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Merry Christmas!!! I am at work this morning but had a great night last night with the BF’s family doing a white elephant gift exchange. I am so thankful they are wonderful people, it helps ease the loneliness of not seeing my family around the holidays.

After work I am going home to cuddle on the couch with my puppy and watch movies. I was gone almost all of yesterday so she is lonely. The BF’s family does Christmas morning instead of Christmas dinner so it will just me be tonight. I am going to come home and watch the Santa Clause 2 and 3 then go to bed early (I watched the first one on Saturday). I know, I know you are thinking whoa! Settle down party girl!! hahahahahaha. They may even be some cocoa tonight! WHAT?!

I hope everyone has a great day!!! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!

 

 

 

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Happy Winter Solstice!!! Today is the shortest day and longest night. Today here in the Portland area we have 8 hours 42 minutes and 11 seconds of sunlight. After today we start getting a few seconds longer of sunlight each day. I am trying to enjoy this time of year but I am also already looking forward to spring running outside again!!!

What is the weather like where you are today?

Do you more or less sun than we do?

No mom, we didn’t get engaged, I had to tease you a little hahaha.

What we decided/committed to is to run my first marathon and his second next year! We are looking at one that will be on June 16th and…………..we committed to running our first ULTRA!!!! Just a 50k so just over 31 miles, we will do that in October/November we are still deciding which one. I failed at a marathon once before because I didn’t train properly but this is my year!!!! Or next year will be hahahaha

The BF is going to start buying the race entries over the next few weeks and once he spends the money we are for sure crossing that finish line, there is no if, and or but about it, if he spends the money we are doing it. So let the adventure begin!!!!

In the words of one of my favorite running books “my year of running dangerously” by Tom Foreman: “Thus began my decent into the madness of ultra running” or something like that.

 (image from Google)

I am not starting entirely from scratch but I have only run a handful of time over the last 2+months so I am starting somewhat back at the beginning. I have mentioned that I am doing Couch-2-5k right now and I also downloaded their 10k plan to continue on after I finish the 5k, it takes you straight to like week 9 of the 10k plan so you don’t go backwards. I also ponied up the $5 to download the marathon plan, I think that will help me stay more consistent this time. And I am impressed the marathon plan adds in 2 days a week of cross training. And I am going to add to MY plan 1 day a week of strength training as well.

So here we go!!!! Anyone want to jump on board? I am only on Week 3 Day 1 of the Couch-2-5k plan as of today.

(Image from Google)

So true.

Monday I shaved a few more minutes off my best time on the 90-second interval and had a good heart rate! I am feeling good!!!

Only 1 week back in the running game and my appetite is increasing again! Need to get my snack planning game on track.

How often do you have one of those weekends that ends way too soon (always hahaha) and not only does it end too soon but it ends just terribly! Where you come back from the weekend more stressed out then you went into it?

That was me this weekend. But lets start from the beginning.

I did bad meal prep last weekend and bought too many expensive snacks, example the $4 salad below

I did get some running in though which was good. More couch to 5k for the win!

Glad I kept my heart rate up.

Look at that best!!! That is awesome for me, even if I only held it for 90 seconds but still!

Friday (which is my Sunday) The bf and I went to his grandparents house (they live on a small farm and I love it out there. Friday night we went to the local high school football game, the bf’s grandfather does the chains for the game, (he volunteers and holds the sign for 1st down and 2nd and all that stuff). Everything was great even though we stayed a little late meaning I was going to lose some sleep but that was ok.

The really bad part is that my stupid car has been acting up lately. Yep the first car I ever bought on my own has to have issues, like major issues, there is a class action lawsuit about this model. I have an appointment at the dealership this coming Thursday so it just needs to keep running until then and be a cheap, easy fix. Send my car healing thoughts please……as well as my bank account in case it costs an arm and a leg. Anyways the terrible part is that the car is starting stall, at red lights……while driving…….it is a manual transmission that shifts automatically……..really Ford? That will teach me…..Ariana read reviews about cars before you buy them!!!!!! Boy I am learning a lot of life lessons, especially financial ones this year, if only those lessons didn’t cost so much. No matter what happens I will figure it out.

So today after work my plan is to go home, go for a run, wash a few dishes and hide in my room watching movies and not thinking about anything finance related.

Today is our first full day at sea. I slept in until 9am then got some breakfast. We did laundry and my roommates watched a movie while I read. Then we hit the gym, 2 miles! First 2 miles in about a month hahaha.

 Then Emily and I hit the steam room to relax. 
After a steam and relaxation I went to a free ladies pamper party. Basically a sales gimick but i got a free little collegan face and eye treatment so I’m all for it and they gave us massage coupons so i upgraded my massage that is planned for 2nd day at see to something better for the same cost. Love it!!
I had a pizza for lunch and got a coffee. 

Then we chilled in the room until the champagne toast at 7pm for formal night. 

