Oranges 2 Oranges

Looking Back at 5K and Moving Forward…

May 2

I reached my goal! (But it’s not over, yet!)

by With a Dog by My Side

A big THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to my fundraising goal of $1,000 for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk! I reached my goal yesterday! Here is what I have written on my fundraising page, which includes a call for any further donations to go toward the goal of my friend, Annette Hernandez, so that she can walk with me in June. We are a team, afterall!  :^)

From my overnight.org page:

I want to thank everyone who contributed to my goal of reaching $1,000 in donations! You are all making a huge difference in the lives of many. I want to say to those who are still considering making a donation that my teammate, Annette Hernandez, is still working toward that goal. Please consider helping her reach her goal so that we may walk together as a team in June. Thank you all so much for your kind words of encouragement and for your part in what the AFSP is trying to accomplish.

If you’re interested…to make a donation to the AFSP through Annette’s page, please click here. Every dollar makes a huge difference, and every dollar is very much appreciated! You can also check on the overall status of our team on our team’s page: Resounding Grace.

Wow, a month ago the goal seemed really hard to get to, and there were doubts, but there are people out there – even some I’ve never met in person –  who really care about the cause, care about helping out a friend and care about the mission we’re trying to accomplish. We’ve together helped so many in giving the AFSP that much more to work with, but it’s only the beginning. Annette and I are walking not only in the memory of those we’ve lost to suicide or know who have to live with mood disorders, but we’re also walking in order to be with and show God’s love to those who are left behind and hurting. This is a walk for healing and remembering, and what better way to do that but surrounded by friends, new and old?

I’m walking!….and there’s still so much to prepare for!

That leads me to something I told a friend that I’d do. He’s been my motivation through a lot of challenging and celebratory days when I was going through the Couch to 5K program (you can see my journal, week-by-week, on this blog). He’s probably going to be what pushes me out the door that first time I get myself outside to do a real, non-treadmill, run – yes, I’m glued to my treadmill. I want to thank him for being there as one of my “mentors” in the process. Today is 8 weeks away from the Overnight walk. I will keep a running tally of my “training” time for the walk, which is bound to include some running, too. Hubby and I have been walking after work most days, and I’ve only been logging the time somewhere else. I owe it to my donors to keep them updated on how everything is going. You won’t be left in the dark.

Not including anything we’ve done to date, here is the tally – currently set at zero – which I will update often.

Total minutes walked & run: 0

Miles walked: 0

Miles run: 0

I’m sure that we will not have a stellar weekend, considering we’re pretty much homebound these two days, working around the house all weekend – with a birthday party for a niece somewhere in between – but we’ll be back at it on Monday. Besides, I need an excuse to use my new Garmin!  :^) Maybe I’ll even post maps of all the squiggly lines we’ve made on our walks.

Have a good rest of the weekend, everyone. Congrats on your new job, Mr. V, and don’t worry, you’ll do fine.  😉

Shannan

C25K Events Running walking

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Apr 26

Still raising support…I’m almost there! AFSP Overnight Walk on June 27th…and a New Toy, I mean, Tool! :)

by With a Dog by My Side

Hi guys!

I’m almost at my goal of the minimum $1,000 that’s required to be raised in order to walk in the AFSP’s Out of the Darkness Overnight walk. Thanks to those who have donated and given kind words of encouragement. Hubby and I have been walking almost every day around the neighborhood, and we went to a 6-mile training walk yesterday, doing it in 1 hr 40 minutes. And, drumroll please…….

I used my brand new Garmin Forerunner 305!

It’s my new toy that I had been wishing for since last fall when I was doing the C25K program. I finally bit the bullet and got it. It’s working out great. Now, I just need to get myself OUTSIDE for once to do some RUNNING. I’m almost there mentally. I’m going to just go out and do it…one day soon. Ahem…I know what some of you are thinking, but you can go ahead and tell me anyway.  😉

If anyone’s interested in learning more about the walk or the work of the AFSP (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention), you can visit their main page for the walk HERE. You can also check out my previous post. Here’s the link to my fundraising page, as well: My Fundraising Page: Participant ID# 10013783.

