I am attempting to post updates to training & fundraising each week. Together, we will make it across the start & finish line of the Nike Women's Marathon and work towards finding a cure for blood cancers!Total miles for the week: 10
Total miles since June: ???This Saturday marked the first day of hill training - which was a surprise to me! Since we will encounter hills in San Francisco, it is important for us to include some hills in our training. For the past couple weeks, our Team In Training group meets at 5:30am to try to avoid some of the Tucson summer heat. However, it is currently monsoon season too so there is a new factor in our training - humidity! Every morning (which this past week was only Saturday - bad training week due to weather-related sinus pressure) when I get up to run, I turn on the weather channel to see what the conditions are like. Much to my shock & horror this Saturday at 5:00am, it was 75 degrees (not bad) with 85% humidity. Wait a minute! Did I read that right? 85% humidity with a dew point of 70?!?!? Yes, it was that humid and we were hill training!
The hill training was not as bad as I thought it might be. For those of you in Tucson or familiar with Tucson, we ran along the Rillito River Park from Children's Memorial Park (where we meet every Saturday morning) to First Ave. From there, we ran up the east side of First Ave, past River Rd to Via Entrada. Via Entrada is about halfway between River and Orange Grove with pretty much a steady uphill. I told myself that I wanted to run the whole distance of the uphill to Via Entrada. Other than having to deal with concrete and running a bit in the bike lane, I made it up the hill without any issues!!
At the top of the hill, I was met by Coach Ashley, who directly us where to go. For the next mile & a half, we ran through through the hilly neighborhood on Via Entrada. Gorgeous neighborhood, I wish I had the money to afford a place along there! I am including the graph from the data my Garmin watch picked up. The blue line is my pace & the green line is elevation. You can see that much of the first half of the 10-mile run was the hill training portion.
After the run, I had to book it home because Dan & I were having a yard sale to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Be
ing the loving, supportive husband that he is, Dan agreed to get the signs up and get things started while I was finishing my run. He had the great idea to put most of the stuff in plastic Rubbermaid tubs we normally use for moving or storage and label each tub with a price. This made it soooo much easier to set up but required some work on my part during the week. Mom, Tracey & Dianna all donated items for me to sell at the yard sale. Thanks guys for your support! I got a head-start on the yard sale by taking the nicer, name-brand items to Plato's Closet and I got $41.75! Then Dan & I sold almost $200 worth of stuff (literally that's what it was - stuff) at the yard sale, along with a number of Pepsis for 50 cents & bottled water for $1. The grand total for this fundraiser = $236.80!!! Not bad for a few hours work. But we still have a long way to go to reach the $5000 goal.
Dan got to practice his Spanglish. We had a number of pick-up trucks with Sonoran license plates stop. Luckily, I can understand some basic Spanish & I know 1-10! But Dan did most of the negotiating in Spanish. Thank you 7 months of working in Eloy and 2 years of high school Spanish!
Earlier this evening, I met a few people from Team In Training for optional hill training at Tumamoc Hill. Some of the more adventurous people actually run up to the top but I am more than OK with walking to the top & running down. Running down the steep inclines definitely works my muscles in a new way! I included my Garmin graph from a couple weeks ago. You can see the change in elevation over the course of a little over a mile!
Also during the week last week, Dan, the cats & I had a bit of excitement. Rory (our little 6-pound cat) tracked a VERY large bug from the hallway to the living room. It actually flew & Dan though it might be a bird. No, it was just the hugest bug I have ever seen in our house. Below is a picture of Rory trying to get it after it landed on our speaker. Sitting above it (not in this pic) are our Wii-motes and the bug is almost as big as one of them. I would say the bug was between 6 & 8 inches! Dan & I both looked it up online and it is a Palo Verde Beetle. It actually snapped & hissed at Dan & Rory. I was a huge girl & sat on the couch, praying that Dan would take care of it (and I snapped the picture).
The hill training was not as bad as I thought it might be. For those of you in Tucson or familiar with Tucson, we ran along the Rillito River Park from Children's Memorial Park (where we meet every Saturday morning) to First Ave. From there, we ran up the east side of First Ave, past River Rd to Via Entrada. Via Entrada is about halfway between River and Orange Grove with pretty much a steady uphill. I told myself that I wanted to run the whole distance of the uphill to Via Entrada. Other than having to deal with concrete and running a bit in the bike lane, I made it up the hill without any issues!!
At the top of the hill, I was met by Coach Ashley, who directly us where to go. For the next mile & a half, we ran through through the hilly neighborhood on Via Entrada. Gorgeous neighborhood, I wish I had the money to afford a place along there! I am including the graph from the data my Garmin watch picked up. The blue line is my pace & the green line is elevation. You can see that much of the first half of the 10-mile run was the hill training portion.
After the run, I had to book it home because Dan & I were having a yard sale to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Be
ing the loving, supportive husband that he is, Dan agreed to get the signs up and get things started while I was finishing my run. He had the great idea to put most of the stuff in plastic Rubbermaid tubs we normally use for moving or storage and label each tub with a price. This made it soooo much easier to set up but required some work on my part during the week. Mom, Tracey & Dianna all donated items for me to sell at the yard sale. Thanks guys for your support! I got a head-start on the yard sale by taking the nicer, name-brand items to Plato's Closet and I got $41.75! Then Dan & I sold almost $200 worth of stuff (literally that's what it was - stuff) at the yard sale, along with a number of Pepsis for 50 cents & bottled water for $1. The grand total for this fundraiser = $236.80!!! Not bad for a few hours work. But we still have a long way to go to reach the $5000 goal.Dan got to practice his Spanglish. We had a number of pick-up trucks with Sonoran license plates stop. Luckily, I can understand some basic Spanish & I know 1-10! But Dan did most of the negotiating in Spanish. Thank you 7 months of working in Eloy and 2 years of high school Spanish!
Earlier this evening, I met a few people from Team In Training for optional hill training at Tumamoc Hill. Some of the more adventurous people actually run up to the top but I am more than OK with walking to the top & running down. Running down the steep inclines definitely works my muscles in a new way! I included my Garmin graph from a couple weeks ago. You can see the change in elevation over the course of a little over a mile!
Also during the week last week, Dan, the cats & I had a bit of excitement. Rory (our little 6-pound cat) tracked a VERY large bug from the hallway to the living room. It actually flew & Dan though it might be a bird. No, it was just the hugest bug I have ever seen in our house. Below is a picture of Rory trying to get it after it landed on our speaker. Sitting above it (not in this pic) are our Wii-motes and the bug is almost as big as one of them. I would say the bug was between 6 & 8 inches! Dan & I both looked it up online and it is a Palo Verde Beetle. It actually snapped & hissed at Dan & Rory. I was a huge girl & sat on the couch, praying that Dan would take care of it (and I snapped the picture).
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