Samantha cycles.

Bad Blogger

2013-05-22T18:59:00.000-07:00

Hello? Are you still here? I am. I swear. Posting has been sporadic, but not for lack of things going on. In fact too much has been going for me to able to spend the time I want here. I've been bike commuting more regularly which is nice. But I've had one thing after another to deal with at work and these things have tended to fall over into my night time at home when I would typically write. Wah Wah. Enough of my sob story.

I have an awesome half written post on Bike Commuter: Day in the Life. I hope to have it finished and up soon to share.

We cruised under the Golden Gate Bridge this last Saturday and it was awesome.

Blessed in California

2013-05-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

Coming home from my recent trip to Arizona had me feeling passionate about where I live. Once we reached California during the flight and I started seeing snow covered mountains, evergreen trees, lakes, rivers, fields of food being grown, I felt home.

More than once on our trip I mentioned to my husband how incredibly lucky we are to live where we do. I also wondered if people who come visit the Redwoods up north ever say things like, "Meh, you've seen one Redwood tree, you've seen them all." Or - "If I never see another Redwood tree it will be too soon." This was how I felt about cactus for sure. But I know there are people who think the desert is beautiful. People who feel the desert speaks to them the way the Pacific coast and the ocean speak to me.

I have so much access to so many things just two hours from our front door depending on which direction we go:

Wine Country

Redwoods

Pacific Ocean

San Francisco

Lake Tahoe

Snow skiing

Surfing

Boating & fishing

All of this and not to mention all the agriculture. Strawberries grown around the corner from my house. I purchase 10 pound bags of oranges grown 20 miles away. Eggs from our neighbors. Plums across the street from our house. All the orchards of almonds and walnuts and thousands of acres of olive trees giving us incredibly delicious locally grown olive oil.

We are blessed. It's not that I've never realized this. I've biked from Northern California to Southern California twice now. On day 2 of ALC, when we reach the beginning of acres of strawberry fields, riders will stop and jump off their bikes and go running over to them. They want their picture taken. They want to pluck fruit and eat it right there. I'm sad to admit I chuckled both years when I saw this. Silly me - it never occurred to me some of them might not have ever seen food being grown on the ground.

Or the day when we come upon giant fields of gorgeous wildflower fields with orange, yellow, pink, and purple flowers. I heard other riders gasp - bikes all strewn along the side of the road while riders jumped into the field to marvel at it. Me? Just kept on going...the community garden across the street from my house looks like that quite often.

So much that some of us in California probably take for granted. Lessons learned. Reasons I need to get back to a regular riding schedule.

Texas

2013-05-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

My very best friend of 30 years moved to Texas about two years ago. I went out there for the second time last week. We had a ball.

I ate brisket and pulled pork and enjoyed all the excellent friendly customer service everywhere complete with ma'am and y'all.

We visited the JFK Museum in Dallas. It was fascinating. And eerie. I highly recommend going if you're ever in the area. I stood on the Grassy Knoll. It was weird. And it's all so much smaller in real life.

We walked farther into Downtown Dallas for lunch in the pouring rain accompanied with thunder and lighting. It was about 80 degrees.

I tried on cowboy hats every time I saw one and bought a kickass pair of cowboy boots. Yes, those exact ones.

I wore my boots to a Friday night T-Ball game. I fit right in.

We went to see The Great Gatsby at 9:30pm at an iPic theater. Ever heard of one of those theaters? It's pretty awesome. I may have dozed off a time or two during the movie. And not because it was late. The movie was pretty to look at but overall I found it disappointing.

Then after 4 days I came home. And spent a day resting and relaxing by the pool with a frosty beverage. First day in the pool this year. Now it's back to the real world.

Wanted: My Cycling Mojo

2013-05-08T07:28:00.000-07:00

Somewhere in the last 5 months, I lost my cycling mojo. It hasn't really been speaking to me. This month is national May is Bike Month. I pledged 500 miles. I've biked 32. I've wussed out on biking to work on the really windy days.

This past Saturday was the Wine Country Century. I had signed up to ride 100 miles with Kristen. But when Kristen wasn't going to be able to ride, I sold my registration. I just didn't feel like riding by myself. We went to Treasure Island in San Francisco and took pictures and chatted and I had just as much fun.

