A GIANT Sweep + Thrive – Day 1

Oh hi, happy Monday! I was just putting my broom away.

Why?

Oh just because the GIANTS SWEPT THE TIGERS TO WIN THE WORLD SERIES IN 4 GAMES.

Posey running to the pitcher’s mound after the final out is my all-time favorite moment of the World Series win in 2010 and 2012. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

Boyfriend and I watched the game at Nick’s Crispy Tacos in Russian Hill with some friends, and a few hundred other Giants fans. Once the final strike was called… well Polk Street pretty much exploded in celebration.

Also the Giants have been undefeated since the boot came on to my stress fractured heel. Coincidence? I don’t think so. You’re welcome world.

After being right in the thick of the revelry in 2010, the boot and I opted to drive home and listen to the madness from the safe distance of the apartment. We had a pretty good view of it all from where the car was parked off of Polk Street (thank you handicap parking placard). Boyfriend stayed out a bit longer to celebrate with the guys and take it all in, but needless to say I was more than happy to not come home covered in beer and champagne. If I have to wear this boot a few more weeks I’d rather it didn’t smell like stale alcohol.

The World Series win couldn’t have come at a better time, since today Jaime and I started a 2-Day Thrive Juice Cleanse!

Jaime discovered Thrive, which operates out of Nectar Wine Bar in the Marina during the day and I’ve been in no less than 10 times to pick up green juices. She did their cleanse, raved about it, and I immediately wanted in.

I picked up my juices yesterday (Megan and Stephanie, the owners are SO NICE), and couldn’t wait to get started. I bought a couple extra Green Dreams and Tropical Greens so that I could get my system used to the juices yesterday, but officially started today.

Last week was full of eating out, lots of wine and margaritas, sweet potato fries, and over indulging for the World Series. Add to it less than usual exercise (stuck on crutches will do that to a person), sitting on the couch for 10+ hours a day, and I was feeling a bit…. blah.

Cleansing seemed like the perfect solution. Detox, flush out toxins, and get back on track.

And really, how could overloading my body with Vegetable Juice for 48 hours not help my foot heal? It’s practically science.

I’m doing the Deep Dive Cleanse for 2 (and possibly 3) days. It includes:

• 4 Green Dreams
• 1 Lively Lemonade (my favorite!)
• 1 Cozy Cashew Milk (which I plan to dump in a blender with a few ice cubes and some nut meg and make into a milkshake tonight)
• 1 Aloe Vera Capsule (benefits of Aloe Vera capsules can be found here)

 

I also subbed out one of my Green Dreams for a Tropical Green (in which they swap the apple for pineapple for a little change of pace.) Really getting wild over here, I know.

This is my second time cleansing so I know what to expect (being cold, feeling weak, etc), and what not to do this time around (attempt to run or do pilates which I actually can’t do with a stress fractured heel… so that’s a win for the broken foot) so I feel more prepared for what’s to come over the next 2 days.

Workout wise, I plan to rest today (worked out Friday/Saturday/Sunday this past weekend) and then swim on Tuesday and bike on Wednesday. Nothing crazy strenuous, but enough to get some type of sweating into my day. (Stress fracture exercise update to come this week.)

With that, it’s time for Green Dream #3. Woo hoo lunchtime!

The 5 Stages of Running Injury Grief

As I type this post, I’m watching Game 2 of the World Series. I’m also watching my eyes get assaulted by a one MR. WILL SCHUSTER (from Glee) singing the National Anthem. 2010 brought us Lady Antebellum. 2012 brings us Mr. Schu. Somehow this doesn’t seem fair. To anyone involved.

Boyfriend and I were lucky enough to go to Game 1 last night – and by lucky I mean we shelled out an obscene amount of money for Bleacher tickets to be there while Pablo Sandoval made history, and Justin Verlander got owned by our entire line-up. IT. WAS. AMAZING.

Not amazing? Crutching. I have BRUISES on my ribs from those contraptions. I took it easy, stayed seated, and didn’t leave my seat once. A Cha Cha Bowl (my first!) was also thoroughly enjoyed – Tyler Florence knows his stuff – those things are amazing.

