YogaJournal Conference in San Fran

Back in September I went to Colorado for the YogaJournal's annual Colorado conference and it was awesome. Eric and Wes came and they went climbing while I went to one day of yoga and then I went climbing with them on Sunday and Monday. Now San Francisco's annual conference is coming up in January, so I applied for the Work Exchange program. If you get chosen for the work exchange program, you are required to volunteer 16 hours over the course of 5 days, and you monitor 4 or more class doors. After the class starts, you can join the class, and when you are not volunteering you can join classes that aren't full, which is awesome. You have to pay $300, $200 of which you get back after you're done and you do your job, so you really pay $100 for the whole conference! In case you haven't been able to tell yet, I got chosen for the Work Exchange Program for the SF conference in January :)
Eric bought me a plane ticket for Christmas to get to SF and I'm staying at the Grant Hotel, which is where Jess and I stayed when we went there for the Nike Women's 1/2 marathon, and also next door to a lululemon :) I'm soo excited and can't wait to go!

http://tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:PBKNrMrY22ahAM:http://www.yoga-nrg.com/yoga%2520kid%2520tree%2520pose%2520sillouette.JPG

Yoga with Steve Ross

Monika and I traveled to Brentwood yesterday for some yoga with well-known yogi, Steve Ross (he is/was on the Inhale on the oxygen network, and apparently celebrities go to his classes). Monika had been there before and loved it, so I figured I'd give it a go. Even though I checked out the studio's website, I still didn't quite know what to expect. We got there with plenty of time to spare, so we walked around the shopping center a little and then heard a scary rumor that Steve wasn't going to be there! We tried really hard not to get bummed out even though we'd traveled 45 minutes to take this class. So we waited...and waited...the room really started to fill up (with no recognizable celebrities) and then Monika says, "he's here!" and I look and sure enough, there's the Happy Yogi himself, all smiley and, well, happy. He walks in and says hi to people as he goes and connects his ipod. Then Chris Brown or 50 cent or somebody starts playing on the speakers and Steve starts the class, shouting commands over the music. And such was the entire class. It was definitely fun, but definitely not the type of yoga that I could do all the time. Sometimes I like to be able to think about the postures and things that I'm doing while I'm practicing yoga. I will say the hour and a half flew by! Before I knew it we were in floor postures and finally savasana. It was one of my best savasanas ever. I almost opened my eyes one time to see if anyone lese was still in the room. It was amazing. I'm definitely going to go back for another one of his classes sometime soon! Oh and the level 2/3 was perfect for me - it was more intermediate, less advanced than I expected, so besides already being a little sore from yoga with Paul the day before, it was just right. Now I have to try for day 3 in a row of yoga being all sore followed by a weekend of climbing...I'm hoping it will just work itself out :)

Gettin' the lead out...

I came to realize today that the "gettin' the lead out" doesn't just apply to running. You know how sometimes you go out for that run, maybe after resting a couple days from a previous hard run, or even if you just haven't ran for awhile, and the run just sucks? Well I've come to the conclusion that it applies to yoga as well. I have been off and on with my yoga practice lately and today I decided to start back full force. I went to a lunchtime flow with Paul DeSilva at YogaWorks and he was awesome. I, on the other hand, was dizzy and couldn't get my balance. Part of it could be due to the fact that I let myself get distracted by this lady next to me who was making a lot of noise with her movements, among other things. So much for the nonreactive, nonjudgmental thing I've been trying lately. So the class was a tough one. But regardless, I survived, I got all the negative crap out of my body that I have been carrying around for a couple weeks, so I expect my next class to be amazing :) The next class being a level 2/3 class in LA with Monika... do one thing every day that scares you, right???

Races in 2009?

