Week One Completed

Hello All!

So Week 1 of 16 finished successfully. My achilles is fully recovered, and I still 9 miles of training in this week. Plus its been BEAUTIFUL weather out here in California. :)

Goals for Week 2
1) Running on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday
2) Weight Training Tuesday and Thursday
3)Fundraising Clinic Tuesday evening
4)8 hours of sleep per night
5) Eat reasonably healthy!
6) Weekly Mileage: 14 Miles
7) Get to 75% of my donation goal

I wasn't able to make it to the group training yesterday, but I made sure to stop by the gym and get my 3 miles in to stay on schedule! Unfortunately this month is going to make it difficult to make it to the Saturday group runs because of a 5k race, my athletes have a track meet and work. :( But I will be able to make it to the Tues/Thurs evening mentor lead trainings!

Ok, well I have to get up EAARRRLYYY for work tomorrow so I'd better get to bed very soon!

Everyone, have an awesome week ahead!

Achilles: Healed!

So I mentioned in a previous blog that my left achilles was really tender because of mindlessly training without rest three days in a row. Well, I am happy to say that I am completely, 100 percent healed! I ran 3.5 miles on Thursday, but not without slight discomfort. Today I have a three mile run for our Team Challenge training schedule and it should be a fantastic run - plus its a beautiful day!

It is exciting to see progress in my running this early! I can run for 45 minutes straight without feeling fatigue in my legs, or feel as if I am out of breath. I can hold a conversation the entire time - a mini success story for myself already. I figure if nothing else, this helps build my motivation to stick with it and keep on truckin' :)

My college track team, Portland State University has been in Palo Alto all week for the Stanford Invitational. It has been a fantastic time hanging out with my former teammates and coaches. My friend, and co-instructor for our running club at the Y, and I are going to the invitational to watch a few events today after I get off work. I stopped by yesterday and watched the men's javelin and women's shotput. Portland State made me proud :)

I am happy to say that since April of last year I have lost a total of 15 lbs. My goal is to lose 10 more pounds while embarking on this Team Challenge journey to run the Napa to Sonoma 1/2 marathon! I will keep you posted on this!

PSU TRACK AND FIELD IN TOWN THIS WEEKEND!

I just found out that my college track and field team, Portland State University, is going to be in Palo Alto this weekend for the Stanford Invitational :)

Although a lot of my friends have graduated, there are still quite a few faces that I am very excited to see again. I'm looking forward to wearing my green and black proudly!

As usual, I know Westin Morrill will excel in the javelin throw. (Can't wait to see you again, Westin). Pictured here are a couple of my former teammates: Caressa Sims, Judith Burnett and I with our coach, Seth Hensen, at the NYC Armory Invitational in 2008.

I have my first group run for Team Challenge at 9:30, so I should be able to make it to the track around 11:30 or noon on Saturday and catch most of the events, as well as many of them on Friday too.

Not only has the thought of seeing my former team brought back many amazing memories, but it has also led me to think about how much I've grown within the past year since moving to Califormia from Portland. I think just about every category of my life has developed significantly since moving here. In terms of relationships, spiritually, physically (training for a half!), financially, etc. I'm very thankful that I can look on this past year and admit with confidence that I am proud that I made the tough decision to move away from everything I was comfortable and familiar with in Portland and pack up and move to California.

This should be a fun weekend ahead :)

Run, Run, Run..

So here's to my first blog posting ever... Cheers!

Last week I signed up for Team Challenge - A training program through the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America to raise money to find a cure for both Crohn's and Colitis. They train you to run a half marathon. Ours happens to be July 19th from Napa to Sonoma. :) I CANT WAIT!

So I've decided to keep everyone updated on my training and how everything is going, every step of the way toward my goal to run the half marathon in July as well as raising $2,600 for CCFA. So far, I've reached 32% of my goal with $840.00!! I think I've only had my online donation website up for 3 days now too - not bad!! It definitely helps that I have super supportive family and friends! (Thanks everyone!!)

I got so excited about this training program that I started pushing myself a little bit harder and farther on my individual runs this weekend. I ran 4 miles on Saturday at 10:40 pace, and 3 miles on Sunday at 9:40 pace. Then I proceeded to join the track team that I coach (Palo Alto Lightning) with their workout Sunday evening.

I FELT GREAT! But, today my left achillis tendon is really tender. Guess I'd better not go so "gung-ho" all at once. I, of all people, should practice what I preach to my personal training clients at the gym "slow and steady at first, and only increase by 5% per week". Oopsies. I guess I'd rather get this little set back now for a couple days, rather than continue to push myself and ignore my body and get seriously injured.

So as I type, I am kicking my feet up in the recliner with an ice pack around my foot, watching Dr. Phil (guilty pleasure).

Tomorrow, we officially kick off our Team Challenge training with an evening of wine, appetizers and time to meet our coach, mentor, honoree and teammates. My fellowship coordinator, and dear friend, Michelle Ohara is signing up tomorrow night and will join me on this journey for the next 16 weeks with Team Challenge. Our first group run is this Saturday at 9:30am.

I got up at 4AM this morning for work, and am coaching track tonight at 6PM. That equates to a nice long shower and nap in my near future :)