New Shoes and Water bottles

Thank you for your contribution!
Woodie and Steve Wisebram
Mary and Phillip Liebman

Training-
I got new shoes, YAY!!!
The first thing that I did when I got home from buying them was label them. I've got one pair specifically designated for Boot Camp and one pair for Team in Training. I think that will help me keep my shoes nice. The guy at the Big Peach Running Co. told me that it takes ~23 hours for the insoles of a pair of shoes to recover from an hour of running. If I wear my shoes in the morning for Boot Camp and then in the afternoon to train, they don't fully recover and they don't provide the same amount of cushioning. As soon as I put on the new shoes I instantly felt better. My feet and knees are still a little sore, but only after running, as opposed to all of the time.

I've been zooming along with my training. I think that my conversation with Coach Jo REALLY helped me out. I'm not forcing myself to run quite as many miles, so I am running much better quality miles. It is nice to feel like I have "permission" to back off of my training enough to make it to September. I'm still making sure to get my long runs in, but I don't run as many of the shorter runs, and I'm doing some more cross-training too.

We had our nutrition clinic on Saturday the 12th. It was interesting, but it was also about 300 degrees outside, so I was itching to get outside and actually run. I think that part of my antsy-ness was that I think that I have a fairly good sense of what my body needs in order to function well. 9 months of Boot Camp is kind of making me a nutrition snob. My mom came to the clinic and then we ran together. We were scheduled to run 4 miles, but I think that we ran more like 3.5. It was a nice shady run. I need to figure out something to to about my knee braces though. If I have them on tight enough to help my knees, they cut off the circulation to my lower legs. I think that I'll end up wearing one on my left knee and letting my right leg get the circulation. We had a team tailgate after the run which was nice. I really enjoy hanging out with everyone. This has been a great experience so far.

On Sunday, it was raining most of the day, so I ended up just going for a short hike in the woods behind my apartment. Bryan and I found a hole in the fence that leads right to the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area.

I've been taking it a little easy this week, sort of. We had a "Track Workout" on Tuesday. In reality, one of the coaches for TNT's Sister Program, Hike for Discovery, is a personal trainer. He gave us a "Strength for Runners" session. It was really interesting and fun. He had these things called battle ropes. Basically you take a 60 foot rope and wrap it around a pole. Then you grab each end and have to make it "wave" all the way from you to the pole. Talk about a workout. I'm still feeling the effects, 3 days later.

I started advanced Boot Camp training on Monday. We have 10 classroom sessions and 10 intense workouts and then I'll be a "Master Trainer" and I'll be able to train other instructors. The workouts are super tough and it made it harder for me to get my runs in, but I'm definitely in better shape now than I was when I did my instructor training to start with. Group Training this weekend is at the Church again. The routes from there are really pretty nice, although you can really start to see the difference between the half marathon training and the full marathon training. Most of my buddies that I've been running with are training for the full, so I don't get to run with them as much. They are seriously ramping up their mileage, while we are fairly slowly adding miles. Some of them have tried to convince me to switch to the full marathon, but I'm going to stick with the half. I don't have time each week to adequetly train for the full and I would rather have a successful, stress free half marathon. Who knows, maybe one day I'll get the nerve and the time to train for a full marathon. I no longer think that it is ridiculous, although I have no plans to do that for the near future.

Miles Completed-92.2
Miles to Go- 159.2

Fundraising-
I finally got everything worked out to get my waterbottles made. The company that I'm working with (Design Enterprises) has been amazing. Yara, their art manager, has really helped me out getting the logo ready and helping me to choose the right waterbottle. They couldn't help me out with my first choice bottle, but they suggested another, bigger waterbottle and they decided to donate almost half of the cost. They also waived the shipping fee and the set up fee for the printing. I can't believe it. Now, the donation that will come from each bottle will be bigger. I approved the final artwork yesterday, so they should be here in 3-5 business days. It has been such a long process that I'm getting a little antsy. I just can't wait until they come in. I was hoping to have them by the group run this weekend, but they won't be in until next week sometime.

In addition to the water bottles, I'm working with my mentor group on putting together an event. We have been talking to a couple of different places about putting on a Parent's Night Out. Basically, you drop off your kids and for ~$25 we entertain them for 4 hours. We did such a good job soliciting a place that I think that we are going to have 2 nights. 1 at a church where we will have ~4 different "rooms" set up (crafts, movie, playground, etc.) and another one at a place called "Leaping Lizards." "Leaping Lizards" is a really cool business. Basically, they purchased a bunch of bouncy things (bouncy castles, giant inflatable slides, etc.). They rent a warehouse and blow up all of these inflatables and they you pay admission to come and play. I don't think that we are going to be able to keep all of the money from that night, but it is much less effort on our part. They just opened an new location and have been planning to have a percentage night for a charity. Whitney, my mentor, happened to call them when they were planning it and they decided to make Team in Training their charity. We will make some percentage of all of their business that night. It is really cool.

I don't think that I realized how much people and companies are willing to give if you just ask. It helps that all of the donations are Tax-Deductable.

I also got an email from the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. Apparently, I've qualified for a challenge. If I can raise all of my money by September 15th, I'll be entered into a drawing for a $300 Shopping Spree on race weekend in San Fran.

I can't decide whether I'm excited about the challenge or if it overwhelms me. I guess that just means that I need to get my fundraising done a month early, but those 4 weeks might be important. I think that I'm just going to continue working on my fundraising and then see how it goes. If I make it to September 1st and I have a ton left, then I won't worry about the challenge. If I only have a little left, I'll really push myself and my fundraising efforts. We shall see.



Funds Raised- $2325
Funds Remaining- $1675 (I like to watch this get smaller)