a local pool in our neighborhood. It was crowded but eventually the three of us had a lane to ourselves. The pool was really nice but honestly, I don’t think I’ll be doing any long swims there as it was wayyyyyyy to warm for me. I like the pool to feel cold-opposite of how I like my running temperature. I like to run in the warmth and swim in the cold. Honestly, it felt like a spa to me and I felt super sluggish but I got in a measly 1200 yards and called it a day.

I’m also still loving spin class. I’ve been attending on average 3-4 classes a week and loving every sweaty moment. I really need Emily’s shirt that says “I love to sweat” because honestly, there really is no better feeling than walking out of class dripping sweat.

Speaking of dripping sweat, I recently bought a groupon for bikram yoga. I used to go to bikram once a week but I haven’t been in ages. I’m looking forward to yet another sweaty activity!

After spending much of the summer being bummed about not running and DNS’ing a few races I finally feel like I’m on the road to really recovering and getting my run fitness back. It’s going to be a slow road back but I’m committed to taking it slow and recovering properly and not getting reinjured. I’ve got high hopes for 2012 and I’m finally starting to feel like my goals might be attainable.

Yay for Running, Spinning, Swimming and most of all SWEATING!

Fall Fun

2011-10-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

I am trying not to let the gray clouds put me in a winter funk, instead I’m embracing fun fall activities.

On Friday, I got a makeover. I haven’t had a makeover since before my wedding, over four years ago. My wonderful husband got me this makeover for my birthday (yes, my birthday is in July but our summer was super busy). I am a low maintenance girl and don’t wear a lot of makeup but I feel like the trends I’ve seen are subtle make up. I’m all about the What Not to Wear Carmendy, 5 minute face. I went in and asked for a daytime look that I could apply myself that wouldn’t take longer than 10 minutes. I also don’t like foundation or really any face makeup so she went with a tinted moisturizer that she says has “minimal coverage” and is really light. Well, needless to say, she did a great job and I walked away with some new makeup and confidence that I could apply it again myself. After we established my daytime look she spiced it up a bit for my date night dinner plans with Mr. Pi. Here is a shot of my new look at dinner:

(Audrey, what do you think? Also, next time I’m in the bay can I have an Audrey makeover? I’ve decided makeovers are super fun and I need to get them more than once every 4 years.)

Saturday, was a beautiful day, the sun was out and I definitely took advantage of it! I went to an awesomely sweaty spin class (I’ve been going to about 4 classes a week and loving every minute of them) and walked home from the gym (about 2 miles). Got home, grabbed the dog and headed out for another walk where I ran into JEN on her way to get her pre-marathon pedicure! It was great to chat with her and be out enjoying our neighborhood. All in all I probably walked 4ish miles and felt very little pain in my foot, until later that evening when it was a little bit sore. After walking the dog, Mr. Pi and I ran some errands, did some yardwork (here are our blueberry bushes)

and then randomly went to one of the local beer theaters (yup, we have movie theaters that serve beer and pizza!) to see Harry Potter 7, part 2. Good movie but not great, the books are much better! Saturday was busy but great!

Sunday, was the Portland marathon! Mr. Pi and I got up early and met up with other fellow spectators downtown to watch for our friends Jen and Andrew. It wasn’t pouring like last year and it wasn’t too cold. Like always, we had a great time spectating and cheering on all the runners.

Though, I gotta say it did make me miss running that much more! Our runners did great! And, somewhere in between the coffee stops/driving to different points on the course, Mr. Pi picked up a very fall item…a PUMPKIN!

All in all, another busy but fun day!

October 2011 Goals and September Recap

2011-10-07T15:28:00.000-07:00

October’s 10 goals for the 10th month:

1) Attend at least 2 spins per week. (I finally tracked down where my favorite teacher is teaching now and I’m committed to Monday spins for sure!)

2) Go to weights class.

3) No shopping for myself. (I just bought new boots and a sweater and a scarf. That’s enough. It’s hard to resist as I LOVE to shop and fall shopping is something I really enjoy.)

3) Finish my Christmas shopping. (Yup, I’m ambitious!)

4) NO running until my foot is 100% for at least a few days. (I need to keep putting these goals on here b/c I’m not to a point where I REALLY want to run but know that it would be better for me to just let it heal 100%. It’s been 10 weeks, what’s another 2-3. At this point I’m hoping to be running again by December.)

5) Cook and POST a recipe of the week.

6) Look at artwork with Mr. Pi.

7) Track on DailyPlate consistently for an entire week.

8) Read three books. (It’ll probably be book club book TBD next week, Art of Racing in the Rain and The Help---since those are all next on my list. Any other suggestions that I should add to the list!?)

9) Try a kickboxing or zumba class at the gym.

10) Decide on our next house project. (Since we’re in the rainy season and undecided about the patio anyway, it’s likely we are going to choose an indoor house project or have to find a sunny weekend to tackle something outside.)

How'd I do in September...honestly, not that great. Mostly because of all my traveling but here is a recap of September's 9 goals.

1. Post the pre-patio project list. FAIL. Actually, there is a good reason for this fail. We’re not sure what we want to do, we may not build the patio after all. We need to do some more designing to see what makes the most sense for our use and our space.

2. Be more consistent with pushups and weights. 2x per week of weights, 3x per week P-ups. SEMI-FAIL. I haven’t done weights or pushups as consistently as I’d like but I have started to incorporate them back into the routine!

3. Get back out on my bike. (This is obviously contingent on the status of my foot injury.) SUCCESS. While I haven’t actually ridden my outdoor bike mostly due to the change in weather, I have been rockin’ spin class. Last week I went to 4 classes---holy booty burn.

4. No running for another 4 weeks. Yup, I'm giving myself another complete month off from running to properly heal. It's going to be tough as I'm already going a bit nuts but I know it's necessary.—SUCCESS. In fact, I’m going on 10 + weeks. But I’ve decided I don’t want to run until I’m 100% better. At the moment I’m still hovering at 85-90%.

