Birthday Cupcakes

For my niece's first birthday party, Brian and I made vanilla cupcakes with pink buttercream frosting and marzipan daisies. Except for the buttercream getting a little too warm (soupy buttercream results), the cupcakes were super cute I thought.

Dog Tired

In the summer time, Brian and I face a huge problem. Sadie is still wildly excited in the morning to go running with Brian (and I mean OUT OF CONTROL excited). However, as it gets warmer each day, Sadie gets hotter and more tired earlier in the run.

The main problem, of course is that she doesn't listen when I tell her to slow down because of the heat (go figure). But the other problem is the difference between humans and all other mammals in our cooling systems. Hers just doesn't work as well as ours. Since it doesn't feel like mine is handling this heat so well, I can really feel for how overheated she must get as she runs at a constant speed of 'as fast as she can'.

I think we may have to resort to trying to sneak out in the morning so she doesn't know what's happening. Since she recognizes Brian's running shoes and shorts, he's maybe going to have to stash his running clothes in the wash and only changing into them when he gets down there.

Pat's Run 2009

Back in April, my mom and I participated in the Tempe Pat's Run. This 4.2 mile run/walk is done in honor of Pat Tillman, who was killed while serving in Afghanistan.

A cool thing this year was the timing chip for ALL participants, including walkers. I think it's a neat thing to be able to look yourself up online amidst all the other participants.

This is my second year of doing the event, and my mom's first. After the event, my mom and I rode the Phoenix light rail system for the first time and then enjoyed a Greek lunch at Phoenicia. This is the same restaurant that we ate at after the Phoenix Rock N Roll marathon, so it was fun to repeat after this bout of running.

Atlantis and Hubble

I can't get enough of this.

This is a picture from Flickr that some guy made of the Atlantis shuttle and Hubble telescope passing in front of the sun. They passed in front in 0.8 seconds! Unbelievable photography.

Does anyone else feel so very small when looking at this picture?

Picture credits http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/3531350583/in/set-72157617823159021/

Ooh, pretty.

My new bathroom chandelier is extravagently lovely.

...until you look up close and see how cheap it is.

The best part was the sticker that says "For recreational vehicles only". I'm still working on the relationship between chandeliers and RV products. But hey, it was made in China, so they probably think that the sticker said something about the 25-watt bulb maximum.

Sweet Pea Sadie

Sweet peas smell especially delicious after an afternoon rain.

Vegan Nachos

I've been curious about making vegan nachos for a while now, but any kind of nachos doesn't really seem like a nutritious meal, right? So, when the Wildcats were playing in the NCAA tournament two Fridays ago, I had my excuse. To watch a basketball game entitles most of the world to eat horrendously unhealthy things, so we might as well participate too.

We based our nachos on Losbetos "super nachos". So, we had to come up with substitutes for the carne asada and the cheese. The pico de gallo, beans, guacamole and chips are already vegan-friendly. We used the "cheezy sauce" recipe from Veganomicon for the cheese substitute. This is made of nutritional yeast and some other things that made us think that eating these were going to be pure torture. Our carne seca was textured vegetable protein cooked in chorizo seasoning. Again, we were thinking that after the game was over, we would have to have backup dinner plans because that just didn't sound good.

We were wrong. Really wrong. These were fantastic! I'm not kidding. I think they were much better than super nachos. (That's not hard to do, as Losbetos really isn't gourmet, is it?) I got a little carried away on my lemon juice in the guacamole and then a little carried away with my dark-red chipotle salsa, so the picture doesn't nearly convey how absolutely yummy these were. And, after reviewing the ingredients, these aren't actually that bad for you. Now, if only the game was as good as the food.

Picacho Peak Hike

After driving past it pretty regularly for the past 16 years, I finally managed to hike Picacho Peak on Friday.

Brian had hiked it several times before, as it was often his boredom-reliever when he was commuting between Tucson and Phoenix every week. He assured me that although it was difficult, I could do it. What he didn't remember is that they advise gloves for the steel cables. Gloves would have been a VERY good idea.

There are two trails to get to the peak: the 2-mile Hunter trail and the 3-mile Sunset trail. Both the trails meet up about 1/2 mile below the peak for most of the steel cable climbing. We took the Sunset trail because it was a mile longer to make the ascent more gradual.

It was a beautiful 2 mile hike before it started to ascend up the side of Picacho Peak. At one point, I really didn't think I could make it; the footing had become very loose and I couldn't even stand up anymore, I was more climbing on all fours. But as soon as we realized we weren't on a human trail anymore and corrected our wrong turn, things became much more manageable. On the way back down, we saw our mistake - the sign telling us to make a turn had been broken and was lying on the ground. We propped it up and laughed at the animal trail that we had followed.

