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Little changes making a big difference.


Work It Out 6/11-6/17

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Pedal, pedal, pedal. As I’ve mentioned probably 700 times, I still can’t run. I’m also a little leery of lifting, or doing pretty much anything that involved core muscles at all. Biking, however, feels great, so I just stuck with what I knew was working this week to try to get back to my normal level of fitness. Here’s how I worked it out last week.

Monday: Off. I tried to jump immediately back into my life last Sunday, and I ended the night feeling sick, exhausted, and even emotionally spent, so I listened to my body, and took a step back.

Tuesday: 10.73 mile bike ride, 14 mph pace. YES!!!! This was the first time since surgery that I actually was able to push a little bit, and felt like I got closer to a real workout. It felt AMAZING, and I knew things were on the up swing.

Wednesday: 20 mile bike ride, 14.7 mph pace. Steve wanted to do 20 miles in less than 90 minutes. We finished in 1:22. Felt awesome, happy, and even got a little bit of biking high. Sweeeeet!

Thursday: Off. Smart, or lazy? You decide. I planned to go to spin, but I didn’t. At the time I thought it was laziness, but looking back, I really think it was for the best.

Friday: 28 mile bike ride, easy pace (12.4 mph). Nicole and I revisited our Friday cross train and breakfast/coffee tradition. We chatted the whole time, and I am so glad we were able to go, because now I have to go almost 2 months without my BBFF, and I’m so sad! I miss you already, Niole, and I LOVED our ride on Friday!

Saturday: Off. I had to bake birthday brownies. Also, I thought I would be climbing up a bunch of stairs at the water park all day. That plan was squashed when I felt pain on the kiddie slide. That’s ok. I would have loved to get a short workout in that morning, but sometimes there just isn’t time, and it’s not worth beating yourself up over.

Sunday: SPIN!!! I would love to say that class was perfect, and I enjoyed every minute, and it felt just like normal, but that’s not the case. Everything in the sitting position was great, but all the bounciness and jolting of the standing position hurt, and I found myself so frustrated that I couldn’t do everything we were instructed. I understand that I did the best I can, and that is all I can ask of my body, but I just have trouble with that being enough for me. I wanted to leave about 15 minutes in, but I made myself get out of my head, and enjoy the work out, and eventually, I did! We even did a 1 mile “race”, and I came in second! The first “race” was in the standing position, and that’s when I got so upset at the beginning (competitive much?), so when the sitting one came, I kicked my ass into gear, and was just a split second behind the guy that finished first (he also “won” the first time, but admitted to cheating, so I’m just going to pretend he cheated the second time too, and that I am the winner 😉 ).

 

Other people’s work out news:

  • Stacey officially starts marathon training today too! Show her some love!
  • My best friend Jason just registered for his first half marathon!! He will be running AFC with me in August! I’m ridiculously proud of him!!

How did you work it out last week? Any exciting fitness goals happening in your life at the moment?? Tell me exciting things!!

Work It Out 6/4-6/10

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AKA Rest It Out. My daily mile page has never looked so sad. It’s okay. In fact, it’s probably a good thing. Surgery, or no surgery, my body needed a break. I had a trainer tell me a long time ago, that every 6 months or so, the best thing you can do is take a week completely off. Okay, maybe that actually is good for your body, but I’m one of those weird people who does not exercise for any reason other than I genuinely enjoy it. Well, maybe there are other reasons too–I’m a human, and I care about calories and all that crap, even if I wish I didn’t, but really the primary reason is that I really really love to do it. It makes me happy. It keeps me calm. It helps me think, and stay balanced, and it gives me so much more energy!

I didn’t take a whole week completely off, but I did take 4 days, and this week I am taking it easy too. Yesterday I tried to jump back into my life. I did an 8 mile bike ride (granted it was slow), baked cookies and cupcakes, tried to clean the kitchen, and tried to be social. By the end of the evening, I felt like absolute crap. Emotionally and physically. I’m stubborn, and I’m having a hard time with doing so little. I’m antsy, and anxious, and tired, and I really don’t feel like myself. Plus, you know, all the other side effects of surgery that are still very much here, and a digestive system getting used to an organ that used to be there suddenly being gone.

On the positive side, I am somewhat back to light exercise. No running yet, and I really freaking miss it. I’ve continued to cry and mourn  the loss of the sub 2 I’ve been chasing in Seattle. I decided for sure that I’m not doing the race. I’m just too tired. Walking still hurts. I don’t want to end disappointed. But I have an other half on the horizon later in the summer that I’m thinking just might be the one. Plus, it would be with my team which makes it even better!

