How to get your butt handed to you in a workout:

Just do this workout:

For time:

20 power squat cleans 45/65
1 burpee
19 power squat cleans 45/65
2 burpees
18 power squat cleans 45/65
3 burpees
17 power squat cleans 45/65
4 burpees
16 power squat cleans 45/65
5 burpees

Continue subtracting 1 PSC and adding 1 burpee per round until you have completed 20 rounds each. The workout is complete after you have completed your 1 rep round of PSCs and your 20 rep round of burpees in sequence.

Holy.  Crap.  We did this workout last night at my gym and it was a killer.  Several people (including the trainer/gym owner) said that this is the hardest workout they have done--EVER.  I believe them.  As far as strength training workouts go, this is probably the most fatiguing workout I've ever done.  I burned 531 calories in the hour it took me to finish it.  That's on par with running for an hour!  Incredible.

This is where the magic happens

The windows were completely fogged last night because of everyone's body heat and sweat!

I woke up this morning weighing 155.6.  I am pretty sure I lost nearly a pound of body weight just from pure sweat.  It was crazy intense.

Look closely and you will see sweat droplets.  Yummy!

I've been feeling pretty awesome lately in regards to my healthy habits.  I've been incorporating a LOT more healthy eats into my diet recently.  I've been eating a lot of these:

Even weirder than that, I've been CRAVING a lot of those.  I ate a huge thing of mixed greens all by myself in less than three days.  It was delicious.  Even better than that?  I get to eat a LOT of stuff because veggies are so low calorie.

Yesterday for lunch I had:

• 3 cups of mixed green salad with homemade balsamic vinaigrette
• 4 chopped carrots
• Chobani Passion Fruit yogurt (OH YUM---you MUST try!!)
• Light String Cheese

For dinner?  Even more veggies:

• Cauliflower Fritters
• Roasted Brussel Sprouts
• Protein Recovery Drink

I don't even like cauliflower and I'd never eaten brussel sprouts before.  But dinner was delicious!  I finished feeling incredibly full.  I'll be having tasty leftovers today.  I will definitely be eating a LOT more brussel sprouts in the future.  I thought they were so tasty!  Hubster enjoyed dinner as well.  If I were him, I would be pretty weirded out by all the foods I've been making lately but he has really liked them.  Score!

What are some weird (but healthy and tasty) recipes you've tried lately?  I'm interested in trying out some more fun recipes!

Crazy Busy! - Weekly Weigh-in Time!

Crazy busy at work these days.  Doesn't leave much time for blogging.  BUT you should know that I am staying on track and eating right and working out hard.  Let's get to the nitty gritty, eh?

Yay for some lost weight!  Measurements were pretty dang stagnant this week, but I'm feeling good.  Gotta just keep eating right and working out hard.  I am seriously loving my workout classes.  They kick my butt!

I don't have time to share anything else, but I'll update later this week.  Hopefully I can get a moment to catch my breath!

Sweet Potatoes + Eggs + Glee + Picture Day = Randomness!

We are over halfway through the month of January (I know---crazy, right?) so it's time to do a quick gut check on our month goals.  How are we doing?

Here's a refresher and status update on my goals for January:

For January:

• Survive HELLth week at my gym.  Status: Complete!  I survived!!
• Average 4 workouts per week or more.  Status:  Currently on track for this.
• Run 30 miles for the month to supplement the strength training workouts  Status:  At risk.  I've missed a run or two.  Gotta up my game on this one.
• Cook 2-3 meals per week.  Status:  On track.  I've made some tasty (and healthy) eats lately!

Last night I made some delicious Sweet Potato Egg Stacks from a recipe Hubster found here.

(photo from website above)

Delicious!  It was thoroughly filling and seriously tasty.  I will be making this one a LOT more.  It was super simple.  I had the leftovers for lunch today and I was really looking forward to eating them.  That's how you know it was a success!

I enjoyed my tasty dinner (eggs are always acceptable for dinner!) while watching some guilty pleasure TV.  I might have nearly choked on my food when I spotted this in the background on Glee:

I need one.

Oh how I loved the Royal Wedding for SO many reasons, particularly the one above...  Too funny!  Glee has been slowly going downhill for me for the past couple of seasons, but I must admit that this gave it a few extra points.

