Week 11 - The Hills are Alive!

The Hills (and my calves) are alive!

So it's time once again for the weekly update to my training as I get ready for the NYC marathon and try to raise $6,000 for the American Cancer Society.  Get ready....

Health

I'm feeling good.  No current injuries to speak of, and knock on wood that stays the case.  I've been going to physical therapy last week and this week for this ASTYM procedure that basically breaks up my leg muscles to try and make them a bit more flexible and less tight.  Hurts like hell sometimes, but I think it's working.  I just have to keep up my stretching.

Fundaising

Fundraising progress after 11 weeks.  The goal is $6,000

I am happy to say, that while the donation have slowed a bit, I'm still collecting them from lots of places.  This past week I got a couple donation from some of Brenda's coworkers which was awesome.  I am currently at $2,330, which is FANTASTIC.  Thank you everyone who has donated.  I'm a bit behind my ideal fundraising pace as the graph shows, but I'm hoping that things will pick up in the fall as my training and fundraising will start to peak.

If you are able to make a donation, I would GREATLY appreciate it.  Any amount helps!

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Training (with HILLS)

Things are getting serious.  Last week I ran 6 miles on morning, 7 another morning, I swam 4 times, and I went out for a long run of 13.1 miles with a buddy of mine, Mike, and I think it went really well.  So what's with the picture of me as Maria?  Well we went to do this long run at "The Waterfall Glen" which is a forest preserve about 30 miles SW of Chicago in Dupage county.   Runners from all over go there, because it's one of the hillier trails to train on here in the great planes of the Midwest.  I understand that NYC is fairly hilly, especially the bridges that we run over.  So I wanted to get some good hill work in.  Mike is a lot faster than I am, so I always feel bad holding him back, but I always enjoy the company and he pushes me to go father and faster than I would running alone.  So I REALLY appreciate it.  With Mike's help I ran the entire 13.1 miles without stopping and I kept up a pretty decent pace.  I averaged 9:15 per mile, and if I can get that pace down a few seconds per mile for the entire 26.2 of the marathon I will be overjoyed!!

It was a tough run on the hills, my calves were sore the next day - but it's worth it.  All the hard work will pay off on November 2nd when I take to the starting line of the NYC marathon.

This week I'm going to try and keep up with running a couple times during the week, swim as much as I can since the big outdoor pools close at the end of the month, and I'm going to try and run 15 miles.  I may not be able to make it to the glen to do them, but I'll be back for more hillwork soon enough.