Training with 2 months and 28 days to race day

At this point in training for Hood to Coast, I'm counting miles per week instead of miles per day.  This week I'm looking at running 15 miles - 2.5 miles per day for 5 days with two days of cross training.

Through the few years I've been running, I've discovered that I am definitely a cool weather runner, preferring to run in temps between 45 and 65 degrees, but that's not always possible and today was one of those days.  It was 82 degrees today.  I ran every bit of what I'd planned to, so I'm pretty pleased. AND right now I'm very thankful for Seichi "Bud" Konzo, who in 1933 invented residential central air conditioning right here in Urbana.  Thank you Professor Konzo for my cool home.

Hood to Coast video

Studio Salon and Day Spa has produced a video to promote the upcoming fundraiser they are hosting on June 3!  CHECK. IT. OUT!   Team Determination Illinois

Thanks Studio - You Guys ROCK!!!!

Champaign Urbana friends SAVE THE DATE!

 (Image compliments of the Studio)

Shooting a commercial tomorrow night at The Studio in Urbana to promote the Hood to Coast Cut-a-Thon.  Join us at the Studio on Sunday, June 3 from 12 to 4 p.m. Cuts by top stylists from the Studio, John George, and Regency - Only $20.  All proceeds go to support the American Cancer Society.  Get a great hair cut at a great price for a great cause!!!! 

Training - UGH!

Time's ticking away on training....I've got a long way to go to get ready for H2C in late August.  Hill training a lot of hard work, but I've got ideas for that.  I'm hoping to get to use Memorial Stadium again this summer - if not there are always parking garages.  The ramps are great and they are mostly out of the sun, so that helps.  Also, the bleachers at Memorial stadium are a great way to build hill skills and balance.  I like to run...no problem there, except I need to work to increase my speed and distance, but that's just normal training.  What I really need are some cross training ideas to build my core.  Any suggestions out there????

For the third consecutive year, I participated in the Illinois Marathon.  The first year was my very first race, and I was thrilled to finish in the upper 1/3 of my age division in the 5K.  Last year I tackled my first 1/2 marathon, which I finished - not in stellar style, but I finished.  This year I ran two races to completed my first mini-IChallenge.  On Friday evening my friend Anda and I tackled the 5K to be followed the very next morning with a 10K.  And we did OK :)  I thought the IChallenge would be a great way to kick-off training for H2C, which is three legs of a 200 mile course within 24 to 30 hours.

Anyway, as usual the Illinois marathon staff and volunteers did a great job.  The medals were beautiful and the encouragement along the course was fan-nominal (sorry - could not resist).

Now on to Hood to Coast!

As of this post, just 119 days to go to Hood to Coast and I've got to admit, I am extremely excited!  We have 10 team members (still room for 2 more if you're interested), the transportation booked, the first leg mapped, and the team name picked  - Go DetermiNation Illinois!

After nearly 4 months of not being able to run due to back to back bouts with some kind of lung virus, and backing out of the Disney Half I was supposed to run in early January and deciding to walk the Illinois mini I-Challenge this coming weekend, I was finally able to complete a 5K run last week - I wasn't fast, but I made it and it felt GREAT!  Now on to the next hurdle, training for Hood to Coast (H2C).

For those of you who don't know, H2C is a 200 mile relay race based in Oregon.  The race starts up on Mt. Hood, at an elevation of about 6,000 feet and ends at the west coast somewhere between 24 and 30 hours later.   There are 1,000 12-person teams competing, which are chosen by lottery.  It's considered the "mother of all relays" and I understand it can be somewhat brutal. 

Of course, unlike training for Kilimanjaro, my training for Hood to Coast will mostly be running, sprinting, some core work, and lots of leg strengthening.  Also, once again, I will be training for hills and elevation.  The mantra we cried while climbing Kili was "Pole' Pole'"  which means, "slowly slowly" in Swahili - that's not the case with H2C...we'll be running full-out to meet up with the next runner and it doesn't matter whether we're running down grade or upgrade, running full out is the name of the game.  All teams must finish the race in under 30 hours, which means that we must average less than a 9 minute mile throughout the race....that's pretty fast for this old gal!  But I'm determined to train hard and not let my team down.

