Big Girl Panties and other August Goals!

Running it’s time for us to take a break.

I’m still feeling super ACCOMPLISHED from tackling the San Francisco Marathon and becoming a marathoner. Buuuuttt….I’m so over running. I’ve been dying to do some other type of workout. Also the vacationing, the crazy orientation programming, and running for miles means I’ve been treating my tummy like a garbage can of delicious crap. It’s time to reign that ish back.

August it’s time to put on the big girl panties and get back to some basics.

1. Sign up for Pure Barre (1 month unlimited $100)

I loved what Bar Method did for my body when I was taking those classes. However the $175 membership just got out of my price range. Pure Barre is even more expensive with $220 a month unlimited membership but they offer a newbie deal of $100 for a month…holla! I’m just going to do the single month and I think in September I will be giving classpass a try. In term of my budget, I’ve decided investing in my health is a big plus and helps me stay on track financially. First, going to classes really helps me maintain a schedule. I’m more likely to say no to happy hours and I’m way more likely to come home to cook. Plus my sister is getting married this January and, as vain as it may sound, I would like to look my best. My Mom and Sister are probably going to order a million photos from the photographer which will cover their respective homes until the end of time and I’d like to look FABULOUS. Let’s actually try to bring on my wedding fit for this one. BLARGH!

2. Whole 30

I’m going to try to start my Whole 30 sometime around August 3rd…I think. Anyways, I just need a restart with my eating. I also really really NEED to start bringing my lunch and not eating crap at work. I think getting back to real whole foods for the month of August will set me up for success with my eating. Perhaps in September the focus will be clean eating & tracking my food. I need to get into that bridesmaid dress.

3. Budget, budget, budget

Destination weddings are DUNZO. I’m going to pay for my sister’s wedding ish in CASH. Also really focusing on sticking to my budget and spending on experiences NOT THINGS. Cleaning my apartment and really getting minimal. Less crap, more experiences, and living within my means. I’m going to make this happen.

Alright kiddies, hope you’re having a kick ass Thursday.

Besos,

lbg

The San Francisco Marathon! I’m a marathoner!

At the beginning of training my marathon goal was 4:30 and then I went on vacation and my training went to zilch and my goal became please baby Jesus let me finish this race. However I was thinking that I would be stoked if I could tackle the course in 5 hours.

AND BAM – 4:58:14!!! I am officially a marathoner!

I was fearful of the 6 hour cut off and being swept up by the bus. I mean it’s SF so there’s no bus like at the Brooklyn Half. San Francisco is basically “hey at these times we open the streets and start shutting down water stations and you may have to run on the sidewalks soooo there may still be a finish line up”. To be honest I don’t know which is worse… the bus sweeping you up or all that.  Anyways, neither of those happened to me and I AM A MARATHONER!!!

Ok, let’s talk about the days leading up to the race. Nervous, check. Excited, check. What have I done feeling!!!, check. I focused on drinking water in the five days leading up to the race. I walked a lot and tried to just focus on being positive. On Saturday, I hydrated and worked on my playlist for the big day. The boy and I drank coffee and stayed in our PJs until pretty late in the day. I didn’t eat too much since my tummy was full of nerves and kind of upset. We headed into SF around 5:25 to meet up with my running buddy for a 6pm dinner at an Italian place and get our carbo loading on. I ate up there and had an amazing glass of red to tackle the nerves. My homegirl was sweet enough to let me crash in her hotel room since her sister had cancelled. I said goodbye to the boy and focused on just chilling with my girlfriend and getting ready for race day! Aghhh!

My plan was to enjoy the first six miles of the race and stay a steady pace while the crowd thinned out. At that point, along the Golden Gate Bridge, I figured I’d pop in my earbuds and start enjoying my playlist for a little boost. I figured there’s so much energy at the beginning of a race that I wouldn’t need the music and at mile 6 the music would give me a sort of second burst of energy. In addition, I was pretty concerned about my phone lasting the entire race since I felt like I would need my music at then end (which I did!) and finding family and friends post race. I also decided not to run my besty Strava since he’s a HUGE battery suck. It all worked out and my phone even last post race for some photos, uber, and facebook. This just makes me want a Garmin GPS watch more.

