How does your garden grow (Part II)

September 10, 2014 ~ meh ~ Leave a comment

Like woah.

5 weeks ago

now

I thought our garden in Kentucky went crazy one year, but it was nothing like this. Plants loooooove LA weather or soil or something. Whoever said don’t plant new plants in August should not be listened to. Our garden is growing like a boss.

The basil, two tomato plants (Champion and Beef Eater), squashes, and peppers are all going bezerk. The tomato plants are even pulling the cages–which I originally thought would be too big for the plants–over, they’re so huge. We have baby peppers and tomatoes, and we’ve already picked some beans. The onions are looking healthy, I just have figure out when to pick them (see: radishes). It’s all very exciting.

One problem: the growth trajectory of the beans and cucumbers (that are in the left hand corner up against the back wall) were starting to flatten out. I thought it might be because that ginorm, leafy, flourishing, flowering squash plant smack in the middle of the garden box was shading them from all their sun.

A little over 4 weeks ago my parents brought us another half wine barrel/planter. I planted some rainbow chard, kale, and flower seeds in it. After 4 weeks, it looked exactly like this:

Nothing. Weeks of watering and loving, no sprouts or beginnings of sprouts or anything. (The dark stuff on the soil are recently dumped coffee grounds.)

It may have been a little premature, but since our garden box was getting pretty crowded and that was some prime real estate, we decided to move the squash into the barrel.

“Is it bad to move a plant that big into a new environment? With other seeds?” I asked Paul as he casually reached down and pulled the huge squash plant from the garden box.

“Eh….no.”

We ignored the fact there are probably 50 other seeds in there, dug a hole, and stuck the squash in.

Went to check on it the next day:

Hm. That’s not good. Hoping it recovers soon.

Night swimming

August 26, 2014November 11, 2014 ~ meh ~ Leave a comment

Sunset outdoor practices are my favorite. By far. Maybe it’s because for some reason swimming at dusk almost always gives me flashbacks of swim practice as a kid. Maybe it’s because when you’re done, and that super relaxed, warm, foggy, wave of sleepiness that always follows a hard swim finally washes over you, you know all you have to do is curl up in your bed and go to sleep…as opposed to spend the whole day trying to hide the fact you’re about to faceplant on the conference room table. Who knows.

Getting there is hard. Usually Paul isn’t home, and the lifeguards aren’t super stoked on babysitting a one year old while I swim (weird). Even if Paul is home, more often than not, by 6:30pm I’ve had the whole day to convince myself I definitely should NOT go to practice.

But I love watching twilight fall while I swim, seeing the pool lights come on, illuminating the bright, bright blue water against an orange sky, knowing that my sweats are waiting for me if I just get through this one last set, and walking through the front door clean, tired, and happy.

…until someone poops in the bathtub and I spend the rest of the night dealing with a screaming one year old because she wanted to stay in the tub longer and bleaching everything. But still.

How does your garden grow

August 8, 2014August 8, 2014 ~ meh ~ Leave a comment

So guess what you can do in LA? Grow plants all year long. Time to plant some plants! And this time around, no greenhouses.

kentucky gardening

So last week we got some scrap wood and planting soil and built a garden box in the back of the yard.

Ready to go! Now, what to plant.

First stop: one of my go-to LA gardening blogs to see what they recommended planting in SoCal in late July:

JULY:

Plant in the ground only out of necessity – extreme necessity

Plant in containers: continue napping

Oh. Well then.

I am not sure what “extreme necessity” looks like when it comes to urban gardening…but after some thought I decided that this probably qualified. So.

Next stop: advice from Alix.

plant any leafy or salad greens – kale, chard, lettuces, spinach, arugula. you can plant root veggies like beets and carrots. you can plant any brassica – broccoli, cauliflower, etc.

OK, much better. So I made a list (kale, chard, beets, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, and some herbs) and headed out to get some seedlings/seeds/whatever I could find with You-Know-Who in tow.

She is not a huge fan of the carseat. Getting her in and out is no small task.

