Strong Finish

Last fall, our family’s weekly fitness plans included a lot of long runs for my husband.  He was training for the 3M Austin Half Marathon.  His training went extremely well, and he was hopeful for a good race day.

For anyone who has watched or participated in a distance event, you know that when the weather is fabulous for watching, it’s bad for running– and vice-versa.  Today was the perfect running morning: high 30s, no wind.

I loaded up the car with blankets and my kids (with mugs of hot chocolate for the boys), and we set off for the race course.  My mother was with us, too, as she and my dad had come down from Dallas so my dad could run with my husband.  Now in his mid-sixties, Dad has aches and pains that have slowed him to the point my not-quite-yet-forty husband can keep up with him.  Plus, they had a small but enthusiastic cheering team for this perfect race day.

We saw the guys at 5.5 miles, and they were bang on-pace.  We saw them again at 9 miles, and they hadn’t lost a step.  The kids–even the baby–clapped and whooped it up when they saw their dad and grandfather.  I remember lots of races from my childhood, and the excitement of seeing my dad run by is part of what motivated my interest in running and racing.

I dropped of the cheering squad at home and drove to the finish.  I knew I was there in plenty of time, and lo-and-behold, the guys showed up at their projected time: 1.52.30.  You can see in the photo above– my husband on the left in the black and my dad on the right in the blue cap– that they worked hard all the way to the end.  Months of training had paid off as they met their goal.

It’s good to take a turn as the supporter instead of the participant. It provides a fresh perspective on the excitement and logistics of race day, and it makes me grateful for all the ways my family supports my fitness pursuits.

What’s Your Plan?

With Spring here, it’s a great time to think about setting some new fitness and wellness goals. Maybe you have a new year’s resolution (or three) that has fallen by the wayside; maybe you have a friend who has signed up for an event that sounds like a lot of fun; maybe you’d just like to get outside more while the weather is really nice.

Regardless of your goal, making a plan will help you achieve it. Just like goal-setting in any other part of your life, defining a fitness or wellness goal should be specific and achievable. Having mini-goals along the way can help by providing useful checkpoints along your journey. Finding someone else to work toward the goal with you can keep you motivated while also providing accountability. Most importantly, remind yourself daily why you chose the goal and the feeling you anticipate having upon reaching it.

After your decide on your goal, checkpoints, and accountability, think about how you are going to get there. What concrete steps do you need to take in order to reach your goal? Are these steps required daily or weekly? Is your timeline realistic? Get out your calendar and check! Do you need help or guidance from someone else so that you stay injury-free? Do you own the necessary equipment already, or must you purchase something new? These questions will help ensure that your goal is achievable.

By committing a fitness plan to paper (or pixels), you demonstrate a commitment to your goal. Although you should allow yourself the flexibility to deviate from the plan when necessary, having a plan anchors you should life interfere. Keeping a workout log is a great way to track your progress and provide feedback to yourself about how you feel about your workouts. Know that steady work toward your goal will be rewarded.

Good health and great happiness to you.

Strength in Numbers

A friend sent me a NYT article last week that discusses how some “hidden” motivators are what really keep people engaged in exercise. According to a motivational psychologist quoted in the article, the social and psychological benefits reaped from exercise are what increase ahearance to a fitness program.

Some people learn this lesson early by participating in team sports in high school. But then, as an adult, they no longer have an obvious connection to a group of like-minded fitness enthusiasts. For me, finding this group was a significant part of my personal development. The women with me in the above photo were my teammates from Cambridge Sports Union, a running club to which I belonged when I moved to Boston nearly sight-unseen in 1998. The members of CSU became my friends, and our socializing centered around training runs, races, and the ever-present post-run brownie. By participating in CSU, I had a group of friends who shared my passion for running, and they challenged me to improve each and every time we put foot to pavement.

Even now in my personal fitness endeavors, I enjoy group classes. I like learning how to do new things and discovering how different activities challenge my body in different ways. I’ve recently taken some rowing classes at Flywheel Fitness, geeking out over the technique of a sport to which I’m totally green. I appreciate the programming done by the instructor which ensures a good workout and the encouragement and technical advice she gives during the class. Seeing familiar faces week after week builds camraderie, knowing that we are all on a common quest for fitness. Sure, I’d still get a good workout if I was by myself, but it’s definitely uplifting to know I’m not working so hard all alone.

The idea of social and psychological motivators to exercise is also evident in my work as a personal trainer. I see the community that has formed in my Well-Balanced Morning circuit training class. In a group of eight-ten regulars over the course of a year, we have gone from being strangers to a group of friends who do everything from swap babysitting to mentoring another member through career change. We have grieved with and helped support one participant whose daughter had a tragic accident, and we celebrated when one participant finished her PhD coursework. Building a community of friends wasn’t my primary intention when starting the class, but being with a group of people whose company you enjoy certainly makes it easier to get up for exercise at 6am three days a week.

So whether it’s finding a workout buddy, a team, or trying a group class, I challenge you to find how having company along on your fitness journey can make the trip more enjoyable. After all, there’s strength in numbers.

Good health and great happiness to you.

Being Thankful

If there is a better way to start a Thanksgiving day than running from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back over the Brooklyn Bridge, I don’t know what it is. Oh, wait. Yes I do. It is running from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back over the Brooklyn Bridge with your best friend.

(Confession: My husband and I preemptively assuaged our guilt for not taking our boys to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade by taking them to see the already-inflated balloons on Wednesday night. We hedged our bets by saying that the weather was likely to be poor (it was, after all, late November in New York City), and our little Texans were not likely to want to sit out in the cold and wind. How were we to know it was going to be an absolutely gorgeous–sunny, still, and perfectly crisp– Thanksgiving morning?!)

