August Miles DONE

August goal = 135 miles
Miles walked = 135
Miles to go = big, fat ZERO

Yipee! I polished off my miles for the month while watching Nip Tuck season 2 on DVD. I'm excited for season 4, which starts soon!

I'm going to take this opportunity to vent about Ernesto. Sunday morning they revised the path of Ernesto and said it was going to be a category 1 headed directly for Orlando, Florida - more specifically east Orlando, which is where I live. The eye was going to go right over our neighborhood. I fretted and stressed for three days.

I stocked up on food, water, batteries, etc.

I drained water out of the pool to accommodate the 10 inches of predicted rain fall.

I dug trenches from the foundation of our house to the lake behind our house to encourage storm water run-off away from the foundation.

I moved all of our pool stuff into the garage.

I combed the yard with a trash bag picking up any object that could possibly be turned into a projectile with high winds.

I trimmed dead branches off of trees.

I read my hurricane and flood policies.

I super chlorinated the pool in anticipation of the introduction of organic matter with the storm water.

I stuck my fingers in areas I would prefer never to stick my fingers to ensure our pool deck drains were clear.

I set our refrigerator and freezer to the lowest setting in anticipation of a power outage.

I cooled the house waaaaay down so we wouldn't sweat to death in the event of a power outage.

I filled up my car with gas - premium gas - because the regular and mid-grade were sold out.

Then I woke up this morning and braced myself for flood control - namely continuing to drain the pool as it fills with rain water and sweeping accumulated rain water off of the pool deck and into the lawn. I even had a dorky rain poncho ready to go.

Then I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And nothing!

Sigh of relief.

And then a twinge of bitterness over my hyper-preparedness.

All's well in Orlando!

Bye bye Ernesto and don't come back!!!!

I've earned a lazy Sunday evening...

August goal = 135 miles
Miles walked = 121
Miles to go = 14

17 mile walk this morning followed by 2 hours of cleaning the garage and grocery shopping for the week.

I'm pooped!!!!

Mileage Update

Since It's been a few days since I posted my mileage for the month, I thought I'd give you a quick update.

August goal = 135 miles
Miles walked = 104
Miles to go = 31

Julie and I are going to walk 15 miles in the morning, which means I'll only have 16 miles to walk next week to get me to goal for the month. Piece of cake! =)

Donations!!!!

To all of my friends and family who have emotionally and financially supported me during my 3-Day training and fundraising - here's a HUGE THANK YOU!!!! ((((HUGS)))))

If you haven't already supported me in my fundraising efforts, I am asking that you PLEASE take this opportunity to support my training partner, Julie.

Visit her fundraising page at www.the3day.org/TampaBay06/julief and make a donation. Truly, any amount helps - $5 or $500 - it all adds up.

Thank you in advance for your donations. Your generosity is sincerely appreciated.

What's next???

I hopped on the treadmill around 9:45pm last night and ran for 5 miles. It took me about 55 minutes, so I'm not breaking any speed records! But at least I ran for 5 miles. I've been doing so much walking for so long I'm trying to ease into running some more miles.

I'm staring to think ahead past the 3-Day. What's next????

I've been looking at this triathlon training schedule.

And this 1/2 marathon training schedule.

I was originally planning on jumping right into the Disney full marathon in January but now I'm having second thoughts. I don't want to set myself up for failure. So I think I might train for the Danskin triathlon and then find a 1/2 marathon to trian for. If that goes well, I can do the Disney marathon in January of 2008. I think that's a more reasonable goal.

The Golf Lesson

August goal = 135 miles
Miles walked = 75
Miles to go = 60

I walked 20 miles on Sunday, 4 on Tuesday and 8 on Thursday. I hope to walk another 4 tomorrow and 15 on Saturday with my training buddy, Julie.

The 20 miles on Sunday went surprisingly well. I wasn’t even sore the next day. My good friend Tanya joined me for the first 10 miles. It was her birthday and she decided to torture herself with a 10 mile walk on her birthday! Crazy girl! But I was grateful for the company. It does make the miles go by much quicker.

Today I walked 8 miles around my neighborhood lake. There’s a 0.9 mile track around the lake and some kids were hitting golf balls into the lake. They ranged in age from about 5 to 9.

At first I was thinking to myself “Look at those trouble makers hitting balls into the lake!”

By about the third lap around I realized I was thinking like a grumpy, sour-puss old lady. The kids were being respectful of people using the exercise path and were not hitting balls at ducks or anything.

So on my fourth lap around I gave them a big smile and by the sixth lap around the ring-leader of the group, a nine year old boy, flagged me down and asked if I wanted to try hitting a ball into the lake.

Me, never having golfed before, said “Sure, why not!” So I grabbed the club and he set up the ball on a tee for me.

First swing….miss

Second swing…miss

Third swing…miss

The group of kids were being so kind and encouraging to me. Little six and seven year olds were saying…

“Don’t worry, it gets easier. It is hard at first. Keep trying. Here, I’ll set up the tee better for you. Don’t give up.”

I felt like an idiot but I kept trying and the fourth swing shot the ball into the water.

Cheers and applaud erupted from the group of kids and the ring-leader gave me a high-five!

I thanked him for the golf lesson and he just beamed! As I was walking away I heard him proclaim “I just gave a golf lesson!”

I had a smile from ear-to-ear the last 2 miles back to my house. You can learn a lot from children.

On the road again....

I'm traveling for work so fitting in my training has been a bear. I just finished a 6 mile walk on the hotel treadmill. It's been really hard finding time to walk. Between work, my personal commitments in Seattle and my family commitments related to my grandmother's death, I've been squeezing in 5 to 6 mile walks at 10 and 11 at night.

This morning I set my alarm for 5am to get up and log some miles. Well, the person who last stayed in my hotel room liked country music and had set the alarm clock to a country station. In my sleepy haze at 5am I thought that a mean cowboy was in my room yelling at me to get up. I beat up the cowboy (aka turned off the alarm) and went back to sleep. Fortunately I woke up around 6:45 but was bummed that I overslept and didn't get any miles in! That mean cowboy ruined my plans! :)

August goal = 135 miles
Miles walked = 32
Miles to go = 103

I've got to WALK, WALK, WALK!!!!!

I'm toying with the idea of registering for the Disney Marathon in January 2007. I have to decide soon, because registration is almost full. The 1/2 marathon is already closed. I've been incorporating running into my 3-day training because I can only walk so much and running helps the miles go a bit faster. I should just do it. What do you think????