Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Our Family Just Keeps Growing | Learning To Be A New Puppy Mom


 We got a puppy!!! On August 29th we adopted an adorable 9 week old puppy. This was not planned but I been wanting another puppy since my last dog passed away 2 years ago from old age, she was 12 years old.


If you read my last fitness update you would have seen me mention him, we got this guy a few days before my race which wasn't ideal but once my husband and I met him we knew he was going to be perfect for our growing family.


We named this little guy "Bear" because he is so cuddly and loves people. He is a Black Lab/German Shepard so he's going to be BIG.


Having a big dog was something my husband and I both wanted. I'm very used to having big dogs as my last dog was as Border Collie Cross and was very high energy. I trained her to be my running partner and my hope is that this little guy will love to run as much as she did.


If you've followed me for a while you will know that we already have a cat named "Max" who just turned 5. We got him from my husbands grandpa's farm and we are his 4th home....he was the cat that no one wanted.

Max is a very depended cat who loves to be around people and hates going outside....basically he couldn't hack it as a farm cat and the other homes he went to just didn't work out.

He's surprising been very patient with Bear and they have had several very positive interactions.


Obviously we didn't give Bear the run of the house imminently as we are still potty training him, all of Bear's and Max's interactions have been supervised and we keep them pretty short.


Bear has been a wonderful addition to our family, however, I haven't had a puppy for 14 years so I'm a little out of practice. We've had to learn each other routines and his signals he gives me when he wants something.


Everyone who has met Bear says he is the cutest, cuddliest puppy they have ever met...and most of the time he is. However, we have already started training him as I can tell he is starting to develop some behavior issues already that we would like to nip in the butt.

Bear is now 11 weeks and he can...
-let us know when he needs out
-sit
-lay down
-come
-stay
-shake a paw

We are working on
-not barking when he's alone
-play nipping
-being gentle with Max
-not barking when he's bored or wants attention


If anyone has any tips or training tricks for new puppies please leave them in the comments below.

Bear will be going to puppy school but he wont be able to go until he gets his final vaccination at 16 weeks. 

Also I'm curious as this is our first male dog...let me know in the comments below on your thoughts about getting your dog neutered? Are you pro or con and why?

I hope you've enjoyed our adorable puppy pictures - follow me on Snapchat [mspamblam] if you want to see more of my day with Max & Bear. 


Friday, September 9, 2016

Fitness Update | Finished 21 Day Fix EXTREME | National Sprint Duathlon Women 25-29 Champion!


 We've got a lot to catch up on! My last fitness update was on August 19th, two weeks before my qualifying race. At that time I was preparing for one last hard training week and then I was going to tapper off and do race prep one week before my race.


I worked my butt off those last two weeks leading up to my race! It wasn't easy but I had put so much time and effort in at that point, I told myself that it would all be worth it in the end. The pain you feel during training and racing is temporary but the results that you post are forever.

I wanted so badly to post some amazing results at the Edmonton ITU Duathlon race. Not only did I was to post good results for myself personally, I wanted a spot on team Canada for the 2017 World Duathlon Championships.

I finished another round of 21 Day Fix EXTREME a week before the race. I've been using this program as cross training and to help improve my leg strength for racing.

In addition I was able to stay injury free (besides my knee that I had hurt previously). My knee honestly wasn't bothering me too bad leading up to my race but I did decide to throw some tape on it for race day just for some extra support (which was recommend to me by physiotherapist).


The weekend before race day I had to opportunity to head out to Hawrelak Park and practice on the race course. It was a great training day! I got to practice on the hills, I was able to run around the park and get a good sense of what I was in for.

I was able to scope out where transition would be and I even practiced a few transitions just to make sure everything was race ready.


Then 6 days before the day I adopted an eight week old puppy....what!?!?! This was something that was not in the plan at ALL but it happened. I'm going to do a whole lifestyle post on our new puppy this Wednesday so make sure you are subscribed to my blog in order to be notified when that post goes up.

Lets just say it's a good thing that puppies sleep a lot. Even though our new puppy is a lot of work I was still able to do my race prep, get a good amount of sleep and prepare for my race.

On race day it was cold....very cold. I bundled up nice and warm and heading to the race. I was so nervous just before the start. My heart was pounding, thoughts started racing through my head (am I ready for this? Did I train enough? I wonder how fast everyone else is? Do I have everything in transition that I need for my race?)

I took a minuet after checking in the athletes village, I took a breath and calmed down. Racing is so much more than just physical, you have to be in the right mindset as well. Something I've been working very hard at is self motivation and positive talk.

I told myself that I had done everything that I could have possible done to prepare for this moment. I told myself that I had put in countless hours of training and no matter what the results were I was going to have an amazing race. I told myself not to worry about anyone else and to stick to my own race plan I had set.

Well turns out I had trained enough because I took home the GOLD medal in my age category which makes me the National Sprint Duathlon Women 25-29 Champion! 

I just want to take a minuet to thank everyone for all the support I have received here on my blog, Instagram, Facebook and email. I have had so many heart warming comments and well wishes from people cheering me on and supporting me throughout my training....it has honestly been overwhelming! From the bottom on my heart THANK YOU!!!

So what's next for me? I'll be competing in worlds August 2017.

I'll be sure to post regular updates over the next year sharing what I'm doing for training. Please be sure to subscribed if you want to be notified when those posts go up. 

I've been taking it pretty easy this past week and letting my body recover after my race....but it's time to get my butt in training mode and start planning out what I'm going to be doing for the rest of the year.

Thank you again for all the wonderful support!