Redefine What's Possible

WEEKEND RECAP
Two totally terrific training walks this past weekend - both walks were 12 miles chock full of stairs and hills and even more hills to climb! Saturday's walk went past Stow Lake, on to the Mosaic Stairs and then on to Grand View Park. This 12 mile route had 548 feet elevation gain!

Saturday's Route & Elevation Graph

Climbing up Grand View Park, photo from Trina

Sunday was another gorgeous day in San Francisco - also the day of the Gay Pride Parade! The walk took us on a climb up Divisadero hill, onward to the Castro and through Noe Valley with a steady climb up to Clipper Street with sweeping city views along Portola Ave! Another really great and challenging 12 mile route with 640 feet of elevation gain! 

Sunday's Route & Elevation Graph

The gorgeous view from Portola, photo from Trina

We have now built a really solid foundation (12 mile challenging walks back to back!) to steadily increase our mileage over the next month. This past weekend's walks were all about stamina and endurance building, woosh! And next month, we start increasing our total mileage every other weekend.

And, many thanks to Marcia for leading the training walks this past weekend!

THIS WEEK'S MAP QUOTES

When you're Happy for No Reason, you bring happiness to your outer experiences rather than trying to extract happiness from them. You don't need to manipulate the world around you to try to make yourself happy. You live from happiness, rather than for happiness. Marci Shimoff

It's a small world. Act right. (Show your love. Be kind. Breathe when angry. Remember we are all just figuring it out as we go.) Unknown

If I had to select one quality, one personal characteristic that I regard as being most highly correlated with success, whatever the field, I would pick the trait of persistence. Determination. The will to endure to the end, to get knocked down seventy times and get up off the floor saying, ''Here comes number seventy-one! Richard M. DeVos

Crucial to finding the way is this: there is no beginning or end. You must make your own map. Joy Harjo

WEEKLY INSPIRATION 

Legless Man Summits Kilimanjaro, "And for us, we wanted to be this symbol that anything is possible and that we could redefine what's possible for ourselves and maybe for others."  Spencer West was told as a child he would never be a functioning member of society, has once again defied the odds, reaching the summit of Africa's highest mountain. 


I read this article and thought, yes! Our true character is what we give to others without expecting anything in return and the true belief that anything is possible. When it seems as though the deck is stacked against you, look for possibility. Seek it, it is there. Always.

UPCOMING TRAINING WALKS

RSVP here: http://groupspaces.com/InOurLifetime/calendar/ 

Saturday 6/30 – 12 Miles – 7:00am
Sunday 7/1 – Approx. 14 Mile Trail Walk to the Pt. Bonita Lighthouse – 7:00am –

Saturday 7/7 & Sunday 7/8 - No Walks - Avon Walk San Francisco!

Saturday 7/15 - 16 Miles - 6:30am

Sunday 7/16: 12 miles - 7:00am

You Create Beauty

View from Telegraph Hill, Jenny Galetti

WEEKEND RECAP

This past weekend proved, once again, how mercurial San Francisco weather can be! Hot, cold, fog and sunshine.

Saturday's training walks were terrific although it was a really hot day which can make walking long distances challenging.

Sandra and Michele led 16 - 3 Day walkers on a great route that featured the Promenade and a walk through Golden Gate Park past the De Young Museum. After the break at Andronico's Market, they continued past Stow Lake and finished their 12 miles by walking UP Linclon Blvd. What a terrific opportunity for 3 Day walkers to connect! Congratulations Warming Hut Hotties for hosting such a terrific walk and thank you Sandra & Michele for leading everyone!

Trina led our other 12 mile training walk with 15 people on a super San Francisco scenic route. They walked UP Chestnut St., down Curvy Lombard and then UP Telegraph Hill.  After breaking at the Ferry Plaza they continued to AT & T Park, SOMA, FiDi and then UP the Broadway Stairs. In a new twist, they continued straight on Broadway until it intersected with the Presidio which involved more UPHILL climbing! Thank you Trina for leading this training walk for me!

Sunday morning was a stark contrast to Saturday's heat. When we met at the Warming Hut the the fog was being whipped in by the howling wind. We did a less challenging route with a walk on Land's End Trail (stopping at the Land's End Visitor's Center) and then back along Lake St. to Mountain Lake Park with an easy stroll back down the Park Trail to the Warming Hut.

