Foto Friday!

Hooray! So many good things are happening today! #1 on the list, is that I'm getting my new iPhone today! (As soon as I posted this post, um Mr. UPS came! hence the photo above...) Don't worry, I'll be doing a review of it next week after I get a chance to play around with it for a little bit, I still have to post a review of my netbook as well, perhaps I will post that sometime next weekend. #2, going to a rehearsal dinner tonight for the wedding of Mr. R's friend (and my friends too!). #3, I went running this morning! I ran two whole miles! Ha ha, but I did realize that I haven't run in a long time, my body was super stiff. My knees were hurting a lot but it felt good to get out there and run again, and I'm glad that I'm back in the game. I didn't have a bark cough at all either, which was promising! Now I can run again and of course, I wanted to share some pictures of the June Gloom that still plagues my house every morning.

This is the bay I ran by, notice, there is a swimmer in there! I have huge respect for swimmers who swim there.

That's downtown Long Beach in the hazy fog

Houses line on side of the beach, but I LOVE all those palm trees lined up.

Here's the path I travel the most! I love this path but this morning, I was sucking wind. Ha, ha, I will be back in the longer distances soon though!

So tractors drag the sand across the whole beach every morning so that it looks flat and the way it does. I feel like I am letting out some secrets of the beach here. I think it would be fun to drive that tractor though!

YAY! Here's a picture of me. 6:15 am came a little early this morning, but this just shows that I don't always look so dapper. Also, that's the Rock and Roll Marathon shirt. I am not in love with it but oh well, it's a running shirt. So after the run, I stretched really good and did 100 sit ups and 25 push ups. I know I'll be back into the swing of things in no time, and even though I was sick, it was nice to give my body a rest, and let my toenail heal as well. Next week I'll start the training plan that I had originally thought of and it looks like I'll just bump down the mileage for the long runs by a little bit. As I was running 2 miles, I though, how in the world did I EVER run 26.2 miles?

So yesterday I posted about linking to every one's sites and boy I have a lot of new cool sites to check out as well! Thanks for posting everyone! If you would be so kind to also update your blog roll to include my blog, that would be great. Just update it to be http://www.chicrunner.com/, even though my new site is not up yet, it will be on Monday, and then it will be all set up to hit the right site! Thanks again and I look forward to creeping around on some new sites.

So creep around on Monday for the new site will be up and running, and I hope it lives up to this hype I've created for it. Tomorrow I plan to run a nice little 5 miler in the morning and then will be at the wedding all afternoon and of course I'll post pictures. :) I got an black eightyish dress that I will be sporting and I'm pretty excited about the day, it will be lots of fun!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and can fall asleep since you all are so excited about this new site. There I go with the hype again. Gosh, somebody stop me!

xoxo

PS So many of you complimented my sunglasses in my car wash post. They are from Forever 21 if you wanted to lurk over to their site.

Welcome to my bano.

Remember the home tour I was taking part in? You know, the one that showed off my kitchen, dining room and living room and the 'guest' room aka my roommates room and then I realized I don't have much of a house left after that? Well they've been busy doing offices, baby rooms and rooms that don't exist in my house, but today I can participate again! Today over at Kelly's Korner its bathroom day!

This is the entrance to the bathroom. Our bathroom is super tiny but we've never actually had any problems with it or getting ready in it. It's also the only bathroom in our home.

Here's the shower, I love the archway that is over it, and it's all tiled. Our shower curtain is black, shocking, I know. We have these cute little crystal shower curtain holders which I really like too.

Here's the inside of the shower and yes, that is a little rubber ducky. I found him randomly in a drawer and we put him in the shower when we moved in. He's stayed there! I love the tiling in our bathroom, and it's a shower tub, but I thought taking excessive pictures of the tub would probably bore you.

Then turn around and you'll see our sink! It's a pedestal sink and I really like that as well. We have one medicine cabinet above it, and the towel rack as well. That tealish thing in the mirror is actually a window that pops out.

