recap

A year in review: 2020

December 31, 2020 filed under: my so-called life, recap, review

How do you sum up this godforsaken year?

Well, let me say first: this has by no means been the hardest year of my life. I’ve personally had more challenging years, but it’s hard to ignore the fact of what we’ve all been through collectively in 2020.

I’m writing this from a place of immense privilege and I know it. I really didn’t have much to complain about this year. I am a homebody by nature and going into lockdown and isolation hasn’t cramped my style as it has for other, more extroverted people. I transitioned nearly seamlessly to a WFH life (and actually like it!), I kept up a good running routine, I was mostly fine with not seeing people (except for my family’s canceled visit this summer), and Jon and I have been content with being around each other all the time. Even if we occasionally lamented the fact that we couldn’t go out to dinner or get away for the weekend, we both agreed that we were making the best of a shitty situation and things could be a lot worse.

The only things that matter at the end of this crazy year are that we both remained healthy, I kept my job (and income), we were able to pay our bills and feed ourselves, we could go for runs and walks, and had a private outdoor space to enjoy. We’ve been luckier than so many.

I contemplated if I wanted to recap this year as I have previous years, but for the sake of consistency and the mere fact that 2020 happened, as much as we would like to just wish it away, here’s my recap of this weird year.

JANUARY

In January, as always, we welcomed the new year with coffee and a New Year’s pretzel. I posted my list of things I wanted to do in 2020. Surprisingly, while many plans ended up being derailed, I accomplished almost all of them. The highlight of January was a women’s retreat in Tahoe with a full day of skiing over MLK weekend. I had hoped to get back on the slope last winter, but alas, that ended up not happening.

FEBRUARY

In February, I picked my word for the year. I am not sure I really lived up to it. I attended an “author’s workshop” at work, which I should have taken years ago (given the time I’ve been working at my current workplace). I met Kathrin, a fellow German living in the Bay Area, for the first time in person and also saw Ute, a fellow German living in CT, again after many years. I abandoned my bullet journal and found a new favorite planner. I started half marathon training.

MARCH

In March, I talked about why voting is so important. I celebrated my birthday, just before the whole world shut down. The new motto became “flatten the curve!“. It took me a little while to get my blogging footing back, and I started a series – blogging through the Covid-19 crisis – to document my own experience of the Covid-shutdown, not knowing that we were in for a long, wild ride.

APRIL

In April, I started to sew masks. Like so many of us. My gym shut down and I started running in the early mornings before work. It was the only thing I knew how to do. I baked zucchini bread. I settled into my work from home routine. My friend Tanja was supposed to come visit and run the American River Parkway Half Marathon with me at the end of the month. Of course, that didn’t happen. Instead, we ran the race virtually, each in our own neighborhoods, and even though it was unexpected, I finally got my (unofficial) sub-2 hour PR in the half marathon this year. Who could have seen that coming?

MAY

I started baking bread with a sourdough starter that I received from a friend in late April. It’s been the most cliché and the best ‘new’ hobby that has come from this pandemic. I have baked every weekend since. We got our outdoor space ready for the summer and Jon and I celebrated our 14th anniversary.

George Floyd died at the hand of police in Minneapolis and racial tensions flared up big time.

JUNE

In June, I celebrated Global Running Day and ran for a good cause. I tried to confront being uncomfortable, educate myself, share resources, and stand in solidarity with the black community. I know there is tons more work to do. I shared some running lessons during Corona times and also posted another update of my blogging through the Covid-19 crisis series.

JULY

In July, I had some thoughts on Independence Day. I made our own variation of a Classic Niçoise Salad. I talked about how I fit a workout into a busy day, and how I got my sister to run a half marathon (We were supposed to run the half marathon together in San Francisco this summer, but that didn’t happen and I am so proud of her that she still continued her training and ran the distance!). We spent many summer evenings barbecuing in the backyard.

AUGUST

In August, I kept up with my early morning runs and witnessed many beautiful sunrises along the river. I also shared my strength training routine. I wrote another blogging through the Covid-19 crisis update. I got my (road) bike fixed up and went on a bike ride, followed the presidential debates, and send snail mail just because.

