Its been awhile since I have written. It seems some days life just takes over and I do not get a chance to do this. We have been diligently working on our fundraising, selling coffee, hot chocolate and candy bars. My brother has been very helpful in selling coffee and hot chocolate by him at work. This has been very helpful. Dan and I are close to hitting the recommitment amount needed. Scott still has a little ways to go. I am hoping some of his friends or their parents will come through for him along with a few letters he sent.

We have done two group walks now. The longest we have done has been 5 miles. This weekend we will be walking 6 miles. Training has been going well. As long as I remeber to stretch a little before walking and a litle while walking, by the 3rd mile, my leg muscles are finally warm and I am good to move along. Dan has been patient with this and is great by keeping pace with me for we are able to walk together.

Thursday, November 5

Sitting at the bowling alley watching Dan bowl. We walked before coming, so it has been a good night so far. At least my legs are not in as much pain as they were before.

On Tuesday, I made a visit to the PT at the store In Step. This is where we purchased our shoes, because they take the time to fit shoes to make sure you get the correct type that will give the support needed. I met with the PT, he took the time to watch how I walked, he actually video tapped my walking on a tread mill. He also checked the calfs muscle stiffness to find out where I was having the pain. Even though I was stretching after the walks, the stretching I was doing was not enough and I was not doing the proper stretches. Then on he also suggested I use a foam roller that is used to work the calf muscles and loosen them up.

Using the foam roller also gives a upper body workout when working the back of the calfs and then it works the stomach muscles when working the front of the legs. Wow after two days, my stomach muscles hurt already. I might actually be able to get some stomach muscles back again.
During the appointment, the PT mentioned I had well developed calf muscles, but I was not bending my ankles when walking. If I did not get the muscles loose, I would continue to have pain and as I tried to walk faster, the pain would just get worse and I would not be able to walk or want to walk the marathon. Since I started doing this on Tuesday, walking has been bearable. The pain has lessened and I can get through the walk with a little less effort.

Training should get better as we start to get into longer walking times and miles. As well as training, we are still fundraising. We have two more events that have just come up. We are going to be planning a Christmas party for kids as a fundraiser. Then we are planning a joint birthday party for Scott and myself. This is also going to be a fundraiser as we celebrate Scott turning 27 and me turning 50. I am hoping we will get support from family and friends and they will come and celebrate with us.

Monday, November 2

Well, it is a new month and we are ending the 40 minutes walk and will be increasing to 45 and 50 minutes. Next week we will actually start with mileage. Last night, I started out before Dan and Scott, because they were not quite ready. I told them that they walk fast enough they will be able to catch up. So, here we go. I know they are behind be somewhere, but cannot hear them. After a little bit, I can finally hear them talking, but wondering why they have not caught up. I figured they were playing with me and figured since I have a slower pace, it should not take long for them to catch up. Well, it came to where the route went down hill and since we have been trying to incorporate some running (if that is what we can call it), i decided to jog. Needless to say, since it was down hill, the pace was a little quicker than they expected. All of a suddent they realized I was moving faster than I originally started. Needless to say they had to pick it up a little to catch up. Finally, we are all walking together. Of course I was out of breath.

After completing the walk, Dan and I went to Erin and Josh's to drop off some milk and potatoes. It was after 8:00 p.m. and we thought Mackenzie would be in bed. To our surprise she was resting with mom, but still up. I decided to sit in the rocking chair to visit a little before we left. All of a suddent, Mackenzie asked to come by me, then she says, " gramma read." She goes to her room, comes back with a book (Merry Christmas Curious George), crawls up on my lap to be read to. This was great! It is not often I get to read a bed time story to Mackenzie. After this, Dan and I got up to leave and Mackenzie crawls back up by mom to snuggle before bed.

What a wonderful way to end an evening.