fitness Archives - Page 4 of 4

Early Start

October 11, 2011 · by Ari ·

Hi friends! Today started off absolutely fantastic. I thought I was crazy last night when I set my alarm for 5am to get up for spin class, and when that mf anxiety kept me up most of the night again, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get my booty out of bed at that hour. Luckily, it only felt slightly awful and I got myself on the road only to realize it wasn’t just a little bit dark. It was like middle of the night dark. Wtf? It totally messed with my brain. Somehow it has become Fall even though it doesn’t feel like it here and during Fall 5am looks like 1am. Yikes!

I was soooo glad that Kara is back from LA and I have my spin buddy back! As soon as we got going, I felt excited to be there. Today was “Cycle Zone” which is supposed to be harder and shorter. It was only slightly shorter and honestly, it all feels hard haha. Definitely not noticeably harder than any of our other spin classes, but it starts at 5:45 instead of the normal early class time of 5:30 and I am a big fan of those extra 15 minutes of sleep 😉

The room was extra chilly this morning and for the first time I experienced dripping sweat while feeling cold at the same time. Regardless of the cold, it was definitely the perfect way to start the day and I left feeling PUMPED!

It was still a little chilly outside at 6:45 and I was still feeling cold from the room so I got my first hot coffee of the season! It was so delicious. Steamed soy is one of my absolute favorite things on Earth!

This morning really made me think–what if my work out was finished by 7am every morning? How much more could I get done? Would it give me that extra time I need for myself, or would I just go crazy from lack of sleep? I definitely liked the way it made me feel and had a pretty great day because of it.

Sunday I got a text from my amazing friend Jodie (she is directing Aladdin. I love her so very much.) that said that they were doing scene work in rehearsal tonight and that I could take the night off–Hallelujah!!!!! That meant I got done with work at 3pm!!!! I ran straight from work to meet Kara at the Roadrunner store where we got our running analyzed and I drooled over expensive work out clothes. Turns out my shoes aren’t so bad for what I need, but they would be better with $80 insoles. That’s not happening today, but it was interesting none the less.

After we left, I met John for coffee and we walked around downtown Tempe for a little bit before spontaneously deciding we both deserved manis and pedis! YES!!!!! We went to a place I’ve never been called Bella Salon and Spa in Tempe. As soon as we walked in, they were so friendly and once we sat down, we were brought bottled water. Also, they did not skimp on the massage part. It was so amazing to sit there and be pampered! And it was way less expensive than the place I usually go. I ended up with very October themed nails and toe nails 🙂

Aside from some work things that are bugging me more than I would like to admit, today was an absolutely fantastic day. I always feel so much prettier with my nails done and there is something so nice about just feeling pretty. It’s worth a little extra money sometimes!

Is it just me?

September 29, 2011 · by Ari ·

Today my mom asked how I was doing and I answered “You know how when you’re really sleep deprived and it makes you overly emotionally responsive? Like, the smallest thing can make me laugh or cry or be overwhelmed by joy/sadness/anything. Except, I’m not really sleep deprived.” I actually *most of the time* don’t mind being super in tune with my emotions because it leads to things like the discovery I made today.

This morning I met Kara for Spin like every Thursday. Our fav teacher was back. We ended up starting almost 10 minutes late, but she promised to make up for it. By the time we reached the top of our big hill and I discovered gear 23 (Hello gear 23. Nice to meet you. This is the first time we’ve been acquainted. To be honest, you kind of suck. But, somehow I think I may see you again sometime anyway), I knew she wasn’t lying. Then it was time for sprints. She mentioned something about the first minute and the second minute, so silly me, I thought they sprint section would only last 2 minutes. Lies. All lies. And to be honest, I kind of thought I was going to die. I felt so certain that I couldn’t keep up and that I had burnt out too quickly again, but something sparked inside of me and I knew that I had two options.

1) Give up.

2) Push harder than I’ve ever pushed and leave everything I had in that room.

