As you can see, I LOVE this roller coaster! It's so much fun with all of the music playing in your ears while you fly through the air! Totally awesome, and even better at night!!
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Halloween Horror Nights...revisited
Since it's still not yet Halloween and I just remembered to actually go get my picture from Universal, I thought I'd share the picture of Rob and I from the Rip Ride Rockit rollercoaster that we went on at the Media Preview of Halloween Horror Nights a few weeks back. So, without further hesitation, here it is in all of its glory!!
As you can see, I LOVE this roller coaster! It's so much fun with all of the music playing in your ears while you fly through the air! Totally awesome, and even better at night!!
As you can see, I LOVE this roller coaster! It's so much fun with all of the music playing in your ears while you fly through the air! Totally awesome, and even better at night!!
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Baaaaad Kitty!
This picture almost perfectly exemplifies me this evening: under blanket, laptop open and drink in hand. I'm a baaaad kitty (at least that's kind of how I refer to Bailey - my cat - in a playful way, when she's been getting into things she shouldn't be getting into). In my case, I've opted to take the past four days off from running. Monday's lapse was simply part of the "I'll do it tomorrow" school of thought, only to realize, too late, that I had commitments on Tuesday evening and couldn't run that night. Tonight, my next planned evening to go running, I simply decided "F*&k it," I didn't really feel like it. So, here I am, under blanket, laptop open, drink in hand...er, on the side table next to me, but still. Pretty close! I kind of thought, "Maybe I'll just drop a run this week...see how I feel..." and, well, here I am. Now I just figure that I'll run on Friday at some point (I will have to run, Rob and I have already planned Fajitas and Margaritas, so I'll need to work off those extra calories!) and then get my 10K in this weekend. No big deal. So here I am, cutting myself a break. I've been working hard and have been very dedicated to my running schedule so far, I deserve a little break! I'm going to enjoy it!!! After all, life's not always about running!
Monday, October 15, 2012
Vacation Hangover
This morning I found myself decidedly groggy...and it lasted pretty much all day long, bummer! I went to bed nice and early, got a huge amount of sleep last night and didn't even drink that much yesterday despite it being a football Sunday so what could've been the problem? Yes, oh yes, the dreaded "Vacation Hangover!" I find that the more enjoyable a vacation has been, the bigger the vacation hangover. It has absolutely nothing to do with how long we have been away, just how much fun we had on the trip! Therefore, I think you can probably extrapolate just how awesome this particular getaway was!!
I took Thursday and Friday off from work and we went to our favorite, the Hyatt Siesta Key Beach. This place is like THE end-all-be-all beach getaway destination! The rooms (more like super high-end condos) are incredible, the pool is ritzy what with the fancy cabanas lining the perimeter and a bar where they pour quite a stiff drink and the beach is gorgeous with staffers setting up whatever chairs and umbrellas are needed and providing kayaks, paddleboards and a variety of other beachy toys (corn toss, bocce, football).
After we arrived on Thursday, Rob and I went out to paddleboard and kayak around for a while since I hadn't done any running that day. I figured paddleboarding would be a good "cross-training activity." What was cool was that we saw a bunch of fish while we were out there when we made our way out to this new area we hadn't been over to before, near some rocks...cleverly titled "Point of Rocks" and ended up kayaking back to it the next day and doing some snorkeling. We've been coming here now for a few years and are still discovering new things about the place! The last time I tried paddleboarding, there were a bunch of boats, which made it a lot rougher and harder for me to stay balanced. (My balance is notoriously crappy anyway, so boat wakes don't exactly help matters.) This time, it was totally calm, which made it easy to stay on the board. I was surprised that I didn't fall once, I kind of thought I would!
We watched the sunset from our room and got ready to go out to our one 'fancy' dinner during the trip. We went out to a really nice dinner at the Crab & Fin in St. Armand's Circle. We've been going here almost each time we come to Siesta Key. This time it was good, but the server wasn't as good this time as our server last time, Michael. I felt kind of weird, like a stalker, but I kept watching Michael across the room and wishing he was our server. He always has a funny story and kind of laughs like Uncle Arthur (Paul Lynd) from the original Bewitched. Plus, last time, he gave us extra chocolate dipped pineapple pieces at the end of the meal! Michael! Must remember Michael.
