Christmas

Since my last post not a lot has happened. I still don't have my car & I'm still training for a marathon.

 

On Christmas Eve I had one last "really long run" to do. I was supposed to run 18 miles. It was hot & humid so I wasn't really looking forward to it. Surprisingly, it wasn't awful. I made it to 18 & only stopped twice to fill up my water bottle so that's like a 30 second stop at the most. I decided to go ahead & try to get to 20. I told myself that if I could run to 19, I'd let myself walk 20. I ended up walk/running the last mile. Even though it was way too hot I felt much better than the last time & my time reflected that. I was 11 minutes faster than my other 20 miler.

The only thing that was really hurting were my feet. I could feel that I had a couple of blisters. I wore different socks & that was a mistake. They slipped & my heels were messed up. I also had a spot on my pinky toe that didn't feel good. When I took my shoe off the whole side of my sock was covered in blood. I'll spare you the picture. I was walking around the kitchen getting Powerade & chocolate milk & there were little bloody footprints everywhere. The floors were going to be cleaned later in the day so I wasn't too concerned. Dean said he could track me like he'd track a deer just from the blood. So, when I took my sock off imagine my surprise when the spot that was bleeding was tiny. Like, really tiny. Weird.  

 

Since we're back to warm temps I was able to get in the pool waist deep. It was cold but not awful & it really helps with recovery.

 

We always go to Mass on Christmas Eve. We normally go to the 4:00 Mass & to dinner afterwards. Since we were only able to get an 8:00 dinner reservation we went to 6:30 Mass. I think it's my fave now. You don't have to go an hour early to get a seat &  you're not squeezed in like sardines.

 

We had our annual dinner at Ruffino's with our friends. It was delicious as usual.

 

Ruffino's always brings cotton candy at the end of the meal.

 

After dinner we went to the annual pajama party at our neighbor's house.

 

I didn't do a very good job taking pictures this year & I'm about the only one that takes any so we don't have many.

My cousins who are also my Godchildren & my mom. Note the shorts & t-shirts. It was hot. I think we have more hot Christmas's than anything.

Logan wasn't feeling good. It was obvious because he was being still & quiet. HA!

 

He opened his presents & then he was gone. We found him in the sitting room.

Poor little man. 

 

My uncle & my brother

 

Two of the cousins

 

It was a miracle to get these two pictures. The boys are not a fan of pics.

Brooke & her mom

 

Me & my cousin, Leslie

 

They even smiled for me!

 

All in all it was a good day. I just wish Logan would've been feeling better.

 

How was y'alls Christmas?

 

Toodles!

Marathon Training

So, training has been going really well. I've had a few pains but I've gone to physical therapy & it's helped  a lot. Saturday was a scary, scary day. My training plan was for a 20 mi. run. I didn't want to do it. I know there's nothing saying I have to but I do want to see this through & get that sticker. Even though I don't have a car to put the sticker on at the moment. Hopefully, we'll have it back by then. 

It was really cold Saturday morning. Not just cold for Louisiana either. When I got up the wind chill was something ridiculous like 27. I didn't want to hang around the house too long waiting for it to warm up because that would just make me not want to go. I do much better waking up, getting dressed & going run right away. I ended up leaving around 9:00. It was cold but the sun was out & I know once I start I warm up pretty quick. 

It's amazing just how far 20 miles actually is. At least to me it is. I never really paid attention to how many miles it was to get anywhere until I started running. I actually started at my house, ran to LSU, ran around campus, around the lakes & almost all the way home. It was tough. It didn't get too bad until around mile 18. I ended up walking a little those last 2 miles. I was tired but my biggest problem was that I was nauseous. I think the energy jelly beans were to blame. I need to figure out a plan because I have to take in some calories on the route to get through the marathon. Carbs work best for me but I can't run around with a bagel in my pocket. It took 4:01 to do 20 miles. Originally I wanted to finish the marathon in 5 or less but I see that's a pipe dream. 

The pelicans are migrating before they hibernate. Or at least that's what I read somewhere. 

