Right now, I'm not just watching The Biggest Loser, I'm making these amazing gooey crunchy s'mores bars for the bake sale we're having tomorrow for LLS, and simultaneously, I'm NOT running, which is what I was doing at this time last week. This is day 3 with the head/ chest/ nose/ body ache blight of death and I haven't run since Sunday.

The Biggest Loser, oh my goodness- the red team just won the contest and got to open their care packages form home and one woman's autistic nephew gave her one of his attachment objects and Cliff and I turned into blubbering fools.

Once this batch of s'mogasms cools, I'm making another batch. Want some? Any donation over $50 gets you a box of your own. I'll post pics tomorrow.

Saturday was a great run. Sunday we had to go pick up the rental car I drive to work before I went to yoga and ended up being 15 minutes late for the class. I am not late that often (because it drives me crazy) so I already felt bad and then there were no yoga mats lef twhen I entered the studio. That was a bummer too. And then I noticed that noone was doing a downward dog, or warrior poses, or a chaturanga (evil, evil chaturanga). Everyone was sitting, everyone was listening to the yoga instructor. She was talking about placing your nose in the right position. I stood at the back of the studio and stared.
I then put my shoes back on, went home and had a beer.
This was not a dream.

Today, I completed my third week of training on the Galloway program which I capped with a five mile run. I am a bush league runner at best. I started running nearly two years ago, and before that my workouts of choice were swimming, yoga, pilates and the occasional three mile walk or spin on the elliptical. As my life became more and more full of work and transporting Mags to her 40 or 50 planned activities per week, my gym time started to shrink, and I started to expand. I needed to do SOMETHING to stay in shape that didn't take too much time. I knew that running would give me maximum return on my time.

I started running a mile at a time and ran my first 5K a year ago. For a year, I've been holding steady at 5K. It feels good, It's a distance I can maintain without too much effort. With Galloway's plan, I cross train (usually elliptical) three times per week, run twice, and then do the long run. Last week, I ran three miles, happy as can be, and on the 4th mile, I thought I was going to vomit, and then pass out. Today, I ran three miles and spent the last two miles remianing upright through sheer will. I actually talked myself through every minute of the last mile. When I finished my workout, I had serious doubts about whether I was going to be able to pull this off (my serious competitive nature wasn't even helping).

Imagine my relief when I was able to get together with my aunt Kathi this evening. Kathi is a mentor for the NH Seacoast Team in Training. She gave me a lot of encouragement about training (she's a seasoned marathoner) and about fundraising. It was exactly the boost I needed. She said that I'm building endurance and that I'll get to where I need to be as long as I keep up with my workouts. She and my uncle will be with us in Orlando. With all this support around me, I know I can do this. I can. I know I can.

* and by fun, I mean feeling like I'm going to barf, but then not barfing!

I have been pretty dutiful about following Galloway's training program which calls for six workouts per week. This, so far, has been the toughest part of the whole thing. I have an unusual job, that few people really understand (I know these folks do, because they've done it). I work nights, I work weekends, I do some private consulting, and last night marked my 6th night of work in a row, and my 10th consecutive day of work. I have had to be creative and carve out little blocks of time to hit the gym. So far, I have been able to go late at night, after the Mags is asleep and Cliff is snoring away on the couch to whatever show he dozed off in front of (he leads a wild life).

Last night, I was programming my hour-long hill climb workout on the elliptical machine just as The Biggest Loser was starting. Have any of you watched this show? I had never seen it before, but with God as my witness, I will be watching every single episode from now on. This is some compelling stuff, human spirit, overcoming obstacles, blah, blah, blah... these people had the muscle tone of veal and there I was, working up a sweat, climbing that artificial hill, actually feeling GOOD about it in the process, while I watched the new recruits barfing their way through their first workout. Buoyed by a feeling of wicked superiority, I upped the resistance, once, twice, three times. By the end of the hour, walking felt like I had cinder blocks attached to my feet. And I liked it.

The Biggest Loser is my new must see t.v. for fall. What gives you inspiration at the gym?