I'm not sure where my cycling mojo has gone. Not having the big challenge of ALC looming over me forcing me to get out and train every weekend has definitely had an affect on me. Suddenly having time on the weekends to do whatever I want after two years has been something I've fully taken advantage of. But I definitely want it back and I want it back soon. I'm still determined to hit the 500 mile goal for May is Bike Month. Commuting to work is 32 miles round distance, so it shouldn't be too hard to get the miles in.

On my ride in to work yesterday I hit every red light, fought with traffic a few times, and had to take a detour because part of a bike path was closed. I still loved every minute of it. It was still worth it. I just need to remember this in the early hours of the morning when I look out the window and tell myself I don't want to fight the elements. It will still be worth it.

However, I'm now off to Texas for 4 days.

Link Love: Real Beauty, Leo, Shake My Hand Properly

2013-05-04T09:55:00.000-07:00

If we follow each other on various social media - I've updated my avi/profile pic around the web. I used the free iOS app called iMadeFace. Warning, if you download this, it's addictive. Thank you @thebookvixen for the app info.

Dove Real Beauty Sketches - Men. *cries*

Go Bo Jackson. I would love to do this ride.

The Leonardo DiCaprio Character Timeline. Love this. I think I've seen every one of these except that depressing one with him and Kate Winslet. And I'll see The Great Gatsby on Friday while I'm in Texas at one of those movie theaters where they serve you dinner.

How To Shake Hands With a Woman. One of my major pet peeves - someone who tries to give me a weak handshake. Shake it like you mean it people!

And lastly, if you have a Yahoo email account, please update your password on a more regular basis. And by regular I don't mean once every 5 years. Yahoo accounts are suffering from a terrible bout of spammers over the last 6 months. I probably receive an email a day from a friend's yahoo account that has been hacked somehow.

Happy weekend! I'm off to San Francisco for some photography. Wait...wasn't I supposed to ride 100 miles in the Wine Country Century today? More on that later.

Best of: April 2013

2013-05-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

Our Arizona Vacation

2013-05-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

We're not big travelers. Typically if we go on vacation we go somewhere to the coast of California by car. Getting on a plane and leaving our dog and cat behind and traveling somewhere for 6 days felt kind of like a big deal to us. Spending 6 days traveling hundreds of miles across Arizona was an interesting experience, especially if you live in California and haven't seen much of the USA.

We flew into Phoenix last Tuesday, picked up our rental car (the Phoenix airport setup makes this super easy) and drove 2 hours to Sedona. We stopped a bunch of places along the way. Sedona was amazing. To drive for a few hours along miles of just cactus and then suddenly come upon these gigantic natural red rock formations was unbelievable.

In Sedona we stayed at the Mattherhorn Inn. It wasn't fancy. But the bed was comfy and the view was amazing and it had very good high speed wifi.

Wednesday we headed to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. This was about a two hour drive from Sedona. An easy drive with some scenic areas along the way and some areas that were more barren desert.

Arriving at the Grand Canyon is almost strange. You drive for 50 miles or so amongst fields of nothing. Then right outside of Grand Canyon National Park you quickly go through Grand Canyon village with hotels and a few restaurants. You then enter the park, drive a few more miles, park your car in a parking lot, walk for about one minute and then BAM! the Grand Canyon. It is truly one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen. It exceeded all my expectations. In fact, it doesn't even look real in person. Pictures do not do it justice. The National Park System has done an amazing job at the park making viewing easy and very walkable. There are buses you can hop on to take you along different viewing routes. You can walk quite an amount of distance around the top Grand Canyon on nicely paved walkways and then easily take a bus back to the Visitor Center which is near parking.

After a few hours at the Grand Canyon we drove along the southern rim road towards the east and continued to stop at every view point. Again - views are so simple and easy to access along the way. We then continued driving through miles of Arizona with the Painted Desert off to our left and stopped at various places to take pictures. Eventually making our way back through Flagstaff and finally back to Sedona around 10pm.

We ended up spending an extra day in Sedona and spent the day exploring a ton of the state park areas all over the city. If you love to hike, then you would love Sedona.

Finally, Friday we made the drive from Sedona down to Tucson where my mother-in-law lives. From Phoenix all the way south to Tucson is just miles of desert and giant wide open spaces full of cactus. So. Much. Cactus.

