challenge

in the woods

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Oh May. You are jammed packed with action – it’s hard to keep up.

Two weekends ago was the Eco-Endurance Challenge – an exciting and challenging eco-adventure hosted outside Halifax, Nova Scotia. The E2C is physically and mentally demanding, with an event area of more than 100 km2 of thick forests, wet bogs, fast flowing streams and miles of backwoods trails and cart tracks.

It’s a 24-hour event (from noon to noon) and I have done it with my mom (and sister Jill / cousin Kathleen / and mom’s hiking friend Alice) more times than I can count. You use your map and compass and have only a few hours prior to the start to decide a POA. What’s cool is there are all sorts of teams including trail runners, orienteers, mountain bikers, military, SAR, competitive, recreational, young, old and even a few dogs.

Here are some pictures from this year – we had great success. Success being measured for us not by winning, but by surviving… finding every checkpoint we searched for, no epic fails (unlike 2013) and injury free. EcoChalleng_16.1 EcoChalleng_16.2 EcoChalleng_16.3 EcoChalleng_16.4 EcoChalleng_16.5 EcoChalleng_16.6 EcoChalleng_16.7 EcoChalleng_16.8With my excellent search and rescue skills, I managed to find some old, older and really old pictures from past years. As I was once reminded… “it’s not a fashion show out there”!

2015: (cancelled because we had TOO MUCH SNOW)

2014: Jill, Alice, Mom and I had a great year. It was wet but we did well. We heard coyotes and persevered. EcoChalleng_14.1 EcoChalleng_14.2 EcoChalleng_14.3 EcoChalleng_14.42013: Jill, Alice, Mom and I had an epic fail. This happens when you get so lost that you are actually no longer on your map. We literally kissed the trail when we found it. EcoChalleng_13.1 EcoChalleng_13.2 EcoChalleng_13.3 EcoChalleng_13.4 EcoChalleng_13.52012: Alice, Mom and I on the goEcoChalleng_12.12011: My cousin Kathleen joined us one year – she was such a treat to haveEcoChalleng_11.1 EcoChalleng_11.2I can’t recall how many years it goes back for me but here are some more shots from other years.

2007:EcoChalleng_07.12006:EcoChalleng_06.1 DSC02210.JPG DSC02215.JPG2005: This was the wettest and worst weather ever. It poured all night and we stopped at 2:30 amEcoChalleng_05.1 EcoChalleng_05.2 EcoChalleng_05.3 EcoChalleng_05.4

-EcoChalleng_old2 -EcoChalleng_old4 DSC02211.JPGTrust me, it is truly an adventure! I strongly encourage you to polish up on your compass skills and meet us out in the woods next year. After all, it’s for a good cause – Halifax Ground Search and Rescue. So If you do get lost, they’re great to have handy!

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5 things

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I’m tired. Too tired to recap the Eco-Challenge so here’s a little update on other business to hold you over. It’s been a while since I’ve done a five things report.

  1. $30 later, I am blending! (way cheaper than a Vitamix) A few weeks ago I mentioned my blender woes and asked for some shopping advice. Thanks for all of your recommendations! In the end, Cameron, Malcolm and Erin saved the day by convincing me to search for parts for my Breville. Well it wasn’t easy – she’s been discontinued for years – but, I found a part and voila! I am making smoothies again baby!
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  2. Speaking of Erin… Congratulations! She sent me a letter (snail mail style) all they way from Cole Harbour and has won some stationery treats!
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  3. Jill sent my Uuni love story to Uuni and I made their Facebook page. The love is mutual! #swoon.
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  4. Who’s still planking? Day 68. I am not going to lie – I forgot to plank two times. The first time I actually woke up at 3:00am in a semi-induced panic-attack because I forgot to plank. I almost jumped out of bed to plank and then realized the time. It was too late. A new day. Doomed. On a side note, I did not miss one single day of running until yesterday! I walked 20 hours straight and was too tired to run so that’s it. Steak over. I’m okay with ending it – May is quite active with the Eco-Challenge, Bluenose half marathon and a 3:45 am leg start at the Cabot Trail Relay so I think I need to take rest days more seriously.
    plank
  5. I have baby names on my mind (nope, not pregnant!)… When I saw this tweet I puked a little in my mouth. Really? This can’t be real. I will talk more about the name game later. Like wearing PJs in public, I am a total unauthorized judgy snob about names.
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That’s all. It’s Monday. Damnnnn

Have a good one!

psst. If you like what you’re reading, please subscribe and share. xomeg (as you see from #2 above, there are prizes to be won!)

challenge accepted

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Oh, it’s on y’all. New challenge: #100plankstreakplankMy friend Sabrina suggested this after writing about the (not-so) conclusion to my 100 day running challenge. Try to hold plank for three solid minutes… Play around and move through different positions all, while holding yourself up the whole time.

You can do this on the road, in a plane, in a field, before or after a workout but no need for gym clothes – you can plank wearing anything. Heck, go to a barre class and you will be planking with friends! All you need is a stopwatch and 3 minutes. Who’s in?

