Smoke

The California wildfires last week were shocking.  I have family in the area.  Thankfully, their home and they were not affected by the fires.  But they easily could have been.

I took Monday as an easy day post race and walked 1 mile.  Tuesday, I was surprised to realize my legs felt tighter than expected from the race and I decided to take a second down day, walking 4 miles to and from downtown in lieu of a real workout.

Wednesday, track club was canceled to allow for recovery (almost all members had raced on the weekend).  I woke to the news of the fires and relief at the updates confirming that my family was safe.  For lunch, most of the members of my track club and I went to a local winery and then to lunch to celebrate 2 birthdays and several successful races.  On the drive back into town, I was amazed at how smoky it was.  I immediately had flashbacks to our smoggy visit to Shanghai.

I remembered how crappy I felt after a day of sightseeing in the smog and I vowed not to run until the air quality had returned to the gloriously awesome levels that we regularly enjoy in the bay area.

Tomato gifts went into pico de gallo for halibut tacos (also a gift from our fisherman friend)

So yeah, no running Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.   The poor air quality each day brought home the reality of the suffering of those experiencing the fires in a way that was very uncomfortably real.  I've always known that fires were common in California, and terrible, but not being able to see to the end of the streets in our neighborhood was overwhelming and depressing.  I can't imagine how those who lost their homes must feel.

Friday, I did motivate enough to go do a yoga class (my yoga studio has some heated classes and in connection with the heat, they have a filtration system), which kicked my butt in a good way.  In hindsight I should have gone on all of the days I couldn't run, but I'm still in a love/hate relationship with yoga right now, so once a week is acceptable progress.

Saturday AM, I woke to blue skies and joyfully headed out for 6 easy miles.  It's so nice to have returned to a level of fitness where I can just go out and do 6 miles.  Sure, they were relatively slow (11:52/mile), but it wasn't a struggle at all and didn't require much mental effort to push myself through it without stopping (except for water fountains).

Sunday, in contrast, was a workout failure.  I jogged to the trailhead as my planned warmup of a little over 1 mile.  Then, I attempted to do 2 intervals at 9:39/mile for 1.3 miles each with E.  We started out a bit fast, but at around 0.5 miles there is a bridge over the train tracks.  The elevation change slowed my average pace quite a bit and by the time I crested the apex, I needed to recover a full minute from my average pace to hit the target time.  I was breathing hard and it was clear to me that I couldn't recover that time and sustain the required pace for 1.3 miles (which was super disappointing, but what can you do?).  So, I yelled ahead to E to let him know I'd changed the plan and would only be doing 0.75 mile intervals.  They were consistent -- 9:58/mile and 9:57/mile with 4ish minutes of walking recovery between them.  From there I jog-walked home.  By effort it was a very solid workout.  But, in terms of performance, it was not.

Sunday afternoon, I met up with 2 awesome local runners at the hippest bar I've been to in ages.  It was fun to chat and catch up and hang out with people who normally only see me at my sweatiest.  From there, E and I met for dinner with dear friends in Oakland that we hadn't seen in at least a 15 months.

And just like that, another week has passed.  Certainly, time seems to fly much faster now than it did during the sabbatical.  Work and taxes and general life overhead doesn't stand out or make the time stretch the way that new and unique experiences do (often with frustration).  On the other hand, I have successfully strung a few months of good workout consistency and healthy food at home, which I definitely didn't do during the sabbatical, so that's an obvious upside.

Home Cooked Goodness (SJRNR week -3)

One of the best things about being back in our home is being back in our kitchen.  We missed so many of our favorite home-cooked meals while we were nomads.  And since we've been back, I've made several of them.

First, and in constant rotation, of course, are all things tomato (gazpacho, greek/turkish salads, caprese, tomato-olive-oil-salt salads, salmorejo, and more).

One of many gazpachos.

A second common entrant is cheese and crackers with a side salad.  Roasted/pan-fried shishitos or pimientos de padron have been on offer every time I've found them at the grocery store or the farmer's market.

Have I mentioned I love tomatoes

(and garden buddies who give them as gifts even more!)

When I've been feeling like something more complex that requires heat, I've made a few risottos, saag paneer, red lentil soup, squash noodle puttanesca, baba ganoush, and a couple of black lentil salads.

Black lentil salad and squash puttanesca

Turns out, almost all of my favorite things to cook are vegetarian.  And quite healthy.  Which is a wonderful benefit - without feeling deprived, I've been losing about 3/4 of a pound a week.

So, apparently 1/2 a full head of roasted garlic

is too much for a 3 eggplant baba ghanoush

On the running front, this week was okay: 2 runs over 6 miles, some strength intervals, and speed work (albeit super slow).

M: Rest

T: 1.76 @ 12:31; 1.73 walk

W: Track Club
0.43 miles jog w/u and drills;
2.65 total: 1200, 800, 600, 400, 200
(time/pace 7:07/9:41; 4:43/9:32; 3:30/9:22; 2:16/9:02; 57.4/7:33);
0.66 jog c/d;
1.37 walk to and from lunch;
1.5 walk to dinner

Th: 6.01 @ 12:21 (1.75 @ 10:30 with E; rest EASY);
0.39 walk c/d;
2 miles walking between client apts

F: work all day, rest

Sa: 3 easy @ 12:02;
10 X 30s hard/90s walk (1.26 total)
(paces: 8:28; 8:44; 9:21; 9:52; 9:11; 9:24; 9:20; 9:49; 9:37; 8:18);
0.5 jog c/d @ 12:38;
0.42 walk;
1.84 walk to lunch

Su: 6.21 @ 11:48; 0.44 walk

Here's to hoping I can continue with 3 more weeks of decent running and eating.  The fitness progress is slow, but it's obviously happening.

Post Eclipse -- First Real Week Back Home (SJRNR week -6)

I will never forget Monday's eclipse viewing.  I teared up.  Surrounded by 10,000 people including E's extended family, I reached out and held E's hand while we watched the shadow of the moon black out the sun.  I took pictures that did absolutely no justice to the beauty observed by my eyes (much like the video above).

Everything in my own daily world seemed a little less serious and important after the eclipse. And, I enjoyed the change in perspective.

