Saturday morning brought my first trip to Bikram yoga in oh, 2.5 years. Jeebus, talk about a long break.
We stopped in for an early class at the Bikram studio on Columbus in North Beach. It's a small, neat, friendly studio that offers a great intro special - unlimited classes for the first month for $29. Pretty sweet.
Yes, that's carpeting and french doors you see. Don't get me wrong, it was a great studio, but I was definitely spoiled by all the classes I took at Bikram Yoga Dupont - my favorite place in DC.
The Dupont studio was pretty large and it felt pretty secluded once the door was closed, plus the floors were slick mats that I like to think made it seem cleaner. Don't get me wrong, this new place was super clean...I'm just weird about carpet.
After a couple minutes, I got over the whole carpet thing and got back into the yoga zone. Bikram has been the only type of yoga I've actually enjoyed and look forward to practicing. I think part of it is due to the fact that you do the same 26 poses in the same exact order each time. Not only do you know what to expect, but it's easy to notice progress. Also, there's no denying I love sweating. The more sweat, the better. ;p
Since it had been so long since my last class, I decided to take it super easy and not do certain poses. OMG, still pretty rough...but I felt so great afterward.
So great and SO hungry. I made a spicy oat bowl for breakfast (not so pretty) with eggs, spinach, canadian bacon, cheddar and chili garlic paste. I think the chili garlic paste and cheddar made it extra yummy. I may or may not have followed it up with a slice of birthday cake...
Eh, seemed appropriate ;)
After a very productive morning, we headed out to the East Bay for some pool time. Much needed pool time.
Couldn't have asked for better weather - not too hot, slight breeze. I didn't know this, but apparently there's a good 10 degree temperature difference once you leave the city. I like it!
We sat down for a late lunch poolside and I went with a Chicken Salad on Sourdough (I can never say no to a chicken salad sammich).
It was pretty good, maybe a little too mayo-ey for my taste and the bread tasted more like white bread than sourdough, but it was a great poolside treat. Can I call a sammich a treat? haha.
We eventually made our way back into the city and started working on dinner. There were a ton of taco leftovers from Friday so it was taco night again! Well, for me it was nacho and taco salad night:
Innovative reuse of ingredients! I do love me some taco salad!
This morning I decided to close out the weekend right with a nice, easy, long-ish run. I haven't really done more than 3 or 4 miles at a time since the injury and I've been craving a long run like no one's business. I started mapping out a route when I realized I had no idea what I was doing. Then, I got the brilliant idea to search for the Nike Women's Marathon course map. It was, after all, the race that brought me here for the first time :)
I originally mapped out an 8 mile course, but I cut it down to 5 since about halfway through I realized I should have carried my water bottle and maybe a gel if I wanted to go further. I took the run super slow since I didn't want to aggravate the achilles and ended up running 5.03 miles in about 53 minutes. Not too shabby.
My run basically took me from somewhere a little before Mile 1 of the marathon course to just past Mile 4 before I turned around. The weather was absolutely perfect and I was psyched to have a camera on hand this time. One thing that will always stick out from my first marathon was the first super steep hill I came across early on in the race that I huffed and puffed and shuffled up. It was totally worth it in the end because of the phenomenal views - there were actually people stopping and taking pictures.
Three years later, I was finally able to snap a photo! Of course, to get there, I had to hoof it up this monster
It also winds around, but I thought it was worth it. Of course every uphill is followed by a downhill, or flatness
As I ran through Fort Mason, I got another case of the warm and fuzzies as I remembered running through in 2007. I kept thinking about how nervous I was back then and how I felt throughout the course - I feel like so much has changed since then! Not only am I now living in the city I told myself I wanted to live in back then, but that hill wasn't as horrible as I originally thought it was. Also, I told myself back then that I'd only do one marathon and here I am about to start training for number 4!
I took a leisurely walk back to the apartment by way of the famous Lombard Street
And yes, I joined the throngs of tourists stopped in the middle of the street...momentarily. :)
Since I got home around lunchtime, I made a pitstop at Caffe Capriccio for some lunchtime reading and snacking. This time I tried a lunch item - Roasted Chicken & Bacon Salad (romaine lettuce, roma tomato, toasted croutons and creamy poppy dressing)
Awesome. Loved the poppy dressing (found out they use this) and they didn't over-dress the salad either. Just the right amount and everything was chopped into easy to eat pieces!
To wash it all down, I had some water (duh) and a large cup of White Orchard Mighty Tea
I loved the fun teabag (it wasn't paper) and it was a nice subtle peachy/melony tasting tea!
How's that for a picture-loaded post? :) Hope everyone had a great weekend!
