Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

Tag: holiday Page 3 of 4

Thankful, then and now.

2016 seems to have been a pretty trying year for everyone.  Beloved stars died.  I mean, really beloved, ones that were iconic across generations that hit hard, one right after another.  We suffered through a nasty election season with a crazy plot twist at the end.  More me-centric, I had some really rough races, big shakeups at work, and have had to really push myself to grow a bit after some harsh realizations about stagnation.  I probably have had my share of alcohol this year to wash down the bitter taste of many things.

However, let’s look at the bright side.

thanks1

Still wear hoops and chokers.  Not THAT much has changed.

I just renewed my passport, and here are my pictures, a decade apart.  In 2006, I was at my highest weight (probably about 265 lbs?  I dunno – I didn’t really frequent scales at the time…).  I was working 100 hour weeks and probably making just over a third of what I do now.  I barely fit in a size 24.  Running was something I would do only if chased, I hadn’t been on a bike since probably age 12, and I got tired walking around my apartment complex.  I always loved swimming, though.  That’s something that never changed.

At that point in my life, I would have been thankful for a job opportunity that challenged me and let me take a crash course in video game management and direction, one that would help me learn how to do it on a much larger scale later.  I worked the hours I did because I loved it.  Like, with a passion of ten thousand fiery suns.  Just like Icarus, though, fly too close to the sun and your wings melt.  My wings would melt within 6 months of that passport being issued, and passion turned to resentment when I started looking elsewhere to live and be employed.

oct4-1

The difference between this picture and the one above it is totally camera angles.  And a 110 lb weight loss, of course.

I would have been thankful for Zliten.  He also looked a mess (he is SO happy to get rid of his passport picture too), but we were a mess together.  At that point, we had talked about getting married and I was for it eventually, but I wasn’t into a whole big wedding thing looking as I did then.  That, plus the actual size of the jeans I had to buy, kick started my weight loss efforts just two months after I got that passport.

I would have been thankful for living in beautiful San Diego with perfect weather and beaches and sun.  I can’t deny that it’s the most PERFECT place I’ve ever lived climate-wise, and I miss the ocean and the wonderful balance between humid and dry you can only get in a lush desert beach area.  However, 2006 loved the IDEA of outside, but in practice, as you can see from my pale skin, I spent most of my time indoors.  At that weight, it was hard not to be a sweaty betty even just walking around, and as anyone who lives in a tourist beach town with regular weekday job hours will attest to, if you can’t play hookey to go to the beach, it’s typically not worth the hassle.

I would have been thankful for the awesome Mexican food.  The combo plate with a fried beef taco, cheese enchilada, rice and beans and the iconic red sauce you can’t find anywhere around here.  I still miss that stuff sometimes, but Austin is pretty much the capital of TACO so there’s a lot of choices, even if I still dream about the gas station with the taco shop near our apartment.  There was alsoTogos and the sandwich nazi and the deli and some other places that probably wouldn’t hold up in reality but still were favorites in my mind.

sept7-3

I get to live within 10 miles of here!  I mean, that doesn’t suck…

Flash forward ten years.  I still can’t believe it’s been that long.  Next June, Austin will house a decade of my life, which is the longest I’ve lived somewhere since I grew up in Chicago-land as a kid.  While I dream about living nearer to the ocean, living somewhere a little more runnable in the summer (Oregon, Seattle?), somewhere a little more bike friendly (Boulder) and escaping somewhere tropical in the winter (Florida, Bonaire?), I can’t put my finger on anywhere else I’d pick for a permanent home at the moment.

I am thankful for Zliten.  While I’m thankful for many, many things about Zliten, I’m particularly thankful that we became completely different people together.  We went from eating, sleeping, and living video games above all else to finishing multiple marathons and 70.3 races, and if all goes well, we’ll be Ironpeople in April.  He may have not been super thrilled when I started doing run races (it’s so eaaaarly, we both said, when we had to be at my first 5k for a start time of ELEVEN AM), but eventually he wanted to see what the fuss was about and got hooked (maybe even more than me).  We are very changed people, but thankfully, we changed and grew together.

I am thankful for my house, most days.  It’s called Casa De Jank because a 50 year old house definitely isn’t a dream to maintain, but it’s OUR weird house with character that is full of clutter and crazy art and drawings on the walls and a smiley face painted in the bathroom from when we moved in and never painted over it.  It may need some love to fit into our half-the-houses-have-been-flipped-in-the-last-five-years neighborhood, but we’ll get to that when it’s time.

Apr25-1

I may HATE the color of the brick, but I love a lot about my house (and life) here in Austin.

I’m thankful for Austin being this really cool, relaxed, friendly city, for the most part.  When questionable men aren’t yelling and throwing things at me on my bike and when the traffic isn’t RIDIC, of course.  Honestly, it’s one of my favorite places I’ve lived because of the people.  Everyone wants to be your friend.  I’ve never been around groups of people that were more inclusive “yep, the more the merrier”, all the time. and really meant.  I love it!

I am thankful for racing.  I’m coming up on my 100th race soon, and you don’t pay to do something a hundred times that you don’t love.  Once I lost all the weight, I knew I needed *some* reason to continue to go to the gym and continue to be a reasonably healthy person and not gain all the weight back because whiskey and french fries are awesome.  I can balance my miles logged vs my tacos logged and try to maintain some level of stasis.  Also, for some reason, I thought once I left high school and college behind, there was nothing out there for adults to indulge their competitive sides.  Totally not the case!  I love the atmosphere, I love the challenge, I love the training, and I love the friends I’ve made doing it.

jacks1

Team we Tri’d.  Or Team Tri.  Team Race All the Things. 😉

I’m thankful for many other things, but I’m also thankful for having a job, even if it’s been crazy lately, so I need to cut it short(er than I normally would).

