The First Run – Training for a 10k

Oh god. My friend asked me to do a 10k run with her at the end of June. They have made it a virtual race, meaning the warm up will be done on Facebook live, the free merchandise will be mailed to us, and they will post the route prior to the day of the race… then I suppose we will just record our time? It’s cool to see how everyone is trying to adapt to COVID-19.

Anyways, I am not a runner. I enjoy strength training and can sprint while I’m playing sports, but long distance running is not my thing. I told my friend I could maybe handle a 5k run, which is an option, but I kind of want to challenge myself because I pretty much don’t have an excuse. I have a running buddy, I have all the time in the world, the weather is beautiful, and I have an end goal.

I immediately got my inhaler prescription renewed (which was expired for two years… what can I say, I hate cardio so therefore I tend to avoid it). I dusted off my old runners and planned the flattest route I could think of around my neighbourhood. My friend is planning a running schedule for us starting on Monday, but I had to test out just how bad my cardio was.

This morning I woke up, didn’t even look at my phone, warmed up a bit then began walking towards my path. I didn’t bring my phone or music or water or anything because I didn’t want to complicate the process – this will need to be fine-tuned later on. And so, I began a light jog.

I felt like I weighed 500 lbs. I could feel every part of my body dragging me down, confused that it wasn’t sitting on a couch. My muscles didn’t know how to wake up, and my spine just wanted to crumple into a terrible posture. I had lead feet and my knees were weak. How have I let my cardio go so far downhill?!

After a very, very short amount of time, I began to walk. I continued this method of running a little, then walking a lot, the whole way. It was quite painful in all sorts of ways. I was thinking back to when I played soccer and volleyball in high school, and how good my cardio was. However, back then I wasn’t very strong. So now I am somewhat strong but have terrible cardio. Wouldn’t it be amazing if I was both strong AND had good cardio?! Hmm… perhaps that could be a reality.

By the end I was completely out of breath and it had only been about half an hour. I did some long stretches when I got home, feeling good that I gave it a whirl. Not to mention, it was a gorgeous morning so I’m also glad I went outside.

I looked up “best breakfast to have after a run” for further motivation and excitement, even though I already know what my body needs. I chose the oatmeal and peanut butter option, topped with vanilla greek yogurt, cinnamon, and sliced banana. This happens every time I’ve tried to get into running. I get all excited and motivated for a couple of days until I realize it’s super not fun. I even made green tea… which is probably the last thing I would choose to drink in the morning, but I know it’s good for me.

Needless to say, I am looking forward to seeing my proper running schedule that I’ll do with my friend. She will be the person I need to keep me motivated and we can push each other to reach our goal. This just may be my chance to actually run a 10k.

Enjoy the Journey

Life is too unpredictable to focus on an end goal. We tend to focus on what we want to accomplish rather than what we are learning every day. The above picture was taken on an average day where we just needed to get out of the house. It’s just the same trail by our place that we’ve walked on many times before, but this is one of few pictures where we are both genuinely smiling instead of posing. My boyfriend was being an idiot and making me laugh as usual, which is something I make sure to appreciate every day.

We might not always feel like we have what we want or that life isn’t quite “perfect” yet, but I guarantee when I look back at this picture I will remember how good life actually was. Even looking at it while writing this post makes me calm down and realize how awesome it is that I get to be myself around someone who loves me every single day, and how the good days are actually really good! Here is what I have learned that helps me enjoy the journey.

Humans are meant to learn

I hope you don’t think that as soon as you have that job you’ve always wanted, or the big house you’ve been striving for, that you’ll suddenly stop needing to learn and grow. There will always be things to stress you out, or unpredictable situations and you will always be working towards something. If you think about where you are now, can you think of any failures or struggles that you’ve learned from? YES. Of course you can! You’ve learned from it and are now living with more knowledge than you had before and growing from it.

Think about what’s important

Ideally I would say, “look back on your life as if you were 100 years old, what do you remember?” but I’m assuming there’s not a lot of 100 year olds reading this post. So when you think back on your life as it is so far at whatever age you are, what do you remember most? It’s likely that you mostly remember memories that gave you emotions whether it’s positive or negative rather than items you bought or things you had. The positive memories bring you joy, and the negative memories gave you lessons. That’s why you need to remind yourself about what’s actually important in life – the experiences rather than what you have.

Appreciate where you are now

The best way to remember to enjoy the journey is to truly appreciate where you are right now, because you are currently living the journey. What are your current struggles? What are you learning from it? What are you working on right now to achieve your goals? What are you grateful for? Are you acknowledging every small accomplishment? I think that answering these questions helps keep you grounded and to remember that the amazing life you want depends on what you’re doing today, and not what you might have in the future.