When you’re that tired there is no option 3. No middle ground. At least not for me. All or nothing. So I peddled and peddled and pushed harder and faster than I knew I had in me and all of the sudden all of the emotions I haven’t really had time to acknowledge or mentally digest just came up like emotional vomit and I felt like I was going to start crying, but I wasn’t sad. The only thing I could possibly relate it to is when I’ve been on stage and fully released over into what I was doing. I completely let go in that moment and found a lot of reality inside of myself.

Sorry to sound like a nut. The truth is I am a super emotionally driven person and I 100% believe in all this crap. No one can convince me otherwise. I should come with a warning “I’m emotional. Love me anyway.”

I left class, completely beat physically, but feeling amazing mentally.

Not amazing mileage wise, but not bad considering the lost time and killer hills.

After Spin, I finalllllyyy got my hurrrrr did! One of my besties is basically the most fantastic hair dresser on earth. Her name is Kara, but she is not the same Kara from spin. Hair Kara and I have been friends for something ridiculous like 12 or 13 years, and we have had some crazy times together. Ask me one day, and I will tell you all about our shenanigans! While my color sat, I definitely went over to Great Harvest for some lunch lookin like this

Classy, right? I’ll post pictures of the new color once I actually have time to style and make myself pretty.

After my hair appt, I worked and had a super productive/challenging/amazing rehearsal. I am having such a blast working on this show and it is totally challenging my brain to think, focus, and teach in new ways. I’m so happy, and I wouldn’t turn down a single thing I’m doing right now for all the days off in the world! But I have to admit, I miss Steve and I miss these cutie patooties!

This morning, I went to grab something from my car and Winston followed me and jumped in the back seat. I guess he’s sick of me leaving all the time and he wanted to come. So cute.

After rehearsal, I stopped by my mom’s where I was poured wine and treated like a queen for an hour. My family has been super sensitive to my crazy schedule and made me feel like a million bucks the small amount of time I got to spend with them!

Tomorrow I work from 7:30am-8:30pm and it’s midnight and I can’t sleep. Yikes. Buuuutttt, I have the Phoenix blogger meet up on Saturday to look forward to! Sooo excited (and I have to admit, a little nervous)! If you live in Phoenix and you’re not already on the list, you should come tooooo! I can’t wait to meet everyone 🙂

Ok. Must. Try. To. Sleep.

Goodnight friends.

PS: Question of the day: Have you ever had an emotional response during a work out? Does what I expressed make sense, or do you kind of think I’m a freak? 🙂

Flip flop fail

September 28, 2011 · by Ari ·

Who would have thought that getting done at 8 would actually make Wednesdays my early day? They are one of my favorite days because I get to come home and eat dinner with Steve and every week he has food waiting for me when I walk in the door. Love that. Love him!

This morning I went and did some lifting before yoga with Kara, but silly me, I wasn’t thinking and thought “Oh, I’m going to yoga, I can wear flip flops!”

Then proceeded to feel super embarrassed in the weight room in my flip flops, then to make matters worse some man came up to me and told me to be careful because dropping a weight on my foot would be bad. Yes, I have lifted before, but thanks for the advice haha. Oy.

By the time we got to yoga, my arms felt like jello and it made class super challenging, but I was glad to feel jello-y after spending most of my time on cardio lately. By the time class was over, I was starving and excited to actually have an hour and a half before work–I LOVE having time to cook for myself, and surprisingly find things like chopping veggies to be relaxing and therapeutic. I guess I’m a freak 🙂 Holy huge salad, I guess after a work out eyes > stomach.

Or not…because I ate the entire thing. Apparently eyes understand stomach.

Between jobs, the most amazing thing happened! Rush hour traffic yielded just for me! I got to Mesa so early that I had time to buy myself a treat!