Okay, enough babbling. This is how I (sort of) worked it out last week:

Monday: Run with Jas, & 5 MIN PLANK!!!!! I started the morning with a short run with Jason. We ran 2.4 miles by the green belt. I guess that’s what the trail by his house is called. It wasn’t his favorite morning, but it was good to be running together! When I got home, I decided today had to be the day. I knew I was gonna be out of abdominal commission for a while, and probably losing a lot of core strength from the moving around they do in there with their instruments, so I decided to do my 5 minute plank. It needed to happen. You know what? It was Fing hard! And it’s all mental. Just find someone to hang out with you, and force you not to give up. Then yell obscenities at them. Thanks for starting this 5 minute plank challenge, Ali! I don’t know if it was really supposed to be a challenge for the rest of us, but once you did it, I couldn’t resist! And thanks to my girl Devon for always keeping me honest about my planks!

Tuesday: Rest. My surgery wasn’t until 12:30, but Steve and my mom both vetoed my request to spin before hand. Rude. I guess it was something about the all day food and water fast that made them think it was a bad idea….

Wednesday: All day sleep daze. I was so exciting. I slept, woke up, watched 15 min of Lost, repeat.

Thursday: I left the house. Yes. It counts as exercise. I walked to Nicole’s truck, and into Paradise Bakery, and into fro yo. It was all I could handle, and I was exhausted by the end, came home and slept.

Friday: I walked around Target. It was hard, and I was tired, but I was so happy to be out of my house!

Saturday: 3.75 mile bike ride. At 8.7 mph. You know, like the pace you teach your 6 year old to ride at? It was awesome, and only slightly painful. I also walked a mile at the duck pond with Nicole and Stacey. I felt almost like a real person!

Sunday: 8.5 mile bike ride. I kept up a 12 mph pace!!! Watch out bike racers, Post Surgery Ari is on your tail!

 

Tell me awesome workouts you accomplished!!! Let me live vicariously through you!

Work It Out 5/28-6/3

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What a tough week! Oyyyyy! Lots of great work outs, and new challenges, so without further adieu, here’s how I worked it out last week:

Monday: 100k bike ride. That’s right. 62 miles. 100k. My butt HURT! I have since bought the diaper bike shorts. They feel like cycling on a cloud in comparison. Steve, Dan and I set out for a long ride. I wanted to accomplish a good 50 miler (my previous cycling PDR was around 30), but Steve has been wanting to do a metric century for a long time, and about 20 miles in decided that would be the day. I’m not gonna lie, 4 and a half hours is a long time to be on a bike, there were several bumps along the road, and I was definitely tired by the end, but it was absolutely worth it, and can’t wait to do it again!

Tuesday: Linda’s Spin. I was tired from Monday, so I took it easy, kept my flat road around 9-10, and got in a good 21.5 miles.

Wednesday: Track love + 4 min plank. 4x400s @ 5k pace with 400 recovery jogs + 1 mile @ HMGP. My legs still felt tired when I woke up, but of course I was stoked to get to the track! I spent half the time actually at the pace I was supposed to be at, and the other half being competitive. Shocking I know. My pace for the 400s was 7:58, 8:10, 7:51, 8:14. I was aiming for around 8:15. Whoops. It was hard. Also, my working pace is the same as many of the other runners’ recovery. It’s okay, one day I won’t be painfully slow, I promise. My last mile clocked in at 8:41, which is definitely too fast for me, but Doug started running with me the last half, and brought out my competitive side. Okay, let’s be real, I don’t have a noncompetitive side. Also, that plank was hard. I did one for 2 minutes and gave up, then later got pissed about my giving up, and muscled through for 4 painful minutes. Spoiler alert: that is no longer my longest plank 😉

Thursday: Dance!!! I was planning on spinning, but woke up with sore legs, took the morning off, then went to summer of dance for my friend Molly’s awesome musical theatre class, and a contemporary class. I haven’t actually danced since, ohhhh….summer of dance last year. It was rough. I felt out of shape, and just plain bad, but it was still fun, and I’m glad I went.

Friday: Rest. This was like the week where I just kept getting more and more sore! I woke up, and I was so sore from dancing that walking, and sitting were not fun. I took it as a cue, and gave myself the day off.

