Planning to Stay on Track

10k Training Plan

With the reality of it all beginning to kick in, I’ve spent the past little while designing and planning a motivational training plan that will work for me.

At the beginning of the year, I did train for the Star Wars Rival Run Challenge (10k + half marathon) and, other than following Jeff Galloway’s training plan, I just made a conscious effort to eat well and get in my runs and workouts. That worked fine, but I must admit, having to cancel that trip at the last minute and not testing that training plan on an actual run, has left me nervous this time around.

This time I’m ‘only’ doing the 10k (recovery from my accident doesn’t really allow me to train for more distance than that…for now) and I want to do my best and put my all into it. Now when I say ‘only’, I don’t mean to minimize the distance in any way. This will actually be my first 10k and I am intimidated a little bit, but I’m just saying it’s not the full challenge distance I had signed up to run earlier this year.

Motivation

So, being a big planner, I purchased a Happy Planner (or two) and Frankenplanned (yep, that’s a thing) my own personalized training planner specifically to hold both my workout schedule and my meal plans. Putting it in a book and having to be accountable in writing to myself every day is a huge motivator for me. It also means I’m constantly immersed in all things healthy and active – another win.

In the very front of the planner I added a few motivational pages: quotes, a goal sheet…whatever helps when I’m having a weak moment. It’s something I can turn to the front of the book and read to help keep me on track, and it’s a section I can add to as I go along.

It all means I don’t have time to forget what I’m doing and who I’m doing this for – me!

Meal Plan

I have another section specifically for my meal plans. My three meals each day are written down on a weekly layout complete with a grocery list that I can tear out and take to the grocery store a couple days in advance. I am already used to spending time on Sundays doing meal prep for our family meals (it makes the work week a lot easier) so I’m sticking to this schedule. This way my meals are easy to grab straight from the fridge or freezer.

I also have a morning and afternoon snack but I don’t put them in the plan itself. Instead, I have a list of snack suggestions noted on a piece of paper in my planner that I can refer to, and I make sure to always have the necessary items on hand for those.

While the photo below shows a weekly layout BTP (before the pen), my meals are generally scheduled two weeks in advance using this format. One thing I’ve noticed about myself over time is if I have to think about what to have for a meal, I’m more likely to eat the wrong thing. If it’s in pen and put in front of me, I will mindlessly put together whatever it says and eat it. It’s just easier.

My Happy Planner weekly meal plan layout before the pen.

Each day I record everything I actually ate and did (workout-wise) in a different weekly layout in the planner.

Food & Exercise Log

My weekly food & exercise log.

This way, I can compare it to what I had written down on my weekly meal plan and see whether or not I stuck to it. For this training plan, I’m also recording successes and failures to help in future training (I still want to go for that challenge medal!). So if I went too long between meals or snacks and then went crazy and ate off-plan, I write that down. If I skipped an outing for ice cream with my family and stayed home to have Greek yogurt instead, I write that down and how I felt (after the moment, not during). Hopefully reading all this down the line, will help.

Training Plan

I’m a big fan of the Jeff Galloway training plans. You can find them on the runDisney site, here.

I put a copy of his 10k training plan in the front of my planner and then wrote out the distances I need to run each weekend on monthly pages. This allows me to see the training plan in a monthly layout at a quick glance. It also helps me when booking appointments, making family plans, or scheduling my other workouts.

10k training plan monthly glance

Get Out There and Run

Today’s running trail – Tollendale Loop

With my training schedule downloaded and printed, my meal plans in place, my fridge and cupboards stocked with food that will support my goals, and my running gear all charged and at the ready, hopefully I have my best run ahead of me in a little more than 12 weeks.

Whatever else, these hot and humid Canadian days of summer should be good prep for what I’ll face in Florida.

If you have a planner or something that helps keep you on track for a goal, please share!

And now, with today’s run behind me, I can sit down with a cup of coffee and try to figure out my costume for the Wine & Dine weekend.

Motivated to Train and Ready to Run

Meal Prep

Two of the big issues for me when it comes to getting back on track and maintaining my optimal weight and fitness level, are portion sizes and making better food choices. Nothing helps me with this more than a little meal prep.

