114 Miles DONE

July goal = 114 miles
Miles walked = 114
Miles to go = zero, zip, nada

I got up early this morning and did 12 miles before it got too hot outside. I'm so glad to be done for the month. It's my b-day weekend, so I get to kick back and relax. Next week the brutal training starts up again with an even higher mileage goal for August....135 miles.

The good news is I am going to spend half of the month of August in Seattle for work. Training in Seattle is WAY easier than training in Florida. The hotel I'm staying at is 13 miles from my office. I am going to bring my walking gear to work with me, change at the end of the day, and walk home 2 to 3 nights a week. If I can manage three nights a week plus a long walk on the weekend, I should be close to 100 miles by the time I return to Florida. If I can pull that off, I will be sooooo happy.

Around and Around the Lake I Go

My training partner, Julie, ended up not joining me for my walk last night so I walked 11 miles solo. I walked 1.5 miles from my house to this lake in my neighborhood, which has a 0.9 mile path around it. 9 laps around the lake plus the 3 mile round trip walk to and from my house equals about 11 miles.

July goal = 114 miles
Miles walked = 102
Miles to go = 12

Julie and I are now supposed to meet on Thursday night for a long walk. I'm going to try for 12 miles Thursday night to bring me to my July mileage goal of 114 miles!!!!

What's on the menu tonight??? Easy yoga....oooohhhhhmmmmmm

Total Body OUCH

Saturday Julie and I met at RDV and spent 4.5 hours at the gym...

8 am - 9:30: Treadmill
9:30 - 10:30 Power Pump (weightlifting class)
10:30 - 11:30 Swimming, sun bathing, steam room & sauna
11:30 - 12:00 Shower and change
12:00 - 12:30 Lunch

Sunday, I did yard work from 10:30 am to 7:30 pm. I didn't do any walking, but 9 hours of yard work tuckers you out!

So here are my totals.....

July goal = 114 Miles
Miles walked = 91
Miles to go = 23

Here's my plan for the week...

Monday = 5 miles
Tuesday = 11 miles
Wednesday = cross train
Thursday = 7 miles
Friday = cross train
Saturday = Day off - birthday weekend!
Sunday = Swim in the ocean - birthday weekend!

I'm dragging my husband to the gulf coast with me for the day on Sunday!!

Pants off Dance off

Friday night I was channel surfing and stumbled on to Pants off Dance off. Have you seen it? They are looking for contestants for Season 2.

It's soooo totally absurd!!!!!

At the moment our television viewing is being recorded for Nielsen and my husband isn't excited about the fact that they now know we're a Pants off Dance off household!

The Island

July goal = 114 miles
Miles walked = 86
Miles to go = 28

I managed a 4 mile walk around Lake Eola in downtown Orlando yesterday. Today "The Island" saw me through 6 miles on the treadmill. I'm 28 miles to my July goal!!!!!

I'm worried about my right big toe. It is starting to hurt when I walk - and not blister hurt, but stress fracture hurt. I'll give it a rest tomorrow and see how it feels.

Around 2 pm today I experienced overwhelming fatigue that knocked me on my @ss for about 2 hours. In college I had a poor diet and ended up with severe anemia. I didn't know it was anemia at the time, but I would get so tired that I literally couldn't get out of bed some days. I was working full time and going to school full time, so I attributed it to my busy schedule. When I finally made it to the doctor for a check-up, she was flabbergasted by my blood work. I was put on mega iron supplements and came back for a re-test 2 weeks later. Magically, the debilitating fatigue disappeared.

That is what I felt like today...circa 1997 anemia. So, I made a doctor’s appointment for next week. Or it could just be the fact that I've walked 86 freakin' miles in the past few weeks!

Sonic Boom

Have you ever experienced a sonic boom? I hadn’t until this week. Monday morning I was just sitting down to finish my cup of tea before starting the day when BOOM – the house shook, our sliding glass doors bucked back and forth, and I thought something had crashed into our house.

My very first reaction was EARTHQUAKE. Having grown up in an earthquake prone area where I experienced several earthquakes, that was the closest sensation I could equate this to. But then I thought This is Florida! We don’t get earthquakes in Florida! That’s when my something smashed into the roof a la Donnie Darko theory kicked in.

