It’s Not Goodbye

Whew! What a weekend it was! Too bad now it is Monday and my fun in Arizona is coming to an end. 😦

In case you missed any of the happenings from my weekend here with Brian, you can now catch up:

• I was able to workout in a fitness center with gorgeous views of sunny Arizona!
• We had an early Valentine’s Day with presents and dinner and pizookies at BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse
• I ran my longest consecutive run since the Vegas Half Marathon back in December!
• We had dinner at Fleming’s Steakhouse Saturday night followed by breakfast Sunday morning at The Good Egg. (We need to NOT focus so much on food in our relationship!)
• I kicked Brian’s butt (no so much!) at bowling and had fun hugging a cactus!
• We enjoyed working out while watching the Superbowl back in the hotel room together.

Unfortunately, this morning I had to say good-bye to my Hanwha Eagle (in full team gear!) for a few weeks until I meet him in Korea in March.

We made the deal not to be sad but it’s hard saying goodbye for so long. So, I’m looking at it not as “goodbye” but as “see ya later in KOREA!”. Ekkkk! Just the thought of that is crazy!!

Workout

My flight isn’t until this afternoon so I had some time to kill after Brian left for practice and put it to good use with a workout, of course. No way do I want to be flying for six hours today without getting my body moving at some point!

I started off on the treadmill with three miles mixed with some sprints, Tabata style.

I did the complete one mile plus the Tabata a total of three times through for 3 miles plus 12 minutes of the sprints.  After the last Tabata, I walked out my workout to round the total treadmill time to 45 minutes.

After my run, I laid out a mat and did an intense plank workout.

Six straight minutes of planking! Whew!

I wanted to do the complete set 2-3 times through but I’m a baby and my arms are pretty sore from yesterday’s arm workout and the pushups with the Superbowl Fitness Challenge and the planks were doing them no favors. I ended up phoning it in after one set. Don’t follow my lead though, push yourself through the complete sets with 2 minutes rest between, I’m already jealous that your abs already look 10x better than mine!

Breakfast

In addition to the half of a Lara Bar I ate before my workout, breakfast was another thrown together hotel room meal.

Chobani honey yogurt, a banana and peanut butter.

All mixed together for a yummy combo!

Now I’m debating some time in the hot tub to give my muscles a little extra pampering before showering and heading to the airport!

Question:

What was the highlight of your weekend?

Cactus Hugger

Something Brian and I always talk about doing and never have is going bowling. I’ve talked my mad skills up enough and today was the day to put my money where my mouth is.

I slipped off my boots and laced up my bowling shoes and was ready to get to work.

Hah. Just kidding!

We really have been talking about going bowling for a while now but I have no where near mad bowling skills…it’s more like my sad bowling skills. I once bowled a 32 in a complete game. Sad. Very, very sad.

Today ended up being not as bad as bowling outings in the past and I actually came out on top of the last game. Oh yea, 142 baby!! 😉

Too bad I’m holding out on mentioning the scores from the first two games that we played! Let’s just say that Brian won…by a lot!

Lunch

After our bowling outing, it was lunch time at Sauce, a Panera-like place for pizza and salads.

I didn’t expect it to be a restaurant with Panera style of ordering at the counter and having your meal delivered when ready (wait, Panera doesn’t even deliver your, meal…nevermind…). I was thinking it was more of a sit down kind of place but was content with what we found.

A salad for me with spinach, chicken, apple, Gorgonzola cheese and walnuts.

And a pesto chicken pizza for Brian. That I obviously stole a piece of! 🙂

Definitely recommend Sauce to anyone looking for a quick, yet delicious, pizza place with salad and panini options as well. Oh, and beer and wine too!

Ever since I got to Tucson, I have been waiting to make it to U Swirl for some frozen yogurt.

Let me tell you, it was definitely “worth the weight”…and the wait!

White chocolate macadamia and cake batter please!!!

