Marathon Prepping – One Month To Go

As of Friday, I am officially one month away from the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco.  I am terrified. No, really. I know a lot of people say that, but I am truly terrified.  I’ve thought more than once I made a mistake in signing up for this. 26.2 miles is a lot, what was I thinking?! But, I’m doing my best to prep for the up coming race in addition to my training (which I feel like I’ve been a majorly slacking on, which only adds to my anxiety.)

First, I ordered a CamelBak.  Megan over at Mega Nerd Runs reccommended the Annadel model which holds 50oz of fluid and comes in this fun teal color! She’s even got a little Amazon store set up where you can find the pack for a bit less than retail.

And for good measure here are some “outtakes” while I attempted to take a photo of myself wearing the pack.

 

There’s Bits in the background, looking out the bathroom window while her momma acts a fool.

 

I haven’t run with the CamelBak yet, but plan on trying it on my 20 miler next weekend.  To say that I am concerned about my physical ability to complete 20 miles is a huge understatement. My only goal for this marathon has gone from finishing strong in under 5 hours, to finishing in 6 hours to simply finishing. I don’t care if I have to crawl across the finish line I want that Tiffany necklace. Good motivation, right?

Just as an FYI this is the description from the race website of the course:

 

“The Nike Women’s Marathon and half marathon courses will remain the same as the courses have been since 2005. The race will kick off in Downtown San Francisco at Union Square and head through the financial district past the famous TransAmerica building. It will then proceed along the San Francisco Bay past Fisherman’s Wharf, Aquatic Park, Ghirardelli Square, Fort Mason and Marina Green while revealing breathtaking views of Alcatraz and The Golden Gate Bridge. The course then weaves through the Presidio and Sea Cliff districts, out to the Great Highway, through Golden Gate Park and south around Lake Merced, finishing just north of the Great Highway along the Pacific Ocean.”

 

It will be a beautiful course, I’m sure, which I’m really hoping will help keep me on my feet and moving forward.

The other day, on LivingSocial there was a deal for Arch & Sole, a local running store. $25 for $50 of merchandise. I quickly snatched that up, and spent Sunday afternoon in the store asking the owner questions and eventually purchasing some items.  Now that my left knee isn’t so painful (nearly no pain when running with the brace,) my right knee is acting up, mostly around my IT band, and I had some questions about the possibility of needing extra support in my shoes.  I went in, asked my questions, the owner analyzed my gait and let me know, after looking at my shoes for wear, I may be getting TOO MUCH support in my right foot, where my arch isn’t as weak, but that he thinks it’s most likely an issue of my right side compensating for weakness on my left with my runner’s knee. He said to keep doing what I’m doing, foam roll more, and stretch really well and if that still doesn’t help (he also said wearing a knee sleeve may be adding to the issue, especially if it’s too small) to come back and he’d have me try some other shoes.  He didn’t want me to buy another pair of shoes just yet though, saying wear-wise it looked okay.

So, instead, I picked up two pairs of socks, some Gu gels, and a lightweight long sleeved shirt (which will probably be needed during my race!)

After my coupon I just paid $2.16!  So all in all, the shirt, socks and Gu cost me under $30, which is a great deal as far as I’m concerned.

I also picked up this gem that was in their stash of local info and what not:

Rolling Out by Ashley Borden - some tips and exercises for the foam roller.

I’m trying to stay positive, and get excited about this race, but I have to be honesty, even short runs have become difficult to motivate myself.  I know most of this is stress related.  I’m a worst case scenario kinda gal, so not feeling 100% confident in this is only exacerbating my current stress. Lately, all I can think about are the things I SHOULD HAVE been doing from the get go.  Strength training, stretching, foam rolling, icing, more rest.  Obviously, I can’t go back, but I do still have 4 weeks left, so I’m going to make the most of them.

One thing that helps is reading Ali over at Ali on the Run‘s blogs about her marathon prep. She is so amped that I can’t help but feel even a tiny bit of that energy after reading her posts!

Time to focus on more stress relief in the form of warm baths, stretching and DIY mani-pedis. ;)

 

What’s your best stress relief tip?

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Catherine, September 19th 2011 | Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in 2011, life, Los Angeles, Marathon, San Francisco, shopping, training

Villas and WalMart

Sunday, we had planned to go to the Getty Villa.  Mikela is moving at the end of the month and it was one of the places on her checklist, so we made our reservation and headed out to Malibu.

Luckily the weather was perfect!

Before the museum, a few of us met up at a gas station in Malibu, where I found FloJos!  These are my favorite kind of flip flop, and probably the most comfortable pair I’ve ever found.  I bought a pair like five years ago, and they had worn down to nearly nothing, but I kept putting off replacing them, because I couldn’t find the FloJos.  Today, I found them IN the gas station. Obviously, I bought a pair.

I seriously considered buying two pair but thought that might be a bit much. I went with basic black to replace my old pair.

