23 days and counting ...

It's only 23 days until our departure for the marathon in Switzerland. The sad news is I'm sitting on my couch recovering from my knee surgery I had done last Thursday.  I haven't lost sight of the full marathon just yet but the journey to get there looks alittle different now.  I definitely won't be "running" anything but I'm hopeful to be able to walk something. I'm counting on my stubborness and my sheer determination to get me to the start line of one of the races.
The next week is pretty low key, I have some exercises that the Surgeon gave me to do post op and I see him again Oct 9th, so I'm hoping to get some answers then.  The emails, facebook messages, visits and phone calls of support have all been very welcoming. I have the most amazing family, friends and arth-kicker supporters and everyone is an important part of this journey. I couldn't do it without any of them.

This Friday is our "send off" party for the Alberta Team and it's going to be great. Alot of postive energy and excitement about the trip! :-) We would love to have some of our supporters there so feel free to join us. We are going to be at "Wurst"  Friday night at 5pm across from the Tech shop downtown.

So there won't be much to blog over the next few days unless you want to hear about me complaining about being bored and frustrated that I can't do what I want to do..lol!!!
Thanks again to everyone for all their support!

Between Me, Myself and I ....

 
This is the song I will have on my IPOD to do the 42k and listen to it over and over because the only person I need to convince right now is myself!

I had my MRI on my knee today so hopefully I will have some answers tomorrow!

Broken Spirit

I’m not even sure where to start with this post. It’s been a brutal week and after 3 days I am finally able to actually write about what has been going on. I have felt like my body is slowly letting me down and breaking and I have been trying my hardest to keep my spirits up. My mind is definitely not in the same space as my body. It’s weird because why should I be so surprised to find myself in this situation??? I was clearly pushing my body, training with bootcamp, run/walk training 4-5 tiimes a week and I shouldn’t be surprised it has come to a screeching hault. On Monday I set out to do 24km but at the 21k mark my knees couldn’t take anymore. I called hubby to come and get me off my route and frustrated as ever I headed home. I knew I was in pain but that’s really nothing new for me, I always have some pain but this time the pain took hold of my spirit and mentally I broke down.

I guess I needed a voice of reason because a very good friend of mine decided it was time to tell it like it is! That was a hard conversation to hear because I knew it was all true and that I would have to slow things down but it was a breaking point for me. I cried and I wasn’t sure why I was crying, was it because I was in so much physical pain or was it the mental pain I was feeling because I felt like I was failing at what I set out to do. Right now the end is so close yet so far away. I found a quote by -Vince Lombardi, I have no idea who he is..lol but the quote was so fitting for what I am feeling right now … “The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender! “ I need to complete this journey one way or another and so I have to face the fact that I may have to walk another entire marathon. I didn’t want to walk the entire thing but the truth is, I don’t think at this point there is any possible way I can run anymore. So time to pysche myself up to be out on the course for 8 hours yet again! Thank goodness my teamie Tracy will be there this time to walk it with me, it won’t be as lonely as the last marathon I did!

So for now I am on limited activity as I try and get some of the swelling and inflammation down in my knee. I’m slowly getting the feeling back in my foot. I guess with so much swelling it’s pushing on the nerves and causing the numbness and tingling. I have seen my family Dr who has put in a referral to see my surgeon that did my previous knee surgeries but I have no idea how long it’s going to take to get in and see him. It doesn’t really matter anyway because seeing him isn’t going to change the fact that I can’t run. I’m actually afraid to see him before the marathon because I’m scared to death he might say I can’t even walk it and that would completely devastate me.

A friend posted a picture on facebook about being Successful and under the picture of the straightline it says “what people think it looks like” and then under the picture of the very twisted squiggly line it says “what it really looks like!” It is soooo true and I can’t thank my friends and family enough right now as they support me through that squiggly line!

TV interview

Check out the link from my TV interview on Global this morning for Arthritis Awareness month! I'm so not good being on TV ... I was a nervous wreck and my heart was pounding out of my chest! (You'll see it ...lol) I love telling people about our cause and Joints in Motion.. Just NOT on TV..lol! Watching the video is really hard and my heart starts to beat out of my chest just watchig it!! But it's all for a good cause so if one person that has Arthritis signs up to do a marathon because I inspired them, that's awesome. That's exactly what I want... to be an inspiration!

http://www.globaltvcalgary.com/video/arthritis+awareness+month/video.html?v=2277120203&p=1&s=dd#morningnews/video/special+guests

Recovering ...

Well that sucked!!!!!!!!!! I ended up with a nasty flu/cold and have been knocked on my butt all week. Yesterday I ventured out to do a short run, it ended up being about 4km. I decided not to go with the group downtown because I wasn't sure how far I could go and I knew it was going to be a slow go, so thought it was better to just venture out on my own close to home! Today I managed to do 14.5km and didn't collapse at the end so I would like to think I'm on the road to recovery. :-) I so did not need that little hiccup in my training but it is what it is and onward I go! :-) My training partner is back from holidays so Melissa did the last 4.5km with me today! YAY only the first 10k were lonely and boring...LOL! Although I have to say doing the intervals does make the time go alittle faster. :-) So I have 2 half marathons coming up to incorporate into my training and keep me on track! :-) I will be doing the harvest half at the end of September and then the Okanagan half at Thanksgiving! Only 56 days until the Lausanne Marathon ... exciting and nervous at the same time!!

