New fitness & yoga gear, Tabata workouts & SMART fitness goal setting. 3 things that make for a perfect Sunday morning.
I’m super excited to announce that Lolë Women has chosen me as an ambassador for 2016. I connected with Cherry Johnson, the Toronto community manager at the Smart Girls Sweat event that I spoke at in January and she asked me to come on board. I’m excited to try out the gear in the gym and in the yoga studio. I’m also in love with the opportunity to connect with the community. I’ll be travelling back to Toronto every now and then to connect with those in the Yorkville community with in-store events that involve a workout, up-levelling our life & a shopping party.
Last Sunday, I lead a Tabata workout to get hearts pumping and bodies sweating before sitting down to talk about fitness goal setting. A Tabata workout is essentially a 4 min session that involves 20s of work then 10s of rest, repeated 8 times. Our session was an hour so I didn’t want to spend the entire time working out. I picked 4 exercises and we rested for about 1 min after each 4 min session which took around 20 mins for the workout!
Download the HITT Timer app and try it yourself. The exercises I picked were:
- Burpees
- Mountain Climbers
- High Knees
- Plank Jacks
I wore the capris in TIDE, the LUMA D-Cup bra in FIERY CORAL MIX which was an amazing support during burpees and high knees, the Elsie top in GREEN TROPIC and my favourite Mizuno running shoes for doing workouts in the Wave Hitogami.
While not your typical workout top I was able to go out for brunch after the workout and not feel like I was still in my gym clothes. I can’t wait to try some of the yoga gear this year! After the workout, I then lead the group through a goal-setting session.
We discussed how I use the DESIRE MAP to figure out how I want to feel when setting goals, the SMART goal-setting method and reverse engineering. Then we worked through everyone setting their own personal goals. I shared that when I set race goals for the year I want to feel Brave, Vital & Inspired. You can read more about my goal setting for 2016 HERE.
And then I broke it down even further and gave the example that I’m running SeaWheeze this year. So my SMART fitness goal is to run a half marathon in August.
Specific: Run a Half Marathon
Measurable: I have to run 21 km to achieve this.
Attainable: I’ve run 2 half marathons before so this is doable. I don’t have a time goal as my health comes first before time goals. I want my training and runs to be fun this year. I don’t want to have to achieve a specific pace so it’s more about staying healthy and pain-free from injuries.
Relevant or Realistic: YUP!
Time-Based: Since the Race is on August 13, 2016, this leaves me 12 weeks to train for it.
I love the women who shared their goals with us during the session. The creator of Smart Girls Sweat, Celine was there and she wants to feel STRONG running her first marathon this year and another woman wanted workouts to be PLAYFUL again and didn’t want them to feel like chores. I’m so thankful for those that attended and felt comfortable sharing. It was a great morning!
And from there we discussed all the other to-do list items that arise from reverse engineering a goal. For the half marathon my brain dump looks something like this:
- 12-Week Training Schedule
- Break-In New Shoes (I have new Mizuno Wave Catalysts to break in!)
- Test out Fuel for Long Runs
- Test out Pre-Race Food Before Long Runs
- Daily Nutrition (ensure I’m consuming more carbs on days leading up to long runs)
- Monthly Massages
- Daily Foam Roll
- Stretch Post Run
From there I plan out my weekly workouts in my planner, ensure I have weekly meal prep scheduled, my other strength & crosstraining workouts, I’ll book massages leading up to the half and ensure I have enough fuel nutrition for a weekend long runs and the day of the race. I’ll add to-do items to my planner along with all my other priorities and ensure I’m only doing 1-3 to-do list items a day in addition to my full-time job & my workouts.
What’s one of your fitness goals for this year? Share in the comments below.