Marathon

It's an idea that has been building in my mind all week, and for a couple of weeks prior. Maybe it's the fact that I got the Marathon Issue of Runner's World a couple of weeks ago, or the fact that I have been reading I Thought They Said Rum, a blog that I discovered through the Do Life Forums, or maybe it's the fact that I need a new goal.  But the idea of running a marathon has been playing on my mind.

I spent a couple of nights drawing up upcoming races and challenges on a calendar, with the plan to draw up a training plan. There's some issues - the wedding and subsequent honeymoon will put a bit of a dampener on training schedules. There's the fact that there are no good marathons until October this year. There's the fact of my dodgy knee, that has started playing up again.

But damn, the idea of it is in my brain now. And I don't think it's going to go away.

Do Life Challenge - Week 3

After my lacklustre Week 2 , this week's challenge is a doozy - a good ol' fashioned scavenger hunt! And it is epic! I cursed it this morning when first saw it, but now it looks like so much fun!

[photo proof required for every single item!]

[each item worth one point unless otherwise stated]

1. Policeman/woman in your town wearing a Do Life shirt (2 points) or holding a homemade Do Life sign (1 point).
2. You sitting on or standing next to a tricycle with a racing bib on. In public. Bonus points for helmet and sunglasses.
3. Statue in your town wearing Do Life shirt (2 points) or wearing a Do Life sign around its neck (1 point).
4. Ballerina pose during your next workout. 
5. The biggest chalk Do Life logo you can make. Outdoor basketball court? 
6. Screenshot of your longest walk/run of the week. (http://mapmyrun.com in case you don't know how to map a run yet. Or any other mapping/GPS device.)
7. You holding your biggest excuse on a piece of paper while defeating the excuse.
8. You holding the DVD of AIR FORCE ONE starring HARRISON FORD the BEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME. Bonus point for your best Harrison Ford face. GET OFF MY PLANE.
9. You in grocery store holding a pineapple and a watermelon. At the same time. 
10. Your super healthy grocery list. 
11. You ignoring a warning sign.
12. You holding a "Team Edward" or "Team Jacob" sign at the local library.
13. You with 80+year-old. Both giving the peace sign.
14. $18.87 in change. 
15. Picture of a homemade smoothie. Your hand must be in front of it giving a thumbs up.
16. Recreate a famous picture/painting.
17. You wearing seven shirts.
18. You with as many other people holding Do Life signs. One point for every two people. 16 people = eight points. 100 people = 50 points. 
19. You wrapped in Christmas lights. And them turned on. I'm sorry. I know you JUST put them away.
20. You in plank or pushup position. Outdoors. 
21. Picture of you finishing your toughest workout of the week. Or a re-enactment of your reaction upon finishing. 
22. Do Life Dog. (open to interpretation.)
23. You at the most famous location in your town. Wearing Do Life shirt (2 points) holding Do Life sign (one point). 
24. You with an apple on your head with an arrow through it.
25. You pointing to your city in an actual atlas.
26. You in a music store rocking out. 
27. Do Life Cat. (open to interpretation.)
28. You wearing your favorite sport's team's gear. Double peace sign.
29. You holding a sign with how many minutes you worked out this week.
30. You with someone named Richard. If your name is Richard, you with someone named Lauren. No cheating! ("they won't know his name is actually Bob...")
31. You sitting in bleachers cheering on a game that's not being played. 
32. A homemade painting of your biggest goal. No deductions for lack of painting skillz. 
33. A lawyer's business card. Five bonus points if the lawyer's name is Larry.
34. You standing beside a Ferrari.
35. Picture of you on a treadmill. (2 points if the time is 30+ minutes and you appear to have actually done the 30 minutes.)
36. You. In a boat.
37. You on the top floor of a building. 
38. You high-fiving the grocery store cashier. 
39. You in a top-hat. 
40. You running in a top-hat

I enlisted the help of my housemate and did two of them tonight. One I'm still waiting on since I will probably do a harder workout this week, so here is one official one :)

#4 - Ballerina pose during your next workout. 

Do Life Challenge - Week 2 recap

Week two of the Do Life Challenge didn't go as well as Week One. I'm good at starting things, but not the best at finishing them, which is something to work on. 

The challenges for this week are below: 

• Do something out of the ordinary for a stranger. Find a way to brighten someone's day. Pay for an elderly couple's meal at the restaurant. Give a homeless man a blanket. Volunteer. Compliment someone. Do something out of your way. Something, maybe, you've never done before. 

This one was harder than I thought. Although I think I kind of got there. We have a homeless dude Anthony who sits in the lane near work. We'll chat every so often and I'll give him food or money or something, and just before Christmas I have him some food and a card and we had a good chat. He was saying that he would love to work part time in the gardening industry, as that's the only thing he could really handle. So this year I looked into whether there are any programs like that for homeless people. Unfortunately there isn't, but I did try! I haven't seen him since then, so hopefully that's a good sign. 

• Do something else. Yep, that's (at least) two times this week, you'll be going out of your way.

