Week Nine: "I" for Incomplete

Unfortunately, last weekend I didn't even come close to getting all of my training miles done. ACK! I completed my 15 miles on Saturday, walking with our dogs for a few miles, with my friend Heather for almost 8 miles, with our dogs for a couple more miles, and then with just Fresco for couple of miles. With breaks in between each leg it wasn't bad at all!

My training began to go downhill on Sunday morning, when I woke up with such a terrible sore throat I couldn't get out of bed for church. The afternoon rolled around and I still couldn't get out of bed to go volunteer at the Humane Society. The evening rolled around and I still couldn't get out of bed to do any walking! I didn't get a single one of my scheduled 11 miles done that day!

I only felt slightly better on Monday, and while I was up and around the house by the afternoon, I still wasn't up for any walking. I got 3.5 miles in on Tuesday, almost 2 miles in on Thursday, and almost 4 miles in this morning. I'm definitely feeling a little unprepared for my 17 mile walk tomorrow!

Eight Weeks Down and Eight To Go!

Once again, I haven't found time to talk about my weekend of walking until now, when the week is almost over! It was certainly a busy weekend, which made it difficult to get all those training miles done, but I managed. Saturday was the first day that my teammate Vikkie and I were able to walk together. She came over to Lawrence with her husband Brett and Beagle Debo, and after an insanely wild meeting of the dogs we took them out for a 5 mile walk. Soon after we dropped them off and got some snacks, we headed back out for a 4 mile walk to the nearest Quinzo's, where our husbands met us for lunch. After lunch we took the long way home to finish off our last 5 miles. Breaking it up that way made it go pretty fast, although we didn't get finished until around 3:00. Because of some morning rain, we didn't get started as early as we would have liked!

Sunday was the super crazy walking day. After going to early church and then working at the nursery during the late service, I went straight to our favorite restaurant to have lunch while watching the Steelers' game. At halftime I headed over to the Lawrence Humane Society, where I started logging my training miles while I was walking shelter dogs and taking their pictures, completing about 3 miles in the 2 hours that I was there. Immediately after arriving home and changing clothes , Chad and I took the 3 dogs for a 4 mile walk. After dropping Chad, Hope and Celtic off at home, I went back out with Fresco for another walk just over 3 miles. After getting my 10 miles in, I went straight to the softball diamonds to play a double header! Wow, was I tired! I could hardly keep my eyes open by the time we headed home at 10:30!

Week Seven: My Feet Hurt

I have to admit that my feet are starting to feel the effects of all of my training walks! On Saturday morning, I walked the dogs a couple of miles before starting off with my awesome walking partner Amber on a 10+ mile trek. As usual, Amber's quick 4 m.p.h pace (which we kept up for 10.6 miles, by the way) really wore me out! I felt pretty good while walking, but for the rest of the day I could barely keep my eyes open! I was in bed, exhausted, by 9:30 on a Saturday night! :)

On Sunday, I got up and walked the dogs two miles before church, and then played a couple of softball games in the afternoon. To make my remaining 7 miles a little more interesting, I went and picked up Fresco the foster dog after softball and then took him back to the ballpark I'd just come from. After a quick hot dog and some chips (very healthy "fuel" food, I know), Fresco and I started out on the walk home, which was about 7.3 miles. He'd already walked 2 miles that day, but he didn't have any problem going an additional seven! It's fairly easy to keep a good pace with one dog (with 3, not so much) so we were home in just under 1 hour and 50 minutes of walking time (not counting stoplights and water breaks). During the journey I could definitely tell I'd walked almost 13 the day before--the bottoms of my feet started getting really sore. Although this was something I really struggled with last year too, part of it might be that my shoes are starting to wear out! My favorite walking shoes are some that I got towards the end of last year's training, which means I've had them for over a year, and I'm guessing I've put a lot more miles on them than the average person does! I'll definitely need to shell out the cash for a new pair before too much longer!

Fabulous Friday

Friday was a very big day! More specifically, it was the day I reached one of my most important 3-Day milestones! I'm so excited to report that on Friday I received a very thoughtful donation from my coworker Linda that brought my fundraising total to exactly $2200! Although my personal fundraising goal is still $3,000, I now have the minimum amount needed to participate.

Linda's gift was a very special one, not only because it was made in honor of her sister-in-law who was just diagnosed with breast cancer last week, but also because Linda had already given me a generous donation for the event many weeks ago! Her first gift was in memory of her grandmother who died of breast cancer, as well as two other friends who are survivors. When her sister-in-law was diagnosed, she felt compelled to donate again. Much like me, Linda has watched way too many women close to her battle this terrible disease! Through gifts like hers, someday we hope that fighting breast cancer will be a thing of the past!

An Easy Weekend

I'm a little late in reporting on last week's training, partially because of a busy Labor Day weekend, and partially because it just wasn't that exciting! It was kind of a "rest" week, where the weekend mileage is dropped back significantly just to give you a break in the midst of your training. I was scheduled for 6/5 miles on Saturday/Sunday (which seems like a piece of cake after doing over 10 the Saturday before), and my walking partner Amber and I walked about 6.5 on Saturday morning. Since I'd already walked the dogs about 1.5 miles before Amber and I set out, I definitely got more miles in that day than I really needed! The weather was pretty nice and we saw some new sites along a different walking path, which is always good.

Early on Sunday morning, the dogs and I headed out for a 5 mile walk. Because the weather was so cool and beautiful, Celtic and Hope were easily able to complete their longest training walk of the year! Fresco also came along, but 5 miles was no big deal for him since he'd already walked 7 with me last weekend. Hope and Celtic did one 7 mile walk themselves last year, but the heat and their advancing ages have prevented any walks of that length recently!

I'm looking forward to my 12 mile walk this Saturday, but Sunday's 9 miles might be a bit of an inconvenience since we have a softball double header right in the middle of the day. I'm crossing my fingers for cool weather! :)