Labor Day!

Hooray! A three day weekend. I've already got some good runs in and I'm thinking about heading to the beach to try my luck learning to surf. Not sure how it will go, wish me luck. I'm dressed in my best outfit to not be mistaken for a seal...

The Long Run...

Gradually getting a bit fitter. My friend and co-worker Erika and I joined up with a group yesterday for a run. The first lap - starting at 7am, I might add - was a 6.53 mile loop around the perimeter of Coronado, a great (and very flat!) place to run. The second lap we diverted to the beach by Hotel Del and after hitting the 11 (actually 11.1) mile mark, stopped to stretch and check out the inside of Hotel Del. It was pretty amazing.

For the total run, we finished in about 1:32.51, which comes out to an average 8:22/mile. I'll double check the time on my Garmin, but if it's correct, I'm pretty happy with it. The first lap was blazing, I hit the wall around nine miles and continued to push through...

Heaven

For a yogurt lover, leaving Chapel Hill was made even more painful by the fact that I would no longer have Yogurt Pump within a 2 mile radius from my house. TCBY is okay and there are some other frozen yogurt spots that are above average. However, I think San Diego has the best of all worlds in my new favorite place - The Golden Spoon (www.goldenspoon.com). It is "healthy" frozen yogurt that is amazing. The location in Hillcrest has amazing flavor selection and even if you get a small you get to pick up to four flavors. Right now I'm stuck on the pistachio, chocolate malt, cake batter and peanut butter combo. My favorite place to head to after I've finished a long run...

Cool New "Sandals"

Check these "sandals" out - www.sanuk.com

I wandered into a surf shop in PB (Pacific Beach) and happen to notice that all sandals were 20% off. Since I will be spending more time at the beach, I decided I should probably take advantage of the sale and pick up a pair or two. I found these really cool new sandals call Sanuk Sandals. They really aren't traditional sandals but I thought they were pretty cool so I bought a pair. Kind of ugly but kind of fun and really comfortable. Check out the women's "sidewalk surfers."

New Job + Moving In = Slacking on Blog Posts

Unfortunately I have almost abandoned my blogging efforts now that my job is in full gear. After staring at a screen all day it can be hard to come home and fire up the computer again.

Anyways, the running is progressing. I did a 10 mile run Saturday starting at Torrey Pines State Park with a group from MeetUp. Unfortunately I didn't read the fine print to realize the first part of the run was going to be a trail run and the first 1/2 mile of the trail run was straight up a hill. Oops. The overall pace was slow but I definitely got fitter. This morning I did a six miler through Balboa Park, which is quickly becoming my new favorite running spot. Lots of great scenery and shade (and it is very flat, which is the opposite of Torrey Pines).

This afternoon I spent some time at Pacific Beach, walking on the beach and observing the surfers. I need to at least give surfing a shot - I feel like it's an obligation now that I live in SoCal. I've decided the first step is to study the surfers and figure out which ones are the best and watch their techniques (or their abs, one of the two). Maybe next week I'll get out there and give it a crack...

My Favorite Olympian So Far - Jason Lezak

Hopefully everyone caught the finals of the men's swimming 4 x 100 freestyle last night. For those not familiar with the background, apparently the French relay team was talking some serious smack about how they were going to "smash" the Americans in the final. Even the broadcasters conceded the Americans would probably have to swim a near perfect race in order to have a shot at defeating the French team.

After the first three legs, the French had a nice little lead built up and their strongest swimmer Alain Bernard hopped in the pool. Things were going according to plan for the Frenchies until Jason Lezak started closing the gap after the final turn. He inched closer and closer and then eventually overtook Bernard and won the gold for the Americans in literally the last inches of the race. The Americans' time crushed the previous world record by something like four seconds.

All the drama and suspense with the fantastic finish definitely made for one of the best Olympic moments I've ever seen. Congrats to the American swimmers, particularly Jason Lezak who made an unbelievable comeback and a great contribution to his team capturing the gold!

Random Observations about SoCal after a week

1. People here LOVE tattoos. I don't think I've seen this much ink since watching highlights of an NBA game on SportsCenter. And the weird thing is the tattoos aren't small or subtle. People here have their entire arms and backs inked. Do these people ever have to work because I really don't think there is an easy way to hide any of these tattoos? Many of the people with a significant part of their body tattooed aren't really the people you'd expect to see all inked up. Weird. Definitely not a trend I'll be embracing.

2. Old people here love to work out. It is kind of strange to be jogging along by the beach or through downtown and see so many old (and I'm talking like 70s and 80s old) people jogging as well or cruising along on their road bikes. I mean, I know people on the West Coast are generally much fitter but I didn't expect to see this trend prevalent even in senior citizens. I'm impressed - as Ali G would say, "Respect!"

3. Downtown San Diego probably has more bums per capita than another place I've ever been to. I guess if I was a bum, I'd probably make San Diego my home as well, but it is pretty staggering. The guy who stocks the bread shelf at Ralph's downtown warned me to not walk too far from shopping cart (where my purse was stationed) because bums are keeping an eye open for silly transplants like me that wander too far away from their valuables...