Week 8 - Tri and try again

Hello everyone.  Thanks for following along as I work towards my goal of raising $6,000 for the American Cancer Society and to run the New York City Marathon.  Here’s your weekly hump-day update.

Let’s start with my training.  

 

I’m going to the doctor later today to get a check on my right foot.  I’ve had some strain in the big toe and it would hurt to run long distances.  I’ve been resting it, and been swimming instead.  A lot.  I have also been trying to bike on the weekends to have a longer cardio session. This past Saturday I did run a 10k race, it was the Big Ten Network’s BTN Big10K, and it was a lot of fun.  I did the 6.2 miles in fairly good shape, my foot felt overall okay.  When I was done I decided to bike a bit, so I went for a 20 mile bike ride.  That went well too, so I figured why not go for a swim too?  I’ve never done all 3 in one day before.  So I swam 700 meters. 

It wasn’t official, and it wasn’t in the proper order, but I’d done my own little triathlon that day.  I may never do it again, but it was interesting.  The next day on Sunday I went to play Ultimate Frisbee in the morning, and that is a workout too.  Having to take the last few weeks off from running hasn’t been that bad, in some ways I almost feel more fit. 

I do need to get back on the road, and hopefully I will soon.   In the meantime, cancer doesn’t stop so neither will I.  One way or another I’m going to be ready to run the NYC marathon on November 2^nd.

Fundraising

VERY EXCITING NEWS!  I am at the 1/3 point of my goal to get to $6,000 as I have now raised $2,000 thanks to all of your amazing generosity!  I am humbled and inspired to keep on going and really make a difference on the war against cancer. 

Please, if you are able to, keep those donations coming.  Together I know we can make a difference in the lives of so many people affected by this terrible disease.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE 

100 days to Glory

100 days from today is the NYC marathon, and as they say "if the good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise" I will be there to participate in my 4th marathon ever, and my 3rd of 2014!!

Hard to believe that just over a year ago I was pretty much unable to do anything athletic because Brenda was going through her breast cancer treatments, chemo especially.  Surgery was tough on her, but I think chemo was worse.

But here we are, over 1 year after treatment ended and what a difference!  Brenda is doing great, our kids are awesome, and I've been able to run with a vengance.  I've run more than ever before in a 12 month period. 

Maybe too much.  I've been resting my right foot for the last couple of weeks, but I'm going to give it a go tomorrow when I run the Big10K.  I probably won't be going all out, I just want to finish feeling good.

In the meantime I've really come to enjoy swimming as a form of not just rehab, but exercise.  It's a workout.  I want to keep going so I can get faster and more stamina in the pool.

So here we are...100 days to go.  I'm almost done with the busy season of work, and as long as my foot cooperates I should really start to put in some LONG runs over the coming months.  Stay tuned.

Also thanks again to everyone who's donated to my campaign so far.  I've half way to the minimum and that's awesome!  I really want to do more than just the minimum thou.  Who knows if I'll ever want to, or be able to, raise this kind of money again for the American Cancer Society - so please help me to make as big an impact as possible.

As the sign says...100 days till THE NEW YORK CITY MARATHON!!!

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Week 7 - just keep swimming

Time for another weekly update on my training for the New York City marathon.

TRAINING:

I’ve been swimming a lot it seems.  I’ve been to the pool 4 times in the last 7 days.  You know what?  I kinda like it!  Don’t start thinking that I’m gonna do triathlons, I am not an open water swimmer so I’d have to get used to that.  However so far, I kinda like it and I think I’m getting better.  I know I have a lot I can improve about my swimming, but so far it’s good cross training. 

I did get the aqua jogger belt late last week, and I did try it out.  I’ll try to use it again this week once or twice in the pool.  Basically it’s a big foam belt I wear on my waist and it let’s me “jog” in the water to simulate running.  With luck, I won’t loose too much fitness before I get back on the road. 

I also went for my first really long outdoor bike ride this past weekend, I had enough time to ride for 18 miles and felt pretty good.