Saturday: Long Run. Woke up more sore! You know that delayed soreness? Yikes. It was soooooo rough. I was hobbling just to walk around, and it took me about a year to sit and stand, but I made a plan to run with speedy Ashley, and I don’t cancel running plans. Plus, I knew with some unexpected circumstances that have come up lately, I needed to run while I could. I had planned to do 13, and for the first time I think ever, I cut it short to 10. When I woke up feeling run down, I told myself 10 was the minimum, but I was still gonna shoot for 13. I did okay for the first 6 or so, then I just could not keep it up, and I crashed and burned. Steve picked us up at mile 10. Best husband ever.

Sunday: Easy bike ride. 9 miles: coffee, breakfast, and relaxing muscle loosening. Lovely.

Bringing my total to 106.87 miles for the week, which is my highest weekly mileage ever!! It was a really tough week, and my body could definitely use some recover, but this week will be mostly off (wahhhh), so I’m glad I got it in while I could! I’ll explain more about the time off stuff soon. For now, I’m off to bake cookies to distract myself 🙂

How did you work it out this week? And what the heck do I do with myself for the next few days while I can’t????

Work It Out 5/21-5/27

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So maybe I didn’t hit 100 miles this week (or anything close to it), but my workouts, specifically my runs this week have been some of the best ever! I had my first date with the track, I ran a new PDR, and I took full advantage of most likely the last of the gorgeous weather we’ll be seeing for a while. Here’s how I worked it out this week:

Monday: Rest. After 7 straight days of working out, I was more than ready to take the day off. It was fantastic.

Tuesday: 4ish mile run. I met up with Stacey for a short, easy paced run. We started a little late in the morning, and it was already really warm, so we ended up just walking the last half-ish mile, but it was nice to get to hang out and get a short run in.

Wednesday: Track–8×400’s @ 5k pace & 1 mi @ HMGP. What does that even mean??? I *think* I’m figuring it out. Kind of. Wednesday was my first day at the track. I met Susan and the rest of the group at 5:30am, we did a little over a mile warm up lap, then 8×400’s–400 meters (.25 mi) at 5k pace with 200 meter (.125 mi) rests in between, then a mile at 1/2 marathon goal pace. I kept the 400’s between 8-8:10 min/mi, and my goal pace mile clocked in at 8:48! I love the track. Like really, really love it. I was so intimidated, and I stayed away for so long, but right now I am wishing it was Tuesday night so that tomorrow could be track day. I cannot wait.

Thursday: Off. I planned to go to spin, but had a ton of baking to do (so many candy cups, and cupcakes being sold–yes!!), and it was just one of those days where I knew my time needed to be spent differently, and that’s okay.

Friday: 800 yd swim. I swam!! YAY!! This was only my second swimming work out, and my first one solo. I went twice as far as I did the first time, and it felt great to be in the water! I’d really like to take some lessons, and kind of figure out what I’m doing!

Saturday: Long Run–15.16 miles!! Okay, so my PDR (personal distance record) was 15.01, so it’s not like I went much further, but I don’t even care. It is the farthest I have ever run, and it was a freaking fantastic run! The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and we started off early at 5:30. Before we started, Susan asked how long people were planning to go, and of course not a single other person was even planning on running double digits (they’re almost all running San Diego next weekend), and here I was saying I was planning on 15. Oy. I planned to run with Stacey for as far as she wanted to go, and then go back out to run the rest solo. Near the end of my run with Stacey (almost to mile 8), Doug came up and introduced himself, and asked if I was still going to go back out for more miles. He told me he’d be willing to do a few with me, and I was beyond grateful. Well, he ended up running the entire 2nd half of my run with me, and pushed me the whole way through! He’s run tons of marathons (including Boston….*sigh*), and he had really great advice. He talked to me about my breathing, training, etc. Towards the end, he started adding some pick ups, and then pushed me to finish mile 15 in 9:40! Then, the last .16 happened at an average pace of 8:03. Ummm, who am I??? 15.16 miles at an average pace of 10:19. When I finally looked through my garmin and saw my pace, I started to cry a little. I am finally starting to see some improvement from this training cycle. I’ve been working really hard, and it is amazing to finally see it pay off. At the end of the run Doug told Susan that I had the mind of a marathoner. I think it’s more that I’m stubborn, and prideful, but having the mind of a marathoner sounds a lot better to me 😉

Sunday: 4 mile bike ride. Yeah….that’s it. My legs felt like they had been run over my a truck. And if you’ve been around me at all this weekend, that is probably the 9,984,985th time you’ve heard me say that. Sorry, I whine.

