Everyone Gets a Medal!

Thank you!!! Many of you have signed up to take the 52 Days Challenge let the training begin. Let’s get this party started! Everyone gets a medal sign up here and Train Baby Train!  http://www.active.com/virtual-ca/walking/virtual-events/virtual-extreme-walk-4-diabetes-3100-mile-challenge-2017

After you sign up remember you still need to train...Let the training begin and Smile Baby Smile!

Training for 3100 Miles is hard but who said you can’t have a little fun. Fun in the sun in Long Beach happy workout weekend! 

Yesterday’s training marathon at Spring 7 Day 5 at Belmont Shore Beach in Long Beach, I received a few compliments one man said “your body is sexy & beautiful like Sarah in Terminator 2”. Today’s workout, Shoulders!!! Now that made me SMILE!!! 

I'm wishing you a stress free work week and a fabulous workout!  www.yolandaholder.com 

TAKE MY CHALLENGE

52 STRAIGHT DAYS!!!

Take My Challenge: I have the hard challenge of power walking 60+ miles daily for 52 straight days and YOU have the easy challenge a mile or more daily for 52 straight days! Lucky YOU!!! It will take YOU less than 15 minutes to walk, run, bike, hike, headstand or swim and it will take ME 18 hours to walk 60+ miles daily. Working out 30 minutes a day helps keep the doctor away and it makes you Smile Baby Smile! Try it for 52 days and see how you look and feel.

Sign up today and share with your friends and family!
www.yolandaholder.com  
http://www.active.com/virtual-ca/walking/virtual-events/virtual-extreme-walk-4-diabetes-3100-mile-challenge-2017

Epic Challenge for YOU!

Happy Workout Weekend!!!   I’ve got an epic challenge for YOU!  Run, Walk, Bike, Hike, Swim, Headstands or 31,000 Steps daily for 52 days!!!  Join me on my epic journey to Sri Chinmoy Self Transcendence 3100 Mile Race in New York.  I must walk 60 miles daily to reach 3100 Miles in 52 days. Challenge yourself by working out for 52 straight days.  Say good-bye to your inner critic and hello to your new admirer.  The IMPOSSIBLE IS POSSIBLE.  Sign up today at http://www.yolandaholder.com/  or http://www.active.com/virtual-ca/walking/virtual-events/virtual-extreme-walk-4-diabetes-3100-mile-challenge-2017   

Happy New Fitness Year 2017

HAPPY NEW YEAR and HAPPY NEW YOU

Happy New Fitness Year 2017!!! I’m headed to Across the Years Six Day Race in Phoenix Arizona you can follow me on the live webcam 24/7.  My goal is to power walk 410 miles to break Amy Howards’s 137 year record.  The race starts at 9am Wednesday December 28^th and ends 9am January 3, 2017.  Have a safe and fun New Year’s celebration and remember keep moving your body and SMILE.  http://www.acrosstheyears.com/

-Yolanda "Walking Diva" Holder

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Christmas Run in Santa Monica California and Headstand Day 329

21 Days of Inspiration and Motivation - Day 23 with Violeta Heisler

Dream Big

I like to say I am a dreamer, I like to dream big!

Although this has not always been the case, all thru my childhood I struggled with my weight. I was a chubby kid, because of it I was bullied and made fun of also because of the color of my skin. I was not confident and that's when I think my depression started to develop. I hated my self! Things only got worse when in my teens I was in a abusive relationship that lasted for years, it destroyed my confidence and self steam. I was in a deep hole where alcohol was a daily routine to bare with my life and feelings. 

One day I decided to end the abuse and vicious cycle and let go of the bad. Promise not to drink anymore and left my partner at the time.  Taking care of work and my two little girls was stressful, so I decided to make a change and I joined the YMCA. I was never a runner or athletic it was tough with my confidence issues but I went thru it. One night I had a dream, that I was running then flying! Till this day I will never forget the feeling of freedom I had. So I decided to step on the treadmill, first day was 15 min and I was out of breath! Then the next day 20 min and so on until I was running for an hour. Then the miles became more and more for that 1 hr of running, so one day I decided not to go in the gym and run in the streets, I ran like 8 miles and thought "this is awesome!" "I can do this, I can run a marathon" silly of me I registered for the LA Marathon. 2009 it was moved to May. So yes I had 1 month to run from 8 miles to 26. That month let me tell you, I was in pain! But I did it, I crossed that finish line at 5:15. I was sold I had found my place, that's where I knew I belonged!

