Running Partners

I have been running a lot lately. I'm not actually sure why. It's like my running mojo came back with a vengeance and now I just can't stop.

While I do most of these runs alone, I can't help but enjoy running with someone from time to time. It really does make the run so much better when you have someone huffing and puffing right next to you. 

My first running partner will always be my very favorite. She's the voice inside my head during every hard workout. She is currently training for the San Francisco Nike Women's Half Marathon! I hope that some day we will run together again because I sincerely miss her and our awesome runs.

The past few weeks, I have done several runs with a new friend. This friend has been running for 20+ years and is fast. Much faster than me. It has been lovely running with someone who pushes me and also takes me literally off the beaten path (like through a marsh). They've even convinced me to sign up for the local running club, which is exciting as I will meet local runners and get in with the local running scene.  This is something I should've done years ago.

Today, however, I tried to convince someone who doesn't run very often to run with me because it was beautiful outside and I hadn't seen them in almost two months, so I wanted quality time.

We took four breaks in a matter of 1 mile. He will just stop in the middle of the road and refuses to move until we go in the direction of home. He is, quite possibly, the worst running partner I have.

After I finished up another 4.5 miles, I came home and laid on the ground with him for a good 30 minutes. He still is my favorite cuddling partner, and I guess that's what matters.

So, I think I will be sticking to my human running companions and only forcing Milo to walk. It has been really great having someone to talk to while running lately.

Do you prefer to run alone or with someone?

Another Weekend Done!

I swear, one second it's Monday morning and the next it's Sunday evening.  I don't even know where the time goes or how it passes so quickly!  This week was a busy one and that's just how I like it.  Thursday ended just right by having dinner with a few of my most favorite souls.  We are both so busy with our lives, that it's hard to schedule a time to get together.  It's always so nice to have quality time with just the two of them.

Since I am suffering from gym burnout, I switched things up on Friday and went for a five mile run on the beach with a friend.  It is so nice to have someone to run with, especially when they agree to run on the beach in the sunshine.  We ended up getting a little lost and having to run through a marsh type area, but this just added to the adventure of running.  Now I can cross running through low tide off of my bucket list.  After 40 minutes, my quads were screaming at me, so I stopped running while they continued on to make it an even hour.  I did this instead.

My mom decided to walk along the beach while we were running.  Of course, we had to document being at the beach in summer clothes.  She was even barefoot.  It's been a nice break of sunshine after three straight weeks of extremely thick fog.

Friday night, I went and saw the opening night of The Wedding Singer at the theater and then ended up dancing with the cast until 3:30am.  I woke up Saturday at about 8:30 and could not fall back asleep.  I had a lovely breakfast made for me, though, so it made up for a lack of sleep.

Then, it was time for another wedding.  One of my best friends from my cohort got married on Saturday and she could not have looked more beautiful.

It's truly amazing that I have only known these women for a year because I feel as though I have known them my entire life.  They make me more than happy.  She may have married her soulmate, but I consider her one of mine.

Of course, we danced.  That made for night two of dancing my heart out.

We also played in the photo booth.

And took romantic sunset pictures by the river.

And I danced like a fool even when I wasn't on the dance floor.  Typical.

Please notice my sock tan line.  I heard that this is the newest fashion statement, so I had to jump on that bandwagon.

Today I slept all the way until 9am!  I didn't wake up once, which is unusual for me.  I guess I was just so tired from all of the dancing.  What a great reason to be tired!  I put off my long run until around 1, and then I just went for it.  I was totally in my head for most of it.  I met my runner friend again for the last 3 miles on the beach.  It was so nice to have someone to talk to for the end of my run.  (And it was really nice to have a ride back home.)

After running a few errands with the same friend, I made it to my dad's for family dinner.  This little one really enjoyed the salad. 

No wonder the weekends seem fast.  After recapping them, I see how busy I am.  I think I need a weekend from my weekend!  Tomorrow starts the last four days of summer school before another two and a half week break.  I already have a few camping trips planned, so I am pretty excited.

Who else loves dancing as much as I do?

