Featured photo credit: Lululemon Seawheeze 2014

The simple first step towards a healthier lifestyle is to make movement a priority.

I feel as if I’ve been a bit slack lately with my workouts and training. Not to say I haven’t been doing active things though. Work got busy and with that, the workouts became less frequent. After the Niagara Falls kettlebell competition in June, I took a summer break from kettlebell lifting. I dusted off my soccer shoes, shopped for some new soccer gear (always my favourite part about starting a new sport!) and played on my friends’ soccer team on Sundays as a sub (our team won the finals!!), did 1 or 2 boot camp classes on week nights, and did lots of walking and rollerblading.

To keep me motivated, I’ve recently set a couple of fitness goals for myself to work on over the next year. The goal being to force myself to step out of my comfort zone and push forward. To sweat with purpose!

Lululemon SeaWheeze 2015
Yep, I’m crazy and this just happened. On September 10, I signed up for my first half marathon and I don’t even run! I actually hate running but I love all things Lululemon and the thought of getting a pair of limited edition LLL Speed Shorts with registration kind of enticed me! Whatever motivates you, right? This was impulsive goal setting at its best. Saw a Facebook post about last years’ SeaWheeze event then found out the registration for this one was 2 days later, and I jumped on it! So now one of my fitness goals will be to crush a 20.1km run 11 months from now. I did do a lot of running during soccer and the recent Electro Dash 5k run…so with some extra training and dedication, maybe this won’t be too bad!

The Lululemon SeaWheeze is a yoga.run.party described as being the most fun half marathon in the world where participants get to take part in huge outdoor yoga classes before the big race and the Sunset Festival after the run, for more yoga, food, and a concert. I just know it’s going to be one incredible summer weekend in Vancouver. I’ve only been to Vancouver for snowboarding, so it’ll be nice to see the city during warmer climates.

Just registering for this event was an adrenaline rush in itself. Apparently, this event is so popular that it ALWAYS sells out within an hour! Needless to say, I made sure I was on my computer at 1pm sharp (10am PST – Vancouver time) ready to reserve my spot and Paul’s (yep I dragged him into doing it with me too!) – ’cause it’s always better to have a training partner to suffer with, motivate, and share the finish line victory with!

Unsure of the chances of securing 2 spots, I had 2 computers going at once. Once I hit the register button, both screens went straight to the ‘waiting room’. Lucky for me, they both got in within the first 10 minutes and I quickly signed us up. Then within 40 short minutes, and 10,016 people later, this event was completely sold out! CRAZY!

I’m beyond excited to be making the Lululemon SeaWheeze my first half marathon. From what I’ve heard, if you’re going to do your first half marathon, this is the ONE to do. It’s going to be an exciting, possibly grueling new training journey, experience and a great way to cross train with all the other activities I like to do. It’ll help me with my GPP.

Paul and I have already started training! Did a 4km, 5.5km, 4.8km, 5km run, and will be doing another one or two this week! I hate running but am slowly trying to work up my endurance by doing a lot of run/walk intervals. So far I can barely run 1km without wanting to stop. Running is hard! I’m always running to keep up with Paul but that’s ok. Motivates me to get better and I never step down from a challenge. Also, gotta run while the weather is still warm-ish ’cause I know once winter hits, it’s going to be difficult getting motivated to run in the cold! I’m just glad I have 11 months until the BIG event. In the meantime I am enjoying this indian summer we are having in Toronto.

Kettlebells
In addition to adding some more frequent kettlebell fitness workouts to my routine, I am also back on the road to achieving CMS with the 20kg kettlebell for Long Cycle. This will pose a big challenge to my physical and mental comfort zones, but I know this will be the only way to make progress, especially since I have a high level goal in mind, and the fact that I took a couple of months off training didn’t exactly help my cause. My last 2 competition attempts were 84 and 86 reps, but my ultimate goal will be to achieve 100+ reps the next time I compete. This is probably going to be what most of my winter training will be comprised of, especially on those cold days where I don’t feel like being outdoors.

My first GS training session consisted of 3-minute ladder sets of one arm long cycle with the 12, 16, 18, and 20kg bells. I got 34reps 12kg, 31reps 16kg, 30reps 18kg, 27reps 20kg. Since then I’ve been adding time/volume and working my way back up to doing a full 10 minute set once again. It’s not going to be easy but someone’s gotta do it!

I will be posting progress updates as I continue training and working towards these goals.