New Year's in July!

New Year's always brings resolutions or new goals.  But we all know breaking down our goals to smaller pieces typically results in greater success.  Around New Year's I was still working on my two prior physical goals which was to run a half marathon and lose 25 pounds.  When I set these goals I was a little concerned that they might not be attainable, but I established a plan and just did the best I could each day.

As I've shared before I fell into the trap of allowing fitness to become my idol and had to reevaluate my priorities and make sure that God was first in ALL aspects of my life.  I'm currently going through Beth Moore's bible study 'David,' which I'm really enjoying (more on this journey at a later time)!  This has really helped bring my priorities back in line and draw me closer to Him.

After spending a lot of time in prayer, I've been able to refocus my priorities and establish some goals for the second half of 2013, which I'm really excited about.  First and foremost, my time in prayer in God's word is my first priority.  Time on the computer (or any other device at home) will not take place until my kids are in bed, ensuring that they don't feel like they have to compete with my time!  Keeping these areas, as well as my marriage balanced, will allow me to establish some new physical goals.

And without further ado, here's the new fitness goals!

1.  Run 1,000 Miles in 2013 (I've already run 503 thus far).  This will be a challenge, but I've got a plan and am just going to take one run at a time!  I use Daily Mile to log my workouts, which helps track my progress.

2.  Be able to plank for 7 minutes by the end of the year!  My plan is to begin with 1 minute planks and increase 15 seconds each week.  This will also be a challenge, but I'm hoping the increased focus on my core will help with reaching my first goal!

3.  I will also be using Turbo Fire as cross training on the days that I'm not running.  I needed something to change up my fitness routine to ensure that I'm working different muscles and ensure that I don't get bored!

One crucial lesson that I have learned over the last year is establishing a plan is crucial to success.  When I set up my plan to train for my first half marathon, I put every single workout on my digital calendar.  This ensured that I completed the workout and it also took a lot of thinking and planning out from day-to-day.  So, I set up the goals above, broke out the goals by weeks and then by day.  I'm still working on what the reward will be to myself when I reach these goals but I will get that figured out soon, which is half the fun of setting goals!  Here's a sample of my calendar for the next 6 months.  Having every workout established also helps me move workouts around if necessary when 'life' happens.

I'll admit, this process took me a considerable amount of time to put together, but I'm excited to have a plan in place!  I'll also be posting my weekly workouts on my blog for a couple reasons.  First of all to help hold myself accountable.  

The other reason is because I simply love running buddies.  If any of my girlfriends close by want to run with me on a day I'm scheduled to run, drop me a message and we'll set up a time and location (with a slight disclaimer that I usually run pretty early in the morning)!  I would absolutely love for you to join me for a warm up together, an entire run, or just whatever you have on your training calendar.  We're not on this journey alone and I ALWAYS welcome a running pal!  What goal are you setting for the second half of 2013?  Make it count!!!

Blessings to you on your journey,

Krystal 

The Best and the Hardest!

Since I've started seriously training for a half marathon I've been doing my long runs on Saturday mornings as it's just too hard to do that many miles before getting ready for work and taking my little girl to school.  When I woke up this morning I got the biggest surprise!  Joshua asked if he could go run with me.  I was completely surprised, excited and nervous at the same time.  Like me when I started running, Joshua hasn't done any sort of running since high school but let me just say this guy is in incredible shape!

I had 9 miles on the training schedule.  It was about 35 degrees this morning when we headed out and just a slight breeze to begin with.  After we got past 1 mile I kept expecting Joshua to turn around and head back.  At mile 3 I thought for sure he would head back and finish 6 total miles but NO he wasn't about to let a girl beat him.  He ran with me the ENTIRE 9 miles.  I absolutely loved having him beside me.  He kept pushing me, making me smile and even made sure to protect me from the traffic :)

After we hit the half way point to turn around we had a terrible head wind and a few hills to climb again.  I'm not sure I could have finished this tough run without him!  Did I mention this was a REALLY hard run?  Joshua has always been incredibly supportive, but nothing beats struggling through a long run together.  God is so good to bless me with such an incredible man!

We were both FULL of smiles (and hungry) after we finished!!!

Blessings,

Krystal

Put the scale AWAY!

I'm always amazed at the thoughts that go through my head as I run. This morning as I ran 8 miles I realized the majority of my days can be spent focused on numbers. During most of my workouts I'm focused on distance and time. While I'm at work as a financial controller I'm focused on various numbers, calculations, etc. And in case that isn't enough, I focus on the amount of water I drink, calories I ingest and the number on the scale.

When I first started running I had set a goal for myself to lose 25 pounds. I'm so close to reaching this goal that I've caught myself focusing on it too much. As we all know so many things can affect our weight from day to day. Everything from water intake, food consumption, calories burned, change in muscle, etc.

We've all been at that place where we've been working so hard on our health and fitness and we don't feel the scale is a true reflection of our hard work. So with that I've set a goal for myself. I will NOT step on a scale for 3 weeks and will simply work each day to do the best I can and not allow one number to dictate how I feel about my progress. Feeling good, being migraine free, no more stomach pain, having more energy... These are the true indicators of how I feel, not the number on the scale. I will rejoice and praise The Lord for carrying me through this journey.

Will you join me in this challenge? Lets put the scales away and just take our health and fitness one day at a time WITHOUT being focused on one number!

Blessings,

Krystal