The Best Month

Picking a favorite month is like picking a favorite travel destination, or a favorite child (not that anyone would ever do admit to that!) It is hard. There are things about each one that have their ups and their downs. For example, I love Italy because no matter where you go, you can find good food. It doesn't matter if it is some guy on the street selling tomatoes; they are the best tomatoes you have ever eaten. The same can be said for Bangkok street food - I could eat $1 Pad Thai all.day.long. Seoul has the most excellent outdoor fish and fruit markets. La Paz has mountains and tiny streets and Cholitas with various hats. And there are many more. I can't pick a favorite! 

When it comes to months, there is something special about a snowy day, a blue skied summer weekend in the mountains or the changing colors of the trees. However, despite the fact that I love summer and would be outside every day if I could, spring is my favorite season because it feels like a fresh start, and more specifically, the month of May is my favorite month. I may be a little bit biased, since it is the month of my birth, but celebrating my birthday is not even on the top ten for the month. Here are a few things that are on the top ten list! 

Green hills: the Bay Area has various different outdoor spaces, but is mostly either redwood forests on the coastal areas or savannah like grasslands on the inland areas. The grasslands are pretty much dry and yellow for 9 months of the year and on a hot year, it could be even less. However, in April and May, they are green for a fleeting moment and I love looking out over the green hills; it feels so fresh. 

Green hills

Flowers: The same hills described above have wonderful wildflowers in the spring. Also, my garden flowers are all in bloom too and they are so pretty (and due to the rain, I did not even have to water yet!)

April showers bring May flowers

Food: All of my edible perennial garden items have started to flower or fruit. Currently, the following are ready to eat: artichokes and strawberries. These are coming along nicely: peaches, plums, blueberries. These are getting new leaves and are showing promise: fig, apple. It's going to be a good year and the early heavy rains seemed to have helped more than they hindered (expect for my avocado, which I suspect got drowned or suffocated. So sad.) 

Friends/Family: Aside from my birthday, May is also the month of my parent's anniversary and Mother's Day. We have an annual tradition to get together with my family and a good friend's family for an all encompassing celebration and I really cherish this time spent together every year. 

Outdoor adventures: Memorial Day weekend is essentially the unofficial start to summer for me, as I often do my first backpacking trip over this three day weekend. This year I have an outing scheduled but due to our high snowpack, it may look very different than it did for the last few years. 

May 2022 backpacking in Yosemite

Running: if you like trail racing, May is the month where races kick off in earnest and in my area there is basically one in every weekend. There have been some years that I have done three races in May! This year I will do none, but many of my friends are out there getting it done! 

Weather: the weather starts to warm up, time is spent in the backyard reading books and life it good! Sometimes in May we get some freakishly hot weather, but overall it is usually nearly perfect! 

Backyard reading with Gato

Woof! 102 in May, go away!

To top that all off, I think as the sun starts shining more and the weather gets nicer, motivation levels go up, as do the serotonin levels, so when May arrives, it feels like it is time to get out of our winter shell and get ready to tackle the world. 

What is your favorite month of the year and why? 

Looking Back: May

May, as you may know, is my favorite month! This year, as always, it did not disappoint.

Running: In May, I ran 220 miles. This is mostly due to two races, one 100k and one 50k. Other than that, I had my highest mileage week this year, which was 73 miles. I climbed approximately 52,000 vertical feet, although my Garmin has been a bit wonky, so that is probably plus or minus 10%. I biked no miles...again! Biking fail. However, I did do about 1 - 2 x per week gardening / yard work, and I am calling that cross training!

Reading: I ended up reading 7 books, although it should have been more, as I took a long flight in May. However, I did get some "reading" done via audio book while running two races that took about 20 hours between the two of them! Usually I do not listen to music on runs, but this time, I used the time wisely! A silver lining early in the month was that all my holds at the library had really long wait times so I got some of my owned books read (in bold)! My favorites this month were The Sun is Also a Star, Stiff and Talking as Fast as I Can.

The Red Queen by Phillipa Gregory (***)
Sleepwalking with Me by Mike Birbiglia (***)
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon (****)
Lolita by Vladimir Nobokov (**)
The Night of the Gun by David Carr (***)
Stiff by Mary Roach (****)
Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham (****)

Travel: Whew! May was a whirlwind of travel. All four weekends were booked! I went to Sacramento, San Jose, hiked Mt. Diablo with the folks, flew to Minneapolis for Lisa's wedding, went to Livermore/Fremont for a race and went up to my parents house for Memorial Day. It was full of good times with good friends and loved ones!