And I am thankful that I get the chance to continue evolving as a person!  Life is cool!  Who knows where I’ll be or what I’ll look like when I renew my passport next, but I’m looking forward to spending the next 10 years finding out.

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!

Save

Save

#coloradoadventure Part 2 – Hanging Lake, Boulder, and Denver (again)

Part one, if you missed it, lives here.  Onward and upward (again)!

Wednesday:

On the road again!  The mornings in GJ kind of blended together, but there was definitely one more sampling of the typical hotel breakfast (I am DONE with traditional breakfast [junk] food for a while…), probably either a hot tub or pool, and then the suitcases made their way to the car again and we were off!

Sept1-14

Not sure if the reflection ruins the shot or makes it artsy.  We’ll go with artsy.

We really enjoyed breaking up the drive with a run in Vail on the way there, and we had recommendations to hit Hanging Lake for a hike, so we stopped.  There was a line out of the gate (at noon on a weekday?) and we almost skipped it, but something made us wait and I’m so glad we did.

Seriously, I’d suggest checking out my facebook album if my tale of Hanging Lake intrigues you at all, because this was one of the most breathtakingly beautiful places I’ve ever been in my life.  And me, the water baby, saying that about something not on the ocean or that I can even swim in?  You know it’s crazy amazing.

Sept1-15

First of all, it was a lot of up.  We went up over 1000 feet very quickly.  Our garmins say somewhere around 5 miles total, the official site says just over a mile each way, but there was a bit to get to the trailhead… so, whatever.  It was a decently hard climb that took a while.  It definitely counted as leg day.

Once we got past the initial rocky part, it was just waterfall after waterfall.  Every scene looked like one of those motivational posters.  I kept thinking “this is the best picture I’ve ever taken” and then we’d go around a bend and I’d see something more awe-inspiring.  It was insane.

Sept1-17

The water shapes the rock through patience and persistence.  Bam.   Blow that up and sell it to poor saps like me stuck in a office box with no windows.

After some crawling on rocks at the steepest part, we reached the top and took a short break to eat a snack overlooking Hanging Lake.  I wanted to stay there and watch it much longer, but there’s no rest for the wicked.  Places to go, driving to do.  We did make the trek to the top of the waterfall and got some other hikers to take our picture (see larger album for that one).

Sept1-16

Hanging Lake itself.  So very much worth the climb.

On the way down, we decided to run it as much as we could.  I did fall on my ass once, but it was exhilarating.  It was like being a kid at play again, finding the right spot to place my feet while they were in motion, letting gravity help us down instead of fighting it… magical.  And then, all of a sudden, we were back down at the trailhead and we ran the rest of the way to the car and were STARVING and it was SO MUCH LATER than we expected to leave but somehow would have done the climb again in a heartbeat right then if it was feasible.

Lunch was tacos from Qdoba.  Tacos are the best.  Sadly, we drove RIGHT by the hot springs we were going to visit after the hike (when it wasn’t going to take 3 hours), and put that on the list for next time.  We drove to Vail and got out and walked around a bit again, mostly to stretch the legs, and then made the rest of the trip back to 10k feet (even after acclimation, still felt a little woogy) and back down to Boulder.

Sept1-19

Hung above the bed (thus the “also here”).

Boulder is a bit of a lie from the 70 freeway.  You see signs to exit, and you get all excited… but then it’s another 45 minutes away.  And this particular night, it happened to be getting stormy.  Zliten held it together though, and we arrived at the hotel just after 7pm.

The good: the hotel had changed from a slightly ghetto Quality Inn and Suites motel to Boulder Basecamp, which was completely redone and much more hip and refined.  There was a spa and sauna, a lounge with a rock climbing wall and ping pong, and a very homey breakfast nook.  The bad: they didn’t have my reservation.  The great: they were able to clear it up with Expedia in about 15 minutes and ended up giving us a suite for no extra charge.

Sept1-18

If I was on death row, it’s likely my last meal would involve a club sandwich on sourdough.

It was raining pretty hard, so sadly, we had to get back IN the car (all we wanted out of life was to walk and not drive) and parked at the downtown area.  We walked around and found the Lazy Dog.  I was in the mood for some comfort food, so I got a club sandwich, a salad, and a glass of chardonnay.  Trivia was about to start, but we were beat, so we called it an early night and hung out at the hotel reading and relaxing.

Thursday:

We had a date with dirt in the morning, so we woke up, leisurely got our breakfast on, and Zliten searched where we were supposed to go.  HOLY CRAP it was an hour away instead of the 20 minutes we thought, and we had to leave RIGHT THEN to be 15 minutes late.  We called the guide who reminded us we were meeting at a trail, not the shop, searched the trail… and it said TWO HOURS away.  CRAP CRAP CRAP!  Then Zliten realized it was 2 hours WALKING, and only 15 minutes driving, and we were just fine.  Whew.  Way to get us truly awake!

Sept1-12

Gooooood morning!  A little caffiene and a lot of “oh crap we’re going to miss it!”.

We got gatorade for our camelbacks and snacks and were super prepared for 4 hours out on the trails.  Then, when we met up with the group, we spent the first hour learning how to ride mountain bikes (yeah, I picked up a few things, I’ll admit, but it seemed a little overkill for ME personally).  We spent about 2.5 hours riding, which was actually about 1.5 hours stopping and talking about Boulder, and 1 hour riding.  I was completely overprepared, but better than the other way around.

Sept1-11

The flatirons are the backdrop of Boulder, for the most part.

It’s not to say I didn’t have a good time.  I so very much did.  I was pleasantly enjoying myself riding over things that normally make me shriek on my tri bike, and then our guide showed us how to jump rocks.  I jumped like EVERY ROCK for the rest of the ride because it made me feel nine years old again and now I need a mountain bike (n+2 for the vacation now) and better health insurance because I am actually about 9×4 (+1) instead, and all the mountain bikers I know are pretty much held together with bruises and stitches.