Tuesday AM, I got up and headed out for a solo repeat of the hilly mountain loop: 3.14 miles @ 15:14/mile pace with >500ft of climb -- BUT, I was stopped by a local landowner on whose trails I was running for a few minutes of solar eclipse discussion, so the pace was actually much better than this.

We flew home and the bay area weather was GLORIOUS after the heat and humidity of the South.  Work is slowly ramping up, but not too quickly, which is nice, as I've also been focused on clearing family issues, home/yard stuff, and just generally crossing things off the todo list that I'd pretended didn't exist during the Sabbatical.  The week's work consisted of bringing on a few new clients, some meetings, some calls, and a few heads down legal projects.

Wednesday, I joined the track club for a nice workout in the overcast easy Californian weather: 
2 X (2X300/100 RI; 800) @ 8:04; 8:59; 9:12; 8:22; 8:54; 9:29 per mile paces.  Total mileage: 3.2.  This workout was perfect -- I was tired, but I could muster up 3.2 miles with local friends at the track, and I felt it the next day in a good way.

Thursday, 1.38 walk.  We hosted a BBQ and enjoyed hanging out with 20+ friends for the evening.  I should have gone out for an easy run, but couldn't motivate myself.

Friday, I woke up early and headed out for 6 easy solo at 12:15/mile.  Then, I packed up and went to SF for a day of client meetings, followed by some work at home and dinner at a friends' home 'til 10 PM.  I am slowly getting reintegrated into my old life, and fully-packed days like this are a perfect reminder of how wonderful it is.  

Saturday, I did a strength interval workout. 1 jog w/u; 3X 0.5 miles/3min R/I (Paces - 9:34; 9:49; 9:57); 1X0.27miles (10:52); 1 jog c/d.  I'd thought I could string 4 of the half miles together with the 3 minute walking recovery, but I was clearly wrong, so I called the last interval short.

Saturday was an awesome day of nothing planned.  It was probably the first day where we really felt like we were truly settled at home.  Enough of the must-do stuff has been handled that we were able to go out to a leisurely post-run brunch in perfect weather and just people watch.  Then I did an afternoon of 2016 tax cleanup.  I could have put it off 'til Sunday or sometime next week, but I poured myself some bribery wine and dug in.  I got most of the income entered and *HURRAH* it looks like I was overly conservative on my estimated tax payments, so we should be getting a refund.  After patting myself on the back for doing the tax work, I rewarded myself by cooking one of our favorite dinners.

Home-cooked Saturday night dinner outside -- gazpacho and mushroom risotto.

Sunday: 3.26 @ 11:50, stop at the restrooms; 3.31 back with a friend and her son, run-walking @ 16:49, including 4X30+ second sprints at sub 8/mile pace.

A solid week:  27.9 miles.  6 weeks left 'til RNR SJ, and I'm happy with where I am.  I'm looking forward to next weekend's 10K race to kick me in the butt and give me a better idea of my racing fitness.

Unpacking

When we bought our house (let's just round up and say 15 years ago), the carpets were pretty gross.  The prior owners had young boys and they'd done what young boys do.  E and I did a number on them over the years as well, and then, when my brother was living with us, he drove his wheelchair outside and then inside, bringing the outside in on his wheels every day.

So, before we moved back in, we figured we'd take the opportunity to replace the carpets since the house would be empty and none of the furniture would be in the carpeted rooms.  We moved everything to the house from storage, but the earliest the carpet installers can come is the end of the month.

This means, we are in a very slow mode of unpacking.  We found everything labeled for the kitchen and it is mostly all in its place (but, oddly, we still haven't found the silverware, so we're using disposable cutlery).  Everything else stays mainly in boxes and in the living room.

Note the walking path through the stuff on the tile...

It's so much stuff.

After a year of the same 7 days worth of clothes and very little else, it's shocking to realize just how much *stuff* we have when we live our lives based from home.  I have a medium sized moving box full of fabric bags (race bags, beach bags, gift bags, wine bags, etc.) that we primarily used as packing material.  I'll be taking it, along with another box full of T-shirts that we also used as packing material, and several other random things to Good Will. 

The reality is, we don't need most of what we have.  We did a bunch of purging as we packed up, and as we slowly unpack, we're doing more each day.

I've always had a compulsion to minimize my belongings.  But now, opening boxes to see a huge collection of stuff I haven't used or needed in a year, such as photos, shoes, or jewelry, actually weighs me down.  I left thinking I'd scan the photos when I got back.  Now, I'm seriously considering going through them once, limiting myself to 100 or so that I'll keep, and pitching the rest. 

Interestingly, because we'd remodeled the kitchen recently, very little in the kitchen feels like a burden.  The kitchen is probably the room in the house where I own the most physical objects (other than books) and yet, it feels like I will use almost each and every object that I unpacked in the next year.  For the most part I welcomed the unpacking of the kitchen -- I'd missed it!  I did find a set of bowls and a spice jar I added to the Good Will pile, but I also found a gorgeous wedding gift of a fancy Laguoile cheese knife set complete with gift card that neither of us remembered ever seeing before (11+ years ago -- I wonder if we sent a thank you?), so I think it evens out to zero.

It's not just the physical stuff I'm unpacking, of course.  I returned home to many tasks that I'd put off over the year.  Taxes, financial planning/management, administrative stuff for my law practice, a couple of family dramas that really need some focused attention, plus just general life management stuff -- they all have to be dealt with and addressed.  Preferably ASAP.  It feels like I'm reluctantly pulling a bunch of my life out of a dark corner where I hid it all year.  Most of it is stuff I'm not happy to see.  I loved the illusion that I didn't have it to deal with it that I was able to maintain.  Perhaps some of it is possible to outsource or ignore more than I have traditionally.  I will likely spend some time investigating that.

And then, of course, there are the habits.  I've completely forgotten how much work consumes me and distracts me.  How when I'm fully consumed by work, I have to keep lists for everything or it won't get done.  How I need to plan my day the night before so I can do all non-emergent detail management before bed. I'm slowly returning to the processes that keep me sane and on track when I'm working.  Again, perhaps I won't return to all of them, but many of them are actually necessary when I'm working, and I'm starting to realize that I was only able to shed them because I wasn't working.

