Team e-mail 11.26.08
Check out The PETA Pack blog for the latest veg food magazine.
Thank you for all the questions about holiday training. YES, you bet, we’re training this weekend!
We’ll be running every Saturday at 9:00 a.m. between now and the actual race (2/1/09). That includes November 29, December 27 and Jane 3.
Whether you’re training in
Scheduling your runs will make it hard to miss them. Tell your friends and family that your runs are as important as your social meetings. Turn them into your support team! If you know your sister-in-law is going to ask about your run when you meet her for coffee, you’ll be sure and do your run!
We chose winter for The PETA Pack to help with holiday stress. This time of year is full of rich food, stress, and lack of exercise because the sun is in hiding…for most people. Not for us! All of us training for PETA will be losing weight instead of gaining…we’ll be helping make the world a kinder place instead of stressing out…we’ll be energized and motivated.
Energized and, what the heck, a little euphoric. Don’t forget those endorphins! J
Happy beginning of the holiday season to all of you. To kick it off in cruelty-free PETA style, I have a gift for you: A free copy of the Chef Jason Wyrick’s Holiday Food Magazine. Get ready to drool!
Alex
Waiting for the pie to cool? Check out all the free videos on PETATV.com!
Endorphins are among the brain chemicals known as neurotransmitters, which function to transmit electrical signals within the nervous system. At least 20 types of endorphins have been demonstrated in humans. Endorphins can be found in the pituitary gland, in other parts of the brain, or distributed throughout the nervous system.
Stress and pain are the two most common factors leading to the release of endorphins. Endorphins interact with the opiate receptors in the brain to reduce our perception of pain and act similarly to drugs such as morphine and codeine. In contrast to the opiate drugs, however, activation of the opiate receptors by the body's endorphins does not lead to addiction or dependence.
In addition to decreased feelings of pain, secretion of endorphins leads to feelings of euphoria, modulation of appetite, release of sex hormones, and enhancement of the immune response. With high endorphin levels, we feel less pain and fewer negative effects of stress. Endorphins have been suggested as modulators of the so-called "runner's high" that athletes achieve with prolonged exercise.
Here’s a treat for the PETA Pack: A complete copy of the latest holiday edition of The Vegan Culinary Experience. We’re talking 250 pages of recipes, interviews, nutrition and weight-loss tips, product reviews and to-die-for food photos.
*Smoked Almond and Raspberry Pancakes
*BBQ Tofurkey (you have to check this out)
*Gnocci in Pumpkin Sauce
*Peppermint Cookies
Team e-mail 11.23.08
Happy Rest Day!
Thanks for a great week, everyone. I saw a lot of you during runs in
Thanksgiving is going to be busy for everyone. Please do try and fit in a run on Thursday—even if it’s only 20 minutes. I *guarantee* it will be worth it. You’ll be so proud of yourself for doing it and you’ll feel GREAT! Check out Active.com for community events you can join all over the country. A lot of cities host “Turkey Trots,” fun 5k runs.
Coach Darren recently shared some wonderful advice about incorporating more whole foods into your diet. When you eat rice, beans, quinoa, carrots, broccoli, apples and bananas you are:
Don’t beat yourself up if you eat a Boca Burger with fries and chocolate cake tonight. Just try to eat whole foods when you can—you’ll be surprised at how quickly they’ll sneak into your favorite foods! Did you know that a vegetable curry served over rice would count as a healthy whole foods meal?
I warned you all Saturday that I had to temporarily suspend Coach Darren’s food advice to send you two great recipes for the holidays. Pumpkin Patch Cheesecake and Chocolate-Pecan Pie—you must try them! Sure, they’re not as healthy as brown rice and kale. But you’re working hard, it’s the holiday season, and they’re totally cruelty-free. Both recipes are pretty much impossible to mess up and everyone loves them—meat-eaters and vegans alike.
Check out the PETA Pack Blog for some new resource links (running gear, lip balm and more recipes).
Attached is the training plan from Coach Darren.
Tomorrow I’ll be asking you all to vote on a preferred date for a shopping and fundraising party, so check your e-mail!
Thank you all for your dedication and caring. I hope you are enjoying your rest day!
