To all my overachievers…

As I sit here going on hour 17 of my day I’m completing yet another paper, looking at flights and trying to decide when I’ll see Josh again plus trying responding to the last round of emails for the day, I can’t help but wonder what my fellow classmates are doing right now.

I’m the judgemental type so I’ll make my judgements; the party animals are probably finishing up their last round of shots at Cowboys, the slackers have been enjoying their typical 10-hour of staring into the abyss and the Netflix addicts are most likely headed into their fifth episode of “The Good Wife.”

Then, there’s me. But thankfully I’m not alone in this category!

There are lots of me’s out there, I can name at least 15 of you and I met all of you from the last campaign I volunteered on. We are the neurotically motivated, unsympathetically determined, “can’t stop won’t stop” people who spend our days assessing an endless list of obligations and fighting the urge to bite off way more than we can chew.

We are the overachievers.

We accept challenges, explore opportunities and strive to exceed expectations. We lead (even though if you are like me you probably don’t want to), we volunteer and we do more than what is asked of us - provided it gets the task at hand completed. 

Sounds like too much! 

Only to those of you who watch us and feel dizzy!

If you ask us why we decide to put so much on our plates, you’ll probably hear different answers.

Some will say they were raised to be this way, others will claim it’s their own stubborn motivation and some will have absolutely no idea it just happened. 

Honestly, if you asked any of my high school teachers they will tell you I wasn’t an overachiever, I sat in the back of the class half bored not paying attention. They’ll tell you they didn’t except me to achieve much. Maybe I’m an overachiever because I want to prove everyone wrong. I want to prove that I am greater then anyone could have ever anticipated, I wan more for my life then ever thought possible. 

I think people like us are built over time. We work hard to get into university and once we are there we don’t let the next years pass by, we get out our organizers and get involved, chase opportunities and dedicate our time to becoming hardworking, multitasking, college-educated, ambitious humans. 

We make the most of what we’re given and consistently strive for more. A wise person once told me “That the hand we are given isn't the hand we have to play with our whole lives”. I am thankful for that lesson! Oh so thankful. 

No responsibility is too large, no task is too much and no deadline is too soon. We have it covered most of the time but don't shy away from buying us coffee. 

Once we begin volunteering for every open position, taking on leadership roles and offering favours, it’s not always easy to stop. It is our drug!

We know people depend on us, and our biggest fear is letting them down.

We continue adding items to the to-do list and do our best to complete them because nothing feels better then crossing items off our list, all this while trying to maintain our sanity.

There are many late nights, lots of coffee - my veins are now made of coffee - and moments of pure exhaustion, but we keep swimming, never stop swimming. 

To all my overachievers…

Know your hard work is recognized. Others notice the things you do and appreciate the effort you put in. I spent a lot of my life thinking people didn’t notice but believe me, they do!

Don’t forget to take care of yourself in the process! 

Focus on what matters and aim to achieve the happiness you rightly deserve.

Time to Heal

It’s been a long time since I posted.. basically over a year.

I’ve gone through so much this past year. Torn ankle ligament, torn meniscus and torn hip flexor - these injuries have thrown a huge wrench in my training; but my biggest wrench occured In July 2014 - when I was sexually assaulted.

It feels freeing to finally admitted it, finally speak it! I don’t think I’ve actually spoken those words officially since the day I met with the investigator. I think I was so afraid to say them because I would fear people would think differently of me, I feared people would look at me like I was broken, fragile, frail. I want you to know I'm not broken but I'm strong. 

I believe being sexually assaulted prevented me from running more than my injuries did. It hurt more than tearing any ligament in my body. It hurt more than breaking any bone. It hurt my heart and soul.

As you runners understand running is mental; you hit a distance and you get a flood of emotion, you feel every hurt, every up, every down, every tinge of pain. Your emotions are heightened. Feeling this prevented me from running anything more than 4 miles. 

I don’t want to get into all the details. I’m still not ready to talk about that nor do I think I ever will be  fully ready.

What I want to discuss is healing, my healing.