Stop #1: the big sign out front that said “HYDROPONICS” should have been the first sign that this probably wasn’t the right place for us…but I already had her out of the carseat, so there was no turning back. We walked up to get buzzed into the store with mirrored windows (signs #2 & 3).

I entered the store, baby on hip. The two tatted dudes behind the counter stopped what they were doing and stared at me.

“Hey, hi. I think I already know the answer to this, but do you guys sell seeds or seedlings?”
(blank stares)
“…like, for a vegetable garden…”
“Oh! Oh, noooo….no we don’t, sorry. But there’s a place around the corner that does!”

Back in the carseat. Five block drive, pull into a corner shop with one beat up truck in the parking lot. Wrestle HH out of the carseat to find…Stop #2 only sells grass seed. But the owner’s brother Francisco sells veggie plants! 10 blocks away.

Wrestling matches four and five of the morning.

Stop #3 speaks only Spanish, but they have veggie plants! Exactly four types: white onions, green beans, and two types of peppers. Plus some basil. None on my list, but whatever. I was not going home empty handed. I took them all.

Set HH up at her post at the other end of the yard, and…

Hm. Maybe not the best planned layout.

Saturday I gave in and headed to Home Depot to see what I could find to fill out the rest of the garden box, plus a planter my parents had donated to our yard. And…here it is, our late summer/early fall crops for 2014:

Herbs
Italian Basil
Cilantro
Tarragon
Chives
BBQ Rosemary (smells amazing)
Trailing Rosemary
…plus some blue salvia, because it’s nice looking, drought tolerant, and the hummingbirds in our yard like it

Tomatoes
(Chosen solely based on their name…the same technique I use for my March Madness bracket, which has experienced moderate success over the years.)
Early Girl
Champion
Beefeater

Peppers
Anaheim
Green Sweet Bell
Red Sweet Bell

Squashes
Zucchini Squash
Straightneck Squash

Cucumber
Straight Eight

White Onions

I don’t know what a Straight Eight cucumber is, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t excited to find out.

Brush with Great(white)ness: The Dwight Crum Pier to Pier Swim

August 4, 2014March 22, 2016 ~ meh ~ 8 Comments

The night before the race it rained. In August. In LA. What.

The morning of was cloudy, rainy, and super humid. Fellow swimmer Vanessa picked me up at 6:30am. Weather.com predicted “chance of storms” all morning.

Where sharks are normally the thing I like to freak myself out about before an ocean swim (especially in this case, given what happened off the MB pier last month), after living in Kentucky I also excel at panicking about weather. And with the lightning incident in Venice last week and the humidity that high, I really started to stress out about a storm rolling in while we were out in the water, despite reassurances from the race director that they were “monitoring the situation”. Because let’s be serious, beach guards might know how to deal with sharks, but nobody in LA understands weather.

pre-race registration. the one picture i took the entire day

Before the race started the humidity mellowed out, and so did I. By the time we hit the water I was feeling fine about everything on all fronts.

The start was way way way easier than I expected. Not that crowded, no kicks to the face, no problem.

The water was super warm (almost 70), surprisingly clear given the fact it had been stormy, with a mild swell. Nothing crazy. I could see shadowy patches of seaweed along the bottom, but other than that no sea life. It was pretty pleasant, and I just decided to cruise along, avoid any big groups of male swimmers (who had gone off in the first wave, 5 minutes before us), zone out, and do my thing.

And that’s exactly what I did. I zoned out to some music in my head for about 30 minutes and just kept swimming.

As the pier got closer, I realized that I hadn’t seen anyone from the women’s heat in a really long time (we were all wearing the same color cap) and that I had been swimming pretty much by myself for probably 10 minutes. I guessed that the really fast women were in front of me and that the big pack was probably behind me. And I was by my lonesome in the middle. I did a little calculating and figured if I could keep sighting fine and swim straight I would be done in about 10-15 minutes. I was pretty happy to not be in the middle of a mass of agro dudes, but the thought did flitter through my mind that it might be nice to be a little bit closer to someone else for safety. But whatever, I was almost there.

That’s when I saw the shark.

