Holiday Miles Boost

First and foremost, a thank you is due to Christina Doukeris, Jennifer Hoeg, Nithya Joseph, and, once again, the wonderful Duncans (Jon and Becky). Thanks to all your contributions, we have just recently broken the $2,000 mark! Also, a handful of cash donations came in recently from my Mom's coworkers, so those will soon be added to the total as well. We have a great pace going into the holidays.

My mileage for the past three weeks is shown below:

Week of
		23-Nov	30-Nov	7-Dec
SUN	am	0	0	0
	pm	8.5	0	0
MON	am	4.5	6.5	8.5
	pm	0	0	0
TUE	am	13	14.5	14.5
	pm	3	3	0
WED	am	8.5	4	8.5
	pm	3	5	0
THU	am	10.5	12.5	14.5
	pm	3	3	0
FRI	am	8.5	8.5	8.5
	pm	0	0	0
SAT	am	4.5	16.5	18.5
	pm	0	0	0
		67	73.5	73

I'm psyched to finally be breaking into the 70-mile zone, and it is perfect timing with holiday break coming up. I'll be able to rest up a lot while keeping my mileage high over the holidays, which I fully intend to do.

More importantly, with the holidays approaching and parties and dinners everywhere, I hope that you all will spread the word about the Fisher House Foundation and the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. If nothing else, spreading awareness of what's going on and the benefits of the organizations would be great, but a little shameless promotion to help raise funds for them would be great too. I'll write another post over the holidays, hopefully with a lot more miles on the board.

Happy Holidays and Happy Running!

Miling On

My last two weeks have been 57.5 and 51 miles. It was a little difficult to put the miles in two weeks ago due to a weekend-long field training exercise with ROTC which basically prevented me from running on Saturday and Sunday.

		9-Nov	16-Nov
SUN	am	7.5	0
	pm	3	0
MON	am	6.5	6.5
	pm	1.5	0
TUE	am	8	4.5
	pm	3	0
WED	am	4.5	2
	pm	4	4.5
THU	am	8	8.5
	pm	0	3
FRI	am	11.5	13
	pm	0	0
SAT	am	0	4.5
	pm	0	4.5
		57.5	51

Although this week is Thanksgiving, I'm aiming to log at least 65-70 miles. So far, I'm at 26, so we'll see how it goes.

"Junk Miles"

Thanks first and foremost to Jeffery Peters who donated this week. We are now coming up on $2,000!




I have finally started tracking my weekly mileage, which I will post here. I am slowly incorporating two-a-days into my training, and will be raising that slowly in the coming weeks. I am essentially upping what some would consider "junk miles." Junk miles refer to those miles run where you're not really seeming to train hard, or focus on much besides just finishing the run. Some people and "experts" rally against junk miles as a poor choice for training because they have a lot less benefit. While that may be true for marathon training or going for a PR, in this case I disagree. I believe that junk miles are exactly what I need. As I run at 2 AM, or at mile 79, I will not be focusing much on form or on a proper stride. The point of this run is to finish, no more. So junk miles? Bring 'em on.

While I was trying to up my mileage, this week some scheduling hit a little snag, mainly in the form of a 9-lb. puppy that my fiance and I adopted on Saturday. "Barley" is a great addition to our family, but requires even earlier wake-ups for walks. So much fun.



Here is the breakdown of my total mileage from last week:

Sunday - AM - 11
PM - 3
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - AM - 7.5
PM - 2.5
Wednesday - AM - 4.5
PM - 1
Thursday - AM - 6.5
Friday - AM - 11
Saturday - AM - 5.5

Weekly total - 52.5

This week, I am already up to nearly 30 miles in 3 days, so we'll see how far we can push it. The final events of ROTC are coming up this week, including a 3-day FTX and the final APFT of the semester. Nevertheless, time to keep building.