Yummm. Don’t let them tell you they can’t make a chai frapp with the light base, just ask for it with the regular light coffee base, and it is soooo delicious. It totally picked me up mid day 🙂 Then I came home to take out from Pita Jungle!!! Pita Jungle is def one of my favorite restaurants and Steve picked up a glazed chicken lavosh pizza and broiled chicken salad for us to share! I jumped right on it 🙂

Alright, off to spend a little time with Stevie and get all my prep work done for tomorrow.

PS: Tomorrow, I FINALLY get to get my hurrrrrr did! Whoot! Three inches of gray is not cute on a 26 year old. Thank you genetics. I’m so stoked to get all prettified 🙂

Not getting “What I always got”

September 27, 2011 · by Ari ·

Hello everyone! I am definitely starting to feel exhaustion setting in. Today it took me a good 10 minutes to figure out what day it was. But it ended on a good note with a great rehearsal. I’m feeling really good about the work I’ve been doing on Aladdin. I love my team and I love my kiddos.

The day also started out on an awesome note in Spin class. I don’t know what got into the instructor, but she was out for blood today in the best way possible! At the beginning of class she started coming around to check out our cadence and gears. She always says our flat road should be between gear 6-10. The last 2 weeks or so I’ve been keeping mine at 9. She looked at a few people’s and made them bump it up, but then looked at mine and just said “Yup.” I guess that means I’m where I should be? Haha. Then at the end of class she made us all bump up our flat road one gear–oy! Class was intense and definitely kicked my butt, and at the end she was talking about pushing yourself. She said “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.” So true. I am the only one who can push myself. The only one who knows how much I have to give.

I feel like I am usually pretty good about pushing and giving my best, especially in a class situation or when I enjoy what I’m doing, but I know there are definitely times when I let myself off the hook. I let myself feel uncomfortable–to a point. It’s nice to be reminded that it’s all up to me, and I am in control over what I get out of my work outs, and really my life in general. I was pretty proud of what I accomplished in class today 🙂

After class, Kara and I were both super sweaty and totally beat but in the best way possible!

Notice the hot sweat stain on my under boob. Talk about not being cute after a work out 🙂

The rest of the day was pretty much a blur, but I did want to share that I added almond extract to a smoothie I made and it made a HUGE difference. So freaking delicious. I love extracts! Alright, I just have to keep my eyes open for 20 more minutes so I can work more, then I can go to bed! Good night, all!

I ♥ Oats in a Jar!

September 22, 2011 · by Ari ·

Good morning! Happy Super Hero Thursday! As soon as I get ready for work, I will be putting on my super man t shirt 🙂 This morning was spin, as usual (almost every Tuesday and Thursday unless something crazy happens!). When Kara and I got there, we were surprised to see a man we’d never seen before setting up the instructor station. I was immediately super bummed because 1) I absolutely love our Thursday teacher. Not only is her class good, but she is hilarious! She was the one that used “I want to look good naked!” as a motivational quote. I love laughing through a hard sweaty work out. And 2) Do you remember when we took from a different bodyworks teacher?!?! I immediately wanted to be lame and not take the class, but I told myself I was going to at least go in with a good attitude. Honestly, I need to get over myself because new doesn’t mean bad, but this girl likes stability (yet somehow chose a career in theatre? I’m an oxy moron) and does not do well with change.

Well within 5 minutes, this man–who must have been about 60!–was cracking me up! I changed my tune and had one of the most fun classes ever. The music selection totally made me laugh. It would go from good pop, to teenage pop (a la Katy Perry) to country, to oldies. I even spent part of the ride quietly singing along to myself and wishing that my amazing friend Heather was there to sing along with me because she totally would have! This teacher was totally different than anyone I’ve taken from before and it was nice to shake things up a little. The ride was super speedy, and it was the first time I felt like I not only kept up, but at times pushed a little farther than was asked. I love feeling like I have the motivation to push myself, and feeling strong enough to go above what a teacher asks for! I ended up making 20 miles in 48 minutes and finishing with just under 25.

