Time Off

Last week was my final week of work before I took some time off to move and relax a bit before law school. It was a crazy week filled with parties and presents and send offs. My co-workers showed me how much they care over a double shot of Jamison, a few beers, and a bowl of frozen yogurt. I still managed to get up at 6 and go to the gym, so that tells me a lot about how I’ll manage in the next 6 months.

Anyhow, with all the excitement, I neglected the blogosphere. I am back to report that even since I’ve been off work and free to lounge around, sleep-in, and get off track, I haven’t. I have been very busy moving and packing, but also still making it to bed on time and hitting the gym early.

Yesterday was especially fun as I got my 5+ miles in as well. My mom and I decided to go explore the Muir Woods/Stinson Beach area because it really is in my “backyard” and it’s a shame not to see the things that are so easily accessible.

Here are some photos and a short video from the fun, outdoor-filled day.

Muir Woods:


It's a little shaky, but I love the sound of the stream so I had to take a little video!


The lighting was really good when we first arrived


A picture of me standing by a redwood


My mom next to a large fallen tree, for reference she’s 5’6

Highway 1 in between Stinson Beach and Olema/Point Reyes Station:


It was getting pretty foggy on our way home

In random fun news, when we were at Point Reyes Station I spotted Lili Taylor, who played Lisa on Six Feet Under. She was with her boyfriend, Author Nick Flynn, and their daughter. My sighting went a little like this:

As I was leaving a new and used book store I spot this woman that looks oddly familiar. When I make my way out the door past her, she says something to the guy she’s with, instantly I think, “She’s an actress, she was in something, I know that voice!”

Then I go outside and proceed to stare at her through the window, but it was just her back. When my mom makes it outside I say, “Hey I think that woman is an actress, go look and see who she is”

So my mom goes in there and tries to be inconspicuous but in the mean time they leave before she gets a good look. I’m still outside and I get another really good look and KNOW she must have been in something. My mom followed them out but says she didn’t really get a good look at them. I tell her, “I know she was in something, let me just think about it”

But then when I turn there are these two chicks eating their treats from the bakery next door with that same “I just saw someone famous” grin on their face. Then the one with the piercing turns and says to her friend, “that was the chick from Six Feet Under” and instantly I knew it was true.

In other celebrity sightings, when I went for my second visit to the much loved newish Oakland establishment Camino on Monday night, Alice Waters was there. How perfect.

Athlete Redefined

Inspired by this and this, as well as Olympic fever; I have been pondering my recent quest to become fit again. I try not to think too hard about it, because really the bottom line is that it's good for me.

As a high school athlete plagued with tendonitis I had this feeling of being washed up. I'm only 21! Yet, getting back into fitness and sports I often ask myself, where are you going with this? I didn't play any sports in college and I often feel like I missed some grand opportunity. If I'm being honest with myself, I know I wasn't that good, and my parents weren't the type to push me, nor were they in a financial position to stick me on a club team or the like, which in the tennis world is basically traveling a lot to USTA tournaments.

The recent media flurry over Dara Torres got me thinking.

Photo by Marc Serota for The New York Times

For her, at 41, being an athlete means making her 5^th trip to the Olympics. She still has plenty of good races in her.

One of my other favorite athletes is tennis star Martina Navratilova

www.martinanavratilova.com

Martina finished her professional career with a final Grand Slam title at the 2006 US Open winning the Mixed Doubles with Bob Bryan. She didn't retire until she was just shy of her 60^th birthday! Now, she is a commentator for the Tennis channel.

Sure, I missed the boat on the NCAA, WNBA, WTA, but is that what being an athlete means to me? I guess at one point it was. I can't see myself ever competing in any kind of running event, which seems to be pretty accessible. However, I do see myself continuing to play all kinds of sports, getting better, faster, stronger than I was 5 years ago. Maybe I'll start competing again, join a community or masters team, but hey, maybe I won't. Being an athlete doesn't mean it has to be a career. Accepting that has allowed me to enjoy my fitness pursuits so much more.

For once, there isn't an end game. There is no medal or trophy to push me further. All I have is my own desire to be the best.

With that-I leave you with my interpretation of something Lisa said on her quest to become The Next Food Network Star.

"I strive to be a less dominating perfectionist"

More Quinoa

So two weeks ago I guest posted about one of my simple and standard Quinoa recipes. Recently I have been trying numerous variations and I had a lot of fun with one on Tuesday night.

I had pre-made some quinoa on Monday night based on a really handy tip from 101 Cookbooks, which I found from Fitarella’s blog roll, so thanks! Speaking of blog rolls they should call them rabbit holes as once you start clicking through blog rolls it never ends and all the sudden you lost four hours.

I made 6 cup and froze a bag full and kept one in the fridge since I knew I was going to use it the following day.


I decided to steam the veggies instead of roast them and thus needed a sauce.


I love avocados so I decided to basically make guacamole but with tons o’ lime so it would be more liquidy.

Sauce:

1 avocado
3-4 limes
2 cloves garlic



O, and I crumbled some herb goat cheese on top, yummy.


When I was eating my leftovers at lunch:


I couldn’t help but think how delightful it would be thrown in the oven with a layer of shredded cheese on top so it could get all crispy...

Ask and You Shall Receive

A while ago I blogged about the gym as one of my distractions at law school. To be more exact, it was really the lack of a gym I liked as a reason to come back to the Bay Area to train. As much as I love my trainer and do still plan to come back to train when I can, it is not feesable to do often, and I need to have a place I can go everyday.

In doing some digging online, I only came up with two places I thought I would be reasonably happy: here or here.

Lucky for me I don't have to settle because I really don't like settling. Anyway, I mentioned to my current gym owners that I hadn't really found a decent replacement for them, and they were kind enough to save me from CrossFit. Don't get me wrong, people love it, I just don't think it fits me and my fitness goals. Besides I seem incapable of doing a proper squat (either a hip problem or a lower back one, not quite sure), so CrossFit might kill me.

Introducing Chip Conrad's Physical Subculture aka Bodytribe:



Hallelujah.