January 3, 2013

My Commitment! January Challenge

My New Year’s Eve was quite a bit more epic than expected. After going through some changes over the holidays, I was looking forward to spending the night with friends but not doing anything too crazy. Kristine, Beth and I decided that we’d spend the holiday in quite a healthy way – joining NikeNYC for a celebration at their store followed by a group run to ring in the New Year.

Now, when I hear “celebration in a running store,” I think of a group of 20 runners hanging out in a fluorescent-lit store, perhaps with a few bowls of chips and dip, or maybe pretzels and hummus. But Nike does things in a big way, and so 8pm found me walking down a velvet-roped red carpet, checking in with bouncers who had my name on a list, and stepping into a store that had been completely transformed into a club. Tuxedoed waiters passed trays of canapes, and there were multiple bars set up to serve beer, wine, and soda. Fancy! Nike was also generous enough to provide new sneakers for all of us, as well as vests with “We Will #MakeItCount on the back. So cool!

The fact that I hadn’t been planning to drink meant that I hadn’t really eaten appropriately for the night, and while the hors d’oeuvres were delicious, they didn’t fill my stomach. As a result, the wine went straight to my head, and the night turned into a blur! Oops. Nevertheless, I managed to complete the 4 mile Emerald Nuts Run at midnight in Central Park to kick off the new year in a healthy way (well, minus all that wine). Happy 2013!

I woke up at 9:30am to the alarm I had set “just in case” – good thing! At 11am, I was scheduled to run the Commitment Day 5K with Ashley. Why the late start? Well, Commitment Day was actually a nationwide celebration, with thousands of people all across the country starting their runs at the same time. And I couldn’t back out on my commitment, right?

There were blustering winds at the start on the Hudson River Greenway, but I soon met up with Ashley and forgot about the cold as we caught up on life. Neither of us were going for a PR; we just wanted to complete the 5K and then get back to my warm apartment. I was in quite a giddy mood, singsonging “My Commitment!” (the tag line for the race) as we ran. But while I may have been joking and being goofy with my “singing,” I was actually quite excited about my commitment. It would have been so easy to stay in bed and laze the day away, but knowing that I had signed up for this race and was meeting a friend was enough to motivate me.

When the race finished, we headed for my apartment to refuel. However, our commitment wasn’t yet complete – Ashley and I had both signed up for the Refine Challenge, and were scheduled to take our first class at 1:15pm. Ashley is a Refine veteran, but this was my first Refine class ever, and she was scaring me with stories of having to waddle around for days after thanks to the DOMS from the incredibly hard workout. I wanted nothing more than to crawl into my nice warm bed and stay there for the rest of the day – what tortures was I about to endure?

But when I said I was going to #MakeItCount, I meant it – and since I had already signed up for the class, I had no choice. It was #MyCommitment! Okay, that sounds totally cheesy, but honestly, repeating that to myself really did help. I have often said that when you make a goal, it helps so much to do it publicly (like on this blog!) so that I’m accountable. And in this case, it really worked! The class was incredibly tough, and I’m waddling like a duck from muscle soreness today, but I am so glad that I went. So in short, that means I did a 4 mile run, a 5K, and a killer hour-long Refine Method class – all on the first day of the year!

And that brings me to my commitment, part 2. Remember how I said that one of my New Year’s resolutions was going to be doing a different challenge every month? January’s challenge is going to be a great one: I’m going to work out every single day, with no excuses. Inspired partly by Amanda’s 5 Minute Golden Mornings, I’m setting the terms of this challenge as it has to be at least 10 minutes of activity (though hey, five in the morning and five at night is fine if I’m really pressed), and it has to be intentional exercise above and beyond what I’d normally do. That is, if I’m in NYC, I can’t walk to the subway for 10 minutes and count that. I can, on the other hand, get off the subway two stops early and walk for ten minutes – that counts. The point is for it to be ten incremental and intentional minutes a day. Little changes add up to big results!

A few of you said that you wanted to join my monthly challenges – anyone in??

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3 thoughts on “My Commitment! January Challenge”

  1. Beth @RxBethOnTheRun

    Had so much fun with you on New Year’s! The best way to ring in the new year; with friends, a midnight run and drinking wine in running clothes 🙂 Can’t wait until our next fun adventure!

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