Category Archives: believing in yourself

It’s Goal Time

Posted on by

2

Breathe Deeply

We are spending the first day of the year flying back to our home in Virginia. As I opened my email, I received a great email from “The Daily Love” talking about goal setting. Since I was excited to talk about goal setting, I wanted to include the most inspiring quote:

“Make New Year’s goals. Dig within, and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. This helps you do your part. It is an affirmation that you’re interested in fully living life in the year to come. What would you like to have happen in your life this year? What would you like to do, to accomplish? What good would you like to attract into your life? What particular areas of growth would you like to have happen to you? What blocks, or character defects, would you like to have removed?”

Who doesn’t just want to sit down with a clean sheet and pen and create a list of great goals for 2013? I like to set a list for the year and break it down by month and wrote it in my daily planner to keep me on track.

These are a few of my fitness goals for this year:

• Run 3 half marathons – one of the is going to be the Williamsburg Run for the Dream!
• Sprint triathlon- reeeeeally nervous about this one… guess that means I’ll have to start swimming, right?
• Run 700 miles – should be easy to do that, but with picking up some biking and swimming miles… who knows?
• Do an hour yoga set at least once/week – I just get so tight that I need a full set on the weekend to be able to move normal again
• Group trainer certificate – HUGE GOAL! (so scared)
• Expand Girls Run Faster – aka write better, more informative, blogs
• Take the time to enjoy every moment… where ever God has planted me

Those are my goals for now… I’d love to hear about yours! In fact, if you blogged about them, leave a comment with your link and I’d love to peruse your post!

She Believed she Could, so She Did.

Posted on by

0

Running is more than a healthy and cheap way to stay in shape, it has become who I am. When I wandered into my first run group after about six weeks of run/walking (mostly walking), I ran beside a woman who was pushing a baby stroller with a month old baby wrapped up inside. This was several years ago, in another country, and I never saw her again… But she inspired me more than a personal trainer could have. She ran until she was seven months pregnant! And after pushing out a baby a month prior, she was still able to run farther than me.

No, this isn’t a dual announcement of a marathon and a baby… I just thought of her and how she gave me the inspiration to be who I am today.

A runner.

Someone who plans their weekend around the long run. Goes to bed early to get up to run. Packs more running clothes on a weekend getaway than regular clothes. Buys a pair of stretch pants from lululemon in all black so I can wear them with high boots for a dual purpose wear… Sound familiar?

she believed

People ask me how to keep fit through the holidays. It’s easy. Make it your priority. Fit in your work outs, they are non negotiable. Eating clean isn’t debatable. You know how it works in your life… You just need that motivation. Maybe I’m like that new mom was in my life to you or maybe you’re that person to someone else. Be that motivation to someone else.

I pray that there is at least one person out there that is motivated to be fit and decide to honor their bodies because of the motivation from us at Girls Run Faster.

Positive on a Run

Posted on by

0

Set small goals. If your mind can’t handle it, don’t hit the trail with a 10 mile goal in mind. Only focus on mile one or reaching the 5 miles to your turnaround point. Celebrate your small “wins”. Be in the present.

Imagine yourself as a strong runner. Like the kid hitting balls in the empty cage imagining them self as Babe Ruth (or whoever is a popular baseball player), if you imagine yourself as a exceptional runner, it will motivate you to run longer and harder.

What is your personal manta? By having a brief sentiment repeating in your mind when you start to slow down, it can help you push through the hard patch. Writing it down is important, where you can see it before a workout. Having it as a rubber bracelet, or for a longer run/race, writing it with a sharpie on your arm, will help push you through the hard miles.

What are your mantra's? Some of ours are:

Mind over matter, Just keep going, Run Harder, Never stop with the end in sight…

Persistence, not Luck.

Posted on by

4

My hubby and I were just talking today about how talent can be your enemy because success is comes from hard work. Every time I see someone that’s better than me at something, I’m grateful because that means I will have to work hard to be as good as them, and my work ethic will make me succeed.
This long weekend has been mostly spent doing homework (I’m ALMOST done!), and my courses are hard for me. But if they were easy, I wouldn’t be building the discipline to pursue my masters degree… see what I mean?
This principle directly applies to working out. I know girls who never cared about their weight because they could eat ice cream for every meal and not gain an ounce… but will they have abs of steel? No. But we will, because we’ve had to fight for losing every pound, and built that discipline in the gym. Our hard work is going to get us where we need to do.

