sdecourcey

Vibram Bikila LS. I adore them. I got them when I decided to make running part of my life, which was about a year ago. Since then I've run several road races from 4-milers to a half marathon, and a couple of 5-K trail races. They're better on the road, but I like them for both. I don't think I'll ever run in a 'conventional' running shoe again. I love the minimal sole and the feel of the ground against my foot. I also love the way they've smoothed out my gait and helped me ease into a more comfortable form. But most importantly, I love the funny looks I get and the "You ran that race in THOSE?" comments. Good stuff (: My first pair of running shoes were Nikes, I don't remember specifically which ones, but they were pretty cushiony...which, at the time I bought them, I thought I needed. But then I switched over to VFFs and those Nikes haven't seen the light of day since.

Got a new pair of Vibrams today My old ones stink too bad to wear in public anymore, so I got a new pair of Classics for everyday use and am retiring the Bikilas to running-only. Also I know I should run today but don't feel like it because I'm afraid it'll be a repeat of Saturday. I think today I'll just do some strength work instead and get back to running again tomorrow.

ha, "proceeded to last 5 whole seconds." That made me laugh You've got some great goals, there...I know you can do it if you set your mind to it. Good luck! I'd love to be able to plank for 60 seconds too...on my knees it's a piece of cake, but on my feet I'm not even close... Anyway, have fun!

Good luck; those sound like great goals. I'm also trying to go paleo, but I've found that it's easier said than done when you aren't in charge of cooking. My family has made some changes because of my brother's and my determination to go paleo most of the time, but they still aren't 100% on board. So I do my best, and I'm currently at like probably 60% paleo, which for me is a good place to be. Anyway...good luck with your goals. Here's hoping the third time's the charm! I know you can do it (:

Worked on some assisted pull-ups two days ago, then yesterday I ran 1.5 miles in 23 minutes (actually had to walk a good bit of it, don't know what was wrong). It was a terrible run, one of those runs that makes me just want to give up forever, but I won't. I'll try again. I just wish I knew what I was doing wrong, because I'm just not seeing progress. I'll keep trying though...I don't know. Tonight my shoulders and neck area are so tight and painful. It hurts to tilt my head down, and it's just so stiff. I've tried giving myself a sort of makeshift massage by pressing my fingers in and rubbing the tender spots, and that hurts but feels really good, if that makes any sense...So hopefully that'll work itself out soon so I can keep working on my pull-up. So all that to say that so far, this challenge is off to a pretty lame start. I'm not feeling very optimistic about the whole thing. But I'm sure it'll get better as I go. Now I'm off to get some homework done and go to bed, because I'm super tired today and hoping that a good sleep might help with my poor performance lately.

I'm back! I only met two of my four goals in the last challenge, so I'm back to try again. Fitness Goals: 1. Warrior Dash! October 1st. 3.5 miles plus obstacles involving fire, tightropes, and lots of mud. Minimum goal is 40 minutes...more ambitious (and therefore more awesome) goal is 35 minutes. So excited about this! Running it with my brother and like 6 or 8 friends...it'll be great fun 2. Do a pull-up. (Yes, this was one of my goals last challenge...I made progress, but still didn't get it. This time I will, though.) 3. Get all the way around my neighbourhood loop in 16 minutes. It's 1.5 miles, complete with quite a few legitimate hills, and currently I can do it in 19 minutes. Which I'm not pleased with, so I'm going to fix it. Life Goal: 1. Blog at least once per week. (Yes, that's how bad I am about blogging.) It can be anything--journals, poetry, Bible study, fitness progress, photography, whatever...as long as I'm posting something. So there it is. These goals are all within reach, and I know I can do it if I set my mind to it.