How did you work it out this week?? Have you set any new personal records lately, or surprised yourself with your progress? Tell me your awesome things too!!!

Work It Out 5/14-5/20

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Well, after a pretty mellow week with 3 full rest days, I definitely kicked it into gear last week! By Sunday afternoon my weekly mileage on daily mile reached 100! No, I did not ride extra miles on my bike just because I wanted to see a 3 digit mileage number. Who does things like that? Crazy, number obsessed people. I just happened to ride exactly 17 miles when my daily mile was at 83. Obviously. 😉

Monday: 3 miles with Jason. Remember when this guy ran like 12 minute miles? Umm, our average pace was 10:06. He’s amazing, and I’m starting to really get a lot out of our weekly runs together!

Tuesday: Spin, Strength & Swimming. I kind of felt awesome after completing 3 workouts in one day. I mean, sure, my strength training was all of 15 minutes, but I was still sore the next day from it! I am working on getting up to a 5 minute plank like this girl, and Tuesday I got to 2:20. Obviously, I have a ways to go. Spin class was awesome as usual, then I had my first swimming work out with my fav triathlete! I swam 400 yards, and it was hard and awesome.

Wednesday: Tempo run. This run was not fun. I had 6 miles on the schedule with 4 tempo miles @ 9:03. Well, my last tempo run was the same thing with the tempo miles at 9:07, and it was hard, but I killed it, and even had my last mile below 8:50. This run felt entirely different. I was struggling .5 miles in, it was 80 degrees out, and I left my ipod at home, so I could literally hear myself grasping for air. I stayed on pace,  but had to stop after the second and third tempo mile to catch my breath. As frustrated as I was by this run, I feel like I learned a lot from it. I had a great talk with my coach about it, and realized that I’m really not hydrating well enough, and that as it gets hotter, I need to be okay with slowing down. It won’t be this hot in Seattle or in NYC, so I need to focus on how I feel rather than what my garmin says. This is especially hard for me since my focus on running numbers has been such a huge aid in taking my focus away from scale numbers. I am number focused. It’s how I measure my progress, and when the numbers don’t reflect my effort, I get frustrated, discouraged, and whiney. That’s okay. I don’t think I will feel that way forever. I’m not going to beat myself up about the way I feel or react to things. I am simply going to note it, try to be more aware, and do my best to not let it get me down.

Thursday: Spin. Sweaty, hilly love.

Friday: 20 mile bike ride with Nicole. We had a great time, and chatted the whole 20 miles. Perfect way to start the day!

Saturday: Long run. Our team training runs for Chances for Children don’t officially start until I leave for Portland, but Susan invited us to come run with her, and the group she coaches, so I jumped on the opportunity! My alarm went off at 3:55am (yikes!), and I headed out to meet the group. Unfortunately, the park bathrooms were locked, and so when Stacey arrived, we went in search of a restroom and ended up starting closer to 5:30 than the 5:00 start time. We started off running with Susan’s husband bill who was so nice and went slow with us to show us the path. Around mile 2.5, we separated from Bill because my stomach is still a mess, and I had to stop at this resort to use the bathroom. Even considering that, I was feeling the best I have on a long run in weeks! We were maintaining around a 10:25 pace, which is right on target for my plan, it wasn’t too warm out yet, and I just felt really into the run. By the end, though, I started fading a bit, and Stacey was pushing me through, then at the last mile, we saw Susan who had waiting for us long after everyone who had started on time was already gone, and came up to run the last mile with us! Having a coach is freaking amazing, let me tell you. That was the push I needed, because I finished the last mile in 9:26, and ended 13.06 miles with an average pace of 10:16, which, for me, is pretty awesome! I had serious runners high all day long!

Sunday: 17 mile bike ride with Steve and Jason. I wanted to go on a bike ride, and I wanted to hit 100 miles, so that’s what I did 😉

What a great week! Even with a crappy run, I still feel like it’s one of the best training weeks I’ve had in a long time!

How did you work it out last week? How do you stay motivated and track your progress when the numbers start to kind of suck??

Work It Out 5/7-5/13

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Well…kind of. It was actually less coming off of a big race that made last week hard, and more just the fact that my life was crazy. I had a rough tech week, and then we were in shows all weekend. I don’t necessarily feel great about the fact that I only worked out 4 days last week, but I’m not going to waste time beating myself up about it. Sometimes other things come first, and that just has to be okay. My body probably needed the break as much as my brain did, and I’m definitely one of those “The universe knows better than me, and everything happens for a reason” types, so it happened, and this week it won’t. Tada.

