Closing Out 2014

In keeping with this year's (obvious in hind-sight) "work first" theme, we waited until a bunch of work stuff had been finalized before getting on the plane to visit E's family for the holidays.  After boarding, we worked in the air,  and then E's folks picked us up and drove us through a crazy thunderstorm to their house, where, per Southern hospitality, they fed us very (too?) well.

One of the best views of Tahoe I've ever seen.  It was CLEAR!

Christmas Eve started with more work, and then we had the traditional lunch at the Varsity with E's father's cousins.  From there it was dinner at E's sister's house where our brother-in-law made an *amazing* paella.  Lobster, shrimp, chorizo, chicken thighs, and white fish all combined with spices to make the most rich and delicious broth.

In case this wasn't enough, he also made pumpkin tiramisu to die for.

That night, we skipped out of church with E's parents in favor of C's Christmas Eve party and then headed home.

Christmas day was the classic wake and presents and heavy delicious breakfast followed by meal/table/hosting prep.  E's mom runs a solid kitchen (and is a hostess as only a woman who has sat on multiple non-profit boards and hosted countless church, non-profit, and professional parties in the South can be), so I've learned how to make myself useful to her.  This year, I split the sous-chef duties with my brother-in-law (fastest Xmas prep on record in E's childhood household since I've joined the fun!) and I was thrilled to be able to slip out for a quick 2.6 mile loop in the hills before returning for round 2 of the holiday meal festivities for the day.

E's parents always host a formal sit-down Christmas dinner for their entire extended family and at least 2 other couples (sometimes up to 3 other extended families), and this year was no different.  The full spread was no less than 8 delicious dishes, but the most impressive was the beef wellington.

Boxing day was a bit tight as both E and I hadn't yet really switched to EDT and we both had some work to do, plus I crammed in another run (5.67 @ AVG pace 12:15 in the hills including some walk breaks for traffic).  All of this was before we stacked an hour at a friend-of-the-family's boxing day cocktail party followed by dinner with friends who live out of the country but had come home for the holidays. 

In addition to all of that, before we left for our New Year's trip, we managed to fit in a lunch out with E's parents, a full lunch of Christmas leftovers and wine, and a dinner of Indian food prepared by local friends, plus I fit in another run.

Sunday, I fit in my 3X14 pushups after waking up so I could actually hit my 3X15 goal for the end of the year. Then, we flew to Costa Rica (yay hotel points and airline miles!) and did nothing but relax after arriving at our resort.

At times like this, the business travel chaos seems worth it...

We slept 12 hours the first night and around 10 hours each night since.  It's been an exhausting year for us.  Great.  Full of adventure and hard work in the work and home construction departments and the associated rewards.  But exhausting.  So we're here to recover before jumping in to next year.

Unlike last year, we aren't completely disconnected, but each of us has really only had to do an hour or two of work most days, and we're in such a tranquil environment that we can't help but unwind immensely.

I'm a big fan of the lounge chairs under the jungle cover...no sunburn despite hours of reading!

Tuesday we'd planned to drive to Rincon de la Vieja and hike, but rental cars are insane here and after too long of a wait (the temperature just kept rising) we opted out of the day entirely.  I'll spare you the details -- Just trust me that in general Costa Rica doesn't feel as chaotic as Mexico, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, or Argentina, but when it comes to rental cars, it's definitely worse.  Today, we actually took a car off the property all day without a contract (mind you, we'd filled out a bazillion forms, but we hadn't actually *agreed* to anything, legally...).  Someone just gave us a key and we left, they weren't concerned 'til we returned and they couldn't find our contract -- no doubt something similar happened to our reservation on Tuesday.

Since the hike in the National Park wasn't happening without a car, on Tuesday we chilled at the beach, read, did an hour or so of work at the hottest part of the day in our air-conditioned room and eventually walked about a total of 5K to and from the local marina (and then to-and-fro again because we didn't have enough money to pay our bill on the first visit -- yup, we were those gringos).

On our second trip we enjoyed the sunset

This morning (the last day of the year) our rental car situation was still in chaos, but we did manage to finally get a set of keys and drive out to the park to do my new personal slowest 3K ever (2 hours!) at Rincon de la Vieja.