Alex
Hello Team!
Three quick notes for you.
Happy Holidays to you and to the animals you’re helping! Are you one of those people trying to simplify your life? Are your closets filled with stuff? Does your holiday wish-list read, “Please, no more STUFF?” Here’s what I’m going to do: Next week I’m going to ask all of my loved ones to please not go shopping for me. I love that they think of me every year, and this year nothing would mean more to me than helping animals. Please, Dad, donate to my page for The PETA Pack as my holiday gift! J My parents love PETA and I know they’ll donate happily. My
I’ve had several people ask me about the fundraising prizes. Two of you even told me you wouldn’t accept them if you won, because you didn’t want PETA to be out the money! Um, wow…THANK YOU! All of us here at PETA are sort of in shock that you would be that thoughtful. Thank you very much! Here’s the good news: The prizes won’t cost PETA anything. I owe you an all an apology for not making that clear. I guess I thought you all could read my mind. The top three travel prizes were donated by the wonderful, generous, animal-loving company called Holiday Systems International. PETA will not pay for them. The owner of HSI donated these prizes in appreciation of your fundraising efforts.
From Deedra, a PETA Pack runner in
This website allows you to find running routes in your city. It brings up maps and distances and sometimes reviews from other runners. So if people want to change up their run or need longer running routes as training progresses, they can check it out! The advertisements can be irritating, but I’ve still found it to be handy J
Have a wonderful Thursday! Are you icing? Are you stretching?
Alex
This is one of my favorite things to eat when I’m trying to run more. You can’t mess it up. It’s rich, filling and satisfying—but non-fat. My apartment smells great when I make it. I hope you try it!
Buy one large winter squash: Butternut, kabocha, acorn, or anything else you like.
Turn your oven to 350 degrees.
Take the produce sticker off the squash.
Place the squash on a cookie sheet or Pyrex pie plate.
Put it in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes.
Now leave the kitchen—go stretch, ice your calves, answer e-mail or sort the laundry.
When the timer goes off, poke a knife into the squash. If it goes in easily, it’s done. It can’t get over-done. Let it cool, and then cut it in half. The seeds will slip right out and the skin will fall off in your fingers. So much easier than wrestling with a rock-hard squash and big knife before cooking!
I store the cooked flesh in the fridge and eat it in various ways:
Sprinkled with roasted and salted pecans and maple syrup
Topped with tamari or soy sauce
Spread onto bread instead of hummus
Diced and tossed into soup or stir-fry’s
In a wrap with lettuce and Tofurky slices
Sometimes I’ll make 2 or 3 at once, just so I have them on hand. Perfect food when I have the munchies but I’m in a hurry!
Team e-mail 11.18.08
Hello Team!
Four hours ago PETA published the results of our newest undercover investigation from a turkey factory farm. The undercover worker filmed workers torturing, mutilating, and maliciously killing turkeys. The following are just a few of the documented offenses:
· Employees stomped on turkeys' heads, punched turkeys, hit them on the head with a can of spray paint and pliers, and struck turkeys' heads against metal scaffolding.
· Men shoved feces and feed into turkeys' mouths and held turkeys' heads under water. Another bragged about jamming a broom stick 2 feet down a turkey's throat.
· A supervisor said he saw workers kill 450 turkeys with 2-by-4s.
· One man said he saw a coworker fatally inject turkey semen and sulfuric acid into turkeys' heads.
PETA’s undercover investigators are incredibly brave. They are truly my heroes. It is only because of their sacrifices that we are able to expose these horrors and stop them.
And thanks to YOU for helping to end animal abuse like this. If you want to know more about our undercover investigations (like how much they cost), check out The PETA Pack blog.
Feel free to forward the investigation to all of your friends and family--the people you are asking to support you. A few of you already have (thank you!). If your co-worker isn’t clear on why you are working so hard to raise funds for PETA, this may help explain it.
PETA’s work only happens because of donations. That’s it. Thank you so very much for running, walking, fundraising and donating to end the sort of atrocities that are on this video!!
Here’s some positive news you can share as well: Yummy veggie Thanksgiving recipes! J We don’t have to always focus on the bad (how turkeys are treated), we can also focus on the good, like hot artichoke dip and chocolate-pecan pie. I’ve posted a very simple winter squash recipe to the blog as well.
