Showing posts with label Greece. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greece. Show all posts

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Missed the Boat


It's been a while since I last wrote a blog entry.  That's because I went to Greece for two weeks and every time I thought about attempting to blog, I immediately felt too lazy to do it.  I didn't even reply to your sweet comments about my move stress until about...5 minutes ago.   Thank you for them!

Bottom line, anyone who said "let's meet up in LA" or "I want to visit you"....in the comments of my last entry....let's do it!  Drinks, running, surfing on my coach.  You know where to find me (electronically).  

As I thought about this blog entry in a jet-lagged stupor, I considered bombing you with happy beautiful photos, Facebook style.  Because...it was a glorious trip.  I got to spend time with family (my aunts and cousins live in Greece), see amazing places, and really get away from it all.  I even got to trail run a bit!

I've returned happier.  But ya know...all that family album stuff isn't really my blog style.  So here's a story from my trip....

Missing The Boat

My vacation to Greece was going awesome so far.  We were five days into our trip.  My brother, sister-in-law, boyfriend, and me toured around Athens, Meteora, and now back to Athens again for two days.  I figured it would be nice for Anthony and me to have some time as a couple, so we decided to take a day trip to Hydra - just the two of us.

My guide book told me that Hydra is an island off the coast of Athens and is known for it's charming atmosphere, mansions, and the fact that they don't allow any vehicles (including bicycles!) on the island.


Wonderful, I thought.  Even better, we got to take a ferry to the island.  I love ferries.  My brother warned me that the Greek boat system can be confusing if you're not familiar with it, so we took extra care when buying the tickets and got to the dock super early.  A couple Frappe's later, we were off!

Anthony and I settled into the boat and watched an episode of Breaking Bad on his ipad.  The boat stopped at the shore and we hopped out.

We got some lunch and started walking around the Hydra.  It was a little weird because there were definitely bikes, cars, you name it, on the island.  But my Greek language skills sucked too bad to ask the natives about the change so we just rolled with it.  Neither Anthony nor I had done much research on the island so we wandered around from shop to shop.  It was awesome.  I even made a video log to share how beautiful it was!

(yes, I do always sound like I'm on drugs). 

Our tickets back were for around 9:15 PM so we got some dinner right by where the dock was.  And I made another video.  Because "I'm like Meryl Streep".


At some point, we started getting a little suspicious.  No one else seemed to be gathering for a boat.  In fact, we were the only ones hanging out at the dock at all.  I asked several people about the tickets, and they assured me we were in the right spot.  I figured hey...it's Europe...they do things on their on time scale here.

After waiting over an hour, I found a guy who told me to talk to some lady, who then informed me that our tickets were for the wrong island.  My heart sank!

I told her that was impossible because we got here on the same tickets.

And the it dawned on me.  The ferry made multiple stops.  We'd spent the entire day on a different island and had no idea!  We'd even checked in on Facebook into "Poros"!

How is it possible to spend 9 hours in one place and think you're in another? 

All the random things that didn't seem quite right throughout the day (like there being motorized vehicles on the island, etc.) started coming back to me.  Damnit!

The next boat back to Athens didn't leave until 7:30 AM the next morning, so we got a hotel, and Anthony chilled and drank with the random Greek family that owned the hotel.  They were crazy nice and fun. 

And I did what any Kardashian in my situation would do.  I made a another video.


All's well that ends well.  We got back to Athens the next morning safely and only a few Euro's lighter in our pocket.   Ok fine like 100. And maybe a tiny chip off my ego as well.

Learn from my rookie mistake.  If you're on a boat in Greece, remember, it may make multiple stops.  And you may be stuck for a long time.  But hey, even if you're not on the right island, you're still on a Greek island, right?

I'll  see ya next time, Hydra!
::face palm::

(PS:  If anyone is wondering "uh isn't this supposed to be a running blog?".  It still is.  I just haven't been doing that much so I don't want to write about it yet.  But I will soon, because I need to get my butt into gear for NYC!)

Monday, August 6, 2012

NYC Marathon What?

I'm going to say the obvious:

"I can't believe it's almost fall already".

The older I get, the faster time goes by.  By the time I'm 60, I think it's going to be like I'm living in a black hole.  Only less violent.

The fact that it's already August means a few things:
1) NYC Marathon Training Time!
2) If I'm going to do a triathlon in 2012, I better get on it.
3) Greece Trip  (Hell(as) yes).
4) SarahOual had an awesome marathon party and you can read about it here, here, and here.   Love those girls
5) My new compression socks came in the mail.

#5 I have all taken care of:

It's hard to express how kickass these socks are.  ProCompression, please make more designs for every holiday and occasion.   I actually got the Orange socks too, but my roommate/friend took them for herself after I told her wearing compression socks is like getting a leg hug.  Considering I accidentally eat her food a lot because I forget who bought what, I'll call it even. 

Marathon Training

I'm running the New York Marathon.  I've always wanted to run this marathon, and since this is the last year I'll get guaranteed entry unless the "elite fairy" visits me, I figured, gotta do it in 2012!

I'm tempted to run NYC without any sort of weekly plan at all.  Sometimes running plans just make me feel bad if I can't keep up with their mileage or workouts.  And I think I'm better at running by feel.  I also don't want to fall into an overtraining rut.

Here's what I'm thinking my early training weeks will look like:

One "long" run,
One semi long run + tempo (I'm thinking 5 easy + 5 tempo)
One straight up tempo or longish intervals

The rest of the days can be whatever feels right.  Hopefully that's more running most of the time, but I don't want to beat myself up over comparing myself to superwomen who run way more than I do.  

I'd like to peak at around 55 miles a week.  And I'd like to have fun.  I want to do a couple long runs with my friends.   I want to continue hanging out on the track on Tuesdays!   And I'd like to buy some new bunny ears.  Black ones would be sweet.

I think reasonably I should aim for a 3:20 - 3:30 marathon.  If I get faster in the fall, cool, but assuming I keep the same capabilities, I think this is a reasonable pace to target. 

If anyone has any suggestions on marathon training, I'd love to hear them!

Triathlon

I've been searching for a Tri to do in Southern California that has an open water swim but where it's short and calm enough so that I probably won't down/die.  Or look like this little fella:

source

I think I've found one!

The De Soto Mission Bay Triathlon 

This one is great because the swim is only 500 meters and it's in a bay.  I think if I continue swimming a couple times a week I can be ready to do this in 8 weeks.  Swimming remains a hilarious experience where people using kickboards pass me.   It's always a humbling experience to learn a new sport.  I'm no expert biker either, but right now, I'd just like to complete a triathlon!  

Anyone want to do this with me?

Greece

I'm going to Greece in late August for two weeks!  Hell yeah!  Right now we're planning to go to Athens, Hydra, Meteora, and Lesvos / Mytilene (where my family is). 

I've actually never been, so I'm super pumped to meet some of my relatives and see the country.  Right now, I'm planning to barely run while I'm there.  Honestly, I don't want to wake up super early and I don't want to inconvenience everyone else with my OCD running habits.   Plus I think some days off would do me good.  I'm one of those people that has to be pretty deathly ill to not work out, and this will give me time to recover and enjoy the time off.  An occasional morning swim in the Aegean doesn't sound TOO awful, however. 

Of course, I'll miss a couple weeks of marathon training, but I figure if I can build a base now, I'll lose less fitness on vacation.

Plus I'm pretty sure being that close to the town of Marathon will make me faster by association. 

Right?  :)