And finally, there are the people.  If it's possible, I became even more of a true introvert this year.  This year confirmed that E is my favorite person and I love spending time talking (and not talking) with him.  My other close friends and family with whom I've reconnected since our return are the same -- I enjoy our long discussions and I feel safe if I need to be quiet. 

Socially interacting with groups of people I actually know and have relationships with is exhausting in a way I'd forgotten.  The second night in our home we attended a wedding and it was so great to see so many people we hadn't seen in so long.   But it was also so demanding.  Strangers with a foreign language?  I can talk to them with joy and exuberance -- fueled by the fun of learning more language.  Strangers who know my friends?  There's so much to think about and process and worry about when meeting and speaking with them -- I don't want to say the wrong thing or offend.  My close friends know that I often say things in a way that others wouldn't say them.  They know that harsh words from me may not actually be intended as harsh -- it may just be how my weird way of thinking works.  In a foreign language, these mistakes are forgiven as *language* errors.  But in English, at home, with acquaintances, they are nothing except impolite, insensitive, or awkward, so I have to work *really* hard to avoid them.

In a way, I'm glad we're stuck in this pseudo-unpacked physical state for a month.  It's giving me time and physical space to be thoughtful about how my old life was and how I'd like my new life to be after the lessons learned on the road.

The Missile/Dam/National Park Tour Home -- and the road forward

We hit all the big missile related sites in the Southwest on our route home.

Los Alamos Bradley Science Museum.

V-2 Rocket, restored, White Sands Missile Museum

The White Sands Missile Museum.

The outdoor rocket field at White Sands Missile Museum.

The Titan Missile Museum

Giant Titan Rocket (never feuled, no warhead) 

inside the Titan Missile Silo at

the Museum.

Launch control for the Titan Missile Silo.

We also visited the Biosphere and Hoover Dam, which neither of us had seen before.  We took a 2 hour very educational Biosphere tour, but unfortunately, the damn tours were not being offered on the day we arrived.  So we did a self-tour in the 109F heat, and got back into the air-conditioned car for our drive to Vegas.

The ocean inside Biosphere 2.

I used to love Vegas, but now it doesn't really do much for me.  We had a nice quick visit with a delicious greek seafood dinner at Estiatorio Milos, followed by an hour or so of craps play by me, a good night's sleep, a quick run in the gym, and the long drive to Lee Vining, California.

The scale of the dam is hard to comprehend -- it's HUGE!

The next day, we used our National Park pass for the 5th time at the East entrance to Yosemite, finally getting over the purchase price in entrance fees for a net saving of $30.  It's valid through August 2017, but we doubt we'll have the chance to hit up another U.S. National Park next month.

Smoky view of half dome from Columbia Rock

For our last night of the sabbatical, we splurged and stayed at the Ahwahnee Hotel.  I'd always wanted to stay here ever since I was a little kid, and despite all of our visits to the park, I'd never done so.   After checking in to the hotel, we braved the smoke from the Mariposa fires and hiked the Upper Yosemite Falls Trail to Columbia Rock and further to the first view of the falls.  Despite the cool temps (the smoke limited the heat from the sun), and breeze, it was a solid 3 mile round-trip hike with 1,000 ft plus of elevation gain starting around 4,000 feet.

The dining room at the Ahwahnee.

From Yosemite, we drove to the storage unit, picked up the aerobed and a few other items, and drove home to unlock the door for the first time in over a year and start our re-assimilation back to our home-based life.

Lower Yosemite Falls -- gushing due to this year's snowpack.

After a Saturday of chores, we attended a lovely wedding, and then slept in Santa Cruz so that I could run Wharf to Wharf with E2.  It's a bigger race than I realized, with a sold out registration of 16,000, of which, several thousand registrations are limited to locals.  E2 got into the local lottery registration, so she encouraged me to try the general registration lottery and I got in too.

Smoky view of Yosemite Valley from the Upper Yosemite Falls trail.

My "training" consisted of intermittent running and hiking whenever I could fit it in the last several months.  I had a (slow) baseline from my Peachtree Road Race, and I'd tried to fit in slow aerobic efforts mixed with some speedwork as we drove westward.  Thankfully, the day of the race was blissfully overcast with a starting temperature of 57F.  As expected E2 was more fit than me, but she needed a couple of portapotty stops that helped me recover.  I did need to ask for one walk break after the top of the last major hill, but overall, I was pleased with how it went -- final Garmin data claimed 6.09 miles at 11:36 avg pace including all of the stops.  When running, we averaged 11:21 minutes per mile, with the last 1.1 miles averaging 10:47.

Oh look! Stop and Go traffic on 880 North at 3 PM.  Yup, we're back.

I've registered for the Rock 'n Roll San Jose 10K on October 8th as a goal race to actually regain some of the year's lost running fitness and complete a 10K at a (hopefully) decent pace, followed by the Kaiser Permanente SF Half on February 4th, as the goal race to return me to half marathon shape.

The final road trip was great, but it's very nice to be home, putting our home-based life back together, including scheduling local races and (at some point) a training plan with local runs.

Baby Steps (and Soup #1)

It's soup season and leftovers mean tomorrow night's dinner is done!

Last week's mileage?  20.02.  Woo Hoo.  Back Over 20.

Portion ran (no matter how slowly)?  46%

Portion sub 9 min/mile?  9%

Other fitness efforts?  I made it back to the yoga studio after 13 weeks away.

IT HURT.

Not so much *during* class, but afterwards, I was sore in places I'd forgotten I have muscles for at least 3 days.

So, the hope is to average one visit to the studio a week for the next 5 weeks since I've got very little travel lined up.  Wish me luck.

In running goals, I've got a trail run coming up in 2 weeks with some local running ladies.  The stated goal is 8 miles, but frankly, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to pull that off.  I'll just rebuild fitness as best I can and go join to enjoy the activity as much as possible.  In terms of actual race events, I've got a few potential trail runs on the calendar in 2015, but the only thing I'm registered for is the SF Chocolate 15K in January.  Most likely, I'll use that as a springboard to prep for Kaiser, and then Oakland. 

Other random fitness goal?  Soup. One of my favorite things about fall is soup.

So, I'd like to make a healthy soup from scratch at least once per week for the next 5 weeks.  The first offering?  Tofu, Bok Choy, Mushroom soup.

It was good, if a bit spicier than expected due to some extra-hot peppers from the garden.

