Some days I think I am certifiable.
Side note: Bat-shit crazy is actually the name of the group text between my mom, sisters, and me.
So… we know I tore my ACL. How about 6 days later I decided I’d still participate in a 22 mile bike ride? I mean… I’d already registered and paid the fee…
Vegas was so mad she would barely speak to me.
Post-race with the awesome stranger-friends who stuck with me through the ride.
…
There’s so much to do in San Diego – it’s overwhelming.
I know… tough problems.
The food here is unreal and we’ve been steadily working our way through my (ever growing) “restaurants to try” list. However, there’s a ton of other things to do that Vegas and I have been neglecting. This weekend we decided it would be playtime! I think both of our stomachs breathed a sigh of relief.
Friday I finally manned up for something I’ve wanted to do since joining the gym in San Diego – I took my first Spin class in years. It wasn’t half bad! That room was like a sauna though. I think I lost 5 lbs in water weight alone!
I also had too much fun playing with my new InstaSize app.
…
I wasn’t going to blog today.
Labor Day is about NOT laboring, right?
Then I realized that work isn’t always a thing to be avoided. I have a lot to share, and blogging isn’t “work.” It’s the perfect day for a short and sweet over-share blog post. This weekend has been all about fun work!
My mom asked me to watch her dog, Honey, for the weekend. I am not home enough to have a dog, but a part-time dog is awesome! Honey and I walked until I was practically dragging her. Those short legs get tired. 🙂 She is a Golden Retriever and Corgi mix.
Did you see her video debut on Instagram?
Waking up at the ass-crack of down to play make-up artist for a friend’s first Bikini competition. Chelsea has an amazing transformation story – check out her before pic! She trains at my gym, and I’m so happy to have met her.
Chelsea’s dedication and unwillingness to settle of anything less than her dream is inspiring. Visit her blog to read about her journey.
Side note: having to let the dog out at 5:30am felt like actual work.
I workout like it’s my job when I have the time. After Chelsea’s pre-judging I came back home to hit the gym. I slacked on my laundry job and didn’t have a clean tank top to wear… so I cut up an old Georgia Tech tee to represent at the gym (we won the season opener 70-0!).
After killing my back and tris, I ate that green smoothie like it was my job. Then I took a nap.
The next day’s workout was eventful. I went for a bike ride. I am not a cyclist, and I am especially not a smart cyclist. As soon as I got the bike outside I heard a rumble in the sky. A smart person would have waited or stayed close to home. Hahahaha!
I headed down the Beltline, pausing to enjoy the art. The sky darkened, but still I thought maybe I’d ride around it. Notsomuch. I was 5 miles from home when the bottom dropped out. After hanging out under a bridge for a while, I got impatient and biked home through the rain. I arrived at my building looking like a drowned rat (see pic).
Being a chef for myself is my favorite job. Some people dread being in the kitchen, but I find it relaxing. It’s art, not labor! I cooked ALL weekend long and couldn’t have been happier.
Clockwise from the top left:
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I’m spending the day pretending like tomorrow isn’t the return of “real” labor.
What jobs did you have this weekend?
What do you enjoy that most people view as work?
Vacation is a time for relaxation.
I would say rest and relaxation, but I’m not good at being still.
Taking a break from your exercise routine doesn’t have to mean being sedentary. Being active away from home is one of the best ways to explore a city! Today’s Work It Out is dedicated to a few of the ways Lisa, Heather, and I stayed active in Napa* last week.
*Raising a wine glass doesn’t count as lifting. But not for lack for trying.
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The cottage we stayed in had bicycles available to guests, so on day 1 of our trip Lisa and I decided to cycle from winery to winery. There was plenty of entertainment, as neither of us bicycle. As we were pulling out of the cottage area, a couple stopped to tell us we needed to take a few practice laps before we got on the road. Haha!
It was a blast – we went up and down some hilly roads on the cruiser bikes (read: no gears or handle breaks). Talk about a killer quad workout! The unexpected value add was that it kept us from buying too much wine – you can buy more than you can fit in the basket on the front of the bike! That is, until we discovered a winery that offered to deliver to our cottages. Tee hee.
Photo courtesy Lisa
On day 2 we’d planned to take a break from wine gluttony enjoy the town. We set out on a 7 mile hike up Oat Hill Mine Trail. The trail was filled with flora and fauna I’d never seen before.
This tree’s red bark fascinated me:
We were rewarded for our hard work up the winding trial with a stunning view:
Then we were rewarded again with a mud bath that afternoon. No pics of that (it was a nude area), but it was certainly a fun experience (if not a teensy claustrophobic).
Heather arrived the next day. She is doing the Live Fit program right now and needed to run 30 mins of sprints. I tagged along and pointed us down the Silverado Trail. I hadn’t been in that direction on the bike, and it was fun to watch the fog lift from the valley in the cool morning air.
I don’t normally run with other people, so it was also a nice change to have Heather there. I definitely wouldn’t have done 30 sprints without her encouragement!
Photo courtesy Heather
Added bonus: after being so fit you can feel good about flexing in front of a giant bottle of wine from Del Dotto Vineyards called “The Beast.”
Nevermind the fact that the winery owner was looking at me like I was nuts. #shameless
Finally, we took one long, long walk to dinner. I thought we could cut down a side street to get to dinner… it ended up making a 3/4 mile walk more like a 3 mile walk. I don’t recommend this method of exercise unless you have very patient friends.
The upside was seeing a gorgeous sunset over the vineyards.
The downside was walking the last mile in the dark… rockstar Heather ran the last mile to get them to hold our reservations.
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Exercising without knowing you’re exercising is a blast. So is getting home and back to a routine… vacation wears me out!
How do you stay active on vacation?
Have you ever taken the long way on accident? I’ve gotten lost on runs more times than I would like to admit.