Excited that hubby has decided to be my companion on the trip to do the full marathon. He wasn't able to be there for my fist full marathon in Athens, so I'm pretty excited he's gonna be there this time. I think he's only going this time so he can keep an eye on me so I don't go and get another race tattoo like I did in Athens...LOL!!!
Will be fun! We will have a supporter there to hold up our Arth-Kickers banner when we all cross the finish line!! :-) I wonder if he will wear a pink Arth-Kicker team shirt too...LMAO!!! Guess I might have to make him his own "Arth-Kicker Supporter" shirt!!
Countdown: 27 days to harvest half marathon in Calgary ... 35 days to Okanagan half marathon in Kelowna ... 56 days to Luasanne full marathon in Switzerland!! As one of my best friends would say "Giddy Up" !! :-)

Half Marathon Adventure!

Check out the Arthkickers.com blog to read about my half marathon this past weekend!

Half Marathon-Sunday Morning!

Tonight I did my last 6km (run for 1min/walk for 1min). This week I joined John our Joints in Motion Trainer, his wife Joy and the rest of the crew for 2 training runs on Tues and Thurs. They were short quick 6km runs and I felt really good during and after. (Thank god otherwise I would be really worried about doing this half if I felt like crap after only 6k..lol) It was nice to be out with a group. I always enjoy chatting and sharing my story with the other runners. The more people I have cheering me on the easier it is for me to keep going and finish. John set up my running watch for me to do 1/1 intervals so it will beep after each minute and now I don't have to keep looking at my watch wondering if the minute is up yet...lol! It set it up for 99 reps which is 3 hours and 20minutes, so that is my goal. :-) The last time I did this race I finished it in 3 hours and 37 minutes and that was walking the entire race. So let's see what I can do this weekend. It really is just a practise run for my run/walk training so I can see where I am in order to finish the full marathon in Oct doing a run/walk. My team mate Heather will running it as well, the great news is she's faster and will finish before me and will be there to cheer me over the finish line with my family. :-)
Saturday night my 2 youngest kids are registered to do the Kids' run and my oldest son and sister Crystal will do the 5km. I love that my kids want to be so involved and do what I'm doing. Every race I have done this year they have participated in the 5km category!! (Although my 7 year old says she's only doing 5km cause she doesn't want her toenails to fall off...LOL)
Thanks John and the crew tonight at the run for all the good luck wishes, those are what push me to get through the race! :-)
Stay tuned for Sunday night's post to hear how it went!! :-)
I'm only $595 away from my fundraising goal and I have 2 weeks to raise that, so please support my half marathon on Sunday by donating to my page. How about $1 for every KM... $21. :-)

What's New????

I posted an update on our website so please go there to read my latest blog entry.  Arth-Kickers.com Blog.

Thank you for following my journey.

5km "run" with my 10 year old

Well it’s back to regular walks/runs. Since the Calgary half marathon I have been training more to do a run(jog in my world)/walk for the upcoming Marathon in October. It’s been been going pretty good, I’ve been doing mostly 5 and 7km training runs right now just to build up my walk/running. Sunday I did 7km in 1hour and 6min, and for me that was awesome. School is out and it’s difficult to get to the gym during the day and most of my training is being done in the evening which I find challenging as I’m tired. But I have been pursuing through and staying focused. So today I decide that I will go and do 5km and my kids can either job beside or ride their bikes. So my younger 2 opt for the bike riding and my oldest (10) wants to job with me. He has down running club at school and he’s on a mission to complete a half marathon in the near future…lol! We set out to do 5km, and holy it’s hot already. After the first km I’m already dying of heat but onwards we go. I have to say this was probably the most entertaining 5km I’ve done and it was a serious blow to my “training self esteem”…LOL!! We start our first 5 minutes of jogging and my son says “this is how fast you go? This isn’t running mom” … I just kinda of laugh to myself. We continue on and the whole time he’s chattering away about this that and the other thing and then he says to me “mom you’re already huffing and puffing and you don’t answer me back.” Next I have my youngest who is on her bike and she’s riding back and forth and around me and rides up beside me and says, as she pedals slowly “this is how I do a jog riding my bike” and then speeds off ahead and says “this is how I do running on my bike”!

We finish our first 5min and now walk for 2minutes and he says “we are walking already” … I seriously can’t help but laugh to myself and wonder what my training really does look like to anyone watching…LOL! (good thing I don’t really care..lol) The next 5km is all about him and his nice little comments and his indirect way of saying “mom you suck at this..lol” Towards the end of the 5km I am so hot, ready to get out of the heat and sweating buckets..lol and I look at him and it’s like he hasn’t done a thing…LOL! His last comment to me is “I don’t know how you did a full marathon in Greece it must have taken you all day!” As a matter of fact it did…LOL!! It was a painfully hot 5km and it was fun having the kids do it with me but I think I will stick to the lonely 5k’s where I tell myself I’m doing a great job..LOL!!

It’s only 101 days until the marathon and I feel a bit of panic!! On the bright side of things all my training is paying off as I have lost 35lbs since Feb. I am officially back to the weight I was when I did my first marathon in 2010 and I still have 3 months before the one in October so I’m confident I will definitely weigh less to do my 2nd marathon!

I have some pictures from our past fundraising events that I will be posting! Thank you to everyone who has supported us, it is greatly appreciated. We are getting closer to our fundraising goal !!

