Lianne in training.

Long time no see

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:30:35 -0500

Hello Everyone -

It’s been a crazy summer. I am sure I havent updated this in at least a month, i’m really sorry. Life, and work, and the summer heat got the best of me… it’s been a bit of a challenge to juggle my regular 9-5, fundraising, volunteering, and still staying on track with training, but somehow i’ve survived it!

Thank you so much to every friend, family member, co-worker, and contest participant who has supported this cause and helped me reach my fundraising goal.

As of this week, I have met my required minimum! $2,400! I’m going to try to maintain a personal goal of $3,000 by the race date, so please tell all your friends to stop by and visit my fundraising page. http://tinyurl.com/TNTLianne

Training has been such a crazy whirlwind. The last time I wrote, I was still working my way up to a 12 mile run! In the weeks that followed, we slowly climbed our way through the miles, to 16, 18, and 20!! 20 miles, man, let me tell you how much i just LOVED putting myself through that. haha! The good news about finishing 20 is that is as hard as our training is going to get. This week we start to taper, with a nice recovery run of 12 miles, and it’s all downhill from there. I’d be lying if I said I’m not nervous about how i’m going to pull another 6.2 miles out of myself on race day, but I guess it’s got to happen! My shins are going to be thankful for the rest in the weeks leading up to the race.

I think my congratulations on surviving training/fundraising gift to myself is going to be a watch that will do interval timing that I can wear on race day. I’m not going for the big bucks on a GPS watch just yet, since my phone can take care of that for me, but I’m certain I’m going to need my own interval timer if I want to make it out of Nike alive and maintain my usual pace!

Pictures of fun people and fun things to come.

This heat

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 09:06:00 -0500

is unbearable! Yesterday I woke up at 3:30am to join the “early” group of our team that starts their run at 4:30 instead of 5:45. We got most of our ten miles in for the weekend before the sun even came up. It was pretty hard getting out of bed that morning, but I guess it was a good idea afterall.

I’ve been battling those stupid shin splints for a couple weeks now. After last week’s training, when I was only able to run 6 of the 12 scheduled miles, I thought “enough is enough,” and took my sore legs to Ft. Worth Running Company. They did a slow-mo video analysis of my gait and we decided i need a new shoe with more stability for moderate to severe pronators. sigh. I’m not in too much pain today, so I think at least they are working!

Last week we had a recommitment event for the Nike Women’s Marathon. I bit the bullet and turned in all my paperwork that evening, even though we really had til this tuesday to mull it over. I am pretty excited that this means it is all really happening now, but of course I’m still nervous because this also means I just promised to raise the other 1600 dollars I’m still missing from my fundraising minimum. I’ve got a couple ideas to keep the money coming, but if you’re reading this, every penny still helps!! Please don’t forget to check out my fundraising page at http://tinyurl.com/tntlianne.

To keep this slightly less boring, here’s my most recent picture with Andrew to celebrate how far someone can come from battling blood cancers thanks to the research we have today! And also to celebrate the upcoming release of People & Things and the fact that there will actually be a show in Dallas! Who’s excited? This girl.

a week out of commission

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 19:54:14 -0500

Soo the last week and a half has not been the most fun. After my trip to OKC, i went on a 12 mile run with 2 of my team mates. it was awesome at the time being! it’s a really cool feeling knowing you’ve just accomplished something you’ve never done before, or run farther than you ever have before! However, the next day my shins were feelin’ it. They were feelin it so much, in fact, that I had to skip out on the tuesday night team run…. and then the thursday night team run… and THEN the saturday morning run. I spent a lot of time googling stretches and techniques to speed up the process to non-achey shins during my time off the road though, and yesterday i was finally able to join some of the team for another tuesday night run! I’ve been super busy at work this past week which has distracted me a bit, but i’m ready to get back into the swing of things, with running AND fundraising! Thanks so much Uncle James and Grandma for being my latest donors! Wish me luck!

