Celebrities Spinning the Wheel for LLS

I might be a little crazy in doing marathons and triathlons to raise money for LLS but I'm not the only one raising money for such a great organizations. Check this out:

Bold and the Beautiful star Jack Wagner (Nick) was the big winner during Wheel of Fortune's Soap Stars Week. Solving Vanna's puzzles like a pro, he scored $142,550 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in honor of his brother, Dennis, who is currently in remission with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. In so doing, Wagner not only did a really good deed, he won the most cash any celebrity contestant has ever won on Wheel. Nice going, Jack! "I was fortunate to be involved in this unique and magical moment on Wheel of Fortune," Wagner told TVGuide.com via e-mail. "I hope and pray that my brother can be an inspiration to families and patients who suffer from this illness.

Enjoy your Friday and have a great weekend!

If you are bored on Saturday and are looking for something fun to do maybe you can head out to Martinez for Natalie's Fundraiser.

Iron Team Rocks

Last night was Cause for Celebration. CFC is a fun night for everyone to hang out, have some food/drinks, become bone marrow donors and meet people from the other teams. The Walk Team, East Bay & SF Run Team, East Bay & SF Tri Team, Cycle Team and Iron Team all represented last night. There was about 200 people there. I have been to many of these in the last 3 1/2 years and this was the BIGGEST crowd I'd seen. It was a fun night. Before we all get to eat and mingle the SF Run Team Manager talks a little about the cause and how each team is doing on their fundraising. My team, East Bay Tri, has 120 participants and has raised $95,000. Are you ready for this? The Iron Team, which is training for Iron Man Canada and USA Triathlon, has 60 participants and they have raised over $200,000.....WOW. I could not believe it. I've always said those people are crazy but somehow they've managed to succeed in their quest of completing an Iron Man but also in raising thousands of dollars for LLS. We also got to hear from an honoree and survivor. She had a stem cell transplant, one of her brothers was a perfect match and now she is cancer free.

GO TEAM!!!

Now, can someone please tell the rain to STOP, geesh, what is this Seattle? The forecast shows rain, rain, rain for the rest of this week and next week. We go down to Lake San Antonio to train on the Wildflower course next weekend and let me tell you the last thing I want to do is train and camp in the rain. Olivia and I volunteered last year and camping in the rain was miserable. So please do the sunshine dance for us to have a nice rain free training weekend.

Ooohhh, a rainbow :o)

We weren't sure if the weather would hold out for us on Saturday. It had pretty much poured all night and early morning. We got to Shadow Cliffs in Pleasanton around 7:30 and even though it was chilly and dark a few minutes later the clouds parted and a rainbow came out for us :o)

We got our very cool TNT wetsuits and after Coach Tom did a demonstration on how to put it on and how to care for it. It was then our turn to get our suits on without poking any holes in it. Let me tell ya, it was very funny and all I could think of was good grief how am I gonna get out of it once I'm in it. It was pretty interesting. I also decided I better cut back on eating like a piggy cause this thing shows everything.

So wetsuits on and into the water we went. We were suppose to get in and swim for 20-30 minutes. So that didn’t quite happen for me. First of all it was FREEZING in the lake. I could not catch my breathe. My feet and hands were frozen and somehow I was suppose to put my face in the water and swim.....hmmm, yeah, I don’t think so. I decided I would try for the 20 minutes. It was very hard for me though because not only was it super cold but I felt very constricted in the wetsuit. I couldn’t get a good stroke going. I did the best I could and after 20 minutes I got out and got changed for my run. I will definitely need to practice getting my suit on and off and of course swimming in it. The one good thing is that at least when I do Wildflower the water will be much warmer. After the swim, we went on a 5.5 mile run. I ran part of it on the trail, which was very muddy and part of it on Stanley Road which is just pavement. I went home and had some yummy food and took a much needed nap. I needed to get my energy back because we were going to a fundraiser at The Cellar in SF. Rocky, Phil, Karen, Olivia and I met up for dinner. We had sushi and then headed over to SF. There were mostly mentors from our team there and a couple of participants. Deb, the person holding the fundraiser, had a raffle and I won a bottle of wine. I think everyone headed home around 10 because we had to ride either 30 miles or 60 miles on Sunday. But OOOH NO, not us, we stayed there til midnight and danced away. We had a great time so it was worthy the few extra hours out.


