A Year Later in San Diego

Rain in SoCal (photo credit: Francisco Arcaut)

Yesterday, June 30, was my year anniversary of closing on my condo. I'd have to say my first year of condo ownership has been an exciting and tumultuous ride. There were highs and lows. I have learned a lot, especially since becoming the HOA Board President. Even though it is stressful to deal with repairs and owner concerns/attitudes/drama, I feel this is the best thing for me. I guess it's my way of keeping things in control. I am making sure that things are structurally sound. In the past year we have had repairs to our tile roof, the patio/door above my unit that was causing a leak and all four garden windows in the kitchens (including mine) have been re-flashed due to leaking. The rains were pretty heavy for San Diego standards this past Fall/Winter and we paid the price. Typically it doesn't rain as hard or as often, but for the past year (June 30-July 1, 2011) we received 12.65 inches of rain. I realize that doesn't sound like a lot, but for Southern California standards it is significant, but not excessive. Our average rainfall is 10.77 inches. Some years were as low as 4-6 inches since I have lived here. I remember 2004/2005 we had 20+ inches, which was extremely rare.

June 30 was also the day that I gave my notice at my previous job in Orange County. I was very unhappy living up there so I am so glad that everything happened the way it did. I started a contract job in mid-July, but received a full-time offer at the agency I work for now 2 days into my contract job. It was all meant to be. I am still standing after 1 year and hope to remain in this position for a very long time. It's time Anthony stays at a job for more than 1-2 years. It's time to really THRIVE at my career. So far, I am doing really well. My goal is to be promoted within the next 18 months. I do think it's possible. I tend to not stay around long enough to even be promoted. I enjoy my work now since I no longer have to be stuck in the tech B2B world. I get to work within health care marketing on the B2C side and also do some work within B2B in the construction industry. It's great that I am now expanding my experience within other industry verticals. For so long I was pigeon-holed within the B2B technology/software/hardware market.

Running-wise I am doing ok, but not great. I have been trying to do 4 runs a week with the longest runs around 8-9 miles. This past week I did 9.5 miles and maintained a 7:07 pace, which was decent. I have run faster runs though in training. At my peak in 2007 I was doing 15-20 mile runs around 6:55 pace. My hamstrings still ache and now my lower back is tight. I believe this is due to not sitting correctly at work and hunching over too much. I am trying to work on this and maintain proper posture. I have been able to maintain pace averages from as fast as 6:50-7:15 min/mile pace, which is typical for me. I still worry about how I would perform in a race. I am pondering doing a 5K race in a few weeks during San Diego Pride weekend. I also may do a half marathon in November. I am not ready to do a half marathon in August (America's Finest City Half Marathon). It has sold out so it makes the decision easier for me. In terms of a marathon, I may try to do the Carlsbad Marathon in January, or Long Beach Marathon in Oct. Not sure yet. My body is just not like it used to be. I'm not as resilient.

One last mention about the entire patio/door repair. Last Friday, June 24, we did a water test to make sure the door was installed correctly and that no water would get through. Well, after a few minutes of spraying at the threshold of the door, water leaked through! I couldn't fucking believe it. I was actually really sad. After 7 weeks, I thought this mess was over with. The contractor had no explanation since he wasn't here when his subcontractors installed it. Once again, showing why we should have NEVER hired this guy. He was not involved enough and on site enough to monitor the job and the careless people he hired to do it.

After about 20 min of pressure spraying we determined that the under the threshold of the door there was not enough polyurethane put in, therefore creating a gap where water could leak through. VERY BASIC STUFF! I was outraged that such a careless mistake could be made, especially knowing that was one of the EXACT SAME PROBLEM we had with the previous door. Of course there were other issues like the fact that the door was never installed correctly or flashed correctly to begin with. The other issue we determined with this door is that the area where the bottom of the door meets the threshold, water gets through. So the manufacturer had to be called and after 5 days has finally called us back and are going to come here on Tues, July 5 to fix it. I am also involving the contractor to make sure everything is done correctly. We have a 5 year warranty on the weatherproofing system.

I have already started to have the ceiling and walls repaired, finally, after 6 months of the walls and ceilings of being open. I was waiting for the patio to be complete before starting. I didn't anticipate the water test to go poorly so the work was already scheduled for the day after the test. It's ok since it doesn't rain here in the summers and I KNOW they will be plugging up the leak under the door next week. As you can see from the photo on the left, the drywall has been installed. Now the guy we hired just have to finish with the spray texture this weekend. Then I will prime and paint the area.

Holiday Birthday party

I am determined to write more posts in December than I did in November! I did make more of an effort in Nov, but I really need to work on it. I have ideas in my head and then I am too lazy or tired. Excuses.

Wow, so I posted around Thanksgiving that I was sick. Well, the cold or whatever I had took a little over 2 weeks to completely go away. I cannot recall a cold that has ever lasted that long. Going running during this stretch of time probably didn't help matters, but I felt ok to run. Now I finally feel healthy again. I am still blowing my nose occasionally but it is very minor. And at least it's clear in its color.

Nathan's Red Velvet Brownies

My 35th birthday is coming up on Dec 20. I really don't like these 30-something birthdays. I used to think 30 is old. Now 35?? I decided to throw myself a holiday/bday party. I have 28 RSVPs so far. I have no clue how I will fit everyone into my 800 sq ft condo. I hope people come and go. Then it will be manageable. My friend Nathan Noland is a pastry chef from NYC, and upon my request, he is mailing me red velvet brownies for my party. Since there is such a red velvet cake and cup cake craze right now, I wanted to have something different. Although I am actually going to make green velvet cupcakes (I just bought the food coloring today!), this will be a nice addition to all the other sweets. I am asking people to bring cupcakes to exchange with one another. It's a Cupcake Exchange. So far I only have 4 people who signed up on that for the Evite.

