It’s now deep into February and you may have already decided to give up on your New Year’s Resolutions. However, it is exactly at this point in time that you can turn a potential failure to stick to your choices into a positive change in your life. Many people fail at keeping their resolutions simply because they make poor decisions in setting these resolutions and set themselves up for failure. Try these simple steps to get back on track; don’t abandon your goals, break them down into more manageable pieces.

1. The Resolution Review

So you have had almost two months to start work on your resolution and you have failed to even start. Most often resolutions are abandoned simply because we make them “too big” and then cannot decide how, when or where to start. It may be time to truly reflect on your resolution and maybe review it. If you set a goal so unfathomable in a 1 year period, this is your chance to set a realistic goal. If the goal is realistic in a year timeframe, now is the time to break it down into monthly goals.

1. Make them Bite Size

Take your monster resolution and break it down into more manageable steps. We often look at large goals, get overwhelmed by what we promised ourselves to do and get depressed when we are not making enough progress. By breaking this one monster goal down into 12 monthly goals you can start by tackling a small goal and reward yourself when you achieve this more manageable goal.

1. Write it Down

By writing your goals down on paper, in your journal or even better on a social media platform, you are essentially providing a hard and fast goal. It provides a much more “set in stone” goal that you can continually keep reminding yourself of. In a positive way, keep looking at your goal and reaffirming your aspirations by achieving results on a daily and monthly basis.

1. Forget about the End

It sounds terrible, but in reality makes more sense to your sense of accomplishment. Try not to look at the actual end-goal, especially if you are easily discouraged. Tackle your daily, weekly and monthly goals without putting pressure on yourself to reach the year-end goal. For example, if you wanted to lose 100 pounds, and only lose 98 pounds by the end of the year; it is still an amazing achievement.

By worrying about the daily activities needed to get to the end result, you will actually be doing more to advance your goals than worrying about the end result without putting in the work on a daily basis. If you look to your next weight-loss or healthy work out goal it will be achievable in a positive way.

1. Treat Yourself

When you achieve a daily, weekly or monthly goal, start rewarding yourself, but remember to keep them in proportion. If you worked out for 30 minutes and kept to your dietary plan, reward yourself with 2 cookies or 1 scoop of sorbet, not a tub of ice cream. All your rewards need to be focused and measured, but you absolutely need to reward good results. At the end of a month, losing 10 pounds or reaching a goal for a 5k run, get a massage.

By planning out your route, getting effective support from the people you love, breaking down your resolution into bite size pieces and rewarding yourself, you can get back on track to achieving your New Year’s Resolutions.

When it comes to running, stretching is all to often a confusing subject. There are conflicting arguments on whether or not we should stretch, what type of stretching to do, and when to stretch. We’ve done the research and hand picked a selection of dynamic and static stretching exercises that target the muscles most used during a run.

According to Nikki Kimball from Runners World “…dynamic stretching, which uses controlled leg movements to improve range of motion, loosens up muscles and increases heart rate, body temperature, and blood flow to help you run more efficiently.”

Walking Lunges

Here are three reasons why you should include stretching in your workout routine.

Wake up your body. Dynamic stretching is the best way to give your body a wake up call. Dynamic movements help get your blood pumping and your nervous system enough time to respond to the upcoming workout you are going to be putting your body through. With each stretch you are warming up your muscles and steadily increasing your heart rate. Before you know it you’ll be heading out the door more than ready for your run.

Post run recovery. Some research suggests that you can skip the pre-workout stretch, but a post workout stretch shouldn’t be missed and here is why. According to Greg Strosaker  stretching “provides recovery benefit, perhaps by improving blood flow to sore or tight areas or by helping to work out scar tissue adhesions. Since injuries often begin as “tightness” or accumulation of scar tissue in a specific muscle or tendon, it is possible that the process of exercising this muscle through flexibility work provides benefit.”

Help reduce the risk of injury. The important thing here is to do stretches that are specific for the sport you are doing. Tight muscles lack the needed elasticity to provide joints and muscles the right amount of push and pull with each running stride. Getting the specific muscles you’ll be using during the workout ready for action will help you maintain the needed flexibility necessary to help prevent injury. 