I don’t go crazy here. I’m not one of those people that worries about fats vs carbs vs protein, or weighing out each of my ingredients. Kudos to those that do, but I don’t. That just doesn’t work for me. So I do what does work..

I’ve found that spending a couple hours in the kitchen once a week (usually Sunday afternoons) doing meal preparation helps A LOT. My weekly staple prep items tend to be a sugar-free fruit compote (to mix with Greek yogurt or to top buckwheat pancakes), simple grilled vegetables and chopped raw veggies, salads for quick lunches, tuna burgers, and spinach egg muffins. These things are my go-to items that are almost always found in my refrigerator.

: Quinoa Cakes

: Spinach Egg Muffins

: Fajita Veg

: Gluten-Free Tuna Cakes, Chef at Heart

Then I plan other items to add to the mix just to shake things up a bit every week to avoid boredom. Things like spinach vegetable quinoa cakes, pumpkin quinoa burgers, sweet potatoes topped with Buffalo chicken, or pesto vegetable pasta with roast chicken all add big flavour and keep me excited about food while not going overboard.

As long as its in the fridge and ready to go, I won’t linger in the kitchen and grab the wrong thing, or eat more than I should.

(Happy) Planning My Workouts

One thing I’ve discovered is if I write it down, I’m more likely to do it. And that includes workouts.

I schedule my workouts like I would a doctors appointment. I find mornings work best for me and scheduling three workout sessions per week works well. If I get in a couple more workouts or manage to get in some kind of physical activity with my family above and beyond that, great. But I find if I try to schedule more than three, I end up missing or cancelling those extra days when life gets crazy (or my kids make plans over my plans) and I end up frustrated. If I have an upcoming run, my three workouts tend to be runs as per my running plan (that’s discussed below). Otherwise, it’s three workouts of my choosing: a run, gym session, weights at home, running hills & stairs along the waterfront trail…whatever.

So, like meal prep, once a week I sit down and plan out the following week. I look at what appointments I have, what hours I have to work, where I have to be and when, and plan my three workouts to fit. I do all of this using fitness pages in my Happy Planner. I know to some this might seem silly, adding stickers and washi tape to a fitness planner, but for me it helps. I can add whatever sticker quotes I come across that help keep me motivated for whatever mood I’m in that week, or add a habit tracker sticker so I can track how many meals I’m NOT skipping, or how many meals I ate sugar-free. I’m not saying it’s for everyone, but it’s really helped me. Recording my workouts and seeing the results in writing (how many calories burned, miles I ran, or steps I put in) is incredibly rewarding and motivating for me, and formatting the pages ahead of time help keep me immersed in all things fitness.

Fitness Pages in my Happy Planner

As for the workouts themselves, I mix it up. If I have a marathon event on the horizon, I do try to follow the Jeff Galloway training plans on the runDisney site (you can find them here). I love the walk/run combination and have had good success with them for my past runs.

I also love Pilates and try to do a couple short sessions (20 minutes or so) each week to help build core strength, and I mix those up with a couple weight sessions. I have found these critical to proper form on my runs and in building speed.

Off and Running

Alright, so I’ve shared what works for me. What works for you? Do you use a food journal? An exercise log? What are your favourite meals to prep ahead?

Anyone else have a run coming up, runDisney or otherwise?

Edible Options Gluten-Free Bakery

Dedicated Gluten-Free Bakery

Before we left town last week, I was told that if I was going all the way to Niagara Falls, that I must stop at a little gluten-free bakery in St. Catharines for what is claimed to be THE BEST gluten-free bread anywhere.

I hadn’t heard of the bakery so I looked it up…Edible Options is a dedicated gluten-free bakery that offers vegan, egg-free, dairy-free, corn-free, soy-free, cane sugar-free baked goods. Always ready to try and support anyone in their gluten-free endeavors (and excited to support anyone who works in a dedicated gluten-free shop as I do), I put it in the back of my mind and made note to try and visit the bakery if time allowed.

Thankfully we were able to take the time to stop in St. Catharines on the way home and wow! The gushing reviews online were not overstated!

