Monday, January 4, 2010

Back to Reality

Ugh, I hate Mondays.  If you didn't already know this about me, I dread Mondays.  They are the worst day of the week for me.  I get all depressed come Sunday afternoon and the blah's just don't go away until I wake up on Tuesday morning and celebrate that I made it through another Monday.  And coming back from a really awesome weekend, it makes it especially difficult to face Monday.  And to make matters worse, with the end of the Holidays, I have some new realities setting in.  In just a few short weeks I will be back in full swing tax season mode, and as much as I LOVE my job, I really hate the long hours that it demands.  Thankfully tax season is only a couple of months long and the rest of the year is pretty lax, but looking ahead and staring down the face of tax season is quite daunting for this chica.

Okay, enough with the doom and gloom.  I had an AWESOME weekend!  New Year's Eve was fantastic!  I had a blast with my Bro, SIL, hubbs and some really good friends.  We partied way tooooo much but it was sooo worth it!  Let's just say, if I never see another Markers Mark and diet coke for about six months that will be okay with me!  We had the limo takes us all over downtown Sacramento and we even watched the fireworks go off - a big highlight of the evening.  But it was just perfect to spend the evening ringing in the New Year with some of the best family and friends a girl could ask for :)

Ari and I - sorry it's a bit blurry!  I think the car was moving, there were drinks consumed and it was taken on my blackberry!



My good friend Sarah and I - we all had a pair of those light up glasses that said 2010 and blinked like crazy!  They were a constant source of laughter!

Friday, New Year's day, after sleeping in for about 5 hours (yes, five hours! we didn't get home until 3 am!!) my hubbs and I headed up to Tahoe for the weekend.  What a mistake that was.  The town was packed with people!  Traffic to get anywhere was terrible and you could tell the locals were just done (we had bad service everywhere we went).  We decided though, to enjoy ourselves.  By the time we got up there the weather was perfect for running, about 40 degrees.  I have always run on New Years Day and I wasn't going to let a hangover stop me.  I logged about four miles and felt great.  I didn't turn on my Garmin just went for a run and had a blast. 

Saturday we got up and headed over to Heavenly to snowboard.  I am not a big fan of this resort.  It is a huge tourist trap and you get a lot of beginners trying to tackle this big mountain.  On a non-holiday it is even busy but this day was even crazier.  We had tickets already for there so we decided to give it a shot.  We were the first ones on the Gondola and the first on a few of the lifts.  But by noon the place was out of control and I was tired of dodging people.  So I decided to head back down the mountain and go for a run while Ari finished up a few more runs.  I was soooo glad I did this.  The weather was awesome again and my legs felt surprisingly fresh even though I had just snowboarded for over three hours!  I wonder what kind-of a workout you would call that?  It was definitely a duo day!

I ran 6 miles up and down Lake Tahoe Blvd in 47:38  7:56/mi pace.  I didn't want to venture too far while I waited for Ari to come down the mountain, so I did 1.5 mile stretches back and forth.  All the while eating car and bus fumes.  But my legs felt great and the altitude wasn't too bad - I might actually be getting used to it!  If you look closely you can see the mountains in the background.  But you can also notice that there isn't much snow on the ground here - they have been getting warm temps in the afternoon - not good for snowboarding!

We headed home on Saturday afternoon and it took us FOREVER!  We thought we would be beating the traffic by leaving Saturday, but we were wrong!  It normally takes about 3:45-4:00 hours to get home, but it took us 5 1/2 hours!  Traffic was bad.  We made mental notes never to go to Tahoe on NY weekend again :(

I am sooo excited to start my training.  Only 15 weeks to Boston!  I am going to continue to do base work for a couple of weeks and then jump into the full training schedule around 12-13 weeks out.  16 weeks is just too long of a cycle for me.

I hope everyone had a fabulous NY Eve and day and I am excited to see what 2010 has in store for all of us.  Have a great Monday peeps (I'm gonna try)!
Happy Running!





24 comments:

Mel -Tall Mom on the Run said...

HEhe our Blog post has the same name today.. I am NOT a fan of eating car fumes, yuckers..

I have never thought about reducing to 12-13 weeks for a Marathon, maybe because I have only run 1.. That seems like a great plan.

OK Happy New Year and sorry about the upcoming Tax season.. I am excited for our REFUND.. the perks of having 2 little studs..

Holy cow I need coffee, I am a fellow Monday blahs person..

Pining for Pinterest said...

Great job on the run! I hate when I hit traffic! I am not a patient person when it comes that :-) This is why my husband and I prefer not to travel during the holidays! Have a great week!