I felt so terribly broken. I felt destroyed. I felt violated. I felt that all the goodness in me had been taken away. I felt so unhappy. Yet I hid this away from the everyone, I put a smile on my face daily and continued life as you all know it but deep inside a darkness was taking over my happy place and making me feel worthless, small.

That day I changed, I became a different person. Someone stole a piece of me I’ll never be able to get back. They stole a happiness that lives in me. They stole my self worth.

One year ago I learned that not all people are good people but there is still good people in the world.

These past few weeks I’ve managed to lace up my running shoes more often and I’ve even tackled a 10 mile run.

I’ve decided it's time to get back out there and I'm currently training for a full marathon .. I’m ready to put this past year behind me and get out on the trails again.

My runs have been nothing less than emotional but in the emotion I'm finding joy. In the pain I'm finding relief. I'm finally starting to admit what happened to me and I truly believe admitting it is the first step in moving past it. 

I am getting back to the person I once was. The happy, determined, fun Tiara. 

Coming Full Circle

This past year has been an astounding ride for me. This week marks exactly one year since I ran my very first marathon, The Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco.

In 11 days I will once again be standing on the start line of the NWM in SF. Nothing is going to be more amazing than to be there with my two wonderful running companions, Karen and Elizabeth.

Last year at this time we were arriving in San Fran ready for the excitement that Nike had waiting for us.

This will be my third marathon ever. I am experiencing extreme burnout. Somewhere along the road this year I lost that love and desire to run and in so many ways that makes me sad and it hurts me because running was my safe place, my haven, my place to go when the world didn't make sense.

Running is what saved me from myself, it is what gave me the courage to pull out of destructive behavior and it is what gave me the courage to be happy and be in love with who I am. The other day a friend said to me maybe you no longer have that same love and joy for running you once did because you no longer need running to survive.

I've made the tough decision to pull back from marathons for the time being. I have not given up on my dream to one day run in the Boston Marathon but at the moment I need a break. A lot has happened in my life in the past year and I believe that right now I need to devote less time to running and more time to other activities that are helping me in my recovery journey.

Lately I have been doing a lot of climbing. There is a rush I get from climbing the side of a mountain. When you get to the summit enjoying the majestic view you could never get from the ground. It’s been an incredible experience and much like running I have been able to learn new things about myself, about my determination, my strength and my love for having new experiences.

I’ll one day return to training for and running marathons and I’ll chase that Boston goal once again but for now I need to step back, reevaluate my goals, make new ones and once again find that love of running.

Calgary Marathon Recap - I am a Sub 4 Marathoner

So May 26, 2013 came and went, the day I ran the Calgary Marathon.

The week leading up to my marathon I had all kinds of emotions floating around, what if I don’t hit my goal, what if I hit my goal, what if I totally flake out and have to take a DNF, what if I don’t even start! My mind was driving me insane!!

Tuesday I woke up and had a really bad sore throat and cough and I was like oh my gosh this can’t be happening to me right now I cannot be getting sick. I spent the week willing myself to be better.

Saturday I went to bed and I surprisingly slept through the night, well after I managed to fall asleep because I think I spent a good two hours having a coughing attack.

Sunday morning I woke and I was nervous as heck. I was having trouble getting food into me and I could hardly tie my shoe laces because my hands kept shacking and I couldn't stop coughing. I made my way down to the start line and all that was going through my head was one foot in front of the other. I found the 3:30 pace bunny and I decided that if I could keep pace with him I would be make my time goal no problem. As the starting gun went off I said to myself “Tiara focus, this is just a run”! As we passed the first km mark I looked down to see my pace and thought to myself oh my gosh this pace bunny is going wayyyy too fast we are running a 7’48” mile. Everything was going great for me on the run until I hit the very first BIG hill and then things started going terribly wrong my left hamstring started cramping up and I was kicking myself for skipping water stations and I was having trouble breathing through my coughing fits! So I made the decision to stop running through the water stations and walk through them to get Gatorade into me instead of all over me. 

