This weekend was awesome!

Saturday: My day started bright and early as I got up at 6:30 to prepare for the long day ahead of me. At 8:30 I trained my client, Eric, at DIAKADI. We had a great session; we started off with running a mile (he shaved 9 seconds off his time) and we spent the rest of the session hitting the focus mitts. After our session we both headed over to Fleet Feet on Chestnut to get some new running shoes. It was such a beautiful day in the city that I had to let the top down on my mom’s “Mighty Blue” Miata on our drive over to Chestnut. When we got into Fleet Feet we were immediately greeted by the employee at the front desk. He quickly called another employee over to help Eric and I get fitted. Jason was the guy who helped me out; he was very attentive and very knowledgable about shoes, running, and proper gait mechanics. He showed me 3 pairs of running shoes that he said would work well with me. He had me try on all 3 and had me run to the front door and back with them (they even allow you to test them out on the sidewalk if you wanted to get a better idea of how they run). I went with the last pair he showed me: Brooks Ravenna 3s. They felt pretty damn good compared to the Nikes and Mizunos he showed me. Eric and I were in and out of there in 25 minutes, which was appropriate because we were parked in a 30 minute meter!

After spending the first half of the day in The City, I headed over to Fremont in the Easy Bay with a couple of my friends to hike Mission Peak. This was my second time hiking Mission Peak, but my first time hiking it wearing a 20 lb. weight vest. I had no choice! Gordon (the former Marine) hiked with a 30 lb. vest and Jeff (the crazy MMA/Muay Thai fighter) hiked with a 35 lb. vest; I couldn’t go up there without carrying something! If you haven’t been to Mission Peak before, there’s 2 paths that people normally take: the “LEFT SIDE” and the “RIGHT SIDE.” The LEFT is a wide fire road that zig zags up the mountain and is the path that most people choose. The RIGHT isn’t as popular as the LEFT side because, imo, its a tougher hike. The path isn’t as “carved out” as the LEFT and it has 2 or 3 hills that are pretty damn steep and pretty tough to climb. The hike with a 20 lb vest sucked, but the reward you get when you finally reach the top is amazing. We got to the top as the sun was setting and, my God, what a beautiful view! We sat down, had some tangerines, ate half a sandwich, and just admired the beauty before us. After about 10 minutes at the top we headed back down the mountain. On our way home, we rewarded ourselves and stopped by In-N-Out where I had a 4×4, animal style, and some fries with no salt. I then went home to KTFO!

Sunday: Sunday was the day that I had been planning for the past week and half. My friends and I (there were 8 of us total) ran from AT&T Park to the Golden Gate Bridge and then back to AT&T Park; it was amazing! The conditions were perfect for running! The sun was warm, there were no clouds, the breeze was refreshing, and the Embarcadero wasn’t too crowded. I wasn’t sure if breaking in my new Brooks with a ~13 mile run was a good idea, but it held up! After we all reached the Golden Gate Bridge we walked over to The Sports Basement to get some GU and then headed over to Chestnut to grab a bite to eat. We decided to get some burgers at Super Duper Burger. The food was really good, I went with the 100% Natural Free Range Chicken Breast sandwich with lettuce, tomato, red onions and roasted portobello. I also ordered a side of fries with no salt. This was a good 30 minute pit stop before our run back to AT&T Park; we ate, we stretched, we walked over to Fort Mason Green and began our run back to AT&T.

What a weekend! I had a fun, productive and healthy weekend. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend both Saturday and Sunday. The weather was awesome both days and I spent both days with great friends. Thank you Lord for this past weekend! All this is yours and I am very thankful for your many blessings.