I decided to focus on running my half just like any other race. Once I hit thirteen, I would focus on three more miles and getting to sixteen. At that point, it would be all about two mile increments until I hit twenty miles! Once I hit twenty miles, I would start my backwards counting to the finish. For me, this worked out really well! I would have to say the only downside is that the course wasn’t super well marked. At certain times, there were no mile markers or only mile markers for the other races. SF Marathon runs a 5k, a first half, and a second half marathon and the full marathon all at the same time. Also some of the mile markers were in crappy spots. I mean, this is a far from magical mile marker placement.

Also this course was crazy hilly which I knew but I think I managed to run strategically. I think on a flatter course, I could have been a bit quicker but this just makes me feel like it’s even more of an achievement. This first half is filled with steep San Francisco hills and the bridge has an slight incline so that’s a bit tricky too. Miles 12-17 are in Golden Gate park and those are truly rolling hills which I wasn’t as prepared for but I did a pretty good job. However by mile 19/20 I had to include some walking on the hills since my body was definitely feeling it at that point. The last 6 miles of the course are flat – thank baby Jesus! Still by the time I hit the end, I doing a combination of walking and running. I did manage to run the last .6 miles strong and cross the finish line with a smile. It was warm and sunny and I didn’t even need my post marathon blanket. It should be noted San Francisco has been having unseasonable warm weather for the past week which freaked me out! Last Sunday was the hottest day with a high of 82! This is pretty much of unheard of for a SF summer. Luckily it had cooled down this week but even by 6:00am this Sunday it was 60 degrees.

Early Morning shot as I made my way to my corral.

I was rocking my shorts and tank top so I felt ready if the sun should pop out early. It wasn’t scheduled to come out until 11:00am right at the time I hoped to finish. Thankfully it stay pretty moderate, very little wind, and cloudy until about 10:45am.

Half way done. The runners for the second half are about to join us. I can’t figure out if this was a bonus or not. A second group of runners all full of energy and ready to go…I’m trying to just get by and they’re like woo hoo mile 3!

Running by Baker Beach and some Michael came on my playlist as I went up and down on all the little hills. This part of the race was super pretty and green which helped.

Mile 15! Just keep swimming, you’re almost to mile 16.

I kept telling myself that’s my walk from my office to the BART train, you got this.

Only about two miles to the finish line and Tupac’s “I get around” came on and I felt like ok, you can do this.

Longest 2 miles EVER!

BUT THEN YOU WALK AWAY A MARATHONER!

That’s all that I got for you, kids. This marathoner is taking the day off and recovering.

Maybe even getting a pedicure for my sad little feet.

Besos,

lbg

Running Away from Mi Vida but first an iced coffee in Gotham

I am have a shitty day. Just straight up shitty.

I want to be someone that wakes up feeling like I am winning at being a grown-up. Maybe this feeling doesn’t exist and everyone else just does a better job faking it than I do?

I don’t want to fight with my boyfriend because his Mom loves him but is basically crazy (as all moms are) and now his day is ruined. Seriously, I’m sorry your mom drives you up the wall but do you have to be a pretentious jerk face??? Should jerkface be one word or two? Sigh, it doesn’t matter.

The best thing about being a grown up is I can run away to one of my favorite cafes and order a strawberry blonde beer and macaroni and cheese. Seriously, not around the block or even hide out at a friends like when you were a kid. I can legit runaway to someplace I love. Until I’m more of a Batman type than a vengeful Joker and then I will return home and restore peace to Gotham.

Well apparently it’s really hard to save Gotham and our fight continued…it is now Monday and I’m hopeful that peace with reign again. Being in a relationship is by far one of the hardest things….especially when you and your parter are strong, opinionated people. I wish one of us was more easy going and by us, I mean him.