About a mile down, we ran into Kathy from Casa Grande. Kathy was a bit panicked because she was pretty sure she was lost. We asked her some questions and it became pretty clear that she was supposed to be on the Hunter trail. That meant she either had to climb a fairly steep 1/2 mile back up the mountain, or we offered that she come with us and we would drive her around to her car (and family) waiting at the bottom of the Hunter trail. We were very glad she accepted to walk with us, as she was completely out of water and not really doing that well. We shared the last of our water and started walking. I think that Kathy was suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration, but we really didn't have that far to go. Brian and I probably had just enough water if we were able to walk our normal pace back to the car. We definitely didn't have enough water or sunscreen to walk Kathy's pace. We were both parched and sunburnt by the time we got back to the car. The funny part is all three of us are Arizona natives; we're not really the people that are supposed to make silly mistakes like that. But it all ended well and when I drove her back to her car, her family looked relieved to see her.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies In The World

And I'm not exaggerating.

Of course, I can't take all the credit. I am using a recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz' Vegan with a Vengeance.

I L-O-V-E a good chocolate chip cookie. I L-O-V-E good chocolate chip cookie dough too. It's almost a toss-up. Which is probably why when I make cookies, I never get the same amount of cookies that the recipe calls for. I end up chomping my way through quite a bit of the dough. The fact that these cookies are vegan and that there is absolutely no way to contract salmonella by eating the dough raw is just a huge bonus.

Excuse me while I go eat another one before they cool.

Running to work

For Christmas, my dad gave me a Garmin Forerunner 405 GPS watch. The corresponding software keeps track of these runs, lets you compare runs, and can even export to kml format for displaying your route in Google Earth. The above is the map and data from my run into work.
This has become one of my favorite runs. Mostly because it feels like I'm cheating to run into work - so like a child running to school in the morning. But also, as you can see by the elevation profile (green line), it's a really nice gradual descent so it makes for a rather easy run.

Lost Dutchman Marathon 2009

Actually, just a half marathon this time. And my first official. Beautiful weather for running (although a little cold for the spectators), beautiful scenery and a really fun course made this a very enjoyable race.

I wasn't feeling 100% going into this one, so I didn't have a time in mind. I was just going to run however fast I felt like at the moment. That may be a good method, because I ran a very respectable 2:08:33. I did have the goal to run the whole thing, no walk breaks at all. I almost did that, except for one very large hill. (Do I admit here that walking up that hill made me breathe harder than when I was running?)

Brian couldn't make it this year which was kind of sad. I thought about him when the lead halfers had doubled back and were passing me. It was fun to think of where Brian would have been. This year was pretty fast for this race, he would have had some serious competition.

Denise and her friend Annie did the 10k. Try as I might, I wasn't going to be able to get back in time to watch them come in. My family tells me that they did awesome and looked like they enjoyed it.

The rest of the family, including little Ryder, did the 2-mile walk. Such troopers to show up in the dark when it was freeeeezzzzzing.

A picnic afterwards with birthday cupcakes for dad finished the day nicely. I even had a seat to myself on the shuttle back to Tucson. What a lovely way to spend a Sunday.

Phoenix Rock N Roll Marathon

Or, marathon #2 for me. That there on the left is my mother-in-law Barbara, Brian, myself and my mom celebrating at the end. Yes, that is a foil blanket you see. Those are to keep you warm after the race because when you stop running, your body kind of poops out as far as warming you. And yes, it was way too warm for me to use it. But I have always wanted one and was very disappointed that they were not handing them out at the Tucson Marathon, so I took one. And baked myself in it.

Now I will admit that 5 weeks is not enough time between marathons to recover. My feet were telling me that at mile 15. In the month before, including the morning of, about 20 people had to tell me that I was going to hurt myself doing this. So I was being super-aware of all that my body was telling me during the race.

I didn't end up hurting myself; I just feel a little extra fragile right now in my hips, knees and feet. A special thank you to my dear husband for admitting afterward that he was worried, but never once uttering anything negative before.

I ended up finishing just 2 minutes after my time in Tucson. That's pretty amazing for that to work out that way after 26.2 miles.