I’ve only been to the Getty Museum the Brentwood area, but I’d never been to the Villa before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The Getty Villa has free entrance, but $15 parking. If you go in a group, splitting the parking, it’s totally worth it.  The grounds were beautiful, and there were lots of gorgeous marble statues, as well as a really interesting exhibit about the restoration of a bronze statue of Apollo.  They also had an exhibit that showed photography of Jerusalem from the 1800s that was fascinating.   We couldn’t take photos inside, so all my pictures are from the grounds.

 

 

 

 

After we left the museum, we headed north on Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) and went to Neptune’s Net for some early dinner.  I had also never been there, and got a giant basket of fried fish, shrimp and a crab cake with fries.

I wish I had gotten steamed food. Sadly, a large amount of my food went to waste as I couldn’t really stomach all the greasy food.  The views however, were beautiful and well worth the trip.

 

We decided to go further north on PCH and connect to the 101 freeway to go home, thinking it would save time, but instead it was a longer way around.  However, we did stop in the Agoura Hills area to go to WalMart where I picked up things like windshield wiper fluid, toilet paper, baby wipes (for the kittehs,) a book, some frames (I’ll show you the project once it’s all hung,) and razors.  I hadn’t bought razors in like… almost a year.  They were one of the items I kept putting off buying because they’re kind of expensive.  So, maybe a year ago I bought two four packs, and just used each razor until I couldn’t anymore, then I moved on to Travis’ razors because he has a beard, and doesn’t shave on a regular basis.  I know it sounds gross, but you’d be surprised how long eight razors last!

What household item do you scrimp or put off purchasing?

 

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Catherine, March 14th 2011 | Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in 2011, food, life, Los Angeles, shoes, shopping

Purchases: Shopping Made Fun Again

For the last five years or so, I’ve kind of hated shopping.  It felt like most of the time I never had money to shop, and when I did have some money, I could never find what I was looking for.  Then, when I began my debt destruction plan, shopping for clothes that weren’t super necessary became a distant memory, and I really stopped shopping altogether.  It became too sad, walking around, looking at all the things I knew I couldn’t afford to buy.  Plus, there were times throughout the last few years when I haven’t felt great about my body, and it felt like finding anything that fit in a way that wasn’t unflattering was nearly impossible.

I knew there were items I needed for my work wardrobe, so, when I received my tax refund, I set aside some money (after paying my debt off completely,) to start filling in the missing pieces.

I didn’t take pictures in the dressing room while I was shopping on Saturday, but I was able to find images of the things I purchased at Ann Taylor Loft on their website.  Well, all except a grey cardigan, but I’m sure you can visualize that ;) I wasn’t able to find the tops I got at Gap, so, those will have to wait until I actually wear them, I guess.

Just for fun, here are my purchases!

Jacket, something I definitely needed.  I don’t own any lightweight, slightly dressy jackets. This means I always wear cardigans or hoodies.  Hoodies, are not what I would deem work appropriate.  I’m pretty sure my boss agrees ;)

This top looks really cute under the jacket, and goes with dressier pants, or jeans, and will also go well with a pair of shorts that I have. Win, win, win, right?

 

I wasn’t sure about this dress at first.  The truth is, in the dressing room, the first time I put it on, I didn’t put it on correctly and I kind of hated it.  Then, when I tried it on a second time for Mikela, I figured out the lining of the dress, and I liked it better.  I only have a couple of casual dresses so this was a great addition.

Basic work pants.  I already have a pair of these in black, and this pair will replace a pair of American Eagle pants that are missing a button and have a wonky hem after four years of wear.  I’m planning on purchasing another pair, probably in black again because I really like the way they fit.  Although, my first pair was regular sized, I purchased this pair in petite.  The woman working in the dressing room was super helpful and let me know that going with a petite size would help with the issue I had with the length of the pants I tried on Saturday.  Her suggestion was also to go up a size if I went with the petite pants, which was a great suggestion.

 

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Catherine, March 14th 2011 | Tags: , ,
Posted in 2011, life, money, shopping

For the Feets

So, I really like shoes. I know, I’ve said it before, and talked about my shoes before, but seriously, shoes are awesome.  Saturday, I had an errand to run in the West LA area, and made plans to have breakfast/brunch/lunch with a friend once she was done with yoga.  Well, I finished my errand earlier than expected, and decided to stop at the Payless Shoestore on Washington and Inglewood, because while I do love shoes, I really love cute, inexpensive shoes, and lately, Payless has totally been delivering on cute, affordable shoes.  Also, I’ve been looking for a pair of flat boots for ….years. I just couldn’t commit to a pair, and finally, I found them.

I also found this adorable pair of purple wedges for $10. TEN DOLLARS people. I couldn’t NOT get them.

Add to that the extra 20% off I got for signing up for their text alerts (which I then unsubscribed from,) and I got both pairs of shoes for about $40.  I was thrilled, and I even wore the boots to work on Monday :)   What’s your best shoe find?

