Measurement of Time..

As track athletes we always seem to be chasing that elusive number. How quick can we get there, and what can we do to get there? You ask yourself, what's it going to take? What do I need to do to be the best? For me it is quickly turning in to an obsession. Everything I do I ask myself, will this help me? Every week seems to be a progression, even if minor, there is still constant movement forward.

That battle that I can find difficult sometimes is:

How much is too much?

By that I am saying if I run for 30 minutes instead of 20 am I really helping myself, or am I furthering my chance of injury. On my off days I am discovering what is an appropriate workout for active recovery. I'd rather run, I want to get outside and feel the pounding of the track on my legs. I want to feel the struggle of trying to keep my form together. I treat every training session as a challenge. If that happens to be a speed day or a tempo day, I treat it the same, and there is no room for mistakes, or lack of effort. So as much as I want to be out there, I am learning that there is such a thing as too much, and I am working at setting limits for myself. This is especially important since I seem to be red-lining injuries these days. (Isn't every track athlete?!)


Since the last time I posted I ran a new training mile pb of 5:55... That would be a 26 second pb. I blitzed the other two girls and was close behind the two guys. Not bad for a 400m hurdler I'd say ;) . My fitness seems to be coming a long, and I'm happy to say that it will only improve as I am putting it up on the list of priorities right now.

Nom nom.

There is nothing quite as satisying as beating your training partners in practice, or setting new training pbs. Which I accomplished both during the mile. Many times I have mentioned that you can't be comparing your journey to other team mates, but I find this hard. I am always measuring my runs to my team mates. Perhaps this can be harnessed to providing good motivation to become better. I will tweak this.


Another fantastic workout was 6x200m off 2min rest. 31, 31, 30, 29, 29. Coming from a distance background, I have this great skill of being able to hold on, and cut down time pretty efficiently in reps.
/proud moment

While others are breaking down, you need to hold on and persevere.

Why are you here? Remember to answer this question every time you train, every time you are on the track. Every session is valuable, so work hard, and learn from it.

100mH Alternates Video

Configuration..

Good day to all. Today is a bit of a discussion on running in to complications with the diet, but the big topic on today's blog will be discussing motivation and having positive support in your life.

As people, we all struggle with finding motivation to do things. Getting there is half the battle, and when you arrive, all follows in to a dominoe effect of completion. As track athletes, I think we struggle a little bit differently. Getting there isn't half the battle, it's completing the work out. I have a long day at work, my my day starting at 6:15am. Practice starts at 5:30pm, so by this time it's all ready a 11 hour day and we haven't even started the main part of the workout ;) ... The hard part is knowing you have to complete the workout. It's the part where you know you have to exceed the standards. You can't just "run." There needs to be heart in it. There needs to be a huge amount of focus. You can't just run it to what's expected, you need to push yourself to better your standards, because you won't get anywhere being complacent.

Einstein once said that a crazy person is someone who does the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. So that's it. That's what it is. There is no running in your comfort zone. It's a huge mental piece of work to stay strong through a practice. You're fighting your own battle and you can't rely on your team mates to carry your times. Most of the time they seem to be wrong with pacing any way ;) You can't focus on where they are. YOU are training by yourself. YOU and YOU alone. 

The physical pain I can handle, unless it's injury type pain, which then causes me emotional type pain. HA, funny how that is. I hate cutting practices short, like Monday's practice. 300 (45), 200 (30), 200 (29) and 3x150m. 50m in to the 150 running by myself the quad jolted.. There's a big lump there, it's annoying. I haven't been able to roll it out, well... I TRIED, no luck. 

We don't necessarily like practice, but we know it's what makes us get to the top. It's the hard expectations we put on ourselves not to fall short that makes training difficult sometimes.

This is why it's very important to keep positive people in your life. Negativity isn't tolerated well when it's constant. I've realized this over the years after removing some people from my life. If your life is negative, FIX IT!!! IT'S THAT SIMPLE!! There is a solution for everything. Bring positive people in your life and everything improves. 

I'm happy for the people in my life, they teach you things. Friends are everything to me.

My mother once laughed and told me... "Melissa, they have no idea who you are now.. but they will fear your name one day again." Talking about entering in to races. THIS is what i'm talking about. Some people are so afraid to sound cocky or super confident to their friends, but you have no idea how great positive words can be. I think you can change a whole person's day by your words.

