Time Change Woes

No joke guys, I was struggling  today. I even went to sleep at my normal 10:00 time (really 9:00?) and woke up at 6 but holy smokes I was lagging all day.

Apparently I wasn’t the only person struggling with the time change today though. I decided to mix it up a bit and purchase a deal for 10 classes at a gym near my office. The mix of classes looked a lot different from the usual offering at 24 Hour Fitness. Unfortunately, the instructor pulled off my BIGGEST pet peeve and started the class late – meaning the class ended late. Did she not get my memo that if I don’t eat by 7:30 I become the meanest, grouchiest person ever and basically snap at anyone that crosses my path? Rude.

I tried out this class:

RIP-Power Dumbbell workout burns more calories and helps speed up the metabolism.

It ended up being a lot like Body Pump, but the instructor wasn’t peppy enough to motivate me and the music was pretty meh. Body Pump – 1, RIP – 0.

I am definitely going to be sore, but I feel like 90% of the motivation of going to a gym class vs. working out alone comes from the class being fun. RIP just made me feeling like this:

I still have 9 classes left on my certificate so I guess I need to stick it out but I think I’m going to skip RIP and try out Thursday night’s step class. Maybe I’ll be slightly more coordinated than I am in Zumba.

What’s your favorite gym class? I used to love taking the mat Pilates classes but none of the times are convenient. I think Body Pump is my favorite now.

Technorati Tags: body pump

Why I REALLY Run

A while back, I posted this reflection on why I like running. While it still holds true, I realized last week that there is another reason why I REALLY run:

I am about as coordinated as Elaine from Seinfeld:

[source]

I used to dance and was a cheerleader in high school, but apparently the past 7 years of sitting behind a desk/computer/in a classroom has really put a damper on any dancing skills I used to have.

I learned this last week when taking a Zumba class with Tiff and our friend Jen. This pretty much sums it up:

[source]

In my defense, I do believe I may have burned even more calories through my spastic arm-flailing and attempts to avoid bumping into people, than if I had just done the moves correctly. And somehow, miraculously, I have been convinced to return to the class tonight. I guess I didn’t embarrass Tiff and Jen too much.

The class definitely made me realize that my love for running may be largely due to the fact that it requires limited coordination. Put one foot in front of the other and try not to trip. Easy breezy. Unless you are this guy:

[source]

10 Things for Tuesday

1. Catching up on workouts – I ran 3 miles on Saturday followed by 30 minutes on the elliptical and a legs workout. I wanted to do a long run but when I woke up to the rain I decided to hit the gym and save the 10-miler for this weekend. So unhardcore I know… Sunday I was lazy and yesterday’s workout consisted of a 50-minute elliptical session that was intense.

2. I love the holidays and everything about them, and I am listening to Christmas music already, but I really feel it’s a little early for this:

Get it together SVTC. It’s not even Thanksgiving yet.

3. The above picture was taken while tripping around our local “Mall”. I put it in quotes because it barely deserves to be called a mall. They couldn’t even keep a Forever 21. And the stores they do have choose to stock very odd assortment of items. I go to Macy’s and can’t find a single cute sweater or dress that I saw on the website, but I did spot this gem:

The bow is bigger than the headband part – which mean’s the bow is bigger than the wearer’s head. NO.

4. I finally got my haircut after almost a year:

I went to a new place thanks to a great deal I scored online ($19 for conditioning treatment + cut & blowdry). It barely looks any different because I just asked her to clean up the ends but I’m happy to not have frizzy split ends now. And the place was too darn cute:

It looks like a little house! It’s a historic building so they can’t change the outside (which I think actually used to be a house) so they just rolled with the theme and made it the cutest, coziest salon.

5. I have a new obsession. I tend to find something I really like, eat/drink it every day for 3 months straight, then burn out completely. Right now, that thing is hot cocoa:

J makes the best homemade hot cocoa, but since I can’t get him to get up extra early each morning to make me a cup and bring it to my house before I leave for work, I had to settle for some cocoa from the cafe at Gelson’s. Not J’s amazing recipe, but still tasty for $2. I especially loved the sprinkles.

6. I finally bought new cross-trainers for the gym since my old ones were covered in mud after the Gladiator run (and were about 100 years old). Now I can finally stop wearing my Brooks for elliptical days.

Nordstrom Half-Yearly score!

7. I loved the Twilight books, but I only saw the first movie and hated it. Such bad acting! Needless to say, the only Breaking Dawn hype I care about will just be seeing the pictures of Rob in US Weekly and People from all the red carpet events. I have decided that R-Patz needs to just keep his mouth shut and be pretty. I liked him better as Cedric Diggory anyways. I don’t know why they had to kill him off in HP. So sad.

