One Girl Her Backpack and a Passion for Travel

Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie

To watch…over and over and over again.

This is just as I suspected. I had a feeling running 26.2 miles part of Team in Training would not be the hard part, it’s the raising money part that has been so difficult. Here’s what has happened.

In the last month I left the job I loved at Schipul and am now working at Sam Houston Race Park and going back to school at University of Houston in the summer for my pre-reqs to apply to medical school. All these changes have thrown a bit of a kink in the wheel and my training and fundraising was not a priority. It’s hard to raise money for charity when you’re not making money to pay the bills.

So now I’m back on track and refocusing on Team in Training. Phew! But here’s the thing. I’m not training for a marathon for the sake of running a marathon, I’m also raising money to find a cure for blood cancer. So with that in mind, I have a goal of raising $5,500 by June 20. To show my commitment to Team in Training I need to have a minimum of $2,000 by March 27. Eek! I only have $225. I’m freaking out! Worst of all, I’m afraid I won’t get to continue and meet my goal of running my first ever marathon. Ever worser (lol) I won’t be able to help the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society raise money to fight blood cancer. I’m not going to lie…I’m really, really worried.

It doesn’t take a lot to make a big difference. Are you a numbers person? So am I. Here’s how far your donation goes:

$1,000 Will help The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fund a researcher to find a cure.

$500 Will provide patient aid to a person with leukemia or a related cancer for a year.

$100 Will provide a patient with transportation cost associated with traveling from home to the cancer center.

$75 Will provide bone morrow typing for a family member of a patient with leukemia.

$50 Will register one person to be a bone marrow donor.

$25 Will pay for the cost of a patients chemotherapy drug prescription co-pay.

Will you please consider helping the LLS and me by donating just $10 for the cure against cancer? Believe me, your donation will not go unnoticed. I plan on having a huge thank you party for all donors (and Fayza doesn’t know it yet, but she’s gonna help me plan it. She did the very same marathon in Alaska last year that I am doing  ). But more than that, your donation is majorly important and incredibly appreciated.
Oh! And if you want to donate anonymously that’s cool too! If you want to donate, this is the place!

2009 Team In Training Information Video

This video is why I joined Team in Training. It also made me cry.

Love this song by Carolina Liar

• MapMyRun.com

  MapMyRun.com is a community web site for runners and joggers who want to stay healthy, lose weight or train more effectively. MapMyRun.com provides easy-to-use, comprehensive web-based running tools, social networking, running iPhone applications, and running maps to measure distance and count calories from running. With running forums, training logs and tips from expert runners and coaches, MapMyRun.com is the social network where runners are.

  tags: running, fitness, maps, exercise, health, map, tools, sports

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

View from the house in Beverly Hills

Two years ago I got a very strange call from a gentleman that was looking for a personal assistant. Apparently, I had applied to a job that he had listed with a yacht crew agency, but actually didn’t remember having ever applied. He lived in Beverly Hills, had other homes around the world, a private jet, a yacht and was an extremely great guy. After talking with him for hours he flew me out to Los Angeles for an interview that I thought would take a day and then I would fly back. I ended up getting offered the job and although a little hesitant at first I accepted.

I ended up flying with this gentleman in his private jet, making friends with some famous friends of his and living a life that some people only dream of. My work car was a MB SL 65 AMG. I had one at every one of his houses. Paparazzi followed me down the Sunset strip. Valet people let me go to the front of the line. Sound too good to be true? It was. One day he decided he didn’t need a personal assistant anymore and like that the job was over. Weird how things work out. After that short two months I understand now why they call it Hollyweird.

Oh, as a result of this experience I now think of Chuck Norris at this time every year because his birthday is March 10th. Don’t ask me to explain how I know this- it’s just too weird how I have this permanently etched in my memory.

So it’s week five of training for the Mayor’s Marathon in Anchorage Alaska with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training. Last Saturday we ran 8 miles through River Oaks and the rodeo parade. It was the first time I’ve ever run that far without stopping. I actually did stop once because I got lost on my way back to Memorial and I stopped so I wouldn’t keep running in circles and wear myself out. But it was only for about 30 seconds because I finally saw where I needed to go.