I’m going to try and run the Big10K this weekend, I signed up for a it a while ago.  I have the pride of the Illini to uphold – so I hope that my foot feels good on Saturday.  But we’ll see. 

In the meantime, between the biking, swimming, and some yoga I did – I think my fitness level is okay.  

I'll "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" on my way to the New York City Marathon in 103 days!

FUNDRAISING:

Not a good week.  I didn’t get any new donations, so that’s kind of a bummer.  I’ve still got 3 months before the race, so I know there’s lots of time to raise more – but if you are planning to donate and can throw a couple bucks my way sooner rather than later I sure would appreciate it.   

CLICK HERE TO DONATE 

Week 6 update - an injury

 

FUNDRAISING: 

I’ll start with the fundraising for this week’s update.  I’m ecstatic to say thanks to all of the generous donations I’ve gotten I have made it to the halfway point minimum requirement almost a month ahead of schedule! 

Together we have raised just over $1,700 and as you can see from the graph, I've been making steady progess towards my goal of $6,000.  With your continued help, I think we can get there by November if not sooner!  

BTW the entire DetermiNation team has raised over $200,000 so far for the NYC marathon.  WOW! 

THANK YOU ALL!

I’ve gotten my invitation to officially sign up for the New York City Marathon and I’ll be registering shortly.   I can’t thank you all enough. 

I’m still hoping to raise well over the minimum, because I really want to make as big a difference in the lives of those affected by cancer as possible.  With your help, together, perhaps we can put an end to cancer.

You know, earlier today, a friend of mine was talking to me about how his wife is just about to start chemo for uterine cancer.  We ended the talk about how important research is, and that one day, people will think about chemotherapy the way we think about how at one point leeches were considered to be a medical treatment.  Wouldn’t that be something?  I have to believe in that future, because people given enough time and resources are able to create and discover amazing things! 

That’s one of the reasons I support the American Cancer Society, because in addition to supporting those currently affected by cancer, they support critical research to find better ways to cure or even prevent this disease. 

So please, if you haven’t yet and are able to, consider donating to my campaign and join team DetermiNation!  Let’s put an end to cancer!

CLICK HERE TO DONATE 

TRAINING:

I wish I could say this has been going as well. 

You know what the hardest part of marathon training is.  It’s not the running, thou that can be tough for sure.  It’s staying injury free while to train.

In 2006 when I ran Chicago, I had no real injuries during the training.  After the marathon I had some IT band irritation, but nothing really stopped me from running. 

In 2012 I decided to try and run the Chicago marathon again, and about half way into training I fractured a bone in my foot.  That ended that.

In 2013 after Brenda finished chemo and was feeling better I was able to successfully train for the Disney Marathon with almost no injuries, and in January of this year I ran the Disney Marathon.  I was feeling great! 

But since then, I feel like it’s been one injury after another.  After Disney in January I set my sights on another marathon in April, the Illinois Marathon in Champaing.  I wanted to see if I could go faster.

I got some tendonitis in my left pinky toe – annoying but I could still run.  A little anti-inflammatory medicine and I was fine.  A couple weeks later, about 2 weeks before the marathon, after running through the POLAR VORTEX I got runners knee.  Again, not terrible, but enough that it slowed me down and I had my worst marathon time yet.  But at least I did it.

I took some time off, a couple months, and re-habbed my knee.   I managed to run 2 half marathons at a slower pace since then, and now my knee if feeling great so I started to push a little harder in my training.  I want to see if I can get a little speed back.

Well this past week my right foot started hurting, a lot like when my left foot had the fracture 2 years ago. 

Uggg…

I went to my podiatrist immediately, and thankfully she thinks it is again just a bit of tendonitis.  She wants me to rest for a couple weeks, and come back for a check.  So I’ll take a 2 week break from running, and that’s okay.

