One Rising Star

#abetterversionofme2018 Most of my posts have been all about me me me - my experiences, my struggles and my accomplishments in particular. Lately however, I've really tried shifting my focus to giving back to the community. I am incredibly proud of my athletic successes over the last few years, especially with running, Crossfit and soccer, and I would absolutely love to inspire others to live a healthier life and to accomplish things they once thought were impossible.  Running I enjoy running because it's cheap, it can be done anywhere and anyone can do it.  My favorite thing about helping out during training sessions is encouraging others along the way - a smile, a high five and a quick "Good job, keep it up!" can go a long way. I've learned so much about running while doing research, reading books, watching videos, attending workshops, completing online courses and of course my own personal experiences and I always look forward to sharing my know...

#abetterversionofme2018 Just when I thought it was over... On April 1st 2018, I ran 42km in Ha Long Bay and upon my return to Saigon; I thought for sure my 2017-18 race season was over. Throughout the last few weeks, I've been taking it fairly easy during both my running and gym sessions, hoping to give my body a bit of a rest after several weeks of hardcore training and competing. Just over a week ago however, I was asked to jump in and replace a friend in the Ironman 70.3 Vietnam Team Relay race in DaNang. Of course, I'm not one to turn down these kinds of opportunities and I've been looking forward to experiencing this kind of event - a triathlon of some sort. So, on Friday night, after work, I flew out to DaNang. On Saturday morning, I woke up early and headed out to go watch the Sprint Triathlon in which one of my work colleagues was participating. I was so impressed and inspired watching her race. Later on, I met my teammates for the first time and then w...

#abetterversionofme2018 I've been feeling very grateful lately, for a variety of things. One of those things is the position of employment I currently find myself in - that of an Elementary Lead Teacher. This might sound surprising to many of you, as you've likely noticed (or heard of) how much I've struggled with not working directly with the students inside a classroom full time this year. I've realized though that this is probably happening for a reason. There is no doubt that I learned a lot in my previous schools, but this year I've been offered a very unique opportunity. A chance to take a step back, to breathe, to find balance, to reflect, to participate in online courses, to read books, to research, to observe new and experienced teachers in action and to be apart of other facets of the education system. I've truly learned so much! One of several sessions at Starbucks completing assignments for my online course - Teaching English Language Learners...

  #abetterversionofme2018 As many already know, back in January, I was absolutely devastated when I got sick and was forced to withdraw from the HCMC Marathon. I really wasn't willing to wait a whole year to get another shot at running a marathon, therefore I kept my eyes and ears open waiting for another opportunity to pop up. Eventually, one day, I came across a post on Facebook advertising for a new race in Ha Long Bay, a part of the country I had yet to visit. I felt like this would be the perfect opportunity for me to run my "yearly" marathon and to visit another part of Vietnam, which people often rave about. After registering for the race, I chose not to talk about it much as I feared things wouldn't go as I'd hoped again. Deep down, I knew that, for several reasons, I was not going to be, mentally nor physically, at the exact same place I was in January. Nonetheless, I was still looking forward to the challenge. Last Wednesday night training ses...

#abetterversionofme2018 Last year, I participated in the Crossfit Open  (visit  https://games.crossfit.com/open for more information)  for the very first time, and since I was new to the experience, and still fairly new to Crossfit, I performed scaled versions for the majority of the workouts. That was until the last workout (17.5) , which included double-unders and heavy (for me at the time) thrusters. My coaches and peers talked me into doing the RX version (as prescribed) of that last workout and though I thought I was going to throw up numerous times, I completed it and was very proud of my efforts. This year, my situation and my goals were very different. I really wanted to push myself to my limits and perform the RX versions of every single workout.  I experienced some ups and downs over the last 5 weeks, but the 2018 Open has been a really great experience overall. It's really helped provide me with a benchmark on my current level of fitness. It's hig...

#thisisVietnam Tết, also known as   Vietnamese New Year , is the most important celebration in Vietnam. For most expats living here (especially teachers), it means time off to travel around South East Asia, but for the locals, it means so much more - spring cleaning, family reunions, greetings, lucky money, lion dancing, flowers, traditional games... While most of my friends and colleagues headed out to explore other countries, I finally welcomed my first guest and discovered a bit more of Southern Vietnam and its traditions.     Here are some of my highlights:    -Taking the city bus;    -Getting a wonderful hair wash;    -Seeing beautiful flower arrangements around HCMC  (*picture on left);        -Going to  Phu Quoc for 3 days;    -Staying in a cute bungalow directly on the beach;    -Walking along the beach in the mornings;   ...

#abetterversionofme2018 This past Saturday, I competed in a team Crossfit competition at my gym - Saigon Sports Club. 9 teams of 3 (2 males + 1 female), from 2 different Crossfit boxes (CrossFit Q7 and CrossFit Thao Dien), were registered to compete. In the days leading up to the competition, I started to get really excited; I've improved tremendously over the last 12 months and I looked forward to being put to the test. That was until Friday night, when the 4 events were posted on Facebook. I looked forward to event #1, I absolutely dreaded event #2, event #3 didn't look too bad, but then, event #4 looked like WAY WAY WAY too many burpees for my liking! Upon my arrival at the gym Saturday, nerves definitely set in.  I didn't want to let anyone down - not my coaches, not my gym buddies, not my teamates and most definitely not myself! EVENT 1 I thought I did pretty well in the first event; within the 15 minutes timeframe, I was able to work u...