I'm trying to decide what race(s) I might do in 2009, and have come up with a list of several potential 50Ks, and a couple possible 1/2 marathons. I'm thinking of doing a 50K instead of a marathon this year, but I'm not sure yet. I know I'd like to run the Twin Peaks 50K in 2010, and I'm not sure if I want that to be my first one or not. I'd also like to do a couple 1/2 marathons, but again, I don't know which ones. Here's the list I've come up with so far -

4/26/09 - La Jolla 1/2 in La Jolla
5/2/09 - Wild, Wild, West 50K in Lone Pine
5/9/09 - Santa Barbara Wine Country 1/2 in Santa Ynez
5/9/09 - Xterra Malibu 1/2 in Malibu
5/16/09 - Bishop High Sierra 50K in Bishop
5/30/09 - Shadow of the Giants 50K in Yosemite
6/14/09 - Holcomb Valley 50K in Big Bear Lake
8/8/09 - Mt. Disappointment 50K in Sierra Madre

Don't miss my previous post about my upcoming volunteer work in Cambodia!

Volunteering in Cambodia

I blogged about going to Cambodia with United Planet probably 6 months ago and never really mentioned it again, but I decided today that it's time to really get serious and think about this trip. I already pushed it back to July because I doubted that I would be able to get the funds together for this trip, but after a particularly inspiring goal setting clinic at the lululemon in Santa Monica last night, I realized that this is something that I am passionate about, and I put my intentions out there, it will happen. So I'm putting my intentions out there and by June 1, 2009 I am raising $3000.
Why volunteer? Why Cambodia? One of my passions in life is teaching & constantly learning, and another passion is helping those less fortunate than I. I chose to volunteer in Cambodia because 1. the mission of this particular country with the volunteer organization is to work in a community center and teach English and other skills, and 2. Cambodia will be a country that is nothing like I have ever seen or experienced. I will learn so much about the culture and lifestyle that I expect to learn much more from them than they will learn from me.
I have set up a fundraising website to make it easy for anyone to donate. I will reach my goal when 600 people donate just $5. That's just sacrificing one trip to Starbucks! So please, even if you can't donate, forward this to someone who might be able to. With this trip I'm "being the change" I want to see in the world, and I would love your support!

http://www.firstgiving.com/abbiemood

Life Lessons from the past week

My grandmother passed away earlier this week and so I've had a lot of time to think. Usually when someone passes away, the people affected decide that they need to start living in the moment and take advantage of their life, which can so easily slip away. I, on the otherhand, have never really been one to go all contemplative after something like this. I'm usually just really sad. But this time has been different.
On a conference call for lululemon Tuesday, Chip (the founder of lululemon) told us that the one thing he took from the workshop that we were discussing was to live in the moment - don't wait until a doctor tells you that you have 6 months to live. I thought it was quite a coincidence to hear that right after my grandmother had heard the same news, but only made it a few weeks. I realized that it's not soo important to worry about when I will get married, when I will get a house, when the bills will be finally paid off... It's important to be present and live in the moment now, taking care of things as they come. I'm not saying don't think about and plan for the future, but the future can't rule your life, and neither can the past. You can do things today to help tomorrow, but ultimately you have to worry about how you feel and what's happening right now.
Which leads to my next thought, which is that everyone does the best they can at that moment. I've been telling myself this everytime I start to get frustrated about something or frustrated with someone - they're just doing the best they can, and it's wrong of me to expect anything more.
So there's my one thoughtful post in all the time I've had this blog... don't get used to it, it shouldn't happen too often!

Year in Review

Even though it just (not quite barely) December, I don't have anything else planned this year (besides being the Asst. RD for the Twin Peaks Ultra race) so I figured it would be a good time for a year in review...

My totals this year include -
3 sprint triathlons - newport, june lake, santa barbara
1 1/2 marathon - oc
2 marathons - la, greece
1 5k - e-racing the blues in delaware
1 10k - e-racing the blues in delaware
climbing - handful of v4's

Besides the sports side of my life, I started working at lululemon athletica in the Irvine Spectrum and have met some amazing people. I absolutely love working there - it's just the atmosphere that an urban hippie such as myself thrives in :) And yes, I'm still teaching. lulu is my 2nd job, but somedays it keeps me sane!

