Short Week!

I was going to say how glad I was that this was a short work week, but then I realized that's pretty obvious.  Who isn't happy with a short work week?

My weekend was good. Sunday was awesome because I had a deep tissue massage and some "me" time sweating out the toxins in the wet sauna and then went to see The Descendants. I'd highly recommend it! Besides the story being engaging and the acting top-notch, the Kauai scenes had me itching to go back there. It's not my favorite island because of all the driving you have to do to get around and the resulting traffic on the two-lane roads, but seeing Hanalei Bay made me nostalgic for a surfing trip I took there in November 2010. 

After the movie I headed to the gym for a yoga class. My marathon schedule dictated 60 minutes of cross-training, so I did 30 minutes of cardio (20 on the elliptical and 10 on the bike) and then took the yoga class.  I guess it did something because my obliques, back, and arms are all sore today. 

Saturday was a bit of a blur. I slept in a little (if you can call 7AM "sleeping in") and then did my 5 mile recovery run (through Fisherman's Wharf and down the Embarcadero). Then it was home for some Instant Netflix time on the Wii (watched my first episode of Breaking Bad and loved it) and a little reading. 

I'm currently reading Sideways on a Scooter by Miranda Kennedy. It's fascinating to read about what it's really like to live in India (from the point of view of an upper middle class American, that is), but reinforces my desire to never visit there. I can't even camp, so visiting India would be out of the question.

Later I went dancing, but didn't have that great of a time. It wasn't awful, but I'm just not big on dance music from the "90s, 00s, and 10s." I just stayed for 3 hours and then headed home.

My plans for this week start with looking over my marathon training schedule: 

Monday:  Rest
Tuesday:  Boot Camp (60 minutes)
Wednesday:  Run (4 miles easy)
Thursday:  Run (Turkey Trot 10K = 6.2 miles)
Friday:  Rest
Saturday:  Run (9 miles)
Sunday:  60 minutes Cross-Training
Total:  19.2 miles

I modified the original schedule, which had 18 miles for the week and no 6.2 mile run in the middle of the week.  I just tweaked it a little so the mileage wouldn't go too far over the 18 miles, but I could also do the required 9 miles on Saturday. 

Today I'm at work and then I'm getting together with my favorite college roomie and her family!  I got a surprise call from her last night and always have a good time together.  We'll probably go to dinner and wander around Fisherman's Wharf.  We're all big ice cream fans, so I'm sure we can fit that in even with the cold San Francisco weather today.

Have a good week!

XOXO
Kim

Weekend...finally

I had yesterday off, so I shouldn't complain because my weekend got here earlier than it did for most people.  It was the usual...gel manicure, some blogging, some reading, some laundry, and then some sushi!

Oh, I did something else that I hadn't done in a long time....synched my iPhone AND backed up my hard drive, which I hadn't done in over a year.  (Hey, I forgot how to do it!)  I need to find a boyfriend who knows a lot about computers and stuff like that to help me.  Or just a boyfriend who doesn't know anything about computers would be fine, too.  :)

I hate doing posts without photos, so here's one of me, but I can't really figure out where I took it!  Based on the date I *think* it's Noe Valley Tavern when I was there for a benefit, but not sure.  I'm not in the habit of taking photos of myself like a lot of people do, but when I get that one day every few weeks where my hair, make-up, and outfit are all working, I like to document it.

Crap, where is this?

I also found my photos from the Nike Women's Half Marathon during the sync (which is good because I wanted to sob at the thought of losing the photo of me at the Nike wall* pointing at my name), so I can work on a post about that.  It almost seems anticlimactic a week after the event, but as long as I get it up before next year's lottery so you'll know how to avoid my mistakes, that's good enough.

Goals for me today are running 5 miles (recovery run) as soon as I can get up, laundering all my running clothes, baking banana bread, going to an opening at 941 Geary for Blek le Rat's new show, and then going to Club Vogue at the Cat Club.

