Dragonfly Run for the Animals

Today, my running buddy Sarah was out of town at a conference for work. We had agreed last week that we would keep up the momentum in our respective places this week. I'll admit that I didn't think I would do that great a job without her there to challenge and motivate me. But I got on the trail, and I did excellent (if I do say so myself). But even though Sarah wasn't there to keep me company, I had some other little friends on the path. Throughout my entire run, dragonflies kept dancing along in front of me, and I pretended that they were coaching me along my run. So, with the dragonflies and my running playlist to keep my company, I pushed really hard. I managed to knock out 2.5 miles in under 40 minutes. Plus, it provided 6 vaccines to needy pups and cats.

Feeding America Despite Technical Difficulties

I started a new group called "Grow With Me" on Meetup in an effort to try to meet parents with children close in age to Ramsey. I posted an event for this morning to stroll the mall with our babies. I wanted to get exercise with Ramsey and Cliff that would be out of the heat and at a relatively easy pace. There were forces conspiring against my third reason of strolling to benefit Feeding America.

First, I had scheduled my stroll for 10:30 a.m. No one signed up for my event, but I still wanted to get to the mall around that time should anyone just show up despite the lack of RSVPs. At almost the exact moment we stepped out of our house to travel to the mall, there was torrential rain. But we hurried to the car and travelled onward to the mall.

When we got to the mall, both Cliff and I started our Charity Miles app on our separate phones so we could try to get as much benefit as possible to Feeding America. We opted for the "Indoor Walk" option which uses our accelerometer in the phones to gauge the distance. Once I set it, I placed the phone on the stroller and we started off. That was the second force. I didn't realize that the smooth ride of the stroller was interfering with the accelerometer. After about 15 minutes, the app had only logged 0.04 miles for me, so I thought it would take forever to get to a mile at that rate. I asked Cliff what his phone read, and it said 0.35 miles. We both figured it was because of the smooth ride on the stroller, so I shoved the phone in my pocket. This fixed that issue.

While we were walking, I noticed that the mall had free WiFi. I was so excited I quickly connected with my phone. Little did I know this would be the app's undoing. I finally managed to get to 1 mile on my phone after an hour of walking (although there were some stops and at one point I paused the app to take a picture and forgot to resume immediately). So, I stopped the app and went through the motions of saving the data. Then I tried to go to my history to see my results. I couldn't get the app to load the history. I rebooted my phone and kept quitting and restarting the app. Finally, Cliff suggested I get off the WiFi, and once I did the app restarted with no problems. But alas, my results had not saved. I blame it all on the stupid WiFi because I'm sure they would have saved if I had just stayed on my 3G.

Luckily, Cliff's phone accurately logged our stroll, so I at least have something to show for it, but it could have been more. At any rate, we did 1.4 miles in 60 minutes and provided nearly 3 meals to hungry people. And look at the picture of me and Ramsey by the sign in the mall. We were destined to help Feeding America today.

Feeding America, Beating the Rain

It was a race against the weather, a race we won! Today, Sarah and I did intervals to benefit Feeding America. We are definitely seeing improvements in our speed. We killed it today. Ok, I'll bring the bravado down a notch. We did 2.3 miles in under 40 minutes. That's 0.05 miles better than last week. Just as we see with our little ones, it's the "baby steps" that really make a difference. And we provided over 4 meals to hungry folks. Plus, good Samaritan Sarah picked up some trash from the Greenway to keep it from getting in the creek. Bonus points to her! And in regards to beating the rain, it was a little sunny when we ran, but by the time I got back to work after getting lunch, a light sprinkle began. Thank you, Mother Nature, for letting us get our run!

Intervals for the Furry Ones

Today is the third week of running with my new friend Sarah. We've managed to increase our speed. We did 2.25 miles in under 40 minutes. And we provided 5.65 vaccines to the puppies and kittens. Yea, us!

I tried to help the animals...

Today, my friend Sarah and I hit the Greenway again. We've agreed to do a weekly run, beginning with interval training. I started the Charity Miles app, hoping that I would be able to help some kittens and puppies get much needed vaccinations. We logged 2 miles in a little over 30 minutes, but when I went to quit the app, it crashed. After restarting my phone and the app, I found that our progress was not saved. So, I'm a little disappointed that our efforts at helping the animals were a little in vain, but at least we got our workouts completed.

The post-workout selfie regardless of the app crash

Feeding America in Intervals

I met Sarah through a mommy group, and I was really excited when she suggested we start running at lunch. She works near me, and she was a runner before she had her little man. We'll start at once a week and then go from there. So, today was our first day of running together. At her suggestion, we ran intervals for 30 minutes: 1 minute running/2 minutes walking...repeat...repeat...repeat. It was quite a hot day, but we knocked it out, with great conversation to boot. We conquered two miles! Yea, us! And the runner's high after we were done reminded me of why I like to run. So, I look forward to more runs with Sarah.

But I'm not the only one who benefited from the run. The half-hour run helped provide 4 meals to hungry people.