A wonderful Challenge and Stubbornly Shifting Gears

Today, I WAS CONTACTED BY A DONOR WHO WISHES TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS.

This very kind and generous person has just issued a challenge: For every dollar I raise through this Friday, THEY WILL MATCH DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR!

This person said they will do this for up to $10,000! Keeping in mind that your donations are completely tax deductible and go for a very, very good cause, I would be honored if you'd make a donation or, if you have already done so, PLEASE FORWARD TO ANYONE who wishes to join the fight against AIDS by sponsoring my marathon participation. The Whitman Walker Clinic benefits greatly by your generosity. Essentially, any donation from here through Friday is doubled. Instructions for donating can be found at the end of this post

Now, onto today:


Today we were slated for 7 miles of recovery. This was in order to recover from our 14 miles last Sunday, and in preparation for our 16 miles next Sunday....

I got a rude awakening in terms of my running style today, and while it is much more for the better, I have my work cut out for me. Coach Kristen ran with us and pointed out that our "runs" had to be much slower and our "walks"much,much faster than what we had been doing. I suddenly realized that for the past several weeks, even though I was running at a nice pace, I was often winded when we transitioned into the walk. All thistime, we had been running hard for one minute and then would spend the next three minutes of walking recovering. Then we would speed it up, get winded and recover all over again. Today, I got proof that this was just plain wrong.

Instead, we were challenged to run very, very lightly and then transition into the walk almost effortlessly. Kristen said that if you were the slightest bit winded on the run, then you were going to fast.

Eventually I got it. I would walk using my arms as rudders at a pretty quick cadence (much faster than ever) and on the run, I would have to drastically slow down, almost to a trot. My pace actually did fine. But, this time, I lagged way behind the group who could handle the speed-walking much easier. I am simply unaccustomed to it. I plan to work on it this week in my two training runs of 45 minutes.

I am thankful for this revelation now as opposed to later, as we near 1/2 of our training.

Donations this week have been wonderful.

Thanks so much to Bart and Teri Berkey, Jean Whiddon and the folks at Fixation, and my awesome in-laws: Richard and Judy Towers!

You can visit my donor page at: http://www.aidsmarathon.com/participant.asp?runner=DC-0334&EventCode=MC06

Or you can go to www.aidsmarathon.com and click "sponsor a runner" click on Washington DC, then search for Dan Cole in the participant area.

Training Runs from home and Las Vegas this week before the whopper of 16 miles next Sunday.

Thank you for your moral support and your donations in the fight against AIDS!

Dan
Total Training Weeks: 10
Total Training Miles: 142