No Track???

What do you mean no track? We got an email yesterday from our coach saying that both track workouts for this week were cancelled because of the icky weather we are having. I thought that was pretty funny because on the run team Coach Al never cancelled the runs unless there was lightning out. We ALWAYS ran no matter how cold or wet it was outside. It hasn't even been raining since 1pm in my area. Funny how I'm complaining, geesh. I should be juming up and down that I get to relax after those darn hill repeats on Saturday, which by the way I am still sore from. So tonight I will rest and enjoy all my shows on TV. American Idol and Amazing Race are both one :o) YIPEE!!! This week was suppose to be a rest week anway or an easy workout week so I guess the storms came at a good time. I'm still not feeling 100% so I will take advantage it. If I'm up to it tomorrow and it's not storming I plan on going swimming.

btw...to my friends on Team Balance (spring east bay run team) YOU ROCK!! I know you guys were out there running tonight in this dry but super chilly evening. I hope you had a great run!

Ppppssssshhhhhhhh

NOT a sound I like to hear. Yesterday was a Bike Day and I needed to get out and bike 10-15miles. I had a SUPER long day on Saturday so when my friend Debbie called at 9am to see if I still wanted to ride I tried to bail....didn't happen though. Thanks to her I got my butt out of bed and headed out to meet her in Livermore. She lives out there and there are lots of trails to ride on. The weather was icky and it rained on us for most of the ride. Things were going really good til I heard the pppsssshhhh.....I had a flat tired :o( Luckily I was prepared and had my extra tube and tools with me. This was the first time I tried to change my own tire and believe me it was not fun. It was cold, it was rainy and changing a brand new tire sucks. After about 30 minutes I finally got my tire changed and we were going to head back. We were towards the end of the ride anyway. So I hope on my bike and PPPSSSSHHHHH AGAIN...what the heck? I don't think I put the tube in correctly and it got pinched somewhere. We ended up having to walk back to her house. Walking in my biking shoes for 15 minutes was not fun at all. I was able to get 10 miles in before my tire incident. Tonight I will go home and try to fix my tire once again, hopefully I can do it right.

THANK YOU Debbie for the donation :o) I am now at $1761.

Swim/Run/Honoree Potluck/Wedding...oh my!

Today was a great workout day. I thought I was going to be dying considering I haven't worked out at all this week because I've been sick. We started out with our swim workout and here is how it went:

100m warm up

Drills# 1-4 (2 times)
Each time we do a drill though it is....kick 25m, drill 25m, swim 25m....so just my drills added up to 600m.

Then we did our main set
2 - 100m, rest 20seconds, 1 - 200m, rest 20 seconds, 3 - 100m, rest 20 seconds, 1 - 300m, rest 20 seconds = 1000m

100m cool down

for a total of 1800m swam this morning. I was feeling pretty good the whole time and it was beautiful outside. The sun came out for us and it wasn't as cold as last week. I do have to admit though I was tired when I got out of the water. It was off to the showers and then our running clothes.

I ran 6 miles today but 2 of those miles were hills. We ran on Moraga Road for a little bit and then made a left hand turn onto Camino Ricardo. Camino Ricardo is a 1 mile hill with a dead end...YIKES. So we had to go up that, turn around, come back down, go back up and come back down again and then run back to the school. The run kicked my booty. I was not prepared for the hill repeats so I didn't have my gels or any water with me. Luckily we had a water stop.

Today we had our Honoree Potluck so when we got back there was lots of yummy food and drinks. I didn't stay long because I had to hurry home and get ready to go to a wedding. I grabbed a turkey sandwich and ate it on my way home....I was starving after that workout. My belly needed some fuel.

Now I'm off to Ms. Monica's wedding (my run team manager) WOOOHOOO. CONGRATULATIONS MONICA & KIEREN.

Honoree - Week #4

Debby Greer-Costello
Stem Cell Transplant Date Scheduled for February 27, 2006

I have taken parts of a blog entry that Deb wrote this week so you can get an idea of what she is going through…to read the complete entry you can go to http://www.debutaunt.com/ and read the entry for February 22, 2006.

