What a great day!

Today there was no school so I got to hang out at home and write my reports. I think the dog appreciated not being stuck in the garage today too. Amazingly, I managed to finish 1 1/2 reports today! I also went to lunch for some Korean food with Jesse, my cousin Pish, his wife Debbie, and her co-worker. The best part of the day, however, was the unexpected delivery of TWO cameras!! Our Canon SD400 came this morning and my Holga came this afternoon. All these came just in time for my trip to SF/Napa this weekend. Michelle, Ryan’s wife, will help me tape up my Holga and get it ready for my photo excursion. I can’t wait! Ah…life is good when you don’t have to go to work.

Queen of the Mountain x3!

We live by a gated community that’s up the hill from us. The road that takes you to this “exclusive” community is rather steep and is accessible by foot or bike. I’ve tried to run up that hill a few times without stopping and it’s been very tough. I think there’s an elevation change from about 75 ft to 335 ft…it sucks. Well, yesterday I was feeling pretty strong and decided to try running up the hill once at the end of my workout. I ran up the hill at an unusually quick pace, got to the top and said to myself, “good…time to go home.” As I walked down the hill towards my house, I was feeling pretty good. So, I turned around and ran up again. Nice! Once again, I started walking down and decided to go one more time. I ended up running up that stupid hill 3 times!!! Boy are my legs paying for it now. I’m just happy that I finally conquered the mountain. Yay me!

I was sleeping.

Yesterday was the longest day of the year and I slept right through it. I must be overtraining or something because when I got home from work yesterday at 4pm, I fell asleep on the couch until Jes got home at 5:30. He left for his pool workout and I went upstairs to change for my run and ended up taking a second nap until 8. I woke up in utter confusion because the sun had gone to sleep and my body really didn’t want to move. So much for enjoying a day of eternal sun. At least I managed to stay up today for the second-longest day of the year.
…
Tomorrow is the last day of school and there will be a preschool graduation ceremony at my school. Most teachers will be saying “farewell until September” but I will be saying, “see ya in July”. I’d love to have July off but I guess I really shouldn’t complain considering all the week-long breaks that I get throughout the year. I’m actually off next week and start again on July 5th for a month of summer school. August will be off too but I’ll be working for my PTN again for my last 3 weeks of Camp Escapades. Now that it’s summer, it looks like it’s time to reinstate Bonfire Wednesdays!! Anyone want to meet us at the beach for some marshmallows?

Happy Father’s Day!

For Father’s Day, we took out both dads to Gladstone’s in Long Beach. The night started out just fine until we realized that we were sitting around waiting for our food for over an hour. The manager repeatedly came over to our table to apologize and gave us 50% off the check. That was cool. When the food finally came, I actually wasn’t that hungry anymore. But my dad certainly was. He had ordered the Father’s Day Clam Bake special for 2 and with his bib on, he went to town! There was crab, lobster, clams, and a bunch of other stuff I couldn’t see from the other end of the table. Overall, the meal was satisfactory and it was nice to be with the family. Our gifts weren’t too shabby either. I got my dad a pedometer to record all the walking he does with his buddies and my brother got him an Elvis book and even got it signed by Priscilla Presley. Nice job, brother! Jes offered to get his dad golf lessons but it got shot down. I guess he won’t be getting rid of his dusty golf clubs after all. Instead, we got him two tickets to the Long Beach Aquarium.

I’m over the 2-digit hump

I reached an important milestone in my training. My long run this morning was 10 miles! The photo on the right is what my GPS watch recorded…I think it’s pretty neat. I labeled my house (kinda hard to read) with an line/arrow pointing to it and the pretty rainbow colors indicate elevation. I think red is highest, goes through the color spectrum, and purple is the lowest (sea level).
…
Last night, I was actually nervous about today’s run. That’s probably why I got up at 5:15 this morning without the alarm. Jes also got up at 4:30 this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep. Maybe he was nervous for me too. Since we were up, we had just enough time to eat some oatmeal, digest, and be out the door by 7:30. Jes ran the first 4 miles with me before heading home to finish a 5-mile run and then my neighbor, who will be running the San Diego Half Marathon too, joined me around the 4-mile mark. The run was slow at first…I hate the first mile. Then my legs finally woke up and the pace picked up a bit. At about Mile 8, my legs were getting tired but I took a little bite of my Balance Bar, took a swig of Gatorade, and finished the run. I finished in 1:46, which is under my 11:00/mile goal pace. Yay!

“Eh, you’re fine”

For those of you who don’t know, I passed out in the middle of brushing my teeth one night last May. Over a year later, I’m still alive, got my driving privileges back, continue to have heart palpitations on a daily basis, and recently started getting chest pains while I run. So, I decided that before I go any further in my marathon training, I should get a check-up with my cardiologist. My appointment was this morning and I told him everything that has been going on. He paused and said, “ok, let’s check you out”. I’m thinking he did that just to humor me so that I didn’t feel like seeing him was a waste of time. With the stethescope in hand, he told me to take a few deep breaths, palpated my chest and abdomen, had me sit up, and said, “eh, you’re fine.” Thanks, doc. Anyway, he decided to hooked me up to a Holter Monitor for the next 24 hours since I was getting palpitations during my runs, which I never had before. As he left the examination room, he said to me, “run hard and make your heart thump”. Haha…that’s pretty ironic.
…
Well, this Holter Monitor has become a good friend of mine this past year. We’re actually on our 3rd “date” now. I suppose it’s not that bad…aside from the sticky electrodes on my chest that make me itchy (I think I’m allergic to the adhesive), long wires that hang out from under my shirt, and a coolio walkman looking thing strapped to my waist. This afternoon, I went for my hill run and I ran hard! In fact, I managed to run 5K under 30 minutes…29:07 to be exact. That’s a 9:24/mile pace or 6.39 mph. It sounds pretty wimpy but it’s a first for me. And did I make my heart thump? Yep Yep Yep! I’ll just have to wear it until 9:15 tomorrow morning, turn it in, and wait a week for the results. I just wish I could take a shower right now…I’m not allowed to get the electrodes wet…boo…I’m stinky.