So one of my favorite companies, those who make the iFitness belt, which I reviewed here, sent me a new and improved belt with some cool aspects like gu holders and a nice big pouch and a number holder as well. Since I don’t eat gu’s I gave the belt to my gu-guzzling friend Aron who reviewed the belt today. I really value her opinion and know she would tell me the truth about the belt. I wanted to try it out but since I don’t eat gus or ever carry them, I thought it would be better to give it to someone who was consistent in gu taking. So with that being said, check out her blog for a review of the latest addition to the iFitness belt family.
Last night I was cleaning out some things and went through my purse because it was getting a little heavy. You know you’re a runner when…
That’s right. I found a slew of running goods in my purse.
First we have sport beans, which are a delicious fuel that I use when running. Then we have shampoo by Paul Mitchell? I was even surprised at that one, and I have no idea where it came from. Then I have a tasty Oh Yeah! grab size bar, which are my new favorite things and I will have a review of those coming up soon, because I can’t live without them. Then two different kinds of Nuun, my favorite hydration.
The yellow and black tube is my all-time favorite chapstick with SPF in it. I swear by it. It’s by Hawaiian Island Creations which sounds a little random, but I can’t get rid of this stuff and I used to swear by Burt’s Bees. Then we have Claude the Garmin and some sport wrap that I sometimes use as a headband which I learned how to do during my soccer days. Speaking of the purse too, I got it as a gift. :)
I had no idea that I had so much running related stuff in my purse! I was surprised I didn’t have some socks or something else random in there. This morning I went for a great4 miler and it will be my last run before the 5k tomorrow morning in Irvine. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow morning but I hope to come in right around 22-23:45 minutes. Should be fun, pending rain! Eeek!
This is my last down week before my big 20 miler next weekend that I need to ramp myself up to run. I have been feeling good without any soreness or injuries so hopefully a solid week, and a good 20 miler will put my LA Marathon anxiety at ease. I wrote up an article about scheduling fall races and some great races around the Southern California area, so check it out if you are interested!
So off to the weekend, running and still not eating meat! (which I sadly miss, but I had bomb crab nachos last night)
I knew I would have to squeeze in a run this morning. I haven’t ran since Tuesday morning and even though the sheets were so warm and my bed was practically screaming for me to stay there, as I shuffled out onto the hardwood floors I knew I wouldn’t regret it. Morning runs are by far the hardest for me. I love sleeping in and I love being warm and snuggly in my bed. I just got new sheets to and there is nothing better than crispy sheets!
So last night, when I fell asleep it was raining. I was worried it would still be raining when I woke up, but to my excitement it wasn’t and I laced up my shoes and got ready. Nice how the biggest decision in my life this morning was whether to wear capris or shorts and a long sleeve or a short sleeve. I opted for one of my fave long sleeves and as I strapped on Claude and my iPod, I had one of those moments where everything seemed like it was clicking together and I would have on of those glorious runs, where it seems like you can run forever and your legs will never get tired.
As I stepped outside the clean rain washed air welcomed me and I started off on the familiar five mile path I travel around through town. There’s something about damp concrete that has just been washed from the rain. Everything is so clean and fresh and overwhelming. While I was running I just felt like everything was working together. It’s those runs that happen rarely, but when they do it’s like finding a lost diamond ring. They renew everything and remind me why I do run.
Yesterday someone asked me what I do for fun. I responded with, “Running.” It’s true. I enjoy and love to run. I do run for fun.
So this weekend pretty much was amazing! I had so much fun in one of my favorite cities and I was so happy to meet up with Tara, Kristin, Aron, Page, and Martiza. I stayed with Tara and Martiza and we had a blast together. They live in the Easy Bay so I wasn’t technically in San Francisco the entire time but we did make it into the city on Sunday. I landed in the afternoon on Friday and we took my luggage back and got prepped to grab a late lunch/early dinner. We ended up at this AMAZING Mexican restaurant and I had a veggie quesadilla. No meat for me, still going strong! It was SO good and we partook in some delish margs too. We had some fun that night and just hung out and talked.
