A Weekend In Vegas

We had quite the adventure this weekend.  We went to Las Vegas for Kobe’s gymnastics competition, the Black Jack meet for the youngies and the World Cup Competition for the Elites.

Friday morning Jorge, Holly and I woke up to run the strip.  I much prefer the strip at 5:30 am than any other time.  Other than a few drunks we were the only ones on the strip and it was glorious.  

We were all rocking our Pro Compression socks, 2 low cutters and a marathon socker.

The strip was still all a glow, it was awesome.  The stairs we had to run up and down added a little something extra to our workout, hard core par kour!

  We didn’t have much time so we busted out 7.15 miles and then it was time for me to get back for Kobe’s competition.

As I was walking to the meet I saw a guy sitting on the floor, I knew he was an Olympian but I wasn’t sure of his name.  I almost turned around to get his picture but decided not to.  I looked at Jake Dalton’s Instagram page to see if I could figure out who I had seen, it was Brandon Wynn.  As I sat there kicking myself for not going back I saw him sitting off to the side of where we were.  Jake made me get a picture with him.  I put my arm around him and HOLY CRAP, that boy is solid muscle.

I even caught him with his shirt off, you're welcome.  His muscles have muscles! 

We also saw Danell Leyva

One of Kobe’s coaches, Coach Wan Wan (Wanda) used to coach Jake Dalton.  She set up a meet and greet with Jake and Steve Legendre.  Steve was so nice and told Kobe he had awesome muscles, his weren’t too bad either…holy biceps.  

Kenna decided to skip Kobe’s meet to hang out with the Garcia’s, little did she know she was going to miss the meet and greet.  McKenna missed out on her one opportunity to meet her “future husband” as she would say. 

Jake and Steve signed Kobe's bib 

As we were waiting for our turn to see Jake I realized that no other moms were getting their pictures taken, I tried to get another mom to go with me but she wouldn’t.  I decided I didn’t care what people thought and I was getting a picture.  I may or may not have accidentally touched his butt, cute bum where ya from ;D  As Jake Dalton had his arm around me for the picture Jake, my Jake, said “Jake is Steph’s dream guy!”  Seriously!!!  I was so embarrassed, you should have seen the look he gave me after that…oh well.

 I had to get in a picture with Steve too.

The Black Jack meet is a big one with teams from all over.  There were kids from Utah, California, Canada and who knows where else.  To place at one of these meets is a pretty big deal.  Kobe did awesome!  He got an 11.000 on high bar which was good enough for 1^st place.  He got 6^th place on rings and 9^th all around.  He is a pretty big deal :) to me at least!

As we were walking back to the room I noticed Brandon Wynn and a few other Olympians at the pool.  We asked for a picture, they were all super willing and nice.  The friendliest one was Justin Spring he competed in the 2008 Olympics.  He said he almost named his son Kobe but they went with Cody instead.  He was just a real swell guy.

Brandon Wynn, Joshua Dixon, not sure of his name, Donnell Whittenburg and Justin Spring. 

Kenna found us just in time to get her picture taken with a couple of them.

After the meet we met up with the Fullmer’s at Pawn Star, as soon as we walked out Chumlee made an appearance, typical. 

We had to go to my favorite pizza place, Grimaldi’s…delicious!

The Wynn Hotel 

Saturday morning Jorge, Holly and I headed out for a 16 miler.  We ran all the way down the strip, stairs and all  then continued on until we hit 8 miles.  We turned around and did it all again.  If you want to spice up your long run, add numerous sets of stairs all along the way.  We did 16 miles with an average pace of 8:15 which is pretty good considering all the stairs they will really throw your pace off.

Saturday was spent trying to find an open pool…we never did find one #fail.  At least we had the World Cup Championships to look forward to.

We headed to the meet at 5:00 to watch the elites warm up and to save seats.  The muscles on these guys blow me away, amazing!  

Watching the Olympians and elite gymnasts was probably the coolest thing I have ever seen.  We saw a couple of guys get injured, not so fun.  Here is Steve Legendre doing rings, he ends up hurting his pec…watch for it.

That was the last we saw of him, so sad.  It was cool to see Jake Dalton’s concern for his friend.  He watched sadly as Steve walked away and then as soon as Jake was done he ran to his friend.  Another guy blew his knee out, at least that’s what it looked like, and a guy broke his leg when he landed on vault.

At the end of the meet we got our pictures taken with a bunch of the gymnasts.

Chris Brooks who won the competition 

Jonathan Horton, he didn't compete due to an injury. 

Not sure of his name but he is awesome! 

Holly and I LOVED watching this kid, he is only 15 and is amazing.  I do believe his name is Davis, we are determined that he will be the next big thing in gymnastics. 

Hey Jorge, nice purse :)

John Orozco!!! We were lucky to get a picture with him. 

