The Weekend Is Here!

I've been sitting in my office all week. I'm going to make it a point to spend time outdoors this weekend. My foot pain has gone away. I feel so lucky that R.I.C.E was all it took. It could have been much worse but I think the fact that I tried really hard to stay off my foot and not run for 1.5 weeks was what really helped speed the recovery along. It wasn't really all that hard to convince myself not to run. It was just too painful to do so. I was limping around the first couple of days. I missed my scheduled 20-mile training run for the LA Marathon last weekend. That run was actually pretty difficult for me to blow off but I just wasn't able to run one step. Missing that run created a lot of fear and concerns for my preparedness for my upcoming race. I think I finally came to accept that the training run wasn't going to happen when I started to think that if I had to that I would walk the marathon. I know, what a crazy thought! People always think it hurts more to run fast and it does but being on your feet for 6+ hours is just as painful. I am hoping to just run a conservation time, enjoy the course and just keep going until I reach the finish line. Keeping it simple!

This weekend I'm going to try to get in a long mid distance run. I don't know what my foot is going to feel like after a couple of miles so I am going to play it by ear foot. I just need to remind myself what it feels like to run again. It is not going to be pretty but it needs to be done.

Chicrunner tweeted about this March-Photo-A-Day and seeing that I did something similar last year, I thought that I would join in. I am just going to post the collage on March 31 instead of posting a photo each day. I know, that defeats the purpose but that is how I am choosing to do this.

Also, I think I am going to sign up for this free virtual race hosted by RunWithJess, if for no other reason than the fact that I really like this graphic. Head on over there to check it out. It's free and there are prizes! Good prizes! I'm taking about Sparkle Skirts, Nuun, Road ID, iTunes, GU Energy...I don't know about you but those are some of my favorite running things.

March 2011 // Photo A Day // Day 29, 30, 31

March 29 Photo - Vegan carrot cake from the Veggie Grill

March 30 Photo - Egg and Cha Lua Sandwich from Banh Mi Che Cali. My favorite!

March 31 Photo - It looks more like Tiger cookies! Also, today is the conclusion of my photo-a-day project for the month of March 2011.

Collage of March 2011 - Missing one photo from the 17th (forgot to take a photo) :(

March 2011 // Photo A Day // Day 25, 26, 27, 28

I am so close to the end of the month for this photo a day challenge for "March 2011". I have to say that it has not been easy to make sure that I get at least one photo taken everyday. For as much photos as I take, you may be surprised to know that it is indeed challenging to remember to snap a photo a day. Especially during the work week when my mind is elsewhere.This past week I actually didn't really think much about it. Luckily I manged to take at least one photo a day. They may not be interesting but I have 3 more days to go. This has been interesting to say the least.

March 25 Photo - this was the only photo I took on this day. I went here for dinner and decided to update my restaurant review post with a better photo of the front of the restaurant.

March 26 Photo - On most Saturday mornings, you can probably find me running around these parts.

March 27 Photo - I ran the Coaster Run with Sister K on this day.

March 28 Photo - This was the only photo I took on this day for a blog post I did earlier in the week.

March 2011 // Photo A Day // Day 21, 22, 23, 24

March 21 Photo - I won TheBoringRunner's Sony Walkman giveaway last week and he is fast with the shipping because I got it on Monday! Yay! I will post a review soon.

March 22 Photo - I made cookies! Nothing more needs to be said.

March 23 Photo - National Chip and Dip Day. So I had some! :)

March 24 Photo - I went into Little Saigon today for lunch and stopped by this place to pick up a Sandwich for someone. Lots and lots of Vietnamese food to be had in there. I am working on a review for this place and it will be up soon.

March 2011 // Photo A Day // Day 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

March 16 Photo - I don't normally eat bananas. I don't like them that much. But I will eat one or two near marathon time for the Potassium.

March 17 Photo - Crap, I thought I had taken a photo on this day but apparently not. :(

March 18 Photo - I went to Dodgers Stadium to pick up my race packet.