Walk to Fight Arthritis today

It was a gloomy cloudy day but we escaped the rain for the "Walk to Fight Arthritis".  We were dressed for rain and cold but it turned out not to be too bad.  Over 470 people turned out to support the Arthritis Society even with the rain looming overhead.  Me, my kids and Grandma walked the 5km through Fish Creek park. The kids love being a part of my journey whenever they can, so they were pretty excited to join in for the walk. In the last few months both my 6 year old daughter and my sister have been diagnosed with some form of Arthritis so today I was walking for them.  I'm still nursing a sore knee so it was alittle tough but I got through it.  I did 5km last Sunday as well but I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to do much more than at, at one time.  I've gone back to the gym to do weight training and the eliptical seems to be okay so that's my cardio of choice these days.  Onward I will push and hopefully get some answers with my knee and figure out my training is going to look like.

Thank you to everyone that supported our walk today! You can help too by donating to my fundraising page in support of the Arthritis Society.  This journey is not just about me anymore, it's about my daughter and my sister too!
http://arthritis.akaraisin.com/alberta/teamjordan

We did it...half marathon completed!!

Happy to say that Tracy and I both completed the half marathon on Sunday! Together we crossed the finish line in 4:03:36!! The day started out at 4:15am to get ready for a 7:00am start time! Of course it's hard to sleep the night before so how is it possible for one to be completely rested?? 4:15 seemed to come sooner than it should have..lol!! We did it though, up, fed and ready to go, ride on the c-train to the Stampede grounds, bags checked and at the start line with 20 minutes to spare!There were people everywhere!!! The line ups to the porta potties was insane and people pushing their way to get to the front to start the race. As a walker it's kind of scary at the start line, cause you gotta stay way over to the side or you risk getting mowed over..lol! And even over to the side people still running past you on both sides, kind of makes you feel like you're standing still..lol! The first 10km went pretty fast and we were on track to finish in 3 or 3.5 hours. We were never at the back, there was always someone behind us so it was good motivation to keep up our pace. Things started to go down hill around the 12km mark when I had to pee. The problem with stopping to pee when I'm doing a race ?? ... is my arthritis... stopping for anything , tends to stiffen me up right away and it's very difficult to get things going at the same pace they were before! Note to self, maybe not drink so much pre-race so I can make through an entire half without stopping. :-)

The last 6 or 7km were alittle slower for us, getting my pace back up after stopping for a pee never really happened and we were both having pain in one spot or another..lol!! Through the entire route, anytime I had to go down a hill of any kind, I had to do a slow jog. The pressure on my knee going downhill was very painful but if I jogged it was in a slightly bent position and didn't hurt as much. The last hill at the 18km mark was a tough one, I didn't really have the energy to jog but I knew that my knee would never hold up having to extend it fully in the walking position. Somewhere I managed to get myself into a slow jog and the strangest thing happened ... I couldn't stop. The pain was less in my knee because it was slightly bent jogging and so I just kept jogging so it didn't hurt so much. Who knew I could find it in me to actually jog the last 3km and across the finish line! :-) Tracy was great, she was having pain but she just jogged along beside me, well and she's got longer legs then I do so her walking could actually keep up to my VERY slow jog...LOL!!! The last 5km was pretty quiet as we pushed through being tired and in pain. But we did it, we finished and Tracy can now say she has completed her first half marathon!

Thank you to everyone that donated towards my fundraising this past weekend in support of the half marathon, your donations are greatly appreciated! My next fundraising walk is June 10th. Stay tuned for those details.  Visit our website www.arthkickers.com and subscribe there to follow our journey and get all the up to date details on events and fundraising!

Help me Reach $500 this weekend!

Less than 24hrs to go and we will be standing at the start line ready to walk the half marathon. :-)

The Arthritis Society is one of the charities of choice for the Calgary Marathon so please donate to my fundraising page in support of this event! My goal is to raise $500 this weekend towards my fundraising.  So please help me by clicking here and making a donation in support of my half marathon tomorrow. Any amount is greatly appreciated, all the $5.00 and $10.00 add up! Grab a group of friends or co workers and make a group donation.

I truly appreciate any support you can give and thank you for supporting me in my personal fight with Arthritis, as well as my daughter and my sister who are very dear to me and are also fighting this disease.

Thank you again for any support you can give! :-)

Calgary Marathon - This weekend!!!

.5Wow, I can't believe it's here.  The half marathon that Tracy (my arth-kickers team mate from Red Deer) and I are walking is on Sunday!! I thought that my time would have been spent training and putting on the km's in prep for it, but that hasn't been the case. My last training walk of 17km was back in March.  The past 2 months have been physio, cold laser treatments and rest in hopes that I can complete this half.
Last week I saw my Dr. and he did a cortisone injection in the knee as well.  He has given me the ok to do the half and use my own judgement as to how far I will be able to go.

This week it has been feeling pretty good, I've been walking the kids to the bus in the mornings and it feels good.  So I'm optimistic that I will be able to finish the race. :-)  I am super excited to do this half with my team mate Tracy as this is her first half marathon. 

It's an early start of 7:00am so I don't think Tracy and I will be doing to much catching up when she arrives Saturday night...lol! But hey walking the half we will have 3.5 hours to catch up..lol!

Wish us luck and if you're in the area stop by the stampede grounds and cheer us on!! We would love the support!! :-)

Calgary Half Coming Up!

Wow, I can't believe the Calgary Half is just around the corner! It's still undecided if I will be able to walk it or not. I'm still doing physio and I just started some laser treatments. I think even if I am able to walk it it's going to be a tough one since I haven't walked a single km since the begining of April! :-(  I see my Dr. today so we will see what his take on the situation is. We were away for a few days and the rest, sitting by the pool definitely helped and I'm hoping if I limit the walking on it before now and the 27th, it will be enough! I was able to do a bit on the stationary bike on Monday, so that to is an improvement from a couple of weeks ago when I couldn't even do that!! Let's cross our fingers and toes because I really want to be able to do the half with my team mate Tracy, especially since it's her first half marathon!!! 
Congrats to Heather, her brother Jon and our friend Tanner for finishing the Vancouver marathon May 6th, Great Job!!