Happy Training and Thank You for helping PETA!
Alex
Great job, everyone!!
For all of you we didn’t see this past Saturday, Coach Darren had some really great advice I wanted to share. Don’t skip a run just because it’s not the perfect run! If your day has gone haywire and you’ve given up hope of driving to the park and running for 45 minutes, that doesn’t mean you have to skip the work out. Can you run 10 minutes away from your house and then 10 minutes back? 20 minutes total? DO IT! Do it and check off that day’s workout on your weekly schedule. Anything is better than nothing, and you’ll feel so happy that you did it.
It takes a while to fit regular workouts into your life. It will happen, and in the meantime, don’t let it stress you out. Focus on what you are doing (exercising on a regular basis), not on what you’re not doing (qualifying for the Olympics).
Ingrid Newkirk was here today to discuss her new book, One Can Make a Difference. She pointed out how powerful people can be when they let it happen. Nothing gets done if we don’t take the first step. Nice advice for us new runners!
She told a great story about a college student who was moving out of her dorm room and didn’t want to throw away the jar of pennies she’d saved up. It occurred to her that all the dorm rooms probably had a jar of change. So she went around the campus, gathered loose change, and voila—she had over $1,000 to donate to charity! That one small step turned into a great non-profit called Change for Change. Every year they donate tens of thousands of dollars to charity, because of one person doing one small thing.
Thank you all for taking MANY steps, not just one. Attached is Coach Darren’s plan for next week. Have a wonderful week!
Sincerely,
Alex
p.s.
Thanks to your fundraising, PETA will be able to do more undercover investigations. Here is an interview with two of our undercover people. Feel free to share it.
Team e-mail 11.17.08
Great job, everyone!!
For all of you we didn’t see this past Saturday, Coach Darren had some really great advice I wanted to share. Don’t skip a run just because it’s not the perfect run! If your day has gone haywire and you’ve given up hope of driving to the park and running for 45 minutes, that doesn’t mean you have to skip the work out. Can you run 10 minutes away from your house and then 10 minutes back? 20 minutes total? DO IT! Do it and check off that day’s workout on your weekly schedule. Anything is better than nothing, and you’ll feel so happy that you did it.
It takes a while to fit regular workouts into your life. It will happen, and in the meantime, don’t let it stress you out. Focus on what you are doing (exercising on a regular basis), not on what you’re not doing (qualifying for the Olympics).
Ingrid Newkirk was here today to discuss her new book, One Can Make a Difference. She pointed out how powerful people can be when they let it happen. Nothing gets done if we don’t take the first step. Nice advice for us new runners!
She told a great story about a college student who was moving out of her dorm room and didn’t want to throw away the jar of pennies she’d saved up. It occurred to her that all the dorm rooms probably had a jar of change. So she went around the campus, gathered loose change, and voila—she had over $1,000 to donate to charity! That one small step turned into a great non-profit called Change for Change. Every year they donate tens of thousands of dollars to charity, because of one person doing one small thing.
Thank you all for taking MANY steps, not just one. Attached is Coach Darren’s plan for next week. Have a wonderful week!
Sincerely,
Alex
p.s.
Thanks to your fundraising, PETA will be able to do more undercover investigations. Here is an interview with two of our undercover people. Feel free to share it.
I’m getting tons of requests about how to lose weight so that a person can either get into shape in the first place, or get into better shape and try to win the darn race on February 1st. I’ll tell you this: Don’t diet!
Instead? Salsa. Regular old tomato salsa, black bean salsa, spicy pineapple salsa…you name it…most salsas have 10 calories in a 2 Tb serving. 10! And no fat! You can sit in front of the TV and eat an entire bag of baked blue corn chips (not the fried ones!) with a big jar of your favorite salsa, you’ll be full (over full), and you won’t feel guilty.
½ cup of macaroni and cheese has 360 calories and half of them are from fat! And you’ll still be hungry after ½ cup. However, one and ½ cups of spaghetti with pre-made, vegan marinara sauce has only 180 calories and no fat!
