Reeve Foundation Paralysis Community

Just hit the $1,000 mark! A great start, but a long way to go. THANK YOU to everyone who has sponsored me thus far - I am very, very grateful for the early support.

Training is going well. I was away last week visiting my cousin but managed to get a few runs in. I have moved up to running about 4-5 miles each session, taking about 45-50mins to finish. Gone are my 2-3 mile days. I miss them. With these longer distances, I confess that I do slow to a walk from time to time to catch my breath. I had hoped that the runs would get easier with each one, but I have found that is not the case. Every run is just as challenging as the one before. But, from what I understand, it takes a while for the endurance to build up, so hopefully those breaks will become less frequent.

Last Saturday I started a strict training program with an amazing group based here in New York, and from now onwards it is going to be a bit more intense - serious gym time, longer and more frequent runs, etc. The first run was the 6 mile loop in Central Park, which I managed to complete in 63mins. Not amazing, not terrible. I was happy with it. The training schedule over the next 4.5 months is a little daunting, if not downright scary. That said, it is amazing to have their help and support, and I have embraced the challenge fully.

I will keep you posted about how things progress over the next few days now that I have entered this new phase. Wish me luck.

Thanks for the support, and if you haven't already, please kindly think about sponsoring me. Thanks again.







 

Apologies for the long delay since the last entry. In addition to this being my first marathon, this is also my first blog and it has been difficult figuring out what to write, and how to keep it interesting. In the future, they will be more frequent. I promise.

Anyway, so the announcement last week that I will be running the NYC marathon, to my surprise, ended up getting quite a lot of press coverage... way more than I ever imagined it would, which was absolutely amazing, and also a little intimidating. Several major publications, including  the New York Times and USA Today, ran the Associated Press story, and at one point a friend texted me from a cab having seen the news on the scroll bar on the bottom of 'taxi TV' while crossing midtown. It was all quite surreal, but very flattering, and of course (hopefully) very helpful for drawing potential sponsorship, and I am extremely grateful to all the media outlets for the exposure. (Although more of them could have included the sponsorship link! (Which is here by the way.))

As for the training, it's coming along. Last week I did three short runs of about 2-3 miles each, kept short mostly due to time constraints (2 along the Hudson and 1 in Central Park). By the end of the week though, my knees were bothering me, which I've read is common in new runners. So this week I have laid off the running and instead have been focusing on strength training, using weights with a stability ball, doing exercises on the BOSU, and a lot of other core work. To keep up the cardiovascular side I have been riding the exercise bike and swimming, which are both easier on the knees. I cycled 12 miles on Monday and Wednesday and on Friday did 20 miles, each followed by a swim of about 600-800 yards depending on time.

So far I have really been enjoying the training and upping my level of daily/weekly physical activity. I've been striving to do something every day, but taking one day off per week. It has been okay making time in my schedule for it, although we will see how that progresses with the longer runs. Since starting the training, I am finding myself constantly either stretching, eating, or doing laundry (need more gym kit) and when you add it all up, it does become quite time consuming, but it is all going to be worth it.

I head to London this evening for a few days, mostly to see family and friends, but also  for a little work, and I will resume the actual running while I am there. I am really looking forward to running in Hyde Park and also Battersea Park, two places I used to play sports as a kid, as well as run. I will take a camera along and post some pictures.

Please check back soon, I really will be updating the blog more frequently and post relevant photos, videos, and links..

Thanks for the support, and please help spread the word.