Over the next couple weeks I will be making my final edits and printing my thesis on the fancy paper. That means I only have to pay a bunch of money to the bookstore and then I will have my Master's degree in Special Education! yay!

Overall, not too shabby if I do say so myself :)




p.s. i'm looking for races for '09... suggestions are welcome.

Athens Marathon Race Re-cap

In spirit of my first run since the marathon (not the originally planned 10K Turkey Trot but a very easy 3 miler later in the day), I figured I'd post a little re-cap about my race...

First of all, we went to Greece with Apostolos Greek Tours and I have to say Paul Samaras is the nicest man ever and you can tell he really wants you to have an amazing experience in Greece. We had a pasta dinner the night before, and had the hotel set up the breakfast early that morning so we could get something to eat before we left. The race didn't start until 9 am so I didn't have to get up at the butt crack of dawn like usual. We slept until about 6 and then got breakfast and I got on the bus to head towards Marathon at 7. Eric didn't have to leave until 7:30 since the 10K started near the stadium, which was my finishing point.
We drove through the Greece countryside and arrived in Marathonas at around 8:15. It was cold and a little windy, but the wind would be at our backs once the race started, so I tried to keep that in mind. Jeff Galloway, the run/walk master, was with the tour and was leading a 1 min. run/1 min. walk group with a goal of 5 hours. The night before he told us that the course was difficult and we should expect to run 20 minutes slower than usual, but my secret goal was to set a pr (break 5:30).
After listening to some Madonna, and then taking an oath about having fun and enjoying the race, and it was on! Jeff wanted to start after everyone else had gone, and for the first time I started dead last. There were only a few thousand people there, so we were actually only about 5 minutes behind clock time. The temp. at race start was 61 degrees with the wind at our back and lots of cloud coverage, which is practically perfect marathon weather, and while the wind eventually died down, the clouds and cool temps stayed with us.
After the first couple miles, we started the loop around the tomb of the Athenian soldiers who fell during the war between the Persians and the Athenians. The 1/1 run/walk method was awesome and the race was flying by. Jeff and his wife, Barbara, are so positive and fun to run with. Eric and I had looked at the course map beforehand and didn't expect much of the hills that we saw. They were mostly long and gradual, but a couple were a bit steep. The hills did start to take a toll on my knees, though. Besides being hilly, the road is slanted which any runner knows can create imbalance issues. By mile 7 my knees started bothering me, but I tried to ignore them. They continued to bother me, and ended up hurting 3 weeks after the race, but I think my positive attitude (and the cream/spray I kept getting on them) really helped me through.
We continued through the countryside, with cheers of Bravo and Calimera (good morning) coming from people who had come outside to cheer us on. Around mile 16 we started to get into the suburbs of Athens and see more buildings. This was also about the time that I started to lose the group. I had to stop to get some cream for my knees and slow my pace down a bit and they pulled away. I kept them in my sights for the next 3ish miles and then they were gone. But I was looking forward to seeing Eric at mile 24. And I made a friend who was part of TNT who was there running as well.
My hamstring started to cramp off and on around mile 20, but I would push through the running minute to get to the walking minute and then it would go away for a couple minutes. One thing that helped me get through was something that another member of our group said which was, "I can do anything for a minute". I remembered this when I started to feel tired and when I started to cramp.
It came to about 23.75 and there was Eric. I had almost made it! I wasn't crashing, either, it was awesome. My crash during this race was in the middle, around 12-15. Eric was surprised to find me in a good mood, and I was kind of surprised to be in a good mood. Maybe it was the spirit of Phidippides and the olive branches in my visor. A little after mile 25, both my hamstrings started to cramp and my quads. I have never cramped in my legs before, so it was a little bothersome. It would come and go, and it pretty much went away in a few minutes. Right after mile 26 Eric had to leave me because he couldn't run into the stadium with me, so he had to haul it through the National Gardens to see me finish. As I was "sprinting" to the finish, EVERYTHING cramped. My left big toe was cramping like whoa, which has only happened with tight climbing shoes. As I was running in I turned to my right and saw a stray dog jogging in a few feet behind me, which kind of made me laugh and I forgot about my cramps for a second.
And then I was done. It was amazing. Here I was in the Olympic Stadium with the olympic rings above the stands (which we hiked up to right after the marathon), with the acropolis and the Parthenon in the distance, and it was amazing. My final time was 5:14, a PR by approx. 15 minutes. :)