It was singlehandedly the best game I’ve ever been to (Game 2 of the 2010 World Series comes in at a close second for obvious reasons – Cain domination over the Texas Rangers) and I cannot WAIT for the series to continue.

Giants aside, let’s move on to how Kristine has become the clumsiest, most-accident prone person on the planet.

Never mind that I trained for and completed a full marathon with NOT A SINGLE INJURY, but in the last week the following has happened:

• Stress fracture in the heel – requiring crutches/boot
• Slamming my hand in the car door trying to get said crutches/boot in safely
• Dropping the base of our VITAMIX BLENDER (approximately 10 lbs – no joke) and in an effort to shield my precious broken heel, breaking it’s fall with my thigh. Resulting in a massive bruise
• Said crutches bruising my ribcage

Yeah, this blender is HUGE.

My life is in shambles and I’m literally, a battered mess.

(Did I mention I’m not dramatic at all either?) 😉

But really, stress-fracture wise, I think I went through the 5 Stages of Running Injury Grief (I just made these up so just go with it…)

1. Denial

• As I ran the Nike Half (yes I ran all 13.1 miles on a now-stress fractured heel), I thought it was at most, a twisted ankle. I kid you not. I never in a million years thought a bone in my foot was fractured with tiny cracks. Never. I would never have run a half-marathon on a foot that could be broken. I told myself it was probably a minor sprain, maybe from wearing flip-flops on weekends or heels during the week. I told myself it wasn’t serious and it would stop hurting as soon as I stopped running. Nerves, pre-race jitters, you name it, I convinced myself that was it.

 

2. Anger

• Setting up my iPhone 5 was the catalyst here. I had just come home from a Spin class, was utterly exhausted from having to crutch around the Marina and our apartment, and was getting beyond frustrated trying to set up (and failing miserably) my iPhone 5 while simultaneously hopping/crutching around the apartment trying to get ready for the day. Enter pity party. Enter boyfriend being a complete saint (as usual) and talking some sense into me. “No Kristine your life has not ended because you logged exactly 0 miles the last 10 days. No you can’t die from lack of mileage. Yes I’m sure you will run again at least once in your life.” 😉 (I’m kidding on the exact context, I swear I’m not that much of a headcase.)

 

3. Sadness

• Stemming from the anger, I then got sad. I convinced myself my running days were over, and I would probably never again be able to wear my beautiful Stuart Weitzman heels, much less run in my BRAND NEW Pure Flows. I would never experience NYC, Chicago or the Boston Marathon. I’d never again wake up early, do my pre-race ritual and toe the line at one of my favorite SF half-marathons. So I got depressed. Very depressed. So depressed that I went on Amazon, bought a Speedo bathing suit, swim cap and goggles to start my new career as an Olympic Swimmer. (That did actually happen and it will arrive tomorrow thank you very much 2-day Amazon Prime shipping.)

 

4. Bargaining

• This happened on Monday. Well if I don’t run for 2 weeks then I’ll probably still be able to do the Us Half. Then, Okay maybe not the beginning of November, but definitely a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. Followed by If I swim every day I won’t lose any fitness or hurt my foot and I can easily run a half in December. And then Worst comes to worse the Superbowl Half I’m signed up for in early February will absolutely happen.

 

5. Acceptance

• The end result? I have no idea when my next race will be. I’ve accepted it – it’s reality and it’s happening. I won’t lie – that’s a pretty crappy feeling. I’m taking it day by day, I’m staying positive (when I’m not swearing in my car from slamming my hand in the door or yelling obscenities in my apartment after dropping a Vitamix on my thigh). I’m going to start swimming tomorrow (alternating it with biking and some sets of abs whenever I can) and just pray to the running/foot gods that I’m cleared to run by the New Year. I have a follow up with a specialist next Friday so FINGERS CROSSED EVERYONE. (Please just cross them.)

With that, GO GIANTS! and have a lovely Thursday evening!

So It Begins Again….

Happy Monday friends!