I'm Deb. I'm a single mom with a sweet 5 year old named Zoe. I have 6 siblings - 3 brothers and 3 sisters. I'm super tight with them.

On October 21, 2005, I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia that is Philadelphia Chromosome positive. After that date, I was told that my daughter couldn't live with me any more because of the risk of infection, and that I would have to get admitted to the hospital a lot to get chemo and go to the hospital a lot for outpatient services. She is now living with my Sis #2 and her family.

On Sunday, February 19th, I was admitted to the hospital for a stem cell transplant. It is a serious scary procedure but it is the best treatment for my form of the disease and hopefully will be a complete cure.

A little less than 4000 people in the United States get ALL each year. Most of those people are children. No one knows what causes ALL.

In the meantime, I'm just making observations about what is happening and trying to focus on the positive stuff that could possibly come from this experience and share how much we should appreciate life - everything little and small, joyous, precious, amazing, silly, frustrating and annoying. You can take nothing in life for granted - so choose to enjoy it the best you can with what you have.

I can do this!!!!!

Deb

Deb and her daughter, Zoe

Thank You

Just a little note to say a BIG Thank You to those who donated this week....Amy Ryan, Karen Barnes, Bruce Miller, Lindy Rollo & Tom Stokley....you guys are awesome. I am 55% to my $3000 goal, your donations have brought my total to $1661.00.....waaahoooo.

Boo, hoo....

.....I am sickie :o( so not much to update for this week since I haven't been to any of my workouts. My plan for this week is to rest, rest, rest so I can be back up and running for my workouts this weekend.

Last Saturday was another Coached Workout at Miramonte High School. We started out in the pool for more drills, drills, drills. I am still surprised at how I am progressing on my swimming. I would have never thought that I'd be able to keep up with everyone. I'm pretty happy. We did our drills and then played swimming golf. We had to swim 50m and count each stroke, then swim 50m again and try to lessen the amount of strokes did the first time. We had to do this 5 times. I went from 48 to 40 strokes and that was the lowest I could get it. Then it was out of the pool and into our bike clothes for a 15 mile bike ride. It was FREEZING, remember this was the day that it was snowing in places like Berkeley :o( it was not a fun ride. I was cold the entire time and my feet went numb. I was also a little freaked out during the ride because it was my first time out on a two lane road with traffic driving by me. I managed to do my bike ride and return in one peace....phew!

Holy Smokes

One of my mentees emailed me a question this morning about how many times we were suppose to do the drills so I just responded back to her and wrote out how the workout should have gone last night and HOLY SMOKES I by the time I did my warm up, drills and cool down I did a total of 1700m .....waaahoooo. I did the entire workout :o) and felt awesome. I think I'm beginning to like this swim thing.

Track Workout #2

as Phil put it in his blog....Valentine's Editon. Our workout last night was nice and cozy, we only had about 15 - 20 people. I guess everyone else was out with their sweeties enjoying Valentine's Day. Rocky and I were good mentors and did not cancel our workouts due to the holiday. We will celebrate this weekend. It was also VERY chilly last night, it was hard getting into the workout at first. We repeated last weeks workout (see my entry from Feb 8th) except this time we had to do the circuit twice and run 2 laps after circuit 3 instead of just 1 lap. We did a 10 minute warm up and cool down and of course we stretched. It was a long workout but even though we did everything twice I didn't feel like I was going to pass out. I think my body is starting to get used to all this training. I felt really good after my workout and feel great today.

Tonight I swim and our total distance in the pool should be 1250-1400m. I'll let you know how I do...YIKES!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Swim, Bike & Run

I did it all this weekend and it was nice weekend to be out doing all my workouts. I can't believe I was wearing summer clothes all weekend long. Now it's Monday and back to work we go :o(

Saturday morning we had a coached workout at Miramonte High School. We did swim and run benchmarks. We started out in the pool. We did a 100m warm up. We did 25m drill and then swam back 25m. We did 4 different drills. Then we had to swim at an easy pace for 12 minutes and count how many laps we did in those 12min. This was our swim benchmark. I managed to do about 6 or 7 laps without stopping and then I started slowing down and taking a brake at the end of each 25m. I was able to do 18 laps total in the 12 min. Not too bad, I guess. We then finished with a 100m cool down. It was pretty darn chilly and foggy during the our swim workout but the pool was nice and warm. Probably about 80’s.