Don’t wait to live a great life, make the life you’re living great by taking a step back and enjoying the process. We are meant to struggle, learn and grow over and over again until the day we die.

Why I Love Journalling

I have 4 different journals that are laying around my house, each of them holds some sort of purpose to organize my thoughts. I will explain each one and why I find it useful, and hopefully it will give you some ideas if you are looking to start journalling, or to find a reason why you should.

1. My “Goals” Journal

This is the journal I would say I go back to the most. It holds my financial goals, health goals, travel goals and overall life goals. It’s important for me to revisit so that I can stay on track, or re-evaluate my previous goals if needed.

I like to throw in some motivational quotes, or just phrases to help me when I’m feeling incredibly unmotivated. It’s also nice to look back at what I accomplished for when I am feeling like I haven’t accomplished anything. Some things that I thought I would never do, I end up doing and some things that I thought would be easy might roll on to the next page of goals so I can make a second attempt.

I also like going over my finances here so I can simplify what’s going on in my bank account and to find ways to minimize costs. It’s easy to just ignore what’s happening with your money online, but sometimes I need a wake up call. For some reason I find it fascinating to have a plan on how to spend my money and when, so I never feel guilty about making big purchases if needed.

I think my health goals are most fun to go through, because I most definitely need a wake up call for that sometimes. Whether it’s healthy eating or physical fitness, I need to go back to remember why I want to continue working towards these.

I also like to write down places I’d like to visit and jot down things I’ve learned about how to travel to each place and how to prepare. This includes thing I would want to buy in order to make it happen, or writing packing lists. This even includes things for camping, or road trips in general.

I like imagining a bright future and sometimes I get overly involved in that to the smallest detail, but I often find it fun rather than stressful. I think it can be quite beneficial to work towards accomplishing goals, whatever they may be.

2. My “Feelings” Journal

This sounds incredibly cheesy, but for someone who overthinks everything and has all sorts of chaotic thoughts floating around, this is a good place to understand what I’m feeling and why. My imagination has a habit of going wild which can be good for creative or optimistic endeavours, but when it starts going full tilt into more negative thoughts, I need to slow the heck down.

This is where this journal comes in handy. Sometimes my brain doesn’t have time to make sense of why the emotions that are coming up have arrived, such as sadness, anxiety, anger, or anything else that is a bit more uncomfortable than usual. As I’m writing, it slows down my thoughts and makes them into things that are just on a page – all of a sudden, they don’t seem so bad!

There have been numerous times where I am SO frustrated and I go grab this journal and begin writing so fast my pen wishes it stayed at home. By the end, happy thoughts arise and I feel much better. Not to mention, if you are someone who accidentally takes it out on a loved one, this is a great way to stop that from happening! I learned that the hard way. My poor boyfriend…

3. My “Creative” Journal

This is where I jot down ideas for YouTube videos, recipes for my cookbook I would like to create one day, and sometimes I just sit and doodle a bit. This journal is a bit sporatic, since I technically have more than one place for these ideas. When I’m out and about I will jot down a note in my phone, when I’m on the computer I’ll write ideas on Google Docs, but it usually will all circle back to my physical journal I keep in my house.

It’s quite often that my boyfriend will throw together a dinner with whatever we have, and it ends up being good – despite my constant nagging that “you shouldn’t mix those together it’s weird and will taste gross.” I honestly don’t know how he does it.

Overall, it’s fun to have a place to look back at your own creations and ideas.

4. My “Travel” Journal

This is something I bring with me when I travel, usually somewhere that is out of the country (which unfortunately, isn’t that often). This is something that my parents used to do whenever we went somewhere and it kind of stuck with me. Sometimes I forget a few days while I’m on vacation, but I try to at least write about stories that happened rather than what our schedule was like that day.

Of course, as a Lord of the Rings fan, this journal had to be a leather, old school journal (the one pictured above) so I feel like a true traveller. However, I’m a little too impatient to write the whole thing in calligraphy as Bilbo Baggins did.

This journal is nice to read when I’m feeling a travel bug coming on, but am unable to go anywhere. It’s funny to find things that I couldn’t remember in a million years, but as soon as I read my own memories I instantly am living in the moment. It’s easy to remember moments looking through my pictures, but in my journal there are often details that get overlooked and it’s cool to look back on.

Yes, I know journalling isn’t for everyone, and I might be a little hardcore with all of the journals I have, but I find that it’s a great way to reminisce about memories and achievements, be creative, work through hard times, and have goals to accomplish for the future.