Get back on the horse!

Look at the pretty!

This. This is one of the reasons I've missed two weeks of training. Two weeks, people.

 

October was insane with travel -- especially for one who is accustomed to working from home every day, all day. New Jersey for a week at the beginning of the month; mid-month it was 4 days in San Jose, followed by two days home and then 4 days in Phoenix with Rowan to visit a dear friend.

 

Whirl. Wind.

Work trips were necessary, friend trip was needed, but the end result is that I missed two weeks of training. I am now at DefCon 3. With roughly 40(ish) days left to train before the marathon, I am planning to simply pick up where the training schedule indicates and work through it, hoping for the best.

I never really had a time to beat (other than the 4 hour limit, I suppose); I just want to finish. Mark has been doing amazing. Riding out the pain of migraines, dealing with Crohn's flare-ups, and handling things while I've been away, he's still managed to work in training sessions. He's my inspiration -- not just for participating in this marathon, but for not sinking into a pile of tears when I look at my work load, travel schedule, and completion times.

I almost had to travel again in November, but am oddly thankful for a work load that actually prevents me from doing so. So, I have November to get back on the horse, so to speak, and get my body as ready as I can be for this effort.

Also? I have some letters to write. I've depended largely on email to reach out to people about considering donating; I need to take pen in hand (more or less) and see if there are still a few souls out in my family who might want to participate in this fundraising effort before November 16th.

 

I need Hermione's Time Turner, I think....

-- Amanda

Walking Activity 7.76 mi | RunKeeper

Walking Activity 7.76 mi | RunKeeper

8 MILES

Sunday, I went with my mom and sister and we did the scheduled 8 mile walk for our training.  Amanda and Rowan were out of town visiting a friend.  I decided to do some trails out by Clinton Lake which slowed down our overall time, but was beautiful scenery and not just a standard path.  I was a little nervous, since my Crohn's symptoms had prevented me from doing the scheduled walks during the week, but everything went great and even did not feel to bad afterward. Mom and Kelli did great as well.  It is so great to have their support and I look forward to them being in Las Vegas with us.  Kelli is even signing up as a normal half marathon participant to do it as well.  So proud of her!

7.76 miles (2:33:06, 19:44 average minutes per mile)
I know that is a little short of 8 miles, but with the up and down nature of the trails, I am convinced we did more than 8 miles and my GPS was off.  :-)

Mark

PAIN IN THE HEAD

 

Not only is this disease a pain in the butt, so to speak, but also it gets old with all of the other side effects you have to deal with as a result of what it does to your body and medications you are on. This year I have had an increase in migraine headaches as a result of the medications I have been on.  Usually, I have noticed that they tend to happen when trying to taper down off steroid doses that I am on. The steroids are very good about improving the inflammation in the intestine, but it's side effects just play havoc with the rest of the body.  I already have bone loss (osteopenia) due to long term steroid use and have frequent blood work to make sure that my liver and kidneys do not get damage.  The cosmetic effects of a "puffy" face (moon face) and acne on chest and back get annoying as well. So, to have migraines happening more frequently is frustrating. I had one last week and it knocked me out of commission for a couple of days and missed one of my trainings.  It is just another hurdle to overcome.  I can do it and am still excited and up for the challenge of the half marathon.  I still feel like it gives me an active way to combat this disease.  I want there to be new treatments and hopefully a CURE!

This past weekend was big, as Amanda and I signed our re-commitment papers for Team Challenge.  Through our generous family and friends, we have nearly raised $6,000 for the CCFA.  We still have until the 16th of November to meet our fundraising goal of $7,200.  We were able to get to Kansas City on Saturday morning and train with the team for the first time in a while.  Rowan spent the night at Grandma's house, so that we could get up and leave Lawrence at 6:00 AM to get to Kansas City by 7:00 AM for the training walk.  It was only a four mile walk this past weekend. However, this coming Saturday calls for a eight mile walk.  Here was the past weeks stats:

1.74 miles (26:54, 15:27 average minute/mile)
4.10 miles (1:11:12, 17:24 average minute/mile)

Mark

TRAINING UPDATE

Made it through another week last week.  It was a harder week, with Amanda gone for work all week.  I am always amazed by how much energy Rowan has.  I wear out long before she does, but we make a good team.  I pushed hard on one of the days to see if I could do a 15 minute mile pace and paid for it the rest of the day and was quite sore.  It is possible though!  I ended up skipping this past weekend's walk due to pure fatigue and my symptoms were not cooperating.  Big week ahead with our re-commitment date for Team Challenge.  Here are the latest trainings:

2.75 miles (48:42, 18:05 average minute per mile)
3.04 miles (45:10, 14:51 average minute per mile)
3.00 miles (50:00, 16:44 average minute per mile)

Mark

Nobody Said It Was Easy

So, turns out that training while traveling for work isn't as easy as I thought it would be. Before I left last week, I had a spotless training track record. Hadn't missed a day or a mileage milestone. Naively, I thought it would be easy to keep up -- hotels have gyms, after all!

Two things I hadn't planned on: loooong meeting days and crowded hotel gym.

I was to walk 3 miles on both Tuesday and Thursday last week. I flew to New Jersey on Monday evening, the long flight in an itty-bitty Folger's can of of an airplane setting the stage for the rest of the week. Tuesday morning, I was to be at the conference room at 9am, so I headed to the hotel gym at 7am...and found that all 3 treadmills were already snagged.

Instead of finding somewhere else to walk, I got on the stationary bike for about 20 minutes, waiting. By the time one machine became free, I only had time for 1 mile before I had to go get ready for my meeting. *wrinkles nose in frustration*

Two 12-hour + days later, it's Thursday and the same thing happens. This time, I was too tired to wait, and considered completely blowing it off. But in the back of my mind, I knew that would be a mistake. And somehow "they" would know! So, I completed what turned out to be only a 9 hour day, and walked 3 miles (which ended up to be 16 laps) around the hotel's massive parking lot. I didn't know my way around Iselin, NJ, and was nervous about getting lost.

Yay me, right?

Well, hit the weekend and I'm beat. Tired. Done. Kapute. I got home Friday afternoon, ended up working late Friday night, spent Saturday 'catching up' with the fam and planned to walk our scheduled 6 miles today (Sunday), but...57 million errands and one munchkin meltdown later it's 8pm and no walk.

This is the first weekend training amount I've missed. I'm a bit frustrated with myself. I mean, I'm sure missing one isn't going to be the end of the world, but it's worrisome. I am worried about having enough 'oompf' to finish this thing. I need to get my rear back in gear.

This week is supposed to be 2 miles on Tues/2 miles on Thurs/4 miles on Sat, but I'm going to amp it up and do 4/4/4 (at least). It won't make up for the missing 6 miles, but it'll still be pushing myself a bit further. Saturday is our "re-commit" date where we say that no matter what, regardless of fundraising efforts, we will contribute $7,200 to CCFA. It's then that this is all very, very real.

I leave again on Sunday for 3 days, am home for 2, and leave again on Friday for  4 days. During that last 4 day stretch, we're supposed to walk 8 miles. I am going to have to reconfigure the training calendar and try to wedge that 8 mile walk in on Thursday before I leave. Oy.

October is going to be a tough, tough month for me to stay on track with the training schedule. I'm going to have to buckle down in November if I'm going to get through this.

-- Amanda