SEPTEMBER

In September, I bought a spin bike. Probably the best pandemic purchase of the year. It arrived just before the California wildfires caused major smoke plumes and locked us into our homes for weeks. I had officially worked from home for six months. I shared all the things I baked in quarantine. Ruth Bader Ginsburg died and I wondered what else 2020 was going to throw at us. I posted the recipe for quick 4-ingredient Almond Butter Oat Cookies.

OCTOBER

In October, I talked about the importance of rest days. I urged people to vote in the presidential election. We celebrated Jon’s birthday, and I ordered Stumptown coffee for him. I wrote another Covid-19 update.

NOVEMBER

In November, I participated in NaBloPoMo for the 14th year! I blogged my way through the last few days of the election. It was finally confirmed that we elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. It’s most likely been the highlight of this year and gives hope to so many of us. I became an ambassador for MudLOVE and am thrilled to support such an awesome small business. For Thanksgiving, we stayed home, I ran a virtual Turkey Trot with Tanja in the morning and then prepared a ~~turkey~~ chicken with all the trimmings just for the two of us. That weekend, I also baked my family’s Spritz Cookies to start the holiday season off on the right foot.

DECEMBER

In December, I bought a bigger and nicer Christmas tree. I was set on making this holiday season great, Covid be damned, and for whatever reason, that tree made me so very happy. I also shared a holiday wish & gift list (because those are always fun!) and sent out a bunch of ~~Christmas~~ New Year’s cards.

Shortly before Christmas, Covid-19 hit closer to home than I ever wanted it to. Someone in my family tested positive, after being so vigilant for months. I understand this is bad news if your family lives around the corner, but emotionally it’s on a different level when you’re 6000 miles away. I definitely freaked out there for a second, because you never know how this virus is going to affect someone, and I am only willing to share this now because nobody else contracted the virus (thank god) and the person, who had it, never developed symptoms. We got so very lucky.

But I want to warn you that however ‘safe’ you feel and however cautious you think you are, do better. There are still no guarantees that you won’t catch it (we all have to take some risks, however small they might be) and this will only get better if we’re are all willing to make sacrifices, to stay home as much as possible, and to mask up when we’re in public.

I told you about how we spent our Christmas this year and also summed up my ten best pandemic purchases.

And now we’re ringing in a new year, safely from the comfort of our own couch, hoping that 2021 will shape up to be a much kinder year for us all.

RECAPS FROM PREVIOUS YEARS:

2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019.

Monthly Recap | February

February 29, 2020 filed under: my so-called life, recap

I feel lucky that we’re getting this extra day in February this year (every extra day is great in my book, haha!) and I am taking advantage to post my monthly recap today. Do I sound like a broken record, when I say, that February disappeared as quickly as it came? Or, is it just me?

READ

I finished ROAR: How to Match Your Food and Fitness to Your Unique Female Physiology for Optimum Performance, Great Health, and a Strong, Lean Body for Life by Stacy Sims. I thought it was very good and had a lot of valuable information and I can see myself referring back to this book a lot going forward.

COOKED

We made turkey cutlets with homemade sweet potato fries and roasted veggies quite a few times this month. So easy, so satisfying.
When we love something, we tend to make it over and over (do you do that, too?). Same goes for a heavily adapted, lighter version of Zuppa Toscana (I won’t even link to the original recipe, as we changed it quite a bit, but needless to say, it was a favorite around here). I am committed to making soup as often as I can before it gets too warm for hot soups (haha, I am typing this as our temperature hit close to 80F yesterday).

WATCHED

I watched part of the Academy Awards at the beginning of February and realized that I hadn’t seen any recent movies in, like, forever. To remedy that, I watched “Marriage Story” on Netflix and am hoping to catch up on another few that won awards. Which ones have you seen and would recommend?

LISTENED TO

I listened to a few guided runs on the Nike Run Club App. I also listened to a lot of NPR this month. They always have such good coverage of the day-to-day news. Do you listen to your local public radio station?

