Ahhhh...we leave in one week by Stacy

Ok, I am officially getting a little nervous. I can't believe the walk is almost here. It feels like we just signed up several months ago. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do a lot of walking since winter has officially arrived in Chicago. I'm going to try hard to get out there this weekend. As long as it's not snowing or raining :) If not, I'm hopping on the treadmill for a little while, which is quite boring to say the least. I walked for an hour on the treadmill the other day. I was watching a rerun of 90210 so it went by pretty fast. :) Regardless, I am ready to battle the roads of san diego. It's going to be a great 3 days.

It's next week already!! (Karen)

I can't believe that our walk is next week! How quickly that came. I have been feeling slightly under the weather and my immune system is LOW, so I am planning on taking a break from exercising this week. I will get some walking in on the weekend, but I want to relax this week and make sure that I do not get sick before next weekend.

Our team has received 91 donations for a total of $5,864! We're almost there. :)

18 miles done! (Karen)

Last Saturday morning, I completed my longest training walk yet. While looking for a training walk, I discovered www.mapmywalk.com. It is a website that allows you to click on points and it tells you how far it will be. I decided I would complete this walk on my own - walking around in beach areas and interesting spots where I would be distracted by the sights and sounds. I started at home, walked through PB to the beach, north to La Jolla, back south to the jetty, and then back to the PB pier! This was 18 miles and since it was a sunny beach day, I had interesting things to see the whole time. Tom joined me for the last little stretch and we went to lunch afterwards.

I definitely hurt after this walk. I thought I had strained a muscle in my leg but as it turns out I just overdid it a bit. I guess I'm not quite ready for the 60 yet. Good thing I still have a month to go! :)

Only 5 more weeks left! (Karen)

This weekend was the first time I did long, back-to-back walks. I'm surprisingly not as sore as one might think.

Saturday I joined a local organized training walk for a 10 mile walk. All those wearing pedometers noted that it ended up being over 10 miles, but after about 6 it all starts to get fuzzy. Plus, I met quite a few nice people so we walked and talked. We started in Old Town, walked up through Mission Hills (up a fairly steep hill, at which point we were informed that it was on the 3Day route so we better get used to it!), through Hillcrest, and almost to Balboa Park before looping back and returning to Old Town. I was tired for most of the rest of the day!!

I didn't want to walk on Sunday but Tom & I decided to go on a hike out by Julian. It was our first wedding anniversary on Sunday and we wanted to head out of town, even just for a little bit. We did a four mile hike and I was supposed to walk 6 miles, but I consider it a wash. It took about two hours for us to complete the hike and it had about 1,500 ft of elevation change (starting at 5,000 ft). It was no walk in the park.


Next weekend will make or break me. I'm scheduled for 18 miles on Saturday and 15 miles on Sunday! Eek!


I did find out some new stuff about the walk. We start in Del Mar at the fairgrounds on Friday morning. Day 1, we walk from there to Crown Point (which coincidentally is right near where Stacy & I lived together!). This includes walking up the monster hill at Torrey Pines. We camp both nights in Crown Point. Day 2, we make a big loop around OB and Mission Bay. Day 3, we walk from Crown Point to Petco Park (downtown), where the closing ceremony will be held.

New Walking Shoes by Stacy

So, the last two weekends I have walked 10-11 miles. After the walk, my feet really hurt. Obviously, I am not nieve to the fact that my feet are going to hurt after walking for 20+ miles in one day but I was a little concerned that they were hurting so bad after only 10 miles. I started to think that maybe my shoes are not right for the walk. (In 2004, I went and got shoes fitted for my feet and I had no blisters). So, I gave in and bought new walking shoes last night. I know that you are supposed to train in your sneakers that you are going to wear during the walk but the more I thought about it, the more I thought I should actually get the right shoes for my feet. I didn't really realize that they make different shoes for different types of feet. Apparently, I have wide front and a narrow heal with high arches. I ended up going to New Balance because they specialize in this. And another thing that I thought was interesting was that he recommended running shoes. I thought that I would need a walking shoe but he said that walking shoes are heavier than running shoes and there were other differences as well. I didn't know all that. So, we will see how they work out on my walk this weekend. Happy Walking!

Training Schedule (Karen)

This week, I decided to follow the training program established by the 3Day. They have a pretty aggressive training schedule to get you in shape for the big event and I have been just trying to do a few walks each week, without rhyme or reason. Now we're only 6 weeks away from the event and it is time to get into high gear!

