Month: July 2015

I’m sorry for the delay in writing this post! I started my new job on Tuesday and I’ve been busy doing lots of new-hire paperwork and studying for my role. I’m working in the fashion industry now, writing about clothes all day — so rough, but someone has to do it! I have a lot to learn about brands, trends, garment styles, and all the details that go into clothes (necklines, silhouettes, pockets, cuffs, etc.). It’s kinda nuts, but it’s also awesome. I feel very lucky!

Back to last week: I got (mostly) back on track. It was an unusual week in that I had my last day at my previous job, attended my mom’s wedding, and suffered my first trail-running injury (although it was not one I ever anticipated). Read on!

MONDAY
Slept in. Plus wine and The Bachelorette in the evening, of course.

TUESDAY
Slept in. Wahhh.

WEDNESDAY
Ran 4.6 miles at 9:04 average pace. It’s amazing how much better my whole day feels when I wake up early and exercise. I feel more energized, have more time to make a legit breakfast (because if I don’t wake up to work out, I just sleep as late as possible), and can go to work feeling like I already accomplished something.

THURSDAY
Lifted weights for 30 minutes. 

This was my last day working at Redfin, where I was a copywriter for nearly three years! If Redfin is in your area, you really should work with a Redfin Agent to buy or sell your home; you’ll get great service and save a ton of money. We sold Aaron’s condo with a Redfin Agent and had a fantastic experience! (They don’t pay me to say that anymore, so you know it’s true.)

FRIDAY
Rest day. My mom got married to her love of 11 years, Don! They had a very sweet, simple courthouse with just my brother, Aaron, and me in attendance, and then we all went out to eat. It was perfect!

I don’t have any wedding photos to share yet, but here’s a pic of the little bouquet I made for my mom with white roses from Safeway. It turned out really well and she loved it!

SATURDAY
Ran 5.2 trail miles at 13:07 average pace. Ugh, this was a slog. I’m terrible at pacing myself while trail running, so I end up walking a bunch. I still enjoy myself, but I long for those fit days when I felt like a strong runner. I’m working on it!

SUNDAY
Ran 3 trail miles at 12:39 average pace. I was planning to run 5 miles, but I got stung by something (hornet or wasp) TWICE at mile 2. It stung me in the back, and then it must have gotten into my tank top because it stung me again on the stomach as I was whipping off my top to try to get rid of it. 

I was really shocked because I hadn’t heard anything buzzing around me; it just came out of nowhere. The worst part was that I couldn’t see the sting on my back, so I had no idea how bad it was. (I actually didn’t realize I’d been stung on my stomach until I got home because it was significantly less painful than the first sting.) When I ran into a guy walking his dog on the trail, he looked at my back and said it was definitely some type of sting, but I’d live. This was actually helpful information, since my crazy, worst-case-scenario brain was all like, “What if it was a black widow bite and I’m about to die??”

Anyway. It was not the most fun experience — both stings still itch four days later — but it won’t keep me away from trails. Now I know to be more wary of stinging insects than bears!

I thought Aaron’s two-week absence would make me a more productive person. I’d wake up early every day, exercise, make delicious dinners from scratch, and catch up on reading.

Instead, I never caught up on sleep post-Vegas because friends and family wanted to hang out every night to catch up and celebrate my new job by eating and drinking. As a result, I slept in every morning, was too lazy/busy to work out every night, and was generally full of excuses.

Wow, what a fun update! It gets better toward the end. 🙂

MONDAY
Slept in. 

I also went to my friend Amy’s big, beautiful new house to marvel over her legit adulthood, eat fajitas made by her husband, drink wine, and watch The Bachelorette.

TUESDAY
Slept in. 

I also went out to happy hour with Karen, who still meets me for monthly food and booze sessions nearly two years after we first crossed paths at Green Lake. Yay!