Oklahoma

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 16:17:53 -0500

Well, my weekend in Oklahoma didn’t go quite as I’d originally planned. Last night I saw Jack’s Mannequin with some of my friends. It was great to see Andrew play some music after an entire year without seeing him. Andrew, if you ever read this, thanks for yet another great show! Can’t wait for the new album to come out.

This morning I would have liked to have joined OKC’s team in training for my long distance run, but it turns out they change their schedules a lot and did not train this morning. So, I will be doing 10-12 miles tomorrow morning with a couple of people from my local team that also missed today’s training. I think I will finally feel like a runner when I can say I’ve done ten miles!

Please keep my fundraising efforts in mind, folks. I am about 1/3 of the way to my goal, but still have a long way to go! http://tinyurl.com/TNTlianne

Have a great weekend!

Lianne

Update! 7-10-11

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 19:52:07 -0500

Wow, what a crazy busy two weeks it has been!

First off, let me start this week’s update with giant THANK YOU’s to some of my friends!
Thank you thank you thank you to Marissa, Lindsay, Allie, and Phil for helping me with the F5 challenge!! A huge thanks to my overseas buddy, Steph for her very generous donation. We miss you Steph! And last but not least, thank you Jose, my wonderful boyfriend. I love you!

This was a great week of fundraising and I couldn’t have done it without all of you guys!! Please keep an eye on my training progress as the months continue to pass and please spread the word that I am working towards a fundraising goal that will help fund research that can benefit not just the thousands of victims of blood cancer, but many other types of cancer patients as well some day. Something really cool to think about — Leukemia & Lymphomy Society were the main support and providers of the research that led to chemotherapy, which now treats patients with countless variations of cancer! Just last month, LLS launched four new drug development partnerships and will provide funding for the clinical trial treatments of patients with certain forms of myelogenous leukemia.

Not much to report on the training side of things other than that I am slowly making progress with my mileage. The evening runs are getting harder and harder even though the distance remains the same, but the heat is so hard to deal with out there. The past two saturdays, our long distance run was 8 miles, which is a new distance record for me. My pace has slowed to about an 11 minute mile, but I am just glad to be completing the distances at this point. Next week, I am going to try to train with Oklahoma City’s team for my first ten mile run! I will be in OKC on Friday night to see Jack’s Mannequin. I am excited to tell Andrew about the team and that I will be running the Nike Women’s Marathon in his honor. Most of all, I’m excited to see Jack’s Mannequin again for the first time since last February!

Take care my friends!

$5 Challenge

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:30:18 -0500

Hello Friends!

TODAY, our team begins the “F5,” or the Fast & Furious $5 Facebook (shh..or tumblr) Challenge. Please reblog this to all your friends and help me win this challenge! I NEED YOUR HELP TO WIN! Why do I want to win so bad? Well, first, it will bring me closer to my goal of raising $3,200 towards cancer research, which is very important, and second, Ryan, our campaign coordinator, gives out cool prizes sometimes to people who win challenges, like hats, socks, puppies and sunshine. One of these days i’m gonna get a hat ryan!

You can help me win, by simply going to http://tinyurl.com/TNTLianne between now and July 6th and throwing down a mere FIVE of your hard earned dollars on my fundraising goal!

So, PLEASE save that venti caramel macchiato you were gonna buy yourself tomorrow morning for a rainy day and send $5 my way instead!

PS, thank you Mao for being my most recent supporter! I miss you! Hope you’re doing lots of exciting lawyer things.

Just having some fun with the packages I have been collecting...

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:51:59 -0500

Just having some fun with the packages I have been collecting for my friends at 11:11AM and the Dear Jack Foundation.

If you are into the indie-rock music scene, look out for them on Warped Tour this summer as they raise money for pediatric cancer research!

…and took the power lines, and it was me and you… 5...