On this drive it really hit me what living in California offers us - from the local food we eat, to how easy it is to go to the ocean or skiing, or anything our heart desires. I also never got used to the dry desert air. My lips were so chapped and my skin was peeling by the time we left. We were constantly thirsty.

Our days in Sedona and the day at the Grand Canyon were still spectacular. Temperatures were very mild and the sun was always shining. Nights were nice and cool. But I have to be honest, and say the rest of Arizona we traveled through just didn't appeal to me. I'm not a desert girl for sure. Also, the areas of Arizona we traveled through have terrible air pollution. There's this constant haze in the sky that makes you feel like your sunglasses are dirty. The Grand Canyon itself is suffering from the affects of air pollution as well and there was a haze there. Two things contribute greatly to the Grand Canyon air pollution: 1) the largest coal-fired power plant in the Western United States is just 15 miles from the Grand Canyon, and 2) the jet stream comes in from the Pacific and pushes pollution from Southern California to the Grand Canyon.

It's all very sad. I'm glad we finally took the trip to see it and I would recommend that if you want to see the Grand Canyon, you go sooner than later. If you do go, stay in Sedona and enjoy the amazing views and trails, then do a day trip to the Grand Canyon. You won't be sorry, I promise.

Aside from Sedona and the Grand Canyon, we had two amazing meals at restaurants I want to point out: Diablo Burger in Flagstaff and The Parish in Tucson. The Parish was out of this world, and I had the best shrimp and grits ever washed down with two glasses of extremely delicious craft beer.

If you don't follow me on instagram, check out a few other pictures here including me in a cowboy hat and my favorite picture of the whole trip. I also have 27 photos from our vacation up on Flickr.

And in one week, I'm back on a plane for a trip to Texas!

Arizona Bound

2013-04-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

My husband and I are taking a vacation. A real one that includes planes and a rental car. A vacation that included me researching what I hope is the perfect little piece of luggage and working a deal at Macy’s to get it down from the crazy $300+ price tag to $140. It’s Samsonite. And Hot Pink. And I expect it to last forever. I’m not using my usual big green open plastic bag purchased a few years ago from the Costco checkout counter for less than $2. That’s a definite sign of a real vacation I think.

Does anyone have one of those Costco bags? They are awesome. Highly recommend.

A longtime dream of seeing the Grand Canyon will finally be coming true. I admit it will be weird to travel somewhere that doesn’t include the ocean and sandy beaches. That’s our usual idea of a vacation. But I’m thinking the Grand Canyon will not disappoint.

I look forward to sharing some pictures when I return.

And if you think you have any inkling of where I may live, don’t bother trying to break in. I have someone staying full-time with the animals at the house to watch after everything. And you wouldn’t want to tango with my cat in a dark hallway at night. You wouldn’t win.

Do not be fooled by that face. That's the face of stone cold killer.

Link Love: Boston

2013-04-21T09:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Running Family - from my friend Kristen.

Emily is a 2013 Boston Marathon Runner with a Medal - from Hollywood Housewife.

Neil Diamond takes the red-eye to Boston to sing Sweet Caroline.

Your browser does not support iframes.

My Go To Products

2013-04-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

A decent mileage ride this weekend in the sun got me thinking about how I've hung on to some "go to" products over the last few years.

Now I would love to fill this post with all all-natural, organic, blah blah blah, products, but I have extremely finicky skin. I easily develop rashes, hives, acne breakouts, and my numero uno battle is cystic acne. Then on top of all that I actually have very dry skin. So while I've dropped big time dollars over many many years trying all those "natural" products, first and foremost, living with cystic acne means not using things that cause it to flair up. So keep that in mind while I share what I love.

Sunblock - I'm pretty sure I've tried every brand. I stand by previous statements that anything by Banana Boat sucks. Coppertone dries out my skin. So does Aveeno. And I've found my skin fried from every type of "natural" sunblock I've tried. My go to sunblock that has never ever failed me is Neutrogena Ultimate Sport SPF 70. A little goes a long way and it has more than once stood the test of time of a long sweaty ride or run. I kind of laugh when I put this on because every other Neutrogena product I've ever tried breaks my skin out something fierce. But this has always worked flawlessly for me.

