It’s been awhile…
What are you going to do for your extra day in February?!! I have to work but I’m going to kick my own butt at the gym tonight. Maybe try a few new machines or a new class.
Did you notice? I’m a .com now 
Say WHAAAAT….
I also gave the blog a new look and updated my “next race” page
And Craig and I are registered for Warrior Dash, there is no going back for me. I’m gonna have to get dirty 
Hope you have a great extra day!!
Good morning Craig and I have today off, we decided to have a during the week date. Our plans for today…
~ Morning hike
~ Lunch at one of our favorite places that we haven’t been to for a while.
~ Shopping for our backpacks for our Havasupai hike in May.
and if there is time…some more shopping.
Before we start our day though I wanted to write a quick post about a few things I’ve gotten and that so far I’m loving.
Last Friday I finally went and bought new shoes. I’ve been needing them for about a month now but I was trying to use up my old ones as much as I could. Since my foot has been bothering me I decided I shouldn’t aggravate it more and just went and got these beauties.
I stuck with Brooks because so far these have been my favorite running shoes (Sorry Lunarglides) I was happy to have found them in pink too and of course I bought the pink shoelaces I had the Ravenna’s before but this time I went with the Adrenalines.
And this was a gift from Craig that I never posted. It’s bigger than it looks and I still need to get a frame for it. It’s from my 1st marathon I ran last month It was a birthday gift and I LOVE IT!! I was considering on buying 1 picture when Craig surprised me with it.
For Valentine’s Day Craig bought me this bracelet. I have 2 that I always wear on race days so he knew I would love this one. I wore it for my last half marathon.
He also bought me this towel. This is perfect for when I go to Zumba. I sweat a lot.
I bought this at the IMS Half Marathon expo. I already have an iFitness belt that I really like but I like that this didn’t have a strap and decided to give it a try. I wore it for the half marathon and really liked it too. I was able to fit my Powerbar gummies with no problem. It has 2 pockets and easy to put on. Here’s the link for more info.
And another thing that is new is my hair. I went from blondish hair to brown. I also went shorter. I’ve been wanting to go darker for a while but again I was being a little stingy but I finally did it and so far I’m lovin’ it too. I love running with my hair down and I’m able to do it with both lengths. I tried the longer look during summer but this year I think I’m going to stay with the shorter look.
Question: Anything new you’ve gotten that you’re loving?
There’s a few more things I want to buy that I saw last week but I’m still debating on spending the money
Have a great day!!
Good Monday Morning
The weekend flew by for me.
Friday night Craig and I went for our usual run at Tempe Town Lake. It’s becoming a Friday tradition. After our run we go to dinner. There was one week we didn’t do it because I had a half marathon that weekend and it felt sort of weird. We might be skipping it this week too if I decide to run another half marathon on Sunday. (That will be another post)
On Saturday morning I woke up at 4am to get ready for the Climb to Conquer Cancer. I was out the door by 5:15am to meet my friend by 6am. They had buses to take you to the start. They had three different locations with a lot of parking.
We arrived at South Mountain where the climb was taking place by 6:20 am. We never saw our group so that we could take pictures with them so we just took our own.
We met our friend Mulu at the starting line and then started our climb at about 7 am.
They had a board with post its and you could add any message you wanted. The whole time we were doing this I had such a great feeling.
The hiking path was on a road but it was still very steep in some areas. It definitely was a good workout on the way up.
The event was very well-organized. They had water stops at every mile. Some stops had a band too. The weather wasn’t so bad either We’ve been having awesome weather in AZ the last couple weeks. I’m so glad Winter is almost over.
We were hiking against the wind so I kept my sweater on for a while. I get sick way too easily so I’m extra careful now.
The views were great. My friends had not done a lot of hiking and they loved doing this. They kept saying how amazing it was. Now they know why I love it so much.
When we reached the top we got a sticker and there was a big party going on. There was a D.J. that was playing great music. They could’ve had a Zumba class at the top and I would’ve been all for it.
They had Gatorade, chips, bananas and oranges for us.