I grew up near the ocean, I surf, and I’ve done tons of ocean swims. I’ve freaked myself out plenty of times touching seaweed and having seals or dolphins pop up next to me, but I’ve never seen a shark. This was not a “dark shadow”, it wasn’t like “maybe a dolphin”, the water was really clear, I had clear goggles on, and it was very, very clearly a great white shark. Not a super huge one, probably only 7 or 8 feet…but really, in a situation like this, does that matter?

via

This is one of those moments in life, one that you’ve thought about, like, “Hmmm, I wonder what I would do if I was in the middle of the ocean and suddenly I saw a great white shark.”

Well, predictably, first I pooped my speedo.*

Then, in a surprising second move, I popped my head out of the water and, trying to keep cool (NOT something I would have guessed to be a priority at a time like this), said to the guards on paddle boards a little ways away, “UUUH….UUUMMMMMM…UUUUUUUHHHH…THERE’S A SHARK. THERE’S A SHARK LIKE RIGHT. HERE. IT’S SWIMMING THAT WAY.”

There were a few things that made this way less freaky than it could have been. First: even though it was only maybe 10 feet from me (yes, that close), by the time I saw it, the shark was swimming away from me, not toward me (holy shit thank god). Second: the shark seemed calm and not at all interested in me. Third: though I was in big open space with no other swimmers around, there were guards on paddle boards all over the place…one of whom came paddling up to me, told me he couldn’t see the shark, and that I was “doing great, just keep swimming!”

I stopped and looked at him like, “How about I push you off your board and YOU ‘just keep swimming’?” I don’t know what I thought the alternative was, but at that point I couldn’t care less about the race and did NOT want to put my head back in the water and come face to face with anything toothy. I wanted second-by-second updates from the paddle board that the shark FOR SURE wasn’t coming back to eat me.

this is basically what i saw. this clear. that is not kelp. via.

I’d like to stick a disclaimer in here that logically yes, I know the shark was “probably more scared of me than I was of it” (umm…false), and that sharks don’t eat people intentionally, and that it was just roaming its natural habitat and wanted nothing to do with me, etc etc. But logic doesn’t always rule in these situations.

The guard said he would paddle with me until I hit the pier and keep an eye out, which I really, really appreciated and gave me a nice false sense of security. He was so calm and nonchalant about it that after about five minutes of me swimming with my head up so I could talk to him and make sure he still couldn’t see the shark I was like, oh….maybe I’m being a little too dramatic. At one point I actually think I apologized to him for “being such a wimp”.

Anyway, I (obviously) survived and made it to shore.

my hammerhead greeting party! …and me looking rough
(and, as my sister would say, “what a cute little boy!” we probably should put some bows on her or something, or at least dress her in not-grey)

The guard left me as I rounded the pier. By the time I hit land I was a little bit shaky from my brush with nature, so no big dramatic sprint up to the finish line. I remember seeing the clock at 54:xx as I was coming out of the water and being mildly bummed that I didn’t have it in me to sprint and squeak in under 50 (as the second wave, we left 5 minutes after the official clock started).

Official time: 50:15. First in my age group, whattup. Thanks, shark friend. (But two 13 year olds beat me, along with a 50 year old, so…yeah.)

Most of the field was still out in the water when I came in, and I didn’t want to freak people out by running up onto the beach screaming SHARK! SHARK! But I couldn’t wait to tell SOMEONE, so Paul got an earful when I found him. And when Vanessa got out of the water I immediately told her. Because seriously.

So there it is, the story of how I convinced all of my non-swimming friends to never, ever do an open water swim with me.

Happy Shark Week.

*This was a figurative poo. Sorry folks.

Pier to Pier

July 30, 2014March 5, 2015 ~ meh ~ Leave a comment

19.-Hermosa-Beach-Pier-620x356 via

A few weekends ago I signed up for the Dwight Crum Pier to Pier swim in Hermosa Beach, which is coming up this weekend. 2 mile swim from the Hermosa Beach Pier to the Manhattan Beach Pier. “Hmmm”, I hear you thinking, “the Manhattan Beach Pier sounds familiar…” And you’d be right. Because less than a month ago you probably heard about this.