It’s about persistence, not luck.

Running Sprints

Posted on by

0

Last week I ran Sprints. It was really tough because it was sunny and I was just coming down with the flu, but in retrospect, I think I did pretty good! Basically… it was a 400m track, which I consistently ran in just under 2 minutes. So if I ran 400 meters in 2 minutes, that would be an 8 minute mile! This is coming from the girl who can’t seem to run faster than a 10 minute mile, so to be able to run the speed of an 8 minute mile for the duration of 400 meters on a hot muggy, kinda sicky-pants day was a pretty good feeling!

After about 10 sprints around the track though (about 2.5 miles) I was wiped, and ready for a shower. Hoping for more endurance and better time next time I get out on the track!

Self-Love

Posted on by

2

Do you ever wake up in the morning, or mess something up, and can’t stop thinking about how you screwed that up? It starts as a healthy reminder to step up your game, and quickly turns into self loathing.

That’s what happened earlier this week. It started out as a healthy reprimand, and quickly turned into the ever familiar self loathing I was quite friendly with when I struggled with my eating disorder. I would hate myself for eating anything and I would expound further but I remember how the comparison game worked:

  • I would compare myself to others who struggle(d) with an eating disorder, and punish myself if I ate more than them, and gloat if I ate less than them.
  • I was jealous of those who got hospitalized, and felt sorry for those who swelled from water retention.

Obviously this was kinda messed up. But the thing is, I thought that that’s all I deserved. I thought I wasn’t worth anything until I was less than 100lbs, and I wouldn’t allow myself to be happy. I was going to make myself miserable until I’d reached my goal. The only problem was, that when I started losing a bunch of weight, I felt miserable so I couldn’t even enjoy my new *skinny*. I was terribly sick and wasn’t able to climb up a flight of stairs without fainting. Where were my hopes and dreams of going to college? Traveling? Moving out? I was so sick I couldn’t function.

I’m so glad I’m in a healthier place now! These are a few things that keep me grounded:

  • A husband who thinks I’m beautiful
  • Daily quiet time, reflecting on things that are true and uplifting
  • An exhilarating amount of running and keeping active
  • Investing in myself (finishing my bachelors degree this fall!!)
  • Learning to love myself
  • Taking time to enjoy the smallest moments. Taking time to be joyful
  • Taking time for myself. Sometimes this means taking my journal to Starbucks and writing for an hour. Other times this means taking 2 hours to run by the beach. And occasionally it means spending an hour on pinterest, pretending to be productive :)

“If you aren’t good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone, since you’ll resent the time and energy you give another person that you aren’t even giving to yourself.”

- Barbara De Angelis, author

What helps you guys keep a healthy perspective on life and yourself? How do you keep your emotions steady and enjoy life when it seems crazy?

Dead Last Trumps Did Not Start

Posted on by

2

If you run without any reason, you are just chasing the wind.
Wesley Korir, 2012 Boston Marathon Winner
This weekend I biked down to the boardwalk and tried to run. After about 3 miles, I was exhausted. Do you guys ever feel that way? Thus, I found this picture extremely inspiring… because I’m proud of myself for getting out there. After beating myself up, I biked back and worked on my strength training routine I’ve been working on. Surprisingly enough, I was able to hold my planks and V-sits for longer than I’d ever done before! I may not be running my best right now, but I’m about to have some ripped abs :)
I’m really thankful that the weather is cooling down this week, and I’ll be able to get out and do a longer run! I’ve got to get some training in to be able to run in the Wicked 10k at the end of October! I’m planning on running it with friends, so we’re going to start our hard-core training soon (yes, I’ll still need to train for this race since I’ve been taking it easy this summer)! Here’s my post from last year: Wicked 10K, which I did in 59:24. My goal this year is to shave at least 10 minutes off that time, and get a time of 45:00 or under!

Motivated to Run

Posted on by

2

I had a question from one of my friends on Facebook, and thought I’d tackle it on here!  One of my friends Ashley asked:

How do you stay motivated to run? It seems like I am always starting, run for a few weeks and then I stop.

We are all motivated to run for different reasons. Some of us run to clear our minds or get out of the house and others run to lose weight or other athletic reasons. Many enter races in order to have events to train for, and others are motivated to simply run daily. I can’t tell you how to be motivated or how to fit it in because I don’t know all the details of your life, but I can let you know what works for me.