This is the little hanging sign that is above the hand towel rack in the picture above. This sign cracks me up. It's funny too because I LOVE making my hair big, especially after a few drinks, it just keeps growing for some reason. I saw this sign and had to get it. Plus it was like 72 cents at Target.

Then you can look directly to the toilet from the sink! Told you our bathroom was small!

This is also where the bathroom gets a little weird. Not surprisingly, our bathmat and toilet mat are black, but if you notice where the toilet paper is, on the other side of the sink? Yup, it's along reach so we got a toilet paper stand. And yup, there is a heater right next to the toilet as well. Oh well it works out, but I have heard some guys say that it's a pretty tight fit in there, which makes me laugh.

Last weekend was the Bachelorette party that I went to in San Luis Obispo and it was incredibly fun. I'm so glad I went, but I was super bummed that I left my license at home. We were going wine tasting. STUPID, but it was TOTALLY something I would do. I told my two best friends and Mr. R and they weren't surprised at all. Luckily two wineries still let me taste (the shame!) and two didn't, but according to everyone, I tasted at the two best wineries. It was gorgeous weather and so much fun. We also went out to a bar that night, and they even let me in with my school id (yup, four year old picture!), some credit cards and my insurance card that had my birthday on it. Double Bonus.

The hostess younger brother and his friend drove us around (and enjoyed it! They were the BEST) and at the last winery, where everyone else was drinking, they took me to 7-11 and bought me some Smirnoff ice, I chugged it while in the parking lot sitting in the car. Don't worry, I wasn't drinking while the car was in motion! The chugging them was a stupid idea, but it was hilarious sitting with them and waiting for the girls. Then we got out and I jumped over some plants? It was strange but super funny. Then I got heartburn from drinking them too fast. Then we went home and watched Twilight and dang, Robert Pattison, I was never attracted to you and never saw what everyone was hooting and hollering about, but sign me up on the stalker train now!

And here is the lovely bride to be! I will just call her Sunwalk, since that is my nickname for her anyways. She is getting married NEXT WEEKEND! I am so excited for her and I know she will make a beautiful bride and their wedding will be gorgeous. Mr. R is in the wedding for her soon to be husband, so perhaps I'll post some pictures for you wedding fiends after that wedding. Sorry, I don't know why the picture is so dark. There are tons of other pictures from the weekend, but I haven't gotten them yet, so perhaps more might show up at a later date. :)

This weekend my only goal is to kick this sickness I have into 2010. Oh, and I'm getting a haircut. Well trim. I'm super anal about getting my haircut every 6 weeks and it's been almost 2 months. I can't wait. I have some stuff going on on Saturday and Sunday, I think I will go look at some new home options for Mr. R, since he is moving late July. New home in CA means very overpriced apartments. Though Mr. R feels safe in all locations, I don't! So we'll see what he has found. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and is able to get your run on. I wish I could be running but breathing through my nose is out of the question. Yea that whole post I did this week about my training schedule... see things like this happen and you can't stick to the schedule. Meh! I'll be back on the streets soon, as in running on the streets soon. :)

xoxo

Foto frizziday

So it's raining outside. Raining in CA? Yea, pretty much all the news stations screamed we were on 'Storm Watch' 2009 this morning while I was getting ready for work. Storm Watch? Really? Is that necessary? It's barely drizzling on my way to work and all I can see is break lights from crazy drivers stopping and going ahead of me. Seriously people, it's just water, that is falling from the sky. The rest of the world enjoys this more often than we do, but I feel like us Californias can embrace it too. It's not a storm if two drops hit my head on my walk in from my car to my office. Sadly, the rain does make my hair frizz like a lion main though! Luckily, it's not raining too hard. It's so strange though, June Gloom is taking on a whole new level of gloominess!

So it's Foto Friday. I love Fridays and I love Fotos. I don't necessarily like the fact that I spell it Foto Friday on Fridays, but oh well, what can you do.