Lisa's wedding

Marin Headlands run

Feather River Canyon

My first game of the season

What was your favorite thing about the month of May? What was your favorite book in May? Where do you normally get your books (library/own/borrow/buy)?

Looking Back: May

My favorite month of the year is over! I always like May, as it is springlike and jolly, plus it includes Mother's Day and my birthday! It also is the real kickoff of trail racing season, although here in the Bay Area things don't really slow down too much, even in the winter months.

Running: In May my totals were 215.6 miles running / 40,000 ft climbing, 6.6 miles hiking, and 5.36 miles cycling. So far, I am on track for my running mileage and climbing goals but I need to step up my cycling goal. The month of May involved two races, a 100k and a 50 mile race, which makes it easier to keep the mileage numbers up. However, soon I will need to ramp up even more in order to conquer the dreaded 100 mile race in August.

Silverstate 50M -- bit o' snow this year.

Reading: In May I read 6 books, which are listed below. None of them really wowed me, but my favorite of all of them was Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed, which was a bunch of different people's takes on why they decided not to have children. I think I would have read a lot more, but The Terror was almost 800 pages long! I also knocked 3 books off for the RHC and read two books from my own library (books I own in bold, star next to the ones that satisfy the Read Harder Challenge). So far my totals are 11/24 for RHC and 2/12 for reading my own books.

Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed (4/5)
How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others (3/5)
The Measure of a Lady (3/5)
Cleaving: A Story of Meat, Marriage and Obsession* (3/5)
Tender Points* (3/5)
The Terror* (3/5)

Travel: This month involved a few local trips. I went to Reno for a race, which ended up being a 9 hour drive due to snow conditions (on May 21!!). I also had a great time in Tahoe with friends, doing some snow running/hiking, swimming in Donner lake and eating our weight in hamburgers. Other than that, the only other travel has been near the Bay Area for race spectating and participating.

My friend KH -- snow running near Castle Peak.

Do you have a reading or running goal this year? What is your favorite place for a weekend getaway near you?

Looking Back: May

The fact that this post is being done on June 11th pretty much indicates how my month of May/June have been going. I feel like I am swimming underwater and I have not really had time to come up for air...however, it has been fun and full of friends and family and stuff, so I am not complaining! 

Running: May was a very strange running month for me. I seem to have lost my mojo. However, I had two races: one 100k in San Jose and one 50 mile race in Reno. Due to this, I still ended up with a good amount of miles. I also wen to Yosemite NP and Rocky Mountain NP for some hiking with my family and with Lisa, so I am adding these miles as well. Totals for the month were: 167 miles of running + 36 miles of hiking. 

Reading: I read 5 books this month, mostly on my commute. This keeps me on track to read 52 books this year, or at least one a week. Here they are, in order of best to worst: 

The Rosie Project (4 stars)

The Invention of Wings (4 stars)

Still Life With Breadcrumbs (4 stars)

Where'd You Go Bernadette (3 stars)

Boy, Snow, Bird (2 stars)

Travel: I feel like May was a month of never sitting still. The first weekend I went to Yosemite with my family for some hiking and good times. The second weekend was the Quicksilver 100k in San Jose, where I had a great time running and hanging out with friends. The third weekend was Reno on Saturday and to a Mother's Day/Birthday brunch on Sunday. The fourth weekend was a trip to Auburn for some running with friends (and then I came back to the Bay Area and spent the rest of the weekend moving). The last weekend (hurray for a 5 weekend month!) was spent in Colorado, hiking with Lisa and visiting Jill. Whew, it makes me tired just typing it all out! 

Last but not least.... the reason I have been so out of touch is that I bought a house. The past several months have been a flurry of searching for houses, going to open houses, putting offers on houses, getting turned down, trying again, and then finally...one got accepted. Then it was a flurry of escrow, inspections, paperwork and such. Then it was a flurry of moving and sorting and measuring and spending money and cleaning. 

Currently things have calmed down a bit. I am "settled", which basically means I have a place to sleep and a roof over my head, but there is a list of things to do about a mile long, which is keeping me busy. 

How was your month of May? Have you traveled anywhere in the past month? What book would you recommend to me for June? 

Looking Back: May

May, my favorite month, came and left like a whirlwind. It started and ended with a run in the Marin Headlands just the way I like a month to start and end! I have to admit, I was a little worried, as April was not a prime running month for me. April consisted of 45 miles, including the 26.2 of the Boston Marathon. Needless to say, I was NOT ready for the race schedule I had lined up for May. Also, with the new job and the studying, my schedule in general was a bit off. May was a little weird  really.

