Life Lately: Jan 2016

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.

Christmas Cat!

My parents came down on the 16th and stayed with us for about two weeks. We're renting a townhouse, and I can't tell you the difference it makes when we have guests. It was really pleasant to have my parents (and sister for six days) because we all had enough space that we weren't crammed in.

I closed a deal on December 24th, so I had barely any work the rest of December, and I was able to really take it easy between Christmas and New Years. The end of the year can be hectic, so having that week off after the craziness of the previous couple weeks was wonderful.

Unfortunately, running has not been so great. I've had "traveling" aches and pains that mean I can't really run more than three miles right now. I mean, I could, but it wouldn't be smart, and why hurt myself just to run an extra couple of miles right now?

The beautiful sunset run that led to that photo also led to a day or two of weird achey pain on the left side of my left thigh.

Sam, my physical therapist, thinks that a lot of this is in reaction to general post-marathon tightness combined with some long hours I pulled in the weeks following the marathon (i.e. a ton of sitting), along with tweaks in form that are happening as I work to activate my glutes more. I'm focusing on strength training that activates the glutes, core work and stabilization work. It's not the most "fun", but it will pay off in the long run.

Thankfully, though, none of these aches and pains have extended to hiking, so while my parents were visiting we did plenty of that. Nothing too strenuous since my mom is unfortunately dealing with some foot and hamstring issues (we're on the injured struggle bus together), but enough to get some gorgeous views.

We hiked around Palos Verdes a bit:

Hiked a couple miles up Black Star Canyon (and I am coming back to run this gorgeous trail when I am 100%):

Did some hiking on the San Juan Trail and checked out the views from the Main Divide Truck Trail:

And hit up the Harding Truck Trail when my cousin, Julia, came down from LA for brunch and a hike:

My parents left on the 29th, so Sourabh and I had a quiet New Years Eve at home. It consisted of a home-cooked meal, Mean Girls, and working on my selfie skills with Mason.

Very productive NYE.

On New Years, we dropped by Ochoa's Chorizo, which, as the name might have given away, makes chorizo. Like, good chorizo. Really good. We bought several different kinds and experimented with different recipes over the weekend. Highly recommend picking some up if you're ever in the SoCal area.

We also tried out a new sunset-viewing spot, above Corona del Mar. Two thumbs up.

The next day, I drove up to LA to hike the Hollywood sign trail with my cousin. It was a pretty packed trail, but that didn't make it less enjoyable, and thankfully it was pretty clear so we got some great views:

I've also embraced the down time to read several books, something I totally failed at in 2015. I'm hoping to make 2016 the year of the glorious return to reading. It's just so much more rewarding than scrolling through social media. Since December 28th, I've read:

• Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling (Kaling and Tina Fey are my favorite celebrity authors, with apologies to Amy Poehler -- also they're the only three I've read...)
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (largely set 15 years prior to and then 15 years after an apocalyptic pandemic -- the writing was fantastic and the story kept me up past midnight to finish it. It was nominated for a National Book Award and won a science fiction award, deservedly, I think.)
• This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz (he is such a wonderful writer, I enjoyed this book even though I didn't really like the main character that connects the short stories together.)
• After Dark by Haruki Murakami (my first Murakami book, but definitely not my last. Like with Station Eleven, I stayed up late tearing through this book.)

So, clearly I'm on a good run with reading. Hoping that even when work picks back up I can continue to read at least a few books each month. 

Tomorrow we fly to Peru and Bolivia, and I am so excited! It's the rainy season so the weather might not be ideal, but exploring a new place is always fun regardless of weather. I'll post plenty of pictures once I get back, and then I'll start detailing some of the strength and physical therapy work that I'm doing.

Weekend in San Luis Obispo

Sourabh and I spent last weekend in San Luis Obispo, a college town located about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. We drove up Saturday morning and drove back Sunday afternoon, which gave us just enough time to have a couple tasty meals and explore two awesome trails.

Mason was ready to go.

The drive up to SLO is gorgeous after you get out of LA, especially if you take the Chumash Highway (Route 154) from Santa Barbara, which runs through the Los Padres National Forest, passing Danish imitation town, Solvang, before meeting back up with Highway 101.

