On Sunday we had our tribe fundraiser "Comedy Kicks Cancer" - a night of standup comedy & silent auction at the Market Theater at Pike Place Market. I wasn't quite sure what the turn out would be, we were competing with the Oscar's after all, but we were all very pleasantly surprised when over 80 people showed up! We had the food, beer & wine donated for the event along with the venue and comedians. People have been incredibly generous and I've learned they are usually very willing to get behind a great cause!
We had 75 silent auction items and people left with all sorts of things from pet sitting (can't wait to take up Scottie on that) to hotel stays to handmade scarves, jewelry, event tickets and all sorts of impressive sports memorabilia. It was amusing to watch people bid for items and then "hover" to make sure their bid stuck. I have to admit, my competitive nature came out a few times too as I didn't want to lose a few key items :)
So thank you to everyone who came out to support our team, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and most importantly cancer patients and their families.
Can you believe we have only 4 weeks left?! GO TEAM!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Bricks...
When most people think about bricks, they think of clay and mortar; the building of houses and roads etc. I was once like this, now when I hear the word brick, I think "ugh..." as the word brick is now synominous with effort, pain and moving really, really, slowly. Many of you may wonder where and why I must be carrying bricks and potentially even wonder about what I am building. Alas I am no mason, I have no major blueprint that I am working on. I am simply biking, and then running. But how is that related to bricks??? It is a simple equation: Bike + Run = ICK -> BRICK
You may laugh at this but I dare any of you to go out on a long bike ride and then attempt to move with any form of speed directly after, it's damn near impossible. Go on try it. Your legs literally feel like bricks, the lactic acid has built up to such a degree while you were biking that it is hard to move. However with practice you can teach the muscles how to recover better and adjust to the change in movement. That is currently my major focus in training. It gets me on the bike (we know how I love that) and provides focus for the last transition I will have on race day. I know that by this stage I will be tired, potentially sun burnt and the last 6 miles will seem like an eternity. I am hoping though that this training will help manage some of the pain and get me out and moving as fast as I can so that I can finish in a somewhat reasonable time.
It's hard to believe that it is only 5 weeks until we head out to Hawaii, the reality of the race is becoming ever present with the ending of every day. I can only hope that the training I have done so far, and the training that I will do in these last few weeks will be enough to take me to the finish line. Having looked at our training schedule, Cathy is definitely out to kick our butts so I'm sure I'll be fine!
If you do decide to try out a BRICK, make sure you have enough fluids and snacks with you and remember - be safe, be happy and DONATE!!
You may laugh at this but I dare any of you to go out on a long bike ride and then attempt to move with any form of speed directly after, it's damn near impossible. Go on try it. Your legs literally feel like bricks, the lactic acid has built up to such a degree while you were biking that it is hard to move. However with practice you can teach the muscles how to recover better and adjust to the change in movement. That is currently my major focus in training. It gets me on the bike (we know how I love that) and provides focus for the last transition I will have on race day. I know that by this stage I will be tired, potentially sun burnt and the last 6 miles will seem like an eternity. I am hoping though that this training will help manage some of the pain and get me out and moving as fast as I can so that I can finish in a somewhat reasonable time.
It's hard to believe that it is only 5 weeks until we head out to Hawaii, the reality of the race is becoming ever present with the ending of every day. I can only hope that the training I have done so far, and the training that I will do in these last few weeks will be enough to take me to the finish line. Having looked at our training schedule, Cathy is definitely out to kick our butts so I'm sure I'll be fine!
If you do decide to try out a BRICK, make sure you have enough fluids and snacks with you and remember - be safe, be happy and DONATE!!
Friday, February 6, 2009
The journey to Lavaman continues...
With 14 weeks down and 7 weeks to go, here is the state of affairs for this body:
Swimming—I’ve been working hard. Good news for me is that I’ve improved—a LOT! I’m not attending the Team in Training coached practices (too far to drive at night), so I don’t really know how I compare to my teammates at this point in time. I just know now I’m a whole lot more confidant that I can swim a mile in the ocean and live to hop on my bike afterwards. A couple of weeks ago I went to a swim clinic in Redmond--two full days of working on stroke technique. (And yes, I was rather prune-like by the end of the weekend). The class was small (6 of us) with 2 instructors. The best part of the two days was the several underwater videos they did of each of us. There’s nothing like seeing yourself on video to show you that your head wasn’t really low enough (when you could have sworn it was) or your arm wasn’t really high enough (when you could have sworn it was) :) It was a fun group of people and I am grateful for all their pointers since I was the only one there without any triathlon/half-ironman/marathon experience.