I caught Whittenburg in the hall and then I told him to RUN!!!!  I didn't want him to get stuck with a long line again.

What a way to end a trip.  It was a great weekend with good friends and lots of muscles.

Oh and Kenna did finally get her picture with her beloved Jake Dalton.

I can't wait for next year!!!

Sometimes You Just Can't Stop

Yesterday Holly and I decided to see what the "Ho's" running plan was for this morning.  Just FYI the Ho's are Jorge, Joanna, Josh and Heather.  They call themselves the Jo's but to me they will always be the Ho's, plus since Heather joined the group it just makes sense...not that she's a ho but because of the H in her name.  Anyways, Josh said that they were doing 20 miles in Provo.  Holly and I decided on our way to meet up with them that since we had done 20 miles last Saturday that we had better be smart and only do 16.  

We got out of the car and it was quite warm, for Utah in February, it was 40 degrees.  The weather was perfection!  When we started out my legs didn't feel #awesome but somehow being outside and not stuck on the treadmill made everything okay.  

As we got up the canyon it started to get pretty slick, there were slick patches that were super scary.  I can fall down on dry ground thank you very much, I do not need ice.  Luckily, we ran right into Dr. Lloyd (I guess he prefers Mike) and Paul.  We decided to turn around with them and head to the Murdock Canal Trail.  I have never been on this trail but I am here to say that it is pretty much my favorite.  

We had to run through some snow for a little bit, which wasn't very fun., but once we got out the snow we had a great time.  Mike runs the trail a lot and gave us a bit of a tour, it was fun!  

I'm running through a piece of pipe that is a replica of what we were running over.  Or something like that, it was part of our "tour" but it is now bed time and I'm very tired.  Mike made a right fine tour guide but some of the details seem to have escaped me at the moment.

We stopped for a photo but I kind of screwed the whole thing up so we gave up and ran on.  Heather was taking said photo and for some reason she said "10" just as I thought why the heck did she just say 10, Mike said "10???"  For some reason I found it hilarious and could not compose myself.

I don't know...I'm strange and was a bit giggly.  Those endorphins will go right to your head if your not careful.

I had to walk away for a moment.

Look at Poshy with his hands on his hips in disapproval :D

The miles flew by, then Josh said "we only have 3/4 of a mile until it's time to turn around."  WHAT???  I guess our plan of running 16 miles didn't quite pan out like we thought it would.  Holly and I were both feeling great so we were fine with it.  

Selfie, usie, wesie, whatever Saturday.

We had such a great time, these are the runs that I live for.  The miles flew by, we laughed and had a great time.  We did 20 miles in 2:49.

Now I am sitting here recovering in my USA Pro Compression stockings.  I wish I was recovering in my HEARTS Pro Compression stockings, I need to order some ASAP!  If you want to know what to get the runner in your life for Valentine's Day may I suggest some of these cute marathon socks...I wear an XS just FYI ;)

You can save 40% and get FREE shipping when you use the promo code BEMY at checkout.  You can click HERE to place your order.

The other day I posted something about Pro Compression on the Instagram and apparently I had people confused so let me clarify.  Proper recovery requires R.I.C.E Rest, Ice, COMPRESSION and elevation.  I said #dontforgettheCinRICE.  That's all.

2nd Annual Christmas Fun Run

Today marked the 2nd Annual Christmas Fun Run, AKA my favorite run of the year.  Last year this was my favorite non-race run and this year was even more so.  We woke up to a few inches of snow which on any other day we probably would have just gone to the gym for a treadmill run.  Today we put on our big girl pants elf suits and headed to Kneaders to meet up with a big group.

CHEEEEEESE!  Aren't we just a couple of jolly weirdos.  "We are Santa's elves, filling Santa's shelves, with a toy for each girl and boy, oh we are Santa's elves."

I really didn't think our fancy little shoes would stay on but they did and they kept our feet dry and warm.  Maybe I will wear them on every run...hmmm?

There were probably 30-40 runners.  

We ran up the canyon for a while, notice I said UP the canyon...in the snow!!!  Running up the canyon is hard enough but add inches of snow and it's REALLY hard!  The snow was falling the entire run which made it oh so magical.  We had quite a few slips and slides but amazingly we didn't fall, I fall on dry ground and the treadmill so I was certain I would go down at least once.  It must have been my #ElfPowers that saved me.

I was so happy to see the Santa gal, we felt kind of dumb that more people didn't dress up.

Last year the real fun started once we left the canyon and went into town.  I finally suggested that we turn around and head into Provo and Orem. 

Bill dressed up too :)  Isn't it a beautiful winter wonderland, I LOVE IT!!!