Face Wipes - Target Up & Up brand MakeUp Remover Towelettes. I. Love. These. I keep some in my car, some in my desk at work, and use them every night to take off my mascara. After a long ride, the first thing I want to do is wipe my face. I use these as all purpose wipes. I've tried many brands and these are my favorite. The scent is light and pleasant. They don't leave a weird film on my face and my face actually feels clean after use, but my skin doesn't feel dry.

Anti Chafe - Well, that's a little more complicated matter. I've suffered from varying degrees of chafing (all thanks to ALC!). But I do swear by 3 products for various situations. I would recommend keeping all on hand. ;) DZ Nuts Bliss , Bag Balm , and Lanacane Anti-Chafing Gel. Bag Balm is a must for every medicine cabinet. The Lanacane Anti-Chafing Gel is a little miracle worker for all sorts of situations.

A couple of single pack hand wipes in the back of my cycling jersey. Ever since my first ALC ride, I've carried 1 or 2 single packet hand wipes in the back of my jersey or in my saddle bag. I absolutely hate the feeling or thinking that my hands are dirty. And often we're riding in places where you're riding for miles and miles without any soap in sight. I usually just buy a box of the Target Up & Up brand. They're cheap, smell good, and do the job. And again - they don't make me break out in a rash.

Everything for me comes to back to not giving me a rash or making my skin break out and still making me feel clean or protecting my skin. Let me tell you, when you've dealt with hives inside your ears and on your eye lids, or had a cystic acne outbreak that has actually given you a fever, you proceed with caution. Always.

These are a few of the things I can't live without.

Link Love: Weight, Cats, and Harmony

2013-04-14T08:54:00.002-07:00

I actually had some free time this week to read stuff. But first, a diet update. I've meticulously tracked every calorie for 19 days. The majority of the days I've stuck to my calorie allotment. A few slip ups here and there. Exercise has been fairly regular. I biked 86 miles this week. My weight is exactly the same as it was 19 days ago. Down to the very ounce. *enter giant explicative here*

Let's take a moment to look at this. For more go here. (May be NSFW for some of you.) Thank you Mandi.

What your instagram filter says about you.

How to do the perfect push up.

This woman reveals her weight on the internet. Interesting post.

My current music obsession is Johnnyswim. I'm such a sucker for a good harmony. I can't stop listening to their EP Home.

I enjoyed a beautiful spring bike ride yesterday with friends. The hills of my hometown are still green and I felt surprisingly strong on the climbing considering I haven't climbed anything on the bike since October.

It's always a good bike ride when I get a decent photo of cows.

What Not Doing AIDS/LifeCycle This Year Means

2013-04-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

It means ...

Sitting on the couch on Saturday or Sunday mornings until noon, sipping my mocha and surfing aimlessly on the internet.

Staying up on Friday nights until 2am reading a good book not being worried about how I'm going to wake up in 4 hours to go ride my bike for 60 miles.

Not having to find a new and clever way to beg people for money every Friday on Facebook.

Not hearing the latest team gossip and giving a big eye roll.

Being really out of cycling shape and wondering how I'm going to my first event ride of the season that's 3.5 weeks away.

Looking out the window and if it looks too cold or windy, I run instead. Or go back to my book.

Getting ready to go the Grand Canyon in a few weeks and going to Texas in May.

No fun photo ops.

BUT it also means ...

Missing my teammates.

Missing the hugs and the love and the encouragement.

Missing the extra juicy gossip.

Missing seeing miles of beautiful California in the spring time.

Missing the sense of accomplishment.

Good luck to everyone out there riding and training for AIDS/LifeCycle right now. It's truly an experience of a lifetime. Soak it all in no matter how hard, how tiring, how rough, how emotional. Keep your eyes and heart open and don't miss a single second.

While I won't be riding in AIDS/LifeCycle this year, I hope to walk in the AIDS Walk San Francisco and continue to raise money for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

San Francisco Photography Class

2013-04-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

I've taken several photography classes from McKay Photography Academy over the last year and was very excited many months ago when they announced a San Francisco Photo Safari. Since I already knew back then I would not be riding in ALC this year and would most likely be able to have a free weekend, I jumped on the opportunity.