Yes, that is what it looks like.

There was also the freak lightning strike that killed a person and injured 13 others in Venice last weekend. It’s been a busy summer at the beach.

The general consensus (definitely amongst swimmers) is that the shark attack was an isolated event caused by the fishermen on the pier (the shark was hooked on a fishing line for around half an hour and was totally freaking out…which, btw, is against the law in California. If you know you’ve hooked a shark you’re supposed to cut your line.)

I think anyone who has spent any time in the ocean has had to deal with shark issues. The concept is so terrifying it overrides the fact that the odds of it happening are lower than any number of other freakish ways to go. That being said, those waves of intense panic you experience when you see a shadow move under you and you’re 500 yards from shore are no joke. So you grasp onto any coping mechanism you have, no matter how ridiculous.

This time around, my solace comes in three parts: a good friend who is very smart and successful and will be in the water with me (because she surely has better judgement than I do); Olympian Rebecca Soni is swimming it as well (because if my friend doesn’t have better judgement an Olympian FOR SURE does…right Ryan Lochte?); the fact that over 1200 people are registered, at which point it just becomes a numbers game.

But really, I am excited about the swim. I’ve done many ocean swims in my life and sea creatures are just part of the deal. And from what I’ve heard, the bigger thing to be worried about is the start, which used to be a mass start but is now broken up into 3 waves. But that still means like 400 per wave.

mass start at hawaii 70.3, 2012

Big starts like this kind of freak me out, people get crazy.

Run, Run River

July 8, 2014July 9, 2014 ~ meh ~ Leave a comment

run, run river
carry me
to my home in the ocean
carry me away

Friends, meet my new running partner. The majestic Ballona Creek, in all its glory.

Ballona Creek is not technically part of the LA river, but much like the LA river it “cut(s) for miles through the city, along the concrete rims of our iconic, man-made waterways.” And it is where I spend a lot of hot, hot afternoons.

Let me tell you what is awesome about Ballona Creek:

This. A completely uninterrupted bike path that runs somewhere between 7-8 miles from Culver City to the beach. You don’t have to cross a single road. And there is an onramp less than 3 blocks from our place.

This beautiful, undisturbed continuity does mean there are some underpasses (and by “some” I mean many) which force hill training into the mix…

…as well as fartleks since I usually sprint as fast as I can past the mini homeless camps when I go under them. Especially the 405.

And while the creek has its fair share of overturned shopping carts, sketchy characters, and apparently runs through gang territory (uhhhh), bike traffic is heavy enough that I have never felt seriously unsafe.

Plus the jungle sprouting up from the concrete, bright shades of green gunk lining the creek bed, murals on the onramps, views of the oil-derrick-spotted Baldwin Hills, and little alcoves of green along this exposed, parched path does carry its own sort of beauty.

Not bad.

Adventures on the Dirt Path

June 13, 2014 ~ meh ~ 2 Comments

A few days ago I was just running along, running along, when I saw in the distance…

What the frak is that?

Zoom in.

Just a lady in a hat taking her two little horses with an abnormal amount of hair on their heads for a jog on the bike path.

I. Just. Felt. Like. Run.ning.

June 6, 2014June 13, 2014 ~ meh ~ 2 Comments

There is a bike path near my parents house and that follows a creek. About 7 minutes out from my house, the path splits and there is a dirt path that runs parallel to the bike path.

I know. It’s freaking awesome.

On parts of it, you get some nice views of the mountains over the watermelon fields.

Run along this path for just over 3 miles, and you hit the beach. 10K round trip.

And if you split off 2 miles in, it takes you to the lemon groves. Which go on for miles.

As I’ve mentioned before, it took me for.ev.er. to get back into running post-baby. The weight, my joints, my work schedule, the exhaustion…it took a really long time. Signing up for those two races (neither of which I actually did) was a good way to jump start my mileage, but I quickly realized that putting a race on the calendar didn’t fix the fact that I couldn’t run fast or as regularly as I used to. And when I tried to force either, I usually ended up hurting something.