Moving along, yesterday our company announced that today we would be doing individual company photos for use on our website as well as part of our signature in our emails.  Joy!  It brought back the stresses of elementary school photo day and worrying that your hair would go flat or you'd close your eyes during the shot and it would all be ruined!  Anyway, I decided to awkwardly take a photo of myself this morning in my car before going into work so that you could be part of the action too!   Weird?  No...this is what bloggers do.  Forget actually writing blogs; bloggers take awkward photos of themselves.  That's when you know they are a legit blogger!  ;)

The first attempt....not quite a success.  Clearly I need to go tanning more! 

Much better!  I sincerely hope no coworkers saw me take not one, but three different photos.  
There's no explaining that type of behavior...

Anyway, I think I survived photo taking day at work.  Thank goodness for digital photography!  Instant feedback is (sometimes) a beautiful thing.

Does anyone else's company take photos of employees for marketing purposes?  Anyone else think individual photo-taking is awkward business?  

And most importantly, how are you doing on your January goals?

I almost forgot! Weekly Weigh-in!

I nearly forgot to post these!  That would be a darn shame because I made myself late for work today by taking these measurements.  The things I do for the blog!  :)

Pretty happy with the continual decrease in measurements even though the scale is stubborn.  I'll take it!

The Day the LOLCats Died

Important (and funny).  Do something about it today.  :)

Listening to My Body

If you've been following my blog for a while now, you no doubt will have noticed a theme for me:

I run myself into injury.  All. the. time.

I don't listen to the cues my body gives me, and I will run simply because I want to log the miles and I don't want to miss a workout.  This happens even if I know it will hurt me.  Somehow I can't get my brain to override the desire to simply check off a workout in my training program.  Instead of paying attention to the cues my body gives me, I go run anyway and end up missing SEVERAL weeks of running due to my own idiocy.

It was the theme for last year.  I think I missed over 12+ weeks of running due to injuries last year.  Not a good thing.

Anyway, this weekend I was scheduled to run 5 miles.  Ever since my first run on Wednesday last week, my achilles tendon has been excessively tight and bothersome.  I ran on it on Thursday (yep, still not learning from past mistakes) and the pain continued to get worse.  Combined with my strength training workouts, it was definitely sore (and not the good kind) by the time Saturday arrived.

Saturday morning I woke up feeling under the weather.  I was stuffed up and had a sore throat.  I knew that I was not going to be getting in a workout that day because my body needed rest more than it needed a run.  I opted to take an unplanned rest day and get some needed sleep so my body could catch up and repair itself.  Even though it's been bugging me since Saturday that I missed that mileage, it also has taught me an important lesson:  It's okay to listen to your body.

Has the world fallen apart since I didn't meet my training schedule last week?  Nope.

Has my body fallen into utter disrepair?  Nope.  In fact, I feel much better and my heel is healing.

Will I not be able to run a half marathon now that I didn't run 5 miles?  Nope.  It's just one run of many runs, and I will still have plenty of mileage in my bank by the time the half marathon shows up.

All in all, it was a good lesson for someone who really struggles with missing runs.  The world will continue to rotate whether or not I am 100% on all my runs.  Good to know.  :)

Not Much to Say

The 3 miles from last night were MUCH better than the 3 miles from the night before.  Yay for that!  With no asthma attack (and subsequent walking/stopping that accompanies those), my pace improved by 2 minutes overall.  Booyah.  However, I am still much slower than I want to be on such a short distance.  I would be interested in seeing how my legs felt after NOT doing a Crossfit workout.  Running right after those classes is making my legs feel like jello!

This is from my first run this week--prior to the asthma disaster.  Something important is missing from my gear...

Oh yes, that's right.  My inhaler.  Definitely brought it along for last night's run.  Lesson = learned.

Apparently I was REALLY excited that I didn't have an asthma attack.  Post run glow (literally).  Enjoy the sweat-cicles on my eyebrows.  It's cold in Utah...