listening to our coach give us the workout (it was a wee bit chilly and foggy)

We got out of the pool and changed into our running clothes and off to the track we went. We did a 10 minute warm up and stretched, then we had to run a mile or 2 miles and keep track of our time. I decided to just do one mile, I did my mile in 10:47. Not too bad considering I usually run a 10 – 10 ½ minute mile. This was the first time I had to workout for a couple of hours before going and running. My legs felt like jello after swimming. I had a great workout day and felt great afterwards. I then headed to get some much needed food. I have been starving after my workouts and believe me I’ve been filling up my belly. I LOVE FOOD :o)

About halfway through the season we will do these benchmarks again to see how we've improved.

Sunday I did not make my team bike ride because our run team had our end of the season party. It was great to see everyone again. It made me miss my team though and I can’t wait to return. I may go back in the fall or winter. We finished around 3pm so it was still early enough to get my ride in. Rocky and I headed out on the Iron Horse and went on a 10 mile ride and guess what? I didn’t fall….YIPPEEE, I think I’m finally getting the hang of this pedal thing. Hmmm, wonder how I’ll do when I ride in a big group….guess, I’ll find out next weekend.

Almost made it Injury Free

HAPPY FRIDAY Everyone :o) I can't wait to get the heck out of this office and enjoy the nice weather. I did get to enjoy a little bit of it last night. Last night we were to do an easy 30-45min bike ride. I met one of my mentees at 6pm at the Iron Horse Trail. We decided to head out and see how we felt after 30 minutes and then decide if we'd come back or keep going. I started out pretty well, had no problems clipping into my pedals. A couple of minutes into the bike ride my mentee had to stop, he stopped RIGHT IN FRONT ME...urrgghhh....so down I went :o( I managed to clip out of my pedals and catch myself before I hit the ground. My bike didn't hit to hard but it did hit me funny on the back of my calf and took out a nice chunk of skin...boo, hoo. I got back on my bike and off we went again. I managed to make it to the turn around, clip out on both sides, get off my bike and back on without falling. We rode back and at the finish I clipped out again successfully. WAAHOOOO I didn't fall. I think I'm getting the hang of this. I'm still very hesitant and do it all very slow but at least I'm not falling over. I do need to take my bike to the shop this weekend though because I think when I fell last week it did something screwy with my brakes. I will have it checked out.

THANK YOU to those who donated this week...Onweena O., Aaron Kennedy, Charlie Almestad and Betty Maravick....you brought my total this week to $1171 :o)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Honoree of the Week
Cole Regan (Oct. 22, 2002-July 28, 2004)

Cole Regan was October 22, 2002 at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. An hour after Cole was born he started to grunt which concerned Doctors. Cole was then transferred over to the Special Care Unit where they kept a much closer eye on him. After many tests including two spinal taps Cole was treated for Sepsis, a blood infection. Starting the first day of Cole’s life he was put on a 10-day antibiotic treatment, which of course was very traumatic, however they had no idea what was waiting just a short time later.

On December 20th Keith and Brandy, Cole’s parents, called their pediatrician because Cole had two low grade fevers in one day. After some hesitation from the nurse, Brandy finally decided to take Cole in. Arriving no more than 20 minutes later the tests began. They went into the pediatrician’s office expecting to hear Cole had the flu, instead an hour later they were told Cole had cancer. Cole was 7 weeks old when he was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) M5 9/11 Chromosome. On December 25, 2002 Cole was to start his first of five rounds of chemo. Cole’s type of Leukemia is considered an adult type, which meant his cancer was very aggressive and his treatment would be even twice as aggressive.

Cole ahd 75 plus procedures that would put him under anesthesia, including MRI’s, CAT Scans and bone marrow aspirates, 30 surgical procedures, dozens of blood and platelet transfusions, ARDS, fungus in his brain and spine and of course his drug addiction to Fentinol, a derivative of morphine. Caused by mucuositis; the rapid depletion of fast reproducing cells caused by chemo, and the rapid development of those cells would cause the membranes to grow abnormally and rupture in his mouth, throat, and stomach. This created a tremendous amount of pain for Cole. He was placed on pain meds for 7 months of his life.

