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Goals for the New Year
Hello blog friends!! Wow, wonderful feedback on my last post about a poster at the gym that rubbed me the wrong way. It showed a woman standing on a scale, with the word “happy” displayed where the numbers normally are. Many of you agreed it was inappropriate, but I was surprised by how many saw it as reflecting a woman’s “happy weight.” That never occurred to me! Several others mentioned their weight (or “body size”) is one of the many factors in their personal happiness. Mish put it wonderfully by referring to happiness as an “onion.” Being happy is made up of many layers, and a person’s body-size can be one of those contributing layers. All very interesting stuff!! I encourage you to check it out :)
In other news, I’ve finally made it back to my apartment. I white knuckled it through the very windy drive home, but made it in one piece. Coming back to a snowed-over driveway was not fun though. Shovelling a car IN is much worse that shovelling it out :P
After four days in a row of getting up and going straight to the gym, my legs were telling me it was a rest day. I worked out five of the six days I was home – not bad! Makes up for all the meat pie and shortbread I ate… right…?
Breakfast was a toasted blueberry bagel with cream cheese. I usually eat laughing cow cheese in place of the regular stuff. And you know what? I like laughing cow better!
And my fat/protein…
A boiled egg.
I stopped by the grocery store before hitting the road as it was my only open window to do so until Saturday. So glad I did. Allowed me to throw together a rushed, yet delicious lunch before work this afternoon.
Sandwich with Italian Tofurkey slices, spinach dip, tomatoes and spinach with a side of black grapes.
Fuelled me through a busy shift at Starbucks. Found out today that my last shift is on Sunday! In fact, I only work tomorrow and Sunday, and that’s it!! Start my new job at the university bright and early Monday. Crazy.
I had Subway for supper. Don’t hate. But my evening snack involved probably the best trail mix ever.
This package from Emily was waiting for me when I got home. Thank you so much Emily!!!! Besides yummy almonds, seeds, chocolate chips and cranberries, it has homemade dried apples. Not just any apples, but ones from her own backyard!! LOVE it :D
I sprinkled it atop some yogurt + vanilla protein powder + cinnamon. Positively splendid :)
So my next few posts are going to be wrapping-up the past year while looking ahead to the new one. I decided to start with my “resolutions,” for no real reason whatsoever. Y’all know I’m big on setting goals for myself. Last year, my only two goals were to do a triathlon and get a job after graduating university. Both of which I did! :) This year I have five big ones I want to accomplish, all which I think are totally doable provided nothing big goes wrong.
Goals for the New Year
1. Run a half marathon
I tentatively have one planned for May 9th. But I don’t really care when it is – I just wanna do one this summer!! Also, let it be formally recorded that I will not set a time goal for this race. Finishing it is what matters.
2. Complete a duathlon.
Last year was “The Year of the Triathlon.” But to be honest, I don’t wanna swim in the lake again. There’s a small duathlon Moncton does every year that’s 5k run, 20k bike, 2.5k run. Stress-less and fun, just what I love ;)
3. Complete a metric century.
This past summer I got up to 65 km on my bike, and I just know I can push out 100k!! Not sure if I’ll do this in an event, with Chris/family, or on my own, but my bike will see 100 kilometres in one day this summer!
4. Get my first client as a personal trainer.
Okay, ideally I’d like to have more than one client. But I’m trying to be reasonable here ;) Basically, I just want to move forward with this personal training thing. Doesn’t matter if I get hired full-time at a gym, or just start doing it on the side, so long as I can help someone as a personal trainer!
5. LIVE life.
I feel like I spent 12 years in school “waiting” to graduate. Then spent four years “waiting” to finish university. Now I have nothing to wait for. I can do whatever I want! This year I want to experience life instead of watching it pass me by. I want to LIVE each day to the fullest. That doesn’t mean I’m taking off to trot the globe. I just don’t want to “survive” my days anymore. I want be an active character in them.
Question of the Day: Do you have any goals for the coming year??
Sooo tomorrow I’m doing a special "group exercise class medley.” It’s going to be 30 min spin, 30 min Body Attack, 30 min Body Pump, 30 min yoga. So two hours total!! I don’t actually expect it to be that gruelling, as the last two are pretty low intensity. But it will be a fun way to kick off the New Year!
