Happy Monday!

Off to a great start! It's the last day of June and the beginning of an exciting week. Ran this morning on the track, and did some core strengthing. I felt great, which is always good. I am looking foward to seeing my Memphis roomate come in on Friday for a week. She live in Michigan so she might be a little hot out here but that's whats the beach is for right? I am excited I haven't seen her in a year and I can not wait to show her around the beautiful southen Cali. I am not exactly sure what we will be doing but I know that it will be fun no matter what because she's just one of those people that you can't help smiling when she is around. Hope the week goes by fast because then I am off for two weeks and then on to Hawaii:)

"Dream Dinners"

Last week in my little goodie back from the Triathlon I got a free chicken dinner with Dream Dinners. I have heard of something similar but I was a little sceptical on the idea. You see I love to cook and I have fun doing it, why would I want someone else to prepare my meals? But it was free so I thought what the heck and made an appointment to try it out. I went this Saturday and met with the owner Rebbecca a very sweet lady. I then got a tour around the store, there were a lot of women already in there and they were prepping their own dinners. There are several stations set up in an assembly line in the middle of the room. The women were reading a recipe and putting all of the ingredients in there own little zip lock bags. It was the most organized system I have ever seen. She explained to me how it all works, "Dream Dinners provides everything you need to assemble Delicious dinners for your family,store in your freezer and serve in the weeks ahead. We supply all of the essentials from easy to follow instructions to fresh, pre-cut ingredients,". So as she explained this I got to start making my free chicken dinner, I washed my hands and put on my cute little apron that they supply and was ready to get my hands dirty.

There was a very kind women that walked me through the whole process, I started with the Herb Dijon Chicken with Pilaf Rice. All I had to do was look at the instructions read what ingredient to put in my little zip lock baggie and so on and so on. It was nice to see what I was putting in my bags because if I didn't like something very much I would put less or if I liked it a lot I would put a little more, I got to play in the kitchen without preparing the ingredients or cleaning up the mess! Once all my baggies were set I put them in a big gallon zip lock stuck a nice direction label on the front and put it on the shelf in the fridge with my name on it. Then I decided to make one more sense I was there and I was having fun! I did the same thing except I made Chicken with Sesame Honey Butter...yum! This time I went around to the station and did it all by myself. It was so easy and such an enjoyable time for me.

I love that not only am I able to prepare 12 meals for Matt and I for the month in less then two hours, but I also get to prepare HEALTHY meals. I love the fact that I know exactly whats in our meals, and they supply you with a nutritional informational guide. The process is so simple, I choose 12 meals that I want to come in and prepare for the month, choose a day to come in that month, make the meals in less then two hours, and then take them home and enjoy. Even better they have larger portion meals that I can prepare and store in the freezer for that last minuet dinner party that seems to happen at least once a month. The last and probably one of my favorite aspect of all of this program is it is so cost efficient, Matt and I sat down and figured out that this fits perfect in our budget. The lady who came up with the idea had community in mind and I think that with the way the economy is today we need to have community sharing in mind in all things, brilliance!

The Track Makes a Runner Fast!

This week was quite interesting. We spent most of our training on the track doing some speed work. On Wednesday we did a three mile track test, basically ran our top speed for 3miles on the track. I did well I guess, except my Garmen said that I ran three miles one lap short. So I am not sure if I ran one extra lap or if my Garmen was off. Then on Thursday I got home late so I decided to run on my lunch break instead of the early morning, bad idea! I started out OK but at 12pm in California it's a little toasty! I have never sweated so much, I did it though and I even did my down hill strides but it's so much more fun doing it with the group. Then on Friday we did a track work out of 4 100 strids and 30second speed 15 times, basically ran 15 150's fast. It was hard, I don't like the track but getting out there makes me a faster and stronger runner. I need to keep listening to my body, because it really does talk to me if I am willing to listen.

My First Tri!!! What next??

Off days

Today is an off day from running but that doesn't mean that I stop all exercise all together. I teach kickboxing tonight which is great for cross training, but never get to do it as much with my weird schedule. I always think to myself all of the fun active things I want to do in the summer, like go camping, hiking, and ride my bike at the beach. I never seem to get around to doing them. Goals are so important and I need to make some fun rewards that follow. I have a friend that told me about this women who gave herself one dollar for ever mile she ran up to her marathon. When she was done with her marathon she got to go on a shopping spree, how fun is that. I am not sure I can financially do that, but I know there is something out there that I can work towards for sure. On the search for running rewards....