Let me know if you are accepting the challenge and keep us posted on your progress. Sabrina and I are on day 5 but today can be day 1 for you!

psst. I like to hold front for a minute, then 30 seconds on each side and bring it home with a little downward dog-pushup-planking.
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100 days of running

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I survived the 100 day running streak … barely. Today I fell HARD. At 6km into an 8km run, I slid across the sidewalk like a baseball player diving for home base. Luckily it was 6:15 am and no one in sight. I hobbled over to a stoop, assessed the damage (cut knee and some minor road burn on my palms, shoulder and hip) but I was okay and lightly jogged the 2km home. Not a great way to end a streak but as they say: No pain. No gain.

Way back in November, Runner’s World kicked off a social media campaign encouraging people to try a running streak from Thanksgiving (American) to New Years day – Run at least one mile everyday. #RWRUNSTREAK:

The run streak is designed to keep you running through the holiday season, and to bridge the gap between fall races and training for the spring. It can be difficult this time of the year to keep your running on track—but it’s much easier if you have a goal and a plan. The goal is simple: Run at least one mile per day, every day, starting on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 26) and ending on New Year’s Day (Friday, January 1). That’s 37 consecutive days of running.giphyMyself and a few friends accepted the challenge and off we went. Actually, we started a few days early to round-up the streak to 40 days instead of 37 because 37 is such an odd number to aim for and we’re not American so it made sense. We did it and then Tim and I just kept going. giphy (1)Here’s what I’ve learnt from my 100 day running streak:

  • It’s a lot easier than you think. 1 mile (or 2 km … which I did because again, 1.67 km seems like an odd goal for us metric-o-holics) can be done even when your day is busy, the weather is terrible, you are feeling like crap or all of the above – it takes less than 15 minutes to complete.
  • There were days I only ran 2 km… I got sick, I was travelling, I needed a rest day… and there were days I dragged Henry along (old dog doesn’t run fast) so my pace was crazy slow but I still did it.
  • It’s a good opportunity to work on hill training or speed-work because it’s only 2 km.
  • It’s addictive.
  • It bumps up your monthly milage in an unexpected way (I have run 549.99 km in 100 days = ~5.5km/day)
  • Sometimes the stress of getting out for a run in harder than the run. Ex: Text from Tim day 96: “My flight was scheduled to get in last night at 9:15, so I thought I would have time to run when I got home. Ended up getting in at 11:00 pm so I had to run a mile, in my jeans, in the rain, in the wind, under surveillance by the airport security, on the top level of the airport parking lot. And strangely, it was one of my most fulfilling runs”
  • It’s a good excuse to catch up on some podcasts.
  • I am a morning person and get up early to take Henry out regardless so it’s not too hard to add at least 2km to the morning routine if it was not a scheduled run day.
  • For fitbit fans, it will help give you your steps.
  • It helped keep me active during my ‘off season’. (ha, that makes me sound like I’m legit). I had a half marathon in January but other than that, I’ve been pretty chill (lazy) with training.
  • It’s not far. Really.

Why doesn’t everyone run a mile a day?

… Although I strongly recommend streaking, I am thinking about ending this streak. Here’s why:

  • I’m an addict. Like I said, it becomes addictive (especially when you have a co-conspirator). If I don’t stop now, I may never.
  • I can be obsessive and competitive about stuff like this (this may not be a shock to some) I wore a hand-me-down fitbit for a week and it did not go well… It was during the peak of marathon training and I constantly tried to out step my ‘friends’ and even got 50,000 steps in one day. I was way too aggressive for a friendly challenge.
  • I’m tired. Maybe it’s winter, maybe it’s the daily 5:30 am wake-ups but it’s starting to get to me.
  • I want to train for another marathon and/or work harder on speed-work and have read and learnt that rest days are as important as training days.
  • I’m thinking I could try a new 100 day streak… like #plankstreak?

What do you think? Would you try a run streak? Have you? How many days count as a streak?

Should I keep going?

I will let you know what I decide. Below, Florida – when Tim and I took the Monkey Taxi with the families instead of running to the restaurant.IMG_2455psst. If you like what you’re reading, please subscribe and share. xomeg

Give it 100

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Whoa, just had a birthday and I just wrote my 100th blog post. Time to celebrate or time to think about new goals?

Have you heard about the site Give it 100? I saw this video and was inspired. Who wouldn’t be?

I have managed to recruit a few others to join in and come up with a personal challenge. It doesn’t have to be a physical feat (you can aim to knit a sweater, or learn a new language, or master the stick shift) … basically, you think of a goal and give yourself 100 days to achieve it. By signing up, you commit yourself to practicing every day with a 10 second video upload of your daily progress. It is validation of your progress and a visual documentation that you can look back on to see where you started and how far you’ve come. The great thing is it’s your choice to make your journal public or private.

So, with all of this being said, I am aiming to do 100 push ups and 100 crunches within an hour. Not sure if I can do this but I am going to try. The plan is to do 100 of each everyday and by day 100, I can do it all at once. Dream big baby! Right now, my upper body strength is weeeeak … I can do about 10 push-ups in a row and figure the crunches will be my working-recovery in between. It won’t be pretty, and I may not be able to get ‘air’ and ‘hand-claps’ like the girl in the video can but dammit, I am going to try.

Wish me luck or better yet, join the club.

One of my fellow Giveit100 friends is going to work on her handstand. Her plan is to do 15 minutes of handstand work and 15 minutes of forearm balance everyday, which will hopefully lead up to handstand that she can hold at day 100.

Let me know what you sign up for and good luck!

psst. If you like what you’re reading, please subscribe and share. xomeg