Due to my severe cold, I didn't run as much as I had planned to. I have decided NOT to run the Carlsbad Marathon on January 23. It's too soon to me to be ready to run that kind of distance. I have only done a few 8-milers in the past month. I really should be up to 16, 17 miles by now. Anyway, the marathon has sold out so I couldn't do it even if I wanted to. Then I could do the Los Angeles Marathon on March 20. Still, it presents a logistical issue in that I would have to find a place to stay in LA or deal with getting a hotel, parking, etc, etc. So... it looks like I will aim for the San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon on June 5 next year. It will give me time to get my ass in gear. Why rush it?

I still debate the logic of running another marathon. I have done 10 so far and have achieved my marathon running goals. At my advanced age, it seems very difficult to get my body in the kind of shape I need to be in order to beat by fastest time of 2:57 (set in 2007). I am at peace with this. I will try to run that fast, but my hamstrings still ache on every run. At least my lower back is not an issue any longer, thanks to a better seat at work. I will see how the next few months go. I am not committing to anything. I will base train, do a few 10, 12 milers until early Feb. That is when I need to decide if I will start a more formalized training program.

This past weekend I worked 2 catering events. I really didn't want to since I had 2 parties of my own I wanted to attend on Saturday night. Still, the logical, money-conscious (CHEAP) Anthony decided he wanted to have some extra money for household purchases. One event was a surprise birthday at the club house of a very expensive housing community in Rancho Santa Fe, a suburban area of San Diego County. I had never really been to that area before. I will never have that much money. The homes were simply amazing, on tops of steep hills. I actually heard coyote howl during the night. The other event was this afternoon at this huge mansion located on the La Jolla Shores cliffs. I only worked about 4 hours. It was a holiday party for the La Jolla Democratic Club.

My Marathoning Future

So with my discovery about the better back support in my new work chair, I have renewed hope to be able to run another marathon soon.  My hamstrings are really sore lately, but I have been hitting decent paces. I feel optimistic about my training.

I was hoping to use the Carlsbad Marathon on Jan 23, 2011 to re-qualify for Boston Marathon, but I won't be doing that now as it sold out in 8 hours on Oct 18. It's the first time this has happened. Usually they open registration in early Sept and usually it takes until Jan or Feb to sell out. Well, things are different now. More and more people are running marathons and qualifying for the race. Also, since they opened registration in the middle of October, one of the most popular months for marathons, there was a sense of urgency to register quickly.

I did 8 miles on Saturday at 7:00 pace and I'll have to admit it was a bit of a struggle. I didn't do it early enough in the AM, so temps were around 70 degrees or so. I also ran 5 miles the night before. Mistake. I have to just take a rest day if I am going to have a successful longer run. I had to stop 3 times to stretch for about 30 seconds each time and I was so fatigued throughout this run. The tired feeling was probably due to not eating enough before the run and waiting too long to run after eating. Ideally I should run 60-90 min after eating. I think the key is stretching A LOT more before my runs, especially my runs that go over and hour. I also am going to try to work in some spin classes on my non-running days.

Car accident and changing my marathon plans

Today I got into a car accident on Balboa Island just a few blocks down from my apt. The island is made up of very narrow streets and alleys (kind of like some European streets). I was driving around 8:15am on the main street Park Ave. I was only going about 20 mph and an older gentleman in an SUV came barreling out of a side alley on my right-hand side. He clearly didn't look to his left as he would have seen me. It's hard to see though if you don't inch your way out enough to see past the cars parked on Park.

After he sped out of the alley I immediately saw him and I reacted quickly, swerving to my left and over the median. I definitely prevented a much larger accident as I only braised his left front bumper. If I had tried to stop I would have gone right into the driver's side of the car, potentially hurting him or even worse. I was lucky since there were no palm trees on that particular stretch of the median strip. My front left tire didn't fare as well. The wheel was bent from driving over the curb and the tire was ripped to shreds in certain spots. I called AAA since I have the AAA Premier membership. I get free towing up to 200 miles per incident and a free rental for 24 hours! It only cost $102 a year and IT IS WORTH EVERY DIME!

They came out within 30 min and changed my tire to my spare instead of towing it. Then I drove to the Firestone in Costa Mesa. I got picked up and brought to the Enterprise and selected my car and drove to work by 10:30am. What a morning! I pick up my car tomorrow at Firestone. The repairs came to over $400 since I had to replace both front tires, the wheel, get an alignment and a new hubcap. He said he would pay for everything. I am lucky as I needed new front tires anyway. Sometimes these situations work out.

Running Update

In my previous post I said I would try to do the Carlsbad Marathon on Jan 24, 2010 in order to re-qualify for Boston Marathon, which is on April 19, 2010.

I found out about the Surf City Marathon in Huntington Beach only a few weeks later on Feb 7, 2010 (SuperBowl Sunday). That is only 15 min north and much more convenient. I was at physical therapy last night and was chatting with my therapist about my plans to do Carlsbad. Then this other patient there said the Surf City Marathon was a lot faster and flatter than Carlsbad. I definitely agree.

I must re-qualify for Boston Marathon at this race by running a 3:10:59 or faster. If I am healthy it shouldn't be a problem considering I have run under 3:10 at 6 of the 10 marathons I have run so far, with two of them under 3:00. I just need to stay healthy and LISTEN TO MY BODY!

I feel confident that my PT sessions are helping me. I am doing all the right things by running every other day. I am stretching and I am icing. Everything I should be doing. In a few more weeks I may be able to add another day to my training so I will be up to 4 days of running per week... hopefully.