McMonster... *vomit* I failed miserably at half of my goals in the last challenge too...but the good thing is that you're trying again (: I'm still considering joining in this challenge, albeit a little late...still haven't decided to jump in though. Anyway, good luck on your challenge! Also, I haven't had the time to sit down and read "Anarchism and Christianity" from start to finish, but I've read bits here and there and I'm intrigued.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeek I ran my first race today! So I didn't exactly reach my goal of running the whole thing without walking breaks...but maybe that goal was slightly too ambitious for this time around. What's important is that I finished the whole four miles, had fun doing it, and am determined to do better next time! (which happens to be only a week away...yikes) so you can read the full account of my morning here: http://sdecourcey.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/my-first-race-ever/

I speak Spanish well. Almost fluently, but not quite. I took two years of it in high school, but I didn't learn much from that...most of what I learned I learned being in Costa Rica, and also I have a lot of close friends who only speak Spanish so they taught me a lot, and I am able to practice on them. Next I want to learn Swahili and Luganda. Also, for those of you who are looking to learn a new language, I have two sites that I always recommend: www.busuu.com and www.livemocha.com. Both of these have interactive lessons with photos, audio, and text; online chatting with native speakers; and lots of other cool features. I prefer busuu personally, but both are very fun and helpful.

I live in Virginia...so it doesn't get oppressively hot (unless there's a heat wave like there was last week--heat index reached 110 degrees!) but I don't perform well in heat, plus I'm largely Irish so I get a sunburn in like three seconds of sun exposure. So I just try to run between 6 and 7 in the morning, before it gets too hot. My favourite time to run is 5 or 5:30 a.m. but I have a hard time waking up that early Try bouldering. My brother and I like to go bouldering up rivers and climbing waterfalls in the summertime because it's hugely entertaining, a challenging workout, and if we get hot we just jump into the water for a minute to cool off. I don't know if you have that sort of stuff around where you live though... Swimming, water running, canoeing/kayaking, stuff like that is always good in the summer. But as for running, try to get out there early and make sure you hydrate extra.

Here! Main instrument: piano Second (and favourite) instrument: acoustic guitar Next on my list of instruments to learn: electric bass, followed by electric guitar, then violin. I also sing sometimes, but I don't terribly like to I much prefer to hide behind an instrument and just play. And I write music as well. In fact...there's something going on RIGHT NOW called 50/90, and the goal is to write 50 songs in 90 days between the beginning of July and the beginning of October. http://fiftyninety.fawmers.org It makes me happy that there are so many other musicians on here!!

+1 for Dave Ramsey. Well, I've personally never read his books or anything, but I know a ton of people who have and it's changed their lives. Anyway, those sound like good goals. You may think they're unimpressive, but they're better than I can do...heh. Good luck!

Oh, I live just north of Charlottesville--I'm less than an hour from Harrisonburg! We should arrange to meet or something at the Warrior Dash maybe...I don't know. But that's pretty cool @scrawny haha you'd be surprised by the number of crazy rednecks that live around here, regardless of how fancy our names sound. We also have places named after shapes and colours, such as Triangle or Orange, if that's any consolation. Oh, and we have Farmville!

@Cameron Nice! That'd be cool to meet a fellow NF'er in person!

Thank you, CapN! I haven't seen much of this board yet, but from what I have seen everybody seems pretty awesome (: I've always wanted to run at 3 a.m. Maybe one day I'll have a running partner who'll do it with me... and I agree, rainy runs are awesome. They make me feel hardcore (: Today I prayed for rain because it was soooo hot, but it ended up just being muggy and thick, no rain. Maybe another time...

now, now...I wouldn't go so far as to say I enjoy heresy Now for a blatant change of subject...what did you do today, fitness-wise? As for me, I really haven't done much. I tried to get out for a run, but it was hot and I was lazy, and my knee hurts. I'll count today as a rest day, because yesterday was a body-weight training day and I'm planning on doing some sprints tomorrow if I can manage to drag myself out of bed before it gets too hot. I've been wanting to start a routine of waking up between six and seven, but so far it hasn't happened I'm so not a morning person.

Haha, yeah you would think I'd be a bit more careful. And what's even more ridiculous is that this is the 3rd time I've had it in less than 2 months. Stupid. Your Jesus/Judas reference made me laugh

psssh, I totally agree about the artsy people being stuck-up. I try not to be Actually, I'm not 18...I'll be sixteen in a few days. The whole graduating early thing throws people off sometimes....I wish I was 18, though, because that's how old I have to be before I can enter the nursing program at my college. Lame. I was pretty upset. But on the bright side, that gives me time to take a gap year and maybe do some long-term travelling! I have a feeling it shouldn't take too long to get acclimated to barefoot running, seeing as I do pretty much everything barefoot anyway. I only wear shoes when I absolutely have to. I'm currently taking a short hiatus from my Vibrams because I've got poison ivy between my toes from hiking barefoot But when that clears up I'll get back to wearing them every time I run.