5. Eat vegetarian for a week. I don't eat a ton of meat as it is but I'd like to go veg for a week this month and consciously choose healthy vegetarian options (aka NOT all PASTA).—SEMI-SUCCESS. I did eat vegetarian for at least a week but it wasn’t consistently in one week, the traveling threw me off.

6. Order some artwork with Mr. Pi.—FAIL. We haven’t even looked together! I have a bunch of items in my “favorites” on etsy though.

7. Continue with the swimming! I'll be traveling a lot for work in the month of September so I don't want to set a specific amount of swimming since I'm not sure what I'll be able to fit in but I'd like to try for as much or more swimming than August!—SUCCESS. I didn’t do as many super long swims but I’m still keeping up with the swimming.

8. Go to a yoga class.—FAIL. ‘nuf said.

9. Think about/start planning a winter weekend getaway. (Yes, I know it's early to be thinking about this but I really want to rent a cabin or something this year for a weekend.)—SEMI-SUCCESS. I have looked into some rentals in central Oregon but I haven’t started any of the planning.

Four? Things Thursday

2011-10-06T07:50:00.000-07:00

1) Chameleon. Every time I book a hair appt I always come out looking different and fabulous. The color is DARK but I’m really enjoying it. I know it’ll fade quickly especially since I had so much blonde under it.

2) Waiting for 100%. I was going to go running last weekend as it had been 9 weeks but I did a gut check and decided that without any races on the horizon it is best for me to wait. My foot is still healing and if I’m being honest with myself it’s probably back to about 90% but not 100%. I want to be fully healed before I start running again. So, here we are 10 weeks later and I’m still playing the waiting game. However, I was able to start cycling again and have attended many sweaty spin sessions in the last few weeks. I know this is the right decision but it isn’t fun. I know it’s going to be really tough when I start running again.

3) Its officially fall. Boo! I’m a summer girl all the way. However, the one thing I’m happy about is BOOTS. I love boots. I bought a new pair this week. While I put them in the geriatric category b/c of the brand, I feel that they are practical, comfortable and actually pretty cute! I wore them on a VERY rainy walk with little Zoey and stepped in the biggest puddles I could find to make sure they are water proof and my feet were completely dry. I plan to slowly invest in pricier but good for my feet shoes. Sadly wearing heels is just not an option for me right now. What do you think of my new shoes? (I like the tan/brown pair a lot but I alreayd have boots in that color that are super comfy so I went with black.)

Who am I kidding its 4 things Thursday today!

4) Goals. Nope, I haven’t written up September yup but I can already tell you with all the traveling and social obligations of the month there will be many FAILS. I also haven’t gotten around to October goals yet either but I will!

Three Things Thursday

2011-09-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

1) Turns out traveling for three weeks makes the week you finally get back to the office super busy. Long hours and stress but I'm getting through it!

2) Ever been in an accident? Well, I hadn't until about a week ago. Everyone is fine and there was minimal damage but man, oh man, this has not been a fun experience. It was the other drivers fault so their insurance is handling repairs, etc but it has been a lot of phone calls and paperwork. Anyway, long story short I will hopefully be getting my car back tomorrow and be out of the rental. Thank goodness I love Charlotte Leigh my CRV. (Yes, I named my car.)

3) Is it really almost the end of September? As of today it has been exactly 9 weeks since I was out on the roads running. I am READY to get back out there! My foot has mostly healed, I don't have pain while walking anymore and I've been able to go to spin class without pain as well. However, I am really afraid that once I get back out running that I'll just get re-injured. Please leave comments about how you triumphed over an injury and came back at least as strong as you were before, in not stronger. I could use some encouragement.

HOME

2011-09-23T15:11:00.000-07:00

After an insane stretch of traveling every week I am finally home for a good long while without any travel plans for work. Since Sept 7th I’ve traveled over 1200 driving miles + two plane rides. Needless to say I’m all stocked up on hotel toiletries for my gym bag. I’m definitely ready for some quality time at home with Mr. Pi and Zoey and sleeping in MY OWN BED. Since being on the road this month I realized just how much I missed running. Running is such an “easy” sport to do while traveling…all you need is shoes and an outfit. Since I haven’t been running I was limited by hotel gyms, most of which only have treadmills or have limited other options. I was able to ride a couple of stationary bikes that look like they were older than me and I snagged one very quick 15 minute session on an elliptical. However, most mornings I slept in, took my sweet time watching cable channels I don’t have at home and enjoyed some peace and quiet before the craziness of my work days began. It was certainly a great stretch of travel filled with lots of learning, fun and beautiful sites but I’m glad to be home. Here are some pictures of my travels...posted some of these already, sorry for the duplication:

Trip #1:

Fires on 97 North in Washington

New route to avoid the fire, aka road to nowhere

Windmills in the Columbia Gorge (k, I didn’t actually take this one BUT windmills are THICK along both the Oregon and Washington sides of the Gorge)

Trip #2

Rushing river in Northern California

Crazy hail that piled up and looked like snow

Trip #3:

Unexpected Hollywood viewing…exterior shots from the hit TV show Northern Exposure filmed in a neighboring town of where I was actually staying but I ate dinner at The Brick, Holling’s place!

Photo from the Opening of Northern Exposure, nope I didn't see any moose!

So glad to be home and ready to get back into a routine! With my Dad still in town for a few more days and a good looking weather forecast I'm hoping to soak up the sun (while it's still out) and tour Dad around my neighborhood.

Jammed Packed

2011-09-18T15:07:00.000-07:00

Not much has changed since I last posted. I left on September 11th for another work trip (but not before Mr. Pi and I took on a house project Sunday midmorning---photos below). At the airport I encountered some extra screenings, which I was happy to oblige but traveling on Sept. 11th took less time than I anticipated. This trip took me to Southern Oregon/very far Northern California. Again, the travel was packed and go, go, go but it was also amazingly rewarding and informative.

I was at work for only one day last week and then took Thursday and Friday as vacation days because a very important person was coming to town...my DAD! We have been keeping Dad busy with house projects and hiking.