I carpooled with two lovely women and as we drove into SF with a light rain coming down and foggy skies in front of us we were all a little worried. That's the thing about SF weather, you just never know what you're going to get. Things can change dramatically every hour of the day.

But it ended up being a great day and we focused a lot of our time on the Golden Gate Bridge and the surrounding area.

We had a fabulous dinner at an Italian restaurant in Sausalito. Then since the fog had rolled in and we were not going to be able to see a sunset, we headed to the Palace of Fine Arts for some night time photography.

But I can only take pictures of the same building so many times, and I quickly turned my attention to the surrounding neighborhood. While the other students were still focused on the Palace of Fine Arts and the surrounding architecture, I was taking pictures of people's 3 story homes with the lights turned on inside, capturing real life in SF.

And also doing a little time lapse photography waiting patiently for a SF Muni bus to go by.

I can't say enough good things about McKay Photography. They have an awesome student to instructor ratio and everyone is very friendly and super helpful. They offer classes and safaris all over the country along with photography trips all over the world.

One of the best things about this trip was meeting one of the women I carpooled with. She's a retired attorney and so much fun to talk with. She's traveled all over the world. She's a long time runner and her husband is a cyclist. I could sit and talk with her all day. I let her know to contact me any time she wants to spend a day doing some photography exploring.

Drowning

2013-04-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

I have nothing exciting or fun to talk about with you. So I'm just stopping in for a moment. My head is only half way above water right now. In fact I think the water line is hovering just below my eyelids.

I have an April 10th deadline at work I have to meet. And I'll meet it. But I'm working and reworking numbers all day long every day. I'm then talking about those numbers and then reworking and then talking and on and on it goes. But I'll figure it out. I always do.

That last three nights in a row I've dreamed of nothing but cowboy boots.

My San Francisco photography class is finally here this Saturday. It looks like the rain is going to miss us (thank you!) but I totally spaced out on buying an extra camera battery. 10 hours walking around SF with my camera and one battery? Well that's a bummer. I'll refer you to the picture above of where my mind has been.

From out of nowhere I invited other class participants in my area to carpool with me. It's about an hour and a half drive. What the hell was I thinking? I love to spend hours in my car by myself with the music cranked up. What if they won't stop talking?

My friends and I did not receive an email invite for pre-sale tickets to see Mumford and Sons. That was a bummer. It'll be every crazed M&S fan for themselves come public ticket sale Friday morning. I'm in that group. *fingers crossed*

I have 5 or 6 men descending on my house this weekend for my husband's birthday. I say 5 or 6 ...or maybe it's 7? I don't really know. The number seems to constantly change. What I do know is we only have one spare bed. Pray for me.

Best of: March 2013

2013-03-31T13:17:00.000-07:00

1. Watching Kristen finish the Way Too Cool 50k.

2. Kickoff of our 2013 Community Garden

3. Alabama Shakes in Concert.

4. Bike rides along the river.

5. Texts from my best friend.

6. Finishing my first half marathon.

7. Running at sunset.

Update: Project Life 2013

2013-03-28T12:59:00.002-07:00

I mentioned back in this post about using the Project Life system for memory keeping in 2013. So far I'm loving it. I love doing inserts of random odds and ends. And it feels good to have a way to keep some mementos I wouldn't normally keep. Thought I would share a little of what I've done so far. Forgive me for I have not mastered the art of photographing these plastic insert pages without a glare.

I did a two and half page spread for my day I spent in San Francisco with a friend. We traveled by bus everywhere all day. I kept my bus ticket and stuck it in a pocket (upper left hand corner) and wrote on a journal card a little info about our day.

In Februay I added an insert with our valentine's day cards to each other. I've also been doing an instagram insert at the end of each month. February was my #moveyourbody challenge, so I did an 8.5x11 insert with those pictures.

Some March highlights - cheering on Kristen at the Way Too Cool 50k, a few random shots of what life looks like at our house, and some photos from my Half Marathon.

An insert with my blog post that I made a little more personalized (with names hidden for the internet) from my half marathon, my bib, and on the back, a congratulations card from my Best Friend.

And that's my Project Life 2013 album so far. Again, I'm really enjoying working on it. I probably spend about an hour a week printing photos and putting together pages.