My seat cover is making a big difference, although I still find it slipping around on there. What’s a girl gotta do to get her seat cover tight enough? Maybe I just shake my butt around too much and it can’t handle it 🙂

After the gym, I came home for probably my very favorite breakfast ever. I totally look forward to it–I can’t wait to finish a peanut butter jar so that I can have OATS IN A JAR!!! My favorite discovery from entering the healthy living blog world! Whoever started this trend, you are a genius! And not just any jar, a special, amazing, delicious jar of White Chocolate Wonderful!

In the mix: oats, almond milk, chia seeds, blueberries, mushy banana, raisins, sugar free maple syrup, and the 2nd star ingredient (obviously the PB remains are the star!) coconut extract! It makes such an unbelievable difference! My fav thing about oats in a jar? You get a delicious taste of perfectly warm and gooey peanut butter (or whatever nut butter) in every bite!

Enjoyed with iced coffee

But you know what? Ever since I started getting pumpkin spice in my iced coffee, my regular old sf caramel just isn’t as exciting anymore, and I don’t need all those extra sugars in the pumpkin flavor every day! I’m going to have to really cut out the pumpkin until I enjoy my regular coffee as much as I used to and use the pumpkin as a special treat.

So, as I was peddling my little heart out, I was thinking “Why can’t eating healthy be as easy as exercising?” I mean I think I eat pretty healthy most of the time, and exercise is by no means easy, but I definitely have a MUCH easier time with the fitness portion of healthy living than the food. I just really like to eat. I don’t enjoy eating things that are horrible for me, but I like to eat things like nut butter and bread and cheese and I like to eat a lot. I also HATE feeling deprived or unsatisfied with my meals. Which leads me to my question of the day…
If you had your choice and one option would give you your absolute perfect body you’ve always dreamed of, would you choose

A) Eating super healthy and never having to work out?

B) Eating whatever you wanted and working your booty off at the gym/outside/however you like to?

My answer is without a doubt B! B B B B B!!!! If only life were that simple 🙂

Fall TV Guilty Pleasures

September 21, 2011 · by Ari ·

Good morning friends! So there is a very good chance that this will make me sound like a loser with no life, but I am so glad Fall tv is back!! Last night I got some work done, and then ate my dessert (fro yo of course) while sitting on the couch with the puppies watching Biggest Loser. It felt like the biggest oxy moron. I have a lot of issues with a lot of what they do on the show, but I am a sucker for weight loss tv. I can’t help it. But, I will say that I already miss Jillian. Did you know that I met her???

That was last years GoDaddy holiday party. I told her she was an inspiration, and I was basically star struck. I had to kind of hunt her down because the famous people had their own private area, but my dreams came true and I met her. I wanted to ask her for a work out, but Steve ~~threatened to call off our engagement~~ ~~die of embarrassment~~ ~~disown me~~ asked me nicely not to.

Today I had yoga on the schedule, but Kara had to cover a shift at the bux, and I still thought about going it alone, but it’s not til 11 which is so inconvenient because I like to be done with my work out by then, so I woke up and went for a run. Of course none of my phone devices wanted to cooperate (is it time to buy the Garmin yet?!), so I just went on time and made a nice loop through the neighborhood for 33 minutes. When I got home I drove said loop in my car and used MapMyRun to input the loop to double check. Ironically, it was 3.1–perfect for getting ready for my 5K coming up! 33 minutes is not the stellar time I would have liked and have me second guessing the accuracy of last weekend’s 30 minutes, but I’ll take it, and I feel pretty confident that it is correct. Both my car and the website said so!

Side note: I just googled myself to get a link to put in, and the Arby’s menu came up instead. I think my food is a lot better.

Ok, back to my run. Again, the first 2 miles felt great and passed pretty quickly, but mile #3 still makes me wonder why I would ever want to run to begin with. But that’s okay, because I still remember the first time I ran .25 mi without stopping, and that being an accomplishment. And today was only the 4th time I’ve run the distance, so it should be hard. I came home a sweaty thirsty mess.