So I saw this on my way to San Diego this past weekend and KNEW I would HAVE to blog it. How hilarious is this! Then in my pre-hormonal (we all know what happened at mile 8) I almost started crying at how cute it was. If you can't read it, it says 18 years with Mrs. Right and on the side it says Happy Anniversary.

Then I saw this. Heart with an s and then l8krs. Ha ha ha ha. Wow, as much as I HATE the Lakers, I put this up for my coworkers who are laker freaks. Emphasis on the freaks. Just kidding Yaya and Carne. :)

Now we all remember how I like to talk about the photo shoot I did with Webbed Foot Photography and how obsessed I am with her and her shoots. So I'm putting up more pictures of myself that she took. I find them amazing and I can't just let them sit on my computer, now can I.

I am going to be doing a lot more of these... I need to get my abs back into shape! Too many trips to Yogurt land, and any fast food restaurant in my general vicinity has done me in.

Can I just tell you that I'm just completely obsessed with this picture. I adore it. I also know I'm completely spoiled because yes, this picture was taken on the 'beach path' that I get to run on EVERYDAY since it's outside my front yard. Sigh, how can I ever even be remotely unhappy.

Then, check out this sweet picture. Now you might remember the 'official' race photos and how I stated I was sad that my time said 4:31 but I had the net time of 4:28. I know why this happens and it's because I crossed the starting line before this clock started, it all makes sense to me as a runner chip time and 'picture time' can be different. Now, I realize this is somewhat cheating, and I could get whatever number I wanted put on the clock, but I did make my "A" Goal in finishing under 4:30 and that's why the 4:31 made me sad. BUT, a faithful reader, who is obviously better at photo shop than me (you can see examples here and here) photo shopped my time to say my net time, which was 4:28. I feel bad for about 5 seconds and then I don't care anymore as my snazzy new time looks good up there. TAKE THAT RACE PICTURE! Now, that was the sweetest gesture ever and I am graceful that she also cut out, the suffering woman in front of me.

This weekend I'm going to San Luis Obispo for a Bachelorette party. Wahoo! Running up there should be amazing and I heard they might have some alcohol laying around those parts that needs to be consumed, but we'll see... :) Have a wonderful weekend and next week I have some more reviews, my training plan for the upcoming San Fransisco Half Marathon, and you know, pictures that I find to be amusing.

xoxo

Foto Friday + Long Weekend = Happy!

So today is the obvious Foto Friday, and it's quite possibly my most favorite day of the week. Though I can't jump on the Kelly's Korner Blog's Dining Room day, since I don't really have a dining room, I did post a few pictures of it with the kitchen post, which you can check out here.

The wonderful Julianne also took this picture for me that I decided I MUST include for my foto Friday. It was at Bay to Breakers this past weekend and these boys are WEARING SNUGGIES! How awesome is that. I guess it was hotter than ever up there during the drunk fest race, so that makes it even more amazing. At least they had their hands free. Perhaps you missed the post where I got my snuggie...

This past weekend and this weekend I have a bunch of my friends graduating from college. Congrats to Roomie tomorrow and all the CUI grads last weekend. I actually met up with them for some drinks on Friday night to celebrate. Guess who else is back from playing volleyball in Europe! My best friend Lobster! I'm so glad she's home and I LOVE being able to call her and talk to her whenever I want. She is amazing and already got an amazing job, so I'm super excited for her. We all hung out at our favorite bar that we frequented every night on very rare occasions during our college years.

I don't know why, but this picture makes me laugh a lot.

So onto some hydration tips. First of all, I didn't realize (man I didn't realize a lot of things, huh!) How you can get dehydrated so quickly especially out running and what it does to your body. With the summer heat quickly approaching, it's super important to take in a lot of fluids. Also, alcohol and soda can dehydrate you even more. I used to only drink Gatorade or G2 or a power aide type drink, but I have come to realize that the sugars in those are not the best thing for you.