I did almost eat shit going down a hill when the girl in front of me slowed down too much, I had to veer off into tall grass, and I actually hit a rock that slowed me down ENOUGH to fall back in line.  #rubbersidedown for the whole ride.  Yeeehaw!

Sept1-13

A happy boy and his bike.

We drank a beer together on the side of the road, because, that’s what you do after bicycles.  We left wanting a bit for more saddle time, so we rented b-cycles and headed downtown.  Something about a sandwich sounded amazing to both of us, so we hit a little deli with yummy and unique sounding food.  I got a chicken basil pesto half sandwich and super fun looking greek-ish salad with hummus.  It wasn’t a whole lot of food, but it was enough to get to tank half full.

Sept1-10

I may have taken a bite first.  Oops!

Zliten wanted a Colorado jersey, and we looked around for one, but everything was either not in the right size, or meh.  We’ll have to look around online.  It was starting to get wet and a little chilly, so we cycled back to the hotel – it was such a convenient way to get around.  We got some hot beverages, and hit the spa.  There were plans to swim in the Boulder Resevior that evening (5-9pm no boats!), but we were already cold and jumping in a chilly lake?  Nah.  Next time.

Sept1-9

Do want.  Again. Right now.

Once the weather improved a little, we hopped back on the cycles and headed to a Vietnamese place called Black Pepper Pho.  The egg rolls were SO flavorful, the pho was amazing and a regular size did us just fine, although I kinda wanted the large just because.  I could eat pho once a week, but I could eat THAT pho about once a day.  So, so good.  On the way back, we found my cycle bag had ripped and hit REI for a new one, and some new walking around shoes for Zliten.  Souvenirs, sort of!

After a long day of excitement, we were homebodies and read, hung out, played Pokemans, and relaxed our way into dreamyland.

Friday:

Up and at em… eh, at like, 9:30.  We ducked out for a little morning run and enjoyed Boulder’s river trail.  Sublime.  I want to run there always, at least in the summer.  While I felt we spent enough time in GJ, I wanted many more days in Boulder.  Sadly, we were forced to check out of the hotel by the cruel mistress of reality.  We consoled ourselves by roaming around on our B-cycles for a little longer, and then waved goodbye to Boulder and got ready to say hello to Denver!

Sept1-8

It’s just not fair how pretty this is.  Usually if there’s running water on my run route, someone’s pipe has burst.

A friend from high school/college/early days lived about 20 mins away, so we made sure to meet him for lunch on his day off.  It was great to catch up with some actually pretty great Mexican food, and it’s always nice to chat with someone who you haven’t seen in MANY years and it just feels like you’ve barely been apart.  Facebook definitely helps this happen more often.

Sept1-7

Our hotel view did not suck.

Then… Denver.  We got our 37$ parking spot for the night >< and checked into the hotel.  The front desk gal was super nice and found us the best room she could – top floor with a great view.  We did dorky things and squeezed in a weights workout in the room with the bands we brought (thus validating their inclusion in the luggage), and then headed out to walk around and meet another friend!

Sept1-4

Random Denver snaps.

Denver is beautiful, clean, unique, cycle friendly, and full of characters.  On that walk, we found dancing Jesus guy, a free concert about to start, a robot street performer, and much more I’m forgetting.  Another thing I’m not accustomed to is the casual attitude to marijuana.  People were smoking it all over. The dispensaries have club cards.  Even my friend, who is fairly allergic to the smoke produced, is just like, eh, it’s fine, it’s great for the state, I just try to stay upwind.  It seems like a much more reasonable way to treat the substance considering it’s essentially alcohol for people that would rather zone out and eat chips.

Anyhoo, we hung back at the hotel to change.  I actually put on just a little bit of makeup and used my hairbrush, first and last time of the trip, heh.  Once we were fancied up, we grabbed a few drinks at a “speakeasy”.  I ordered an old-old fashioned and spent the rest of the early evening drinking delicious whiskey drinks and eating fried things at Green Russell.

Sept1-6

Bathroom selfie as proof of said dressing up.  Keeping it klassy with a K around here…

We wandered around a bit looking for dinner, and finally settled on Stout Street Social.  We started with the kimchi fries (very much do recommend… they were great!) and Zliten and I split one very delicious burger and side salad.  After a few more bevvies and chatter, we looked for one more place to end the evening and it was like Goldilocks.

One place was too crowded.  One place was too loud.  One place was impossible to find.  Then, we finally stumbled on Polished Tavern.  They didn’t have an impressive whiskey menu, but made up for it with a plethora of infused vodkas, a nice outdoor patio, and not too much of a crowd.  We met up with another friend of a friend, and tried all sorts of different flavors, danced a bit, and finally got the DJ to play the entire Star Wars Cantina song.

We closed out the night wandering around trying to find the rooftop pool at the hotel (it was closed, sadface), and finally drifting off to sleep against the backdrop of the Denver skyline.

Saturday:

Travel home days are usually boring, but not when you fly out at 7pm!  You still have lots of time for adventure!  We got up and juuuuust in time, checked out of the hotel.  Since we paid for it, we left the car in parking until the last minute of our 24 hours, and scoped out lunch downtown.  After hemming and hawing, we found a place that did noodle and rice bowls to order – Tokyo Joes – and both our eyes lit up.

Sept1-5

Noms.  Sans stevia sauce.  Always sans stevia sauce.

