Motivational Monday

Happy Monday, Beautiful People!

I hope you all had a great weekend, and are having a gentle ease into the first day of the week. I had some good times over the weekend celebrating Tyler's Birthday (and my HALF Birthday) with good food, OK Drinks and BAAAAAD Karaoke!!!

I'm not a huge fan of Karaoke... probably because I always sing the same song and get HORRIBLE anxiety before I go up and sing. But I gave Ike and Tina Turner's "Proud Mary" a good run for it's money and I enjoyed myself. Tyler really enjoyed himself and even managed to enjoy an adult beverage or two :)

Worst Picture EVER!!!

I don't always have a drink, but when I do, it's always my BIRFDAY!!!

I do Karaoke... NoBigDeal!

I did not enjoy the "hangover" that I had the following day. Every time I drink I always end up feeling suuuuuper lazy and tired the following day. Other than going for a short hike up to the Griffith Observatory and watching television... my day was pretty uneventful. I couldn't even find the energy to do any of my readings for this weeks lectures. (OK, I probably wouldn't have had it anyways).

I decided that since I took sloth mode for the weekend I HAD to get myself out of bed and go running this morning. This was an extremely daunting task, since it was cold and windy outside, but it was warm and cozy in my bed. I eventually forced myself out of bed and out into the harsh weather conditions of Southern California (OK, so it was like 45 degrees... which to me is FREEZING).

It was an insanely slow run for me this morning. The wind chill factor was cutting straight to the bone and I couldn't feel any of my limbs. And I got to run over ice for the first time in my life. It actually scared me, because I thought it was just water. Then I started slipping and realized that the water was iced over. I spent the rest of the run being extremely cautious so as not to break my neck less than a week before the Tinkerbell Half Marathon.

Biggest Loser is on tonight, and I CANNOT wait to see it. They're adding a crazy new challenge requiring the participants to stay in a room with junk food for 4 and a half hours a day. All weekend I have had this scene from "Get Him to the Greek" stuck in my head...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7MKrmYyAzfI

I really hope that no more people go home from Jillian's team... I don't think I can handle another upset.

Enjoy your evening, Sexy people!!!!

Hunger Runs 5k

Happy Saturday!!!

And to the Love of my life, Tyler, HAPPY 32nd Birthday!!!

Tyler isn't big on Birthdays, but I'm trying to bring him to the "Fun Side". I didn't really buy him a "present" per say... but I've always wanted to order something from Edible Arrangements and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity.

Courtesy Edible Arrangemets.com

 

Doesn't it look cute and delicious?!?! I hope he likes it as much as I do. He also suggested Karaoke... but we don't have any solid plans as of yet.

Prior to the birthday shenanigans to ensue this evening, I got up to run the Hunger Runs 5k. A Hunger games themed run... what more could this girl ask for?!?! To be honest, I was really apprehensive about running this race when it came to 7am this morning. I was suppose to run this race with one of my best friends, but she came down with Pneumonia and was not able to make it to the event today (Get Better Ali!!!). I'm really not a fan of running obstacle races by myself. I feel like it's more fun when you have somebody with you... so I debated doing the race at all. After thinking about it, I begrudgingly left my nice warm bed and went out to the event. I dawned my fabulous Hunger Games t-shirt, and decided to let the Odds be ever in MY favor

Please ignore my hideous hair!!!

I arrived at the race JUST in time, and started about a minute behind everyone else. I was able to quickly catch up a lot of people at the first obstacle. This was also where I met my new friend, Shannon. She was running the race alone, so we decided to team up and complete the race together. Thank Goodness I did, because she is a Spartan Race competitor and she knew all the tricks to completing the obstacles.

Initial bad mood aside... I was not a HUGE fan of this run. I thought the check-in was really unorganized, there were NO spotters or race attendants at any of the obstacles, and none of the obstacles were SUPER challenging. My first and third complaints are livable... but not having any guides at the obstacles was actually really dangerous. Heck, I'm pretty sure there was one that was never set up, but had all the tools sitting there (I think it was suppose to be a tire swing). They also did not have timing chips, r a clock at all so you could guesstimate how long the run was. I did not know if this was a mud run or not and didn't wear my watch or headphones

Now for the positives. It was a very nice trail run. Even though it was cold, the scenery was really nice. They also offered up some very nice Swag at the end.