Upon coming up on the 10km mark I looked down at my watch and saw that I had slowed down a great deal and was now running an 8’12” and was not on target to hit my Boston Qualifying time rather I was about 2 minutes off from my target time. Instead of beating myself up I told myself that I still had 32 km’s to make up this time and to keep pushing forward. At the halfway point I looked at my time and I realized that I was 6 minutes off my Boston pace and this caused me to have a little bit of a break down, or a 5 minute cry session. I started crying right there in the middle of the race and almost decided to pull out because I was not going to hit my goal and then somewhere deep down my own voice was yelling at me “Tiara you have this, you are still on pace to run a sub 4 marathon and even better you are still going to set a personal best for yourself” I forced myself to keep running. As my body started to fatigue and as it wanted to give up I told myself keep running you will hit a water station in 3 km’s and you can walk through it but you have to keep running to the next water station.

As I entered Memorial drive my common lunch time running area I had 10km’s left to go and I said to myself “Tiara this is your area, this is where you need to own the race” I knew my legs were sore and I knew I wanted to stop running so I started biting my lip to focus the pain elsewhere and I kept pushing myself. I made it through Memorial and had 3km’s left to go when a TNT coach came up to me grabbed me by the hand and told me I was doing great, I started crying and said “I needed to finish 5 minutes ago to hit my time goal” he said "I know you did but you know what keep running because you are going to PB and that is the most important thing, today wasn’t your day but maybe tomorrow is, there is always another run”. 

As I entered my last two km’s I so badly wanted to just walk the rest of the way and someone from behind me came put her hand on my back and said “I have been chasing you almost the entire way, you are my motivation and my inspiration keep running because you are going to sub 4 this” and all of a sudden I hit a second wind and my legs wanted to move. As I entered the finishing shoot I saw my mom standing there waving at me and cheering me on and I knew I had the drive in me to do a sub 4. As I crossed the finish line I looked at my time and it read 3:57:55 and I was disappointed in myself for not hitting my BQ but also so proud of myself for finishing a marathon in under 4 hours.

As the results rolled in yesterday I realized that I had finished in the top 10 in my division and was even more proud of myself. Top 10 finish in my division is incredible.

One aspect of the Calgary Marathon I loved was that our name was wrote on our bibs so as we were running through the communities and people were out on their lawns cheering us on you would hear a random “Go Tiara” “You got this Tiara” “Run Strong Tiara” and hearing my name it would push me to push harder and faster!! It was great community support and it made me love Calgary even more.

Now it is time to refocus my goals and push to Boston Qualify in Edmonton on August 25. It’ll be my last chance to qualify for Boston for 2014 and I am even more determined now to hit this goal. I have the endurance I know I can run the 26.2 miles now it is time to work on maintaining my speed!

Do you have any advice for me as I start training for Edmonton? Have you qualified for Boston, if so what advice can you give me for race day? Or even for training?

Hope you continue joining me on this wonderful journey to Boston. 

Speed Work Makes Me Fast

Lately I have been getting people asking me the question “Tiara, how do you run so fast? or Tiara teach me to run fast like you” and I like to tell them I put one foot in front of the other.

I have not always been a fast runner. Remember my marathon that took me 4:35:27 to complete, I wasn’t a fast run, however it was my first marathon.

I remember when I was in elementary and I lived in this little town and everyone was super athletic oriented, we were learning track and field in elementary. I did the 400m sprint and came in well ahead of everyone it was a shining moment for me and I remember people telling my parents that I was a rabbit.

I have always been an endurance athlete, even when I swam my favorite distance was the 1,500 meter but I loved anything over 400 meters and I did well at them.

I decided to blog about this since I get asked this question more than anything else. I do a lot of speed work – this includes intervals, track workouts and tempo runs.

When I do intervals I use the Nike Boom app it is seriously amazing. You set how long you want your run to be and how long you want your interval to be. When I started getting wanting to get faster I would set it at 30 seconds. At first I did intervals on the treadmill and I would set the treadmill to a comfortable run pace for me - that is now 8.5 and I would run at this for 1:30 than for 30 seconds I will go up to 11 on the treadmill. That is what I did to start. Now when I try working on my speed I do it by song. I turn on my headphones and I get on the treadmill for 1 song run comfortable and for a song I run 11 this has really helped me get out of my comfort zone and start running at those faster paces.