Hope you had a great weekend. Boyfriend and I headed up to Tahoe after work on Friday to celebrate the marriage of our very good friends. We relaxed, slept in, sun bathed on the beach by the lake, ate amazing food (hello pretzel bread and cheese plate!), drank refreshing drinks, danced the night away, gambled (and won!) and had a wonderful weekend with great friends. My only complaint is that it just wasn’t long enough. 🙂

Adirondack chairs on the deck, view from the room, lunch on the lake, sunbathing.

Artisan cheese plate, diver scallop salad, seared ahi salad, PRETZEL BREAD

Pre-wedding cocktails, day at the beach, boyfriend and I, shots for all

Today kicked off something that a few weeks ago I was unsure was actually going to happen – CIM training begins!

Since starting my new job a few weeks ago, I’ve been absolutely exhausted. Chalk it up to transitioning from teaching and getting plenty of rest to waking up at 6am, commuting, working a full day, trying to get a workout in, and then commuting home again. Twice last week I was too tired to eat dinner. Literally. I fell asleep on the couch without my evening meal. That never happens. One of the nights I finally had some cereal around 9pm before moving from the couch to the bed. You can just call me waste-of-space.

My runs were totally suffering too. I spent a couple of weeks seriously huffing and puffing through the easiest of runs (think 3-5 miles). I was sweating profusely. Even a 9:00/mile felt hard. I wanted to give up. I wasn’t used to runs feeling hard. I wasn’t used to not feeling rested. I was used to running fast, and having the fast paces feel comfortable.

I thought about scrapping the marathon altogether this year. I told myself over and over again that no one was forcing me to run 26.2, or train for it, and I could be happy just running for fun. I thought about sticking exclusively to half-marathons, and throwing my training plan away, and just being happy running for fun.

Then I thought about how no one likes a liar, and that’s exactly what I’d be doing.

I love having a training plan. I love pushing myself. I love having something to work towards. I freaking love the marathon and everything that comes along with it. 20 mile runs on a Saturday morning included. (Followed of course by a giant latte and brunch.)

Then last week I (finally) started to find my groove. It had been like 10 days. Don’t you love how dramatic I can be?

I kept the 5:30am wake-ups (for 6am pilates) to twice-a-week, and ran 3 times (5 miles each) for a total of 15 miles last week. My pace gradually started to get back to where it was the past few months. (Moving forward I’m going to stick to Pilates 2-3 times a week, and running 6 times a week as per my plan – the Hal Higdon Advanced 1 Marathon plan). From intermediate to advanced in just on year – I’ve always been a quick study. 😉

Boyfriend and I have been running hills and stairs on Sundays (perfect for the upcoming hill training on my plan) and combined with pilates, and getting more rest (Saturday night’s wedding festivities aside) I feel like I’ve adjusted to my new schedule.

Naturally when my Google Calendar alert popped up signaling the start of CIM Training today…. there was no holding back. My sense of competition got the best of me… as usual.

So naturally I started training off right by forgoing my planned 3-miler to run 5-miles. At an 8:17 pace and felt like I could have run for hours. As much as I’d love to qualify for Boston, it may not happen this year. I have a new job with longer hours, weekends of wedding festivities and bachelorette parties, a full and wonderful life, and now marathon training to boot. I’m sure as hell going to try, but if the cards don’t stack up this year… well there’s always another race. More than anything I’m going to enjoy the hell out of this training cycle and marathon, and give it everything I have. If a BQ happens, fantastic. If not? I can only hope I still left everything I had on the course, and crossed the finish line with a smile on my face. And a PR. By at least 7 minutes. If 3:34:99 can’t happen, then I refuse to finish with anything over a 3:50. Oh no, not competitive with myself at all.

Only I feel like I’m using that as a crutch, because I have this feeling in the back of my mind that I’m going to do it.

Weekly training updates will commence on Sunday, but until then tell me – are you training for anything? Any big goals in general coming up?

Off to relax for the rest of Monday – have a great night!

(Also it appears I was only at 99% of my picture limit, and since I didn’t bother to read the fine print, I’ve been in the dark about that for the better part of a week. Woops.)