Like I mentioned above, before I left on my work trip and after we had recovered from the concert we went to after spending the day helping with our friends wedding we took on a house project. We transplanted blueberry bushes!

I dug the grass up while Mr. Pi was at Burning Man over Labor Day

Mr. Pi digging more of a trench for the border

Moving the blueberries via wagon

Empty spot where they used to be

All moved into their new home

When Dad got here we didn't let him do much resting. Soon after we got his stuff to the house we took off for supplies at Home Depot. Time to lattice under the deck stairs!

The guys measuring it out

Lattice built

AND....finished!

We didn't give Dad much of a break as the following morning we were up and heading to the coast for a hike. We knew it was going to be raining but I don't think any of us anticipated the rain storm we were going to hiking through for 8 miles. All I have to say is thank goodness for my Columbia waterproof jacket (I need to post a review of this thing). My foot also did pretty good for 8 miles though I could feel it a bit toward the end as we were hiking on a gravel road for the last few miles.

Starting the very windy and rainy hike

Walking down the beach

Brrrr! But this jacket SAVED ME!

Since the weather wasn't so great we had the beach to ourselves and even let Zoey off the leash...which we NEVER do

Near the end...very wet, very cold and ready to be done

After an awesome but very wet day of hiking we finished the night at a local pub and were all asleep by 10:00pm. Not 12 hours later we were back in action continuing the demolition of the back yard! This time we were ready to rip out some concrete. We only managed to rip out one square before the rain started to come down pretty hard and we called it a day in the yard. The boys watched football while I did some house cleaning. Whew, what a weekend!

Starting the demo

Action shot of the sledge hammer

All demo'd!

I'm off on another work trip tuesday-thursday this week and am hoping for nice weather where I'm headed! I'm already over the chilly rain. I shouldn't be, I know this is what it's going to be like for the next 10 months but I always mourn the last of summer with all my summery self!

Where I travel and am a klutz

2011-09-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

I knew this was going to be the month of traveling for work but whew, I've only been on one trip and I'm zonked. My first trip took me up through central/eastern washington state. I'm not from the Pacific Northwest so my travels throughout these states have been somewhat limited. On this trip I learned a few things...

1. Central/Eastern Washington is very dry.
2. Is very warm.
3. Smells like beer b/c there are a TON of hops fields.
4. Very rural!

Garmin didn't even know the road we were on.

5. Prone to forest fires.

This fire closed the highway that we were supposed to be driving on and instead we had to travel 2 hours out of our way to get where we were going. The smoke cloud was HUGE and the entire area was hazy and smelled like burning forest.

It was a great first trip to kick off my travel month EXCEPT for the fact that the hotel chair "bit" me. AKA I am a HUGE klutz and stubbed my toe so hard that I'm pretty sure I broke my pinky toe. And yes, this is the same foot that I was recently in the walking boot for my Morton's Neuroma! YIKES.

It'll be great to NOT be injured sometime soon!

I got back from my first trip Friday late afternoon and I head back out tonight but in the few short hours I was at home I went to a wedding with Mr. Pi yesterday...

Rocky Butte State Park in Portland. Great views even with the haze from the forest fires.

AND we went to a concert last night and didn't get home til 1:00ish. Needless to say, I'll be using that plane ride today for a nap! (Yup, traveling by air on September 11th, should be long lines at the airport and extra security but I'm prepared.)

Here's to another week of travel and speedy healing for my poor foot. In other foot news, my Morton's Neuroma has definitely decreased I can barely feel it anymore, which is awesome! I went to a spin class last week and it didn't hurt AT ALL! With the travel it's tough to fit anything in but push ups and abs but when I get back to my routine I'm hopeful I can start spin and weights classes again. I'm still giving myself until the end of September to start running again, now with the toe, I'm hopeful that I can even make that timeline.

Happy running, biking and swimming to all of you!

All About the Shoes

2011-09-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

Now that I’m bootless, at least for the time being, I knew I needed to raid my closet of all the terrible ~~adorable~~ shoes that probably didn’t help in my development of a severe neuroma. So, operation clean out the closet began. Here are some of the beauties I had to let go of…

After weeding out several pairs of shoes, what did I do…go shopping of course! This wasn’t your typical Nordstorms or Macys or even Aerosoles trip, I’ve hit a new bottom---I went to *GULP* one of those geriatric shoe stores that carry clogs and ugly teva/hiking sandals. It was necessary and painful. While some of the wedge/sandal shoes weren’t totally awful looking most of the flat shoes (which is the only thing I can really wear) were pretty bad. After trying on hideous pair after hideous pair I finally settled on these:

They aren’t super hideous but they definitely are granny looking. However, they serve their purpose, they are comfortable and my equally heinous orthotic fits in the shoe perfectly. I can’t wear them yet though, I’m still in running shoes since those are the only shoes at the moment that are remotely comfortable, even the granny shoes are a little much yet.

Speaking of running shoes…I’ve been wearing my basically brand new Saucony ProGrid Ride3’s since my foot started acting up and I had to give up normal shoes. The podiatrist encouraged me to try New Balance and Brooks as both are noted to have wider toe boxes and have a generally roomier feel to them. I normally order my running shoes online from RunningWarehouse but since I was switching brands I figured I should try them on before taking the plunge. At the geriatric shoe store they carried two running shoe brands—Brooks and New Balance, whatdoyouknow! So I tried both. I’ve tried New Balance before and really didn’t like them so I wasn’t all that hopeful. I tried two pairs from Brooks and two pairs from New Balance.

New Balance 890

New Balance 10 (these were honking shoes but comfy)

Brooks Adrenline GTS 11

Brooks Trance

I was surprised that I liked all four! They were all very comfortable and my orthotic fit in each one nicely. I ended up going with the Brooks Adrenaline mostly because I found them to be the most cushy. Close second were the New Balance 890.

I probably won’t be doing any running in September (per September goals) but when I’m ready to hit the roads again I will have a nice new cushy, wide toe boxed running shoe.

