Holy week of workouts!

I didn't realize I hadn't written in about a week. Well let me catch you all up (all six of you :-)

Last week was the beginning of two workouts a day a couple days a week plus single workouts 6 days a week and outside of the sore muscles it was good!

Saturday was our first brick aka run/bike/run. I ran a one mile warm up, 12 miles on the bike and finished with a two mile run. I was tired and had to push but I completed it!!!

Sunday was my day off and then Monday back at it with weights in the morning and swimming at night. Tuesday was a 4.59 mile run (but need to work on my time). Today I hit the gym for 30 minutes of cardio and weights, tonight is run practice. I'm pretty proud of my committment but I'm sooooo tired!

I thought you were supposed to feel more energized when you worked out, I have to fight to stay away driving to work....

Tomorrow my goal is to go for a 16 mile bike ride... but I do enjoy riding with the clip in shoes and havne't fallen over yet....

No Pain No Gain.... who said this?

The run last night was not near as bad as it could have been, the rain seemed to subside for the hour! We did a 10 minute warm up and then ran to a hill and had to run up it three times. We all know running is not my strength and pretty much hate it but being last SUCKS!!! I'm in decent shape but I'm always last on the running stuff. I really need to work on this and get more runs into speed up my pace....

After the hills we did a cool down then some lunges and core exercises. I thought for sure the lunges would kill me since I did weights yesterday morning but actually, it wasn't bad.

After practice a few of us went out for drinks and food, it was fun but then back home and straight to bed.

I got up at 5:45am to pick Katie up at 6am to hit the gym. Yes, I'm basically working out every 12 hours! Workout was good but it was difficult to muster all of the energy I needed to get a solid workout done. My entire body is sore from weights and can only imagine what day two will feel like tomorrow... not to mention we do weights again. Is this what it feels like to be on the Biggest Loser? So painfull.....

3 Days in a Row!!!

Yes! I have hit the gym three days in a row at 6am! Yesterday was cardio and abs but today was my first day back at weights in a few weeks. Legs, arms, back and abs! I'm going to be sore tomorrow and still have a run tonight, which will most likely be in the rain....

Someone tell me again why I voluntarily signed up to do this to myself...? Oh ya, for charity. Sometimes you have to give till it hurts,I think tomorrow it's really going to hurt :-(

6am at the gym!

Yesterday I took the day off from my workouts but today I was up with vengence! I hit the gym at 6:15am started out with some cardio and then weights... it was legs today. My goal is to do two workouts a day at least 3 days a week plus a single workout 3 days a week.

Working on fundraising idea's so stay tuned for event details!!

Back in the Saddle

It was dark when I woke up this morning... outta bed, brush my teeth, comb hair and strategically plan what clothes and how many layers I needed to put on to stay warm for an 8am bike ride on Mercer Island. started with long sleeved shirt, northface pullover with hood (medium weight), windblock jacket and topped it off with windbreaker. Pants were fleece inside with windblock front and bike shorts on top. Out the door at 7:30am

Arrive at destination at 8:00am, beanie on head, windblock gloves (who ever invented this is a genius!) and helmet. This was my first ride with clip in pedals and fancy bike shoes, whoooo, hoooo!

Off we went to round around Mercer Island, it was really cold but I was well bundled :-) The only part of me that was cold pretty much the entire 13 mile ride were my toes, at one point I wasn't sure I was ever going to get the feeling back. I even had the thought that my toes would need to be amputated do to frost bite.

The ride was completed in a little over an hour and I felt good! I warmed up at a cafe with fellow teammate/mentor brainstorming for fundraisers.

Thinking maybe a yoga class tomorrow to help stretch my muscles.... that should make for an interesting story :-)

Sorry for the delay....

Hello, I have been slacking on my blog... I apologize but no good stories have been missed. I've been having a difficult time doing outdoor exercise in the cold and it has increased my sports induced asthma so need to make a Dr.'s appt to get an inhaler if I want to continue to push my self AND breath.

While I haven't been hitting the coached workouts, I have hit the gym regularly to keep my cardio stamina up. Not sure I will be able to make the coached bike ride on Saturday but going to try but I should be back onboard all of the workouts next week:-)

Painful Spinning

Tuesday was a train on our own - bike. So I signed up for a popular spin class at the gym I belong to. I had only done spin once before and was not a fan but thought with my new found motivation it might not be so bad. Oh, how I was WRONG!!!!!

I entered the room of bikes and made my way to a corner where I was fairly close to an overhead fan. I started riding to warm up, so far so good! The instructor comes in, turns on the music and we start our ride.

Within 15 minutes, I am absolutely miserable but I keep going.... as the class goes on the instructor starts shouting numbers, 80, 85, 90, 95....100! This is I guess what the "cadence" number was supposed to be but not totally sure. The first round of this, I stay with the instructors instructions making to 120 and then back down. Randomly thrown in are quarter turns and half turns of level difficulty.