Honestly, someone needs to teach me how to take cute post work out pictures, because this is not cute, but it is what I look like when I’m a sweaty mess 🙂 Winston and Clementine immediately proceeded to try to lick the sweat off of my legs. Why are dogs so weird?

Gross, Winston. They also do the same thing when I get out of the shower, but that seems much less gross to me. Although, I don’t prefer my freshly cleaned skin to be covered in dog saliva. Oh the joys of being a pet owner 🙂

After Winston and Clementine tried to bathe me themselves, I took it as a cue to get my butt in the shower, then made some oatmeal and caught up on last night’s Glee! I absolutely loved the season premiere. I laughed, I cried, I felt embarrassed for feeling so emotional over Glee of all things, but I have to be honest, about 1/2 of my teaching work is classes inspired by Glee. It has really sparked something in our society, and as a girl trying to make a living using a BFA in Musical Theatre, it has provided a lot of opportunities and opened a lot of doors. So when Kurt and Rachel cry in the car over their fears of not being good enough and how scary it is to pursue your dream when there will always be someone better than you, I kind of feel okay crying a little too. Because it is scary. But honestly, the more performing arts and shows like Glee become a part of our pop culture, the better chance we stand of survival as artists. So, sappy and silly as it sounds, I’m really grateful to Glee and what it has done for my field, and I love it apologetically, even when the writing is bad and the material is totes inappropes for its target audience. And even though I kind of hate the sound of Rachel’s voice. And even if I wasn’t in theatre, Jane Lynch would absolutely make it for me.

Have a good Wednesday everyone!

PB&J Oatmeal & Garmin Talk

September 20, 2011 · by Ari ·

Hello, friends! After a weekend of, for whatever reason, feeling like my eating was all out of whack, I have been putting a lot of thought into my meals yesterday and today. One of my favorite things in life is when I feel like I consistently eat food that is great for my body and great for my soul-healthy, satisfying, and delicious. Yesterday, and today so far have been just that! In fact, my oatmeal this morning may have been the best oatmeal I’ve ever made. I usually don’t take pictures of meals unless I’m making a full on recipe (somehow I feel like simple things like oatmeal would bore people?), and Steve is here to take amazing pictures with his fancy camera. But today was so yummy, that I made an exception. You know, no matter how delicious oatmeal is, it never looks appetizing to me in photos.

See what I mean? Somehow Kath’s oatmeal always looks like it was painted to be that pretty. Oh well, this oatmeal tasted fantastic.

PB & J Oatmeal

yield one hungry person!

1/3 cup slow cooking oats
2/3 cup almond milk
1 ripe banana, sliced
1 tsp chia seeds
cinnamon to taste
drizzle sugar free maple syrup
1/2 tsp coconut extract–the winning ingredient!
1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
3/4 tbs any nut butter (I used PB & Co White Chocolate Wonderful–YUM!)
1/2 tbs fig butter
1/2 tbs 100% fruit blackberry spread (or spread of your choice)

Directions:

1) Heat all ingredients, except nut butter and fruit spreads, on stove top until oatmeal is cooked. **IMO, cooking the banana in with the oatmeal the entire time makes the oatmeal taste like banana bread–YUM!**

2) Put fruit spreads at the bottom of the bowl.

3) Top with oatmeal.

4) Top with nut butter.

The fruit on the bottom gives you a treat waiting for you as you get towards the bottom!

This was the perfect post spin breakfast! Speaking of spin, guess who totally rocked it out in class today?!

That’d be ME! I love the feeling after I give my all to a great work out! Which leads me to my next topic…

Yesterday morning, I went for a run, but my usual run tracker on my phone couldn’t find a gps signal so I had to use a different one. I had been using the Run Keeper ap, but this time used the Sports Tracker. Well the numbers were totally off. I mean I know about how fast I run on a treadmill and have NEVER considered anything below 5 mph even a light job. It’s a hard sweaty power walk, but I can’t run at that pace, and if you recall from last weekend, my device told me I ran 3.1 in 29:59, although who knows how accurate that one was at this point 🙁 Anyway, today after 37 minutes, it told me I went 2.7 miles. Ugghhhh. I don’t feel like it’s right, but the inaccuracy is really frustrating. So I have a decision to make. Do I spend a good chunk of change (remember, this girl works in theatre where the money is scarce) on this baby?