As a complete but pleasant surprise, my mom showed up at the start line at Wesley Bolin Plaza. That shocked me, but in a happy way. My dad had brought her to cheer me through the race. They drove to a spot about every 5 miles and met me there with cheers and encouragement (drove like mad I'm sure - the traffic had to be horrendous). My dad would run with me for a half mile or so, yelling out positive prodding mixed with endearments and drill sergeant routines. After one of these sessions, after dad had veered off again, the guy running in front of me turned around and said "With encouragement like that, how can you not keep running?" I had to agree.

Brian met me at mile 20 to run the last 6 with me. As tired and sore as I was for this marathon, the last 6 were so much easier this time because I knew I could do it. Brian is very encouraging all the time, but he had his positive thinking revved up for me this time. I especially liked his comment right after we turned a corner, started running uphill and a strong, hot wind hit me head on, almost knocking my visor off. He said something like "Phew, I was worried because the wind looked strong. But now it's hardly blowing." It was a blatant lie, but it works for me every time. Thank you Brian.

The other thing complicating things at the end was temperature: 80 degrees. That's 20 degrees hotter than Tucson Marathon. Not to mention it was overcast at the Tucson Marathon and on this Sunday there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Phoenix can be so relentless that way. Since I'm kind of a big wimp in the heat, I was pretty proud of keeping it together and running the majority of the end.

Oh, and congratulations to my friends Denise and Laurie for finishing the half-marathon that day. What a trip to know the three of us were out there on the same day, pushing ourselves to the limits. Good job ladies!

Wood floors finished!

Oops. I haven't posted in a while! The floors are done in both rooms and they look great!

Now I'm trying to outfit the guest room/"my" room to be more useful for me. I plan to make it my sewing/celloing/reading/RockBanding/napping room for the 360 days a year that there aren't guests in it.

Wood Floors Partially Installed

The floors are taking a little bit longer than we thought (we were thinking one day per room). However, we are becoming pretty darn good at installating so I expect that the next room will go a lot faster. As I type this, Brian is finishing up some caulking on the baseboard and then we can start moving furniture back in.

Look at Roomba go!

Brian and I received a Roomba from dad and Carolee for Christmas. We were planning on putting wood floors down in the office and guest room, so after we moved out all the furniture, we set Roomba loose, closed the door and checked back in about 40 minutes later. The results were impressive. Check out the before and after pictures:

My First Marathon

A marathon is quite the experience. I don't think that there is a more beautiful marathon to run than the Tucson marathon. But man, do you pay for that beauty. You pay with every step as you perform a 26.2 mile semi-controlled fall down a mountain. I spent as much time as I could reminding myself to look around and enjoy the time. The view is of the North side of the Santa Catalinas and no spectators for miles at a time. It's just quiet and beautiful.

I'm quite proud of myself over this one actually. I was so nervous the night before that I didn't sleep more than an hour. There was no need to be nervous though. Brian joined me at the half marathon mark and ran the last half with me. It was a real treat as we don't usually run together. He had kept telling me in the weeks leading up to it but I was stubbornly refusing to believe him: I had trained the hell out of this event. I was ready. I was at the peak fitness of my life I think. All it felt like that day was a little longer than usual training run.

I won't lie to you though. Everything you've ever heard about the last 6 miles is true. The mile markers seem to come at about 5 miles apart, and I almost had a mental break down when I saw the mile 22 sign. I could have sworn that we had already past that one and that sign was supposed to say mile 23. I don't like to think too long what would have happened to my disposition had Brian not been there, quietly laughing at my manic moment and reassuring me that no, the race directors were not repeating the same mile marker sign over and over.

I had the best 'curb crew' ever. My dad, Carolee, Steve, Denise and Ryder were there the whole time cheering me on and joining me for portions of the run. You guys truly made the miles go by faster. Thank you.

I'll close with some ripped-off pictures. I just love the first picture because the photographer caught Brian while he was trying to get out of the photo.

2008 Turkey Trot

Thanksgiving in Mesa. It stormed all the night before. I was resigned to not participating in the run, as it wasn't that important to me that I would run through a downpour. Steve and Denise showed up, ready to do their 2-mile event. Well, Steve was eventually ready to do his 2-mile event after some convincing and some borrowing of apparel.

The streets were soaked, but there was no rain falling as we waited for the 1-mile and then the 2-mile events to take place. Brian convinced me to do a little bit of warm-up running. This breaks a time-honored tradition for me. For the last 4 years, any warm-up infringed on my energy stores for the race. This year, 6.2 miles just isn't that long, so I needed to loosen up my legs.

This is the first year that they used timing chips for the Turkey Trot. I love timing chips. I can sit back and let the pushing at the start line happen without me. Brian still got up towards the front. He dislikes having to weave for the first 2 miles around strollers and walkers that push their way to the front of the line for some unknown reason.

