Guest Post: Awesome Anushika's Virtual Runs (#SoMuchGood with the Hogwarts Running Club!)

I've introduced the awesome Anushika ("Shika") in previous blog posts, but only recently thought to ask her to do a guest post for this blog. While "Awesome Anushika," as she is known on the Mike the Fanboy fan blog, has been blogging for a while, she's relatively new to the whole race craze that Natasha and I have been into lately. It all started with an invite to join me in the Disneyland Tinkerbell 10K in May. What sounded like a crazy, lofty goal soon turned into an obsession, and well... I'll let Shika take it from here. So, without further adieu, introducing... Awesome Anushika!

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Greetings awesome humans!

This one goes out to anyone struggling to get themselves out there - To anyone who thinks running is not for you... To all who believe you have to be in great shape to get out there.

Sure, I enjoyed the occasional charity race, but it wasn’t enough to motivate me to run regularly. Knowing my obsession with the Harry Potter series, your Occasionally Fit friend (Becky) introduced me to the Hogwarts Running Club. Yes people, this is a real thing. Hogwarts Running Club exits! Becky sent me a link to one of their races thinking it would be a fun thing to do together. I was pretty much hooked instantly. I kept signing up for more and more races until I ended up doing them all (during the Time Turner yearend event).

The best thing about this running club is that it's a virtual running club, so you have absolutely NO excuse not to do the races. After signing up, you can complete your miles whenever you want. You can even break the mileage into comfortable portions and complete them in different sessions. It's perfect for a person like me who loves to go out running during ungodly hours. It would be a crime not to talk about the wickedly awesome medals. If you are a Harry Potter fan, these medals are a must. They are beyond fantastic!

The club itself is absolutely amazing. They have their own Facebook group and each Hogwarts house has their own group with awesome head-girls/boys to help out all their fellow students, especially the first year "students" that are new to the group. In addition to be fan friendly, the Hogwarts Running Club does so much good! It’s definitely more than just a simple running club. It’s more like a massive fandom coming together to do so much good in every way possible. A portion of each race's proceeds go to charity, and runners also use the Charity Miles app to help even more charities while keeping track of all the exceptional miles done by all the members. (Anushika Note: If you are serious about your pace and miles, please do not rely on the app. We have experienced some glitches with its accuracy. We simply use it to earn our chosen charities funds with every mile possible.) 

On top of doing such a stellar job with all the charity races, the groups log miles daily to compete for the House Cup end of each year. I mean seriously, how fun is that? I can’t imagine a better way to keep me moving than a friendly competition with all my fellow witches and wizards.

I don’t want to ramble on and bore you guys because trust me I could go on talking about this forever. I love this running club! Go check out the Facebook groups and see if the Hogwarts Running Club is for you. They’ll have answers to all your questions. The only regret you might have is not knowing about this club sooner.

(Note from Becky: Of course, Shika would run into Harry Potter himself on the same day she did the Voldemort V-Miler)

If you aren't crazy about everything Harry Potter related, there are other virtual running websites that celebrate other randoms and causes you might be interested in. Who knows? Maybe this will help you to get back on track or bring the inner runner within you. It sure helped me to get my butt out there. I have to thank Becky big time for getting me into this. I went from being a simple walker to logging some serious miles each week. Yup, she created a monster! =D

Expecto Patronum!

Awesome Anushika

Delusions of Grandeur

Greetings!

This is starting out as a rough week for me.  I try to maintain a healthy self-esteem.  I consider myself to be generally modest and humble most of the time.  Somehow, I manage to maintain and unfounded belief that I am physically capable of all things, with or without appropriate training or practice. With my half marathon date soon approaching, I figured that I should probably get off my ass and start doing some long runs (or any runs).  My last longish run was about 4 miles a couple of weeks ago.  I think I ran ten some time last summer (gulp).

Sunday, I made it out of bed for a group long run.  I lasted for 6 glorious miles.  They were only glorious after the fact of course.  Alas, every cloud has its silver lining.  I had an epiphany.  I need to start running soon and frequently if I want to have any chance of finishing my race without being picked up by the draggin' wagon (which I'm not really above, but I figure I should at least put forth some sort of effort).  I am out of shape.  My conditioning is embarrassing.

Why did I give up cardio again?  Oh yeah, for the muscles.  Running makes you feel good, but lifting makes you look good.  Decisions, decisions.  For now, I have decided to forsake all vanity in order to increase my cardiovascular endurance.  I managed a few more miles on Monday and some unintentional pool based HIIT training today.  Tomorrow is for rest and then back to business on Thursday I suppose. Now I just have to figure out how to avoid eating everything I see.

Onward and upward!

Natasha

Occasionally... Lazy

"People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals - that is, goals that do not inspire them." -- Tony Robbins

See that face? That face is the face of a girl that is not impressed... with herself. Sure, she was happy to be all self-congratulatory a few weeks ago, writing happy post-race blog recaps about two little races. (Ok, ok... the half marathon was an accomplishment worth celebrating, but that 10K? I barely showed up.) But that girl up there? She has been a lazy sloth ever since that 10K she posted about, and it's about time she live up to it.

The path to laziness started early: After months of preparation for the Star Wars Half Marathon, I told myself that I deserved a break. I had ran over 100 miles in a six week period, and nearly worn out the shoes I bought in early December. Doesn't that call for a break? Well... no. I had a 10K race just one week later, and my lack of training showed! I ran just once during that week between races, and my legs yelled at me for it. I finished, but it was lackluster to say the least. My laziness over the course of one week nearly killed me a week later. 

You'd think this poor performance would motivate me to pick up my training, right? Well... you'd think that. I started working out with a personal trainer the Monday after my 10K. Now, this has been great - I know my trainer very well, and I work out with her and a friend (buddy training) so it's a little more motivating than training on my own. But while those once a week meetings have gone well (we've only gone twice so far), I don't keep up with the intensity for the rest of the week and barely do any running at all. In fact, I only ran 3 miles the first week, and only a mile (!!!) last week. 

Oh, how I wish I wasn't living up to our blog title! Even as I finished my workout tonight, I still couldn't muster the energy to do a short run around the block tonight. Why? I have no idea. Where is my motivation hiding? I have more races planned in 2016 (at least two half marathons, and potentially several 10Ks) - why am I not running? 

I do not want this to be the end of my second running spell - I really like running, and I'd like to continue. I think the only thing that keeps me motivated, however, is a desire to meet some sort of fitness goal. While I do have those half marathons later this year, they're not for a very long time. I'm going to look for a few races between now and then to motivate me to continue (and increase) my training. Will having more goals work? We'll see... but it's worth a shot, right?

How are your exercises going so far in 2016? Still motivated? What's keeping you there? While I'm glad to be lifting weights more in 2016, I already miss my near daily runs. If you have any other ideas or tricks to keep me motivated, I'd love to hear them. Until next time...

Cheers!

Becky