Here’s how I worked it out last week

Monday: 3 miles with Jason. My legs were still pretty sore, but an easy paced run was actually nice and felt really good! We picked up the pace in the last mile, then after our 3, we walked for a while as our cool down.

Tuesday: Off. I had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Monday evening. I was stressed out, frustrated, and in general in pretty bad spirits. I’d like to say that was just Tuesday, but it continued throughout most of the week. Oh well, I’m better now! Anyway, I skipped the gym and went shopping.

Wednesday: 22 mi bike ride with Steve. I felt good by Wednesday, and I really enjoyed the long ride. I would have loved to go faster, but poor Steve is stuck with his single speed until he buys his rode bike, so it’s kind of limiting. We still averaged about a 14 mph pace.

Thursday: Linda’s Spin. Awesome as always. I talked myself out of going no less than 11 times before finally getting to the gym, and compromised with myself that instead of doing strength training before like I usually do, I could take some time to stretch and foam roll which felt really good, and by the time class was over, I was like a whole new person!

Friday: 12 mile long run. Oy, This run was tough. Ridiculously tough. The only thing that got my through was having Stacey out there with me! We were both coming off of big races, and by the time we were finishing up, it was already 86 degrees out with no shade in sight! My pace was much slower than usual, but I really felt proud of myself for just getting it done. 6 days after a half marathon. In the heat. I’ll take it.

Saturday: Off.

Sunday: Off.

Sometimes, there are just other things that need to be done. And you know what? It left me motivated and ready to make this week count! Sometimes you just need a little break. Also, long runs now need to start at ridiculous hours if they are going to happen. I’m fine with that. 4am here I come!

How did you work it out last week?

Work It Out 4/30-5/06

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Ummm, it’s Thursday. Whoops. You guys, I have been in the worst mood this week. Seriously, like I feel bad for everyone around me. The other night, I got a text message that annoyed me, and I literally threw my phone on the floor of the car and started screaming obscenities while Nikki drove us home. It was really awesome, and I’m sure she loved the fact that she realized she is working with a grade A nut job.

This morning I was reminded how much working out keeps me sane, and I figured it was finally time to get my act together and recap last week. So, this is how I worked it out last week…

Monday: 6 miles with Jason. Super easy pace, fun, chatty best friend running time. New PDR for Jas!

Tuesday: Bike rid with Steve. I had to miss spin on Tuesday, and no I don’t want to talk about it. I’ve already cried, gone through withdrawals, and I’m dealing with it, okay??? Okay, I’ll stop being so dramatic. For the moment. Steve and I did just under 8 miles to Dutch Bros and back with an average speed of 15.7 average speed.

Wednesday: 4 miles with speedy Ashley. We took it easy for taper week, and covered 4 miles with an average pace of about 9:30. I realized how hard that pace used to feel, and just how far I’ve come!

Thursday: Linda’s Spin.  This was my favorite workout of the week!! We’ve been doing this thing where the class is divided into groups and we compete for the most miles. First I asked for my mileage not to count because I was planning to take it easy, and I didn’t want to bring my team down. Linda told me to just use lower resistance. So I lowered my flat road from 10 to 9, then I got super competitive and not only did my group win, but I won for the most miles in the entire class with 22.8 in 49 minutes. Sure, I “forgot” to take it easy, but it was so worth it. I love to win, and I was on a super spinning high all day long!

Friday: Bike ride with Steve. He kept yelling at me to ride slower, and reminding me that I was supposed to be taking it easy. We went suuuuuper slow and covered just under 8 miles to coffee and back, then I met up with Nicole and walked around the duck pond.

Saturday: Whiskey Row 1/2 Marathon. Oh you know, just like any other run up the side of a mountain 😉

Sunday: Bike ride with Steve. My legs and hips were pretty sore, so we went on an easy ride to loosen things up. It started off at little kid training wheel speed, but my legs loosened up pretty quickly, and I actually felt a lot better by the end.

 

YOUR TURN!! How did you work it out last week? Give me some motivation, because I am having a rough time making it happen this week!

Blogger Meet Up @ Piestewa Peak & La Grande Orange

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Saturday after our bike ride of near death, Nicole, Carolyn and I met up with Diana, Marisa and Estela for a hike at Piestewa Peak. After the bike ride, I honestly was not really in the mood to hike anymore, but once we got going, I stopped being lame and started to enjoy myself. I’m no expert on hiking, but this one seemed…nice? You know, like a nice uphill walk with cacti 🙂 Haha, if you want to actually hear anything legit about hiking, you should just go to Diana’s blog because she’s basically an expert. In fact, she even knows all of these weird hiking rules–did you know there were rules??? Like she knew what to say to all the people we passed, and talked about things like right of way that I didn’t even know existed on a mountain!