Again, just before Christmas I looked into volunteering at Second Bite, and organisation in Melbourne who collect surplus food and distribute it to charities and different organisations. It's something I"m pretty passionate about - EVERYONE should have enough to eat, and there is no need for wastage, so it's perfect. Thinking about this challenge reminded me to actually contact them, and I have now volunteered with them to go to a market once a month and collect the food from the vendors. This makes me happy :)

• Reassess your pushups (or plank) today or tomorrow. And keep working them. There are pushup and plank plans all over the internet, or make up your own. Stick with it!

I didn't do it! I don't know why? I did try doing modified (girly push ups) and did 30 of them, but...meh. 

• Reassess your goals. Where are you? How are you doing? Do you need to change anything?

I didn't really reassess them, but they're doing quite well. I caved on Wednesday and had a small glass of wine after really wanting one the night before, but I did make an effort to do a token weights session on the Sunday morning before my party, so that was good. I think it's all on track. 

• Intermediate/Advanced: 30 extra minutes of intense work like last week + 200 jumping jacks. (all at once or spread out)

I totally forgot about the jumping jacks (or star jumps as they're called in Australia). And I don't think I added the intense work, although I did run super fast once and then run intervals for my next run, so...maybe? And another 18km run, which was really pleasant. 

• Write four things you did well. Every night before bed.

Again, I partly do this in my gratitude diary, but I've started writing 4 of them as things I've done well instead of things I'm grateful for. It's tougher than I thought, which is a worry...

Also, it was my 30th this week! Sunday we had a kid's garden party. There were party hats.There were dogs in party hats. It was good. 

Edit: my fonts are all over the place today. I don't know why?

Things I Love Thursday

What a week! Hopefully I can actually keep my TILT going this year. What awesome things have been making me smile recently?

• It was my kitty Scamper's 5th birthday yesterday. I didn't realise until today, but that means it's been almost 5 years since that little ball of fluff came into my life and made me deliriously happy. 
• The Do Life Challenge. It's awesome, and I'm loving the forums. So many inspirational and interesting people. 
• The cheeky glass of red I had last night. Yeah, one of my resolutions is not to drink on weeknights, but goddamn it was good! 
• Getting a full 8 hours sleep last night for the first time in forever!
• Finally getting some wedding stuff sorted - photographer, almost celebrant (hopefully), and invitations are so close to being done! YAY!
• Sarah from SillyGrrl answered one of my questions about how she stays so fit and flexible doing aerial. It looks like stretching in front of the TV is a goer if I want to get bendy-flexy again.
• Organising my 30th birthday party for Sunday. It's a kids garden party. There will be fairy bread and party hats. It will be awesome. 

What has been making you smile this week? 

Interval Training

This morning I got up early to do an interval run. 5kms all up and only a bit of interval training, but doing it before breakfast does not a good run make. 

I will keep on doing it until I make it my bitch. 

In other news, if I were a chameleon, this is what I would be: 

Do Life Challenge - Week One recap

Here we are at the end of the Do Life Challenge - Week One. 

My last post highlighted my personal goals for the week, which ended up mainly pretty well. How did I go? 

1. Run 5kms in 25 minutes (or a 5:00km pace for 5 kms). I did this today. And was VERY excited! I thought I did once before but was uncertain about the accuracy of my Cardio Trainer, but today I started out strong and kept it going, and ended up running 5:02kms in 25 mins at 4:52 pace. BOOYAH!!! It was bloody hard, but worth it. Now to try to do it without dying! 

2. No alcohol on school nights. Going well. I didn't even drink much on the weekend, which was nice. Tonight I would have killed for a red, but powered through with a bottle of water instead. 

3. Do weights at least once a week. I did one workout with them this week. Am planning on doing one tomorrow night but increasing the weight and ensuring I do some shoulder work. 

My weights mat

4. Drink 3 600ml bottles of water per day. I failed once, but was good every other day. Having a bottle in my bag on the way to and from work definitely helps. 

5. Stretch for 2 minutes plus after running. Been good. Although I was sorer after my long 18km run than I normally would be - not sure if due to stretching or just not used to running that distance any more.

Increasing the duration by 30 mins and the intensity. I didn't do this per se, as in it wasn't a concerted effort. However, I did do the weights session, and the long run (approx 17-18kms), which was more than I would normally do. 

Four good things. I kind of already do this most days anyway - I have a gratitude diary which is a notebook in my bag where I list 10 things I'm thankful for. This can be sporadic, but it's normally a couple of times a week (depending on if I get a seat on public transport). However, for the sake of this I'll do my four good things now:

1. Ran above my target pace (5 kms at 4:52 pace)
2. I successfully resisted a glass of wine tonight
3. I got my colleagues excited about cheese Tim Tams (kind of)
4. At work an article I wrote got published. 

I don't really take photos of myself whilst working out, purely because my cardio trainer app is always going and I can't take photos whilst it's going, but I did manage to take some of my sweet new workout gear: 

Sweet new workout gear!

And in random news, here's a picture of my house mate, fiancée and I holding a boa constrictor on the weekend. Coz that's how we roll. 

Tourist much?

Words to live by :)