Is the sun going down on you?

Posted on August 1, 2017 by Bo

Call it a midlife crisis, inspiration from a TED Talk or just mid-year review, but I've been on this mission to make time for more quality in my life. Notice that I said "make time" and not "find time". You will never find time, trust me on this one.

In order to make time, you need to do a combination of the following:

Plan your day. Make sure you know where the gaps are and which meetings at work will be productive or not.
Be selfish with your time. When you say yes to every meeting, every interruption and every invitation, you don't have anything left for you.
Make sure you're allocating enough quality time towards doing the things that enrich your life and make you happy.

To force myself to make time, I've been committed to getting home before the sun sets. I've taken a photo every day to prove that it's possible.

I've made time to bake in the middle of the week.

I've walked the dogs when I've arrived home from work.

I've even ensured that I look after myself physically and get my hair done on a regular Friday afternoon. There's no better feeling after a busy week to kickstart the weekend feeling fresh and beautiful!

More importantly I've made time to run and stick to my training programme. That's the single thing that I didn't sacrifice. Guess what? I ran a race on Saturday and was thrilled with my time! Just 2 minutes off my PB!
It pays off and the rewards come.

Make time for yourself and the things that matter in your life!

Autumn arrives

Posted on April 24, 2017 by Bo

And just like that, Autumn is officially here. Last week I was still wearing sandals and strappy dresses to work but on my run on Sunday morning, I could definitely feel that fresh chill in the air.

In my mind, the only positive aspect that comes with a change in season, is well… change itself. It’s a time of reflection. A time to make decisions and do things differently in my life.

So three things come to mind:

I’ve relooked my eating plan and made a few adjustments. Smaller portions, more veggies and perhaps less wine on the weekends (for now).
I’m starting off the month of May with a number of work responsibilities having moved out of my control to another team. That’s brought about huge changes to my day and a readjustment of priorities. Time to refocus on new projects.
I’ve also been doing some assessments of my running and redefining my running goals now that Two Oceans has come & gone. If I’m enjoying the casual run, what am I still training for?

I’m not a cold weather person. The dry skin, the static hair, the layers of clothing all irritate me.

But the colder weather brings with it fleecy blankets in front of movies and soups with piping hot bread smothered in melting butter. (Oops, about that eating plan!)
Mmm, something I can definitely look forward to!

Improvements often happen behind the scenes

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Bo

When I talk to people about my running, I always slip in the fact that I ‘walk run’. It’s as if I don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking that I’m actually capable of running non-stop for kilometers on end. My pace is slow so telling people I walk means I don’t have to explain myself.

But I noticed something today about my running pace during the Alan Robb road race that I wasn’t even concentrated on training for. I managed to run almost the entire way for 15kms at a steady consistent pace! I hardly walked!

I stopped at one or two water stations and walked on the very big uphill (on a very flat route). Other than that, I ran!

Late last year, I remembered trying to run 20 minutes non-stop. It took me over three weeks to get it right. But since then, I’ve forgotten about it.

Something must’ve worked. Was it the exercises from bio Mari? The stretching homework? The weekly runs? Hell, whatever it is, I’m thrilled!

Quite ironic, I’m happy about something I didn’t even realize I was working on!

So true of life, we’re often so focused on things that we think matter and don’t realize all the positive progress were making in other areas of our lives.

Go me! ^5

Goals. I found a recipe for success!

Posted on January 11, 2017 by Bo

I had a rough idea in my head of my 2017 goals. Some random things like make time to read and more time to blog, walk the dogs, spend more weekends over at my Mom, visit my Dad more regularly, stress less at work, lose weight (yeah, who doesn’t list this!). But it was only when seeing KK’s running calendar and knowing the finishing times for the races he plans to run this year that I realized that as much as I’d like to think I’ve set goals, unless I follow up with a proper action plan, I’ll never succeed.

Firstly, he has a 2017 calendar with all the race dates written in which is lying in our study. Most of the races have already been entered and paid for too. After discussing race goals, his Coach sent him an entire training program via Google calendar up until Comrades. It lists his daily running schedule and distances. And boy does KK take it seriously! Every time I look, he’s analyzing Strava and comparing his runs. (LOL, like most of us runners! Obsession much!)

In the last few weeks, we’ve had quite a bit of rain which didn’t stop him from running. Pffft! Unlike me. I’ll confess that sometimes I secretly appreciate that I can sleep late on a weekend listening to the rain fall.

Drenched! But smiling!

KK is dedicated to his running goals. He is consistent, motivated and disciplined. But more importantly, he has a vision. He knows the races and times he wants to run this year and knows exactly what he needs to do to achieve this. He has a plan and he works at it. That’s the perfect recipe for successful goals right there.

The races I’ve entered so far are as follows. Let me know if I’ll see you there?

Dischem 5km
Johnson Crane 10km
Vaal 10km
Pick ‘n Pay half marathon
Two Oceans half marathon
Drakensburg Run-The-Berg

Deer in the headlights moment!

Now all I need to do is put my plan in place as to how I manage to make time to read and more time to blog, walk the dogs, spend more weekends over at my Mom, visit my Dad more regularly, stress less at work, lose weight, all in between training for these races.

Easy peazy, right? YIKES!