At this point I was regretting wearing my hiking boots. They are about a month old, I was trying to wear them in. But I wished I had worn a pair of running shoes to run back down.
They had buses that would take you down but we decided to walk it back down. It seems like a lot of people decided to do the same thing. I thought it was pretty awesome.
So close to the finish now We did 11.4 miles. I was feeling great. My feet hurt a bit though but other than I was happy that we didn’t take the bus down. It was such a great day, good feelings all around. I would love to do this again next year.
After the hike I headed home to get ready for dinner.
The whole family got together because my sister’s friend was here from out-of-town. We’ve known him for such a long time, he is part of the family.
My girls
Here we all are ready to chow down. We went to BJ’s. I was good and had something from their EnLIGHTened menu. It was pretty good but not as good as Jasmine’s Oreo Pazookie
And while Jasmine had her own Pazookie I had to share with these two….
They are like vultures when this comes out and I barely get any…happens everytime. I need to start ordering my own
Hope you have a great start to your week!!
This is the race I registered for 2 weeks ago. It’s a smaller race and I had never ran it before. I was pretty happy to be running a smaller race. There were a lot of things that were so different from a RNR race.
One of them being the size of the expo. I’m one of those big nerds that likes the expo but it was nice just getting my bib and t-shirt and leaving. Not sure if I told you but I only paid $42 for this race. It was like meant to be, I saw it on Schwaggle and the plans I had for that day were cancelled so I had to take advantage of the opportunity to run a new race.
For dinner we went to Outback, the steak the night before a race is really working for me so I’m going to stick with it. Pasta…not so much.
I set out my stuff and set my alarm for 4:30 am.
I wanted to have some time to “handle” my business. Didn’t really work out at home but on the way there we stopped at the gas station and it workout out there Yay!!! Made me feel so much better about the race, nothing like starting a race “prepared.” I had a Powerbar for breakfast on the drive there and some water. I had some Powerbar gummies in my little pocket thing I bought. I’ll talk about that on another post.
Oh I almost forgot. So I thought I was going to be running this race alone until Friday…my friend Daniela said she wanted to run it together I like running with my peeps so that made me happy. She bought us these cute arm warmers and we tried to get an outfit together that we both had that kind of matched.
The start line was way smaller than what I’m used to but it had a nice feel to it. The race started at 7:30 am. As we walked to the start another runner told us they had changed the course this year and it wasn’t as flat as it used to. Eeeeek.
The course was pretty neat. It didn’t end up being to hilly, I only remember like 3 hills. The last one being the steepest. We ran by a lot of farms.
The streets weren’t really closed so there were some areas where we didn’t have too much room but it was never really an issue.
Blowing Craig a kiss
It seemed cloudy most of our run but it never rained. It was perfect weather. We had our gummies at the 6th mile.
I took my camera with me and these are some of the pictures I got. When we saw the Cardinals Stadium we knew we were close.
I love this picture of Daniela. She was totally in her zone and didn’t even notice me taking her picture.
There were a few parts when we could tell the drivers were getting a little frustrated that they had to wait for us. I know how that feels
This was around the 10th mile. Craig was on the other side of the road so I knew I was going to see him from far, no kiss for me that time. hee hee.
I also love this picture. You can see the dark clouds in the back. This was going down the last hill after the 12th mile. We were so close, we could see Westgate which is where the finish line was and we got excited.
Unofficial time 2:29:~~
We didn’t beat my PR 
But we did beat Daniela’s and that makes me happy. I know I’ll have another shot at a new PR. I’m disappointed because I feel so ready but the main thing is that I still have fun and I totally did.
After the race we went to Five Guys for some YUMMY burgers
HAPPY FRIDAY!!! This week kind of flew by for me and I’m so glad it did. I have a fun weekend ahead of me.
I’m a little behind in posts so here is LAST Sunday’s funness. (not word) Oh Well.