I have recently tried the product Nuun instead of just water, and I really liked it. I have yet to try out some other products but these are similar to an alka seltzer tablet that you drop in water and it dissolves and then you can drink it on your run. It's much different than a Gatorade or power aide type drink for me because after running 15 miles, I definitely don't want to drink something that sweet. I would much rather drink something refreshing like water or a drink that is filled with good sugars and electrolytes. I will be posting a complete review of the Nuun soon, but I really liked it and their flavors are awesome.

Make sure that you are drinking a lot on a long run. Also if you aren't with a fuel belt, then try to stop by a water fountain on your run. I am lucky enough that there are a ton of these around my house on the beach path. I usually try to take a swallow of water every mile and it makes it easier to remember to drink. I know that some people have a problem with getting cramps when drinking water but that I why I limit my water intake but I also make sure that I keep drinking water on my run.

Also, not only when you are running is drinking and being hydrated important but it can help you so much in your daily life, which also can help your running. I try to drink 4-6 bottles of water a day and one cup once I get home. It stinks to have to get up and go to the bathroom but at the same time, since I started doing that I have began to see a small difference in my skin and I really feel refreshed when I drink that much water. It sounds lame but it's true.

So now onto some more of my favorite running bloggers!

These first few have been my rock(s) during my training for the San Diego Marathon Aron, Tara, Alisa, Maritza, and Julianne. Though, I have to give all the credit to this Billy guy who convinced me to sign up in the first place. They have all been nothing but encouraging and are the greatest running friends to me. I am actually super excited to meet them all (well minus Billy, he's gotten me into some other interesting trail running and races, so I've met him before) down in San Diego next weekend.

As for some other great runners, Marlene is super inspiring and a great runner. Julie does triathlons and that is way more hardcore than I'll ever be. Girl on Top reminds me of myself sometimes :) JLC doesn't talk about running *that* much but when she does it's super fun to see her progress and I absolutely adore her blog, it's so fun and interesting. Angry Julie Monday is a blogger that is from the OC like me! She is very fun and one of these days I'm going to pace her in a half marathon (tell me when Julie!!!) Last, but not least is Candice and she is the cutest thing ever. She has another interesting blog and though it's not totally devoted to running it's a great read and when she does talk about running it's always inspiring.

Well this is my last weekend as a marathon virgin. I am excited about my last run tomorrow before the race and I am excited to run San Diego. It will be fun and something I know I'll never forget. Can't wait to say yea, I ran a marathon. 26.2 miles, pssssh. :) Hope everyone has a great weekend! Mines full of getting ready for my roommate's graduation, running, cleaning, and errands. Now the house we live in together is officially full of two BAs. Graduates with their BAs of course.

xoxo

PS! Don't worry! SAN DIEGO IS NEXT WEEKEND. Save all the good lucks for then because then I'll need it, but thanks for the good lucks for this weekend, cheers to that. :)

Mi casa es su casa.

So as I said yesterday, I was going to jump on the bandwagon over at Kelly's Korner and for photo Friday I wanted to show some pictures of my house. Well it's not so much a house, but more of an apartment. One of my best friends that I met in middle school and I live together. I have really loved living with her and I absolutely LOVE where we live. We live less than a block away from the beach and also less than a block away from a ton of cute boutique shops and restaurants. It's a super fun and young area and I love living with my roommate too. We live in an apartment built in the 1920's and when we walked in, we both immediately fell in love with it. There are so many unique features that we both love and it has so much charm, like all the cupboards don't close! :) It's so cute though and has really cool sconces, arched hallways, all wood floors and high ceilings. Last week they did the kitchens and I missed out so I thought I would start with the kitchen and then work into what they are doing today, living rooms! :) Enjoy!