Pro-tip: sauces with stevia suck.  I use stevia to sweeten all sorts of things, coffee, yogurt, drinks… so I figured I’d give it a try.  In savory food, it doesn’t work for me.  I’ll take that little bit of added sugar if needed.  So… while the noodle bowl was FAN FLIPPIN TASTIC, I am so glad they served my mistake of a stevi-yaki sauce on the side.  I’m sure other people may appreciate it, but If I was avoiding sugar, I’d just go soy and hot sauce instead (which I did and loved).

Next, we hit the museum.  Haven’t done anything like that in a while, and it was a nice contrast from the rest of the sporty spice vacation.

Sept1-3

My favorites in the Women in Impressionism exhibit.

Sept1-2

Some of my other favorites from other exhibits.

Sept1-1

Ok, one more of the more unique ones…

After that, Zliten was ready to get this show on the road, so after a few stops, we got to the airport nice and early.  Same easy check in and TSA line, same 20 minute stop for the bag with the cords and the bike tool.  Friends said we MUST go to the airport restaurant Root Down, which was a branch of the super popular downtown one, and since we had plenty of time, we did just that.

14141747_10154453231049450_52396724500422179_n

The verdict? One thumb way up, one thumb sort of sideways…

My turkey bahn mi burger and sweet potato fries with curry sauce was surprisingly awesome.  I’m not a huge deviant from my normal, but I figured, what the heck, and my gamble paid off.  I loved it.  Zliten got a traditional burger and did not love it that much.  Either way, it was just fine as our last meal of vacation.

And, here’s where I cut this insanely long story short and save you from the mundane boring details about a uneventful 7 hours to fly 2 hours to the next state away home.  I did definitely appreciate flying home Saturday night, so I had Sunday to relax and unpack and do laundry.  Tip top.  A+.  Would travel home on a Saturday night again.

Overall – Colorado is on the short list of states I will probably live in someday.  I’ll make that happen either when I’m rich enough to own a summer house, or when I decide that snow isn’t a deal breaker.  I’m already plotting how to do an extended camping trip there soon!  It’s definitely on the short list of places I will repeatedly vacation at, because friends, family, mountains, bikes, hikes, lakes, and all of the beautiful.

#coloradoadventure part 1 – Denver and Grand Junction

Ahhh.  Vacation is magical.  Real life… is real today.  Can’t someone pay me a living wage to travel around the world and take photos of awesome things and write about them?  Is that a real job?  I know I make video games for a living and that’s pretty cool… but it’s so… INDOORS…. ><.

Aug30-21

Instead of by a beautiful lake….

Anyways, I’m happy to report that this vacation went much better than the last half of the last one with the work thing.  I was threatening to remove the book of faces from my phone for the trip, but I ended up using it for communication and meeting up with people.  I just tried to steer clear of anything real-life related and did fine to keep my reality adjusted to vacation mode (see what I did there?).

I’m going to be splitting this up into two parts because I have way too many pictures to be contained in two posts.  If you want to skip ahead and see the photos without so much jibber jabber… you can here.

Friday:

I’ve actually decided that I quite liked traveling on a Friday evening.  I was able to leave work at 5pm, get to the airport by 6pm, and through security by 6:20.  This would have been quicker because there was no line, except Zliten decided to bring his bike multi tool, which put us in the long slow TSA process to have his carry-on searched, but hey, bike safety first!  We ordered dinner from Maudies, which ended up taking way too long and being kind of disappointing and small, but *shrug* airport food.

Aug30-1

Girls who unknowingly photobombed us talked THE WHOLE FLIGHT loudly.  I was amused.  Zliten was NOT.

The flight itself was a little late, but I didn’t mind.  The airport is the best place to catch pokemon!  Also, a lot of other flights were getting cancelled around us due to weather issues, so I was just happy ours only experienced a 40 minute delay.  The flight itself was a little bumpy, but otherwise fine.  We retrieved our rental car without any trouble, and hit the hotel (#1 of 4 this trip) around 11pm (midnight Austin time).

The disappointing dinner at the airport many hours earlier meant we needed a snack… and the only thing open in the area was the Applebees in the parking lot.  I had a salad and some boneless wings and wine because… vacation.

Aug30-2

Not exactly a local experience, but at least Zliten was drinking Coors? 🙂

The nice part about the Friday evening departure was a) didn’t have to take time off -and- b) got all the business time traveling stuff done so starting Saturday morning, we could just wake up and start playing instead of the inevitable 7 hours of BS it takes to travel one state over for a 2 hour flight these days.

Saturday:

We woke up, checked out of our hotel 11 hours after checking in, and headed to Chatfield Lake for an open water swim.  It satisfied the requirements of being a) not too far out of the way (e.g. running at Garden of the Gods was nixed because travel time) and b) it was not going to turn me into an icicle!  Sadly it also c) had a swim beach about the length of an Olympic swimming pool and d) was really dirty – there was a sign saying “Don’t Swallow the Water” which I saw AFTER swimming… and I always end up drinking some of the lake.  Ah well.  A little under 1 mile on the garmin, and spoiler alert: I survived.

Aug30-3

Beautiful place to bike, run, and hang out.  Not the best open water swim of my life as you can see from my mud beard.

We hit the road, and later stopped in a little mountain town called Genesse, and I ate one of the best turkey clubs I’ve ever had in my life at Hideaway Kitchen and Bar.  Influencing that may have been no breakfast and an open water swim before lunch, but that’s just details.

Aug30-4

I will dream about this bacon for years.

Our drive continued over the pass.  This takes you above 10k feet.  If you haven’t been that elevated outside of an airplane, let me tell you – it feels woogy.  I felt oddly fatigued all of a sudden, and on the edge of being dizzy just sitting.  So, what did we do after that?  We went and ran 5k in Vail (at a much lower elevation of 8200+, heh) to see what it felt like.

Aug30-5

Running in Vail = sucking my oxygen through a teeny straw.  But the scenery almost made up for it.

