Friday, June 27, 2014

Color Dash

Kyleen and I - Before and After!
While Andrew was away on his Bachelor party river rafting the American river, I signed myself up for the Color Dash with my friend Kyleen! 

All nice and clean

Before we went for our run
Before we started the dash, we ran into some of our friends from Captain CrossFit! A few of us got a little heavy handed dishing out color...as you can see I was hardly hit!


Trailhead
The Color Dash followed the 5k trail at Brownlow in Prescott. I had no idea this trail even existed, but I'm very happy I found it. I'm definitely going to go back and run it again! There were a ton of hills, but the trail has both a 5k and a 10k loop, which will be perfect for my training.

Start/Finish line
Kyleen and I finished the dash in pretty good time. We saw some friends along the trail and just had a good time chatting (when we had breath)! 

A little dash of color
Kyleen got a lot more color than I did!

Our friends got a little more color than we did!


Meeting up after the run
Our friend's son decided I didn't get nearly enough coloring on me, so he proceed to throw his whole bag of yellow pigment on me right after this photo was taken! You can see him plotting back there!

Captain CrossFit crew!
Here we are with some of the CrossFit women that showed up! Overall it was a super fun day and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is wanting to take part in a fun run. It's not at all competitive, so grab some friends and sign up for one in your town.






Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Horseback Riding - LA style

During the bridal shower Bridget convinced me to go horseback riding with her. We've been trying to go out riding for almost a year, but our schedules never really allowed for enough time. Luckily, this trip I had a whole day to kill, so we made our plans and met at the stables!

Selfie before my hair was ruined horseback riding!

I managed to convince Andrew's brother D to come along, which worked out perfectly because I could borrow one of his horses! We got a late start but once the horses were saddled up we went off for our ride. 

Lola and I took up the rear, but only for a short time. Lola's not happy unless she's leading!

I was riding Lola - the world's most stubborn horse! She didn't like being lead by a three year old horse and threw a couple tantrums because of it! She also wasn't very happy listening to me, but we did alright in the end. 

Beautiful Bridget and her handsome horse!

Bridget has had her horse for 5 years so of course he was perfect the whole time! Luckily too because D had to break in his young horse, Lula. Lula didn't like to do much of anything - trotting, crossing through water...I think she'd much rather just hang around the stables and eat! 

D riding through the tunnel
The ride took us a couple hours, but I had a blast! I can't wait to get back out there again!


Monday, June 23, 2014

LA Bridal Shower

Last weekend some lovely family friends threw me a bridal shower in LA! This one was held for all our family in friends in and around LA (I will be having another one in SF for all our family and friends up there). The shower was stunning and Marion planned the whole event down to the last detail.

Quick pic before heading off to the party!
 That morning I had a trial run for my hair, which I think went really well. We decided to go with a side swept look so the back of my dress can be played up.

Front door

So pretty
This lovely bouquet greeted you as soon as you arrived!

Backyard setup
Lunch was set up outside, and I managed to grab a few photos before everyone arrived. 

The table set up
Marion was so sweet to decorate according to the wedding colors. Also, green just happens to be my favorite color in general!

She even has beautiful silver!

Table bouquets and wine glasses
 Not too long after I took photos, everyone started arriving. 

Helen and Donna 

Me and Kaity

My mom and me

My mom, me, and Donna

Annie and Bridget

Pat, Donna, and Kaity

Caroline, Heidi, and Angie
 We spent time chatting in the living room before heading out to the garden for lunch.

Michelle, me, and Heather

Enjoying lunch
We ate and caught up before we played a few games.

Pencils with 'wedding bells'
Donna got these fun pencils!

Michelle and Heather

Me opening presents
 After a few rousing games we moved back inside to open the presents. Everyone at the shower was given a room to get a gift for and some people were really inventive with their gifts!

Marybeth creating one of my ribbon bouqets
 So while opening gifts, the women told me about a horrible old wives tale that says the number of ribbons you break is how many kids you will have! Some women even went to the lengths of purposely wrapping the ribbons so tightly that I had to break them! Haha! All in good fun though. I ended up only breaking 3, so that's not too bad!
Ribbon bouquet #1
 I did, however, end up with so many ribbons they had to make 2 bouquets! 
Ribbon bouquet #2

My mom, me, and Donna
I was so happy to have both my mom and Donna there for the shower. Not the best photo of Donna, but it was the only one taken at the end of the party.

Marion, me, and Donna
Marion was such an amazing hostess! She really pulled off a beautiful shower. 

My mom and me

The girls


I had such a good time and was so happy to see everyone. Thanks to all you wonderful ladies who came out to help me celebrate my upcoming nuptials!

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Morning Hike

Typically Dooley wakes me up with whining and a swift head butt, but for some weird reason he didn't stir yesterday morning. Because of this I nearly missed my spin class, but was able to get there just after it started. 

After getting my butt kicked, Anne-Marie came to pick me up for our hike. It was the first time either of us had taken this trail, so we weren't sure what to expect. It was actually one of the better trails either of us had been on. The total trail is 6.8 miles, with the first 3.4 miles uphill. At least it made for a nice return trip! 


No hike is complete without a selfie. 


We had spectacular views like this the whole time. It was pretty cool seeing a completely different part of Prescott and it was nice getting outside to enjoy the beautiful weather we have been having. 

Triathlon Training - June Schedule

Warning: Most posts will now likely have something to do with my training, so bare with me!

Well...I signed up for my second triathlon and first ever Olympic distance! This will certainly be a challenge for me! I will swim 1,500m, bike 40km, and run 10km - all distances that are much farther than I have ever done (and back to back no less).

So in order to prepare myself I have written up a training program for myself. I will be following this program from Beginner Triathlete (a great site for people who are new to triathlons). I will likely be modifying the program, but for now it suits my needs pretty well. 

Here's my programming for June.

The numbers in front of bike/swim/run represent minutes I need to train. For example, on the 15th I will be swimming for 40mins and running for 40mins. Weeks 2 and 3 will add on 10% and week 4 I'll decrease by 40%. CrossFit days are meant to be strength training, but I don't want to give up my CrossFit just yet!