This is on one wall of our kitchen. It used to be an ironing board pop out, but then I guess at some point it was converted to a shelving section? We love it though, and the cute little cupboard underneath? That holds around 50 shot glasses. Hey, were are still young! :)

This is our kitchen basically. It's very small but we don't need much room. We live off of eating macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese and edamame. As you probably noticed we don't have a dishwasher. At first I thought this was going to be horrible, but when you don't eat a ton of food, it's not that bad. Also, we keep saying we are going to put a curtain over our trash bag section/cleaning section under our sink and we never get around to it. Notice the cupboards. Yup, they don't stay shut. Notice the Hello Kitty Toaster, which I posted about how great it works here. A toaster is a toaster though! :)

Here's the other side of our kitchen! ha ha, the stove looks old and it's a little kooky but let's be honest, we don't use it all that much. Yup, some more cupboards that don't stay shut and all our cool magnets. The fridge? I posted what was in it a while back, Check it out and don't judge me. :)

Now This is the table and 'booze cabinet' That little built in cabinet holds all our hard alcohol, you know, to go with the shot glasses. The table we got at Target and the chairs are from Ikea. I really like the table and it is a great addition to our house. Sometimes my roommate and I sit at the table and eat our lavishly prepared grilled cheeses here.

Here's another view of our table in our little mini dining room. I seriously love the chairs. Also you will probably notice we have a TON of windows in our little home. It lets in great light during the day but these pictures were all taken at night.

This is the room leading off from the dining room, and our den/living room. Those pillows are like a little dachshund, which my roommate has two of that live at her parents. That huge frame? Those are all pictures of us throughout middle and high school. It's kind of embarrassing. We keep saying we are going to move that little frame holder to the dining room, but alas, perhaps I will do that this weekend.

One of my favorite parts of the place, that little window on the door OPENS. It's hilarious. This little table we found at an 'alley' sale by our house along with two of those lamps. It was an alley sale since very few people have garages where we live. We keep our keys on the table and that picture is of us in Cabo, Mexico in the pool. It's one of my favorite pictures of us.

Here's pretty much our entire living room/den area! We have the ottoman, the entertainment center and the couch. The ottoman is COMPLETELY full of my roommate's DVD collection. She is amazing at collecting DVDs. You can also see my other favorite part of the house, the 'fireplace'. It's just a sculpture on the wall, but I love it. It's so cute, strange but cute. Since it's usually just her and I, we don't need much seating or room.

Here is my pride and joy, my 42' plasma flat screen tv and the entertainment center that I just got. It's from Ikea and I was so impatient to get it put together that I put it together over a three hour time period until 1 am one night. It was a lot of hard work, but I love how it looks and holds some of our DVDs and my Wii.

Here's a close up of the fireplace. We keep saying we are going to hang the mirror somewhere, and the letters. In due time I guess it will happen. We just need someone to help us girls! Anyone, Anyone?


So that is my kitchen and living room! I hope you all enjoyed it.


The run I did last night was pretty much the craziest thing I have EVER done and it included a swim... in my running clothes. I want to give a full recap, but I am hoping that someone will post some pictures soon so no detail is left out.


Have a great weekend, tomorrow I have my last 20 miler before the San Diego Marathon. I can't believe that it's getting so close and how excited I am feeling. I am going to try out more of my new gus on my long run and that will be the true test of them. I will write up a review of them soon!

Also, you should go on over to The Southern Social and vote for my 1st date outfit, just because you love me, but if you don't vote for me at least pick the one with the green and blue because that one is second best. :)

xoxo

Blame it on the ch-ch-ch-ch-ceviche

The title has nothing to do with the post, it's just something funny that we say where I work all the time. Oh well! Onto some pictures!

Well it's another NikeMom's Foto Friday. Hooray! I love me some photo Friday and I have some interesting photos from the past few days. First off, here's one of me and the bro, T last weekend when we went out to dinner. This was the same night when he was walking away for me and I called his name to remind him where to cross the street and someone looked to him and said, "Hey bro, your mom's calling you." FAIL.

Then we have some great pictures from my recent 20 miler. This was me ready to go!

Then we have the lovely ice bath picture. I literally just used cold water and a bag of ice, but it was almost melted at this point. I wore my bathing suit and it WASN'T fun but I listened to my ipod to pass time. I really like my alfalfa hair in this picture.

