Racing Down Cancer!

Just Ran 8 Miles...

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 09:24:10 -0400

That’s the longest I’ve ever run/hobbled/crawled in my life. Ever. Now only five additional ones on race day!! Hah… Time to puke!

Also, the two Marc by Marc Jacobs clothing items I listed on eBay are still available, and all the money will go to my fundraising efforts…. Click here and here to check out the auctions or here just to donate. :) I’m only $305 away from my fundraising goal!

Also selling this Marc by Marc Jacobs denim jacket to raise $$...

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:56:06 -0400

Also selling this Marc by Marc Jacobs denim jacket to raise $$ to fight cancer! eBay listing below:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/280753445061?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Selling this cute pink Marc by Marc Jacobs top to raise $$ to...

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:54:14 -0400

Selling this cute pink Marc by Marc Jacobs top to raise $$ to fight cancer! Check out the listing below!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/280753445061?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Cross-Training With YouTube: Free Yoga and Pilates Videos

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:45:46 -0400

To be honest, I’ve had a hard time finding the motivation to do much cross-training. I feel like I spend all my time running and I’ve had to struggle to fit in strength training. Of course, I know core strength is super important and that’s something with which I’ve always struggled. (On the other hand, I barely need to do much for my legs ever because apparently I evolved for deadlifting, hah).

Anyways, I’m skipping weight training for a while to change things up and try to regain some enthusiasm, so I’ve been searching YouTube for free body weight workouts. To try to get going this morning I found this “wake-up yoga” routine which was just okay.

It is *really* meant to just wake you up, I guess, because it mostly involved patting and slapping your muscles rather than actively stretching. I preferred the sequence I found yesterday; even though it was gentle it was still a little more active. I like this instructor’s accent though.

To follow up I tried three POP Pilates videos.These are super-perky, fun, and FREE videos put together by the author of the blog Blogilates. They’re set to pop music and most are are 8 to 10 minutes long, so you can repeat them or mix and match as you choose. (She also offers some total-body routines at about 30ish minutes each).

I tried one for core muscles — which really seemed more just for abs — as well as one for glutes. I also tried this one for “slim runners thighs and calves,” which I found kinda funny because, if you want runners’ thighs, uh, why not just run? It still created a nice little burn for the calves, at least.

After all that, I decided on an easy run of four miles. In retrospect I wouldn’t do any of that lower-body stuff before a run again; that was pretty idiotic. Anyways, I made some more chia fresca, which got me pretty pumped to power through this like it was nothing. Again, maybe it’s the placebo effect, but I’ll take it.

I’m still a little behind on my training schedule. I was supposed to complete an 8-mile long run last weekend but I had too much going on, and when I attempted it the other day I bonked really hard. I’m going to try again tomorrow morning, fingers crossed!!

Click here to donate to my efforts to raise money to fight blood cancers while training for a half-marathon!

Essential pre-workout supplement ;) Double (or triple) espresso!

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 07:34:07 -0400

Essential pre-workout supplement ;) Double (or triple) espresso!

Fun with chia seeds… It’s been a while since I...

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:09:25 -0400

Fun with chia seeds…

It’s been a while since I posted here — I’ve been busy training and fund-raising ;) — but I’m back!

For a pre-run snack today (had 6 miles on the schedule), I had my usual PB/toast combo and decided to make some chia fresca.

Yes, the chia fresca looks disgusting, admittedly. I first read about it in the book Born to Run, which, in a nutshell, chronicles the journey of a few crazy American distance runners as they attempt to keep up with Mexico’s native Tarahumara Indians.

The Tarahumara regularly run distances equivalent to ultramarathons, often fueled largely by a cornmeal mixture and this drink, which they make with chia seeds, lime juice, and sugar.

I mixed it up based on a few different recipes I found online. The taste was fine — not sweet, although the texture would have weirded me out if I was more squeamish or picky. The seeds soak up water quickly and develop a gummy texture, and kinda float to the bottom of the water so they look like amphibian eggs, quite frankly.

Yesterday, when I planned to run at least 6 miles, I bonked really hard at the 5.5-mile mark, even after eating some caffeinated Shot Bloks around my usual 4ish mile point. Today, I ate my usual toast/peanut butter snack, and drank the chia fresca and felt AWESOME. I didn’t have to eat the Shot Bloks and felt super great all the way through the end of 6 miles. I could have kept going if I had re-fueled at that point, but I forgot to take anything besides water with me.