Hour by Hour

So… today. I’m owning the crap out of it. I never really know what to do with myself on Mondays. I don’t teach, so basically I feel like an utterly useless member of society.

I did a few loads of laundry, caught up with a high school friend over lunch, ran 7.5 miles with Lauren in the AM, watched more episodes of Pretty Little Liars than I care to admit on Netflix (the acting is borderline painful but the storyline is so damn addicting I can’t stop watching – seriously WHO IS A?!), had a DOH-mestic fail (Colleen I feel you) at twice-baked sweet potatoes that turned into mashed potatoes once I demolished/shredded the “shells” (not my fault they’re so “fragile”), and passed out on the couch at approximately 10:17pm last night.

Today I was determined to be more productive. (ie: Less Pretty Little Liars, more get off the couch and out from under the fluffy blanket and contribute to society.)

6am – Boyfriend has a conference call. Takes it from home. I sleep through it.

7:48am – Begrudgingly get out of bed. Prep French Press for coffee. Try out Newman’s Own Organic Almond Biscotti coffee with my morning yogurt bowl (0% Chobani – cheaper than Fage yesterday, raspberries, Cinnamon Roll Granola (replaced the oil with applesauce), 1T almond butter).

(Far too hungry this morning to take a photo. Just replace the blueberries with raspberries and we’re in business.)

I’m not usually a huge fan of flavored coffees, but this one knocked it out of the park. (Although I may mix French Roast with the Almond Biscotti to get a milder flavor as an everyday thing.)

8:48am – Drop boyfriend at work. Spare him the perils and horrors of the MUNI system.

9:07am – Arrive at gym. Plan to run 7 miles. Get really, really into the latest Runner’s World and By Invitation Only. Run 10 miles. At an 8:25 average pace.

11am – Hit Safeway for baking supplies

12-2:30pm – Catch up on e-mails, make a massive green smoothie for post-run fuel (original almond milk, frozen mangos, lots of spinach, 1T chia seeds, 1T almond butter). Top with far too much Cinnamon Chex to admit on this blog (they taste eerily exactly like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and are GF!). Gag at the thought of store-bought almond butter. Not even close to the good stuff.

Bake the ish out of the afternoon. Brown Butter White Chocolate Pretzel Blondies (Cassie these were such a hit last time they were requested for this weekend’s travels!), Banana White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, (I’ve now made these somewhere around 87 times), and Toasted Cinnamon Agave Almond Butter.

Sample about 11 of each of the above. Lunch has never tasted so good. Balanced it out with a veggie burger and some leftover quinoa mixed with mushrooms, scallions and a soy sauce/olive oil/toasted sesame oil “dressing”.

Bathe. (You’re welcome.)

3:30pm – Head out to teach. 4 classes in 4 hours. Grande iced coffee becomes a necessary survival tactic.

4:15-8:15pm – Teach Pilates. Make them sweaty. Really sweaty. Sweat marks on the shirts sweaty.

8:48pm – Quick dinner of rotisserie chicken quinoa bowls (cooked it in chicken broth, added in fresh rosemary, red pepper flakes, shallot, salt/pepper, goat cheese, balsamic/olive oil). It’s occurred to me I ate too much quinoa today.

Oh. Does that sound too healthy?

Ben and Jerry’s Greek Fro Yo for dessert. Balance right?

10:39pm – Crash into bed before waking up far, far too early for teaching at 6 and 7 am tomorrow morning. (This hasn’t exactly happened yet, but being that it’s 9:44pm already, I really don’t foresee myself lasting more than another hour.)

Last great thing you baked/cooked/ate? Tell me tell me tell me. (I’m clearly still hungry.)

Hope your Tuesday went well! Enjoy your evening! 🙂

Barre Pro + Good Health Gone Viral

Last night I had an… interesting night of sleep. It was pretty warm out so I (very uncharacteristically) was not bundled up to my neck in layers of down comforter and duvet. I got hot, and stuck my arms out, circa midnight I would estimate.

