There is no fast track to fitness.

I nearly set myself up for failure last week. I almost signed up for my 3rd year of long course triathlon (70.3 miles, or "half ironman") training. Ha! That just goes to show you that staying on plan is hard even when the plan is to not have a plan.

Thank you Mike and Jo for guiding my head back safely from the clouds.

I have enough on my plate with school and work, and a full race season with shorter, hopefully much faster, races. I will have more time to outreach to people wanting to get into the sport. There are a handful of people in my running club who are going to do their first triathlon this year. That is so exciting to me because it shows that not only is the sport picking up more and more people, but people are realizing that cross functional and cross sport training can be very beneficial to your overall health.

I said this before, and I shall say it again. Triathlon saved my life.

What many people do not know is that anyone can do a triathlon. So accomplishing a triathlon in and of itself is nothing too amazing. What is amazing is when people make life changes, find their motivation and inspire other people to make healthier choices in life. That I applaud! I applaud setting a triathlon as a goal and working towards that goal. Now THAT is an accomplishment, because now days people just do not seem to want to work for anything.

There is no magic pill to weight loss. There is no shortcut to fitness. Them be the breaks. Sorry.

It is a cycle and for some reason, only a few people get that. Triathlon/running is as much about finding a happy place in fitness and health, as it is about the camaraderie that comes from participating. You will never find a larger group of cheerleaders as you do in the triathlon and running circuits. We may race against each other, but we always celebrate each other’s victories, and share in each other’s defeats. The only bad day, if you have your heart in the right place, is the day where someone gets hurt.

I have met some amazing people along the way. I have also met some real jackasses. Two people who clearly fall into the former category (as in amazing people) are my friends and former RACING GREYHOUNDS teammates Jeremy Hagerman and Craig Weaver.

Together they have started this amazing triathlon team called "Team Motiv-8" (you can find them here: http://team-motiv8.com/), and their principles are solid: to motivate and to inspire. Major shout out to them and I am on board 10000000% to help them succeed in any way possible!

It is time to act as an ambassador to the sport and to health and fitness. I am walking proof that anyone can go from overweight slug to athlete. You just have to realize that not all athletes are rock solid in form and top of the pack in races. We come In all shapes and sizes. We come from all places in life. Everyone has an equal opportunity to reach the ultimate finish line… a lifetime of health and happiness.


So with that I decided to add a different purpose to my 2011 year. I am taking the slow and steady approach and will be chronicling my journey from mediocre to fit. I will take my baseline weight, my baseline measurements, and will perform a fit-test to have baseline numbers.

Through my exercise and vegetarian diet, I expect to be able to transform myself. However, the proof will be in December when I leave for Florida.

Each week I will do a quick summary, each month a fit test. I expect struggle, but then again this is not a flash in the pan, this is my lifestyle. It must be sustainable and realistic. I travel a lot for work. I work a lot. I have 6-day-a-week classes to finish my Masters work. I have a puppy, and am working on my house and health with my man Mike. I am a member of a cycling & triathlon race team, a swim club, and a running club.

And just like you - I have a life.

So follow along with me and see how it can be done. How you can turn your life around with small steps. How everything we do adds up exponentially.

I will not be posting my food intakes.
I will not be posting up my workouts.
This is not going to be an exercise and fitness log as I already have that at dailymile.com and beginnertriathlete.com.

This is my Journey blog.

So as such what will I be posting?
I will be posting out total minutes or hours in my weekly summary.
I will be posting up any information I come across, or an occasional recipe or workout that I felt was pretty exceptional in either skill or ease of mastering for those of us not blessed with 4 hours a day to work out.

This is the lifestyle of balance and fitness that I have striven for, for so many years. 2011 is the year of doing it!

Peace, love, and running.
RedZone

Thank Goodness It is Friday!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FITNESS CHALLENGE UPDATE:

Last night I did a run/walk mile, instead of a TT. I had eaten a large dinner (I was starving!) aand when I got out for my run, I started to feel sick. Oh well. I did something, and I feel good for it. Tonight is a rest night for running or even cardio, so I will be hitting the gym for some strength, abs, and stretching.