Friday morning, I went for my 8 mile run spanning almost the entire length of the island. I did pretty well, averaging about 12:30 per mile. I was surprised since I figured, with 8 miles to cover, I'd probably end up way slower than that! The one negative to the run was the fact that my Nike+ watch conked out with just 1 mile left to go...so I only got credit for 7.01 miles, but I know I covered the entire distance so it's alright I guess. I don't really understand though since I charged it the entire night before I got up to run. Kind of bizarre! It was really awesome though, I got up and out to run around 7:15 am and got done around 9 am. When I got out there initially, I was cold because the sun hadn't come up yet and it was just really cool out with low humidity (for a change). When I actually started running, that changed though and I warmed right up! The community in Siesta Key is just so nice! When I was running, I passed a bunch of people who all said, "Good morning" and this one girl I passed at the very beginning of my run and then again at the end even said, "Good job, girl!" to me with a smile! That was pretty sweet!
The rest of the day was beautiful! We hung out on the beach from about 10:15 am to around 5 pm with some kayaking thrown in there. It was just so perfect!
Anyone ever see Segway's on the beach before?? Yeah, me neither...
The next day, we (again) hung out on the beach all day long...which was heaven! We went kayaking again and then snorkeling by the rocks. On the way out, we saw a stingray, a HUGE school of bait fish which kept jumping on top of me when I was swimming through them and tickling the crap out of me. We also saw some sheepshead, permits, snook (BIG snook), a bunch of different types of wrasses (my favorite was the fairy wrasse), sergeant majors (of course), spotfin butterflyfish, drumfish, pretty sure we saw a two barred rabbitfish and a bunch others that I can't even remember. By now, I'm sure you get the point that it was seriously awesome snorkeling! We WILL be back!!
Well, that about sums up our time on Siesta Key. We moved over to a place in Lido Beach (near where Rob and I got married) and had a rather Twilight-Zoneish evening there complete with redneck wedding, free pizza from a nearby birthday party, our friend getting lost looking for an ice cream place and a call from my brother notifying my parents that their house had been broken into (which later turned out to be untrue). Altogether a very weird night indeed!
Now it's time to get myself together and start planning my runs out for the week ahead. This week, I'm supposed to be doing 5 mile training runs and a 10K weekend run, which will be a nice relief from the 7 and 8 miles I've run the past couple of weekends! I was excited when I got home today because I received my Team ASPCA training shirt along with a Team ASPCA tote bag! Yay, goodies!!
And, as always, thank you to EVERYONE who has donated so far! We're already up to 53% of our fundraising goal and we've only really been going at it for about a month now! I am already so overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from friends and family members, I only hope that it keeps up so that we can run the half-marathon in January!
If you haven't done so already, please check out our fundraising page! It's fun to see that thermometer thingy rise to the halfway point! And, ALL DONATIONS ARE ABSOLUTELY WELCOME!!! NOTHING IS TOO SMALL!
Team Steph B. and Steff S.
I took Thursday and Friday off from work and we went to our favorite, the Hyatt Siesta Key Beach. This place is like THE end-all-be-all beach getaway destination! The rooms (more like super high-end condos) are incredible, the pool is ritzy what with the fancy cabanas lining the perimeter and a bar where they pour quite a stiff drink and the beach is gorgeous with staffers setting up whatever chairs and umbrellas are needed and providing kayaks, paddleboards and a variety of other beachy toys (corn toss, bocce, football).