It could be the placebo effect, the fact that I got more sleep today, or the fact that I did my training run in the evening when I naturally have more energy. Either way, I’ll take it, and I’m going to keep experimenting with all these variables as I continue my half-marathon training.

Other great news: I am more than 70% of my way towards my fundraising goal!! I only need to raise $320 to hit my target. I am reading more and more good news about research on blood cancers, and a friend of mine who was diagnosed earlier this year just got a cancer-free scan after several chemo sessions! And, running is getting easier and easier every day… So, I am pumped to continue this journey.

If you’d like to kindly support my huffing and puffing through a half-marathon, and the fight against cancer, please visit my Team in Training donation page here.

Nike Free Run +2 … Just ordered these to run in. So...

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:33:47 -0400

Nike Free Run +2 … Just ordered these to run in. So excited!! I’ve been wearing low-support shoes/going barefoot for over a year to work up to these guys. I just couldn’t deal with the thought of wearing Vibram Five Fingers AND a fuel belt ;) I’ll post a picture of THAT baby soon.

Training update: Up to about 5 or 6 miles at a time depending on...

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 13:47:48 -0400

Training update: Up to about 5 or 6 miles at a time depending on the ()@#*@(#* heat. It’s raining here (AGAIN) and I only have NOW, basically, to fit in a run so I’m gonna hit the cursed treadmill… And YES I watch Chariots of Fire for inspiration when I’m stuck running indoors! hahah! Anyone have any other similar suggestions that are available on Netflix Instant?

Other good news: I’m MORE THAN HALFWAY to my fundraising goal of $1400 to help beat blood (AND OTHER KINDS) of cancers!! Just a little bit more to go! Click here to visit my Team in Training fundraising page, there are cookies in it for you! <3

Sept. 1 is @abolishcancer day! Why not help fight leukemia?

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:49:00 -0400

Sept. 1 is @abolishcancer day! Why not help fight leukemia? :

The Twitter movement originating from @abolishcancer has been using social media — and engaged musicians on social media — to raise awareness of childhood cancers! Today, September 1, they’re asking people to donate $1 to the childhood cancer charity of their choice. Why not donate to fight leukemia?

While the five-year survival rate for children with the most common form of leukemia is now 85% (yay! it was just 4% in 1960), there’s still a long way to go:

There is no known cure.
Leukemia still remains a leading cause of cancer-related death in children.
Leukemia and the related cancer lymphoma are the leading fatal cancers in young men under 35.
Every four minutes, someone is newly diagnosed with a blood cancer.
Every 10 minutes, another child or adult is expected to die from a blood-related cancer.

A donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society can help, no matter what the amount! If 25 people donate just $1 each that’s enough for an information session with a sick child and their family to educate them on the most up-to-date treatment options. At $50, that’s enough to pay for a support group… and it goes on from there.

Click here to learn more! :)

I guess I need to buy more of these funky dri-fit types of...

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:47:31 -0400

I guess I need to buy more of these funky dri-fit types of shirts and shorts…. Anything over 30 minutes in this weather and it’s like I bathed in my clothes :( (Also on the wish list: compression socks, but why on earth are they $25-$50 for some damn socks?!)

ariellec:

Team in Training jersey (yes it’s huge). (Taken with instagram)

Oldest Living Person Located in the Western Brazilian Amazon

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:37:31 -0400

Oldest Living Person Located in the Western Brazilian Amazon:

She’s about to turn 121!

ariellec:

The key? No big news here… a local diet with no grains, no sugar or processed crap, frequent long walks and a relatively labor-intensive traditional way of life. And, I’m wildly guessing, no Tumblr/Twitter/Facebook addictions or iPhones.

Made $250 towards my fundraising efforts today via Craigslist :)

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 17:43:35 -0400

“Sold” a portable air conditioning unit to someone who clearly really needed it, and my mostly unused hybrid bike to an old friend. (Thanks Monica Suarez!)

Scouring the rest of the house for things of value I could “sell” as well. Maybe this extra Wii….

