Post toasties

Realized that I haven't posted in ages, so doing the quick rundown.

Most of December was pretty non-descript. After a bunch of hemming and hawing (and came o so close to just flaking out), went to Ensenada for Xmas week to do a spanish immersion -- involving staying with a host family, going to daily classes, and the best part, hanging out with the other students and going around seeing sights, clubbing, etc. The best description I can give is that it was like summer camp for single 30-somethings. Craziness. Had a little bit of boy drama, but the best parts were spent hanging with the girls -- and I got a new local friend out of the deal (and in an interesting twist, some ongoing boy activity in the form of one of her friends) so thats even better.

So I've been kind of riding the social high from that experience, although I am beginning to come down a little bit. I got sick with major sinus infection while I was there, got laryngitis which kept me out of commission until the second week of January, was ok for a couple of days, and then came down with the respiratory hell that took out most of my department. And then went to Seattle for a little bit of family/friend time and conferencing. So for all intents and purposes, I was out of the office from 12/23-1/23, but I managed to pull my annual review together for work and submit it on time. So I'm actually feeling nice and lazy now -- brain is nice and clear and non-stressed. Had a nice lazy weekend of lolling around in bed, interrupted by conversating, reading, watching movies and walking around town. I'm actually going to attempt something like productivity today, although my list of things to actually accomplish is getting smaller and smaller -- I think if I manage to clear out the back of the van, wash the motorcycle, ride said motorcycle to the reptile store to get Rhee some miceketies, start assembling all the crap I have to return to various stores, and do laundry, that will be the mark of a successful day.

In anticipation of Lazy Bed Day, I did crazy levels of housecleaning on Friday, so the apartment is looking pretty good, barring the big pile of boxes in the corner. The goal for February is to empty the storage unit and get everything here so I can start working my way through it.

Activities for this quarter include continuing with Spanish (Spanish 5! Whoot! Although I appear to be completely failing it at this time. Hopefully I'll get it a little more together), and doing a wilderness course through the sierra club that involves weekly classes, and four different hiking/camping outings (including terrain navigation and snow camp, both of which I am very excited about). I've dropped the racewalking, at least temporarily. I may start up with yoga and kettlebell again as I need to work on my flexibility, and have been plotting and planning ways to get more hill walking in to prep for hiking and general endurance (parking at the base of Torrey or LJ shores and walking to work seems like the option of choice, and also allows for morning surfing if I can get that organized).

So yeah. Life is good in southern california. :> I really do like it. Please don't take my native Seattlite card away.

The serendipity of the shuffle

Stolen from Dawn.

1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question.

NO CHEATING...

What does next year have in store for me?
Catalyst, Anna Nalick

What's my love life like?
Hot Love, Jive Bunny

What do I say when life gets hard?
She's Not Innocent, Antigone Rising

What do I think when I get up in the morning?
Sonata in D Major BWV 1028 Adagio, Bach Suites for Solo Cello

What song will I dance to at my wedding?
Change the Game, Sean Paul

What do you want as a career?
Lucky Father Brown, Don Caballero

Your favorite saying?
I Got the Chop, Tower of Power

Favorite place?
Trouble Child, Joni Mitchell

What do you think of your parents?
Munster's Theme, Herman the German

Where would you go on a first date?
New Amsterdam, Elvis Costello

Describe yourself?
Quest for the Cup, Sonic Youth

What is the thing I like doing most?
Escape, Journey

What is my state of mind like at the moment?
Ella y Yo, Aventura feat. Don Omar

How will I die?
Charming, Jonatha Brooke

What do you do when you see your friends?
Let's Groove, Earth Wind and Fire

How does your boyfriend/girlfriend make you feel?
Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire, Joni Mitchell

How does your ex make you feel?
Sister Dobriana, Bulgarian Women's Choir

If you were to die today, you would feel (like)
Something's Missing, John Mayer

Half marathon, my personal bugaboo

So, did the Silicon Valley half marathon last weekend, pictures at: http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=13565&BIB=3233.

A lovely time, walked the first 4+ miles with Veek and Sheila, and then me and my podrunner (150/155) had a lovely time just grooving away for the rest of it. In an interesting turn of events, I ended up taking running breaks from my walking, mainly on the downhills, when I could feel my muscles getting heavy and was like "let's jar the muscles around a bit" which actually seemed to work pretty well.

On another interesting note, went out to Happy Hour at the Brig with Lani and Lori, and ended up doing a nice jog from the van (about 5 blocks away) to the restaurant, without any ill effects. Interesting. So that kind of intrigues me as to the whole Chi Running thing, and getting better running form when I do do that.

Other events -- the last couple of days, both life and work has been looking up, which is good. I've been getting out and about more socially, and work as brought up a couple of projects which has been a nice addition to my daily tasks. Today went to happy hour with the IT group, and then followed it up with another happy hour with Mick and pals. Maybe too much beer, but it's nice to be out and around people, and not feeling like a big git.

TMI, PDQ

So something wierd I've started to encounter on online dating sites -- almost immediate requests for my full length photo. As this is something that I never encountered in Seattle, I can't quite tell if this is a Southern California phenomenon, or something due to the change in dating age range.

What is also interesting is that these guys (both so far) is that they have both been guys that have explicitly included the curvy-few extra pounds types in their "seeking" profiles, so it would seem to me that they would be a little more laid back when it comes to body shape expectation than the guys that are like "slender-athletic builds only".