We stopped by the grocery store on the way home to get some snacks and I saw this bottle of champagne. I LOVE champagne and this is pretty much the cutest bottle I’ve ever seen. :)
We ran Saturday morning and it was simply gorgeous! I got to run on the infamous Iron Horse Trail and meet Aron’s doggies! They are so sweet, and huge in real life! I ran ten miles and felt pretty strong. I actually ran decent splits too, so that worked out great and I was happy with how I felt. I wore my new K-Swiss shoes which are actually broken in now and I really like them! I started with Maritza, ran a mile with the pups and Aron and Tara and then caught up to Kristin and was able to run the last 5 with her. It was a great day and to top off the wonderful running adventure we went to my favorite place in Walnut Creek for brunch and it was amazing per usual!
Then T, M and I laid around for about 5 hours and took naps and watched the Olympics. We were all lazy and tired! It was a great break though and we rallied up a little later to head out to dinner and finally met up with our friend Page! It was so fun and we ended up making an appearance at a bar that we normally go to as well when I’m up there. It was a blast.
Sunday was our day to go into the City, my favorite thing! I love San Francisco and driving over the bridges. We drove over the Bay Bridge and were soon in the city at Union Square.
Union Square area holds a ton of stores and sites. We wandered through Macy’s for quite a while and then realized that we were STARVING. Cheesecake factory at the top of Macy’s, overlooking Union Square it was. :)
Rain, rain, not surprising in San Fran!
To keep up with the ‘no-racing’ theme of the weekend we had some tasty drinks with lunch. It was delish and we were stuffed after! We then decided to try to walk it off a little bit and I wanted to hit up my fave store, Forever 21.
I saw this. Had too. <3
Then the mecca was spotted! Look at that little creeper in the picture. I was so excited and pretty much got lost in the three story Forever 21. Sadly, I didn’t buy anything because I wasn’t totally sold on any particular find, but they had a ton of cute stuff and T and M got a lot of cute stuff. It was a successful trip.
On our way back to the car, we saw a couple asking a homeless person if he wanted a pizza if they bought it for him. He responded, “Well… actuallllllllly.” We had to laugh. There was another sign that said ‘I’m not going to lie, it’s for beer.’ Well if it wasn’t done before I would have laughed at that one too.
Then I saw a traditional trolly and had to take a touristy picture on it as well.
Being the sports fanatic and Olympic lover that I am, and that T and M are, we got back just in time to watch the USA vs. Canada Hockey game and made up a pretty cool drinking game to watch and play while we cheering for our team.
1 drink = USA goal. 2 drinks = Canada goal. 2 drinks = Power play either team. 1 drink = Puck off the ice. 1 drink = Broken stick.
We were only playing with Coors light, so one drink was just a drink of beer. It’s not like we were taking shots or drinking a full drink. It was a great game though and we were super excited during it. Jasper was even excited and was holding up his foam finger for USA!
Then I got way sucked into Ice Dancing and was watching that until way too late and I had to leave the next morning :( Sad, sad times. BUT it was a great weekend, I got in a great run and am feeling ready to tackle the 5k this weekend and then a 20 miler next weekend. Then it’s taper time for LA! I can’t believe how close it’s coming. Thank you again to everyone who showed me another great time up in Northern California. It was HELLA FUN.
I met up with my good friend Billy yesterday to finish the course preview that we’ve been working on for a while. If you missed the other parts of the course preview you can find them here. Miles 6.2 to Mile 14, Mile 14 to Mile 20, Mile 20 to Mile 26.2.
This is pretty much hands down no questions asked the hardest part of the course. There are quite a few hills and it’s pretty tiring, but it’s also still at the beginning of the course, so I realize that I would still be feeling fresh and I’d rather this more bland part of the course be at the beginning than at the end. Now that I’ve ran the whole course, I’m really looking forward to the end of the race. I know what’s coming and I’m excited to have run the course and I think it will benefit me a lot.
