Pinehurst, pinehurst, pinehurst....

......all I can really say is that I HATED it. Saturday was the ride from hell. As you all know it has not stopped raining in forever but somehow we've gotten lucky weekend after weekend and we haven't really had to workout in the rain. It has just been super cold but the weather has held out for us. This was not the case on Saturday. I arrived at Miramonte H.S. around 7:30 it was pretty chilly but not raining. We were suppose to ride to the top of Pinehurst, run for 30-45 minutes and then ride back down. About an 18 mile bike ride. The plan was changed a little when Coach Tim found out that the trail we were suppose to run on was pretty flooded. It was decided that we would do the Pinehurst loop, return to our cars to put our bikes away and then just run down in Moraga. We took off on our bike ride around 8:15 and about 10 minutes into the ride it started raining on us. Of course I started whining because riding in the rain and riding is no fun but at this point I still had no idea how much worse it was going to get. I missed doing the Pinehurst ride a few weeks ago because I was sick so all I really knew about it is all the horrible stuff I've heard from my teammates. It's a hilly course on a two lane road. We had rolling hills for a little while but nothing too bad compared to what was ahead. I'm still not great at drinking while I ride so I had stopped to drink some gatorade and a few of the other girls did too. We hopped back on our bikes after a quick rest and Natalie said "okay, are you ready?....ready? ready, for what? HAAA, HAAA little did I know the climb that we were about to embark on, it was never ending and I barely made it to the top, actually I didn't really make it to the top. I got off my bike a few hundred feet before the top and walked up. I was NOT a happy camper at all. By this point I was exhausted and soaked. I looked like I had jumped in a lake with all my clothes and shoes on and then decided to go on a bike ride. I was so cold that I was shivering and could barely feel my toes and fingers. I wanted to cry :o( When we got to the top Megan and Coach Joe were there and told us which way to continue the ride. Going back the way we had gone up was not safe because it's pretty steep and there had been some mudslides. Joe also said the other way was an easier and safer descent. So off we went, we still had a few hills to climb and again I wanted to cry but we got up them . We had to stop and take a break a couple of times to catch our breath. 2 hours and 2 minutes later I made it back to my car. I decided that since it was so late now (Patch had a doggy meet) that I would just go home and forget the run. I got into some warm clothes and headed home. I think it took me about 4 hours to feel back to normal and not like I had hypothermia. It was the most miserable day in the 12 weeks that I have been training. I guess I should be proud of myself for finishing but GEESH that was terrible.

I am very very proud of my mentees, they all were just as soaked and cold as I was but they all finished. A few of them even toughed it out even longer and went on the run. You guys are awesome :o)

From a Doctors Perspective

Richard "R2" Rowe is one of our teammates. I've also had the pleasure of being on the run team with R2 this past Fall Season. R2 also happens to be a physician at Children's Hospital in Oakland and sees the effects of cancer on children and their families. This email was written by him today and sent out to our team as a little reminder of why we train and raise money for LLS. A perfect little note of inspiration as we get closer to race day.

It's mid-season, we've survived the training weekend and actually had an absolutely great time! The experience for me has been fantastic and I just wanted to share my perspective with you. I know that I couldn't speak these words coherently, e-mail is a bit easier.

I'm constantly inspired hearing Matt, Brenda, Vanessa, Lauren, Trevor and all the rest of our honorees. Believe me, seeing them survive and thrive always gives me a charge. Unfortunately I get jerked back to reality every once in a while. As you know, I'm a physician at Children's Hospital Oakland where we take care of way too many children with leukemia and lymphoma. Last week, a cute 6 year old boy, who had recently been admitted for AML (acute myelocytic leukemia) was being treated in our ICU and died. He had undergone the initial chemo (AML is a bad player and requires more aggressive treatment). He had responded well: his leukemia was melting away. Chemo works by killing rapidly dividing cells, so as the leukemia is going out of control, it can be stopped in its tracks. Unfortunately there are a lot of other cells that you depend on that are rapidly dividing: the rest of your marrow that produces red blood cell, the normal white blood cells (that help fight infection), and platelets (that help stop bleeding), as well as your GI tract and hair. So as he was being put in remission, his bone marrow naturally is suppressed. He received transfusions of blood and platelets to make sure that his levels were okay.But he was getting sicker, so he was transferred to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). The staff was playing with him, since he was so charming and interactive, even when feeling sick. His dad was there, he got lots of attention and care. But his blood oxygen levels continued to fall and he received supplemental oxygen. Suddenly, he was in dire straits, a code was called, he was intubated (placement of a breathing tube), but he continued to deteriorate and died.

