I think I’m done traveling to LA for quite a while. Between Sushi Decompression, the Long Beach marathon, business meetings and seeing family I have already been down to LA 4 times this month and I. Am. Done.
Sushi Decompression on the 4th was a ton of fun, though. Seeing everybody wearing clothes, clean and with hair was quite a treat (as was the after-party at Robert’s house – thank you for hosting!) Here are some pics:
On the 18th, Rick and I celebrated Oktoberfest at The Old Vienna Inn with a couple friends. It’s a huge party, everyone eats family style and we met a very cool couple from Riverside who were celebrating their 1st wedding anniversary. Rick forced everybody to have Jager shots and a good time was had by all. The food was amazing, too (from what I can remember)
By the way, History class is going quite well. We had a test recently and I scored 60 out of 60. w00t! Who would have thought I’d do so well at a subject I always said I’d hated?
No plans for Halloween as of yet. The thought of relaxing, watching movies and passing out candy is quite appealing, though.
And for your viewing pleasure, here’s a picture of Rick’s cat, (Fat Man) Puddin’:
A flyer for this product fell out of my mail the other day. As I stooped to pick it up, I saw it and the horror actually made me say, “Oh my god” aloud.
Rick and I went down to Long Beach on the 11th to pick up my running number, timing chip and and attend the TTES pasta party. Training with the American Stroke Association’s Train To End Stroke team was a great experience and has changed my life. The pasta party was full of fun people, good food and was a great source of support for the marathon the next day.
I finished the half marathon in a little over 3 hours (I swear 20 minutes of that was waiting in line at the 2-mile portapotties!). Gene finished the full marathon in a little over 6! I’m so proud of the both of us. But I don’t think my knees will let me do anything like it ever again
I decided to camp in a tent instead of renting an RV. Being able to nap in a tent during the day required covering it in shade. I decided to build a shade structure out of PVC instead of purchasing an expensive steel structure pre-built. I chose to build a Puma Cave, with some modifications. The Puma Cave called for 10-foot lengths of 1-inch PVC. To avoid having to transport such long lengths on top of my Honda Fit, I cut each 10-foot length in half and used a 9-inch section of 1.25-inch PVC to join the 5-foot lengths together. The 5-foot lengths fit in the Fit nicely and assembly was fairly easy. Huge thanks to Rick for helping me figure out this whole thing
The large group of friends I went with, Debase Camp, was an established theme camp this year. This meant placement within the city and many fun events throughout the week, including Black Rock City Combat Club and Kundalini Yoga every morning.
I felt very different about this trip than my first time attending, in 2003. My life was so different at that time and Burning Man became a fantastical escape. Today, I am much happier with where I am in the “default” world. Burning Man 2008 instead was an opportunity to re-connect with old friends. It also turned out to be a very interesting reset in my own personal values. I believe that it helped me find more of myself.
Rick and I went to the Mid State Fair in Paso Robles this weekend with a co-worker of his from India, Awi. We went around noon which was great to avoid the crowds but bloody hot – it was 100 degrees! While there we saw the world’s largest pig weigh in at 1000 pounds and checked out all the livestock from the 4H kids. We drank cold beer, ate some giant turkey legs and checked out some rodeo competitions.
On Sunday, I ran (only) 10 miles to keep up with marathon training. (View my route.) It was nice to do a long run in the cool beach air in Los Osos for a change. The knee is still doing well – I just need to figure out the plantar fascia pain that bothers me for a few days after these long runs.
In older news, my first foray back to college has gone well! I took a summer drawing class to get back into the swing of things and scored an A. Here are some pictures of our final setup and exhibition. Click the photos to visit the set on Flickr and you can hover over some of the photos to see which are mine.
And in random news, Rick and I found a heinous black widow outside his apartment. At first, I thought it was a garden spider because of its sheer size!
FINALLY! I was able to train this weekend’s long-run with no knee pain. A podiatrist recommended over-the-counter orthotics called SuperFeet. Those, combined with a new way to lace my shoes that kept my feet from slipping, seem to have fixed the problem. I was able to run 14 miles this weekend (over half a marathon) with no need to ice afterwards and no pain at all. It was great. I’m ecstatic.