2 T cooking oil (I used saffola)
1 medium white onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ginger powder (didn't have any root in the fridge)
2 insanely hot garden chiles  (next time, I'll likely taste each chile)
1 cup carrot match-sticks

soy sauce 1-2 T
mirin 1 T
rice wine vinegar 1-2 T
sesame oil 2 T
4-6 cups water

1 bunch bok choy (adult), chopped
1-2 cup(s) sliced mushrooms
1 package firm tofu, cubed

salt

1. Sautee first group of ingredients together until the onions are translucent.
2. Add second group of ingredients to the sauteed veggies and bring to a boil.
3. Add third group of ingredients, stir, lower to a simmer, add a pinch of salt.  Come back in 5 minutes and taste broth, add more salt if appropriate. 
4. Turn off heat after the tofu, bok choy, and mushrooms have been simmering for 10 minutes.

(Serves 4 -- or dinner for 2 nights for 2)

Enjoy!  (And if you have a favorite soup, please recommend it!)

The Little Things

So (crossing fingers) at the moment we've got a very rare 19 consecutive days at home on the calendar, and we enjoyed seven of them last week.

Gorgeous Flowers from a Colleague

Since we were home, I was able to walk through the door every day and enjoy the beautiful bouquet that was sent to me by a very thoughtful colleague to celebrate the 5th anniversary of my law firm.

E and I started 6 weeks of *very* particular healthy eating (lots of Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids with a goal of 25-35% of calories from fat, essentially no alcohol, very limited animal fats and dairy, seafood every other day or so, heavy on the low glycemic index veggies and legumes, with a goal of no more than 35% of calories from carbs, and a general preference for foods that are low on the inflammatory response spectrum).  As of tonight, we'll be one week down with 5 to go.

The hardest thing to give up?  Cheese.  Hands down.  We're still eating small amounts of it, but nothing compared to the approximately 4-8 oz. per day we used to eat.

The best part?  Researching and trying new recipes.  Last night I made a crowd-pleasing dinner of scallops with sauteed leek strips topped with pesto over quinoa for guests.  They didn't even know that they were being fed a super-healthy meal.  Huzzah!

In garden news, the beds are weeded, amended, and the tomatoes are in, as is the watering system (we had to order new parts, patch leaks, add emitters where needed, etc.).  I still need to program the watering system timer and put in eggplants, squash, cucumbers, and any other non-tomato plants, but I should be able to finish that this week.  Then it's my favorite part of the year.  Just waiting, adding supports, and pruning until first fruit.

At the beginning of the season despite all the work, the garden never really looks like much.

When tomatoes drop rotten fruit, the seeds ferment, stay in the soil, and after the rain in the spring, they sprout.  This year, in one particular bed, I had at least 10 volunteers back in March.  I culled and selected the 3 healthiest and now I have 3 tomatoes that are well over a month ahead of the rest of the transplants.  Should be fun to see what varieties they actually are.

Volunteers!

Last weekend, I had a friend in town, so in addition to going to the movies and a party, we wore our Cal hats on a walk around the Stanfurd Dish.  It was a great way to get in some hilly miles and catch up.  We even got a Stanfurd professor to document our Cal gear.

We'd hoped for an awesome Pacquiao v. Mayweather fight, but despite the very loud cheering and enthusiasm of the crowd, afterward, we all agreed that it was sadly, a very over-hyped and past-due non-event.  Oh well.  We still got to hang out at a friend's party.

In running/workout news, a couple of weeks ago, thanks to the suggestion of a friend who's an athletic trainer, I started an 8 week Tabata program.  So, 5-6 days a week, E and I get up and, post coffee, we do the 4 minutes of intervals (8 X 20 seconds on 10 seconds off) together before we start our days.  It's been a nice addition to the workout regime to shake things up a bit.  Last week I took an easy recovery week. So, in addition to Tabata, I fit in 17.69 miles, all but one set of 10X1 minute speedwork very easy, including 10ish miles of walking and hiking.

Next Running goal?  Pace a friend at the Seattle Rock 'n Roll Half in 6 weeks.  After that, ideally, I'd like to actually race a half marathon or 10K sometime in June or July.  I'm definitely open to suggestions if any local folks are already registered for races and would like some company.   

Alive

I headed to my childhood hometown this weekend for yet another memorial service.  The frequency of memorial services in my life as of late is something with which I'm struggling.

This one was a family cousin, who was in the Autumn of his life and had lived a big, full life working full-time 'til 82 years old -- living at home 'til just six weeks before his death at 85. It was sad, but also joyful.  My mother couldn't come, so I acted as the family ambassador and interacted with many relatives I hadn't seen in 5 or 10 years.  I felt so welcome and loved.

I felt so alive.  (I also interacted with members of my mother's family in a way that made me question much of the family lore I've been fed, but that's a thought for another discussion...)

Upon sitting at the ceremony, I realized that I hadn't been to a church service in the Lutheran Church in a very long time.  Catholic?  Yes.  Similar, but not the same.  And for the Lutherans, it's actually been so long that they'd changed the text of some of the prayers I'd had to memorize to be confirmed.  CRAZY.

I went up to the pastor after the service and asked him what had happened to the text, and, well, I'm pretty sure he was thrilled.  I think I made his year. 

Apparently, if you are a Lutheran pastor, it's a rare event when you officiate a funeral and someone comes up after the fact and wants to talk about the translations from the original Latin into American English and why it used to be "X" and now is "Y".  He was *extra* thrilled to learn that I was family of the deceased, raised in a not-too-far away Lutheran church that he was familiar with.  Interestingly, he didn't ask any questions or push when I self-identified as having been "raised Lutheran, but haven't been to church in at least a decade."  He just asked where I lived now without mentioning anything about the local Lutheran options and thanked me for coming to pay my respects, confirming that my cousin Sam is the bee's knees.

The whole service, the return to the Church of my childhood, the reciting of prayers and singing of hymns (which I did in honor of the deceased) and, of course, the soul-quieting incantation of Psalm 23, all combined to make me feel that all was right in the world.  Even in the midst of death.

Recently, I learned through facebook that a high school acquaintance of mine had overdosed unexpectedly.  I hadn't spoken with her since graduation, but apparently, the news was a shock to everyone.

