I love photo Fridays and today I had some planned photos to share with you until I had my Hello Kitty Toast this morning.

My roommate brought this great offering to the place when we moved in. It’s the Hello Kitty Toaster. I thought for sure this thing was going to be awesome. It’s suppose to make Hello Kitty pictures on your toast, like the one below.

So I’ve seen a few people put up their Google Analytics and their search words and let me tell you, I get a weird group of words that sends people to my page too. They are pretty funny so here’s a few to get you laughing.

1. Freshly prepared with a whole banana, bittersweet cocoa. I have no idea what you are searching for, I hope not me freshly prepared with whole banana and bittersweet cocoa?

2. Hot chic running on the beach. This is the most legit search word, but has only been used once. I think they meant to search for hot CHICK. Sad.

3. If its going to be 79 degrees tomorrow, is it to hot to wear a sweater? Wow. I don’t know how you even got to my site, but this is a dumb question.

4. My work is running the biggest loser how do I win?? No shocker here! You workout!

5. Nips. Steve probably google this and came across my site.

6. “runners world” and “red velvet cupcakes” I assume they are looking for some type of low-fat cupcakes. Doesn’t exist people!

7. Race pee. I assume they wanted to know how to pee during a race? That’s what the porta-potties on the side of the race are for… and if you don’t use them, that’s just dirty. Also I’ve gotten this search at least four times. Makes it a little bit weirder.

8. Bloody sock t shirt. Oh the bloody sock… but why would you want that on a t-shirt?

9. Christmas nips. Steve! Again!

10. Jillian’s tenny shoes from the biggest loser. This one got me, Tenny? It’s tennis shoes. Wow.

On another note, last night’s biggest loser was pretty good, but I was sad to see Dan go, even if Dave totally let it happen by not caring about the ranch. Dan looks so much better now though and I’m happy to see he’s realized that it’s a lifestyle change. As for the race this weekend still feeling strong and I’ve decided to cut out all fast food in my diet this week. It’s only Wednesday and it’s killing me!

Also this weekend I’ll be bib number 9107. Racing Surf City this weekend? Confirm and get your bib number
xoxo

Goals for this weekend are somewhat scattered as they were for my last half, but I also feel that having different levels of goals for each race is very important because honestly, if you set yourself up to succeed you will, but you have to give yourself the chance.

The first time I ran a half marathon I remember my only goal was to complete it. Now I know I can increase the goal with time and mile splits. I know that it’s super helpful once you sign up for a race to have the goal of completion. Whether that would be run/walk the whole thing, running the race, or just finishing the race. Once you have a goal and you set your mind to achieving that goal it’s so much easier to start running and complete workouts. You can start our with a goal of a 5k, or a 10k and just make sure you set attainable goals for yourself. You can even make fun goals, and then during the race think of your goals.

My last half one of my goals was to practice drinking more water on the course. Running and drinking water at the same time is a pretty hard task, but after trying different ways to grab the cup and drink it quickly and efficiently during the last race I feel that I can say I’ve definitely improved in that area. Its much harder than you think maneuvering through those cup throwing runners. Don’t believe me, take a peek at the pictures below. Look at all those cups. Now imagine them being hurled at you from people in front of you. Not good. The last picture you can even see the cup flying through the air. Too out of control for me.

Anyways as for this weekend, I’m feeling really good about the race thus far. I am starting to get a little nervous which I know is necessary and I actually feel ready to race. I know there are going to be a ton of people there, this may even be the biggest half marathon I’ve done thus far, so I know the first few miles might be a lot of dodging and weaving, which is annoying but at races, it happens.

My A Goal is : Finish time from 1:40-1:45
My B Goal is : Finish time from 1:45-1:50
My C Goal is : Work on racing more than just running
My D Goal is : Focus on finishing the race, pushing myself and the mile splits.