Tomorrow's a little up in the air.  I have a massage at 11, but I need to swing by The Warfield before that and buy tickets for Adam Ant.  (Yes, THAT Adam Ant.  He's still around.)  I'll be downtown for the massage, so I'm thinking of going to a movie after the massage.  The new George Clooney one by the Sideways director called The Descendants looks good.  I also need to work in 60 minutes of cross training, so I'm thinking I might accomplish that with a yoga class at 5:30.

Have a good weekend and let me know if you did anything fun.

XOXO
Kim

*The photo came in handy yesterday.  The dry cleaner lost a blouse of mine and is still looking for it.  I realized that Nike wall photo was the only photo of me wearing it, so I went to them with my computer and showed them.  The reason they're still making such a valiant effort to find it is because I told them I found the receipt from May and I paid $135 plus tax.

The missing blouse and my big arm.  Eek.

I'm usually not in the habit of spending anywhere near that for a blouse, but it was for a first date.  It taught me a lesson because the guy cancelled the date 2 hours before it was supposed to happen.  That's the second time that's happened before a first date (Kim spends too much money on an outfit for a date that never happens), so next time I'm just wearing some old crap that I already have.

Anyway, the blouse was always a little too big anyway and cursed from that date, so I'd be just as happy if they don't find it as long as they refund the purchase price.  They said they'd "make it right," so we'll see.

XOXO (again).
Kim

Weekly Workout & New Wave!

Sorry it's been a while since an official update, but it's been busy and I received some bad news this weekend about a friend's health, so I just wasn't up to blogging.  


I'm feeling better now, so here's a little bit of what I've been doing.  First, half marathon training is still on track and I made every workout on the original schedule, but I tweaked some of the original cross training that I planned.

 Monday - Run (5 miles Easy/7 minutes Fartlek)
Tuesday - Strength Training Class (60 minutes) I was waiting for a call from my doctor and only needed 55 minutes of cardio, so I did the elliptical & recumbent bike for 55 minutes so I wouldn't have to miss his call & start over.
Wednesday - Run (5 miles Easy/7 minutes Tempo)
Thursday - Strength Training Class (60 minutes) I ended up taking a Yoga class (60 minutes)
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Run (9 miles Easy/7 minutes Tempo)
Sunday - Run (5 miles Easy)


Saturday was super busy since I had a long run and then I needed to be at the SF Ferry Building in time to check that my Clipper card was loaded for the ride over to Sausalito for the art festival.  Good thing I got there early and checked it because the line for the machine was crazy later and we barely made the ferry as it was.


I know you're asking why we almost missed the ferry if I got there so early (11:10AM for a noon ferry).  Well, my friend and I waited in line for 40 minutes (yes, 40 minutes) for lattes from Blue Bottle.  It was delicious (and pretty....see below), but seriously, I would never have waited if we hadn't been waiting for a noon ferry.  

Blue Bottle Latte

We had to stand on our way to Sausalito because the ferry was PACKED, but it was only 30 minutes and the weather was nice.  

Not the best shot, but it was crowded & we were moving!

We got to the festival too late to see Men Without Hats, but made it in time to see all of The Romantics.  I like their two hits from the 80's, but everything else sounded the same to me.  No matter because the audience was way into them.

After wandering around looking for food (I was starving after a 9 mile run and only some chocolate soy milk for recovery), we settled on some mediocre pizza.  I would have preferred the gyro, but the line was too long.  Crab cakes were our second option, but the woman was kind of bitchy, so we moved over to pizza.

The main reason we went to the festival was to see The Human League.  I'd seen them a few years ago at Red Devil Lounge and they were AWESOME.  This show was no exception.  

Here was the setlist:

1.  Never Let Me Go
2.  Open Your Heart
3.  Sound of the Crowd
4.  Heart Like a Wheel
5.  The Lebanon
6.  Egomaniac
7.  Empire State Human
8.  Night People
9.  Human
10.  Love Action
11.  All I Ever Wanted
12.  Tell Me When
13.  (Keep Feeling) Fascination
14.  Mirror Man
15.  Don't You Want Me?


