Being real in San Diego!

Hello everyone from sunny San Diego, California!  If you follow me on Instagram (@HungryTwenties) you've seen that I'm here already, and you've seen that yesterday was a pretty frustrating day of travel for me.  I'm going to try and keep with the #RSgetreal theme and "be real in this entry." In reality, my flight delays only had me arriving here 5 hours after when I was scheduled to arrive but I feel like the day went on forever and that I traveled for AGES. My alarm went off yesterday morning at 4:20 a.m., which, if you saw the time stamp on the blog I posted Monday night... Well it doesn't take a math whiz to recognize I didn't get a heck of a lot of sleep.

Luckily I live close to the airport and didn't have to get up even earlier to make my 6:00 am flight.  I always set multiple alarms when I have early early flights or wake up calls Since I am a terrible light sleeper, I never usually have a problem sleeping through alarms.  However, I still always set extra alarms for days when I have to be up really early and CANNOT miss it.  I had about 4 backup alarms set, but I didn't need them at all.  I got to the airport and got through security fine and things were going great until they announced delays on my flight.  Apparently there was low oxygen in the cockpit of the plane and we had to wait a bunch until the mechanic got there to fix it.

I know that delays in travel happen and usually I am very good about just going with the flow.  However, I felt really frustrated because it was a 6:00 a.m. flight!  Things shouldn't be backed up or messed up then, right?  Imagine if you scheduled the first appointment of the day with the doctor to avoid having to wait but then still had to sit around forever!  We didn't leave Albany until around 7:00 a.m. and I knew I would miss my connection in Detroit.  I was feeling really frustrated and upset while we were in Albany.  I knew it was because I was overtired, but I gave myself a really good pep talk on the plane and decided to just accept that it was going to take me longer to arrive.  I was feeling positive when I landed in Detroit and then I went to put my glasses on and when I opened my case, I found this.

How does that happen in a solid glasses case??  Looks like it is contacts only for me on this trip and I'll be needing some new glasses.

And then when I got off the plane I found out that since I missed my connection, instead of flying right from Detroit to San Diego, I needed to fly from Detroit to Salt Lake City to then San Diego.  Ugh!!  I then went to walk to my gate and I laughed to myself thinking about how, it's just one of those days.  The Detroit airport is huge and obviously, I was gate A78.

I again, just decided to recalibrate my mindset and accept the delays, which was hard to do but I forced myself to.  I don't know what was wrong with me yesterday though -- I assume it was just because I was massively overtired, but I kept crying!  I cried about the delays, I cried about the new stop on my trip, and I cried about 100 times reading random articles in Runner's World magazine.  I have no idea why, everything was just making me cry!

The flight delays meant that I had to get lunch at the Detroit airport and I ended up grabbing a salad To Go from one of the restaurants.  It had lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, cheese, hard boiled eggs, and grilled chicken on it and I got some fat free italian.  I ate the salad when I was on the plane to SLC.  Although it sounds somewhat healthy I used the ENTIRE packet of dressing and for whatever reason, shortly after I ate it, I started to feel really sick.  I felt sick for the majority of the flight and when I got off in SLC, I was tired, had a headache, and felt sick to my stomach.  I am thinking maybe it was just the up and downs of the flights that maybe was making me feel that way but I really wanted something to settle my stomach.

Yes, the day before I had a breakdown about gaining weight, but I settled on froyo.  As soon as I saw it, the cold creaminess sounded really good for my stomach and I got a small from Pinkberry half vanilla half tangerine with no toppings.  I don't think I've ever ordered no toppings in my life, but this was actually really good and felt good on my stomach.

I was in NO WAY feeling positive yesterday about the delay to Salt Lake, but I will say that I did get to see a pretty view from the airplane.

Anyways, after my little side stop to Salt Lake, I got BACK on the plane to finally head to San Diego.  And once I arrived, oh man, I was so happy to be here!!  It was beautiful out and the hotel I am staying in for work, is gorgeous and right on the water.  I literally checked into my room and immediately changed into my running clothes.  Also, there is no complaints about the view from the little balcony off my room.

One of the reasons I was getting really paranoid about getting in late to San Diego was that I still needed to run 3 miles since I had ditched it the day before.  With the time difference, it was really about 8:00 p.m. when I finally went out to run, which is way later than I usually run.  I was sort of nervous that I wouldn't be able to get a run in, which made me feel panicky because I didn't want to miss a run on my training plan.  I think this is also why I was sobbing reading some articles in Runner's World!

The run I had yesterday felt great and totally put me in a way better mood than I had been in.  There is a little path right outside my hotel along the water and I did my 3 miles in about 29 minutes, which is a much faster pace than I've been running the tundra of Albany.  During the run I thought a lot about the last time I was in San Diego.  All the things I was feeling, going through, and the heartbreak that I felt during that time in my life.  I thought a lot about how much has happened in the past 2 years.  How far I have come, how much I have accomplished, and how much further I still have to go.  That run really wiped away a lot of the stress I was feeling from the day.

I quickly showered and changed and met my coworkers for dinner, which was really fun and I was able to be *relatively* healthy.  I mean, I am sure that everything you eat in a restaurant is filled with butter and oil.  However, since it was late I opted to get a starter and a side dish as my dinner, which led all of the guys I was with to laugh and make fun of me, but whatever.  I got the butternut squash soup and a side of brussels sprouts.  They were both delicious!  The plate of brussel sprouts was huge and had bacon and whatnot-- the waiter said it was a side meant to be family style and serve at least two.  And actually, when I told everyone what I was going to order, one of the guys I worked with was like, "Oooh, I want to try some of those brussel sprouts you are getting, they sound good." and I responded with, "Umm, well you can't have any of mine, because this is going to be my meal."   Perhaps it was that defensiveness that caused them to laugh at me, and I don't think I will ever live that comment down.  Everyone else ended up ordering a few side orders of the brussel sprouts to split as a group and I proceeded to polish off my own plate by myself :)

I was so tired by the time I went to bed and I was not looking forward to getting up in the morning.  I had to do 6 miles before my day officially started, and somehow, one of the guys I work with said he'd like to come with me.  We met at 5:45 a.m. and I did 6 miles along the ocean, whereas my colleague dropped off at 5.  Sunrise runs along the water is something I could get really, really used to!  My pace, again showed it, and I I kept going past 6 miles to complete a 10K in 1:01:16

The rest of the day has been busy with work, and I have done pretty good with managing to eat healthy.  This business trip is one time where being gluten free is preventing me from overeating a bit.  I would have totally dove right into the delicious looking rolls that were served before dinner last night.  This morning's conference breakfast was really yummy looking danish, bagels, muffins and pastry that I had to skip completely and rely on a Kind bar I had brought with me and some watermelon I found.  At lunch I couldn't have the pasta or rolls or cookies that were out and settled on some caprese salad, a piece of chicken, and Cesar salad with no croutons or dressing (sooo... romaine lettuce and parmesan cheese.)

I'm not sure what is in store for dinner, but I am heading there now.  Happy Hump Day everyone!!