18 & 17 Weeks Out

I'm still trying to figure out how to find the fire I had.  Perhaps it will come back as I walk more regularly again.  I need to work to find it again.  I need to get back in the habit of walking regularly.  I think this is my "57th mile" of my training journey.  I need to dig deep and reconnect with my inspiration for doing this in the first place.  I need to focus on the people I am walking for.  I need to focus on what my doing this walk is about for me.  I need to believe that I can get beyond my injury and actually do this walk.

More miles.  A little work towards this every day.  I'm thinking of what my mom faced when she was diagnosed and what she has dealt with since.  I'm thinking of other friends who have faced and beaten cancer. I'm thinking of those who were not so lucky and did not beat their cancer or who are currently losing thier battles.  Hope is why I'm doing this.  I have hope that we can save more lives and spare more families from feeling the fear of the unknown, and heartache of loss. 

I had a great 3 mile walk last Friday.  No pain, and it felt so good to be walking.  I'm hoping to start on the 16 week training schedule this upcoming week!

(7/23/10)
Training: 3 miles in 58 minutes on treadmill
Total miles to date: 229.4

19 Weeks Out

OK, I'm starting to panic a little with the countdown into teen numbers.  I know that 19 weeks is going to go by sooooo incredibly quickly!  This summer is slipping away!  The good news is that I only have one more physical therapy appointment and I am practically pain free.  The good news is that I've done a mile walk and while there were aches, there was NO PAIN!  The bad news is that I haven't yet tried anything longer than 1 mile, but that will come.

I'm feeling more positive this week than I did last week.  I've met my minimum and then some in my fundraising, although I'd still like to hit that $5000 mark.  My training involving actual walking of miles will start up again soon if all goes well.

So that's my brief update!  Hope you all are having a wonderful summer so far.

20 Weeks Out - I never expected it to be a walk in the park

Wow, 20 weeks from right now, I will have finished the first day of walking for the San Diego 3-Day for the Cure.  I'm excited about that, but I have a ways to go before I get there.

I'm trying to recapture the momentum I had before my plantar fascitis sidelined me.  My enthusiasm has flagged.  Even getting out to swim has been difficult for me.  I'm OK with being in this space right now.  This is part of the journey as much as the early excitement is.  I have no doubt that once my foot has recovered, once I have had a chance to catch my breath from the busy-ness of the end of the school year, that I will begin an upswing again. 

There may be other obstacles that I will face.  I say, bring it on!  I never expected this to be a walk a park.  I didn't know exactly what this year would bring for me, but I knew it would have ups and downs.  I'm keeping my eyes on where I want to go and working with where I am.  I'm so glad that I'm on this journey and so grateful for all of you who are my support and making it possible.

21 Weeks Out (a Little Late)

My family took a trip last week and I didn't get around to doing my weekly Friday post about how things are going in the 3-day training and fund raising arena.  So, better late than never, here it is.

Training: I've been swimming, and had an almost pain free week last week.  I'm hoping this means that I will soon be back out on the road, walking again.  We'll see how that goes.  I'm planning to do another trial walk in the next couple days to see where my foot stands, so to speak.  I'm amazed that we are only just shy of 20 weeks out.

Since I'm just not in a very loquacious mood, I'm going to point you to some fabulous writing by one of the 3-day Ambassadors.  This is his take on what the 3-day is and I couldn't agree more with him.  I feel blessed to be a part of this amazing community of people who are working to bring positive change to the world.

What is the 3-Day? Jay Furr's Explanation

Enjoy!

22 Weeks Out

This has been a good week.  With the blessing of my physical therapist, I did a short walk, and there was pain, but not too bad at all.  Physical Therapy continues to improve my foot and I'm hoping that I might not be too far off from being pain free.  I just don't know.  I also officially joined our local gym and started working out in the pool.  Did an entire hour of swimming laps on Thursday and another half hour today.  It felt good and I could have gone longer both times. 

It's hard to read about the miles I should be logging walking when I get my training email every Friday.  I WANT to be out there with the rest of you, but I know this is the path I must take.  Patience, patience and more patience.  No sense getting back out there before I'm ready and ending up taking steps backwards.  Moving forward, however slowly, is my goal.

(06/18/10)
Training: 30 minutes of swimming

(06/17/10)
Training: 1 hour of swimming

(06/16/10)
Training: 0.9 miles in 13 minutes
Total miles to date: 226.4

23 Weeks Out

Another week gone by where I am sidelined.  Physical Therapy is going well and my pain is going down.  The good news for this week is that I have been given a green light to go ahead and try a short training walk.  I'm going to stay super close to home so if I start feeling the foot that I can easily come back.  I'll also make sure I stretch really well beforehand and afterwards.  We'll see how it goes.

Yesterday I went to my son's end of year picnic and helped keep tabs on over 60 1st graders.  My foot hurt a bit by the end of it, but by this morning I was feeling almost no pain.  That is a huge improvement.  Things are not going as quickly as I'd like, but I'm doing my best to be patient and not rush things.  The best thing is that they do seem to be improving.

I signed up for my 14 day free trial at the gym almost two weeks ago.  I have only been able to get one swim in so far due to a cold that has had me not very functional.  Once I am well, I'll sign up for a regular membership or maybe just sign up for lap swim at the community pool which will be open for summer starting in about a week.  I haven't decided yet.

All in all not too much to report.

24 Weeks Out

I got a very special email yesterday.  It's the first email for the official 24 week training schedule that tells each participant how many miles they should aim to walk this upcoming week.  In 24 weeks, the San Diego event will be here and thousands of us will be walking for this awesome cause.

I have to admit that I'm struggling with my frustration at not being able to train at the moment.  I'm trying to focus my energy into my physical therapy instead.  It's definitely helping.  My pain level is already greatly decreased.  This week my gym workouts have been on hold as I've had a pretty bad cold on top of everything, but I'm trying hard not to let it get me down.  As a few folks have pointed out to me, with the walking I've done since January, I'm already a bit ahead on the training anyway, so hopefully, by the time I get back into it, it won't take me long to catch up to where I need to be.

This is an incredible test of my ability to just let things be what they are and to go with that rather than trying to change it or fight it.  I just keep telling myself that it is OK for me to do what I can and not to worry if that means that I don't quite make all 60 miles.  This is not easy for me, but I knew that this journey was not going to be easy.  I just didn't realize that some of the "not easy part" was going to have more to do with my feelings about things than it did with walking or fund raising.

So that's where I am right now.  On Monday, many others will be starting their first official week of training.  I will be continuing my journey and eventually hope to join them again.  Thank you to all of you who have shared your stories -- they have been encouraging and incredibly helpful.  I truly could not do this without all of you.