THIS WEEK'S MAP QUOTES

See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... we need silence to be able to touch souls. Mother Teresa

We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community. Dorothy Day  

To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves - there lies the great, singular power of self-respect. Joan Didion 

The belief that becomes truth for me... is that which allows me the best use of my strength, the best means of putting my virtues into action. Andre Gide  

To approach the stranger is to invite the unexpected, release a new force, let the genie out of the bottle. It is to start a new train of events that is beyond your control. You will change your mind, but you are not free. You made a decision; you set in motion forces in your life and in the lives of others. T.S. Eliot 

The distance isn't important; it is only the first step that is difficult. Marquise du Deffand

WEEKLY INSPIRATION 

One of the things I love most about this group is that our training walks are an incubator of kindness and beauty. Someone shared this Coca Cola commercial with me.

This commercial hearkens back to the very early years when I first started walking when it was the "Avon 3 Day" and the event was produced by Pallotta Teamworks. One slogan they had that has always stuck in my mind: Be Human. Be Kind. Be Both. HumanKindness.

Those words, and my early 3 Day walks, changed the way I live my life. I choose kindness over negativity. Kindness of selfishness. Kindness over intolerance. I choose kindness daily.

There is beauty in choosing kindness in our daily interactions: spontaneous small gestures, encouraging words, thoughtful actions.We are all fragile humans making our way in this world and the ripple of kindness can make a great impact. Let's create beauty. 

If you really want to be inspired, watch the old Palotta videos.

UPCOMING TRAINING WALKS

RSVP here: http://groupspaces.com/InOurLifetime/calendar/ 

The RSVP function closes at 4pm on Friday so I can print maps. Please RSVP before that time!

Saturday 6/23 - 12 miles - 7:00am - Warming Hut

Sunday 6/24 - 12 miles - 7:00am - The Transit Cafe

Saturday 6/30 – 12 Miles – 7:00am

Sunday 7/1 – Approx. 14 Mile Trail Walk – 7:30am

THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF LAUGHTER

• Mental health benefits.Mental health benefits. Although you probably can’t laugh off depression, one of the many benefits of laughter and a sense of humor is that they buffer you against the negatives of life that could lead to depression. As an added bonus, research shows that people who use humor to fight stress also feel less lonely and more positive about themselves. And one recent study found that humor therapy was as effective as widely used antipsychotic drugs — minus the side effects — in managing agitation in patients with dementia. 
• Physical benefits. Although we can’t yet say that a certain number of laughs every day will keep the doctor away, studies show that people who say they laugh a lot also tend to be in good health and generally feel well. Laughter is also one of the most commonly used complementary therapies among cancer patients, who find that one of the benefits of laughter is an improved quality of life.
• Heart health benefits. Laughter could be healthy for your heart, too. Some research shows that when you laugh, there is an increase in oxygen-rich blood flow in your body, possibly due to the release of endorphins, which create a chemical rush that counters negative feelings and stress. Activities that increase endorphins include a good workout and listening to music you love, and laughter deserves its place on the list with these other stress busters.

Full article here.

There is a difference between interest and commitment.

WEEKEND RECAP

We had another weekend of stellar walking weather! Saturday's walk was another route filled with new vistas and amazing scenery. We walked through Golden Gate Park and made our way via Ocean Beach to the swanky new Land's End Lookout and Visitor Center and fancy pants bathrooms (which Trina has deemed the BEST bathrooms on our walk routes!) We finished our walk by stopping at the new Golden Gate Bridge Overook which has the most amazing view straight onto the bridge. 

Do these people look like they just walked 10 miles?! I don't think so! Gorgeous.

For Sunday's walk we met in a new place - The Transit Cafe at the Main Parade Grounds! (According to Judy, the bathrooms are neck and neck with the Land's End bathrooms. We might need to do a scientific survey!) It was HOT so we tried to walk on the shady side of the street. We made our way along the water to the ferry Plaza where we bumped into some walkers who had just completed The Commute, 55 mile non-stop walk from San Jose to SF.

The seconds part of the Sunday’s route was all new. We continued along colorful and urban Market, UP Fell to Divisadero. The cool of the Kaiser Medical Center bathrooms was so great and I discovered their pharmacy has a "Foot Care Section."

