Who inspires me?

Two weeks ago I went to visit a good friend. She was housebound, in recovery from a major operation and it had been a while since we got together to chat. As is always the case for us, we talked about business - we're both WAHMs, creating websites for clients from our home studios. But what was different this time - we talked about working out, heart-rate monitors and healthy eating - mainly how does she get her boys to eat the healthy choices she includes in her regular meals?

Michelle at my son's birthday party - 2007

My friend, Michelle, has been a huge inspiration to me from the first time we got together with our babies, over five years ago. Back then, we would steal away once a week to Starbucks, indulge in their high-fat, high-sugar, over-priced treats and teas, and talk about life, websites, clients and mostly, MOTHERHOOD and how much it transformed our lives. We only laughed about what we SHOULD be eating, or SHOULD be doing for exercise, not exactly the picture of health. The thing I admired or was inspired most about Michelle was her keen business sense and her ability to focus on her work, even amidst the ciaos that surrounded her on a daily basis (having twin boys can do that!). I am proud to call her a truly "good" friend!

Michelle NOW!

Recently, my admiration for and inspiration from Michelle has come in a completely new package, literally! She has made a huge lifestyle change in the past 2 years. Michelle is a shadow of her former self and looks absolutely fabulous. I highly recommend reading about her journey on her blog: www.uncoveringme.com. Now, I'm not surprised by her transformation - Michelle is a very determined woman - and when she decided it was time to make some changes in her life, those changes happened! She has a lot of support from her trainers, family and friends of course, and she gives them all props in her blog, but ultimately, MICHELLE was the one that made the decision and did whatever it took. And for that, Michelle, YOU deserve credit and my full admiration!

Now I find myself turning to the inspiration of Michelle for my own fitness goals. If you've been following my blog, you'll know I am quite active. I play soccer year-round, softball in the summer and recently added swimming and running to my routine. I've always been active in team sports - it's my preferred form of exercise. But lately I've noticed a shift in my thinking, and a shift in my fitness needs. Maybe it's because I recently celebrated my 35th birthday? Or maybe its because I know this body is done having babies and now belongs solely to MOI again? Stay tuned for future insights into my fitness shift...

All things change, and friendships aren't immune. You can always tell good friends from acquaintances - the good ones are still there to chat, even if it's been months or years. I have to admit, I struggle with keeping in touch with my "good" friends, and I hope if you're reading this, you will forgive me and send me an email or call! :-)

SO Excited!!

Tonight was my last swimming class until the fall... I'm not excited about that, BUT I am excited about the progress I made! At the beginning of this 12 week session, our instructor timed us on 50m, 100m and 200m swims for our benchmark to see how we improved by the end. Tonight was our 'timing' night. If I had just posted my initial times, unless you're a swimmer, you likely have no idea if they were slow or fast. But wait until you see my before and after!! (This is almost better than a before and after photo display! Although I'm sure there is some change there too, I didn't think to take photos...)

Distance	10wks AGO	TODAY	IMPROVEMENT
50m	0:51	0:46	5sec!
100m	1:55	1:40	15sec!!
200m	4:17	3:43	34sec!!!

Ahhhh... basking in the glory of having the best improvement in the class. :-)

I set a goal for myself at the beginning that I wanted to be at least as fast as the 20-something, university student/swim instructor in the class by the time we finished. I always felt so slow next to her and tonight we were paired up during our timed laps. I couldn't wait to see if I would be able to keep up. The first set, 50m, we finished exactly the same! She improved on her time by 1sec, so that means I was 1sec faster than her original time! And I would have beat her if I could do the damn flip-turn at the wall too!

Then it was our turn to swim the 100m... I focused on trying to get a faster turn at the wall and it paid off - I BEAT her by 3 seconds!! And then I learned I had beat my previous time by a full 15 seconds!! I was over-the-moon.

Finally our 200m - I didn't win this match up, but I was only 2 or 3 seconds behind and I'm pretty sure I matched her original 200m time, which is all I was looking for anyway. Plus I swam 34 seconds faster than my original time - 34 SECONDS! That's more than half a minute in a sub-4 min distance!! MAJOR improvement!!

It's funny how when I SET A GOAL, a specific, measurable goal, I reach it. I can't think of one goal, one that I REALLY wanted, that meant something to me, that I've set and didn't reach. WOW! That's powerful stuff... Have you set any goals lately?

P.S. I've recently fixed the comment option so name/anonymous posts work now - leave a comment below with your goals!

Life gets in the way...

Happy belated Father's Day to all my 'dad' readers. Summer is upon us - although you wouldn't know based on the weather forecast for this week...

It's been almost three weeks since my last post... I wasn't kidnapped or struck with a case of carpel tunnel - sometimes life just gets in the way.