Have a great day everyone!!

Knee Injury . . .

I'm sure you read my post last Sunday when I had to stop my long walk at 10km because of pain in my knee. Well it hasn't gotten any better. After limping around for the first part of the week and trying to do personal training on Wed I decided (ok my trainer insisted..lol) that I at least go and see a physiotherapist, so I did on Thursday.  The verdict is he's pretty sure that I have damaged the miniscus.  Not sure how or why but it's injured and he recommends staying off of it for 2 weeks. :-( I need to follow up with my family Dr and have some x-rays or scan done to determine if it's just irritated and pinched or if it's actually tore. Crossing my fingers the 2 weeks rest will be all it needs.  I can continue with upper body and core strength training but only with minimal weight bearing on the injured leg. He recommended using a crutch, well you can imagine how well that went over for me!!! I am trying to walk on it less and let it heal, I am honestly. I maybe stubborn but I know that if I don't let it heal I will be out of training for longer.  I am frustrated and worried that I won't be able to do the half marathon the end of May but I'm not going to give up hope just yet.  This was my facebook post yesterday cause it pretty much sums up how I was feeling  "I knew the road I chose was gonna have a few potholes that might slow me down occassionally but apparently it's under construction and I have to stop and wait for the on coming traffic to get through before I can proceed!!"  

Thank you to friends and family for the words of encouragement you always seem to lift my spirits and that means a lot!! :-) I know it will all work out but it's alittle disheartening when I get into a groove and feel as good as I can with the arthritis and then something non-arthritis stops me in my tracks! :-S   But thankfully I don't stay bummed out for too long and my relentless and persistant personality kick into high gear. (see sometimes being relentless and persistant is a good thing...lol)  So today a took a day to just regroup and get a plan in place and tomorrow I will be back at the gym doing what I can without hurting the knee further. :-)

Have a great weekend!

Check out the blog on www.arthkickers.com

Thank you for following my blog and supporting me and my team!!!
Please follow this link to read my blog entries at
www.arthkickers.com.

Behind on blogging but still workin out and walkin!

It's been awhile since I've been able to get online and do some blogging. It's been a bit of a crazy couple of weeks but I've still been busy with walks and gym workouts. Melissa and I did do our Sunday walk and our last one before Easter Weekend was 17km. It took us about 3hours and 20min and both of us were a bit sore after that one. I ended up taking Mon and Tues after that as rest days just to make sure my body was recovered. We left for vacation just before Easter and so my workouts have consisted of walks along the West coast on Vancouver Island (I could definitely make a habit of walking in places like this, so refreshing and peaceful). Gym workouts have been in hotels and the 8 floors of stairs was a great workout for the legs. Oh and I'm not sure how many stairs I've climbed to the waterslides..lol A few more days and then it will be back to regular gym workouts and walks. Just alittle over a month to the half marathon in Calgary.... Kind of excited and kind of nervous!! I have high expectations for myself for the half marathon. I want to be back at the weight I was when I did Athens (and holy man being on vacation isn't helping that I'm sure..lol) and I want to finish the half in 3.5hours. I've done it before so I hope I can do it again !!!! I am super excited that my teamy Tracy is gonna walk it with me... our trial walk to the full in October!!!!

Okotoks Western Wheel Newspaper Article

Newspaper Article

Slow Week with a Bad Hip ...

So remember my last post where I mentioned I wasn’t sure I would be able to walk the next day after my Friday the 16th workout??? Well I was right !!! I spent all of last weekend on ice and advil (by Sunday it was something a bit stronger than that..lol) Melissa and I did do a short walk Sunday morning but it was a pretty slow one. It wasn’t too bad walking but bending over and sitting were pretty painful. And wouldn’t you know it I ended up with a dam pebble in my shoe on the walk and so on the side of the road Melissa had to take my shoe off, shake out the pebble, put my shoe back on and tie it up. Thanks Melissa!! Monday I ended up in the foothills for a procedure to blast the blood clot that was in my central line preventing them from getting my blood collection done. So finally on Tues I was able to get in and see my chiropractor. What a relief, my hip was out of place and pushing on a nerve. So by Tues night I was back at the gym, my first time since the previous Fri. I did take it pretty slow and only did 3km. Wednesday I was back personal training, still with a bit of caution but feeling pretty good. Not only was I recovering from my hip being out of place but holy man the boxing work out we did last Friday left my upper back and arms alittle sore. :-S But Friday’s workout was good and I was able to do 2 hours at the gym with another 3km and 2000m of rowing. Today I felt pretty good and was at the gym for 2 hours. I did 5.5km and another 2000m of rowing and some core work. So tomorrow back out for our long walk and hoping to do 13km.

Feeling some Success

It's been exactly a month since Motion Fitness in Okotoks donated my gym membership and I started doing personal training.  I did the whole fitness evaluation at the begining and today (a month later) they did it again. It's been a successful month!! :-) I was down a total of 9lbs for the month and my body fat mass went down 10%. My BMI has gone down! :-)  I need the reminders like this that all the hard work I am doing is paying off. I needed to hit my 10lb goal (which I did since I'd lost a bit before I started at the gym. But my aggressive goal of 10lbs a month feels like it could be attainable if I keep up at the gym, my training walks and personal training. Of course it's a happy balance to keep my gibbled body in check..lol!! (which after today's personal training is debatable whether I will be able to walk tomorrow or not! :-S  But I'm super happy with my results after a month and now I am walking 15k on my Sunday walks!!! I only have 72lbs to reach my goal weight for the marathon in October and 25lbs to reach my goal weight for the half marathon in May. :-) Wish me luck!!!