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 16:44:00 -0500

…and took the power lines, and it was me and you…

5 mins before my run. pretty sky hiding behind north tx construction. We did 6 miles this saturday. I completed it in about an hour and 5 minutes. This is the farthest i’ve ever run. I know it may not seem far to some, but it’s a small milestone to me. Now every weekend can be a new achievement. Man it is getting hot out though; we are going to move our runs from 6:45am to 5:45am in another week or two to try to beat the heat.

This was a great fundraising week. Many thanks to Cannon (my boss!) and RafiQ, for such a kind donation to the cause. Thanks also go to Rachel for her donation, and to Jose’s family, and my friends Adam, Adam, Potter, and Soleil for coming out to our fundraising dinner at Cantina Laredo this week. I am still awaiting the results of that evening, but we’ve heard they should be pretty good!

As always please remember to visit my fundraising page www.tinyurl.com/tntlianne

Great training day

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 17:17:42 -0500

This morning we had a huge turn out! A guest speaker came and hosted a nutrition clinic so we understand how to eat properly as our activity levels continue to increase. Who knew that snacks are supposed to come from at least 2 food groups to keep you full!? I didn’t..

Afterwards we did a GREAT 5 mile run near parts of grapevine lake. My nike+ sportband said I came back with a total of 5.3 more miles under my belt with a time of 54 minutes. I am really stoked about this because it means I was able to maintain approx a 10 minute mile, even with the increased distance! I am already excited for next weekend and a 6 mile run.

Thank you to my friend Kristen back home in Orlando for supporting my cause!!

What an awesome week so far!! Thank you to my friends at...

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 22:18:00 -0500

What an awesome week so far!! Thank you to my friends at 11:11 A.M. for helping promote my cause! And a humongous thank you to my Aunt & Uncle, Ethel & Jack, for the extremely generous donation they made this week. Also another huge thanks to one of my faaavorite mentors, former supervisors, and friends, Chris for supporting me as well!

I can’t do this without every single one of you!

1111amblog:

We have started a kickstart scholarship program! 11:11 A.M. is going to donate $100 to three people a year to help their fundraising for causes such as Light The Night and Team in Training (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society). Our first scholarship is going to Lianne Aluotto for her marathon training, read her story below and help her reach her goal of $3,200!

Donation Guest Blog Feature: Lianne Aluotto

Hi, I’m Lianne! I’m 23 years old and am a member of the North Texas chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training. TNT, as some like to call it, provides coaches to train individuals on how to complete an athletic endurance event in exchange for raising a certain amount of money for LLS.

Currently, I am training to run 26.2 miles in the Nike Women’s Marathon, which will be held in San Francisco this October. I have taken on this challenge for a number of reasons. After seeing the incredible battle my personal hero, Andrew McMahon, went through after being diagnosed with leukemia at this very age, I realized I have been blessed enough to never have to fight for good health, so I should be able to challenge myself while working to support those who have struggled. I became even more inspired when one of our team’s “honored heros” spoke at a recent training, explaining that groups like Team in Training provided the funding that led to the research ultimately resulting in the common use of chemo therapy as a treatment to cancer. This helps serve as a constant reminder that the miles, sweat, and sunburns that will come and go as I train this season are nothing compared to what cancer patients and their families go through every day, and what possibilities for a cure more research can provide as long as we keep supporting this endeavor.

Please take a moment to visit my fundraising page at http://tinyurl.com/TNTlianne.

Thanks!

Thank you TJ for supporting Team in...

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 20:35:26 -0500

Thank you TJ for supporting Team in Training!

thesilverthings:

http://thesilverthings.bandcamp.com

Week 3

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 20:34:00 -0500

This was a really fun weekend. My little brother graduated high school on Saturday, so I spent the weekend in Florida with celebrating with my family! Since I had a Thursday evening flight out, and worked all day, I decided to skip my Thurs run and try for Friday and Saturday runs back to back instead.