***Edit - this whole time I thought my previous PR was 5:30, but it was really 5:20. Still happy because I still ran a PR by running 5:14, just not by 15 minutes :)***

The pictures are in reverse order, so scroll down and back up...

in the stands with the Acropolis in the distance

my medal :)

first sit down after the marathon

finishing in my pink shirt, cramping and all!

he looks really fast

a little after eric met me, smiling for the first time ever after running 25 miles

statue of Phidippides

Hella Sod in the Athens countryside

the tomb with the mountains in the background

Jeff and Barbara Galloway

the blue line is the marathon course from the 2004 olympics. we followed the exact course.

the start!

freezing with Jeff Galloway before the race.

GREECE! (and a little Madrid thrown in there too)

Eric and I went to the other side of the pond and ended up in Greece (after JFK sucked and we almost missed our flight to Madrid and lost our luggage) earlier this month. It was awesome. There was a deli 50 yds from our hotel that was super cheap (a loaf of artisan bread and a wedge of gouda was less than 3 euro), our hotel in Athens was super cheap (and had a view of the Acropolis), and I got a scarf that was super cheap (it was 5 euro). The primary purpose of our trip was to run a marathon... the f-ing original marathon that ended in the modern marble olympic stadium! The marathon went pretty well...I'll do a separate race report on that. Eric did the 10K and hauled it for an awesome time, too. After the marathon and all that we did some more sightseeing and then we were on our own for a couple days (we went with Apostolos Greek Tours for the first 6 days)... the first of our on our own days we went to Philopappos Hill to look for some alleged bouldering. We hiked all over this hill and were about to go back when Eric wanted to go just a little further. We went a little further and I saw a bolt. Followed by some more bolts, and then we saw spray painted numbers and decided we had found something. There was a pad stashed, but there were a couple other climbers there so we didn't borrow it, instead bouldering with Eric's jacket under our butts. Needless to say, nothing hard was attempted, but it was still cool climbing anyway.
After Athens we went to Madrid, which was more expensive but just as awesome. We hiked around all day and got comfortable with the metro system (which would totally be my preferred mode of transportation if we had one in Orange County). We got some sweet paella for dinner at our hotel of all places, after looking for a hole in the wall restaurant for 2 hours and not being able to find one.
Finally it was time to go home :( I had a lot of fun in Europe, and wish we could've stayed longer in Madrid, even though it was cold.
Short recap, but in conclusion I love international flights because they serve you actual meals.
I'll post some of the pictures later/tomorrow/this weekend (I have a thesis to turn in!), they'll do a better job showing our trip than I can explain in words!

Tattoo virgin no more!

While I was on the east coast, Farrow and I visited Amanda V. and got inked! I LOVE my tattoo, but let me tell you it hurt like a mo-fo. It mostly hurt on my shin, near my ankle bone, and back by my achilles. So if anyone tells you it's "not that bad", they're either a masochist or are lying. I guess the ankle is kind of a tender spot to get a tattoo, but whatev.