Regardless, it's still kind of creepy. It's like, I know I have a big italian butt, but I'm not in plus-sizes and nothing folds over and touches anything else. Not that it would be bad if it did. And I'm definately not gaunt, but you could tell that from my pictures. And regardless, are you not going to speak to me because of the size of my ass? Please.
,
My immediate response is to ask for a statement as to their sperm motility and a bank balance, just to be equally as offensive and stereotypical.

53.2 miles ....

Just got back from the Rosarito-Ensenada 50 mile fun ride. I did finish, I managed not to seriously injure myself (except for my pride on two clipped-in tip overs), and I am immensely glad I strapped my Teva's on my bike rack for walking up the big #$%^ing hills. Actually, I was pretty pleased with myself, as I managed to clip along at a nice 22mph on the way into the finish line -- which is both fast for me, and courtesy of a nice tailwind. The other fun statistic is that I hit 40mph going down the hill just prior to the humongoid hill. The descent down that hill I took a bit more cautiously, since there were a lot of turns and people riding erratically.

Specifics -- the guy with the cigar, cerveza and boombox blasting 70's funk yelling "get on your bikes and RIDE" to the walkers coming up the 2 mile-long climb, people in costumes - a small group of afro-wigged riders, a group of witches (with appropriate green hairdos), the occasional lucha libre masked wrestler, little kids yelling "CANDY! MONEY!" -- on the coast it was cute, inland it became a little menacing, drinking upwards of 100g of water without having to pee, the wimps who hired taxis to haul them and their bikes up the series of hills and drop them off at the descent, ululating at the spectators who were cheering us on.

All in all, it was a good time. And apart from my traps and neck (and nether bits), I'm actually not too sore. I think the walk breaks did me some good, and I made a point of doing a regular "eating" (gu) and drinking (combo water and emergen-c) schedule, although towards the end I was definately craving something a bit more solid like a banana or hard boiled egg.

Not entirely sure I'll do it again (the yahoo factor is a little high given the terrain), but I'm glad I did it. It definately puts my weekend rides into perspective, and makes them seem a little less daunting (30 miles, no problem!! Torrey Pines hill? Bite me!!) On a side note, this bodes somewhat well for doing a half-ironman, as it involves a 56 mile bike ride and a half marathon. Maybe next year.

Pictures should be up in a couple of days -- I'll link to them as soon as they're available.

Better than sex

And it better be, because if I'm seen in this getup, I'm never getting any again. :P

The find of the day was a pair of sewn elastic knee support thingies -- I scooted one on my left knee and my eyes just about crossed -- you know that feeling you get when suddenly the low-level achy pain that's been with you for ages suddenly disappears? Yeah, that.

So now I'm all about the "C" in the RICE strategy.

My other dorkalicious find today was a long-visor cap, with the motto subtly emblazoned on the band "dam if i no". Although practical, it reminds me of the Billy Bass, or the jokes that my uncles send in email.

However, having adoped the geriatric over-glasses a number of years back (making me look either like Robocop or a fat Olson Twin, take your pick), I'm used to looking like a doof. And my face has been getting fried out on the water, so I'm thinking the brimmed hat is in order. Never mind that this brim is about twice as long as your standard fashion baseball cap. But whatever.

I think I'm turning into an old man. Stop me if I start wearing dark dress socks with shorts. Unless they're compression socks, because that's practical.

Soy slacker

Well, I've actually been busy and active, but just haven't been updating the blog. I'm hoping to remedy that, as it should keep me somewhat honest.

I'm fully moved into the Solana Beach apartment and loving it -- I've gotten used to the trains, and really enjoy not having loads of crap weighing me down. As it is, I still have a few boxes of stuff, and things are scattered, but it's a total of 12 boxes. And that's it. It kind of feels like a wierd window on how regular people live -- "You mean that you don't have a room stacked full of crap in preparation for any eventuality? And you don't have 5 of the same thing?"

Who knew.

In any case, I finished the AFC half -- not as fast as I would have liked, but faster than I've done before -- and this was done all walking, not a stitch of running (except for the short sprint to the finish line). 15:24 pace for the duration, 14:59 pace for the 10k. As my pace for the Seattle half was 16:17 and pace for the running section of Lavaman was 16:34, I'm pretty pleased with the improvement.

Courtesy of Veek's invite, I'm going to do the Silicon Valley Half (hoping to break 15:00 for the duration), and then also doing the Seattle Half (see how close to 14:00 I can get). I figure it's a good benchmark test -- the 10k is a distance that I can easily wrap my head around, but the half pushes me, so I figure it's good to get a few of these in. Also by sticking with the half, I'm not going to get all crazy on distance, and I can continue to ramp up -- my body has been pretty temperamental the last couple of weeks what with a congested-feeling knee (bursitis?), my back going out, and my shoulder impingement coming back for a short spell yesterday.

It was like the injuries of training's past, or something.

The one event that I'll probably push myself a little too hard for is Rosarito-Ensenada -- I haven't been getting the bike miles in, and although I know I can do 30 without a problem, this is 50. So will be buckling down and getting the commutes in.

Last but not least is surfing time, and I always have time for that -- and if the back isn't in the mood, I just sit on the beach. Doesn't suck. And I've managed to hook up with a nice group of folks that do a lot of stuff in north county, so that's doubly good.

So here's a total goober picture of me, for your viewing pleasure. Ahm so PURDY. I look like a freaking muppet.