It’s Monday, so let’s debrief the following things that are on my mind.

1. Marathon….so underprepared.

2. Supplemental disability, I feel screwed by big university employer and now need to secure some supplemental coverage.

3. Turning my week around by focusing on gratitude, optimism, and general grown-up attitude.

4. Make some time to clean the casita.

5. How am I going to run this damn marathon????

6. Coffee….I need more coffee.

7. Please let today not kick me in the face.

Alright, I’m going to try and be productive at work today and also work on my marathon playlist for ultimate success. I’m also going to need a second coffee today. We’re having a mini heatwave in the East Bay and it’s never 72 at 9:00am so it’s going to need to be an iced coffee. Yes, I live in northern California with a temperate year round climate, so yes this means it will be oh so hot later on.

Also has anyone watched the Rhi Rhi video for “Bitch, better have my money?” If not, please do. While an interesting video concept, not what I expected. I do enjoy the jam though.

Let’s make Monday happen, kids.

besos,

lbg

The Bitch is Back with stories on destination weddings, running, and poor decisions

YIKES IT’S BEEN 20 DAYS! #BADBLOGGER

Vacation was great! There were some ups and downs as always when you’re going on Destination Wedding Vacay for someone else. These are the things I’ve learned about destination weddings that your friends try to sell you on as your own vacation plus their own wedding, so win win right? Ummm…actually kinda wrong but we’ll get there. You should know that I have been to 4-5 destination weddings at this point in mi vida. And yes, Budapest was by far the farthest.

Don’t get it twisted, you clearly love this person if you’re going to travel out of the way for their wedding. Well, you or your partner love this person dearly. That being said you should expect/prepare for the following:

1. Plan for extra time to enjoy your vacation at what is hopefully a beautiful location. I would strongly recommend taking your extra vacation days AFTER the wedding and arriving as close to the wedding date as possible. The earlier you arrive the more likely you are going to be roped into pre-wedding shenanigans which most likely will come out of your own pocketbook. You will feel obligated to attend to be a good friend/bridal party/ officiant whether or not you really enjoy said activity or the forced company of the bride’s family, groom’s sketchy frat buddies, etc. Extra days after the wedding ensure you get to do what you want, with who you want, and are under no pressure to pay $50 to meet the bride and groom at brunch place you would have never picked.

2. Try to get an itinerary from the happy couple earlier rather than later. Also try and figure out if there are important events that they want you to attend. Rehearsal dinner? Post Wedding brunch? Or you needed me to set up chairs on my vacation that I paid $1250 to fly out here and see you get married…yea…awesome just what I wanted. #truestory Like I said, arrive as close to the wedding as possible.

3. Know that on the day of the wedding, you should just be prepared to roll with the punches. Don’t plan activities or sight-seeing in case the bride/groom needs you….to run and buy fake eyelash glue. #truestory. It’s kind of their day anyways and you don’t want to miss the wedding shuttle since you were day drinking on the ocean and underestimated how long it would take you to cab back to your hotel.

4. Pad your budget a little bit. Destination weddings can be unpredictable and that dinner with the the bridal party two nights before the wedding may cost more than you anticipated. Especially if the groom springs it on you upon arrival. #truestory

5. HAVE FUN! It’s going to be different than you expected and probably less of a vacation but this person is your homie. In the words of Bryan Adams, “Let’s make it all for one and all for love.” One day all the suck will fade and you will be left with beautiful over glossy memories.

In other news, I am undertrained for this marathon. People, I may have realized that training for a marathon with two destination weddings and my busiest time at work just prior to said marathon was a HORRIBLE idea. HORRIBLE. I am still going to attempt it since according to marathoners I still have “enough” training to not officially kill myself. Plus I paid over $100 bucks for this race so not showing up is just not an option…..I may regret this later. The marathon has a 6 hour time limit and my only goal is to not be swept up by the race bus. Please baby Jesus help me out with this one.

Last but def not least, your moment of zen.

Besos,

lbg