Fitness Update | Major Lack Of Motivation

Count down to worlds.....62 days and counting!

Stress and anxiety are really starting to set in as race season is ramping up and World Champions is now only 62 days away. My training this last month has gone down hill FAST. There has been a serious lack of motivation to do anything in our house recently - mainly due to our 11 month old pup, Bear, getting hurt mid May.

Our poor little guy hurt his leg and has been in a lot of pain since then. He's not sleeping through the night, which means my husband & I are also not sleeping through the night. He's needed a lot of help getting around and it's been a real struggle keeping him on "bed rest" for a month. If you want to hear more about our story check back on Wednesday, I'll be post Bear's 11 month update and I'll share what happen. 

I feel that because of my lack of sleep my whole schedule has been thrown off. I'm tiered all day everyday and the last thing I want to do is train. The few days that I did train I felt very sluggish. Running was near impossible. Every time I put my runners on my legs felt like led. May was probably the toughest month of training to get through. 

Luckily our pup is now on the mend which means we are getting back to our normal day to day schedule. Training is finally starting to pick up but I'm feeling a little out of shape since I missed so much training. This past week I've been working on my tempo runs to bring my legs back. I know it seems like something so small but I find when I've taken a big chuck of time off my endure just fades away - speed I never have any trouble with, I guess that's because I have a background as a sprinter, plus speed training is fun. Endurance I find to be a bit boring and difficult to get through the workouts...especially feeling out of shape. To help me get back on track I've been using a MetroTimer, it's annoying but it helps with how many strides you take per minuet. I find if I focus on something other than my endurance run it helps. I try not think about my pace or how much longer is left, or how far have I gone.....I just run and think about my stride, my running form, the strike of my foot on the pavement, ect. It seems to help take my mind off my endurance run. 

Besides running I have also been using my Beachbody programs as cross training. Right now I've been using 21 Day Fix and focusing on leg fix, upper body fix, cardio fix and Pilates fix. In addition to all that I've finally been able to get my bike back onto the road. I honestly think my biking is going better than my running right now - except my bike computer has decided to stop working. For some reason my cadence on my bike computer decided to crap out so I've been just using my Garmin in the meantime while I shop for a replacement. 

All and all things are going well, you are always going to have set backs in your training because LIFE HAPPENS. There are a lot of things that are outside your control and you just have to juggle those with your training schedule. 

Motivation while training will come and go...it's tough to come back from being unmotivated but sometimes you just have to push through it to get to the other side. 

How motivated have you been this past month?

Fitness Update

Time has flown by since my last fitness update. I had to scroll way back on my blog and found my last fitness update post in February! Check out my February Fitness Update post if you haven't already. 

Since then I have completed my first race and my training has changed slightly. 

I did a 5km race April 9th to work on my running speed. Unfortunately the race course changed two days before race day due to flooding and they had to incorporate a hill! I haven't done any hill training as it is still early in race season so I was 5min slower than I wanted to be. We hit the hill about 2km into the race and up until then I was running under a 6min/km pace which was great. The hill was about 500 meters long so the turn around was at the top and by that time my legs were DONE. I really struggled the last half of the race but I keep telling myself it was the first race of the year and my time will only get better from here. 

Bear is still joining me once a week for training runs. I'm trying to run at least three times a week - that includes a interval run, tempo run and longer run. 

It's still too early to get my road bike out....even though I've seen some brave soles out and about on their bikes...so I'm still just biking at my house inside on my trainer around twice a week.

Of course I'm still keeping up with my Beachbody programs as a cross training/strength training. Right now I'm just using 21 Day Fix and in three weeks I will switching to 21 Day Fix EXTREME. Mainly I've been using lower fix to work on leg strength, upper fix to work on my upper body strength and of course core.

My next race is another 5km in about three weeks. I am also trying to find a duathlon sprint race nearby that I can participate in at the end of May but so far I've had no luck find one. 

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Fitness Update | Coming Back From Being A Victim of Crime

 It's fitness update time!!! It has been a hot minuet since my last fitness update, if you want to check out my last post Fitness Update | Finished 21 Day Fix EXTREME | National Sprint Duathlon Women 25-29 Champion! If you did happen to read it you would know that I qualified to race in Duathlon Worlds this year in August.

I did take a few days off after the qualifying race in September to recover but now I'm back at it. I sat down and made a training plan that lasted to the end of December....which unfortunately I didn't finish and it's a long story...

 ....without going into too much detail as I'm still not sure how much of my experience I want to share I was the victim of crime in December. It was an absolutely gut wrenching experience that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I honestly lived most of December fearful to leave my house, sleep, anything! I basically sat locked up in my house armed and waiting for our attacker to come back....which he did several times.

It's hard to even put into words what happen, how I feel about the whole situation because I feel like I'm still processing what the hell happen!

