Angry Julie Monday

Wordless Wednesday: Pierside

April 3, 2013

“The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea.” -Isak Dinesen

Welcome to “Angry Julie Monday’s Wordless Wednesday Linky”!

If this your first time here, HELLO! I do a link-up every Wednesday! Post a picture(s) and link back to it here. Wordless Wednesday is a great day to post an awesome picture that “speaks” for itself, no words needed.

Be sure to check out Wordless Wednesday Link-Ups at these other sites also:

Project Alicia, Better in Bulk, Crazy About My Baybah, Dear Crissy, Five Minutes For Mom, Live and Love…Out Loud, Sarah Halstead, Parenting By Dummies, Seven Clown Circus, The Divine Miss Mommy

Also, Lindsey from The Pleated Poppy does “What I Wore Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up.

Filed Under: Just Julie, Photography, Wordless Wednesday 3 Comments

Re-Entry is Difficult

April 1, 2013

Last week I headed out to the desert for a work conference. I stayed at my parent’s vacation house in Palm Springs. This was my home for five days. I had three bedrooms, a swimming pool, and the rest of the house all to myself.

You would have thought that I would have returned home with a tan. But I was too busy with the conference to even spend time at the pool. Although, I did stand on the steps in the pool one night, after a nine mile run.

I was able to view gorgeous sunsets while I was out in the desert, with colorful cotton candy skies and palm trees swaying in the wind. It was in the mid-80’s the entire week, which was perfect weather for the desert. It wasn’t too hot, and it wasn’t too cold. I could live with mid-80 degree weather if I had my choice.

I got up one morning and got a 3-mile run in. It was difficult because I was unfamiliar with the neighborhood, and I hadn’t planned out my route beforehand. It was a bit humid when running though, which made me a hot sweaty mess.

While I was gone, my son lost another tooth. This was his 3rd lost tooth. It is very noticeable since it is one of his top front teeth. I guess it was super loose all of the sudden, so my husband used some dental floss to help get it out. Apparently, my husband was following the 72-hour rule for the tooth fairy because the tooth fairy came when I got home on Friday night.

Attending a conference for work, means lots of “group dinners”. I was a total glutton and ate more than I usually do. We had some good times, but tons of rich food. I felt like I had a rock in my stomach, and I knew that I had to get a run in. It was rather warm and humid outside at night, so I waited a little too late one night. I decided to go on a totally unplanned and unmapped nine mile run through Palm Springs.

The Riviera Resort & Spa is right near my parent’s place and looks super pretty lit up at night. I almost felt like I was in Vegas. I could tell that it was super crowded there because the valet line was full, and it was Spring Break. When I got back to the house, I looked up the Riviera’s website. It looked super awesome. I might have to go check out their spa sometime.

Oh hai there, 26-foot tall Marilyn Monroe. The “Forever Marilyn” statue is visiting Palm Springs until June. I just happened to run past Marilyn along my nine-miler. There were a ton of people taking photographs of her.

I learned that if I want to do long runs like this again, I need to invest in some reflective gear and lights to wear on my run. It was DARK outside when I was running. I tripped on a high edge of a sidewalk also, and caught myself. That could have totally ended badly.

On Friday afternoon, I hit that outlet mall for some shopping. I got some great running stuff from Nike for dirt cheap prices, yay! And then bam, hit some really bad traffic which took me forever to get home. As soon as I got home, I changed my clothes and left to go to a friend’s house with the family, ate dinner, and then attended a friend’s hockey game. So much for relaxing!

With all my free time by myself last week, you would have thought that all my emails got answered etc., but they didn’t. I barely opened my computer. And now I have to work this week, plus it is my son’s Spring Break. Will I ever get caught up?

Filed Under: Just Julie, Photography, Running 2 Comments

Run All The Races

March 22, 2013

I figure that if I want to keep up with this running thing, I should sign-up for more races, right? I mean really, it totally makes sense? I swear that I’m going to be following some kind of training plan that is affixed to my refrigerator for the rest of my days.

So if you are wondering where I’m going to for vacation this year, besides Yosemite, it is probably race-related. Race-cations are my new vacations. Now if I could get the rest of my family racing…. And somehow I need a rich relative to pay for all of these racecations. Anyone want to volunteer?

So far, my race agenda for the rest of the year is as follows:

As of now, I’m an alternate for our Baker To Vegas Challenge Cup Relay Team. We have a co-ed team, and I’m not as fast as I want to be. I was trying to get under 9-minute miles, which I could probably do if I pushed myself. But I have way too many other races to do this year.

The OC Half Marathon will be my third race in the Beach Cities Challenge. I started the Beach Cities Challenge with the Long Beach Half in October {my first half marathon}, did my second race in February, Surf City, and The OC Half will be my third and final race.

This will be my second year running Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon. I absolutely loved this event last year. It was so fun running at night through all of the parks at Walt Disney World. I will also be completing the Coast to Coast Challenge, because I ran {trotted/walked/ran} the Tinker Bell Half Marathon in January at Disneyland.

and just because I’m really really crazy….