Encore:
16.  Being Boiled
17.  Electric Dreams

Songs #1 & #8 were from their new album, which I'm totally buying because the songs were fantastic!  Sometimes you just want a band to stick with their strengths and not try to create something totally new and that's what the new songs were like.  


Here's a link to the one I really liked ("Night People").  (Sorry, but there's an ad at the beginning.)

The rest of the weekend I spent at my parents with a little trip to Bodega Bay to The Tides Restaurant for Dad's birthday.


Tonight I'm off to dinner in Los Gatos and then Tears for Fears at Mountain Winery.  Tomorrow I need to do a 10 mile run, so hopefully I get enough rest tonight!


Have a great weekend!  What are you up to?


XOXO

In Bed...

It's Sunday morning at 8:41 and I'm just going to laze around in bed for a while.  I've been up for a while and already had my oatmeal spinach smoothie and was going to just stay here and do my run later.  However, once I heard the fog horns and started thinking about how nice it is to run Fisherman's Wharf in the fog with no tourists out, I got dressed and did my run for today (4 miles).

A lot of people don't like the fog, but I love this weather.  The only thing I don't like is wind!  Here are a couple of shots during a quick photo stop at 3 miles at Aquatic Park.  Cool, right?

You can't even see Alcatraz behind that big ship!

View of Fisherman's Wharf

This week's workouts went pretty much as planned except Thursday, but I still completed everything on the schedule.  Next week the running mileage will start to climb!

Monday - Run (5 miles Easy/5 minutes Tempo)
Tuesday - Strength Training Class (60 minutes)
Wednesday - Run (5 miles Easy/7 minutes Tempo)
Thursday - Strength Training Class Cardio (55 minutes - Elliptical, Stationary Bike, Stair Climber)
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Recovery Run (5 miles Easy)
Sunday - Run (4 miles Easy)


I didn't really go out this week...shocker!  I think I was burned out after months of going out 3-4 nights a week.  I'm also suffering from allergies and sinus headaches that just wear me out.  I did manage to finish two great books.  Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh (a re-read of a childhood book that's on my 101 in 1001 list) and The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton.  The Lock Artist kept me riveted, so I'll definitely be looking for some of his other books.

I haven't done much cooking this week except experimenting with different smoothie recipes.  This one is the same as my oatmeal smoothie, but without the oatmeal.  Instead I added spinach and Trader Joe's frozen three berry medley (with Barbara's Puffins in Cinnamon flavor on top).  The taste was good, but I'm not into the seeds in my teeth from the blackberries in the fruit.

Yesterday I went to a birthday luncheon at Golden River Seafood Restaurant at Geary and 23rd.  My friend's mother passed away last year and this would have been her 80th birthday, so he generously included me in the celebration.  I really need to do a review of this place on Yelp to get their score up.  Three stars isn't a bad score, but I would put it in the four stars category.  I'm still not drinking (today is day 30 with no alcohol!), but they actually comped about ten large bottles of beer because my friend is such a good customer.

OK, I'm rambling now.  I cleaned out a huge cupboard in the kitchen yesterday along with two carts, so today I'm going to tackle either my clothing drawers or one of my clothes closets after my massage and spa time later.  If I have time, I might make the peanut butter scone recipe I found.

Have an awesome Sunday!

XOXO

Where Did My Saturday Go?

It's almost 4PM and I've done a lot today, but somehow didn't do everything I wanted to accomplish.

I started the day with a smoothie experiment.  Here's what I used:

1/2 c Oats
1/2 Frozen Banana
1 c Almond Milk
1 T Flaxseed Meal
1/2 scoop Whole Foods Vanilla Soy Milk Protein Powder

I mixed that in the blender, poured it in a bowl, and topped it with a few Barbara's Peanut Butter Puffins.  It was delicious, but hearty and filling!

