Way Past Time for an Update

I intended to update this about once a week. I’ve started drafting a few updates, but haven’t gotten one all the way to the starting gate. So this evening I’ll just ramble a bit about the last three weeks and the weeks to come. Consider this a wade into my Stream of Consciousness (grab a life jacket).

Soccer pre-season has arrived. I volunteer with my son’s soccer association—currently sharing the role of Team Manager Director (“Team Mom Boss”) for the Rec side of things with another woman. I’m also the Team Manager for my son’s team this season (at least I don’t have to track myself down to give myself the uniforms—if only we had any!) The weeks leading up to the start of the season are usually busy, but our state organization has a new on-line registration system that wasn’t quite as ready-for-prime-time as would have been optimal. I’m downhill in the line of people that depend on these systems to do things such as register people, let them pay, produce rosters, uniform orders, etc. Anyway, Soccer is taking more time and effort and attention than it ought to.

How does this relate to my Walking? On one hand, I’ve got more stuff to “do” on weekends and evenings so getting my 3-4 days of walking in has been more of an effort. On the other, I have calculated the “how many times around the field makes a mile” for all of the fields at the main soccer venue and also measured the .6 miles around the parking lot (both of them). For anyone reading along from the team, it’s 4.6 times around field 3 and 6.3 times around field 8. I’ve got the others if anyone wants to know.

About the Walking. While the walking as been more disorganized that I would like, I must say that I can really tell that my endurance and breathing are better. I walked through some really dreary weather and some awful head and chest cold symptoms the last week in January. I’ve also walked during freezing weather (but not actually in the rain). I can keep up a snappy pace for a mile or two and actually carry on a conversation. My natural walking (and talking) pace is pretty quick and I have to remind myself that it’s about the distance, not the speed. In some ways, training for this walk has taken away the “I’m doing it for the exercise” or “cardiovascular benefit” or “weight loss” pressure. Those are natural benefits of this walking, but training for this walk also gives me permission to stop, slow down, window shop, watch a basketball game/soccer practice, for a few minutes and then continue. I don’t have to hurry. I just have to Do It.

A New Balance/Professional Fitting Endorsement. “Do It” sounded like a lead in for a Nike commercial. But I’ll take a moment to rave a bit about my shoes. Several years ago, after spending at least an hour, at least twice a year in various shoe stores, trying on 6-10 pairs of walking/sports shoes, I found that New Balance seemed to be the brand that most often felt good on my feet. (I’ve owned other brands that I loved, but NB seemed to win more often than any other brand.) My podiatrist also mentioned the brand when we went through the insert/orthotics heel spurs/plantar faciaitis rounds a few years ago.

So…. I’ve found myself in recent years just grabbing the on-sale pair of NB’s in size 7 and been pretty content. In the 3-Day website information and in my orientation, they recommended being fitted professionally. New Balance happens to be a national sponsor of the 3-day and we happen to have a NB store here in town. So, I was fitted and bought a pair of shoes that is easily twice the price of any pair of sports shoes I’ve ever bought (I’m not much of an athlete so sports shoes are just casual shoes mostly). It was a bigger size (longer and wider) than I would have bought based on “feel” but not only have my feet been happy during walks, I’ve not worn my orthotics (prescribed but not custom) at all and I’ve had no foot problems at all.

My Sister. She’s had quite the emotional roller coaster. In the early days it seemed as if this was going to be a shock, but require a relatively short treatment and recovery period. As the weeks have progressed, she’s learned that while the initial cancer was removed, the cancer she had, combined with her own medical profile requires very aggressive treatment. The cancer itself is not the hardest part (all of the symptoms have been from the treatment) but the emotional topsy-turvy of the prescribed treatment. She had the potential of chemo clearly in her sights through her second oncology visit. After being told “no chemo” during that visit, she let herself relax and congratulate herself on not having to deal with that whole physical ordeal. A few days later, her oncologist called back to apologize for the previous conclusion, but after reviewing profile results, chemo was part of the recommended recovery. The initial chemo session also resulted in a recommendation of a longer series of treatments than shared previously. So…she’s in for 3 different stages of chemo that will extend over the next year. Radiation won’t happen until the 3rd stage. She’s also dealing with “what will Kaiser pay” when it comes to “leading edge” drugs and potentially astronomically cumulative treatment co-payments.

Keep Walking. I’ve decided that October and 60 miles is too far away. The 3-Day organization doesn’t really start to provide any structure and support to people that sign up this early. I’ve decided that I need to find “events” to walk in that provide shorter term goals. I don’t want to have any stringent fund raising requirements, but the 3-day seems to be unique in that regard. The American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life is in April. The Susan G. Kohman Race for a Cure 5K is in May. The Peachtree Road Race is in July. I haven’t committed to anything yet, but I think that’s my best bet. March of Dimes has a fund raising walk. If you know of a walk, let me know. If you’re a part of a team that will tolerate “loafers”—(walking without fundraising), let me know.

More Soon. I’ll try to update more often. I haven’t tried to figure out how to make commenting easier and I doubt I’m going to figure out the subscription thing. In the meantime, I’ve started to collect “supporters” (supportive emails and contributors) emails and may just send out an “I’ve updated” email based on that. If you don’t get that email and want to—let me know. If you get that email and don’t want to—let me know that too.