Training Works!

Wow. There must really be something to this training thing. I walked 15 miles on Saturday and 18 miles on Sunday and I don't hurt at all today. After my first official half-marathon two years ago, I could hardly walk for three whole days. I trained for that one, but something didn't go right. I think it was nutrition-related. That morning, we were running late and didn't get to eat anything before the race besides a banana about two hours before start time. Sure I had lots of water during the race and I even drank some sports drink, but I didn't eat anything at all and that seems to be a big no-no in the world of endurance sports. They offered GU packets, but I had never tried them so I didn't want to take any chances. Besides, have you seen those? They're literally goo. Slime. So gross. I still haven't tried them and I won't ever unless I absolutely need to. All that fake stuff really turns me off. But, thankfully, there are more familiar foods you can eat that give your body the same benefits.

And that's what we did yesterday. We stopped four or five times during our walk to stretch, replenish, refuel, rest, and relieve. It worked out great. We split a bagel, orange juice, a bag of chips and a Gatorade and that was just enough to keep our bodies moving. Sure, we started slowing down in the last two miles, but we made it through 18 miles. Now we know we can do it. We are doing it!

Man, that was far.

This is the weekend I've been dreading.

I walked 15 miles today. I walked for four hours, but it literally took me all day. I woke up early and got in 10 miles by 8:30. Then Brian took the kids to Lowe's for one of those workshops, so after I had my breakfast I went back out for two more miles. I had a two and a half hour Girl Scout training class this afternoon so I couldn't get any more walking in this afternoon. But our neighborhood had its fall social tonight. Every October our HOA hosts a hot dog dinner and they hang a huge sheet and show a movie in the park. It's great! So after dinner, I walked three miles while Brian and the kids watched Monsters vs. Aliens. I got to see the second half; it looks like a cute movie. I like Seth Rogen's Bob character the best.

So I did the first half of this horrible weekend. Now I just have to walk 18 more miles tomorrow!

Six More

Yesterday I walked 4 miles in the morning before Brian went to work. Then after dinner, the whole family went walking for 2 more miles. Actually, Brian and I walked, Elizabeth rode her bike, and Matthew took a ride in the stroller. We enjoyed checking out all the Halloween decorations in our neighborhood. Maybe a walk after dinner will become a new family tradition...especially once Matthew gets a bike for his birthday. Hey kids, let's go look at the holiday decorations. They'll never even know it's a ruse to get out and exercise.

Five More

I walked 5 miles this morning. I started too early because it was
d-a-r-k. It wasn't light until nearly halfway into my walk. But hey, at least I was walking fast. Maybe I should be like the lady I often see who carries one of those little souvenir bats that little boys get from baseball games. I assume it's to defend herself against would-be attackers. It's not a bad idea, I suppose. But it's just one more thing to carry.

I've been thinking a lot about getting ready for the 3-Day and what I'm going to pack. I've been reading other people's blogs about what to take and what I'll need. This weekend we headed to Dick's to get some things. I got a poncho that I hope I will not need, six more pairs of socks, sport sunglasses and, finally, a waist pack with a water bottle. I used the waist pack this morning, and I think I need to get a different one. It wasn't that comfortable and I'm not sure I can fit all I need to fit in it in the pockets provided. So, I guess I'm still in the market for a hydration pack. Also, I need a large bag to pack everything in for my trip. We have to put all our gear in one bag that can't weigh more than 35 pounds. That means I have to put my sleeping bag, pillow, air mattress, clothes, shoes and toiletries all in one bag. Dick's had a duffel bag that's the right size, but it wasn't a rolling duffel. We zipped Matthew up in the bag and I tried carrying it around on my shoulder. (Oh, don't worry. He's was laughing his head off in there!) He's about 38 pounds, and it was tough. I wonder how far I'd have to carry that bag....

Fitness Weekend

This weekend I walked 6 miles on Saturday morning. After coming home and having breakfast with my family, we all went to Chandler's 3rd annual Day of Play. It's a free festival-like event at the park to get the community excited about exercise and fitness. They had a 10k, 5k, and family fun run (in which we did not yet participate--maybe another year) and a bunch of booths to try different activities from the high jump to planting watermelon seeds to decorating sunvisors. That kind of thing. We made some sunglasses, checked out some snake skins, hoola hooped, went through a jumping obstacle course and played frisbee golf. I've never played that before; it's kind of fun! Here we are doing the something-meter dash....And that's why I don't run. I look like a goof, but check out Elizabeth's form. We might have a runner on our hands! We'll find out soon because she starts running club on Thursday. Matthew really gave that big kid a run for his money. Ha HaElizabeth and Matthew tried out the long jump, too.