Full Steam Ahead

First, a thanks to those who have donated recently:
-Maura Carius (MY MOM!)
-Ray & Robin Cilimberg
-Al Jackson
-Eric Schultz
-Jett Thomason
-Alan Almengual
-Nancy Lee


The "ultimate weekend" has come and gone, and it was difficult in ways I had, and had not, anticipated. The Ranger Challenge competition was certainly trying, and was physically taxing to say the least. The Marine Corps Marathon was, well, an experience. There are far too many people running it (around 34,000 was what I had heard), but I had a good time and helped Erin get through her third marathon.

With those two things finally behind me now, I am now pushing my miles up fast. While doing training for Ranger Challenge, I was generally logging about 35-4o miles a week. Now, I'm hoping to up that immediately to about 80+ miles a week. I am pushing to start doing two-a-days more than anything: a good, long run in the morning, followed by a shorter one in the evening. I will be trying to do several of these a week, with an extra long pair at least once a week. I started this pattern on Sunday with an 11-miler in the morning and a 3-miler in the evening. Today, I did 7.5 this morning and am planning to do about 3 this evening. I'm going to be posting my miles weekly on here, so everyone will be able to follow along.

More importantly, we are up to $1,719 in our fundraising efforts for the Fisher House Foundation and Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund! I am so impressed with the generosity and support of everyone, and hope that you continue to spread the word about our efforts to help military families.

DONATE NOW!

Updates

A thanks to those who have donated recently:
- Jon and Rebecca Duncan
- Elizabeth Kassapidis

We have now surpassed the $1000 mark, and we're still only getting started! Thank you to everyone for their donations and continuing support! Every bit helps, and it all goes a long way to help those who continually support our soldiers.

Training is progressing, but with the Ranger Challenge-Marine Corps Marathon weekend approaching, I am tapering a bit to prepare. Nevertheless, this past weekend consisted of about 20-21 miles, fueled by a pre-run meal of nachos and burritos the night before. My fiance, Erin, and I, went to Washington to look at wedding sites, and I did my mileage out there on a pretty hilly course. I finished in about 2:41, so I was fairly satisfied.

I am trying to pick up my running more during the week, and can't wait for when in about two weeks I can really unleash myself and dedicate my time to running farther and farther.

Left foot, right foot, repeat.


DONATE NOW!

Great Progress

First, I just wanted to say thank you to the following people for their donations in the past week:
- Michael and Kathleen Carius
- Nancy Miner
- Robert Suter
- Brian McGovern

I am happy to say that we are now up to $891 total, and we're still just getting underway!

The following week has consisted of mainly just distance runs but nothing too dramatic. The Army Ten-Miler was on Sunday, and I wanted to have fresh legs for the race. Good, tough course, but in the end I ran a 1:04:22 (6:26/mile) and felt really good about it.

More importantly, however, was how inspiring the race was with the many veterans who ran it. There were soldiers who had been seriously injured who were nevertheless pushing on every mile, and some of them keeping an incredibly strong pace. There was nothing better for me on Sunday than to see their grit, determination, and tenacity that proves just how strong and tough America's soldiers are. Furthermore, the presence of those soldiers' loved ones, whether it was their wives running along side of them, or their young children cheering on the sidewalks, was an emotional reminder of just how pivotal those people can be. It gives me all the more inspiration to complete the LOST Endurance Run and exceed my expectation of raising $5,000 for the Fisher House Foundation and Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.

Only three weeks left until the Ranger Challenge Competition - Marine Corps Marathon weekend, and then my running will truly be unleashed to prepare for the run.

Left foot, right foot, repeat.

DONATE NOW!

Training Plans

First, I'd like to say thank you to the first two individuals to donate to my fundraising efforts: Carrie Mayer and Kevin Devaney. Thank you both for your support and help.

When people hear about what I am doing in February, they all have the same question (following the main one about the level of my sanity): how do you train for such an event? Training for a marathon is difficult, and any ultramarathon is no small feat, regardless if it is a 50k (31.2 miles), 50 miles or beyond. The main problem is that you cannot train in the same way you would do for races of marathon length or shorter. What I mean by that is that you cannot run in ever-increasing intervals up until the week of the actual competition. More importantly, running any more than about 50-60 miles at once before the race is pretty counterproductive. The amount of rest needed to recover from such a training run would prevent a runner from getting in other training runs.