I do ask that if you are intending on donating any amount to the cause, I’d be very grateful if you’d donate it toward my goal, but if I have already reached my goal of $1000, as will show on my fundraising page when it happens, PLEASE please please consider donating it instead to my teammate and captain, Annette Hernandez, Participant ID# 10013441, so that she can make her goal and be able to walk with me, as she needs a bit more than I do right now. Our team is a small team — just the two of us — but we’re hoping that our efforts can make a big difference in someone’s life, and every dollar will help. (In fact, I just found out that in 2007, almost 85% of funds went directly to the work of the AFSP, which makes everyone’s support go that much further.) 

Thank you so much for visiting! Here’s a video from the site, to give you a visual of what goes on at these walks. The walk means something special to all involved — the donor, the walker, families/friends and those who need help.

Shan

 

Events Running walking

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Mar 31

AFSP Out of the Darkness Walk

by With a Dog by My Side

Okay, I’m SLOWLY getting back into the running scene. It’s more like walking and running, but I’m working at it. I was able to run a straight 30 minutes one day last week, so that’s something. Anywho…

I’m going to mention here now that I’ve registered as part of the Resounding Grace team for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk in Chicago on June 27th & 28th. A good friend of mine is the team captain, and she asked me to support or join her, of which I did both. The goal for each walker is $1,000, so I’m asking everyone to please support me in any way you can, even if it’s a word of encouragement (though the obvious cash donation is also welcome!). The walk is 18 miles long (or 20, depending on where you read it), and it goes from sunset to sunrise.

My personal page is HERE. Thanks for taking a look.

Personally, I had a friend from high school who died by suicide about 14 years ago, and I am doing this not only in his memory but in order to help the AFSP fund research into the factors that contribute to suicide. People just have to know that others DO care. Someone attempts suicide every minute, and someone dies by suicide every 16 minutes. I personally had no idea. I also think that just being a part of the thousands who will walk that day will show those there who have been affected by suicide that we’re all there to help and to care. It’s going to be an awesome experience.

So if you can help, thanks! If not, as long as some awareness is brought about by just the asking, I hope it helps in some way.

Have a good one,

Shannan 

Events

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Mar 16

I’m still here!

by With a Dog by My Side

Hi, everyone. I realize it’s been over 3 months since I’ve written anything on this blog. Since it was mainly about my running, and I had stopped running (on purpose, not due to any injury), I hadn’t felt like visiting and updating anyone on what’s going on, and that was selfish of me. The original purpose of this blog was to track my progress on the C25K program (which can be seen by using the links on this page), so when I finished, it was more of a day-by-day record of how I was keeping up the running.

I noticed that there are still visitors to this page, and once I figure out how things are going to go in terms of the running (which I really want to take up again) and the rest of my plans for the site, I’ll be back on here, posting regularly.

To all my online running friends from whom I have been absent, please accept my apologies and know that I think often about all of you. I hope to be back on soon! I hope you are all well.

Shannan

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Dec 10

Early Start Today

by With a Dog by My Side

Today was a day to re-calibrate my Nike+ after I had a bit of a problem last time. It turns out that when I hit the mile this time, the Nike+ said I was at .97 mile. It’s not that much of a difference, but it also means that if I’m right, I did go past the 3.1-mile mark on Sunday. It sure felt like it.  lol

I still had a little bit of pre-breakfast, earliest-time-running-ever-for-me energy left after the calibration, so I set it for a basic workout and did .2 miles at a steady 10:10 or so pace, which is getting easier each time, and I was able to go longer that way. I still need to let my lungs catch up, though. My legs felt like they could go on forever.

The reason I ran so early today is that at 4:45am our neighbor’s plowing service came by and started up the ol’ snowblower and plow. This was only feet from our bedroom window. Needless to say, we weren’t happy about it. No matter whom our neighbor gets to plow each year, they insist on coming at 4:45am. There’s a noise ordinance in our city that prevents anyone but city plow truck drivers to make noise before 6am. Once hubby had to go out there and tell the guy that he was throwing snow on our bedroom window! He didn’t even realize that this might wake us up and furthermore “T” us off because heavy snow was hitting the house. DUH! There’s just no consideration anymore (or it’s plain stupidity). I can go on and on. The point is that hubby got out the door slightly earlier than usual, and I was wide awake and thought I’d take advantage of getting this done early.

