Fundraising-
Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far!
Anonymous (x2)
Amanda Stanke
Ciara Rogers
Julia Forrester

Funds Raised- $210
Funds Remaining- $3790

Quick announcement

Just a quick announcement! I've decided to provide some fundraising incentive. The first 10 individuals to donate $100 or more will receive a nifty gift. From me to you!

Trying to Break the Trend

I'm starting to get there, both in my fundraising and in my training. I'm slowly but surely coming out of the Vortex of procrastination.

Training-
Yesterday I completed a timed 2 mile run to gauge my distance pace. We have a track workout scheduled for next Tuesday and Coach Jo wants to get an idea of where we are before the workout.

Here was the plan-
10 minute warm-up (fast walk, easy jog)
Stretch
2 Miles Timed at about a 12-15 exertion level (1-20 Waking up-Can't say half a sentence)
10 minute cool-down and stretching

It went pretty well, although my old problems with Pacing myself came back. I did my first mile in 9:40, but then I was exhausted and it was rough pushing myself through the second mile. I finished the 2 miles in 20:20, which means my second mile took me 10:40, yup, that's right, almost a full minute more than my first mile. And, I was actually at about an 18 on the Percieved Rate of Exertion (PRE) scale, not great. I did however run the whole thing. For the past few days, my calves have really been bothering me after about a mile. I have had to stop and stretch for about a minute every mile or so.

I've already emailed Coach Jo and asked her for some help with pacing. I'm not going to make it through the whole race if I'm sprinting and then dying. I'd also like to get a little faster, although I guess that the speed will come with training.

Miles Completed- 14
Miles To Go- 238 (before September- I don't have Sept. and Oct. Schedules yet)

Fundraising-
I'm finally starting to get some stuff done. I have all of my supplies, I've started labeling my envelopes and I've written the first 2 drafts of my Fundraising letter. I'm hoping to have it done by the middle of the day tomorrow. Then I've got to go over to the 'rents house to confirm some addresses. After that, I'll be stuffing away. One of the team mentors has invited everyone over on Monday night for an envelope stuffing party. I'm going to try to get some of my letters out before then, but worse comes to worst, I'll finish up there. Regardless, I'm planning to go and hang out with people. One of the many reasons why I chose to train with Team in Training is for the Team aspect. I've already missed a couple of the group events for various reasons, so I'm working on getting to know more and more people.

Funds Raised- $210
Funds Remaining- $3790

Procrastinating

So I've had many years to perfect my procrastination technique. I've unfortunately been putting it to good use with both my fundraising and my physical training.

Fundraising-
I was supposed to write my fundraising letter last night, but somehow, I managed to avoid it. Mostly by making a list of the other things that I need to do in order to send out my letters.

• Buy Letterhead
• Write Letter
• Copy letter onto Letterhead
• Buy stamps and Envelopes
• Buy Labels and Return address labels
• Collect addresses
• Print labels and return address labels
• Take photo for Thank you postcard
• Get Thank you cards printed
• Stuff envelopes
• Turn letters in to TNT office (hopefully in time to get free postage)

All that I've actually accomplished is to Buy my TNT letterhead, sort of. I have the letterhead, but I didn't actually pay for it because they didn't have change. I'll have to remember to bring the money to our training session this weekend. I've got a dinner meeting tonight for bootcamp, but after that, I'm either writing my letter or posting my Miami pictures. The more that I get done, the fewer things that I can use to procrastinate. Also, I think that I'm going to go out during lunch to get envelopes, labels, and stamps. At least that way I'll have all of the supplies that I need to get the letters printed.

Training-
Procrastination here too.
I've been running all week. I'm still kind of trying to figure out how to make the TNT schedule work with my bootcamp schedule. I thought that I would be ok just running for TNT on the weekends, but last weekend really kicked my butt. We generally run anywhere from 1-2 miles a day for bootcamp. Sometimes a little more, rarely any less. The problem is that with bootcamp, even though I'm running that far, we stop for strength exercises. When I tried to run for TNT this weekend, I was rockstar for the first 1.5 miles and then I was good for the next 1/2 mile. When I hit the 2 mile mark, I kind of hit a wall. Even though I've been in Bootcamp this whole time, my body is not really used to running more than 2 miles. I haven't even really done long run in a while. I have ended up sweeping with the TLC's. That convinced me that I need to really start focusing on my TNT training as well.

We have been off of bootcamp this week, so I've been running in the afternoon/after work. It is great to be able to sleep in, but the weather and my body are completely different. Yesterday, it was kind of drizzling when i started. I was all set for it to really start to pour and cool me off, but instead, it stopped and maintained that almost raining, 99% humidity thing. I was running at the Chatahoochie river so that didn't help either. I guess that I need to be prepared to be running in this type of weather as the summer starts up, but it is taking me a while to get used to it. Eventhough I drank tons of water yesterday during the day, I still felt crazy dehydrated as I was running. It was tough. I was only running 2 miles, but it felt like 5. I stopped at the 1 mile mark to get a little bit of water from the fountain and stretch out. I've got to start pushing through the pain. I want to train safely, but at the same time, I need to push myself outside of my comfortzone. I think that part of that will come from trying to train more with other people. I'm going to start going to the Tuesday Night Track workouts and hopefully the Wednesday night runs too. Maybe I'll even be able to convince Bryan to come run with me, or at least run at the same time as me. I think that the greatest mental challenge that I"m going to face will be getting myself through the training sessions. I know that I will be able to push myself through the race, because I've done it before, but I would really like to be able to actually train for it, so that it is not as much of a struggle when it comes to race time.

Starting Team in Training

Hey everyone!

Welcome to my Team In Training blog.

I know that you might have heard me after I ran the ING half marathon last year. "I'm never going to run that far, EVER AGAIN."

Well, things have changed.

Six months of Bootcamp later and I feel like I'm finally up to the challenge. As I was thinking about possibly tackling another half marathon, I started to think about The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. Why not do two things at once, train for a race and raise money to help individuals battling blood cancers. In addition to supporting a worthy cause, Team in Training will provide me with the support of a team during my training and my race.

I will be running in the Nike Women's Full and Half Marathon (I'll be doing the half). The race is in San Fransico on October 19th. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I am running in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission. For those of you living in the Bay area, I'd love your support the day of the race as well. I've heard that it is a great party. I've even heard rumors of a chocolate mile (courtesy of Ghirardelli).

I hope you will visit my blog often. Be sure to check back frequently. I'll post pictures as soon as possible and keep everyone updated with my progress.

If you have any questions, or if you are interested in joining Team in Training, feel free to send me an email.

Thanks for your support!