Adding a new stretching routine to an existing workout schedule should be painless and easy. We’ve select stretching exercises that are tailored for runners and split them into pre and post workout sessions.

OUR Stretching app will:

• Integrate with our existing running apps
• Contain stretches that are specific for runners
• Include a Pre-Run session which includes predominately dynamic stretching exercises
• Include a Post-Run session which includes a mix of dynamic and static stretching exercises
• Show you how exercises are performed with beautify, realistic, hi-def animations
• Time your stretching session and let you know when to switch exercises

give stretching a try! Sign up below to receive an email when our stretching app is released. You could also win a free copy of the app!

Let’s face it stretching is boring, tedious, and requires some guesswork into which stretches to do and how to perform them correctly. Plus, most of us only have time to get out, run and get it over with.

We at Bluefin have set out to solve this and get you to start stretching, but better yet, to stretch properly. We’ve designed an app that will take the guesswork out of stretching and show you exactly what stretches to perform.

The app has two sets of stretching routines specifically created for your pre-run and post-run stretch. The app will guide you through a 5 minute  routine that will get your muscles ready for a run. After your run select the post-run stretching routine to release built up muscle tension and prevent soreness and fatigue.

Sign up below and we’ll let you know when the app is launched. You will also be entered to win one of 50 free copies on launch day.

Bridge – great for opening up hip flexors and quads. Helps improve posture and back flexibility.

We are looking for 50 customers who are willing to help us beta test our new app: RunHelper Plus.

RunHelper Plus expands on our RunHelper Free app and brings 4 new workout types:

• Timed workout: Select workout duration and the app will let you know when you reach the goal.
• Time + Run/Walk Interval: Select workout duration, and duration of your run and walk intervals. The app will repeat the intervals until the workout duration is reached.
• Distance + Run/Walk Interval: Select workout distance, and duration of your run and walk intervals. The app will repeat the intervals until the desired distance is reached.
• Calorie Burn: Select how many calories you wish to burn and the app will let you know when you’ve reach the goal.

Time + Run/Walk Interval

Here’s how to join:

If you …

1. Have an iPhone 3GS or later with iOS 4.3 or later
2. Are able to run with the new app at least once a week
3. Are willing to send us feedback about the app

To join send us your device’s UDID. The UDID  will enable us to create a special version of the app that you can install on your iPhone without having to download it from the App Store. The easiest way to do this is to download the Free UDID Finder app from the App Store and tap on the “Send Email” button. Send the UDID from the UDID Finder app to: support@runhelper.com

Once the beta version is ready for testing we’ll send you an email with the app and instructions on how to install it on your device.

Thanks so much for your help!

Alex, Tanya & the Bluefin Team

Catching up with our sponsored athlete, Matthew Murphy, after a busy 2012. Read on to find out how his passion for running started and where it has gotten him. Truly an amazing story.

When did you start running and how long before you knew you were good at it?

“Being “good” may be relative to not how my performance is, but how good running is for me and what it does for the greater good of the world we live in.  When I first started running in 2010, I hated it.  I had the wrong shoes and no real training plan. This resulted in me getting injured on my first outing.  After I recovered and did some research, I got a “real” pair of running shoes and downloaded the Ease Into 5K app. I realized after about two weeks of doing the plan that I was starting to get “good” at running.  I was also seeing a dramatic change in my weight loss while increasing energy and stamina levels. When it became bigger than me is when I started to use my running as a means to raise awareness for congenital abnormality research and assisting the families of the 1 in 30 children born with a congenital anomaly.  This is a huge issue for me considering that it is the leading cause of infant deaths in the world and affected my son, Shawn. My wife and I were surprised that we could not find any type of non-profit that did research or provided the public information about congenital abnormalities, so after Shawn’s successful recovery from three life threatening surgeries in his first year of life, we started Shawn’s Anomaly to provide education, hope, and help to families affected by congenital abnormalities. I now raise money for the non-profit through my endurance events, help motivate others through speaking engagements, and coach athletes of all skill levels through their fitness journey so they can raise money for our mission through events of their choice all over the world.

how long before you realized you wanted to train for an ironman?

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