Pushing to Hit my November Goal.

Last week did not go as planned, at all. The whole week I felt tired and beat up. The only day I actually got out of bed was on Friday morning. I am kind of very disappointed with myself because  I should have been at my NTC goal by now and just working on my running goal and now I am not sure if I am going to make either.

I am sitting at 1,095 NTC minutes for the month of November. Not bad but not the best. I am still 305 minutes short. With 4 days left in the month I need to push big time!! 76 minutes each day for the next 4 days, doable if I can get my butt out of bed. Who wants to hold me accountable?!?!?! I know I can do it, I just need to push myself. I should have gotten out of bed this morning, but I was being a baby because my knee was sore, but I need to suck it up and get out there or I won’t make my goal.

As far as running goes, I am in the same boat as NTC. I have 74.4 miles covered right now but that still leaves me with 25.4 miles to cover in 5 days. So that is 5.08 miles each day. It is 100% doable, but again I have an issue with my knee and I am really worried to push it, but I keep telling myself to get through this month and you can rest for a few days in December. I might have to run twice on Friday to make my goal, since my half hour at lunch only allows me a 4 hour run, but we shall see what happens. Maybe I can make both my goals.

I am doing well with my Nike Kinect. I just finished my first round of my program. I love the Nike kinect system and I am so happy I got it. I was at a TRX class on Saturday and realized why I love Kinect training so much, I can’t cheat. When I am at TRX my form can get lazy, when I do NTC I can skip out on a few reps, nobody is watching I need water it is ok. But with Nike Kinect you can’t do that. Your body is being tracked and the program knows what your personal best are and it is pushing you to hit those personal best and break them. It tells you when your form needs to be corrected. You are always getting better and better. I love this training platform and I don’t think there is anything out there like it. If you haven’t tried it yet you need to because it is honestly the greatest program you can use. Every 4 weeks it has you re-do your fuel print and as you can see I have improved. I can’t wait to see what other improvements will happen in this next round and what changes my body will go through during these next 4 weeks.

The no sugar challenge it a pothole this week, but it was a small one and I am back on track. I had three cookies by George. Nothing serious but I felt kind of guilty. I am back on the no sugar train. I know I said for the month of November but I am bringing this into December. What I am realizing is that I don’t need that refined sugar in my body. I am happy without it. Day 3 was the hardest and after that it just got easier and easier, with the expectation of a friend coming to visit me. Lucky for me this friend only arrives once every 2-3 months.

Holidays are around the corner and the parties start so I am going to need lots of will power to make it through my no sugar challenge, but I am up for it. 

November Challenge Start

My November challenge began on Thursday and the first week, I must say went pretty well.

Thursday morning I accidently slept in and only had a chance to do Better Butt at lunch, but I also did a 4.35 miles run with an average pace of 7’07”/mile, I am managing to keep me speed up and that is important to me, after my run I did the sculpted arms workout on NTC. When I got home I did my Nike+ Kinect, however, to my sadness I wasn’t using Xbox live and therefore needed to re-do my assessment. I managed to do better this time so I was happy about that.

Friday morning Meho and I rolled out of bed at 4:15am and went to Goodlife and I started my day off with NTC, Endurance Master and Slim Effect. I find when I do a workout in the morning I make better food choices throughout the day. I tend to reach for fruit and veggies rather than salty or sweet snacks, so this also motivates me to get up when my first alarm goes off. At lunch I did a 4.78mile run with an average pace of 7’25”/mile and finished my workout off with Sculpted Arms and Leaner Legs also from NTC. When I got home that night, I did a Nike Kinect cardio workout with Marie. She is killing me and I love it!! Seriously, this game is the best investment I have ever made. Marie pushes you and forces you to want to work harder.

Saturday I had a really hard time getting out of bed, but I was involved in the Twitter Road Race and knew I had to get lace up my running shoes sooner or later or I would spend my day in my cozy bed. I looked at my twitter Nike Running had tweeted me and sent me a picture with a person running in Calgary in the cold, so I knew even though it was cold I couldn’t let it beat me. This pushed me to get out of the door. I started my day off at the gym doing NTC, Worth the Weight and Fighter Fit than I hit the pavement. I ran 6.22 miles in 6’47”.mile finishing my 10km in my best time yet of 42:09. I was so happy about my pace I wanted to cry. Maries training plan for my marathon has really helped me push myself to limits I never knew I had in me. I got home from my run and did my cardio session with Marie. Doing the most burpess I have done yet. If you don’t have this game you need to get it ASAP, believe me you won’t regret getting it, but you will regret not getting it.

