Super Bowl Weekend

This weekend went by in a blur - and I'm certain I'm not the only one that feels that way. Saturday I got an early start at my gym to take a 9:00 am Body Conditioning class. It was awesome!!! I love classes that are weight oriented, and we even used the weight bar!! My kind of class for sure!
And then it was Super Bowl Sunday. It happens every year when the Super Bowl is the main Sunday attraction. There's food, friends, football and lots of commercials to watch, and before you know it, the day is over and it's time to go back to work. :(

This year, we had our viewing area ready relatively early (as we were only having a couple of friends over for the game) and I decided that sitting by the snacks waiting for the game to start wasn't the best idea, so I decided to go on a quick jog at the park by my house. I took little Phoebe with me, because she too needed to get rid of some energy. She really is the best running buddy.

I also wanted to test out my new heart rate monitor. A new workout toy is always fun!!

We got a little over 4 miles in, which felt great. The air was cool and it was about to rain.... my favorite kind of running weather! I was mostly happy to burn off some calories to make up for the delicious Super Bowl food I was about to consume.

After I returned from my run, the game started. We had one serious Broncos fan and one serious Seahawks fan, and we were all a little worried there would be lots of unkind words exchanged, so I created a barrier between them in hopes to maintain the friendship! HAHA

Once the game got to the 3rd quarter all hope was lost for the poor Broncos, and the barrier was no longer needed.

All in all it was a good day, not necessarily a good game, but a good time with friends.

And now it's Monday, and I'm not ready for the week yet. It's been cold (for our California standards) and that makes it really hard to get out of bed. There will be a significant amount of coffee in my near future.

Happy Monday.

Hello Monday....

As blue as I am that it is Monday, it is a short week!! Thank you Thanksgiving!! So really, today is more like Wednesday, and for that I am grateful.

This past weekend was pretty uneventful, which is just the way I like it. The older I get the busier I seem to be, and this weekend the only thing on the agenda was Friends-Giving and a lot of football. YES!

Friendsgiving was a great success. It was a unanimous choice to do the event at our house, but it was somewhat of a Potluck Friendsgiving, which made it much less stressful.

I was so busy in the kitchen all day that I managed to completely forget to take pictures the entire night. FAIL. Luckily, my roommate instagrammed the turkey once it was ready! Thanks Chris!!

The spread was delicious. We have turkey, brussel sprouts with Bacon, Roasted cauliflower, sweet potato au gratin, mashed potatoes and stuffing for the non-paleo eaters! HAHA. Afterwards there was also Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Pecan Pie. I must say the chocolate pie was amazing!!

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Moving right along, on Sunday I decided to get out a little bit and go dress shopping for my upcoming holiday party at work. It's kind of like our own little prom, everyone gets really dressed up and its kind of a big deal, so I thought it might be a good idea to start looking at dresses ahead of time...

I found some cute ones, but I'm not in love with anything just yet. One thing I AM enjoying very much is that dresses actually zip up all the way on me now, and I'm not even at the largest size!! That was a good feeling. If I needed any motivation to keep going, that was it. By this time next year I'm going to have the body I've always wanted, but until then, I'm going to keep enjoying these little moments of bliss in the dressing room.

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And now it's Monday (actually it's already halfway over!)
I'm already done with my cardio boot camp workout -  and boy was it a doozy. Mondays are always hard... my legs always feel twice as heavy on a Monday! Haha

Today's Boot Camp workout:

1/2 mile warm up run

10 squats
10 lunges with a hip flexor stretch

Run 0.5 miles (2 laps around park)

10 deadlifts (each leg)
10 lunges with a hip flexor stretch

Run 0.5 miles (2 laps around park)

10 "good mornings" no weight

10 walking lunges, each leg

Run 0.5 miles (2 laps around park)

10 sumo squats

10 lunges with a hip flexor stretch

Run 0.5 miles (2 laps around park)

1/2 mile cool down run

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Stick a fork in me I'm done!!!! 

The Mermaid 10K: San Francisco

So last weekend I ran my first 10K. I've been running 5Ks and 5K mudruns for a year now, but never 6.2 consecutive miles. I finally decided to take the plunge with my good friend Amy. It was her birthday and she wanted to run this run in San Francisco, especially since she had never been to this city (she's from New Jersey). 

On Friday night we got to the city, had some dinner and just wandered around admiring all of the city's glory. Then on Saturday we tried to pack in all of the sites we could possibly see in one day, since we would be mostly at the race and driving home the following day. 

Coffees in hand.... we ventured out into the city on Saturday.

We went to Pier 39 to see the Sea Lions!!! They were adorable... I could watch them all day.

Dave was there too - and our friend Mark, who is taking the picture! HAHA

Then we headed a few blocks over to pick up our packets and running bibs... 

how cool are these shirts? I love them!!!

We jumped on the trolley after hitting up Lombard Street
and taking some gratuitous tourist photos!

We hit up the nike store in Union Square (I died a little in there.... so much great stuff)

I actually purchased my new Nike trainers, which I am officially obsessed with.

And then it was Sunday.... and we RAN! Please disregard our tired eyes in this photo.... it was about 7:30am in this photo and we had been up since 6:00.... haha

 We were VERY excited to be almost done!! :)

 WE DID IT!!!! we were ecstatic. Officially hooked. I want to run it again already!!!! haha

 Goodbye San Fran..... until we meet again.

This run was our first 10K and were both pleasantly surprised with how easy it was. I'm already looking for other runs in the area... maybe even a further distance? I am definitely working towards a half marathon. I know I could do it.... I just need to put my mind to it.

Anyways, it was an amazing trip with some amazing company. What a perfect way to celebrate a birthday in a healthy way. I'm keeping this in mind for my birthday next year! :)

love mud run 2013

On Saturday, my friends and I went down to Temecula, CA to run the Love Mud Run. I had done one mud run (a zombie 5K) before, but something about being chased the whole time by muddy/bloody people pretending to be ravenous un-dead folk distracts me from the actual FUN of crawling/trudging/swimming/running through mountains of MUD.

This run was all about love.

{before the run}

{after the run..... absolutely filthy and loving it!}

I'm gonna tell you right here and now, this is one of the funnest ways to work out and have some fun with your friends!! I am a big believer in doing workouts that distract me from the pain/fatigue because of all the fun that is being had!

Mud-running is my new favorite hobby, hopefully my wallet can keep up.

My goal for 2013 is now to train for an actual Tough Mudder!!!!

{that's 12 miles of this madness!! eeeeeeeeek}