In a groove ...

I finally feel like I'm getting into a good routine with my walking schedule and my personal training at the gym with Kristine.  Yesterday I walked 14.8km and then a more leisurely 2km in the afternoon with the kids to and from the park.  Our morning walk was great Melissa and I were joined by Andrea (one of  my kids' teachers from last year and we christianed her with a 13km walk...lol I really wanted to do 15km and Melissa and Andrea were done at 13 so I continued on to do almost another 2 to make it to 15(well 14.80..lol). Doing 15km outside this Sunday was so much easier than doing 10km on the treadmill like we did last Sunday!! Horaay for nice weather and walking outside.  So I logged a total of 25km this week with walking and rowing!! Great Week!!
Another big accomplishment is I hit the 10lb mark for weight loss. I felt like I've been working and working and only seeing a half pound here and half pound there, but it's all added up to 10lb now.  I am so excited about that, it is great motivation to keep up the hard work because it is paying off. Only 70 more to go! :-)
It has been so awesome to have Melissa as a workout partner, she definietly makes it easier when I have company! :-)
Today is my rest day, well my rest day from the gym and walking, but it's catch up day for groceries and housework..lol

Our team is still looking for businesses and corporations that would like to donate to the Arth-Kickers in support of the Arthritis Society. $1000 donation will get your company logo on our training jerseys and $500 (business or personal) will get your name listed as a "major donator" on our shirts! We are over a quarter of the way there but still need to raise close to $27,000.  Thank you to those that have already donated it is greatly appreciated!! :-)

Have a great week everyone I look forward to logging a few more Km's this week ... gonna try for 30km!! :-)

Cheers

March 2 post from Arth-Kicker Blog

Here is the post I posted on the Arth-kickers.com website March 2.  I usually copy and paste it here for my followers and forgot! Sorry! :-)

March 2 Post::
Well it’s been a super busy week with so much to talk about. Sunday, Melissa and I headed off to the gym to do our long walk on the treadmill since it snowed and I’m scared to walk outside in the snow and ice for fear of falling and hurting my hip. It started out as a 10km walk but I only made it to 5km. For some reason I thought that walking on the treadmill wouldn’t be as hard on my feet so I didn’t tape them to prevent blisters, while by 5km my feet were burning so bad I could hardly step on them. (Kind of how they feel after doing a half or a full..lol) Sure enough when I took my shoes off there were big blisters on the balls of my feet. Bandages and tape for a couple of days and short walks on the treadmill. Well thankfully Monday was a rest day anyway. We still did 2 hours at the gym, we did our 5km and then did some weights, core work and ended with a short stint on the eliptical.


Tues was our bottle drive at the Southe Pointe Bottle depot, so to date we’ve raised almost $300 collecting bottles. We will continue collecting bottles until October so if you would like to donate yours send us off an email and we can arrange for pick up. The bottle drive was fun, we had Shaw TV there doing interviews of the Arth-Kickers and Elisha from the Arthritis Society. If you missed it on the Calgary community channel stayed tuned for it here, I’m trying to get a copy to post on the website.

Wednesday was our interview with the Western Wheel in Okotoks. She did the interview at motion fitness and did a few photos with my personal trainer Kristine, as well as Toccoa and I on the treadmills. We are excited for that article to come out as well. Thurs and Fri were gym days and more personal training, as well setting up at the Calgary Farmer’s market for a weekend of selling our bracelets and collecting donations.

Here are a few pictures from our bottle drive on Tuesday.

Another Donation

Some very exciting news with our fundraising, we received a $1000 donation from Keystone Excavating ltd. Thank you to Jim Elias over at Keystone for bringing this together for us. We are thrilled that you want to be a part of this exciting journey with our team and support the Arthritis Society. We can’t wait to see their logo on our training jersey.

So that brings our team fundraising up to $9325 and that means we are over a quarter of the way there!!!

Most of my week has been spent at the gym with my friend Melissa, she is being a great support! I started with my personal trainer on Tues and meet with her again Friday. The kids have been off school all week so it’s been a bit of challenge to get out for “power” walks but the cross training at the gym in the evenings has kept me on track.


Our Survivor Pool fundraiser is underway and we have 2 pools, thanks again everyone for your support. We have our bottle drive coming up Tues Feb 28th. We will be set up in the parking lot of the Southpointe Bottle Depot in McKenzie Towne off 130th ave. Shaw tv is going to be there interviewing us, so stop by drop off your bottles and say hello! We would love to see you!

March 2,3 and 4 we will be set up at the Calgary Farmers Market so you can stop by there too. We will be collecting donations and selling our bracelets!

Changed it Up

Well Sunday's walk kicked my butt. My friend Melissa loves doing intervals so we did 6km of intervals, 2 minutes of power walking and 3 minutes of fast pace walking. The last 4km which was mostly uphill we did a steady fast paced walk. I usually feel pretty good after 10km but I definitely felt the difference doing intervals that's for sure. This week it's off to the gym on non walking days and personal training at Motion Fitness starts on Wednesday. Super excited about that. 
We posted an ad on Kijiji looking for people's help to help us with our fundraising and we've had some responses from people that would love to donate items for silent auction items at our fundraising events.
Check out our fundraising thermometer ...
we are almost a quarter of the way to our team fundraising goal which is great news. We still of course have a long way to go so we need your help. :-)

My team mate Heather has created a blog post on our arthkickers website, check it out.

