Streaking again! Day 75 and counting

Streaking again. A minimum of one mile a day walking and three pullups most days. That adds up to seven miles a week and 75 miles over the course of the last 75 days. It's really a great feeling to have done this and continue to do it. I urge you, plead with you, do it too. Make a commitment to getting a minimum of exercise every day. Set your distance.

What? Did I hear you say you don't have time? If you have a treadmill, put a 1" X 10" board across the handles and put your lap top on top or your phone or your book or turn on the radio and drink your coffee. Be productive and exercise. Walk to the mailbox. Move your body.

Go out today and measure out .5 miles from your front door in various directions so you can go outside and walk a mile without having to think about it.

The reasons I'm pushing the streaking so hard:

1) Great sense of accomplishment

2) Easy way to motivate to get into shape and maintain it

3) Bragging rights

4) Americans are lazy and need a kick in the butt

5) Getting into good shape starts with baby steps, or in this case, a big commitment!

6) Because you can!!

I know of one person from the forum who started her streak yesterday. Yay you! I'm not mentioning your name cause I didn't get permission. If you want to post to the comments and out yourself, please do!!

Shelley, keep up your streak too. I'm really proud of you for fighting the roadblocks that are in your way. You're doing great!

Time to buckle down for some buckles

Buckling down for more of these buckles.

A broken hip has not dampened my enthusiasm for ultrarunning. If anything, it's made me even more enthusiastic and excited to run a few hundreds. When you complete a 100, you get a belt buckle.

I've decided to do the Big Horn 100 in June. The Swan Crest 100 in late July and either the Grand Teton 100 or the Bear 100 in September.

I've walked a mile a day minimum, every day for 72 days now (thanks Steve Tursi for the inspiration to streak again!!). By the way, walking a mile a day is a challenge that I encourage everyone to try. In addition to the mile a day, I've been walking and doing a little running. I've had several 50 mile weeks and a 26.2 mile day in the last 2 months! Right after the 26.2 mile day, I felt some (possibly misplaced) confidence that inspired me to sign up for Big Horn about a month ago.

Last week, I realized that Big Horn was 2 months away and decided I need to buckle down on my training. I need to start running more and walking less.

Here are some pictures from my outdoor training.

Running is never boring in Idaho and Wyoming, look what I found on the side of the highway an air gun.

Still lots of snow at the top of Teton Pass

I needed to use the restroom but it was a little inaccessible

Snow is melting!

I love this sign

My super fun friend Meara and I tackled the Aspen Trail today. We are definitely optimistic people because we kept thinking the farther we went on the trail, that there would be less snow. No dice. Lots of snow for over four miles! We took the road back around to the car.

Meara is standing in the spot of trail with no snow.

Dying from "Addison's Complications" rant

I'm not actually sure what I'm going to say here. I've been pondering writing this post for about three months now. I'm really, really annoyed at certain organizations posting obituaries and saying "died from complications of Addison's" and giving no specific information. It terrifies me to think I could die from "Addison's complications" and not have any idea what these complications might be or how to avoid them.

I feel like the organizations and families of people who have died from "Addison's complications" are doing the Addison's community a HUGE disservice by frightening us when they could be enlightening and educating us, sparing other Addisonian's from untimely death or being frightened of these "complications".

A brief digression, I was on an Addison's Yahoo board and saw this quote,

"When I was first diagnosed with AD, my boss (a woman) said, "So you've got a disease that makes you tan and lose weight. And you want to fix this?""

I immediately emailed the poster, Fran Segerson, for permission to use the quote and wrote this post. I could tell she was a spunky, fun woman from our exchange!

Later in the summer, I read Frans obituary in an newsletter. When I eventually put together that the quote was from her and she was dead, I contacted her family to ask what had happened. Her daughter was kind enough to respond with the information below (she gave me permission to share the information) that helped clear up the ambiguous "complications" explanation.

"It appears Mom passed from Addison's complications. She was fine and then got a stomach bug while on vacation in Spain and i think she knew she needed to go to the hospital but didn't want to get in the way with the rest of her travelling party so she stayed back and probably just got really dehydrated. We unfortunately aren't going to know exactly what happened until they finish the results of her autopsy. They say it will take at least 2 years. It's so hard to not know but after discussion with her traveling companions and from living with her- i think it was what i stated. Sorry for your loss- i know mom was a great friend to everyone and a resource for lots of other Addisonians. Best of luck. Patti Wohl"

Also from Patti: Absolutely , use whatever is helpful... I moved back in about 5 years ago because when she did need help it seemed to be escalating faster than when she was younger. In fact the last few times she needed to go to the ER she got so dehydrated so quickly she started to lose her rational thought and it became a struggle to get her there, once hydrated she would thank me for getting her there and she would be back to her 30 year old energy and atitude for life( she was 63 but no one could have told her that)! My sister never saw her in distress and had no idea it could get that bad. Her doctor here is convinced that she passed from a coronary event brought on by dehydration. She had no heart issues at all. My mother would be so proud of you for doing what you are doing. She had said several times early on that she felt so alone with the Addisons but since the email groups ect.... She felt like an important part of a vital community.

April 22nd is the first anniversary of Fran's death. I think there's something that all Addisonian's can learn from her death, dehydration is dangerous and can kill you, go to the hospital when you need to, keep your injection kit in working order and don't be afraid to use it because too much cortisol is better than too little in an emergency (that's my contribution to the lesson).

Some info to let you know what a great woman Fran was and how well respected she was

• http://www.dot.state.ri.us/documents/news/interchg/Fall2009.pdf page 20
• http://www.wtsinternational.org/uploadedFiles/Chapters_-_Community/Rhode_island/Document_Library/WTS-Rhode%20Island%20-%20Newsletter%20Summer%202009.pdf page 4, bottom right
• http://www.seapubs.com/eBulletin5-21-09/obituaries.htm
• A bike guide dedicated to her memory: http://www.dot.ri.gov/bikeri/