Small changes

One Last Race and #OneSmallChange

December 27, 2013 by Michelle 4 Comments

Happy Friday! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We had a great day in the RWA household – lots of food, drink and laughter – the perfect combination!

On Christmas Eve morning I ran my final race of #13in2013 – the Miles for Melanoma 5K virtual run. The streets were quiet and it was a great way to steal a few peaceful minutes for myself before all the holiday festivities got underway. A lingering head cold made this a bit of a slug pace-wise; but, after not getting many runs in lately, I was just happy to out on the road and supporting a great cause.

In other news – it’s week 12 of the #OneSmallChange Challenge! For the past 11 weeks I’ve been joining with others to make small changes each week. You can check out weeks 1 – 11 HERE. This has been a great challenge and I’m really happy with some of the habits that I’ve adopted. For the final week, I’m taking a page from Marcia, (creator of the Challenge), and focusing on some much needed self-care. I’m overdue to book a check-up, the dentist, a mammogram, haircut….you get the idea. So I’ll be taking some time to book a bunch of appointments and start 2014 off on the right foot. First up this afternoon – a massage!

Are you good about booking appointments for yourself or are you last on your to do list?

Filed Under: #13in2013, Small changes

#OneSmallChange Week 9

December 4, 2013 by Michelle 6 Comments

Believe it or not we’re going into week 9 of the One Small Change Challenge!

Thanks to the challenge thrown down by Marcia from Marcia’s Healthy Slice, I’ve been trying to make small changes that will hopefully turn into some good habits. So far my changes have included:

Week 1 – Daily plank routine

Week 2 – Keep my often-cluttered coffee table clutter-free

Week 3 – Increase my daily water intake

Week 4 – Repeated Wk 3

Week 5 – Daily rolling of my very tight quads and hamstrings

Week 6 – Take time each morning to set my plan/intentions for the day

Week 7 – Plan my strength-training workouts

When I got to week 8 last week I decided it was time to re-group. While some of my small changes were clicking along, others were not — my coffee table was drowning in an explosion of holiday catalogs and the daily rolling had dwindled to nothing. So instead of trying to pile on another change, I used week 8 to get back on track.

Moving on to Week 9, I’m once again sticking with my planning theme and focusing on meal planning. Last minute decisions on what to eat can sometimes lead to less than healthy choices. With the hectic schedule of the next couple of weeks heading into Christmas it’s going to be especially important to have meals planned out.

Do you plan your meals?

What changes have you made lately?

Filed Under: holiday sanity, meal planning, Small changes

Small Change Update – Planning for Strength

November 21, 2013 by Michelle 8 Comments

Well it’s week 7 of the #OneSmallChange challenge! I’m happy to say that my week 6 change to regain control of my day and ever-growing to do list went very well. My planner is my new BFF and I’m feeling less stressed.

So what’s the change for this week?

I’m sticking with the theme of planning – planning my strength workouts.

I’ve been reflecting on the good and not so good of my training and racing this year, and one thing that sticks out for me is my inconsistency in strength-training and cross-training. While I had days ear-marked for strength work, I didn’t have a concrete plan for what to do during each specific workout. If I’m being totally honest, in the absence of a workout to follow, my approach was sometimes willy-nilly.

Going forward I’m going to detail my strength workouts, mapping them out each Sunday for the week (and tracking them along with my runs). Hopefully this will help me to build the consistency and strength I want.

Tell me do you follow a strength/cross training plan or do you tend to wing it?

Filed Under: Small changes, Strength training

#OneSmallChange – Week 6 update

November 14, 2013 by Michelle 10 Comments

Hard to believe it’s week 6 of the One Small Change Challenge! For those of you who don’t know, Marcia over Marcia’s Healthy Slice put out the call to finish the year by building some good habits. The key is to make one small change a week – adding a new change every week.

So how’s it going so far?

Week 1 – Daily plank routine

Week 2 – Keep my often-cluttered coffee table clutter-free

Week 3 – Increase my daily water intake

Week 4 – since things didn’t go so well I repeated Wk 3

Week 5 – Daily rolling of my very tight quads and hamstrings

While I’m still not getting the rolling in on a daily basis, I’m doing it more frequently than I use to so I’ll take that; otherwise I’m feeling like the other changes are becoming much more routine.

Moving on to week 6, my goal is re-gain control of my day! I feel like I’ve been functioning in “reaction mode” lately, and then when I get to the end of my day I’m left wondering why I still have so much left on my to do list. So this week I’m returning to being a more faithful user of my planner. In the mornings, I get my mug of coffee and take a few minutes to my preview everyone’s schedules, identify the “must do’s” vs. “like to do’s” and set my plan/intentions for the day. I use to be pretty diligent about this in the past, and I’m hoping getting back to this routine will help settle things a bit – especially with all the added holiday madness that’s starting to creep in!

What small changes are you making?

Filed Under: holiday sanity, seeking balance, Small changes, to do list

October Rewind and November Goals

November 5, 2013 by Michelle 4 Comments

Well October is quickly in the rearview mirror!

While a very busy month in the RWA household, there wasn’t much running thanks to the fall that left me with this knee — who knew the foot would turn out to be the bigger issue?!

