23.1 miles down, 3.1 more to go

Yes, Mark and I just finished running our last 3 miles this morning to make up the 23.1 miles we have to run before the SFM progressive marathon 5k race we'll be running this Sunday. Ahhh! So excited. It'll be so much fun, I just know it. The atmosphere is just phenomenal at events like this.

Alright, tomorrow's our first ever (indoor) rocking climbing event. I'm so excited! Let's hope I do good. :P

Okay, that's all... more later.

weight gain, socal, golfing, sfm, rock climbing + more?!

so i've gained 2lbs since my birthday. yeah, we were in socal for the weekend this past weekend. actually, more like thursday thru sunday morning. anyway, did tried to eat okay, but of course, you know how it goes sometimes, on vacation, bad food. or more like, anything that's easy to grab. so yup... that's not so great. so yes, mark and i are trying to get back into the routine of things again. we ran the lake yesterday. it's our first time in months! i haven't ran the lake since my leg injury back in early february. omg, it was brutal, but we made it through. :) im just glad to say i can still do it, within a reasonable amount of time. still can't believe the first time i ever ran that lake. my time was like 53 minutes and something second. now, it's anywhere between 42-45mins. okay, of course, im sure there will be times when it's longer than 45mins, but just the fact that i've shed 10mins off of my first ever time, that's pretty amazing. every time i run that lake, im always trying to beat my pr. right now, it's 41:59, yes, just a second under 42mins. would be nice to do it under 40mins one of these days. well.. im not a speed runner, so... dunno when that will happen, but we'll see. i know i should be working on some mini interval running drills, every now and then, but just haven't done it. we'll see about that anyway. im sure mark will enjoy that more than me.

alright, the sfm is this sunday. mark and i still have 3 more miles to log/run for our 23.1 miles before the race. so yup... probably will do that today or tomorrow.. well, definitely by the end of the week, before saturday. oh, we're going indoor rock climbing saturday morning. ahhh! i'm so excited. it's my birthday gift from mark. been asking him forever to go do a rock climbing session with me... he finally said yes! okay, actually, we finally made time for it. so yup... im super excited. gosh, i hope i do well. it'll be both our first time.

oh, speaking of trying out new things, etc... over the weekend while in socal, at our stay at the hyatt in newport beach, they had a 9-hole golf course onsite. we paid and played the course. omg, it was seriously crazy. i mean, i now have a new profound respect for people who actually have the patience to play and finish all 18-holes. not just your eeny meeny short distance holes, but them 200+ yards holes. the course we played yardage range from 50-100 yards for the holes and omg, it was still brutal. by the second hole i was seriously ready to give up. like how am i going to survive all 9 holes? crazy?!!! anyway, i persevered it through, so that was good. very proud of myself for that. but yeah... still brutal. will definitely have to really give it a good thought before i play golf again the next time around. mark did okay. hahaha... but we all still sucked! my score was like 68 and i only played 9 holes (all the holes were par 3's!) hahaha... i think mark finished somewhere in the high 40's and laura in the high 50's. yeah, we sucked! or i mean, i sucked more. :P oh well.

okay, that's all. more next time. :)

happy birthday to me :)

yup, another year... a year older, but that's okay, i'm officially legal legal! i mean, i can now rent a car without all the extra fees. sweet huh? what more can you ask more? next big birthday milestone? hello 30's! hahaha... wow, that's not good right? or nah... actually, i'll be fine. one ultimate goal from now til then? looking nice and tone.. yes, still working on that. oh, and that's not to say i won't be sporting that gorgeous bod from now until then too! hehe... oh, socal later this week. im so excited! wished i had stepped up my workouts for this weekend, but it's okay. we'll get there... eventually. just have to keep pushing play! or go out and run! :P

oh... here's a gluten-free cupcake recipe. made these last night. yum. yeah, been experimenting with different ingredients, trying to get my gluten-free cakes to taste "not gluten" or more like... not dry. okay, here it is. :)

gluten-free vanilla cupcakes
makes 12 cupcakes

1/2 stick unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1-1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/4 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour
4 tablespoons milk
5 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 tablespoon mayonnaise

turn oven on to 375 degrees F.

put butter in mixer and beat on medium speed until somewhat smooth. pour in sugar and beat well. add egg, mix well. then add vanilla, baking powder, salt, milk, yogurt and mayonnaise. mix well again. add flour. beat until it looks like it's supposed to and pour into individual baking cups until they are 2/3 full (actually, you can add a bit more, just not all the way full). bake for 20-25 minutes (it will turn golden brown... depending on your oven too i guess).

should make 12 cupcakes. let cool, frost w/ your frosting of choice (a simple vanilla buttercream icing is always good) and eat! yummmmm! enjoy. :)

i'm running again!

yup, you read that right. my leg's doing all better now. i don't feel that awful pain in my right groin area anymore... so that's great! so far i've ran 3 times. the first one was a mini warm-up. mark and i only ran 1.8 miles. oh, while i was on a running hiatus, he was too. so yeah, we ran together for the first time in like 4 months, on june 27. since then, we've ran twice, at 3.2 miles and just recently, yesterday, we ran 4 miles. okay, i ran more than 4 miles, mark only ran 4 miles, but yeah... it was still 4 miles. oh, we're counting all of these runs for our progressive marathon that we're doing w/ the sf marathon come july 26. so let's see... i think we've got 9 miles done and only 14.1 more miles to go to reach the necesssary 23.1 miles we needed to run before race day. anyway, with the distances we're tackling now, i think we can rack up the last 14.1 miles in 4 runs. we want to run the lake again, so that's 4.5 miles there already. with that, we'll only need one of each 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 mile runs. i think that's correct. well, all of our runs should add up to 23.1.. if not, ahhh... iono. we'll have to run a tad bit more if it's not enough. but im pretty sure from now until july 26, we'll have ran more than 23.1 miles. omg, just exciting. i can't wait until race day. im just so glad im able to run again now. i really hope my body stays healthy. it's hope it's all good the rest of the way. :)

oh, yesterday's 4 mile run felt so good. we did what we called "the lawndale route," where we run straight to this one street call lawndale and back. it's a nice simple run with a few hills or lumps? whatever you want to call it, but yeah. there's times throughout the run where the street goes up and down, so you get your inclines and declines along with the straight/flat ones. :) oh, it just felt good yesterday. i feel like my heart could totally handle it, like i was in great shape; everything was just super. hmm... but maybe that could have been due to my pace. well, it was definitely not as fast as i normally would have ran it or anything, cuz i wanted to slow down with mark. but i still finished it in like 40mins, so.. iono. ahhh.. could just be that i kept a pretty consistent pace. anyway, mark didn't want to run too quick this last time. just funny how he was so slow though, he really fell behind. i waited for him one time and then after he caught up to me, he fell back again so i just took off and finished the course. of course, i went back out and finished it with him as well. he did very well, considering having drank 2-1/2 glasses of white wine before the run! hahaha.. yeah, drinking and running isn't such a great combo. so silly!

anyway... let's hope my legs/whole body stays healthy. i want to be running for a really long time. we still need to do our half-marathon/full marathon one of these days, not to mention the triathlon (as soon as i learn how to swim/float!). so yup. :)

ok, n/m, more later.