Category: Smurf
Several years ago, just after I started running, I was digging myself into a ditch trying to lose weight and train “on my own.” After a stress fracture and monumental physical crash, I ended up at MV Nutrition, meeting with Manuel Villacorta, who came highly recommended from a few marathoners and triathletes I’ve known. In fact, it was meeting with Manuel that inspired me to get the skills necessary to help people on their wellness journey, and many of his common-sense approaches are part of the message I promote to this day.
Manuel is hosting a FREE, hour-long webinar on Thursday, Jan 6, Noon-1PM PST, and I highly suggest you check it out if your goal this year is to lose weight for good.
This is a re-post of a multi-part series I did over on the Yahoo! Blog about motivation. While most people hit the New Year with loads of it, you want to have the tools in your back pocket for when that motivation might wane. Of course, if you want the ultimate in motivation, join the FitLifeSF 10-Week Challenge, and let’s work with each other to reach our goals!
No matter how dedicated you are to your healthy, fit lifestyle, there are times when your motivation wanes. As the days get shorter and the temps drop, many people find the couch and comfort food beckoning more than salads and sneakers. So, for the next several posts I’m going to outline some tactics for staying motivated, starting with this week’s edict: Keep it Fresh!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful Holiday season. Stay tuned in this week for details about the second annual FitLifeSF Challenge! It’ll be kicking off on January 3 and, this year, in lieu of officially participating myself, I’ll be offering up coaching to the participants, so spend some time this week thinking about your goals so we can hit the ground running on the 3rd.
Hello Everyone,
Smurf and I have just gotten back from a 1.5 week vacation, and are getting into the normal swing of things. More on the vacation later.
Pre-vacation weight for Rob = 196.7 lbs. Todays weight = 199.0 lbs. Not bad.
-Rob
It happens to the best of us- no matter how well we plan our workouts, how carefully we navigate obstacles, how fastidiously we wash our hands… just when the fitness goin’ gets good, it seems like life deals us an injury, illness or scheduling nightmare that just completely throws our training off track.
In case you are wondering why Ms. Smoked Pork herself is going gaga for things like this…
(This, by the way, was a salad with homemade hummus and baked tofu. And, maybe I’m losing my mind, but it was DELICIOUS!)
Don’t worry, though, we’ll be back to making evil things like this soon enough:
(This, for the curious, is Cayenne Toffeed 4505 Meats Chicharones.)
And, no, Rob is not joining me on my grand Vegan Experiment. He’s just sitting across the table and laughing at me. I swear, this veganism thing was WAY easier back in college when one could live on bean burritos, peanut butter jelly sandwiches and beer.
Background: So, this might be redundant for some of you, but for those first joining the story I feel like it’s important to say that I didn’t intend to run San Francisco Marathon this year. Last year, I’d had 4 or so stress fractures, my most recent coming on in one step on mile 7 of an 8-mile easy run on Thanksgiving. Fibula. A bone that rarely gets broken, since it’s technically not weight-bearing, but I managed it. Running great, feeling strong… step… broken bone. I remember the exact spot where it happened on the Embarcadero, just before the marina before the ballpark. So every step of the way this training cycle, that was in the back of my mind. “You feel great, but one step…. One step is all it takes.” Even to my last two miler on Friday… “One step and your world can change.”
With the San Francisco Marathon just four days away, taper madness is kicking into full gear here at the FitLifeSF Compound. Today, for example, I lost my lucky safety pins. This apartment WILL get torn to shreds before I race without my lucky safety pins.
Yesterday, I spent some time making a batch of delicious dark-chocolate drizzled bananas with a little bit of walnuts and seasalt. These are chillin’ in the freezer awaiting my first-ever carb load, which starts tomorrow… I also need to make a batch of my “famous” Pruney Oat Piles on which to snack in the next three days… and, OK, I decided to treat myself to a Nerds Rope after months of being at once intrigued and horrified by the product. I’ll let you know how that works out.
As for training- It’s tapering off as it should. I just got done doing my last “real” workout– a 4 mile run, one round of 8-rep-to-failure upper body weights, and Ab Blaster from Tony Horton One-on-One. I ain’t gettin’ any more svelte before race day, so it is what it is.
I’m reluctant to say too much on the subject of “finally making it to a marathon healthy” after my string of injuries, but I do have a lot to say on the subject which I’ll save up for after the race– 4 days, no jinxies. 4 days, no jinxies…
Thank God someone finally wrote a sensible retort to all this “you’re probably dehydrated” nonsense. “Drink to your thirst” is the best advice I’ve heard on the subject.
With the completion of my last long run on Sunday, the hay- as the runners like to say- is in the barn! I’ve done all I can and, barring serious divine intervention in the form of falling pianos or hurtling meteorites*, on July 25th, I’ll be running the San Francisco Marathon!
Scary thought, as I seriously started to doubt at the end of last year whether I’d ever see the day– yet, I made it through Higdon’s Novice marathon plan (with a few miles thrown in) without hiccup or foible, missed run or niggle. Scarier still that I kind of like to royally bonk on at least one training run to “get it out of the way” and clear up my juju for race day… Usually, that hiccup or foible comes in the form of an injury so severe that I question whether I’ll be able to run the race at all, and inevitably delivers me to the line totally unprepared where I go on to surprise myself, earning me more than one accusatory “sandbagger.”
So, needless to say, July 25 will be a real “first” for me on several levels.
With the “hay in the barn,” the only thing to do between now and then is hunker down to get this last 3 lbs off for good… and spend an inordinate amount of time messing around with pace predictors, creating playlists, planning my outfit… doing crunches… You know, important stuff.
*Just in case anyone “up there” reads this blog, NO, that is not a challenge!