Catching Up

So I have some catching up to do here....

On Thursday, I was supposed to walk 5 miles, but I ended up walking only three. I just couldn't will myself out of bed. The night before, my friends Jennifer, Jamie, and Kristin and I went to see Chuck Wicks in concert. Some of us a little more reluctantly than others. I won four tickets through an online contest! Now...I never win anything and, although it might seem a little superstitious, I was afraid that if I let them go to waste then I'd never win anything ever again. Besides, I checked out his website and a few of his videos on YouTube, and why wouldn't I want to go see him? His claim to fame is dancing with his real-life girlfriend, Julianne Hough, on Dancing with the Stars. But help the guy out a little and become a fan. He's good!

So the point of all that is that I was tired Thursday morning and didn't get up to walk. Matthew and I did walk Elizabeth to school and then around the neighborhood for a few miles, so I got in three. That's not five, but it's better than zero.

Saturday morning, Jennifer and I walked another 7 miles. We're really into walking new routes lately, so we walked some trails through a newer neighborhood in Chandler that didn't really get off the ground due to the housing market crash. There are beautiful entrances, playgrounds, and splash pads, but no houses around them. Phase one of the development has a lot of homes, but it looks like the other phases are waiting for a turnaround. The walk got the job done, but it was pretty bland.

This morning we walked 14.5 miles. Four and a half hours is a long time to walk. Thankfully Dunkin' Donuts, Einstein Bros. Bagels, and Joe's Farm Grill are all along our route.

Just More Walking

I walked an uneventful four miles this morning.

The Good Old Days

Ahhhh..... I remember fondly that period of time not so long ago when I had to walk 24 or 25 miles over the course of a week. Now I'm doing that in a weekend. I'm not going to lie. It's getting kind of old. But once we get out there, it's not all that bad. Somehow, we still managed to have a lot of fun today.

Jennifer and I walked 15 miles today. 15 miles! I still can't believe it. It's the most either of us has walked in a day. We met at 5 am and walked about 4 miles to a bagel shop. We split a bagel and Jennifer got her coffee fix. Then we walked 6 more miles to another coffee shop. There we split a scone and refueled with some orange juice. Five miles later we had breakfast at IHOP. Sure, it sounds like all we're doing is eating, but we walked for over 4 hours today. We spent much more time walking than eating.

We normally walk on the canal, but we pretty much know it like the back of our hands so we wanted a little change in scenery. We used MapMyRun to find a route with two places to rest for a bit. Because one of our stops opened later than we had hoped, we had to do our planned route backwards. Also, we had a little trouble with the maps. So, we were supposed to walk only 14 miles today (only! ha, that's funny), but due to all our issues it ended up being 15 miles. Next Saturday and Sunday we are scheduled to do 15 and 11 miles. We've already knocked a mile of the 15-miler.

Not Another Weekend!

How crazy is it to dread the weekend? That's what I find myself doing these days. For the next two months, I have to walk for miles and miles both days of every weekend. This morning, Jennifer and I walked 7 miles in two hours. According to the training schedule, we were supposed to walk 10 miles. So...after dinner, Elizabeth and I went exercising. She rode her bike next to me. We did a one-mile loop and I dropped her off to play with Matthew and Brian in the back yard. I continued on for a total of 2.5 miles. Yes, I was supposed to do 3 miles but it was getting dark. Besides, the .5 mile on my "Training Miles Logged" was driving me nuts. Now we're back to whole numbers.

Tomorrow we're going for 14 miles. I can't wait for Monday! It's a rest day!

Oh the Cuteness!

Yesterday I walked five miles in the early morning. I see a lot of people on the trail every morning either walking, biking, or running. Many are young, but there are quite a few older folks out there. And they're so cute! I passed an older couple enjoying the cooler morning weather with a walk at sunrise. I saw them again on the way back and they were feeding the ducks in the canal. Not with bread, either; they had their own duck food. It was such a sweet scene. It reminded me of the Mallard family from Make Way for Ducklings. Then I saw another older gentleman walking his four dogs. None was on a leash, but they were just following him and smelling around. Two went pretty far ahead of him, but when they turned around and saw where he was, they promptly sat down and waited for him to catch up. I'm not even and animal person and it warmed my heart.

Scorpion Killer

This morning I walked 4.5 miles. I overslept a bit so got in only 3 miles before Brian left for work. But I was able to talk Elizabeth into walking to school so I added another 1.5 miles to today's total. Before I did any walking though, I had to take care of a scorpion in my entryway.

