2fer

This post will be covering both Monday and Wednesday trainings because my sister is in town and life has been busy and I didn't get a chance to share before now.

Monday I woke up and did my 3 miles. I decided to take Atreyu, my dog, with me since he had done so well the last time I took him. He did great again although we had trouble with the doggy fountain. When we go to the dog park he drinks happily from the doggy fountain, but the doggy fountain that is half-way through my 3 mile run he was scared of and wouldn't drink from it. All's well that ends well though because I put ice cubes in his water when we got home. The run itself was steady even though it was horribly hot since I didn't get outside until a little after 8.

Tuesday was Tae Kwondo training. The training was a slow-motion muscle memory training day. I love these because they work your muscles in a way you wouldn't believe. Basically each move has to be done very slowly and controlled, held and then repeated several times. I also spoke with my instructor and he has a Judo instructor that he recommends, so I am going to see if I can take some trial classes of that and some Krav-Maga classes. I would like to expand my martial arts knowledge.

Today I woke up an hour earlier because I had a morning appointment and I was hoping it might be a couple of degrees cooler. It was if not only because it was cloudy out and the sun wasn't beating on me. Atreyu came with me again and this time he dragged behind me the whole time. I picked up my pace today for my 2 miles and did my route backwards. That means instead of going down the huge hill and up the slow incline that is half a mile long, I went down the slow decline and up the steep hill that is a quarter mile long. It was a great run. I pushed myself and it felt great. Even Atreyu looked like he really liked it even though he was behind me almost the whole time.

Fundraising is slow. I am not able to boot-block for the next 2 weeks because I have places to be during that time. I am considering sitting outside a Wal-mart nearby or some other fundraiser like that. If you have a suggestion, please let me know. Thank you for supporting me and please share with others.

rupster ronies!

Today was an 8 miler. What our coaches call a short run. And it is short, comparably. But when I tell non-marathon trainers, "We have a short run today, only 8 miles" they respond with a snort and say, "yes, only 8". And I have to admit that 6 months ago I would have never believed that I would say 8 miles and the word only in the same sentence.

I did this exact route for my first time ever doing 8 miles back in early May. It was rough for me then and I ended up walking about a quarter of of it because my knees were hurting. This time the run felt great and Sarah really pushed me towards the end because she picked up the pace and I stayed with her until the last quarter mile when I dropped behind about 10 paces. I was really proud of myself and really thankful to Sarah for motivating me to try harder on a shorter run. I enjoy running with Sarah not only because she goes my pace and we have great conversation, but she is so motivated herself, that it is contagious to those around her.

One of my favorite parts about the path that we ran today is all of the PUPPIES!! I love rupster ronies soo much and there were so many cute ones that it makes the run more enjoyable. I also like this path because it is a cute part of town and I shared a restaurant with Sarah that she should check out, and then she shared one with me. I am excited to try this place. If you want to know the place send me a message and I will share it with you.

After my run I chatted for awhile with the other TNT members and purchased some GU for trainings and the actual marathon since we will have to carry our own. The store that I purchased from is a TNT supporter and gives us 20% off on select days, so the discount was a plus. Also they let me mix and match my flavors!

Hopefully next week I can go out and help boot-block. After the jet lag from traveling, I had to go home and recoup. I am still trying to figure out something new I want to do for fundraising. If anyone has a creative idea let me know! Ask around to those you know, and share my stories with them!

What what! (Spoken like a true white girl)

This morning started off a little shaky. I got to the park at 5:20am and it was so dark that I just sat in my car thinking, "I can't run in an empty park in the dark. That's just asking for trouble". Then I saw a clan of GIGANTIC possums waddling across the field and thought, no freaking way am I going out there. So at 5:40 when the sky was a touch lighter, I climbed out of my car and started the loop I had mapped out in reverse because the second half was along a main street and that was well lit. By the time I got around to the park half, it was light outside and there were several other walkers/runners/bikers/soccer players.

The run itself was AWESOME! I had a super steady pace, I felt great for most of it and at the end when I was getting tired, I just told myself repeatedly how well I was doing. In the end, it took me 2hrs and 50min to do 14.25 miles and 10min of that time was fuel/water stops. So if I do the math I did approx. a 11min 15sec mile steadily.

