This fun event has been created and coordinated by Lynn Smith, one of my good friends who decided to give me a hand in moving closer to my $40,000 goal. I am very thankful to Lynn for doing this, and she is doing an amazing job – with numerous excellent items up for bids, and an evening of entertainment lined up for your enjoyment. Tickets are $15.00 and the show starts at 7:00pm.

The location is at Absolute Comedy, 412 Preston Street, Ottawa, Ontario. I'm going to try to be there, depending on some logistics – I live about 3.5 hours away (flying time).

To contact Lynn for tickets, please send her an email at lynn@igo100.ca

Looking forward to seeing you there!

p

If you ever decide to erg (row) for a long time in front of a tv set, I highly recommend The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Each movie is quite long, with a lot of action and a good storyline. I've rowed my way through all three episodes, with The Return of the King as my choice for today. It was perfect for my 50 km pain-a-thon (4 1/2 hours of rowing including one bathroom break, 2 hip stretches, a few motivational speeches that I gave myself to keep going, plus some painful groaning thrown in for good measure).

Anyway, back to The Lord of the Rings – As the storyline progresses throughout the three movies, you can see how the characters develop and grow because of their experiences.  Some people might say that actually the layers are stripped away to see the real character within. Either way, it's only in the third episode where Viggo Mortensen finally washes his hair…

If you haven't seen the trilogy, it's a bit of geekfest – a lot of noble bravery and horses (reminds me of my teenage Dungeons and Dragons phase) and people dying to prevent evil from taking over Middle Earth. The main character is a hobbit named Frodo, who is burdened with the task of taking a very powerful ring to be thrown into a volcano, so that evil forces will stop trying to get it (plus a slimy frog-guy). In the first 2 movies I thought Frodo was the hero – but in the last one I realized the true hero was his best friend, Samwise. Samwise never gave up on Frodo, and protected him on their horrendous journey through hell.

We all need a Samwise. Someone who will never give up on us, someone who we can count on when times are tough, and celebrate with us when things turn out right. Someone with a good strong heart who will keep clarity and perspective when things aren't so clear to us.

And we all need to be Samwise.

p

You are ultimately following this path of life – all on your own. Yes, you have friends and companions along the way, but only you will get to experience your own unique version of life.

Maybe it's time to be your own best friend.

I'm tired and discouraged. There are 118 days left until June 19 and it feels like I've been doing this forever. But I know these feelings are normal and expected. And I know this state of mind will pass – I just have to lean into the discomfort and keep going. One step at a time.

It will get better. And then it will get amazing.

This week,  my goal is to contact a radio station and a well-known newspaper columnist to get local exposure. There are also a number of other items on my list for the event in terms of logistics and PR, and now is the time to start "upping my game".

Last week I did 47 km – which puts me about a month ahead of schedule in my training. This is excellent.

Tomorrow will be a great day.

Because I believe that education can save a nation. Education gives people the power to help themselves, to elevate their standard of living and improve their future. In my opinion, we in the economically developed world have won the lottery – we have access to a good education and the ability to change our situation, no matter what our background. Many people in the world do not have this privilege, with a complete lack of resources such as schools or even clean water.

How can we help them? Not just by giving money (please note that short-term aid is of course very important for survival). However, long term change happens by working with people, giving them tools and a helping hand so they can get on their feet. Then they can stand on their own, with their own strength.

Joseph Lekuton was born and raised in a nomadic tribe in Kenya. He had a fortunate opportunity to attend school, and he went as far as you can imagine with his education. With this, he become a member of Kenya's parliament and he is now helping his people in many ways, and he is initiating change for his country. Here is a 7 minute talk he gave about a very inspiring parable.

I used to be really hard on myself. It was all or nothing. Black or white. 100% on a diet or pigging out. If I was working on a fitness goal I would be continually cranky and exhausted because I ruled that the plan was more important than listening to my body. I hated myself for not meeting my expectations. I couldn't understand when people said to "do it in moderation". I thought that was a sign of weakness. 6 days per week in the gym, week after week, month after month. And I was never satisfied.

Something has changed.

Maybe becoming a mother to a girl has made me focus on being an example to her, so she will accept herself without feeling a need to be perfect.

Maybe it's because I see the wrinkles on my face getting deeper and I realize that there is no perfection in the mirror, and never will be.

Maybe it's because I see how strong and how fast the best athletes are, and I know that I'm not willing to pay the price to get even close to that.

Maybe it's a maturity thing..? Nah – maybe wisdom but never maturity for me

About 13 years ago (when I was still a runner), I ran a marathon in San Diego on only 3 days per week training. I had a goal time in my mind which wasn't too difficult but gave me something to aim for as a first-timer. I had just come off a recent ankle sprain (one of several that year) so I was a bit nervous about re-injuring it. Well to make a long story short, during the run my hubby became injured and he couldn't maintain his pace. So we did a lot of walking and concentrated on keeping him going. So my goal time was thrown out the window and I ended up just having fun. YES you CAN have fun running a marathon.

