Fundraising negativity

I sent out a dozen fundraising emails this past weekend - and didn't get a single reply. To be honest, I am beginning to panic about the chances of raising $2300. I'm thrilled with the $95 I've raised so far, but it's not nearly enough!


So few of my friends have money - and those that do are donating to their own charity.

I certainly don't have the money needed to host a block party or the connections to plan a silent auction. I sold some jackets on ebay and won a whopping $3 (better than nothing!). I have 8 friends in Kansas City and only two know that I am doing this for Kevin's mother - and it doesn't feel right to use her situation as the catalyst to get people to donate. My family isn't one to beg each other for fundraising efforts - unless cookies or wrapping paper is involved. Should I sell candy on the street corner?

Spring is here!

Thank you, Spring!

Today was the first day I've been able to go outside and do my training and it was glorious.

Props to Kevin for coming over early and telling me he was going for a run, inducing me to close the law book I had just opened and get into my own workout gear.

I grabbed my new pedometer and iPod, turned on the iPod and saw that it was dead, and hooked up the radio for the pedometer and set out. I didn't know where I was going, just walking. I don't really rely on the pedometer and by now I know how 3 miles feels so I was happy.

It was a wonderful walk! Kids were playing, runners nodded and smiled hello, Kevin and I met for a brief smile and howdy, daffodils were everywhere and a wonderful breeze followed me up and down the hills of Kansas City.

All in all, I went 3.5 miles. Add the .5 miles I walked at school today and I went a mile over the training recommendation. I'm sore in a new way (hello hills!), but feel great.

Now, it's back to those law books.

Working it in

While school kept me off the treadmill most of the week (I usually go between classes, but had a lot of work to do the past few days), and I wasn't able to get the recommended 5 and 7-mile walks in this past week.

However, things are warming up outside and a couple of times I managed to get in a neighborhood walk!

First, on Tuesday, I REALLY wanted a McDonald's ice cream cone. McDonald's is less than a block away and my rule is that I have to walk if I want a cone. However, instead of turning right and heading straight to the golden arches, I turned left and went the "long" way - a mile out of my way to be exact! It felt great to move my muscles after a few days off and made that cone pretty darn tasty!

Friday night is date night for me and the boyfriend - especially on pay Fridays like this was. So, when he asked where I wanted to go, I suggested we walk to the nearby restaurants and decide when we got there. The restaurants, a walk we hadn't before tried, turned out to be a mile and a half away. I got in three miles without even realizing it!

I am so excited for Spring! Now, I am not tied to my school schedule for my training walks. As the days get longer, I have more time to come home and hit the street!

Going with the snow

Six inches of snow is currently falling outside - putting a damper on my plans to walk a few miles around the neighborhood.

Instead, Kevin suggested we bundle up and take the dogs for a stroll to the local coffee shop. Sadly, it was closed, but we kept strolling and ended up walking 1.14 miles through the 'hood. Add in the 5 inches of snow and it was quite a workout!

Variety and Politics

I went to Maryland this weekend to visit my friend Renee and meet her fiance. Since it was a 4-day visit, I was a bit worried about my training program. But I shouldn't have been.

Friday was spent traveling - 8 hours of plane switching and airport navigation and I made it to Baltimore at 7:30 (Eastern time). While I may not have walked the recommended mileage, at least I was still walking hard and fast for awhile.

Saturday was spent shopping wedding dresses and walking around downtown Frederick, MD. Pretty light stuff. Then Sunday was a day of vegging and watching movies, but we decided to walk, rather than drive, to the store to rent the movie. Renee says it was a 2 or 3 mile walk. It was perfectly fitting to the lazy day we had.

The best day, however, training-wise was Monday. We went to Dc, for my first time, and had 6 hours to see as much as possible before I had to catch my flight.

I knew there would be a lot of walking, so I packed my training shoes. Good thing!

Here is the path we took ... at the "end" point, we hopped a cab (for time purposes!) and flew to the Supreme Court building, then walked back to Union Station for the car.



I checked the last leg of our trip (the short walk from the Supreme Court building to Union Station) and it rounded our walk out to a nice five miles! Yay!

Then ... I flew to the Minneapolis airport and had a one hour layover - just enough time to get to my terminal more than a mile away (I looked it up).

Overall, I don't think I missed a step this past weekend.

Whoa, Nallie!

Thanks to a blog entry I wrote for my main 50n50 blog, I went to the gym this afternoon more motivated than I expected. I was so motivated, in fact, that I decided to hit the treadmill and go three miles at 4 mph. Bad idea.

It was vastly too much too fast. You see, there has been a lovely thunderstorm sitting on Kansas City this week, and more importantly, my chest. I stayed home sick yesterday because I was having such a hard time breathing.

I felt much better today. So much better, in fact, that I forgot about my oxygen issues and was huffing and puffing before I even reached a mile! I eventually slowed it down to 3.6 mph for the duration and checked my heart rate several times: 156, right where it should be for the cardio workout I was after.

I made it through my workout, though, and am glad to add 4.01 miles to my log!

Multitasking

Add four more miles to the count!

My iPod was dead today I grabbed a case I printed out for my Constitutional Law paper and took it with me to the gym hoping I could use the time to study and am proud to say that tt worked out really well!

I couldn't take detailed notes, but the case is long and managed to distract me from the passage of time. I read 25 pages into the case and suddenly the treadmill was forcing me to start my cool-down period!

As I get deeper into my training for the walk, there will be a deeper time commitment than the current 1-2 hours three times a week. Walking 12 miles, if I can maintain 4 miles per hour, takes 3 hours! So, I'm glad to know that I can fit studying into that time.

More than I realized

It's a half mile walk to the gym ... information I kinda wish I'd known a couple of hours ago.

I popped over for a walk session between classes and was able to squeeze in 3.98 of the requisite 4 miles for today's training. Then, I walked back to the building that houses my classes.

I was really feeling it by the time I made it to my class so I decided to look up how far I walked to get to the rec center. And then I understood my pains.

I walked 5 miles today!

I'm pretty proud of myself, I'll tell ya. It's a bit more than the training program specifies, and I'm sure I will feel it tomorrow, but there is a part of me that is happy to know I can make it 25% of the way and I still have months of training to go!


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Fundraising

It seems everyone has a cause these days ... AIDS, earthquakes, breast cancer.

Just this week I have received four requests via email for donations to someone's (worthy!) cause. Don't get me wrong, I think this is great and I wish I could contribute to them all. However, I can barely contribute to my own cause and don't know how to tell my friends that, because I have chosen to take up a charity and raise money, everything I can spare is going to my cause.

I am not good with fundraising, to be honest. The economic times make it harder, but so does my inherent hatred of begging. My family has never been one to ask each for money for any causes so I don't feel comfortable asking them and most of my friends are barely making ends meet - don't feel comfortable asking them.

My plan is to ask strangers. I am hoping my local coffee shop will let me sell cookies in their store for a week and that I can get something set up at school.

I have set up a change jar in my house and every time I see change on the floor, it goes in the jar. I'm thinking I will make up similar jars for friends and ask them to donate their lose change to me. What do you think?

Most of my fundraising efforts, however will happen this summer - closer to the actual event. I will have more miles under my belt, training-wise and will be able to better show my commitment to the cause.

Anyone think street performing would be a good idea for me???