In May of 2004, Keith and Brandy were told that Cole was suffering from hydrocephalous or water on the brain and required an Ommya Reservoir which would allow the excess fluid to collect until the brain could properly flush the rest. Keith and Brandy soon discovered that Cole appeared to have relapsed with Central Nervous System (CNS), this was the initial diagnosis. Cole received 5 more rounds of chemo in his port and soon after looked to be doing well. Weeks passed but the port was not capable of doing the job; Cole’s head was filling with fluid which was incredibly painful for him. He was in so much pain that he slept 21 hours a day and the 3 hours he was up, he cried.

A Neurosurgeon then put a shunt in Cole so that the fluid could pass into his body where the fluid would be absorbed and Cole would continue to live life like he always did, with a smile. Cole was doing well until one evening in the mid part of June, while eating ice cream, Cole was far off and distant and had drool running down his face. It was the 1st of 3 strokes he would suffer. That next day Keith and Brandy took Cole the hospital for the last time. Cole was hooked up to a monitor, which would warn Keith & Brandy when his breathing was lower then 2 breaths per minute.

After 7 weeks of surviving 3 strokes, Cole passed on July 28th, 2004 at 4:20am. Cole peacefully passed in his sleep with his parents next to his side.

WHAT????

Hee, hee…I can’t really hear today. I think my ears swallowed up the pool water last night. It was another hard workout but it felt great. Today I am pretty sore and of course there is not rest as tonight is bike night. On Monday nights in December we took a class with the Coach of the Master’s Group at Heather Farms in Walnut Creek. We’d spend about an hour there and we’d probably swim a total of 200m. Last night my warm up alone was to be 200m (that’s 8 laps). That was a bit scary. I don’t think I’ve ever swam that much without stopping. There were about 10 of us at the pool and that made it a little easier to get motivated and get going especially because one of our Asst. Coach’s was there and a few of the Alumni. There was no time for messing around. Coach Lisa showed us the drills and in the pool we went. Here is what we were suppose to do:

Easy 200m warm up
Easy 100m Kick (we grabbed a kick board and just practiced kicking)
Easy 100m Pull (using a pull buoy between our legs we practiced on just arms)

That is 400m just to warm up. I was already tired at this point. Brenda kept saying to me “I can’t believe we are actually doing this”….yeah ME NEITHER.

Next came our drills:
Kick 25m (again using the kick board)
Drill #1 – 25m (on your stomach, face down, hands on your side using the buoy, kick and lift head out of water to breath)
Swim 25m

Kick 25m
Drill #2 – 25m (on your back using the buoy, hands on your side and kick)
Swim 25m

Kick 25m
Drill #3 – 25m (start on you stomach and roll onto your back)
Swim 25m

Kick 25m
Drill #4 – 25m (start on your stomach, roll to your left, roll on your back, roll on your right, keep on doing it all 25m) I think this is where all the water went in my ears :o(
Swim 25m

So that’s it you say? NO, because we had to repeat the drills 6-8 times and then do another 200m cool down.

That would be 1050m if you did this drill 6 time and 1200m if you did them 8. How many did I manage to do? Only 4 :o( I ran out of energy and just couldn’t keep going anymore and it was getting late. Coach Lisa said it was okay for us to finish up and that we had done a great job. I am not at all upset that I wasn’t able to complete my 6-8 sets I think I did pretty darn good for my first time in the pool and having such a hard workout. I know next week I will do much better :o)

Track Workout

WOW...it kicked my tushy :o) We had our first official track workout last night. Each Tuesday we will meet with our Coache's at the DVC Track. Last night we did Speed/Strength Circuits

10 minute warm-up run and stretch

front/back bridges (hold for 30-60 seconds)
2 x 30 yards Skipping
40 yards Heel & 40 yards Toe Walks
Run 1 lap around track

8-15 Push Ups
10-20 Superman Back Extensions
10-20 Squats
Run 1 lap around track

10-20 Lunges
10-20 Bicycle Crunches
8-15 Close Hand Push Ups
Run 1 lap around track

10-15 minute cool down run and stretch

It was a great workout. Coach Tim said we'd probably be sore today and I AM which I guess is a good thing because I did my workout correctly and it's a good sore. We did each group of exercises once but it will not continue to be this way. Next week we will do them twice. Coach Tim also mentioned last night that the workouts are going to get tougher....YIKES! Last night made me realize that there is no messing around and that if I want to finish this triathlon and do well that I've got a lot of work ahead of me and there will be NO WIMPING out this season.