Speaking of Cross-fit, I LOVED our workout last night.  It was a great overall body workout, but didn't leave me in a giant puddle of sweat at the end.  Just a mini one.  This girl needs a break from swimming in her own sweat every once in a while.  You should all try this at your gym someday soon:

On Trainer's Count (or your own count--no cheating!) -Complete 6 rounds of each triplet. Each triplet is done individually.

12 back squats 45/65
12 biceps curls 45/65
12 OH BB press (strict) 45/65
30 sec rest

Then,

12 straight leg deads 45/65
12 skull crushers 45/65
12 v-ups (slowly 3-0-3-0)
30 sec rest

Big fan.  I love bicep curls and skull crushers, so that also could be a big reason that I enjoyed this workout so much.  I'm pleasantly sore this morning, just in time for my rest day.  Perfect timing!

What's your favorite weight-lifting move?  What's your favorite move that you love to hate?

We all know my favorite move I love to hate is burpees!

Well, I did it...

...I ran those 3 miles.  And it was AWFUL.  One of those runs you really just wish you would've stayed inside for.  My legs were beat from the gym (darn you thrusters and box jumps!!), and the entire time I was running they felt very very heavy.  I enlisted Hubster to run with me, and we had a good time together until half way through the last mile and a very smelly car drove past and left a big exhaust trail behind for us to breathe.  This normally isn't a big deal, but apparently my lungs weren't having it and the exhaust (combined with the cold and physical exertion) proved to much for them to bear and I had an asthma attack.  So lame!  It was a rough half mile home, and both Hubster and I were really frustrated with it all.

Anyway, the 3 miles are DONE and I have another 3 miles tonight.  I'm hoping for a better outcome.  I am sure my legs will feel heavier tonight than even yesterday because of the workout I'm doing in the gym tonight, but it's good to run on tired legs sometimes; it really helps build up the lactic acid threshold.  Or so I tell myself!

Sadly, I apparently could not be a ninja or a big bad wolf.  There go my life ambitions!  Drat!

Anyway, wish me luck tonight with my run.  I have a feeling it is going to be brutal!  This is what I get for putting off my running on Tuesday so that I had to do it yesterday.  Running two days in a row after not running for a while is a bad idea.  Oh well--this will teach me a lesson to be a slacker next time!  :)

Weekly Weigh-in

As promised, I will be doing a weekly update on my stats on Wednesdays.  It will be interesting to see how much my measurements fluctuate from week to week.  Here's an overall comparison from the beginning of this blog:

It's always nice to see the numbers trending downward.  It's crazy to think I've lost 4.5 inches off my waist!  I've definitely gained a lot of muscle since that fateful July back in 2010 when I started this blog up.  Thank goodness!

Comparing my stats to just last week, I found some interesting changes:

I think it's funny that my bust and waist went up/down the same amount, as well as my waist/hips.  Super weird.  I'll be interested to see how those measurements look next week.  Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way things are going.  My weight went down slightly, and my waist shrunk.  I seem to always lose weight in my stomach area first.  I really wish I could lose it more easily off my booty!

So I have a confession:  Last night I had planned on running 3 miles but it didn't happen.  Schedules got in the way, motivation was lost, blah blah blah, epic fail.  I'm disappointed about it.  I let life get in the way because it was more convenient than changing into my winter running clothes and hitting the pavement.  Boo.  I am going to go tonight to make up for the missed mileage, and I've enlisted the Hubster to run with me to ensure it happens.  Safety in numbers!  Nothing like having a motivation buddy to make sure you get the workouts done!

Speaking of motivation buddies--if you don't see my daily mile ticker updated with a 3 mile run by 9 pm tonight, unleash the tweets/emails upon me!  

Nothing like peer pressure to keep a girl in line!  :)

Why Do I Keep Doing This?

Apparently I'm a sucker for challenges.  First there was the 30-day Challenge back in November--3+ hours per week of workouts.  Then there was the 30-day Boot Camp I signed up for in December.  And now?  The Healthy Habits in 30 Days Challenge.

I've seen this challenge floating around in blogland for the past couple of months, but I have never bitten the bullet to sign up.  However, after showing it to a coworker (who promptly signed up) I finally caved and decided to just do the dang thing.  The only reasons I didn't want to do it were all related to me not wanting to make positive changes in my eating habits, which is NOT a good reason to not do something.