The toast was fun, we got to go up and pour in the champagne fountain if desired. At some point I’ll have to do a follow up post with a bunch of photos i collect from other people and when i sort my phone out. 

Formal dinner was really good!!! I had a shrimp cocktail and lamb shank in a thyme sauce with potatoes and artichoke hearts. It was delicious!!!! The sit down dinners here are pretty amazing when i manage to get to them. 

We left off with the vaccines in Heredia. The next morning Laura and I boarded a plane to Lima, Peru where we met our guide and the other people we were hooking up with from the Ecuador volunteer/adventure tour group. We got to Lima, Peru pretty late so we were all taken by coach bus to a hostel for the night. It was a basic nice hostel. Some of the people, well most decided to head out to eat but I was tired and decided to get a jump on sleep, we were getting up to board a plane to Cusco, Peru in just a few short hours.

We were up early the next morning to catch our flight. We got to Cusco and checked into our hostel and dropped our stuff off. We walked around Cusco and got to have a traditional dinner with a dance show from some locals, that was nice. One thing I distinctly remember about that first night is freezing while I slept! We had just come from warm Costa Rica then we crossed the equator into winter!

And we were off, in the AM the next day we boarded a bus to take us out of the city, since we had a limited amount of time they drove us part of the way up the first day and let us off the bus around lunch time where the cook (yes we had a cook) made us soup I think. After lunch we started our trek up the mountain.

Let me take a little break here and say that before I ever left home for Costa Rica I had been working out and eating well but I had not been a big hiker.

Nothing could have prepared me for hiking at that altitude (not true I am sure something could have but I certainly hadn’t done any prep work for hiking up a literal mountain). The entire way that first day I though, oh crap what have I gotten myself into. We just kept climbing up. I think we hiked 9 miles that day then camped under a glacier. Yes a GLACIER! I thought last night was cold, oh just you wait, I slept in my hiking shoes. I also got altitude sickness meaning I drank a little broth that night but that was it. My tent mate Laura had some Peruvian version of fruit loops so I had a few handfuls of those but I got up in the middle of the night and threw everything up. Oh boy, this is going to be rough.

We hiked in between those mountains

The summit night 1

The next day dawned early and was still super cold. I still felt terrible and today was our longest day. And we headed up the dreaded switchbacks. Probably one of the hardest days of my life. I refused to get on a horse or let my guide carry my pack, I was going to conquer this dang mountain! And when I did make it to the top it was one of the best feelings ever! We summited the highest point amd made out way down to the otherside. 

No lie i teared up coming back down. We got back down to level ground by lunch time on day. But i also got sicker and sicker. I still wasn’t eating or drinking much amd expelling so much energy. I slept at lunch and woke up with a terrible headache. My guide finally convinced me to ride a horse the last 2 hours to our camp for the night.  I had made the summit so i caved. He brought me a gatorade which helped sooo much. 

Day 3 i was back on my feet and at the front of the pack because it was fairly flat hahaha. I bought a gatorade anywhere i saw one and some candy bars. On day 3 we were descending into the cloud forest so it was warming up as well. 

Overall i don’t look all that great but you must remember at this point i am ij my 6th week of traveling with no normal access to a shower and i was recovering from altitude sickness and dehydration. But it was a great day to feel strong and well again. The night of the 3rd day of hiking we reached Aguas Calientes, the closest town to Machu Picchu. We double bunked in a hostel and slept hard!!!! Oh and i had a pizza for dinner hahahaha!!!!

The next day we were all bussed up to Machu Picchu where we had a guided tour then we were on our own and just had to be at the hostel ready to go at 9pm. 

I think we were delirious at this point

Llama!!!!

The clouds in the morning were amazing!!!

And for the iconic shot

We left on a bus at 9pm to take a train to another bus to another train to another bus to a hostel for about 3 hours where i repacked my stuff, showered and got about 1 hour sleep. Then it was another bus to the Cusco airport to the Lima airport to Guadalajara to LAX. I was so happy to be home. And this trip will forever be in my heart. 

I hope you enjoyed hearing about my trip! Soon to come is my adventure in Europe!!!!!

Got this shirt from LulaRoe to go with my workout pants to take on the trip. I LOVE it

It goes with my orange workout pants as well!

That look says please help me my mom is crazy

My normal lunches

I am practicing learning to ask for the house special for when i go to coffee shops in Europe hahahaha

Been keeping apprised of the situation in Texas. My brother is in Houston, he got out safe on Monday and got the ok that power is back on in his neighborhood today so they are heading back to see what state their house is in. 

Crockpot cooking today. 

Also made extra and prepped a ‘dump’ bag. Meaning it is ready to go. I can just dump in the crockpot and turn it on. 

Artemis got to enjoy the extra fatty pieces.  

This afternoon i am going to made some cheddar chive biscuits to go with it. YUM!!!!