Track workouts are also great for increasing speed. I have found a track and to start I would do 400 meter sprint and a 400 meter recovery, so two times around the track, than I would do 800 meter sprints and 400 meter recovery, now I am working on doing a mile sprints and 600 meter recovery. You should be running these uncomfortable for your sprint. When I am done my sprint I am huffing and puffing and want to fall over my abs hurt and sometimes I want to vomit. I grab my water take a few sips do a recovery and I go again. These are amazing and will really help you increase your speed if you do them right.

When I was training for Nike Women’s Marathon tempo runs were my enemy I hated them!! Now they are more like a frenemie. I know how good they are for me but they still make me work. I usually like to run tempos on 4 miles and above run. Always start with a mile warm up and a mile cool down, so if you are planning on doing 4 mile tempo than you are really running 6 miles. Tempos should be ran uncomfortable. A good test to tell if you are running them hard enough is to try and sing the song you are listening to. If you can only get a few words in each sentence out than you are running the tempo correctly, but if you can sing the whole song no problem than you need to push yourself harder. You don’t want to run these at a sprint but you want to run them at an uncomfortable pace. These will really help your body feel what it is like to run faster and eventually they will get easier, when they do you need to push harder.

These are what I do to help myself get faster. I have a goal to run the Nike Women’s marathon at a sub 6 mile. We will see if that happens but that is what my goal is.

I also believe the key to running faster is to listen to your body and know when to slow down and when to go faster. The problem with running faster is that you have the potential to get injured. I have a great physio and massage therapist that I relay on to keep me injury free. My massage therapist massages out all the knots in my muscles using a fascia technique and the physio uses his magic such as laser therapy, ultra sound and electronic therapy to keep my leg muscles in tip top shape and out of injury. For me the first sign of something wrong I call my physio and get right into his office because if my body is signaling it is not right than I do not want to push it and risk injury.

My physio has also said to me that my speed could also be genetic, this is true but I think my next marathon will tell the truth of this. 

Genetics or not if you don’t put in the work you will not get faster. The desire to prepare always beats out talent when talent refuses to prepare.

Ignite~Perspire~Inspire

Day 20 - 30 Day Challenge

Define your relationship with running.

My relationship with running these days is AMAZING!! I love it and live for running; however it has taken me years to get to this point.

Running is my best friend, my therapist and my ass kicker. When I have had bad day or need to vent I love lacing up my shoes and hitting the pavement. Running gives me clarity that I can’t find anywhere else.

If I have a tough decision to make I hit the pavement and think it through. I used to make pro/con list and they always helped me make decision but I can get very anxious in my decision making so being able to hit the pavement and run helps with my anxiety. I call it sweating out the anxiety. 

Running has helped me develop confidence in myself that I thought I lost with my eating disorder. Each time I come back from a run I gain the part of me back that I thought was lost forever. There are times when I feel like I am losing control of my life again and like the world is spinning out of control all I have to do is reach for my running shoes and I gain control again.

Running is my drug, my lifesaver. 

What Type of Fuel User Are You?

I started using the NikeFuel band on June 1, 2012. I have been a daily user since.

From the moment I put the NikeFuel band on I was hooked. Seriously, I loved the fact that I could look at my wrist at any moment and I knew if I needed to push harder to gain fuel.

This last week Sam, Julie and I challenged each other to gain 5,000 NikeFuel for the entire week. Today is Friday and I have done just did, gained 5,000 fuel each day this week. I still have the weekend to go, but I think I will be able to do it, even if it means running high knees in my kitchen.

I am not going to lie some days were harder than others to reach my fuel goal. I had days where I ran twice in a day and hit my goal by 1pm and other days just before bed I was running knee highs in my kitchen to make my goal.

I realized something this week; there are two types of fuel users.