I've been using the pool for ice baths for the last several long runs. The water is freezing & I didn't think I'd be able to stand it this week since it was cold outside too. I managed to just put my feet & calves in. My foot was bothering me & my calves are usually tight after a run. I honestly think this does wonders because when I woke up Sunday morning I wasn't sore aside from my foot but it was better. I've always believed in the power of ice but now I'm convinced. 

20 miles is the longest training run I'll have to do. I'm using Hal Higdon's plan with some modifications & it only calls for one 20 miler. The local running store has a plan too. They also only go to 20 miles but they do it twice. I can't decide what's best. The reason for the other modifications is time. Now that I'm further into the training the plan wants you to do a semi long run during the week. I can't do 8 or 9 miles during the week because I already get up at 4:30 & I'm not getting up any earlier & with the traffic we have these days I don't usually get home before 5:45. If I started immediately that would have me not finishing until close to 8:00 which isn't far from my bedtime since the whole getting up at 4:30 thing. I just try to get what I can done. I'm not trying to win the race I just want to finish. 

This weeks first run was short since it was the follow up to 20. 

It was also reaaaalllly slow. Again, not trying to win.

This morning I did 6 miles.  

The weather this week has been yuck. Windy, misty & today foggy. It's not cold but the humidity is high. All that's supposed to change Sunday. We'll see. I do much better in cold weather & I'm crossing my fingers that it will be cold January 15. 

Toodles!

Life Lately

I didn't mean to quit blogging.  I don't even know if anyone visits anymore. There just hasn't been anything blog worthy going on.. Just the same old stuff. Work, running, eating out, repeat. Since we last visited I've had a birthday.

Work birthday cake was just almond cake with butter cream filling & icing. Best cake ever!

Another butter cream birthday cake with friends. One thing I'm not a fan of on birthday's is people actually singing Happy Birthday. It's awkward for everyone involved. At work they always sing & you just sit there & don't know where to look. My friends decided they needed to sing to me. I told them no, it's awkward & I don't like people looking at me. Soooo, they turned around & had their backs to me & sang. I highly recommend that if you must sing. So much less awkward.

Two nights before my birthday we'd gone to a charity event in town & on the way home this happened.

The front's also damaged because when the girl hit us, she pushed us into the car in front of us which just happened to be our friends that we were with earlier. Fun times dealing with that. We're going on almost 6 weeks & my Expedition is still in the shop. Maybe 2 more weeks they say. Definitely not holding my breath. It's really not fun to pay a car note on a car that's only a year old that you currently don't have. We're getting really close to payment number 2 without the car. Yes, I know, be grateful nobody was hurt, blah, blah, blah. I am. Just annoyed that we're inconvenienced  because of someone else. 

I've been running a lot. Marathon training is going surprisingly well. For several weeks I ran 4 times a week which I don't normally do. I've had a few minor issues that I've gone to Physical Therapy for but for the most part I feel ok. 

Two weeks ago I had my longest run to date. 

I swear I heard angels singing when I finished. It took 3 hours 29 minutes. I'm definitely not training for time since this is my first marathon. Actually, it will also be my only marathon. I don't have grand illusions that I'm going to do great & love it & want to subject myself to any more of this nonsense.  

I have a 20 miler Saturday. It's getting colder but luckily the ridiculous cold (in the 40's for the high) will only be here Friday & then Saturday will warm up a bit. 

It's the time of year when the pelicans hang out at the LSU lakes for a few weeks before they go wherever it is that they go for the winter. 

We've had a lot of rain & wind & just dreary looking days this week. I'm ready for some sun. 

So, that's it. We're all caught up. See? Nothing happening.

Toodles!

Napa 2016

Back in October we went to Napa with friends. I pretty much love everything about Napa. The weather is fabulous! We flew into Oakland on a Wednesday afternoon & headed to Napa. Thursday we started with a tasting at Cakebread. 

All the wineries have really pretty landscaping.