Truly, this was a great way to close out the year.    So many natural sights all in one park.

The sketchiest bridge I've ever crossed in a National Park.

Broken slats, iron just sort of gently curled around supports, rusted chain link as structural bits -- Exciting!

The significantly safer-feeling fallen tree crossing with a rope hand-guide (your other option was rocks across the river, but it had rained recently, so the tree was definitely the way to go on this day).

Just saw off the top of the tree that fell over and you've got a solid bridge.

Forest.  Monkeys.

Waterfalls.

Mud pots.

Thermal boiling waters.

After the strenuous scramble (tons of rocks, trees, obstacles, mud, etc.), we drove into a nearby town to have an authentic local's lunch.  In doing so, we drove the wrong way down a few unmarked one-way streets.  Interestingly, no one follows parking rules and most streets aren't labeled with their names, much less their direction or stop/yield/direction rules, so the only way we'd know we were going the wrong way was when someone came at us head-on shaking their finger through the windshield in a friendly, "no you shouldn't" motion. But, they'd always make room for us and not a single person honked!  (Huge difference from other Latin American countries I've visited.)

The charming Liberia Cafe:
150 y/o historic building
complete with adorable Costa Rican hostess
and
delicious food from the French chef.

After lunch, I spent yet another 1.5 hours (not exaggerating) at the resort figuring out what was going on with our rental car.  I refused to give back the keys and the person to whom I was escalated seemed to understand and respect my commitment.  Eventually, they brought me a contract to sign which seems to indicate roughly what I expect to happen between now and when we leave.  I think we should be able to drive to the San Jose airport and get home.  But if we don't make it back, you'll know why!

And with that, I'm happy to celebrate the end of 2014 with 1406.21 total miles (ran, jogged, hiked and walked), *and* I'm ready to bust out my 3X15 pushups tonight to ring in the New Year.

Happy New Year! 

Home during the Holidays

This week was so nice.  Every night, we came home to the dark outdoors at 5 PM or later (because this close to the solstice, it's sunset at 4:47 or something along those lines with all of the clouds) to our recently remodeled house and enjoyed the holiday lights on our across-the-street neighbor's house. The Effort!  Well done (for them).  (Also, yay.  Holidays!)

Many Neighbors embrace the holiday spirit through light shows!  It's endearing.

I recovered from the rolled ankle earned at last week's trail half-marathon-come-10K disaster (which meant I cut myself all sorts of slack on the workout side of things), and I did laundry, chores, shopping, and even splurged to make a mid-week meal of gnocchi for guests (a meal that has tons of history for me, but that I hadn't made in at least 5 years).

Gnocchi is labor intensive.  I spent a few years putting in my time to learn how to make it (granted -- I was doing other things, it probably only takes 6 days, total, but it took me years {grin}).  But, regardless, it is a magical dish.  And using garden squash makes it that much better.

Roasted Acorn Squash Gnocchi -- one of the first real home-cooked meals in  the new kitchen.

So that was great.

In other news, all my Jewish(ish) friends (most of whom have kids) all reminded me that it was Hanukkah (primarily through their stories about gifts for their kids).  So Yay!  Winter presents!

And, a few conversations with close friends about holiday stresses reminded me that E & I have awesome families.  While many of our friends complained about the holidays and gift anxiety, we were calmly free.  In my family, the adults don't get each other presents unless they are seeing each other in person, and even then, it's low stress (pick a game or puzzle, we'll play it in the time we're planning to spend together).  Kids, of course, always get gifts, even if you aren't in town -- Duh!   E's family is a bit more high maintenance than mine, in general, but with in-person holidays, they've decided to manage by opting into secret santa assigned one-gift-per-adult awesomeness, which is amazing and wonderful and we've used it to explain to people on multiple occasions about just how cool E's family is...