There was just enough running/shuffling to get me through the BAA Half to complete the BAA Distance Medley

October was largely about rest and recovery – an exercise in patience that I didn’t prove to be very good at! But my foot is improving and I’m running again, so it was well worth the mileage shrinkage.

November Goals:

Just run! — My biggest goal for this month is to complete all of my training runs. I have five weeks until my December half – and how many training runs I complete and how well my foot tolerates those runs will determine whether or not I’ll take a DNS.

More Small Changes — I joined with Marcia for her One Small Change challenge in October. The goal is to add one small change each week – or you can repeat a week if you need to which is what I’m going to do this week as I didn’t get very far with my plan of daily rolling of my very tight quads and hamstrings.

How was your October? Any big goals for November?

Filed Under: B.A.A. Distance Medley, building good habits, goals, injuries, month in review, Small changes

Coffee and a Friday Five

November 1, 2013 by Michelle 9 Comments

Time really flew this week and somehow it’s already Friday!

So with coffee cup in hand….

World Champs! While I’m first to admit that I’m not a huge baseball fan, I couldn’t help but get caught up in my youngest son’s die-hard excitement for this team. It was great to see them win it all at home!

Needing sleep — Thanks to the late playoff and World Series games, I have been getting to bed waaaay too late which has resulted in too much coffee the next morning. A not so good cycle that I’ll be correcting now that the games are done.

Over 6 pounds — that’s how much candy my oldest hauled in last night trick-or-treating! Yep he weighed it. My youngest had a pretty full bag as too – this could get ugly!

Small Changes — 4 weeks into the #OneSmallChange challenge! Week 4’s water intake was much better so for week 5 I’m adding daily rolling to help ease my crazy tight legs. This was a recommendation of my LMT that I haven’t always made time for.

Running progress — Got back to running this week with a solid 6 miles on Tuesday and track work yesterday. So far my foot has tolerated the runs and I’m babying it in between runs as much as possible. 9 miles on tap for tomorrow and then hopefully a full weeks of training next week.

How’d your week go? What have you got planned for the weekend?

Filed Under: #RedSox, Friday Five, general musings, need more sleep, Small changes

Thursday Thoughts

October 24, 2013 by Michelle 12 Comments

Small Changes — I’m a couple of days behind on my #OneSmallChange update. So I was on a roll with Week 1‘s daily planks and then Week 2‘s keeping my coffee table clutter free, but I hit a bump in the road with Week 3’s change to up my daily water intake. Don’t know why I have such a tough time with this one, but I’ve decided to re-commit to this change for week 4 and see if I have better luck.

Race Debate — I’ve done very little running in the past week and half – in fact I’ve run exactly 3 times. I’ve been trying to give my bum foot and knee as much TLC as possible. And while the knee feels pretty good, my foot was sore after Tuesday’s run. I saw my massage therapist and she treated it and gave me the hairy eyeball when I floated the idea of running in this Sunday’s 5k. The Canton Fall Classic is one of my favorite races – it’s local so I get to see and catch up with a lot of friendly faces – I’d really hate to miss running it. I may hold off till Sunday morning to make the final call on this one.

And speaking of races... I did register for one more half for this year – it’s December 8. Yes I recognize that living in New England the first weekend of December can bring everything from freakishly mild temps to snow, but I’m going to cross my fingers and dig out my Yak-Traks just in case 🙂 My half marathon performance this year has left me underwhelmed to say the least and I’d like to take one last shot at putting together a good race before closing the book on 2013.

So tell me — what’s your best trick for making sure you get enough water? Would you run on Sunday?

Filed Under: #13in2013, Canton Fall Classic, foot pain, hydration, massage, Small changes, to race or not

Small Changes – Week 2

October 16, 2013 by Michelle 5 Comments

It’s time for the One Small Change weekly link-up! Week 2 is done and I’m happy to say that I managed to keep my coffee table this clutter free all week! The trick was to do a quick “drive-by” every morning while I was grabbing my coffee. I also kept up week 1’s daily planks so I’m two for two on the small changes so far. (OK – in full disclosure, I did take race day off on the planks!)

So what’s up for week 3?

More of this

I just don’t drink enough water so I’d like to get at least two more glasses in each day.

Are you making small changes?

Filed Under: hydration, Small changes

Small Changes are Coming

October 8, 2013 by Michelle 6 Comments

How many times have you declared a change/new habit you’d like to see in your life – you start out with a lofty promise/declaration and lots of motivation but over time for a whole host of reasons, some of those new habits just don’t stick? Sound familiar?

Last week Marcia from Marcia’s Healthy Slice announced a great challenge for the final three months of the year — to make one small change each week. The trick is to stick with whatever change you’ve made while adding a new change the following week. Love this idea! While I feel like I’ve been pretty good at tackling some of my bigger goals this year – I still find there are some nagging things that I just can’t seem to get a handle on…like the paper clutter that has taken over various parts of my house despite my best intentions!

For week 1, I decided to return to doing daily planks – that way I ensure that no matter what other exercise I may or may not do, I’ll get some core work every day. And I’m happy to say, that with the exception of Saturday when I took my big tumble, I got my planks done. For week 2, I’m going after some of that aforementioned paper clutter by trying to keep my coffee table clear and organized.

Marcia will be hosting a link-up every Tuesday…and there will even be prizes if you need a little extra push 🙂

Filed Under: building good habits, Small changes