Friday’s run was AWESOME. My mom lives pretty near my grandparents, so I ran from her house to theirs, early in the morning. It ended up being a 4.2 mile run which was just about the distance I think the intermediate group was doing for their group run this weekend, so I was glad to be on track. It was surprisingly not too humid for Florida weather. All in all, I actually had a good time on that run. I love being able to say that!

Saturday, however, I took a beating. The humidity came really early, and my shins were very achey from the previous days run. I plodded through something between 1.5 or 2 miles and had to call it a day.

Sunday I rested and today I did 3.75 miles at a slow but steady pace. I can slowly feel my distances increasing, which i suppose is good news.

Many thanks to my two most recent donors — my best friend Tinsley, and an old friend, TJ! Check out his band The Silver Things at http://thesilverthings.bandcamp.com/

puppy!

Sun, 29 May 2011 22:14:52 -0500

puppy!

Training week 2!

Sun, 29 May 2011 21:35:00 -0500

Training is going well so far. We had our second weekend training on Saturday (there are unofficial group runs on Tuesdays, but the first one of those had been cancelled due to hail and tornadoes in North TX).

We did a 3 mile run, and split into groups of walkers, intermediate runners, and advanced runners. I stuck with the intermediate group and will be trying to maintain a pace of 10 mins per mile during the trainings. We practiced doing intervals, running for 5 mins and walking for 1. They claim this will actually make you faster in the long term, as you usually re-start your run with more energy after a quick walking break.

We have also been given a “training schedule” that lists when and how far to run every day from now until the date of the race! This has proven great so far to keep me on track, and it contains the much needed days of rest so I don’t accidentally over do it.

One of the highlights of the morning was getting to meet one of our chapter’s honored heroes! Allen came out to visit our team and gave us a brief pep talk before we headed out to the trails. He is 28 years old and has hodgkin’s lymphoma. He definitely reminded us how important fundraising for this cause actually is, when he noted that groups like team in training originally raised the money to fund the research that ultimately developed into the treatment we all know of today as chemotherapy. He explained that chemo is what is helping him stay alive today, it was really inspirational.

You can read more about all of our chapter’s honored heroes here: http://www.teamintraining.org/ntxok/firsttimehere/tnt/hero/

Also, our coach sue found an adorable puppy! He was hanging out with everyone on Saturday morning. Thankfully, we meet at an animal shelter, so I am pretty sure a couple of the team members stayed behind to get him some food and see if he had a microchip or an owner that might be looking for him!

Training has begun!

Sun, 22 May 2011 11:31:09 -0500

Yesterday was the TNT North Texas Chapter’s first day of training for the fall team! We met bright and early, at 6:45 a.m. to get started with introductions, and then a quick 2 mile run, followed by a stretching clinic and a shoe fitting clinic. Getting out of bed at 6 was the hardest part. The morning flew by and it all went pretty well.

Today I finally got around to calibrating my Nike+ sportband, so it will measure my runs more accurately from now on. I took it easy with a 1.5 mile run. I am waiting on our “training schedule” which will tell us how many miles to run each day from now through the end of the season in order to ensure we will be able to complete the marathon this fall.

Please don’t forget to check out my fundraising page at www.tinyurl.com/TNTlianne!

Thanks and happy Friday!

Fri, 13 May 2011 13:49:09 -0500

Many many thanks to my friends who have supported me by donating to my fundraising page in the last two weeks — Phong, Karamie, Amy, and Kathleen! you guys are awesome. I am now $240 closer to my fundraising goal of $3200!

Last weekend I met with Ryan, the campaign coordinator for the part of TNT North Texas I will be training with and we discussed fundraising strategies. We brainstormed over a few good ideas and I hope they all work out well! It was pretty exciting to plan out how the fundraising will unfold.