It’s cold again today. We had rain in the morning yesterday, which then turned to sleet, then snow. I’m so happy that I have the treadmill in icy conditions like this, no matter what some say about it. Sure, I could get out there and experience what it’s like to run freely on the pavement, and I will some day, but I also enjoy the challenges I’ve been able to overcome in the 3 1/2 months I’ve been running inside. It’s also a great form of exercise, as walking on it was getting boring. To each his own, and right now, this is my own.

I’m going to go grab some breakfast. Have a good Wednesday!

Shannan

Running

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Dec 8

Wii!!! Another 5K at home…

by With a Dog by My Side

Okay, I just remembered that I hadn’t checked in yet today regarding yesterday’s run of 5K (3.1 miles)! I did it! There are a couple of you out there who came to mind when I wanted to stop early, but I kept going because I wanted to be able to say today that I did it. It has been a few weeks since I’ve had a regular running schedule, and I haven’t been doing well in terms of mileage, so it was a little harder incorporating my new-found, slightly faster pace with the longer distance.

My legs felt sluggish below the knee in the last third, and it felt like time was slowing down. But, hey, I finished the C25K, didn’t I? I’ve already gone this far before! Why couldn’t I do it again? I need to move forward, not backward!

I’m sore today, but it feels good, because I know that it’s because of the effort I made. I’ll need to recalibrate my Nike+ again, since I had a little problem with something falling onto the treadmill’s belt last calibration, which I think calibrated the Nike+ to think that it was taking me longer to get to the mile than it actually would have without my trying to pick up the thing off the belt. I may well have run longer than 3.1 miles, as the treadmill itself said it was 3.3 miles.

On another note, my mother won a Wii Sport and gave it to us yesterday! We played it yesterday, and I played it today for an hour so far. You kind of get a workout from it if you really put forth an effort to MOVE and not sit there just moving your arms, which some people have done. It’s fun! We’re looking into getting Tomb Raider, since it was our favorite game on the old Playstation years ago. YAY!

Thanks, Mom!

Have a good evening, everyone!  🙂

Shannan

Running

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Dec 5

Quite the End to the Week (so far)

by With a Dog by My Side

Okay, so I’m thinking I’m going to have to re-challenge myself next week. I had some family things come up yesterday during the time I was going to run, and since I had waited so long to run, the opportunity had passed. Today, I had to take my brother-in-law to the hospital (after going in to work early) for knee surgery that was supposed to get us out of there by 3pm (surgery scheduled for 1pm). I find out at 4pm (after 4.5 hours of waiting in the waiting room) that he had just gone into surgery. Hubby had to come take my place in order to let me go home, which was at 5pm. I think they must be on their way home as I’m writing this. I hope. The day is gone for me. I will try again on Sunday. I think I will start again next week, but maybe just make it a weekly mileage goal instead of every day, since it seems that is not realistic to life right now.

Sigh. Thanks, Thomas, for your comment. I will do well on Sunday. I really want to try to get more miles, so I’m going to plan on a longer running time and take whatever mileage I can get in that time. It’s been a rough eating week, too, and I need to recommit to doing both the running and the eating the right way. I guess it’ll happen when I make both of them a higher priority.

Have a good weekend, everyone!  🙂

Shannan

Running

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Dec 3

Day 3 of My One-a-Day Challenge

by With a Dog by My Side

Okay, so it’s the third day of my challenge to myself to run a mile each day until Sunday, when I’ll run 2 miles, bringing my weekly total to 7 miles. I’m up to 2.5 miles, since I didn’t run yesterday. I have legitimate reasons for not running yesterday, but the point is, I made up some of it today, running 1.5 miles. I even did it with an 11:53 pace, which is fast for me. I’ve been challenging myself to run a little during my runs at a faster speed, to try to get my average pace up (fewer minutes per mile). I hope to be able to at least do the tomorrow’s mile between doing a project for work and other things around the house.