Workout effort was minimal including Monday's gym visit, which was 30 min recumbant bike; 3X13 pushups; crunches; reverse crunches; ankle arch; lunge stretching; straddle; back twist; pike stretching.   Tue rest. Wed super easy, 2 miles jogging with some walking.  Th: 3.58 @ 12:28  plus 0.23 walking recovery.  Friday: REST (told you I was lazy this week!).  Sat:  2 @ 10:26 w/E -- I do love running with my man.  Then another 3 on my own, run-walking, averaging 16 min/mile...  Sunday was my own Jingle Bell Hell: 8.01 miles at 11:53 avg pace (my personal hell was promising myself no walk breaks - I could stop to use restrooms or sip water at fountains, but otherwise, I had to be jogging at a minimum).  This is an improvement, pace-wise, over last year.  So I call success!  Total mileage for the week -- 19.46, but much less of it walking than last week, so progress.

Happy Holidays!    

   

In Which the Holidays (and Weather) Conspire against My Running

Double Rainbow at the end of Thursday's big rainstorm.

I hope you are all enjoying the holiday season. My week was a combination of work, holiday socializing, and *not* getting anywhere close to meeting my running and workout goals.

On the socializing front, I fit in a holiday party for my law school's local networking group, drinks with a colleague I hadn't seen in several years, lunch with a colleague I hadn't seen in 6 months, a brunch in our new kitchen for a fun group of local running folks, and a multi-hour lunch and post-lunch tea/coffee with local friends to round out a lazy Sunday.

On the fitness front, this week was a very poor showing.  No Yoga.  22.8 total miles on my feet, but at least 1/4 of it walking (actually, I thought the mileage was lower, I'm pleasantly surprised). 

On Monday, due to AM work obligations, I got out late, and my rescheduled 8-mile pseudo-long run turned into 4.57 miles with the first 2.5 miles easy and the last bit made up of 0.25 mile intervals in the high 8's/mile with walking recovery.  It felt great.  But it sure wasn't anything close to 8 miles.

Tuesday I couldn't bring myself to do anything other than walk 3 miles and listen to my audiobook.

Wednesday I fit in 3.3 miles in the pattern of Monday with the first few miles very easy slow running and the last mile or so doing 0.25 mile intervals (this time in the mid 8s/mile).

Thursday was the bay area freak out over a storm that for our local area was just rain and wind, so I went to the gym and did 3 miles on the TM (1.75 mile ladder with a mile at 10/mile and then 1 minute +0.1 on the speed dial for each minute 'til I hit 1.75 and decided I needed to walk; followed by, of course, 0.25 mile speed intervals, this time at 7:30/mile with walking recovery).  From there it was another half hour of core and stretching including 3X12 pushups, splits stretching, situps; crunches, clamshells, leg extensions, ankle arch, single leg hip holds, etc.

Friday, I was back in the gym due to the storm, but I wanted to save my legs for Saturday's trail half marathon, so I did 30 minutes of rowing, followed by reverse incline situps and arm weights (a rarity for me), including bicep curls and bent rows.  In other news, my arms wonder who I am and they are crazy sore.

Saturday, I headed out to the Summit Rock half marathon.  I was worried that it was going to be super muddy and dangerous due to the storm, but it was actually relatively tame.  The floor in the Saratoga forest is so full of tree needles that the water appeared to have drained through most of it.  The upside, of course, in addition to a beautiful course without too much mud, was running with friends:

Blurry Run-Selfie

I started easy, knowing I  hadn't run anything longer than 8 miles since late November.  Unfortunately, this meant I got caught behind a single trail line of uphill hikers.  Which, really, wasn't that bad.  I was in the middle of a lazy work-out week and it was a beautiful course.  

This is what most of the first 3 miles looked like for me.  Lots of hiking, not so much running.

But, thanks to the lack of running much, I didn't make it to the 5K aid station 'til 1h04 -- in other words, I was going *slow*.  I'd considered turning around and doing the 10K earlier in the week due to my fear of mud and danger on the trail.  Now, I was just worried about being a bad hostess and being the reason everyone had to wait before coming to our house for post-run brunch.  Also, let's be honest, I was feeling lazy.

So, I tapped the 5K marker, turned around, started gunning downhill, and less than 0.1 miles later, I rolled my left ankle.  I cussed.  It hurt.  A very sweet woman stopped to ask if I was okay and stayed with me a few minutes until I started walking.  I walked for a while, super annoyed to have missed whatever obstacle it was that took me out.  Eventually, after my ankle made it clear that it wasn't super serious, I started running again (it was, after all, completely downhill at this point, and me and my backside love to run downhill -- the ass helps balance the forward lean you need, you see?).