My husband and I were so fortunate to have some many amazing family member's and friends that stepped in to help us. We were brought food every single day, people were coming over to my house to walk my dog - no I wasn't even leaving the house to walk my own dog! For me that's a big deal since our little pup usually goes for three walks a day....minimum. I even had people just come over and clean or sit with me to watch some TV to help get my mind off of what was happening.

So basically - as I'm sure you can imagine - my training came to a screeching halt.

Time seemed to just disappear...it honestly took me till about the beginning of February for me to get back to my normal routine - and even then it was hard to even think about how to get back to what was "normal".

If you've even been the victim of crime, you know it's hard to get back to your life. I was told by so many people that it's ok to be all over the place and that it was going to be a struggle trying to return to a "normal" life.

I do want to share a piece of my experience on my blog - my hope is it could possibly help someone who as been affected by a victim of crime...or just provide some support to know you are not alone. I found there wasn't a lot of public support for myself and my husband. Give me about another week or two...I'm going to have to sit down and put what happen into words which I already know is going to be difficult.

 To be honest my training really just started again this February - and yes my body could absolutely tell that I had taken a big chunk of time off. Since the plan that I made ended at the end of December I decided to make a new one instead of trying to finish off my old training plan.....sort of like a fresh start.

Currently I have a new training plan I'm following that includes three times a week of doing at home Beachbody workouts (Piyo, 21 Day Fix Extreme and T25), one interval running day, one tempo running day, one longer running day and spinning at home on my trainer.

It's a busy schedule but I've been loving the variety.

My favorite part of my whole training plan has to be including our puppy, Bear, in one of my training runs per week. If you haven't read about Bear you can read his last 5 month update post. Bear is now almost 8 months and technically he's not supposed to be running with me for another 2 months but he doesn't do my whole workout and I go so slow when he's with me all he does is quick walk beside me while I jog.

I'm planning on doing another update on how Bear is doing on Wednesday so make sure you are subscribe to my blog for notifications. I'll include what sort of training he does with me, how long he runs for and what equipment I use - this is so important! I've tested out so many different running belts, leashes and harness to get the perfect combination. It's not enjoyable if you have to keep stopping your run to untangle the dogs leash or if they are dragging you because they aren't trained properly to walk hands free.

I am so excited to share with you all Bear's update on Wednesday and make sure you are subscribe for to my blog to get notified on my next fitness update!

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!

Fitness Update | Blam Bombshell Fitness

 15 days to go!!! I can't believe my last fitness update was almost a month ago....where has the time gone?

As the end of July I was down in Nashville attending Beachbodys Summit Conference - it was incredible! The weather cooperated and was very hot - our hotel was about a 20min walk away from the conference so we decided to walk to and from the conference everyday. By the time we got there we were dripping in sweat - neither my husband or I were used to that kind of heat.

Regardless we got to attend some great workshops that educated us more about the business, we got to meet some amazing coaches from the team AND we got to attend some awesome workouts.

 If you follow me on any of my social media accounts (Snapchat [mspamblam], Instagram, Facebook) it might have looked like I was down there for a really fun vacation....but nope it was for expanding my business. I honestly came back with over 30 pages of notes and some great new ideas for Blam Bombshell Fitness! I am really looking forward to running some more fitness groups and see how the rest of the year plays out.

It was great because even though I was down there for business we were able to attend workouts held by Beachbody so I never missed a beat with my workouts.

However, when I got home...it was all business. I sat down and wrote out my last and final month of training before my qualification race to make team Canada for worlds in 2017. I decided to kick things off with one last final round of 21 Day Fix EXTREME. I planned it out so I would end my program one week before my race - I like to tapper off before my race and let my body recover. Today marks day 13/21 - I am so proud of myself for NEVER missing a single day....plus I've lost 5 pounds so I really can't complain.

Not going to lie it hasn't been easy. Not only am I doing 21 Day Fix EXTREME but I am have to get in my running and biking workouts. Some days I'm workouting for over 3 hours just to get all my workouts in - other days, like a rest day, just consists of a 21 Day Fix EXTREME workout and I've made sure that something easy like yoga falls onto those days.

Making my own training program has been tough to find that balance of training hard to make me faster&stronger but still allowing me active rest days to let my body recover.

Unfortunately last Saturday when doing some running/biking training and transition training I hyper extended my knee....yes again with my knee. I do have an old knee injury that keeps creeping back into my life. As I was practicing jumping on and off my bike at transition I came down a little too hard on my knee.

Transition is defiantly one of my weakest parts of the race. There are some athletes that just fly through transition...it's defiantly a good place to break away if you are caught up in a pack of people.

On race day it's going to be very important for me to get through transition quickly if I'm with a pack of people during the run because the bike is draft legal. That means if I can stay with a pack of people we can actually help draft each other on the bike so all of us don't have to work as hard as we would if we were on our own.

My transitions have defiantly been getting better but I sure am glade I still have 15 more days to practice. I honestly haven't practiced transition since my last worlds competition in 2013 - oh well they must have that saying "it's just like riding a bike" for a reason.