And, due to the memorial in my hometown, I ended up near where I was raised at the same time as another best friend from childhood (R) as she came into town to mourn her grandfather.  A third best friend (D) lives there and hosted me for a much-needed girls' night dinner on Friday and then all three of us for a get-together with their kids on Saturday AM.  It was the first time we've all been together since R's wedding, 3+ years ago.  Magical.

So, yeah.  I'm feeling very alive.  Nothing like the presence of death to highlight your lack of it.

And, it was a step-back week, running-wise.  I drank too much, had a cigarette in solidarity, and ate skirt steak over marinated artichokes and cream on Friday night while catching up with D.  But, I still managed 35.87 miles total, and most of my assigned workouts.  Marathons will be happening.  So, here I am, feeling, very grateful to be so alive (if not very fast).

Remodel Update (What I've Been Doing In My Spare Time)

Back in December of last year, a pyrex dish full of beets exploded when I placed it in the sink at 400F and it came into contact with room temperature water.  This led to a vigorous FB discussion where I learned that Your Grandma's Pyrex (and mine) was way cooler than what we get today.   Unfortunately, the shards killed our garbage disposal as E and I argued about the best approach (run it 'til it stops or stop before it explodes...).

So, after 11 years in our home, rather than replace the garbage disposal, we finally decided to use the momentum to suck it up and remodel the kitchen.

We've had many exciting issues with our house over the last few years, including massive termite damage requiring a year-long bathroom remodel, a roof replacement (we went from tar and gravel to an industrial foam covered with reflective white vinyl and it decreased the average high summer temperature of our non-air-conditioned home 10-15 degrees F on hot days!), and, last by not least, last year's excavation and replacement of the 64 years of "creative" patio, deck, and exterior wall construction:

Oh, just a few tons of layers of concrete, brick, linoleum, aggregate

Realizing that replacing only the lower portion of the stucco isn't going to work.

Since we were opening up the walls, we might as well replace the windows and add insulation in the bays where it had been skipped...

Siding requires that the house be shored with plywood, which should make it less likely to shift in the future.

Siding on, new patio of pavers in, and the new trellis up

Final painting scheme.

 
After 7 months of back and forth with multiple contractors, cabinet builders, designers, a structural engineer, and more, we're finally in the thick of the kitchen remodel.

Our house is split in two.  There is a plastic sheet separating us from the majority of the chaos.  It's somewhat effective for dust, but horrid for noise.
 

For the record, this is what our kitchen looked like after E2 and P came to help pack it up the night before demo started:

And, this is what our guest room looks like (also known as how much space your kitchen plus half the living room minus furniture takes when packed):

Every day, I wake to noise as the contractors get to work at 7 AM on the dot.  I don't blame them.  They commute to avoid the traffic and the weather.  But, man, does it throw a wrench (buh-dum-ching) in my daily routine.  Every AM, by the time I've had my coffee and I'm mid-way through my initial email clear-out, there is, inevitably, a call to me through the plastic, "BT!  We found something we need to talk to you about!"

I trudge over to their door and we talk.  This week I finally admitted to myself that even though I'm not *doing* the remodel in any real sense, the day-to-day decisions, conversations, check-ins, change orders, check writing, plan confirmation, etc. take at least 30 minutes every day and sometimes close to an hour, typically in the AM when I'm trying to get out the door, but sometimes unscheduled calls to my phone when I'm onsite with clients.

The bad remodel surprises are many so far.  Nothing is up to code.  In keeping with other parts of the house, it's a 64 year old house that was thrown up for cheap, and the previous do-it-yourself owner did most of his stuff impressively wrong. Big ticket discoveries so far?

** A gas leak requiring entirely new gas to be plumbed throughout the house.  Although, in fairness, this vindicated 10 years of me intermittently claiming I smelled gas and E gaslighting me.  Literally.  This one might be worth the monetary cost.

**Impressively unsafe and illegal electrical from the last remodel that requires the entire house to be re-wired.

**Supposedly unrelated but suspicious -- the electric dryer decided to die in solidarity to the its kitchen appliance brethren who were being decommissioned.  We are now using the local laundrymat until we can get the construction finished and figure out whether the dryer needs to be replaced or if we can repair it once the electrical ridiculousness calms down.

**Exposing the structural beam that used to dip into the kitchen and threaten to injure tall guests showed it to be something other than the beam we thought it was:

In fairness the backside is a structural beam, but the front side is an impressively ghetto combination of random 2X4s all willy-nilly...

I finally hired a trusted friend to help with some of the clean-up details and that's been a huge help, but it's still a bit overwhelming when coupled with my normal life, if I'm honest.

In the end, this remodel will likely end up being approximately double the original estimated cost.  Thankfully, my brother and dad were both in construction, so I assumed the worst and came up with 2-2.5X as a potentially likely outcome.  I'm not thrilled that it's happening, but at least we were prepared.

But, there has been one very good discovery.  The old kitchen had an ugly dropped ceiling, that was much lower than normal due to the low roof, the "structural beam" extending the house, and pitch they used back in 1950:

It, like almost every supposedly flat surface in our house was not level (and the walls it connected with are/were not plumb).  It lost almost an inch and half in 8 feet.  Fun.

When they removed a portion of the ceiling (to the left in the picture above), we saw that the original ceiling was stained wood that vaulted with the roofline.  It was in surprisingly great condition.  So, we made a decision for yet another deviation from the original plan, and now, when we are done, we will have gorgeous old wood as our new kitchen ceiling, which is pretty damn cool.

They've dremeled off all the roof screws that penetrated and it should be great when it's done.

In the meantime, when we aren't traveling, we're living the Californian outdoor lifestyle with a psuedo kitchen out of our outside laundry area.

Our current "kitchen"

Oh, and our garage door motor also decided to die in solidarity to electrical appliance friends this week.  No big deal.   It's not like the kitchen cabinets are crammed into the garage and need to be extracted for installation in a week or so. (Kidding, actually, it is a very big deal and part of my daily discussion with the contractors tomorrow will be around what to do/how to deal with this mess -- no major deviation from the baseline level of budget fear I'm maintaining...)

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

We're home for a brief stop.  Friends visiting from DC.  A surprise birthday party for an old friend.  Laundry and gardening, work, and general home-town life.  Also, it is fall.  It is cooler, the morning is dark when I wake, and the leaves have all fallen on our street.