To round up week one that was three days I ran 15.3miles with an average pace of 7’04”/mile and did 195 NTC minutes. Leaving me with 84.7 miles left to run in November and 1205 NTC minutes left to get. Totally doable!!

The month is still young so if you would leave to join me in this challenge drop me a tweet or leave me a comment. Hash tags your runs/NTC with #NTC1400Nov and #Run100.

How was your weekend of working out?

My Decision to Cut Sugar Out

My decision to quit sugar was a rather easy decision. I have struggle with my weight for most of my adult life and sugar is one of those unnecessary elements in our food these days.

Seriously, you look around and everything has some type of sugar in it, apple sauce is sweetened with it. What happened to good old fashioned apple sauce? 

I actually went off of sugar before, about 2 years ago. It was sugar and wheat I totally took out of my diet. I went cold turkey on both of it. It lasted about three weeks because I didn't allow my body any type of sugar whatsoever, even the natural sugar we get from wheat. I wore an elastic band around my wrist and every time I had a sugar craving or wanted bread I would flick myself with elastic, inflicting pain upon myself. I associated pain with sugar/wheat cravings.

I literally lived off of chicken salads and my hair was starting to fall out in clumps after week 2. I am pretty sure my body was going into shock from not getting any nutrients other than greens and chicken. I was substituting any multi-vitamin for the loss of nutrients.

I actually craved one day and broke down crying because I wanted a piece of toast so bad. I was an angry wreck from restricting my body so much.   

This time I am taking myself off of sugar in a different way. I am still eating fruit, one serving a day and I am eating whole grains because I no longer eat white bread. My body right now is craving sugar but I know this will pass. I don’t fear that I am doing this in an unhealthy way because the only thing I am cutting out is sugar; I have no worry that my hair is going to fall out. I do know that I will probably be cranky for a few days while my body starts to realize it has no sugar entering it but in the end I will be healthier for it.

A few people have questioned my motives, is it a good idea, are you sure you can do it, why would you want to do that?  What I have realized is no matter what you do in life people are going to question your motives. It is best to keep a supportive group around you and let the non supportive people go.

I have no intentions of harming myself this time, rather making a choice that will help me be healthier and a better runner, in turn a better me.

Setting New Goals and Starting New Journey's

I can’t believe I have been back in Calgary for a week. It has been a week since I ran my very first marathon in San Francisco. With no goal in mind in the near future my life has seemed a little empty.

Even thought my Journey to the Nike Women’s Marathon is over it doesn't mean that my Running journey is over, I believe it has just started and NWM just made me even more excited to run and fueled my love for the sport.

I actually spent my first two days home sleeping. After a weekend of not getting very good sleep and running a marathon I needed a lot of sleep. My first day home I slept for 9 hours and the next day I slept close to 11 hours, crazy. Even this weekend I ended up getting a lot of sleep. I guess my body is still kind of recovering.

I have finally gotten over the fact that I didn't even come close to making my Boston Qualifying time. For a few days there every time someone asked me how I did I would get really sad.  Now I realize that I accomplished something really great and I am ready to take on a new challenge.

I have decided that I will be running the BMO Vancouver Marathon in May of 2013. It is a Boston Qualifying course and doesn't have the same crazy hills as San Fran. With my first marathon out of the way I can focus more on my speed rather than just on finishing. I honestly think I put too much pressure on myself to qualify during my first marathon. I plan on focusing a lot on hills and speed this time around. Of course I will still have a distance focus and my Saturdays will still be my long run days but my goal is to get through all my long runs without having to take any walk breaks. My only challenge this time is the fact that I will be running through winter and winter in Calgary can get very cold. Hopefully we won’t have a cold winter and I won’t have too many treadmill runs.

For right now I have set some mini goals for myself. In the month of November I plan on running 100 miles and doing 1,440 NTC minutes. That works out to 5 runs at 4 miles each week and 90 minutes of NTC 4 times a week. I am totally game for this challenge. I have also made November a no sugar month and I am starting that today. I am determined to get myself down to 18% body fat by Christmas. I want abs for Christmas. If you want to join me in either these challenges or just one let me know in the comments. We can keep each other motivated.

I just celebrated my 27^th birthday. I really can’t believe it and what a week I had. It kicked off with running the Nike Women’s Marathon and ended with having supper with Meho’s dad and step-mom. I got some amazing gifts one of them being a “Yonana’s” ice cream maker. This thing is cool!! All you put in it is frozen fruit. You stick it in the machine and it makes it into ice cream. It’s super healthy and only requires frozen fruit. I am super excited to use it especially with No Sugar November coming up.