Now for my curious questions to all you readers out there…

1. Have you gotten rid of “cute” shoes since you started running?

2. Anyone else been to a geriatric shoe store and walked out with a shopping? (Please tell me I’m not alone)

3. How many brands of running shoes have you tried?

(Brooks makes five for me. I started in Addidas, I left Addidas for New Balance, left New Balance for Mizuno, left Mizuno for Saucouny and left Saucony for Brooks. Brooks will still have to prove himself on the roads when I’m back out there before I will officially claim I’ve left Sacouny for good. Sounds like the makings of a good romance novel doesn’t it?)

August Recap + September Goals

2011-09-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

When I was typing September I wrote July...yup, I'd like to repeat July and August again--I LOVE SUMMER, please don't go...

Onto the recap. Given my foot and going into a boot I'd say I fared well in August but I'm ready to get back out on the roads again. Sadly, I think I'm still a few weeks away.

August Recap:

1. Do a post on the patio project, including all of the to-do’s and ‘before’ photos of the yard. Catalogue the adventure via blog, I’m guessing it is probably a two-month project.--FAIL. Mr. Pi and I did make a list of all the pre-patio projects that need to get done before we can actually lay pavers. I am planning to post that list soon and also do a post on the project itself.

2. No running until August 20th. Yup, I’m officially NOT running for 4 weeks (starting last Friday). It’s necessary and I’ve accepted it. Doctor said two weeks but I’m self extending this to 4 weeks.--SUCCESS. Sad, but this has been successful. It's September 1st and I haven't run since July 28th.

3. Since I’m trying to rest the foot, it’s time to whip the upper body into shape. Here I come weights and pushup challenge.--Half success. I have been doing weights and pushups but a bit more sporadically than I'd like.

4. Complete some distance of the Covered Bridge Ride. I am signed up for the century but it’s doubtful I’ll be able to complete that distance, I’m leaning toward metric century or even the 40 mile family ride.--FAIL. Decided it wasn't worth further injury. Instead of riding the century I scraped paint, sanded, primed and re-painted by deck railings.

5. Order (or create) some artwork with Mr. Pi. He has been wanting to decorate our house a bit more. I’m personally a bit of a minimalist but I agree it could use some spicing up, especially the downstairs bathroom.--FAIL. But I have looked on Etsy and found some items that I favorited, that's a start.

6. Complete a 2 mile swim. My swim distances have really varied swim-to-swim but I’ve done a few 3000 yd swims so I think it is well within reason to do a 2 mile (3525 yds). I’m not really going for a straight swim necessarily, though I may do that as well, but rather a swim workout of 2 miles. I’ve gone back to the book and have been loving the workouts.--SUCCESS. I've done multiple swims over 3000 yds and two at 3525 yds (or two miles).

7. Healthy eating focus. Since I won’t be spending a ton of time running and biking, I plan to use some of that time to get back into meal planning and cooking for the Pi’s.--Half SUCCESS. I've been cooking more but I was also traveling for work and we had company in town which makes it hard to eat healthy. But this is a work in progress.

8. Finish blog re-design.--Mostly SUCCESS. I'd still like to change a few things around but I added the tabs that I wanted to add and it's mostly finished.

September's 9 goals for the 9th month.

1. Post the pre-patio project list.

2. Be more consistent with pushups and weights. 2x per week of weights, 3x per week PUps

3. Get back out on my bike. (This is obviously contingent on the status of my foot injury.)

4. No running for another 4 weeks. Yup, I'm giving myself another complete month off from running to properly heal. It's going to be tough as I'm already going a bit nuts but I know it's necessary.

5. Eat vegetarian for a week. I don't eat a ton of meat as it is but I'd like to go veg for a week this month and consciously choose healthy vegetarian options (aka NOT all PASTA).

6. Order some artwork with Mr. Pi.

7. Continue with the swimming! I'll be traveling a lot for work in the month of September so I don't want to set a specific amount of swimming since I'm not sure what I'll be able to fit in but I'd like to try for as much or more swimming than August!

8. Go to a yoga class.

9. Think about/start planning a winter weekend getaway. (Yes, I know it's early to be thinking about this but I really want to rent a cabin or something this year for a weekend.)

Solo Weekend

2011-08-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

Before I get to the weekend, I have to shout out to the lovely Lauren who I had the pleasure of having lunch with on Friday. We are horrible bloggers and didn't take any photos though! Lauren, come back to Portland and we'll go check out local brews!

Mr. Pi left on Saturday for a week in the desert, also known as Burning Man. This means Zoey and I have the place to ourselves for the next 10 days. So, what'd we do? We threw a party! And by "we" I really mean me, Zoey is cute and all but not much help in the party planning business. After hosting the bridal shower today I've decided that I need to find a way to become a full time party planner/hostess because I really love to plan and host parties. One thing I'm not good at is taking pictures of the finished product of things. I took lots of pictures of the setup but not of how everything actually looked all finished. Oh well. Here are some photos of the setup:

Early stage of planning, laying out where I want things to be

Crafts!

Party favors for guests

Cupcakes! (Orange and green are the wedding colors so I tried to match things to their colors)

Cupcakes done!

Gift table label

In addition to hosting the bridal shower this weekend, I also was knee deep in The Hunger Games and I started watching Heros on Netflix (yes, I am always about 5 years behind on TV). The good news is that staying off my feet has helped my foot! I was able to walk around the house most of the day in a normal shoe with minimal pain. I've been taking ibuprofen and icing it on and off all weekend but I think it's finally on the mend! Yesterday morning I woke up and felt an onset of plantar fasciitis but that quickly went away with ice, rest and rolling a gold ball on my foot. Honestly, when I felt that pain I thought to myself "SERIOUSLY, what else?!?!?!?!?!?!!" Thankfully that pain has subsided today. I'm going to give myself one more day in the boot and then try a couple days without it. I'm ready to be healed already!

I know all the Hood to Coast race reports are going to be up soon, can't wait to read them. Next year, I WILL be healthy and hopefully will get on my company's team!