So yeah.  The next 30 days there will be a lot of this going on:

• 5 daily servings of veggies or fruit
• No sweets/junk food (food low in nutritional value and high in bad stuff)
• Keeping daily food journal (tracking at MyFitnessPal)
• Drinking 64oz of water
• 30 minutes exercise
• 30 additional minutes of exercise
• At least 7 hours of sleep
• Keeping my individual goal (can be anything you want to make a habit of)

There is (thankfully) one free day per week, so there is a bit of flexibility to the plan which is always a must for me.  If I'm told I can never have a sweet again, I immediately start craving it and obsessing over it until you find me a few hours later hiding in the closet chowing down on said treat.  Not a good thing.  Hence my love of flexible plans!

My individual goal for the week is to follow my training program 100%.  Training program, you say?  Yes--I am back to training for something!  As I mentioned at the beginning of the month, I would like to run another half marathon.  I really love that distance!  I am planning on running one during the springtime.  I am still narrowing down which one I am most interested in, but I am tempted by the Salt Lake City Half Marathon in April.  I haven't ran this course before and it could be fun.  Unfortunately, it is rather pricey for a half!  Decisions, decisions...

 Any feedback on the SLC Half?  Any other half marathon suggestions?  

Surviving HELLth Week and Cauliflower Pizza

I survived Hellth week!  I went to all 6 workouts and pushed through each work out to the best of my abilities.  There was lots of sweat, a little bit of bruising, and a lot of (good) pain.

And it was awesome.

On Saturday I woke up wanting to have a rest day more than anything.  I did not want to work out.  I did not want to do another round of burpees.  I just wanted to sleep in and be lazy.  But I went anyway and I was glad that I did.  Oddly enough, after all my whining about not wanting to do another workout, on Sunday I found myself itching to work out.  Even though I was finally getting a rest day where I could be lazy without guilt, I really just wanted to go out and get some exercise.  I don't think I will ever understand myself!

By the way, I wanted to share some deliciousness that I enjoyed this weekend as well.  Hubster has challenged me to find ways to eat tasty but with healthy ingredients.  Easier said than done, right?  Well, I found a recipe I wanted to try after reading this post from Escaping Obesity.  I found myself intrigued by the Cauliflower Pizza.  I love pizza; who doesn't?  But we all know it is really bad for us so most of us try to stay away from it.  Anyway, I figured it would be the perfect starting recipe for the year!  Off to the store I went to buy some cauliflower for my experiment (because there is never any in my house because I do not like it).

The recipe was very easy to follow and the pizza "dough" was ready in no time!

The crust baking in the oven

I made two different pizzas.  Hubster and his brother were coming home from visiting their Grandma in the hospital and I wanted to make sure they had some options to eat when they got back.  I did NOT tell them that the crust was made mostly from cauliflower.  I wanted to see if they would even be able to tell me what the secret ingredient was!

Mushrooms & Fresh Basil!

Pepperoni--the Classic!

I have to admit that I did not wait for them to get home before sneaking a piece.  I didn't want to serve them something that was uber-gross.  I can't stand making foods that people don't like to eat!  I'm not a fan of cauliflower, so I was really expecting to not like this very much.  However, I can say I was pleasantly surprised and I thought it was delicious.  Seriously.  I will probably never make normal pizza when I can make this and have it taste pretty much the same and be much healthier.  It is also a much easier way to make pizza than having to hand-make dough.  Win-win.

Yum yum yum!

The pizzas were completely consumed before the end of the night.  The boys could not guess the secret ingredient, and all agreed it was tasty.  My only complaint with the recipe is that the crust needed to be a bit more crispier.  I will cook it a couple minutes longer next time--simple fix!  I give this recipe a 5 out of 5.  I think I will also adjust the amount of cauliflower in the crust the next time I make it; I will add MORE of the vegetable because it really didn't impact the flavor at all.  

So yeah--go try it!  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

By the way, I want to thank whoever actually listened to my request and prayed for snow for our area.  We got a snowstorm that night!  It was so wonderful to wake up the next morning to half a foot of fresh snow.  It was beautiful!

Winter SHOULD look like this!

Do any of you have some healthy recipes that actually taste good?  I'd love to hear about them!

