My first 5k...

Is tomorrow!!! I'm going to run the ''Pride Run'', as suggested by Marie.

To have that goal set, to know I was going to run a 5k, certainly gave me a motivation 'boost' - I trained more seriously, more regularly, I worked hard at following the c25k program... I ran for 28 minutes without stopping yesterday morning - for the first time in my life, and I'm pretty proud of that...

Tomorrow morning, it's the real thing. I am looking forward to it, and also a little bit scared :) I hope I'm going to sleep well... Not sure what to eat for breakfast yet - I'm out of bananas (I forgot that I was saving the last one for tomorrow - ugh...)

In other news - I still can't believe that Michael Jackson is... gone....

you know what? I feel like I forgot something about myself- I forgot about it for a very long time, and now it's too late... it's dead... that's my clumsy way of saying how I feel about MJ being gone...

yeah...

Drum Roll Please... and the winner is..........

Random.org said #3 Marie-Claude!!

Here's her comment:

The two Etobicoke Elite Drill Instructors are Leigha Borland and Natasha Moore.

I'll keep my fingers crossed LOL

Congratulations Marie-Claude! You've just won a free 4 week Booty Camp Fitness Session!!

Please send me your details at cinemarie@gmail.com!


Thanks again to the ladies at Booty Camp Fitness Session for this great giveaway - can't wait to start working out with you guys! Giveaways are fun, hope I get to do another one soon!! :)

Bonne St-Jean Baptiste!!!

It's St-Jean-Baptiste Day today - I wish I was in Québec to celebrate!! :)

A difficult 25 minutes...

I did the second day of week 7 of the c25k program this morning - it was very difficult. I tried using my own music - I shuffled through my entire library, that was a big mistake. I really need to concentrate on running, on my body and performance on my breathing... not on 'I don't like this song so much, how do you skip ahead?' and 'Ok the Charlie Brown Xmas song I like so much at Xmas time is NOT a good song to run to...' LOL I also expected to run for 5 minutes on each song, but realized quickly that most songs are 3 minutes long (or at least that's how long I can tolerate them for before I need to skip...)

It probably sound pretty superficial, but it was a real problem - because I wasn't focussing on my breathing and my form, I was pretty dizzy and uncomfortable at the end...

I know about how you can create playlists, but I seem to get sick of the songs anyways...

I was thinking of maybe getting something like a 'remote' so that I can keep it in my hand and easily skip, but I don't think holding something in my hand is really an option... unless I clip it on my clothes? I don't know... hmmmm

Basically, after 15 minutes of running I decided to go back to good old Robert's mix... I don't particularly like the music in the podcasts, but at least it's not distracting!! Well, maybe except for the one song in week 7 where it sounds like someone is laughing at you... oy! lol

I am starting to wonder what I am going to do for the Pride Run... will think about it...

don't forget to enter my giveaway!!! You don't have to have a blog to enter! Just leave your name!! I will use radom.org to pick a winner on Wednesday night!! so make sure you come back to find out who won! :)

A Giveaway on Cinemarie in English!!!

The lovely ladies over at Booty Camp Fitness are generously offering a free 4 week Booty Camp Fitness session to me and one of my readers! So it's time for a Giveaway! Wheeeeee!

There are 95 locations all over Canada so don't hesitate to enter!!!

I am so excited to have jumped on board - I needed to commit to that kind of an activity... It's great because it's in the evening and it's right in my neighborhood! It's at 6h45 which is perfect - the first thing I do when I get home... It's 2 days a week, which I think is absolutely manageable... I need to get in shape for my wedding, and this is exactly what they offer:

Look Great with a Bikini Belly, Booty Shorts Butt, & Tank Top Arms
in as Little as Two Nights a Week!

• Up to 16 lbs weight reduction
• 1 - 6 inches reduced in your thighs, midsection, and arms
• A boost in your immune system, and a decrease in sick days
• 25 - 100% increase in strength and stamina
• An energized yet relaxed feeling...

PERFECT!!

I like that it's a mix of a lot of different activities such as yoga, strength training and cardio... It's designed by women for women, so the classes are women only - which is great!

It includes: 2 Physical fitness assessments Work Out DVDs (so you can do it at home, one more night every week) Lots of interesting books (Guide, Cookbook and Nutritional Guide) And they also have a forum where you get 24/7 support and you get to exchange with other participants or 'Recruits' :)
I can't wait to tell you all about it starting July 7th - I need to push it, I need to kick it up a notch and get ready for my wedding - I need to be as healthy as I can be - how about you?:)

So here's how to enter: leave a comment on this post and answer this question: Who are the two Etobicoke Elite Drill Instructors?

That's easy - you can go to their website, navigate to 'locations'... Etobicoke is in Ontario ;)

You have until Wednesday, June 24th @ 7pm to enter - I will announce the winner when I get home that night. It's your chance to de-lurk!!!

Good Luck!! :)

Amy's 15 week Challenge

Go visit Amy's blog - she is challenging you - um, blog people :) to participate in a 15 week challenge!
I'm so excited!! Wheeeee! :) She has LOTS of great ideas for the challenge so it promises to be an awesome 15 weeks!!

Breathing and running - how do you do it?

I have done day 1 of week 7 of the c25k program this morning. I remembered how I wanted to talk about breathing. A few years ago - I think it was 2003-ish, way before I started WW - S had tried to make me run, the plan was to run around the neighborhood... I thought - sure! why not, I can do that! Boy was I wrong. I could barely go around the block without feeling like I was going to cough up a lung... S had asthma as a child so he pointed out right away - you're not breathing right!  That's when I first found out that I needed to control my breathing while exercising. (Yeah, I was clueless, I know!! :)

A few years later, I lived near High Park and thought that it would be such a great place to run, so I decided to try again. The first time I did it, I remembered quickly why I had stopped - ouch my throat and lungs!! So what's that big secret about how you're supposed to breathe a certain way for this to be possible? Well, I had no idea, but I tried this - breathe in through the nose for 2 steps, breath out through the mouth for 3 steps. And it seemed to work! I was so impressed at how simple this was and how much better I felt, how much more power I had, how much longer I could run...

To this day, that's still how I breathe through a run. And it's so silly - as soon as it starts being difficult I am always tempted to stop it and go for a big gulp of air. But now I know that I have to keep up with it, I find it tough, but it's the only way it works for me - if I control how I breathe...

Now, I pretty much 'made that up' for myself, and recently I was curious to see if there was info out there about breathing when you run, you know, to see if there was an even better method... I found a few articles on the subject, and now I'm confused:

How to control breathing while running
The Ins and Outs of breathing during exercise
Breathing during exercise

So my question to you is - how do you breathe when running?