Vacation Ramblings Part I: Phoenix, AZ

Ahhh vacation has been great. I've been doing a whole lot of nothing which is how I like it... I actually picked up a book I liked in middle school only to realize it now has a sequal and a third one on the way on Sept 27th! So of course i picked up the first and the sequel and am now working my way through them;

The series is;

"Abarat" by Clive Barker. Totally recommend it!

In addition to reading novels and eating myself silly, I've also been running. Yesterday was really really rough because it was freaking 92* at 4:30am! Phoenix is nuts. I have a feeling running in Hell would feel pretty similar. Yesterday's run since it was so hot was just done on flats, around the block...

Not a bad pace at all for me considering it was 92 **!!! And then today dad took his mountain bike out so that we could go explore "the papagos". Papagos are like giant sand dunes except they are actually made of rock. They are pretty neat and the ones near my dad's house in Phoenix have mountain biking trails all around them (which are pretty awesome to run :D)

This is a picture of the park we ran in and here is information about the actual run!

Again not bad considering the hills :D Check out this elevation map! I did a nice couple hill repeats on a super steep part near the end....

All in all this vacation has been great so far, looking forward to some more relaxing and more running once I head back home to sticky Orlando!

Vacation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So as of right now I am OFFICIALLY on my "18 day" vacation. I start work again on the 19th of September. I'm so excited.

What am I going to do???

I think I will start the first couple days with 2 half marathons in 3 days... one tomorrow morning and one Sunday morning and during these I will try out.......

Look! I won Gu from Mallory at Sit for your job. Run for your life.

She is pretty freaking neat!

Then I'll probably do a lot of this....

(Running) Except i'll be in......

Phoenix Arizona for the first 6 days ... and yes I totally plan on running some of those "mountain things" lol

I will also be doing a lot of;

And eating some great foods!

And drinking lots of this;

I really want to make this vacation about 'rejuvination' and 'loving my body' before our 'busy season' picks up again in October (and doesn't end until April of next year!)

But in addition to just being healthy I will also engage in the following;

Excessive tv watching and snack munching;

Reading useless fiction novels (such as Endless Love by Scott Spencer

Eating some of these;

and mainly just enjoying life. Time to reap the benefits of having a job that gives you 5 weeks of vacation right off the bat. I DID earn it though that's for dang sure!

August Recap and Thoughts of the Future

So August... was a pretty awesome month! Ending with 4... days of rest haha. I'll run tomorrow, I promise!

So... recap!

• Miles Ran - 141 (+4 from July, or 3% increase)
• Strength Training Sessions - 2 ... yes... that's TWO. No wonder my knee is aching. Time to get back to those dang physical therapy exercises!
• Unplanned Rest Days: 2 (missed a 10 miler early in the month and an 8 miler yesterday)

Other Highlights:

• First Back-to-Back Long Run (10 miles both days) - felt great!
• 18 miler and a 20 miler, both were good
• Hit my all time high for weekly (40mpw) and monthly (141mpm) running mileage (even WITH missing those 2 days)
• Did day ONE of the 100 pushup challenge hahahahaha... yeah I guses I wasn't that dedicated.

Fitness Goals For September:

• Strength Train 4x/month (Mondays?) - Including Pushup Challenge
• Yoga 4x/month (Sundays?)
• Miles ~ 152
• First 15k Ever (Sept 24th)

Other Goals For September:

• Use my vacation as a time to really focus on my body - and treating it healthily.
• Focusing on Fruits/Veggies
• Focusing on "whole foods" as much as possible
• Focusing on WATER

Don't know why it's so hard for me to drink water. When I really focus on drinking more water for at least 2-3 days I notice SUCH a difference, I become less bloated, and I just feel miles better. **sigh** If only I could keep up with it!

I'll leave you with this... my favorite running song right now. Listen to it, you'll want to go run :D

Eh....

I haven't run in .... **counting** 4 days and may not run tomorrow. Work has been absolutely nuts to the point where I am doing nothing but waking up, working, coming home, working and going to sleep and repeating whole process. So, I decided for the sake of my own health taking a few days off isn't going to kill me.

This is all worth it though because I have a EIGHTEEN DAY vacation from work starting Friday and I plan to make the best of it by filling it with... absolutely nothing :). Oh, and a bit of running too (a BIG bit of running).

So... yes I miss you running but I will see you again very soon. Absence makes the heart grow fonder...