Sunday, I met a couple of people from the team in San Ramon and we went on a 25 mile bike ride. It was the same ride from last weekend. It was still a bit challenging especially after being out all night and not getting the appropriate rest, food and hydration but I got through it. It was a really nice day and the course was very pretty. After the ride I had to hurry home because we were taking Patch to puppy training, the whole family is officially in training. That went well although of course Patch was the loudest there, we hope that in 8 weeks he will be nice and quiet and mellow. Our Sunday festivities did not end there, Rocky and I headed out to El Cerrito to pick up Vanessa & Salina Wittmer (Vanessa is one of my honoree’s) and we took them to Coldstone for ice cream. We had a good time with them. I hadn’t spent much time with them so it was a nice treat.

Well that was my weekend and today begins week 9 of training. In two weekends we leave for Lake San Antonio to practice on the actual event course. I can’t wait and it looks like the weather is clearing up. I have been doing the sunshine dance.

Have a great week!

It's Friday......

Yay the week is over, not that I have a restful weekend ahead of me but hey at least I don't have to work :o) Last night I went for an hour bike ride with my friend Cynthia. It was at a nice easy pace. Thank You Cynthia for riding with me :o)

Tomorrow is wetsuit day....YIPEE!! I will make sure to take lots of pic and post them next week. We have our first open water swim which should be interesting and then we have a run. Saturday night we are going to a fundraiser for one of the girls on our team. Sunday 30 mile bike ride and then puppy training classes. Of course I'm doing the NO RAIN dance since it's suppose to rain all weekend.

Have a good day and a great weekend!

My roomy...

.....just donated and has put me over the $2000 mark...wahoo! Your the best. I am now at $2041 to my $3000 goal.

THANK YOU!

No swimming :o(

I didn't get to swim last night, boo, hoo. Last night was our first Coached Swim night and we met at Campolindo H.S. They have 3 pools but we got stuck in the little one because the big one was being used by the Hight School swim team and water polo team. Coach Tim asked the mentors and captains to stay out of the pool so our participants could swim. It was pretty crowded in there. I will have to make up my swim although I'm not sure I can. I have to bike tonight. I guess my next day in the pool.....uhhh make that the open water......will be on Saturday.

Thank You.....

......Trish Harris, Cindy Short & Korina Riggin for adding to my new total of $1991, I am 66% to my goal. YIPEE!!! My LLS piggy bank is growing.

Come Back SUN :o) go AWAY rain :o(

It was such a beautiful weekend. The sun was shining bright on us and it was a little warmer than it has been. Of course today the darn rain is back :o( boo, hoo. This post is going to be a little long but that's because it was a VERY busy weekend for all of us. Somehow even Patch now has his own schedule. Too funny.

Saturday
Saturday started out with my another Swim/Run workout. Rocky brought Patch out for a little while to visit with the team before we headed in the water. Patch loves hanging out with his buddy Tom. Today's main set was a little longer than usual but it was doable and it actually didn't seem so bad once I was done. After everyone was done with their workout we all had to line up along the sides of one lane and each person had to swim down the lane while everyone else splashed them. This is also another way of getting us used to what we will endure on even weekend. Coach Tim call's it "the gauntlet". It was fun, hopefully I can get a picture of it so I can post. it. After the swim we went on a 5.5mile run. Did part of the course we did last week and added a nice long big hill into the workout. I was pooped by the time I got back but it was a good run. Afterwards, we all headed to Mountain Mike's for some yummy pizza, which I needed. I was starving after the workout.

our workout for the morning
700m alternating Swim/Drill (I think, I can't remember, I'll have to double check)

Swim 800m without stopping...YIKES...it was 32 laps but it actually seemed to go by fast and I did well.