I will flying to Florida, two weeks after the Wine and Dine Half to participate in the Space Coast Half Marathon. I blame Krissy for promoting the awesomeness of this race.

but really, this race is all about the bling…race bling = awesome medal for finishing the race!

Yes, the race re-designed their medals. And they also added a 3-year finisher and 5-year finisher medal, starting in 2013. How awesome are those medals? My husband actually encouraged me to sign-up for this race after I showed him the “Big Bang Series” graphic. I blame him!

So if you are wondering what I will be spending all my spare time doing….running!

Filed Under: Just Julie, Running 9 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: Pretty as a Peacock

March 20, 2013

My son and I went to Irvine Park a few weeks ago with some friends. I love going to Irvine Park because it has so many peacocks just wandering around. I have a little joke with friends that 2012 was the “Year of the Flamingo” and 2013 is the “Year of the Peacock”.

Welcome to “Angry Julie Monday’s Wordless Wednesday Linky”!

Be sure to check out Wordless Wednesday Link-Ups at these other sites also:

Project Alicia, Better in Bulk, Crazy About My Baybah, Dear Crissy, Five Minutes For Mom, Live and Love…Out Loud, Sarah Halstead, Parenting By Dummies, Seven Clown Circus, The Divine Miss Mommy

Also, Lindsey from The Pleated Poppy does “What I Wore Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up.

Filed Under: Orange County, Photography, Wordless Wednesday 4 Comments

A Year of Running

March 18, 2013

Several of my friends did races {running} this weekend. I hadn’t signed up for any special St. Patrick’s Day themed races because I couldn’t find any that sounded really awesome. I could have run a St. Patrick’s Day half marathon if I live in another state, because there were several occurring yesterday.

But just because I wasn’t racing, didn’t mean that I couldn’t dress-up my run for the occasion. I put on some funky green socks, my green Team Sparkle Skirt, and my green Team Sparkle visor for my training run around my neighborhood.

No race for me today. But that doesn't mean that I can't do my training run in a green @runTeamSparkle skirt and fun socks? This is kind of an anniversary run of an anniversary run for me! #teamsparkle

I don’t usually wear my Sparkle Skirts out on my neighborhood runs, so I got “lots” of attention while running. With my work schedule, I try to fit in my runs when I can. Because I had missed some mileage in the past few days, I was doubling up, and attempting to do six miles. I ended up doing a little over five. I was ok with the five, because it was starting to get a bit warm outside while I was running. Along the way, I had several people wish me “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” and even had someone scream at me from a car….cough cough…Heather!

Running on St. Patrick’s Day was somewhat of a RUN-niversary! Looking back to 2008-2009, I was running frequently, and doing about a race a month. And then work stress, and odd schedules changed things. I slacked on my runs, and workouts. And basically hit bottom. I had done some 5K runs here and there, but I really didn’t “train” for them.

Kelly, Me, and Elise

Last March, I signed up for the Leprechaun Leap 5K in Tustin. My friends were doing it, and I got super excited to dress-up for the race. It was raining when the race started, and I ran slow. At the end of the race, I looked at my finish time and was overly saddened. I finished at almost 40 minutes. Looking back at that photo above, I am still overly saddened. I looked like a mess. And probably felt like one too, I can’t remember.

After that race, I decided to start running and working out again. I had to “hit bottom” to realize that I was blessed with really bad genetics and an awful metabolism. I gain weight super easy. I know that I have to work out to maintain/lose weight. There is not really an option. But life does get in the way sometimes, and then I get lazy. I finished the month of March 2012, with 15 miles clocked in at the gym. At the end of April 2012, I had 75 miles logged into my DailyMile account. Each month, I began accruing more and more mileage.

In May, I decided to sign-up for my first half marathon, The Long Beach Half Marathon, which was occuring in October. My friend, Casey suggested Hal Higdon’s Half Marathon Training Plan, and I plotted all of my runs out on a calendar. I completed the LB Half without dying, and since that race, I’ve completed three other half marathons, a few 5K races, and even my first 10K race.

I want to seriously thank Team Sparkle {Kelly, Carrie, and Elise} for all of the motivation and inspiration. These super fast crazy girls make me want to do more, and run faster! I want to give a bit of credit to my all the running gear that I have acquired. It is sorta taking over my house.

Enough rambling now, I thought I would post a March 2012 to March 2013 comparison. I’ve only lost about 15 pounds from all of this crazy running. But obviously, you can tell that I’ve acquired more muscle, etc.

Proof is in the photos!

Yes, I’m still training for more races. After I figure out my calendar this week, I’ll write a post with my upcoming races, etc. because people always seem to ask. Also, I have no idea what I’m even doing tomorrow, let alone, racing…

Filed Under: Just Julie, Running 9 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: Just Jump

March 13, 2013

I bit the bullet last week and purchased some of my race photographs. I loved this one taken at the end of the Tinker Bell Half Marathon in January. Even though the race pretty much sucked for me, I got a great photograph out of it!

Welcome to “Angry Julie Monday’s Wordless Wednesday Linky”!