As for the reasons I didn’t run yesterday, I’m first an earlier-in-the-day runner (more like late morning), and I got home around 4pm, making it much later than I’m used to. It was not a priority for me at the time. Secondly, and probably the more legitimate reason, is that a few days earlier I had been doing strength training and did a favorite of mine that I learned on the Biggest Loser DVDs, which is the wood chopping movement, where you hold a weight in your hands and slowly pretend you’re chopping wood from one shoulder down to the opposite foot. I did fine that day, but the next two days my hamstrings were hurting — more so on Monday night and Tuesday morning — and my right leg had also been twitching on Monday night. I was afraid I’d damage something if I ran, and I knew I needed the rest time.

It’s been difficult getting back into a routine the way it was when I was on a strict C25K schedule. There’s no chart to tell me where I am, and I’m not really answering to anyone but myself. The fun part of it, though, is that I’m starting to really try to better my times and to get used to the faster speeds. It’s been interesting finding my limits and trying to go past them each time.

So…my aim is to run the next 3 days and then on Sunday do a full 2 miles. Maybe I’ll even pull off something better.

I hope you’re all keeping warm, and for those of you in warmer climates, appreciate it!

Shannan

C25K Running

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Dec 1

Let’s Try This Again

by With a Dog by My Side

So today is the first day of our restart of Weight Watchers. We kind of stopped counting points a few weeks back, and now we’re getting back on it. It’s not hard once we actually decide to do it. I’m hoping to be at my goal by Valentine’s Day. From then, I may try to lose more.

This week I’ve decided to see if I can run each day, but only a mile a day. It doesn’t sound like much, but I wanted to see what doing half my usual distance each day without breaks would be like. I don’t think I’ll need the rest days between, just because I’ll be running so little and easy (about 13-15 minutes depending on pace) that it won’t be too hard on my muscles. I’m eager to test this. If I do M-F at one mile, and then 2 miles on Sunday, that will give me 7 miles for the week.

I also went out in the wee hours this morning and shoveled the 1.5 to 2 inches of snow we got overnight. It’s the wet, heavy kind, but it wasn’t deep, so I was able to lift it. I did get in my strength training doing it, though.

So, I just wanted to check in and let you all know that I’m trying to get back into things after the hectic Thanksgiving period we always have around here. I’m even going to start my free, downloaded MIT writing courses soon. Work’s going to get busy, and it’ll be a nice distraction. I printed out all the coursework and have my two books. I failed miserably in the NaNoWriMo, and ended up with under 3,000 words. It just wasn’t the right month for me, and I think quality work can’t be done in 30 days, fixing it up later or not. What’s the point of writing 50K words if it’s all going to be nonsensical jabbering? Just to get a certificate? No, thanks. If I get good enough to accomplish that one year, then it’s going to be quality work, not just whatever I can type up in the time allotted.

I’ll be back to let you know how the running’s going. It’s my one-a-day challenge.

Shannan

Running Writing

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Nov 20

Dumbbell…Me AND the Weights!

by With a Dog by My Side

Okay, so today was going to be a run day. Guess not, now. Yesterday I was cleaning up the office in preparing the house for Thanksgiving next week, and I had put some of my exercise stuff, like my big ball and some dumbbells, on the floor in our bedroom. I forgot about them, and was carrying a laundry basket from the bed backwards when I stepped onto a dumbell in my socks. I bruised my right heel, which is also on the same foot that my neuroma has been acting up. This leaves the front and the back of my right foot in pain. The bruise hurts more than the neuroma, and I’ve been running with the neuroma pain for weeks now, but even walking is bad now. I’m going to lay off it and try to do some leg exercises that don’t require walking/running, and I’ll get in some weights today, too. Since I’ve started running it seems that I’ve been neglecting my upper body strength training a little, so I’ll take the opportunity today to do it in place of the running.

These past two or three weeks have felt like another dimension, but I’ll bounce back eventually with the running and writing and whatever has been pushed to the wayside. We’re hopefully going to hear back on results regarding a family member’s health problems, so at least we’ll have answers there. Certain daily, monotonous things just don’t seem important right now while other things are up in the air like this.

Sorry to be so blah today. I’m trying not to freak out about it being a week from Thanksgiving. Clutter just doesn’t seem to be much of a concern this year. Not that it’s not there, but I’m beginning to see that it’s just not as important as just being with family. (Sarah, don’t you start or I will!)  :^)

Everyone, have a good day! I’ll be watching the rest of season 2 of Arrested Development on hulu while I clean and lift weights. 

Shannan

Running

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