15 weeks...

Making it to ten miles for the first time feels pretty good! It's amazing what your body can do with training and an mindset of endurance. Walking the 3 day makes you realize you can accomplish quite a bit more than you ever thought you could if you just set your mind to it. Of course, you do have miles of amazing cheerleaders treating you like a rockstar and some hot bicycle cops keeping you motivated. The hardest part about the 3 day is when it ends and you have to go back to normal life!







Monday Rest
Tuesday 3 miles Easy walking
Wednesday 15 mins Easy cross-training
Thursday 5 miles Moderate walking
Friday 30 minutes Easy cross-training
Saturday 10 miles Easy walking
Sunday 6 miles Easy walking

16 weeks

By 8-10 mile walks, my feet are telling me what they really think of my shoes. I had major issues picking shoes when I first started walking. I swear by the San Diego Running Institute. They know feet and do a good job of picking out shoes that fit your feet and your walking needs. It's a store/chiropractor's office, headed by Dr. Runco. We, well, I , refer to him as San Diego's own McDreamy. Hee hee. He's easy on the eyes but married, so we just kind of talk and giggle about him. My walking group took it to the next level last year and volunteered me in a clinic he was doing to do a demo of how to stretch the glutes. I was more embarrassed than thrilled but that's what the walking family is for, right? To get you going and have fun along the way!



Monday Rest
Tuesday 3 miles Easy walking
Wednesday 15 minutes Moderate cross-training
Thursday 5 miles Moderate walking
Friday 30 minutes Easy cross-training
Saturday 8 miles Easy walking
Sunday 6 miles Easy walking

17 Weeks

The walkers training on this schedule will have walked 226,000 steps by this week. Amazing!

I am funny about encouragement on walks. I don't need people counting down for me, telling me how many I have left. That doesn't work for my psyche. Someone held a sign at mile one on day one last year that read, "You only have 59 miles to go." It seemed depressing, actually, but my walking partner Kim and I talked about it and she helped realize that we'd walked dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of miles in training. Indeed, just 59 left didn't seem that bad!



Monday Rest
Tuesday 3 miles Easy walking
Wednesday 15 minutes Moderate cross-training
Thursday 5 miles Moderate walking
Friday 30 minutes Easy cross-training
Saturday 4 miles Easy walking
Sunday 3 miles Easy walking

18 Weeks

I personally find as a walker that 6 miles feels easy. My shoes always feel good, I usually don't need to make any stops for the potty (I try to go every four miles on the walk it's self but admittedly, I don't drink quite as much as I should when training because I get annoyed at making multiple stops). But every walked needs to listen to his/her own body and such be careful to hydrate with both water and an electrolyte replacement or you'll end up like...



The training schedule for week 18 is:
Monday Rest
Tuesday 3 miles Easy walking
Wednesday 15 minutes Moderate cross-training
Thursday 5 miles Moderate walking
Friday 30 minutes Easy cross-training
Saturday 7 miles Easy walking
Sunday 6 miles Easy walking

19 Weeks and Wondering...

I'm still wondering when I'll really get back into training. More and more, I'm getting my energy back. Every time I drive around my community, I try to plot walking routes. I'm working with my doctors to resolve the issue that is causing the anemia. I've been advised to get an outpatient procedure done in the next few weeks. The recovery time should be nil. It should help keep the red blood cells in my body where they need to be.


I found myself looking at my 3 day photos from last year. Nothing like remembering the past to keep me motivated for the future. I posted pictures of some of my most inspiring 3 day moments. I've not yet managed to get a picture of the elderly "I'm a Breast Man" but I borrowed his picture from someone else's online album. Another amazing moment was watching our family friend, Ann, cheer on the walkers. She's a survivor. I think she got a hug or a picture taken at least once a minute. I told my mom that she was going to end up floating around the internet and it's true. Recently someone forwarded a 3 day picture video to me and I saw Auntie Ann in it. It wasn't done by anyone that I know!



I can't wait to get out on some training walks and take some NEW pictures to post! I think the day is coming soon. :0)

20 Weeks...and Frustrated

I'd been planning on going to the Bekki walk this morning. 6 miles and a shoe clinic with San Diego's own Dr. McDreamy. I actually NEED new walking shoes (though I'm thinking about going with the sandals). And while I'm doing everything that I need to be doing, things aren't quite right with my body yet. I talked to my sweet Nurse Practitioner Friday afternoon. A test came back normal and while it's good news, it doesn't explain why my body has been going haywire. She then asked me to take it easy again this weekend.

I'm not very good about following those kind of directions. However, I did flash back to the unfortunate time a few years ago when I insisted to my friends one week post op from sinus surgery that I was just fine to stand in the choir during third service. I made it through half of a song and had to get of the stage before I passed out. My friends had told me that I wasn't looking all that well and after all was said and done, I promised that I would listen to people when they were telling me to take care of myself.

So I stayed home this morning. Actually, I really do need shoes and thought about driving down for the clinic but miracles of all miracles, I actually slept in for once. And when my body started going a little nuts again this morning, I realized I'd done the right thing but not going on the walk.

Sigh. It looks like I'll probably be switching to the 16 week training program...

21 Weeks...and Stalled

My training for this week was supposed to be:

Monday Rest
Tuesday 3 miles Easy walking
Wednesday Rest
Thursday 4 miles Moderate walking
Friday 30 minutes Easy cross-training
Saturday 5 miles Easy walking
Sunday 4 miles Easy walking

I was so pumped after walking with the boob crew, I was ready to tackle the hills that surround the community I live in. Bring on the training! I've been having such a hard time getting motivated. I've been so tired, too. I was actually starting to wonder if I was depressed, though I didn't FEEL depressed. LOL But when walking up the stairs to my apartment with a bunch of stuff in my arms started to leave me winded, I just had a inkling something was wrong physically. Then when my sister pointed out how pale I was in some photos she took of me a few weeks ago, I started to suspect my iron levels were low.

I've been having some...well...female troubles. So much so that I actually made an emergency appointment with the nurse practitioner at my doctor's office on Tuesday. She ordered some blood tests and made some referrals for a follow up with a gynecologist. The blood tests came back and I'm quite anemic. When I heard that, it was like a light went off. The exhaustion, the lack of motivation...being anemic is like being depressed. Your body tries to do everything that it can to conserve energy and you don't want to do anything. And the body doesn't have enough red blood cells to carry oxygen to your lungs...it's NO WONDER I've been dragging. (Or however the blood cells and oxygen work together!)

One of the KEY lessons of training for the 3 day is learning to listen to your body! And mine has been screaming at me for a couple of months while I haven't paid it any attention. So instead of walking the hills on El Camino Real this holiday weekend, I'm facing some serious R&R. Again. It's not something that can be healed over a three day weekend but hopefully a few (more) days of purposefully doing nothing, some extra iron tablets and some follow up appointments I have over the next few weeks to help solve the female problems, will hopefully start me on my way back to getting into training shape. It's frustrating to finally WANT to train and not be able to. But at least I have the motivation to feel better as to be able to train! The bed rest, so to speak, has a purpose at least. And I am starting to feel like myself again, though it's kind of ironic that after two months of dragging, I still have to "lay low!" So in the continued downtime, maybe I'll start working on that 3 day scrapbook I've been talking about for two years!