What is in-store for you?

I am not big on New Years resolutions.

As far as I am concerned, positive changes can be made on any day at any time.

It doesn’t have to be a Monday, It doesn’t have to be a new month, it doesn’t have to be on the first of the year.

Any day is a good day for making a better more awesome you!

But if you are the kind that takes the New Year as ‘creating a new you’ then tomorrow is a good place to start!

I am the master at self-reinvention, I have done it many times before in my life.  It is funny because many years ago you would probably not even recognize me.

So if today is the day that you vow to yourself to discontinue a bad behavior and perhaps adopt a new more positive one, then I wish you much luck.  But then again, we all know that changing yourself does not require luck, just hard work.

Not to mention that resolutions put a lot of pressure on you and may actually have great success for the first month, then tend to taper off after the first quarter.

But do not let me dull your enthusiasm, sometimes that ‘Hiss and a Roar’ is all you need to get you started.  Perhaps this may actually be the year you get it right…

…what ever the New Year means for you I hope that it brings more love and more laughter, and most importantly – more epic stuff, more food for your soul!  You only get to do 2014 once, let make it a choice one!

I wish you many enjoyable miles in the coming year!

Do more of the Impossible,

Explore your creativity,

Fear less,

Be nice to people,

Run!

Jay 🙂

Ending Week 6 with an unofficial PR!

“Good luck on your run tomorrow”

“Thanks, but I don’t need luck, I just need not to die”

The goodbye conversation I had with an ex-flatmate upon leaving his Cocktail party at 8.30pm last night!!!

A runner through and through, leaving the party early after only having 1.5 drinks, with enough time to have a decent carb dinner for a long run in the the morning.

All went according to plan!

My plan didn’t include a PR, but I got one!

Week 6

Day One – 30 min Accelerations
Day Two – 40 min Hills (Threw up a little during this one.  I ate too close to run time. Not advised! ha!)
Day Three – 30 min Easy
Day Four – 70 min Hills

This week was a ‘Build’ week.  I can remember back a couple of months ago when I first started penning my plan to Calendar that I dreaded that 70 min Hill run.  I looked at what Week 6 had in store for me and I was wondering back then if I would make it.
I am glad to report that I did and with energy to spare.  I actually ran the entire distance, non-stop!
I am also happy to say that I enjoy the uphills more than the downhills!
How is that possible you may ask?

In the moment when you are willing your way up a stupidly big/steep/gravelly hill you are using your mind power to keep yourself going.  You know full well that your heart and legs can take it, it is just your mind telling you to take it easy, and that walking is allowed.
Funny thing is, that if you fight that thought or feeling enough times, that same hill becomes nothing.  It becomes conquered, it is crushed!
What you first thought was insurmountable is now a tribute to experience – I crushed you before ‘hill’, I will crush you again!
Once you get the hang of hills, not too many of them will frighten you again.

Hills always remind me of this picture…

And just to add a little more umph to it all, I did my hill run in the pouring down big ole fat rain at 6 am this morning.  I love running in a ghost town, it is my absolute favourite!

To top it off I PR’ed my 10k time.

My 10k event – Mount Joggers 2013 10k run, I achieved an Official time of 1:11:43.  Today I knocked off almost a full minute and a half!

I ran my Nike app alongside, I like to get a fair idea on the difference in accuracy, it didn’t do too badly in the area I ran in.

I experienced a wee niggle of PTT (Posterior Tibialis Tendonitis) at the 7th k, but only lasted about 500 metres which was when I sorted out my form.  I also ran with my right knee strapped with KT tape, I have a a very minor case of runners knee.  All the jarring of down-hills and hard road/pavement have contributed to what I thought would be inevitable.  I will need to get in a few more trails to even it all out.  Other than that, I am still unscathed, this plan must be working a treat!

Week 7 is a ‘Recover’ week.  Backing into just the 3 days of running rather than 4.  It does include an 80 min Course Terrain run, which will give me a chance to try out a new nutrition item I have purchased.

Until then my amigos,

Go run/CRUSH some hills!

Jay 🙂

The people you meet.

…It wasn’t Eggs and Bacon for Breakfast, it was hills!

…And I wasn’t actual eating, it was running!

…And I wasn’t going alone, I was bringing friends!

The end of Week 5 had me locked in with a 60 minute Hill Run to see me into Week 6.

It just so happened that my recently-found running soul-sister was in town.  We were going running!

So yesterday Shannon jumped out of a plane…

Now if you have been following my blog for a while now you would notice a little something about the above photo…

The guy that jumped the both of us… out of a plane I mean…
… his name is Sam!  Sam is from Tauranga Tandem Skydive.  (Read more about my jump here at You’ve got 30 minutes then you Jump!)