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| Our room with a sweet beach view! |
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| Of course, I was actually IN the water when I went paddleboarding |
 | ||
| Rob & I enjoying the calm waters of the Gulf |
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| Pretty kickass sunset, if I do say so myself... |
 |
| ...which I do.... |
We watched the sunset from our room and got ready to go out to our one 'fancy' dinner during the trip. We went out to a really nice dinner at the Crab & Fin in St. Armand's Circle. We've been going here almost each time we come to Siesta Key. This time it was good, but the server wasn't as good this time as our server last time, Michael. I felt kind of weird, like a stalker, but I kept watching Michael across the room and wishing he was our server. He always has a funny story and kind of laughs like Uncle Arthur (Paul Lynd) from the original Bewitched. Plus, last time, he gave us extra chocolate dipped pineapple pieces at the end of the meal! Michael! Must remember Michael.
 |
The rest of the day was beautiful! We hung out on the beach from about 10:15 am to around 5 pm with some kayaking thrown in there. It was just so perfect!
 |
| Andre setting up the umbrellas and chairs for the guests |
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| View of Crescent Beach from our balcony |
Anyone ever see Segway's on the beach before?? Yeah, me neither...
 |
| Nothin' but blue skies....do I see.... |
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| ....and clear waters... |
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| Closing out another beautiful day on Siesta Key |
Well, that about sums up our time on Siesta Key. We moved over to a place in Lido Beach (near where Rob and I got married) and had a rather Twilight-Zoneish evening there complete with redneck wedding, free pizza from a nearby birthday party, our friend getting lost looking for an ice cream place and a call from my brother notifying my parents that their house had been broken into (which later turned out to be untrue). Altogether a very weird night indeed!
Now it's time to get myself together and start planning my runs out for the week ahead. This week, I'm supposed to be doing 5 mile training runs and a 10K weekend run, which will be a nice relief from the 7 and 8 miles I've run the past couple of weekends! I was excited when I got home today because I received my Team ASPCA training shirt along with a Team ASPCA tote bag! Yay, goodies!!
And, as always, thank you to EVERYONE who has donated so far! We're already up to 53% of our fundraising goal and we've only really been going at it for about a month now! I am already so overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from friends and family members, I only hope that it keeps up so that we can run the half-marathon in January!
If you haven't done so already, please check out our fundraising page! It's fun to see that thermometer thingy rise to the halfway point! And, ALL DONATIONS ARE ABSOLUTELY WELCOME!!! NOTHING IS TOO SMALL!
Team Steph B. and Steff S.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Week 7 and a Look Ahead to Week 8
Hello faithful reader(s),
Last week's training schedule had me doing runs during the week of about 4.5 miles with a dreaded weekend run of 7 miles. I was a little worried after my first run on Tuesday because I woke up the next day with that same left knee pain that I've had in the past (which started after the half marathon earlier this year). I wasn't sure if I should even run the rest of the week, but I figured I would just keep wearing my knee brace and see how far I could go on Thursday's run. I did take it a little easier on myself, running only 4.16 miles instead of the given 4.5 miles but since I ran 4.91 miles on Tuesday, I thought the two runs probably averaged out to about 4.5 miles and I was fine.
I have to admit, I haven't been following the training schedule to the letter doing all of the in between runs but I do try to get at least two runs in during the week with the long run on the weekend. I've also been trying to play tennis with Rob as my cross-training activity. I'm not trying to kill myself here, just have fun, get in shape and enjoy the experience! Last year during my training, I would follow everything on the schedule exactly as it was written but I found that I kind of got burned out on it come holiday time and ended up not as in shape as I wanted to be for the Princess Half Marathon.
This year, once I complete the half marathon in November, I will still have the half in January to keep preparing for, giving me further incentive to keep training through the holidays! I'm really looking forward to that since it will, hopefully, help keep the holiday weight gain to a minimum. Ah the things us women have to think about sometimes! I also thought of a totally awesome bonus for the January 12 half marathon!! Rob's birthday is on January 9, so we'll most likely be celebrating the weekend of the half marathon and probably on the Saturday of the race. You know what that means!! I will have SO MANY extra calories that I've burned from the race, I'll just happen to be able to give myself a freebie day on whatever I eat and drink! (Though, honestly, I probably would've anyway...I mean, it's 13 freaking miles! I think I will deserve it!)