Gym Exhaustion

Sometimes I get sick of the gym.  It's true.  Usually, the gym is one of my happy places (along with the outdoors and my bed), but some days I simply can't think about going.  Luckily, I have a home gym of sorts.

Monday was one of those days.  The sun had finally come out for the first time in weeks.  It's the usual July Gloom over here.  Unfortunately, it's just a depressing fog and absolutely no rain.  Please send your summer storms this way.  We need water in a bad way.  Of course, since it was gorgeous out, I had to run.  Then I did something I rarely do.

I took my workout equipment outside.  I did a shoulder/ab circuit for about 40 minutes while Moe was helpful and laid around in the sun. It was fantastic to get outside and away from the stuffy gym.  My dad even did some working out of his own.

The endorphins and the sun put me in a good mood.  I have been exhausted the entire week due to a lack of sleep (I've been home alone and, even though I'm 26, I have this issue where I can't sleep well when I'm all by myself).  There are just some workouts that renew your love of working out and this was one of them.

Of course, it was foggy and cold again yesterday, so I was back in the gym.  I met up with my friend the squat rack and absolutely killed my legs.  I haven't had DOMS this bad in months.  I have no idea what I did differently.  I did do a few more reps of the top set of my squats (I do drop sets for my squats and bench presses usually).  Maybe that's what did me in.

Today, instead of going to the gym, I took a two hour nap.  A TWO HOUR nap!  I don't even know who I am anymore.  I just fell into bed (literally, because it hurts to sit thanks to those squats) and my eyes shut and didn't open again for two whole hours.  I think my body is just so tired.  I am glad I listened to it.  Then, of course, I ran to try to loosen up the legs a bit (which did help) and then did some ab circuits.  I've been focusing on abs a lot lately because I have realized how weak my core is.

Tomorrow is already Thursday.  Only six more days of summer school left before I get another two and a half weeks off.  Then it's back to the grind of regular school.  Where does the time go, really?

Who else gets tired of the gym sometimes?

Another Trip and Some Favorite Pictures

This weekend, I headed down to the Bay Area once again.  This time it was a short and sweet trip.  I left Saturday morning and returned this afternoon in time to get a long run done and have dinner with my dad.  My soulmate was having her baby shower and there was no way I was going to miss it.  Of course, I couldn't cross the bridge without taking a picture of it.

Thankfully, the foggy weather in San Francisco is never an indication of how the weather further south will be.  It was sunny and perfect temperatures for an outdoor baby shower.

My mom had been at a conference in Sacramento all week and so I met her there.  We were getting stuff out of her trunk when I happened upon this gem.  I don't even want to know what my mother was really doing in Sacramento.  ;-) 

After a catered BBQ lunch, the baby shower games began.  My soul mate is the best pregnant lady ever and decided that she did not want a boring baby shower where everyone just sat around watching her open presents and licking melted candy bars out of diapers.  Instead, it was a co-ed baby shower with three kegs.  Filling baby bottles with beer was one of my jobs.

And then the men all lined up for a beer chugging contest.  The winner (who was smart and won by biting the nipple off the top of the bottle) got a basket of mini alcohol bottles and a $25 gift certificate to BevMo.  Yeah, not your typical baby shower.

Her best friend could basically run Pinterest and the entire shower was so adorable.  All of the onesies that she has received were hanging.  I found mine.  It was the first one she got and her favorite.

Of course, I couldn't leave the party without taking a picture with my biggest role model.

Apparently, this was her baby doll growing up.  I don't know about anyone else, but this would give me nightmares if I had to sleep with it.  

The baby shower was wonderful and I loved how adult-themed it was as well as being all about celebrating the new life that is about to make her way into the world.

My mom and I headed to my uncle's house for the evening.  My friend happened to also be in the Bay Area and it turned out only about 5 miles from me.  So, instead of going to bed like a responsible adult, we headed to a completely random bar in a small town down the road.  There was a live band playing and we spent the night dancing our hearts out.  It was such a good end to a fun day.  This morning, my uncle took us to breakfast and then we went to a Farmer's Market where we found some strange looking fruits.

This is some stuff I had never seen before.  I'm kind of interested in trying it.