I’ll also be scheduling a post tomorrow with my year in review. It will be scheduled, because I’m going to a house party to drink my arse off. But I’ll be sure it includes the awesome cookies I’m bringing to the part-ay with me! (Emily, you know that ones I’m talking about!) See ya then!!
Running For The Fun Of It
Aaah! Thank you so much for the positive comments on my last post! You have no idea how good it felt to get that off my chest! As of right now, I’m just going to keep my eyes open for the right opportunity. There are a few avenues I’d like to pursue but I think I need to be still for a little bit before I dive into anything right away. It’s comforting to know I have a decent job to go to every day in the meantime :)
You’ll never guess what I had for breakfast this morning :P
A chocolate macaroon breakfast cookie! I’m happy to hear that people are having breakfast cookie successes after posting my how-to video last week! The amazing Ellie had her first successful attempt at the overnight cookie. Except she made hers snack sized. Such a great idea!
There was also a honeydew melon at some point as a pre-run snack.
I always do cottage cheese in a cantaloupe bowl, but I saw this combo on Tay’s blog and knew it was a “must have!”
In the melon is yogurt, Optimum banana almond cereal and cinnamon. While this was a stellar combo – the cinnamon totally made it! ;)
I was feeling reeeally tired and “blah” today. I wanted to get out for a run, but I decided to not set the usual goals for myself. After two straight weekends of races, and my toughest long run to date, I felt the need to just let loose on the trail. So I set out without any time or distance goals. I didn’t run hard or fast, I just ran to remind myself that it’s fun :)
SO glad I did! I’m not sure about you guys, but I get so caught up in setting fitness goals for myself, I sometimes forget that just doing it is fun. We had a perfect fall day here. Sunny and slightly brisk. I never run along the trail later in the day, so the sun was coming through the trees in the most gorgeous way. It was full of yellow and orange leaves, and I got to say hello to many fellow trail-goers :)
If you must know, I did 4.2 miles in 41 minutes. Perfection! No walk breaks since it was a shorter run. I felt like I could have kept going, but I’m terrified of getting an overuse injury. So I kept my weekly mileage in the “safe” zone :)
My cycling-obsessed boyfriend teased me into thinking he was going to run with me today. Alas, he once again opted for is two wheels. Aaahhh, the woes of being a cycling widow :P Or…is he a running widow?
Anyways, we met up after our respective workouts for some refuelling in the form of a homestyle dinner.
Canadians, especially Atlantic Canadians, will know what an Irving Big Stop restaurant is. Big Stops are essentially giant gas stations for truckers. They’ve got huge stores attached and rest areas. They also have homestyle restaurants.
It’s by no means classy.
The food may be simple, but it’s quality. Plus, we kinda like these places. So much so, it’s where we came for Valentine’s Day!
They have one of those “Simply For Life” menus (which I discovered is a local diet centre/program).
I went for the roast turkey dinner. “All white turkey meat served with mixed steamed vegetables and baked sweet potato.”
I love turkey dinners!! Probably one of my favourite meals (and why Thanksgiving is actually my #2 favourite holiday after Halloween ;) ). There was soooo much turkey. I ended up mixing it with the veggies and sweet potato to get combination bites. It was mega tasty. The perfect post-run meal.
Chris went a little ahem, bigger, with his recovery meal.
Chicken poutine. I can’t say much though, bastard burned 1300 calories on his ride! I assume most people know what poutine is, but for clarification sake this one had french fries, turkey gravy and mozzarella. Traditional poutines are made with cheese curds, but cheese is always delicious no matter what the kind :)
I also have an official announcement to make.
I’m going to do a half marathon in May!! It’s something I’ve wanted to do ever since I ran the 5k portion of the same race this past May. All I needed was a little gentle nudging from Brie who signed up for her first half marathon in April!
It still seems pretty far away in my mind. But it was this time last year that I decided on the triathlon, and that approached pretty darn quick!
The only thing I’m worried about is training during the winter months. I don’t think running in freezing temperatures will be that bad. I’m just concerned about the ice and snow. I don’t want to run on the icy sidewalks, which means a few months training will likely be done on the treadmill.
Anyone got any tips for training in the winter?