It's on the inside of my right ankle/calf and it's freakin' awesome. I chose the inside of my leg for a couple reasons. The first is that it is less conspicuous than the outside of my leg. The second is that by putting the tattoo on the inside of my leg, I can see it all the time and remember why I got it. The tattoo is for me, not for everyone else :)

El Moro Madness

I planned on running El Moro and practicing my photo skills since that's almost all I'll be doing, and talking about how much I like El Moro even though it kicks my butt again and again. So I started my run and took a couple pictures so everyone can see the beauty of the place :)

view of the ocean from the top of the first hill. the sun was too bright :(

after the first hill, they continued. for 3 miles. the steeper ones followed the ones above.
the dry view from the ranger station end of the park

mini cactus field
the prettier view from the other end of the park... hard to believe the ocean is only 4 miles away

almost done!

One of the best things about el moro is that it's across the street from the beach, so you can get an ice bath after a hard run :)

After a few minutes in the ocean I walked down the street to where my car was parked and started up the PCH on my way home. Then I saw the car pictured below...
1. It's a Bentley, which isn't that out of the ordinary in Newport Beach. 2. A gray haired guy with his hair perfectly styled despite the convertible top? Again, not that special. The kicker? 3. He was BLARING "You Shook Me All Night Long". Maybe I shouldn't have been that surprised, but hello, mid-life crisis much??

Then later I saw another Bentley, which surprised me because I haven't seen two in one day before. This one looked more like a Chrysler 500 and was not a convertible.

Then near Fashion Island I was stopped at a light and I saw a person a couple cars up toss a cigarette butt out of her SUV window. Before I could even finish a thought about how I feel about that, a hand pops out the window with ANOTHER cigarette in her hand. Like she literally must have lit the new cigarette with the old one. Can't get the cancer in you much faster than that!

Catch-up!

So I had been avoiding looking at my blog because I knew it had been soo long since I've posted. And not that I have hundreds of blog viewers, but I still need to get it on it. For myself. And indeed it had been soo long since I've posted. July 30th in fact. Since then I've done another triathlon (Santa Barbara Triathlon), went to Colorado for climbing/yoga and had a close encounter with an elk,
and we moved into a house.













Still up - trip back to DE, marathon in Greece, and potential 10K in Death Valley. I'm heading back to the east coast this month because tickets were around $250 now, and double that for Christmas, but I have big plans for the trip - running a 5K/10K on the same day, yoga and dinner with Amy, a trip to the Gunks, and a tattoo!

Part of the reason I was "inspired" to write this blog is because recently I've been reading lots of other people's blogs that I find interesting, so I figured if I ever want someone to read my blog and think that it's interesting, I should probably post something on it.

So instead of posting a long blog that's really about nothing, I'll just end with a short list of things I've been recently excited about:

obama
greece and madrid
running
climbing in bishop (it's coming!!!)
sharing peter's canyon with daisy
finishing my thesis draft
going offtrack
corepower yoga

My First Earthquake

It's official. As of 11:42 a.m. on Tuesday, July 29th, I am no longer an earthquake virgin. I was standing around in my classroom when I heard the rumbling. I thought it was just some kids running around upstairs until it got more rumbly and the ground started shaking too. Here is the play-by-play -

Me (thinking to myself as I look up at the ceiling): Man those kids are loud...
My instructional aide: "It's an earthquake."
Me: "Really?"
Instructional aide: "Uh, yeah."
--Now the rumbling and the rolling has stopped--
Instructional aide (sounding a little panicky): "What should we do now??"
Me: "Go under the tables!"
At this point I basically dive under the table as I tell the kids to get down, too. I realize there are like 3 kids looking under the table at me like I'm crazy while my instructional aides are trying to get the rest of my preschoolers under another table. The announcement came over that we were all clear and the day went on as planned.
Basically my kids didn't even notice that anything had happened and they thought their new teacher was just a crazy person diving under the table. Apparently news of the earthquake blew up on the east coast and that's when the texts ensued. But as Lindsay so eloquently put it, punk ass earthquake ain't got nothin on this neezy.

