Life is what you make of it, and I guess I have chosen to make it a busy one, haha.

Although I stopped rowing competitively, I have been rowing here and there each week as a spare for a local women’s 8+ racing at the upcoming “Head of The Charles” (a big race held in Boston every October).  They are a very competitive crew so I have been very lucky to row with them.  Since it’s an 8+ (eight rowers and one coxie), each rower has one oar – the technique used is called “sweeping”, versus the “sculling” technique I did all summer with two oars.  The one oar used is heavier and your hands move somewhat differently...which is why my hands now look like I was burned – skin ripped and blisters as red as cherries, quite attractive if I say so myselfJ. 

Other than that, I am preparing for a lot of work travel in October – I’ll be going to Indianapolis, Miami and then Boston.  This is why I used all of my spare time this month to get things really going with the charity.

SAVE THE DATE: January 13^th, 2013!

On Sunday Jan 13^th, I will be partnering up with my friend’s AMAZING fitness studio called Work It Out Fitness Studios (http://www.workitoutfitness.ca/) to host our very first fundraiser for Shaping Her Esteem (SHE). 

SHE is the charity I will be starting with my amazing team (Carrie, Trang, Lauren, Robyn, Dan, the guidance of MaRS Discovery, and YOU!)J.  It is an organization dedicated to boosting the physical, mental and emotional self esteem of young women (12-20) through physical activity.  We will have two programs that we plan to launch in the early new year, soon after the fundraiser.

Money collected from the fundraiser will go towards covering rent for program space, equipment (medicine balls, bands, etc), and other start-up costs of the after-shcool programs.  Through donations and fundraising, the goal is to make the programs available for FREE to all girls aged 12 to 16.

All girls have the right to feel valued, confident and empowered!  I am hoping you can help me achieve this through Shaping Her EsteemJ.

Every year Work It Out Fitness Studios fundraises for a local charity.  It was a great success last year for "KidSport", and this year we hope to do the same for SHE.  The fundraiser will be SO MUCH FUN: 1 hour of muscle conditioning, followed by a break to socialize and snack, then 1 hour of ZUMBA!!  Robyn, founder and instructor, is very involved with the community - hosting fundraisers as well as running Corporate Wellness programs.  If you have or are looking to start a wellness program at your work, I strongly recommend Work It Out Fitness Studios, just contact Robyn at robyn@workitoutfitness.ca.

Thank you for following and for your amazing ideas/feedback with respect to the charity!  We are doing this together!

Laura

 

 

 

 

Back to "real life"

Time flies by when you’re having fun!

Coming back from Europe has not been a slow adjustment to say the least, but it’s been an exciting one.  I know I probably should have taken it a bit easier, but with no competitive training on my schedule, I found that I had more energy to burn.  I went back to the office (it will be busy this Fall), picked up spinning (which is SUPER fun and hard!), caught up with some family and friends, AND started on my charity.  As you can imagine, this is not the lightest of schedules, so I will be putting the whole “Ironman” training plan on hold for now – add to the bucket listJ.

The charity has been a lot more work than I initially thought, and rightfully so!  There are people out there who start charities for the wrong reasons, and so that’s why I believe there are many steps required to complete before getting a charity registered and approved.  All the extra requirements won’t stop me though because I truly believe in the mission of this charity, even if it means my brain keeps me up until 2am with one idea running after the other:S.  I’m being vague about the mission, but once I have finalized the name and details of the charity with the new Directors, I’ll update the blog and let ya know.  Trust me, we have a lot of milestones and activities coming up, some that you may even want to be a part ofJ.

Aside from the charity and returning back to work (I work with amazing people so it’s not hard to love what I do!), the other highlight of my new life that is activity-based has been my participation in spin classes! OMG!!  Have you done one before?  Below is a picture of the intensity I’ve been doing them at:

This required an average heart rate of 170bpm – and I wasn’t even racing or doing a fitness test.  Seriously, who does that?!  Of course that won’t be the case for every workout, but that’s what I think is so great about spinning.  You can do it all year round, workout in a safe indoor environment, and train at your own intensity level.  Next time I won’t sit beside the spin-junky who brought out the competitive side in me.  “I’ll catch you next time!” – impossible Laura, ha.

Now, although my goals have changed with respect to what I am training for, many of my training habits will remain the same.  Here are some things that I feel really make that difference for me:

-          “activfuel+” sports nutrition by Genuine Health (http://www.genuinehealth.com/activfuel.html): I started adding this flavourful powder in my water before and during training sessions back in London Ontario, and have continued to use it ever since.  It’s available without or with caffeine (it has a natural caffeine source), and the Black Raspberry Lemonade flavour is more natural than the fake flavours you find in competitive sports drinks.  I rely on this to get through my workouts!

-          Compression tights: I have tried a couple of different brands, and from my personal experience (everyone is different) I really like the Sugoi compression line as well as the 2XU calve sleeves.  I find that my legs recover more quickly when I use compression tight after a hard workout or race.

-          Breakfast, breakfast, breakfast...and more breakfastJ.  I have always loved food, and now that I’m not having to hit a certain weight, I can eat as much as I like, well almost haha.  Whether you workout or not, I strongly believe in having a good breakfast.  Breakfast gives you that energy needed to fuel your mind and body for the day ahead.  My daily breakfast consists of a home-made smoothie with “proteins+” (http://www.genuinehealth.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=proteins%2B).  I have been using the Vanilla flavour and REALLY like it with mango, banana and apple.

-          Mix of cold and hot showers after a hard workout...flush out that lactic acid and force the muscles to activate so that they can recover better.

-          Lemon: A teammate and physio in Bulgaria suggested I put lemon in my water bottle to help with the dryness of the air (I had “cotton mouth” every time we trained/raced).  This was new to me since I was used to humid air.  So I did this and it did wonders for me.  Of course being the nutty person that I am, I took it another level and got lemon flavoured fisher man’s friend.  WOW!  It was strong.  Although it did work, I do warn you: you may cough quite a bit after your event.  But let’s be honest, most of us have a dry chest and cough after racing hard anyways.  Another thing that worked for me here was to put a small piece of an electrolyte candy on my gums.  It helped me salivate during the race so that I wouldn’t get a dry mouth.  This one may also have added benefits if you are doing a long workout.

-          Positive encouragement.  I’ve been criticized before for being too “positive”, and although that bothered me at first, I’ve come to really appreciate and understand how important it is to surround myself with positivity.  I think that if you make an effort to look at the glass half full each time you face a challenge, then you will surprise yourself to find that you have more opportunities in front of you than you may have originally imagined.  Positive encouragement will be a big part of the charity I will be starting.

So there you have it.  I hope one of the habits can serve you well too!  And although my competitive athletic career has come to a close, I’m sure there will be more practices to be acquired;).

Have a great week-end!