It was both easier and harder than I expected.  I didn’t feel quite as flattened as I had anticipated, but just that pace didn’t feel like pace.  Just under 12 minute miles, less than 24 hours at altitude, and at over 10x the elevation I normally run at, felt like a tempo run.  It was bizarre, just like I was having a really off day or my garmin wasn’t working right, but I imagined it would be more like running in deep sand.  It wasn’t.

Aug30-6

More pretty stuff in Vail.  Especially that watermelon sorbet.

After that, we cleaned up, got some ice cream, bought me a hoodie, and then kept on driving towards our final destination for the day, Grand Junction.

Aug30-7

East to west from the drive.

The views did not suck, but we determined that both ways, the drive took an hour too long, for some reason.  We checked into hotel #2, which smelled like overmicrowaved chicken noodle soup (one night with the window open fixed it), and then hit a brewery nearby for dinner and a beer with Zliten’s cousin.  I got this lovely caprese chicken sandwich and some ridiculous spinach artichoke dip (half of which came home with us), and a sour plum beer.

After, made our way to Charlie Dwellington’s for drag queen karaoke (to watch, I wasn’t nearly “up” enough to participate).  Since we were running in the morning, we cut ourselves off around midnight and moseyed back to home base.

Sunday:

Being vacation, and vacation in Colorado, we slept in a bit.  I figured this would be no problem because I figured I’d get hypothermia here from lows in the 50s.  Look how hopeful I was with that long sleeve shirt!  However, this was a particularly warm day, so getting out late was not ideal, nor was my attire.

Aug30-8

So hopeful.  Didn’t quite pan out.

I had picked a trail that sounded awesome, and happened to be 8 miles (since I wanted to run 8 miles that day).  Zliten took one look at the elevation profile and decided I was out of my mind (I was), and took us to a different trail – Dinosaur Hill.  It ended up being less than 1 mile, completely in the sun, and in disrepair, so we only ran it once.  After striking out twice, we decided to play it safe and run in town.

Aug30-9

Pretty, but not something I wanted to run 8 times.

The first half, I was hating life.  Then I ate a gel.  Then life slowly became fine… then fun!  If we weren’t slated to climb a mountain the next day, I may have actually pushed and finished up 8, but I got 6.65 miles or so total, both on a trail and through a new town.  It was 84, feels like 92, at the end, which is actually pretty chilly compared to our normal run weather here.

Aug30-10

I’m taking a bike selfie. The world feels more normal all of a sudden.

After the run, we ate the other half of our food from dinner the day before, and picked up our steeds from Bicycle Outfitters.  We rode around town a bit to make sure they were in working order.  They were, and then some!  I have some major n+1 issues right now (n+2 actually, but we’ll get there later) because that is the nicest road bike I’ve ever ridden.

Aug30-11

Didn’t get to see a sunrise the whole trip, but the sunsets made up for it.

We went to Zliten’s cousin’s house and she prepared us some delicious chicken and veggies on the grill.  I may have ruined that healthy meal with a half a bag of chex mix, but I needed carbs for the epic ride the next day…

Monday:

We set the alarm for 5:30.  And then snoozed.  And then dragged ass to get ready.  It was after 8am when we got out, which ended up being okay, because it stayed overcast and cooler for the morning.  Although… the temperatures they were warning us about were laughable to us Texans.  80s?  Please.  That’s what happens at dawn here in August.

Within 2 miles of downtown, you’re into the wilderness.  By mile 4, you’ve started noticeably climbing, and you’re not even to the Colorado National Monument state park yet.  I almost asked Zliten to do a little more of a warmup, because my legs do not handle bike work well in the first 20-30 mins, but figured we should get this ascension over with… so we paid our 5$ each and in we went!

Aug30-14

Non-selfie scenery shots.  Jaw-droppingly gorgeous.

I figured I’d need to rest a few times.  Within two more miles, I was essentially hyperventilating from breathing so hard on the constant 6-8% grade and lack of oxygen at 5k+ feet and had to stop at just about every other turnout.  My head went to a lot of negative places on the approximately 2 hours it took to climb less than 10 miles.

Aug30-13

My attitude on the first half of the climb. 

A caffeinated gel about 10am (oops, I should have been stuffing my face sooner) helped a bunch, and eventually we found some flatter road (only 2-4% grade?) and we started pulling off the road to take pretty pictures instead of simply to get my breathing under control.  Gritted teeth became grinning smiles.  We climbed a mountain, through patience and persistence.  It. was. awesome.

I thought I was going to be MUCH more terrified going down the mountain, but after so much climbing, I earned that shit and enjoyed it immensely.  The wind whipped by me, I went from going 2-3 mph to 20-30 mph, and I got to enjoy the views on the way down that I couldn’t see because I was starved for oxygen on the way up.  It. was. amazing.  I didn’t have the balls to ride all the way down the mountain in Alaska, but this time, I never got off my bike once to slow down.  I felt in complete control (most of the time), and only a little sketchy once.  I did apply my brakes liberally, but… baby steps.

Aug30-15

Scenery with selfies because this is how we do (as you can see, I get happier as the day goes on)…

After leaving the park and heading home (from the other side of the mountain, so I think we had about 13 miles left), I started getting grumpy at the fact there was any more hills.  I though I had done all the hills?  Hello?  After muttering a lot of things about building a ramp from the mountain back to town, I remembered to eat more food and then my mood improved again.

Especially when I looked over and saw what we had done.  We were up there.  On the top.  Amazing!

Aug30-12

Me: “Was I up there?” (points at random place) Zliten: “Yep!” Me: “Wow…” —an actual conversation that happened about 25 times before we left GJ.

After we finally made it to the hotel, we snacked and rushed out quickly for lunch with family, at a Venezuelan restaurant.  Beef empanadas and mashed yucca, with a side of fried plantains?  Yum.  Great post-bike food.

