The Power of Your Donation

Whenever I make a donation, the biggest question in my head is how much to give. I'm not in a position to give a lot of money to anyone, even the causes closest to my heart. But then, what does a small donation actually do? Surely in the fight against cancer, $25, $40 or even $50 is a meaningless sum, right?

To give you a little perspective, I wanted to share some figures a teammate recently sent me (thanks, Cem!), with some comparisons to what a similar amount of money would buy in my life, and perhaps yours.

• $25 - Covers the cost of one prescription co-payment.
• Three or four drinks out at a bar, including tip and tax - a typical Happy Hour for many people.
• $35 - Provides transportation expenses for a patient living in the DC area to a comprehensive cancer center for treatment.
• Fairly standard dinner out for 1, including a drink, tax and tip.
• $40 - Covers the cost of sending a comprehensive support and informational packet to the family of a child with cancer.
• 1 tank of gas in a compact car, like my Honda Civic. 
• $50 - Covers the cost of one (potentially life-saving) CT scan.
• A new sweater, skirt or pair of pants.
• $75 - Covers the cost of one tissue typing test that is used to become a bone marrow donor.
• 1 month gym membership.
• $100 - Helps supply laboratory researchers with supplies and materials critical to carrying out their search for cures
• 1 ticket to an arena-level concert, like Coldplay or Jay-Z.
• $150 - Provides for 5 patients to make a First Connection with a trained peer volunteer patient/survivor.
• A new Amazon Kindle and case. 
• $200 - Provides funding for a Family Support Group Program for one year where comfort can be found and experiences can be shared among patients and family members mediated by a trained facilitator.
• A plane ticket from DC to Boston, Chicago or Vermont. 
• $500 - Provides a patient with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma financial aid to support medical treatment and travel to medical appointments for one year.
• A new TV or PC computer.

Of course I don't expect anyone to sacrifice a trip to see a friend or a new computer to support my efforts and LLS. But hopefully this helps you realize that your donation, no matter how small, can have a positive impact on the life of someone fighting this disease. 

Registered & Recommitted

This won't be a very long post - just a quick note to mark two related milestones in my first Team in Training season: recommitment and registration.

This week we were given a choice: if, over the past few months, we realized TNT wasn't for us, we were given an out, no strings attached. Or, we could sign on the dotted line and commit to the training and fundraising for the remainder of the season. You'll all be happy (but hopefully not surprised) to know that I've chosen the latter. I sent in my paperwork late last week and registered for the race this afternoon.

There are 57 days left until race day, and I've got a lot of work to do between now and then. But I'm confident that I'll be ready. I've got some great people around me and plenty of determination left. What more could a girl ask for?

Overcoming A Slump in 4 Easy Steps

When we last met, I was in a bit of a slump. Training was getting overwhelming and exhausting, and I was just sort of tired. It was a rough week, but I'm happy to report that I've gotten over it and I'm very much enjoying training again. It's still hard, it's still tiring, but I'm enjoying the challenge again. 

There wasn't any one particular event or realization that helped me get over my funk, but more of a combination of factors and realizations, all taken together. I'm sure there were other factors that came into play as well, but for me, I can point to four major factors:

 

1. A great support system – So far, one of my favorite things about TNT has been the support system. The group as a whole is made up of the type of people who enjoy pushing themselves and are fairly competitive. Yet no one is ever made to feel like they're not fast enough, not strong enough, or are holding anyone else back. No matter what level you're at, everyone is there for each other - teammates, coaches, staff, mentors. It's a strange but wonderful balance. I'm also lucky enough to have an amazing group of family friends who were to encourage me and keep me motivated. This is not the first time I've seen this side of my friends and family (I couldn't have made it through Peace Corps without everyone's support), but I'm thankful for it at every turn. 

2. A great training system - I don't think it's a coincidence that our first recovery week came right at the peak of my first slump. Just as I was feeling overwhelmed with training, we stepped everything down for a week and gave our bodies some time to rest and recover. It may seem counter-intuitive that scaling your workouts down will improve your performance in the long run, but it really does work. I came out of the recovery week feeling strong and well rested, and haven't had been that exhausted since. 

3. Small victories - The idea of a tri is overwhelming, and I think I was a bit caught up in the overall goal. Breaking it down into smaller pieces and small victories helped get me back on track mentally, and helped me realize that I am slowly but surely working towards my the overall goal. Most of these milestones have come in the pool - swimming is by far my weakest of the three, and there are still days where I'm not sure how I'm going to pull off a mile open water swim. But almost every week I've been swimming longer and longer distances than I ever have in my life. I recently swam 700m without stopping or ever touching the wall, and 1100m in one workout. That's not exactly race distance, but they're distances that I've never reached before. So something must be working, and working well. 

4. Endorphin-induced epiphanies - One of the things I love most about running is how a good run can clear my head, calm me down and bring on a few good aha! moments once in a while. After a good run, life just seems easier. It seems better. For one of the first times ever, I had one of those aha! moments in the pool (a good sign in and of itself, regardless of the actual thought). Somewhere in the middle of my 800m swim, I realized that the hardest part of any endurance race is mental. Convincing your body to keep going, no matter how tired you are or how appealing it may seem to stop is a really hard skill to develop. Motivating yourself to run or swim or bike through those inevitable walls, and trusting yourself to know your limits is not easy. The hope is to rely on good technique and good training to get you through race day, but if that fails, you better be able to put mind over matter and keep yourself going. And that is something I've perfected in my 10+ years of running. I know my limits, I know my boundaries, but I also know how and when to push myself. I've become really good at just keeping myself moving forward, one step at a time, until I cross that finish line.   

So that, my friends, is how I beat my first training slump. I may or may not see another one before September 9 (hopefully not, of course), but there will definitely be more victories, epiphanies and stories to share, so please stay tuned.