5 Pounds at a Time

2013-03-26T09:50:00.000-07:00

We have a Biggest Loser competition going at work. Actually, I was the one to start it this year. We started way back in January and final weigh in is the first week of May. As of today my weight is only 2 pounds less than when we weighed in January.

We did a similar competition back in January 2009. I joined Weight Watchers and easily dropped 20 pounds without really trying - just stuck to my points every day. Then I started riding my bike more and more and by 6pm every night I felt like I was starving, and I slowly slipped away from Weight Watchers. And ever since then I've unsuccessfully tried to lose another 20 pounds.

Exercising has never been a problem for me. I absolutely love physical activity of all sorts. Food is my issue and when a few hours of exercise (like training for a half marathon or a 100 mile bike ride) is added into the mix, I have a tough time controlling my calories.

So I'm going to approach this like I approach any long distance event - in small chunks - 5 pounds at a time. That's it. Just going to focus on 5 pounds. Anyone can lose 5 pounds right? And then after that I'll focus on another 5 pounds.

I'll report back in a month. In the meantime, I'll be tracking on the LoseIt! app. If you're on there and would like to be friends, my user name is @samanthacycles.

Link Love: Races, Rock Stars, Books and Bikes

2013-03-22T17:38:00.002-07:00

Sometimes being a race spectator is as much fun as being a participant. If you do spectate, you need to read this post.

If you didn't catch my recap post of my first (and maybe last) half marathon, read it here.

Proof I crossed the finish line courtesy of Kristen.

I've loved Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac since I was a little girl. Here's a great interview from NPR with Stevie.

I'm a big reader. I sometimes find the publishing world mystifying to say the least. This article was interesting: My Amazon bestseller made me nothing.

April is quickly approaching. That means it's time again for 30 Days of Biking.

I started watching Downton Abbey less than a week ago and while I type this I'm watching the last episode of season 2. Yes, I've watched A LOT of it the last 5 nights. I'm addicted. Season 1 is available on Netflix streaming and all seasons are available on Amazon. Whatever you do, DO NOT google a character's name to find what actor/actress plays the character. It may break you. I more than likely will be done by Sunday. What to watch next? Justified or Homeland? Finally get caught up on Sons of Anarchy? So many choices.

What's Next Spring 2013 Edition

2013-03-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Spring is here. My half marathon is over. Time to look towards the next few months.

Bike commuting will start very soon.

I'm going to see the Grand Canyon for the first time.

We'll explore all over Arizona while we're there.

A trip to Dallas, Texas to see my best friend.

Wine Country Century. 100 miles? Sounds delicious and daunting at the same time.

A day and night in San Francisco for a photo lesson with professional photographers.

Trying to keep my head above water at work.

A big birthday for my husband.

Lots more running.

Documenting it all with Project Life.

And then it will be June. Happy Spring! What are you doing?

Recap: Shamrock'n Half Marathon

2013-03-18T08:56:00.000-07:00

After training for almost 3 months, my first half marathon day was finally here yesterday. I was definitely nervous when I woke up in the morning. I had set out everything to wear the night before so I wouldn't forget anything. I put my earbuds in my car on Saturday as well. I looked on the Shamrock'n website for the aid station mileage and discovered they had it listed in two different places, both with different mileage. I wrote one set on each hand. Aid station to aid station is how I planned to tackle this thing.

Getting to the race was super easy as it is only 10 minutes from my house. My husband dropped me off as close as he could then he went back home for awhile before coming back out to a spot on the course. I checked my sweatshirt at sweat-check, hit the restroom (twice), and then waited with a friend for my wave to start at 8:30am. Everything seemed well organized.

Then promptly at 8:30am, I was off!

The first couple miles I cruised along at a pace faster than normal for me. There was a lot of dodging walkers and other slower runners. I set up my interval timer for 2 minute run/1 minute walk intervals and stuck with them no matter how much I wanted to keep running. But I was running the run intervals much faster than I normally do.

Running through traffic free streets of Downtown Sacramento is definitely fun. When I wasn't running directly into the sun, I tried to take in the sights since this was a first time running through the streets of Sac for me.