Be sure to check out Wordless Wednesday Link-Ups at these other sites also:

Project Alicia, Better in Bulk, Crazy About My Baybah, Dear Crissy, Five Minutes For Mom, Live and Love…Out Loud, Sarah Halstead, Parenting By Dummies, Seven Clown Circus, The Divine Miss Mommy

Also, Lindsey from The Pleated Poppy does “What I Wore Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up.

Filed Under: Just Julie, Photography, Running, Wordless Wednesday 7 Comments

Race on the Base 10K Race Recap

March 11, 2013

I have a new totally snobby motto for running races now. I won’t run a race unless there is a medal. My old motto was that I wouldn’t run a race unless it was a timed chip race. The prices of races are going up, and I feel like a t-shirt isn’t enough for my money. I am addicted to race bling!

My friend, Monique mentioned that she was signed up for the Race on the Base 10K. I didn’t immediately sign-up because I wanted to see how I felt after the Surf City Half Marathon. I knew that the race fit my qualifications since it was time chiped and it had a pretty rad medal!

The night before the race, I had spaghetti from Haus of Pizza. Which is one of my local favorites for Italian food. I probably go there once a week. Their antipasto salad is my favorite, but I needed to carb load before my race. And my stomach would have been a hot mess if I had salad for dinner.

I got off a little early the night before the race so that I could get some rest. Which is totally funny, because I never ever fall asleep before midnight these days. After laying out my race outfit, I finally feel asleep for a few hours.

Who's gonna rock Race on the Base in her @runTeamSparkle camouflage skirt today??? Me! #raceonthebase #teamsparkle

Wide awake, and ready to run. I put on my camouflage Team Sparkle skirt. In case you are wondering, yes, I do have a Team Sparkle skirt for every occassion. I counted my skirts recently, and I now a proud owner of ten sparkle skirts.

I also wore my Brooks PureFlow2. This was my second race wearing my PureFlow’s, and without a doubt, they are here to stay. Prior to buying these shoes, I was a diehard Saucony Kinvara 3 runner. I decided that I needed to try something that was still minimal, but had somewhat of a wider shoe box. My Kinvaras always felt a bit rigid, and I have more movement in these shoes.

We had to leave super early because Los Alamitos was about 30 minutes away, plus the parking is somewhat of a hassle. The race is on a military base and every car has to be let in. We found a parking spot and made it to the starting line a few minutes before the race started. Luckily, Monique had picked up our race packets and bibs the night before.

The start of the race was a bit narrow and I got held back for awhile by a bunch of “walkers”. Obviously, they were not taught proper “race etiquette”. After pushing my way through, with several other runners, I was able to step up the pace. This is a super flat course, and I was going at a steady pace {my slow as molasses pace}.

As we moved on from the 5K runners, I got a bit sad. I knew that I still had another 5K {3.1 miles} left to run. I have run 6.2 miles before, obviously…but a 10K race was a bit strange to me.

I passed Monique on one of the loops and she captured this photo of me running at about mile 4. I was still going strong with no problems. It was getting a bit warm outside, plus the sun was glaring on the asphalt.

I completed the race in a sub 11-minute time, of about 10:45ish pace. I was ok with my time as I was just trying to finish without hurting myself, or getting sick. I’m proud to say that I did not have any race curses that day, yippee! I survived the race, injury free!

Monique were able to get a photograph together post-race, after I handed my camera to someone. It was hilarious watching her {the woman} try to use my camera. It is a simple point-and-shoot digital. But hey, we got a decent photo together!

I also had Monique take a photo of me with my iPhone so I could ummm, you know, Instagram it. Giggle….

And after running all those miles, the parking, and the crowds…I screamed that it was time for breakfast! So we headed out towards our next destination = FOOD!

Of course I was a total glutton, and ate a Belgian waffle with raspberries for breakfast. It was so good. I’m never hungry after running usually, but I was super hungry after that 10K.

After eating breakfast, I headed home, took a shower, and a long nap. My family was gone for the day, so I had some peace and quiet. Of course, later that afternoon, my doorbell wouldn’t stop ringing. The feral children of the neighborhood kept coming over to see if my son was home.

And of course, the bling. I love the medal for the race. It was so shiny and pretty. They even kept the plastic cover on the medal when they handed it to you at the finish, so that it didn’t get scratched. I took a photo of it with my camouflage sparkle skirt.

Race Notes: It was a great race. Get there early because traffic and parking backs up. The race shirt was a long sleeve technical tee. It was black, and did not have an obnoxious design, which some races do. The course was flat, somewhat boring, but it went fast. It would be a great race if you wanted to get a 5K or 10K PR. The medals are awesome, and you got a choice of catered food for breakfast! This was my first time doing the race and I would do it again.

Filed Under: Just Julie, Running 3 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: Dog Camouflage

March 6, 2013

The other day I was getting ready to pick up my son from school. I had our dogs running around in the front yard, so I went to get them. My one dog, Bruiser was happy and wagging his tail at the front door. My other dog, Wolfie was missing. I was panicing a little. I started looking around our front yard. I finally heard some rustling in the bushes. She was hiding out under some bushes. Because of her coloring, and the bushes, she was camouflaged.