We started off seeing this street randomly and had to take a picture! Marathon Street right off Sunset Blvd where the marathon route goes.
The first mile is actually inside Dodger Stadium, but since the Dodgers are incredibly lame, and I look like a troublemaker, they wouldn’t let us in to take the picture or run that part of the course. Boo-hoo. Oh well, we got kind of close, the closest I ever want to be at Dodger’s stadium.
Billy wanted to take a starting line picture and was devastated we couldn’t get into the area where the race actually started. I told him that I was not going to jail for this, so he would have to deal.
This is a hill that everyone will run up after the first mile. As I said before the area is pretty hilly. You are coming out of Dodger Stadium and run up a rather large hill then have a fairly large downhill after. I am not the biggest fan of the downhill since it hurts and there were some downhills to tackle on this section. We had gotten all the way down the downhill and Billy all of a sudden said, “Oh crap! The phones!”
He had taken our phones out and LEFT them on the transformer box back in front of the stadium. Him and I sprinted back over the hill and down the hill we just ran up only to find them perfectly fine. I about killed Billy.
Phewf. Safe and sound. Billy would have seriously died if that child was gone when we returned over the hill. Finally, we were off!
After mile 1 there wasn’t much going on the course to see. It’s an interesting area to say the least and let’s just say I’m glad that there will be huge pack running the LA Marathon during this part of the course.
There was a freeway overpass that we ran over and the snow on the mountains in the background was beautiful! I don’t know if there will be much snow come marathon day, but it was still pretty. It was pretty hot when Billy and I were running though, which was unexpected. I was scared I was going to be cold!
After another relatively large downhill we entered the entrance to Chinatown. It was a cool little area but you don’t run through it, just past the entrance.
Then we were already at mile 3 and I decided to climb up a fire hydrant and risk my life. Another area with not much going on.
As we were running down the streets we saw that there was a catering company and with catering company trucks in LA that means FILMING! I was so excited, but the only person we saw was a Justin Gurarini look-alike and some cameras. I still got super, super excited and had to do the whole tourist thing.
I thought this sign was pretty cool, it’s a bunch of ’sister cities’ of Los Angeles and showed how far away they are from Los Angeles.
Then, being a lame-o I had to take this picture in front of the huge, new Los Angeles Police Department building. Seeing this building also means you are starting up one of the largest and most daunting hills of the course. It’s a fairly long hill and once we got the top I was fairly winded. The top also holds a pretty cool feature of LA, the Walt Disney Concert Hall. On the way up to the top of the hill, you pass by this great lake of LA! Who knew that such a nice lake exists in Los Angeles?
Does anyone want to take a nice little dip in this beauty instead of finishing the marathon? Thought so! Keep running!
Here’s a video we took of how to text and run. :)
Here’s another video of us running up the hill and right as we are entering the Walt Disney Concert Hall area.
This is so a “I don’t even have words for this” moment. I told Billy that architecture normally doesn’t really do that much for me and I don’t notice much, but man, this building it simply amazing to look at. It is so cool to look at and I really was excited to get a more up close and personal look at it, since I’ve only seen it from the freeway since it was built.
Then mile 4 is right down the street from the concert hall. It was such a nice area once you are up that hill!
Mile 4 to Mile 5 was a whole lot of nothing as well. Just through some areas with a few more small hills. As I said before, this is the most hill-filled area of the course. Better here than at mile 20.
Finally we were approaching Sunset Blvd again and passed through Echo Park where there is actually a pretty lake in Los Angeles! It was such a nice day out, there were many people surrounding the lake and throughout Echo Park.
Somehow we lost the Mile 6 sign and so I just covered the .2 and made a little makeshift Mile 6 sign. It was at a busy intersection. It will be so different running the course without cars and being able to run in the street.
