I Run Like A Girl

I don’t know about you guys, but I think meme pretty accurately captures how I feel right now.

That aside, I really hope you all had fantastic weeks!

The highlight of mine was having my BFF Christine visit from NYC. Christine and I use to work together during my NYC days, and we quickly became close and inseparable. I really missed having Christine around these past 2 years in SF, and so I was counting down the days to her visit. Let me know ya, it so lived up to my excitement.

Since I still had to go to work last week, I wrote Christine tailored itineraries to pack her days with fun things I knew she would love to do. She ended up loving my itineraries and even said I should make a side business of being a travel agent 😛

Evenings were for Christine-Charlotte time. We got dinner together and stayed up late watching tv, eating junk food, and chatting and laughing away about the latest and greatest of our lives. We opened up about everything sitting in our hearts and I feel so emotionally rejuvenated after this visit. It was so heart-warming and kind of surreal having Christine in SF…we spent our formative years growing up together in NYC, and it felt so natural to be together again in SF – I couldn’t help but imagine how fun it would be if she moved here! She’s the most caring and fun-loving friend in the world. Christine’s visit was sweet reminder of how I do have people in my life who love me, and even if we don’t see each other that often anymore, they will always have my back. ❤

Viggy and Scott joined the fun on Friday night as we went out for drinks; we had so much fun we lost track of time and stayed until the bars closed us out, and so we headed back to Viggy’s apartment to play VR games afterwards. So much laughter and good vibes being all together again. Just like old times ❤

After saying goodbye with Christine on Saturday, I spent the rest of the day recovering (all of our late nights meant my body was wrecked!). On Sunday, I was inching to get out of my apartment and so I joined Artur for a mushroom foraging hike in John McCaren Park. Artur is into mycology and well-connected with different hippie communities in SF – I’m so glad I have Artur to bring me around to these cool events!

I didn’t have major expectations for this meetup and was just excited to try something new, but it ended up being so relaxing, informative, active, and fun! Everyone there was super chill as we bonded over foraging the grounds and learning about the natural growing mushrooms around us. It definitely made me appreciate little details in the ground that I never would have before.

The leader of the hike was so knowledgeable and knew the Latin names for every single mushroom. He would tell us if they were poisonous, like this one which will kill you in 1 week if you eat it!

Afterwards, Artur and I had a relaxing rest of the afternoon grabbing Mexican food in the sunny Mission, exploring a book store, grabbing a drink at Kava Lounge…one of the happiness Sundays I’ve had in a while.

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Yup, marathon training is still going swimmingly. And yup, these morning runs are still the highlight of my day. It took a bit of schedule-juggling to fit in all my trainings runs these past two weeks, between my trip to Catalina and Christine visiting, but so proud that I got every mile in.

Week 3 of training

Monday: 3 miles (10:02 pace).

Tuesday: 4 miles on the treadmill (3 miles @ 10:20 pace + 1 mile progression to 8:00 pace). First treadmill run since last winter, and it reminded me of why I avoid treadmills…but good to build mental strength + avoid the rain.

Wednesday: 3 miles (9:10 pace) with Julian. I was planning on skipping this run since I was feeling sick but glad Julian pushed me to go and kept me at tempo pace.

Thursday: REST

Friday: 7 miles (10:34 pace). This run gave me a lot of confidence – running high miles 4-6.

Saturday: REST

Sunday: 6-mile hike in Catalina

Week 4 of training

Monday: 3 miles in Catalina. No music, no Garmin. Energy + legs didn’t feel great but it was a gorgeous run and made my last moments in Catalina very peaceful.

Tuesday: 5 miler (10:17 pace). Amazing running high during the most beautiful sunrise in SF to date. Legs and energy felt strong which amazed me since they didn’t yesterday.

Wednesday: 3 miles (10:25 pace). Legs tired from a solid run yesterday, but beautiful sunrise kept me inspired.

Thursday: 75-minute yin yoga class with essential oils

Friday: REST

Saturday: REST

Sunday: 8 miles (10:30 pace). This run dragged since my body felt tired and off from all the partying + lack of sleep last week. Looking forward to getting back into a healthy routine next week.