On Sunday I had originally planned to run 10 miles but I had run for 6 days in a row and I needed a break. So I told Craig we could do whatever he wanted that morning. He decided on a hike, we both thought it would be a short hike but it ended up being a little longer than planned. We headed to South Mountain to do some exploring. We are really trying to cover more ground there because we don’t go hiking there as much as we probably should. There are SO many trails.
We took a dirt road to the trails which was about 1.2 miles I believe. This area was all new to me, there were a lot of people out. A lot of mountain bikers, hikers and families just hanging out. It was the perfect morning for it too.
I like checking out these buildings.
We decided to take National Trail which is like 15 miles I think. We didn’t do the whole thing but we were on it for a while until we decided to turn onto Mormon Trail. Before doing that though we decided to try to find Fat Man’s Pass….
And we did. I was so excited that we found it. The last time we went hiking in South Mountain some other hikers mentioned it to us but we were on our way out so didn’t have time to check it out. It’s been on my mind ever since and I’m glad we were able to check it out and that we both fit. haha.
That’s Craig over me. I kept going inside it like if I was a little kid because it was so cool to me.
After we had our fun at Fat Man’s Pass we came back on Mormon Loop. I’m pretty good going up on trails but going down…not so good. Just makes me a little nervous and I take my time. Oh and by the way, Craig went mountain biking on Wednesday and he did this trail. He is one crazy guy. There is no way I would do it. It was steep going down for me and that was walking…on a bike…NO THANK YOU. He loves it though and had a lot of fun. Even though he busted up his left knee. He was pretty excited when he showed me his wound when I got home from work
GROSS. If you’re into mountain biking check out Craig’s video
We ended up doing 7.5 miles and we had such a great morning. We are going to be doing a lot of hiking because our Havasupai Falls hike in the Grand Canyon is in May. We need to be ready for that
After our fun morning we had a fun afternoon.
My niece wanted our family to have a picnic at the park and we did.
We had salads, sandwiches, chips and some dips. That’s the kind of food my niece wanted. We all wanted burgers and hot dogs but since it was her idea we did as she asked
The food was good and the company was even better.
We played some games including cornhole.
My niece loved it, I love family time
This weekend it’s going to be a lot of time with friends, movie, expo and running fun. I can’t wait!!! We are starting it off tonight with a dinner and some shopping for our hiking trip.
Hope you all have a great weekend!!
I’m one of those people, I love Valentine’s Day. Craig and I will be going out to a nice dinner after work I can’t wait to get off and I haven’t even gone in yet. haha. I do get off 2 hours earlier. Yay!
Also Happy 100th Birthday to Arizona!!!
I went to the Centennial Fest on Saturday and it was pretty cool. I got all excited when I saw the signs on the freeway. Yes, I’m a big nerd.
So yesterday after work I came and wrote this blog post and when I tried to post it, it got DELETED! By that time we were ready for dinner and I didn’t want to start all over again so I woke up a little earlier this morning to write it before work.
Saturday was pretty busy for me, I even skipped lunch which I HATE doing. I don’t usually skip meals, but I had NO time to eat. I was so busy I never got hungry until I was done.
In the morning I met my sisters for our Remembering Sherry Run/Walk.
I told them about Sherry and they were happy that we were dedicating our run to her. I told them that people all over the U.S. were doing the same thing that day and running peeps are way cool.
I haven’t talked about it too much on the blog but a couple of days after my marathon my sister Paula (in the white) told me she wanted to run a 5k and POSSIBLY a half marathon with me this year. That is HUGE!! She doesn’t really like doing much. haha. I was so happy when she told me, she even had a 5k in mind already and we registered that week for the Firefly Night Run. My sister Vero (in the black) has been running on and off for over a year and she is going to run the 5k with us too. If my sister, Paula decides that she likes it then we are going to train for the Women’s Half Marathon together!! So far she is loving it and I love how pumped up she is about it. We’re meeting twice a week and then for our longer run on Saturday. I’ll keep you updated.
After our run, my sister Vero and I headed home. I showered and changed then we were off to our next event.
The Centennial Fest.
We went to the Zumba Dance Party from 12pm-1pm. It was outside and we sweated bullets but had SO much fun. We even got these awesome shirts.