WEDNESDAY
Slept in. But, I did a one-hour Baptiste yoga class at work. We had a health fair all week, and part of it was free yoga, so obviously I was all over it. It was a very beginner class, but I appreciated the very detailed descriptions of basic poses since I definitely don’t have perfect form.

I also had dinner with my dad at a most excellent restaurant that appears to be a dive bar, but actually has delicious Mexican food: El 42 Cantina. I had ahi poke tacos that reminded me of the divine Da Poke Shack in Kona, plus a seriously lethal watermelon margarita. I had to add several pours of water to make it remotely drinkable. I’m not sure how I feel about this.

THURSDAY
Slept in. 

I also donated blood as part of the health fair. I hadn’t donated blood since high school, but if I figured if I wasn’t really getting my blood pumping this week, I might as well pump it out for someone else.

Plus, I went to Aaron’s dad and stepmom’s house for dinner. They made spaghetti, which I hadn’t eaten in the longest time. It was sooooo good.

FRIDAY
I had the day off work, but I was feeling a bit… wait for it… drained from donating blood, so I was super lazy and watched a bunch of old episodes of The Bachelor (Jason Mesnick’s season, which I never watched back when it aired). I am the coolest.

My Jawbone fitness tracker says I slept for 10 hours and 24 minutes and walked 378 steps. Wowwwwwwwwww.

SATURDAY
Ran 4 miles at 9:24 average pace — my first run in two weeks. I felt really out of shape, which is exactly what happens when you don’t run for two weeks.

Also, Aaron came back!!! And he brought all the chocolate from Switzerland. 

I knew I married him for a reason.

SUNDAY
8-mile hike (roundtrip) to the top of Mount Si with Aaron’s mom, Greta. 

This is the much longer and more difficult hiking option on the same mountain as the Little Si hike I did with my dad on Father’s Day. I though the 3,150-foot climb was pretty intense, but then again, I don’t have a ton of hiking experience.

Greta was nervous about tackling it, but we completed the four-mile hike to the top in 1:54 with no breaks. We spent about 30 minutes at the top snacking and enjoying the view, and then Greta wanted to RUN back down… so we did. Sheesh! My MIL is a beast. We didn’t run the whole way since the trail gets pretty rocky in spots, but we made it down in 1:08.

A few years ago, Aaron and his ultra-trail-running friend Patrick ran up Mount Si in less than an hour. WTF. I wouldn’t be able to run for 30 seconds up that trail. Aaron could barely walk for four days after (I assume from the downhill portion).

My legs felt fine after, but Greta and I didn’t run nearly as hard. It was more like controlled falling through the woods. Wheeee!

I’m not even sure I can call this post Last Week’s Workouts. How about Last Week’s Workout?

My schedule is all out of whack with Aaron being gone. I’ve been staying up later, sleeping in more since I’m tired from staying up late, and skipping workouts.

I also felt really stressed and anxious last week because I accepted an offer for a new job (!!!) and gave notice at my current job. I don’t know why I was so anxious because everything worked out well, but I lay awake at night worrying about the whole process of negotiating the offer, telling my boss I’m leaving, and thinking about how life will change in a few weeks. It was especially weird to not have Aaron around to talk through everything (although we texted a lot using WhatsApp!).

I’m walking away from a lot of perks at my current job, but ultimately my new role will be a better fit for where I want to go in my career, with a lot more opportunities for advancement. Change is always tough, but nothing worth doing is ever easy.

Finally, I spent the three-day Fourth of July weekend in Las Vegas for my friend Gillian’s bachelorette party, so you know there was no working out there! It was a ton of fun. More on that below.

MONDAY
I slept in and skipped yoga. I fully intended to do it after work, but I got the job offer during the day and spent the evening on the phone with multiple people talking about it. And then it was time for The Bachelorette! And wine. Lots of wine.

TUESDAY
30 minutes of weights — this routine at the gym. This was my one workout of the week!

WEDNESDAY
I skipped my run, sadly. I was looking forward to it to help relieve some of my anxiety, but sleep won. Then I planned to run in the evening, but it was just too hot and I was too lazy. Theme of the week.