The roads were really bad and we saw a Suburban stopped on the side of road.  Naturally, we thought they were stuck or having car trouble.  Nope, the guy was standing outside of his car telling us how awesome we were and taking our picture.  He was great :)  Perhaps I can pay him to be our personal cheerleader on all our runs. 

We got lots of funny looks and saw A LOT of people taking pictures of us...good times.

We saw the Jolly Old Elf again.  I swear it was the same Santa we saw last year, he was hanging out the window just a wavin'! HO HO HO!

We turned onto University Parkway and headed into Orem.  The hill going up from the Olive Garden to Red Lobster seemed to go on forever, it's a HARD hill and nearly killed me off.

There was a lot of snow which at times made it very hard to run, we became stumbling fools a number of times...it was super dang funny.  People were laughing WITH us, not at us :)  I'm sure of it!

#ProCompression #ElfPowers #TheFanciestShoeCoversEver

Weesie Saturday ;)

We ended up with 16.25 miles in 2:32, I don't think it's ever taken me that long to run 16 miles.  It's amazeballs how much harder it is to run in the snow...TOTES MCGOTES!!!

This commercial makes me sooooo happy!!

Thank you Rachelle for putting together such a fun run.  I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!!!

How To Kick Your Own Butt!

Tuesday I did quite the leg workout.  I somehow convinced Holly that she wanted to take some videos of me doing the moves after we finished our KYT workout this morning.  Just FYI, I HATE seeing myself in videos and I REALLY hate hearing my voice.  On leg day I always warm up with 4 laps of walking lunges.  The first lap is done without weights, after that I grab 15 lb DB's.  Here is the rest of the leg workout:

Check out my Holiday lederhosen :)

15 Squats with big barbell

(go low and SQUEEZE your glutes at the top...TUSHY SQUEEZE!

30, or more, squat hold calf raises

(Squat down and HOLD it the entire time and do 30 calf raises.  These are kind of like seated calf raises only your quads will be burning too.  Keep going until your calves are burning, it may take more than 30.

30 Single leg bridges
(lift your tukus off the ground, the higher you go the better.  Put as much tension as you need on the bands and do 15 per leg.

 30 Glute push-backs
(keep your leg straight and get a full range of motion, lift your leg high.  I usually get the "shackles" as the attachment but for times sake I just stuck my foot in the strap.  15 per leg.

30 Pendulum lunges
This will make your quads BURN!
(lunge forward and back, this counts as one and I usually hold 15 lb DB's but for this "re-enactment" I did not...sorry I'm not sorry ;)

I didn't record the last one because it's pretty self explanatory but DO NOT forget this part.  Walking lunges with 15 lb DB's across the gym then do the wall-sit holding the weights on your thighs, hold for at least 1 minute.  Then lunge back to where you started from and do the wall-sit AGAIN!  If your legs aren't burning then you are doing something wrong.  Now repeat this entire workout 3 times.

After this workout I decided to head into the Cardio Cinema room and do some hill work.  I saw this workout on the Instagram and decided to give it a try.

Thanks sweats4sweets for the awesome tready routine.

 I started with a 2 mile warm up and then I started to climb.  I kept the speed at 7 mph and it was HARD.  I thought I was going to DIE!  To recover I just lowered back down to 0% incline and kept running.  I did 4 repeats at 15% but just jumped my feet off to the sides for 30 seconds to recover.  Then I ran 2.5 more miles.  I did 2 miles at 8 mph and cooled down the last .50 mile, for a total of 7.5 miles.   I left the gym feeling beat and AWESOME!  I absolutely love the way I feel after a hard workout.  There's something wonderful about kicking your own butt!

Needless to say I woke up SUPER sore this morning...I love that!

A Wonderful Workout And Christmas Song!!!

Sometimes you just get so incredibly shredded that you want to share your awesome workout with everyone.  Today I did a killer shoulder workout, I kind of LOVE working my shoulders.  This picture shows you just how shredded I really am, I hide it well.

I BE HUGE ;)

Here is the workout:

30 Squats with alternating shoulder presses

(holding 20 lb DB's with palms facing each other held just above your shoulders, squat and while you are coming up do a single arm shoulder press, squat and switch sides, repeat 30 times)

15 Seated Military presses

(I used a shoulder pulley machine at the gym 30 lbs, if using DB's I usually use 20's)

15 Side delt raises using resistance bands.

15 Hammer style(palms facing each other) front delt raises

(I used 12 lb DB's, start with weights by your side and raise them up to about eye level)

15 Bent over rear delt pulls

(With soft knees bend over keeping your back straight, if that makes sense, grab a 40 lb barbell a little wider than your shoulders and pull up towards your chest.  You want to work your rear delts so keep your elbows wide and in-line with your shoulders.

15 Upright row to press using 40 lb barbell

I'm not doing a very good job at describing these things so just google it :) you're welcome!

I guess this is why I don't post workouts very often, they're too hard to describe.