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Catherine, January 12th 2011 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in shoes

Avoiding Temptation: Money Saving Tips

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I’m not a big shopper, and do a majority of my shopping (with the exception of grocery) online.  I find the whole process so much easier and less of a headache.  I don’t have to park anywhere, or fight crowds of people with babies and/or small dogs.  I don’t have to shuffle through racks of clothes to find, the one item I am looking for is not in my size. Sure there’s the downside of purchasing someone online that turns out to be the wrong size, or not quite what you expected, but returns are usually pretty easy.

Another challenge of online shopping?  Those pesky marketing emails you get every few days in your inbox, shouting at you about the amazing sales, new items, earn extra points opportunity.  Now, for someone who isn’t trying to stick to a budget, or has all the money in the world to spend how she wishes, these emails wouldn’t be a problem, and the truth is, even for penny pinchers like me, they come in handy.  I can time my purchases around sales, and when I have merchant specific coupons.  In fact, I do this frequently.  However, when times are quite lean, instead of seeing them as helpful, it’s like they are mocking me.

So, if you are in the first stages of budgeting, or are in a tight spot, or are just tired of feeling harranged by your inbox contents, here’s what I did.  I opened each email I received and altered my subscription settings.  For the stores that I really love, and tend to get coupons/loyalty discounts from, I selected once a month.  From stores that I still like a lot, but don’t shop as frequently, but feel that pull of temptation I unsubscribed completely.

Here’s the beauty in doing this, you can always go back and re-subscribe to the direct mailers once you are feeling more flush with cash.  I don’t know about you, but not seeing sales every day in my inbox keeps my shopping itch at bay.


Question: What measures do you take to avoid temptations?

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Catherine, August 31st 2010 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in goals, lessons, life, money, the internet

Weekend Re-Cap

Saturday:

Pre-Run Breakfast was a bowl of Puffin Original and some PowerBar Endurance.

After the run, I took a shower and met some friends for lunch at The Farm inside The Grove.  It was delicious, I had a coke to drink and a ham and cheese sandwich on pretzel bread with sweet potato fries.

This sandwich was delicious, but I only ate half..and almost all the fries.

When I got home, I looked around and decided it was time to clean up the office/my closet. Things had gotten somewhat shameful in how messy the room was.

The girls helped with the clean up process:

Post Clean Up:

I managed to clean out my closet/clothing a bit during this clean up process, and added my stuff to Travis’ GoodWill Pile.

After all the clean up, I put on a new outfit I got on sale at The Gap at The Grove yesterday.  I have to share, because they were having a buy one get one free sale on tops and an 40% off on sale denim, and an additional 15% off sale items and 30% off regular items when you used your Gap (or banana republic) card.  I got a pair of jeans ($11.98) and two tops for $40!  The level of excitement was through the roof.  Travis and I then made our way out to Burbank to have dinner with our friends, and we ended up at The Castaways.   It’s a restaurant at the top of one of the Burbank hills where you have an amazing view of the valley.  I’d been there several times to dance at St. Patrick’s Day shows but had never actually eaten at the restaurant.

I ordered the Prime Rib….it was delicious, but I only ate about a quarter of the steak.  I tore into the potato and those veggies though. So, so tasty.  Prime Rib is my favorite cut of meat ever, but I have to say (and maybe this is from eating less red meat lately?) it was very heavy.  I definitely took a lot of that steak home.

Sunday:

I didn’t have time to eat breakfast this morning because I lazed around the apartment a little too long before I was supposed to meet the crew for our weekly Sunday Runyon hike.  This was a mistake, because getting up the stairs was REALLY hard today.   I brought my camera  but left it in the car because it was so overcast this morning, I didn’t think I’d be able to get any good pictures.  I used my Garmin Forerunner to track the hike, but had a little difficulty.  I started the timer as I left my car and walked up the steep street to get to the entrance to Runyon Canyon, but then we waited about 15 minutes for our whole group to arrive, and I hadn’t turned the timer off.  I think it messed a bit with the pacing, and I know it messed up the timing.  Then, when we were leaving I turned it off before we started the walk back to the car, so I didn’t really get the whole experience. Oops.

Anyway, according to the Garmin the hike was 2.03 miles.  We ascended 998 feet and descended 800 feet.  Our total time was listed as 1:10:41 with a pace of 34:52 per mile.  We were not in a rush, and I don’t know if I could have managed going any faster on no fuel.  After the hike we went to Kings Road Cafe which is in my old neighborhood, and had brunch.

I had the Garden Burger Scramble which came with tomato and avocado.  I asked that they add goat cheese, which was delicious.  I also ate all the potatoes and the bread, so yummy, and I definitely needed this food after a hike on an empty stomach.  Now I’m home, and contemplating a quick nap with the kittehs before we need to do some grocery shopping.

Calypso is already one step ahead of me…

That is my new outfit from yesterday that is still clean, at least for now.

Yesterday I also purchased Florence + The Machine  Lungs.  It is awesome. I highly recommend it!


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Catherine, July 11th 2010 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in Calypso, Eating, food, life, Los Angeles, music, Peanut, Runyon Canyon, training