Tag Archives: Training

The Fit and Fabulous 50s

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I am not old, but sometimes I feel like I picked a hell of a time to bring fitness and healthy eating into my life; I feel this might have been much easier when I was 20 or even 30.  When I was an adolescent I was of average build, I was pretty active but not athletic, and I had a lot of bad for me eating habits like lots of teen girls, the same could be said of my young adulthood.  After I had children I put on a good bit of weight and spent a lot of years trying to lose it in a lot of unhealthy ways, everything from fad diets to diet pills.  I also smoked from the age of 17 until the age of 48, this certainly did not help.

Over the years I just felt gradually worse blaming it on aging, on illness, on everything except my unhealthy choices.  That changed for me about a year ago.  In that year I have done good things, but have also failed at being consistent; falling back on old habits and old states of mind.  It really wasn’t until about a month ago that I decide to take this thing as a serious long-term commitment.

With all of that serious stuff said and out-of-the-way, let me share with you a little Plus/Delta study of making the decision to Get Fit at 50.  **I will not be 50 until March, I figure my journey will still be going at that time and I like round numbers.

PLUS

DELTA
I have been around a while so I know a lot of stuff I have been around a while so a lot of stuff hurts
I have more discipline than I did in my younger years It takes more discipline to get anything accomplished
My children are grown, I have more freedom My children are grown, I cannot call it baby weight
My finances are in better shape than 30 years ago Good thing because fitness is expensive
I am more enthusiastic about fitness I am less enthusiastic about recovery time
There are more gadgets available to help than when I was younger I do not understand how to work half of these gadgets
I FEEL BETTER!

Getting fit and healthy wins!

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Until Next Time…

10 things I learned over the past 21-days

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Well, today is my 21st day.  I ended it at boot camp, which is appropriate since it is this boot camp that inspired me to try this in the first place.  Also, today’s class instructor was The Vince, see my post from my second day to learn about The Vince.

It was an exciting challenge; some days were harder than others, but every day was worth it.  Here are some things I learned over the past 21-days –

1.  Your body is an amazing machine; it will keep going if your brain tells it to keep going.  I am now a firm believer that the brain is the most important muscle in your body.  Never say never!

2.  There are an infinite number of ways to do a push up.

3.  There are an equally infinite number of types of squats.  And according to Vince he has several creative ways to do Burpees, I do not ever want to learn all of these.

4.  What you are putting into your body is important,  if you are going to work hard to get fit, you also need to change your diet.

5.  Support from family and friends is important, and any time you can get them involved it is also fun.

6.  Age is just a number.  Our classes at the gym range from folks in their 20s to folks my age and older; and certainly at races I am smoked by several folks in more advanced age groups than mine.

7.  Every time I had a new pain in my body, I found a new way to overcome it.

8.  Stretching is important.

9.  Physical exercise leads to better mental health, or at least takes so much effort that the small stuff seems less important.  In other words “Don’t sweat the small stuff”, sweat OUT the small stuff.

10.  I am important, you are important, we all matter, whether you know it or not someone is looking up to you.  You are inspiring someone and may not even know it.  I have met people over the past three weeks that inspired me to keep going, I will remember and be thankful to those people for the rest of my life.

Thank you for joining me on this journey!  My journey “from here to me” is not over, it is just beginning, this bridge to better habits has been fun and full of learning and today I am going to start to plan my next challenge, 21-days of eating better.

As for tomorrow, I am taking a vacation day!  I am going on my morning run and then I am going to come home, shower, and take a nap.

So today I will not say until tomorrow, I will say Until Next Time…

 

The Amazing Race

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This is not a great picture but it is the only one I have from today’s race.  Today I ran a 1/4 marathon with my daughter, I love when my daughter races with me and it has been a while since we have done one together.

A little about the race course – The finish line was at home plate at our local minor league baseball stadium so the last bit of the race we got to lap the outfield and finish at home plate, that was a lot of fun.  Oh and another great thing about this race because it started and ended at the stadium there were actual bathrooms and not PoP…woot!  The course was almost completely flat, one small hill, and most of it was through our downtown area, lots to look at and talk about.  Not much of a crowd presence on the course, and entertainment and such was limited, which I found I really did not mind.  At one point on the course we were running through a neighborhood and one man was outside with about five kids, they had bubbles and were cheering us on as we went by, that was really cute.

Today was an amazing race!  Not because I PR’d or I won a place for my age, but because my daughter and I ran together and had a lot of fun doing it!  We kept our pace for the first five miles of the race, the last mile and a half of our 1/4 course was also the end of the 1/2 so we slowed down a bit and enjoyed watching some of the fast 1/2 runners whiz by us, we do not often (and by often I mean never) get to run with the fast folks.  We kept a good pace this last stretch just a little slower than the rest of the race.

