So let me be completely honest with you all. I’ve never set foot in a laundromat before. I  had no idea what to expect, or how it even really worked. I didn’t know what a fluff was or the difference between all the washing machines. I just had the movie scene laundromat visions dancing through my head when I realized just this past weekend that it would be MUCH faster if i did the four, yes I said four, loads of laundry I had accumulated over the past three weeks at the laundromat instead of doing it at my apartment complex. I figured it would cost a little more, but also save much more time.

Let me tell you, I traveled to a, shall we say, interesting part of town with my hamper and laundry basket chock full of dirty, stinky clothes. The laundromat I chose, as pulled up, was across the street  from a sex shop and a diner called “Egg Heaven”. I have heard Egg Heaven is good, but I’ve never ventured there, but the sex shop and food counter across the street that were next to each other looked less than desirable. Along with the people coming and going around the area. I got there and realized as I took everything out of my car and set myself up that I totally forgot my detergent. I was not driving all the way back home and re-loading my car so I decided to buy some detergent out of this vending machine looking thing. I got four packs for 75 cents. I loaded up the washers and sat down to read my book.  I had brought along a David Sedaris book that I read on and off, and thought I could get in some quality reading time. He’s my all time favorite author and I would love to write more like him. I began reading but I had to stop, because there were so many CRAZY people there that I couldn’t stop watching! Let’s give a run down of the experience at the laundromat.

I had my little section all set up on the bench with my two baskets close by and my book and purse. There was the token cute guy doing laundry as well. There has to be a cute guy at the laundromat right? He was changing clothes from a washer to a dryer when I got there, and was cute until he then proceeded to go outside and wax his ’99 corolla in the parking lot. Um, what? Of course, I snuck a picture.

He later was done waxing and started to read a huge science fiction book by me. That was entertaining.

As I was psuedo reading my book and stalking the other clothes washers, this little gem walked in.

What? First, let’s mention the fact that the picture didn’t capture the fact that Indiana Jones here had two pipes for smoking. Smoking pot, which he did in the laundromat. WHAT. Then we have the fact that he was wearing the Indiana Jones hat, hence the nickname. He was also wearing a Pink Floyd t-shirt that could have doubled as a dress. He was wearing skinny jeans and oh yea, no shoes. That is something about me, I usually am always wearing shoes. He was wearing none and it looked like he hadn’t worn any shoes for the past week. Disgusting! He kept coming in and out of the laundromat checking on his HUGE load of clothes. I don’t really know where he was going in between checking his laundry. Sketchy. I think if you are not wearing shoes, you might have bigger priorities than washing your clothes? Maybe that’s just me.

Then we had the cute little family who I didn’t snap a picture of, and another older women who was explaining her life problems to a friend via cell phone at a decibel level of far too loud for the close quarters we were all sharing. It was really, really awkward. Like, you start asking yourself questions in your head and questioning what you’re doing. “Do I talk to these people?” “If I do, what do I say?” “Do I talk on my phone?” “Is my laughing at them, really noticeable?” In the words of DJ, “It’s like being on an elevator with people for an hour.” I couldn’t have said it better.

It was finally time to dry my clothes and so I traveled over to the huge dryers. This is where time was saved for sure. And oddly enough, it’s almost mesmerizing to watch your clothes go around and around in the dryer. So it was obviously quite the journey, but an entertaining one none the less!

As soon as I got my clothes folded and dried, I bolted out of that place. Though there were some positives, especially the fact that I was done with my laundry super quickly, but let’s just say, I’ll make sure the next place I live has laundry inside. :)

Today is a rest day! Wahoo!

xoxo

Maybe it’s just me, but I have a confession to make. All the time I read posts about people experiencing ‘taper madness’, where the miles in  the training session start to dwindle and race day approaches. Now, I’m running Long Beach and that is roughly less than two weeks away. I’ve done my training round for Long Beach and put in my miles and believe me, I LOVE running, but when it gets to taper time, I’m just so tuckered out that this resting and the cutback of miles is a welcoming thing for me.

Seriously, I see so many people talking about how much they miss running and can’t wait to run again. I also think that I am built more for speed and not so much distance, so the shorter runs are much more enjoyable to me, than the long, high mileage weeks. When I do a higher mileage week, which I’ve never even done that many miles in a week, I’m SO tired by the end of the week all I can do is sleep. So about this taper, losing your mind, horrible feelings? Yea, I don’t get that. Maybe it’s just me but extra sleeping? Yes, please. Extra time for more activities, including my social life? Yes, please. Not being sore when you walk? Yes, please. Not having to wake up at 5:00 am to run 10 miles before work and being exhausted the rest of the day? Yes, please. Not being famished all the time and scavenging for food like a rodent? Yes, please. I mean, these are all win situations for myself. So maybe I am just made to taper.

