Journey to the Race: Day 6

Today was a pretty good day, I had an oral and test but both went fairly well. I managed a short bike ride (about 20 minutes), some stretches, and some push-ups and crunches. My friend Mel hosted a "Caitlin's birthday/Game of Thrones" dinner party which was amazing and so much fun. Overall good day :)

Energy and persistence conquer all things.
— Benjamin Franklin

Journey to the Race: Day 5

Man today's been a long day and it's not over yet. Long day at school and the evening is being spent preparing for an oral presentation and studying for a test. That said, a workout is just not going to happen tonight but I'll exercise tomorrow, maybe both zumba and biking to make up for the lack of workouts the last couple days. Well that's it for tonight, sorry this is such a short post but school kind of took over today. Night all :)


Bite off more than you can chew, then keep chewing.
— Joe De Sena

Journey to the Race: Day 4

What a gorgeous day, bright blue skies and everything is coated in snow. Mom and I shoveled the last bit of the driveway so that was my workout for the day. The rest of the day was just spent relaxing, then went out shopping for a birthday present with my mom. I honestly completely forgot to workout which is why I'm counting the shovelling, but I figure if ever there's a day you're allowed to forgot to exercise it's your birthday. That's my logic and I'm sticking to it :P
I'm hoping to fit a workout in tomorrow but it's going to be a very busy day so we'll see.


Believe that you can run farther or faster. Believe that you're young enough, old enough, strong enough, and so on to accomplish everything you want to do. Don't let worn-out beliefs stop you from moving beyond yourself.
— John Bingham

Journey to the Race: Day 3

Well today's been an interesting day to say the least. I got up at 8 in the hopes of studying for my test some more only to find it had already snowed half a foot and I'd have to leave early to get to school. Managed to eat some breakfast and quickly look over a few notes before the exam only to have it be rescheduled. My potential running route is now covered in up to a foot of snow so the bike (which is finally set up!) will definitely come in handy. Mom, Dad, and I went out to dinner for my birthday (technically tomorrow but we're celebrating tonight)which was nice. We shovelled the driveway which was a workout on its own since there was over a foot of snow. After shovelling I decided to bike for about 20 minutes then stretch. Not a long workout but the bike's kind of loud and I figured my parents would be heading to bed soon. My legs feel so much better and less tense now so I'm very happy that we have the bike for workouts. And that's it for my day, I'm just gonna relax then head to bed. Night all! :)

Journey to the Race: Day 2

Day 2:

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
— Epictetus

Morning:
I'm actually not as sore as I thought I would be so yay! My thighs are very sore so sitting down and going up or down stairs hurts quite a bit but other than that I'm fine. I had an outdoor lab this morning and standing still (so as not to scare the birds) hurt my legs after awhile. It's very cold out (about -14C) today so I'm really not in the mood to run but the bike isn't set up yet so I'll probably either go for a brisk walk or do some light zumba routines. It's also supposed to snow a lot tomorrow so I'm really hoping to get the bike set up so I can work my legs without having to run in the cold and snow.
Evening:
Lesson learned: don't stay sitting for any long period of time or getting up will hurt very badly and your legs will have cramped up. Unfortunately I've learned this several times today. The bike still isn't set up but hopefully it will be tonight or tomorrow. Especially since we're supposed to get quite a bit of snow so the bike will come in handy until the snow is cleared a bit.
I have a big test to study for so no workout tonight. I also have a lab report to do tomorrow but I'll need to fit a workout in my schedule somewhere. I'll let you know what I figure out tomorrow!

Journey to the Race: Day 1

Apparently I'm crazy and decided it would be a good idea to sign up for a 5K run when I'm not in great shape and hate running. This obviously brings up the question of why the heck I would choose to do such a thing. My reasons? It looked like a fun challenge and I wanted to prove to myself that I could push beyond my comfort zone and finish this race. Of course about a week after signing up I had the "oh my god what have I done" moment, but I'm sticking to it and I'll push myself to do the best I can do. I'm training with a local gym one day a week but I'm going to have to add my own workouts throughout the week. My biggest problem is going to be my lungs; I'm out of shape and have asthma and to put it simply, my lungs do not like running. Hopefully with training and warmer weather that'll improve.

I'm hoping that by sharing this journey with you I'll be able to keep myself motivated. As one of my professors once said, "nothing is a better motivator than the threat of humiliating yourself in public" (he was talking about learning material for an oral presentation but I think it's a good general saying). 

So day 1:

It was a great day to start training, it was beautiful out but cold (about -8C). The group met up and did a short warm up jog then about 10 lunges and some stretches. The main run included going down a hill, through a tunnel that slopes downward then back up, then up a hill. At the top of each hill, we had to stop and do a set of lunges or burpees. The first set included 8-10 runs with 10-20 lunges each run. Set 2 included runs (as many as you could do with the leftover time) with increasing burpees per run starting with 5. 

I was able to do about 7 runs with 10 lunges each time, then about 4 runs getting up to 8 burpees per run. 

I'm not going to lie and say it went amazingly well the first day, that's just not realistic or true. Realistically, my lungs burned and I felt like I had a weight on my chest, and at times I had to speed walk instead of run.  I can also guarantee I have shin splints in at least my left leg but probably both. But I got through it and I'm looking forward to improving my endurance and pushing myself even more next time. 

My family recently got a gadget that allows you to transform your regular bike into a stationary bike so I'm hoping to get that set up and use it to workout to strengthen my legs when I don't feel like running in the cold.
My legs are a bit sore today but not too bad yet, I'm definitely not looking forward to tomorrow though. 

I'll quit rambling now and leave you with a quote:

“We conquer - not in any brilliant fashion - we conquer by continuing.” 

—	George Matheson