My Best Friend Has A Tail... and I Need Your Help!!

Can I just tell you how much I love this guy?

Riley and I went hiking on Tuesday and we had such a good time. He even got to play in the creek. Isn't it crazy how our pets just 'get us?' I swear, maybe I'm crazy but it just warms my heart when he gets so excited to do anything with me. He's happy lying near me if I'm being lazy or he's at the ready if I grab his leash.

I mean, seriously. He has a perfectly soft bed less than 10 feet away, but he'd rather be in the room with me while I'm on the treadmill. Love. Him. 

So I need your all's help! We're going to NYC in December and hotel rooms are CRAZY. We've been looking on VRBO and have found some more reasonable places to stay, but none of them have gyms and we really want to be able to lift while we're there. What do you suggest? Buy a week pass for a gym? Any gyms you all have been to? 

THANK YOU!!

Get Your Good On!

today was one of those walking on sunshine days. you know what i'm talking about? 

it's my last day of my working streak [i have the next five days off], which is always reason for celebration. not that i don't like my job [because i love it] but i also love sleeping past 5am. 

after work i treated myself to some new workout clothes. saturday is the halfway point (6 weeks) of the training plan i've been doing and i've not missed a single workout. hard work = lululemon, right? 

not only did i find three super cute tops, i got to spend some time talking to the amazing ladies that work in the showroom, alex and lindsay. alex has a yoga blog called Yoga for Awesomeness so go give her some love! the asheville marathon will be lindsay's first full marathon too, so we're going to try to run together sometime. 

i'm also excited because alex is teaching a complimentary yoga class at a local gym [hard exercise works] on tuesday and i'm off so i'm going to check it out! so i met some great girls, made plans to workout and got some beautiful new shirts!

the blue middle shirt and the black shirt on the right are actually the same [turbo tank], i loved it so much that i couldn't just get one. i've learned my lesson with lulu. if you like it buy it because it probably won't be there if you decide to go back and get it! the one on the far left is a no limits tank. love them all and only wish i could wear them all day everyday. 

from lulu i headed over to manna food bank. this is something i've been really excited about! i decided to start volunteering again (i haven't since pharmacy school!) so i attended orientation. we got to learn a lot about hunger in WNC and what manna is doing to eradicate it. i signed up for this about 2 weeks ago and have really been counting down the days. i'm really ready to get involved and hopefully i'll be able to get started next week! 

tomorrow i'm heading to KY... i'm staying with my parents tomorrow night then heading on to louisville to see some of my bests for shannon's bachelorette party!  i can't wait to see everyone and have some fun [although i'll probably be regretting it come sunday morning].

have a great weekend!!!

Rearview Mirror::: July 2012

running::::
july was not a good running month for me. first i had the firecracker 10k (aka the chaffing experiment) and second i had the xterra harbison half marathon (aka the longest 13.1 miles of my life). these were my first two races following my decision to register for the Asheville Marathon in March. needless to say, i was crushed. i also changed up my meal plan and i felt it made it so hard for me to run (might have been all i my head). i finished the month with 23 miles. holy crap.

weight training::::
during the second week of july i decided to make a radical change. i joined up with steve poynter of fitness poynters and he created a training and meal plan for me. steve worked with my brother a year or so ago and matthew has always raved about how great his plan worked for him. he personalizes the plan based on what you want to achieve (my goals are to lose fat and gain lean muscle). the training plan is pretty intensive, so i've been putting a huge amount of time in at the gym. i just finished week three and i'm very happy with the results so far.

reading::::
this month i read these books:

a book that was a lot about baseball but even more about life.  i  can't decide how i feel about it. it made me really sad. 

i've had this book on my to read list forever. i  ended up listening to it in the car and while i  found it to be a little frustrating, i ended up liking it a lot. 

really liked this one. chris kyle is a bad ass. it jumped around a lot, but was a good one. 

while i don't necessarily love some of his personal views, i still have a lot of respect for lance armstrong and find a lot of inspiration in his books. this one was no different. 

i finished the first two books of the maze runner trilogy and i'm  in the middle of the third now.  they're pretty good. a little out there, but good nonetheless and i love the characters. 

this book inspired me to start volunteering again. the salwen family decided to sell their home to move into one that was half the size and they donated the profit to the hunger project. slow in parts, but an inspiring story. 

life::::
i took some time off from the blog, i feel like my blogging is intertwined with my running and i already explained that one! for whatever reason, july was a hard month for me and while i'm pretty transparent on here, i just don't like putting all that negativity out there. but it's a new month and i'm already working to make it a better one!

if you don't already know, Suz and Allan are hosting a virtual race for a great cause, the Wounded Warrior Project. i can't describe the amount of respect and love i have for our military and i think the WWP does a great service. check out the details for the race here and there you can find a list of the amazing prizes here.