I love entering races with people. I have a few friends who are runners and they inspire me to keep training, and to get those long runs that must be completed on the weekends. Sometimes we even go out together to make sure we get the 10 miler run done in order to prepare for a race. It’s easy for me to get the long runs in, but a 2 hour run on Saturday with homework crushing me isn’t always the most motivating. So entering races with friends keeps me on track!

My whole life is written out in my planner. I’m not a control freak as much as I can’t remember when and where I’m supposed to be, what’s due, and when I’m supposed to go grocery shopping. So I write in my runs, my mileage, and treat it like everything else in my planner. Mandatory. When I finish, I enter them into my Runkeeper App, and track my total mileage for the month. I’ve been averaging 50 miles of running/month since February, which is great for me! Finally, I celebrate all the small successes and take pride in my runs.

As much as I like running with people, it’s hard for me to match their pace, so I usually run alone. I still go to running groups, and still meet up with my girlfriends, but we usually end up splitting up so we can all meet our running goals. It depends how you like to run, but sharing my running goals with a running community has been the best motivator of all!

I also thought I’d share some of my blogger friends blogs I stalk, since they’ve really motivated me to run: Running in Heels, My Pinky Toes, and of course LuluLemon.

If you have questions for me, feel free to put them in the comments section or post them on my Facebook wall. I’d love to do some research and respond in a blog!

Get Back At It

Posted on by

1

It can be especially challenging during the summer months to keep a regular exercise routine, and my excuses vary from being on vacation, the overwhelming heat, to too much BBQ last night to get up and get an early run in before work.
But when the break from running is more than a day or two, and grows to weeks or even months, it’s hard to get back in the rhythm.
Here’s how to approach those first runs, no matter how long you’ve been away to avoid injury.

The break -> a week or two
On your first couple runs back in the groove, just take it 2 or 3 minutes slower than usual and run about half of your usual distance. Also include walk breaks.

The break -> about a month
Alternate your workout days with a walking/running routine. On Monday run 15 min and using a ratio of 60 seconds running, 30 seconds walking. Tuesday: Walk 30 minutes. Wednesday run 20 min sing a ratio of 60 seconds running, 30 seconds walking. Use Thursday as a rest day, and Friday repeat Wednesdays workout. Saturday: walk 30 min. Sunday run 25-30 minutes using a ratio of 40 seconds running, 20 seconds walking.

The break -> 60 days or more
It’ll probably take about a month to get back on track. Follow the routine for week one listed above, and on week two run 30 minutes three times a week using a ratio of 40 seconds running/20 seconds walking. For week three use the same running routine, 25 seconds running/35 seconds walking. On week four, go back to week two’s plan, running three times using a ratio of 40 seconds running/20 seconds walking.

If you’ve taken a break from running, I Hope these tips were helpful!

 

Source: Running World, “Back on Your Feet” August 2012 edition.

 

Swim | Bike | Run … and hydrating.

Posted on by

4

Don’t tell anyone… But I’ve starting biking. I have a super sweet bike, and in our super tiny cramped apartment, we have no room for it except leaning up against my bed. Our room looks great.
So after having it leaning against my bed for 3 months, my school/work load kind of let up, and I introduced her to the world! Lately I’ve been biking the 3 miles to the beach, running about 5 miles on the sand, and jumping in the ocean for a swim for about 20 minutes. After I bike back, this whole exertion has taken about 2 hours!

People tease me that I should do a triathlon. Nope. I’d rather keep all of my miles in the single digits when doing all three :) (maybe I could be convinced to do a mini-mini-mini triathlon? We’ll see!)

Basically, being near the water is what I’ve been doing in order to ‘keep cool’ while working out this summer. Another important aspect of healthy summer working out is keeping hydrated. I know, everyone keeps talking about our water intake, but what’s some tips on making sure you have enough?

In this heat, it’s important to keep the hydration up… water is vital to our athletic performance and health. Before a long run, a race, or a training workout, drink plenty of fluids. The day before an event, drink extra water and monitor the color of your urine. The goal is pale yellow, not clear.

The morning of the event, drink 2 cups (8 oz.) of fluid two hours beforehand. This gives your kidneys enough time to process the liquids, giving you sufficient time to empty your bladder before the start of your event.

These tips should help out in keeping you hydrated in this extra-hot summer, and will definitely help with post-race throwing up and other problems.

Source: How to Hydrate Before, During, and After a Workout