TIPS FOR RECOVERY

Many people told me they were sore and tired after Sunday's walk. My tips for recovery: keep hydrating!, take some Advil for soreness, take a nice, long hot shower or bath, and keeeep stretching! Eat protein when you get home. Get plenty of restorative sleep as well after increasing your cumulative mileage on your weekend walks. This endurance training is asking a lot of your body - treat it with loving kindness!

THIS WEEK’S MAP QUOTES

Let this truth go as deep in you as possible: that life is already here, arrived. You are standing on the goal. Don't ask about the path. Osho

If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me. Ralph Waldo Emerson

The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention… A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words. Rachel Naomi Remen

For listening to the stories of others… is a kind of water that breaks the fever of our isolation. If we listen closely enough, we are soothed into remembering our common name. Mark Nepo

WEEKLY INSPIRATION 

You know that famous Woody Allen quote, "90% of success is just showing up."? Well, I think even before the “showing up” part, we have to have made a commitment. We have all done that by signing up to participate in a breast cancer fundraising event! We made a huge, rewarding and life changing commitment  when we paid our registration fees. You make the commitment when you sign up for a training walk.

Hopefully being a part of this amazing community helps you honor your commitment to your participating in your walk event, to consistently working toward your fundraising goal, to showing up to do the work on training walks and to taking care of yourself as best as possible throughout it all. Show up and do with work and great things will happen. Honor yourself for your unwavering commitment!

FOOD IS FUEL!

Eating protein within 45 minutes after a moderate to intense workout (of at least 45 minutes to an hour) helps your muscles rebuild and repair—and also helps increase the number of calories you burn. Teddy Bass, L.A.–based trainer 

It is gratitude that makes us joyful.

WEEKEND RECAP

On Saturday we had a truly magical walk. We started off on the newly improved Coastal Trail which connects with the also improved and spectacular Batteries to Bluffs Trail. We pressed on and climbed the 1,000 Stairs pathway, connecting to the Mountain Lake Trail, then on the Ecology Trail which met up with the Lover's Lane. We walked DOWN the Lyon Street stairs and headed to the Palace of Fine arts - also newly refurbished. A strong head wind was our company on the final mile along the Promenade back to the Warming Hut.   I swiped this off Trina's blog... it shows we climbed A LOT in those 8 luscious miles weaving in and around the Presidio - see the lower picture!

On Sunday a small group met at Sawyer Camp Trail for a nice stroll while group of us cheered on the AIDS Lifecycle riders who were starting their 7 day, 575 mile ride to Los Angeles. 2,200 cyclists and 600 roadies raised $12.6 million! We live in such a wondrously beautiful place!

THIS WEEK'S MAP QUOTES

Our good fortune is dependent upon the cooperation and contributions of others. Every aspect of our present well-being is due to hard work on the part of others. As we look around us at the buildings we live and work in, the roads we travel, the clothes we wear, or the food we eat, we have to acknowledge that all are provided by others. None of them would exist for us to enjoy and make use of were it not for the kindness of so many people unknown to us. The Dalai Lama

For it is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful. Brother David Steindl-Rast

WEEKLY INSPIRATION

I am a big believer in living life with an "attitude of gratitude." Instead of focusing on what we feel we are lacking, we can focus on what we do have and be grateful for those things. Instead of asking what you can get from others, be grateful for what you are given.  Appreciating the small things (and the big things) of our daily lives, taking a few moments to truly see them and feel gratitude for them, can bring us a sense of peace and wholeness. Gratitude opens the channel for abundance and positivity in our lives. Practice gratitude. You can:

• keep a gratitude journal - list 5 things each day for which you are grateful, the big and small
• meditate on gratitude
• take a moment each day to express gratitude

Try practicing gratitude the next time you find yourself thinking "why me", "oh, this is so hard", "I should", "I have to!" or “I wish I had." Its powerful stuff, gratitude and it can be transformative in our lives.

UPCOMING TRAINING WALKS

RSVP here: http://groupspaces.com/InOurLifetime/calendar/ The RSVP function closed at 4pm on Friday so I can print maps. Please RSVP before that time!

Saturday 6/9 - 10 miles - 7:30am

Sunday 6/10 - 10 miles - 7:30am

Saturday 6/16 – 12 Miles – 7:00am

Sunday 6/17 – 10 Miles – 7:00am