Survived it

This morning at the unacceptable hour of 5 am I got my butt out of bed to go to the early morning gym class because they typically do not offer a Friday evening class.  We did this:

Every minute on the minute for 20 minutes perform:

10 thrusters 45/65

Not as bad as they said it would be.  Admittedly, I dropped the weight down to 25 lbs.  I am way too muscle fried for anything else.

Sadly, I found out AFTER I woke up at that ridiculous hour that they were offering a special class tonight at my normal time just for this HELLth week challenge.  BOO!!  I missed some valuable beauty sleep!  Oh well, at least I don't have to spend my day dreading the workout since it is already DONE.  Booyah!

Last night we did this:

For time:

15-16-17-18-19-20 reps of:

thrusters 45/65
burpees
KB swings 25/35

Again, modified the weight.  Dropped from the 45 bar down to the 25er.  Did 15 lb KB swings.  Apparently I am weak.  I don't mind--I'm still new.  :)  Finished in 14:50.

I thought I would share some funny pics of what I look like after completing one of these monster workouts:

I particularly like the "deer in the headlights look" along with the large mascara smudge under my left eye.  It's a glorious sight for all to behold.  Not to mention the sweat dripping off me.  One thing that's awesome about burpees is that you literally leave drops of sweat on the mat below you.  I think it's kind of hard core when you can actually see (through pure buckets of sweat) how hard you are truly working.  Awesome stuff.

If you think I'm kidding about the sweat, just take a look at this lovely photo.  I'm sure I've never looked better.  By the way, you can likely find your bleach underneath your sink or in your laundry room.  It will help your eyes to recover from this picture of me.  :)

One thing (ha, there's more than one...) that I don't like about burpees is the destruction they do to my tender knees.  

That's not lovely shading; that's a nasty bruise.  I got that sucker on Day 1 of burpees this week, and every subsequent burpee workout we've been doing has been adding to it.  Not pleasant!  Thank goodness I only have one more day (this week!) of burpees to do!

By the way, even though Utah can have some seriously nasty air because the mountains trap the pollution, I really do love living in a mountainous valley.  So beautiful!

Sunrise this morning

It was even better before I left work.  Gorgeous!  Just send some snow vibes our way so that we can finally clear out the inversion.  50+ degree weather in January has really been freaking me out!

Burpees...

I want to like them.  I really really do want to like burpees.  I know they are a great overall workout and that they do all sorts of wonderful things for our bodies.  But they are hard.

So very hard.

And dare I say...awkward?  I don't know very many people who look graceful while in the midst of a 20 rep round of burpees.  (Or so I tell myself so that I feel better when I am on rep 19 and floundering all over the place!)

But there is a sick sick part of me that likes them.  I like them because I dread them.  I know that makes no sense, so I'll try to explain.  When I see them on a workout, I know that I am going to get my butt handed to me.  Every.  Time.  I know I am going to be huffing and puffing and thinking mean thoughts towards the masochist who designed the workout for the day.  But I also know that I am going to get a killer workout and scorches calories in nothing flat.  My arms, chest, abs, legs, and lungs are all going to get pulverized with one simple workout move.

Kind of a thing of beauty, eh?

So today as I embark on Day 4 of HELLth week (I'm still surviving!!), I will try to remember that they are an awesome move and that I should love them and embrace their awesomeness.

Tonight's workout?

For time:

15-16-17-18-19-20 reps of:

thrusters 45/65
burpees
KB swings 25/35

I feel like I just did this workout yesterday (spoiler alert: that's because I did)!  More burpees and kettle bell swings for me, I guess!  

Me and my crazy eyes are trying to be really excited about that!

Second Wind

Yep.  This pretty much sums it up.

The Bench

Clever.

If you want a great leg workout...

...do this one:

For time

15-16-17-18-19-20 reps per round of:

back squats 95/135
box jumps
lunge switches (R+L= 1)

Holy cow.  It's HELLth week at my gym, and they are trying to kill me.  I was SO SORE after this workout and my legs were complete jello.  I could barely walk downstairs!  This sucker took me a whopping 31 minutes and 20 seconds to finish, and I was sweating buckets by the end.  I couldn't even do the prescribed weight--I had to drop to a 45 lb squat because I was still sore from last week.  Absolutely nuts.