On that wonderful note, I got up early today, a once a month thing, and went for a five miler. It’s still pretty humid out, but thankfully the sun wasn’t out just yet, since it’s dark and I just ran the regular beach path.

This is what it looked like when I left for my run. Yup, I told you it’s still dark out. It’s weird running in the dark, but then if you get it at just the right time, you can catch it when the sky starts to glow and almost turn pink before the sun comes up. That’s my favorite part of the mornings, if mornings can ever be a good thing.

By the time I was finishing up though, it was getting light out. As you can tell, this is called the “marine layer”. It’s the clouds that cover the beach areas every morning. It’s funny because at DJ and I’s house, it’s ALWAYS mostly cloudy, except in July and August, because of the marine layer. I can drive literally like 3 miles inland, and it’s bright and sunny out. It always makes me laugh on my way to work, because I am like where are you sun, at my house?! But I guess that’s what you get when you live a couple hundred feet from the beach.

Tomorrow is a rest day but I’m considering going to the gym. I am really trying to get back into the habit of doing a little core work because I know it will strengthen my back muscles as well. Last night I did 50 sit ups and 15  push ups. It doesn’t seem like a lot but I’m going to try to do 50 in the morning and 50 in the evening and then 15 push ups in the morning and evening as well. I just can’t bust out a lot though, because knowing me, I’ll do a billion one night, get sore, and then never do them again. Soon I’ll be back up to doing them more regularly though, which I  think will then allow me to do more. If I get crazy I’ll even maybe do some planks!

Okay, I’m off to go relax and enjoy my taper, well I mean go to work, but at least I’m not exhausted already at 7:30 am! :) I LOVE TAPER!

xoxo

Remember when I was bragging about all the good running I was doing and how everything was going so smoothly? I now eat my words. Sometimes I have certain runs that after I get back I think to myself, seriously, you KNOW better than to do this, so WHY did you just do that. Take my Friday afternoon run for example. I took off at 3 pm, and immediately was sweating like a beast. It was about 93 degrees out and I was simply dying. I also, before my run, drank a huge glass of water because I was thirsty. Another stupid move. I had a huge side-ache and the run was horrible. Once I got home though I thought, why did you do that. You know better than to run at 3, you know better than to drink water before. It was just a bad run. I told DJ that literally, if I had my phone with me I would have called her to come get me.

After that bad run, the weekend was one of relaxation to say the least. Friday night I went to the Museum of Latin America Art in Long Beach for an event on movement and dance, especially focusing on Latin America. It was actually a ton of fun and I’m really glad I went. It was definitely something  different and I wouldn’t had  normally done it, but I was really glad I went. Even when I was taking salsa dancing lessons. Yes, you read that. I took salsa lessons.

This is kind of a bad picture but they had these dancers and they were wearing all authentic costumes and it was really cool to see them all and learn more about the latin american culture.

Saturday morning was the 12 miler with Ann which was over very quickly, but it was still really humid out. I ran without a shirt again because I needed to break in a new sports bra and didn’t want it bleeding color on any of my good shirts. When I got home I had about 10 gnats in my sweat on my stomach. They were attracted to my abs I think. Wonderful. I didn’t eat anything before my  run besides a promax bar, and I think that is what I will go with on race day, which is quickly approaching. I think because it’s so chalky and tastes like crap it doesn’t upset my stomach because I didn’t have any stomach problems this weekend. Saturday I watched football all day and did nothing with my life besides go to the laundromat, which is a different story for a different day. It was nice to just sit and sleep.

The Sunday I wanted to get in a nice seven miler. Again, another horrible run. Totally exhausted the whole time and my legs were DEAD. I realized again after I got home, I should have felt crappy, I had put in a lot of miles in the last few days so of course my legs were tired. It was just one of those runs and yes it was super humid again. I came back and though it was such a short run my legs felt so tired so I decided to ice bath. I think it helped, and the rest of my Sunday was spent celebrating a friends birthday on the ‘big red bus’.

Today is a rest day and I’m glad. I feel like my legs for sure needed a rest. Hopefully the running this week will be better than the running I did this weekend and my legs will get some spring back into them!

xoxo

So yesterday, I asked the twitter world and the blog world if I should post a video that is rather embarrassing of me taking an ice bath. I took the video in the first place because a. I’m an idiot and b. I wanted to show you guys a new idea I had (that many of you maybe have already had but I thought it was brilliant, and, I, at times, can be slow) to make an ice bath not suck so much. Today is Friday and I usually try to post something entertaining or funny, and I guess today I wanted to take it to the next level.