Unfortunately, about a mile later, I rolled my left foot *again*.  F*CK!!!

I yelled.  An adorable older Japanese man with a walking stick hiking uphill stopped, looked concerned, and asked me, "Okay?"  Holding on to the nearest tree, I weakly said, "Yes.  I'll be okay."  He shook his head sadly and said, "Narrow..." and then he walked on.  It was true.  The course was narrow.  But I was just annoyed with myself for missing yet *another* obstacle that took me out.

I walked most of the rest of the way down, with occasional ginger jogging spurts when it was flat and safe.  After crossing the line around 2 hours, I assured the race directors that I was not, in fact, the third female half marathon finisher.

The upside is that I got home in time to shower and continue breaking in the kitchen by warming up the quiches I'd made the night before.  And then, I very much enjoyed hosting a brunch for all the local runner/blogger friends of mine who'd registered for the race.

Over-the-top-mushroom-quiche in the springform pan was the winner.

So, yeah.  It was a 10K personal worst.  Somewhere in the 2 hour range.  Good times.  I iced before and after the brunch and woke this AM with throbbing pain in my foot (annoying!), but after some ibuprofen and additional icing and a rest day today, I seem to be headed in the right direction.

Wishing you all a very happy extremely short daylight week.

Stateside Holiday Fun

You may have seen that the CDC issued an updated flu advisory, claiming this year may be worse than normal.

Well, folks, I can vouch for that.  I sneezed and coughed my way through our flight home (Yeah, I was *that* asshole).  And I could already tell that it was going to be bad.

I sneezed and coughed and sniffled my way through the night.  The next day I woke at 5 AM due to jet lag and moved to the couch, where I proceeded to sneeze and cough and remove mucus from my body at a disgusting rate until E woke, saw me, and said, "Oh... poor baby."  It is a testament to how sick I was that I did not respond violently to this ridiculous endearment and instead cuddled up further under my covers and said, "I'b nod workeeg today..."

He nodded his agreement, did his thing and left.

A few hours later, I had a moment of clarity, "I *never* don't work.  I wonder if I'm really sick?"

So I took my temperature.

103F.

*HOLY SHIT*  Queue adrenaline.  I jumped up. Went in search of the ibuprofen.  Stopped drinking hot tea.  Removed the blankets.  Sent E an instant message letting him know that if I hit 104F I was taking myself to urgent care.

Thankfully, the ibuprofen (or just my own immune system) triggered a day of sweats and chills and blankets on and off, but my temp dropped to oscillate between 102-99 for the rest of the day while I hovered between sleeping and awake.  The next day it hung around 99 and I actually started to be able to think and work.  The third day, I felt reasonable enough to go to a client, which was interesting, if only because I still had obvious symptoms, but I felt *so* much better than Monday that I felt like I was fully recovered.  It was only when they kept their distance and pointed out my Stevie Nicks-esque voice that I realize I still had some ground to make up.

So, obviously, running was very light this week.  I also canceled several holiday social obligations in the interests of public health.  M-T: nothing.  W: 30 minutes easy cardio machines at the gym.  Th: a big 4.3 mile loop with no pace watch, run-walked, coughing occasionally.  F: finally feeling better, but pressed for time, so 1.63 miles easy in the mid 10s/mile before both lunch and dinner holiday parties in SF.  Sat: sleep-in-post-Friday-night-holiday-party-only-to-be-woken-by-one-of-your-childhood-besties (of course you'll take the call) hotel gym workout.  30 min cardio on the machines. 3X11 pushups. leg extensions. clamshells. abs with medicine ball. ankle arches. lower ab crunches.  Lunge stretching.  Another 2.5 miles walking to and from the harbor for E2&J's holiday party and the boat light parade:

And then Sunday AM post party at friends:  slept in.  No run with E2 despite our best laid plans.  Instead, lots of coffee, relaxing, and walking to brunch.

Tomorrow, my friends.  Tomorrow will be my (8 mile pseudo) long run.

Happy holidays!  I hope you are enjoying any and all slothlike time that comes your way this season as much as I am.