BOUGHT

I bought a couple of new workout clothes on sale at Old Navy, running tights and a sports bra. I also got a BlenderBottle® (as I am experimenting with some protein powders) and some underwear from Target (TMI, ha). Oh, and we got flights to go down to SoCal in March.

RAN (and cycled)

I ran 55 miles and cycled 59 miles in February. This is up from January and I am happy about it. Let’s see how March goes.

GOING-ONS

+ In case you missed it, I finally (settled on) and shared my One Little Word® for this year: Cultivate. What’s yours?

+ There was some girl time this month! I got to meet my long-time IG and blog friend Kathrin for the first time (after following each other online for quite a while) and I also got to see my friend Susi again and reunite with Ute, when she was visiting the Bay Area.

+ I mentioned in one of my Five Things Friday posts that I attended an author training class at work earlier this month and it was so, so valuable. At my work-place, publications are super-duper important and I honestly don’t know why nobody (as in, my supervisor(s)) had me take this class earlier).

+ I started half marathon training again a couple of weeks ago. I “merged” two training plans that I found online to make a plan that fits my schedule and goals. I have to admit, I am so, so happy to finally be following a training plan again. I do pretty well without a plan, but I just love the ease of not having to think about what kind of workout I’ll do on any given day, when I can simply follow a plan.

+ I enjoyed the beautiful spring weather that we had here in Northern California (although it was also one of driest Februarys in history and that’s never a good look!). I was able to run in t-shirts and get out my sandals.

+ Are you at all following the primaries? I know, some people are tuning out and I am going back and forth between trying to stay in the know and just waiting to see what happens. I am so glad we’re part of Super Tuesday voting this year. California deserved a more prominent voting spot in the primary season. I already cast my ballot, but I can’t wait to see what happens.

How was your February?

Women’s retreat at Tahoe

February 3, 2020 filed under: holidays, recap, travel, weekend

My friend Susi invited me along for a girls’ weekend with some of her mom friends from German School. We were headed to Tahoe over the MLK holiday weekend and stayed at U’s vacation home in Truckee. I was thrilled to get up to the mountains during winter time and very thankful that I was invited to come along.

It’s always a little awkward when you join a group of people that you mostly don’t know and my introverted self was a little bit anxious, but as so often, the worry was unnecessary and dissipated quickly once we had all introduced each other. We ended up having a really great time.

We arrived around 6 pm at Friday night in a winter wonderland. I couldn’t have been happier.

We had previously talked about things we wanted to do while we were there, and besides some outdoor activities during the day, we had all agreed on just hanging out at the house, cooking together, puzzling, reading, knitting/crocheting, and just enjoying each others’ company.

We also played Cards Against Humanity, which I had heard about, but had never played before. Well, let’s just say that it’s true that it’s “a party game for horrible people”, because some of the card statements made me either blush or drop my jaw. However, I am wondering what it says about me that I didn’t just win this game once, but twice over the weekend.

As J noted: still waters run deep.

Some of the women went cross country skiing on Saturday, while Susi and I and C hung out at the house. We went on a nice snow walk around the neighborhood and then started (the first of two) puzzle(s) when we got back.

The puzzle was really cool: the posters of all the U.S. National Parks.

We started a second puzzle in the evening and everybody got involved.

On Sunday, Susi and I had planned to go downhill skiing, but the week before the getaway, Susi had injured her knee and couldn’t participate in any sporting activities. As I didn’t know if anyone else wanted to go, I wasn’t sure if I was going to get to go skiing after all, but luckily, three others wanted to go and so we headed over to Homewood Mountain Resort on the western shore of Lake Tahoe in the morning.

I have my ski boots here in California, but don’t own skis anymore, so I had to rent them and I almost toppled over backwards when I heard that they wanted $99 for just the ski rental for the day. Gosh, Tahoe’s expensive. But hey, there was no backing out now.

Luckily, I had already bought the lift ticket for a discount at REI.

I was a little taken aback by the “outdatedness” of the ski resort. The ticket had to be scanned by hand (I was used to automatic scanners that read the ski ticket through your jacket) and when we got to the chair lift, it didn’t have a safety bar. I’ve never seen that in the Alps.