My schedule for this week:

Monday - rest
Tuesday - 5 miles (easy walk)
Wednesday - 45 min. cross-training
Thursday - 6 miles (moderate walk)
Friday - 45 min cross-training
Saturday - 10 miles (easy walk)
Sunday - 6 miles (easy walk)

Monday was easy!

Tuesday was eventful. I was not excited to walk after work, but immediately upon arrival switched into my gym clothes. Kodi took one look at my pants and was excited! He knew that he had a good chance at going for a w-a-l-k. His excitement made me head out for the walk, even though the days are so short now that it was starting to get dark out. I was only walking in my neighborhood and the traffic is minimal, it is safe, and there are plenty of streetlights on the main streets.

Five minutes into my walk, I realize my pedometer isn't working. I shook it around and tried everything to reset it, to no avail. I walked for over an hour and the stupid thing said that I took 5 steps! I feel like that was pretty close to the 5 miles that I needed to do yesterday. Kodi is more out of shape than me. :)

Uh-oh

It sounds like Stacy is doing a great job with her training! :)

I did a five mile walk on Sunday and I received a rude awakening. Lots of things hurt - my lower back, my feet, my rear, even my shoulders from swinging my arms! I expected to be sore but didn't expect all the aches and pains everywhere else. I guess I will be training more and more from now on!!

10 mile hike :) by Stacy

Well, this weekend I decided to do a 10 mile training walk. My friend Cara said that she would walk with me whenever so I took advantage of it. She had been telling about a 10 mile trail that is out in the burbs. So i got up bright and early Saturday, picked up Cara and we walked. It was the perfect day for a walk. The walk took us about 3 hours. Surprisingly, It went by pretty fast. We were chatting :) Of course, we were pretty tired after and starving so we went for lunch. Since we just burned about 1200 calories, we treated ourselves to Chili's. My feet were a little sore and my ankles were sore as well. We really didn't stop much and stretch like you are supposed to. I think that I am going to have to make sure that I do a lot of ankle stretches. Hopefully, that will help with the soreness. I'm going to try and do that walk as much as possible before the 3 day. I think it will be a great way to get myself ready physically.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Yesterday, Christina Applegate ( a recent breast cancer survivor) was on the Oprah show. Here in Chicago, Oprah is on at weird times so when I was getting ready to go to bed last night, I saw that it was on from a 11-12 (which is way past my bedtime). For some reason, I had to stay up and see what she had to say, knowing very well that I was going to be exhausted today. It turned out that the whole show was about Breast Cancer awareness so I found it really interesting and informational. I'm glad that I stayed up. First Christina came on to tell her story of how she became aware that she had breast cancer. I was really interested to hear what she had to say. I just think that she is an inspiration to everyone the way she went so public with her double masectomy. Since Christina's mother had breast cancer, she has been having routine mammograms since she was 30. During a routine mammogram, they saw something but didn't know what b/c she had dence breasts, which basically means that the mammogram comes back blurry and so her doctor suggested that she get an MRI to get a better picture. For Christina Applegate, this is fine, no questions asked because she's got tons of money to pay for it, however, most insurance companies won't cover the MRI for this reason. What's scary to me is that she would have never known that she had masses unless she had a MRI. That's so crazy to me. This seems to happen all too often and woman find out too late that they have this deadly disease. Well, throughout the show they had many woman who either had breast cancer or were a survivor telling there story. Actually the majority of the audience were breast cancer survivors. That was pretty cool to see. Another aspect of the show that really touched me was that the sister of Susan G Koman, and founder of the foundation that we are walking for in November was on the show. Her sister was diagnosed with breast cancer in the early 70's when there wasn't anything they could do and she really couldn't even talk about it b/c people just didn't say the word breast back then. Susan was only in her early 30's when she was diagnosed. It was Susan's dying wish to have her sister make sure that this never happen to anyone else and so that's what started the Susan G Koman Foundation, which has raised over a billion dollars for breast cancer research. If there is anything that I learned from last night's show is this, make sure you give yourself self examinations and also be persistent with doctors if you are worried about something that's doesn't feel right. You know your body better than anyone. Last night's show really got me excited to walk in November. This is the very reason that I walk 60 miles in 3 days and hope that there will be a day where there is a cure for breast cancer. The show motivated me to raise as much money for breast cancer as I possibly can b/c no woman, man or familyshould have to go through what these people go through. So PLEASE donate now to a great cause!

