Cali Boo Vacay

This past week was spent with my sure thang in Anaheim, CA. We hadn’t seen each other since July!! Long distance relationships are NOT easy. We have a 3 hour time difference (Atlanta to Anaheim) and individually hectic schedules, but after over 3 years of LDR, we STIIIILLLL together!! ♥ ♥ ♥

One of the first things we did was to attend a K-1 kickboxing tournament in L.A. There were about 15 fights…several of which ended in some pretty naaaassty knock outs!!! NOT TKO’s but straight up KNOCK OUTS!! Initially I was supportive of Uchenna training hard and entering at least one amateur fight, but after seeing two knock outs with one guy convulsing and his toes curling up, I ABSOLUTELY FORBID it!! *shrugs*

K-1 Kickboxing tournament. It has taken over 3 years, but I actually enjoy watching/learning/talking about MMA/kickboxing/UFC/etc

Enjoying our first K-1 tournament together! Fun times!!

You would think that being on vacation would be a temporary license to take a break from marathon training as well…NOOOOTTT!! I told yall I am not playing with this marathon. Race day is 6 weeks away!!! EEEEKK!! Even though, I’ve been consistent with training, I cannot afford to start slacking now. Update pics coming soon…bear with me y’all…*sigh*. Anywho, since Uchenna has been my #1 fan/supporter/encourager/sounding board/personal blog IT guy from JUMP, I figured he wouldn’t mind if I sucked him into my world of long distance running and training. Unfortunately, that didn’t go over so well, LoL.  He HATES running, but LOVES eating, so even though I had difficulty convincing him to run a mile with me, I had no such problems getting him to eat my clean cooking, LoL.

JUST because it IS a vacation and we are IN southern California we HAD to visit the beach to kick it off RIGHT 🙂

Like I said, had to maintain my training schedule…some days were rougher than others, but overall my long double digit run days are getting better and I’m even managing to maintain a faster pace for longer my runs!! Woohoo!! This schedule worked out throughout the week–I marathon trained, cooked, and relaxed, while he worked and taught mixed Muay Thai kickboxing at Cal State University Fullerton http://www.asi.fullerton.edu/src/instructionalClassDescriptions.asp  and NOC Boxing Club http://www.facebook.com/NOCBoxing throughout the week.

One of my easier short run days…just 4 miles, so i paired it with a workout for my abs and legs

After clocking hundreds of miles on my feet over the last 12 weeks, my feet were in some serious need of TLC. I haven’t had a toenail casuality…YET, but I think I’m pretty close to losing one toenail :-(…that mug is holding on even though it is now black and blue #sadness, but I have to keep running…at least for 6 more weeks. Gotta make it worth it/count and finish strong!!

Even though he trains and teaches muay thai and LOVES to kick things, his feet looked better than mine before and after our pedicures,which is why you won’t be seeing my feet anytime soon, LOL!!….smDh

The next day, I hit the road again for a 12mile run…

post 12mile run…i actually felt good after this run…unlike the aftermath of my 16mile run from the week before…it was NOT cute, in fact #pityful

We decided to have a picnic with one of the lunches I had prepared earlier in the week…

One my clean meals for the week–spicy honey baked chicken, avocado pesto pasta, and plain baked sweet potato…#eatcleantrainlean

Later this same day we hit up the batting cages. Neither of us have played baseball/softball in YEARS…since we were young teens (we even used to be on the same church softball team waaaaaaay back in the day before I knew he liked me 🙂 ), so we started out a little rusty and ended only slightly less than rusty, lol. Uchenna did waaay better than me though.

perfect form 🙂

After a brief nap and shower, we hit up the streets of Old Pasadena, CA for dinner at La Luna Negra, a tapas bar and restaurant. On our way there, we passed by a HUGE 2-story WholeFoods!! I could only imagine what their salad bar and bulk bins aisle had to offer… I halfway, low-key wanted to ditch the reservations at La Luna and have dinner at Whole Foods instead, but I didn’t…and thank goodness I didn’t because then I would have missed the lovely, yummy sangrias at La Luna Negra. 😉 #refreshing!

My plate: salmon on a bed of spinach with mashed potatoes, asparagus, carrots and mango cilantro pico de gallo…#thisthatishiDOlike!

these sangrias were the TRUTH!!

 

ANTM posing

good heal + good angle = longer legs

 

Gentlemen wear vests…

 As you can see y’all, California was a BLAST and very relaxing. Now I’m back in Atlanta, shaaawtay, with 3 months til graduation. Woot!! Senioritis kicked in 9months ago, LoL! PA school has been a different sort of marathon. It’s been crazy hard/stressful/exciting/fascinating/frustrating/etc, but I can’t wait to do my dougie across that stage!!! LoL! Anywho, I gotta get back to my school work.

Peace out!

CB