Cool weather running

Hayfever season is well and truly over in Canberra so time to get outdoors for training. Running or walking or a combination of both is great exercise for heart & lung health and to manage your weight.

The next Women & Girls' Jogalong is on Sunday 5 May- 3km and 6km options - 9am start at Grevillia Park Lake Burley Griffin.
We're extremely lucky to have so many running groups in Canberra:
YMCA of Canberra Runners' Club http://www.canberrarunner.org.au They run a host of regular runs all around Canberra as well as the monthly Women & Girls' Jogalong and the annual Running Festival.
There are fees but these cover marshalls, time keepers, fresh fruit, tea & coffee
Ginninderra Park Run http://www.parkrun.com.au/ginninderra Every Saturday morning 8am start from John Knight's Park Lake Ginninderra. This is a 5km run and it's free but you have to register online first.
And of course lunch time runs, http://www.lunchstakes.canberrarunner.com.au/index.php

If you're starting out or resuming training after a long break (like me) take it easy and listen to your body. Start easy and relaxed and find a nice comfortable rhythm, as soon as you start to struggle ease off or stop and catch your breath, then resume again. Do as much as you're comfortable with for the first 10 sessions or so (whether you're walking or running every day or just a couple of times a week), then you can look at increasing either the intensity (harder/steeper/faster) or the time or the distance.

So how are your New Year’s Resolutions looking so far?

The last letter in our SMART goal setting to help achieve your New Year's Resolutions (and any resolutions or goals you may have made since then) is T.

T is for Timeframe

Okay, so for New Year resolutions it's obviously going to be 31 December 2013

S Give each of your Specific goals a due date
M Making each Specific goal Measurable means that you’ll probably have broken it down into more manageable chunks. So, eating 2 pieces of fruit a day was achievable in the first week. That’s now ongoing

A Walking for 30 minutes a day every day may require some chunking to make it Achievable.

You may decide to walk 5 minutes a day for the first month, then increase it to 10 minutes a day for the second month, building up 5 minutes each month: by the sixth month you’ll be walking 30 minutes a day, then that goal becomes ongoing 
R If your specific goal is to lose excess body fat by eating less and exercising more (ELEM) a Realistic goal is to lose between 250g-500g a week, so set monthly goals of say 1.5kg until you reach your goal weight
T The Timeframe for each Specific goal will have milestones along the way to help Measure your progress, make your goal Achievable and Realistic

Have you used SMART for this year’s New Year’s Resolutions.

At each milestone, revisit your goals; they may have changed

Keeping it real

Continuing SMART goal setting...

 R is for Realistic

 If you’ve followed the SMART goal setting steps so far your New Year’s resolutions will be a list of clearly defined goals and you know what you have to do to achieve these.

The question to ask yourself now is how Realistic your goals are.

Let’s use our example: Eat 2 portions of fruit a day. That’s realistic; it’s a small change, not terribly expensive and something you can incorporate into your normal day.

How about another popular New Year’s resolution: Exercise regularly, with the specific goal of walk half an hour every day.

Is that realistic? Every day? Will you walk if it’s raining, will you get up 30 minutes earlier in the morning to fit your walk in.

Whatever your goals are, they need to be realistic.

So in the 4^th column of your chart, note why your goals are realistic. If they’re not, then change them to make them realistic.

Here’s mine....see, I’ve even ticked each point.


So how are your New Year’s Resolutions looking so far? 
Now the only thing left to do is set some Timeframes...