Finally, yesterday I was a good car owner and got my car washed and oil changed. I drive a Scion TC and my nickname is Koo. My liscence plate even says, "The Koo". If my mom knew what I was driving around in she would probably tell me that I was, "living in filth." It was getting to the point where my car was getting too disgusting. I don't think I've washed it since October! To my defense though, "The Koo" is parked outside ALL day and ALL night. There is no covering, so it's constantly being bombed by leaves, bird poop, fog, mist, rain, etc. But now! Now look how speedy and clean my little squirrel is! I am a proud mama. Driving home last night was kind of weird though, because my car was SO clean.

I am still contemplating the race on Sunday. I think I will probably end up doing it though. Yesterday I ran 7.25 miles, with the first 5 miles at 8:44 pace, and the next mile at 7:47 pace and then a cool down 1.25 mile at 10:00 pace. I was TIRED after that. I haven't done speed work in so long and pushing myself that hard was tough, but I felt good getting in some speed work. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I will be posting the Adoption April Q&A's on Monday and my Garmin Review on Tuesday! Good luck to all those racing this weekend, kick some serious butt!

xoxo

Easter Weekend...

Since it's Photo Friday, I wanted to share with you guys some pictures from LAST Easter weekend! I went up to Mr. R's grandpa and grandma's house. I don't even know if they live in a city or where we were, but it was gorgeous.

From their front yard. They don't have neighbors. How cool is that? That's Mr. R's Car, Babs the Audi too. :)

Mr. R and I went on an ATV ride across their land.

There were a lot of these cows mooing about, I am scared of them! They are HUGE.

See! I could live on a farm... cough... cough..



It's always so nice for me to visit the area where Mr. R grew up. It's so different from being in the city and I LOVE it up there. It's nice to unwind and makes me think that yes, one day I will be able to move out of CA. I love you CA, but sometimes you are just a little bit to crazy for me. I can't even imagine being able to run and not thinking about getting run over by a car! Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter Weekend! As for Mr. R and I, this year we will be in HAWAII! I'm actually flying over there right as this is being posted... :)



xoxo

Take me out to the ball game...

It's my favorite time of year, it's time...... FOR BASEBALL!!!!

So I'm a huge Anaheim Angel's Fan, forget the Anaheim Angels of Los Angles per Orange County or whatever stupid title they officially are, and yes I loathe the Dodgers. Mr. R loves the Giants, booooo!!! but will go with me to games because what else is he going to do, deny free baseball game tickets?? He's becoming an Angel lover, slowly... we are working on it :) Anyways, games are starting this weekend. I am so excited. For today's photo Friday (per the wonderful nike mom!!) I wanted to post some pictures at the games that I went to last year. I love going to the games, they are spectacular and always super fun.

Free Fleece Night!

This is my best friend Lobster. :) She is in Europe playing professional volleyball right now, but she is coming home soon!

Dyed my hair black... interesting.

Bunch of my friends from college. Gosh that makes me sound super old. They are all volleyball players. I'm not short, I'm 5'7", they are just super tall!

A crazy fight broke out last year, it was exciting!

Fourth of July they had an amazing flag that spread almost the entire field!

That's right, my shirt says I only date republicans. Mr. R and I at the 4th of July game.

Then I cut bangs in October. STUPID.

We even got to go to a playoffs game. When they lost after coming back. Bad Angeles!

Go Angels! I love the Angels even if they stink, they are still, and always will be, my 'home team'.

If you haven't already, remember to enter my giveaway for $100 to onlineshoes.com! You don't want to miss out on that one. You have until Wednesday at midnight PST.

Also, ADOPTION APRIL STARTS ON MONDAY!!! Here's the post that explains what each Monday will entail and look for the post on Monday to talk about why I was adopted in the first place.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm looking forward to running to my 10k, running the 10k, and then running back home for my long run this weekend. I'm not giving myself any goals because I don't want to get upset with myself. (me, uber competitive? noooo!) Plus it's for a long run, not a time goal! I'll still write a race report/long run recap on Tuesday of next week. In one week I'll be flying to Hawaii! Relaxation, here I come.

xoxo