That ring came off of a cupcake from a 25-year-old man’s birthday. Love it.

8. I found my dream car:

Why yes, that is a hot pink Mini Cooper.

9. I love this time of year because of weather that makes my drive home look like this:

10. And finally – my birthday is in 10 days! I’m going to be 1/4 of a century and that is freaking me the you-know-what out. When I was a naive little 15-year-old, I totally believed I’d have my life all figured out by this point. How wrong I was. But regardless, I have fun, love my life, like my job most of the time, have the best boyfriend on earth, live at home for free (seriously, major perk), and I’m pretty darn happy. I’m also determined to make 25 the best year ever. So here’s to my last 10 days of being able to round down to 20 and not up to 30.

That is not my cake but I would like it to be (hint hint)…

Breaking the 10-minute Barrier

I learned a few new things over the past 2 days:

1. Driving in rainboots is more difficult than driving in heels, but totally worth it since I finally had the chance to wear my new Hunter Wellies today.

2. I need to write things like “This is MINE, NOT YOURS” on my coffee creamer at work because I KNOW I didn’t polish off an entire bottle of Coffeemate in one week, which means someone was mooching…

3. A sub-10 minute pace is possible!!

(I’m most excited about that last one)

Last night I ran 3.02 miles in 30:36 (9:56 pace). I’m SO excited! After my run, my sister let me use her foam roller. Maybe if I foam roll enough I can run 5-min. miles like her one day…

What’s your goal pace?

I would love to run 7-minute miles like some people, but right now I would be happy running a race with a 9:30 average pace.

Don’t forget to enter my first giveaway! I’ll pick a random winner at noon on Friday.

Liquid Gold and My First Giveaway

It’s finally starting to really feel like Fall here in SoCal. I’m currently enjoy a hot cup of Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce Coffee with this deliciousness, courtesy of my wonderful boyfriend:

He has this huge Costco tub of biscotti in his house and I told him a while back that I couldn’t wait for a gloomy day so I could enjoy a hot coffee with a biscotti in the afternoon. So with today being the first gloomy day in weeks, he stuck that little treat in my bag without me knowing.

On a workout-related note, I am SO SORE! Last night I did a 60 minute BodyPump class at the gym by my work and it kicked my booty. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I only removed 1/3 of my squat weights when we switch to biceps (I normally remove 1/2 the weight) and now my arms feel like they went through the garbage disposal and got pieced back together. I was strength training like you wouldn’t believe last night (I have the sore, callused hands to prove it – so hot). The class went by so fast too! That’s why I love BodyPump – the great music and fast pace make an hour fly by and before I know it, it’s try to stretch and head home. (P.S. Check out my new workout log!)

Unfortunately, my 8 mile run on Sunday didn’t happen. I slept in a bit and by the time I woke up it was over 80 degrees. Not happening! And if you think I was about to run on a the treadmill for 80+ minutes you really don’t know me that well yet. 3 miles is just about my treadmill max.

Despite my body being semi-dysfunctional this morning, I found time to stop by my new favorite store this morning – Sprouts.

This place is seriously amazing. They have a gazillion different flavors of licorice (like blue raspberry and even pina colada), hundreds of barrels of things to buy in bulk like nuts, different kinds of sugar, varieties of granola, oatmeal, and flour. An incredible selection of cheeses and the FRESHEST produce. I’m typically not one to shop in specialty grocery stores and usually stick to Vons or Trader Joes when I’m feeling fancy. But Sprouts has a selection of things I can’t seem to find elsewhere, like this jar of liquid gold:

This peanut butter is THE. BEST. PEANUT. BUTTER. I know I might be a little late to hop on the Justin’s Bandwagon, but I’m glad I did! And now I want to share the love.

In honor of my little blog starting to gain some steam, I’ve decided to do my first giveaway! Here is the deal:

I’ll be giving away 5 individual serving packets of Justin’s Nut Butter (PB, Honey PB, Almond, Honey Almond and Maple Almond) AND a pack of Sprouts’ amazing licorice. To enter, just leave a comment on this post telling me what you are looking forward to most in the Fall and what flavor of licorice you would want if you win. They have red licorice, black licorice, strawberry, watermelon, pina colada, blue raspberry, green apple, orange, peach, and rootbeer.

For an extra entry you can follow me on Twitter (@GTR_Danica) and Tweet about my giveaway (leave a separate comment)

For another extra entry you can become a subscriber to my blog (leave a separate comment).

I’ll pick a winner at random on Friday. Good luck!