8/16, 9:00 PM EST
Run/Walk 1 mile: 12:00 minutes on the dot.
RECAP: Felt good running again. My left knee is a little tender. I buted out sub 1-muinute mile pace while running around a 10:40 on average) and walked slowly when walked to settle down the tummy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am a little happy that this week has flown by so quickly. Not for any particular reason, but I feel like I still need some rest. I have been trying to get 8 hours of sleep a night, but still manage to get more and remain exhausted for good portion of the day. I am going to play around with the sleep thing for a while until I get it right. I go know tht my body respond to odd hours of leep best. I feel better with 5 or 7 hour of sleep than I do 6 or even 8. I do not know why that is, but it has helped me stay alert on some looooong nights in college. Studying of course


I am finally feeling some order in my life. The past month has been huge emotional time for me. Not about anything really dramatic, only in my happiness in my career choices. I am an engineer. Manufacturing in particular. That is derived from mechanical, but then we study elctronics and materials as well as human safety factors, and ergonomics/human movement. Pretty much I want things to fail and then find out why. Exciting stuff really.

Months ago I said that I had a big suprise... something that I would not be telling until the time is right. Well I have agonied over this choice for month now and I have got all the ducks in order, a plan in place, and am executing the plan starting 9/4.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have been reflecting back on what my Senior III Biology professor told me
right before graduation. "You should go into the health sciences. You have
such a nack for people, as well as the drive to help them. I think you
can do good things out there."

This really hit me hard, because first off - I started school to be an
engineer that was not wanting to work in automotive. I wanted to
be a genetic engineer and help find cures for diseases. I wanted
to help people. The first step was to get an engineering degree... then go
to med school.

Well I got sucked into automotive as you tend to do when you live in
Michigan and attend the former General Motors Institute of Engineering and
Management.

I told my prof that it was too late. I had completed my thesis, and
was 10 days out from gradauting with my degree. My path was
set. She told me... no it is not. It is never too late to do
what you truly love in life. Flash forward 6 years and now I am
in a situation where I can do something about it all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since I am now paying for my Master's degree out of pocket, I have decided that I do not want my MS in Engineering Management, nor my MBA. Instead I am taking the steps to learn about what I really want to, what I have wanted to for years but never had the courage to do it.

I am currently working on my Graduate Certificate in Clinical Exercise Science here at Oakland University so I can graduate and be done with OU once and for all. (it has taken me three years at less thn part-time pace to work towrds my MS degree in Engineering Management/MBA.)

While I am working on my Graduate Cert., I will be studying for my Personal/Fitness Trainer certification which is through a recognized association/council such as the ACE (American Council for Exercise) or the NASM (National Associate of Sports Medicine). After receiving my CPT and graduating from Oakland University, I will be moving on for my M.S. in Human Movement with a concentration in Corrective Exercise. After completion of the MS degree, I will then take my advanced certification in Corrective Exercise Science.

I may not be able to help people on a gentic or molecular level, but I can still help people achieve goals and recover.

And that makes me happy.



I hope that you all are doing thing that make you happy. I have learned that when you deny yourself what you truly desire in life... you are doing yourself a big disservice. There comes a time in each of our lives that we must put the stake in the ground, and follow through with the choices we make. Good or bad. That is how we grow as people.

})i({ Runner Girl

Wake me up before you go go

I am one sleepy little runnergirl.



*yawn*



I have decided that today starts my fitness challenge. And with any good challenge, I will need boundaries. Rules. I have set this up in such a way to allow for fitness everyday, but that does not mean that it has to be a marathon workout. No pun intended.

The purpose of this personal challenge is to get into the habit of doing something physical each and every day. After the 1st month I will alter the rules and the new goal of the challenge will be a little more... well... challenging. So onto the rules.



Because I am an engineer, and I likes me some boundaries.

1. I must dedicate no less than 15 minutes/1 mile if running a day to exercise.
2. Cardio or Strength/Stretch will count toward fulfilling the requirement.
3. Acceptable exercises for cardio are: running, jogging, walking, biking, swiming, fitness class (Kwando, etc.)
4. Acceptable exercies for strength are: free weights, cable machines, stretch/abs, stability work, etc.
5. Acceptble exercises that count for both cardio and strength: The FIRM DVDs.
6. I shall log my workouts into Buckeye Outdoors so it will show up on the right-hand panel of this blog.

The logic behind the 15 minutes is that it is my fail-safe. I usually work out for 1.5-2 hours at a time. This includes strength training, stretching, ab work, and cardio (swimming usually). But when I see a huge workout ahead of me, I may feel compelled to not even start it. If I know that I can go out and do 1mile or even a quick 15 minute set of ab work, then I will be more apt to want to do it every day - and it can trigger me to stick with it and possibly even go longer because it feels good. Obviously, the 15 minute workouts will not be everyday, but they can help me develop the habits I want.

So those are my rules. And that is my challenge. :)

Tonight will be my 1 mile TT for training for the Freep. (TT = time trial)

Have a great day everyone!

})i({ Runner Girl