You know, I've lived in Arizona for ten years now. It's not a bad place really, but I have to admit that I'm getting a little tired of it. Maybe it's that end of the summer (oh, please let this be the end of summer already!) feeling, and in a few months I'll be in love with it all over again. Jennifer compares our summers to childbirth because as soon as the heat is gone, we forget how horrible it was. But it's not just the heat that bothers me. It's the dust, the polluted brown cloud that hovers over the valley, and the scorpions.

Admittedly, I'm not as afraid of scorpions as I was before I was stung. It hurts like hell, but at least I know now that I'm not allergic and I won't die. But the thought of having those neurotoxins run through the bodies of my kids, well that's another fear altogether. When I see a scorpion in my house or in my yard, I don't scream anymore. I don't jump up and down and shiver when I see it move. I just get angry. Every scorpion I find feels my wrath for the scorpion that stung me. If you need a visual, picture Ralphie from A Christmas Story finally beating up Scut Farkus. That's what I look like when I kill a scorpion.

So yes. When I went outside to walk this morning, I picked up the newspaper and smacked it against the driveway a few times in case any scorpions needed to scurry out. (See? This is what we have to do here. Shake out our shoes. Shake out our towels. Never reach our hands into anything we can't see. Turn lights on when we walk around at night. It's ridiculous.) Anyhow, when I was placing the newspaper by the front door, I saw the scorpion walking up the outside wall. Lucky for me and unlucky for him, I was armed. I smacked him once. He wiggled. I smacked him again and that was that.

As I write this post, Brian is headed out for his nightly scorpion hunt. Fun, huh? He takes a blacklight and fly swatter. Why a blacklight? Because they fluoresce. Disgusting, isn't it?

Another Half Marathon

Two years ago Jennifer talked me into signing up for the PF Chang's Rock N Roll half marathon in Phoenix. We trained for about four months and walked the 13.4 miles in about 3 hours and 20 minutes. It was a great experience. We really felt a strong sense of accomplishment when we crossed the finish line, and we both were feeling pretty good about our fitness levels.

Four months into our 3-Day training, we had to walk another half marathon this morning. We did it in 3 hours and 45 minutes. It's much harder to walk fast when it's so hot. The difference between September and January is significant. Plus, there were no crowds on the sidelines cheering us on or handing us cups of water and sports drinks. There weren't rock bands every two miles to pump us up. And there certainly were no medals and giveaways waiting for us at the finish line.

But it's too early for such pomp anyway. Even though this week's miles added up to 31, we have to walk 33 next week. And 35 the next. And so on. We still have two months of training and a long way to go.

Walking as Therapy

This morning I walked 9 miles. Jennifer couldn't make it so I walked it alone. You know, two hours and 20 minutes are a long time to spend with just yourself. Especially walking. But Saturday mornings are pretty busy on the trail so I wasn't totally alone. In addition to the regulars, the Team in Training was out and so was the high school cross country teams.

I was watching the high school kids run. And interact. The boys run in their group, and the girls are about 50 yards behind in their little group. But between the two groups are a couple of girls running by themselves. Those girls made me wish I had been a runner when I was in school. Not now. I'm pretty sure I'm past my prime. But back then, I think it would have been something that would have suited me. Not to be in the group of girls who were saying things like "And he was like....and I was like...." No, I definitely would not have wanted to be with them. But I probably would have liked running by myself.

So why didn't I? Ah. I came up with plenty of answers during this morning's walk. Because, you know, I had plenty of time to think about it.

Here's the first. I did join the track team in middle school. I lasted two days. My body wasn't used to running so it ached pretty badly. Clearly I didn't give it enough time. I'm sure my body would have adjusted after a week or so, but there was something else. I wasn't very fast. Actually, not fast at all. And maybe I was too touchy, but as I was running, one kid (let's call him Kevin--because that's his name) passed me. He let out a little laugh. Then he passed me again and said something like "I'm running laps around you" and laughed some more. Well who needs that? So, I could blame it all on Kevin.

Or maybe it was because my brother was the jock and I was the nerd. Except that Nick was a smart jock, so I had to be really nerdy to be anything. I didn't have time to be on a team. I had too much work to do.

Then I had what those therapy people call a break-through. The reason I wasn't a runner didn't have anything to do with either of those things. It's because I tend to not do things unless I'm sure I can do them well. I hate doing things where I don't excel. And it's about time I get over that already. I should just try new things.

So here I am at 33. Wondering what I should try to get out of my comfort zone. Well, I have plenty of time to think about it because I have plenty more walking to do.

Two Milestones in One Day

Wow. This morning I got in 5 miles, and I can't believe I'm already up to 250 training miles. It seems like I just wrote a post on my 200th mile. Well, the mileage of each walk is increasing so it makes sense that the total will go up more quickly now. It's just hard to believe that I've walked that far. I wonder what's 250 miles from here? Would it sound more impressive if I said I walked from my house to the Grand Canyon?