Around 3am, I woke up with a start, my arms itching like crazy. Still half-asleep I thought to myself “I’ll kill that little bastard mosquito in the morning.”

Two minutes later I felt something on my face.

Four minutes after that I’d had enough and bolted up and into the bathroom.

“AHHHHHH that little shit bit me on the inside of my lip!”

Boyfriend, in all of his 3:27am glory found this to be hysterically funny. I looked like I got punched in the face/was given a dose of Novocaine on one side of my face meant for an animal the size of an elephant.

Not the face, not the face, not the face.

After thoroughly checking the entire apartment for traces of the virus-carrying parasite (mosquito), I was pleasantly surprised to see it had met its (more-than) timely demise, as a result of me slapping myself in the face when I felt the little bastard on my freshly exfoliated face.

I popped a Benadryl (for the antihistamine benefits as well as the sleep-inducing ones), pulled the covers up to my ears, cursed the entire species of mosquitos, dropped a few f-bombs, and went back to sleep before waking up at 7:33am for an 8am surf inspired Barre Pro class.

I looked in the mirror and winced. The left side of my mouth drooped down, and was so puffy on the inside, I imagine it’s how one feels after getting sucker punched in the face.

I made it up to the studio, told everyone who would listen that yes I am aware my mouth looks like they OD-ed me on Novocaine, and no they didn’t, and yes it’s the result of a vicious mosquito attack.

I have a confession – I’ve never taken a Barre class before at my studio. Bar Method with all of its “tucking” scarred me for life. This class though… kicked my booty. I loved it.

Barre classes have always intimidates me because I a) have no coordination and b) have no rhythm. (You should have seen me in dance classes in high school.) Today, I felt really comfortable, and the always wonderful Tricia walked us through each exercise before we began, and then proceeded to do it with us (which in my opinion really helps to get the moves down correctly), and I had a great time. My legs felt like jello when I left, and I felt like my entire lack of coordination didn’t hinder me at all. It helped that she put together an entire surf-inspired playlist (think Beach Boys and Jimmy Buffet) and I was rocking out in my head the entire time.

I was dripping sweat (you’re welcome for the visual) and had such a fantastic workout. Luckily I’ve already convinced a great friend (coughALIcough) to join me next week. I promise you La Boulange coffee after 🙂

(photo by Tricia)

(Sidebar: Speaking of La Boulange, I popped in for an iced coffee this morning, and frantically asked the manager if they would be changing anything about their coffee now that Starbucks paid $100 million for quality coffee owns them. Answer: Yes, they are changing their coffee and it will be a La Boulange-Starbucks blend. My friends it’s time to stock up on La Boulange coffee beans now and freeze them. I hope boyfriend doesn’t mind missing out on the freezer space.) 😉

Good Health Gone Viral

I have this wonderful friend that I met through our previous company, and I am VERY excited for her and all of the new adventures she is taking – she’s started a blog, and is in the process of starting a business in the health and wellness space, called Blume. We ran the Kaiser Half-Marathon together, and she is an amazing resource into health topics and conversation, and writes really thought provoking-articles. I love it already.

A brief idea of what it’s all about:

Every single person on the planet has a health story. We all want to share and discover healthy tips easily and quickly with our friends. Where do we notoriously look first? The internet. But we don’t have a medical Google, or a Facebook, or a Pinterest, or an Amazon in a single integrated and trusted place. Blume is that destination. For U.

Today is a catalyst in getting Blume off the ground and I need YOUR help to get the buzz going. I’ve launched a landing page where my goal is to collect as many email addresses as possible. Not 50, not 100, not 500, but thousands. Yes, thousands! And I can’t do without you.

So, here’s how you can help:

1. Enter your email address in the landing page here. You will then be prompted to share the landing page on Facebook and/or LinkedIn. This is what will make ALL the difference! 
2. “Like” my Facebook page here and join the conversation as you see fit.
3. Follow my blog here.

If you have a minute, she (and I – this will be such an amazing resource for everyone!) would so appreciate if you could enter your email address on her landing page and like her Facebook page.

Thanks everyone! 🙂