Have a great Family Day!!

e.x.c.i.t.e.d

Well it's been a crazy week and we have some exciting news!!! First of all a huge thank you to Motion Fitness in Okotoks, they have donated a gym membership for me from Feb to Oct. and I am super excited about that.  I am excited that they want to support and be a part of my journey!
We are $1200 closer to our fundraising goal this week and that is so awesome!  On Feb. 28th our team will hosting a bottle drive in the parking lot of the Southpointe Bottle depot. Not only are we going to be collecting bottles but Shaw TV is also going to be there to interview our team and the Arthritis Society.  We can't wait to share our story!! So we would love for you to stop by and be a part of an exciting event!!
We are currently looking for a place to print our logo on some t-shirts as well as help us with our training jerseys. If you have any suggestions of places for us to check out, we would love to hear from you.
Our bracelets have made their way to Ontario and that is such an awesome feeling. Thank  you to my friend Jodi out there for helping us sell them. The support is so much appreciated.  Also thank you to all our family and friends that are supporting our survivor pools, we are thrilled to have 2 pools on the go! Good luck to everyone playing!
Phew ... that was alot of information...lol!!

I know that October seems so far away but we would love to complete our fundraising before the half marathon in May so that we can focus more on training, so please share our website http://www.arthkickers.com/ with your family and friends and help us real our goal! :-)
 Every donation big or small will help us reach our goal!

Slow Week

Well it's been a bit of a slow week around my walking. I really needed to give my hip a bit of a rest so I've only done 3km so far. Friday I hopped on the treadmill and the rest of the week I was able to do a bit of core work. Holy man I can feel the abs! The 3k felt pretty good, so I will proceed with my Sunday walk. I have a feeling it might be a chilly one since we are heading out at 8:00am. I'm headed to my sister's so really want to get a walk in before I do, so 8am it is! :-) I am also going to be meeting up with a company called simplyforlife.com They are going to set our family up with meal plans for more healthy eating, so we are pretty excited about that. It's a 12 week program so that should give me a jump start into things. Although I have been walking my butt off and watching what I eat the scale still isn't moving. That is a bit frustrating for sure. A friend and I are weighing in together once a week hoping this will help keep us both on track as well. Enjoy the rest of the weekend I will let you know how my early morning walk goes! :-S Thankfully it's with Toccoa so committing to meet her will make it easier to drag my butt out of bed by 7!! :-)

What great February weather!!!

What another beautiful day to be outside walking. I was hoping to do another 12k this Sunday but had to be happy with 10.58. Even after a painful walk for my friend Melissa last Sunday, she decided to join me again this Sunday. After reading my blog yesterday she did try to back out because she didn't think she could do another 12k this weekend since the blisters on her feet were still in recovery mode. I didn't want her to back out and wanted her to walk with me so I agreed to her only wanting to do 6k. :-)She wanted to tackle the hill that I've been doing so that's what we did. I knew I wanted to do to 12k so I headed out an hour before I was meeting up with her to walk. I only managed to do about 4.5km because walking was actually very painful today. So I did 10.58km in total but it was a tough walk. Thanks Melissa for joining me otherwise I'm not sure I would have even done the extra 6. The good conversation and laughs always takes over the pain!!:-) I love the support, it means alot! See you next Sunday!! :-) Well tomorrow is definitely a rest day and starting this week I am going to start on a 14 week walking program for the half marathon in May. I'm also going to go and check out motion fitness gym and see what I do there for some cross training. Thanks to everyone who reads the blog and supports me in one way or another!:-)

Squeezing a one hundred dollar bill ...

A busy week! So far this week I have logged 17km and tomorrow I will add another 12k. A very successful week!! Tues a neighbor decided to walk with me so that was awesome, I love walking with someone else, it takes the boredom factor out. Thursday it was a lonely walk by myself but I pushed my way through it. So you're dying to do know what the post is about right ... squeezing a one hundred dollar bill!! Well first of all I didn't finish the post title..lol!! It should say "pretend you're squeezing a one hundred dollar bill between your butt cheeks" ..lol!! Thank you Cathy for the tip ;-)!! I met up with my friend Cathy to collect her bottles for our bottle drive (thanks Cathy) and while I was in her company I asked her what the trick to walking faster was, since she has walked a few marathons and done amazing. And that was her response to me ..."pretend you're squeezing a one hundred dollar bill between your butt cheeks" when you are walking,take shorter steps and get those arms moving. So this morning before I left I was demoing (well not really cause I don't have a $100 bill in my posession..lol)for my family what it looks like when you pretend to be doing just that...well holy heck that is actually very difficult to do!! :-S The first time I tried it I completely locked my hip up and didn't think I was going to be able to walk for the rest of the day!! But I stretched it out and tried it again. So during my 5km today I decided try this newly learned technique. It took a while to get in a groove and amazingly enough it works. I was able to increase my pace for part of the walk.It works a totally different group of muscles then I'm used to using when I walk so we will see what tomorrow brings! I think it will be awhile before I can walk an entire walk like that but it's a new goal!! Thanks Cathy ..I think..lol!! I think I might even be able to keep up with Toccoa with this new technique!! :-) We are still collecting bottles so drop us a line and we will happily pick yours or give you a drop off point. A big thank you to the Calgary South Trail bottle depot who has allowed us to set up a big bin inside the depot for people to just drop their bottles off there for us as well! It's located on 130th Ave in McKenzie Towne right behind Home depot. We have just created another event on our facebook group and that is our Survivor Pool for the upcoming season of Survivor which airs on Feb 15th. You don't have to be on facebook to join just drop me a line and we can get you signed up! It's $20.00 to enter and pick your survivor. You will then have a chance to win half the pot of $180 if your survivor wins the game! The other half of the pot is donated to our fundraising. You don't even have to watch it we can just let you know if you win or when your person is voted off!! We need 18 people per pool so join us and support our fundraising! :-) Enjoy the rest of the weekend!! I will check in tomorrow after my 12k! :-)

12km Sunday Walk!!