Banana Oat Smoothie posing on my rug

I decided to drive out to Ocean Beach for my second run out there this week since I was up early enough and wanted to make a couple of stops out that way on my way back.  The run was kind of a struggle because I wasn't feeling great and didn't realize how much uphill there would be from mile 2.3 until my turnaround spot at mile 3.5.  I almost didn't do the 7 minutes of tempo because it was getting warmer, but I ran it between minutes 53 and 60.  It was worth it to see the 650 calories burned at the end!

I finally tried out the new Fresh and Easy store out in the avenues.  It wasn't busy at all around 10AM and is an alternative to Trader Joe's.  I mostly bought fruit and veggies, so I'll be interested to see if the produce lasts longer than TJ's.

After that I made a stop at Cheap Pete's to get frames for my Go-Go's and Duran Duran concert posters from The Fillmore.  They make frames specially sized already for the posters, so I bought a couple (one in silver and one in black).  Unfortunately, I didn't realize that they weren't the wooden ones that I bought before and I didn't know how to get the posters in, so I had to make another trip across town for a remedial lesson.  It paid off because they're now framed and beautiful!

I came home and made a little snack using the banana bread that I made early in the afternoon (I told you I did a lot today).  I tore up a thin slice of the bread and put it over plain Greek yogurt with strawberries:

Snack...posing on my rug again

Now I'm trying to get myself to relax.  Laundry, mopping and vacuuming might need to wait until later or tomorrow.  I'm still not feeling great, but I agreed to meet a friend and go out for a while tonight.  I'm not really in the mood, but I'll be on the guest list, so it'll be free.  If I rally, I'll go on to the next place, but not sure if that will happen.

Hope you're having a good Saturday!  I think I'll read my book now.

XOXO

Is It Friday Already?

I survived my week!  Sorry I didn't do much updating (other than posting a few Formspring answers), but I like having photos on the blog and I didn't have time to download them from my phone until today.  This will be a pretty long post, so grab something to drink and get in a comfy position.

Monday was pretty much a typical day until the evening.  After work and running I attended a Yelp Elite BBQ party at Radius.  Here was the menu:

Unfortunately, I got there 30 minutes after the event started, but in that short amount of time they had already run out of the pulled pork, brisket, corn bread, and most of the potato salad!  The wings were pretty tasty though and I liked the space and the owner's impassioned speech about his employees and using local ingredients, so I'd definitely try it again for a regular meal.

Tuesday was a little more of a challenge because I had to fit in a cross-training workout along with work and The Go-Go's concert later at The Fillmore.  I decided it would be easier to work out before work instead of running around like a crazy person after work, so I got up extra early to do my 50 minutes of cross-training at the gym (25 minutes elliptical, 15 minutes bike, 10 minutes stair climber in case you're interested).

I met my friends at The Fillmore later and we took a photo of the collage that turned out to be what was used on the awesome free poster that they gave away!  

Artwork by Jason Mecier

The collage was gorgeous as you can hopefully see.  (The iPhone just doesn't do it justice.)  The artist's name is Jason Mecier and you should check out his website to see some amazing work.  He's a mosaic artist and will make artwork out of anything.  This piece of artwork had everything:  tampon boxes, make-up containers, bandage boxes...the works.  Really beautiful.  The poster was cool, too, so I'm going to Cheap Pete's on Geary and get one of their white frames:

Anyway, The Go-Go's came on at 9 and played until 10:15.  They were as good as all the times I'd seen them in the past and everyone had a blast!  The band was tight, Belinda's voice was strong, and they were all getting along and having fun.

I was counting and the first show I saw was their last tour in the 80's with Jane at the Greek Theater.  Then I saw them twice in the 90's:  once at Shoreline Amphitheater with The B-52's and Psychedelic Furs and later at The Warfield.  Then I saw them a few years ago at The Independent on Divisadero.  

Here was the setlist from my trusty iPhone notepad:

Vacation

Tonight

How Much More

Get Up and Go

Mad About You (cover of Belinda's solo song)

Lust to Love

Mother's Little Helper (cover of The Rolling Stones song!)