We stopped for lunch in Solvang, since I'm a quarter Danish and wanted to check out what imitation Copenhagen looked like. I grew up outside of Lynden, WA, which has an imitation Dutch downtown, so I wanted to see what the SoCal Danish version looked like. It was cute enough to drive through, but pretty packed on a Saturday afternoon, and I think the main attraction there is wine tasting, which we weren't interested in since we were going to be driving another hour and then hiking.

We bought some baked goods from Olsen's Danish Village Bakery  & Coffeeshop, but I'm sad to say the almond tart and florentine simply did not live up to the deliciousness of the Lynden Dutch Bakery in my hometown. If you're looking for wine tasting, though, it seemed like there were plenty of tasting rooms along the main drag.

Once we got to SLO, we headed straight for the trailhead.

We wanted to hike up one of the nine volcanic peaks that dot the SLO/Morro Bay landscape (this Wikipedia article has a cool picture that shows them all in a line).

We hiked up Cerro San Luis, which gives you a gorgeous view of the city and surrounding hills. The main trail is 2.75 miles one-way and has roughly 1,100 ft. elevation gain, but it's almost all uphill so it's not as intense a climb as the hike we did on Sunday.

Quick PSA/reminder for dog owners: always bring plenty of water if you're hiking with your dog. Dogs can't sweat so they can overheat more easily than humans. And be prepared to carry them if they need a break (slash are lazy and just give up after half a mile...)

The peak gives you an awesome 360 view of the SLO area. It was actually pretty windy and chilly at the top, so we didn't spend much time enjoying the view, but it was a great reward for the hike up.

Once we got back down, we checked into our hotel (the local Best Western, which wasn't terribly cheap but was the most affordable and decent dog-friendly option), and drove into town for dinner. Sourabh had read great reviews of Petra, a casual, college town-type Mediterranean restaurant. We shared their lamb shawarma and chicken shawarma platters, along with sides of dolmas and baba ghanoush. They had hard cider on tap, which I love to see, so I had a pint of that, and we shared their enormous and delicious baklava for dessert.

I was unable to stop from digging into the hummus before taking a picture.

We drove over to Morro Bay to watch the sunset, although we ended up huddled in our car for about 30 minutes since it was cold with the strong wind coming off the water.

Sunday morning we woke up early and drove to Coastal Peaks Coffee for breakfast. I always give almond milk espresso drinks a try when they're available, and I'm usually disappointed, but the almond milk latte I had here was great.

After finishing our breakfast, and providing plenty of scraps for the extremely vocal local birds, we drove a bit north of SLO along Highway 101 to hike the Reservoir Canyon trail up Murray's Hill.

It's about 2.5 miles up to the top and gains about 1,200 ft. of elevation, with a lot of that gain in the last mile.

The first mile follows along a creek, which was actually running. Given the years-long drought in California, it's pretty rare to find running water, so that was cool.

The trail is completely worth slogging through, though, because the views of the Central Coast from the top are absolutely stunning.

I wish my pictures fully captured how gorgeous it was up there, but you'll just have to believe me.

We headed back down, my calves complaining about two days of descents in a row, and then stopped in town one last time to grab smoothies for the drive back to Orange County.

Mason promptly passed out on my lap and barely woke up for the 3.5 hour drive back.

One of my favorite things about living in California is how many cool places are a weekend trip away. This trip showed us that we could pack a lot in to just two days without spending very much money (total cost was about $300, including gas, which isn't much compared to how much weekends away used to be in NYC).

So... any recommendations for where our next weekend trip should be?

RnR San Diego Half Marathon Training Log: Week 4

This was a major cutback week. I ran 3 miles. While I was active every day, I was in desperate need of a cutback week after last weekend's hill repeats / strength / 1100 ft elevation gain 9 mile trail run (yeah, didn't think that combo through well...). I did not realize how beat up my body would be after trail running. Of course looking back at it, it was clearly a poor idea to run a hilly route the day after hill repeats.

But trails are so pretty! 

My cutback week would not normally consist of 3 running miles, however with work getting busy, the hiking in San Luis Obispo on the weekend, and the clear signs my body was sending me Wednesday and Thursday, I decided to just chalk it up as a lost week. I think you can generally have one or two of those over the course of a training cycle and be okay. That's one reason I like a 12 week training cycle for a half marathon, and a reason I'll be doing a longer training cycle for the California International Marathon. My job is unpredictable and I don't always know how my body will react to things. If it's saying "no, that's too much, stop it," I want to be able to pay attention without ruining my training.