I've been really lucky this past week as the weather has been completely gloomy and wonderful! That has really helped to keep the heat down in the afternoons which has helped me to improve my times! I changed up my routine a little bit by running for two minutes now and then walking for 1 minute. This has helped me to reach an average pace of about a minute quicker than my previous runs! It also helped me run my fastest 5K ever last Tuesday! I got home from running and ended the run on my Nike+ watch and it started flashing and beeping excitedly at me in honor of the accomplishment. There's certainly something satisfying about that little acknowledgment! I love this watch! I was hoping to be able to link to my Nike+ profile on here so that you could see all my runs, times, etc...but I can't figure it out. It seems like it will only post (easily, that is) to either Facebook or Twitter. Perhaps I'll check on that some more and figure it out at some point!
In other news, today was a fantastic day for fundraising!! Steff and I have reached 30% of our fundraising goal with a total of $570 raised so far and it's only October! I am so excited about this and very thankful to everyone donating!
Here's the link to our fabulous fundraising page: Team Steph B. and Steff S.
Here are my runs by the numbers for this past week:
Tuesday
Total Distance: 4.91 miles
Total Time: 1 hr
Average Pace: 12:20 per mile
Thursday
Total Distance: 4.16 miles
Total Time: 53 mins
Average Pace: 12:41 per mile
Sunday
Total Distance: 7.04 miles
Total Time: 1 hr, 28 mins
Average Pace: 12:28 per miles
For all of you keeping track of energy gel reviews, here's my review of the new Gu Roctane formulation, flavored Cherry-Lime: It tastes nothing like Cherry, nor Lime. It tastes like Chocolate actually, but a weird Chocolate not a good Chocolate, and I have independent confirmation of this from Rob.
As for the Gu Roctane Tropical Fruit flavor, that was actually pretty good. Though, I will caution everyone to avoid spilling it throughout your living room, kitchen and dining areas as I apparently clumsily did. I STILL have NO IDEA how that happened and I didn't even realize it until later that day, when I stepped in something sticky with my shoe and saw the trail of goo that I had created. Needless to say, cleanup was not fun!! So, my friends, do NOT do that! Getting back to the flavor of the gel, I will say that it wasn't overpowering but somewhat fruity and pretty yummy. In my book, it's up there with the Orange flavor Gu and the Berry flavor Gu.
Looking ahead, I'm going to be out of town Thursday - Saturday so I'm wondering when I'll get my runs in this week. I didn't think about it until now (which is too late), but I really should've gone running today. I figured I should just let myself recover from yesterday's 7 miler. Whoopsies. So I'll run tomorrow and maybe I'll just have to do another run on Wednesday. The problem with where we're going is that it's a small barrier island on Florida's west coast and I'm not really sure where I can run. The place has a gym which has a treadmill, but I LOATHE the dreadmill...er, treadmill. I get so very bored and I just don't think I would be able to force myself to eek out a 4.5 mile run let alone the 8 miler I'm supposed to do this weekend! I'll have to do more research I suppose, to figure out if running there will be a possibility. I'm really looking forward to the trip though! It's to my absolute favorite place: Siesta Key!! I truly love it there, it's so beautiful and the beaches are seriously awesome! Hopefully this time there won't be a hurricane to spoil the trip like there was when we went in August. Stay away tropical weather!!
This is what I get to look forward to:
Last week's training schedule had me doing runs during the week of about 4.5 miles with a dreaded weekend run of 7 miles. I was a little worried after my first run on Tuesday because I woke up the next day with that same left knee pain that I've had in the past (which started after the half marathon earlier this year). I wasn't sure if I should even run the rest of the week, but I figured I would just keep wearing my knee brace and see how far I could go on Thursday's run. I did take it a little easier on myself, running only 4.16 miles instead of the given 4.5 miles but since I ran 4.91 miles on Tuesday, I thought the two runs probably averaged out to about 4.5 miles and I was fine.
 |
| The training schedule I'm following, courtesy of Hal Higdon |
I have to admit, I haven't been following the training schedule to the letter doing all of the in between runs but I do try to get at least two runs in during the week with the long run on the weekend. I've also been trying to play tennis with Rob as my cross-training activity. I'm not trying to kill myself here, just have fun, get in shape and enjoy the experience! Last year during my training, I would follow everything on the schedule exactly as it was written but I found that I kind of got burned out on it come holiday time and ended up not as in shape as I wanted to be for the Princess Half Marathon.