There is the complacent user. The user that sets their goal low enough that they know they will reach it every day. This goal is different for each person. I always had my goal set at 3,000 NikeFuel and I knew I could always reach this goal all it took was a lunch time run and some doing stairs in the office and I would hit it by the latest 2pm.

Then there is the user that I am striving to be more like. The go-getter user as I like to call it. This is the user that sets their goal to a number that pushes them to push their limits. This week I set my goal to 5,000 NikeFuel. 5,000 was not an easy goal for me. Like I said early I spent one evening doing knee highs in my kitchen until 5,000 was hit but it did make me push myself to reach my goal that day. Was I proud I reached my goal of course and I was even more proud because I had to push myself to hit it.

I was always the fuel user that liked to see that I iced my goal, or that I torched my goal. Torching and icing are nice but I have realized that torching and icing are supposed to be a reward for pushing beyond your limits and for me personally pushing beyond my limits involves me setting my fuel goal higher than 3,000. I looked at my NikeFuel stats and I have soaked my goal 71 times, Iced my goal 33 times Torched my goal 11 times.

I looked at my daily average on my fuel app. I average around 4,900 fuel daily. I have decided that from here on out my fuel goal will be 4,500 so that I am pushing myself to reach my goal each and every day because 2013 is the year we make it count. If I can hit my daily fuel goal of 4,500 and make it count I will obtain 1,530,000 fuel by years end.

Day 14 - 30 Day Challenge

What was your favorite race you've run?

My favorite race to run is most defiantly the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco, I don’t think any race will be able to compare to this race especially the memories I made on this race. It was also my first marathon and our first anything always sticks with us the most.

The Nike Women’s Marathon was my very first marathon and I ran it as a Nike Women’s Ambassador along with Karen, Elizabeth, Nerissa and Renisha. My Sisters In Nike!!

Nike Women hosted us in San Fran and we stayed at an amazing hotel in the heart of downtown, Sir Francis Drake.

If you ever plan on running the Nike Women’s Marathon make sure you stay downtown close to the expo and NikeTown. The expo is amazing. Saturday morning Karen and I woke up and got to the expo for the opening, it fills up rather fast. We sampled Nuun hydration tabs and I found my favorite one, the iced tea. I have a love of coffee and having this one really helps me push my runs, maybe it is the tiny but of caffeine in it. We also stood in line to get makeovers from Neutrogena and get our hair done by Paul Mitchell but we were running out of time so this didn't happen, even though it would have been pretty cool. The expo for Nike Women’s Marathon is amazing!!

The Nike Women’s Marathon course is a rather hilly to run, if you plan on running it make sure you have hill training done, they are totally do-able but it is far off from being a flat course. 

One of my favorite parts was running through this community after coming up the big hill. I didn't have any friends on course cheering me on and there is so many people outside their houses cheering you on, it was really cool to have encouragement. I also had this habit of queen waving at random people, it made me feel like I had people on course cheering for me haha. 

I remember this one kid was dressed up as Spider-man and he was handing out candy to the runners going by, I thought it was super cute. It was also nice to get something sweet in you along the course he was located around mile 14ish and it was a great pick me up.

There were also awesome signs on course, one of my favorites was "You are NOT almost there" at mile 1. I laughed however if he had that at mile 22 I would have been sad. I also saw one that said "I bought you a car, you can stop running now" I love the encouragement you get on a marathon route, it is nothing like a 10k run. 

The course ends along the ocean. As you run the ocean is on your right side. I wanted nothing more than to run off course and jump in the ocean but that probably wasn't the best idea at the time so I  talked myself out of it.

As you finish the course and come into the finishers shoot and cross that line you are met by the San Fran firemen handing you the coveted Tiffany’s necklace. Honestly, I didn't care about the firemen all I wanted was food and that necklace. 

I think the Tiffany’s necklace is a huge item that sets Nike Women’s Marathon apart from other races out there. It is something I wear often and reminds me of the goal I set for myself and the goal I accomplished. I look at it and it reminds me of the friendships forged that weekend and the memories made. 

I am excited to run Nike Women’s Marathon again in October. Hope to see you there and run it with you!!