I gave the weights I used as an example, we are all different.  I'm sure plenty of you are laughing at the weights I used but it was hard for me so lay off...I kid!!

After this shoulder workout I went into the Cardio Cinema room and did a 9 mile progression run.  I started at 7 mph and for the first mile I bumped it up .1 mph every .25 mile.  Mile 2 was 7.4 and I bumped it up .1 every mile ending at 8 or 8.1 mph.  I cooled down the last .50 mile.  I'm still trying to regain my speed since my ding dang injury this summer, so by the end this was hard for me.

If you're looking for something for the runner in your life, it can be you, Aspaeris is having a big sale from 12/11-12/24.  You can get 40% off everything using promo code MERRY at Aspaerispivotshorts.com

I did a review of the Aspaeris Pivot Short HERE!!  I wear them mostly to recover in and I love them.  

Lastly, I have to share a Christmas song that I am in LOVE with.  It makes me cry a little bit and I like to run to it, enjoy!!

LOVE IT!!!

Thankful 13 Half Marathon 2013

Thanksgiving morning I had the opportunity to pace the Thankful 13 Half Marathon.  This was one of my favorite races of the year, next to the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon.  Unlike most Utah races this course doesn’t send you flying down a canyon, you have to earn your time on this one.  Another good thing about this race is that you don’t have to wake up in the middle of the night to catch a bus, nope you start and finish at the same point.   Holly and I paced the 1:50 group.

 

The race started right on time and we were off.  I was a bit nervous that I wasn’t going to be warm enough.  I tried out my new Nike jacket and wasn’t sure how warm it was going to be.

Here's Kenna modeling it for you.  It is quite possibly the softest thing EVA...it's smooth like butta!  It has thumb holes and is thin but it is VERY warm, perfect!  I picked it up at 26.2 Running Co. when we were there for packet pick-up.  I can't tell you how much I love this jacket, so I'm not going to try!!!

  By mile 2 I was warm, so Holly and I took turns holding each other’s junk so we could take off a layer.  This was no easy task but we somehow managed.  I had to lose my fancy turkey hat at this point as well.  It was driving me cray cray and my head was super hot…nobody likes a hot head!  Besides, I was having a panic attack because my airway was being cut off.  I tied the little suckers legs around my waist, it looked like he was pecking my bum :D  Cute bum where ya' from?

 

The course was absolutely beautiful, they had to change the course a little due to some construction and it was even better than before.  I hope the course will stay the same for next year, although according to my Garmin it was a bit short. 

 

There were signs all along the course showing what people were thankful for, I liked this a lot.  I REALLY liked one sign that said “I’m thankful for my ex-husband, thankful he’s an ex!”  HAHAHA, that caused me to have a fine chuckle.  I also saw a sign that my friend Jessica did, her dad beat colon cancer this year YAY!!!  It’s always nice to have something to read to distract yourself.  It’s also nice to be running behind a guy in a full on turkey costume, when he approached one photographer he did a funny little turkey move.  I missed it but Holly sure laughed about it, I can envision it and it was breath taking :D

 

Holly and I attempted to do a jump for one of the photographers, I can’t wait to see how this one turned out, as I flung my arms in the air to give myself a little boost I cracked Holly in the stick :D  I hit the pacing stick and nearly knocked the poor dear over, it was a travesty but might make for some good photography.  I will just add that our tutu’s looked super awesome in our shadows.

They looked awesomer (it's a word) when we were running.

The race was so well organized, everything was perfect!  Holly and I finished the race and wanted to even things out so we did 14 miles, it was FUN!!  We finished just in time for the push-up contest.

  I will NEVER win a race but I can win a push-up contest.  I WON and got a HUGE turkey!!!

Isn't it beautiful Clark?!?  I told you it was HUGE.

  I did 90 push-ups and my whole body was shaking, I’ve never had that happen before, maybe I was nervous ;)  I just need to enter more push-up contests and less running contests I guess ;)

Pacer group shot!  Becky, Weirdo #Uno, Julia, Rachelle and Weirdo #Dos.  Aren't our turkey hats dashing? 

Then I said something that made Holly angry and she came at me with an axe...WTHeck! 

Don't worry, I apologized and we're friends again.

Sadly, race season is over for a while here in Utah.  Luckily, Rachelle invited me to her 2nd Annual Christmas Fun Run, YIPEE!!!  I already know what I'm going to wear too and these little beauties are definitely going to be part of my ensemble, I love them!!!  I could quite possibly wear them every day this month!

These are going to sell out QUICK so if you want some follow this handy little link HERE and order yourself some.  If you use the promo code SNOW you will not only get 40% off but you will also get FREE shipping.  Don't say I never gave you anything (technically I'm not giving you anything but let's just pretend that I am) and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!