Sam came for a run!

After a bit of chin-wag, Shannon found out that Sam has a few Half Marathon’s under his belt himself, and is actually training to run his first Full!

The people you meet!

In fact Sam has a little story of his own, and speaking of story’s so does Shannon!

It is all too common these days to have ‘weighty’ issues.  The defining moment in ones life is when they make that decision to change.  Change for the better.  To be happy.  To do what it takes to be happy!

All three of us have moved.  To be better, to do better, to kick ass, to be awesome, to do what we love, to be what we want, to be happy!

It is the people you meet, those who you find common ground with, those who share the same or similar goals, those are the kinds of people you need to help feed your soul, to add to your life, to see the positive and lessen the negative!

These are my people!

I met Shan and Sam at the bottom of the Mount.  I parked a fair distance away so ran up to meet them.

Sam was actually about to embark on running up the Mount for the 4th time this week.  A little crazy, but totally cool!

Without Shannon and I even realising, Sam had become our trainer for the day!  I was going along with it… I didn’t know what to expect… I hadn’t run the 4WD track of the Mount before, I didn’t even know where the access was to get to it.
We easy jogged up to the water tower, about a couple hundy metres up from the base.  This was apparently our warm-up according to Sam.  I was out of breath by time we reached the water tower ha!

A bit of a stretch and it was business time!

I never knew how freeking steep and challenging that track was!  I had always run up and back down the stairs, this was a whole-nother workout!  Less Quad action, more Calf action!  It hurt and I couldn’t run up the whole way, in fact it would be safer to say I walked the majority of it.

I did walk up it in close to/less than 20 minutes, which is about as fast as I can get up the stair’s track.  So I felt it was a good Wog.

We quick walked down the stairs and down to the base.  Sam had to leave us there and get going, he had to be at work, no rest for jumpers!

Shannon and I continued to run around the base.  We ran and talked the whole way – roughly a 6.30-7 minute pace, I can’t be sure of actual’s, I need to charge my Garmin to find out!
I do know that I was out for the full 60 minutes.

Week 5 down and in the bag, with a little help from my friends.

Next week is the start of Accelerations.  I am looking forward to this.  Some ground work into helping improve my speed and tighten it up for running my Half Marathon ‘Race Pace’.

What are you working on to see the year out?  Is there a Half or Full Marathon on your horizon?
Have you moved from your funk?  Are you living the best ‘you’ that you can?

Maybe today is the day you move?!?

Make the change, Be beast, go eat some Hills for Breakfast!

Jay 🙂

Finding my faith

I have stolen some much needed time just for me.

I am currently sitting in a salon with my head filled with foils. In between giving time to my children, to my husband, working on the house, planning birthday parties and camping ventures I have not had a chance to myself just to manage my own upkeep apart from my scheduled runs.
So I sit here writing up posts that I have had scribbled and floating around in my head, my blog has come last unfortunately for my readers, so this one is to catch you all up on my progress.

Progress there has been!!

Just because I haven’t blogged lately, doesn’t mean my world to has come to a halt. It actually means I have got my shit together and it is all happening… And at pace!

So here goes…

I am firmly in the middle of my fifth week of half marathon training.
Until the last day of week 4 I kept having that inkling that I may not make it (Dreaded DNF)!

Week 4…

I had spent all of last week in the Coromandel, a sun kissed coastlined beautiful part of the Country. My husbands family has a Bach in a small one road in/out town called Pauanui. It is very idyllic.

 

Lovely flat curving roads that intersect and make up the streets to the small town.
Perfect for ‘Easy’ running.
Exactly what my plan had prescribed for me.
2 days of 20min Easy runs. Both executed at a pace ave of 6.20mins/k, which is almost a whole minute decrease to what I usually comfortably run.

Exciting!

Week four would end with a 50min Course Terrain run, I ended up travelling home on the Sunday, just in time to spend 50 minutes running in the last little rays of sun that the day had to offer, round the estuary I know so well.
I ran a 6.45/k pace.
As I was running, I was remembering back to last week when I was consulting my plan neatly drawn up on my fitness calendar, thinking – oh god how am I going to manage 50 minutes non-stop at the faster pace I have been managing.
A great feeling came over me as I realised I was actually doing it. I was running easy…and quicker than usual.

My run ended in the dark, about 20 after 9.  As I walked up the front stairs leading to my entrance way I was taking stock of how I was feeling.
Legs great, feet great, hips great, energy great!
I felt I still had a good 20-30mins in me.