Study:  Approximately 60 - 80 hours of May were spent studying. I have to be honest; I was never a big fan of studying. In High School, I never really had to study and in college I definitely did not study enough. This time though, I am trying to make up for it. However, it is not easy. But my job is on the line, so I am trying to buckle down.

Reading: Ha! Can we say....zilch, zip, nil, nul, zero? I read about a quarter of the book Quiet (which is good so far), I read half of an America's Test Kitchen magazine and I read a few news articles on Flipboard. Other than that, it's been all business.

Running: 181 miles, including one 100k race (62 miles) and one 50 mile race, bringing non race miles to a grand total of  69. A lot better than April, that's for sure! However, most of them have not been quality miles. However, the majority of them have been with friends, which is not a normal occurrence for me, so that is a nice change!

Final stretch of Miwok 100k: Stinson Beach at Sunset

Travel: Add two race weekends to a holiday weekend and May is just about done! But wait, the fourth and final weekend of May was my cousin's graduation party/Mother's Day/my birthday, which was spent in Sacramento with family and friends, and my mother! Memorial Day weekend was spent at Off The Grid with my friend and her family, including new baby, eating fun food truck foods like chicken and waffle bites, falafel, and creme brulee. The next day I spent at the beach near Bodega Bay with broski and the in-laws, running with the dogs, eating clam chowder and enjoying the beautiful sunshine.

Birthday dinner with the girls

Doran beach run with broski's dog.

Other that that, I rode about 20 miles on the ol' bike, went to a Giants game, weeded and planted a garden, and even took the dog for a walk (everyone needs fresh air sometimes)!

What did you do for Memorial Day?  Has the food truck craze made it to your area? What is your favorite time of year/month?

Then and Now: May

I haven't done a Then and Now post since last November! I have to admit, things have been a little different for me around these parts. I got a new job in August, and it has been a difficult learning curve. For the first couple of weeks, we did a basic training, and then we were put right in the hot seat and were dealing with clients and coworkers and other entities. Days were passing by and then weeks were falling away and then months were gone before I knew it. I was constantly on the move at work, and was always thinking, so when I got home, my brain was like mush.

Then I trained for a couple of big races and my legs were like mush. So basically I have been mush. I wouldn't say that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it has meant that I don't feel so in control of my life as I did at one point. Things like blogging, reading, cooking or thinking about what to eat (hello salad, potato & oatmeal) have gone to the back burner. Hence the lack of Then and Now posts (or my commenting in a timely manner to most people's posts).

But I like looking back and kind of seeing what I have done, because I feel that this makes me feel stronger, and makes me realize that I have done more than I thought I have, instead of focusing on what I did not do. So, here we have the Who, What and Where of May (better late than never).

Who:

Girls Day.

What:

Books: 

Due to the fact that I took a vacation, I read 6 books this month. This is one of my biggest reading months in a long time! I have to say as well, that they were all good! My favorites on the list were probably the first three.

Wild -- Cheryl Strayed: This book reminded me a bit of home, since I grew up near the PCT, and I loved the stories of the trail. However, I was not super fond of the main character and her issues and journey to self enlightenment.

The Thirteenth Tale -- Diane Setterfield: A woman biographer meets up with a famous author to finally get her true life story from her before she dies. The story ends up having many twists and turns and an intersting relationship develops between the two main characters.

A Thousand Splendid Suns -- Khalid Hosseini: A gut wrenching tale of the strife in Afghanistan and the trials and tribulations the characters go through to make it to the light at the end of the tunnel, this story kept me riveted for hours. I couldn't put it down.

Stuff White People Like -- Christian Lander
The Boleyn Inheritance -- Phillipa Gregory
I am a Stranger Here Myself -- Bill Bryson

Miles: 

In May I ran 160.1 miles, biked 16 miles, hiked/walked 35 miles and swam one mile. I am not quite ready for a tri, but it's kind of fun to add in a few extra activities besides running once in a while.

Races:

I ran 2 races: The Cinderella Trail Half and the Ohlone 50k .

Where:

Roatan

Fort Point

Berkeley

In May, who did you hang out with? What did you do? Where did you go?

Looking Forward

Happy May! Did you know this is my favorite month of the year? And not just because it's my birth month. I love Spring and May reminds me of birds singing, school ending, first river swims (if we were lucky!) outdoor eating, warm days and flowers blooming.  So it's a good time to be looking forward to things!

