Wedding Weekend Part 1

Last weekend was a magical weekend:) I got hitched! The event officially started on Wednesday December 11th when multiple out of town guests arrived in Seattle. Thursday morning, after all i's were dotted and t's were crossed, the caravan headed up North to the great country of Canada. Thursday night involved eating and drinking at our favorite German restaurant in Harrison Hot Springs and cards against humanity.

Friday was a little more hectic. 1) because it was only one day away from my wedding and 2) because we had to change hotels and getting into our room took forever. The day was beautiful though.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner. It was held at a restaurant called Morgan's Bistro. We have never eaten there before because they are usually closed in the winter, but they happened to be open and able to take a very large group. Morgan's Bistro did a wonderful job attending to over 40 people, making delicious meals, and setting a romantic ambience.

Needless to say, we had a lot of fun. On top of that, it was my brother's 24th birthday (lucky Friday the 13th), so of course, we had to sing him happy birthday.

The dinner ran late, but we still managed to head over to a pub to meet the rest of our out of town guests.

Chris and I went to bed (later than I had hoped) excited and nervous for the events of the next day...

Done and Done

I completed my goal of finishing 30 half marathons by the end of 2013 (because I turned 30 this year). On November 30th I crossed the finish line of the Seattle Ghost Half Marathon around 10:15ish. Not my best race time, but definitely not my worst. I felt pretty good for the first 7 miles (which was expected since that is about the amount of training I did). Every mile after that was a little painful, but I knew I was one step closer with every step I took to completing my goal. I ran the Seattle Ghost last year, so for more information on this race check out my past post.

As for now, I am not going to do any long distance running and let my quad recover. I also think I am getting to the point where running 4 half marathons in a year is not very good for my body. I think I will stick to 1 or 2 per year from now on. I already have my next half planned out. It is in August in Vancouver Canada and is sponsored by Lululemon.

For my next running goal...I am putting this online so I have to do it (but I am not setting a time frame), I would love to run the New York Marathon.

Right now I am focusing on recovering and strengthening. I signed up for 2 months of yoga at Yoga Bliss, which is one of my favorite yoga studios. Yoga has been so beneficial to me. It is helping my quad to recover by strengthening and stretching it as well as toning my arms for my wedding...

Speaking of which...ahhhhh...My wedding is 4 days away. I have been spending a lot of family time and getting things done for the wedding. That is where I have been for the past 3 weeks. So off to complete some more wedding stuff and I'll be sure to show lots of pictures in my next post.

I hope your Thanksgiving was filled with fun and full tummies.

Any exciting trips planned for the Holidays?

Last Week

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! Mine was fun and a little stressful. Why you ask? Because I had a huge presentation I had to give to a group of people who are far more knowledgable than me. But it was a success and afterwards, I got to enjoy Halloween.

Pumpkin Carving Night!

My Ghoulish Pumpkin

I had to throw this scary picture in!

At work, the South Bay Medical Therapy Unit dressed as Skittles. Since I am the intern, my hazing was that I had to be the bag of Skittles (I also got to be the green Skittle). I may have put my Skittle bag costume on at the end of my presentation :)

Halloween was fun. I didn't go out, but I did help pass out candy and hang out with a lobster and "dogula"

On Saturday, to burn off all the candy I ate on Halloween, a couple of us took a hike in Orange County.

This is literally down the street from my house (well 30minutes down the street). But we ended up in this beautiful canyon. The hike was very scenic and just what I needed, but I think we ended going off path because at one point we had to slide down on our butts' because it was too steep to actually walk down. I kind of pictured us never making it out and being one of those stories of a group of friends went hiking and never made it out, but we did and here I am.

On Monday marks the last week of my internship at a Pediatric Therapy Unit. I learned a lot, but the more I learned, the more I realized how little I actually know. I had a great experience and even though the commute sucked, I am so happy I got placed in this unit.

I leave for Seattle on Friday night for 2 months, with a little event in the middle of my time off ;)

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Go Hawks!

Half Marathon #29 and Patellar Taping

On Sunday I did the Sandy Feet Temecula Half Marathon, thus completing my 29th half marathon. Notice the word choice "did" and not "run". Okay, I did run most of it and I did finish, but it was not pretty. I debated not running this race because of my bum knee…thus, I did not train for this race and thus the above verbiage. 

Well, I am not one to sign up for a race and not do it (hell, I ran a half last year with a bad cold), so on Saturday afternoon, I headed down to Oceanside (near San Diego) to spend the night at my friend Kelsey's (aka co-crazy runner) house. We watched girly movies and made a delicious pasta dinner. We went to bed early because we had to wake up at 5am. Luckily, 5am is when I wake up everyday for work, so it wasn't that big of a deal. We were on the road by 6am and at the race start (after a quick Starbucks stop) by 7am. The race started at 7:30. 

We were off. I will spare you the gory details, but the course was mostly loose pack dirt and large steep hills. My legs (and knee) felt great for the first 7 miles  but the last 6 miles were HELL. My knee started to hurt, then it stopped, but that is because I think my entire body went numb. I might have curse out Kelsey in my head (who picked this race and ran it significantly faster than me) during the entire twelfth mile. When it was over all I could think of was how happy I was done. 

