The Tour de Rock Fun Run

The Tour de Rock Fun Run was my first colour run and it was so much fun (wow..that was a lot of rhyming). This was the first year Tour de Rock hosted this event and there are already plans in the works to do it again next year. I'll be there front and center. The run was put on to raise funds for pediatric cancer and truly I can't imagine a more worthy cause, I was happy to support it.

This run is very low key and the focus is on fun. All ages and fitness levels are welcome and the run is not timed. Ella joined me for the race and so did my friend Dana and her two littles.

Here are Ella and I lined up to pick up our races packages which included a t shirt, sunglasses and a bag of colour.

Too cool for school...

As soon as people had colour in hand it was flying around everywhere. It was kind of like begin a kid again.

Once everyone was checked in (and sufficiently colourful) the crowd got together for a group photo, and then started getting warmed up in a quick exercise sesh with Jenn Byrne who is a local fitness instructor.

And then we were off!

The fire department did a good job of getting everyone wet which really helped the colour to stick.

I think the colour station attendees really enjoyed throwing colour on everyone, probably just as much as everyone enjoyed having it thrown on them (lots of people slowed right down or went through again to get the maximum dose of colour). It was definitely thinking ahead in that everyone got sunglasses in their race packages as it saved the eyes from getting doused in powder.

  

It was an easy, mostly flat run and the group (400 + I heard) was an enthusiastic one. Marshall was very excited to see Ella and I come across the finish line.

Aiden happily rang his bells throughout the race!

Watch out!

After the run there were oranges, granola bars and lots of water to go around (as well as a water station halfway through which was much appreciated).

This was a really fun family event as shown by Dana and hers.

Poor Chris was taking pictures so didn't get featured in any, but as always he was there to happily support us and as always I am beyond grateful for that. Love you babe!

We did it Dana! Our first of three 5k's. I'm already looking forward to the next one (which is next weekend!).

I was thrilled to be able to share this with Ella as I really feel like part of living a healthy and fit lifestyle is getting everyone involved. I love my little running partner.

The end of a great morning, we'll be back next year!

Being A Woman

 I made it through the "week before period hell" ( or lady days as we jokingly call it around here...if you haven't seen the commercial that came from you must...hilarious. You can view it here ) and came through the other side. That week is what brings me down...so tired, craving anything salty or chocolatey, and all my motivation says "see you on the other side...if you make it through...". It becomes purely about mental toughness and it's a hard won fight friends. I stay off of the scale, which I try to anyway (it's my nemesis and really not a good indicator of progress) but during this week I know I am particularly susceptible to "all my hard work isn't doing anything so I may as well just give up and eat what I want...yolo baby!". I of course always regret it once I've made it through but at the time I just don't care.

I really pushed myself hard to exercise even though it was really challenging and everything ached, and I only mildly indulged my cravings. It was worth it, as I knew it would be. I took this picture to keep myself on track. That's progress...I'm actually getting some nice definition in my arms.

I got on the scale today too and after much hard work and multiple workouts a day I am down 12lbs since March 29th. That's decent for five weeks, more than two pounds a week and I am doing it with a reasonable diet which has not been my M.O. in the past. I am not cutting anything out. I get sad on no carbs and while I've mostly cut sugar I really enjoy my morning tea with sugar in it. I don't want to feel like I'm depriving myself as for me that's just not sustainable. I'm not trying to fit into a dress for an upcoming wedding in two weeks (or something else to that effect), what I want is steady long term progress. This is about becoming fit and healthy.

I am excited for the Colour Run coming up in Ladysmith next weekend. I think it will be so much fun and my daughter Ella can't wait. I'm thrilled to be able to run this with her, not only is it excellent mom and daughter time but I also feel like I'm setting a great example for her on the importance of being active and having fun while doing it. Fitness isn't a chore, it's a positive thing, both mentally and physically..a must!

I saw my sister in law last weekend and we had a nice chat about running (she runs much faster and farther than I do) and the importance of cadence. I tend to run with fairly long athletic strides, but she suggested faster and shorter strides to increase speed. I tried this at the track a couple of days ago, repeating "light and quick, light and quick" (thank you for that Mandy!) in my head while I went and my pace was quite a bit faster. My average is usually about 7.10-7.25 min/k and this run was 6.41 min/k as you can see here from my Map My Run app.

I'm continuing to do the Kayla Itsines workouts (and they continue to be really hard..lol) as well as some yoga to keep everything stretched out and limber. It's that effort everyday that brings change.

Hope you're having a great week!