Last week, despite a complete lack of effort to hit any mileage goal on my part, I managed to put 19.6 miles-ish on my feet (including 3.5 miles of biking and an hour of gardening, which I counted as 1 mile Running Equivalent).  Other than the track workout, there was nothing to write home about other than a Bikram class, which put me at 5/10 classes on this 10 class card.  If I try really hard, I *may* actually use all of the classes on this card before it expires... that would be a new experience.

I have no races on the calendar, but, thanks to laziness and the awesomeness that is Spanish food, quite a few pounds on the scale that need to disappear.  So, for the first time in a long time, I find myself actually being much more disciplined about my diet than my mileage.

In the 9 days since we've been state-side I've lost 6 pounds -- turns out, diet discipline is way more important than work-out discipline when it comes to managing weight.  I'm a natural born eater.  I can eat an extra 1,000 calories without blinking, *and* if you ask me to do a workout that burns 1,000 calories, you can guarantee I'd come home from it hungry and ready to replace the loss.

I'd love to say I'm just going to stay this disciplined food course 'til I hit the illusory goal I keep in the back of my brain as the "ideal to start training for a BQ" weight, but of course, that's crazy.  There's just life in general with all of its awesome food, plus the trip to China, where I plan to eat anything and everything delicious that crosses my path, plus all of the holiday travel and parties.  So, instead, I'll be honest with myself -- now that I'm back below my personal red line and within striking distance of reasonable, I'll probably trend back up towards the red line and will be resuming the disciplined approach in early January, along with the rest of the first world.

Today, I hit up the Bikram room again.  As always, it was a struggle and I desperately wanted to go outside for some cool fresh air for every single minute from 60 minutes to 90 minutes.  I am a heat wuss.  Bikram is such a mental workout for me.  Yes, it's a great physical workout.  But, truly, the mental struggle to stay in that hot room is a new and difficult battle I wage with myself in every class.  Today, it was close, but I stayed in the room.  Next time... who knows.

For much of this year, E and I have been spending one night a week in SF when we're in town.  His company has an office here he needs to make appearances at, and I have more clients here than down the peninsula these days.  The best part of these weekly visits is the date night dinners and the views from the hotels (see above and below).

Tonight, we got to take an old friend out for his birthday dinner at Fringale.  Oh, man.  This is a perfect example of why San Francisco's restaurant scene is so amazing.  It reminded me of so many bistros in France.  No reservations.  We showed up around 7 and were seated to enjoy a delicious 2.5 hour meal with amazing service and overly delicious food, wine, coffee, and cheese.  (As you can see, my meal discipline is not even strong enough to deal with SF, much less the true international temptations, although, in all honesty, French food is much easier to enjoy in moderation than many other options...)

Going forward, without a race on the calendar, I'm completely free to alternate Bikram, walking, hiking, running, biking, and any other activities that make sense for me.  For example, I'm running in SF along a street with many stoplights to a breakfast meeting tomorrow.  I'll give myself 45 minutes to go 3 miles.  I'll call it a fartlek or intervals and I'll push it on the non-trivial hills.  I love that I have the freedom to do this -- that I don't have an assigned workout -- that all I have to do tomorrow is transport myself between meetings and do my best to be disciplined and healthy.  At the end of the day, after running to breakfast and walking between my other meetings, I'll likely hit 5+ miles.  It will be a great day and I feel privileged to have it on my agenda.

It's good to be home.

2013 Goals, Q3 check-in

Oh, boy.  Quite a bit has changed in my life since I set my 2013 Goals.  Essentially, I'm off-course on almost all of them.

Running:  I'm 2 for 6.  Yikes.  The only two running goals I managed to hit this year were:

1) run the Rock 'n Roll AZ to the best of my abilities. Didn't quite go sub 2, but it was my best race in the last year and a half, so I'll take it.

2) complete the SLO marathon.

The other 4 where I whiffed?

-I did not complete the full McMillan training plan for the LA Marathon.  Life got in the way quite a bit and I had to do several substitutions.

-I did not finish the LA Marathon.  Instead,  I had my first marathon DNF.

-I was unable to go to China in May as a result of E's work obligations.  Thus, by default, I did not complete the Great Wall Half marathon.  I did, however, get to enjoy paying for the full registration fee, including multiple days of hotels -- all of which were non-refundable.  Ouch.

Health:  I did a great job early in the year, but I've been slowly sliding.  I didn't complete all the classes in that referenced Bikram 10-class card.  I've got a new card and I'm hopeful I may make it through on this one.  My diet definitely suffered during the Summer and the scale informs me that I'm the heaviest I've been in my 30s.  I've always been on the fence about vitamins, and after the recent brouhaha, I've decided to retreat to my historical position -- I should try to eat a diet that gives me all the vitamins and minerals I need.  I do, however, have an awesome garden this year.  So that's good. And, my sleep is better this year than it has been, historically, but it's definitely been worse in Q2 and Q3 than it was in Q1 when I originally set my goals.  (In a corollary, work has been getting increasingly crazy as the year has worn on.)

Books:  Well, I blew through the easy goal of 12 audiobooks.  I've been devouring them like mad -- I'm already at 30.  I think I'll probably have to take audiobooks off the goals list entirely for next year.  It's just part of my habits now.  (Albeit one of the most enjoyable habits I have).  As for the written word, I'm currently at 12 books.  It should be interesting to see if I can pick up the pace and get through the supposedly easy goal of 24 total.  Given all the upcoming travel, I give it 1:1 odds.

Language:  My Mandarin studies basically fell apart once I had to cancel the trip to China in May.  I'll likely do some refresher studies before we leave for the China trip this Fall, but truly, I lost my drive.  In addition to the canceled trip, my Mandarin group stopped meeting regularly, and my weekly Mandarin dinner night died when my teacher left for several months of travel.  Now that I'm going to Spain before China, part of me wants to spend some time brushing up on my Spanish instead of Mandarin.  So, maybe I'll do that instead and if I do, I'll consider it a success of sorts.       

Travel:  So, I planned the China trip, but we were unable to execute it.  However, this year has been and looks like it will be one of the biggest and most complex travel years we've ever had.  We already did a visit to Bermuda.  In addition to weekly visits to SF, we've still got Amsterdam, Barcelona, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Sydney, and South Island New Zealand on the calendar before 2014 hits.