Triathlon University

This past Saturday our team along with the SF/Marin Tri Team met at the Cliff Bar Headquarters in Berkeley for Triathlon University. Everything and anything about our Triathlon's and the upcoming season was covered. The presentation started out with a clip from the Hawaii Ironman Race. It wasn't played because any of us are actually doing a full Ironman but more to show us that the people doing these races aren’t just elite athletes. There really are just average people doing these triathlons. There are women/men, old people/young people, healthy people/people who have had cancer, short people/tall people, skinny people/not so skinny people.....everyone with the same goal and everyone finishing. We then heard from our coaches about what to expect out of our training, they talked about all the gear we will need and a very important topic, nutrition during our training. There were also a couple of people from Chiro Medical to talk about injuries and injury prevention. We were there from 8:00am -12pm. It was a long and very overwhelming day but we got a lot of good information. We wrapped up on schedule around 12:15 and then went on a 3-4 mile run around the Berkeley Marina. WOOHOOO 3-4 miles much better than my usual 18-20 milers. Yeah, that’s what I thought at first and then I started running and felt icky. I hadn’t really eaten during Tri University and by the time we went running it was pretty warm out side. I felt like A WIMP :o( I ran 3 miles came back said good bye to everyone and then headed to the Mexican Restaurant and had a big fat burrito. Not exactly good training food but I was starving and it was yummy.

This weeks Training:

Monday – Rest :o)
Tuesday – Track Workout (Speed/Strength Circuits)
Wednesday – Swim Drills
Thursday – Bike 30-45 easy
Friday – pick your weakest sport and repeat this weeks workout (that would be the SWIM for me)
Saturday – Coached Workout (Swim/Run)
Sunday – Bike 10 miles

Meet my Honoree's

Happy Friday!

I have decided that each Friday for the next 5 weeks I will highlight one of my honorees. This way you can read a little about them and their stories. It's also a good way to get me motivated for the weekend trainings. It'll remind me that my life isn't so bad and that I shouldn't sweat the small things in life because like my run coach says "Any day that I can get out and workout is a good day" A lot of these people can even get out of bed. So I will not complain when my alarm goes off at 5am every Saturday AND Sunday for the next 4 1/2 months.

This week I will start with Brenda Donato

In January 2005, I began to feel very exhausted and weak, but continued on with my normal routine as a working mom with two boys ages 8 and 4. One day, I became so weak I could hardly walk up the stairs without my heart racing. I was diagnosed with AML on February 11, 2005 at the age of 34.

With the overwhelming support of my family, friends and community I have gained the strength and courage to fight this disease with all my will. On June 30, 2005, I received a stem cell transplant at UCSF Medical Center after three rounds of high dose chemotherapy.

Today, I am in remission and await routine checkups. I am enjoying more energy now than I have had in almost a year and recovering on schedule.

I love to run, bike, swim, hike and everything fitness. Can’t wait to get started again soon.

Brenda is doing awesome. She became an Honoree for the East Bay Run Team this past Fall. She was able to train with us and run the half marathon at the Nike Women's Marathon in October 2005. She continued to train and walked the FULL marathon at the P.F. Chang's Rock n Roll Marathon in Arizona just a few weeks ago. This season Brenda is once again an honoree for the run team AND she is going to be a participant on the triathlon team. I get to be her mentor....woohooo. We are going to have a blast. She is going to do the Sprint Distance Mountain Bike Tri at the Jamba Juice Wildflower Triathlon. Brenda is an amazing lady with an amazing attitude. She has truly inspired me and everyone that comes in contact with her.