I sprinted out the front door, where my husband was standing by the side of his truck (he had just walked out the door to go to work). I screamed out into the middle of our cul-de-sac WHAT THE F*CK WAS THAT!!!!

We raced into the house, turned on the news and realized it was the space shuttle re-entering the atmosphere about 30 miles from our house. It created a double sonic boom. Monday was the first time since 2002 that the space shuttle landed in Florida. What a way to start my day.

All my husband had to say was “Why did you have to yell what the f*uck was that in the middle of our neighborhood?” Hey, I couldn’t help it.

On to the business of training. Monday I did yoga while watching wife swap. And Tuesday I walked 4 miles on the treadmill while watching Say Anything with the audio commentary by Cameron Crowe, Ione Skye and John Cusack.

Here are my totals…

July goal = 114 miles
Miles walked = 76
Miles to go = 38

Orlando Wetlands Park

July goal = 114 miles
Miles walked = 72
Miles to go = 42

I met my mini-goal for the weekend....20 miles. My training partner, Julie, and I tried a new trail...the Orlando Wetlands Park. Very interesting place. Vultures everywhere - a bit creepy. We saw alligators, snakes, turtles, tons of birds, snarling raccoons, and heard some crazy toads. Oh, and we were attacked by thousands of very large bugs. It is hard to describe the atmosphere of the place. Extremely interesting and beautiful, but also scary and desolate. A horror film could easily be filmed there. I would NEVER walk in that park by myself, but with a partner I felt safe.

I haven't had much of an appetite the past few days, so after walking over 20 miles this weekend I figured a "good" meal was in order. So after our walk Julie and I had lunch at Perkins (think 1/2 a step up from Denny's). When you're covered in sweat, dirt and bug bites, you're somewhat limited as to where you can comfortably eat without being stared down. After a quick paper towel bath in the Perkin's restroom to remove the most apparent layer of grime, I ordered the "build your own omelete" meal - omelete, choice of hasbrowns or home fries, and choice of muffin, toast or pancakes. I had a veggie omelete with hash browns and pancakes. I didn't eat it all, but came close! I don't plan on eating dinner as I'm still full 5 hours later.

Half Way to Goal!!!

July goal = 114 miles
Miles walked = 62
Miles to go = 52

I'm over 1/2 way to goal for July!!!!!!!!!

I walked somewhere between 10 to 12 miles today in the blazing sun (I lost track of my miles, so I'm estimating on the low side for my official monthly mile total). I had to take frequent rest stops in order to avoid overheating. At one point I became very nauseous and broke out in goose bumps and chills even though it was in the 90s with high humidity. Fortunately right at that moment I passed an area of the trail with a big shaded kid's play area with benches, restrooms, and a misting station! And boy did I need a good misting and a rest on a bench in the shade! I was able to cool off enough to finish the 10 miles without further incident.

I ended up NOT meeting the other 3-day'ers for the official training walk. I didn't feel well last night and didn't get to sleep until around 4am. I REALLY didn't want to get up at 5:15 to be out the door by 6am to drive 50 minutes to meet the group at the trail head at 7am after 1 hour of sleep. So, I shut off my alarm, woke up at 8:45am, ate breakfast and went to a closer trail - the Little Econ - and was pounding the pavement by 10am. Even though it was warmer, since I walked from 10am to 1pm, rather than 7am to 10am, I am glad I let myself sleep in.

When I made it back to my car, I did a quarter mile cool down walk around the maintenance building for the park that maintains the Little Econ trail. What did I find??? A tiny chicken coup filled with sorry looking, overheated, half bald, shit stained chickens. AND the chickens had an empty metal feeding dish in the coup with an official park logo on it....thus leading me to believe these are official Orange County Parks Department abused chickens. I was furious. So I'm going to email the local news and see if they will bust them for keeping these poor chickens in such brutal conditions. Wish me luck.

Prozac Nation & Harold and Kumar

Prozac Nation and Harold and Kumar go to White Castle saw me through a wee bit over 7 miles on the treadmill yesterday. I finished watching Harold and Kumar over dinner, at which time I promptly started watching it again with the audio commentary featuring the director and the guys who played Harold and Kumar. I made it about 1/2 way through and then fell asleep. I plan to finish it up today....very entertaining. We had an electrician at our house the other day doing some work and he totally reminded me of Freakshow.