So, things are a little challenging here at Team Mimi. My Uncle, younger brother of my mom, has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and the severity of the situation is still unknown. So I am not really up for blogging right now. I am still running and fund raising but I am anxious about my uncle's situation. Today I received my first on line donation from an old friend, Josh, whom I haven't seen for 2.5 years and we are horrible about staying in touch. His comment was so sweet that I am posting that for everyone to read because it made me sob, smile and sigh. Thank you, Josh, for both the donation and reminding me of your boating excursion.

Josh wrote:
Count me in! In honor of your Mother, who showed me such kindness rescuing me from my fateful sailing debacle, and gave two young men, only one of whom she had ever met before, a ride from a small coastal town all the way to Boston.We had been sailing back from P-Town to Boston on my friend's sailboat, one which I thought he knew how to sail... We got caught in the tail end of a hurricane coming up the coast, and long story short, by luck ended up in a harbor instead of on the rocks. (The boat not having a radio we could use, nor any real navigation but a compass...) Needless to say, we were stranded in this small town, with no way to get back to the city. That is when I remembered that I had once met Arwen's Mom years earlier, who lived in the same town we had ended up in. I had to look up her number in the phone book. Write it off to youth's brashness, or the memory of a warm heart, but I gave her a call. In no time at all, she picked up two very wet (did I mention we couldn't get back in to the cabin after the boom broke...) men, and though I would have considered it the hight of kindness if she had brought us to the first town with a bus stop, insisted on taking us all the way home.We spend a great deal of our lives in our own little worlds, but that day, your Mother taught me a lesson about kindness that I will never forget, and can only hope to honor just a little here...So count me in for two young men, shown the grace of a warm and kind soul.Best of luck, I will look forward to checking back to see how you are doing :)

Kara went swimming in a super fund site yesterday. I wonder about these crazy New Englanders sometimes (since I haven't lived in the south for the last 10 years I feel like I am no longer a northerner). We spoke on the phone yesterday afternoon because she had a question about the blog and she told me about her superfund feet. I didn't question her letting her child swim in the superfund site because I let my kid eat poptarts and I think it all kind of comes out in the wash (or at least in the therapy bill that we will get from them while they are in college). I didn't think much about it until I fell asleep and then I dreamed that we were running at Disney and part of the course was in a tunnel. But all the lights in the tunnel were out and if it hadn't been for her feet (which were actually glowing through her shoes) we would have been lost and we would have fallen in a sewer and drowned. I am thinking we may need to stick some of these on our bodies...just in case. Her feet may only glow in my dreams.
BTW - Kara, Noodle (who is 5) has decided that she and Baby Buffalo (who is 6) are going to have a baby together and live in your mom's apartment. They are going to have bunk beds and the baby will sleep in the other bedroom. Please let your mom know she can't sell that apartment...ever...per Noodle's directive. Oh, and she said we could come over for fireworks and ice cream and to bring their baby to the aquarium. And they are going have husbands too but later, like when they are grown ups. She wasn't sure where they would live.

I have to share this very exciting thing about my feet which, because of the hour or so per day I spend on the habitrail, look like stewed tomatoes. Saturday night we went to see the WHO (Jason, I'll have you know they were very, very good) with my mom and Cliff. Maggie spent the night in Boston and when I went to collect her tpday, the 80 degree temp and sunshine got the better of me and I found myself on the Revere Beach Parkway. Mags and I parked and spent a little time on what will probably be the last beach day of the season with our feet in the water, the sun and smiles on our faces.Then I noticed my foot felt a little... funny. I looked down and noticed that the huge blister on the sole of my foot had opened and filled with ocean water and sand. Not just any sand, mind you... Revere Beach, Boston Harbor, toxic, superfund sand. And, not surprisingly, it didn't feel so great. So I sucked it up for a while and made my way home where Cliff did surgery on my foot (don't worry, he's a professional) , cleaned all the gunk out of it and discovered a blister within a blister. Ever watch those Discovery Channel shows where people have the twin living inside of them and they live their whole lives that way, until one day, they have pain, and they discover the twin has started growing or dying or something and then they show the surgery and it's totally gross, but you can't pull your eyes away? My foot is kinda like that, only with more sand. Enjoy your dinner.