30 minutes into this class all I could think about was if I was going to throw up or pass out first.... while the instructor is still shouting out numbers 85.....90....95....100....105.....110 - I can barely keep mine above 70 (which I don't think is good). I was absolutely miserable, my face was beat red, I had a throbbing headache, numbers being shouted and not sure if I was gonna throw up or pass out.....

When class was close to ending I had an epiphany! This is how we should torture prisoners at Guantanomo Bay! As far as I'm confirmed this is the worst torture to endure and I will not be attending any spin classes in the near future.

My cycle training will consist of riding outside or doing a program in one of the cardio rooms.

A Good Swim

Originally, last nights swim practice was supposed to be a non-coached swim but last week it was switched to an optional coached swim. So with few teammates showing up it was AWESOME! There was only two us in a lane for swimming and I got a chance to really focus on speed and form. Which BTW.... I think they have changed "proper form" since I was kid.

Thankfully, my parents started me in swim lessons when I was six months old and started summer swim team at age 6. It was a good seven summers of swim meets, lessons and ribbons but alas I became a teenager and my rebellion began.

But now... my stroke is to narrow, I don't pull enough and I tend to role slightly... good thing I have some time to get my stroke updated!

Run in the Rain

Today was my first workout in a week and I'm fairly proud! I managed to rally on a crappy day, it was pouring rain outside and the easy thing to do was jump on the treadmill but NOOOO, I crabbed both dogs and off to Greenlake we went. We were lucky that it stopped raining and ran the lake in 30 minutes. I should have run longer but I started having a weird pain in my shin/calf area.... Oh well, some is better than none.

I also got play with my heart rate monitor too but need to figure it more cuz It shows me being over my target heart rate for most of my workout.

Tomorrow is swimming!

A Little Boys Battle

This week’s mission moment comes from a past participant who has a nephew battling leukemia. Below are a few words from Gavin’s mom. Keep Gavin in your thoughts as you train and work to raise money for the cause.

“It's difficult to write into words what has happened over the past few weeks. The leukemia seems to have invaded Gavin's body yet again. On Friday, October 30, after a bone marrow aspiration and lumbar puncture, we were told that there appears to be Leukemic cells in Gavin's body. Sure enough after some additional testing, it was confirmed. On Monday, November 2, Dr. Cooper sat us down and told us that Gavin had indeed relapsed. Kenny and I were completely numb. This was our greatest fear and it was coming true and there was nothing we could do to stop it.

Gavin's doctors suggested a bone marrow transplant (pretty much as our only option). They have already begun the process of looking for a donor from the registry. Gavin's treatment will start out at Kaiser with chemotherapy to put the Leukemia back into remission, then we will move on to City of Hope for a transplant. We are trying to keep Gavin's body as healthy and as strong as possible in preparation for his transplant. Kenny and I don't have much more information than that. We will find out more as we go along. There seem to be many "potential" matches for Gavin through the registry. Unfortunately Kenny, Emma and I are not a match.

Gavin will not be able to continue with school because of all this but we have explained to both Emma and Gavin what is going on and that Gavin is sick and needs to go back to the hospital and doctor to get better”.

Back At It Tomorrow

The PDC Conference has officially ended with much success! Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to workout since my last post on Sunday but I did manage to stay constantly moving from the moment my peepers opened to the second they closed for the few hours of sleep I got.

Tomorrow will be a more relaxing day with limited work so I will definitely get a good workout in. I'm excited to use my heart rate monitor again to see what kind of numbers I pull. Stay tuned for tomorrow's workout results......

LA Run

Yesterday, I arrived in LA for work. I will be here for a week and needed to push myself to ensure I get my workouts in. Upon my arrival, I threw on my workout gear and hit the streets of Downtown LA with my new heart rate monitor!

Right before I left the hotel room, I got a call about some needed art files for work... of course the phone starts ringing 10 minutes into my run. So, I have a new skill! I can solve challenges while talking on the phone participating in a run on the streets of LA WHILE dodging pedestrians trying to get to the basketball game. If this doesn't scream talent, I don't know what does?

My heart rate monitor beeped at me the entire run.... I guess my heart rate was too high for my age/weight/height category... I call BS!

After my run, I stopped into the hotel gym to ride the bike but only lasted 10 minutes because I wasn't feelinging it so I jumped on the treadmill to play with my heart rate to see how much beeping my watch would do. End result.... I worked out for 50 minutes, yay me!!!

We shall see what kind of workout Monday will bring....

