"Barbara"

Today was a CrAzY training day! After work, I hurried and met runningfrida at San Juan- which is a road that leads up part of South Mountain. it's 8 miles to the top, no cars, and I swear at points its like you're climbing STRAIGHT up Mount Everest- it makes everything burn!

We usually bike it 2 times- it's HARD! Well, tonight, it was starting to get dark early but we were still hoping to do it twice. We started our first round and when we got about half way- right when the sun was beaming directly into our eyes, and there was a guy on a beach cruiser and he just kept circling on his bike? He saw us coming and really didn't move out of the way- weird, right?! Well, once we got closer to him (literally about to pass him!) he shouts "LOOK OUT!" and I quickly look down and notice there is a rattlesnake in the middle of the road- like less than a foot away from my bike tire! Thanks for the last minute heads up dude...

I quickly swerved away (almost hitting @runningfrida!) and thought I was going to have a heart attack! We made it to the top and the sun had set, so we didn't have much light left. I was terrified heading back thinking we were going to run into 'Barbara' again. (I named the rattlesnake 'Barbara'-- it makes her less scary if she has a name like Barbara. I feel like I could take a Barbara if I had to... just saying...;)) It probably didn't help that the whole way back I was asking @runningfrida if she had signal on her cell phone in case I got bit to call 911 or what the freak do I do if I get bit and Barbara doesn't let go!? Can you shake off a snake? I'm pretty sure there is no way I could pull a snake off of me...yeah, there is definitely NO way I could do that...

This isn't our Barbara- maybe like a distant relative? And she wasn't this dramatic either- she was just chilling on the road, trying to slither away. (Which is weird that the guy was circling her and not letting her get to the other side of the road?)  

We finally made it back to the cars and @runningfrida asked if I wanted to go again- I told her I was WAY to chicken to go again and we decided to head to her gym and finish our bike ride and run there.  



Too dark for me!



Holy Moly! Her gym is amazeballs! We both go to LA Fitness but hers in a million times nicer/better than mine! They had so much more equipment and it was all brand new!

We headed into a spin class (that was half over) and then did another 10 minutes after. Look how nice the cycle class room is! My gym's cycle class is super small and only has 2 rows of 10 bikes.

Great picture, right?!

Once we finished biking, we headed out to the nicest treadmills I have ever ran on! They each had individual TV's on them, plug ins for your iPods (so you could charge it AND listen to it at the same time!), and super good fans! I got all set up with the TV and my music and started looking around for a recliner or something and then realized 'oh yeah, I'm here to run...'

We ran for just over 40 minutes and I got 4.6 miles in. Between the hair blowing in the wind, my music blaring, and the TV- I was so pumped I kept increasing the speed and was FLYING by the end! (I'm going to need to go to her gym and workout more! It's more like an-awesome-pace-to-hang-out/ forget-I'm-working-out type of place than a gym! Loved it!

Another great, non-blurry picture!

We finally finished and headed home. It's days like today I am SO grateful to have friends like @runningfrida to keep me company (and motivated) on long training days like today!!!

Do you like to train with someone or alone?

Have you ever seen a rattlesnake in person?