Our gym is selling T-shirts with the HELLth week workouts on them.  I hope I am worthy to earn one!

Today's workout also promises to be miserable.  It's called Hells Bells and I will be spending the next few hours motivating myself to go to the gym and actually do this beast:

For time:

200 KB swings 25/35
interrupt KB swings every minute, on the minute to complete 8 burpees.

Instructions:
-Starting with "go," then every minute after that you must complete burpees.
-Continue completing burpees on the minute and performing kettlebell swings until you have accumulated 200 KB swings.
-This workout times out at 35 min.

I'm not sure you can understand how miserable this will be until you've tried doing burpees every minute on the minute.  This will be so exhausting.  Mental prep--COMMENCE!

One thing I wanted to mention is that even though these workouts are seriously kicking my butt and hurt so bad while I am doing them, my recovery is quite quick now.  I wake up sore in the morning, but at a very manageable level.  It's crazy how quickly our bodies can adapt and adjust to the things we throw at them.  Thank goodness!

I am going to go back to a weekly weigh-in with measurements for the next little while.  Mostly I want to do this for my own memory when I look back a few months later.  This blog = my journal.  Anyway, I weighed in today at 159.2.  I nearly died.  That's a 7 lb weight gain in one month.  I know my eating was bad in December, but not that bad.  So I decided take measurements and compare them with the last time I took measurements.  Taking measurements is important for so many reasons, and I'm glad I have some recent ones to compare to.  My results:

I gained 6.8 lbs, but lost inches on my waist.  I gained inches on my biceps, but I can attest that I have bicep muscles like I never have before.  I even blogged about them a week or two ago!  I am really happy with the definition that is starting to show in my arms.  I can't wait to have "guns"!  :)

I am trying my best to not freak out about the weight gain.  It really is driving my bonkers, but seeing the measurements today really helped out.  We've all heard over and over again that muscle weighs more than fat, but I've just never had it show up so strongly on the scale before.  Deep breaths, Becky.  Deep breaths.  After HELLth week ends and my muscles can do more than just basic functions, I will be running after my gym time.  I miss running!  I think the extra cardio will help melt the fat while the strength training helps me build the muscle.  Should be a great combo!  It will also help me reach some of my mileage goals I have for the month and year. 

Thumbs up for that!

Has anyone else gained a lot of weight when beginning a strength training program?  How did you stay motivated when the scale kept going up?

Looking Back at 2011

2011 was a great year.  It may have even been my favorite year.  I accomplished so many goals I had set for myself, and gained more than some sweet medals; I gained some much needed self esteem.

Let's take a quick look back:

January:

Ran the Florida Keys Ragnar Race.  It was my first Ragnar and my first race with a finisher's medal!

February:

Ran the Sweethearts 5k with Hubster for our Valentine's Day activity.  I loved this race!  It has a super sweet medal!  What 5k does that?  And it was only $25 bucks for the race (which included a technical shirt!)  Score!

I also got injured which would end up being the theme for my running for the year.  Boooo.

March:

I bit the bullet and signed up for my first marathon.  I had been considering it for a while, but had been too afraid to commit.  However, March brought me the courage to finally sign up!

I also celebrated my 27th birthday along with Hubster's 30th.  

I also struggled with my eating habits (which unfortunately was also a theme for 2011).  

My first half marathon was supposed to happen in March, but due to February's injury I ended up having to cancel it.  Boo!  It was not the first race I would miss.

April:

Hubster and I went to Zion National Park for a belated birthday celebration.  I ended up crashing on my mountain bike going a whopping 1 mph and somehow managed to seriously injure myself.  Talent.  However, I didn't let that deter me from finishing my first 10-miler the next day.  This was a super hard run, but one of my favorite's from the year.  The scenery was gorgeous!

Zion is beautiful.

Jem Trail!

I also ran in a snow storm for the first time and posted a video on my experience.  I think that's the only video I've done on this blog!

Jess and I also ran 12 miles in preparation for our upcoming half marathon on April 30th.  It was the longest either of us had ran before!