New Team Member

Just before I left for vacation, I convinced a friend from San Diego to join the team. Jessica will now be our fourth team member, and I have a feeling it is getting a little bit late to add any more team members. Fundraising the minimum of $2,200 is not easy, and the longer and longer it takes the more nervous we all get! Donations are starting to flow - our team is at $1,094 raised. I know my team thinks I am crazy, but I set the goal at $10,000. That's just over the required minimum but I am confident that we can do it if we really try!

A little less than 2 months to go

It's Stacy... I have to say, getting ready for this 3 day has been a lot different than 4 years ago. It's amazing how much goes into this event. It's hard too being in Chicago, when half of our team is in San Diego. It definitely makes training and fundraising a little harder to do. So far, I have about $470.00 raised. I have sent out many emails to family and friends in the last couple of weeks, hoping for some donations. It's getting down the the wire now which makes me a little worried. I would really like to hit my goal soon and just concentrate on preparing my body for this walk. I have been trying to think of some good ideas to help along with the fundraising. I'm thinking about having a little fundraising get together at our place. Kind of like the rockin 80's party fundraiser we had back in 2004, which just happened to be one of my favorite moments while living in San Diego. Man, that was such a great time. This time it's probably going to be a little more grown up dinner party since our place isn't very big and I don't know as many people here. As for training, Pete and I have been walking about 5 miles on Saturday mornings. I've also been trying to walk/run as much as possible in the last couple weeks. I would just like to feel as though I'm in somewhat good shape for the walk. It's very rare in your life that you will walk 2o miles for 3 straight days. I'm not sure if you or your body is ever really prepared for something like that. It's a grueling couple of days but there is nothing like the feeling you have when you cross that finish line on the 3rd day. All the aches and pains instantly go away for the moment. It's probably one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

It is September already?!

It's amazing how quickly time flies right past you! I can't believe that it is almost the middle of September already. None of my letters have gone out, I have received only one donation, and I am overwhelmed! I have been walking or working out quite a bit more, but I have so much to do!

I am going to send out my first batch of e-mails today. I need to get started and get some confidence! Stacy is up to $295 raised already!

eeeek!!

100 more days

Just 100 more days before team Treading for Tatas embarks on their 60 mile journey across San Diego to help raise money and awareness for Breast Cancer!

Time has been flying by! After walking in 2004, Stacy and I have been talking about doing it again but somehow life kept getting in the way. Training, fundraising, and preparing for this event is a huge effort and with weddings and moving and all kinds of things going on we didn't quite feel like we had the time for it. After both of us were married last Fall, we decided that now there were no excuses! We were going to do this, and we were going to do it right. After confirming that we were both serious about this and a quick discussion about which city to choose to actually do the walking, we registered for the San Diego walk! Stacy moved away from San Diego a few years ago to settle into Chicago with her husband and I think she was looking for an excuse to get back. Can you blame her? The weather should be great in November, although I think the nights might be a little chilly. :)

Our newest edition to the walking crew is Stacy's good friend from Chicago, Lindsay. She joined our team after a little bit of convincing from Stacy. I don't think Lindsay knows exactly what she is in for yet - it is hard to explain how emotional and powerful this event will be to someone that hasn't witnessed it! I am excited that we will be able to take this journey with her. While it might seem overwhelming, she will not regret it!

I have decided to start this blog with the hope of tracking all that goes into preparing to participate in an event like this. Hopefully my teammates will use this website to comment and post, too. And maybe we will find some new teammates for this year or next, since we are always looking for more people to join us!

My two biggest concerns at this point are getting into shape and receiving the donations. There are lots of other smaller details to worry about but I won't worry about those just yet.

Getting in Shape
I have been walking more often lately, but I haven't truly started my training walks. I have tried to take the dog on two or three 30 minute walks per week and have had some success with that. It has been nice out and Kodi is very lazy during the day so he motivates me when I get home. I get e-mails all the time with local training walk schedules and will have to start on those soon.

Fundraising
Each and every walker is required to raise a minimum of $2,200 for the cause! Otherwise, the difference will be charged to my credit card. I am drafting a letter to mail to family and friends and my goal is to have those letters out before next Friday, August 22nd. I want to have all of the fundraising done before the end of September. That way I can spend the last 6 weeks or so training without the worry that I might have to make a huge donation myself!

I'm so excited for the 3 Day, but nervous at the same time...it is time to start preparing!