Right after the Mile 6 marker, I saw this pretty cool little fruit stand, since we were in a shady area there is no way I would be getting any fruit from this cart but I did find it to be funny and quirky so I had to take a picture.
Then we were back at the 10k mark! I was pretty happy to be done with the adventure for the day since it was pretty warm. I am ready to karate chop the LA Marathon! Though it’s by far the ‘hardest’ part of the course, I’m glad it’s in the beginning of the course and now that I’ve run the whole course I am glad that I will know what is coming with each section of the race.
Nothing like a post workout drink, like a…..
Slurpee!!! I was so thirsty and SO glad Slurpee was there to rescue me. I can’t wait to run the LA Marathon in 26 more days! I know that running the course for me was very helpful. Especially knowing what will come next and what points of the marathon I’m at and what parts I will struggle with will only be beneficial. Since this is a hill related post, check out the article I wrote about running hills on the Examiner. I love running hills and implementing them in your workouts helps out a ton when training!
Let’s do this LA Marathon! Tomorrow shall be a swell recap of my time in San Francisco!
I’m SO amped to leave for San Francisco today! I can’t wait to meet up with all my friends up there and actually NOT have to race. Every time we get together we talk about hanging out without running a race. Since we are always running races when we are together it seems that our weekends spent together usually revolve around the expo, getting our bibs, carb loading, sleeping and racing. That’s fun but it’s also tiring and there is a lot going on. I decided that I wanted to take a trip up there just to hang out asap, and this weekend worked out perfectly! This weekend is going to be awesome and will include running and way more other fun things like shopping, sightseeing, and relaxing! Hooray! No crazy pre-race Danica anxiety attacks to deal with and mean post-race Danica fits of rage to damper the day. Can’t wait to see all my girls and enjoy one of my favorite towns! I have a nice ’short’ long run of 10 miles to do this weekend which should be a nice recovery run after I became a BA yesterday snowboarding and my knees are totally bruised up now and looking rather sweet.
Check out this sweet video to see my cool skills.
Commentary of what I’m saying because it’s pretty soft in the video:
:11 – “It’s like grenades out here with these little kids, I’m probably going to kill one of them”
:20 – “and if you drop that phone I’ll kill you”
:25 – “Because that phone is my child, it’s my first born, alright watch me hit a kid, should be fun. Oh shoot.”
1:10 – weird pterodactyl screaming from me. “Oh my gosh, stop getting close to me”
1:20 – super cool swimming move I do to make myself go forward
1:40 – “I made it all the way down the mountain”
1:49 – “I’m such a BA right now. I mean come on Snow White, I mean ha, ha, Shaun White!”
Yesterday I worked a lot on stopping and beginning to turn as well. I can now avoid people and I’m not falling and also am not screaming while going down the hill. I think I improved a lot and my motto of the day was, “Speed is my friend!” I realized that once you get going a little bit everything gets a lot easier. Though also with speed the falls get a lot harder. I have FAT bruises on my knees, and my palm of my hand is pretty bruised, but I’m not sore and wasn’t as tired as I was the first trip up. Side-note: Fashion at the slopes is pretty much phenomenal. I don’t know if some people still think that it should be 1982 or what, but man, there are all kinds of gems to be found up there!
The first time I went snowboarding last month I went down the mountain 4 times in 4 hours. You can see that recap here if you want to read about it. This time I went down the mountain 9 times in 3 hours and went down 3 times without falling once. Also, I only fell on the chair lift ONCE out of the nine times on it. Chair lift – 1, Danica -8! Take that evil chair lift! I still get scared to get on the lift though, because I hate when you have to get off and slide down on the mini slope without being in your bindings, it’s so scary! I really like snowboarding though and hope I can go one more time this season, possibly, but look forward to going next season already! Also, just an FYI, my friend is having a giveaway of the Olympic mittens I posted yesterday that everyone loved. You can enter here, but do so by tonight at 10 pm! :)
