who needs stairs?

the 20th of february already! i have been gearing up for spring and the opportunities that come with it as winter was seemingly winding down...that is until today. another nasty winter storm has come to not let me get too excited about spring yet. oh well.

training has been good this week as i prepare for the 'run the republic' stair climb. i'll be leaving tomorrow and climbing and returning on sunday. it's been interesting trying to train for stairs without the access to any stairs. i do have about 6 steps leading to my front door, which i thought about running up and down about a thousand times but decided against it to avoid getting dizzy if for nothing else. instead, i just kept training. i'm sure it's a similar feeling for someone training to do a mountain without mountains around! i am fortunate in that aspect anyway. i climbed 'crazy woman mountain' this past monday. wow, what a view! not a very long hike, but steep with loose footing. it's always a rush to get to the top!

fundraising is coming along. a bit slower this week, but slowly and steadily we climb toward our goal!

another week closer

it's hard to believe it's been a week since i wrote what i was doing for the trip. how time flies!!! the fund raising for the trip is coming right along as we have reach our first milestone and are steadily building toward our goal. the week has brought me a few easy workouts and a few really tough ones. i'm anxious to to get to denver to go all those stairs and see exactly where i am in my training.

i've been doing alot of reading about the mountain and the area surrounding it. wow! what a diverse place! and the history of the area and its native people is not that much different than that of the american indians. with not much european influence until the mid-1800s, and a very unique and isolated place until well into the 20th century. and for a mountain that has such a large number of people attempting to summit each year, it was amazing to me how many failed attempts, many of which left people dead on the mountain, and years it took before someone finally summited kibo, the highest peak on kilimanjaro. i know it's alot different today, with all the cleared trails and the handful of routes that are regularly taken, but it really put things into perspective and lets you know that this mountain is not one to be taken lightly.

I've always enjoyed and chuckled at the phrase, "How do you eat an elephant?...... One bite at a time." I think that Kirk, Brad and I have all agreed that to best succeed at this ever-so-large endeavor we are starting, that we have to look at it in small 'chunks', or 'bites' if you will, so it is more manageable for our expectations. Nothing seems to be more negative and a drawback on reaching one's goals than your own mental attitude. Chuck Swindoll is quoted as saying, ".....I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it...". As such K, B, and I are setting smaller, physical goals for ourselves, to better 'measure' our progress as we pass the next 6 months. It would be a huge bummer if we got to Africa, only to find that what we thought was acceptable for physical conditioning was in fact, not enough. As an example, Brad and I will be walking the Pgh Marathon on May 3, 2009. And the week prior to that, I will attempt to run a 5K road race that goes up Chestnut Ridge from Hopwood, PA to the Summit Inn on SR 40; increasing about 1200-1400 vertical feet. Also, Kirk just posted a blog that he will be doing a charity event to climb 53 flights of a tall building in the Denver area. We will be using events such as these over the next 6 months to allow for small successes in our training, and also allow us an opportunity to change (most-likely increase) our training regiment if need be. I hope all the blog site visitors follow our training progress, and give us support when needed; because all three of us know that we can't do this alone... we need YOUR care and encouragement. There is no doubt in our minds that we will get mentally and physically tired over the next 6 months, and we know that YOUR prayers and words of encouragement will be catalysts to help us when we are not where we want to be. Thanks.

only 6 months to go

it's been a good weekend! i've had a few really good workouts. my legs are feeling it right now. calves and quads will be feeling it for a few days i'm sure. i'm thinking that i may go to denver later this month to participate in the "run the republic" stair climbing race that is a fundraiser for the american lung association. i'll be doing it more as a training 'climb' than a race, as it is 53 stories and i'm a ways from race shape.

our fundraising for the 'climb for sight' is coming along as the sponsorships are starting to come in. seeing this sure helps inspire and motivate me to prepare to my highest level for this climb. less than 6 months now before we depart for tanzania. 178 days that i'm sure will go by very quickly with a whole lot of work to do to be ready.

and finally, a great weekend 'cause the steelers just won the super bowl!!!