June Lake Tri Recap

We went up to Mammoth Lakes July 12-13 for the June Lake Triathlon and then some climbing. We got into Mammoth around 10:30 on Friday night, and got up bright and early Saturday morning to leave for June Lake by 6 a.m. Eric and I had registered for the sprint distance race, which was a 400m lake swim, 8 mile bike, and a supposed 1.5 mile run that on race day we found out was actually 2.25 miles. Eh, no worries... or so we thought!
We got to June Lake just after 6, so we had plenty of time to pump up our bike tires, get our race packets (including our Patagonia race t-shirts!) and get our transition area ready by our 8:30 a.m. start. We watched the Olympic distance swim start at 8 a.m. while getting adjusted to the water ourselves. At 69 degrees, the water wasn't too cold, but I still decided to wear a wet suit. After watching the Olympic distance swimmers go way farther out than we were going to swim, I was glad that I was just doing the sprint and had to tread my way through 400 m instead of 1500!
Our race started just on time at 8:30 a.m. and I survived the swim in 13:24. That's all I'm going to say about that. The bike was next. Luckily, Eric and I had gone to Mammoth Lakes the weekend before, mostly for climbing, but also to test out the bike course. The first part was a little uphill to get to the downhill into June Lake Village. After a couple miles of downhill, it was through June Lake Village, and then around to North Shore. This is where it was good that we had been there the weekend before. 3.5 miles of uphill. And it was hard! I don't think the altitude bothered me too much, I kind of suck at steep hills whether it's biking or running anyway. I did pass a girl who was walking her bike, so I tried to encourage her before I blew her wheels off... riiight. Finally I got through the hills and cruised downhill around and into the transition area. I wished I had've gone a little faster with the bike (35:20), but I figured I'd make up time on the run. I'm a runner, after all...
The run started in this sand. And then it continued in the sand. And then they added a hill. And then I walked. Ran some, and walked some more. I decided I do not like running in sand. Granted I haven't really done hill work in awhile, or ran much at all, but seriously, 24 minutes and 30 seconds to run 2.25 miles? With the second part all downhill? I was actually thankful to get to a slow steady uphill climb on the road. I think it was a hard course. And considering that I ranked just above the middle of the group for the run, other people thought so too. But I finished it, and the tri in 63rd place with a time of 1:17:56 (take that 1:18!). Eric kicked ass in 19th place with 1:04:55.
Basically I should probably train a little harder for our next triathlon, the Santa Barbara tri in August. June Lake tri was really challenging, but really fun, too. I would definitely recommend it!

Here are some of the pictures that our personal photog for the morning (Jeff) took... he definitely gets props for getting up early and coming out to support us :)

pre-race

Eric taking off on his bike for a 23:26 ride.

Coming in after my loooooong 400m swim

Almost ready for the bike!

Cruising in at the end of my bike ride.

Eric finishing... making it look so easy!

Me finishing, asking Jeff where Eric is since Eric competed with a potentially partially collapsed lung, and I didn't see him anywhere.

DP Dough

Now I'm even more excited to go to my yoga conference in September. Not only am I going to have a hippiefest weekend, AND go climbing, but now I get to have DP DOUGH too! I just found out there's one in Boulder (the more I learn about Boulder, the more I see no reason to not move there). If you've never had DP Dough, I highly recommend it. It's pretty much a staple at UD. And with such low start up costs, I think we (we being me and anyone else interested) should open one at CSUF. Or UCI.

Holiday in Cambodia

Next March, I'm going to go to Cambodia for 10 days! Why? (one might ask) I'm going with United Planet, an international volunteer group. I'm going to be teaching in the community and hanging out with kids. I'm super-psyched - too bad it's 9 months away! I guess that gives me plenty of time to brush up on my Khmer (the primary language there). Yeah...right...

I DID 3 PULL-UPS!

*** news flash ***

At the gym tonight I did 3 full pull-ups. That's a record. For me.

*** that is all ***

430 miles on 8.5 gallons of gas???