I’ll start sending recipes in the next few weeks. Lentil soup, roast squash, minestrone, rice and bean burritos, etc. All the recipes will be easy to make, hearty and filling, vegan and low-fat. They’ll be stuffed with vitamins and minerals and energy carbs and protein.
p.s.
OK, there may be one person who can eat more than me: Coach Darren! Be sure to ask him for eating tips when you're talking to him.
Team e-mail 11.14.08
Hello PETA Pack!
How much do you love your friends and family? You want them to help animals and sponsor your training. But you also love them and you want to give them something back, right? How about a fabulous feeling that doesn’t lead to jail, rehab or embarrassing run-ins in back alleys?
A new scientific study shows that giving makes you feel good. Giving affects the same part of the brain stimulated by sex, drugs and money, according to researchers at the American National Institutes of Health. A recent study looked into people's brains with MRIs while they made decisions to give.
Dr. Jorge Moll, the lead researcher on the study, said what they saw "strongly supports the existence of 'warm glow' at a biological level. It helps convince people that doing good can make them feel good; altruism therefore doesn't need to be ONLY sacrifice." Giving activated two areas of the brain: the part that is activated by reward reinforcement, which also is activated by sex, drugs and money, and
the part that influences social attachments, trust and economic interactions.
So there you have it. When you ask your co-workers to donate to your run, you are also giving them a chance to feel great. They’re helping you in a really meaningful way, and they are making a statement against animal suffering. Plus they get that warm glow thing! It’s really not fair. We have to run to get our endorphin rush, but our sponsors get it without leaving their chair!
Hm. Many of you are both running AND donating, which means you get a double whammy of the warm fuzzies. What if you ran, and donated, AND went to
I’m getting tons of requests about how to lose weight so a person can either get into shape in the first place, or get into better shape and try to win the darn race on February 1st. I’ll tell you this: Don’t diet!
Here are some snacking and eating tips, and I’ll be sending more tips and actual recipes in the coming weeks.
Have a great rest day today. If you’re coming to
Alex
p.s.
Want some warm fuzzies right now? Check out this great essay Ingrid Newkirk posted to The PETA Files.
Team e-mail 11.13.08
Hello Team!
I want to pass on a huge and gigantic Thank You from PETA Headquarters in
Samantha zipped into first place just in the past few days. Lynne and Stephen, running in sub-zero temperatures in
You are raising money for animals, who have no one to help them. In the world of philanthropy, animals get the tiniest slice of the pie. They are the most helpless and the most abused in this world, and yet they receive the least help. Thank you for changing that! Later this week I’ll send you some examples of what money buys at PETA. For example: $35.00 provides medical care and a treat for a neglected dog assisted by our Community Animal Project (CAP). $2,500 pays for one desperately needed anesthesia machine for one of our SNIP vans!
Thanks to our wonderful PETA Business Friend, Holiday Systems International, we have some very special prizes.
Holiday Systems International so appreciates your fundraising efforts for animals that they have donated the three grand prizes. Our top three fundraisers will win luxury vacations to reward their hard working feet!
FIRST PRIZE: The #1 fundraiser for The PETA Pack will win a FREE VACATION (7 nights/8 days) at a beautiful resort in
(Accommodations for up to four, and airfare for two from anywhere in the
SECOND PRIZE: A FREE VACATION (7 nights/8 days) at a beautiful resort in
THIRD PRIZE: A FREE VACATION (7 nights/8 days) at a beautiful resort in
4TH, 5TH AND 6TH PRIZES: $50 gift certificate for the PETA Catalog
BEST TEAM SPIRIT: $25 gift cert to the PETA Catalog
GREATEST EFFORT: $25 gift cert to PETA Catalog
To be eligible for the prizes, runners must be registered for The PETA Pack and must have raised a minimum of $1,000 for PETA. Vacation winners must be 21 years or older. Employees of PETA, PETA Foundation and
Winners are chosen based on fundraising totals on February 1, 2009. You do not have to run the actual race to win your prize. “Best Team Spirit” and “Greatest Effort” winners chosen by Ingrid Newkirk, Coach Darren, and
Thanks, everyone! I hope your training is going well this week. Please let me know if you have any questions. I’ll be sending out more food and fundraising tips tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Alex
Team e-mail 11.11.08
Hello Team PETA Pack!