Automatic

Fading Fast

Cool Jerk

Cool Places (cover of the song Jane sang with Sparks)

This Town

Unforgiven

Our Lips Are Sealed

Skidmarks on My Heart

We Got the Beat

Encore:

Beatnik Beach

Fun with Ropes

Head Over Heels

Wednesday I came home from work and prepared a huge pasta salad for our company picnic on Thursday.  There was a lot of chopping and dicing involved, but here was the finished product:

I must say that it turned out really well!  Pasta salad isn't that complicated, but I did use a recipe that I ended up tweaking.  For one, it called for 8 oz. of tomato sauce to be mixed with 8 oz. Italian dressing.  That sounded weird to me and it sounded weird to other people, too, so I just used 16 oz. of Italian dressing.  I also omitted the mushrooms and used a yellow pepper that I had on hand.  Whole wheat pasta would have made this even healthier, but I wasn't sure how that would go over at a company picnic.  

Speaking of healthy, I made these awesome (and relatively healthy) "no bake" cookies right after the pasta was done:

Just oats, maple syrup, cocoa, and peanut butter.  They satisfy my sweet tooth without making me feel guilty!

After making the pasta salad and the cookies, I went to a free yoga class at Lululemon on Union St.  It was from 7:30-8:30 and it was the first time I'd taken a yoga class from an instructor other than one at 24 Hour Fitness.  (Oh, except a couple of Bikram classes, but that's a whole other arena of yoga.)  It was crowded, but I felt great after class.  I might start going on Wednesdays after my runs since it's so convenient.

Yesterday was the first night that I stayed in all week and it was so nice!  We left our company picnic at Golden Gate Park around 2:30 and I drove up to the Beach Chalet to change into my running gear and do my 5 mile training run.  It was so great for a couple of reasons:

1.  I ditched the heart rate monitor and decided to rely on what felt right as an "easy" pace instead of relying on the monitor.   Runs were becoming less enjoyable and I felt that I was able to converse (the path wasn't crowded, so I talked to myself for a while to see if I could carry on a conversation and keep my breath) running at my regular easy pace.

2.  The route was one that I hadn't done in quite a while, so the variety made it more interesting.  I was running across from Ocean Beach, the path had small rolling hills and wasn't crowded, and the weather was nice and cool like I like it!  I have 7 miles to do on Saturday, so I might do this run with an additional 2 miles tacked on somewhere.

Tonight I'm still in a staying in mood and I need to rest up for the run tomorrow and all the other stuff I'm doing this weekend.  I'm going to put off making banana bread until tomorrow afternoon and read my new book from the library tonight and maybe watch the last episode of True Blood on my Netflix DVD.  

In addition to finishing my re-read of Harriet the Spy, I'm now reading Orange Is The New Black by Piper Kerman.  It's about a woman who did some drug trafficking for a girlfriend for a short time in her early 20's and then had to pay for the crime 10 years later when she was indicted and eventually sentenced to 15 months in a women's prison.  I just started it and I'm hooked!

How was your week??

XOXO

101 in 1001

I've been working on this page for a while, so it's finally complete!  You can find "101 in 1001" in my tabs and it's pretty self-explanatory.  As I complete items, I'll be updating the page.  My next goal is to complete the "About Me" tab!


It's Sunday morning and I'm drinking coffee, blipping some songs, and relaxing.  I don't have anything pressing today, so I'm going to play it by ear.  Normally I'd be up running by now, but I think I'll wait a little while longer.  I'm trying to finish a couple of books (The Likeness by Tana French and Operation Beautiful by Caitlin Boyle), so I'm thinking of going to a cafe in North Beach later and having a coffee and reading.  Tonight I think I'll catch up on some DVD watching and I'm going to make Pretzel and M&M Blondies!


I went dancing last night at New Wave City for their 19th Anniversary Party.  I can't believe I've been going since 1993 when it was the last event at the I Beam in the Haight!  That's a lot of years of '80s dancing and good times.  I was invited to the VIP Party from 8-9PM and then free entry to the club.  I had a good time, but left around 11:30 so I could get a good night's sleep.  I guess I'm getting old!  I also started my "no alcohol for a month" goal (#8 on the 101 in 1001 list).  I'm actually trying to go without alcohol until after the Napa Valley Marathon in March, but I thought 30 days would be more manageable for the purposes of the 101 in 1001 list.