I registered for my second marathon in Las Vegas that December of 2009 and PR at 4:34. Unfortunately coming back home we were in a car accident where we went off the cliff and rolled down landing upside down, thank God my girls were fine but I was left with concussions, abrasions and 7 broken bones in my spine. I could not walk not to say run. I fell into that hole again but this time I didn't let it get to me, with the help of my good friend Andres I recovered and ran my first half marathon with CAR racing at 2:25, a month later my second half with a 2:15. After 6 months of that horrible accident I ran my 3rd full marathon in San Francisco with 4:55.

Then in that moment I knew what my dream meant! 

Running has taken me to places I've never been, I have meet wonderful people along the way, built lasting friendships and it has made me stronger physically and mentally. I still deal with depression but I know all it takes for me to get better is to go out for a run, I ran 5 full marathons, 5 halves and 1 5k while pregnant with my little Mia and now I have a big dream of completing 100 marathons by march in my beloved city at the LA marathon.
So far I've run 92 full marathons and over 60 half marathons, and yes after all been thru I'm still here, 92 marathons after standing tall and strong! 

Follow your dreams, even if people tell you that you're just a dreamer! Reach for those dreams and the stars because you are the only one standing between you and those goals, and remember you are worthy and beautiful regardless of anyone's else's opinion!  I have wonderful friends and a very supportive husband, and I can run!! God is great!

Thank you for letting me share and I hope if I can help a soul I've done good!

-Violeta Heisler- 

21 Days of Inspiration and Motivation - Day 22 with Jim Schroeder

Running For My Life

An Iowa Boy’s Journey

If you gain their trust and ask an ultra runner you will find that there is a backstory, sometimes mundane, sometimes very unique and interesting. My story is a combination of youthful running exuberance and later and harsher life experiences that many endure.

My complete stories can be read in more detail in my running book trilogy: (i) Zen Track Rambling, (ii) Running for my Life: A Journey Through Space and Time and (iii) Running Across a Candy Planet, available through 

https://www.amazon.com/Jim-Schroeder/e/B009HTS5SY

Mind you my first marathon was August 2001 at age 54! So if you are 30 or 40 years of age and feeling like you cannot start running or walking, well put that negative thought aside! Trust me, it can be done!

Most recently, age 69 years now, I completed another Icarus Florida Ultrafest 6-day with 242 miles, well short of my 304 mile PR, then rather foolishly attempted the Ancient Oaks 100 Miler on difficult trails just three weeks later. I came close, but dropped out with an injury at 95 miles! Note the Death Stare! Oh so close, yet so far!!!

More importantly, how at age 69 years, did I get to the point of undertaking endurance running as a hobby?

My running journey led me to extreme highs, but has also plunged me into the depths of near depression after June 2000, when an injury crippled my running life. I felt discouraged and depressed, and those feelings became apparent in my writing as summarized in Zen Track Rambling.

When I think back to that time, I realize that writing had become my therapy, my way to understand my own fears and to express a hope I did not yet feel.  When the pain from my injury subsided—it took six long months—I felt the adrenaline urge again, but this time I replaced competitive racing with slow, long-distance running.  Similarly, my writing style also changed:  I started to write how I felt during those long runs in the form of race reports—instead of poetry—to memorialize my ultra-marathon experiences. 

My running life had finally pushed me forward into positive places on the trails and my spirit of running was renewed.

As I re-read Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man, after completing my own Zen Track Rambling I realized there was a lot more to the story and sat down to write a prequel and sequel to capture my experience before and after ZTR. Running for My Life covers my early years growing up in the Iowa countryside, some running through Navy service (not as much as I should have!), falling out of the running habit then grasping running again to work through a difficult time in my first PhD program.

I recently completed the trilogy by publishing Running Across a Candy Planet. Running Across a Candy Planet covers the post Zen Track Rambling phase of my running life.

The re-entry into running occurred November 1981 and has continued unabated until the present. Indeed my foray into ultramarathoning commenced after my 60^th birthday by completing the MTC 50K in a time of 4:52, my PR and as of this writing has yet to end!

So, YES YOU CAN, run that first marathon or start with a 5K!!! I started with a 5K back in April 1983 and look where I am now!

Start with a 5K, move up to a 10K, then a 15K, then go for your first Half Marathon!

After that you will be unable to resist the marathon’s siren call.

Soon, we will be welcoming you to the dark side as you commence ultramarathoning!!!  

Badwater 135 at Furnace Creek 

My book is available on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Jim-Schroeder/e/B009HTS5SY

For more information message me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/jimschroeder.animal

-Jim Schroeder-