Fun!

have fun with this!

So, my friend Brieanne posted the following on her blog... Shee noted this website, which allows users to play with a program titled Wordle. Wordle is a program "for generating 'word clouds' from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text."

I made the following from the text of John Mayers Lyrics:

Run Like a Girl

This weekend I ran my first 8k and did my first Triathlon. There were six of us who drove out to Pasadena and did the "Run Like a Girl 8k". It was a 5 mile trail run. It reminded me of my old cross country days. We took off on a slow upgrade on pavement, not my favorite, then on to the dirt. Once we were on the dirt we hit a steep hill that I was barely hopping up, but I made it. Once we were done with that it was on to through the trail and down through the creek. It was so pretty on the way back I felt like I was running all alone, because apparently I seem to always run in the gap. But I finished hard at 44minutes. Not real fast but I had a race on Sunday so I wanted to conserve some energy.I finished third in my age division and won a free pare of Mon trail Sandals! Not too bad. We hung out for a bit after to check out the vendors but they were pretty weak, only three vendors were there. I did get some cool free stuff though, and a new recovery drink from Luna, but the first ingredient in it is SUGAR, so not sure if I should use it.

Well then on to today, I finished my first Sprint Tri, I did the Tin Man race in SanBernardino. It was a 5krun,9mile bike, and 400swim. The run went well I felt good and paced myself for the bike ride. It felt great to get on my bike right after the run, I threw my helmet on and took off. The beginning was good but then we hit a pretty steep climb. I haven't gotten used to my bikes gears, so I ended up riding up the climb on the hardest gear! But I made it and soared down on the way back. The rest of the ride was great just a little back pain (might need my bike set up better for me). Then on to the pool, through my shirt off and jumped right in, the water felt great after the ride. It had to be 85degrees already and getting hotter. I swam my heart out and kicked butt if I do say myself, I guess the water polo is still in me. I jumped out and gave them my chip, and side with great relief. I made it injury free! I ended up getting second in my division and 13th girl over all so I was pleased, but I know I need to work on my biking skills big time.

Were headed in to our second week of training, taking a few days off for running and then hitting up the track. Still working on recovery and preexercise eating, it might take a while to figure out what my body responds to but I am up for it. I want my body to be at it's full athletic ability and that means staying away from all that Chinese take out...not that I eat that much.

I think I am actually in shape!

Today was such a great run! It was Rachel, Christina and I. We went out for about 50minutes, doing some down hill strides and a nice one mile tempo of about 6minutes 45 seconds. We were supposed to run at a seven and half minute pace, but we ran faster, and I felt so good. I went home and a protein shake and some fruit, I had a wonderful morning. I did have something funny told by me today by Christina, she told me that her brother had seen me and said that he thought I was either really depressed or I had gotten really active...I think this was a compliment, either way apparently I look better then high school which is a huge accomplishment for me. I get to take the day off from running tomorrow but I will probably go on a short bike ride(just a short one Rachel). This weekend is pretty crazy, were headed to Pasadena for the Run Like a Girl 8k, and then on Sunday I am doing the Tin Man Tri in San Bernardina, then that night I have a softball game! It's going to be fun and active, let's pray that there are no bodily injuries:) I am a little nervous about the Tri, I know it is just a sprint Tri but I have never done a race on a bike. I know no matter what it will be fun, because it's a challenge I have always wanted to do my whole life!

My Journey to a 3:30 Marathon

So I decided to start a blog about my training for the big RACE! I am so excited to be not just running for the heck of it but to be running with a purpose. You see I joined a local running group called the Redlands Runners, and it has been a blast. We have done a couple local races, and I will be doing my first sprint triathlon this weekend( not to mention a 8k the day before). I know I am crazy but what can I say I am addicted to all the endorphins:)

Well we entered the lottery to get into the St.George Marathon in Utah, and I didn't think we would get in. But then I got the email and lucky enough we were in! We are excited. My first marathon was in Memphis, the St. Jude Run. It was mentally challenging, because I didn't train as well as I could have but I finished and got a 4:20 time. I know that I am a much faster and stronger runner then I have ever been and I can't wait to see where I will be when I am done with this training program. The race is in October, and I am gearing up with all that I have. Now I just need to get my self eating better(not that I eat bad) I just need to know the right things to eat as a runner not just a 26 year old women any suggestions?

Goals for the summer is train hard, eat right, have fun and relax, well a little.