We walked around for a bit afterwards but not for very long.
I had the Skirt Chaser 5k to get to at the Tempe Beach Park that started at 2pm.
I ran the 5k with my friend Daniela. I’m glad I finally ran this race, I’ve been wanting to for a long time. Hopefully Craig won’t have to work when they have it next year because I would love to run it with him.
There were a lot of people and they were all ready to party after the race. We didn’t stick around to party. I was ready to go home, that’s when I realized how hungry I was. I headed home and got ready for our early Valentine’s Day date
Time for me to get ready for work. Hope you all have a great Valentine’s Day!!
I LOVE music and I listen to all different kinds but when I’m running I want something that makes me want to move. Something that pumps me up. I pay attention to the lyrics a lot when I’m running and these are a few songs that I have on my running playlist. All these songs have parts in them that make me feel like I can do anything, even the A** song
Motto- Drake
Can’t Get Enough- J.Cole
Gotta Have It- Jay-Z and Kanye West
Stronger- Kelly Clarkson
N In Paris- Jay-Z and Kanye West
Workout- J.Cole
U Da One- Rihanna
Dance (A**) – Big Sean and Nicki Minaj
Roll Up- Wiz Khalifa
Make Me Proud- Drake Ft. Nicki Minaj
Strange Clouds- B.O.B. Ft. Lil Wayne
No Church In The Wild- Jay-Z and Kanye West
Do you have any songs you recommend adding to my playlist?
I took 2 weeks off from following a training plan and basically did whatever I felt like it. This included a few Zumba classes with friends and my sister, hiking with Craig and with a friend, running with Craig and alone and it was really nice to not feel the pressure of HAVING to do something. But my break is over and even thought I enjoyed myself A LOT. I really missed having a goal to work towards or a plan to follow. I talked to you about my running plans this year and since then I registered for the Skirt Chaser 5k which is Feb 11th. As I was about to register for the Phoenix Half Marathon on March 3rd I realized it was FULL!! I’m not going to lie, I was VERY disappointed that I waited so long to register, I really wanted to do that race. Even before running the full I’ve been thinking that a new Half Marathon PR would be awesome. It’s been over a year and I want to beat my time because I know I can. I tried to see if there were other halfs that I could do but none fit into my plans for the next couple months and once it gets hotter in AZ there won’t be any. I thought about just waiting for the San Diego Half in June for a new PR but I kind of want it NOW. I get like that sometimes, when I want something…I WANT IT. SO me being me tried everything I could to fit another half in SOON. I found out that a plan that I had on Feb 19th was cancelled!!! It was like meant to be. haha. The IMS Marathon is the same day and it’s not far at all. I talked to Craig about it and it was doable so I REGISTERED for it this week. Not only did I register but I got a FREAKING AWESOME deal from Schwaggle!! What What?!!
So I thought I had about a month to work towards this PR of mine since I didn’t plan on running a half until March, um no….I get 2 weeks. I’ve been running for a while so I know I can run 13.1 miles but not sure if I can beat 2:27. But I’m going to try, Nothing to lose in trying I took about a week off after the full but have been running ever since so let’s see how this goes.
This morning I went on an 8 mile run with my shadow. I felt GREAT and I was happy to be following a plan again. Next Sunday I plan on running 10 miles.
I also wanted to share this with you…
http://www.shutupandrun.net/2012/01/virtual-run-for-sherry-arnold-february.html
I’m going to be doing it, I’m running a 5k that day so I’ll be wearing my regular bib on the front and Running for Sherry bib on the back. I’m glad the running community is so awesome and I think it’s awesome that so many of us will be running for Sherry on Feb 11th
I loved birthday weekend!! It was so relaxing and I totally needed to relax.
When we got to Flagstaff it was dinner time. We checked in, checked out our room (that we still really like) and then headed to dinner. I was so happy that it wasn’t snowing and that it wasn’t WAY too cold. It was cold…just not like last year. I like to have some snow around just because it looks nice but it’s not my favorite. Last year we had to wear our really big thick jackets. This year we got away with a regular jacket or sweater and a scarf. So to me the weather was perfect.