Over those months my goal completely shifted from hitting any sort of PR to feeling normal. I just wanted to feel normal.

When I got back to CA, even though my days were pretty unstructured, I felt like I was drowning. Paul was gone, the baby stopped sleeping through the night, and I had a lot of things to take care of and no idea where to start. But I am very fortunate to have people in my life who made sure I had an hour every day to get out of the house for a run or swim.

And because I was so tired and there was so much other stuff going on, I could not care less about how fast I was going. I just went, happy to have a short window where it was OK to put all of my other real responsibilities (finding a house, a job, daycare, insurance, taking care of the baby) on hold, listen to a podcast or let my mind just wander, without feeling guilty.

Then one day on a run I realized….it wasn’t that bad. Without pushing at all, I was holding 9 min miles. I can make quasi-decent bases in the pool. My workouts are moderate in length and effort and I’m not in SUPER AMAZING shape, but I feel…normal. And feeling normal feels wonderful.

When I stopped stressing about how far I was from where I used to be, or where I wanted to be, when I took the stress out of running, I made progress. For me it was just a matter of not pushing too hard and time.

To top it off, I actually look forward to that hour every day. Heading out the door for my run doesn’t carry the same sense of dread it used to (maybe because anything is more appealing than writing another cover letter…) When you’re an active person who is always looking to improve, it’s easy to forget how lucky you are to be able to go out and jog, or bike, or swim, or climb, or walk, or whatever it is you do, and just be healthy.

Hopefully soon I will want to wear my Garmin on my runs, be up for track workouts, and focus hitting a 1:45 half marathon. But for now, being able to run and swim and feel normal is enough. So I’m going to take a little time and just…enjoy.

sunset at the airport, the end of the bike path

Whattup Tahoe…

June 5, 2014 ~ meh ~ 1 Comment

Guess who just nabbed herself a spot on a Trans Tahoe relay next month?

I haven’t done TT in 5 or 6 years and it is, along with the Bourbon Chase, one of my most favorite events of all time. I am super duper excited.

Amgen Tour of California

May 19, 2014May 20, 2014 ~ meh ~ Leave a comment

On Friday I happened to stumble upon the fact that stage 5 of the Amgen tour would be finishing in Santa Barbara THAT AFTERNOON.

I am not a huge cycling buff, but during my time working at the SBR shop in Kentucky I was exposed to my fair share of Tour de France and Beyond the Peloton DVDs. And I thought it would be awesome to see.

So after Memaw graciously agreed to watch HH for the afternoon, I was out the door and downtown in the hot, hot heat.

My friend Rika, who doesn’t particularly like cycling, just happened to be in town and agreed to stand with me to watch.

Around 3:45 the barricades were all up, nobody was allowed to cross the street, officials were yelling at pedestrians to STAY OFF THE ROAD, you could see the blinking lights of the escort in the distance…when suddenly a homeless dude on his cruiser with two large bags full of cans slung over one shoulder came cruising down the middle of the course.

He seemed somewhat tuned into the fact that something was…different, but completely oblivious that he was in the middle of it all.

Cue: mass hysteria.

Every official nearby was yelling and chasing after him, flags in the air. Caught completely off guard by the uproar, Can Man started swerving all over the road to avoid the various people trying to tackle him, almost colliding with one official in the process. There was a collective gasp as everyone envisioned cans strewn across the road as the peloton descended.

Surprisingly dexterous in steering his bike with one hand and carrying an unwieldy load in the other, Can Man managed to avoid crashing into anyone or anything, finally rolling off the road and into a nearby park yelling over his shoulder about how EVERYONE was being ASSHOLES. Crisis averted.

And then Taylor Phinney came flying by.

Crushing it.

Then came the peloton.

It all happened in bouts of about 3 seconds. I thought it was very exciting. At the end Rika was like, “That was it? That’s what we stood here so long for?” But ultimately agreed the homeless dude fiasco made the event worthwhile.

Nice little article on how brutal that leg was here.