We took a lot of photos, and danced at different places along the route where bands were playing. I even drank beer from a couple of fabulous "refreshment" stations. And we finished nowhere near what we planned, but we made it smiling across the finish line.

I plan on making the 100 km as fun as I can, even without the beer

o

This week I'm feeling strong and hungry for rowing, so my mileage is back on track. Maybe even more than scheduled. However, it appears that my candy addiction has reached a high point as well, and stuffing my face with jujubes and chocolate before today's row nearly resulted in a "Cleanup on aisle 12" – situation.

So it is time to stop this candy madness right now. If any of you see me eating candy before June 19, I will have to give you 10 dollars.

Here is my 35 km row from Monday:

Before I do a session on the ergometer (rowing machine), I drink a cup of hot chocolate. It's weird because I've never really been a hot chocolate drinker, and one would think it's more of a soothing drink than something to rev you up. I must get a bit of a sugar and caffeine hit from this. But I'm thinking that there is more involved to this ritual than that.

Whenever I drink the HC (hot chocolate), I know that I will be rowing immediately afterward. Even if I don't feel like exercising – if I drink the HC, the next thing I do automatically is row. It appears that I've created a connection in my mind where the HC triggers the next activity.

I read about this concept of using triggers to create habits from Leo Babauta on his new website called 6Changes.com. If you want to change a habit – either in creating a new habit or halting an old one, you change the activity immediately preceding it. Leo defines a trigger as "an event that will kick off that automatic urge to do a habit. Habits become automatic after we’ve created a bond between the trigger and the habit — the stronger the bond, the more ingrained the habit."

So if I'm having trouble mustering the motivation to row, I head for the kitchen and make a cup of this yummy drink. I have no problem in making it, because I enjoy it so much. And then, when I'm done, I'm ready to row. No questions asked. A perfect combination.

Now I'm trying to stop my ice cream addiction through the power of decaf coffee. Think it'll work?

(Just a quick note to everyone that I'm finally back on the erg! Yesterday I broke my 12 day erg fast – brought on by a nasty flu – with an easy 10km session. It felt like slipping on an old pair of sneakers and I was so relieved to be back. Today I did another 10km and feel even stronger and ready to get back to some long rows)

Failure.

Success.

Loneliness.

Commitment.

Too little.

Too much.

Rejection.

Acceptance.

Change.

Stagnation.

The future.

The past.

Pain.

Bliss.

Death.

Life.

What fear is stopping you?

Today I made a difficult decision in my career (it's nothing earth-shattering like quitting the cubicle farm to write a yet another book on how to start your own business). In fact, this decision would probably be a really simple thing for many of you. But it's something that I struggled with for a long time. And today I started to address the fear(s)that have paralyzed me for so long. By naming these fears I am able to tear them apart, determine their origin, and mitigate them. Maybe one day even eliminate them.

I have a friend who excels at everything he tries. A father of three, he holds a senior position in a national organization; he's a marathon runner who frequents Boston (that means he's fast); he writes a dynamic blog (which unfortunately I cannot link to because it's internal to the company); and I'm pretty certain he broke a record for becoming fluent in a second language a couple of years ago. Yet with all of his responsibilities and accomplished goals, he somehow has the ability to make time to help others.

Right now, Lorne has even more on his plate than usual. And you know what, he still seems calm and on top of it all. And he still made time last week to offer me advice and to listen to my cold-medicated rambling about why this rowing thing is important to me.

So what is his secret? Well I think there are a number of elements to mastering the ability to do more – and Lorne told me one very big one.

Focus on what is important.

This statement may seem obvious, but for many of us, it's something we know but often something we don't put into practice. For example, many times I've slipped into mindless activities such as surfing the internet instead of working on additional ways to raise more money towards my goal of $40 000. I either have excuses for wasting time, or don't even realize what I'm doing.

Now, how many times do I do this type of  behaviour in my day? Doing the habitual, reactive things instead of maintaining clarity and honing in on what is important? I've caught myself in the email trap at work, and in spending too much time on things that do not make the biggest impact. If I focus on what is truly important, I could probably cut my to-do list in half, or maybe even change it completely. And become more effective.

I've also lost focus at times in other areas, but am working on correcting that. A few weeks ago, I made a scheduling change in my training plan in order to spend more time with my husband. That was a very good decision.

Being sick a lot this past month has made me really think hard about how to make the most of what I have, in terms of energy and time. I had to adjust my training plan and my expectations to accommodate being unable to row, or do much of anything at times. What absolutely had to get done? What have been the most important things to focus on? All the rest can wait.

(No rowing has been done since last Monday; my sinus-cold turned into another flu which hit both hubby and I this weekend. I hope to try the machine tomorrow, and will take it easy – I am still 3 weeks ahead of schedule for distance, so there is no need to fret.)

vv