Throughout the whole thing, the strangest thing happened to me. The temperature was decent, though the air was muggy, and I was drenched from sweat, but my entire upper body including my scalp was covered in goosebumps. The hair on my arms were sticking straight up even though I was hot and dripping with sweat. My mom says that means that my body is working correctly and my sweat is cooling my skin, but it was so strange.

My mind raced with thoughts the entire time because I decided not to take my ipod since I don't use it for regular trainings. I thought about everything from different ways to wear my hair, to if I have everything packed for tomorrow, to what I would say in this blog. It made the time pass pretty quickly.

I am so proud of my run today. I ran by the waldo-mart on the way back to get some chocolate milk and ice. Then I promptly made myself an ice-bath, but I should have gotten more ice because my body melted the ice within 10 minutes of getting in. I drank my chocolate milk and talked on the phone with my sister while I was soaking and let myself run on the high that I had run the entire 14 miles and at a good pace.

Unfortunately, the high came to a crashing low after a horrible interviewing process with a company that I should never have bothered wasting my time with. But I have decided that even though I lost 4 hours of my day and was frustrated, it can't even touch my excitement at what I accomplished this morning.

Thank you for sharing this triumphant moment with me. It means a lot to me that I am not on my own. But I also remember that while this is a big moment for me, it is also for something so much bigger than me. Please spread my achievements with friends and help me raise money to save lives!

Public does not mean you can dominate!

I decided to do my 3 mile this morning instead of yesterday because I am doing the 14 mile on my own on Thursday and I didn't want to do my short runs on Mon/Wed and then my long run the next day. So I will stretch tomorrow and then do my long run this Thursday since I am leaving for ITALY! on Friday.

Anyway, back to this morning. I went on my run about 8am which is way too late to be running in this heat. I will start my long run at either 5 or 5:30. My small loop goes through a public park near my place where apparently at 8am a running camp for kids starts. So halfway through my run I am tripping over kids who are either a) zooming past me cause they are doing sprints, b) walking the loop as a group therefore making a blockade across the path, or c) walking back and forth across the path from the field to the picnic tables where their water is. While I understand that it is not my path and it does not need to be cleared for my goddess-like presence, I do feel that the camp counselors should talk to the kids about path courtesy, such as not forming a blockade and looking at the path before crossing it to make sure they don't cut somebody off. I feel like this is not too much to ask.

Off my rant though, today was a decent run except for the kids. I went a touch faster than usual and even though it was hot I felt good. I'm hoping that if I start early on Thursday, then that run will go well too. After my run, I went to Tae Kwondo where I got an EXCELLENT workout in. We really worked on our forms which works every muscle in my body and leaves me winded. I am proud to say that my step-jump-sidekick is starting to look really awesome. Unfortunately, my high-low switch block still has a booty shake going on.

I got a couple more checks in the mail for my fundraising and I am still waiting on one of my larger donations that was promised to me. I am thinking of doing a dinner event. I need to speak with the owner of the restaurant who is a relative of mine. I think it could be a big event if I do it right. I feel a little greedy fundraising like this when others haven't hit their minimum. I also realize it is charity so it is hard to call it greedy, but that is how I feel.

Thanks for following and share my stories with others and help fight blood-related cancers!! Come back on Thursday to see how my first 14 miles on my own goes!

Women problems.... hrumph!

My Saturday morning 10 mile run left a lot to be desired. We ran Shawnee Mission Park loop again which is more like 9.5 miles (2x around), but I did it and smoothly 2 weeks ago. Yesterday though, our coaches told us to push ourselves a little, so Sarah and I started out a bit faster than usual and even though I was breathing a little heavier than usual I felt like it was a pace I could handle. About half a mile from the finish of the first loop I got cramps like you wouldn't believe. My lower abdomen felt like it had been filled with lead and it made my legs really hard to move and breathing became a chore.

So the second loop I told Sarah to go ahead without me because I know how much keeping pace and running the whole thing means to her and I didn't want to slow her training down. So she went on ahead and the mentor that I ran with the last time I did this loop stayed with me and walk/jogged the second loop. I want to say we jogged a little over a third of the second loop and walked the rest. That means I ran about 3/4 of the entire thing. While I wish it had been better, I'm proud that I got the miles in and worked through the loveliness that is being a woman.