I don't know about you, but 6 year old kids are supposed to be going to first grade, loosing their first tooth, being silly with their family and friends. Not ending up dying in the PICU. Not succumbing to the ravages of this disease. Not making everyone with this disease wonder if
they will be the next one.

That's why I'm so committed to Team in Training. I'm glad that you don't have to see this. I hope that no one has to experience this. But it's still here and your hard work this season is so important to help find a way to treat this disease more effectively, with less side effects, and
the hope for greater survival and less disability and death. In my years of being a doctor I have seen an amazing improvement in the care and survival of children with leukemia and lymphoma. Believe me, every dollar earned through TnT is having an impact.

So, I thank you, my patients thank you, our honorees thank you. Sorry for the grim news, but I hope that you all know that raising that next dollar, going to the next training session, and pushing towards the finish line of your race is one of the most important parts of your
life, and as you have heard, of many other lives.

Go team!
R2

Update to Training Weekend - Pictures

all packed up and ready to go

my home for the weekend

enjoying the yummy Rachel Ray Pasta I made

my mentor group :o)

Anthea's Mentor Group and a few extra's :o)

Olivia and I

Lael and I (with both eyes open although not looking at the camera)

here we go :o( it's cold :o(

keep on swimming, swimming, swimming

me, clipping out to re-fuel at the water stop

with my mentee, Natalie, at the waterstop

aahh, relaxing after a long day (Pasta Dinner and Skit Night)

Training Weekend Recap & Thank You

WOW...I can't believe race day is in 27 days. This past weekend we all went down to Lake San Antonio for training weekend. If I haven't already told you Lake San Antonio is a campground so there are no nice comfy warm hotels to stay in. Those are about an hour or so away :o( We headed out on Friday around 12pm and go to Lake San Antonio around 4. Of course it had been such a nice day and as soon as we hit the campground it started to rain...urrgghhh. We had to scramble to put up all our camping gear before there was a down pour. It only rained for a few hours but it was freezing cold all night. I am not much of a camper so being comfortable and getting a good nights rest isn't something that usually happens. I also hadn't slept much on Thursday night because the anxiety of training weekend starting hitting me. Here is how the training weekend went. Oh and it did clear up for us on Saturday and Sunday which was great. It turned out to be perfect training weather.

Saturday Swim
The Olympic Distance group swim started at 10am. Cathy, Natalie and I headed down there a little early to listen to the clinic for those of us who felt a little nervous or needed extra help. Before we left the camp site we made sure to get all our bike gear gathered up which also meant getting tires pumped. I was helping Cathy get air in her tire and broke off the stem :o( that was not good, it meant we needed to change her tire. We decided to head down to the swim clinic and do it there. By the time we got there the clinic was almost done (I think they started early because we weren't late) and the people in that group were getting ready to go on their swim. So we fixed the tire and then got ready so that we'd just swim with our group. Got the wetsuits on and in the water we went around 10:15. The water was freezing and it took me a really long time to get used to it. I really need to work on this because if it's this cold on race day there is no way I can spend 10 minutes trying to get used to the cold water. I need to just get in and get going. My swim back was much better and I was able to get a good swim in without really stopping. I think I stopped once or twice and that was mainly because I was swimming crooked :o( and needed to get back on course.