So when I did the walk with DJ, I knew after day one (walking 26.2 miles) we would HAVE to ice bath to be functioning at all the next day (where we had to walk 13.1 more miles). Taking an ice bath really helps get the yuckiness out of your muscles and makes you much less sore. Believe me, ice baths are REALLY CRAPPY, but they also REALLY work. Also, if DJ can take one, you can too. She freaking rocked the ice bath, so get in there and stop complaining. Normally most of the time, unfortunately, I’m cussing while in the ice bath, but luckily this video I kept myself in check. Anyways, if we hadn’t taken them, I doubt we would have been mobile the next day. Seriously. Give it a shot, and you’ll really feel the difference.

That being said, let me tell you a few little somethings about me. I HATE WATER. I am like a cat. Even when I take a shower, I take relatively very short showers, (6-10 minutes max) and also I really don’t like the ocean, or swimming, or anything at all that is water related, besides drinking water of course! This could be because my hair takes forever to do once I wash it, but who knows. I’ve never been very keen on water. Oddly enough my brother loves to surf, is a lifeguard, loves swimming and has webbed feet. HAHA, sorry T-money had to throw that in there! I guess he got the all the love for the water in the family, while I got none. Secondly, I HATE being cold, nay, LOATHE it. I always am bringing a jacket wherever I’m going, and yes, I HATE the snow. I get cold pretty easily since my arms and legs are skeletor status. Mid section, doesn’t get cold so easily, score. So therefore, an ice bath is like my arch-nemesis. Two things I do not like at all.

So, I had the brilliant idea from somehow thinking of putting a frog in boiling water. If you put him in when it’s boiling, he hops out, but if you put a frog in cold water and then boil it, he stays in. I then thought of myself as a frog and this translates to ice baths! See, sometimes my train of thought is a little weird. So when it comes to ice baths, I have an incredibly hard problem when the tub is filled and the ice is in it with sitting down. I get my feet in and stand there whining for a while. Then I can’t get myself to sit down. I know that once I sit down, and give it a minute I’ll be frozen so it doesn’t matter but it’s the fact of sitting my butt down. I thought, what if I filled the tub up with the usual cold water, and then had DJ pour in the ice for me after I was already in? Would it be better? Well let me tell you, this works WAY better for me! It still stinks to sit down in such cold water, but I can do it pretty quickly,  and it’s definitely not as bad as sitting down in ICE COLD water. I can do it only with a few moments of whimpering and breathing noises. Then pouring in the ice, there is some breathing that makes me sound like I’m going to have a baby, but then it’s over and I’m in and already sitting down. Then I just let it freeze for a minute and I’m good to go for the required 10-15 minutes.

So first off, I’m wearing a swimsuit, I’ll let you guys know that in the first minutes of the video. Just make fun of my breathing and especially the whimpering puppy noises when I pour in the 2nd bag. It’s freezing people. I used to have to get in the whirlpool in high school and I hated that too. I was also way smaller in high school so I would sit there and FREEZE and my teeth would chatter, the physical therapists always felt bad for me. So now a days, I put on a sweatshirt and get my iPhone all ready and just let it burn.

Anyways, here’s the video. This solidifies that I’m a freak, and even more so because I just posted it for the world to see. Also, I preface this video with the fact that I hate my voice. Ha ha ha. Enjoy!

On that note!

This weekend I have a 12 MILER. ONLY 12!!! YAY! I am excited to be back on track (figuratively, not literally) and ready to run Long Beach! This Debbie Downer has turned her frown upside down and is ready to rock! My inner cheerleader is back. Okay maybe it’s because I had a pumpkin spice latte and since I never drink caffeine, I could be twitching a little, but hey! It’s the WEEKEND PEOPLE!

xoxo

The Zensah Winner is….

Kelly from Part of life is Having a Good Ponytail! She is running a 1/2 marathon in San Antonio in November and I have been following her. She seems so sweet and I’m super excited for her to win. Don’t worry, I’ll try to rally up some more cool giveaways! :) Also, if you use the code, FreeShip at checkout at the Zensah site, they will give you free shipping which is pretty cool! Thanks to everyone who entered and I hope you can all experience cool Zensah stuff.