My husband and I left the boys with their grandparents and set off for an easy four-mile run. We don’t get to run together all that often, so we use the time of relative quiet to talk about both the nuts-and-bolts of our family life as well as our hopes and dreams for ourselves and our boys. Settling into the rhythm of the run, we talked through the ups and downs of the suspension bridge. We took in the Manhattan skyline set out before us, and the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor to the left. Also on the bridge were walkers, runners, and cyclists of all sizes, shapes, colors, and ages. What a portrait of America, so apt for the day. We breathed deeply at the turnaround in Manhattan, ready to run up the rise of the bridge and head back to our family in Brooklyn. It was, after all, the birth of our neice and nephew less than three weeks ago, that prompted our holiday visit to New York.

For the blessings of new babies, family, good health, and the hopes and dreams central to being American, we are grateful.

High-Flying Friends

Last Sunday, I had the joy of watching one of my oldest and best friends take her first trapeze lesson. M was a willing participant, but she admitted to me on the drive to the Trapeze Experience rig that she was a bit nervous. She was in good hands, though, as our facilitators Russell, Spencer, and Gary are fantastic with new flyers. While M took her ground lesson, I headed up to the platform to being my swing and layout practice.

M struggled a bit on her first attempt at the knee hang, but by her third try she had it perfect. Shortly thereafter, Gary climbed up into the catchtrap, and the next thing M knew she had successfully completed her first mid-air transfer on the flying trapeze! It was so exciting for her; it was also exciting for me, though, to see her feel the thrill of flying. After several other successful catches, M learned a new trick on her very first day.

To make the experience even better, our class was the final session at which “Uncle Tony” Steele was facilitating. A legend in the trapeze world, Uncle Tony has been flying since he was a child. He is the greatest living trapeze artist, having trained people from everyday folks like me to circus performers to celebrities to stuntpeople. Uncle Tony told some pretty corny jokes, but his enthusiasm for trapeze– and sharing his knowledge with others– was infectious. It was also pretty amazing to see him, at age 74, still throw a double back flip.

My lesson for the day came not so much in my work on the trapeze– it was a rather poor day for me, actually– but in my head and heart. From M I learned how fulfilling it can be to watch someone learn something new. Certainly I get that lesson regularly from my kids, but to see an adult tackle a new challenge is equally rewarding. And to see Uncle Tony still doing what he loves with such grace and power and fun is inspirational. It was a full body-mind sense of happiness, completeness, and exhaustion at the end of the lesson.

Is there anything better than sharing something you love with someone you love? I think not.

What’s holding you back?

I posed a question to my favorite citizens of mama-nation this week: what is the single biggest obstacle keeping you from achieving the level of fitness you’d like to have?

As you might imagine, a lot of the mamas said time.  After all, who doesn’t wish for a secret hour or two of ALL ME time each and every day.  Alas, that doesn’t exist.  So we press on with our multiple and always-changing priorities, often forgetting to put ourselves anywhere on that list.  Time then goes by, we haven’t done much to take care of our bodies, and we fall asleep exhausted at the end of another long day.

My mamas were honest that the siren song of food is another stumbling block.  I think that the powerful stigmas associated with food make us feel far worse about our diets than the food itself.  Perhaps allowing one’s self to eat a little of what one craves isn’t so bad– it keeps us from bingeing and also reminds us to savor what we consume.  Eating thoughtfully is key to gaining not only fitness but also wellness.

I think the biggest surprise to me was that a lot of my mamas admitted lacking motivation to exercise.   Sure, we all know exercise is good for us.  We all know that to be healthy we need to exercise.  But at the end of the day, sitting on the couch feels so good.  How do we resolve the lack of motivation? 

I recommend exercising first thing in the morning.  Even if it just 10 minutes, you have started the day off positively, and you’re more likely to keep those positive actions going all day.  Also, a workout buddy or a personal trainer can provide the accountability some people need to exercise regularly, and they also give you someone to talk with during your workout.

Aren’t you worth it?  What is more motivating than knowing that you’re doing something beneficial for yourself?  Keep a journal of your feelings after you exercise, and I guarantee you’ll see a pattern of positivism develop.  Imagine the power of that positivism spreading throughout your life.  Motivating, isn’t it?!

Good health and great happiness to you.

The Power of Consistency

I’ve been a regular exerciser for most of my life. I can’t remember a block of time when I didn’t exercise. Even after the births of my children– which were blessedly straightforward– I was reestablishing my regular exercise routine in two weeks. It’s just a part of who I am.

But for many people, getting into the habit of exercise is difficult. The key is to remove the roadblock elements and excuses. Are you fantastic at generating a wide variety of reasons *not* to exercise? If so, I suggest trying to exercise first thing in the morning. Set your alarm just fifteen minutes earlier than normal, and get up to go for a walk. It may not seem like much, but you can know that you have done something positive for your health. And do you really miss those last fifteen minutes of sleep? Probably not.

Do you have friends who struggle with exercising? Be a workout buddy. Even ifyou don’t live close enough to be an in-person buddy, use that early morning fifteen minute walk to chat on your cell phone with your friend. Now you’ve started your day with something good physically and emotionally. How is that for motivation?

Finding a group exercise class that fits your personality and fitness level is a great way to exercise consistently. Especially if the instructor knows you and helps you to feel accountable for your attendance, you’ll quickly establish a consistent exercise routine.

The benefits of consistent, regular exercise aren’t just physical. You’ll reap the rewards of less stress, increased blood flow to the brain, and the feel good endorphins that will give you a positive attitude.

Good health and great happiness to you.