birch

Did the Myrtl Routine before my run I think I like this better than the back routine, it did seem to help with my running. The run went well but afterwards when I got home I didn't feel so good, felt a little nauseous and lightheaded, thinking maybe I didn't hydrate properly before the run. Had some gatorade and a lie down and was feeling fine.

Just did Day 1 of Week 1 of the Nerdfitness Rebel Strength Guide Body Weight Brigade. It was pretty fun though I felt silly with some of the cool down stretches. It was a good work out though I did it as a circuit which made it more challenging. Looking forward to day 2. Going on a run later. It was also my first time with a jump rope which was fun but I realised how much i'm lacking in the rhythm factor.

I saw this article on Lifehacker today and it upset me that we've got to the point where people have to learn to like the taste of water. I love the taste of water more than anything else, there's nothing more refreshing ('cept maybe a lager on a warm summers day). http://lifehacker.com/5826784/learn-to-love-the-taste-of-water

Thanks Roo. I did some research and looked around and came up with something that I think will work much better for me, I've already ran a couple of times this week and I think it's more in track with what I've been doing so far and has me on course to run the 10k in October. But yeah, I wanted to make sure I could be flexible with it too so that if I feel I need to push myself more or less that I can.

Glad that I went for the run this morning and it was nice and cool out today not muggy or too hot. I've been looking at different 10k training plans and I think I have an idea for how I'm going to prepare for it now. I should have done more research in the first place but I feel good with what I'm coming up with.

I could complain about today's run but instead I'm gonna take it as a learning experience. I was on a high after running my 5k on Saturday and I think I made an unrealistic training plan for running my first 10k. I still think that running the 10k in October is completely doable but the training plan that I was following was too intense for my current level of running. So tomorrow I'm going to run the 2 mile I had planned and then Saturday i'm gonna take the day off and refigure out my training plan to make it into something more similar to what I've been doing so far and more fitting to my current level.

Thanks bigm!

Alright as promised an update on my challenge so far. So I knew the first week was going to be tough not only because it was the first week but because I had a guest from Australia visiting for the week. And although there were failures over the last week I'm overall happy with the week because of my achievements and being able to accomplish them while I was attempting to cater to my guest the best that I could but also fit in work and my running, so here's a breakdown of both my successes and my failures. Successes -I managed to fit in all my running workouts minus one walking day, which is also the only day I skipped out of my 6 days a week for 12 weeks Nike+ Walk to Run program. -On Friday after 12 weeks, 203 miles, -10lbs I completed the Nike+ Walk to Run program and not only that... -On Saturday I ran my first 5k and road race I thought that I would be finishing in 30-35 minutes I ended up finishing 26 minutes 38 seconds where I also... -Ran my fastest mile at 8min 28sec. Considering 12 weeks ago I could barely run for a minute let alone 5k I'm very happy with the time. -Even having a guest over for a week with several times eating out I'm happy with the way I ate, portion sizes were good, limited the amount of grains and dairy I ate while eating lots of protein and vegetables. Failures and Opportunities -Haven't tracked any nutrition on dailyburn.com, no excuse really but as I said in successes i'm happy with the way I ate the past week so i'm not too mad with myself especially because of the stressors from the past week. But now the guest is gone time to get on with the dailyburn nutrition tracking. -Haven't started the core workouts yet. It was a struggle to fit in the running this week with the guest at home and still having work. But I plan to get started on Sunday and my fat calliper and tape measure arrived in the mail yesterday also bought batteries for my camera and I also bought a skipping rope yesterday. Could just do with getting a pullup bar and I should be all set. Though even if I don't have the pullup bar by Sunday I will still start the plan. -GRE studying really took a backseat last week when I really should be stepping up my studying, no excuses there. So overall as I said at the beginning I am disappointed with myself for not working on several of the goals but I feel happy with the week because of my achievements. For a more detailed account of my first 5k check out my dailymile: http://www.dailymile.com/people/birch262/entries/8600050 And if you're on dailymile feel free to befriend me on there.

Been a crazy 6 days since my last post full of both successes and failures but overall feeling pretty good with myself. I'll give a full update soon. Today I had my first run since the 5k I ran on Saturday and I meant only to take 2 days off, but we had huge storms yesterday so I thought it was safer not to run. I was nervous the break may have made it tough but it actually went really well. My iPod though apparently didn't like the torrential downpour from the 5k and although the Nike+ seems to be working and syncing okay the music doesn't play any vocals, looks like I need to start saving for a new iPod. But on a plus note now I have a solo karaoke machine.

Welcome to the challenge, Mossy. Good specific goals. I keep meaning to getting round to picking up a language myself. Maybe next 6 week challenge. Livemocha is a free language learning site: http://www.livemocha.com/ I believe http://www.busuu.com/ and http://www.palabea.com/ are supposed to be pretty popular also. When I was looking at language learning I was looking at French and Spanish though, so i'm not sure how these sites are for Mandarin or Korean.

10 pull ups? Impressive goal, I don't think I could even make 1 right now. Nice life goal, is there a particular type of business you're looking to start?

You said you were going to be conservative, but I like the fact that you're specific with your goals, hopefully will make them more attainable. Keep us posted on how it's going.

Thanks 'Roos. So I'm not really getting in many updates on here so far. I'm getting my goals done and my runs in but I have a relative over visiting this week so it's hard to get the free time to drop in here. But come Sunday i'll give a full update on my week and begin more frequent updates come next week. One quick update though. I usually do my runs in the evening but i'm going to Cape Cod for the day tomorrow so i'm gonna have to get up early to get my run in. As far as the lifegoal goes I openend a new savings account with Ally bank that has a high interest rate. Also giving perkstreet.com a try for a month which gives 2% cash back on every purchase and 5% for some others. Planning to recheck my budget next week to make sure I'm spending and saving wisely.

You know it's really true what they say about getting out there is half the battle. This morning I had an allergic reaction to some food. Nothing too serious but I decided to take some benedryl it made me feel kooky and kind of off all day, and then I didn't eat till late so the time left for me to run was very little and I'd almost convinced myself to skip today. But then I read this article http://lifehacker.com/5822836/eliminate-your-excuses-by-reframing-them and I thought 1) I have a 5k on Saturday I really need to get my runs in and more importantly 2) This is week 12 and I've spent the past 12 weeks six days a week running and haven't skipped a single workout, and now in the final week i'm considering skipping? Then I got my saucony's on, grabbed the ipod and got outside. Once I hit the road there was no stopping me.

'Roos Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing what balance or lack of balance my current eating habits have and what things I'm short on and which ones I could use less of. firecracker I haven't used Sparkpeople before but i'll definitely check it out.