Today I'm looking forward to good weather, a nice after work run and a hearty dinner!

This week I am looking forward to meeting up with a friend for lunch and possibly volunteering for a race on Saturday!

This month I am looking forward to Mother's day with my real and honorary Mom, happy hour with friends, a friend's band playing in a local joint, a race with Broski, birthday celebrations with friends and family, a 50k race, and a mini vacation!

This year I am looking forward to rounding out one year at my current job, trips to Oregon, Canada, DC and possibly New York City, and a hiking trip to Mt. Shasta.

2012: Carrot Cake

What are you looking forward to? What exciting things do you have going on / coming up in your life?

Then and Now: May

Another month gone by already. It seems like only yesterday when I was talking about how I couldn't believe it was May already. Today is my Dad's birthday! Happy Birthday Dad! Now for the Who, the What and the Where -- May 2011 vs. May 2012.

The Who: 

In 2011:

I spent some time in Australia with Mr. L, then it was back to the US for:

Baseball with the broski, his lady and Gma, and my friend Hashi and his lady

Birthday fun with the parents

Mimosa Brunch in the Mission with K and A

In 2012: 

 Good times were had by my Relay team

Another Giants game with the trio (a tradition, it seems)

Mother's Day/Birthday with my two families

My, look how she's grown! 

2011 vs 2012

The What: 

Books:
2011: / 2012: 8

I definitely had extra time to read this year, due to the fact that I was traveling a lot last year vs this year. Also, my computer was down for about a week and a half in 2012 and it's amazing how much reading I got done because of it! Some of my favorites: Secret Daughter - Shilpi Somaya Gowda, Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin. See my Bookshelf page for more!

Running:
2011: 0 / 2012: 157

This month was not only the start of the ramp up for marathon training, but I also added a few miles due to some longer trail runs and a new goal to try to complete an ultra. I think that this is my highest mileage month to date.

Races:
2011: 0 / 2012: 2

This month I participated in The Relay, which for my portion was 23 miles over 4 runs over 24 hours. I also completed race number 5 of the 12 in 2012 challenge, which was a trail race in Oakland called the Cinderella Trail Run. You can check out my Races and Places page for more!

Cakes: 

2011 vs 2012

Apparently I turn 5 years old every year.

The Where:

In 2011, after getting back from Australia, 

I spent a lot of time in California. 

Also, note that it snowed. I think that photo was taken on May 28th.

In 2012,  I also spent a lot of time in California. 

San Francisco, Sierra Nevadas, Napa, Oakland

 
The verdict? My hair is longer, my fitness has improved tenfold, and it seems like the birthday baseball game with grandma and the kids has become a tradition (as well has the Mother's Day with my second family). It does seem like May is when the weekends start being full of outdoor related and other fun activities, no matter where I am! All in all, I would give two thumbs up to both May 2011 and May 2012!

How was your May this year? How is it different from last year? Is it better, worse, or the same? 

Currently: May

Current Book - The Travel Writers Handbook - Jacqueline Butler

Current Celebrity Crush - McDreamy. What, he looks even better as he ages!

source

Current Drink - Smoothie made from: juice of 2 lemons, 1 splenda, 1/2 cup frozen strawberries (or mango), water, 1/2 banana, 1 tbsp yogurt

Current Excitement - Brunch with my mother and my "other mother" this weekend! 

Current fashion trend - I put pants on today, does that count?

Current Favorite Blog/Website - This Power Yoga Video

Current Favorite Film - The Princess Bride. Classic. If you haven't seen it yet, do it now. 

Curent Food - Pomegranate Pot Roast recommended by Lisa

Current Guilty Pleasure - Reading! I have been tearing it up this week! 

Current Indulgence - mini carrot cake muffins (mini = MANY)

Current Mood - productive = good! 

Current New Find - Planet Fresh fish burritos in Santa Cruz

Current Outfit - Nike tempo shorts, Champion tank, Asics Pheonix 3

Current Peeve - People who say "I blog for myself". No you don't. If you did, it would be called a JOURNAL. 

Current Song - Goyte - Somebody that I Used To Know

Current Triumph - I went for a run in my Kinvaras. So far, no calf tightness or pain! 

Current TV Show - Nothing. (See above re guilty pleasure)

Current Wish-List - Remote for my camera

Currently Delaying - Working on my recap for The Relay (hence this post)

What are you currently up to? What are your Mother's Day Plans? What is your current peeve?