The plan was to do another 10km this morning. I headed out with one of the Arth-Kickers team members (Toccoa) and a friend from Okotoks and we walked down into Fish Creek park. It was a great walk and when we hit the 5km mark I decided to push for one more km before turning around to head back for the second half. Oh my word Toccoa can walk fast and for her this was a nice leisurely walk in the park..lol!! I didn't feel too bad but I still broke a sweat, I don't think she did..lol! My friend Melissa did great, she hasn't been walking and she tackled this walk with us this morning and did amazing. I hope she's not too sure in the morning and cursing me..lol!! Although she was prepared for 10k this morning and so I think I may have put her over the edge with the extra 2. Sorry Melissa! But it was fun, walking with friends is so much nicer and makes the time go so fast. It did not feel like we were walking for 2 hours. I feel like I'm getting back into my groove and so I just need my body to cooperate. :-) I was alittle bit nervous about this morning because doing my injection last night and taking benadryl makes me feel pretty crappy and when I first woke up I wasn't sure I was even gonna make it 5km. I think walking with friends definitely made it better, otherwise walking by myself I would focused on the fact that I felt horrible and used it as an excuse to walk a shorter distance. So Toccoa and Melissa were just the support I needed this morning to get me through. And really I don't feel too bad at all, hips are alittle sore but no worse than when I headed out this morning!! Thanks for the great walk ladies and the support!! :-)

Success with 10km!!!!

It was the greatest feeling to accomplish 10km yesterday. It's hard to believe that I really did do a full marathon in Oct 2010 and now I am excited to accomplish 10km these days. Set backs have been a huge part of my journey and all I can do is keep moving forward and set my sights on Oct of this year. :-) So onward I go. Not only did I do 10km yesterday, but I walked that darn hill that almosted got the better of me on Sunday..lol!! I have to say it wasn't any easier yesterday, maybe even harder because it was the last 3km of my walk! I knew I would have no choice but to do it if I made that the last part of my walk, otherwise I would have been sitting on the side of the road all day waiting for hubby to get home..lol!! Today is a bit of a rest day as my hips are alittle sore from the walk yesterday, but I did walk 2km this morning with the dog. :-) Tomorrow and Saturday will be shorter walks as I'm planning another 10km on Sunday with team mate Toccoa and another friend Melissa that's going to join us. So off to fish creek park we go Sunday morning!! So if you see us give us alittle cheer!!! :-) This weekend is injection weekend for my meds so Sunday's walk will definietly be a challenging one as it's usually a couple of days of not feeling so great. So doing this one with friends will definietly make it easier! :-) Don't forget to contact us to come and pick up your bottles, so we can work on our fundraising! Enjoy the sunshine again today!! Don't forget to visit our website: www.arthkickers.com

Tried for 10km ...

Well after being stuck in the house doing workouts both on the treadclimber and the xbox workout (which by the way is kicking my butt..lol)I was happy to be able to walk outside today. I woke up this morning and was planning to walk 10km. I told hubby where I was planning to walk because there and back would be 10km. Well he so graciously burst my bubble and told me it wasn't going to be a 10km walk. No biggie, I would walk that route and then add a couple of km's the other way on the way home or just walk alittle further past my intended turn around point. Well that didn't go as planned...the route I walked was great for the first 3km (easy peasy) and then I reached my original turn around point and started heading back. It was easy going cause it was ALL DOWNHILL!!! Oh my word the walk back was crazy, it was uphill the entire way back with one spot that was a flat spot. There was one hill I felt like stopping and calling hubby to come and pick me up..lol!! But I didn't I kept going. Needless to say I didn't walk the extra km's on the way home because my legs were already burning. I have to be nice to my body and my hip and at that point I think it was already a bit unhappy with me..lol!! But it's all good, yes is was only 6km but it was a GOOD 6km and a great workout. I think it's a great walk to build up my endurance for sure!! I love tracking my walks and workouts on dailymile and now that Heather and Tracy are logging there's it's great motivation for everyone!! It's great to see what the rest of the team is doing. You can check out our dailymile workouts on the website www.arthkickers.com. We are still looking for corporate/businesses to sponsor our team with a donation to the Arthritis Society and be put on our training jerserys. If you have family or friends please pass along my email info@arthkickers.com . Personal donations are great as well and any amount is appreciated.:-) We still have lots of bracelets left to sell as well, so please support our team and purchase a bracelet! :-)They are $5.00each and you can email info@arthkickers to find out where you can get one! :-)

Calgary Half Marathon

Well it's official, I'm registered for the Calgary Scotiabank Half marathon on May 27th. The arthristis society has also been chosen as a the charity of choice for this marathon so that is exciting news. The arth-kickers will be there as part of the Arthritis Society's Joints in Motion Scotiabank Group Charity Challenge team for the half marathon. So come out and join us for an exciting day as some of our team members complete their first half marathon in preparation for the full we will be completing in Oct. Support our team by donating to one of our personal fundraising pages. We will be using this half marathon as a fundraising event for our team and need your suppport. :-) Keep warm cause this is crazy cold weather!!It's definietly keeping me indoors, thank goodness for a treadmill and my now favorite workout .. the X-Box! :-) There are some great work out games and they are fun so it doesn't seem like work at all!! 200 calories burned in no time!! :-) Have a great day everyone!!