BUT: once I hit the slopes, it was blissful. Originally, we had planned to ski for a half day, but in the end, we spent 6 hours on the slopes. The others were beginners, so we took the easier runs most of the time, but that was fine with me. I was just happy to be skiing! The day was a little overcast, which was great because the snow stayed great the whole time.

And the views! Just amazing! We kept going back for more and spent 6 hours on the slopes!

Sunday night was for a movie, a delicious dinner, and face masks before we all headed to bed. We had planned to head back home early on Martin Luther King Jr Day to beat the holiday traffic, so the last night was an early night for all of us.

It was a really great weekend though and I am so glad I was asked to come along!

Did you do something fun over the long holiday weekend?

Monthly Recap | January

January 31, 2020 filed under: my so-called life, recap

Can you believe that January is already over? I feel like we just celebrated New Year’s Eve. Gah. I can’t be the only one. But here we are, it’s January, 31st and we’re doing the monthly recap. Let’s do this.

READ

Three books! 2020 reading is off to a pretty good start. One of the books I read was “The love prison made and unmade” by Ebony Roberts, a memoir about the toll prison takes on people and their loved ones. Powerful and heart-breaking.

COOKED

I ~~cooked~~ roasted Japanese sweet potatoes for the first time (hint: they’re purple with white flesh) and they’re a beautiful mix between a sweet potato and a normal potato. You should give them a try. We also keep making this broccoli-chicken soup that I previously recommended.

WATCHED

I watched the Academy Awards (sort of) and the News (in small doses). I also watched a German movie (“Dancing Quietly”) and a German Christmas mini-series (“Holiday Secrets“) on Netflix at the beginning of the month.

LISTENED TO

I listened to a few episodes of Pod Save America and also Michael Moore’s new podcast Rumble with Michael Moore.

BOUGHT

I bought a new planner at the beginning of this month. And I used a gift card to buy two fitness and health books at Barnes and Noble. (I forgot how much fun actual book stores are. Note to self: go more often!) I also picked up a couple of dumbbell weights to use at home for strength workouts. Oh, and not to forget: tickets for Pearl Jam in the spring. Woot!

RAN (and cycled)

I ran 35 miles and cycled 51 miles. I mentioned this week that my goal is to run 600 miles this year, which would come out to 50 miles per month. I didn’t quite hit that number this month, but I am hoping to get some higher mileage months in the spring!

GOING-ONS

+ I am so thrilled I got a VersaDesk at work. A little back story: I used to have a height-adjustable standing desk in my old office which I never really used much. I had to give it up when I moved into the cubicle, but of course, instantly regretted that I never took advantage of it when I had it. When our safety officer sent out an email at the beginning of the month that a couple of VersaDesks were available, I instantly jumped on it. It’s a little big for my cubicle, but I’ve been working standing up for a couple of hours every day and I love it.

+ As you already know, I went on a girls’ weekend retreat at Tahoe in January (yes, I am still planning to share a recap). I was nice to get away to the snow. It’s so strange because it never snows in Sacramento but you drive 1,5 hours east and we’re in a winter wonderland. I love it.

+ My friend Tanja and I set a goal to do two strength workouts at home during the week on the days when we don’t go to cycling or the gym. It’s great to have an accountability buddy to check in with and to keep each other motivated and on track!

+ I trimmed my own hair. After complaining about how expensive it is to get my ends trimmed (even at the barber shop), I took matters into my own hands last week and just chopped off 2 inches of my hair myself.

+ I finally made homemade granola again and used an adapted recipe with buckwheat. Have you ever tried it in granola? It has a nice crunch!

+ I mentioned in my Five Things Friday-post that one of our favorite restaurants has “50 Cent Wing Monday” and we didn’t only go once, but twice this month. How can you resist?

+ I’ve been trying to establish a new habit of taking more lunch break walks, especially on days when I don’t go to the gym or run outside. I work a desk job for 10+ hours a day, so it’s imperative that I get some extra steps in during the day!