THURSDAY
I could not fall asleep for the life of me on Wednesday night because I was anxious about telling my boss that I’m leaving, so Thursday was another sleep-in day.

I felt sooo relieved after talking with her on Thursday, and was finally able to feel excited about what’s ahead. I spent Thursday evening running a few errands for Vegas and packing!

FRIDAY
I woke up at 3 a.m. to get ready and go to the airport. I didn’t feel that tired at the time because I was excited for the trip, but a few nights of bad sleep really hit me on the plane and I think I took a little nap. Then it was all sun and fun for the rest of the day!

I’ve known Gillian since kindergarten, and we’ve been good friends since 8th grade. She was one of my bridesmaids, and she even caught the bouquet at our wedding! Obviously I take full responsibility for her engagement. 🙂

We stayed at Planet Hollywood, and we spent lots of time at the pool. I believe the high temp was 110 degrees, which is CRAZY, but luckily there were plenty of icy beverages to keep us cool.

We had fun outfit themes for the weekend, starting with the bride-to-be in white and the rest of us in black for our first night out on the town.

BFFs since 8th grade! I wore the Gym Short Romper from Rent the Runway (here’s the lowdown on Rent the Runway). Gotta love anything that has “gym short” in the name, right?

The whole group at The Venetian. We went to dinner at some Mexican restaurant there, and then hit a few clubs, including Foundation Room at the top of Mandalay Bay, which has an awesome view of the strip! And we had free champagne, which is always nice.

Gillian and her lovely sisters!

SATURDAY
What’s more patriotic on the Fourth of July than walking around Las Vegas decked out in red, white, and blue? We even had matching American flag sunglasses!

We slept in, had breakfast, and then moseyed around for a few hours seeing the sights. We also saw Mike Tyson! At first I thought it had to be a Mike Tyson impersonator because he was walking around alone with no entourage, but shortly afterward we saw a big sign at a sports memorabilia store that said “MEET MIKE TYSON TODAY!” So, there’s that.

After more pool time, we got dressed up in our patriotic eveningwear.

I wore the Deep Blue Dress from Rent the Runway. Vegas screams for sequins.

The bachelorette wore the Sweet Almond Martini Dress for her first RTR rental. It was gorgeous on her!

We had an incredible seafood dinner at Aquaknox in The Venetian; probably the best seafood I’ve ever had. We started with crab ceviche, and I had perfectly cooked salmon with forbidden rice for my entree. Our waiter even gave us complimentary prosecco, dessert, and dessert drinks! The meal was on the expensive side, but very, very worth it. I’ll certainly go back if I’m ever in Vegas again.

After dinner, we went outside to watch fireworks, but we didn’t watch for very long because… well… if you’ve seen fireworks once, you’ve seen them all. And surprisingly, the fireworks were not very impressive. You’d think Vegas would have an over-the-top show, but not so much.

As we walked to our next destination, we saw that people had taken over the strip and were just walking in the middle of the street! We took advantage and got a fun picture.

The last time I was on the strip, I was running my first marathon! My legs were just as tired after two nights of partying this time as they were after that race. 🙂

We wound up at XS at Encore, which is what I had imagined a quintessential Vegas club to be. The majority of the club was outside, surrounding the huge pool.

It was super fun, but a LATE night. We were out until 3 a.m., I think? Thank goodness I wore flat sandals! I learned my lesson the night before.

SUNDAY
We flew home on Sunday, and generally tried to recover from the events of the weekend. I don’t know how I used to function in real life with all the partying I did in college, but I certainly can’t do that anymore! Ahhh, to be young(er) again. (Actually, no. I’m good.)

Time to get back on a good schedule this week. My top priority is to catch up on sleep. I’ve discovered that whether I exercise or not depends hugely on the quality and quantity of sleep I had the night before. And exercising in the morning helps me fall asleep faster at night, so it’s a positive cycle.

All aboard the zzzzzz train!