For more information about her new book, click here. Ingrid will be here in our
From: Ingrid Newkirk
Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2008 5:56 PM
To:
Subject: Please could you pass on to the runners on The PETA Pack? THanks!
MONEY: Time to gradually start thinking about your fundraising. I know it’s hard to talk about money—every time I bring it up I can feel people thinking, “Geez, I thought lawyers were bad…” J Since we’re all busy working and training, I won’t waste time beating around the bush. The animals need you AND fundraising is fun!
First: Make your personal fundraising page on Active.com. Check out Steve’s for inspiration. He created a jpeg collage to upload so he could show off three sweet animals instead of just one. If you need help doing that, Steve said he would be glad to help (I had to donate to his page to make him offer that) (just kidding). Go here to log in to your page, using the username and password you created when you registered. Problems logging in? No sweat. Let me know and I’ll talk to Active.com for you.
Make your page YOUR page. Your photo can be you, your dog, or an animal suffering on a factory farm. Your text can be anything you want. The most important thing is to be yourself and be sincere!
Second: Write an e-mail message to everyone you know. Again, be yourself. We all have different reasons why we’re training, and why we want to help animals. Some people want to help stop cat and dog overpopulation. Others want to fight fur or shut down slaughterhouses. Whatever your passions are—they’re OK and you should share them with your friends, colleagues and family members. Tell them you’ll do the sweating and huffing and puffing for 3 months, and you hope they will emotionally support you by donating to your page. Send them a link to your page.
Remember this as you write your message: Animals are dependent on us for help. They cannot speak for themselves. You are asking your family and friends to give for their sakes—the animals—not for your own interests.
On top of that, you're giving a gift to the people you ask. By asking them to support your training efforts and PETA's vital work, they'll know that you've included them in something wonderful. They'll get to hear about how your training is going and your feelings of achievement and happiness, and they'll feel like they're a part of it.
It's good to ask for help. Animals are counting on us, and many of our friends and family members want to be involved in our challenges and achievements, they just don’t know what we need.
We'll talk about this more during the training. You won't be left to handle this important task alone!
If you create your page and e-mail it your peeps, and 40 people respond by donating $25, you’ve met the minimum! Voila!
Thank you so much for helping to make PETA a stronger voice for animals, who are voiceless.
Alex
Breakfast!
This post is a little late because I was busy making the Breakfast of Champions. Every Sunday I make a gigantic pot of steel-cut oatmeal, to feed me for the next week. Steel-cut oats are also called Irish Oats. They’re tough little things, totally different from the quick oats we’re used to. You can’t really eat quick oats the next day. Ick. But Irish Oats cook for a good 30 minutes and make a fabulous thick porridge that reheats beautifully. 30 seconds in the microwave, some sliced banana, voila: a perfect breakfast.
Compare this: One donut has around 340 calories and enough fat to condition your hair. One big bowl of oatmeal has only 140 calories and no fat!! Donuts are fatty and calorie-dense, but not filling. Eat a donut and 30 minutes later you’ll be hungry for more junk. Oatmeal is the opposite. Filling and packed with nutrients and energy, but not fat and calories. When you’re full you don’t have to worry about giving in to junk food temptations.
Team e-mail 11. 9.08
Hello Runners!
Can you all please stand up and applaud really loudly for 3 minutes?? Congratulations on starting the training!! NICE JOB!
I loved meeting the 30 of you who came to the team run on Saturday morning. I’ve loved e-mailing with you folks who maybe can’t join the team runs, but you’re sure with us in spirit. I want to introduce:
Stephen and Lynne, running in
Shelley, running in
Jennifer, running in
Sallie, running in
Deedra, running in
Emili, running in
And the wonderful Karen, running in
If you’re training remotely, please keep in touch. Send me and Coach Darren an e-mail telling us how you’re doing. Thanks for joining the team! I have attached this week’s Coach Note from Coach Darren.
FOOD: Check out The PETA Pack blog for eating tips. I’ll post new information every couple of days and I’ll let you know what I’m posting. We all need to eat well (and eat enjoyably) for the next 12 weeks! Check it out now if you want to read about oatmeal and donuts (or read at the end of this message).