Haha, no worries. I'm pretty long-winded myself sometimes. No, I can't run four miles yet...haha not even close. But I'm working hard at it, so it should just be a matter of time. I find barefoot running very interesting...it seems to work well for me. I've got a pair of Vibram FiveFingers and they are utterly amazing. I'd eventually like to be able to run legit barefoot, but for now my Vibrams are close enough to the real thing, minus all the pointy rocks and stuff. I do climb and boulder barefoot though; I get better traction and balance that way. In addition to running, my brother and I go hiking all the time, and we're also doing Mark Sission's Primal Blueprint fitness. I've never really focused on body weight/strength training before, so it's been interesting. We've only been doing it for a week but already I'm seeing progress! I also do a quick yoga routine each night because I'm trying to work on the flexibility in my legs...my back is insanely flexible but my legs are about as bendy as...something that's not very bendy at all. And for fun, I already mentioned that I'm into music...I just love playing my instruments (: I also love to write. I've written over 80 songs (most of them not very good), two novels (also, not very good), and poems and short stories and junk. And photography; I'm super into photography. It's my favourite way of expressing myself. I'm a pretty artsy-type person, so I've surprised myself by getting to into running and fitness. But I've never really been in amazing shape, so I'm glad I've finally found a form of exercise that I enjoy (:

:Wow, thanks! I've never really thought of myself as 'interesting,' haha I can't quite put into words why I love Uganda so much...I just fell in love with it the second I stepped out of the airport, and I can't wait to go back! If you check out my blog (should be a link in my signature), I have a subcategory dedicated to my Africa trip if you want to read more about it. But I guess if I had to pick a reason why Uganda is so great, it's because of the people. They're amazingly wonderful and I love them so much (: There's just something about them... I've only been running for a few weeks...and really I'm not good at it at ALL. I can't say I've noticed a difference between running on the Paleo diet vs. normal diet. I still get carbs from vegetables and fruit, so after a hard workout I'll have an apple or something for carbs. And no, I've not done any races yet. My first one is August 27th, a 4-mile fun run. I'm really excited about it! I only wish I'd started running like 5 years ago--then I'd be good at it by now What about you? What do you like to do for fitness/fun?

Hi, everyone! I'm Shannon, and I just joined NF. My brother showed it to me, and I loved it right away. Just something about NF's style makes a healthier lifestyle look achievable and fun. Anyway, a little bit about myself...I live in Virginia, and I love living here because I'm surrounded by mountains and can go hiking pretty much whenever I want to, which is awesome. My favourite outdoor activity is bouldering, and running comes in a close 2nd (although I'm not too good at that yet.) I love to travel, and my favourite countries so far are Uganda, Swaziland, and Costa Rica. Before I die, I want to go to every country...but right now I'm only at 9 or 10, so I've got work to do! I also love music. I play the piano and acoustic guitar, and next on my list to learn are bass and electric. I've just graduated high school and will start college in August, and I hope to be a nurse in a third-world country one day. I'm considering Doctors Without Borders or something like that. I've helped with medical clinics in China and Uganda, and there's nothing I'd rather do with my life! So anyway...my current fitness goals include a four-mile race in September, and a Warrior Dash 5k in October. Ultimately I'd like to accomplish a marathon, but I'm starting small with some shorter events. My brother and I are in this together, which I love--he's my best friend and favourite workout partner. We've recently started eating Paleo, which is going really well so far--I'm loving it! I'd say we're at about 80%, because we still eat dairy products and stuff like that, but incorporating some Paleo habits into our diet has been a great way to get healthier...plus my brother gets to eat as much meat as he wants to--always a plus in his book! Well, I guess that's all for now. I'm looking forward to learning more about NF, and getting in better shape this summer!