holoholo Lolo!

just wanted to make a quick note that our tribe alone has raised over $15,000 already for LLS!

Our whole Seattle Lavaman team has raised $85,000 so far.

Go team!

A Kind of Dara Torres Moment!

You remember her—2008 Beijing Olympics—oldest swimming medalist in Olympic history…Well today I had my own little moment. It is microscopic to her amazing accomplishments in swimming, but it was HUGE for me. I swam a mile without stopping! That’s the distance of the ocean swim! Woo hoo!

I have to back up so you will know what kind of swim shape I was in at the beginning of this triathlon training two months ago. At our first Team in Training swim practice I thought I was doomed. One length of the pool and I was spent. I wrote in an earlier blog entry that I never learned to breathe right in the YMCA lessons as a kid. I love being in the water. I’m not afraid of deep water. I’m not afraid of the ocean. I love to surf. I was just never good at swimming laps. I admit it--I like oxygen! When I got to my lesson today my swim instructor said “You are going to swim for 1 hour...any stroke…just keep swimming.” Oh, yikes! But somehow I did it, and I wasn’t even gasping for breath at the end. Jess, your mom appreciates all your pointers in the pool when you were home for Christmas! And my swim instructor, Tina, got a big hug at the end of my lesson today. No medals for this lady, and there’s a LOT ahead to work on, but I’m thinking at least now maybe I won’t drown in the swim!

It was hard to get in all the training over the holidays with the crazy weather. Shoveling snow & Wii Fit had to do on some of the nasty weather days. It was dark, cold and snowing on my drive down to Mercer Island Saturday morning for the bike ride. It wasn’t snowing there, though, and the ride was great. The run Monday night at Greenlake was good, too. (Dance, Dance Revolution got me nicely limbered up for that agility ladder drill--Thanks, Rachel!)

It felt good this week to get back to business and to be with the gang again. Hele Hui! Go Team!

happy new year!

i was in new orleans during the last week of december where i volunteered with an organization to help with post-hurricane katrina home rebuilding efforts. myself and 16 others bascially gutted a house down to the frame/studs so that the owner could finally return and start rebuilding their home. i was a little concerned about missing the triathlon team trainings during this time plus the snow the week before slightly derailed my workouts. but when we started moving furniture, going up and down stairs to haul debris, and hammering away at dry wall/plaster/tile for days, i realized i got my workout for the week and then some!

on another note, i'm amazed at how the weather has been cooperating, for the most part, during our trainings. i just got back from our monday night workout at green lake. it didn't rain at all and it was a bearable 45 degrees which is just cold enough to make you want to run to get warm :)

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!!!