So here are the totals....

July goal = 114 miles
Miles walked = 52
Miles to go = 62

Tomorrow I'm going on my first official training walk....7am at the West Orange Trail - 10 miles, moderate pace. I'm excited to meet other 3-day'ers on this walk. Then, Julie and I might do a 10 miler on Sunday at this wetlands park I found in Christmas, FL - about 40 minutes east of Orlando.

My goal??? To be at 72 miles walked by EOD Sunday.

Syriana

So I watched Syriana while walking 5.5 miles on the treadmill this morning, which brings my July totals to....

July goal = 114 miles
Miles walked = 45
Miles to go = 69

I walked another 4.5 miles later in the day running errands, but I won't count those miles in my monthly walking totals.

Tonight I had my book club meeting. We discussed "My Sister's Keeper" which was my pick for the month. It was very well received by the group and stimulated some great conversations. Overall, we hated the mother and hated the ending, but very much enjoyed the rest of the book. And, we had a fabulous dinner at Season's 52 - I had a patron silver margarita, cod w/ veggies in a miso broth & a wee bit'o carrot cake w/ decaf coffee. My mention of Carrot Top in my last post apparently put carrot cake on my mind, since I jumped at the offer of carrot cake at dinner tonight.

Changing topics....my wonderful friend Dinah did a truly amazing thing...she featured me in her blog. I cannot thank her enough for her support. It means so much to me when others step up and help me fundraise or join me on a training walk. Sniff, sniff...

Fun at Flea World

July goal = 114 miles
Miles walked = 39.5
Miles to go = 74.5

Julie and I met at 8am this morning at a trail in Lake Mary. It was a very enjoyable 10 mile walk with the temp peaking at around 90. Fortunately there was some cloud cover so the sun wasn't pounding directly down on us the whole time. We passed some acrobatic goats, a dead armadillo, many barking dogs, and one frisky senior in a wheel chair. The long walks are soooo much more enjoyable with a partner. Walking 10 miles solo feels like 20 - but walking 10 miles together feels like 5.

We then ate lunch at a cute cafe in Lake Mary before heading over to perhaps the scariest shopping destination in Central Florida...Flea World. We were considering renting a booth at Flea World to sell household goods to raise more money for breast cancer, but after Julie nearly had a panic attack and was convinced that the entrance to Flea World is in fact a worm hole which leads to a 3rd or maybe even 4th world country, we decided to move to Plan B. Plan B is to sell baked goods and ask for donations at the Winter Park Farmer's Market. Winter Park is the high rent neighborhood in Orlando and, more importantly, home to Carrot Top. Maybe some carrot cake is in order??? Now I just have to work on convincing the City of Winter Park to let us beg for cash one Saturday morning at their 'farmer's market' where poodles in pink leather jackets and rhinestone encrusted sun glasses (no kidding - I swear) prance around among the booths filled with organic, wheat-free, gluten-free, dog biscuits. Oy.

July goal = 114 miles
Walked so far = 18.5
Miles to go = 95.5

I did 8.5 miles on the treadmill yesterday...yuck. BOOOORING. Today I think I'll cross train and then hopefully log another 8 miles on Friday and another 15 over the weekend. My goal is to be at 40 or more miles by Monday. Let's see if I can make that goal!!!

July goal = 114 miles
Miles walked = 10
Miles to go = 104

Julie and I met at Red Bug Lake Park for an 8 mile walk this morning. I did a quick 2 miles by myself over the weekend. I need to keep the pace WAY up this month to meet my goal.

My hubby and I were able to watch the shuttle launch this afternoon. The rear of our house faces directly toward Kennedy Space Center, so we had a nice view. By far that was THE best fire work we saw today. This is the second shuttle launch I've seen since moving to FL. Apparently there is a push for something like 17 shuttle launches over the next four years. I would like to go to the space coast for one of the launches eventually and with 17 planned launches before the shuttle is replaced with a new vehicle, I think our chances are pretty good of seeing the shuttle launch up-close before it's retired.