I’m kind of frustrated with my nike+ sportband. It wasn’t exactly cheap and bragged about having a 90% accuracy straight out of the box when measuring distance. Well, mine is not very accurate at all. I just uploaded my latest run and it says i only did 3.3K when I know I just ran almost an exact 5K. sigh. I’m going to have to figure out how to calibrate this thing on my next run.

Happy weekend everyone!

My friends over at 11:11AM (nonprofit raising money for cancer...

Thu, 12 May 2011 19:40:48 -0500

My friends over at 11:11AM (nonprofit raising money for cancer research) have a new shirt out. I plan to sport one this summer!

1111amblog:

11:11 A.M. & GLAMOUR KILLS

We are very excited to announce our new collaboration shirt with Glamour Kills! We wanted to make a shirt geared towards summer, where everything is in bloom and full of life. 11:11 A.M. staff member Marissa Mullen coined the saying “Life is Beautiful, Save It”, and with Glamour Kill’s amazing style, vision and design, we bring you this new shirt!

BUY Men’s (Sizes XS-XXL)
BUY Women’s (Sizes XS- XXL)

By reblogging this, you are entered to win an exclusive 11:11 A.M. prize pack! We will randomly choose two blogs next week. Show some support!

- 11:11 A.M.

Anticipation...

Fri, 06 May 2011 18:10:18 -0500

This week thus far has not been as great a success as I’d hoped it would be.

It took all of Sunday and the parts of Monday that I wasn’t at work to recover from the 14+ hours on my feet working outdoors at the Miranda Lambert show, so I started my running for the week on Tues. I did a mediocre 2.7 mile run, was hoping to reach 3 but my shins were really hurting so I went home and iced. The next day, I did a solid 4 mile run and felt tired, but great. Yesterday was a day of rest.

Today, after work, i bought myself a cool new gadget, the Nike+ Sportband, in purple. This is a nifty rubber bracelet/watch that adjusts around your wrist and has a removable usb device. It communicates with the Nike+ sensor that goes inside or attaches to your shoes, and can tell you the current time, how long you’ve been running, how many miles you’ve run, your pace per mile, and your calories burned.

I was really excited to take my new toy for a spin, but today I had an absolutely terrible run. Really people, probably the worst run I’ve had in the past YEAR. IDK where I went wrong today, but I barely made it through a meer 2 and a quarter miles and I had to run-walk almost the entire thing. I don’t know if it was just too hot or if i havent been giving my shins enough rest. In any case, i’m hurting so I think I’ll take tomorrow off and focus on the non-running part of being on the “TEAM.” I have my one-on-one meeting with Ryan, the campaign coordinator for the North TX region, to talk about fundraising strategies. Time to get brainstorming on that..

pre-training training

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:36:03 -0500

Hi! Welcome to my blog, which I will update as I progress through the Team In Training program, benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Please take a moment to visit my TNT fundraising page and consider making a donation to this cause. www.tinyurl.com/tntlianne

On April 26, I attended the informational meeting in Dallas and registered to participate in the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco on October 16, 2011. The minimum fundraising requirement is $3,200. This number seems daunting, but I know I can do it. I just got done coordinating and planning my place of employment’s first ever 5K run, and we brought in over $10,000!

Earlier this week, I did three fairly short distance runs (around 2 miles) with either the dog or the boyfriend. It was pretty hot a few days ago, but they went okay, we had to stop a few times to make sure the puppy had water breaks along the way.

Yesterday I went out on my own and did a 3.5 mile run around the neighborhood, and today, I got it up to 4.7 miles. This is the farthest I’ve run in a really long time. I know I have a long way to go to make it to 26.2, but I’m taking it one step at a time. Tomorrow my legs are taking the day off, as I’ll be in Tyler, TX working with Jose & his boss, Miranda Lambert! I hope by next weekend I can consistently run 4-5 miles as opposed to the 2-3 I can run now before feeling worn out.

The first official day of group training begins on May 21st. I’m excited to meet the coaches and mentors, but until then, I’m on my own!