With that in mind, the training I'm looking to do is a greater number of mid-distance runs, rather than a handful super long-distance runs. I will be doing at least one 20+ mile run a week, but most likely two. More importantly, I will be doing two-a-days several times a week. This means doing somewhere between 5-10 in the morning, and doing the same at night. I have already done three 50-mile marathons, but they have all ended in the afternoon. I know that once night begins to fall, that's where I'm really going to have to learn to run effectively. To this end, I will also be training while wearing a headlamp to get used keeping footing and stride in the dark, which instinctively shortens when you can't see as much.

As for actual plans and mileage, I am much more flexible than one would expect. I don't usually keep a training log, or come up with a training plan. I usually plan only a couple of days out, and run based on how I feel. With the blog going now, I will be trying to post my weekly training record every Sunday evening.

On a final note, the Army 10-miler is this weekend. I am less than a month from the Ranger Challenge Competition - Marine Corps Marathon weekend of fun. Once those two events are done, I will be able to do a lot more running than I have time for now. I'm very excited to continue to get more and more involved in this.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE NOW

And So It Begins....

Yesterday, I signed up for the 2009 LOST 118-Mile Endurance Run at Lake Okeechobee, Florida. I have been running for about a decade now, and I'm looking for my next challenge. I have done the marathons, the ultras, the tri's, so I knew that the one of the only things left for me was to go to the triple-digits. I will be commissioning into the Army in May 2009, and don't know what I'll be doing once that happens. So, the stars seemed to be aligned for me to do this now.

Simultaneously, I have always wanted to raise money and awareness for charities in my races. I have wanted people to use my ability to run to help others. I did this in 2006 when I raised more than $2,000 for The Jimmy Fund while I did the Lake Placid Ironman Triathlon. I'm not a doctor, so I can't cure illness, and the billions of dollars I will eventually make are not here yet, so I can't build a hospital all by myself. But I figure that any money I can raise will be money that might not have been given otherwise.

Last December, the Washington Post published an article citing a new study by the American Institute of Philanthropy, which rated various Veteran's charities for their efficient use of donations and how much actually goes to the veterans themselves (Read the report here).
AIP's report gave the Fisher House Foundation an "A+" for its ability to turn over donations straight to the actual charity itself, while minimizing the use of funds for administrative expenses. Overall, for every dollar donated, 97.5 cents goes directly to the construction of new centers, with only 2.5 cents going to "overhead costs."

I chose the Fisher House Foundation not only because of how efficient they are, but also because of what they do. The Fisher House Foundation builds "comfort homes" at military compounds and near major VA medical centers. These homes are for military families and members whose loved ones are hospitalized for surgery, illness, or other medical procedures. This is especially necessary in times of military involvement and economic turmoil that exist today. Families should have concern for their loved one's health, not where they will stay at night, or whether or not they can afford it for an extended period of time.

The Fisher House Foundation's sister charity, the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, was also one of the few charities given an "A+" by AIP. Initially, from 2000-2005 IFHF provided direct benefits to the family members of fallen US Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, and Marines who made the ultimate sacrifice overseas. They provided a large financial benefit to the spouse, children, and parents in an effort to provide some economic relief to them up until a 2005 law improved the financial benefits and allowed IFHF to refocus its energies.

Since 2005, IFHF and the Fisher House have worked together, most recently completing the "Center for the Intrepid" near Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas in 2007. The $40 million "world class, state-of-the-art center" serves veterans who have been disabled in operations and performance of duty (view the center here). Future donations will help to continue to construct and improve centers like these around the country for our nation's heroes.

I have set a $5,000 goal for raising funds to be split between the two charities. If I hit this mark, however, I am going to consistently 'raise the bar' to try to gain more and more. Please visit my other website, http://www.active.com/donate/teamfisherhouse/BrandonCariusIsLOST, to donate, and feel free to e-mail me with any questions about my sanity.