On a completely separate note, the formal pictures from the wedding came out today.  There are some real gems in there that I wanted to share with you all.  The wedding was truly stunning and the photos just make everything look extra beautiful.  All of these pictures were taken by Muir Adams, and very talented local photographer. 

I am so lucky to live here.

The ladies.

My beautiful best friend.

The best man got to walk two ladies down the aisle.

Apparently I can't stop being a teacher and positively reinforcing good behavior.

Should've put a ring on it.

And my very favorite picture of pretty much ever:

Very Inspiring Blogger Award

These days, I haven't felt very inspired by my own writing.  As you can tell, my blogging has kind of taken a back seat and all of my posts have been super random and don't have any direction.  They also rarely mention my workouts, which I promise I am going to start doing more often.  I swear I work out every day still!  When I got word that Heather over at Girl Goes Running had nominated me for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award, I was dumbfounded and truly felt honored.  That girl kicks some major running butt and I am inspired by her every single time she posts.  She's crazy fast and runs far!  So to hear her say that I inspire her was absolutely a compliment!  So thank you so, so much Heather.  It means the world to me!

From her Blog: "This award asks that

• you thank the person who gave you the nom,
• Share 7 things about yourself and
• nominate any bloggers that inspire you."

So here are seven random things about me that you may not have known before.

1.  I chew the straw on every single drink I order.  Of course, you are already well aware that I HAVE to drink out of a straw, but I may have left out the fact that I chew those straws to oblivion.  I don't just chew my straw either.  I accidentally will do it to anyone's straw who allows me to borrow their drink.  A side note: I am obviously a great friend.  

2.  I was fat growing up.  I was made fun of for it quite a bit.  This has led to some really poor self esteem issues.  When I look in the mirror, sometimes all I can see is that little fat girl.  So many people have told me (especially lately) how beautiful I am, but I simply can't see it for myself, no matter how hard I try.  And believe me, I try really hard.

3.  I have this thing where I internalize a lot of my emotions.  I don't tell people when I am actually upset and just let it stew inside for awhile before I finally get over it.  This leads to me letting people walk all over me and having expectations crushed.  It's something I'm working on and I am pretty sure it has to do with me being an extreme introvert.

4.  On that same note, I very rarely cry.  It takes A LOT for me to cry and it takes even more for me to cry in front of someone and even more than that for me to cry in public.  I often feel as though I want to cry or need to cry, but I just can't.  It builds up until something tiny happens (like I stub my toe or someone is driving too slow in front of me) and then I finally go in my room and let it all out for a good 20 minutes.  Then it's another few months before it happens again.  If I cry in front of you, you know you are important to me and something has seriously upset me.

5.  I never follow a recipe when I cook.  I always just kind of make it up as I go along.  Tonight I made chicken breast with brussels sprouts, steamed veggies, and brown rice.  I totally made up the entire chicken dish and I went back for seconds.  I don't believe in recipes mostly because I don't have the patience to follow them exactly.  Maybe my food would be better if I stuck to a recipe!  

6.  I have to hang my clothes in my closet in this color order: whites, reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, purples, pinks, browns, grays, and blacks.  All of the hangers also have to be hanging in the same direction.  For awhile, all of the hangers had to be exactly the same, but I have since gotten out of that weirdness.  I could always tell when someone else put my clothes away because it would be in the wrong color section, or it would be hanging the wrong way.  I believe I picked this weird trait up from my big sister.

7.  I'm really, really good at smacking my head on things.  When I was a sophomore in high school, I ran into a glass window (literally RAN) and practically gave myself a concussion.  This story deserves its own blog post.  Another time, I was laughing so hard during a theater rehearsal, I threw my head forward and slammed it into the metal seat in front of me.  Another time, I slammed my head in the car door.  After 26 years on this planet, one would assume I know where my head is.  I don't.

And there is a peek even deeper into my crazy self.  Thank you again to Heather.  It really does mean the world to me.

All of the bloggers who inspire me have been nominated already, and to be honest, I only read blogs that inspire me.  Each and every one of you deserve this, so please, take the time to do it if you so choose!