The second milestone reached today is that this is my 100th post on Sara Walks for 3 Days. Thanks for reading, Mom. And Jennifer. And Marie.

IronWoman

This morning I walked four 16-minute miles. I think 16-minute miles are my ideal walking pace. It's not as fast as I can walk (without techinically jogging), which I think is about 14.5-minute miles. It's also not so slow that it takes me forever. It's simply a nice, brisk pace.

This is a little off the subject, but I met a really cool lady today at Matthew's school. She's one of the other moms, and she's a triathlete. She had a shirt on that said Triathlete so I asked her how long she's been one. That's when she told me she completed the IronMan a few years ago. Now, I've never met anyone who has done the IronMan before, let alone a stay-at-home mom who seems a lot like me (except for her amazing figure, of course). Do you know what the IronMan is? Let me tell you. It's one race in which you swim 2.4 miles, bike another 112 miles, and then finish the day off by running a full marathon (26.2 miles).

Kind of makes walking 60 miles in three days seem kind of wimpy, doesn't it? What the heck am I complaining about?

More and More Walking

Jennifer and I walked 7 miles this morning. It took us about two hours. Then we went and had big skillet breakfasts instead of the usual quiche muffins. Hey, we deserve it. Jennifer's walking with blisters all over the bottoms of her feet and I have sinusitis. Nothing can stop us from training. Well...maybe a little rain yesterday. And maybe some sleep deprivation on Thursday. Okay! But I did manage to get in 20 of the suggested 28 miles this week. That's nothing to sneeze at. Oh, the sickness jokes. I kill me!

I'm Short 3 Today

It rained this morning! Jennifer and I met at 6 am and started walking along the canal. We could see storms to the northeast and some to the south, but we decided they were far enough away. We couldn't hear thunder afterall. At least not at first. For two people who are so afraid of lightning, I'm surprised we got as far as we did.

We were supposed to walk 12 miles today, but we didn't really plan on doing all 12 this morning. We thought we'd get in about 7. We ended up walking 3.5 miles. After a while, there seemed to be different storms all around us and the lightning strikes were a bit frightening, so we turned around. By the time we got in our cars, it started to rain really hard so we were glad we stopped when we did. We went to breakfast anyway and sat out on the (covered) patio and enjoyed the weather.

Amazingly, it rained off and on through the early afternoon and it stayed cloudy and cool for most of the day. I was even able to walk a few more miles this afternoon. This afternoon! Can you believe it?! I got in another 5.5 miles to bring my total for the day up to 9 miles. I'm still short three miles, but it's a three-day weekend. I'm sure I can make it up somehow.

Short-Lived Inspiration

So much for Lance.

This morning, the alarm went off and I just turned it off. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired, so I figured I'd try to get some more rest. I think I made the right decision because I'm feeling a lot better this evening. I've been very busy lately and I seem to keep adding things to my plate like a crazy person. So the extra hour of sleep this morning did me good.

I'm down five miles, but I'm totally okay with it. Surprisingly, I had little trouble letting it go. I think it has something to do with the fact that I have to do 12 miles on Saturday and 7 miles on Sunday.

I couldn't decide whether the title of this post should be Thank you, Lance Armstrong or Damn you, Lance Armstrong. So, I'll just let his motto speak for itself.

As I mentioned previously, I've been suffering from a cold. Although last night I set the alarm for 5:15 so I could get my four miles in, I figured I'd see how I felt in the morning. Well, how do you think I felt? I was tired. My head still hurt. I was still stuffy. I made the decision to just turn off the alarm and get some more rest. That's probably what my body needs anyway.

But then I couldn't get back to sleep. See, I just finished reading Lance Armstrong's book, It's Not about the Bike; it's all about his journey back to life after cancer. It's a great book, but I didn't find him particularly inspirational while I was reading it. (Though I'm reconsidering his effect on me now.) He's not the best person in the world. In fact, he's a cad. He's cocky. He's brash. He's why people hate Texans. He's kind of a momma's boy. And he has a big chip on his shoulder. But he's also something else. He's tenacious. He's resilient. He's just Lance Armstrong.

And this morning as I was trying to fall back to sleep, I kept hearing his voice. Sara, you're such skirt. I had cancer and I still went on six hour rides. What's wrong with you? Oh, you have a cold. Come on. Be a stud! Yes, he actually throws around words like skirt and stud. Whatever.

So I got up. I got dressed. I threw on my Live Strong cap and went awalkin'. And I'm probably better for it.

So I guess I can say it. Thanks, Lance Armstrong.