My 3 Day Week in Review!

Not quite as much as last week...

Fundraising

Things continued to be a bit quiet on the fundraising front.  As expected, we finished our last two team fundraising contests (March Madness and Fug Madness) early last week.  In a surprise twist, the same person ended up winning both contests, taking home a $220 cash prize.  The rest of the money collected was split between the four members of Relentless Optimism that participated in those fundraisers.  Ultimately, I raised $60 through those two contests.  I still need to do a final wrap up post on the Relentless Optimism team blog where I'll reveal the total amount that our team raised through these fundraising contests.  I'm not sure what the grand total was, but I know it was a lot!

In addition to those funds, I also got a very nice donation from my teammate's husband and Mag Man Bill.  Bill made donations to each member of our team in honor of the anniversary of Marcia's passing.  Marcia is his mother-in-law and he wanted to do something to show how much he appreciates all of our hard work.  He tried to be super sneaky and do it anonymously, but we figured him out and couldn't let get away with it unrecognized.  So thank you, Bill for your wonderful love and support!

With Bill's donation and that pesky check I still haven't sent it (Bad Kristen!), my fundraising total to date stands at $1620.  I finally did the math today and realized I only have $580 left to go and I haven't even sent out a single formal fundraising letter yet!  With Flower Power and our various ad programs still going strong, I should be at the fundraising minimum in no time!

Training

I was able to change up my standard training walks a few times this week which helped to keep things fresh and fun.  I started off with a short walk and run on Tuesday (3.8 miles and 2.0 miles respectively), which is pretty standard for me.  Wednesday I marked National Start Walking Day with a long walk through Midtown Atlanta.  Because the weather was so nice (albeit pollen-y), I took my camera along to document the beautiful flowering trees and bushes around town to hopefully entice new walkers to get out there and hit the pavement.  You can see my pictures from that walk here.  Then on Friday, my husband and I went over to Emory University to participate in the Relay for Life in honor of the anniversary of Marcia's passing.  It was an emotional night and exactly the right way for me to remember Marcia.  You can read more about that here.

The rest of my training this week hit a series of health snags.  First up, I went for my Couch to 5K run on Thursday evening after a series of thunderstorms moved through the area.  I somehow thought I would be okay without sunglasses (despite being really sensitive to sunlight my whole life) and ended up running myself right into a migraine.  Luckily, it was pretty mild and after some Advil Migraine and a nice 12 hour night's sleep, I felt much better on Friday.  I was worried I was going to have a "migraine hangover" for the Relay for Life, but I actually felt pretty good.  Then on Saturday, I woke up early and knocked out that scary 20 minute run and was feeling great about myself.  However, later that afternoon, I developed what felt like a pinched nerve or something in my right shoulder and lower neck.  I was in a ton of pain with that on Saturday night and all day Sunday, so I skipped my last training walk for the week.  With the help of time, rest and some more regular Advil, I'm feeling much better now, so I'm going to make up that training walk today.  Still though, you never know when these things are going to throw off your best laid plans!

All told, I walked 19.1 miles last week and ran an additional 6.8 miles for a total of 25.9 miles of pavement covered last week.  That brings my total mileage to 163.08 miles walked (since February) and 32.3 miles run (since March).  Go me!

Oh yeah, and I got pooped on by a bird while on a training walk.  Yuck.

Extra Stuff

This week's "Extra Stuff" wasn't so much about generating new content for the blog or giving out helpful 3 Day hints.  Instead, this week was about getting out and doing things, as you can see from my training.  The Emory Relay for Life was certainly a highlight on Friday night, low key though it was.  As I mentioned above, it was the perfect way to recognize this important anniversary in my own quiet way.  I followed up the Relay for Life on Friday night with the Bats-N-Rouge Drag Softball games on Saturday afternoon which was an entirely different experience.  The games were hilarious to watch and my friend Joel's softball team raised $4200 for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  Too much fun, I tell ya.  You can read more about that event and see a ton of pictures here.

Other than those events, not much was doing on the 3 Day front, blog-wise besides my weekly link round up.  I've got a big deadline coming up for my lab work, so the real job is having to take precedent for a few weeks.

Coming Up Next Week...

As I just mentioned, the real job is going to have to be the priority for at least the next week.  I'll try to sprinkle in some new stuff where I can, but I just don't have the time to put together any big posts this week.  I am still working on a science post about the breast cancer gene trial that I mentioned last week, so that will be coming up soon, I hope.  Fundraising will likewise be relatively quiet as I work on thank you notes for our fundraising contest participants.  I will also continue to promote our ongoing fundraising efforts, but I won't be starting anything new this week.

Training, however, will continue at full speed provided my stiff neck cooperates.  In addition to making up Sunday's training walk, the 24 week training schedule calls for a total 24 miles this week, including the first 10 mile walk on Saturday.  I'd like to do something special for that, so I'll have to start thinking about what I'm going to do.  Running training for the Atlanta Race for the Cure also continues this week.  The Couch to 5K plan calls for a very similar week to last week which is exactly what I need!  I was feeling like I was really at my max at the end of the last week's runs, so getting another chance to build up the stamina and the legs before upping the ante will be greatly appreciated.

And that's my week.  I apologize in advance for going a little quiet in the coming weeks.  I am a graduate student that is in the very last throes of research and data analysis before starting to write my PhD thesis.  I haven't been the best at balancing things the past few months and I need to be recommitted to my science if I ever want to finish.  I will be back with the good stuff soon!

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