Goals for November
October was such a fantastic month. I did my last big trip of the year. I did some travel for work. I ran the La Cloche Silhouette trail with friends.
Up that strength training.
My hamstring started to present with some weird symptoms at the attachment at my knee. I am doing some work with my coach to strengthen my glutes so my strength work has shifted from building to strengthening some areas of weakness. There are less weighted sets and more repeats of bridges, squats with picture perfect form and some fun workouts at Goodlife Fitness.
Explore Nova Scotia
What a cool place and FUN TRIP.
Give Back
I needed to miss my mentoring session with the University of Waterloo due to an out of town conference but I had a great time speaking with Conestoga College students and have set up a similar event with Niagara College for November.
Set up a training cave.
My father is helping me with the project and has been gallivanting in Europe for the past month so we only began undertaking it last night. My living room currently looks like this (aka total and utter chaos) but all of that is about to change.
I was also unpacking from my last trip so everything was everywhere.
Start Christmas shopping.
SUCCESS! I made a list of everyone I need to buy for and am about 1/4 through. It has been a lot of fun and I try to plan ahead because I really love buying from local businesses whenever I can. I have picked up some really fun, unique gifts and I am excited to share them with my loved ones over the holidays.
Ok. Now that November is begun, it’s time to reset and refocus as it is the last month before my heavy training begins again.
Swim twice a week
I have began training with a swim coach because off season is the perfect time to work on form. November will be form form form so when I start training hard again, I can working on getting some serious speed in my swim sets. Or something like that.
Celebrate a fantastic season
I have some really fun events to close out the athletic year with my Performance Project team and a final adventure racing training day and party with my AR friends. It’s time for all the high fives and a toast or two to an incredible 2016 season.
Deep clean my apartment and set up my training room for real this time.
FOR REAL. And with one month left of limited training, I am using the extra time to really deep clean and re-organise my little space.
Do glute strength exercises once a day
As my training load decreased, a few imbalances presented themselves, specifically that I have some lazy little glutes. I am doing exercises daily to train them to fire properly.
Limit cell phone time.
It’s so easy to be on it way more than I need to be. I am challenging myself to leave my personal phone tucked away when I am with friends, working around home or anywhere that requires me to be present. I would find myself with a block of free time in the evenings and I would pick up my phone and spend most of it scrolling through cat videos, recipes or whatever else presented itself in the social media jungle. I want to unplug and focus on being a little more present and a little less about adorable cat videos.
What do you have on tap for November?
I could totally do with the less cell phone time goal as well – I’ve been far more connected than I’d like to be these days! I can’t wait to see your final training cave project. Sounds like every athlete’s dream and I know I’ll be envious! You had such a stellar October and I’m still blown away by your adventure racing feats. Enjoy every moment of those year end celebrations!