Snow!

On christmas day Karen and I went for a short run in the snow. Its been hard to fit in full workouts with the weather we had, but we figured a short one is better than none at all :).


a snowman we built in the back yard.

Rocky... Balboa

The past week or so has me feeling like Rocky Balboa in "Rocky IV" training in Russia.  I've been taking my Golden Retriever for 3 mile jogs in 1 - 2 feet of snow around the neighborhoods in Duvall.  I haven't been able to make it to the team practices as my neck of the woods has been dumped on a little more than Seattle so I've been doing the jogs and shoveling the driveway and sidewalk (numerous times, since it's dumped >6 inches on 4 different occasions) for workouts.  I can't wait for the snow to go away and for things to return to normal so I can meet back up with others in our tribe and get back to more conventional training.

Weather

Extreme Seattle weather has put a bit of a damper on our training. Last monday night our outdoor running practice switched to circuit training (it was about 20 degrees outside). Wednesday every single school in the area closed because of snow. and by snow I mean the ANTICIPATION of snow. We didn't get a flake of snow, but everyone was terrified we would, and everything closed, and thus swimming was cancelled as the pool was closed.
Thursday the snow then dumped down, and we got about 3 inches by friday. Which then froze as the temperatures dropped, making biking and running for Saturdays practice pretty hard. Bikes and ice don't really play well.
(unlike snow and Boomer - see below).



Then Saturday at about 3pm, it started snowing again. And this time it came down long and hard. By Sunday we had a few inches. Boomer Kyle and I went for a quick run in downtown Bellevue park through the snow. And by Sunday night we had over 10 inches of snow.

So basically, most of my week has been spent admiring our weather, and not much training. I'm trying to get in a few trainings, to keep in shape. I set up my bike trainer tonight, and put in 40 minutes on it, but it doesn't really compare to outside riding. Suppose the holidays our trainings often taper down...

So Happy holidays everyone! Hope ya'll say warm and dry, and find some creative ways to get some miles and yards in.

Training in a different time zone....

Hello from NYC!!! Where the weather has been more unpredictable than Seattle, go figure. There was actually two consecutive days of rain here, and the locals were going crazy. Well, it felt like home for me, so I did what every Seattlite does...laced up the running shoes, grabbed the ipod and went for a jog. Of course my cousin helped me map out a route so I wouldn't get lost in this big city (Brooklyn)! It was raining and COLD, and I am fairly certain people thought I was crazy, but it sure felt great. I saw one other runner that day....he must have been from out of state as well.

Yesterday my Aunt and I conquered the NYC subway system without a chaperone and went into the even bigger city (Manhattan) to hit the gym for a swim. We managed to get a two week pass to the famous New York Sports Club for free, but the closest one with a pool was all the way uptown in Times Square...it took us 45min by subway...imagine what how long it would have taken us by car.

So training on the east coast has been much like training at home....cold and wet. I hear its going to be a low of 9 degrees on the west coast tonight...brrrrrrr!!! Tomorrow will be another cold and sunny day here in Brooklyn and time for another run. Training has been a little bit of challenge with a sore foot, but still far better than ever having to go through chemo!

I miss the motivation of my team...I'll see you all in another 10 days. Have fun!!!

Swimming!

Until this week our team has been training with the New Balance Half Ironman team, and that makes for a pretty full pool. In fact there where 12 people in my lane last week! Here is some footage:



Swimming today was much calmer, now that their HI team practices separatly, it was nice to only have 6 people in our lanes :). I was pleasantly tired after practice too. I think we did close to the race distance in our lane.

back in the saddle

just got back from our saturday morning team workout. it was tough waking up to meet in mercer island by 8am but it was a good time, not too cold, and i rewarded myself with a nice cup of coffee afterwards. instead of the usual running around a track, today we ran through the trails at pioneer park and played the "name game" - basically everyone gets a few clothes pins with some of our fellow team mates names on them, then run and look for them. once you find them or they find you, you have to find something in common (non-triathlon or Team-in-Training related) and then run back to "base" for points. we did this for an hour and the best part was getting to know each other and yelling out names as you run!

also, this past week i went to indoor cycling (aka spinning) class twice as part of getting some time on the saddle. i have a love hate relationship with this class. i love the fact that you burn a lot of calories in an hour. i like that there is usually good music blaring to help numb the pain. and i like that this class has helped me build endurance. but there are moments, usually about 15 minutes in, when my legs, lungs, heart, etc just want to quit and i think "why am i putting myself through this torture again?" and then i realize, i'm lucky to have a choice to be there and to train. there are millions battling cancer who may not have that choice. and again i'm reminded...that's who we're racing for. and so the journey to lavaman continues...

Bike/bus compromise

Yesterday I tried a new way of commuting. I biked about 1/2 way to work, and then hopped on a direct bus across the bridge. And it was pretty amazing.

When I bike the entire way to work, I have to go a lot longer route (to hit the brige with the bike lane), and it takes me close to 1.5 hours to get in, and even longer to get home, due to the route. So its pretty hard to make that big a time commitment very often, and to get up early enough to make it into work on time.

But this bike bus compromise - actually takes me about the same time as driving! And its even faster if there is traffic, and I get in some workout. I only have to bike about 4 miles to the bus stop. Officially that is barely even a workout, but I figure its fast enough I can actually do that a few times a week, and 8 miles a day, is way better than nothing! And otherwise getting in a bike ride during the week is hard, stupid sun going down early.

My goal is to do this at least twice next week, we'll see how I do.

Also - I dragged Bex along with me - sorta forgetting it was only her third time biking! To me its a very easy route, as 3 miles of it is along the burke Gilman. but there is a tiny bit of tricky street riding, and even though she was nervous she did great! So bex, lets do it again next Tuesday!