Look! Nicole and I are hiking! And there's a mountain.

Marisa, Carolyn, Estela, Diana, Nicole & Me

**Hike photos courtesy of Marisa**

After the hike, we hopped back on our bikes and headed to La Grande Orange where we met up with Emily, Megan and Stacey. You better believe after a 30 mile bike ride I was ready for some wine! Emily and I split a bottle of pinot.

I have way too many pictures that look just like this...

As soon as we sat down, the manager sent out an appetizer for us to sample. Whooohooo, I think it was my first special foodie blogger treatment! And all thanks to Nicole for slipping that into an email to the manager 🙂

Guac, salsa, and pimento dip. All super delish!

Emily and I also split a salad with oranges, goat cheese and avocado (that I inhaled before it even occurred to me to snap a photo) and a pizza with goat cheese, tomatoes, roasted corn and avocado. Ummmm, yum.

OMG!!!! It's real pizza!!!! Probably my favorite food, but I very rarely eat it, unless it's at home and all skinnified. This was ahhhhmazing.

They even had gluten free crust!

Carolyn got the same pizza on the gf crust. I almost wished I would have ordered mine that way because I love a thin and crispy crust!

Then I insisted we take funny pictures. Naturally.

YAY!!! I got Emily to agree to a silly picture!!!

I also have a lot of pictures that look like this one.

I had such a great time with these girls! We have such an amazing group of AZ Bloggers!

Emly, Carolyn & Megan

Stacey & Nicole

Marisa & Me

Carolyn, Megan, Marisa, Stacey, Nicole, Emily & Me

**Photo courtesy of Marisa**

During dinner, Nicole and Emily announced that they have been hard at work at a super awesome new project!!!

The AZ Bloggers Network!!!

The Arizona Bloggers Network will be a place to organize, promote, and connect with other female Arizona bloggers. You don’t have to be a food/fitness blogger to join–just a woman who lives in Arizona and has a passion for blogging. You can head over and register your blog for free! So all you bloggers out there, come and join us! We like people!

After an amazing evening, Nicole’s husband Lance was kind enough to pick us (and our bikes) up @ LGO, and then we convinced him to that a Yogurtology stop was a necessity.

Husband of the year award--picking up his wife and her 2 crazy friends that were silly enough to bike from Mesa to PV.

Oatmeal cookie, salted caramel and butterfinger with graham cracker, butterfinger and nutella on top. I usually stay away from the candy toppings, but after the riding and the drinking I totally caved, haha.

fro yo shirt.”]fro yo shirt.”]Then we tried really hard to take jumping pictures…for a change.

SUCCESS!!!! Except, apparently Lance was zoned out during my lecture about how snapping a photo at any moment in time where it looks like I may have a double chin is unacceptable and grounds to end our friendship forever. Buuuuttt, we were all in the air, so I am posting my second and third chins for the world to see.

And my chins make an appearance here too, but this picture cracked me up. I don't know what I'm doing or why Nicole is a Charlie's Angel, but I find this picture to be pretty awesome.

I can’t say enough what an awesome time I had!! I’m so excited for the new AZ Bloggers Network, and thanks so much to Emily & Nicole for setting it up, and to Nicole especially for putting this whole meet up together!

 

 

Girls Night & Biking Through Death Hills

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Hello little blog! Long time, no see. I missed you. Unfortunately, up until this weekend, my week was pretty boring, so I decided to wait until I had cool things to talk about, and now I do. 🙂

I had a pretty fantastic weekend. Friday morning I got off to a rough start, but with the help of some amazing friends being super kind and thoughtful, and giving me some time to get my act together, by mid afternoon I was feeling more like myself. Nicole joined me as my date to see my show, and then we met up with Carolyn for our long awaited girls night. We walked to Macayo’s for dinner and margaritas–they had skinny margs which always makes my heart happy! We had a delicious dinner outside by the lake, then walked back to my house. We were all exhausted, but proceeded to stay up talking until 1am when we finally all started falling asleep mid conversation.

