Running in Park City Utah is FUN!!

Hello my fellow friends, family, and followers of my blog!  I'm a few days past my last weekly report, so I better get everyone caught up!  Soooo, this past week I did something new!  Has anyone reading this ever done Hot Yoga before??? 

I have never attempted it and was talking to a friend who does it frequently.  She encouraged me to try it out even though I stressed to her that the reason I've never tried it is that I get bloody noses.  Yep...  I'm the dork that you may see every now and again with toilet paper stuck up my nose while running errands.  I get the kind of bloody noses where they just don't stop.  So, instead of waiting around impatiently hoping they'll slow down, I just push something up my nose (whatever it may be, but usually toilet paper), and go on my merry way.  I've gone grocery shopping, skiing, working, studying, you name it... all with a wad of you know what up my nose!  Here I am several years ago in my friends wedding as a bridesmaid... I know, right????  Thankfully it stopped before the actual ceremony!

I have found that I often get bloody noses when I sit in Sauna's or any hot/humid place.  So, you can guess my hesitation.  However, I am in this mood lately where I'm pretty much up for trying anything lately, so I tried Hot Yoga!  Not gonna lie, I absolutely love it!!!  I am going to throw it out on a limb and encourage everyone reading this to go try it!  It's awesome! 

I really like it for my training as I've been running and biking and stair-stepping my way through my workouts, and I've noticed that my muscles have gotten really tight.  I've always been hesitant to do yoga as I am the type of person that really like to "feel" the workout.  You know, sweat... breath hard... that kind of stuff.  Hot Yoga is a great middle ground as I sweat more than I have ever in my life, however you're doing all these hard movements that stretch your entire body.  I've done it 3 times now, and I'm still sore!  I'm in love!!! 

I will say that I did get a bloody nose after the second time I went.  But it wasn't bad, and stopped very soon after it started, so I'm gambling that it's going to be okay!  Woo hoo! 

Okay, so training is going good!  Before I get to that though, I must say that donations this past week were PHENOMENAL!!!!!  I raised about $600 last week!  You guys are all amazing!  I would not be able to do this journey without you, so thanks for ROCKIN' last week!  Keep it up:-)

Now, back to training.  Two Saturdays we had to run 10 miles.  Here's a picture of me as I'm finishing!

I know!  It's a horrible picture, but I mean... I had just ran 10 miles!!!  So I'm kinda diggin' the tired look!  This past week we were required to run 6 miles on our Saturday run.  I was not able to run with the normal Team in Training Group as I was out of town.  I drove down to Salt Lake City, UT to see some great friends of mind this weekend, both who just happened to be on my Freestyle Ski Team in college!

Their names are Kelly Hoerger and Heather McPhie.  If the second name sounds familiar to you, it may be because she's an amazing Olympic Athlete on the US Freestyle Ski Team.  Yeah, I hang out with cool people... I'm kind of a big deal:-)

Kelly and I had a great run on a trail on Friday afternoon.  We most likely ran about 4 and 1/2 to 5 miles. It was beautiful!  I wish I had my camera.  We were just running in the mountains, with a constant amazing view!  Then on Saturday, I drove over to Park City, UT and met up with Heather to run a 6 mile trail with her.  It was more hilly, which I love.  To make it even more difficult we talked to whole time, which is REALLY hard when you're running uphill!  It was worth it to get caught up with life though!

I also did some more mountain biking this week.  I think Mountain Biking is hard... but fun.  However, I still am not in love with going downhill.  I need to get a little braver.  However if you look at this next picture you'll see why mountain biking scares me sometimes...

If you look closely you can see a big 'ol cut on Travis' knee.  Yep, he had a mighty fall!  It looked pretty scary where I was at.  He was going up a really steep hill when instead of going up, he started to fall back/sideways, pretty much off a cliff (or hill, but it was steeeep!).  He gouged his knee and ankle pretty good, but I think he's all right!  Still, that is scary!  However, I like the challenge, so we're having fun riding together!

Okay, I'm rambling, so I'll end this blog here.  Except to say... duh, duh, duuuh... this Saturday I am running 12 miles... 12 MILES!!!!  That is almost a 1/2 marathon!!!!  I'm hitting the pavement, so if you feel the love, hit me up with some donations, and I'll see you on the flip side!!!!