Aug30-16

I’ve never drank Pacifico out of a 24 oz can.  It tasted like old, canned Pacifico.  Fancy that.

We spent the rest of the day drinking beers, eating pizza, talking with random people, and ended up at the same fun bar from Saturday night… and they had Game Show night.  I ended up rocking my Jeopardy round, correctly guessing a daily double and the winning the match (so that got me 5$ and a free drink respectively), and ended up drinking water to stay coherent for the final round with the 25 dollar prize.  Zliten ended up having quite a few more waiting for me to be done.  I ended up second (whomp whomp… I got the final question right, risking it all, but it wasn’t enough to beat one other competitor…) and consoled myself with another drink or two, and then we called it a night.

Tuesday:

There was this awesome Nepalese restaurant with a lunch buffet.  I was SO looking forward to it, and after a morning hot tub and pool, we walked our stomachs over at opening.

Aug30-17

Mish mash of delish.

Nepalese ended up being Indian food mixed with Chinese food.  I love both of these things!  It was not the best Indian buffet I’ve had in my life, but the fact that it had eggrolls, potstickers, and chow chow noodles as well?  I’m sold.

Aug30-19

Couldn’t bring myself to actually swim but you KNOW my feet were in the water for a couple hours.

This was really the first *vacation-y* day of our trip – no run bike or swim planned.  We were going to go rafting, but the weather kinda sucked, so instead we went to a pretty lake called Highline, stuck our feet in for a while, read books, and hiked around it.  Next time, we traverse the rapids!

Aug30-20

Highline Lake scenes.  Halfway around the lake, I found the only bugs in Colorado.

My husband has a weakness for Del Taco, and since there are none around us anymore, we hit one whenever we see it.  While I’m not sure a 5k hike deserved a two taco and half a cheese fries snack, that’s what it got.  For some reason, the whole time I was in Colorado, I could not get enough food.  I was rarely full after a meal, and even if I was, I could totally eat an hour later.

We changed for one more GJ meal, and EVERYONE had told us to go to Bin 707 Food Bar.  However, everything about it screamed HIPSTER and wayyyyyy too cool for me.  I mean, it’s in the basement of a bank, right?  The turning point was Zliten’s cousin recommended it and she is about as opposite of a hipster as you can get.  So, that was the target for the evening.

Aug30-18

A little bit hipster, a lot great food and service.

I’m so glad we did.  Yeah, it was expensive and the menu was a little silly, but it was worth it.  We started with a Colorado whiskey flight and a charcuterie plate with all sorts of local accompaniments, and it was kind of nice to feel fancy.  We sat at the bar, and the bartender gave us all sorts of information about the drinks, and even gave us some samples of other whiskies he liked, and we were totally in there almost an hour after closing and there was NO rush to leave.  We followed that up with the general bourbon tasting, and split one of the best burgers I’ve ever had.

Also, it was on a Poke Stop.  Can’t beat that!  It was a fabulous evening all around, and one we were content to end with just a leisurely walk back to the hotel instead of more revelry.

Part two coming soon to a blog near you!

Chronicles of Summer

It’s a little harder to love the outdoors when the heat index is trying to kill you on the daily, but I’m still doing my best.

Bikes:

Jul5-2

Friday morning bikey bike commute time!

It’s hot as balls outside (right now, it’s feels like 111!!!), but on the bike, it feels… ok.  Until you stop.  Then the heat comes crashing down on you like a flaming mack truck… but the actual biking parts feel great!

I’m pretty sure in 2015, I cycled outside mayyybe 15 times?  I’d have to look it up, but it’s a decent approximation because during tri season I’d make sure to ride outside at least every other week on Saturdays and otherwise I wouldn’t.  Well, I’ve done at least that many outdoor rides in the last month.  Yay bikes!  Yay playing outside!

Jul5-1

Tire, you’re doing it wrong…

In fact – this happened to us on Thursday, and we’re just getting it repaired now.  We definitely keep a low mileage profile lately.  Shame the insurance doesn’t really give discounts for not driving a car much.  I think their lowest rate was for 10-12k per year.  We don’t usually get half that, in fact, our 3.5 year old Xterra just hit 11k miles.

Holiday, Celebrate:

My fourth of July weekend was pretty badass.  It started with an almost 2 mile swim and 4 mile run under the noontime ball of death.  After recovering from the feels like 102-105 temps on that run sucking down liquids under the AC, we meandered our way into the Texas countryside to a friend’s holiday bash.  That is, after a false start in which we forgot our food at home and had to turn around when we were halfway there.  Oopsie.

Jul5-4

Oh no.  Had to look at these views for longer.  Aw, shucks.

After the mishap was rectified and we got our tent set up, we spent the evening grilling, drinking punch, catching up with friends we hadn’t seen in a while, and tons of time in the pool.  Since we were the most sober ones (???), we got recruited to run “front of the house” (aka, the smaller fireworks like fountains and roman candles) while the other guys put on the big booms further away.  I’ve never done fireworks before, just watched.  It was fun!  We only had a few close calls, and everyone made it out with all eyes and appendages intact.  Success!

Jul5-5

Since I was helping put on the actual show and not snapping pics, here’s some kids (big and small) playing with sparklers before.

We spent the rest of the night playing beer pong, chupacabra dice, and more pool time.  And then holy crap it was way, way too late, so we crashed for a few hours in the tent before taking it all down again, and cooling off in the pool again before we headed home because the weather already wanted to kill us at 9:30am.  Yay Summer?

Sunday and Monday were pretty mellow.  We stayed around the house, slept, relaxed, caught up on class and chores, and other boring, responsible, but necessary things.  However, for the first time ever, we made it out to our neighborhood’s parade and joined in with our bikes.

Jul5-3

T-rex appreciated that we made it to play papparazi.