How Crude...How Lude...But I have a monetary goal to reach. Please help me raise the money I promised for this run. Here is the link to donate on line. It is secure, it is safe, go. donate. please. This link is also on the left hand side of the screen so you can always click there to see how my fundraising goals are progressing.
I will be running 5 miles tomorrow. Strangely enough, I am looking forward to it. I downloaded new software for my iPod today and it has a stopwatch now so I can run following the Jeff Galloway plan for running while on the road. Wahoo!
I have mentioned Jeff Galloway a few times now and we posted a link to his style of training to the left. Here is the deal with Galloway: he believes that running and splitting up the the running with walking intervals reduces stress on muscles and joints so we will reduce potential injury by running some and walking some. Kara and I have had numerous discussions about how many minutes to walk and how many to run. We have also discussed how fast to run and how fast to walk. To train in parallel living 800 miles away is IMPOSSIBLE a challenge but we are doing it.
Please support us in our run. Kuddos are great, money is great, humor is great!
Go Team!

Ann over at Roc Rebel Granny pointed out Chili's is having day where 100% of their profits go to St Jude's to benefit Leukemia Research and support. September 25th is the date.
Here is St Jude's website.
Here is the 'Create a Peppar' promotional website for the Chili's St Jude's charity.
It's a Monday night.
They have margaritas.
What else do you really need to know?

Because watching a friend lose a parent is vivisection.

Because watching a mother cry because she's buried her baby evokes emotion I can not name.

Because when you're in high school, and you're with your best friend the morning she hears her dad is gone, you don't have the skills, or the experience to cope, so you skip school with her and smoke a pack of cigarettes.

Because when my knee hurts, or I'm tired and just want to stop or blow off my workout, or take a break... I remember that they couldn't take a break from being sick.

I run for Elizabeth, Arwen's mom, Noodle's Mimi, who took a beautiful heart, melodious voice, and gifted mind with her.

I run for Brailey, a former student at my school who didn't live to drive a car or apply to college.

I run for Andy, who left my friend Susan and her three siblings without a dad.

I run because I'm here, because I can.

I ran Saturday. I ran 5.25 Miles with a team. I have mostly run by myself so it was a treat with a few exceptions. I am in the 'winter team'. The 'fall team' is at the height of their run, they are mostly women (Go Team!) training for the Nike Women's marathon in San Francisco in a few weeks. They are running 20 miles. I ran 5. I actually met them at the second loop of their run so they had already run 8 miles.
I.Could.Not.Keep.Up.
Fortunately I ran with a nice young woman who ran at my pace. Unfortuantely we ran so so slow that we lost the rest of the team and couldn't find the water stop. So we went to Port City Java (Go Port City Java!) and they gave us water.
And then we found some of our team and jogged back with them. That was nice.
I am running on a treadmill doing the Jeff Galloway training plan and it is actually going pretty well but I don't wear a watch so I can't time the amount of time I run and the amount of time I walk when I am road running. This is fixable. I am just lazy about it.
I ran again tonight on a treadmill (Sunday I did a Flow Yoga class and yesterday I rested). Tonight when I ran I realized what the hardest part of training (besides the sweating, the knee aches, and the funny red face I have for hours after I run): anticipation. Anticipating all these things. Anticipating the run is the horrible, anticipating the beginning of the run, the build up before the run, the intense desire to sleep instead of run. Then I get dressed and I start running. Once I start I struggle for about a mile and then I can deal. At two miles I finally find the balance in my breath and then I just sort of go for awhile. I have started a little chant when I start getting changed for my run:
I am doing this for my mother
I am doing this for my brother
I am doing this for my daughter
I am doing this for myself
and I repeat that over and over again until I no longer need to.
I have also learned that music helps get me in the mood to run. Here are my two songs so far that I know are good for me to listen to:
The Littlest Bird by the Be Good Tanyas
Here is the video for the littlest birds
One More Time by Daft Punk
Here is video for One More Time
Yes, I know, they are VERY different from eachother but Littlest Birds is my warm up. It reminds me of my cousin K8 and it is the sweetest song. And, to quote the song, the littlest birds sing the sweetest songs. It then the next song is a really silly dance song but I cannot help to get excited listening to it. After that I sort of listen to random songs that I need to get through each run/walk cycle. I think it would be really cool to put together a playlist that will make it so we can run on the street and run and walk timed to the music instead of a timer on a watch.
What do you think Kara?