Finish what I started ...yesterday!

So yesterday morning I have this plan, a plan that Murphy and I will walk to the mailboxes for the mail (which is about 1km). I knew it was cold but I bundled up, drop the kids off at the bus and continue to the mailboxes. Ya not so much, we got to the corner and Murphy started lifting his feet and whining ..HE'S COLD!! Ok I was cold too but I was like Murphy needs a walk I will suck it up!LOL!! Well if it's too cold for him then I guess it was too cold for me! So we waited until the afternoon when it warmed up and we walked around the acreage. This way the yorkies can walk with us because I'm not ready to walk all 3 dogs at once on leashes..lol!! So we did about 2km yesterday. So this morning I have the same plan. Drop the kids off at the bus and walk to the mailboxes. So off we go! It's a beautiful morning and not too cold, only about -8. So we get to the mailboxes and I decide that we will walk past the mailboxes for a bit and get the mail on the way back. YAY for us ... we walked 5.6km this morning. :-) It took alittle longer than I would have liked but Murphy is still learning to walk on a leash! My left arm is getting a good workout at the same time cause I'm constantly pulling him back to walk beside me ..lol! So it was a good morning. My feet are alittle sore, apparently I need to build the skin back up on them ... no more pedicures..lol!!! It's time to start the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred AGAIN!! Remember how well that went for me last time I tried it..lol!! I hope this time is better. :-) I'm posting a fundraising event on the Arth-Kickers fundraising page. Check it out! Enjoy the rest of the day !!

Snowy Walk

It's January so I shouldn't be surprised to wake up and see snow on the ground but it was soooo nice to be walking on the bare pavement in the sunshine. But it is what it is and IT IS January. So this morning I walked the kids to the bus and then Murphy and I did a 3km walk. I can honestly say that if I didn't have him I would avoided the snowy walk in my snow boats and opted for runners on the treadmill. I live on an acreage so we actually walked around the fence line 3 times(which is just over a KM for each lap). The first 2 times around it was just him and I and for the last one the 2 little yorkies joined us. It was fun. My legs are a bit tired from walking in the snow boats but more resistance?? right??? :-)

With all the snow that meant some shovelling was in order so that's how we spent the rest of our time outdoors do that. I'm pretty sure Murphy sitting on the shovel was a whole lot of resistance training for my arms as well..lol !!!

Yesterday was a great day too, we still had the sunshine and bare pavement so we did 3km yesterday as well. My daughter insisted Murphy was her show and tell so we walked over to the school to do that and then continued on with our "training walk". Before heading out on the walk, I was able to do 30 minutes on the treadclimber. That was a bit challenging and I can definietly feel my legs from that today.:-S It's been a great start to the week with the kids going back to school, getting back to old routines and starting my new routines.

Officially a Team of 5! :-)

Her registration is in and Toccoa Charles has joined the arthkickers. I will be adding her bio to the arthkickers.com website soon so you can read all about her. Toccoa and I were neighbors for 3 years in Calgary and their family was one of the reasons we were sad to leave the cul da sac. But it's all good, we still get to see them and now she's going to be a part of the team. She has gotten to know me and my health issues and it means alot that she wants to be a support and raise money for an amazing cause. Not only is she doing this to support me but she also has family members that have been diagnosed with arthritis. So welcome to the team Toccoa and it's going to be an adventure you won't forget. So the arthkickers is asking for your support as our team fundraising goal is $34,000. We definietly can't pull this off without your support and donations so please help us make a difference. :-)

Happy New Year!!!

Welcome 2012!! I can't believe I am saying that!!! I can't believe it's 10 months until the marathon. Christmas really makes you lose a couple of months that's for sure!!! But here we are ready to go!!! I am super excited about this journey and what lies ahead for this year. As I'm typing this I'm still in a bit of shock that's it's 2012..lol !!! Lots in store for 2012. Christmas was great, we had lots of company and lots of good food. (that part was bitter sweet..lol) We have a new addition to our family that joined us just before Christmas. His name is Murphy and he's bordercollie/aussie pup. He is officially my daily walking buddy. :-) He's high energy and needs like 2-3 walks a day, so that's awesome for me!! I have 2 little yorkies as well but they are only good for about 5km ..lol !!! So it will be Murphy and me for the big walks. I'm figuring him and I should be building our stamina at about the same pace..lol He's still a pup so he's tired after about 5k too ..lol !! But together we will gradually work up to the 42k :-) This is what he looks like after our 4km walk this morning..lol I'm not THAT bad..lol And trust me in a couple of hours HE will be ready for another 4km..lol (me? I guess we will see..lol)

We are going to be organizing some fundraising events in the next couple of months so stay tuned for those. We also have our bracelets we are selling, so we'd love to see you sporting one of those. :-) Don't forget you can also just make a donation to my fundraising page all donations big and small are greatly appreciated. I'm also in the process of getting our 5th team mate up and organized. Her fundraising page will be added soon as well. We are still looking for businesses that would like to donate and be featured on our team jerseys and have their links posted on our website, so if you or someone you know would like to be a part of our team that would be awesome !! Cheers to 2012 and thank you in advance for your support! :-)