Rachel

First 5 miles... Then 10! Go Team in Training!!!

(Last Years Marathon)

Well... sorry for the delayed blog.  My intention with this blog is to at least write once a week if not more, because I know my life is sooooo exciting that everyone wants to read about it... (sense my sarcasm:-).  However, you may have noticed that it has been 2 weeks since I've last blogged.  Oops!  I will try not to do this again.  I had a CRAZY busy week, and that's my excuse!  Seriously busy!  But, busy is excellent!  I'll take busy all day long over "boring", "slow", "monotonous" etc.

So, many of you already know this, but for those of you who don't, I have two businesses.  I am a Financial Representative for a firm called Northern Rockies Financial Group, and I own retail store called Helly Hansen.  It's a lot sometimes... but like I said, I love being busy.  Soooo when my lovely friend Christina told me about a huge commitment call Team in Training I thought, "What the heck!"  Actually, I didn't think that at all.  I thought "Should I do this?  Am I over committing myself?  Train 6 months diligently for a full marathon AND raise a minimum of $3200 for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society???"  But after about 2 weeks of thinking about it, I just felt that this was something I really wanted to do.  And I am soooooo glad that I have made this decision!  It has been so rewarding!

As I have said in an earlier blog, the running has so far not been the intimidating part to me as much as the fundraising.  But the fundraising has turned out to be... fun!  I can't believe I'm saying this, but it is true!  I am currently at $1905.00 in my fundraising!!!  I want to take a second to say thank all of you who have donated so far.  It is seriously like a Christmas present everytime I open my mailbox and see the little "Team in Training" return letters, or open my email to see a "Someone has Donated" email for those who have donated online.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  You are truly saving lives with your donations.  You are all heroes...

So, let's talk about my last 2 weeks.  Last Saturday (July 2nd), we ran 5 miles.  It was actually harder than you would think as half of it was climbing a demonstrous hill (is that a word???  If not, it should be, and either way, you get the point!)  I think that 5 miles was actually harder than the 8 miles the previous week.  I was also a little tired from my workouts that week.  I was pretty intense... running, mountain biking, tennis.  I think I was just tired.  I have to say though, this has been such a good thing in my life.  This marathon is forcing me to get out and DO.  Otherwise, I'd probably just go home and watch some cable thinking I'm too tired to work out, but the thought of not being prepared for a marathon scares me too much.  So, I have been getting in shape!

Yesterday was crazy!  We did 10 miles!  Woo hoo!  10 miles!!!  You know, I like to think of myself as hardcore, but if I'm going to be honest, I can probably count on one hand the number of times in my life that I have run 10 miles or more.  It is a loooooong way!  But I did it, and I am proud of myself.  Go Me!!!

I can't do this alone though.  As I was finishing the 10 miles, I thought, "Holy Moley... a full marathon is 10 times 2 plus 6..."  Say what?!!?  I can't even imagine that yet...  I need your help.  All your words of encouragement have been unreal.  But more importantly are your donations...  This race is not about me.  I am healthy, I am strong, I am lucky.

After our 10 miler, we had a potluck, and at that potluck we had 5 survivors and 1 spouse of a non survivor speak to all of us runners.  I wish everyone could hear what these amazing people had to say, but the best I can do is tell you from my perspective.  These 5 people are alive because of Team in Training and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  I'm not stretching the truth here.  Every survivor is alive because of the treatments and medication that has been discovered through the money that has been donated through LLS!  For instance, there is a medication called Rituxan which is used along with chemo-therapy to treat Leukemia and Lymphoma cancers.  It is used when the cancer is resistant to normal types of chemo.  It has saved many lives, including all of the survivors that spoke, and was discovered through the funds of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society!  Here we are, listening to these amazing people, telling us "Thank you for trees... and butterflies... and chores!"  That was the actual quote of one of the survivors who wanted us to know that without LLS and people raising money for it, she would not be alive to enjoy the simplest of life's pleasures... 

Okay!  I hope you enjoyed this loooong blog!  I want to once again thank all those who have donated so far, and if you haven't, I hope that this blog makes you re-consider.  Every dollar helps!!!  You can donate on my website at http://pages.teamintraining.org/oswim/nikesf11/rlink7

Till next time! 

Rachel