 

I also got a fun blow up beach ball with the race info on it. Overall, I don't think that I would run this race again... but it was nice for what it was.

 

Now it's time to eat and do something else productive with my day other than surfing the Internet. Plus, we're only one week from the Tinkerbell Half Marathon!!! I took a nice 10.4 mile run yesterday as a final long run before the race and I feel really confident going into this one. Fingers crossed for a 1:50:00 PR

Back to the Grind

Happy Tuesday, Sexy People!

I promise I am trying to get in to the habit of posting more often... but I haven't quite gotten back in the groove yet. Internship has officially resumed and I am in the beginnings of my first day of Winter Quarter lectures... wishing that it was over already!!! Not that I am not thankful to be here, but I just wanted a couple more days of winter break.

The end of mine was pretty eventful yet relaxing at the same time. Saturday morning I set out to run 8 miles before sitting in a car for 2+ hours for a trip to Solvang. I almost didn't go for the run, because i woke up with a strange pain in the ball of my right foot. I got dressed and told myself that I would only run up until the point that it started to hurt really bad. Thankfully, it did not hurt at all while I was running and I somehow managed to crank out 9.4 miles instead of 8. I felt good throughout the run and kept a really good pace (under 8:45) for most of my splits.

Now that I have my beautiful new Garmin, I am really focusing on keeping even splits throughout my run. Most of the time I do really well and I think it is helping to increase my speed.

 I went to Solvang for the weekend with Tyler and his family to meet his mother's aunt. Solvang is a quiet little town in Santa Barabra coutnty that is set up as a Dutch/Swedish tourist town that is quaint and sleepy. It was my first time going there and I REALLY enjoyed it. We arrived at about 4:30pm on Saturday night, and most of the stores were getting ready to close up! I was able to just walk around and drink some hot chocolate while Tyler took a nap. Later, we went and visited his Great Aunt, so was a marvelously sweet woman with the most spirited granddaughter. After a quick visit we headed back to our hotel, but we stopped off at Chumash Casino for a quick bet at the blackjack table and some grub. Tyler won $10 and could not have been more proud of himself!

It began to rain before we left the casino and continued all through the night... and into the morning... and on in to the afternoon. Needless to say... we did not get to do much in Solvang :(. We did get to have a delicious breakfast with his family and got to taste Aebleskivers! They're a funny Danish pastry that are  sort of like a large doughnut hole served with Raspberry preserves and powdered sugar. They were DELICIOUS!!! It took all of my will power not to eat the plate of 3 of them.

We spent the afternoon being toured around Solvang by Tyler's cousin Randy who showed us the mini horse ranch and other fun orchards. It was raining pretty hard so we took the tour from inside the car and eventually made our way home. Driving down the coast at Sunset is such a TREAT!!!

I told myself that yesterday was my first day back to "Normalcy"... but that didn't exactly happen. I was suppose to get up and go for a 6 mile run at 6am... but my alarm went off and I went straight back to bed. Payment for my inability to "get my shit together" meant that I was going to have to use the stationary bike in the late evening. Normally I would just put on a recorded show and fast forward through the commercials while I did this, but I was not going to allow myself to do that this time. The new season of The Biggest Loser Challenge America started on Sunday, so i knew this was what I was going to watch... but I was not allowed to fast forward through commercials. Instead, I rode during the show and did Jumping Jacks, Squats, Lunges, Crunches and push ups during the commercial breaks.

This season looks like it is going to be very difficult. They have already lost two players (one voluntarily and one was sent home). The woman who left voluntarily was a woman with an ED who lived in Chatsworth, Ca (Deja Vu?!?!). I was really excited to see her compete and had extremely high hopes for her, which is why I was so disappointed when she choose to leave The Ranch because it was "Too Emotionally difficult". I hope she gets the counseling that she needs and can continue her journey. She was a very beautiful woman and she seemed like she had a beautiful spirit. Then, The disqualified player was a man who was on the show, wanting to lose weight for his son. The story was touching and almost had me crying immediately!!! He gave up in the first workout, but came back fighting during the challenge and the last chance work out. However, he lost the lowest body fat percentage, which meant he had to go home :(

That being said... almost half of Jillian's Team is already gone!!! Jillian is my favorite, and I'm really glad that she came back this season. I'm also looking forward to seeing them work with the three adolescents they have to try and battle childhood obesity. I still have another episode to watch, but I am going to try and hold out for it until later in the week... (we'll see how long that lasts).