Because our quarter course was the same as the half course for 6 or so miles we did not have to maintain a fast pace, which made it nice.  Do not get me wrong I like to compete and always strive to push myself each race, but daughter time is important too.

So, today was an amazing race, I felt so great afterwards, all that worry about my back, and thankfully no issues. If I had endless funds I think all of my training runs would be local races of different lengths, I love the inspiration of the elite runners, and the crowds, and the fun of having the other runners around.

Next week we have a 15K in Lexington, that one will have a LOT more hills, but looking forward to running with my daughter again.

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Until Tomorrow…

The End is Near

But really the end is not near.  The end of my challenge is only a few days away, but this is really just the beginning of a new lifestyle for me.  It is exciting to still be on track, to feel better about my commitment, and I will not lie, it feels good to be near the end of nearly 21-days of doing this every day :).

I am running out of things to say, at least until tomorrow when I can share my race recap with you. So I am going to post some motivational things that I have found around the WWW.  You may have seen some of these or you may not have seen them, but please take away their wisdom or humor as a way to brighten your day.

I just discovered this a few days ago.

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That is right I will run right past you with my skirt waving as I go by.  I love my running skirts!

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Yes!

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I love this quote, age is not an excuse, I feel better now than I did 10 years ago.  And the local runners 10-years older than me always leave me in the dust.

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<3!

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And mine is getting quieter and quieter each day.

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T-Rex!

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Have a great day!

Until Tomorrow…

 

Disappointment

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I have felt this way before and I am sure I will again, the feeling that getting out there, even if it does not go well, is better than not going at all.

I went out for my run this morning, I was about a mile in and had to call it quits and go home.  My lower back was screaming at me, and then on my way home, I well, got a little sick, to put it lightly.  I have had runs that were not great, this is the first time I really let pain and nausea stop me in my tracks.  Considering that I have been tired, nauseated, and stuffy the rest of the day, it was probably for the best.

I will be going to boot camp tomorrow, not going to let one bad day stop me.  Today though I rested most of the day and did some stretches for my back.

I do not have much else today, doing a little wallowing in my decision to stop this morning.  Just going to remind myself that tomorrow morning after boot camp I will once again feel like a bad ass!

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Until tomorrow…

So many races, so little money

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I had so many friends racing this weekend, several of them running their first marathon.  It was awesome to watch the results come in and see their pictures!  It was so exciting I have signed up for three races that will take place over the next two months, this does not include the two I am already registered in 2014.

My husband and I were invited to a wedding this past weekend that was several hours away, because we are planning and paying for our own daughters wedding, and because of my husbands recent health issues we decided to forgo the cost of attending the wedding and just send a gift.  Three race fees later, I am thinking it would have been cheaper to go to the wedding.

It is no wonder so much of our country struggles with weight and health issues, the cost of healthy is expensive.  I pay for boot camp, I pay for race fees, I have running “gear” including shoes, and I like to buy fresh and organic.  I told myself when I quite smoking I would save money, not so much, not only is this lifestyle just as expensive, but now I am going to live longer and need to have more money :).

OK, those are all of my random thoughts for the day.  I am better than halfway through my workout and blogging challenge and still going strong.  Today was a short run, boot camp tomorrow, and so on for the rest of the week.  Next weekend I am doing a 1/4 Marathon, the following weekend a 15K, all leading up to another half in December.  Hope no one wants any fancy Christmas presents this year.

Until tomorrow…

 

 

The first time

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These two shirts represent the very first 5k I ever raced and the 1-year anniversary of that race.  They really represent for me the beginning of my journey.  The journey that is leading me to challenges like 21 straight days of exercise and blogging, the journey that lead me to sign up for two races over the next two weeks, and the journey that is driving me to get and stay healthy.

Day-12 of my 21-day challenge to blog each day and workout each day.  I also committed to eating healthy each day, but have decided to make that the focus of my next challenge.  It is not that I do not eat well, I stay away from most bad foods, but I want to really focus on clean eating and think that deserves its own time.  So, for now workout and blog for nine more days.

I can already recognize the change in me; before I would try to use excuses, now I just get up and do it.  I prepare my clothes for either boot camp or running the night before, I set my alarm, make sure I understand what the next days activities are.  All of these are things that feel comfortable and have easily become part of my day.

The blogging has been a challenge on a few days, just thinking of something to talk about.  But I know this is something I am doing to keep me focused on being more consistent, not something I plan to do every day forever ( you would all certainly be yawning if that were the case).

It is difficult to form new habits at the ripe old age of 49, but far less difficult than breaking old habits like laziness and smoking.  When I think about my weight a year and a half ago and I think about the fact that I was a smoker for over 30 years and have not had a cigarette for over a year and a half, I know if I can move past this; I can accomplish just about anything.

This is not easy and some days I wonder why I am doing it.  I am doing it because I am moving towards wondering why would I NOT do it.

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Until Tomorrow…