This year, once I complete the half marathon in November, I will still have the half in January to keep preparing for, giving me further incentive to keep training through the holidays! I'm really looking forward to that since it will, hopefully, help keep the holiday weight gain to a minimum. Ah the things us women have to think about sometimes! I also thought of a totally awesome bonus for the January 12 half marathon!! Rob's birthday is on January 9, so we'll most likely be celebrating the weekend of the half marathon and probably on the Saturday of the race. You know what that means!! I will have SO MANY extra calories that I've burned from the race, I'll just happen to be able to give myself a freebie day on whatever I eat and drink! (Though, honestly, I probably would've anyway...I mean, it's 13 freaking miles! I think I will deserve it!)
I've been really lucky this past week as the weather has been completely gloomy and wonderful! That has really helped to keep the heat down in the afternoons which has helped me to improve my times! I changed up my routine a little bit by running for two minutes now and then walking for 1 minute. This has helped me to reach an average pace of about a minute quicker than my previous runs! It also helped me run my fastest 5K ever last Tuesday! I got home from running and ended the run on my Nike+ watch and it started flashing and beeping excitedly at me in honor of the accomplishment. There's certainly something satisfying about that little acknowledgment! I love this watch! I was hoping to be able to link to my Nike+ profile on here so that you could see all my runs, times, etc...but I can't figure it out. It seems like it will only post (easily, that is) to either Facebook or Twitter. Perhaps I'll check on that some more and figure it out at some point!
In other news, today was a fantastic day for fundraising!! Steff and I have reached 30% of our fundraising goal with a total of $570 raised so far and it's only October! I am so excited about this and very thankful to everyone donating!
Here's the link to our fabulous fundraising page: Team Steph B. and Steff S.
Here are my runs by the numbers for this past week:
Tuesday
Total Distance: 4.91 miles
Total Time: 1 hr
Average Pace: 12:20 per mile
Thursday
Total Distance: 4.16 miles
Total Time: 53 mins
Average Pace: 12:41 per mile
Sunday
Total Distance: 7.04 miles
Total Time: 1 hr, 28 mins
Average Pace: 12:28 per miles
For all of you keeping track of energy gel reviews, here's my review of the new Gu Roctane formulation, flavored Cherry-Lime: It tastes nothing like Cherry, nor Lime. It tastes like Chocolate actually, but a weird Chocolate not a good Chocolate, and I have independent confirmation of this from Rob.
As for the Gu Roctane Tropical Fruit flavor, that was actually pretty good. Though, I will caution everyone to avoid spilling it throughout your living room, kitchen and dining areas as I apparently clumsily did. I STILL have NO IDEA how that happened and I didn't even realize it until later that day, when I stepped in something sticky with my shoe and saw the trail of goo that I had created. Needless to say, cleanup was not fun!! So, my friends, do NOT do that! Getting back to the flavor of the gel, I will say that it wasn't overpowering but somewhat fruity and pretty yummy. In my book, it's up there with the Orange flavor Gu and the Berry flavor Gu.
Looking ahead, I'm going to be out of town Thursday - Saturday so I'm wondering when I'll get my runs in this week. I didn't think about it until now (which is too late), but I really should've gone running today. I figured I should just let myself recover from yesterday's 7 miler. Whoopsies. So I'll run tomorrow and maybe I'll just have to do another run on Wednesday. The problem with where we're going is that it's a small barrier island on Florida's west coast and I'm not really sure where I can run. The place has a gym which has a treadmill, but I LOATHE the dreadmill...er, treadmill. I get so very bored and I just don't think I would be able to force myself to eek out a 4.5 mile run let alone the 8 miler I'm supposed to do this weekend! I'll have to do more research I suppose, to figure out if running there will be a possibility. I'm really looking forward to the trip though! It's to my absolute favorite place: Siesta Key!! I truly love it there, it's so beautiful and the beaches are seriously awesome! Hopefully this time there won't be a hurricane to spoil the trip like there was when we went in August. Stay away tropical weather!!
This is what I get to look forward to:
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| Aaaaaaaahhh |
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