After I finished I ran by the nearby waldo-mart (wal-mart... Justin and I like to call it waldo-mart and I will refer to it that way from now on.) and picked up a bag of ice. I then took my second ice bath, which for some reason was a lot colder than the first, and Justin sat with me and told me when my time was up. After the ice bath was a luke-warm rinse in the shower and off to a nearby busy street corner to boot-block with my other Nike team members.

It went really well. The 12 of us managed to collect almost $1000 in about 2 hours. Each of us will get about $80. The Nike team will be there every Saturday after trainings and I think I am going to join them for quite a few. I'm definitely not done fundraising. I have reached the minimum I need to get to participate in the Marathon, but there is no limit on raising money to helping those in need.

Please visit my fundraising website and donate if you haven't already. Tell everyone you know. You might be surprised by how many people blood cancers have affected, I know I have been.

Run Around

So this week I official switched up my schedule. I ran 3 miles on Monday, then did Tae Kwondo on Tuesday and then 2 miles today. I feel like this was the best decision I could have made. Monday's run was really nice because I rested on Sunday and by Monday morning I was ready to run again and get loose. It was beyond muggy outside. But the run went fairly smoothly and I was happy that I wasn't having trouble getting started.

Tae Kwondo yesterday was sooo much better than it had been when I was doing it on the same days as my running. I was able to work so much harder and put more effort and concentration into what I was doing. I feel like I got a better training. On top of Tae Kwondo, last night I also took a pole dancing class with my girlfriends. It was so much fun! I have lots of bruises now, but it was totally worth it. While it does take a lot of upper body strength, it is a lot about how you hold the pole and position yourself. For anyone that has ever been even slightly interested, I highly encourage you try it. I'm now tempted to get regular lessons, and I wasn't sure I even wanted to take the class in the first place.

Today's run was fun because it rained last night so the air wasn't suffocating me and.... wait for it.... ATREYU came with me!!! It was a short 2 mile run so I figured I would get him some exercise even though he usually hates going more than a mile. Although, today, he slowed down after the first mile and ran behind me for the second, but he didn't just sit down and quit. Then once we walked into the condo he took off in a dead sprint around the whole place and had 10 minutes of run around time. He is such a little faker. Slowing down for the second mile when he obviously had tons of energy to spare. Anyway, we had a really great time together this morning.

10 miles is on Saturday with TNT. I know I can conquer it after the 12 last Saturday. Thanks for keeping up with me! Tell everyone you know to follow me and help fight to cure blood cancers!!!

I said... BRRRR, It's cold in here!

Saturday was my first 12 mile run. The milage is starting to get bigger/longer. It was a really good run though. Sarah and I ran almost all of it together, and Donny ran the first half of it with us too. My pace and breathing was really regular. Towards the end my legs felt really heavy and I had to try really hard to keep myself going, but I think that was more mental than anything else. While most people get a rush toward the end (like Sarah) and go faster, I struggle towards the end because my body realizes it is almost time to stop and starts trying to stop.

Sarah took off about 2 miles from the finish and I fell behind, so I was super surprised to find her walking about half a mile from the finish. When I realized that she was helping a fellow teammate who was having trouble I stopped and helped too. Our mentor ran ahead to get her car and drive our teammate the rest of the way back. While I kept wanting to keep running and finish, I realized that this moment was what team in training was really about. It is about being there for each other and working together as a team. After we got our teammate into our mentor's car, Sarah and I took off at a fast pace for the last quarter of a mile. It felt good at the end to just race like that.

On the way home I swung by Walmart to pick up a bag of ice for my first ice bath. That's right, you read me right, I said ice bath. I got out my laundry basket, filled it with cold water and then poured in the bag of ice and then myself. I called my sister first to have someone take my mind off how cold I was, but she didn't answer. After a few other calls I get a hold of my mother who is with my sister. Instead of getting support and a nice conversation through the serious cold, I got screamed at. I had called to get talked through it and instead they spent the whole time trying to talk me out of it. I was very frustrated. But in the end, the ice bath really helped because normally I am really sore the next morning, but I wasn't really sore at all this morning.

I am really proud of yesterday's run and I know I can conquer this marathon. I am starting to get super excited. We will see what I am saying after the 20 mile run. Keep following along and telling others! Please continue helping me raise money to fight blood cancers.