I’m starting to get shin splints so when I got home I took an ice bath. Essentially, I ran the coldest water I could, add ice from my freezer and sat waste deep in a sweatshirt in the tub. It was painful for about the first minute but after sitting for about 10 minutes and getting out, my legs felt awesome. I had no trouble with my shin splints last night at our Wednesday night training.

So last night we did some time trials to predict our marathon pace. My mile was 8:31 min.  So based on the Jeff Galloway Race Prediction Calculator my marathon pace is 11:04 min/mile or 4:50:05 for the whole thing. I have a feeling it will end up being more than that though, but overall I’m pretty happy with the possibility. I still won’t qualify for the Boston Marathon. My qualifying time there would have to be an hour and ten minutes less of 3:40.

This is just my first marathon, so maybe someday I will be able to run the Boston Marathon.  But right now, I’m getting ahead of myself.

This Saturday practice begins at 6 am and we’ll be running 10 miles! Eek!

If you’re interested in donating to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and supporting me as I train for the Mayor’s Marathon check out my Team in Training donations page. I would love to have your support!

Anyone who knew me in high school and college knows that getting married (or even thinking about getting married) has not been on the top of my priorities list. These days though I’ve been thinking a lot about it - probably because I know so many people who are getting married or are in serious relationships. Also, I’ve reached the age that I just kinda figured it might have happened or been in the works already. In truth, it’s not even on the radar. Make no mistake, I do want to get married someday and hopefully sooner than later. Maybe if I had realized that it took more effort on my part, I wouldn’t have placed the idea of marriage on the back burner for so long. Despite my lack of focus, I still hold out hope that it will happen and I feel that maybe if I start preparing myself for the possibility of it occurring it might place me one step closer to the fact. So here we go. I’m going to list some songs that I would potentially like to be played for our first dance:

Ben Folds The Luckiest (this is my top choice)

Kenny Chesney Me and You (Original Video Here)

This Year’s Love David Gray

At My Most Beautiful R.E.M. (okay this song probably isn’t a good dance or wedding song but I think it’s beautiful and romantic)

Northern Sky Nick Drake (this video is the only one I could find)

Lucky Jason Mraz

Falling In Love at a Coffee Shop Landon Pigg
The Promise Tracy Chapman (my dad loves Tracy Chapman. He would love if I used this song)

You Say it Best When You Say Nothing at All Alison Krause (truthfully I’ve been thinking about this song since I was about 14)

Steady As We Go DMB

At Last Etta James (of course this is in here-what girl doesn’t consider this?)

I think that’s a pretty good list for now.

We’re coming up on week 4 of Team in Training and starting to reach the higher mileages (eek!). On Saturday we’ll be running 8 miles through River Oaks and trying to avoid the rodeo parade.

Here’s the route we’ll be taking:ch the higher mileages (eek!). On Saturday we’ll be running 8 miles through River Oaks and trying to avoid the rodeo parade.

Here’s the route we’ll be taking:

Yesterday we worked on our arm positioning technique when we run. We had to run for 40 minutes straight alternating arm swings for each lap around the track.  Here’s how it works (I’m quoting my coach’s email about practice):

a) Low arm swing: MOST efficient for long distance running. When we maintain a low arm swing we run with a shorter, quicker stride (less impact = less energy wasted). EMPHASIS is always on swinging your elbows backwards to assist in the propulsion of your legs forward. Cadence: the number of steps we take/minute (Goal: 180). I want you to practice this tonight. When we are running with a LOW arm swing I want you to count the number of steps you take on your RIGHT leg for ONE minute. Should be approximately 85-90 steps.

b) High arm swing- LESS efficient but more powerful. A higher arm swing leads to a longer stride. Emphasis is still on swinging your elbows backward. During Tuesday’s practice I want you to notice a SLIGHT increase in speed and effort (approximately 10%- this is NOT a lot). Notice a small change in both your respiration (breathing) and your heart rate.

I did notice that with the high arm swing I would tend to run a little faster and the low arm swing made me a little more relaxed.  It’s SO cool to learn these tips. When you’re just taking a jog around Memorial Park it doesn’t seem to really matter what your technique is but as you start getting into the longer distances being able to conserve energy here and there makes a huge difference.  Another really cool thing after yesterday’s training was that after the 40 minutes were up I wasn’t ready to quit running. I was in my groove.  I love that feeling!