Alex Shalman.comPractical Personal Development

“I don’t believe in diets, I believe in a healthy lifestyle – I don’t believe in working out, I believe in training – I don’t believe in competition, I believe in challenging yourself.” ~Nora Mamadjanova

They say that each of us is a combination of the five people we spend most of our time with. I hope this is true, because I’ve been spending a lot of time with my trainer Nora, who, judging by the quote above, is definitely someone I would like to model.

This past Sunday she got me to come out and do a race with her at Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx, NY. This was a race organized by the popular New York Road Runners organization. My first official race, I was a bit intimidated by the 5K (3.11 mile run).

The race started out across a straight field, then onto gravel, and then it went up a hill, then another hill, and another hill… about 7 hills in a row. This was definitely different from what I’ve previously done on the treadmill and around the development where I live.

After the first 3 hills I became tired, and I saw a few people coming off to the side because they were winded. I started thinking about what Nora said to me, “don’t worry about anyone else, pace yourself, and the important thing is to just finish.” I wasn’t sure if by ‘finish’ she meant I had to run through the whole race, or if walking was permissible as long as I got past the finish line…

Since I forgot to clarify, I wasn’t about to let her down, and I sure as hell couldn’t let myself down. I started focusing on just two things – the next step – and – this will make for a cool blog article. I kept going, up the hill, and up the next hill… over and over again.

This past summer I did a lot of traveling, which (insert big fat excuse here) made it difficult to eat healthy and exercise on a consistent basis. The truth is, of course, I could have eaten healthy and exercised wherever I was in the world. Anyway, I got a bit out of shape, which you can see I’m remedying with the weekly weight loss reports. Basically, I ran about 7 times in preparation for this race, as well as attended spin class (reaction cycling) 2-3 times per week, for 6 weeks, which consists of biking roughly 13 miles per session.

Now I’m addicted to endorphins, which is the release of “happy” hormones into your blood stream during and after a long/strong bout of exercise. If everything goes as planned, I’ll be attending spin class 5 times this week, speed training with my running, and next Sunday I will run an 8K (5 miles) race in Central Park, NY. This is the famous Poland Spring race which is the kickoff the the New York City Marathon.

Nora’s Three Athlete-Principles

“I don’t believe in diets, I believe in a healthy lifestyle” ~Nora Mamadjanova

Instead of being the type of person that starves herself, or tries some kind of a fad diet in order to lose some quick weight, gaining it all back as soon as the diet ends, Nora recommends a healthy lifestyle through healthy eating and consistent exercise.

This is very much aligned with my “weight loss” plan, which has some guidelines I’ve set for myself that can be followed indefinitely for a healthy lifestyle. I’m also actively making exercise a very central and core part of my life. Especially after that 80 year old guy passed me in the race!

“I don’t believe in working out, I believe in training” ~Nora Mamadjanova

I think what she meant by this is that it’s pointless to go to the gym and mindlessly lift weights on isolated body parts. Not only are there more benefits to doing full body strength exercises (like Crossfit for example), but it also makes much more sense to train for races, such as Marathons, Triathlons, or Iron Man events.

From my viewpoint I couldn’t agree more with this. I’ve never been more motivated to move my body and make gains in my exercises than right now. I have a training plan for the week that involves spin, running specific times and speeds, as well as strength training, and that’s because I know I want to kick butt this coming Sunday at the Poland Spring race.

“I don’t believe in competition, I believe in challenging yourself” ~Nora Mamadjanova

Look at any super star athlete that is the best in their field. I think they’ll unanimously tell you the same exact thing, “I don’t look at what the guy next to me is doing, I’m here to set a new best for myself.” I think Nora lives this for sure, because before the race she told me she doesn’t care about winning, she just wants to do it for fun and to add on miles before she runs the New York City Marathon in a couple of weeks, yet she still ended up taking home second place medal.

I can totally relate to this. Even though I didn’t win, I did run next to people and tried to pace myself with them without any luck. Once I started blocking them out, and running at my own pace, I stopped caring about if something hurts, or if I have lead in my feet, and just concentrated on forward motion.

I think I can relate to this on an even bigger level. People have been asking me every day why I want to lose weight, because “I look great at my current weight,” and if I listened to all of them I might as well just give up and eat McDonald’s all day.

The time for my first official race was just under 31 minutes for a 5K, which is respectful for a first race, but on the slow side. I think it’s great because I ran by myself earlier this week and clocked in at about 40 minutes, and without nearly as many hills. Regardless, this gives me a good base to start from, and I’ll be able to improve my time as I move forward with my new love for running.

My question to the readers is, what would you dare to dream if you knew you could not fail?

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