Sourabh and I drove up to San Luis Obispo for the weekend. The trip was a huge reminder of how happy living in California makes me. It's about a 3.5 hour drive, which initially seemed like a bit much for just two days, but the entire ride is so pretty that it didn't feel like too much for a weekend away. I'm going to do a separate post on the hikes we did and food we ate, so this training log will be short and to the point.


RnR San Diego Half Marathon Training Log: Week 4


Monday: Running form drills + 40 minutes stationary cycling + 20 minutes upper body strength.

I have running form drills on my schedule for every week. I do a mix of side and forward low hurdles, high knees through a net, and some low box jumps, focusing on activating different muscles and keeping good form.

I thought my legs could use a break from running so decided to cross-train instead of run on Monday. They probably could have used a straight rest day, which Melanie told me on Wednesday when I wondered why I was so fatigued.

• 40 minutes on a stationary bike, pace at about 13-14 mph the whole ride.
• Three rounds of 15 reps of chest presses, high rows, and lat pull-downs. 
• Two 1 minute planks, 30 seconds side plank on each side, 15x Supermans for core.

Tuesday: Off.

Did 15 minutes of yoga/stretching, focused on quads, hamstrings and hips.


Wednesday: Strength training with Melanie.

Focused on upper body again because my lower body was clearly not having it during our plyometric warm-up.

• 1/2 mile warm-up and dynamic stretching.
• Two sets of six reps of plyometric drills (side and forward jogging through low hurdles, high knees through ladder).
• Three sets of 15 reps of three heavy upper body exercises.
• One set of 15 reps of two core exercises.
• Longer stretching session focused on quads, hamstrings and hips.

Thursday: 60 minute yoga class.

The Thursday night therapy yoga class has a new instructor who was focused on more of a slow flow than therapy tools/exercises. I liked the class but am bummed that there isn't that option on my gym's schedule anymore since it was a great class at a good time for me. I'll keep this class on my schedule, though, because I can use all the stretching I can get.


Friday: 3 easy miles around Back Bay on trails.

Gorgeous run on the trail side of Back Bay after work. My legs were finally starting to feel a bit more normal.


Saturday: 5.5 mile hike up Cerro San Luis in San Luis Obispo.

Hiked up Cerro San Luis, an ancient volcanic plug, and got about 1,100 ft. of elevation gain in. Not running, obviously, but at least it was quality time on my feet.


Sunday: 5 mile hike up Reservoir Canyon Trail in San Luis Obispo.

That's Pismo Beach in the distance. No, there was never a disaster there (although I thought it was a real thing the first time I saw Clueless in the 90s...)

Same story as Saturday, but this time with most of the 1,100 ft. of elevation coming in the last mile of the hike. Gorgeous views from the top of Murray Hill!

Total Run Mileage = 3 miles *womp womp*


I'm really jazzed about this week so far, though. Amazingly solid 6 miles with a terrific progression yesterday morning (ran a longer and slightly less easy Monday run than normal to make up for no cutback week long run, but the great thing was the pace never felt like it wasn't easy, just wasn't a recovery pace). I also have fun running plans for this weekend! Now let's see how tomorrow's mile repeats go...

2015 Race Schedule

Since it's nearly April, it seems like a good time to discuss my 2015 race schedule. At least it's in the first quarter of the year, right?

Thursday's sunrise at Back Bay. Sunrise = metaphor about the sun rising on my running plans for 2015 (or something like that, I just like stuffing my posts with photographic proof of how gorgeous CA is).

I spoke to Coach Jess on Thursday, catching up a bit and discussing my short and long-term racing plans. I loved working with her so much when I trained for the Chicago Marathon, but it was rough to have to balance NYC law firm life with training. Now that I'm feeling fairly settled into my law firm here in Orange County, I'm excited to start training with her this summer.

Jess and I sketched out a rough race plan for the remainder of 2015. Just voicing my ideas and goals to her got me excited, especially when she didn't think they were totally crazy. (Not that I'm trying to BQ this year or something, but I do have a fairly aggressive marathon goal.)