Training Week One:

Last week was a pretty decent embarkation into an actual schedule.  We aren’t popping out of bed at sunrise or anything, but it’s getting easier to set the alarm with something starting with 7.  Doing the noontime or evening runs are killer, but 1-2 of those shorties a week need to stay on the schedule until I conquer the feels-like-hot-as-balls heat index shit.

Jul5-7

This is what happens when you’ve stopped sweating and start getting goosebumps on a run, but aren’t willing to see 11 min/mile average pace.  😛

Week one of training summary:

  • Monday: lunch swim (~1200m in 22 mins, a few fast 50s in there), PM weights (45 mins)
  • Tuesday: morning run (3 miles in about 35 mins), bike commute (~10 miles in about 45 mins)
  • Wednesday: PM brick with the BSS team (~13 miles in 44 mins rode, 1.7 miles in 18 mins ran)
  • Thursday: Heavy arms/abs, light leg weights (45 mins)
  • Friday: Bike commute (~10 miles in about 45 mins)
  • Saturday: Swim challenge (3000m open water swim), hot noontime run (4 miles in 43:55)
  • Sunday: NADA.  Couch.

Summary: a little less than I had anticipated, I’m missing one 45 min trainer ride on the tri bike, but I commuted twice instead of the once I had planned.  I’m a-ok with 7 hours of outdoor heat acclimation summer goodness.

Week two’s plan:

  • Monday: weights at home (30 mins)
  • Tuesday: 2 mile morning run, 20 min pool swim, return to endurance cycle class
  • Wednesday: 2 mile run AM, weights at lunch, recovery ride with BSS
  • Thursday: 5-6 mile run AM
  • Friday: 20-30 min swim (AM, lunch, PM, wherever it fits)
  • Saturday: 20+ mile tri bike ride, 1-2 mile brick after
  • Sunday: Probably NADA.  Couch again.

I’ll probably bike commute one or two of these days as well (maybe Thursday and/or Friday), and with that, it’s looking like about 9 hours of goodness.  It’s a little jump from last week’s schedule, so if something falls off, it probably won’t be the end of the world.

Food stuff, scale stuff:

Jul5-6

Pork + udon noodle soup + onions and cilantro = love.  Stir fry accompanies this for extra veggie love.

Holiday weekends are always rough to be super healthy awesomesauce, but I didn’t do too badly.

I made a big batch of pasta veggie salad to bring to the party, as well as a lower calorie drink option (vodka, diet sprite, diet juice punch).  I ended up eating a SHIT TON of queso and chips too, but I looked at my calorie burn that day and my -1000 number to hit was about 2500 calories.  Thank you, return to training.  So… I think it worked out okay.

I had some stomach issues on Sunday, and couldn’t keep food down, so while it’s not the healthiest way to maintain your waistline, it did keep me from overeating. Or, errr, eating more than maybe 500 calories of the simplest digestible foods, I’m ok with that not happening again for a long time.

Monday, I ate pretty well, and batch cooked some food for the week and oatmeal fruit bars.  I switched out the fruit for just peaches and used butterscotch chips instead of chocolate, but… they rock paired with some greek yogurt for protein.  It’s nice to have something different for breakfast for a change!

I didn’t actually track my calories (back to it today), but my weight is about where I would expect it to be with that time of the month it is.  If all continues to go well, I predict July to be the month of 170-something, even on the mean white scale.

Speaking of mean while scales, we got some body fat calipers to play with, and while the scale measures me at something stupid like 41% body fat, the calipers have me more like ~25%, which puts me somewhere around the healthy range for females in their 30s.  Which sounds more reasonable.  While I am not a size 0 or anything, I am pretty fit and carry a lot of muscle, and don’t think I’m almost 50% body fat.

This week, I don’t have a whole lot of crazy going out planned, and a lot of good food ready made at home, so I expect it to be a pretty successful week on the “noms” front.

Jul5-8

On that note, I’ll leave y’all with our “trash panda” making off with Nacho Cat’s food, and bid you a lovely (short) week!

 

Liberty of the Seas

Vacation recaps are a bit of a connundrum.  On one hand, I love having a day-to-day record of what I did, when I re-read this stuff I can remember it more vividly.  On the other hand, it is probably boring as hell for anyone else to read.  So, I think I’ll split the difference this time and give you the highlights (typically, what I have pictures of), but by day.

Sunday: Embarkation Day

13226923_10154174195469450_6718219524664871340_n

Galveston isn’t exactly the prettiest port, but it was nice to finally be by the sea after a 4 hour drive.

13256544_10154174195554450_3408014729234534957_n

Royal Caribbean has partnered with Dreamworks and there were characters all over the ship.  This was the sail away party, Fiona and Shrek graced us with their presence.

13233105_10154174195704450_1045048230196204749_n

I ate so much seafood this trip.  This was dinner the first night, and it was the first time I haven’t been squeamish about oysters.  They were not bad, and the rest of the dish was amazing.

Monday: At Sea

13260124_10154174195759450_7649610403087563245_n

Slept in, read in the morning, and then hit the gym.  They left the spin bikes out from a class they did earlier, so I did my own for 20 minutes and then lifted weights and stretched for almost an hour.  And, of course on vacation, you break out the unicorn fighting a giant t-rex robot capris.  It’s mandatory.

13254617_10154174195819450_5080337881132441921_n

Buffet lunches were pretty good (and pretty easy not to eat like an asshole).  This is a pretty good representation of what I ate most days – grilled chicken, some fish with lentils, dragon noodles, lots of mixed veggies, and some roasted potatoes.  Only one plate most days, if I was still hungry, I grabbed soup, but it was amazing how my appetite stayed sane.

13230287_10154174195859450_600939190214771506_n

We spent most of the day reading and taking dips in the pool.  This is a necessary part of vacation for me.