Finally (April was a big month!), Jess and I completed our first half marathon on a snowy weekend in Utah.  We both ran the race suffering from some serious I.T. band pain.  The race was SO hard mentally, but so rewarding at the same time.  However, running on the bum knee sidelined me from racing for the next two months.  Boo!!

May:

I spent the majority of May nursing my injury.  As per the doctor's orders--absolutely no running.  None.  

Hubster and I also traveled to Australia for work and for play.  This was definitely a highlight for the year!

We biked, hiked, climbed, and played in Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Whitsunday Islands.  I want to go back!!  I did my best not to let my injury get in the way of a good time.  

June:

Our Australia trip took place over the last weeks in May and the beginning of June, so June started out on a great note--more traveling and exploring!  I went to the most beautiful beach I have ever seen, and fell in love with Australia.  I would love to go back!

Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef

Scenic Train Ride

White Haven Beach - google it.

Coming back to the US and having to join reality again was a bit rough.  One of the hikes that we did during Australia really hurt my knee all over again and I was seriously worried about running the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay that I had signed up for.  I ended up running it anyway, even though I was injured.  Not my smartest moment, but it was a great memory for the year.

Worn out!

July:

I returned to running in July!  I finally had an injury free running month!  I ran with Jess in the Legacy Midnight 10k and set a new PR for myself!  This race was so fun!

Hubster and I hiked up in the Big Cottonwood Canyons and jumped into a freezing cold lake in our underwear!  Old Becky never would've done that!

We also hiked Bells Canyon with some friends.  That was one HARD hike!  Totally worth it though!

There are people in this photo.  Find them.

I ended the month with one of my favorite races of the year - the Timpanogos Half Marathon.  I got to meet my lovely friends Rachelle and Julia.  Such amazing girls!!  I set a HUGE PR for myself on this run, and I also got a lovely sampling of what it tastes like to eat asphalt.  Such a memorable race for me for so many reasons!

August:

Guess what?  Another injury.  Le sigh.  BUT I didn't let it mess with my marathon training.  Nope--with my marathon a month away I kicked up the training!

I ran my first 17-miler and 18-miler (with Jess!)

I ran 23.6 miles in one day.

I also struggled with feelings of inadequacy.  I think we can all relate to feeling like this sometimes.

September:

Another big month for me!  We made a trip to Island Park and Yellowstone with our families.  We hiked and canoed and I loved it!

I also injured my IT band again.  To the physical therapist I go--again!  Terrible timing--right before my marathon!

That's right--I ran a MARATHON!  By far my favorite moment of 2011 for so many reasons--pride at achieving my goal, being able to share the crazy story of the weather, and sharing those moments with my best friend Jess.  Nothing can ever take those memories away from me.  LOVE IT.

So. Awesome.

I also got my body fat measured towards the end of September to see what I still need to work on.  This lady still has work to do on that number!

October:

October was a fun month--I finally got to meet Ann!  She came out to Utah to meet with a few of us crazy bloggers, and we had a lot of fun.

Super good times.

I also ran the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay and almost died.  My least favorite race of the year, although the company was super fun.  I just wish I would've ran better and not had to have someone sub in for me!  Boo!!

Can't argue with the bling, though...

...or the awesome friends!

November:

Speaking of awesome friends, I also challenged Jess to a 30-day workout challenge where we would average 3+ hours of working out per week for the month.  It was a great way to keep on track since we were no longer training for our marathon.  Jillian Michaels hurt me good during November!

December:

In December, I kicked up the workouts a notch by signing up for a 30-day boot camp that does Cross-fit like workouts.  Holy crap.  It kicked my trash in the best way possible.  I loved it so much that I have signed up to continue the classes indefinitely.  

There was also a freak wind storm that caused some serious damage around my neighborhood.  They are still cleaning up from it!

I also completed a juice fast.  It was tough, but super worthwhile.  I am currently psyching myself up to do another one (someday).  

Thoughts on 2011 Overall:

Loved it.  It was a great year.  The only regret I have for the year is that I didn't get my eating under control enough to finally lose the weight.  As you know, I ended up the year higher than I was this time last year.  It's unfortunate, but it isn't a big enough deal for it to taint the wonderful year that was 2011.  I can't wait to make this year even better!