Approaching the first aid station, I spotted Kristen who came all the way from the Bay Area to cheer me on. I ran over and gave her a hug and then I was off again. Then eventually I made my way to the American River bike trail - the very sketchy part of the bike trail that you would never go on by yourself on a regular day. I was still feeling great and keeping a better pace than I had planned.

Around mile 6, my husband was standing there cheering me on. A quick kiss and a hug and I just kept moving. Still feeling good. At the aid station around mile 7.5 I stopped to stretch for a bit. Drank two cups of water and ate a couple of shot blocks.

Happy to see the 8 mile marker, this is when it really sank in I was going to finish this thing.

Then somewhere around mile 9.5 is when the foot pain started. And I thought NOOOOOOO. It had been going so well. I had been jamming and so happy with my pace. I was going to finish around 3 hours which was my goal. In fact I was wondering if I could really push it and even finish under 3 hours. I changed my interval time to 1 minute run/ 30 seconds walk thinking that may help.

I had to start pulling over to the side and stretching a little more. I noticed the more I stretched out my calves the longer I could go before the foot pain came back. My friend who had ran texted me around mile 10 to tell me to keep going and I could do it. She was already finished. I texted back that the foot pain had started and my feet were on fire.

And so from miles 10 to the finish it was rough. I had to stop several times to take off my shoes and massage the bottom of my feet. I had to stop quite a bit to spend a couple of minutes stretching and rubbing my calves. It. Was. Rough. Around mile 11 there was a firetruck with 4 firefighters standing in front of it. One of them noticed I was obviously struggling. He came over and put his arm around me and walked with me for a few minutes, giving me a pep talk, and asking what my reward was going to be when I finished, because I was going to finish! What a great guy.

Eventually I hobbled my way to mile 13 and the Raley Field stadium was in sight. I hit the dirt of the infield and made my way to the finish line. Kristen was right there taking pictures and my husband was there too. I couldn't believe I had made it. But I did.

When I crossed the finish line I didn't really have the big overcome with emotion feeling that so many people had warned me about. I've talked before about how I'm not really that emotional to begin with. Frankly my only thought was that was harder than riding my bike for 7 days across CA and I just have to sit down and get these shoes off. I definitely had thoughts that I would never run another half again. In fact I declared to everyone I would never do one again. I did it. It wasn't pretty from miles 10-13, and I'm never doing it again. A day later though and if I could get the issue with my feet solved, I could see myself doing it again. Never say never I guess.

Afterwards I had an In-n-Out Cheeseburger, a long shower, and a 2.5 hour nap.

Link Love: Diet, Women, and Readers

2013-03-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

I started the week trying to cut back on the amount of wheat I eat. Then I'm told I need to cut back ...well actually cut out completely... dairy. I've battled cystic acne since I was about 12 years old and the past few months has been the worst it's been in years. No dairy and up my vitamin C and Zinc intake - those are the things to try right now. Cheese and frozen yogurt are like a major food group for me. This is going to be rough!

Breakfast foods that don't contain wheat or dairy and something that is not eggs? Something that is quick to throw together as I'm not a morning person? Thoughts?

While I'm talking about food, I'll mention I'm reading The China Study. So far is seems like everything I love to eat is going to kill me eventually. Kidding! Okay, not really. Has anyone else read it?

I'm sure you've heard, but Google Reader is being killed off on July 1. I don't actually use google reader much these days as I read almost all the blogs I follow on my iPad using Flipboard. But technically they're being pushed through to there through the original google reader subscription. I've imported all the feeds I follow into Bloglovin for the time being just as a back up measure. You can find the feed on Bloglovin for my blog, Samantha cycles, right here.

As Google shuts down one more thing that I use on a daily basis, I think it's now time to move from blogger to self-hosted Word Press. I feel it's only a matter of time before Blogger is shut down. I found this post that spells it all out in details I think I can follow and answers a lot of questions I had. It's a really great post on making the move! So over the next 2 months I hope to work on getting things set up behind the scenes with the official move over by June 1. I'll keep everyone posted.

Calling all female cyclists! I insist you read this post from Fat Cyclist. Or maybe you're not a female cyclist but you roll your eyes from time to time at the way marketing uses women - then read it!