I always do my best to see this in people and give them affirmations.

FOOD!! I made the best food, and I have a new recipe I created.. Melissa's killer beans:

Beans

Bacon fat

Chili flakes

Poultry spice

Garlic

BOOM! Done, amazing.

I also made a super easy dish, I don't even know what it was, but the acidity of the tomatoes is cut by the yams.

The "Dish"

Grassfed beef

Garlic

Dill

Cilantro

Bacon pieces

Yams cooked and diced

Crushed tomatoes

2 farm fresh eggs

Half an avocado

Red pepper

Although "THE DISH" is amazing, I think I could live on a steady diet of my killer green beans.. MMMMM NOM NOM NOM.

Eating is super hard, how do you do it? Paleo, not paleo, 4 hour body by Tim Farris. SO MANY RULES?! It all can be so contradicting and I'm not sure what to do some days. Especially since the world athletics nutrition guide is also different. It said not to eat lentils. Phytic acid. I'm back on lentils now. Lentils = Lose weight, fill you up.

Sigh, I'm sure it will all make sense eventually. I want my damn cheat day though.

Good day! (british accent)

M

Steps in the right direction..

It's monday the 5th. The first work day of the new year. Is it wrong if I was excited to come in to work today? It's good to have a positive group of friends at your work to make it worthwhile to come in. It's fun to share stories and laughter.  People want to pick my brain about my new diet... AND THAT COFFEE THO.

Today was my frist experience trying the Buleteproof coffee. For those who don't know what this is, it's  black coffee with copious amounts of fat.. 2 tbsps butter and 2tbsp MCT oil. I opted only for the grass fed butter approach, and not 2 tbsps worth.. Maybe just 1? Now I was unable to blend it, but it still tasted pretty damn good over my Stirhouse Kenyan pour over. My new daily start is a whey shake with water, and then I tried this coffee. I lasted til about 11 without eating. I think I could last til 12, but I'm not sure how my colleagues would feel about me not eating. ;) I also don't think I like the lack of nutrients, and copious amounts of fat. I am not going to lie, the new fat in my diet is pretty fun, I seem to have more energy. I may just have a heart attack, that's all. Ha.

Today will be a super experimentation with carbs. I will have lunch as my last meal til training, with heavy carbs following practice. The thought here is no/minimal carbs until after training. Lunch will be protein citttyyyyyyy BOOM!

Friday I had the liberty of finding out my favourite organic place, Organic World in maple ridge, was closed forever. I don't think I need to go to maple ridge every again, ha. I managed to find a place close by that carried grass fed beef.  This is a new concept for me, going from eating chicken to beef.

What macro's do you guys follow? Post in the comments section below.

Saturday practices are always pretty intense, and the lovely Christine is now coming to practice. This made things a little interesting, as now I have a 3rd in Canada hurdler to train with.

3 sets of 2x300's Yummy.. Consistant 52,56 throughout, with my stronger run being the second one of each set surprisingly. This was a good day, and it was good to start getting on a structured path. It's amazing how much we as humans need structure. I could go on forever about how I think it's so good for people, but I'll spare you the details today.  A good weekend, and a great sense of control coming in to the new year with my life. I see exactly where I want to go and the things that are required to get there. I have great feelings about this year in all parts of my life. I think my multiple decisions about coaching will also play a huge positive role in my life this year.

Now if we could only get through these torrential down pours? I almost want to buy one of those fancy fire places.

My advice to my readers today: Be in control of your life. If you don't like something, fix it! Everything is easy if you make it easy. :)

Enjoy the day, and train through the rain, no excuses.

M Dawg.

Florida training

It's that lovely time of year where the work load increases. In all manners of the expression: work, training, and of course Christmas "errands." With the hustle and bustle of the daily life, and Christmas being added to this, the anxiety can be over consuming. Saying no to the treats being brought to work is a hard concept to swallow. HA.

The last two months have had a lot of anxiety.  I've switched teams, started working seven days a week, and have brought a lot of new things in to my life. It's not just having one thing, it's having all of them be  cumulative.  With my need for control it makes things a tad bit interesting.