MONEY: Time to gradually start thinking about your fundraising. I know it’s hard to talk about money—every time I bring it up I can feel people thinking, “Geez, I thought lawyers were bad…” J Since we’re all busy working and training, I won’t waste time beating around the bush. The animals need you AND fundraising is fun! Click here to get started on your page (or read below).
It looks like The PETA Pack is a magnet for fabulousness, as you all have proven, and I am honored to be on your team. The next 12 weeks are going to be a blast!
Thank you, everyone. Enjoy your rest day!
Alex
MONEY: Time to gradually start thinking about your fundraising. I know it’s hard to talk about money—every time I bring it up I can feel people thinking, “Geez, I thought lawyers were bad…” J Since we’re all busy working and training, I won’t waste time beating around the bush. The animals need you AND fundraising is fun!
First: Make your personal fundraising page on Active.com. Check out Steve’s for inspiration. He created a jpeg collage to upload so he could show off three sweet animals instead of just one. If you need help doing that, Steve said he would be glad to help (I had to donate to his page to make him offer that) (just kidding). Go here to log in to your page, using the username and password you created when you registered. Problems logging in? No sweat. Let me know and I’ll talk to Active.com for you.
Make your page YOUR page. Your photo can be you, your dog, or an animal suffering on a factory farm. Your text can be anything you want. The most important thing is to be yourself and be sincere!
Second: Write an e-mail message to everyone you know. Again, be yourself. We all have different reasons why we’re training, and why we want to help animals. Some people want to help stop cat and dog overpopulation. Others want to fight fur or shut down slaughterhouses. Whatever your passions are—they’re OK and you should share them with your friends, colleagues and family members. Tell them you’ll do the sweating and huffing and puffing for 3 months, and you hope they will emotionally support you by donating to your page. Send them a link to your page.
Remember this as you write your message: Animals are dependent on us for help. They cannot speak for themselves. You are asking your family and friends to give for their sakes—the animals—not for your own interests.
On top of that, you're giving a gift to the people you ask. By asking them to support your training efforts and PETA's vital work, they'll know that you've included them in something wonderful. They'll get to hear about how your training is going and your feelings of achievement and happiness, and they'll feel like they're a part of it.
It's good to ask for help. Animals are counting on us, and many of our friends and family members want to be involved in our challenges and achievements, they just don’t know what we need.
We'll talk about this more during the training. You won't be left to handle this important task alone!
If you create your page and e-mail it your peeps, and 40 people respond by donating $25, you’ve met the minimum! Voila!
Thank you so much for helping to make PETA a stronger voice for animals, who are voiceless.
Alex
Breakfast!
This post is a little late because I was busy making the Breakfast of Champions. Every Sunday I make a gigantic pot of steel-cut oatmeal, to feed me for the next week. Steel-cut oats are also called Irish Oats. They’re tough little things, totally different from the quick oats we’re used to. You can’t really eat quick oats the next day. Ick. But Irish Oats cook for a good 30 minutes and make a fabulous thick porridge that reheats beautifully. 30 seconds in the microwave, some sliced banana, voila: a perfect breakfast.
Make a big pot on Sunday so that your mornings are taken care of. Now that we’ve added training to our already busy lives, we need to find food that is both fast AND healthy. I cook 2 cups of oats in 8 cups of water and that lasts me through the week. Sometimes I add a handful of raisins, a chopped apple or two, or a whole cinnamon stick. Every morning I spool out my serving, heat it, and top with banana. Sometimes walnuts, cinnamon, more apple, things like that. Not only is this convenient and healthy, it’s filling. A big bowl of oats will keep you from grabbing a donut or fatty muffin, it will give you loads of energy for the day, and it won’t give you any fat for those hips.
Compare this: One donut has around 340 calories and enough fat to condition your hair. One big bowl of oatmeal has only 140 calories and no fat!! Donuts are fatty and calorie-dense, but not filling. Eat a donut and 30 minutes later you’ll be hungry for more junk. Oatmeal is the opposite. Filling and packed with nutrients and energy, but not fat and calories. When you’re full you don’t have to worry about giving in to junk food temptations.