If you live in a warm climate, got a spare room? I jest, I jest :P
Okee folks, cookie is in the fridge, and I’ve got a bed that’s calling my name. Hope you’re having a great weekend!
Another Weekend, Another Race
Cause ya know, running in races is just how I casually spend my weekends now ;)
Can you believe this was already my fourth race?? My first one ever was a 5k in May, then the triathlon in July, last weekend’s 5k, then finally, a 10k!
Today I completed the Fredericton Fall Classic. An annual 10k hosted by one of my city’s running groups. This race actually meant a lot to me. My first 5k in May was supposed to be a 10k, but I had to scale it back because of time constraints (I guess my university graduation ceremony is more important…) I’ve had my heart set on doing a 10k ever since, and I’m happy I finally got to do it!
Start time wasn’t till 11am, so I got to have a leisurely morning in bed. Went for a safe breakfast of oatbran.
With chopped dates, unflavoured soy protein powder, coconut and cashew butter.
Then I had my no-fail running snack before heading out the door at 10am.
Banana with a smear of PB.
The race itself was pretty small, I think close to 200 people all together?
It was really cold before we took off. I still have to acclimatize to temperatures under 10 C (50 F).
That’s my “I’m flipping cold, let’s start running already” stance.
It was a chip timed event, so I stuck to the back of the pack in order to pace myself at the start. I always feel like I need to sprint when people start flying past me at the sound of the horn! Thing is, I think I started too slow. Around a 11-12:00 min/mi pace. I got to the 5k mark after 33 minutes and realized I had to pick up the pace, big time.
So then I started pushing close to 8:00 min/mi, which is just too tough for me! But I had my heart set on finishing in under an hour and I knew I had to do it to make up for lost time.
After about 45 minutes, I started to hit a bit of a wall. I wasn’t sure if I could go another 15 minutes at that pace. It was an out-and-back route, and the finish line still seemed very far away in my head. I could feel my nerves kicking in, my gut coming up to my throat, and my breath quickening. Then I cramped up. So I stopped and walked for a minute, cleared my head and drank a bunch of water (I’d been forgetting to drink water, definitely didn’t help). Then I mustered everything I could and powered through those last two kilometres.
I found the energy to sprint to the finish, probably due to the fact that I’d kept it so easy in the beginning. Approaching the finish line, I was immediately relieved that I was going to make my goal, even with a few seconds to spare!
My official chip time was 59:11 and I couldn’t be happier :D
They put up the results immediately after, and to my dismay, I was 9/10 in my age group, and within the last 20 finishers. Very similar results to my triathlon! I was kind of bummed about this. Why does everyone in Fredericton have to be so much faster than me??
But when I came home, I realized I was still beaming over my finish. Despite finishing almost last. I still beat my own personal goal. How I place compared to others doesn’t matter. Running is a solo sport, the only performance that matters is your own.
And lets face it, the free food at the end doesn’t hurt either :P
Also, I can feel happy knowing I challenged myself today. Look at these heart rate stats!
My highest heart rate yet!
I had a mayjah craving for a turkey hummus pita for lunch, so that’s what I made when I got home.
With some leftover coleslaw in the background. I’m going to be eating that stuff for days!
After the veggie-ful lunch, I felt like I needed something carby and heavy for dinner. So for “balance” sake, I had three huge samosas :P
The bottom one is leftover from last night. I made two extra ones by rolling out the dough verrrry thin, then cramming them full of the leftover chicken/potato stuffing. Liked it much better this way! I dipped them in some watered down ranch dressing, goes further that way ;)
This dinner tooootally hit the spot. My hunger has already kicked in from the race today. The same thing happened after last weekend’s 5k. Odd, because I didn’t burn an unusual amount of calories compared to my daily workouts. Perhaps it has to do with level of effort and exertion?
My day has otherwise been spent relaxing and reading.
In my newest race shirt, of course ;)
Tomorrow will be an “active rest.” I’m going to a pilates class, which I suspect will be mostly ab work done on the floor.
Also, shout out to Chris who took all my race pictures today! Dude shows an amazing amount of support for all my racing/fitness endeavours. I thank my lucky stars I have a boy who will put up with my food and exercise silliness. I offered to stand on the side of the road to cheer him on during his bike ride today, but he said it wasn’t necessary :P
Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
