Well here we are again! How is it already MAY!?!
March ended with me in a weird place yet again so we started the month out with a short trip up the coast to Marina del Rey & spent some time on the beach & trails in Malibu. I splurged and used some of my Marriott points and we stayed at the Ritz Carlton, our first hotel stay outside 2 nights in October when we stayed in hotels on our Moab roadtrip. It was a nice getaway and I was pleasantly surprised to see that people in this area were serious about staying safe. 95% of the people we encountered wore masks, even when walking by themselves, coming out of their homes, etc.
We got takeout from some yummy vegan restaurants & donuts from one of my fav places Blue Star on the way home.
Oatmilk lattes from the Hive. Drunk Cauliflower & Saint Louis No 2 Vegan Shrimp Poboys from Variable Cafe – we had a small issue with delivery and our order was delivered about an hour after we ordered. The cauliflower was amazing but the poboy was quite soggy because it had been sitting for a while. I’m sure it’s amazing when it’s hot & fresh.
Breakfast was from Marigold Cafe, we both got the breakfast sammy which had scrambled just egg, mushrooms, green onion, vegan cheese, vegan mayo, vegan bacon & everything seasoning. It was super yum!
When I checked in at the hotel, the front desk agent recommended a place called The Butcher’s Daughter for dinner so we tried that out. Funny name for a vegetarian/vegan restaurant but we had an amazing burger!
We got the Impossible burgers & they were topped with red-wine caramelized onions, arugula, fig mustard, harissa mayo & on a vegan brioche bun. The Rosemary potato wedges left something to be desired but that could have been due to the take out aspect.
Anyways, I always get caught up with food LOL but let’s get to what I did this month.
Running: Well running & I are still not 100% seeing eye to eye. I had a few really good runs. Like the 7 miles we did by the water in Marina del Rey at the beginning of the month & the 8 mile run the Sunday after I got my first vaccine shot, but the rest of the month? Hit or miss due to knee pain, shin pain & just overall lack of motivation. I also don’t love our old treadmill, the new one had a problem and we were waiting on a replacement so we were using the older one that’s super loud. I ended the month with maybe 55 miles?
Peloton: Due to the knee pain I was feeling, I took a 10 day break from the bike to see if that was an issue. I ended up with around a 100 miles for the month, way down from the past few months but 10 days off will do that.
Overall, I’ve determined that if I do a little glute activation, it’s better but I still think I need to get a professional fitting because it’s still not perfect. A few people have mentioned Team Wilpers (PZ Instructor Matt Wilper’s coaching group) as a place to go for that & I might try and schedule an appointment to do so in May.
Strength Training: This is the only piece of my exercise routine that I have been 100% consistent with. I’ve been working with Nicole @heartndsolerunning since March & I feel like this has really been helping me to get stronger.
Knee: I have been dealing with a knee issue for while now, there’s been a sharp pain by the top bone on the inside of my left knee and after sitting &/or tough climbs the back of my knee feels really stiff & tight. So after dealing with this off and on for a little over a year, I finally went to get it looked at. X-rays showed that my bones were perfect & I had plenty of cartilage between my bones. But an MRI showed that there were some microtears in the cartilage and that the stiffness in the back of the knee was actually swelling from the front of the knee that’s being pushed back. Official diagnosis Chondromalacia aka Runners Knee. So I’ll start a few weeks of PT in mid May and once I figure out my real areas of weakness, I’ll be able to incorporate more exercises into my strength workouts to help correct those imbalances & hopefully get rid of this pain before I start training for actual races.
I said this year was going to be all about recovery & I’ve been serious about doing more about recovery so I’ll just keep that going as the year progresses!
We got our first vaccine shots!! That made me soooo happy – we’ll get our second Pfizer shots in early May and be fully vaccinated by the end of the month! Which is good because we have a lot of fun outdoor activities planned for this summer!!
Campaigns: This month was shock full of fun campaigns that I got to work on.
I worked with iwi to share an awesome vegan omega 3 product. I tried out and gave away $100 of Thorlos’s socks to a lucky IG follower. I tried and shared No Cow Protein Powder (my verdict as someone who doesn’t really enjoy protein powder? the bars are better). I did a fun review of rabbit’s new trail line (this wasn’t sponsored but I wanted to share). I got to try some new lounge style outfits from Tasc Performance. PS the crop is absolutely incredible!! I tried out some of Coola’s new SPF skincare products. I shared more about how much I love Sunbeam‘s GoHeat™ Cordless Heating Pad . I’ll be sharing a new product in May!! I partnered with AllTrails to share the Rumpl National Parks Collection of blankets & the Leave No Trace shirts that they created with The Landmark Project. I have an AllTrails giveaway coming up in May so get ready! And we kicked off the Dick’s Sporting Goods National Runner’s Month this week! I’m super excited about this challenge and look forward to sharing with you all.
I also got to work on a super cool product that I can’t quite share yet but I can’t wait to show you guys!
I shared the thoughts of others & then myself regarding race swag.
Oh and I almost forgot but we did a Road Trip to Joshua Tree National Park & celebrated National Parks Week there! This was my first time to Joshua Tree and while it’s a beautiful park & so different from what I was expecting, the attractions were all super short & it was somewhat crowded which mean that we didn’t get to go to all the spots we wanted to see. We did check another National Park off our list though.
Wow!! Going through all this, I’m like WOW – April was busy!!