The next morning, we got up, I made them my weird breakfast that I eat pretty much every morning (Greek yogurt + canned pumpkin + chia seeds + fruit + cinnamon + cereal) and we made gluten free blueberry donuts. They came out delicious, but you know what did not? The glaze I tried to make. I read that you could make your own powdered sugar in a blender with sugar and corn starch. Ummm, the glaze tasted like dirt. Carolyn and Nicole called it “earthy”, but that is a nice word for dirt. That’s okay, because I only glazed 3, so we had lots of good ones left over and glaze free!

So for the past week or 2, I’d been trying to convince Nicole and Carolyn that we could ride from my house in Mesa to our blogger meet up at Piestewa Peak. Nicole was pretty doubtful, but I twisted her arm and refused to let go until she said yes. I thought this was going to be the best thing ever, and at first it was! We had this awesome game plan and the first few miles of the ride felt great, and I was feeling so proud of myself for my cross city biking, until we realized it was 3pm–the time we were supposed to be meeting all our fellow Phoenix bloggers–and we were still 10 miles away. Whoops.

Then we finally got close to Piestewa Peak and the hills took a turn for the RIDICULOUS! I kept telling Nicole that we would be totally fine, because I had never felt so tired from biking that I thought I would need to stop. Okay, so maybe if I’m on a flat road and there’s no wind, and I can go 12 miles an hour that might be the case, but these hills were KILLING me! I think I even used the words “AHHHHH!!! This is harder than a half marathon!” Nicole and I were dying while Carolyn just kept going like it was nothing. At this point I was sure my friendship with Nicole was over and she would never forgive me for making us almost an hour late to our blogger meet up and then almost killing her on the death hills.

The good news is we arrived, not dead at all!!! And Diana, Marisa and Estella seemed to not hate us too much for being super lame and late. Either that or they are just really great actors, and they should be in my next play, because I am totally buying that although I was totally lame and made us all late, they still maybe want to be friends with me 🙂

I am so so sad that we didn’t get any pictures of us on our biking adventure, because in the end, I would still say it was a pretty awesome experience, and I felt like we were pretty awesome for doing it! Lots more to say about the blogger meet up….coming soon!

Weekly Workouts

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Hello friends! Life seems like it has been crazy busy lately. It’s all been good stuff, but it’s nice to take some time to breathe and have some much needed me time today.

Considering how exhausted I was from The Lost Dutchman, I had a surprisingly productive work week of work outs. I took two full, amazing total rest days, then got out for a slow 3.7 mile run, a couple easy-ish bike rides, followed by a super awesome 25 mile ride on Saturday and spin class yesterday. I can’t even tell you how in love I am with my bike! I am not the fastest on it by any means, but I love having a second, less hard on the body form of cardio that I can do outside! And you know what’s awesome? I have ended every ride so far feeling like I could just keep going for miles and miles if I had the time/desire. Plus, I’ve been using it to get to work when I can. I love feeling like I am multi tasking by commuting and exercising at the same time. Yes folks, that is the highlight of my life. Jealous?

A few days ago, I read a post on Sarah OUaL’s blog that got me super excited! Did you know the garmin has interval workouts, so you can do your own speed drills without a track? Check out her post for awesome pictures and step by step instructions! Ever since I read it, I was super excited to try it. I’d been feeling a little bit like the running motivation bandwagon dropped me off for a little pit stop then bolted and was suddenly no where in site, and since I currently don’t have a big race on the calendar (hey self, let’s fix that ASAP!), I needed something new to pump me up.

This morning I planned to run 3 miles with Jason, and I decided to get there early and give this speed interval thing a shot. You know, try to be a real, legit runner or something. I thought I would HATE that I couldn’t see my pace, only the remaining distance and laps, but actually I think it was a blessing in disguise. I set it up for 4 x 0.5 mi intervals with 2 minutes of rest in between. So I just ran as fast as I could for each segment and hoped for the best. Turns out 1/2 a mile is a little longer than one would imagine. I started off booking it, then was like “I must be done by now, right?” Only to look down and discover I’d gone about .15 miles. Basically each rest period, I kind of thought I was going to die if I had to go out again, but I finished and I’m actually pretty proud of myself for how I did!

My goal was to keep each interval at an 8:15 pace and in the back of my mind I was like “Hah–yeah, that’s a nice goal. We’ll see if that happens.” Well I finished the 2 miles (active time, not including rests) in 16:11 which is about an 8:05 average pace! Boo ya stupid negative brain! Look at me! I’ll be doing this sub 8 in no time, bitch. Sorry. I cursed. It happens sometimes.