Icing on the cake: When you eat foods like oatmeal you don’t have to measure or count calories. The more you eat the better because it will fill you up. I’ll be posting lots more energy foods like this. I’m not suggesting we won’t be eating our beer and French fries on Saturday nights, after our long runs. I’m suggesting that we eat less fat in general so that our training goes better and our junk food nights are that much more enjoyable!
Note: I don’t eat a big bowl of oatmeal before running. A bouncing, full stomach does not a fast runner make.
Team e-mail 11.6.08
The PETA Pack kicks off this Saturday at 9:00 a.m. in
Recent questions:
1. How does my fundraising work?
Easy-peasy! When you register for The PETA Pack, you will be asked to create a username and password. Remember them, because nobody else will have them! Active.com will automatically create a fundraising page for you. This is what you send to your friends and family. You want them to see your personal page, so that they donate to YOU and you get the credit. Remember, the top fundraiser wins a trip for 2 to
http://www.active.com/donate/PETAPack/Karen
(Karen, I’m sorry I didn’t ask you first if I could use your page, but how could I not use your page when your dogs are so cute?!?)
2. I might have to miss the first training, or one of the others. Is that OK?
Yes! I hope you don’t miss any, or at least, not many. But Coach Darren and I realize you are all very busy. If you need to skip a Saturday morning run one week, and run on Sunday instead, that’s OK. If you need to go on vacation and miss a few runs, that’s OK, you can run on vacation! Or you can cross-train, or you can use those days as “recovery days.” When you register you receive your master training plan and you can make that fit your schedule.
3. What do I eat on Saturday morning??
We’ll be talking about food a lot during the next 13 weeks! Don’t run on an empty stomach—you’ll run out of energy. But don’t spend an hour at the all-you-can-eat buffet either. Some oatmeal, cereal or simple toast will be fine. Every runner is different and you’ll want to experiment over the next few weeks. I eat the exact same thing before every run: One toasted nuts and cranberry Luna bar (the only one that doesn’t have frosting), one banana, and one small cup of coffee with soymilk.
After running is when to eat. J You can get a gorgeous vegan brunch at Herbivore, Café Organic Lettus or even Greens, right next to our training spot!
And last but not least:
4. What if it rains?
Training happens rain or shine! Throw a dry pair of sweats in your car, to change into after running. Once you get going you’ll enjoy it. You’ll be outside, you’ll be warm from running, and you’ll be proud of yourself. Don’t tell me you’ve never seen a runner in the rain and thought, “Whoa, she’s hardcore!” Well, now you get to be that person, impressing everyone who drives by. And think of this: If you run, you’re going to feel awesome at the end of the day, knowing you did it. If you don’t run, you’re going to feel bummed out. Since you ARE awesome, signing up for the team, you may as well FEEL awesome!
See you on Saturday. Can’t wait!
Alex
Please print and take these directions with you!
SCHEDULE: 9:00 a.m. every Saturday morning, from November 8th to January 24th. November 8th is our meet and greet; come meet the coach and bring your friends who are thinking about joining the team.
We’ll meet at the base of
There is a Safeway just across the street. If you stand with your back to the Safeway, facing the ocean, we’ll be on the right. We’ll be at the bottom of the hill near the entry gates to
PARKING: Lots! Go back to standing with your back to Safeway (poor Safeway). Our meeting place is on the right, and straight ahead and to the left you’ll see one long parking lot. You enter it via
Please leave early, especially the first time. You may end up with a five minute walk from your car to the team (that’s called a warm up), or you may need to hit the restrooms.
FACILITIES: Lots! Safeway has restrooms open to the public, and of course, all the water and energy bars you might need. And ice for your ice bath but we don’t need to talk about that until later in the training. Additionally, there are restrooms and water fountains right in the middle of the
Please leave enough time to park, test out the facilities, and meet us by 9.
Don’t bring anything to the training except you and your running clothes. Leave the rest in your car and tie your key to your shoelace. Your lip balm, sunscreen and handkerchief can go in a pocket or fanny pack, your water bottle in your hand, and you’ll tie your jacket around your waist when you get warmed up. Don’t worry if it’s cold at first. We’ll warm up right away!