Right now it’s on sale on amazon.com for about $140. The Garmin 305 was my spin teacher’s recommendation that will keep track of my heart rate in classes, during any work out and will track my mileage on runs. I really want to improve my running, so I feel like it would be a good investment, not to mention I’ve wanted a HR monitor for a long time. Just hard to spend the money. I as also thinking of buying the ease into 10k ap on my phone by the same guy as C25K. I would really love for my next race after this 5K to be a half marathon, but I know before that happens I need to get comfortable with the 10k distance.

I would love any thoughts/recommendations/opinions on the Garmin, and/or improving running distance in general. It is NOT my forte, but it’s something I enjoy that I want to improve on.

Alright, off to job #2 for the day, then my house becomes the Disney Channel as I work on Aladdin choreography! Have a great day everyone!

Pumpkin Smoothie

September 14, 2011 · by Ari ·

Well, it’s true, every single food blog on the internet is talking about pumpkin. I knew I liked it in pie. I knew I liked it in bread. I wasn’t surprised that I loved it in oatmeal or cupcakes, but I’ve really been surprised by how ~~obsessed~~ into pumpkin I have become and it’s only September! I guess it’s all the reading of everyone else’s pumpkin foods. I’m kind of a follower 😉

Today I decided to try 2 new things

1) Pumpkin smoothie

2) Smoothie in a bowl

Every single blog I read, the put their smoothies in a bowl. I never understood why, but I figured it was worth a try.

Pros:

TOPPINGS!
Longer lasting
Toppings
Did I mention toppings?

Cons:

Less portable (I like to take my smoothies to go)
It made it harder to talk on the phone while enjoying my smoothie (I’m a multi tasker!)
I missed sipping it

I would put it in a bowl again for the toppings, but not every time. I like to sip 🙂

Pumpkin Smoothie

yeild 1 big ole smoothie

1 ripe banana
1/2 cup non fat vanilla Greek yogurt
1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 tsp chia seeds
1/3 cup pumpkin
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
2 tbs oats
Tons of ice-How much exactly? I can’t really say–about a big tall glass full. The more ice, the more volume, the more it feels like I get to eat!

Optional toppings:

raisins
low fat granola
cereal
nuts
grain sweetened chocolate chips
nut butter
maple syrup

Directions:

1) BLEND!

I topped with raisins, granola, Fiber One cereal and honey sesame cashews (the best and worst thing I ever bought–sooo delicious! Make the same mistake as me at Trader Joes and I promise you will simultaneously regret it and no regret it!)

Work out:

I have never felt in better shape, or more positive about my work outs as I have since I started taking gym classes consistently. I feel like I may have said that about 100x by now, but it’s just so true. Today was supposed to be cardio and yoga, but it was beautiful outside and so we settled for a nice walk outside pre-calss, which ended up being fine by me because class was HARD today! I was super sweaty and there were times where my body was starting to shake. Does it make me a freak if I love that feeling?

Yoga is a big challenge for me. Mentally and physically. If I don’t get my heart rate as high as I’m used to, I have a hard time not beating myself up about not doing more at the gym or not working harder, but the truth is, yoga pushes my body in a completely different way, and being well rounded is so important. Also, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m a little neurotic. As soon as the teacher says “Now leave any other thoughts and worries outside of this room”, I immediately start to think about everything I could possibly be concerned about. Sometimes I wonder if I’d have an easier time if she told me to worry AS MUCH as possible. Some reverse psychology haha. I just have a really challenging time finding a mental place of calm. It is totally not my style, but I’m hoping that the more I practice, that I will be able to gain as much mentally as I am physically, and maybe one day, I will be able to shut off my brain for a second.

The inner dialogue of Ari’s brain:

Teacher: Silence your thoughts

Ari’s brain: What do I need to get done today? What am I going to make for lunch? What time is it? What am I behind on? What will everyone think of my work? I have to pee. I’m hungry. What time is it? When can I move from this pose? I like my husband. He’s cute. SHHHH, she said SILENCE! I suck at this. I really have to pee. Oy.

Lastly, if I am going to keep up this practice, I am really going to have to invest in my own mat. The ones at the gym look like someone got hungry during class and took a bite out of it

They don’t feed her at Starbucks apparently 😉 Also, the mats smell like feet. Which is fine when you’re just doing abs on them in bodyworks, but when my face is planted on it during child’s pose, I don’t really appreciate the foot smell so much.

Ok, I’m off to get ready for work. Have a great day everyone!

Bikes and Bodyworks

September 13, 2011 · by Ari ·

Work out schedule for the week:

Monday-Bodyworks

Tuesday-Spin

Wednesday-Cardio + yoga

Thursday-Spin

Friday-undecided

Saturday-off

Sunday-Zumba!

Yesterdays bodyworks class was soooo good! Thanks to the music being back and taking from our normal awesome teacher Linda! I love her! She also teaches Tuesday spin. Kara and I were pumped to be back in a good class yesterday

In addition to jumping squats and jumping lunges, we also throughout the class did 100 push ups. OUCH! I’m sore today, but proud to report that I did all of them on my toes and never went down to my knees! I didn’t know I could do 100 push ups! I felt like a beast! 🙂

Then we had to take some measures to protect ourselves from the spin bikes, so we headed to Sports Authority. Their selection of bike shorts was NOT impressive and they cost the same amount as the seat covers, and let’s be honest, seat covers are way less unflattering. We a big decision to make…Memory foam?

Or spend $3 less on the regular one with no memory foam?

In case you couldn’t tell by the less than pleased look on my face, we went with….

MEMORY FOAM!!!

I would love to tell you that this baby worked wonders, but mine fell off about 10 minutes into class today. I guess you have to be smarter than the bike seat. I’ll have to let you know on Thursday 🙂

I have a buuussssyyy day ahead of me…Have a great day everyone!

A new PR for me!!!

September 11, 2011 · by Ari ·

Good morning everyone!!! It is the most beautiful morning we’ve had here in Phoenix in quite some time and I couldn’t be happier! Finally the weather is good enough for a beautiful morning run. Let me preface with the fact that I hardly ever run and when I do, it is almost always on a treadmill and I have never gone outside and even measured my distance, but today was different, because….

I have an announcement to make!!!

I have decided to run my First.Race.Ever. The Susan Komen Race for the Cure. I didn’t want to announce until I was certain I could do it and wouldn’t back out. Running has been incredibly hard on my body in the past due to my very short achilles tendins, and has caused a lot of pain, but it is something I can and WILL push through because I have dreams of one day completing a marathon. Starting small.

I have only ever run 3.1 miles ONE TIME in my life. It was on the treadmill and I remember when I was done I wanted to cry. I went from not being able to run a full minute to running a legitimate race distance. I felt so proud. I did it that day in about 37 minutes. Not fast, but I am not speedy and I’m okay with that.

This morning I got up early, realized my window to take advantage of 75 degree temperature was small, and got my booty out the door to see how I did in the great out doors. I not only met my goal of making the 5k (I wasn’t sure I’d be able to outside since the one time was inside and almost a year ago), but I made a new PR that I’ve only been dreaming of–29:59!!!!! Just barely, but under 30 minutes!!!! I kind of wanted to cry–again.

The first mile flew by and I started to wonder why I wasn’t going for a longer race! Mile 2 still felt good, but I started to wonder when the end would come. Mile 3 I just wanted to be done haha. It was getting warmer out, I was tired, and I remembered why I am doing a 5k to start haha. The good news? My run ended me perfectly at Starbucks for water and iced coffee!