So all in all, the Day of Play was a success!

On Sunday Jennifer and I walked ten miles. Blahbity blah. I can't remember anything exciting happening. She did mention that she won't be able to walk with me on Saturday. So does anyone out there want to walk 15 miles with me? Anyone? Anyone? Maybe just part of the way? I'll probably break it up into two or three separate walks that day.

Excuses, Excuses

So I didn't walk on Tuesday because I was tired. As a mother of a 6 year old and a nearly 3 year old, I'm not accustomed to waking up in the middle of the night. So when it does happen, it hurts. It all started on Monday. We were out in the back yard washing windows and screens and the kids were playing. Matthew was standing under the lemon tree and just started screaming. I saw Brian run over and brush off Matthew's arms and I just knew. It finally happened. One of the kids got stung by a scorpion.

But that wasn't the case. Matthew was standing on an ant hill and, although surely not as bad as a scorpion sting, ant bites aren't much fun either. He had a few on his hand that swelled up pretty quickly, but other than that he was fine. But that night when he woke up crying, my mind immediately went back to the moment of the ant bites. And, as we all know, I get a little irrational in the middle of the night so I didn't help anything by waking him up completely to find out if anything hurt. I couldn't get him back in his bed for anything. He didn't want me to leave. Finally, I fell asleep with him in the guest room, but then Elizabeth started making noises, so I went to check on her. Then Matthew woke up while I was with her. Craziness! Brian ended up falling asleep in the guest room with Matthew for a while, I went to my bed, and hours later when Brian came to bed, Elizabeth was sleeping next to me. Brian ended up sleeping the rest of the night in Elizabeth's room. We were all over the place. Needless to say, at around 1:30 am on Tuesday, I decided I wasn't walking in the morning.

I did walk six miles on Wednesday, though.

I was supposed to do five miles on Thursday. I woke up at 5:30, got dressed, went outside and the balls of my feet were burning. When I walked on Wednesday, I had a pebble in my shoe and didn't want to stop to take it out. That turned out to be a mistake. With the walk being about a month away, I didn't want to hurt my feet anymore. So, I just went back to bed.

This weekend, though, I'm committed to 10 and 6 miles. I'm going to do it! And my training log on the right is going to hit 400!

Recovery Weekend

I heart recovery weekends. I had to walk only 14 miles on Saturday and Sunday this week. Love that! So yesterday I did the 6 miles because it was Elizabeth's birthday and I wanted to get home as soon as possible. We had a great day. I was home before 8 am and we had breakfast and took her and some friends to see a play. She loved it!

This morning I did 8 miles and was home in time for breakfast again. Brian made pancakes so it was great to come home, sit down, and dig in. I had some cottage cheese afterwards to get in a little protein. That really seems to aid my recovery after walks.

The past five weekends have been pretty brutal as far as training goes. Even though we walk early to get it out of the way, it still screws up your day. Because anytime you walk ten miles or more, especially in the Arizona heat, you feel pretty crappy. I mean, you walk your butt off and then feel like poop the rest of the day. (I think you know what I mean there. My mom reads this so I had to clean up the language.) So it was really nice to just have to walk 6 and 8 miles. Next weekend won't be bad either. It's just 10 and 6. I think they're being nice to us because the following weekend is the one we've been dreading since we received our training program. It's 18 miles and 15 miles back to back. Sure, it will be good practice. But is that really something we want to practice?

Hmm....

I'm a Facebook friend of the Breast Cancer 3-Day. Oh, ya. We go way back, me and the 3-Day. Seriously, though.... I enjoy looking through everyone's photo galleries of their 3-Day experience. Last weekend was the San Francisco 3-Day. They camped at the Presidio, the big beautiful park right by the Golden Gate Bridge. How cool would it be to wake up, walk out of your tent, and see the Golden Gate Bridge first thing in the morning? In San Diego, we'll camp right along the water at Mission Bay. I'm sure that will be beautiful, too, but it's no Golden Gate. Maybe someday we can do the San Francisco 3-Day. Or maybe just crew it.

This morning I walked another 4 miles. I'm taking the kids on a bike ride/walk up to Elizabeth's school so they can play on the playground for a while. That will bring me up to my recommended 6 miles for today.

New Plan

From now until the walk, I'm supposed to walk 5 miles each Tuesday and 6 miles each Thursday. Five or six miles in the morning is about an hour and a half time commitment, so it's difficult to accomplish before 7 am. I plan on doing 3 and 4 miles in the morning and getting in another two by either walking Elizabeth to school or walking with Elizabeth after dinner. The weather is so nice after dinner and she likes to ride her bike, so I think we can make it work.