Sorry my posts are getting boring lately. I just don't have much in the way of running or biking to write about. I still have been swimming like a fish though.

Three Things Thursday

2011-08-25T07:39:00.000-07:00

1. The boot. Yup, I still have it. Yesterday I really thought the foot was getting better but in the middle of the night I woke up to throbbing pain and this morning it’s tender and sore again—Grrrrr.

2. Sleep. Ever since my work trip to Denver where I got to meet her, I feel like I can’t get enough sleep. I’ve been setting my alarm for later and later each morning which means it’s even more of a rush to get ready in the morning. I usually find I sleep less in the summer and more in the winter, wonder what’s up with all the sleep.

3. Burning Man. Nope, I’m not going (NO WAY) but Mr. Pi is for the third year in a row. I’ll be all by my lonesome for 10ish days. I’ll be okay for the first two but then I know I’ll get LONELY. I’m considering taking on another house project but with my gimp foot and all it’ll be difficult to find something I can actually do. Suggestions on a project I could take on? Something crafty maybe?

Boots and Bloggers

2011-08-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

I love a good boot as much as the next girl but unfortunately, I'm not talking about fashsionable boots here. Nope, one of these:

Cute, right? NOT! Crappy accessory for the one month we Northwesterners can usually count on for good weather. Oh well!

Monday I got another cortisone shot, the boot and xrays. I'm in the boot for at least two weeks but maybe more. My doc called me yesterday to say that he doesn't think there are any fractures in the foot but that there was a "gray" spot on the xray or something so he wanted a second opinion. I'm supposed to hear from doc #2 today. Blah! At this point though I've decided that I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get better. I'm still allowed to swim, starting today but no running or cycling for the duration of the boot. The doc basically said that running is really out of the question until my foot is completely pain-free for at least a couple of weeks. He said when it starts to feel better I should still lay off since all running will do is bring the problem back. BOO!

Right after I got the shot and the boot, I went to the aiport for a work trip. Normally work trips are great but I really wasn't feeling great about traveling with the boot and a new shot in my foot. Turns out, it went just fine with only minor inconveinance. I knew I was going to Denver a few months ago so naturally I emailed with Aimee to see if she would be around. Meeting with bloggers while traveling is always fun! And, lucky for me not only was she in town but willing to drive from her home outside of Denver to meet me less than 2 blocks from my hotel. Yay!

We had a great time chatting away about training, life, food, weather. She is just as cute in real life! Thanks Aimee for meeting me! I'll be continuing to virtually cheer you on throughout your ironman journey!

Denver trip was great but as with all work trips it was exhausting! I got home on Wednesday evening super tired. Now we have company in town, Mr. Pi's friend from college and his girlfriend. Mr. Pi was amazing and cleaned the whole house yesterday morning so when I got home I had to do very little tidying. Mr. Pi really is the BESTEST! It's a huge pet peeve of mine to have a messy house when guests arrive. Today I'm working, working, working as of course, being away means I'm behind at work, even though my travel was FOR work...funny how that always happens though.

I'm sure we'll be off doing fun things this weekend despite the boot and it's limitations!

The Weekend Where I Learn to Sand, Prime and Paint

2011-08-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

Of course after I posted all those house projects we tackled in our first year of home ownership it made me pine for a new project. Since I'm still on the injured list in fact, I'm going back to the doctor AGAIN on Monday for new xrays and hopefully a prescription for some meds. (Note: I really dislike taking meds of any kind however, it has come to a point where walking, especially first thing in the morning is EXCRUCIATING. It's time for the meds.) I decided Saturday that riding any part of the Covered Bridge Ride just wasn't the smartest idea. Sure I could have ridden the family 40 mile or probably even done the metric century BUT at this point I want to do whatever I can to help my foot heal and while riding doesn't seem to make it worse I decided why torture myself with a few hours of painful riding. (This is the first FAIL on the list of August goals, oh well.)

Moving on...what did I decide to do with my spare time? Took on a house project!

When we moved in last year we knew we wanted to make improvements to the deck. The picture below shows most of the side of the deck, it's a wrap around so there is deck in the front too.

On the list was:

1. Re-stain the deck--CHECK

2. Hang baskets along the deck--CHECK
3. Build a gate (ooooh, I forgot to add that to the Year 1 list...maybe I'll go back and edit)--CHECK

My dad and Mr. Pi build a gate last summer

4. Scrape, sand, prime and re-paint the railing and slats

We have already tackled the first three items listed above I thought might as well give the 4th a whirl. I had intended to just sand and re-paint the green railings and leave the slats for another day but then I started in on the project and got carried away. At first I was going to cover just one section but then again, I thought, I have all this equipment out why not tackle the whole side of the deck.

And begin...

Scrape!

Sand

Half sanded (left), Not sanded but peeling paint (right)

Getting ready to tack the slats

Ready, Set, Prime!

All primed by about 2:00 pm, Sunday (man hours at that point were about 11 hours between Saturday and Sunday)

Half with primer, half with fresh paint!

re-painted slats

And...several hours later (like 15ish between the two days), with a little help from Jen, everything is painted!

FINISHED!

When Mr. Pi got home from the Century Ride, which he rocked!, I realized that 15 hours really did make a difference but this wasn't a project that really added anything to the house. It was more or less just a fixer project. While it's satisfying to have it finished, I'm ready to take on something that adds to the house next time. Bring on the patio and all the little projects to get the yard ready for the patio!

A year later…

2011-08-11T21:03:00.000-07:00

So, it occurred to me a few weeks ago, actually on my birthday, that the Pi Family has lived in our house for over a year. Crazy!?! We got the keys a day before my birthday last year

Keys!

and officially moved in the day after my birthday last year

We proceeded to spend 3 days in our new home and then we left for California and our amazing weekend of racing (me, Barb’s race 70.3 and Mr. Pi’s first ultra). Needless to say, it was a BUSY summer. As I was reading through some of my favorite home improvement blogs, it occurred to me how much we’ve done to our place since we moved in one year ago. I thought it might be fun to start a yearly re-cap of our home improvement undertakings. Being a home owner is truly great.