I had kinda hoped that MAYBE I could have a personal best time at NYC and run a marathon faster than I have yet.  That would be great.  But really, I want to finish the run.  So maybe it’s not my fastest, maybe it’s even my slowest.  That would be okay. After all I am doing this for the experience and to raise money for the ACS.

In case you are wondering, because I know I was, what happens if I can’t run this year?

Well good question.  The answer is that as long as I raise the minimum amount this year I can defer my entry to the marathon and run next year instead.  I don’t want to do that, I really want to run this year, so I am going to do EVERYTHING I can to stay healthy and train smart and run the race THIS year. 

But it’s good to know, just in case, that I have a bit of a safety net.

I know you all are donating money to support those dealing with cancer, but you are also supporting me too and my quest to run the biggest marathon in the world.  I am taking this very seriously; you are putting your money where my mouth is.  And I don’t want to let anyone down.

So what is my plan for the next two weeks?  I’m gonna do my yoga for runners DVD, and I’m going to get on my bike trainer to cycle, AND for the first time in like 20 years since high school I swam laps at a pool!  It’s supposed to be great cross training exercise, and after just 25 minutes this morning I was tired.  Plus this is a 50 yard long pool.  Those lengths were MUCH longer than I'm used to.  I don't think I've ever swam a lap on a pool that big before.  See the photo below.  

I also just ordered on Amazon an "aqua jogger" belt.  It's a floation device that you were on your waist to keep you floating in the water while you try to "run."  I’m excited to try the aqua jogger out, some people have reported having great results from using one.   Plus I won't look any sillier than I already do trying to swim.  I'm not that good at it. 

 

So stay tuned.  I may not be running much but I won’t be standing still by any means.

Just 109 days until the NYC marathon!  Let’s do this!!

CLICK HERE TO DONATE 

Week 5 update

Another week, and some good progress was made towards my goal of the NYC marathon.

RUNNING

I got some solid runs in this week, which I’m pretty happy with.  I ran about 22 miles over three runs.  I had two sessions of “speedwork” running at a faster clip, and I got up to 9 miles on my long run.  I would really like to be up in the double digits at this point, but I still have plenty of time to get my stamina up.  It’s just been so much hotter and humid than I’m used to. 

On another positive note, I went back to my orthopedic doctor earlier this week, and since my knee has been feeling so good lately we both agreed that I should just keep up the physical therapy exercises I got and as long as nothing comes up I’m free to just keep on running. 

I’m probably going to be getting a new running watch in the near future.  I’ve logged a lot of miles with my current GPS enabled running watch.  If I had to guess, I’d say I’ve run over 2,500 miles with it in the last 7 years since I’ve had it.   So it’s served me well, but I’m a little excited to get a new one. 

FUNDRAISING

I’m doing pretty well I think. 

I’m currently at $1,376, which is about 22% of my goal – and just a few hundred short of the first milestone I need to reach which is $1.700 by the end of July.   

I got a couple of really great donations from a couple of cancer survivors, Renee Woodward and her father Carl.   I met Renee last year through some mutual friends playing some Ultimate Frisbee.  It’s a loose pickup game, and the same people don’t always show up.  So it’d been maybe 6 months or so since I’d seen her last – but I didn’t think much of it.  After talking with her a bit, it turns out she’d been going through breast cancer treatment. 

One of the things that scares me most about cancer is how it seems to affect anyone.  I don’t mean to come off as alarmist, but Renee is a fellow endurance athlete.  She’s in her 30s.  And yet she still got cancer.  It can happen to anyone.  I’m really glad that she did her self-exams, and it was a good reminder to us all how important it is to do these screenings regularly.   I do. 

Renee and I talked about how that’s one of the good things about the American Cancer Society – that they help promote awareness and prevention, and encourage people to check themselves.  We also talked about how they help with all types of cancers, because there are so many types, and because her father was diagnosed with prostate cancer. 

So big shout outs to Renee and Carl.   First and foremost for being warriors, and for your donations.  I really appreciate your support and as always I hope that with your support, perhaps one day we’ll live in a world without cancer.      

CLICK HERE TO DONATE