Now, time to get in a run since I took too many “rest” (i.e. lazy) days this last week. Unfortunately it’s approximately 10000 degrees out so it looks like I’ll be hitting the treadmill (ugh) set on a slight incline to compensate. Think I’ll just go for time — 45ish minutes or one whole episode of Mad Men? So thankful Netflix streams on the iPhone!

Why I'm Running a Half-Marathon To Fight Cancer

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:35:00 -0400

Cancer is a an ugly thing. To put it frankly and colloquially, it sucks. Even suckier is that, sadly, it’s on the rise. It pains me to know that if you’re reading this, you likely know, or will know, someone who will struggle with the disease.

In the face of that overwhelmingly gloomy thought, I decided last month to do get off my butt and do something about it. I’ve joined Team in Training and have committed to raising $1400 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, to fund research to fight these blood cancers — and other types of cancer! More on that in a second.

But beyond that — comically, if you know me from my music and nightlife journalism and related escapades — I’ve committed to running a half-marathon with the team. Seriously.

In January, I’ll be barely crawling my way through the ING Miami Half Marathon, although hopefully by then I’ll have graduated to running shoes I didn’t score for free at a nightclub. (Thanks, Asics, for the pair you gave me at the Vagabond that I’m currently grinding to rubbery stumps.)

So what are blood cancers? They include leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, and myeloma… Here’s the bad news about them:

There’s no known cure.
Leukemia remains a leading cause of cancer-related death in children.
Leukemia and lymphoma are the leading fatal cancers in young men under 35.
Every four minutes, someone is newly diagnosed with a blood cancer.
Every 10 minutes, another child or adult is expected to die from a blood-related cancer.
957,902 Americans are presently living with or are in remission from leukemia, Hodgkin lymphoma, NHL (Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma), or myeloma…

…and one of those is my awesome mom, for whom I owe so much of my sense of humor, outlook on life, resourcefulness, and a lot of other things you might like about me if you’re reading this.

She’s kicking NHL’s butt, and a couple other people close to me are currently fighting blood cancers as well. I will be racing in honor of them, and with your help, I would like to help run this disease into the ground.

Would you kindly consider extending some generosity and donating to my cause? Not only do you get to feel warm and fuzzy, but you get to laugh at the thought of me huffing and puffing at 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning. And here are just a few bits of good news about blood cancers:

In 1960, the five-year survival rate for children with the most common form of leukemia was just 4 percent. Today, it is 85%!
A newly FDA approved drug, Gleevec, has been shown to normalize blood counts in nearly all patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). As a result of the success of Gleevec, in 2007, the relative five-year survival rate for CML patients is now at 74.8%.
Hodgkin lymphoma is now considered one of the most curable forms of cancer, thanks to radiation, chemotherapy, or a combination of the two.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma society has had a huge hand in helping with a silver lining. Since 1949, LLS has invested more than $750 million in research, and $72 million in the year 2010 alone.

Society-funded research has directly contributed to many breakthrough cancer treatments including chemotherapy, bone marrow and stem cell transplantation, and new, targeted oral therapies like Gleevec.

But that’s not all — the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society also funds research that contributes to many other kinds of cancers, including stomach, breast, and lung cancers. The hope now, is that all blood cancers will be curable by 2015, and the LLS won’t stop until it puts itself out of business.

No donation is too small, all are very much appreciated, and even the cost of just a couple of cocktails on South Beach makes a real difference in a patient’s life. Just click this link to see some concrete examples of how different levels of donation directly help people.

Besides my everlasting, undying gratitude, I’m sweetening the pot, as inspired by friends’ artistic fundraisers on sites like Kickstarter. I’m offering a few tokens, again described at this link, to show my deep appreciation. For instance, if you’ve ever asked me about writing a bio, press release, anything like that, check it out.

But in general, if you’ve ever liked anything I’ve written, done, said, whatever; if you would enjoy goofy pictures of me training at times when I used to go to bed; or if you, like me, just really, really hate cancer, I hope sincerely you’ll contribute to the cause.

Thanks very much for the consideration and I appreciate you even taking the time to read this!

Besides this page, I’ll also be blogging my training experiences, fun workout music, healthy recipes, and everything else here on Tumblr. Thanks very much for reading.

Click here to visit Arielle Castillo’s Team in Training fundraising page.

With deep gratitude,

Arielle