During this morning's 3 mile walk, I saw a lot of cats. If you read the local papers, you'd think the Valley was being overtaken by cats. Maybe it's true, I don't know. There is the lady in the West Valley who sets traps and claims that she catches an average of 26 cats each night. She gets them neutered and releases them, which is nice of her I guess, but is she sure she's not catching the same cats over and over? Would the vet know? These are the things I ponder as I walk.

In doggie news, still no sign of Chester. I ran into his owner this morning. She had a poodle puppy.

Karma

Over the weekend, I officially checked-in for the San Diego 3-Day by completing Phase 2 of the online check-in process. I had to watch a safety video and take a little quiz. I passed! I chose my tentmate. I hope Jennifer and I are still talking by then. And I had to pretty much sign my life away. Hope all goes well.

Both of us bailed on the Saturday walk. My knee was giving me some trouble and Jennifer had some back and sick-child issues. We just thought it would be smarter to nurse our injuries and save our legs for a long walk on Sunday.

We did manage to walk 16 miles yesterday. The weather was actually cooler so we were able to enjoy ourselves a little more than usual. We've gotten a little tired of walking along the canal so we've been using Map My Run figure out some new routes. There are pros and cons to this new system. I'll start with the positives. We're obviously seeing new things and broadening our horizons. We're learning more about our little corner of suburbia. And it's good to be near civilization so that we can adhear to the 3 R's of the 3-Day: rehydrate; refuel; and relieve. (See? I was paying attention to the video.) The cons are that the maps on Map My Run aren't always accurate and there is no way to know whether a street you've chosen on your route is located in a gated community. I bet you know where this going....

During yesterday's walk, we came upon our next turn only to find a huge iron gate blocking our way. Luckily, the pedestrian gate was ajar. Tsk, tsk, Rich People! You're letting in us riff-raff. So no worries for us there; we made it through to the other side of the neighborhood. Expectedly, there was another big iron gate. Unexpectedly, the pedestrian gate was locked from both sides. We tried standing before the car gate, but as we're not large, metal cars, it didn't open. We simply couldn't get out. We weighed our options (and there weren't many). None of the spaces in the scrolly wrought-iron gate was big enough for us. We probably could have gotten through this gap, but it probably would have taken a while, the gate was located along a busy road, and it was broad daylight. We were embarrassed enough just standing inside the entrance.So, the only logical thing to do was to confess to the homeowner who was out trimming his tree that we wandered into the neighborhood illegally and were now stuck. He was nice about it (we can't be the only ones who've done it, right?) and gave us the code to exit the gate. The big gate. But we were so past looking silly. We were free.

A Walk to School

Elizabeth and I walked to school today so I was able to get two miles in this morning. It's fun to wave to her friends and teachers as they drive by. She had a good time and said, "Walking to school is fun!" I'm so glad she likes it. It's only .65 mile and the weather was so beautiful this morning. For all the complaining I've done about how hot it is, I know there's going to come a time when I'm complaining that it's too cold in the morning to walk to school. We have to do it while we can! Except this is the last day of school before a two and a half week Fall Break. Geez!

I'm ramping up for the 30 miles I have to somehow walk this weekend. The schedule is 13 miles on Saturday and 17 miles on Sunday. This sounds horrible.

It's Finally Fall

...I hope. This morning, it was a little chilly for my four mile walk. I was even able to wear long sleeves! I was freezing at first, but I warmed up after a mile. I think San Diego is going to be a little chilly, too, so I better get used to it. I just hope I'm not too cold. I don't like to be cold. Or hot. But you already knew that one.

This afternoon I completed my online check-in for the 3-Day so there's no going back now! Jennifer and I just have to make our travel plans, hotel arrangements, figure out what to take and then pack it. It's October so we can now say the event is next month. It's getting exciting. I can't wait to stop training! I plan to keep walking, but certainly not 25 to 30 miles each weekend. Blah!

So Sad

On Tuesday morning, I walked four miles. As I was leaving the neighborhood and heading for the fitness trail, a little old lady with red, puffy eyes approached me. She told me someone had stolen her dog out of her yard on Saturday and she's just beside herself because she misses him so much. I've seen her walking her tiny, fluffy dog on other mornings so I didn't even need to see the photograph she showed me. I asked her the dog's name and I left her with all the determination in the world to locate and return her beloved Chester.

But, alas, I never saw him. Poor Chester. Poor Little Old Lady. I hope he finds his way home soon.