Flagstaff vs Phoenix

Last Friday I made the move to Flagstaff. For one year JR and I will be traveling back and forth while I go to school up here and he works down south. We both love Flagstaff and just realized over the past 3 days how much we have missed it. Flagstaff is a magical place, clean air, the smell of pines, great people, friendly people and friendly dogs everywhere, great trails for everything from running to biking to hiking to just going for a walk. 

Even Jack thinks this place is fantastic-watching him in Phoenix vs Flagstaff is like watching a Grandpa turn into a 10 year old. Jack is 3.5 years old but due to the heat in Phoenix a doggie cannot do much more then walk in the morning when the pavement is still cool, sleep all day, and then hopefully, if it is cooling down play baseball or play with other doggies. Here is what Jack has been doing lately since we have hit the 90's:

Sleeping on his back.

Sleeping on his side.

Sleeping on the floor.

Sleeping on the couch.

Taking over the couch.

Sleeping in his food dish.

Sleeping in bed.

Well, you get the point. He is pooped all the time, just like me. As soon as we hit the 90's my body says: just sleep...ALL DAY. Phoenix is great for training in the winter, but some people, like me, just can't handle the heat and grumpiness and tiredness take over. 

Since we got here I have done two 8 mile runs: 

I was feeling great on the first one and at mile 3 or so I decided to look what pace I was going...well, for a second I was thinking my Garmin must be broken...but it wasn't. 7000 ft means Angi is running slower. I finished my run at an unusually slow avg, but I was super happy just to be able to be outside and have such clean air and fantastic trails.

The next day I ran the same loop again and I managed to run much faster, most likely because JR ran with me. I am excited to see the progress as my body adjusts to altitude (which by the second run it definitely HAD NOT, but thanks to JR's company I forgot how painful running up here is).

We went up to snowbowl and enjoyed the scenery. Everyone seemed to be in town for graduation so we decided to escape to the mountain. JR, Jack and I loved it and we had coffee and cake at 8000 ft and went for a fantastic little hike and played around in nature.

 When we lived in Flagstaff 3 years ago, we were so close to so many cool places, but like always: while you live there you forget to explore and when you move you say - I wish I would have...

This time around we promised each other we would take our mountain bikes all over the trails, go hiking where we have never hiked before and camp where we have never camped before.

This one year of school is also a great opportunity to focus on running and running specific strength. I can't wait to race in the fall after I (hopefully) get some great training in (if school allows me to have free time :-)