+ Is anyone following the Impeachment Trial? Of course, I am not watching the full day coverage, but what I see in the evenings is enough to want to pull my hair out. I cannot believe some of the arguments that are made! Is the president really above the law? How can a lawyer argue that if it’s in the interest of the country for the president to be re-elected, he can pretty much do anything? (I want to see that precedent stand when a Democrat is president again, which by the way, I think shouldn’t!) So yeah, as always, things are frustrating as hell on the political front.

How was your January?

Tuesday Topics: My year of running 2019

January 7, 2020 filed under: fitness, recap, running, Tuesday Topics

It’s not too late to recap my running year 2019, or is it?

This was my 5th full year as a dedicated runner and I felt pretty good about my running year. Overall, it was a slower year than before. I ran fewer miles and fewer races, but I stayed – once again- injury free, which I am so thankful for, and kept a pretty good exercise routine.

I ran…

469 total miles (less than in the previous year, but I spent more time cross-training and cycled 450 miles),
3 official races – 1 Half Marathon, one 10k, one 5k,
no virtual races this year, and
no new PRs.

It definitely felt like I did a lot more, but these are the official numbers. Two local half marathons that I had planned to run last year, I had to cancel because I traveled overseas to see family instead (it was an easy decision, haha). Sometimes, your priorities shift and that’s ok.

Best race experience: Running towards the Golden Gate Bridge during the SF 1st half marathon this summer. Since the race is in July and very early in the morning, the bridge is usually covered in fog, but we got really lucky this year and had a beautiful, almost fog free view with sunshine and blue skies!

Best run: I love the runs that feel light and easy (ha, who doesn’t?!).

Running High: Shaving off another couple of minutes of my SF half marathon PR on the 1st half course.

Running Low: I had a few runs that I was totally excited for, but which felt hard and slow and where my breathing was off and/or my legs were heavy. These runs always make me question if I should continue this running thing (but don’t worry, that feeling usually doesn’t last very long).

Best piece of new running gear: I won a $50 Lululemon giftcard and splurged on some Lululemon Speed Up Shorts* this summer. I didn’t really get any other new running gear to rave about.

Best running advice that I received this year: Listen to your body. I dealt with some weird symptoms (racing heart, heartburn) in the late summer after my half marathon and even though everything checked out fine at the doctor’s and didn’t seem to be related to running at all, I scaled back my training and took it easy for a while.

Most inspirational ~~runner~~ walker: My husband. He’s not a runner, but he’s gotten into a pretty regular walking routine and he participated in his first 5k at the Davis Moo-nlight Run. I was so proud of him.

Favorite picture from a race:

Race experience you would repeat in a heartbeat: I ran my first Turkey Trot this year (I know! Don’t ask!) and definitely want to do that again. It’s just amazing to see so many people turn out for a Thanksgiving run/walk!

If you could wrap up your year in a couple of words, what would they be? I am thankful for every mile.

It doesn’t matter how may races you run (in my case, not many at all last year) or how many PRs you achieve (no new ones), in the end, running is about commitment, staying active and healthy, and enjoying your self in the process. If your heart is not in and you feel “pressured” to (do any) exercise, it won’t be sustainable.

Thanks for all the support this year. I’ve come to love the running blog and Instagram community!

How was your year of running? Any highs or lows you’d like to share?

I am linking up again with Kookyrunner and Zenaida for Tuesday Topics.

* #notanad, This is not a sponsored post. I have not been compensated by the brand or anyone else for linking the websites.

A year in review: 2019

January 3, 2020 filed under: my so-called life, recap, review

I cannot believe how fast 2019 came and went. If I had to sum the year up in a few words, it would be the year of reuniting with family and friends. I got to go to Germany in the spring to see one of my best friends get married, I reunited with not one, not two, not three, but four old friends, and attended my nephew’s first communion.

I got to hang out with some “local” (as in, Californian) friends this year, I kept running many miles and also added cycling to my routine. In October, we were able to go back to Germany a second time last fall to surprise my parents for their birthdays.

I started this year with being furloughed for 5 weeks, but also finally secured a permanent position at my job, and Jon and I went on a few weekend trips this year. Here’s what else happened in 2019.