I have to say I've been putting in a TON of work into  my training and it's really rewarding when people actual start to see the results pay off. Yesterday I was out biking hills and running intervals....my husband has been a good sport and has kept me company on a few of my training sessions. Yesterday he gave me the biggest complement and said my hill climbing was getting so much better he couldn't keep up with me AND  my running had improved dramatically withing the past 2 weeks. Normally he can out sprint me but yesterday I was out sprinting him & my dad....and lets be honest my dad has been training and raced more triathlons than me this year- he even did another half Ironman in early July so he's in good shape.

So what's in store for me these final few days? I have another week and a half of hard training and then I will begin to tapper off. I'll be finishing my 21 Day Fix EXTREME program next Saturday and then I will probably be backing off of home workouts until after the race. I will keep Pilates and yoga from 21 Day Fix EXTREME in my training rotation as active recovery but that's about it.

The most important thing for me right now is get my knee back to 100% and stay injury free on these final few days.

Don't forget to follow me on my other social media platforms - Snapchat [mspamblam] is the best place to find me if you want to know what I'm up to on a day to day basic.

Also remember to hit that subscribe button if you want to be notified when I post my next fitness update.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Fitness Update | Blam Bombshell Fitness

Work, family, life, working out....how do you balance it all?

Over the past few months I have been training for a qualifying duathlon race that will put me back onto team Canada and allow me to compete at the 2017 World Duathlon Championships. My training has been a constant roller coaster fill with serveral set backs. 

My training might seem very different from most duathlets. As a Beachbody coach I strongly believe and has seen amazing results with these programs when it comes to increasing my fitness and leg strength running/biking. Because of this I use a combination of Beachbody programs, interval running, long distance running and biking to train for my duathlon.

 But how do you balance it all? In spring I left my job and became a full time Beachbody coach, which has been a dream come true and blessing....but as I have found out very quickly that working from home is no piece of cake. I'm easily distracted and still somehow manager to run out of time in my day without getting a workout in.

In addition to that this is our first summer in our new house...what does that mean? So many house projects I've lost count. Because we decided to build our first home nothing is completed on the exterior of our home. That means everything from landscaping, fence building, deck painting, ect had to be completed. My husband and I have been very busy in our yard every single day trying to accomplish these tasks - it's been taking up most of our time.

With that being said I am still pushing forward and training like mad! I only have about 42 days left until qualifying! Crazy....my summer has just flown by.

My plan for the next 42 days - be as organized as possible. In order to keep myself on track I'm having to keep myself accountable. That means making a very strict schedule and making myself stick to it! My schedule includes when I'm going to workout, shower, work my at home business, clean, spend time with my family, ect. It means no more slacking off and getting down to business! This next 42 days is really going to test myself to see how bad do I really want this? 

I truly believe that if you want something bad enough you will find a way to make it happen.

I know that balancing it all is so difficult. Trust me I've been there this summer. Trying to jungle home projects, working from home, family, working out, ect....things have slipped through the cracks. I haven't been happy about it but sometimes these things happen.  

 So what's the plan for this upcoming week? Well I'm just coming back from a knee injury...nothing major I just had a fluke accident where I twisted my knee running home night. I've gave it a weekend off and now I'm back training without missing a beat!

This upcoming week I'm planning on doing a Beachbody workouts every single day....time to step it up! I'll be running three times this week - one interval run with 400m intervals, one tempo run and one long run. Plus I'll be going out twice on my bike. One time will be 1min intervals with high cadence for one hour and the second time will be a long ride that will take about one and a half hours for endurance.

The week after that will be a similar training schedule except instead of running 400m intervals I will be running 200m intervals....I have to say I love shorter intervals, it means I get to fly and running a super fast pace! I have to admit I have a soft spot for sprinting since I was a track and field sprinter from grade 6-12.

Wish me luck and make sure you hit that subscribe button if you want to be notified when I post my next fitness update!

Thanks so much for stopping by

Welcome!

Hello my name is Pam and I want to welcome you to my blog. I hope you enjoy it here and can get some useful tips/information on beauty, lifestyle and fitness.




I feel like I have so much to share and I can't wait to get this blog up and running! My goal is to delivery tips and tricks that I have personally learned throughout my own experiences.




I am a sports enthusiast and I specialize in marathon running and duathlon. I started running when I was 10 years old and I haven't stopped. I've competed locally and internationally for 16 years in various sports. But don't let that fool you...I love my makeup!!! I definitely consider myself a makeup enthusiast. I have a ridiculous amount of beauty products, some I love and some not so much.




Over the past few years I have become self taught with makeup and beauty. Moving out at a young age forced me to learn how to do makeup application on my own. I've had some triumphs and some fails. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.




Please feel free to comment and request in a blog post anything you would like to see me post or review. I would love to see what suggestions you have for me!!