March 19 Photo - Went shopping with Sister K and saw this fake dessert display in a Forever 21. Not sure what it had to do with clothing but it looked yummy and cute.

March 20 Photo - I ran the LA Marathon today!!!

March 2011 // Photo A Day // Day 14, 15

March 14 photo - Bruschetta from Pomodoro. :) This is my photo of the day because this is the first time I ordered this. Yum!

March 15 photo - Happy Early St. Patrick's Day!

March 2011 // Photo A Day // Day 12, 13

March 12 photo - That's me visiting my Mecca...Niketown. This one is located in Beverly Hills. This is also a 2-story Niketown. Can you believe I didn't buy anything? I know, the madness! I just realized that I spent Saturday along parts of the LA Marathon route.

March 13 photo - My parents' pup, Bruno. I went to see him yesterday to see how he was doing after his neutering procedure. He is the same happy bouncy pup that I remember, plus he grew some more.

March 2011 // Photo A Day // Day 10, 11

March 10 photo - Went to the grocery store after work to pick up some stuff to make dinner and saw these pretty flowers. My new camera really captures all the colors well.

March 11 photo - Looks weird, right? Tulle? Yep! This may be making a debut at some race on March 20th.

Giveaway Alert: A Case of the Runs is running a giveaway for 2 SONY W SERIES MP3 Player! Many ways to enter. Why wait, go enter now!

March 2011 // Photo A Day // Day 7, 8, 9

March 7 photo - My photo of the day for Monday is this oatmeal that I ate. Something I have not eaten in many months. I think I ate oatmeal for breakfast almost everyday for about 2 years. Then I stopped one day and this is the first time I am eating it again. It is really good! Not sure why I stopped.

March 8 photo - I got my new issue of Runner's World on Tuesday and noticed that this month they are featuring 2 different covers or runners with the same content on the inside. I love getting a new issue of Runner's World.

March 9 photo -Today my new camera arrived. After 5 years with my trusty old camera, I thought that it was finally time to upgrade to something with more ompf! I will do a more detailed post with some sample photos.

March 2011 // Photo A Day // Day 4, 5, 6

March 4 Photo - I wasn't feeling well on Friday and came home early from work to rest and cuddle with Teddy. Luckily it was only a twenty four bug and I am feeling better now.

March 5 Photo - I didn't do much today as I was trying to recover from my 24 hour bug. I postponed my run to Sunday. I went to grab some Thai food for dinner. I ordered this sticky rice in coconut sauce with mango for dessert. I ate dessert before dinner. :)

March 6 Photo - I had so much laundry to do today. My pup tried to help but he was barely taller than the laundry basket. 

March 2011 // Photo A Day // Day 3

March 3 Photo - I ran out of things to eat again yesterday so I had to go to the store and pick up a couple of items in order to make dinner. Garlic was one of the items I had on my list.

March 2011 // Photo A Day // Day 2

March 2 photo - I saw this neat fountain/obelisk today and thought that it would make a good photo of the day. Then when I uploaded the photo I noticed that the thing I thought was a fish is actually not. I am not sure what it is. Looks like a sea monster fish. If anyone knows what this is, I would love to know.

March 2011 // Photo-A-Day // Day 1

Have you ever seen those blogs where people would post one photo everyday for a year. Well I am going to be doing something similar during the month of March, which started yesterday. I am only doing March because I just can't commit to doing this for 365 days. At last not yet. Please note that my photo-a-day will always be posted one day later. There was no particular reason why I selected the month of March to do this. I just thought it would be fun to do so. So starting today until March 31, I will post a random photo everyday. I promise to try to make the photo of something that means something to me.

March 1 photo - this is a Vietnamese guitar otherwise known as "Dan nguyet" or 2-stringed fretted moon lute. This instrument is used in many Vietnamese songs. It produces a bending tone produced by it's low tension strings. I was born in Vietnam and have heard lots of Vietnamese music growing up. They always sound so sad, like some country music songs. It is this instrument that helps to create that mood.