Well we are officially a month in to the new year. How are you doing with sticking to your new year goals? And by that I do not mean have you hit the potential outcome goal you have set BUTTTT… what have you been doing in the process to make the outcome goal a reality?
In order to make goals happen we need to work on step goals on the weekly or even on the daily. What have you been changing in your daily life to have a positive effect on attaining your outcome goal? Or maybe it is even an approach to a certain thing you are intending on changing. How is it doing?
The nice thing about this is if you truly do make positive changes no matter what the outcome is you can be proud of what you have accomplished through the changes you have made. So fun right??! There is really no way to fail.
Hopefully you have written down the goals somewhere and now you can check in on them. If you check in on them and realize you have not been able to stick with what you set out to do. Ask yourself why? And is it a goal you really want to attain? Did you set out the correct process to get you there? If not, what steps could you take in the process to make the outcome successful?
There are always things we can do to be better. But we do not have to do them all at once. So chose the ones that you are most motivated to do and stick with them, I am sure they will pay off.
For me I have continued to meditate for 10mins per day which has been helpful. I have also been trying to change my mindset as to not allow fear to hold me back.
I have also been food prepping like crazy with the intent to try to eat more but in order to do this I need to have more prepared food available for myself. It has been great so far.
Here are the recipes I have been using as of lately:
Chicken and rice soup— freezes nicely which is awesome
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/chicken-rice-soup-2695883
Sweet potato shepherd pic— also freezes well and is delish!
https://therealfoodrds.com/shepherds-pie/
My old go tos are chilli and superhero muffins which have all been great as well. I have also been trying to make energy balls as an easy high cal snack as well.
I also had my blood taken with Inside Tracker https://www.insidetracker.com/ last week and should get results this week. So I look forward to hearing how I can optimize my nutrition.
As stated previously as well I have continued to use the Whoop https://whoop.com/ and I must admit it has been quite eye opening. In regards of the strain running and training has on our bodies and our ability to adapt. I will write more on it in a separate blog but it has been really fun to watch.
There are always areas we can improve on and sometimes they may seem like small things but they can make a huge difference in your training and recovery. Remember in order to train hard you must also recover hard which is often forgotten. As runners we are great at pushing ourselves but it is important you are also willing and allowing yourself to recover fully. If not your body will not be able to adapt to the training load and you leave yourself at risk or overtraining and/or injury.
If your outcome goal is a shiny new PB in a race. Here are some ideas of things you can try to improve on:
-work on sleep (*this is when our bodies adapt to the strain we put on them— lack of sleep = lack of adaptation)
-work on recovery through active movement and stretching—The Runner’s Academy has some great runner movement flows on YouTube check them out: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmaQ4Bz7nFgGHF3OuxhqAeQ // And here is a link to the active isolated stretches from Wharton Health I highly recommend for post run: https://www.instagram.com/p/BYONAf0gx6I/?hl=en&taken-by=torunningchiro
-work on strength at the end of the day we could all be stronger and if it is the marathon you are training for… let’s face it you need to be strong. Areas of focus for most runners should be core and single leg stability. Check out The Runner’s Academy Instagram for lots of great ideas: https://www.instagram.com/therunnersacademy/?hl=en
-be proactive—if there is something that is persistent through your runs and consistent every run then it is probably worth getting checked out. Do not wait until it has completely taken you out of running. I know some people at The Runner’s Academy that would love to help you out 😊 http://therunnersacademy.com/
-training smart—making sure you are running with purpose and that means easy days are easy, hard days are hard and days off are OFF // along with this no big jumps in mileage or long run distances try to stick within that 10% rule
So I hope this gives you some motivation to change some daily steps in the process toward your outcome goals. I look forward to seeing lots of goal crushing this spring season!
Toronto Running Chiro 