Okay, so can some smart person pretty please teach me how to upload my splits onto my computer?? I opened the garmin training center and all I see is some graph I don’t understand, and I want to see how I did on each section.  Ugghh, technology and I do not get along very well.

So to help keep myself motivated, I scheduled in all of my work outs for the week, and here’s what it looks like:

Monday: 4x800s + 3 easy miles
Tuesday: Spin + strength (omg strength training! ew)
Wednesday: 5 mi tempo (or whatever crazy speeds Ashley decides we will run)
Thursday: Active rest–easy bike ride
Friday: Long run…alllllll alone. Wahhh. I’ll prob end up doing 10 miles, but I’m hoping to push myself for a few more.
Saturday: 20 mile bike ride
Sunday: Spin!!

Anyone want to run with me Friday??? It will be so fun, I promise.

Birthday Celebration Part 2

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Sunday morning, I had a very exciting date with my friend Christina for a special 90 minute spin class with Linda AKA the best spin teacher ever. I recently found out that the first Sunday of every month, Linda generally does a special 90 minute class and I was super excited! Poor Christina–it was her very first spin class! But she did so AWESOME! She was a champ and made it the entire 90 minutes, after several people had gotten up to leave–get it girl!! I ended up going 34.5 miles that class! I was soooo excited when I saw the screen pass the 30 mile point! Why oh why can’t every spin class be 90 miniutes??

After class I had a few minutes to squeeze in a cup of coffee with Christina (this girl and I have been friends since preschool!) before having to run home. Steve told me I needed to be ready to go by noon and class ended at 10:30. I like to cut things close 😉 At around noon, Hermano, Jason and Nacho arrived and I was told the plan was to ride our bikes to Dilly’s Deli. About 14 miles round trip. Well, okay then! I am not one to say no to outdoor exercise with people I like!

So we were off!

We arrived about 40 minutes later at Dilly’s for lunch. I was starving and couldn’t wait to get my hands on one of their yummy sandwiches!

And here, I am eating the sandwich. Cute, right?

After lunch, we rode home. Oh my gosh, by the end my butt was soooo sore! Sorry for the TMI, but those seats are rough! Steve and I had a little down time, so we went to Goodwill to get some props to improve our food photos, then went to Lululemon because I have gift cards and there is a skirt I’ve had my eye on! Unfortunately, they only had the skirt I wanted in one size and it was not the right one 🙁 We came home, made pb&j cookies, and then we were off to meet up with Jason, Nacho and Bethany for dinner!

Steve wouldn’t tell me where we were going to dinner. I had an idea that it would be somewhere from my list of restaurants I want to try, so I was excited when we pulled up to Gallo Blanco. Unfortunately, they decided to close for the day and not put it on their website or answering service. Jerk faces. We ended up heading to Delux Burger which has also been on my list.

I was very happy with the beer selection 🙂

In case you've never read the blog before, I like my beer dark and sweet! This was half hazlenut brown and half double chocolate stout. Like nutella. Yummmm.

I'm Ari, and this is my beer. We'll be here all night long.

 

Steve got some nasty frilly beer. Obviously, I am the man of this relationship.;)

The food was good, but not amazing. The fries were reallllllyyyy good. We shared a basket that came in a mini shopping cart and they were sweet potato fries with this super yummy mustard sauce. The burger however, was just good. Not bad, but if I were to go back, it’d probably be for just beer and french fries, which is super nutritious in case you didn’t know.

At the end, the waitress surprised by bringing out a sundae with a candle!

Nope, I'm not excited at all.

Luckily, everyone helped me out with this thing! I knew there was still cake at home (oy vey), and this thing was huge! Also, I almost never eat real ice cream. It’s one of those things I just can’t justify, but this was delicious and even with 5 of us, we couldn’t finish it, so I don’t feel so bad 🙂

Birthdays make me happy!

This guy also makes me happy.

Besties!

After dinner, we headed back to Jason’s house to break out the birthday cake! I had requested my dream cake months ago, and Steve remembered!! A fro yo cake from my very favorite fro yo spot Yogurtology!!! I requested their oatmeal cookie flavor with nutella–my favorite!!!

Amaaaaazzzzing!

This cake had a cookie crust, a layer of nutella on the bottom, and then the oatmeal cookie fro yo on top. It was even more delicious than I had imagined!! And you know what? It cost about $11. Friends, if you’re not going to make the cake yourself, get it from Yogurtology! I still have a couple pieces left, and I do not plan on sharing 😉

Thanks to Steve, Bethy, Jason and Nacho for an amazing friend-day!!! Love you guys!

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