My New Challenge...

As the title suggests, i believe that it is now time to embark on a new challenge! I have spent this entire year focussing purely on weight/fat-loss which has been awesome (and it needed to be done!) BUT now to be honest i am a little over it. I think the reason why is that i am in pretty damn fine condition now (if i do say so myself ;-)), so trying to get to 11% BF from 14% BF has got me feeling like i'm in a COMP PREP scenario. My poor little head has been consumed with scales, numbers, body fat %, skinfold mls for months now and i just need to diverge my attention away from obsessing over the numbers. I'm only a couple kgs away from my 'goal body' and i know i WILL get there (soon) BUT i have an urge for a more exciting goal!

Summer is fast approaching and i have decided that not only do i want to be LEAN and STRONG, i WANT to be damn FIT too! Yes, I want to feel INVINCIBLE! I have been following KellyO, AmyB and Raechelle as they have all taken up running and are madly settings goals, kicking butt and sending out  positve energy vibes. SO i am now totally inspired to get FIT too.

For the past few weeks i have sporadically run a few kms here and there after some weight sessions but i havent been consistent. Why? Cos i have been goal-less! One thing i noticed yesterday during boxing class was that it was a real struggle. Yeah i was a little tired from travelling all week for work but i've noticed that the weeks that i don't do extra cardio, i lose some fitness which means i can't box as intensely as i would like to. So for that reason i have decided to ditch the post-weights cardio and use that time to focus on sexy six-pack training. That means 3-4 x week i will be RUNNING 5km in the arvo (outside)! I may build the distance up over time, but for now 5km is the magic number. I haven't run 5km in at least 12 months so my first goal is going to be 30min, once i build up my endurance i will focus on speed to get down to the 25min mark!

Running has been a love of mine for many years now. I was a track athlete back in school with the 400m being my pet event. My best time was 59.9 seconds when i was 15 or 16. For any of you girls out there who used to race would know that the 1min mark is a huge barrier to break! For those of you who didn't race I dare you to try running a sub 1min 400m on the treadmill! ;-) I  ran all the other distances plus cross country too. After school finished i focused more on endurance - no crazy distances - but anything up to about 10km. These days i go through phases with running. I love the runners high you get when you are completely in the zone and right now with all the negativity going on in my world, that is a place where i need to take my mind to on a regular basis. Plus my cardiovascular system will only benefit too. And of course i will be burning off quite a few calories during my runs which means i will get leaner without having to just focus on food.

After chatting with my BFF Demi last night i am totally pumped about running again. Demi's a hardcore gym junkie an avid runner too, she runs at least 5km 5days a week, plus she mixes it up with bike and dancing. Besides from healthy eating and weight training she swears by intense cardio to keep her LEAN and in SMOKIN shape year round.

A picture says a thousands words...