Champaign/Urbana folks, if you see me out running or hiking, PLEASE honk, yell, and wave - believe it or not, that helps so much!  It keeps my feet moving even more than my music shuffle. 

Now for the money stuff...My team has committed to raise $18,000 for the American Cancer Society.  We are paying for our travel, hotel, and vans to transport the runners ourselves, so all the money we raise will go directly to ACS.  Please, if you know someone who's battled cancer, you know how much work we have to do, take a moment and go to our donation site and make a donation.  http://main.acsevents.org/goto/determinationillinois.lorim  


Thank you!

First 1/2 marathon wrap-up

Saturday, April 30 is definitely a day I will remember forever. At age 54 I attempted to run my first half marathon actually finished the race, but not with the grace and ease I had anticipated. Regardless, I'm giving myself credit and promising to do much better next time.

I also want to take a moment to thank the volunteers, medics, and EMTs who helped me at mile 12. They are awesome and definitely got me through the race. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Illinois 1/2 Marathon - just a few more days!

I'm very excited and quite a bit nervous about running in the 1/2 marathon this Saturday. I ran a solid 11 miles last Saturday and cut 15 minutes off my over all time. So, I'm pretty sure I can run the entire thing. BUT, I'm not good at doing NEW things on my own, and I don't know the route. Paul promised to drive the route with me this evening - maybe my nerves will settle down after that. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Illinois 1/2 Marathon

It wasn't until this weekend that I was sure I was going to participate in the Illinois 1/2 marathon, scheduled for Saturday, April 30. I was able to find the time to run 9 1/2 miles and figured if I could run that far, I'm good for 13.1 with the adrenalin pumping in from the excitement of the race. I'm slow but pretty steady and after participating in my first and only race to-date, last years Illinois Marathon 5K, I really-really wanted to participate this year at the longer distance. I'm excited to say, I'm fairly confident that I'll be able to run the entire distance! I'll keep you posted with the results later in the month!

Cave-in Rock Garden of the Gods

Well, this area looks beautiful! Can't wait to get there and start exploring, but for now, since I'm the designated travel planner for this trip, I need to get some research done and figure out just what we're up against. As always, I'll share as I learn. Hopefully, Anda, Paula, Larry, Rick, and Paul will join and blog along too!

SUCCESS!

Nancy Fahnestock and I found our way to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro at 8 a.m. on Monday, July 19. It was not only an incredible experience but it was also the most physically difficult day of my life! I can't speak for Nancy, but this was the adventure of my lifetime...There won't/can't be any others waiting out there to compare to this...

Nancy and Shelley Duggan arrived at the summit at 7:45 a.m. and everyone else saw the summit sometime between 7:30 and 9 a.m. It was quite a successful day for Alpine Ascents Team 2!

Blogging as we climb moved to Facebook.

Thanks to Verizon Wireless and their loan of a global phone with global data, we hope to be able to blog as we climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and along our safari from July 11-24 (If Verizon is correct that we'll have access). Please join us on Facebook during this time at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=128639383827250 or search on Facebook for "Nancy&Lori Climb" and the page should come right up.

I hope you'll follow along there as we climb.

Am I ready? I mean, really-really ready?

Well, here it is, the "long anticipated" 2010 July 4 weekend, the Saturday morning before the "one week to go point", and the "last chance" to get all the gear ready for travel. It seems like "just last week" we had 9 months to go and now here it is! I know-I know I'm talking in clichés, but nerves have robbed me of my own cleverness, so they'll have to do.