Day 7 - 30 Day Challenge

7. Who supports you the most with your running goals and why do you pick them?

Who supports me the most with my running goals. Honestly, I can’t just pick just one person. I have such an amazing support system when it comes to my goals.

My boyfriend Mike. When I trained for my first marathon he did every training run with me, he is faster than I am so we would start together and  meet back at the car but my really long miles (18, 20, 22) he ran them with me. He even let me yell at him in the trail at one point screaming at him about how hard this was, than he just hugged me and told me everything was going to be ok and at that point I knew he was exactly what I needed to get through my first marathon training.

Jamie my running buddy here in Calgary is one of my favorite people to run with. We started running together when I first came to Trican in 2011 and together we have improved our pace and endurance together. When I decided to sign up for my first marathon she was there encouraging me the entire way.

My dear friend Autumn who was once my encouragement for shooting the most tequila now encourages me to get my running shoes laced up and my butt out the door. Autumn will forever be my best friend and we have had many adventures together I hope our next adventure will be the Nike Women's Marathon in San Fran this year. There is nobody I would want to run it with more than my Jamaican Bacon. 

Last but certainly not least Karen and Elizabeth, sometimes I don’t think that Nike Women’s Marathon would have been the same without them. I haven’t even known these two ladies a year yet but when I need a pick me up or encouragement or even someone to vent to I know these girls are always there willing to listen. They are my running sisters  for life.

I think it is so important that you surround yourself with positive people, people who are willing to push you towards your goals and who want to see you achieve. A wise man once told me “If you want to soar with the eagles, you have to stop hanging with the turkeys” I think the support system I have surrounded myself with has allowed me to push my running to new limits. 

Day 5 - 30 Day Run Challenge

5. What’s your favorite distance to run or race and why?

Before October of 2012 the furthest distance I ran and raced was 10km. I really enjoyed that distance. I could finish it in under and hour and didn't have to exert myself too much.

Now that I have experienced a marathon I believe there is no other distance better than it!!

Elizabeth and I at the finish!!

I remember training for my marathon and doing my 22 miler and standing in the middle of the trail crying on my boyfriends shoulder telling him that I wasn't physically capable of doing a marathon. I was too lazy and to fat. When I crossed the finish line at the Nike Women’s in October there wasn't a prouder moment for me because I proved to myself that I am capable of running a marathon!! I could put in the distance. 

Training for a marathon is time consuming and mentally exhausting. Honestly, there were days I wanted to give up and throw in the towel and there were moments on the marathon route that I wanted to give in. I remember hitting mile 24 and wanting to quit. Feeling like crying but it not being possible because I had no tears coming out and wanting to pull myself off the course, but I reminded myself that I didn't come all the way from Calgary just to quit on course.

Now that I have completed my first marathon there isn't any turning back for me, I am hooked!! 

Day 1 - 30 Day Run Challenge

When did you start running and why?

Elizabeth and I on the last mile of the Nike Women's Marathon

I started running in high school we had to run for cross training when I was on my swim team, but once I got injured I didn't run or swim anymore and due to being very active than not being able to be active I started to gain a lot of weight.

In 2009 I decided I needed to start running again, I was very overweight and I hated the way I looked. When I first started running I would literally run for like 30 seconds and walk for a song than when the next song started I would run for 30 seconds again, it was so hard for me. I actually remember the first time I tried to run a 5k. I got a km away from home and thought I was going to die. I called my friend and had her pick me up.

In October 2012 I finished my very first marathon and now I am training to qualify Boston at the Calgary Marathon.

Never in a million years did I ever think I would run a marathon let alone start training to qualify for Boston. However, when Nike Women contact me in May to be an Ambassador and run the Nike Women’s Marathon I was up for the challenge, the training was hard you can read about that in my past blog post. 

While running the marathon around mile 18 I thought I wasn't going to be able to finish, I texted my friend Elizabeth and she gave me encouragement and met me at the last mile and ran it with me she is one of the reasons I complete my first marathon.