Anyways, so I’ve had this post written for a while… and if you are just finding this post, this is me bantering about taking race pictures, but it may seem kind of mean if you don’t know me, I don’t mean it that way! Now, the big difference for me and some others who run, is that in running a race, I run for fun, and because I enjoy it. Yes, I do race on occasion, but mostly, I’m just running for fun. I know, I know to some of you this post doesn’t make sense because you are all racers and that is what you care about. For me, it’s all about having fun. Anyways, after I run a race, people always ask me how I take such good race pictures. Well my friends, first off, I’m SUPER flattered, and I wanted to share some ideas with you. Now, some of you might think that this post is totally ridiculous since the point of racing isn’t to get good race pictures, but if you are getting your picture taken and you want to plaster it all over facebook and your blog showing off your accomplishment, it might as well look good right? Well here are a sampling of my race pictures.

This was the finish line at the first and only marathon I’ve done, called San Diego crap festival. No pun intended. Well, I think at this point I was just happy to be DONE. So the smile was uber genuine. This wasn’t a hard race photo to get. :)

I remember the guy I was running next too on my right (a friend Charlie) warned me the camera was coming up! I was really focusing this race and wanted to PR so badly, if you don’t remember my anger at that race, for no reason, you can read about it here, but I was hurting right here, but since I knew the camera was coming I smiled very big. Charlie then yelled at me to keep going because I wasn’t that tired if I could smile so big. :)

This was my VERY first half! Last October, in Long Beach. How things have changed. I really like this picture because I look like I’m fast! Picking up those feet really work!

Now, after looking at them, I realized there are some steps you can take to make sure that your race pictures kick butt, just like you kicked the race’s butt.

The key to taking to taking good pictures is to find the photographers and SMILE big as you are running by. If you don’t smile you are going to look like you are either in pain, constipated, or dying. All of which may be true, but that isn’t the exact look you are going for and it will ruin your race picture. These pictures, if you choose to buy them aren’t cheap either, so you might as well try to make it look the best you can. As soon as you pass by the photographer, wipe that smile off and go back to dying.

First off, make sure you do your hair. This sounds very silly, but you do your hair for everything else, so do it for the race, or wear a hat. I realized that my hair flying behind me looks much nicer than if it is in a knotty, yucky, moppy, sweaty bun thing. I always make sure I either wear a headband or pin my bangs back as well so they aren’t sweaty and gross and flopping around in my face. It sounds dumb, but it makes a huge difference when you look back on your pictures.

Then, make sure to at least apply a little bit of makeup, unless you never wear makeup. I wear Bare Minerals so I brush on some powder since my I have a very red un-makeuped face to make sure everything is at least one color. Since I feel like I look like a baby bird without mascara, I also put on a little bit of waterproof mascara. You don’t take pictures without make up normally, so why do you think ones when you are sweaty and with no make up will look good? Eh? It seems unnecessary, but it helps a TON. I know, these tips aren’t for everyone, but hey, I’m just trying to help.

Next pick up your feet when you run by a photographer, almost  over-exaggerating that you are running. If you don’t, you’ll look like a glorified power walker. I have some pictures like that, where my arms are swinging big, and my feet, not looking like they are moving at all. Yea, those don’t make good profile pictures on facebook now do they, no one wants to say, oh I power walked that marathon like it was no bodies business, right?

Then we have the to wave or not to wave at the camera question. There are many pictures of wavers, sometimes you lose your mind when your running, and when you pass by a camera you wave. Now, I’ve done this before and the pictures turn our weird. You can either look like you are saying ‘stop’ with your hand up, or it looks like you don’t know how to run, and it just screws up your whole “form” thing, if that’s what your going for.

As for clothes, when you race, you should obviously wear something that is super comfortable and that you’ve won before. Bright colors are fun and make you show up way better than if you wear black, everyone wears black. Personally, I know that wearing pink is my thing, if you couldn’t tell. :) I love wearing pink, which is weird because when I was little I HATED pink. Race days usually equal a bright color that I’m super confident in and I know what chafes. :(

Then we have the number, this is key if you want to see your professional pictures because that’s how you’ll be tagged. Now, for me, I know my arms and legs are pretty skeletal. These are pluses for me. You know all that fast food I eat? That makes my stomach not so skeletal. This means photographs show that not skeletal area, especially in spandex. The number has a second purpose, you can pin it right over where your shorts might dig in or you might catch a little glimpse of all that fast food you have been inhaling (for me). Genius, I tell you. I pin mine a little lower, right over that little trouble spot and wha-la it disappears! That is the most clutch thing ever, and it makes you feel way better too. Well me at least. I also always crumple my number before every race, so that it doesn’t get trapped in the wind and takes the form of my body. Learned that back in the cross country days.

Do you guys have any good tips to make sure your race pictures come out good? I know when I ran San Fran with Aron, we worked so hard at getting some great race pictures! :) Smile and HAVE FUN! That’s what running and racing is all about anyways!!

xoxo