As soon as we opened the bakery door, we were greeted with incredible smells of fresh-baked goods that had everyone in our group drooling (gluten eaters included). The bakery is an industrial-style cafe with plenty of room to shtop and enjoy whatever you’re lucky enough to buy and try. Almost immediately I was getting asked ‘are you sure it’s gluten-free’ because 1) there were no signs anywhere saying so, and 2) everything looked incredible!

I went straight for the bread and stood in awe at the height and size of their loaves. It was the first thing I ordered, without hesitation – two multigrain loaves, and one cheese & herb. Only then did I wander along the counter to check out the rest of the goods. The staff were fantastic.. patient, and smiling at how happy and excited we all were to be there.

By the time I’d ordered the bread and the staff had sliced all three loaves for me, everyone in my group had their eyes on something they wanted. They all ordered something different for the long ride home: shortbread cookies, ginger cookies, chocolate whoopies, coconut bombs, banana crumble muffins…there were so many options. I was truly in Heaven…EVERYTHING GLUTEN-FREE! Believe me, it’s not very often I get to walk into a bakery and choose anything I want and know that it will be safe.

I was told that the best way to keep the bread was on the counter (wait, what?!) and NOT in the fridge. Unheard of for gluten-free bread! Yep, apparently the bread will keep for about 7-9 days (seriously?!) but it does also freeze well if I wanted to go that route. I smiled but secretly didn’t believe the cheerful young lady behind the counter.

I don’t think we were even out of the parking lot before everyone in the car began eating their treats and started with the gasps of delight, trading bits of their items for bits of someone else’s so everyone could try everything.

The Best Gluten-Free Bread

Back at home, I immediately broke open the loaves of bread. Gorgeous!

: Edible Options multigrain bread

: Edible Options cheese & herb bread

My youngest was into them right away and without anything on it, ate a slice. She was two steps away when she turned around and asked for more saying it was the best bread EVER! That’s all it took…my eldest was right behind her begging to try. Yet again, BEST BREAD EVER! Now neither of my kids has to eat gluten-free (and generally prefer not to) so needless to say, none of the loaves I bought will make it to the freezer. As for the claims of the bread lasting 7-9 days out on the counter, I’ll let you know….if any of it lasts that long.

July 2019 UPDATE: Ok, so the bread was amazing and YES, it did last 7 days on the counter! Just how good was it? I’m off on a 4 hour road trip tomorrow to get more!! And this time, I ordered ahead. Bringing home a car full of goodies.

Volunteering Benefits Everyone

Garden View Tea Room – Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

If At First You Don’t Succeed

A New Hope

But…

I will admit I was so excited for the Star Wars Rival Run trip and the excitement I’m feeling for this trip/run is very different. I had to rethink this trip: how much to keep the same and how much to change? Turns out switching it up has helped me get excited about it all over again.

First, my Star Wars trip was meant to be a solo trip and a personal challenge for my 50th birthday. This new trip is not that. Instead of registering for the challenge, I’ve registered for “just” the 10K (a girl can only throw out so much in Canadian funds to sign up for runs that offer no refund). I did however register for the Star Wars Virtual Half Marathon so that will be my challenge to myself once my doctor gives me the ok to run again. And I’m keeping the solo aspect of this trip and am excited at that. Disney on my terms, my way.

Second, I LOVE everything Star Wars and was absolutely stoked at the idea of being a part of the Rival Run excitement. Light side vs dark side? And those medals?? Loved it all! So only a food-themed run during the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival could get this chef as excited to try again. And hey, thanks to Disney’s latest announcement about the earlier than anticipated opening of Galaxy’s Edge, I get to combine both of my loves in one trip (just me and about 5 million others).

Third, was the resort issue. Stay at the original resort I had planned, or pick a different one? I decided to go for a whole new one. I’m picking a Disney Resort that we’ve never stayed at in the past (more about that in a future post).

So here I sit excited about a whole new trip and a new experience. This will be my first solo trip, my first runDisney 10K, and my first time at my selected resort. If I can just keep my feet firmly planted on the ground and avoid anymore accidents between now and then…

…just 225 days to go!