Gauntlet 2x

Run 5.5 miles - 1hr 6min (a little slow for me but still trying to get used to running after a long swim workout)

Rocky left my workout with Patch around 9:30, they headed home to get Patch ready for his chihuahua meet up group. Yes, our dog had a play date with other chihuahuas and from what I hear it went great although he was mostly chased the whole time out here (Patch at the Park).


Sunday
Sunday started off early for Rocky, Olivia and a few of my other friends on the East Bay run team. They along with thier run team, Team Balance, ran the Emerald Across the Bay 12k. They were bused over to Sausalito where the race started and the route took them across the Golden Gate Bridge back to SF. Everyone did great...Congratulations EAST BAY ROCKS!!!

As for me, well I didn't get away with just lounging around on Sunday. I had to meet my team for a 25 mile bike ride. We met in San Ramon and rode down San Ramon Valley Blvd. towards Sunol/Pleasanton and back. It was a nice ride and a great route but it was challenging for me. Between being sick and not really having anyone to ride with during the week, I haven't been on my bike much and I felt it. My knees were burning when I was coming up the hills, I got through it but it was hard. I was a little bummed at myself but I know that I just need more time on the bike and I'll be fine. I really need to do some hill repeats. The hills yesterday were nothing compared to the hills that I'll have to ride at Wildflower....so I need to chop chop and keep on riding, riding, riding.

I finished off my weekend with a 3 hour knitting class. I took the class with Olivia and our friend Amy had also signed up. It was a fun class and we all finished our project, a Felted Vase :o)

Happy St. Patty's Day!

i borrowed :o) this from my mentee, Natalie's Blog (http://natstri.blogspot.com/)

I thought it was funny

1850m

I sawm 1850m last night...WOW!!! It was a long and hard workout. I didn't end up getting home til about 9pm. We swam for about an hour and a half. We are also suppose to be swimming a little faster now with not too much rest in between. I am still pooped to day and I am actually sore. It felt great though to be back in the pool. Coach Tom also came out to video tape us. It will be interesting to see if I have improved at all since I was vidoetaped back in December. I feel like I have but you don't really know when you are in the water what you look like, for all I know I'm still swimming wrong. Hey, at least my endurance has gone up :o)

Here is what we did:
Warm Up
Swim 100
Drill#1 100
Drill#3 100
Drill#7 100
Drill#8 100

Main Set
Swim 100 L4-5 RI15
Drill 100 Easy RI15
Swim 100 L4-5 RI15
Swim 6x50 L6-7 RI20-30
Swim 300 L4-5 RI30
Swim 10x25 L7 RI20

Cool Down
200 Swim/Drill

L - Level
RI - Rest in between each set

as you can see it was a long and hard workout. I DID IT though and I was pretty happy. I went home and rewarded myself with some yummy pizza that Olivia had made and some girl scout cookies :o)

Last Track Workout

Last night was our last track workout :o( boo, hoo. It was a fairly easy workout.

10min warm-up run and stretch
3-4x800 at 6RPE (can't really have a conversation while running) and rest 3 minutes in between each 800.

10-25 Push Ups
20-30 Lunges
20-30 Twisting Crunches
20-30 Supermans
100yds Heel & Toe Walks

10min cool down run

and then hurry home to watch American Idol :o)

I got new shoes on Saturday which I wore today for the first time and after a few adjustments of the laces they felt great. I was a bit worried because the last time I got a new shoe I ended up with Shin Splints...OUCH!! I think these will work though now I just have to pray they don't discontinue them. URRRGHHH. It's amazing how something as simple as your shoes or inserts can mess you up so bad. I hope to have no aggrevations this season. So far so good.

Smile.....

......you just swam 1200m

picture taken by Coach Tom 2 weeks ago :o)

It's Snowing

It's snowing in the Bay Area and freezing. We have had some pretty interesting weather the past few weeks and this weekend was another cold, rainy and snowy weekend but that didn't stop us crazy TNT peeps from going out and working out. I was out at Miramonte H.S. for a swim/run, Olivia was out at Lake Chabot running "through" the hills and some muddy trails and Rocky was in Folsom for his very muddy and wet duathlon.

Saturday was my first day back after being sick. I am finally starting to recover. I felt pretty good although I was pretty pooped afterwards. Here is what we did.....