Honestly, I haven't had much to write about because I haven't been out running *GASP* - apart from one time... Last weekend I participated in the Lunenburg 5km "Muffin Run", along with over 500 other runners including my running partner Jill and her hubby Ryan pushing their bambino in the stroller. We weren't able to find a jogger to borrow, so my hubby watched our boys so I could run - what a sweety. This was the first time Jill and I ran together since the Bluenose! Hard to believe. Jill did awesome once again - improved on her Bluenose time by 4sec! I'm sure it would have been more if I hadn't been holding her back... I improved my Bluenose time by 1sec and thought I was going to vomit at the end. Sprinting the last 200m was a bit much for my training-deprived body I'm afraid!

The weather was so bizarre that day. When we were running at 9:30-10am it must have been around 30 degrees C, not a cloud in the sky, and I was wearing black yoga pants! That could have been a contributing factor to the feeling of nausea at the end. By 11am the wind shifted, clouds rolled in and it felt like the temp dropped at least 8 degrees! Why couldn't the race have been at that time!?

Another likely contributing factor to my ill fated ending was my lack of hydration before the race. You can most likely relate to my thought process as I was preparing for that Sunday morning... A friend had warned me the day before about the lineups at the 'loo' before this race last year and since we were leaving later than I had hoped (all my friends reading this are laughing right now - I'm compulsively late - go ahead, have your laugh) I knew there wouldn't be time to 'go' when we got there, so I decided not to have anything to drink that morning. Did I mention Lunenburg was a 1hr 10min drive from our home? Let me tell you, I learned a valuable lesson on the importance of proper hydration! By the end of the race my legs felt like dead-weights. I had been sweating so much from the heat and too much clothing I doubt there was an extra drop of fluid left to feed my muscles what they needed to finish the race.

I am going to make a pledge right now to always arrive at least 30min before start time for any future races so that I have time to go to the ladies room and be well hydrated!

P.S. If you attempted to leave a comment in the past, please check below - I tweaked the settings so now anyone can comment - not just registered users! I'd love to hear from you! Thanks.

I really dislike running solo - help!

My running partner, Jill, has been away for more than two weeks now and I hadn't been for a run since our triumphant experience together at the Blue Nose event - that is until last night...

OK, here's the scenario - I had hoped to go running on the weekend but it didn't happen. So last night (Tues.) was my only evening this week that was free. So I decided after my hubby returned from his run (his only chance too!) that I would go out. My plan was to run 3-4 laps around the neighbourhood because it would be dark by the time I got out. I had driven around with the car earlier and knew exactly how far I was going.

I decided last-minute to search out my MP3 player to bring along. I knew I had upbeat Madonna's "Confessions on a Dance Floor" tunes on it, just needed a battery and I was good to go. (we always have batteries around for the boys' toys!) I headed out at 9:43pm, MP3 player in hand, bud-phones in the ears... First tune was "Hung Up" with a decent beat so I thought, "Great start!". Finish my warm-up walk and about to begin running when the song changes to Enya. If you're not familiar - she has really mellow, almost classical sounding music.  "Crap! How do I change the song?" I had just finished tucking the player down my sleeve and fed the bud-phones up through my top so they wouldn't fall out of my ears. I have a hard time keeping bud phones in when I'm sitting still, never mind when I'm running!  So I yank everything out, while going up the killer hill in our neighbourhood I've complained about before, and figure out how to advance the song - only to discover it's on RANDOM PLAY!!  Randomly selecting between Enya, ABBA and Madonna was horrible...  Plus my bud phones kept falling out of my ears, my shorts (not running style) were riding up between my thighs and by the third lap up that dreaded hill, I felt like I was going to vomit, seriously. I've never had that feeling before...

All-in-all, the worst experience I've had.  Almost makes me want to give it up... Almost!

Tonight I'm working on my revised play list - my library is limited, and I'm going to show my age here, but I used to workout to the VengaBoys - "The Party Album!", in the late 90's - perfect workout CD because all the songs sound the same! lol.  I was surprised that not ONE of the Madonna songs worked for me - I usually love dancing to her tunes.  Maybe I'm just getting old...  Michelle, I need your help with this one!!

I've tasked my hubby with finding me 'running' headphones that don't rely on sticking in the ear for my belated birthday gift. He was going to get me a new heart-rate monitor (HRM), but discovered that the kind that would work while I was swimming is sketchy at best - so we're sticking with the one we have for now. It has enough features - Sports Instruments - has worked well since I got it in 1998 - apart from the chest strap losing it's elasticity - but it still fits.

The only thing left to improve on so this disaster doesn't happen again is proper running attire... Before, I have always worn my yoga pants with long spandex shorts under to keep my thighs from cramping (I learned this the hard way with soccer - never go to a game without them!) It's probably not as important with running because it's consistent motion - not start-stop like in soccer, but after last night, I now know why I will continue to wear them for running as well - they help prevent my shorts from riding up between my thighs.  If you're a woman runner, chances are you've had this experience too (some men too)!  Probably the most uncomfortable feeling while running, next to cramping.  I may have to resort to wearing pants all summer if the spandex doesn't save me!

Have you ever experienced any of these problems? If so, how did you overcome them, or did you give up because of them??  Eventually, I'll need to WANT to run solo, so please, any words of wisdom/encouragement are appreciated!!