Stay at Home Weekends:  E and I agreed to modify the definition of "home" weekends to include any weekend where we spent the entire time within a couple hours of driving distance in the greater bay area.  Early in the year, it became apparent that we don't spend even close to 1/2 of our weekends at "Home" if that means we have to sleep there for all of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.  Even with the modification, it looks like I probably failed on this one.  If we keep all of our current travel plans, I will have only spent 25 weekends this year completely within the bay area, with a large percentage of the away nights coming in Q4.  I'm comfortable that this is "close enough" to the annual goal of 26, but I also know that with the frequency of away nights in Q4, after the start of 2014, I'm going to desperately want to be a homebody for a while.

2013 Goals Update

I never really got around to solidifying any of my goals for this year for some reason.

I recorded my running goals at the beginning of the year, but that's kind of cheating, as races and training take enough time to plan that most of that work and commitment was done long before the new year.

Last year, I hit 3 out of 5 of my resolutions, and along the way, I ran some great races (including the Fairbanks Equinox Marathon with Arvay -- such fun!), learned quite a bit of Mandarin, made new friends around Mandarin language and Chinese culture, and read some great books.  I feel that my goals treated me quite well last year.

This year, for the first month-plus, I checked out of any and all potential goals except running (and work, of course, constant work, the place where I always meet the goals/deadlines).

Things slowed down a bit this week and I realized, oh, crap, I need to formally record some goals for 2013.

So, in a very late gesture, I'm recording my 2013 goals/resolutions:

1.  Running:  I'm reaffirming my commitment to this year's running goals -- so long as I am healthy enough to run, I hope I set and keep at least one running goal each year.

2.  Health: I've been eating quite healthy, taking vitamins every day, and paying more attention to my stress levels .  I've also been doing *very* well on the sleep side of things, which I think is more important than I've realized.  So, I'd like to continue in this trend during the year, keep my red meat consumption relatively low, have lots of vegetarian meals, and do what I can to have low glycemic index meals.  I want to be sure to actually use all the classes on my current Bikram yoga card (8 to go by the first week in May).  And, oh, yes, of course I want to be sure to make time to have a great garden year -- all the effort required is good for my stress levels and health and all of the harvests result in good food!  

3.  Books: Given my current consumption, 12 audiobooks should be easy, so I'm just throwing it out there as something that I'll enjoy if I execute on it.  On the actual silent reading side of things, I'll set the goal at a pedestrian 24.  2 per month seems like something I should be able to manage even though I appear to prefer audiobooks over reading these days.

4. Language: Starting today, I'm committing to 1 mandarin lesson per day (Chinesepod, Pimsleur through Audible, whatever) 'til we depart.  This is the type of goal-setting that causes results.  I can control this one.  Actually, I've decided to try to complete 100 lessons between now and when we leave.  Yeah.  That's the A goal.  (Of course, Settling for the B goal of just one per day, would be totally consistent with my style. And while we're at it, let's admit that I'll most likely miss days in a row and then cram 5 lessons into one day once or twice a month to hit that B goal -- so it's not like I've got balance. Moving on...)

5. Travel: Planning and executing on the China Trip.  Historically, I wouldn't have considered this as a goal/resolution for which I deserved credit if it was actually accomplished.  My time is at a premium now (if anything ever functioned to remind you of your mortality it is this -- I used to think my time was free, valueless, without limit, and all of the economic logical requirements for a truly free resource.  And now, at the ripe old age of almost 40, I'm viscerally aware that this is not true.)  Something has changed, and I now want to give myself credit for taking all the time I need to plan this complex international travel and learning all I can about the culture and language.  I feel I should point to my travels as a goal I strive towards achieving, because, well, because I do.


6. Stay at home weekends: As I've mentioned, I have a goal of 26 weekends at home for 2013.  I'm on the fence about whether we count weekends where we stay in hotels in the bay area as travel or home.  So far we're at 4/8 completely at home and 1/8 with an overnight an hour away.

Latest Home Fun

Working from home in your work-out clothes is a good way to convince the contractors that you have nothing better to do than to chat with them about the work whenever they feel like it. 

Today, one sub rang the doorbell repeatedly and when finally I answered the door with my headset on mute, I said "I'm really sorry, but I'm working right now."   He appeared shocked.

Granted, I, a girl, rather, a childless stay-at-home woman, was still in what he probably thought were my pajamas (there are minute distinctions between my day-time pre-workout clothes and my pajamas, but he can be forgiven for not paying attention -- it's all stretchy and soft and comfy).  But really.  I actually do work.  Even if I don't look like it, and even if it doesn't require nearly as many muscles or actions as yours.

Anyways, where was I?

Oh yes.  In addition to the patio-madness for pavers trade, our original plan was to remove the stucco from the bottom of the house (demo is loud), add a weep screed, power wash the remaining paint and clean off the surface and add a new layer of stucco on top.

We got half-way:

Note the gorgeous re-papered (with black) sections and the cuts to allow for the pristine new weep screed.  Note also the peeling paint from the stucco on the prior horrid "don't, don't, don't DIY kids!" job -- we had no fewer than 4 contractors express surprise and confusion at what was done here (before we bought) when we realized there was a problem and probably needed to fix it.

Turns out, the original stucco was cracked.  Probably a long time ago.  Imagine that.  No rebar in the slab on clay over a chopped down orchard laid down quick fast in 1950 for post-war vets.  Who could imagine any sort of swelling or contraction of the area where the footings were in contrast to dead wood roots that may cause issues for the house's structural integrity?

Painting over it with the wacky DIY solution solved it for enough time for us to buy and pretend it wasn't getting worse.  But, as you can see, at some point, we had to own up to reality.

So here we are.  The cracks are at every stud, vertically through the stucco.  Thankfully, the make-shift paint/texture job held reasonably well and we only discovered one major area of dry-rot due to the cracking.

Other house modifications we've since done have convinced us that the majority of the settling is done, but not all.  We have cracks that open and close with the seasons due to the swelling of the clay upon which our house sits and they aren't going anywhere unless we re-lay the footings.