My half marathon is in two days! This also means I'm reaching the end of Friday Night Lights. I have just 4 episodes left. It's one of the best television shows ever. If you follow me on twitter you know I've got a little obsession going on with Coach Taylor and maybe Tim Riggins. But all kidding aside, what really shines through is Tami Taylor, aka Mrs. Taylor, aka Mrs. Coach. She is truly one of the greatest female characters ever on TV. And Connie Britton plays her perfectly. Friday Night Lights is available on Netflix and Amazon streaming.

Final run before Sunday!

Final Thoughts Before My Half Marathon

2013-03-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

First of all - I've cleaned up my blog design. Things were a mess behind the scenes actually, so while I figured out how to fix all that, I figured how to do some other things and simplified where I could. I like a very simple design aesthetic in general, so I've gone that direction on here. Check it out.

My half marathon is this Sunday! Sunday, Sunday, Sunday (say it like those monster truck commercials). I'm dialing in my music playlist a little more, trying out different clothing choices, sticking an extra pair of earbuds in my car just in case I forget my favorite ones, and I bought a few packages of shot blocks today.

I'm trying to figure out how to convert YouTube clips from Friday Night Lights of Coach Taylor yelling at his players into iTunes songs that I can insert into my running playlist. No really. I seriously am.

To be perfectly honest though right now I have thoughts of, "I'm not sure I can do this, but I'm doing it anyways." Which is very unlike me. I know I'll do it, but it still feels slightly out of reach. It still feels like, "Who me? Run that far? In public? Oh no, not me." But I'll be crossing that finish line even if I'm crawling.

No, I'm not trail running. Or running up any hills. I took this picture this past weekend while waiting for my friend Kristen to come running down that hill. I'll post a link to her recap of this amazing event once she has it up on her blog. Watching these runners was very inspiring.

Link Love: California, Weight, OCD

2013-03-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

I love products with California referenced on them in one form or another.
Like this T-shirt. Many other states available!
Or this address stamp. How amazing is that stamp?

This man is cycling around the world. And taking amazing instagrams while he's at it. And he's easy on the eyes.

All of these women weigh 154 pounds. Interesting to see the difference between the 4 women in the middle that appear to be near the same height of each other.

I shared recently my love for the F word. Imagine my giddiness when my second favorite F word is combined with food recipes.

I hope I'm not the only one who can relate to the picture below. Imagine how much harder this would be if it was 39.98! Or is that just me? I always choose to round the $$ when I can before rounding the Gallons. And now I've revealed too much crazy. Have a wonderful weekend!

My Big Bad Half Marathon Plan

2013-03-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

My 1st Half Marathon is less than two weeks away!

I had a lot of time to think during my 12 mile run this weekend (last long training run before the half), and I came up with a big bad plan of how I'm going to make it through. Are you ready? Get ready, because this is earth shattering...

I'm going to run aid station to aid station. That's it. That's all I'm going to think about. I'm not going to think about how many miles are left out of 13.1. I'm not going to think about how far I have to go until I cross the finish line. I'm just going to focus on getting to the next aid station. This is how I approach my cycling events - I ride rest stop to rest stop. And it has served me well. Sometimes it's been the only way to make it through the tough spots. While I feel ready enough for this half marathon to know I'll cross the finish line, it is still not easy at all for me nor does it feel natural to run the longer distances. A 3 or 4 mile run? I love that distance. 12 miles? I had a mini meltdown from mile 10-11. But like I usually do, I pulled it together and finished.

Here are the aid stations:
- Mile 2.75
- Mile 4.75
- Mile 7.5
- Mile 9.25
- Mile 11

Totally doable. I'll have these memorized by the time March 17 rolls around. Or maybe I'll just write them on my arm, because if this thing is anything like some of my cycling events, the brain stops working 1/2 way through.

And while I'm running from one aid station to the next, I'll be rocking out to the following to keep me moving. Now everyone keep their fingers crossed I don't forget my earbuds like I did for my 10k.

Best of: February 2013

2013-02-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

Goodbye February.

1. 1st shot with my new point and shoot camera.

2. A rare dinner out.

3. A hilarious night with Louis CK - a christmas gift to my husband.

4. Signs of spring are all around us.
5. Morning time in the sun with the animals on the weekends.
6. My longest run to date.

7. I'm loving Project Life.