I've chatted with Nancy F. a few times through the last week; she WAS sharing my case of nerves but seems to have found her inner calm (which annoys me just a tiny bit - yes, my "misery really does love company"). Lynn, I'm sure, is her same stoic self without one little doubt that she's prepared absolutely as much as she can (I'm avoiding her this week - her confidence is definitely not good company for my apprehension), and I have a feeling Nancy D. and Shelley are both equally as unflappable, although they both live too far away and other than a few email exchanges here and there, we don't communicate a great deal. In preparation for the Kilimanjaro climb, Nancy F. and Nancy D. are climbing with a group of friends this coming Thursday and Friday to 10,000 feet to help acclimate themselves to higher altitudes, Lynn spent a few weeks in Telluride, CO, training in higher altitudes, and from what I understand Shelley has some hills in her area to help her train, but none of significant elevation to help her train for thin air.

You know, the single most common question I've been asked is, "how do you train for high altitude in the flatlands of east central Illinois?" Well I tell you - aside from the little Powerlung machine I bought, I don't. I have the prairie and the football stadium ramps, which by the way, thanks to Howard and Lenny for giving me permission to train there, have been perfect for building strength in my legs, core and arms, but I don't think 5 stories makes for good altitude training...maybe, but I'm thinking I need to get at least as high as Denver, CO to do any good...Did I mention that's the highest I've ever been and it was only a 2-hour layover at the mile high airport and that Denver is not quite 1/3 as high as the mountain I'm climbing? It's true, but I've been thinking...you know how in gambling there's beginner's luck...you know those first few wins that keep a perfectly sane person at the craps table way longer than is logical hoping to feel the high from that first win just one more time....Well, I'm really-really hoping that altitude acclimation works the same way and my body will say, "well this is a little different, but let's ride it out for a few days and see what happens" and by the time it realizes what's going on, I'll be back on reasonable ground, no worse for the wear. So for those folks who have asked what I'm doing to train for 19,340 ft... this is my brilliant "game plan".

So, am I ready? Thanks to Darnell Cox, my trainer, and his team at iPower and NutritionPlus, I'm more physically fit than I've ever been in my life; thanks to Champaign Surplus and my very own team of gear specialists, Lynn, Dan, Steve and the staff of CS who have ALL been more than expertly helpful, my gear is of top quality and my gear list has been quadruple checked to make sure not one little thing has been overlooked; thanks to TPHWellness, I have really cool technical bamboo clothes to wear that will help with blood and oxygen flow; thanks to my boss, I've been able to ramp-up my training significantly for the last month and have seen a huge increase in my strength and endurance; thanks to my Facebook friends, our entire climbing team will have the very best prayers lifting us up the mountain; and last but not least, thanks to my husband, I not only know exactly where to stand on the mountain when my picture is being taken, so I "don't fall off", I also have all the moral support a person could ask for, so yes, I truly believe, I'm ready.

For those of you, who are Facebook users, Verizon Wireless is loaning us a global phone with global data access. They believe that we will be able to post pictures and blog to Facebook during the climb. Our friend, Lisa, has created a Facebook events page, which we were able to make accessible to all FB users, whether you're on one of our FB friend lists or not. The page is called "Nancy&Lori Climb". You can easily find this by using the Facebook search option. If our connection allows it, we will be blogging along the way, answering questions and posting pictures. Please join us there between July 11-24 to follow along as we climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.

News Gazette's Jodi Heckel includes us in her blog - Check it out!

Thank you Jodi!

http://bit.ly/9h5S20

Champaign County Relay for Life 2010

Here are some great shots from last weekend's Champaign County Relay for Life. I had the privilege of walking with some incredible people.

Picture #1: Lynn W., Lori M., Angela P, Ira W. and Will P. Will is one of the many reasons for my climb, he's 5 years old and has been battling Leukemia for over a year.


#2 Will's wonderful support group: (L-R) Mom, Angela, two friends, big brother Aric, and big sister, Jill. Will with Dad, Jim. It's easy to see Will in his bright yellow Will Power! t-shirt when he's riding high on Dad's shoulders.