50m Kick
50m Swim
4 times

100m free style swim
100m any stroke

2 - 200m
2 - 150m

50m Kick
50m Swim
4 times

Coach Tim decided that we should get a little taste of what it's like to swim during a triathlon so we took a couple of the lanes down at the end of the pool and everyone had to squish down there. We all had to swim down to the other end at the same time. We were all ontop of each other, under each other, kicking each other....it was pretty darn funny. This is how it is on race day so it's good for us to practice doing this. I will try to post some pictures.

After the swim we did and easy 4 mile run. It was a good day but I was pooped. I went home and ate like a piggy and took a nap. Sunday I was suppose to ride 20 miles but when we woke up it was pouring rain so a few of us wimped out and didn't ride. Actually, I didn't totally wimp out I am still in reovery mode and riding my bike in the rain and 30 degree weather wouldn't have been smart. This week should be much better.

with a few of my mentees after the run

Update on Rocky
http://rockyreyes.blogspot.com/2006/03/now-that-was-race.html
He did really good at his duathlon, finished in 1:46:57, not bad. He did say though that it was one of the toughest races he's done. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Good Luck!

Tomorrow Rocky will be doing a mountain bike duathlon up in Folsom http://www.tbfracing.com/events/chanoko3.html. It's is a 2mile run, 10mile bike, 2mile run, should be pretty interesting considering it's been super cold and pouring rain. He's probably going to be running/biking through some major puddles and mud. Brenda (honoree) did the race last month and she loved it. She highly recommended it to him. I won't be able to go watch because of my traning :o( but I'll be cheering him on from here. I'm sure he'll do great...shoot 2 mile run....PIECE OF CAKE :o) GOOD LUCK ROCKY!!!

Slowly Coming Back

I am slowly recovering from this icky cold I've had for the past two weeks. I'm still coughing up a lung at night but I'm starting to feel better. I went to the track workout last night, my first workout in two weeks....I FELT IT. We are still doing our strength/circuit drills and we had to do each circuit 2 times with of course running 1 or 2 laps in between and we had to run our laps at a faster pace. I was able to do my workout although I didn't do my cool down. I was talking to Coach Tim and he said to take it easy and slowly get back into it since my body is still trying to recover. I am suppose to swim tonight but he suggested I wait a few more days. It's won't be good for me to be in an 80 degree pool and then hop out to the 40 degree cold air. I will wait til Saturday's workout to get back in the pool. It felt good to be back though. Next Tuesday will be our last track workout, we will then switch to Wednesday night pool workouts. We are on week 6 and Coach Tim said our workouts will get tougher and tougher as the weeks go by. We need to start preparing for the tough course at Wildflower. I'm getting excited about my event but also nervous. We are getting our wetsuits on the 25th and we'll have our first open water swim. On April 7-9 we will be going down to Lake San Antonio to practice on the actual event course...YIKES...it seems like it's all getting her very fast.

doing my push-ups

I am Amazed....

....at how much a little 5 year old with cancer knows. I have been with Team in Training for over 3 years now and I don't even know what some of the termenology is. Last Saturday in between swimming and the cycling Lauren, one of our team honorees came to talk to our team about what a broviac was (http://www.webmd.com/hw/cancer/tv7513.asp). She had a doll that had a broviac sewed into it and she explained to us how her mom takes blood samples from it. Her mom has had to learn how to all of this stuff at home. Her broviac prevents her from getting poked by needles everytime she goes into the doctor. She recieves ther treatment through it as well. She also had some cutouts made out of felt and she showed us what Leukemia was, how it affected her and how it is treated. It was cute and she did a great job explaining it to us. Like I mentioned earlier, I was also very amazed at how much this little 5 year old has had to learn about this disease.

Go Away Cold :o(

No fun update for today. I am still sick so this was another week of resting and trying to get better. I have not worked out since last Saturday and have been eating bad. More like not really eating because my medicine makes me feel icky and I have no appetite :o( I hate being sick.

On a good note, I have raised $1816 YIPEE!!! Thank you to everyone who has donated and if you haven't donated and are still interested it's NOT too late (the link to my donation page is above).