And now I understand Brian's reasoning. For this entire race, I passed people. It felt really good to be making what felt like an effortless push to run steady and fast. I had an ipod meltdown at the beginning so I did this race in silence. Well... almost silence. Silence if not for all the huffing and puffing that people were doing around me.

I had meant to run about 10 minute miles for the first 5 miles and then push as hard as I could for the last 1.2 miles. So the first mile I was a little frustrated with how often I was getting stuck behind walls of runners running side-by-side. It didn't seem like I was working that hard, I was hardly even breathing. So I was sure when I got to the 1-mile mark, I would see 11 or more minutes on my watch. So I was pleasantly surprised - and then worried - when I saw 9:20. Oh well, it felt good, I would just keep that up and as soon as it got hard, I would back off the pace and still be able to come back strong on the last mile.

It was perfectly cloudy and cool, but I still got pretty warm and thirsty around mile 4. At this point, I was still right around 9:20 pace so I stopped and walked for a minute to have a cup of water. After all, my goal was just to break 10-minute pace.

So I start running again and around 5.5 miles, I see Brian. I wave to him because he's not even looking for me. He looks surprised to see me. I ask him how he did and of course, he has no idea. He doesn't wear a watch. (We find out later that he broke his P/R as well.) He tells me that I'm really moving. It doesn't really feel like it except when I hit the tiny little uphills. He leaves me with the last .2 miles to go and I put everything I have left into running hard up the final hill. I see a guy panic when he sees the hill and falter. I'm determined to pass him strong. I do.

There's a little bit of confusion when I see there are two timing mats at the finish. Which mat should I push stop on? In confusion (and maybe low blood glycogen), I end up pushing stop some time after I have crossed both mats. Oh well. It's chip-timed. They'll have that information online later that day.

I look down at my watch and am amazed. I have just ran a 58:07 10k. Almost 7 minutes faster than my previous best this February. My final pace is 9:22. My goal was to just break 10 minutes. What a great feeling that was. I felt great after the race. Perhaps I could have gone faster if I wasn't worried what that would do to the marathon a week from today.

It seems like running has been part of my life longer than the 4 years, 3 months that it has. I'm enjoying it more and more and noticing fundamental changes in my body in terms of bone and tendon strength. I've also noticed a huge difference in cardiovascular capacity. I'm excited to see what the next 4 years hold in store.

Committed

After keeping it a half-secret for the past 3 months or so, I'm openly committed to running the Tucson Marathon this year.
I'm still very nervous but my body is holding up extremely well in the training runs so here goes. December 7th is the big day. Check back after then for the update.

Financial Security

I recently happened upon a nice little article about the simplest tips on building personal wealth. http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/105934/10-Reasons-You%27re-Not-Rich

These tips are simple, but very hard to live by sometimes. The greatest enemy to building wealth is our humanness. Of course we know that one of the best ways to build wealth is to not spend too much, but we are human. We want that iPhone and we want it now.

I would add to this article that it is so much easier to grow wealth than to create it. Not having any monthly payments frees up almost all of your income to invest, or to buy that iPhone. At that point, you've deserved it, you've done the hard work to get to that point.

Enjoy.

It's all in my head

The long-standing notion of why a runner could only run so far and/or so fast was that lactate built up in the muscles and thus, created a physical barrier to how far the runner can go. There were other theories, but they were all about some sort of physical limitation to endurance.

Great theories, but it turns out that these physical limits have been very hard to measure consistently. The researchers in this article think they know why: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244--12848-0,00.html

These researchers think that your mind is doing all this stuff to your body, not the other way around. They think that basically, your mind calculates what it thinks it can do and how long it can do it for and then forces that to happen.

I've felt this forced end before in several runs. It's the time that I really just want to stop although I'm not out of breath, I don't feel overheated and nothing is hurting. I just have this overwhelming desire to stop running immediately.

This is good stuff. This means that if I can convince my brain that I'm in no danger of dying if I run 26 miles, then I will be able to do it. I'm not sure it's that easy, but so far it has worked for shorter distances. The first time I ran 18 miles, the 6 miles that I ran THE NEXT DAY seemed like the shortest, easiest miles I've ever done. I'm convinced it's because my brain was all ready for feeling like I did on the 18, but I never got there.

Perhaps this is where good old-fashioned meditation comes in. If I can get the positive and confident thoughts to the front of my brain before I embark on a run, perhaps the calculations made about how long I can go can be affected.

Happy running.