Hello everyone! My apologies for the absence! I have been a busy woman dealing with a lot of stuff for the past week. I’ll just say that things are moving in a positive direction around here .

I just completed week three of my training for ING NYC Marathon 2012! Here is the rundown of last week’s training:

Monday 7/2: off

Tuesday 7/3: 10 minutes warm up on arc elliptical trainer

One hour barbell strength training class

4 miles on treadmill in about 45 minutes.

Does anyone feel like it is harder to run the same pace on the treadmill than it is on the roads? I totally thought it would be the opposite!

Wednesday 7/4: 6.18 miles in 1:09:29 with my girls Karen and Susan. Very hard run for me. I was sore, tired, and not in a good place emotionally. They carried me through my whole run, even if we took a few walk breaks in the process. Elevation gain was 257 feet, as well, so got some good hill work in.

Thursday 7/5: off

Friday 7/6: 4 miles with Karen and Susan again through Ahwatukee. I felt awesome that morning! What a great workout following the rough one on Wednesday! We finished in 39:46.

Saturday 7/7: I took my hubby, Cameron, hiking for the first time on Telegraph Pass! He did great, especially for not having worked out in awhile! The distance hiked was about 2.4 miles. We ran 0.8 of it on the way to the trailhead and on the way back. What a fun experience to share one of my favorite things with my hubby on his birthday!!

Sunday 7/8: I decided to run in the evening because I thought it would be cooler, and quite honestly, I didn’t want to get up in the morning! Surprise, surprise, it was a brutally hot evening run. I left before the sun was completely down thinking it would be fine. Epic fail. I set out to do 8, but ended up barely doing 6! I ran from out house and back to get some hill work in, too, which I did! I took a few walk breaks, and a major break when I almost gave up and called Cameron to pick me up. Well, God has these little ways of telling you to suck it up and do it-like me forgetting my cell phone at home. Ok, God! So I sucked it up, and ran most of the way back home-including the infamously steep hill on Desert Foothills Parkway heading up towards Telegraph. That hill is a bitch! Hills are our friends, though, right?!?! So 6 miles in about 1:07. Not bad for 100 degree weather!

I had a really great weekend off, as well! I went to lunch with Susan and Karen Saturday at Pita Jungle and had THE most amazing salad! Their Caribbean salad:

 

It was only about $10, and it had bananas, strawberries, pineapple, honeydew, apples, watermelon, cantaloupe and oranges on a bed of lettuce, topped with strawberry vinaigrette and dusted with coconut. SO good! Especially for someone who loves fresh fruit, but hates to prepare it! After lunch, we went to see Ted. It was definitely funny and raunchy! I recommend it for a good laugh, but am still really looking forward to seeing Magic Mike. Maybe tomorrow…whatdya think ladies!? Who’s with me??

Sunday was spent sleeping in, watching some TV with Cameron, and pretty much doing nothing! Everyone’s gotta have a day like that sometimes….

So my knee is hanging in there, and I’m still training successfully! I am SO excited about NYC, still! If you haven’t received a donation letter, and are interested in making a donation for CFCAZ and Team Chances 2012, see my fundraising page or leave a comment below with your email, and I will send you a copy of my letter!

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Happy Trails!

Stacey