A disclaimer of sorts. For some reason I hate signing up for races. I put it off for as long as I can. I'll even start training for a race with every intention of running it and yet not sign up for a month. Case in point: I'm currently training for the Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Half Marathon but haven't yet signed up. I think I trained for Surf City for five or six weeks before I actually signed up. Races are so expensive and I just hate the thought of wasting a race entry fee if work gets crazy or I get injured.

So, while I haven't signed up for any of the following races, this is currently my plan for the rest of the year:

10K sometime between now and early May - I'm on the hunt for a 10K to race in place of a tempo run. I've never raced a 10K and would love to work on my mental game in a middle distance race. I have my eye on a few in April, but need to see how they work out with my schedule since none of them are close by.

Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Half-Marathon (May 31) - Part of my hesitation in signing up for races is probably because the ones I'm targeting are all fairly expensive. I've never run a Rock 'n' Roll race, but this one gets rave reviews from those who've run it, and I really like the course profile. The past three weeks of training have not been very promising, so right now my goal is just to take some time off my current 1:52 half marathon PR from Surf City.

I want to run a sub-1:50 half marathon this year, and while I'm just not sure it's in the cards for May 31, I'm going to try training for it and see what happens. Having a race on my calendar keeps me motivated. At worst, it should be a fun weekend in San Diego before Sourabh starts studying for the CA bar exam!

Summer of Shorter Distances - After spending a good two weeks recovering from RNR San Diego without any training plan whatsoever, I'm going to start working with Coach Jess to build a good base for a late fall marathon. I'm excited to race some shorter distances this summer. I'd love to take some more time off my 5K time from last year's Turkey Trot. I'm hoping to head up to WA for a weekend, too

Long Beach Half Marathon (October 11) - When I started 2015, I thought I'd make Long Beach my goal fall race. However, I realized a few things after Surf City.

First: I really like having a training plan. It gives my runs and workouts structure and makes me excited about hitting the gym and completing runs. I love running, but I'm the worst about lying in bed and not wanting to get up. But you add in the guilt factor of skipping a workout and it gets me up and out. Once I'm a mile in, I'm awake and loving life, but getting out there is the hart part.  

My natural inclination is to make like Mason and be lazy.

Second: running in SoCal is AMAZING. Even during the heat wave we had last September, it wasn't crazy hot in the early mornings. It's so rare that the weather is a factor in my running schedule here. Also, there are trails everywhere that I haven't even begun to explore, meaning there's less of a boredom factor when upping mileage.

Finally: work can get crazy here, just like it could in NYC, but my day-to-day is way more conducive to getting enough rest.

The upshot of all this? I'm ready to commit to training for another marathon. I still want to run Long Beach Half, however the plan is now for this to be more of a midway point check-in rather than a goal race. It could even end up being scrubbed if it just doesn't work out, but since I've heard great things about the race, I'm hoping to run it.

THE BIG ONE: California International Marathon (December 6) - I AM SO PSYCHED ABOUT THIS RACE. I was contemplating a few full marathons, the others being in early 2016, but after reading about CIM and asking some CIM "alums" what they thought of it, I was pretty convinced that it was the perfect marathon for me to run. Jess agreed during our call on Thursday, and I am SO excited. I wanted to take a lot of time before committing to a marathon, especially since the Chicago Marathon was so incredible for me in 2013, but I feel totally ready to rock the marathon distance once again. I'm hoping to make a fun weekend out of it, complete with carb-loading in San Francisco.

My goal for my second marathon? Sub-4. It would require me to take about 20 minutes off my first marathon time. Given my recent half marathons, I think it's a doable goal. Part of my hesitation in running another marathon was that I knew it wouldn't be as meaningful as Chicago had been, so I wanted my next marathon to be a big PR. I feel like I'm in a place where that's possible, and I'm excited to train for that.


Here's to the rest of 2015, big goals, and grand training plans!


Tell me: what are your big races for 2015? Have you run CIM? Are you running it this year? Want to come to Orange County and run 20 milers with me this summer/fall?

Post-CA Bar Life Update

Hi there! So, I survived the California bar exam.

Flash cards all day, every day. Actually, more practice essays and multiple choice questions. But flash cards, too.

Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. I think once you’ve billed well over 200 hours in a month, 18 hours of testing in three days just isn't as terrible as when you're coming off your laid back third year of law school. It was still stressful because memorization is not my strong suit, but nowhere near as nerve-wracking as when I took the New York bar in 2013. Also, Pasadena is really pretty!

It's nestled right up against the San Gabriel Mountains.

I ate most of my meals over the three days of the exam at Urth Caffe since it was close to my hotel and had delicious food. Highly recommend if you're in the area (it's an LA mini-chain focused on local and organic food).

Also: pretty outdoor seating.

There's not much to report life-wise or running-wise since studying took up the bulk of my time and my runs and workouts were strictly "let's burn off some stress and try not to lose fitness from Surf City training". Sourabh and I did a bit of hiking the weekend after the bar exam but both times were thwarted by nature/weather. 

First, we tried hiking in the Cleveland National Forest, but the area was closed because the area is trying to regrow from a forest fire. We hiked a few miles around the Irvine Regional Park instead but it wasn't quite the mountains I'd had in mind.

Still pretty, though.

We'd originally planned on heading up to Mammoth Lakes to hike but a major snowstorm was forecasted to dump a foot of snow on the mountain. Great for skiers, not so much for hikers with a foot-tall dog. So we did some short hikes in Orange County.

Apparently the powers-that-be were not going to let us escape from cold precipitation, though, because while hiking in the Santa Ana Mountains we were stuck in a freak hail storm. 

Before the hail...

We did catch a gorgeous, stormy sunset one night at Newport Beach.

Thankfully, last weekend was a bit more successful. My NYC office mate (and friend) Hana is visiting and the weather was great, so we got outside a bunch and had some delicious meals. Saturday dinner at Red O in Newport Beach (great Mexican food and even better people watching -- think the real housewives of OC types). One of our servers apparently wasn't used to normal appetites since he said "this is all for just you two?" when dropping off our food. And when he dropped off our dessert, he said "oh, only one?"

I mean, please confirm for me that this isn't that much...

Duck taquitos, beef short ribs sopes, ahi tuna tostaditas, guacamole and a chopped salad. (Unpictured: churros)
This is not SO MUCH food for two people.

Sunday morning we went to a SoulCycle class. It was hilarious after I'd watched the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt episode with a parody of spin cults the day before. The candle part was just so spot on... (Decent workout, though.)

For class, I tried out this top that I kept from my SWEATSTYLE delivery:

It's an ALALA tank top in the water print. I don't normally pick up prints, but I liked this one a lot. There's also a line of mesh running along the arm holes, which was cool. SWEATSTYLE is a service where you receive an outfit of workout clothes every three months. I'm not normally a fan of the delivery box services since I'm pretty specific about what I wear for work, but I like fun workout clothes, and I think Helena (the founder of SWEATSTYLE, a co-founder of Uplift Studios and a former attorney) is awesome, so I wanted to sign up.

Short review: I really like this top and it held up very well to the amount of sweating I did in the SoulCycle class. I'm going to do a full review after the next shipment I receive, but after one shipment I'm a fan. Receiving and returning the items was easy (and I'm lazy about that kind of thing). I liked that it exposed me to new brands other than the big "default" workout brands. I'll report back next time...

Post-class we had breakfast at W Cafe. I made sure to pick a place that had outdoor seating since Hana was coming from a brutal NYC winter, and then we headed for the hills and hiked at Santiago Oaks Regional Park.

Everything is SO GREEN right now. 

We did a short hike but the route was steep (Hana's fitbit said we went up about 700 feet over a mile and a half or so).

Mason was a brat and refused to walk . I was worried he was overheated and kept carrying him and giving him water. But as soon as we reached the top and I said "we're going back", he started running downhill. He wasn't even subtle about it. He'd just been lazy and hadn't wanted to walk.

Mason's preferred position. Unless he could be eating.

Sunday night we grabbed sushi on Newport Peninsula (it was meh) and dessert at Monster in the UC Irvine area (very tasty) before we headed to Turtle Rock to catch the last of the evening's sunset.

And now you're about caught up. In training news, I *think* I've picked a new half marathon to aim for, and I just put together a training plan. This week is the first week of training, so I'll be back to workout recaps soon!

Is anyone interested in a more detailed description of the bar exam? Happy to write more about it but also don't want to do a long post about the exam only to bore people.