Saturday Bike
From the water we headed back to the car and got all our bike gear. I got to try out my new tri outfit so there was no need to change out of a swim suit. I just needed to get my socks, shoes, helmet and gloves although somehow I still managed to take my time. We took off on our bikes for a 25 mile bike ride. As soon as you leave the trasition area you climb a very steep hill to get out of the campground. I managed to get through it and ge the heck out of there. Thank god for Power Gels :o) is what I thought til I got to mile 15. There are quite a few hills on the bike course although Lynch Hill (the hill coming out of transition) is the worst. I felt pretty good by the time I made it to the turnaround at 12.5 miles. This feeling good didn't last very long though. When I got to mile 14.5 I started feeling pretty icky, kind of light headed and felt like I was going to throw up :o( I stopped at the top of a hill to catch my breath for a few minutes and then I started off again. It wasn't long before I had to stop again :o( and get a ride back from the SAG vehicle. I was pretty sad about that. I was able to get 15 miles in before feeling sick. I've had this feeling before during a marathon and new right away that it was the new gels I tried. The new gels added to the lack of sleep, dehydration and bad eating on Thursday I think contributed to why I wasn't feeling good. Oh and of course it had warmed up on Saturday. Note to self....no more trying out new gels. I will stick to my Power Gels. Glad I tried the new ones now and not on race day.

Sunday Run
Sunday we did the run course, it was 6.2 miles. I had a GREAT run and was pretty happy with my time. I ran with another mentor, Anthea, we chit chatted, powered through those darn hills and finished happy and strong. It was a great come back from the bad bike ride on Saturday.

The rest of the time was spent getting to know our other teammates. We even got invited to party with the Iron Team on Saturday night. It was a fun weekend but it was also a hard training weekend. It gave us an idea of what areas we need to work harder at. For me it will be the swim and bike. I also need to go back to watching what I eat because I've been a bad girl and eating all the stuff that is yummy but not always good for me :o( and I know my body, in the end it all affects me on race day. My 8 hours of sleep will also be very important although I see no problem with that...hee, hee.

All of my mentees did an awesome job as well. WAY TO GO TEAM!!! Brenda, Natalie, Cathy & Helen...you guys ROCKED!!!

Rocky, Olivia and Phil THANK YOU
The fact that I have some amazing friends and BF is no secret. All of my friends have always been very supportive during my training and on event weekend no matter what race I do and where it's at. Olivia has only missed one of my races so far. There is no way that I can do it without them. That is what get's me to the finish line. That is what got me to the darn turnaround on the bike course on Saturday. Rocky, Olivia and Phil took time off of work on Friday to come to training weekend with us and volunteer for the water stops. They did an awesome job and everyone loved them. Phil isn't much of a camper, acutally not a camper at all, but he was such a good sport and came out anyway. It think he had a good time and we might be able to convince him to camp with us again. Olivia of course already knew a lot of the people and is a pro at this and Rocky also stuck it out considering he was sick. He did have to come home a day early but I think he manged to have a good time on Friday night getting to know everyone and mingling with those on the team he is already friends with. THANK YOU so much for being there you guys are the best. I can't wait til race weekend.

water stop volunteers hard at work :o)

Packing has begun and ended

I took today off to get ready for this weekend and I am so glad I did. I had quite a few loads of laundry to do and I also needed to really concentrate on the gear I need for this weekend and make sure I don't leave anything behind. It is now almost 2pm and I think I am finally done and boy I'm pooped. I managed to get all my training gear and of course my normal clothes in just 4 small bags, that's pretty darn good for me considering I don't pack lightly and usually bring everything I own. I'll be meeting my mentee Sarah later on to go grocery shopping for tomorrow's yummy pasta dinner. We plan on leaving tomorrow around 12. All I really have to do tomorrow is get ready, cook the pasta for tomorrow night and load up the cars. I can't wait, I'm getting really excited and now it looks like the weather might hold out for us on Friday and Saturday. I sure hope it does.

