Updates, Taper, and A Movie

The SF half marathon is in 10 days, and I'm officially in taper mode. Woot! I often don't feel like tapering and get annoyed, but at least for now I'm ready. I haven't actually tapered for a half marathon since last October when I ran San Jose RnR. I did well working with the Hanson half marathon plan and adding more hard mileage to my schedule but the cumulative fatigue the plan talks about is well, rather noticeable. I'm confident I'll feel good again when I start to build post-race.

I've been a bad blogger over the past week and haven't posted at all, oops! As you may have read, I'm changing teams at work and have been focused on transitioning my current work so that I can move on. I'm heading to Germany for the new team's global meeting this weekend and will be spending next week in Hamburg - I can't wait to see a new place! I can say this more easily now that I'm packed, because packing is the part of travel I dread. Why is packing the worst part? No idea.

I'll arrive back in SF just in time for the SF Marathon Ambassador dinner next Friday and to enjoy the weekend at the expo and race. I'm really looking forward to meeting other ambassadors and to seeing lots of runner friends.

Now what have I been doing since the last post 10 days ago? Memorial Day weekend we took a trip to Ikea and bought new furniture for our home office. Kevin is working in style (Ikea style that is) with a new desk and bookshelves and the room is way more organized. Willow is enjoying her cat bed on top of the new shelf.

Awwww.

Picky Bars ended the Indiegogo campaign and met their stretch goal, which is fantastic. They sent supporters one of the new 'Runner's High' flavor bars as a thank you and it is AMAZING. I can't wait until it's available all the time. I'm a huge fan.

Big yum.

This past weekend, we visited Regale Winery in Los Gatos Hills for a friend's picnic. I've been there before and it was every bit as spectacular this time as last time. The winery is at the top of a hill, so the view of the surrounding area is gorgeous. The wine is quite good too, and we decided to become members of the wine club after a year of debating it. My favorite wine is their Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, which has just the right amount of spice to the finish. 

Sunday Kevin and I went trail running at Huddart Park. It is one of the few trail runs close to San Jose where you can find really good tree cover, and because it was 80 degrees that was a must. For some reason, I always feel super happy running at Huddart even though it's super hilly. It's likely I'll run the Crystal Springs trail marathon there in January this year, last year I ran the half.

Beautiful tree cover and single track. Paradise.

 Kevin running downhill on the return.

Today, Googlers had a chance to see 'The Internship' movie at a theater near campus. We pretty much took over multiple auditoriums for multiple show times; the mass exodus of Googlers walking from the theater after the movie was pretty awesome. The move itself is pretty good although extremely unrealistic as to how an internship would work. I also wish the movie set where they shot the indoor scenes really existed because it looked pretty sweet. It was essentially many things that do exist in various places (plastic flamingos, shuttle, bean bags) rolled into one big room. Don't get me wrong, we have awesome perks, they were just portrayed a bit strangely in the movie.

My real interest in seeing the movie was to look for own movie debut. I worked as an extra on the set one day back in September and shot two scenes. Success! I found myself walking through the background of the final shuttle bus scene 2 times. Now, it's not an obvious 'hey there's Paulette!' moment for people who don't know where I am, but I'm still excited about it. If you want to try, I'm wearing a light green sweater with gray pants, my hair is almost to my shoulders (I'd forgotten how long it was), and I'm toward the left the first time. The second time I walk by is after they turn the shot around and it's blurrier. Our car had it's own little moment as well; it is the Lexus RX350 parked behind the 'mom' in the shuttle scene. You'll know which scene I'm referring to if you see it.

Our very own sign.

There we go, the blog is up to date so I can sleep soundly. Happy weekend all!