Anonymous said...

Dude, you are insane for going to Tahoe new years weekend. I avoid it like the plague!!!

L.B. said...

Sounds like, aside from the driving, your last couple of days were memorable. I tried to avoid alcohol on New Year's Eve but it's pretty much unavoidable unless you stay home or something, which is actually what we do most years. This year we got a sitter and went to a friend's, and I drank a little but I also made it out Friday on a run. I;m right there with you on running on New Year's Day. This is my second year of doing so (I haven't been a runner for too long) and I thought during my run (I ran 10 miles) that it would be great to really make it a tradition, to start the new year off with a run.

Anyway, glad you enjoyed your day and hopefully Tuesday comes pretty quickly.

Sarah said...

Glad you had a good NYE, but I could have told you about Tahoe. We went up a couple of years to celebrate and it's always so crowded and crazy to get home when you're done. At least now you know!

UGH the Monday back after a long holiday is the WORST! Hope you're day goes by fast!! :)

RunToTheFinish said...

seems like the holiday travel is hit or miss. like Universal was surprisingly not busy, but I've heard other places were slammed.

I used to hate mondays, but finally decided I just couldn't spend so much time feeling yucky about a day of the week :)

Heather said...

Snowboarding/running is definitely a brick workout - way to go!

I hate Mondays too. I try to do yoga Sunday nights just to get relaxed and forget about it, but that doesn't always work. :)

Shellyrm ~ just a country runner said...

Way to get in those runs! Plus snowboarding! You rock those legs!

Minus the traffic, glad to hear you had an enjoyable NY weekend.

I am counting down the minutes to get outta here...I do not like Monday either. They ruin my Sundays!

Sarah Bowen Shea said...

AWESOME you are doing Big Sur, too. Yes, you ARE insane in the membrane to do Boston-Big Sur Challenge, but I'll be intrigued to follow along!

Denise said...

I'm with you on the Monday thing. I get so down on Sunday and it's not even that I dislike my job. It's just so depressing that the wknd has to end. Congrats on getting through today!

Jess said...

Sounds like a fun weekend!

Mondays are the pits, but at least they only come around once a week ;)

TMB @ RACING WITH BABES said...

That was an awesome weekend! No wonder Monday's stink! Yay for 15 weeks to Boston. So excited for you!

Jen Feeny said...

Looks like you had a really fun weekend too! I love those light up glasses! LOL!

15 weeks to Boston! It's so funny, I'm not running it but going to cheer on Spike and I'm getting excited for the countdown like I am running it! I'm ecstatic to spectate it and maybe we could meet up!

Tara said...

Hi Katie! Sounds like you had a great New Years...LOVE those glasses.

I've been to Tahoe once and it was in the summer. It was gorgeous. I can imagine what it would look like in the winter.

Tax season? UGH! So does that mean you won't be blogging as much?

...and the countdown begins!

Aron said...

yay for a fun new years!!!

uggg i dont miss tax season at all :( i still get a kind of busy season here with year end, but not even close to the same. good luck girl!

N.D. said...

Hope today was better!

B.o.B. said...

Somebody's got a case of the Mondays! (Don't you want to punch that guy on Office Space?)

Glad Monday is over too and man you were flying on the 6 miler. Go you!

BTW, please ship me those glasses. They look awesome!

Angela and David said...

Hope you survived this Monday. I don't envy you and tax season at all.

Twincerely,Olga said...

Happy New Years!!!sounds like you had a great time and what a run snowboard w/o Day!! You Rocked it!!!

chris mcpeake said...

wow boston is coming up quick
Happy new years

Jenn said...

Marker's Mark! You are a wild child! I'm considering breaking into the hard liquor in Boston-lol! Breakdancing might be in order!! Glad you had a great NYE.

I've gotten a couple of emails from people who have run Boston in the past and both have said biking is IMPOSSIBLE except from mile 21-26. I would really like to see my hubby somewhere along the course but could care less about him meeting me at the finish. I really need to do some research soon into how this spectating is going to work.

Good luck training! I am in my glory because the extended forecast has temps in the 20's next week. Now, if it only holds true....

Jill said...

Errr, how did I miss this post? Soooo sorry!! I sent you my training sked, maybe we can keep one another accountable. I'm lacking serious motivation today. Once I get going all will be good...it's the get going part!!

Yeah, I knew you'd be wearing something pink on FB, missy!!!
Hugs!!!

Tricia said...

Great job on the run!

chris mcpeake said...

Great run.. nicely done