I struggle with anxiety. Okay I said it. I think a little bit differently than your average person. I work constantly at doing my best to control it. Sometimes it slips through.  You need the right people in your life who know how to handle you and this minor issue for it to flow easily.  More work to be done, always of course. 

My point that I was sliding in to.. I am currently in Florida for a training camp with Tyrone's group. I was getting burnt out with the busy schedule I was keeping. I have faith that January will be less stressful, especially coming in to it from this camp.  It's going to be a great trip to learn some new things, and having all the time in the world to do it. 

This camp will encompass great biomechanics, healthy eating, the perfect warm weather for sprint training, and hopefully a safe return from a level 1 calf strain from almost three weeks ago.

The strain put a big hamper in my training, but It's better it happened now and not in March. The last thing I need is to be plagued by another injury. Speaking of which, the achilles have held up tough.. Gerry Ramogida is the best physical therapist! I can't say enough about him and the rest of the Fortius Institute. 

I flew in yesterday, and today was a shake out day with warm up and drills. We are heading into tomorrow with likely some light tempo RAWR.

I'm very happy to be here, and I am slowly unwinding from a very busy December.  This is super good for me.

M out

SICK DAY!! WOOOO!!

So thursday I trained trails. the last few days I wasn't feeling the best, so took out the weights. SURE ENOUGH, I am sick today. Joyous, I am sooo thankful. Oh yeah, right.

Diet has been sub par the last few days. I mean, in my books sub par... Healthy eating for a good portion of the day until dinner time.. and the wine has made a few appearances the last few days... Damn long weekend..

I'm sick. im tired..

On a side note I got a new pb on the 600m loop through the trails... 2:13 not bad..

That was saturday morning. The sets were good. 2:24, 2:28, 2:25, 2:22, 2:13

I KNOW, I KNOW, don't hate on the last one. I got a little too competitive haha.

Sorry my lack of engrish skills today, I really just am not happy with this nose running all over the place.. Of course my first track day with the new team is on wednesday HAHA,

Can we say, more oil of Oregano please? Any other recommendations?

I hammered out a 450lb leg press today.. this was after doing many at 300+ something. I know, doing one looks kinda fail,  but my legs had all ready done squats and many heavy leg presses!!!

-Sickly M out

Monday Rawr.

----MONDAY----

My legs are absolutely trashed from the last 2 leg workouts. No running today! Just 2   30 minute walks.

Gym was back, tris, and military press.  Did some abs but was limited on time.

Going to incorporate olympic lifting in my workouts soon. Will be working on that plan..

Nutrition was ideal except for scarfing 4 pumpkin protein cookies at night.. ha will freeze them next time.

7am- oatmeal
9:30 apple and almonds
12:30 black spaghetti
2:30 more spaghetti
4:30 protein cookies
7:00 uber protein shake

M out.

SATURDAY FUN DAY!!

Well crap, this weekend has sure tripped on by way too fast. Not doing as much as I would find pleasing on the social aspect, but enough to wet my fancy.

Nutrition was a bit tough today with all the outings but I think I did very well. Learnt how to cheat properly. We'll work it off tomorrow. Do you know what tomorrow is? Kick some ass day.


Finished my  regular natural BCAA's... Had to buy this today. ICK. I love sucralose just as much as I need a hole in my head. It's not too bad I suppose. No stimulants = excellence.

 

Bought this at Popeye's today. Less fat than real peanut butter. Less protein though :(

I dont know what happened to my awesome long post but it's not here?!! What gives.. well I'll fix it up a little bit I suppose

Mile time trial won and bettered: trails.... 6:27

Felt really good about the time trial.... Pace was set, and I even started going the wrong way, but thankfully near the beginning, and my team mates told me I was going the wrong way, so I had to recover a few seconds. Excited to try it again in the future to see how much I've improved. God I love time trials.

After trails I battered off a decent gym workout. Back and tri's... Did a few shoulder exercises. Med ball abs and some floor abs.

Nutrition was decent today. I went to the whitecaps game and ate some chili, it was the healthiest option. Went for dinner afterwards and had a super awesome kale quinoa tuna salad. 

Also half a bottle of wine, half a cheese cake, and a mocha with almond milk. FUEL FOR TOMORROW'S BEAST DAY RAWWWRRRR

M Out