Now running is my favorite pass time and I can't wait to run my next marathon and run the Nike Women's Marathon again with my #SistersInNike in May. 

16 Days Until I Start Training for Boston Qualifier

In 16 days I start chasing my Boston Marathon Dream. Some say it isn't a dream until you have thought about it for a long period of time. 

I say it is a dream as long as you are determined to reach it.

I am not one of those people that have dreamed of running Boston their entire lives. I have only dreamed of running Boston since I realized I could run a marathon, but Boston is a race I want to run more than any race out there. Boston is the elite races of races, my idols have all ran Boston and I want to push to be like those I look up to.

I start chasing my Boston goals in 16 days. In 16 days I start training for the first of at least 2 marathons maybe 3. How do I feel? Excited!! I love running, I get a rush of endorphin from it and it makes me feel AMAZING, but I am also super nervous too because I know I am putting myself under a lot of pressure to perform. I know where I went wrong in my first marathon and so I am going to take those weaknesses and turn them into strengths I need to work on my pace and on focusing not on the distance I have left but rather making each mile count.

Will I be unhappy with myself if I don’t make it, of course, but knowing that I don’t like to be disappointed it gives me even more of a reason to push harder in my training, so I can push harder in my marathon.

I have given myself two qualifying courses to go off of, the BMO Vancouver Marathon in May and the Nike Women’s Marathon in October. Hopefully if I don’t make one I can make the other.

I found a great plan on the Nike Running Facebook page and plan to use this, incorporate NTC for weights and keep up with my Kinect Training. I also have a pretty strict diet that I am sticking too along the way and not allowing cheat days until my marathons are over. Hopefully all of this combined will help me reach my Boston goal. 

With Nike's new Make it Count Campaign it is really getting me out there to push and make this year count. 

Bring in 2013

Today is December 31^st, 2012. This is the time of year that everyone makes resolutions and usually they break them three months into the year, for that reason I don’t like to make resolutions, rather I like to look back on the year and look at what I did and look towards a new year with new goals.

This time last year I decided that it was time to start feeling better about myself. I challenged myself to do Jeanette Jenkins ab blast workout on the NTC app for the whole month of January; it was rough but totally worth it, for the first time in a very long time I saw changes in my body. Honestly, there were a few times in January that I wanted to give up, but I kept telling myself it is only 15 minutes, you can do anything for 15 minutes. With each week it got easier and easier. I felt my core getting stronger and stronger.

I also said I wanted to run a marathon before my 27^th birthday and I kept putting off looking into running one, until Nike Women contacted me in May and asked me to run the Nike Women’s Marathon. A week before my 27^th birthday I finished my very first marathon. Thanks to the help of Nike Women and Marie Purvis, through Marie's amazing training plan and Nike Women's encouragement I crossed the finish line and at the same time I caught the running bug. Much to my surprise I actually really love running marathons and can't wait to run my next one.

The year brought many wonderful challenges. I saw changes in my body as I learned to push myself beyond limits that I never thought I could push myself beyond. It brought changes to my way of thinking, I no longer thought of myself as weak and unable to push forward I realized I am strong and I can do anything I put my mind to.

As I sit here reflecting on the past year I am so thankful for the opportunities that have come my way, for the wonderful people I have met and for the friendships that I have made, I am esepcially thankful for the friendships I have found in my Sisters In Nike - Karen, Elizabeth, Nerissa and Renisha. Each one of you have taught me to love myself, to believe in myself and to love and challenge my body. I am so happy I have met each of you and I hope to run the Nike Women's Marathon with you each year, until we are old and grey. 

This 2013 I want to #MakeItCount as Nike’s ad campaign states. I will return to San Fran with my Sisters In Nike and run the 2013 Nike Women’s Marathon with my crew, I will also qualify for Boston. I plan on running the BMO marathon in May and I will be running the Calgary Half Marathon.

Don't get my wrong, I don't just have running goals set for myself. I want to be able to do pull-up's and I want to work towards becoming certified as a running coach. I also want to teach myself how to speak french again. 

What are your upcoming goals in 2013? How are you going to make them come true? 

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.