Team Orphans

I saw this blog post in the newsletter from the adoption agency we used for my daughter. It is about Team Orphans, a group of people raising money by running races and having people sponsor them to run.

Team Orphans was created to raise money to help families with the cost of adoption through Brittney’s Hope. It specifically helps families adopting special needs children internationally. The cost of adopting internationally can be overwhelming and when you add the cost of any treatments or surgeries the child might have to have after they come home, it can be hard on a lot of families. Rebecca Cruttenden started team orphans because she didn’t see any athletic teams that were raising money for orphans. Check out their website www.teamorphans.com.

 
We are creating a team to run in the Fort 4 Fitness event on September 29, 2012 to help raise money for adopting families. 100% of the funds raised go to help provide grants to families adopting special needs kids internationally. You can choose which race you want to run – the 4 mile, 10k, or half marathon. You don’t need to be fast, just finish!

If you want to be a part of this here’s what you need to do:

1. Let me know if you want to run in the fort 4 fitness event and commit to raising pledges. We will also need to have a fundraising goal. So if you have an amount that you think you can raise let me know. That would help me to figure out a team goal.
2. Sign up for one of the three races at www.fort4fitness.org. They have a 4 mile, a 10k and a half marathon. Let me know if you want a training schedule based on your race and fitness level. I’ll have my husband help me get one for you. (The cost the race goes up after 5/4/12.)
3. I will sign us up as a team and set up a fundraising webpage with team orphans. All pledges can be paid through the webpage.
4. When the webpage is ready, I’ll let you know and you can tell your friends and family to go there to sponsor us as a team. Team Orphans will provide us with a sample fundraising letter to send out.
5. Train and run the race!

If you don't want to run but would like to sponsor our team, I'll let you know when the webpage is set up and what to do. Right now we are just looking for team member who want to run and raise funds for adopting families.

Let me know!

My Half Marathon Schedule

Here is the training schedule I do for a half marathon. You can find several other schedules if you look online. But I like this because it's simple and I'm not really working on speed. As I said before, I'm a slow runner. I training at a 12:30 - 12:45 minute pace. But I ran the half last year at about an 11 minute pace. My husband says it's good to train slower than your race pace. It builds endurance. Also, after I run (especially the longer harder runs) I eat or drink a good source of protein to help my muscles recover. They say that chocolate milk is a perfect recovery drink because of the carbs and protein ratio. I like to drink a Shaklee protein drink (look for more on that tomorrow!).

This schedule is running 4 times a week on any days. I like to do my long runs on saturdays because of the time it takes.

I just realized that I'll have to start this on Jan 10th to train for the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon that I'm signed up for. Yikes, that's coming up!

Week 1          Week 6          Week 11          Week 16
2 miles            4 miles             4 miles              5 miles
2 miles            3 miles             3 miles              5 miles
3 miles            6 miles             9 miles              8 miles
2 miles            3 miles             4 miles              4 miles
9 miles           16 miles            20 miles           22 miles - weekly totals


Week 2         Week 7           Week 12           Week 17
2 miles            3 miles             5 miles               3 miles
2 miles            2 miles             4 miles               2 miles
4 miles            7 miles             9 miles               13.1 miles  - Race Day
2 miles            3 miles             5 miles
10 miles         15 miles           23 miles - weekly totals


Week 3         Week 8            Week 13
2 miles           4 miles               5 miles 
2 miles           3 miles               4 miles
5 miles           7 miles              10 miles
2 miles           3 miles               4 miles
11 miles         17 miles             23 miles - weekly totals


Week 4          Week 9             Week 14
3 miles             4 miles                5 miles 
2 miles             3 miles                5 miles
5 miles             8 miles                10 miles
3 miles             3 miles                4 miles
13 miles           18 miles              24 miles - weekly totals


Week 5           Week 10           Week 15
3 miles               4 miles              5 miles
2 miles               3 miles              4 miles
6 miles               8 miles              10 miles
2 miles               4 miles              3 miles
13 miles            19 miles             23 miles - weekly totals

Fort for Fitness

Yesterday was the Fort for Fitness race in Fort Wayne! I ran the 4 mile race with my sister. It was fun! I didn't train well for it but I felt pretty good by the end of it. Each mile we got a little faster and finished it in 45:55. You did a great job, sis!

If you are thinking about trying a race, this is a fun one (not that i've run many races!). They have a half marathon race and a 4-mile race.

The 4-mile is great for someone like me who doesn't run much but needs to have a goal or else I'll stop running!