Give Me Back My Five Bucks a quest for financial independence

Well, I took the plunge and finally registered for my first ever half marathon race (GoodLife Half Marathon - October, Victoria BC). It’s one of my big personal goals for the year. As a first-timer, I’ll likely follow the race’s recommended “Go The Distance” Program. The start date is for this training program is May 26th, so I have about 2 months to get a solid base and get back in the groove of running.

My long-term goal is to eventually run a marathon. A long time ago, my dad ran marathons. I always looked up to him because he was a dedicated runner – he’s why I started running competitively when I was in Grade 3. Back then, I almost always finished near the bottom of the standings, but I kept going, and kept improving every year. The picture with this blog post is me with a few of my teammates (I’m 2nd from the left), at age 14 after a race. :)

These days, my dad has some health issues, and he hasn’t been able to run for years. But he always tells me how much he misses it, and how frustrated he is that he be out there himself. So I’m going to be his legs and run this half marathon… for him, and for me.

As for expenses – running is cheaper than a lot of other activities, but there’s still moolah involved with training for a race.

Here are my expected expenses:

• $70 registration fee (paid) – I’m committed now! :)
• $50 travel expenses – roundtrip ferry & transit
• $35 Flip Belt (paid) – this is to hold my iPhone b/c I don’t find an armband or traditional running belts to be very comfortable.
• $150 running shoes – my current pair will likely last me until mid-summer, then I’ll have to switch them up.
• $40 athletic insoles – a very, very thin pair so that I can still feel the ground when I run.
• $50 running shorts – I have running capris and cold weather pants, but nothing for the summer.
• $30 socks – the socks that I like are about $10-15 each.

TOTAL = $425

Of course, I didn’t have to buy a Flip Belt, and I don’t need shorts and socks… but they will make me much more comfortable, so I’ll get them. New running shoes and insoles are must haves. The runners I currently wear are discontinued, so I might make a trip across the border to the outlet mall to see if I can pick up those shoes, as well as the rest of my running supplies at a nice discount.

I’m nervous to start this training program, and to run this race. Part of me thinks that it’s a bit ambitious to make a half marathon my first race. After all, I haven’t run in a long time, and the farthest I’ve ever gone before is 12km. But I know it’ll be a good challenge, and it’ll motivate me to stay healthy. Plus, it’ll really help with my endurance, since I (hopefully) plan on starting multi-day hiking again this summer and fall.

People often compare losing weight and getting into shape, to getting out of debt and becoming financially secure – and if your goal is to start becoming more active, you shouldn’t let a lack of money stop you.

Unfortunately, one of the top excuses people give when their fitness goals fall through is that they can’t afford the cost associated with maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Somehow, we have all made the connection that in order to get fit, we need to spend money on equipment, a personal trainer, or a fancy gym membership. But the truth is, you don’t need much money to whip yourself into shape.

You all know that over the past month, I have started working out again in an effort to get back into shape and run a half-marathon next year. Field hockey used to be my life. From age 14-20, I’d play at least twice a day, every day, all year. In my 20′s, I’d play at least 3x/week. But now that I don’t have that, I’m using other forms of exercise to get healthy and fit.

In order to get myself motivated, I started to re-read some notes I wrote a few years ago about frugal exercises and fitness ideas when I was saving up for a down payment and working with a tight budget. Here are a few fun, frugal fitness ideas that I’ve used over the years:

• Jump rope. This is one of the most underrated pieces of fitness equipment out there, and ropes are great because they are cheap and easy to store away. During field hockey practice, we would often start with a bootcamp circuit workout, and I would always dread the jump rope station because it was so hard to keep going and maintain a decent pace.

• Exercise ball. A stability ball could very well be the best investment you can make to any home gym. You can use the ball so many different ways to achieve a full body workout. Need inspiration? Check out this website for over 40 different stability ball exercises.

• Fitness DVDs. You can usually find inexpensive workout DVDs in any thrift shop or second-hand store. I have three DVDs by Jillian Michaels (Yoga Meltdown, 30 Day Shred, No More Trouble Zones). They were all less than $10 each through Amazon, but I got them for free by using Swagbucks. :)

• Soup cans or water jugs. Hey, don’t judge! :) One of the biggest ways to increase strength is to provide resistance. You don’t need to go out and buy weights to do this – just grab something heavy from the pantry, and go for it. Lately I’ve been using cans of peaches as weights.

• Chalk ladders. This is one of my favourite frugal ways to exercise. Grab a piece of chalk and draw a ladder on the street or in your driveway. This is a great cardio workout and allows you to practice your agility by running in and out of the ladder rungs. You can make it harder by running through it sideways, backwards, or changing up your running pattern.

• Stairs. Just head to the nearest set of stairs and start running up and down them. I spent an entire semester of college running up and down stairs a few tunes each week in between my classes.

• Run to do your errands. When I first moved to Vancouver, if I needed to grab a few things from the grocery store, or pick up a prescription from the drug store, instead of driving, I would grab a backpack and run there instead. Then, with a backpack full of purchases, I would walk back.

• Work out while watching TV. Instead of sitting on the couch during your favourite TV show, try doing squats, lunges, sit-ups or push-ups during the commercial breaks. I always try to be at least stretching or working with light weights whenever I’m in front of the television.

What are your favourite frugal fitness tips?

Because I’ve set a couple of lofty running goals, I have started running again. Last year, I was running at least 5km every morning, and I had gotten to the point where I was running 5km in around 25 minutes – a time I was satisfied with, because I was always improving.

However, three weeks ago when I started running, I could only run 4km before feeling like death. :| Since then, I’ve improved my distance from 4km to 6km, and my 5km time has gone from 29:25 down to 26:39. These are small bit significant improvement for someone who hasn’t been running all year. And it gives me the motivation to keep going.

All it took for me to start running again was making that initial effort. Lacing up my running shoes for the first time, I was full of excuses and doubt. Now, I find that I’m actually looking forward to running. I can’t wait to finish my work day so that I can get outside and make myself better. It’s addicting – like watching my net worth go up (and my debt go down), or calculating how much interest I’m making on my savings. :)

What has really been helping me is the Nike+ running app on my iPhone. I haven’t used that app in a couple of years, so I shouldn’t be surprised at how much it has improved. I love how it breaks down all of the statistics I wish I had for myself – like best times, routes via GPS, elevation, and goal setting. Best of all, it’s free!

I’ve already gotten a few friends to commit to running the 10km and half-marathon next year, so I’m excited to have a few running buddies when I eventually come home. In fact, Nic has even started running with me on the weekends. It’s nice to have people to share goals with, and to be able to encourage each other along the way.

My immediate running goal is to run 10km by my birthday in mid-October.