Well, I guess I'll get ready to do my 3 miles, so have a great Sunday!  I'll try to post a pic of my Blondies later.  

The Weekend...So Far

After last night's festivities at Bloodhound and then dinner at Rocco's Cafe, I had a pretty good night's sleep (even though I was awake in the middle of the night when a 3.3 earthquake centered in Berkeley hit and I felt the building shaking).  I woke up a little after 7AM and was super eager to use my new Nathan Quickdraw Elite water bottle that I bought yesterday for a long run.

As a little background, I normally don't carry any water with me on runs.  I know that sounds insane, but I pretty much use the same routes that I learned when I was part of a training group.  Those routes just happen to have water fountains conveniently spaced for hydration.  (Also convenient is the fact that I don't sweat profusely!)  What's not convenient is boredom with the same old routes and the need to venture to new territories (that don't have fountains).

A couple of weeks ago I tried an 8-mile run that incorporated a hilly part of the Nike Women's Half Marathon in October.  I was venturing into unchartered territory, so I brought my water bottle that fits in a waistband and sits at my back.  I thought I was going to scream before it was over.  Belt riding up my waist, bottle bouncing on my back...no bueno.

Anyway, I did a 10-mile run this morning using my new hand held bottle and had a much easier time of it!  Granted, I ran one of the same old "water fountain" routes, but at least this time I didn't need to stop for hydration!  I had to transfer the bottle from one hand to the other once in a while, but that wasn't bad.  It fit comfortably on my hand and I didn't find myself gripping it tightly.  The fabric was also soft.  It was worth giving up the freedom of empty hands to be able to get rid of the belt!  (I might give it to my Mom.  I think it might work better for walking.)

After having a gel manicure and a pedicure this afternoon (aaah...), I came home to try to make dinner and tomorrow's breakfast from scratch.  I'm not really that good at cooking and improvising, but dinner turned out great!

Dinner a la Fog Chick

This probably looks like a disgusting mess, but it's quinoa, broiled eggplant (that was marinaded in Trader Joe's Sesame Soy Vinaigrette dressing), zucchini sauteed in soy sauce, a tablespoon or so of plain Greek yogurt, and a couple of tablespoons of salsa (also Trader Joe's).  It was filling, but it was tasty and I feel good.  (Oh, and I paired it with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.  Yes, Trader Joe's Charles Shaw.  Sorry, but that stuff is good!)  Best of all, I have leftover quinoa, eggplant, and zucchini, so I might try to incorporate the veggies into an omelette or something tomorrow morning.

So, it's Saturday night and...Fog Chick is staying in.  I have several different options tonight (Club Vogue at Cat Club for dancing, New Wave City at The Blue Macaw for dancing, or all-you-can-eat shabu shabu in Japantown with friends), but I just feel like staying in and hanging out by myself.  That probably sounds weird, but sometimes I need to be by myself.  At heart, I think I'm a loner.  Plus, I have too much stuff going on next week and I'm stressing out about getting enough rest, not eating or drinking too much, and getting all my workouts completed.

I have dinner plans Monday and Tuesday (which means I'll have to get up no later than 4:15AM each day to go running and get to work on time), a Yelp Elite Event on Wednesday (I can do my run after work and still make it), and cocktails and dinner Friday night with a friend.  With all that going on next week, tonight's agenda is trying to finish my book (about Madame Tussaud), catch up on writing some Yelp reviews and uploading some food photos, and maybe working on this blog a little more.  (Oh, and maybe buying some new music from Amazon.com and finally watching the Netflix DVD that's been sitting here for two weeks.)

Tomorrow I'm not sure what I'm doing.  I kind of want to see English Beat at Stern Grove, but I'm leaning toward SFMOMA (Picasso/Matisse exhibit) and maybe a movie and glass of wine after the museum.

What fun stuff are you doing this weekend?