So in more depth, my A goal is to finish and PR by about 2 minutes. I think if I can finish in 1:45 I will be incredibly happy considering the mass of people that will be at this race and that it will be a new PR. I know I can do it, but I also know I’m going to have to push myself when I’m not feeling amazing.

My B goal is to finish roughly around my 1:48:xx PR that I have now, and I am pretty sure that this is pretty feasible. I wasn’t feeling amazing, and literally wanted to quit my last race when I ran this PR so to run that again would be somewhat disappointing.

My C Goal is to work on racing more than just running. This might sound weird but sometimes when I’m running I totally zone out and become a little space cadet. I know this cannot happen this weekend if I’m going to mentally be in the race the entire time. I need to focus on racing and keeping up with everyone and not be discouraged or let myself be hurting. I know running is an intense mental sport. Not everyone can continue to keep pushing themselves forward, it takes a lot of willpower to keep going and I know if I focus the whole race, I will succeed. So if you see me just tell me to stay focused! :)

My D Goal is also to work on my focus during the race but to focus on the splits and how I can improve my time and stay on the pace I’m currently running. I don’t want to let myself start hurting and then just slow down like I did at the last half I ran. I know if I stay on pace I am destined for good things, I just have to will myself to do that and keep pushing myself. I used to push myself during my races back in high school, but that was a lot different than today, it was only 3 miles, and I was averaging a 6:30 mile… yea not going to happen anymore. I know I can push myself to run hard throughout the whole race though and I can push myself harder than I have in the past races where I was just running for fun, or to complete a race.

Overall though, I do want to have fun in this race, it’s a beautiful course and the weather should be amazing which is always helpful. I have been looking forward to this race and it’s a part of the California Dreamin‘ Series that I’m working on completing so I know it will be exciting. I’m thinking of making a shirt that says MY FAMILY IS LAME, SO PLEASE YELL GO DANICA. I saw a picture of it on some one’s blog and I wish I remember who because it’s hilarious, if it’s you let me know!! So we’ll see, planning the outfit is my next big task.

As for a workout today, just going to do some painting of my desk tonight and then a biggest loser workout video, but not the one with all the squats, I don’t want to be killing myself before my race!

xoxo

So this weekend was filled with Biggest Loser workouts and a 10 mile run which was great! I took a Gu before and I felt like that was really helpful. It was also nice to get in a good hard three miles. From mile six to mile nine, I really pushed myself and ran 8:03, 8:09 and 8:01. It was good to feel my body reacting well to the longer distance and still be able to push myself during that time. It was my last longer type run before the Surf City half this weekend. I’m really looking forward to the race this weekend and I am praying for no rain because that would literally put a damper on my race.

I also sanded down my desk this weekend, which involved me using an electric sander. I did it all by myself and it was interesting. I had to bust out the directions to see how the change the sandpaper. It was also kind of rewarding at the same time. I’m glad I finally got it done and now the next step is painting the desk. I think I will finally get it done by next weekend and then my room will feel much more complete. As for the rest of the room coming together, thanks for all the discount TV ideas, I’m still on the hunt.

Today I took the day off because my butt is SO sore from doing so many squats with the Biggest Loser Workout video this weekend. I didn’t know how my run was going to be yesterday since I was so sore but I think it really helped get out some of the soreness I was feeling. I’m still pretty sore this morning but hope to get in a combination of 10 miles this week before the race and then maybe one more shorter Biggest Loser workout video in as well.

Tomorrow I’ll be back with my goals for this weekend and how I hope to run this race. I know this race is going to have a crazy amount of people, but I’m excited for the race, whereas before I was starting to dread the fact that I had another 1/2 marathon coming up so quickly. After this race this weekend I’ll also begin my full marathon training plan which I’m excited about as well.

xoxo

Since Nike Mom has photo Friday, and I just got back my worst race pictures ever, I thought today would be a great day of sharing them. Wow, I don’t know if they could possible find more hideous pictures during the race… but here they are!