Wardrobe Fail

I've been failing at hitting the gym. Spending all my energy thinking about the fundraising and being lazy on the physical stuff. So between that and the fact that I'm going to be benched for a few days after I get my wisdom tooth out on Thursday (dentist's orders), it seemed pretty important I go today.

I'm trying to start being prepared to just go straight after work. It seems like a better model for success. So today I packed up some clothes and bused straight to the gym after work. That's when the realization of wardrobe fail started:

1) No sports bra. Whoops.
2) One of my gym socks had a hole in it that was basically my entire heel.
Either one of these can make a workout pretty uncomfortable but I went for it anyway and was pleasantly surprised that it didn't matter too much.
3) I started jogging an realized that despite my efforts to tighten the drawstring, my shorts really just wanted to fall off. It was a lot of hitching things up, tucking things in, and other desperate attempts at modesty over the course of my jog.
4) As I was considering the multiple points of wardrobe fail while jogging on the treadmill, my shoelace came untied. Since stopping and starting sucks way more than it really should, I just kept going.

Nothing terrible. More amusing than anything. I'll do better at bringing the right stuff next time.

March gym visits: 4 March hikes: 1
Miles run: 1.25
Crunches: 60

The Grand Lebowski was this afternoon. By my reckoning we had 39 people, mostly in bathrobes and raised $499.22 (don't ask me how we got 22 cents). So I made 8% of my target just over the course of this afternoon. Plus the reactions I heard from people were generally positive, so unless people were just being polite I hope that means everyone had a good time. The lesson here is that alcohol tie ins are key.
I was very unsure going in how many people would show up. The end result was that almost everyone who promised to show up did and everyone who said they might show up didn't. This is a valuable lesson for planning for next time.

Speaking of next time, based on the success of today I would indeed like to do a next time. I had a quick poll before the movie started and these seem to be the most popular movies:

-Army of Darkness
-Hedwig and the Angry Inch (singalong)
-Star Wars

Anyone care to sway the vote one way or the other?

As the exchange rate keeps fluctuating I will hold all my offline proceeds in dollars until it's actually time to send it out to VSO so I have a better idea of what the actual relevant exchange rate is. The "Offline Fundraising" on my VSO page is thus just an estimate:
Current total funds raised offline in USD is
499.22: big lebowski
100: u2 tickets
174: pub quiz

Rattlesnake Ledge

Last Saturday I hiked Rattlesnake Ledge with 13 or so friends as step one of my field training up to Kilimanjaro. This location was suggested by William, who sent me an amazing email a few weeks ago outlining a training regimen, tips, offers of support, etc. He also gathered the crew to make the hike happen. It's great to know such helpful and supportive people. :)

I had never been to this location before, and I admit that I'm glad I requested we start on the lowest level of difficulty he found suitable. And, judging by the swarms of children and dogs happily galumphing up the mountain with ease, it was indeed an easy hike. Still, by the time we had gone up the 1000+ ft over the course of 1.5 miles, I was getting pretty tired of the up, up, up. I was definitely one of the least able people there, given that one of the members of the group carried one of the other the last quarter mile or so. Just means that it was a good start. Plus the view from the top was beautiful. All around a good day. William suggests Tiger Mountain or Cougar Mountain next.


But probably I need to hit the gym quite a lot so these hikes get easier. Found a lot of difficulty getting myself to go to the gym recently. Must reverse that trend
March gym visits: 3 March hikes: 1
Miles run: 1.3
Crunches: 50
Miles biked: some - may stop keeping this statistic as I mainly just bike to warm up the muscles before stretching.

30%

Just wanted to note that I've been fundraising for almost exactly 1 month (and February, the short one at that!) and I'm already 30% of the way to my goal! Thanks so much to all of you!

Marching on

Forgive the lame pun.

Already gotten the first round of donations for my Biggest Garage Sale Ever, and already made my first circuit of the used clothing stores on the Ave with my first bag of clothes. Total funds raised: $5.25. It's a start, and it's $5.25 more than I would have had otherwise so while my wildest hopes have certainly not been surpassed, I'm pretty ok with this drop in the bucket. I also now have a better idea of who is buying what, and how to sequence things, so it was a good learning experience.

Lest I forget, gym metrics:

March gym visits: 2
Miles run: .75/1 continuously and 1.2/1.25 total

Both were a bit rushed, but the first was more along the lines of higher intensity but shorter duration activities.

Have plans with William for my first hike of the season! To ease into things we're hitting Rattlesnake Ridge next saturday, and I am looking foward to it.

Spring Cleaning for charity

Get rid of your unwanted stuff and help me raise money for charity! Here's the idea - spring is coming, or, if the cherry blossoms are to be believed, already here. It's time to clean out the house and, for a surprising number of you, a time to move.

What does that mean? That means you've got a ton of stuff that you want to get rid of. Some of that stuff is probably even worth money to someone else, but it might not be worth your time to find that person.

Hence my Biggest Garage Sale Ever fundraiser!

Namely, I'm accepting donations of used items in resellable condition (and conceivably resellable merit), and I'll do the legwork to try to find a buyer. With the power of the internet, used book stores, used clothing stores, and the good old garage sale, I'll try to turn all the stuff you're desperate to get rid of into charity money for VSO. And if I can't find anyone to buy it, I'll just turn around and donate it to charity.

You get an emptier closet. I raise funds for charity. Someone else gets the item they've always been looking for at probably a good deal. Charity organizations still get reasonable donations.
Everyone's a winner!

I'm accepting donations now and will continue to do so for the next several months so if you think you'd be interested in donating stuff let me know. Bear in mind though that I have to weigh transit costs versus the value of the item - if I have a chance of getting $5 for your desk and I definitely have to spend $30 on a UHAUL to get it, then while I really appreciate your generosity I will probably have to decline.

20 minutes

20 minutes can be a very long time or a very short time. Examples of things that take about twenty minutes, give or take:

• An episode of the Office
• my upcoming wisdom tooth extraction
• a default manually set workout on the treadmill at the gym

It's that last that is relevant tonight, because yesterday I did something which I don't think I've ever done, which is to jog the entire 20 minutes without slowing down or stopping once. I powered through, and though I was a bit wobbly and tired afterward, it didn't feel like much of a struggle at all. I think I might be at a minimum level of fitness!


Metrics:
Miles biked: 1.1 uphill
Miles jogged: 1.56 straight!
Feb Gym Visits: 5