So last week at my swimming lesson I worked on sprints. My instructor told me to swim 10 X 50’s—all out, as fast as I could swim—with about a minute in between each. She said if I didn’t feel like barfing my guts out (her words) after each one I wasn’t working hard enough. That’s always encouraging to hear up front! I managed to keep the breakfast down, but Tina came pretty close to having some serious pool cleanup to do. Yesterday it was back to endurance work. Swam another mile without stopping (ok—I did have a couple 15 second breaks to gulp some non pool water). She said I took 10 minutes off my last timed mile. Yippee!
Biking—We’ve somehow been incredibly lucky with the biking weather. As Rachel pointed out, last Saturday was so beautiful. It makes the miles go by quickly when the sun is shining and the water is sparkly. I only got separated once from the group I was riding with after the long last uphill climb. I was just about to get the cell phone out to call for directions when a few teammates miraculously came up behind me. The only bad part of the day was hopping off the bike and trying to run for 10 minutes. It’s hard to get those muscle groups going after riding 28 miles.
Running—6 miles doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’ve never been a distance runner, it feels like plenty. At the coached runs I always get passed by lots of people. I am getting better, though. 4 ½ miles has been my longest run at a good clip. I’m sure I’ll improve more in the next few weeks.
I keep thinking of how good the sun, sand, and 81 degrees will feel in Hawaii. Most inspiring to me has been watching the thermometer rise on my fundraising and reading the notes sent with checks and emails. I heard President Obama say recently (this may not be verbatim) “Don’t underestimate the power of a bunch of people joining together to accomplish amazing things.” No kidding!
Swimming—I’ve been working hard. Good news for me is that I’ve improved—a LOT! I’m not attending the Team in Training coached practices (too far to drive at night), so I don’t really know how I compare to my teammates at this point in time. I just know now I’m a whole lot more confidant that I can swim a mile in the ocean and live to hop on my bike afterwards. A couple of weeks ago I went to a swim clinic in Redmond--two full days of working on stroke technique. (And yes, I was rather prune-like by the end of the weekend). The class was small (6 of us) with 2 instructors. The best part of the two days was the several underwater videos they did of each of us. There’s nothing like seeing yourself on video to show you that your head wasn’t really low enough (when you could have sworn it was) or your arm wasn’t really high enough (when you could have sworn it was) :) It was a fun group of people and I am grateful for all their pointers since I was the only one there without any triathlon/half-ironman/marathon experience.
So last week at my swimming lesson I worked on sprints. My instructor told me to swim 10 X 50’s—all out, as fast as I could swim—with about a minute in between each. She said if I didn’t feel like barfing my guts out (her words) after each one I wasn’t working hard enough. That’s always encouraging to hear up front! I managed to keep the breakfast down, but Tina came pretty close to having some serious pool cleanup to do. Yesterday it was back to endurance work. Swam another mile without stopping (ok—I did have a couple 15 second breaks to gulp some non pool water). She said I took 10 minutes off my last timed mile. Yippee!
Biking—We’ve somehow been incredibly lucky with the biking weather. As Rachel pointed out, last Saturday was so beautiful. It makes the miles go by quickly when the sun is shining and the water is sparkly. I only got separated once from the group I was riding with after the long last uphill climb. I was just about to get the cell phone out to call for directions when a few teammates miraculously came up behind me. The only bad part of the day was hopping off the bike and trying to run for 10 minutes. It’s hard to get those muscle groups going after riding 28 miles.
Running—6 miles doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’ve never been a distance runner, it feels like plenty. At the coached runs I always get passed by lots of people. I am getting better, though. 4 ½ miles has been my longest run at a good clip. I’m sure I’ll improve more in the next few weeks.
I keep thinking of how good the sun, sand, and 81 degrees will feel in Hawaii. Most inspiring to me has been watching the thermometer rise on my fundraising and reading the notes sent with checks and emails. I heard President Obama say recently (this may not be verbatim) “Don’t underestimate the power of a bunch of people joining together to accomplish amazing things.” No kidding!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Our first long bike ride
This weekend was our first coached long bike ride - and I think it went well for everyone! We had a beautiful ride, and it was blue sky and sunny the entire day. We started off at Gasworks park, then rode by lake union on the BG, and then all the way down to Seward Park. So we got to bike along a sunny lake washington for a few miles. Then on the way back, some of us added in a out and back on the bg, to get a few more miles.
Most of the team did either 20 or 28 miles - some of us did more than the race distance already :). Then we did a 10 minute transition run to practice that yucky brick feeling.
I had originally dreaded this ride - as last year I got lost on this route, and the longest I'd biked so far this year was only 13 miles. But with the sun shining, and the water glistening, it was really nice! And made me excited for Hawaii! only 8 more weeks!
Most of the team did either 20 or 28 miles - some of us did more than the race distance already :). Then we did a 10 minute transition run to practice that yucky brick feeling.
I had originally dreaded this ride - as last year I got lost on this route, and the longest I'd biked so far this year was only 13 miles. But with the sun shining, and the water glistening, it was really nice! And made me excited for Hawaii! only 8 more weeks!
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