Now I can focus my efforts on fundraising. I have raised $1137 so far and still need $1000 to make my goal. Every contribution, no matter how small, counts! You can support my efforts to raise money for the American Stroke Association by donating at http://lattes.kintera.org/vanessa_mills- Thank you!
J and M invited us over to J’s parents’ for a 4th of July BBQ. Everything was great and J’s family was so nice. Afterwards, we all went down to Tidelands Park at the end of the Embarcadero in Morro Bay to watch fireworks. As always, it was foggy and we couldn’t see much but colored, glowing clouds for the first part. After a bit, the fog blew away and we could see more and then the smoke got so thick that it was back to glowing fog again Still, we had a great time!
Click here to view some more pics
(And I got to use my brand-new Canon SD870 IS to take pictures and put together this movie )
I ran 10 miles this past Saturday! (View my route.) There’s an intense hill in there that goes on for a couple miles. That was kind of fun, actually. My left knee started to give out around mile 8 and I ended up having to walk limp the last mile. I finished 20 minutes behind everyone else and the team was ready to send out cars to look for me by the time I made it back. D’oh! However, that knee lasted 2 miles longer than the previous week so maybe it’ll continue to get better.
After the run, I iced the knee for a bit and went to Phil’s sushi birthday lunch. The whole gang was there and it was a lot of fun to see people. Directly afterwards us Burners met up at Cathy’s house for a meeting to organize our finances. I continued to ice the knee and was in pretty good shape for the drive back home.
Sitting in the car for 4 hours was probably not a very good thing to do, however. When I finally made it to Rick’s house that night, my legs and feet were as swollen as if I had sat in an airplane for a trip to the Philippines. The next morning, I got out of bed and almost fell over because my feet had stiffened solid! Stretching helped some but a one-hour full-body massage that evening helped even more. The massage therapist said she’d never felt quadriceps that tight before.
Monday I was back to school and work. This week has been so crazy – everything seemed to go wrong and I had my midterm drawing portfolio due along with two major projects. Right now, I’m so grateful that it’s over and I have a nice, long weekend to relax and NOT drive to LA again.
Also, my auntie (who had emergency surgery for an aneurysm) has been moved out of Critical Care and into the Step Down unit. She’s off the ventilator that they had to put her on when she crashed last week and is on oxygen. Thank goodness. Send some good thoughts/prayers her way if you can.
I went down to LA for a Friday for a dental appointment and my first Saturday training session with the East Valley Train To End Stroke Marathon team. I ran 7.7 miles in 1 hour and 45 minutes. (View my route) That’s an average of 13.64 minutes per mile – my best time ever! Even at 7am it was so bloody hot in Griffith Park on Saturday. I’d never run in such heat before but I carried Gatorade with me and stopped 3 times at water stations. I also carried Gu with me and downed a shot 15 minutes before the run and every 45 thereafter. It worked out very well – I never got hungry and didn’t tire until the last 1.5 miles. I think the big bowl of pasta the night before helped, too.
I feel so good about it and am very excited to do 10 miles this coming weekend. Hopefully Griffith Park will be a little cooler this time.
Today I ran 5.9155 miles in 96 minutes! (View my route) That comes to 16 minutes per mile. It’s not as good as I have done in the past but I think that’s because I didn’t run much last week (due to stomach troubles) and I didn’t bring any hydration or food with me (like my trainer told me to start doing). The doctor tells me the stomach troubles are almost certainly an ulcer. She’s prescribed an 8-week course of double-OTC-dose Prilosec and an endoscopy. This week I’ll pick up something to carry hydration in and food for the road. Next weekend’s 8 miles should go better. I feel that I’ll be in good shape if I can get under 14 minutes per mile.
Still continuing the 6-minutes-jogging, 2-minutes-walking intervals. Am wondering if I should step that up to 8min/2min. But am feeling GREAT about completing 6 miles today. Whee!
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