Other fun details of this process are (i) the mounds of rocks and gravel and sand that change each day in our driveway as they await their final resting places below the pavers; and, more importantly (ii) the mounds of detritus that often sit for 1-2 weeks.  No one has called to get us cited for being a nuisance, and I consider this a major life accomplishment.  Because clearly, our house is an eyesore, at the moment.  All I can say to the neighbors is, "Don't worry, I know it looks terrible but when all is said and done, it will be matched and gorgeous."

Just a month or so more of this madness to go...

2 weeks of 2013, down

Seriously?  How did that happen already?

Since the New Year started, I've been working, running, and busy with all sorts of social and family obligations.

In addition to normal life stuff, we're renovating the outside of our house, so it's a crazy rubble zone.  Turns out, in the 63 years since the house was built, no fewer than 5 different patio-like ground coverings were put in place.  You know, concrete, sandstone, brick, linoleum(!), and exposed aggregate.  All interlayered and poured on top of one another.  The layers were so thick that I'm told we will have to add a step at each door to get into the house when the pavers are done.

Also, I'm a content fiend, lately.  Reading, watching movies, and listening to audiobooks every spare minute I can find. I'm not really sure where this comes from, except that I do know that when I need to recover from life, I often hide with books.  It would appear that lately, my desire to consume content written by other folks extends to audio and visual content as well.

This weekend, we made a quick trip to gorgeous San Luis Obispo and Pismo/Shell beach.  E is a wonderful husband and drove both trips.  On the way there, I stayed awake and regaled him with the New Yorker's piece on Kid Rock (highly recommended).  But, on the way back, I just slept.  The reason behind the trip was sad -- my gran's memorial.  But she had a great life, which we celebrated.  The opportunity to see my brother and sister and niece and nephew, not to mention most of my cousins and all of my aunts and uncles was awesome.  And, of course, the run along the ocean was perfect.

Yesterday, despite going to a holiday party the night before, I had one of the best runs I've had in a while.  A nice solo 10 miler at an average pace of 9:46, followed by 0.75 miles jog/walking cool down and, later, a 2 mile walk with E2.  Total mileage for the week was 31.1, but more importantly, less than 10 of those miles were a 10 minute pace or slower, and 5 were faster than 9:09 (target half pace).  Finally.  I seem to be getting some speed back.

A Silicon Valley Culture Snippet

Last night, E and I were eating dinner at our local favorite Mexican food joint when a man walked in with a pin-striped button up shirt (very common) hanging over what appeared to be boxer shorts (very uncommon).

He stood in line and joked with other patrons, several of whom were in biking gear or spandex (also, very common).  E evaluated the situation and decided, "He must have lost a bet." 

Eventually, he was seated at the patio to eat by himself, walking through the restaurant in what to me, appeared to be a half-dressed state.

After we finished, my curiosity (plus the margaritas) got the best of me, and I convinced E to let me go talk with him.

I had seen enough pointing and joking and discussion while he was waiting, that I knew he'd be a good sport.

"Hi.  I'm just curious, how come you are in a dress shirt but not dress pants?"

He laughed and said, "I'm not from around here."  (Umm... yes, we could tell.)

"I wanted to go for a run and so I parked my car in the lot, went for my run, and then changed into my dress shirt to avoid eating in my sweaty shirt."

He paused.  "I guess these running shorts do sort of look like boxer shorts, though."

"Huh."  I said. "Where are you from?"

"Colorado."

"Interesting.  Well, thanks for chatting.  Have a nice dinner."

I'm fascinated to learn that in Colorado, it's apparently much more acceptable to walk around in only the top half of the Sand Hill Uniform (pin-striped blue shirt, khaki pants) than it is to wear a full work-out uniform if it's sweaty.  To me, he looked half-naked, and a little creepy 'til it was obvious that he was embarrassed.  My perception of the inappropriateness of his attire is even more interesting because I had these thoughts while he was standing next to a guy in full cycling spandex.   

Apparently the social rules are different here than what this Colorado dude expected.  In my experience, walking into a restaurant in your workout clothes, even in a sweaty post work-out state, as long as you were willing to sit on the patio so as to avoid being stinky near other folks, wouldn't be considered odd at all.  Whereas being more clothed, but in a way that most folks in the restaurant seemed to perceive as half-dressed, made this guy stand out horribly.

An Awesome Sunday at Home

After last night's fun with the college roommate and a ridiculously early bedtime, I woke at 6:50 for a local 5K, the Mission City Fun Run.

B, a good friend, was supposed to join me, but she's sick, so that was a bummer.  Even so, it was a fun event, and very much the fun-run that was promised.

This morning was a perfect example of why I love racing.  There is no way I would have been up and running hard by 8 AM without the race to motivate me.  Instead, I did a respectable 27 minute (on the dot) 5K, which was a pleasant surprise since I was running without my Garmin and last weekend's 10K with my sister had been almost a minute per mile slower.

When I got home, I attacked the garden for hours and did Mandarin lessons on my MP3 players.  There's tons more to do in the garden in the next two weeks, but it felt great to get 2 beds and 6 varieties of tomatoes finished.   Plus, I caught up with R while finishing gardening and heading out for a nice walk.

E and I had a wonderful brunch downtown and watched the world walk by for the festival that had shut down traffic.  We hit up the hardware store and bought necessary bits for the garden.

The menu for the week is planned and I'm reading for fun to hide from the afternoon heat (it hit 91F in the eaves today!).

I was feeling pretty good about my productive day -- So many tasks accomplished and it's only 4:30. Then I realized I'd done half of those tasks in public with my shirt on inside out and a large tag hanging from my waist. E, of course, was surprised when I asked how he didn't notice and clue me in at brunch, at the hardware store, or while chatting with the neighbors. So, on this perfectly relaxing Sunday at home, I'm reminded that E & I are made for each other.

Also, I'm reading 867-5309 -- Jenny, the song that saved me (note to self, I should really sign up for Amazon's referral program).  The best bit I've encountered by far?

New Orleans, just like I pictured it.  America's Alcoholic Disneyland, where the normally straight-laced Protestants of the Midwest and the South funneled on down the Missouri, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers to become momentary Catholic-Voodoo worshippers at the fire-fountain altar of the Big Easy.

So much description, history, hints of cultural depth and movement in a single passage.  Of course he wrote songs that topped charts!