Yes, that's right, that's an average of 50.5 miles per gallon. There's even a picture of the proof. And that was how we ended our weekend in Tahoe. I would like to thank Jeff for pulsing and gliding his way through the mountains and Eric for taking up the slack and finishing the trip (I had the middle shift). Take that oil companies!


The rest of the weekend was just as sweet. Eric and I left for Lake Tahoe Friday afternoon, picking up Jeff in Mammoth Lakes. We continued on to the Best Tahoe West Inn, which was okay. But I can't complain, it was free :)

Saturday (ERIC'S BIRTHDAY)...After a pit stop to skip some rocks and take some special "geology" pictures,



























we went up to Donner Summit and Eric did his first boulder problem in 2 months...
And holy crap I climbed some slab - must've been the Team Green influence.

photo by Eric

Sunday... could only climb until 1, and it got f-ing hot.

Jeff on Asteroid until he decided he couldn't climb on the face of the sun anymore.

In conclusion, it was a good weekend.

Happy Birthday Daisy!

Today Daisy turns 3! The first couple pictures are from when she was a couple months old, and the last three are more recent...

It's been a long time...

Since I posted. Wow. Let's review what's happened since APRIL 1st!

Running
Well I'm not doing much of that... I'm officially back in PT for my knee. I feel good about it this time, the therapist I'm working with found that I have super tight hip flexors (no big surprise) and a "loosey goosey" pelvis. So we're going to stretch and build up muscles and stuff. It better happen fast, I have to start training for my marathon in Greece in the beginning of November!

Climbing
Eric is still not climbing because of his finger injury, but we've still been going up to the Tram a lot. I sent my project from last Tram season, Aquaman. I also sent some other cool stuff (both hard for me and scary for me), so I'm psyched to hit up Tram this summer.

Spirit of the Forest, V4
photo by Jeff


Unnamed, V2
photo by Eric

AND I got a sweet new crashpad from Organic!











Triathlon
Eric and I completed the Kring & Chung Newport Beach Triathlon in April. It was fun and we've been bitten by the tri bug. My goal was to finish in under 2 hours for my first one, and I succeeded, so I'm totally ready for more. It is also important to note that we did this triathlon after wine tasting the day before and driving home from Solvang at midnight the night before (the picture to the right is at Sunstone Winery). I've started working with Mike Collins, who is a USAT Certified Triathlon Coach, and he has already helped my swimming, which is my biggest weakness. We've registered for the June Lake Tri in July up near Mammoth Lakes, so that will be exciting. Good thing the run is only 1.5 miles, since I haven't run much of anything lately

:(

After the triathlon, I was looking for triathlon resources and found the Triathlon LAB. It's an awesome tri store in Redondo Beach. Long story short, Lloyd and Tere have signed me on as one of their models! I've done a test shoot, and they're going to schedule a real photo shoot soon. I'll definitely post about that once it happens! :)

The big 2-5!
On May 18th, I turned 25! I am consoled by the fact that when Kendra and I went to Las Vegas in April, the bouncer at ghostbar almost didn't let me in because he thought I had a fake ID.
Eric and I went on a cruise to Ensenada for my bday. It was good times. See the pictures...

Little Corona, Big Corona, Mexico style
The napkin ears were not my idea... they were from the waitress, but at this point I really didn't care either way.

La Pharmacia - need Viagra? Penicillin? How about some painkillers?

"Fun day at sea"

Today
I have really been needing to get into the climbing gym and work on my endurance and open hang strength, so today I did just that. Yeah I missed out on a day of outside climbing to go to the gym (boo) but I got some good work in, and I'm ready to send some stuff I've been working on within the next couple weeks! Eric and I are going to Tahoe next weekend for his bday (Jeff might come along, too), so we're hoping to check out some of the climbing up there :)

Final Thought



NKOTB IS BACK! For those of you who were not obsessed with this 90's boy band, New Kids on the Block is back. They are going to be in LA in October, and since the closest I came to a concert in the 90s was a VHS recording... who wants to go with me????