Year 1 (Projects in no particular order. I'm not going to post photos for everything but for most of the projects!)

Paint Downstairs Bathroom
Re-roof garage

Build two garden beds

Plant bulbs along side yard

Riping up the grass

Sproutling

Sunshine blooms

Trim and re-train grape vine

Trimmed

Making a comeback (it's in full growth now but I don't have any photos!)

Plant new grape vine

Plant new roses and flowers in front yard

Put up trellis over short fence

Short fence that my tiny Beagle could jump over to visit the neighbors new dog

Staining in freezing weather in December makes for an unhappy Alisa

No more jumping Zoey!

Plant jasmine and put up climbing trellis

Install hanging baskets along deck

Just one of four we put up

Re-stain deck

Add molding to guest room closet

Hang artwork and mirror in guest room

Build pegola-like thing for grape vine to climb

Construction!

pergola/trelis and compost bins

Plant garden

Build compost bins

Cut down tree

Probably our "biggest" project--now you see it

It's down!

And gone!

Take out bush and plant new tree

Plant hops and strawberries in wine barrels

Hop vines!

Paint a magnetic chalkboard in the kitchen

Whew, I knew we’d tackled a lot of projects but seeing them all written down in one spot makes me realize just HOW much we have accomplished in the past year. One of the best parts about making this list was thinking back about how much fun these projects were to do together and with our families. Both sets of parents, Mr. Pi’s and mine have helped spruce up the house. Each project contains fun memories. Our house has created so many wonderful memories.

My Friends are Amazing

2011-08-08T19:55:00.000-07:00

Yup, they are! Since I haven't been able to run with any of them for quite some time (stupid foot) I thought the least I could do was help support them with all of their running awesomeness. So, on Sunday, I hosted the 2nd annual Wildwood Supported Trail Run. Last summer when Mr. Pi was training for his first ultra I supported him on a 24.75 mile journey through Forest Park and decided this year, I would open it up to all my awesome runner friends and they could go whatever distance they wanted. I recruited another friend to help me run the "crew vans" to shuffle runners from their various stopping points back to their cars at the "start line." It was an amazing way to spend the morning! (Two of my favorite runners were out of town off on their own running adventure, I decided that I may need to do this again this summer and not wait until next year.)

Best way to recap the fun is through photos of course. Sadly, I didn't get pics of everyone at their various stops but I did snap a few.

Runners--aka my awesome friends

They're off!

Mr. Pi into aid station #1

Our friend Andrew coming into aid station #1 (his wife was my crew buddy)

The ladies heading out of aid station #1 (Amy and Sarah)

Andrew heading into aid station #2

Mr. Pi about 21 miles in!

Mr. Pi coming in for the finish! 24.75 miles! He did this awesome little jig/jump but I missed it =(

Second almost trail marathon for my stud of a hubby.

And my favorite...

Just kidding! Here were my trail companions, saw these little (BIG) guys everywhere.

In other news, I made it 60 miles on my bike Saturday and felt pretty good. It was a mostly flat ride with some minor elevation gain. Foot felt alright except up the hills. I also swam nearly 6 miles last week! I think that's a swimming record for me. Here's to an awesome week of swimming, riding and supporting my awesome friends (and hubby) in their running.

Three things thursday

2011-08-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

1. It’s my wonderful, amazing, patient, kind, HOT hubby’s birthday today! Happy birthday honey! I am the luckiest!

2. Summer is here and I love it! We’ve been eating outside almost every night, even had to move to the shade one evening. Everyday I’ve woken to a bright orange orb in the sky and I have been loving every- single-minute-of-it!

This is Noaa's picture for "mostly sunny" HOORAY!

Even my office, which is normally an ice box, has been pleasantly warm lately. I figure I do so much complaining about the crappy weather that I better give mother nature some major props for the awesomeness she has been bestowing upon Portland lately. Keep it up!

3. You know what else loves summer, our garden. I figured it was high time I show you some of our harvests and what we’ve been doing with them!

Carrots

Carrots harvested and garlic harvested

We have a green tomato!

Even after we trimmed (i.e. hacked) back our grape vine over the winter, it is flourishing!

Last weekend, Amy, the lovely domestic goddess, taught us how to can pickled beets. I cannot wait to try these puppies. Last year, she gave us a can of hers and they were delicious I have high hopes for our batch since we used her recipe.

Beets for pickling

I've posted many times that we have more blueberries than we know what to do with...well, I thought of something to do with them!

Duh! Blueberry muffins. These are actually muffins made with greek yogurt and half the sugar so they are "healthy" muffins.

There are just a few gems from the garden. I hope we get peppers, I love peppers! When we harvest more potatos I'll post some photos of those too! We've already made one dish with them and they were so flavorful. I had no idea potatos from a garden would taste different than ones from the store.

The Injury Chronicles + What to do with spare time

2011-08-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow will be two weeks since I’ve been on a run or ride. My foot is feeling better. I’ve been wearing my inserts and tennies (yes, even at work minus the hour or so I went to an event where I wore a suit and decided tennies w/a suit wasn’t a good look), icing and stretching. Sadly, it’s not 100% yet but I think it is improving. It is no longer excruciating and now more of a nagging pain really only when walking barefoot. I’m still taking a few more weeks off from running so I can properly heal. As for biking, I’m going to try a spin class either tomorrow or Friday and assuming all goes well I’m planning a ride for Saturday.

Swimming. I’m like a fish! Last week, I swam about 5 miles this week I’m going for 6! I would love to swim 20 miles this month. In addition to swimming, I’ve re-started doing pushups and have also lifted weights twice since Sunday—that’s gotta be a record. I figure if I can’t be out there on the roads (though I’m hopeful I’ll be back on my bike this weekend) I figure I’ll sweat it out in the water. Actually, that’s one of the things I love most about swimming, since you’re in the water you don’t feel the sweat, it’s the perfect summertime activity.

