First Month in the Books!

So I split my goals for the week. I wanted to at least hit a higher number than my previous week but I was also shooting for 50 miles. I fell short of 50 miles, but squeaked out a bit more than last week (.3 miles). Not what I was looking for, but still some decent numbers for this time of the year for me. 

The simple fact is that life happens and gets in the way at times. With a very busy personal and professional week, and road trips of 2 hours or so in back to back days the week just got away from me. On Sunday I was sitting at 29 and change for miles and I was unable to start training until mid afternoon. Running over 20 miles was just not in the cards! I put up over 15, but needless to say I was not satisfied with myself.

Training for this event is much different than any other training I have done for a number of different reasons. First off, the obvious, this is the greatest physical challenge I have ever even thought of attempting! There were actually a few people who run ultramarathons that told me it would take "years" to properly prepare for something like this. Fortunately the ones that I spoke to and listen to are some of the most respected ultra marathoners ever and physicians who have also taken on challenges such as this or greater!

The not so obvious is the "Why" for this. When I first started persuing this idea I knew it could have a positive impact on a number of people in a number of ways which matched my goal of impacting 5,000 people and their health goals this year (from my OCR Librarian business), but to bring me closer to my cousin and have some time with him was surprising. This is not because we are distant in any way, but let's be real the kid is worried about his family and what is going to happen when he is gone, not about a fundraiser that his older cousin is doing. I was VERY wrong about his desire to be involved.

Over the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to talk with Kevin over video chat numerous times and have learned more about what he is going through regularly as well as seeing the toll colorectal cancer has taken on him. It breaks my heart to see him hurting in any way, but also pushes me! Then to top things off, he has introduced me to individuals that are going to try and help raise money for The Buffalo Colon Corps, and the Pain in the Canal Challenge. They have shared some of their stories with me and their "WHY" for doing the work they do and the stories have continued to touch me and impact me in ways I did not think this would. The best/worst part is this is only the beginning!

Over the coming months I am sure I am going to hear so many heart breaking stories, more so when we really start pushing this out, while also watching Kevin continue to fight. I realize more and more throughout this process that I really do not know pain!

That being said I am fired up for this week! I want to run and push myself farther than I ever have, but I can't!!! Every 6 weeks I have a built in active recovery week to allow myself the opportunity to step back and rest. This does not mean I will not run or train at all for an entire week, but there are "restrictions" I put on myself. Some of these restrictions are as follows:

• ​Running cannot exceed 21 miles for the week
• Need to accomplish a minimum of 30 minutes of training for 5 days of the week
• Need to participate in yoga workouts a minimum of 3 times throughout the week.

This is frustrating, but needed! I struggled with running 50 miles last week for a number of reasons, but I was fading a bit mentally. I am not use to running so frequently, so weight training will be added to the routine a lot this week, but also a lot of stretching/yoga to get my muscles in proper shape. I am also doing a mountain climber challenge with members of my staff this month to help.

I hope that I am able to keep up this mentality of pushing and my desire over the next week so next week I can be ready to DESTROY my goal. That week will be a goal of 50 miles, no less so I need to be prepared!

Please feel free to share your stories either with training or with family members that have struggled with colorectal cancer! Keep pushing and never stop fighting this awful disease!