I'm planning on doing a run on my lunch break between classes, but there has been someone going around attacking women on campus, so I'm not sure how this is going to work out. I can only do a 30 minute set on the treadmills and I was hoping for at least 6 miles. Wish me luck :)

First week of 2013 and my Race Schedule

Good Morning! How are you?!?!

Me? I'm doing pretty OK. I just got done eating breakfast and I am now sitting in my living room waiting for my food to digest and the winds outside to calm down so I can get out there and get in a 6-7 mile run. Not sure why, but getting blown away while pounding miles just does not sound like a fun idea.

"We just HAD to go for walk, didn't we?!?!"

This first week of the New Year has been pretty blah, and I'm hoping that it is not representative of the remainder of the year 2013. I celebrated my last night of 2012 with my best friend, Allison and her boyfriend Adam at a wonderful dinner. We went to Smokehouse in Burbank and apparently everyone else had the same idea. We ordered a bottle of Kendal Jackson that Allison and I shared (plus we both had an extra glass) and I had a marvelous Pasta Primavera. There were so many vegetables that I didn't know what to do with myself! We sat there over 3 hours just bullshitting and having a great time enjoying each others company. After dinner I tried to meet up with Tyler, but the traffic of the Hollywood scene made that impossible, so I ended up driving home and being in bed by 12:05am. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I spent most of Tuesday in bed, because I always forget how much drinking too much wine makes my body exhausted. I did manage to get out of bed and go for a 5.5 mile run early in the morning then went out for Sushi dinner and a Movie with Tyler. Sushi was DELICIOUS!!! The movie "Django Unchained" was not so much so. Now... I like Quintin Tarantino, but I just found this movie to be offensive and it made me uncomfortable. That being said... I know that a lot of people are going to enjoy this movie (Tyler included) and I hope you do. Overall the cinematography, music, costuming and story line were very good... but I just couldn't handle all the violence and racism. Call me old fashioned if you MUST.

Yesterday was a very long and draining day. Mom had chemo so we were up nice and early to sit at the hospital all day long. I wish that chemo could go much smoother for her, but it's just a painful ordeal all around and we all end up a little upset for the day. She is suppose to have two more treatments left, but I think her doctor may be rethinking it since it is causing her so much discomfort. We have an appointment with him tomorrow afternoon to discuss our options. During the 8 hours that I spent at the hospital I tried to find things to keep my mind and my body active. I got a jump start on my reading for one of my classes and worked in a little exercise by doing sprints and lunges in the stairwell. I tried to do about 10 minutes every hour or so and I did it 3 times. I think it helped, because my calves are protesting me today.

After that it was off to the Suicide Prevention Center ( I know, I'm a glutton for torture) and finally made it home to pass out.

Today, I have decided is going to be a "take it kinda easy" sort of day. I'm still trying to put the finishing touches on my race schedule for 2013... but these race websites are NOT helping me! But here is what I have so far.

               

2013 Race Schedule- 13 13.1’s in 2013

January 20, 2013- Tinkerbell Half Marathon

February 24, 2013- Seaside Half Marathon

March 17. 2013- Hooley’s to Hooleys La Mesa

April 28, 2013- Ojai Half Marathon

May 26th, 2013- Mountains to the beach Half

June 15, 2013- SoCal Wine Half Marathon

July 20, 2013- Montecito-Summerland Half

August 11, 2013- Arroyo Creek Half Marathon

September 22, 2013- Girl on the Go Half

October 27, 2013- Los Angeles Rock n’ Roll Marathon

November 10, 2013- Malibu Half marathon

December 8- Divas Half Marathon / Operation Jack Half Marathon (December 26th)

It should be an EXCELLENT year for racing :) I have less than 15 days until the Tinkerbell Half, and I am beyond excited. This was my first Half Marathon and by far my absolute favorite. Well, I think it's time to try and get this run in. Have a Wonderful day everyone!