Not having a packed schedule certainly allows for other things which is great. I’ve been cooking every night and for once, the laundry pile is at a manageable level. I wish I hate taken pictures of my last two meals though, I admit “plating” is not my strong suit. Monday night I made a grilled chicken “Caesar” salad. The “Caesar” is in quotes b/c the dressing wasn’t a typical Caesar but similar. It was the dressing from this cooking light recipe . The chicken I “flash” marinated, meaning it only marinated for about 20 minutes while I prepared the salad fixings. It soaked in buttermilk, lemon and lime juice. I think the buttermilk really helped the chicken from getting dry on the grill, it was perfect. Tuesday night I made, grilled flank steak with mango cucumber salsa, grilled bell peppers and flatbread. I cheated and bought a pre-marinated flank steak from Trader Joe’s which was delicious (it was the Chipotle BBQ marinade). The rest of the recipe came from cooking light again. The flatbread I used was actually Trader Joes plain naan bread which I warmed on the grill. Yummers. Both meals were easy, healthy and made good leftovers for lunch. I really love to cook when I have the time. I feel better eating healthy meals rather than quick meals that are thrown together without a lot of care.

We’re dog sitting this week so I’ve been trying to take care of two little munchkins and pamper my hubby, who is training for a century ride and a 50k plus teaching a college course this month. Here is my cute family hanging out while I take my turn as grill master on the deck.

Mr. Pi and the two munchkins

Zoey!

Cooper, our dog for the week

July Goals Recap + August Goals

2011-07-31T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a bit embarrassing, most of these are fails.

1. Blog layout. —Semi CHECK. I still have some work to do but I did get a start.
2. Ride an early morning ride BEFORE work and bike commute to the office at the end of my ride.—FAIL. No excuses, just a fail.
3. Do a double day bike of 15-20 miles in the AM and 15-30 in the PM.—FAIL. No excuses, just a fail.
4. Have an awesome, laid back, summery birthday BBQ to celebrate my last year of my 20's and Mr. Pi's first year of his 30's.—CHECK. It was amazing. The only “fail” here is that I didn’t take any photos.
5. I had a goal to get my long run up to 10 miles but I'm going to pare that goal back a bit and set it at 7 since I'll be outta running commission for the first few days of the month and then easing back into the swing of things.—FAIL. Foot has really prevented me from doing much running.
6. Do AT least 2 early morning workouts per week.—FAIL. I did a good job of getting to spin class and I did get up early in California while on vacation for early morning workouts but in general, this is a fail.
7. Design BOTH the patio (or deck extension) and terrace. –Semi CHECK. We did design the patio more or less and have made a list of all the items we need to get done before we can even start the pavering process. In that case, designing and figuring out one project is a success. I think the terracing may be a 2012 project.

August 2011

Given the diagnosis of my foot, some of these are goals to ‘not’ do something.

1. Do a post on the patio project, including all of the to-do’s and ‘before’ photos of the yard. Catalogue the adventure via blog, I’m guessing it is probably a two-month project.

2. No running until August 20th. Yup, I’m officially NOT running for 4 weeks (starting last Friday). It’s necessary and I’ve accepted it. Doctor said two weeks but I’m self extending this to 4 weeks.

3. Since I’m trying to rest the foot, it’s time to whip the upper body into shape. Here I come weights and pushup challenge.

4. Complete some distance of the Covered Bridge Ride. I am signed up for the century but it’s doubtful I’ll be able to complete that distance, I’m leaning toward metric century or even the 40 mile family ride.

5. Order (or create) some artwork with Mr. Pi. He has been wanting to decorate our house a bit more. I’m personally a bit of a minimalist but I agree it could use some spicing up, especially the downstairs bathroom.

6. Complete a 2 mile swim. My swim distances have really varied swim-to-swim but I’ve done a few 3000 yd swims so I think it is well within reason to do a 2 mile (3525 yds). I’m not really going for a straight swim necessarily, though I may do that as well, but rather a swim workout of 2 miles. I’ve gone back to the book and have been loving the workouts.

7. Healthy eating focus. Since I won’t be spending a ton of time running and biking, I plan to use some of that time to get back into meal planning and cooking for the Pi’s.

8. Finish blog re-design.

The Good, The Bad, The Frustrating and The Future

2011-07-29T07:55:00.000-07:00

The good= the foot is NOT broken! Yay!

The Bad = doctor said no weight bearing activities including but not limited to running, biking, excessive walking, dance, etc. I am supposed to stay off my foot as much as possible for two weeks, he said biking is okay next week but if it hurts STOP. After two weeks if the pain still isn’t better, it’s likely I’ll get another cortisone injection (cuz the last one helped so much—read sarcasm) and a lovely walking boot (it’s the newest fashion for august). I’m hoping two weeks of good rest will do the trick. I haven’t biked since my disaster ride last Friday so I’m already a week there and am not planning on riding, as much as it kills me not to, until next Thursday. My last run was over a week ago so at the end of two weeks, it’ll be three full weeks of not running. Furthermore, I’m also only supposed to wear running shoes with my new inserts, ice as much as I can and do my stretches up to 4 times a day. This means I’ll be sporting tennies with my work clothes (it’s a good look—read BARFalicious), stretching at my desk every 10 minutes and carrying multiple bags of ice from the kitchen during the day. However, it’s serious time now. My foot has been bothering me since mid-April and I’ve had enough. I’m willing to do whatever it takes! So, for the foreseeable future it’s all swimming all the time (and abs, pushups and any arm weights that I can do sitting down).

The Frustrating = Sunday was supposed to be my first Olympic triathlon. I downgraded last week to the Sprint Tri but I think even that is out at this point. Doc basically gave me a choice: 1) race half ass and injured risking further injury and a frustrating performance or 2) skip it, get healthy and totally kick butt at the next one. Okay, so the doc didn’t exactly say it in those terms but that was the basic gist. So, as annoying as this is I will be getting a bit fat DNS on Sunday.