 V Sattui was next. We'd never been there before & the wine was really good. Of course they don't sell it in stores. We bought a few bottles & had it shipped home. Someone asked me what we learned on this trip. My response was - We like $150 wines better than $50 wine. There really is a difference. We did not buy the $150 bottle. The guy that did our tasting advised us to buy a less expensive bottle & age it so that's what we did.  We now have a wine rack in the closet because of the whole dry, dark storage thing. 

We spent a lot of time at V Sattui

They have a little deli at the winery so we had lunch.

It was really good & the grounds are pretty with picnic tables all around.

We went to Grgich the last time we were in Napa & they had grape stomping so we stopped again since I had friends to stomp with.

A real live Lucy & Ethel moment.

We stopped at Silver Oak.

Friday morning Dean &  I were on our own while the rest of the group went hiking at Muir Woods. We did that the last trip.

Our first stop was the castle - Castello Di Amorosa

So pretty!

Everything was like you'd expect in a castle - big & ornate! I loved it.

This room can be rented out for a party. It holds 150 people. I can't imagine what they charge for that.

There were peacocks walking around. I tried to get him to open his plume or whatever you call all the big feathers but he wasn't interested in cooperating.

I was trying to get us in the picture with the castle in the background. 

Duckhorn is one of my favorite wines & we didn't make here last trip. The sign says by appointment only but we walked in with no problem. We only did a tasting & not a tour.

You get to taste a lot of wine. 

I really liked Miner's wine. We ran into some people here from Louisiana & we have mutual friends. It doesn't matter where you go if you have on an LSU shirt you're going to meet up with someone.

Beautiful views

Later we met up with our friends for a tasting at Domaine Carneros. 

Korie & Randy were in San Francisco for the week so they met us.

It was a great trip & I'm ready to go back. 

Toodles!

Friday Eve!

The day's are going by slow but the week seems to be going fast which really doesn't make any sense. The time when I'm actually at home is what's going so fast which is annoying.

Saturday during my run I stopped at Mike's cage. This has become a habit on my long runs. 

He wasn't in the mood to entertain. Mike was diagnosed with cancer this summer & we found out this week that the cancer has spread & he only has 1-2 months to live. I'm going to miss seeing him on my runs. 

This was my longest run in awhile. 10 miles. I'm still kinda in shock that I can run that far. My time is slow. A good bit slower than this time last year. Not really sure why but it's not the end of the world. I have a half marathon in 2 weeks. I don't think I'll be breaking any of my records. Oh well. 

Last week was Homecoming at LSU. Sorority row is on my route when I run at the lakes/LSU.  They take the decorations very seriously. 

In case you don't know that's all tissue paper. It's called pomping. They stick what can only be a gazillion sheets of tissue paper in wire. I'm sure there's a more accurate definition but that's all I've got. 

It's very impressive. 

For those of you not familiar with LSU, the above picture is of LSU's star running back Leonard Fournette. The theme for this years homecoming was Reign. 

After my run, I got in the pool which was very, very cold. We had a cool front come through which made for glorious runs but not so glorious pool time. It was basically an ice bath without the ice. I wasn't sore the next day so there's that. 

I napped & went to Mass & then we went to watch the game with some friends. There was good food, good wine & a great game!

Sunday my brother & sis-in-law came to LSU to run so I went & got Logan. We went to Yogurtland & then to our house to play. 

He got on my foam roller, closed his eyes, said he was meditation & started to Om. I swear I don't know where he gets half the stuff that comes out of his mouth.

Monday morning I ran.

I increased my mileage & ran 6 this morning. I wanted to see if I could do it & still make it to work on time. I did but I had to get dressed faster than normal. 

Tuesday was our 13th Anniversary. We had dinner at The Little Village & it was delicious. I'm still thinking about the seafood stuffed steak that I decided against ordering. Stupid! It just so happens Tuesday's they have half price bottles of wine so that worked out nicely!

This morning I was up bright & early to get my run in. I feel so much better when I run but it's hard to remember that when the alarm goes off at 4:30.  

Again, slower than I've been but I'm trying not focus on that. I'm going to be training for my first marathon & all I care about is finishing. Well, I also care about finishing in less than 7 hours or something crazy but I'll worry about that later. 

Toodles!