*I reserve the right to spell things incorrectly and leave out words :-)

Saturday's Run

I woke up at 7am and was greeted by a chill in the air. I put on my new running clothes and out the door I went to meet the team at Marymoor Park for our coached run. Of course I was running a few minutes late, had a fight with a sharp corner on the back of my leg (I showed that keyboard shelf who was boss as I shoved it with all my might back into the desk... needless to say, I broke it).

Finally, out the door get to the park and join the group for announements. Today was the first time someone had spoken about their experience with Leukemia and it brought tears to my eyes. This woman told us about her son who was diagnosed when he was three years old, survived 38 months of chemotherapy (not consecutively) and then had a stroke at age 5. No child should have to endure one of these things let alone all of them! Thankfully, her son is a survivor who is 24 years old and a deep sea diver. That story gave me purpose for training for Lava Man and raising funds.

Then we hit the trail, it was 32 degrees when we started our run a little after 8am. I'm proud to say I ran for 45 minutes consistantly! Yay ME!!!

Since I'm new to this whole deal I asked my two team mentors to review my purchases the day before. Guess what... I returned both pairs of cycling gloves and a pair shorts.

Tomorrow I'm off to LA for a week so my workouts are all on me!
Stayed tune for LA adventures....

Friday Night Shopping Trip

Yesterday, Friday the 13th... which I didn't realize until just now was "Friday the 13th".... I wonder if that had anything to do why my bad shopping luck?

In an effort to be prepared for running/cycling in the rain I hit REI in Redmond. Nice store, fairly large but the bike clothing consisted of only two racks and of course every jacket I liked they didn't have in a medium. Actually, they seemed not to have a lot of items in medium... leg warmers, running pants and the list goes on. But, I did manage to find a great heart rate monitor that I'm super stoked to use so I can figure out how many calories I burn when I workout. Okay, the real reason is to see how much I can eat and drink but still lose weight :-)

After an hour and a half of searching for items on list I left with a new running outfit, bike gloves, neoprene shoe covers and heart rate monitor.... I thought running, swimming and cycling would be cheap... I was WRONG!!

The Monday Adventure

In effort to prepare for my next bike ride in the rain I left work at 5pm on Monday. The goal, get to REI downtown and then to swim practice at 8pm. Well as my luck would have it there was an accident on 520 W and the bridge was a parking lot... needless to say I didn't make it to REI. Although I did find a place to grab some dinner. If I have a side salad will that counter act the wings I had with it?

At 7:15 I was off to swim practice where I learned that I bring my arms across the center line when my arms enter the water... I guess all those years of swim team and lessons didn't provide me with proper form.... or maybe they changed it since I was 12???

Anyway, I swam my little heart out while fighting with my goggles that kept letting the water into my eyes.
Today I'm going to attempt to get to REI for those much needed supplies to protect from the rain that will be visiting us all week :-)

The Wet Ride

Yesterday was the first coached bike ride. I thought I was fairly prepared... I had purchased some needed supplies (bike pump w/gauge, tubes, lights, etc...)

I looked outside in the morning before getting dressed and it looked like it might be a descent morning so I threw on a ASU t-shirt (Saturday college football ya know...) workout jacket and black workout pants. I didn't grab a jacket because I didn't think it was going to rain....

I showed up at Madrona Park after driving through a torrential down poor but it was not raining when I arrived. I pumped up my tires, listened to the instructions and we were off riding down to Seward Park. About half way to Seward it starts to rain... then it dumped!

This ride was going to be less than an hour and I'm thinking "I can do this, even if I get wet it's not going to be for that long" what I didn't count on was it raining so hard and with me wearing 100% heavy cotton pants that I would be soaked to the bone. My pants became so heavy I was having a difficult time keeping my right pant leg up so it wouldn't get caught in the spokes!

But alas, I completed my ride and felt like a total bad ass! But I'm totally going to by proper clothing today!!!! Not getting caught with my pants falling down again!

If you would like to donate please visit my fundraising page.

http://pages.teamintraining.org/wa/lavatri10/tdawsonzij

The beginning....

I ran a half marathon a few years ago and well.... I finished but it was a fairly miserable experience. In an effort to get in better shape I wanted to participate in something. I had thought about a triathlon a few years ago when worked with someone who was pretty hardcore into it. That faded....

A couple months ago I had lunch with Tom Goos regarding business and we started talking workouts, etc... turns out he is a mentor for the Lava Man, Team in Training Triathlon! I went to the orientation meeting and signed up!

I'm proud to say I'm part of an awesome team that supports one an other which helps keep me motivated to work hard.... it also helps that I'm competitive and don't like to lose :-)

I have officially completed the first week of training which included a coached swim, run and bike plus worked out on my own. Stay tuned for updates on my training

ps I have never blogged before so feel free to provide feedback

If you would like to donate please visit my site http://pages.teamintraining.org/wa/lavatri10/tdawsonzij

Tina