The Future= I am not committing to any other races any time soon. I need to get healthy and build back my base before I’m ready to test it out. I have pretty much decided when I get the okay to start running again, I’m going to keep it nice and easy and build back REALLY slowly. I am also considering joining masters swimming again. Mr. Pi and I have been toying with this idea for the fall but I am pretty much 100% for it now since swimming seems to be the one constant that I can do despite injury. Before we join (I’m hoping Mr. Pi still wants to do it in the fall) I’ll be spending August swimming on my own, enjoying the last month of the outdoor pool, swimming with friends who are still training for tri’s in the open water and generally working my way back through my favorite swimming book.

Costumes, Rides and Birthdays!

2011-07-25T14:51:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when life gets busy, I do all these fun things and I want to blog about them all and then I forget and everything piles up. So here is a shortened, bulleted list of three major shenanigans.

-July 16th, Pix annual Bastille Day Wine 5k (in costume)

I’ve never run in costume and I’ve never done a race where there were wine stops instead of water stops. Anyway, Mr. Pi and I threw together last minute costumes and met up with a couple of his friends, one of which ran with a sword (a real one) balanced on her head for 3.1 miles. Yes, wow! There were 10, yup 10 wine stops during the 5k. I skipped 3 of them as I just couldn’t stomach anymore alchie. It was a grand time and we plan to do it again next year and hopefully we can convince some other folks to go with us. We have on our dreams list to run the full Medoc Marathon in France in September 2012. Portland folks: registration for the 5k was FREE, you just had to bring 5 cans of food as a donation to the Oregon food bank, how many of y’all are in for next year?

Here we are. Hula girl and shipwrecked businessman.

Other participants (including sword girl in the purple)

-July 22nd, epic, lesson-learning ride in the Gorge

So there is a lot to say here but I’ll keep it brief. Mr. Pi and I met up with Amy at her place and had set out to do 80-85 miles. The ride took us over bridges and along some nice back country roads. However, there were areas of highway riding that weren’t very pleasant and the second bridge crossing was over a grated bridge that was really WINDY. It was pretty but terrifying at the same time!

Bridge of the Gods---scary but pretty!

Along the Washougal River

The ride was also very hilly. To make a long story really short. I had to call for a ride at mile 63. My foot was really hurting (I think it may be the dreaded, stress fractures! Definitely more serious than morton’s neuroma) and honestly, I wasn’t prepared to ride that many hills on that long of a ride. Yup, I quit. I’ve never quit anything in my life before but it was miserable for me and even more so for my wonderfully understanding hubby. I owe Amy big time for driving all the way out to get me, she was seriously a life saver! Anyway, I’m moving on and realizing that it happens sometimes, we bite off more than we can chew, injuries crop up and sometimes it’s best to quit while you’re ahead. The ride was incredibly beautiful but also incredibly LONGER than originally planned. Mr. Pi, my stud, finished the ride and ended up with 99.5 miles, yup, he rode a century.

Very pretty scenery but very hilly!

Speaking of century’s, I’m not sure what this means for my planned century in August. I’m going to reevaluate after my doctors appt and figure out the best plan. If my foot is not broken and I can get in a ride of at least 80 miles (which would have to happen the weekend of August 6-7) then I might go for it but at this stage it is looking like I will be downgrading to the metric century or maybe even the 40 mile option. Since it is not fair to subject poor Mr. Pi to riding an entire century with someone much slower (and at times whiney and just not fun to be around), if I do ride the century I’ll be on my own. I’ll keep ya posted but my hopes to ride the century might be put off for a year.

-July 23rd, MY BIRTHDAY

I’m officially in the last year of my 20’s and I celebrated in style with lots of friends, food and fun. Mr. Pi’s birthday is in 12 days so we hosted a smashing backyard BBQ on Saturday to celebrate both of our birthdays. I’m totally lame and didn’t take any pictures, I know I suck. It was an awesome gathering and I really appreciate everyone who made it. I felt incredibly loved and spoiled! I can't believe I don't have any photos! Not even of my birthday cake!

Three Things Thursday

2011-07-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

1. Vacation is awesome, returning to work and getting caught up is not. This week has been a lot of playing catch up, at work and at home. I am exhausted.

2. Injuries are really terrible. My foot is still bothering me (yes, even after the cortisone shot!) and my knee is still a little twingy. I’m ready to feel healthy again!

3. Loving my backyard lately, the grape vine is going nuts, the garden is lush and full and blueberries are even starting to ripen!

Back yard on July 13, 2011

Empty garden bed

Full garden beds

Blueberry flowers

Blueberries!

Mmmmmm peas!

Ambitious aspirations make great accomplishments

I'm Running Across America!

Basement Progression

Three Things Thursday

2012 Goals & January 2012 Goals

December 2011 Goals Recap

Three Things Thursday (EPIC Adventures of Past, Present and Future!)

Winner: It's a New Years Giveaway!

New Schedule

Three Things Thursday

It’s a New Years Giveaway

Let the Basement Fun Begin

Wishlists and Fitness Favorites

5 Things Friday

Finding my Holiday Cheer

December

Turkey Trots, Trails, Thanks and Tags

Another week to be thankful

Sponsored By...

Three Things Thursday

Week of Thankfulness

NOV-enture!

New Adventures + Thankfulness

Hodge Podge

November Already (Goals and Recap)

Trick or Treat

Three Things Thursday

Return to RUNNING!

Three Things Thursday

12 weeks and 5 days...

Fall Fun

October 2011 Goals and September Recap

Four? Things Thursday

Three Things Thursday

HOME

Jammed Packed

Where I travel and am a klutz

All About the Shoes

August Recap + September Goals

Solo Weekend

Three Things Thursday

Boots and Bloggers

The Weekend Where I Learn to Sand, Prime and Paint

A year later…

My Friends are Amazing

Three things thursday

The Injury Chronicles + What to do with spare time

July Goals Recap + August Goals

The Good, The Bad, The Frustrating and The Future

Costumes, Rides and Birthdays!

Three Things Thursday