13256036_10154179235822603_8966153209341216289_n

Since it was fancy night, we got all cleaned up and I wore my “diamonds”.  Zliten calls it my VEEP look.  We clean up alright.

13267841_10154179235942603_5427595808473482006_n

We went dancing and made friends and had a few cocktails, and there may have been a bit of dramatic posing in the photo gallery around 3am.

Tuesday: At Sea

13245231_10154174195839450_8972880378609409601_n

Another glorious vacation day – slept in, buffet lunch, hanging out at the pool, and playing games with the ‘rents.

13230181_10154185584384450_4028384139820243351_n

Dinner was great – the crab cakes were OK, but the slaw underneath was to die for.  Zliten and I split the cilantro fish and the chicken cordon bleu and they were both amazing.

13263702_10154174196044450_956979740664936039_n

Our table was great, it overlooked the whole dining room and had a good view of the fancy stairs (this was the view from it).  Every other night or so, the waiters would put on a show for us.  Some of them were actually pretty great dancers!

Wednesday: Roatan, Honduras

13266121_10154174196104450_2524797303687174829_n

Roatan day!  Diving day!  Hooray!  Since we had to be off the ship at 9:30, and diving takes a lot out of you, I had breakfast instead of lunch today.

13233063_10154185584489450_5604158759835633547_n

Even Roatan gets political.  It was crazy to see these signs all over.

13254133_10154174196229450_2231089805521570844_n

Diving with a group has it’s drawbacks, but the valet service hauling gear is super nice.

cruise2016

We had some great dives.  We saw two turtles, and one was feeding so we got to get really close to him!  I also saw a bunch of french angel fish, and if diving in Bonaire hadn’t spoiled me, I would have said it was my favorite dive ever, perhaps.

13221105_10154174196329450_7636896773908744651_n

The rest of the day, we just chilled on the ship, drinking a few beers, eating dinner, playing games.  Next time, I’m totally doing the zipline at the port (behind me).

Thursday: Belize City, Belize

13240677_10154174203964450_7321979887376013358_n

We docked in Belize around 9:30am, but we didn’t really have a full day of stuff planned, so we hit the gym in the morning.  It was empty, so I got to play on free weights and got a prime elliptical spot to do intervals.  It was nice, and a way to avoid breakfast.

13265956_10154174204014450_6538367854899221790_n

After a little snack, we headed to shore on a tender.  Some people gripe about them, but I like boats and enjoyed an extra boat ride in my week.

13263836_10154174204084450_119869876986728574_n

When in Belize, we always visit the Wet Lizard bar and get Lighthouse Lagers and Belizean meat pies.  This trip was no exception.  We found our names on the ceiling from two years ago, but unfortunately they’re not letting people mark up the bar anymore, so we’ll probably be but a memory soon.  At least we’re temporarily immortalized.

May19-1

After a while, we realized there was free wifi, and logged on to check facebook and post a braggy picture in Belize, and this is how we learned about layoffs and I sent some messages and made some calls.  I intended to have one drink, I may have had a few more. Simultaneously.

We made it back on the last tender, making us late for dinner.  Once I told my parents, they understood, and had ordered food for us.  We got two orders of lobster and shrimp (I enjoyed it and didn’t eat my side dishes).  After dinner, we headed out to hit the casino, and then to dance again, and we may have stayed up WAYYYY too late for the early wakeup we had.

Friday: Cozumel, Mexico

Oh my.  7am came really early, and we hadn’t gotten our shit packed or electronics charging, so we spent the morning scrambling.  However, we made it to the bus on time, and if I had to spend anywhere in the world hungover and mad at something thousands of miles away, snorkeling in Cozumel isn’t a bad place to be.

vlcsnap-2016-05-25-19h27m42s394

We took a break mid-snorkel to try out the waterslides.  They were super fun!  Also, we made iguana friends.  Or enemies.  They ran away, but maybe with love?

cruise20161

We snorkeled for 3 hours.  We saw many cool things, but this spotted ray was the highlight of the day.  We also randomly met triathletes who live in Austin and spent hours sipping beers, eating lunch, and relaxing in the pool chatting with them.

After getting back to the ship, we relaxed in the pool with more drinks and soaked up the last of the sun, and then met my parents for dinner.  After our bellies were full, we both realized how freakin’ tired we were on 4 hours sleep and being in the sun all day and went to bed around 7pm.

Saturday: At Sea

13094264_10154174204164450_1809633641278348750_n

We read and slept away the morning, but we couldn’t hibernate the whole last day of vacation!  We decided to go play in the water.  We hit both waterslides, and the green one had DISCO LIGHTS.  Hawaiian Falls needs to take notes and incorporate this into their 2017 plan.

I also decided to try the Wave Rider (on the last day just in case), and pretty quickly wiped out.  But hey, I got to try it!  I’d do it again, it was probably one of the most fun ways to fall on my ass yet…

This was the first and only day I ate like an asshole.  I had breakfast, lunch, and two dinners.  We also had to drink the rest of the wine we brought on board with us, but I didn’t order any more once that was gone.

13254179_10154174204184450_84626909426753992_n

We played games with the ‘rents (since we had kind of ditched them for the last two days), and then went with them to go watch a comedy show -we saw a comedy magician (sorry, don’t recall the name and google is not my friend today), which sounds a little hokey, but it totally works for him.  And since you can’t take photos of the stage, instead, you get a selfie.

Sunday: Disembarkation 🙁

13260067_10154174204229450_2085422770866350605_n

Other than Buc’ee getting fresh with me at the potty stop, it was uneventful.

If you’ve read this far and want more, you can see my full vacation album HERE (no snorkeling or diving photos yet but COMING SOOOON).

 

Page 3 of 4

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén