So this past weekend, as you know, I was up in San Fran for work, and it was simply lovely. I stayed in the Hyatt Regency at the Ferry building for the first few days while I was working in the city. It was a gorgeous.

This was the view from my balcony. I had never been on a work trip before and it was weird being up there all by myself but it was so fun, and I got to meet up with a ton of different friends from so many different places! First off though, there was work to be done and a course to be run!

The course starts right by the Ferry Building which is also right outside my hotel. I have never been inside the Ferry Building in my many trips to San Fran and I have always been curious. It is so pretty and right in downtown.

Then we ran down the course to the Fisherman’s Wharf area which is always a hussle and bussle area. It’s always the craziest part of town and I love the vibe down there. Everyone is just hanging out and there are so many tourists.

The course goes along Fisherman’s Wharf and right by Ghirardelli Square! As you can tell the weather was simply amazing!

Ah, the golden gate. It was fun being on this side of it again, seeing that last time I saw the Golden Gate I was cruising under it on vacation! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a day like this here.

A closer picture of the bridge.

Then we ran up about 200 stairs to go to the little visitor center that is at the Golden Gate and snap some pictures. It took me back to when I ran San Fran last year! It was such a fun race and I remember running it and wanting to soak it all in. I still am enamored with this area!

This is looking back across the course after you pass over the Golden Gate. It is so gorgeous and though the view most likely won’t be the same early race morning, I’m still looking forward to the run again this year.

Later that evening I became a little social media nerd and went to a Mashable Event downtown with my friend Page. It was so much fun and there was a fire station we walked by on our way back. Of course I had to take a picture. It just wouldn’t be the same without a fireman picture now would it?

The next day was more running of the course and also sending off a friend for a 24 hour run for cancer. It was simply awesome to see his excitement and to see his humbleness! He was so calm and just joking with all of us there at his send off. It is great to see what some people can do when they set their mind to it.

Later that evening was when I met up with Tara and Martiza and we all traveled to the ART SHOW and bought my first piece of artwork. It was a great evening topped off by Johnny Rockets and a horrible cab ride. :)

The next day we lounged around my hotel room and checked out and then wandered around downtown for just a bit. We grabbed bagels and walked around the Ferry Building for a bit. It was awesome, but I was very tired from the two days of running all over town. I was glad we were keeping it pretty low key that day. We left the city and traveled out to the Easy Bay where they live. We had a delicious lunch with Page again and wandered the streets of the little town. I got some sweet swimsuit bottoms from H&M for 3 dollars each. HA! Then, I had never been inside a lululemon store and I have been hearing tons and tons of hype about it, so I wanted to check it out. I found the cutest shirt…..

I was totally in love! The top is a little bit stripey and I love me some stripes. The bottom is white and though I don’t like wearing white while running I just loved the feel of it. It was adorable until I looked at the price.

Are you taking crazy pills?! Holy cow! I don’t think I’ve ever spent that much money on a regular shirt none the less a running top! I will stick to my tj maxx and nordstrom rack and on a good day hit up a local running store clearance rack for running clothes but that is just insanity. I’ve heard once you try them you can’t go back. Well this girl is never going to try them sheesh louise!

Later that evening we played about a million games of Words With Friends, my new addiction, on our iPhones and just hung out around town. We watched the 40 year old virgin and went to bed to wake up the next morning for a blogger meet up!

I love all the people I’ve met because of my blog. I look like a leper in this picture but I’m in the middle. I ran 8 miles with Maritza and it was a great run. I was happy with how my legs bounced back after the two longer runs I had done in the city for work and was feeling great. We talked the entire time and it’s always fun to talk to other girls about running and racing and all those good things.

( Naomi, Layla, Sandra, me, Page, Maritza and Aron) The day was finished off by a lovely trip to lunch where the best Pina Coladas ever were drank. It was a great trip and I’m so glad I got to meet up with all my friends up there yet again.

I love running. I love San Francisco and most of all I love my friends.

This morning I’m off to run 6 miles and I’m going to run them at a pretty decent time to see how I am feeling with a little bit of speed. I can’t wait to share the rest of the year’s plan and I’m working on my training plan for my next marathon. It will take a few more days to put together. We are moving this weekend and half my stuff is at the new house and half my stuff is still in my suitcase from San Francisco and half my stuff is in boxes. I feel like a little nomad. I’m really excited about the new place though! It will be a great change and a great workout. :)

xoxo

So this past weekend I got the chance to go to a Restitution Press Art show. Now, I’m NOT artistic at all, but I LOVE his stuff. It’s so different and unique and he did a lot of stuff with the LA Marathon. He used a lot of different techniques that make his art very different and the stories behind each piece is pretty cool. Tara, Maritza and I rolled up to a weird little area in the Haight/Ashbury district of San Fran and everyone was wearing all black outside the little store. We were a little sketched out. Once we walked inside thought they had an awesome DJ and a lot to look at and view. It was cool to find more and more little things in each big piece of artwork.

We have been working with him a little bit at work and I was really excited to get the chance to see his work and look at more stuff he’s done.

I LOVE The top piece. I think it’s so LA and the bottom piece had awesome bright colors. I love the new LA Marathon logo on the bottom one too.

This was part of the 26 foot long mural he made for LA. The show was in a place where they screen print t-shirts and there was also live screen printing going on. It was pretty exciting for me! I got a t-shirt and debated if I wanted to get some art. After long talks with Tara and Maritza and a coors light I bought my first piece of art.

He made a whole bunch of images into a large book you could purchase or you could purchase individual pages of the book. I got my favorite page.

Here is the page from another angle. It’s double sided and I’m going to frame it in a black glass frame and I think put it above my bed in my new house! I think behind the bed I am going to paint a gray stripe as well and then put the picture over it. It sounds strange but it looks good in my head.

I told a friend that I got some sweet art and he said, well that automatically makes you cultured. So now, I’m cultured and I have a really awesome part of the LA Marathon to stick with me forever. I thought it’s nice too because it’s definitely a conversation starter and so unique. I love the old school LA Marathon logo on there too.

He is selling his art and more pieces from the show so if you want more information check out his website and contact him.

I’m pretty stoked on being cultured and hip. It feels really cool.

So this past week Thursday through Monday morning bright and early I’ve been having a great time up in San Francisco. Granted, Thursday and Friday were spend going all over town promoting the CA Dreamin’ Racing Series with The San Francisco Marathon and over those two days I basically ran a marathon.

Yea. As of recent I basically was running about 10-15 miles. I wasn’t running much at all. I was just starting to build my base back up. My long runs were still decent but I was just starting to get back on that training pony. Well now I’m officially back on because this past week I ran 8 miles on Sunday, 8 miles on Monday, 14 miles on Thursday and 13 miles on Friday, not to mention walking about 2 miles on Friday around downtown.

We ran a lot of the first half, which I ran last year for the first time, and I enjoyed it. It was simply great weather and every one was out and about enjoying the day.

I made my first trip to Sports Basement! I have heard many of my northern California friends talk about this place and it’s pretty awesome. While I was there I stocked up on a ton of sharkies.

My favorite thing. I love the Golden Gate and am so lucky I can visit it so often. It was so clear out, I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it this clear.

The course is no joke though and I was still exhausted after the first day of running. The second day lead to more running, brainstorming, planning and traveling all over town but it was another beautiful day and then I met up with T & M to go to a Restitution Press art show that evening. I can’t wait to show you my wonderful piece of art that I purchased. I am automatically cultured.

It was absolutely gorgeous weather up in the bay and I do love the area. It’s one of my favorite cities, hands down. The golden gate is so romantic. Sigh. As for work, it was SUPER productive. Way more than I thought even could be, which is really good.

I hung out the rest of the weekend with Tara and Maritza which was awesome per usual. I’ll have the full recap of that tomorrow with more pictures of the trip, my art purchase and also a wonderful blogger meet up!

Let’s just say, another 8 miles did me in for the weekend on Sunday morning, but I think it was just what I needed to get me back into gear. Oh and I got talked into 5 more marathons. That is for another day, along with my training plan. Man, there’s lots to catch up on!

43 miles in a week? I’ll take it, and I’ll take this awesome I can run again attitude too.

xoxo

The gals up at Lucy were kind enough to send me some super cute running gear and I wanted to review it for all you guys.

I first ran in the Propel Tank. I REALLY love the tank. It is very lightweight and loose fitting. Also the print is flattering and I love the colors. It’s also relatively LONG which I love in a tank. So many tanks I find are short and thus not flattering. I didn’t have to pull and tug at this tank to stay down. I also loved the fabric. It’s really soft and you can tell that it’s a great quality garment. EEEEE after run picture….

The green is just my sports bra, nothing to do with the shirt :) I also love the neckline. It fits really well and allows breath ability and is a flattering cut. I am wearing a size medium.

Secondly, I ran in the matching shorts to the shirt. The Distance Run Shorts. I LOVE these shorts. They fit perfectly and are made of a great material. I love the length on them and how they fit when I run. I like the smallish cuts on the side that allow great movement and I like the pocket on the back of them too!

The front view

The back view with the small zipper pocket. They were long enough to not be booty shorts and aren’t super tight. I really love the fabric though. As you can tell from the pictures, there is a band at the top of the shorts and there is a drawstring in there. I really like the band though because it keeps the shorts in place and doesn’t allow them to be saggy.

Then we have the glorious booty shorts that I ran LA in. The Propel Run Shorts. I got these the day before the race at the Lucy tent and I’m all for wearing new clothes while racing. I know many people believe it’s a no-no, I love doing it. These are a tad longer than the ones I usually run in, which was a-okay by me. They have a 4.5 inch inseam and their fabric, again is awesome! I felt like they never rode up during the whole race, which is a huge bonus and they fit perfectly. The band at the waist is another one of my favorite features.

Here’s a few pictures from the LA Marathon and the shorts.

Love the length and the fit!

HA! I may have not been the happiest camper on the course, but my shorts were amazing :)

Finally the finish! :) Also the ‘stripes’ on both the sides of the shorts are reflective stripes.

Just because this was probably the highlight of my interesting experience at the LA Marathon. Firemen! :)

So, the thing I love about Lucy clothes is that they are quality gear. I love their fabrics and they do have some sweet sale items on their websites and in stores. They are PRICEY though. That’s the only downfall. I know their stuff lasts longer but it’s hard for me to fork out big dollars for something I’m just going to sweat in and get dirty and wash constantly. To each their own. I do love their stuff though and have gotten some great finds on sale! :)

xoxo

So I’m finally starting to get back into running. I ran my long run for the weekend Friday afternoon after I got off work and I felt pretty decent the entire time and I finally found the ‘zone’ that I couldn’t get myself to hit for so long. The period where you can just run and nothing hurts and you are just kind of zoinked out. It’s the best part about running and when you start running longer distances, and you can’t seem to hit that zone, it becomes a little difficult. Finally I found myself there again.

On Saturday I went to the gym, got in a quick mile and did some weights and biked 5 miles. We did some heavy lifting aka moving and kept it pretty low key this weekend which was great because when I woke up for my morning run this morning I was actually ready to go and knew I wouldn’t have any trouble getting in my 8 miles again this morning. It was a little bit drizzly out this morning but I wore my LA Marathon hat and pumped up my jams and just went out there and ran. I also stopped for 10 minutes and did 200 sit ups and 50 push ups. I finally am feeling like myself again.

When I got home I was shocked to see my pace was at 8:19 for the 8 miles. I felt like I was running hard, heck I even had to slow myself down at certain points, but I didn’t know I was running that hard.

As I was running this morning I was thinking about my sluggy life over the past twoish months and it made me realize something. It’s not that much of a brain buster but I was just thinking that the only person who can motivate myself is myself. I can read a million blogs about BQing, and racing and running. I can watch a ton of movies about running and racing. I can go through my old pictures and I can go out and run, but if I don’t want to, it’s not going to fare well. This morning I wanted to. Finally. The feeling is back!

And now my back is sore from all those push ups. But a good sore!

xoxo