A perfect finish to lunch and also so good for you…just look at all of the benefits! 😉

After lunch and dessert, we did a little exploring of the area while sightseeing for different cactus breeds and random animals.

And of course a little cactus fun was mixed in as well.

What’s a trip to Arizona without a little cactus hugging?

Such a great afternoon!!

Now we are settling in to watch some football (and workout!)! So strange that it is on so early here. No complaints though, that just means I get to watch the whole game and still make my bedtime. Score! 🙂

Question:

Have you ever been to Sauce? Like?

Are you a good bowler?

Good Morning, Arizona!

Good Morning from sunny Arizona!!

I arrived in Tucson last night around 9:45 p.m. local time and was so excited to see Brian waiting for me at the airport. I know it has only been two weeks since I last saw him but it feels like an eternity! Since I was still on east coast time and it was waaaay past my bed time in that time zone and since Brian had to be up early for practice this morning we both crashed pretty much the second we made it back to his room!

I did have one surprise waiting for me though!

Brian thought to make Valentine’s Day come early with flowers, (double) chocolates, a stuffed dog and a big box that still remains a surprise to me!

Good thing I came prepared with a surprise V-day present for him too! 😉

___________________________

First thing this morning, I wanted to get a workout in to start my mini vacay off on the right foot. I ate a Luna Bar to get something in my stomach and then ventured to find the fitness room at the hotel.

It’s located directly next to the pool and is pretty decent fitness center for a hotel.

It’s not very large in size but seeing that I was the only person in there until the very end of my workout, the size wasn’t an issue. The equipment is all Precor, with treadmills and ellipticals available along with a free weight area and core area complete with medicine and stability balls.

I’m pretty sure I could get use to view from the treadmill…

…it sure beats the back of other people’s t-shirts that I see at the gym at home!

Workout

I was on the treadmill for a 40 minute routine that included running, walking and sprints. I started with 30 minutes of steady running, walked for a couple and then worked in a four-minute Tabata of sprints before walking out the rest of the 40 minutes.

After the treadmill, I did some core work with this view to look up at:

Who wouldn’t want to workout with these views?!

I mixed in a variety of different exercises:

• Hamstring curl with stability ball
• Basic crunches
• Crunches on stability ball
• Crunch with side twist with medicine ball
• Free weight swings
• Standing side bends
• Uneven alternating push ups with medicine ball
• Crunches with stability ball pass (from hands to feet)

After my core work, I finished up with some stretching and called it a workout. I’m sure I will be venturing back out today to explore, apparently there is a 3.5 mile trail directly across the street, so it looks like more exercise is definitely in my future!

I’m also pretty sure some time relaxing right here is also in my future.

Yessss, please!

As for now, off to snack on some yogurt and clementines before deciding what to get into next!

Catch y’all later!!! 🙂

Question:

Are you more motivated to workout and fit random exercise into your day when you are in an unfamiliar location?

Holding Out Hope

I’m holding out hope that I’m going to kick this cold before it gets too bad! I think my body appreciated the R&R this morning. Come on Vitamin C, win this battle pleasssee!

Lunch

In an effort to clear the lasts of the leftovers out of the fridge, I heated up the last bit of clean-out-the-fridge pizza from dinner earlier in the week.

I love heating leftover pizza up in the toaster oven. I feel like it makes it so much better than when you heat it in the microwave. Don’t get me wrong, I love my leftover pizza either way but the toaster oven just revives that crispy texture of when it was still fresh.

On the side I added some more Vitamin C to my body to keep battling this cold with clementines. I also have some packed up for my travels tonight too!

Besides hanging out on the couch and playing tug-o-war with my buddy, I didn’t do much of anything besides get my things ready for Arizona.

And now my bags are packed and I’m ready to go!!

Looks like someone isn’t happy about me leaving though…poor buddy! 😦

Heading to the airport now!! Here I come Arizona (and Brian!!!)!

Questions:

Leftover pizza – heated up in the microwave or toaster oven??