Kelsey and I at the finish line

Did I mention that the race started and ended at a winery? Well it did, so we might have participated in some wine tasting after the race. It was just what I needed to ease the pain.

The medal

I am going to take a month off of running and concentrate on strengthening and stretching. I need to give my legs a break because on Nov 30th, I have my last half marathon of the year and I plan on it not being excruciatingly painful.

On the Physical Therapy side of things, I did try taping my knee with Leukotape.

There are a few different types of tape. The ever popular one right now is Kinesio tape. This is the tape that you see many athletes wearing. Kinesio tape actually helps move your muscle or inhibits it from working. It can also help with edema (swelling). Supposedly it creates a pull on the skin and allows for fluid to flow. It also helps restrict or help muscle movement without restricting movement in that limb. I am currently doing research on kinesio tape, so I will get back to you when I have a little more information. 

The main purpose of taping is to use as a crutch to help you heal quicker, but it should not be something that you use all the time. 

I used Leukotape. The purpose of this tape is to restrict movement in a muscle to prevent further injury or pain…I figured if it was a quad problem, this type of taping would help...

Above are the 2 methods I used during training and during the race to off load my quad to not pull on my patella (knee cap) and prevent pain. Both methods helped, but not 100% affective.

source 

I also considered that my patella was sitting in the wrong place. This method is moving the patella and placing it where it should be. I thought if my patella was in the right place I wouldn't have pain when I run. I only used this method during a training run and it did not help.

When taping…it is important to know where to place the tape, where and which direction the pull should be placed, and what to do if redness and swelling occurs, so make sure to consult your PT before applying tape.

Jet Setting the West Coast

Okay, that is a slight exaggeration, but my last few weeks have been up and down the coast.

Two weekends ago I travelled up the Californian coast to San Francisco to hang with my little brother. The weekend was perfect. We had no plans but managed to pack our time with lots of fun stuff. We walked from Ben's place in Pacific Heights to the Embarcadero.

View from the top of Pac Heights

 Found a wine tasting room in Ghirardelli Square (after eating chocolate at Ghirardelli)

 Ate at Pier 39 (and drank a few drinks)

On our walk back, we stopped at the Buena Vista for my 1st Irish Coffee

By the time we walked back up to Pac Heights the sun was setting. This picture was a must!

On Sunday, Ben and I ran to Alamo Square. We felt so good, we decided to run to the beach. Not realizing the time, when we got to the beach, I only had an hour to get back and ready to leave for the airport, so we cabbed it back to his house.

The next day when I was back in Orange, I walked into my apartment to find this…Apparently it had been so windy that a tree blew over. Glad I missed that.

The next week went by quick (which I am glad it did), because Friday, I flew home to Seattle. I didn't tell anyone I was coming home because Chris and I were heading up North to take care of some wedding stuff. It was a very relaxing and (wedding) productive weekend.

This coming weekend (as in right now), I am heading down to Temecula to run my 29th half marathon. This race is going to be interesting for 2 reasons. 1.) I am injured. My knee has hurt since my last half marathon in August thus causing reason 2.) I have not run longer than 8 miles in the past 2 months and no more than 6 miles in the past 6 weeks. I plan on "doing" this race and not necessarily running this race. If I didn't set a goal to run 30 halfs by the end of this year I probably would not be participating in this race, but I am not one to not complete a goal I have set. So here's to not hurting my self worst.

I will update you on the race soon, plus some taping techniques that can be done to help with knee pain.

Living for the Weekends

These past two weekends have been friend and fun filled.

Last Friday, right after work, I flew out of LAX to Seattle. I woke up early on Saturday and headed over to Lake Chelan to celebrate Shelby and Jesse's wedding. The weekend was amazing. I got to hang out with amazing friends and watch 2 love birds get married.

I have a new tradition of drinking a glass of wine before getting on a flight (as long as there is time to spare), this time was no exception.

Baker - I couldn't resist posting a picture of this cutie!

 The backdrop of the wedding with the Bride and Groom

 Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Jesse and Shelby!

 1st dance!

 Where I got my dance on

Good friends!

The night was amazing! Perfect weather, wonderful food, and fantastic company. I may or may not have danced the entire time.

Sunday morning we headed back to Seattle (a little tired and a little hung over), but the fun did not stop there. My dad got me a signed Russell Wilson Jersey

I did wear the Jersey on my plane ride home, but I will be framing this jersey and never wearing it again! But the Seahawks kicked the 49ners butts. So wearing the jersey was definitely worth it ;)

The past week was rough. My flight was delayed getting into LAX and I didn't get into bed until around 1:30am. I didn't know it was possible to doze off standing up, but I guess it is when you are exhausted. Luckily I had Friday off to recover.

This weekend was just as fun, but not quite as much traveling. I decided to try and run 6 miles on Friday, so I did and my knee only hurt a little. It's getting better right?

On Saturday, I headed down to San Diego to celebrate a friend's birthday. Her birthday was last week, but since I was out of town, I told her she would just have to extend her birthday celebrations for at least a week longer.

We went to Temecula and participated in some wine tasting, made pizza, and headed out on the town.

I hope you had a fantastic weekend as well!