For dinner we went to a pizza joint Craig’s had his eye on for a while. We shared a spinach and artichoke dip and a medium pizza. We didn’t finish the pizza, probably because we tore up the dip
The next day we woke up pretty early, we are naturally early risers. We cuddled in bed for a while, it was so nice to do that without having to hurry up and get ready for something. We came out to the balcony and took some pictures of our view.
It smelled so fresh outside and like burning firewood. LOVED it.
We finally decided to get up at 8am to go get some breakfast. The hotel has this really nice restaurant with a lot of windows to the great scenery. We decided on the breakfast buffet like last year, it was good and I had a REALLY good cafe latte.
After our big breakfast we walked around the hotel trail.
This hotel has a lot of land and last year we didn’t get to walk too much of the trail because we couldn’t see it with all the snow. This year it was different and we got to check it out
It was a really nice morning walk. It was a little foggy too.
On our way back we saw an Albert’s Squirrel.
By the time we got back to our room it was about 10:30 am. We got ready, packed up and left to our next stop on the trip.
We went to Walnut Canyon.
And we did the Island Trail, which has 240 steps. It’s not bad going down but coming back up sure was a workout.
We read all about the ruins.
Then we decided to do the Rim Trail. They were both kind of short trails and we had plenty of time. The Island Trail took about 45 minutes.
When we were walking back we saw a deer. Then he ran off to his other deer friend and they started eating berries (we think) We watched them for a while, I like watching animals.
Our last stop before lunch was Buffalo Park. This also has another trail and there were a lot of people out running.
After our walking/hiking adventures we went to downtown Flagstaff for some shopping and a late lunch. We left a little later than we thought and got home a little late but it’s ok. We had a lot of fun and it’s our last trip for a while.
Thank You Craig for a great birthday weekend
My 28th birthday was on Wednesday….eeeeek.
To celebrate I took the day off. I REFUSE to work on my birthday. I usually make it a lazy day until Craig takes me out to dinner but most of the day I’ll just lay there and watch movies. This year was different. I wanted to have a relaxing day but still do something fun.
Craig had the day off so we went hiking.
We went to South Mountain, Craig had a new trail for us to check out. I had never been hiking on this side of South Mountain before and I was really excited to try something new there.
When I first saw the smaller hill that the trail led through, I thought this hike was going to be way easy but then it just kep going and going higher and higher. I was happy that it ended up being a good workout but nothing too crazy. I loved the view too.
Once you’re almost done you get to this little valley and I really liked it.
We decided to keep going onto other trails and keep exploring. We had a little more time left so why not…
I’m so happy we did too because we found a little cave inside Hidden Valley.
It was so cool and if we had more time we would’ve explored a lot more. We found a few more hikes in South Mountain that we are definelty going back to check out.
The hike ended up being about 3.5 miles, it was a great way to start my day I loved that we went on new trails (to us) and that we found a cave we didn’t expect to see at all. I felt like a real explorer.
The rest of the day was spent EATING A LOT. We tried a Hawaiian restaurant that we LOVED, we will be back. We went to Sprinkles because I LOVE their cupcakes. I tried the S’mores one and OMG, it was amazing!! Then we went out to dinner at a seafood restaurant. I finally tried crab cakes and I am hooked. Those things are bomb!! (do people still say that? ) My bday was pretty awesome. We are actually still celebrating it this weekend. Today we are leaving to Flagstaff for one night. We want to do some hiking, hopefully the weather isn’t too bad. We’re staying at our new favorite little place in Flagstaff. It’s so comfy and cute. I’m packing now and heading over to the gym for a Zumba class with my sis before we leave
I’ve got a lot done this morning so far. I love days like that. I was finally able to order my Bountiful Basket after months of not doing it because of training. I went and picked it up this morning and I realized how much I missed picking up my basket. It’s like a surprise every time
Yay!! Can’t wait to try some new recipes this week
Hope you have a great weekend!!