Well I better get going, I now have to go get the doggie packed and ready to go as well. Patch isn't allowed to join us this weekend and since Olivia, Rocky and I will all be gone we had to find him a sitter. He will be staying with Rocky's parents until Sunday. Oh boy, that ought to be intersting. I sure hope he behaves. It'll be his first weekend away from us since we got him :o( boo, hoo :o( we'll miss him but it's probably the best thing since there are boars where we are going and they'd probably eat him for dessert. Right now he is resting, I think I wore him out from all my running around this morning.

Does the shopping ever end?

I bought my bike back in December and when we went bike shopping we made a VERY long list of all the stuff I needed. Bike gear, clothes, you name it it was on the list. My bill was huge but I made sure to get everything then so that I would be set and not have to worry about anything else except maybe tubes or small things that you use and need to replace. WELL, let me tell ya...NO, NO, NO the shopping never ends. This weekend is just a training weekend at Lake San Antonio but you have to prepare like it's event weekend especially because you're out in the middle of no where and you can't just drive down the road to buy something you are missing. I think I've made about 5 trips to the bike shop and my bank acct just keeps going down and down :o( eeeeekkkkkk.

Saturday Coach Joe fitted me on my bike. I wasn't sure that the place I bought my bike at did such a great job so I had him double check. Well come to find out that there are women and men specific saddles (that would be a bike seat) and that I of course have a man's saddle because I bought a man's bike :o( urrgggh. This could explain why my booty bones hurt so much after riding my bike or 25-30 miles. Yesterday I paid a visit to Livermore Cyclery, very highly recommended by Coach Joe, and talked to the owner about a new seat. We found one and of course like everything else on my bike they weren't cheap but I need to have it. I will be going in today to have it put on correctly ( I attempted to do it and although it's on there I think it needs some help). I also need to get refitted because the saddle now adds a few inches on the height so I think my seat post needs to come down. A few inches makes a big difference in your riding and being comfortable. Notice that I got lucky and it's actually a cute seat :o) it has a nice pretty yellow butterfly on it to match my pretty yellow bike.

I also had to go out and get a tri shirt because I didn't have one. On race day you use a tri outfit to do the whole race. This is so that you don't have to keep changing clothes. You can wear the same shirt and shorts for the swim, bike and run. I was able to find some great stuff also at Livermore Cyclery and it was on sale :o) Luckily, I already have the tri shorts so no need to buy those. Bought another set of gloves cause I lost mine last weekend :o( and I think now I'll need knee warmers since I'll be using the tri shorts and not my knickers. See it just never ends. Did I mention how much I love this though :o) I'm getting excited about training weekend and event weekend is only about 32 days away. YIKES!

So Olivia, Phil and Rocky's job for this weekend other than being our awesome volunteers is to tell me....keep on swimming, biking, running, keep on swimming, biking, running :o)

Maybe it was the pink goggles...

....that made my swim not so horrible on Saturday. Saturday we were back at Shadow Cliffs in Pleasanton for another open water swim. Of course I wasnt' looking forward to it because it had rained all night long and into the morning and of course it's still pretty cold outside. We suited up and got int the water, it still took me a little while to get used to the cold and actually get going but I did much better this week. We swam for 30 minutes. I stopped of course but I got a better swim in than last week.

After the swim we went on a 25 mile bike ride. It was a beautiful ride. I didn't feel so great going out but I felt pretty good on the way back. I think part of my problem and why I'm not feeling good during my bike rides is that I'm not hydrating enough. I don't feel like I need water and of course I'm scared to drink while I'm riding so I just don't. Not good. I will have to work on that. I put in a few extra miles because at one point I took a wrong turn, I realized fairly quickly that I was going in the wrong direction and I turned back and to my surprised ran into about 5 other people that had also taken a wrong turn...hee, hee. We got back on the right path and rode on.


Saturday afternoon we went to Natalie's Fundraiser and although there weren't many people there we still had a great time. I wanted to say THANK YOU to all my friends and Rocky for coming along. They have always been a huge support to me and recently they have been attending the fundraiser with me and supporting others on my team. You guys are the best :o)