Foto Friday

Runner on the Cliff Walk in Newport Rhode Island
August 2010

Support Water Projects

I’ve been busy and haven’t done a very good job of promoting my fundraising efforts for Water Projects in Kenya.  Nevertheless, families need clean access to water throughout the world.  Can you imagine not having clean water? You couldn’t wash your dishes, laundry, or even get a drink.  You could wash your hair but it wouldn’t be soft and you’d need more than conditioner to make it look good.

What would you do?

We turn on the faucet and clean water comes out.  Occasionally, during the snow melt in Minneapolis our water has some weird smells to it and tastes a little odd, but it is still safe to drink.  We snuff our noses and buy bottled water.  Some people don’t have that choice.  They spend hours each day to get water that we’d refuse to drink.

We can change that.

Watch this video and consider making a donation on my behalf for clean water in Kenya.

DONATE TODAY FOR CLEAN WATER!

How Much Do You Spend on Bottled Water?

According to the Science Museum of MN, the average American drinks 26 gallons of bottled water a year.  That is about 416 8oz bottles of water.   That adds up to a lot money!  World Vision estimates that it can dig a well for $13,700.  If 33 people gave up bottled water for a year and gave that money to World Vision a village could have a healthy and safe water source!

Watch the video!

Find out more.

A deep well fitted with a hand pump can provide up to 2,800 gallons of safe water a day to benefit as many as 300 people! In many communities, clean water lies hundreds of feet below layers of hard rock. Children have no choice but to walk long distances to find water that is often dirty and disease-ridden. When our drilling teams strike water, entire villages erupt in celebration because a clean water source can cut a community’s child mortality rate by as much as half. --  Well page

Running, Running, Running

Steadily running! I got 3 runs in this week for almost 10 miles!  This was my first week of not working in between my summer job and the school year starting back up. I return to work on the 23rd.  It is amazing how undisciplined I can become when there isn’t a time line or schedule to follow!

I got a half-mile swim in on Tuesday at the YWCA.  All of my open-water friends were out of town.  Without having to commute I didn’t really rack up that many bike miles either.  For my 2 evening meetings I was able to use Christy’s car. We bought an older Burley off Craigslist which takes us one step closer to being able to function with only one car!!  Actually my VW has become a place to store all of my bike gear and accessories on.  I was able to put all the canning supplies I bought at the Seward Coop into the Burley and bring them home to can 25 lbs of peaches!!  It was a lot of hot but fun work to can them!

On Friday I finally got to meet the Ragnar team that I’m leading and running with in a few short weeks.  We went for an easy run around Lake Calhoun before enjoying an excellent dinner at Punch Pizza!

Saturday morning I picked up my friend Tim who is  slowly becoming a runner! We ran together last weekend while camping too.  We ran Pike Island on a muggy morning with sprinkles at the end! We saw 3 deer and at least 4 turkeys on the island.  Last week I introduced him to trail running and this week expanded that horizon.  With 3 kids he isn’t able to travel to run much, but we have so many great places around.

Sunday morning a friend invited me to ride 20 miles with him at 6am.  I balked and we rode at 6:30, I invited another friend and the 3 of us had a great ride that totaled 25 miles for me.  It was in the mid 70′s with 90% humidity but it didn’t feel too bad on the bike.  It was nice to have them push and pull me along for a relatively fast pace.  It was a great way to start an otherwise HOT & HUMID day.  This was art fair weekend and we are looking for some to finish decorating our house.  We decided to hit up the Powderhorn Art Fair because the 111 heat index didn’t make going to Uptown sound exciting.  We sweated a ton in the short time we where out.  We didn’t buy any art but check out this guy, he prints some of his pictures on metal!

Here is the overall stats:

Bike: 44.6 Miles

Run: 9.8 Miles

Swim: 0.5 Miles

This week’s ONE POST is 3 Types of Rest.

Some links to checkout:

Run to Win posted a video which tried to figure out if cyclists or runners were tougher.

Running Times posted 10 Tips for Distance Relay events, which I hope will make the upcoming Ragnar a success!

I was sent a link to the Top 50 Twitter Feeds for Runners.   Another place to go to find tweeting runners is Tim Wilson’s post from the fall of 2008.  It now has 154 people listed.   One last place to find tweeting runners is my Twitter List which has 243 people on it.  That’s a lot of people!! There are some duplicates and maybe even some triplicates.  WHY TWITTER?

Foto Friday

Wild River State Park Campfire
July 2010

Water Sources

Check out this video created by Team World Vision.

Can you imagine drinking water like that? Our water isn’t anywhere close to that and yet we spend tons of money on bottled water!  Take a second today and support clean water projects in Africa.

July… Counting Down

Where has July gone?  The month was crazy busy, fun, and now over.  All month I was involved in a summer program which had me planning for a variety of classes and age levels.  Those two facts made me stretch mentally and tested my patience!  The last week alone I taught “Wacky Chemistry” to 4th-7th graders and “Photography for Kids” to 1st-4th graders.  What a stretch.

I’ve finally been able to run with some consistency.  This last week I ran a whopping 10 miles over 3 runs.  Slowly but surely.  It is feeling good, especially the 4 miler I did at Wild River State Park over the weekend. At the same park I swam across the St Croix River to Wisconsin and back which was a pretty tough swim, which I’m estimating at 400 meters.  My knee pain continues to lessen and was virtually non-existent during the trail run.

This week’s ONE POST is about Fartleking Fun!! Fartlek’s are the funnest way to incorporate speedwork into your training!

Only 3 weeks until Ragnar!!

Here is a look at the goals I set at the beginning of the year.

Run Around All Named Bodies of Water in Minneapolis

Most of my running has been on the Greenway.

Read the Entire Bible in a Year

Continue to do well on this, though I use the extra few days at the end of the month to catch up.  It is odd but it seems easier to remember to read it on the weekdays than the weekends when my schedule isn’t as ordered. I have finished reading Psalms which took 7 months to read!

Read a Book a Month

Even with a somewhat consistent reading time I didn’t get a book finished.  During our summer program we spent 20 minutes each day reading, this often was a great time for my co-leader and I to finish prepping for the day or do some administrative stuff so I didn’t always get to read, plus I often forgot In A Sunburned Country at home or at school and so didn’t always have it to read.  Plus it is a little long and not that exciting.  I’m over 1/2 way so hopefully I’ll finish it and another in August!

Blog Regularly

I’ve done fairly well on here, missing a few times.  Sadly I had the first day I missed taking a picture for my Project 365 blog.  I just didn’t take a picture at all.  While I sometimes miss getting the picture posted on the right day, one day I just completely forgot to take a picture!

Please take a minute and visit my fundraising page for Team World Vision and my Ragnar Relay.

In the past month my Treatments for Plantar Fasciitis and Curing Plantar Fasciitis have continued to be at the top of my most viewed posts. Meanwhile Minnesota Marathon hangs in for a close third.  There are still 3 left!

I hope you had a good July and are looking forward to August.  I know that I am looking forward to pretty much not working the entire month.