Running, Writing, and Tagalong Cookies

I have recently started doing The Artist's Way course again.  It's interesting that the 12 week Artist's Way course happens to coincide almost exactly with my 12 week TeamQuest training for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in San Diego on June 5. I didn't plan that, but it's interesting how life works out that way sometimes. 

I bought The Artist's Way for my son in December when he graduated college and at the time I told myself I was going to start doing the morning pages again. I did the Artist's Way course many years ago and found it to be life changing. It's fundamentally about living life in a more creative way. Recently my son informed me he was on week 10 of the book and I realized I still hadn't started. So, last Sunday, I found my copy and once again began the "Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity." Julia Cameron, the author, is a wonderful teacher and writer. I was privileged to meet her here in Albuquerque after the performance of her play, LOVE IN THE DMZ.

Today, as part of my TeamQuest training, I ran 4 miles along the bosque trail with my friend Brenda and my daughter who is on spring break from college. I actually ran almost all of that distance which was a huge surprise to me, though not to Brenda. When I say things like, "Let's walk when we get to the one mile mark?" She says things like, "Why?" My intelligent reply is, "Um." Then she says something like, "Are you actually tired or are you just in a habit of walking after a mile?"

I could have reminded her that five weeks ago I wasn't running at all, but I kept it to myself and kept going. Then a strange thing happened... I was the one who suggested we turn around at the two mile point, increasing our round trip excursion to 4 miles. Of course I thought I would get away with walking back, but that didn't happen. Brenda keeps reminding me that running is a mental sport.
Like writing. Like the rest of life, I guess.

It's a good thing I kept going because I have NOT stopped eating Girl Scout Cookies as I was contemplating in my last post. In fact, this week, in honor of my daughter coming home for spring break, we made a Tagalong Pie.

According to Map My Run, I burned 485 calories today or the equivalent of about 6.9 cookies.

Meanwhile, yesterday the Southwest Branch of the International Dyslexia Association held a Mini-Retreat to work on strategic planning for the organization. I feel very privileged to be a part of such a strong group of people so dedicated to helping connect families to the resources they so desperately need. It's going to be an exciting year for our organization.

Which brings me back to the reason I am training of the half marathon. If you would like to find out more about the TeamQuest fundraiser for the International Dyslexia Association - Go To Carolee's TeamQuest Page . If you would like to know more about the important work we do at our Southwest Branch, visit http://southwestida.org.

And here is the recipe for Tagalong Pie that my daughter and I created:

One 8 inch graham cracker crust.
Two cups Cool Whip or whipped cream.
8 oz whipped cream cheese
1-2 Tbs. cocoa powder
LOTS of Tagalong Cookies

Directions:
1. Chop 5 cookies and stir into one cup Cool Whip and cream cheese.
2. Fill bottom half of pie shell with this mixture.
3. Combine cocoa and Cool Whip.
4. Fill the reminder of the pie shell with the chocolate mousse.
5. Free style the top with as many Tagalong cookies as you can.
6. Chill for one hour.
7. Eat
8. Then, after your pie has settled, you had better run a few miles. You might even want to consider signing up for a marathon:)

Run for the Zoo

I'm really a glutton for punishment. In addition to signing up for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in San Diego on June 5 as part of TeamQuest, I also signed up for the 10K Run for the Zoo on May 1 here in Albuquerque. I needed some inspiration after being sick for a week with the flu and getting off of my training schedule. I'm back on track now.  Run for the Zoo is a great fundraiser for our local zoo, plus it will be a good mid way goal as I aim for the half marathon in June.

I'm doing all of this to help raise money for the International Dyslexia Association and our local New Mexico branch. I'm certainly NOT doing it because I'm athletic in any way. This past year our local branch was able to provide college and career scholarships to three students with dyslexia. We also put on a big conference for teachers, parents, and students every February with speakers from around the country.

See my FUNDRAISING PAGE to see how you may contribute.

My Saturday morning run in the foothills was a little rough after being home sick. Downhill was great, but uphill was a real challenge.

In previous posts I have mentioned that I'm getting the feeling that my running app is spying on me. Saturday when I was running with Brenda in the foothills, I said, "I'd really like some tie-dyed running pants." When I got home I had a message from Map My Run telling me my stats for the month of February and recommending running pants. This was the link the app provided - HERE.

The pants on the link are not tie dyed, they are kind of boring actually, but this is three times in a row now that something like this has happened. I suspect one of two things:

1) My running app is listening in on conversations while I run and then emailing me similar suggestions (as close as they can get from their data base of links).
2) I'm psychic or maybe just deeply intuitive and I can predict what kind of links the running app is going to send me.

By the way, according to my stats, I ran 36 miles in February. This took me 10 hours across 12 different workouts and I burned a total of 3532 calories.

Here is a math problem for you - If 3,500 calories = one pound of fat (currently there seems to be some debate about this) and I want to lose 15 pounds, how many miles would I have to run to lose 15 pounds?

Answer - 540 miles.

Or I could stop eating so many Girl Scout Cookies... another great fundraiser!