How encouraging!

I am assuming that the long runs on a Sunday are preparing your body to Run long on Race Day.

I now have faith in the plan, I am confident I will get there!

Now Week 5…

I look forward to continuing my week out, mostly dedicated to Hill work with one easy run thrown in.
20 min Hills yesterday, 30 min Hills tomorrow, 20 easy Saturday and 60 Hills Sunday, which I am slightly trembling about, but I know now that once it’s done I will be surprised at how I’ve done.

I will be spending my Sunday morning on the Mount. The only enjoyable place I can think of that is close to where I live where I can run hills and be happy about it.
It’s gonna hurt, but I will feel so badass about it!

BootCamp last night, I busted my ass to what I thought was my max, again I was surprised by what I achieved. BootCamp again tomorrow night with enough rest to get me ready for running long again.

It’s all very exciting in my head at the moment. Everything going to plan nicely, and continually exceeding my own expectations!

Week 6 bring accelerations, I’ll tell you all about it then,

Till then,

Live well, run long.

Jay 🙂

Big Weekend

Boot Camp Saturday

Run Long Sunday

Too scared to sit down on the toilet.

Can’t face stairs.

For the love of running!

Jay 🙂

Goodbye Nike+ Running App :( Hello Garmin :)

I think I have officially joined the elites.

Well not really, but we are moving up in the “Running” world!

I was getting a little over running with my iPhone.  I usually put my phone into a waterproof mobile phone bag and shove it into my bra hah!  It worked fine but after a years worth of running up to 4-5 times a week, my wee system was starting to stretch out my sports bra’s. It would also be very fiddly to put my phone in and take out of the bag to stop/start, and when it rained it was more of a mission to use the touch screen through the plastic.

The Nike app/GPS on my phone was always a little out as well.  It is time to get accurate!

I test out this bad boy on my first long run on Sunday.  By long, I mean more than 30 minutes.  The run is actually 40 minutes Easy.  The Hubby bought my birthday gift 2 months early/it was on sale at a really good price!

This run will be the completion of Week 3.

I know it is very early on in the Training Plan, but I am starting to have slightly nervous feelings about getting there.  And by getting there, I mean Getting to Event Day and feeling Race Ready – well ready to run my own race, that is.

I know it is super early, and I guess with anything you want to do well at, there is always going to be that little inkling of not getting it right, or things not going to plan.

No matter how I do I know it is going to be a great event anyway.  It will be my first ever Half Marathon and it will be the Benchmark from which I will set many a PR.  I know this because I am that awesome haha

Anyway…

To help my training and fitness along I decided I would do a BootCamp.

With all the madness going on at my house since My Trail Run late November, I have been missing my Core and Leg days.  It is not that I have been too lazy to do them, I have just not had time.  With my Children’s birthday coming up, A camping trip right after, I had my sister over from Brisbane for a week and a half, and My husband (Child Number 3) arrived home (Who I only get to see for less than half the year), it has been a very mish mashy last 3 weeks!  I am having to co-ordinate myself, the children, my husband and other family members to get shit done.  (Also the reason of why I haven’t blogged or read blogs in a really long while).  I am allowed to use that word because at times, it all becomes very trying, I get tired and shitty and sometimes I wish I could just go out for a run.

Except I can’t.

I have to follow my plan!

Gah!

I will get the work done, I will get to Event Day Race Ready, the process may just drive me a little crazy!

But that’s ok, I have an audience to vent to, and I know you all supportively (<<not even a word?) listen 🙂

Anywho,

The Bootcamp will help me with my strengthening, especially of my core.  I have found lately during my runs I have started swinging in my torso again, instead of keeping a strong core, I twist.  This then affects my hips and then my legs – creating bad form!  Ever since I started running a year ago I have had challenges with my hips.  I am hoping this all over HIIT work out approach will help with some successes in this area!

Stuff about Running Form can be found here.  From Runners World.

Otherwise I am enjoying the process so far.  I have been approaching it calmly and to the letter.  I have been getting in some really decent pace, compared to my usual which has surprised me, but whether I can hold this pace for at least 2 and a half hours is a different story.

Oh and I have been meaning to post a recipe for my MFP buddies – Nabeyaki Udon.
I promise it will be in the very next post!

Till next update,

Run Strong,

Jay 🙂

P.S. Best running wishes going out to my friend Shell, from the ‘I Just want to Run’ group.  Tomorrow she will be completing her second 10k trail event.  I am predicting that she will smash it!  A nice big fat PR is coming her way… I can feel it!
Run on with your Bad self Shell!