Wow! First Brick and a couple HOT HOT rides!

Yay, first brick! Brick = 2 of our 3 sports. Saturday... 10 mile bike + 2.2 mile run. Woah! It was already a little warm out. But we all survived! Hooray!

On Sunday, I was scheduled for an 18 mile bike... and I did about 21 miles. Oops... no wonder I was exhausted. AND I discovered www.MapMyRide.com AMAZING!!!

I just keep plugging away!!

Hi everyone!

Well, this has been a great week! I made serious progress on my swimming on Monday. Coach Julie gave a great kernel of wisdom. Maybe this will help YOU swim better too! (Or at least help with anything you need to have a little rhythm to do.) Choose a mantra or sing a song in your head to keep an even breathing rhythm. Man, that really enhanced my mood and my power! I must say I had more energy AFTER my workout than before! Here were my mantras: "I CAN DO IT!" "I'M A WINNER" "YES, I CAN!" Wow, just typing those makes me feel all energized and happy! Never ever underestimate the power of positive thinking and positive personal praise. Our fragile egos can sometimes use the boost... even if we think we are doing alright. I think I'll even incorporate that theory into other areas of my life. For example... I think that praising and encouraging the people around me will be beneficial to all of us!

*~*~ "We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot." ~*~* Eleanor Roosevelt

I did it! I RAN!!

Okay, so I finally got my running workout in!! It was a great day for it. I ran for 35 minutes around the Eastbank Esplanade and Watferfront. It was beautiful! I feel like I am getting stronger and perhaps even faster. So this goes to show that the endurance working I'm doing in the swimming and biking are helping the running. HooRay!!

This weekend, a bunch of us from the team will be renting ourselves out as rowdy fans for a triathlon in Vancouver. This is in an effort to get us closer to our goals for fundraising... and get The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society closer to their goals of helping people with blood cancers & bringing an end to this monster of a disease!

Together we CAN make a difference!!

Go TEAM!!

Keeping up with the team

Keeping to the training schedule is not too terribly easy for me right now. I'm able to keep up with the group training sessions... since I feel more accountable for those. I have also been doing well about getting my extra swim workout in. I squeeze it in between work and Comedy Sportz on Wednesdays. I feel that the running (the event I'm LEAST excited about) tends to get left by the wayside. I did my run on my own on June 1st... and that's it. Shhh... don't tell coach. Or, maybe I do need a good "talking to." I just find it hard to get out there and do it! I need to just suck it up and schedule it, and commit. Today, I intended to run at lunch. Well, it got to be half an hour until lunch and I was starving. I couldn't very well run on an empty stomach, right? Nor could I eat and run half an hour later, RIGHT? Okay, so I realize that's a LAME excuse to not run. Especially considering I had already put it off since Tuesday.

Well, enough beating myself up... I'm just gonna finish my work day and squeeze in a run before dinner. Wish me luck!

feeling the burn

Okay everyone... it's officially here. The day when I am really starting to be sore. Maybe that means I haven't been working out steady and hard enough yet, but, holy moly, am I looking forward to my massage on Sunday! I gotta tell ya, when I actually started doing my workouts regularly... I feel it!

So, I haven't been keeping up with my blog... sorry to leave you all hanging. Saturday morning we went for a run... a 50 minute run! Wowee... I think that's the longest I have ever run. I got in about 5 miles so that's quite an accomplishment for me. I was certainly ready to nap after that! But, it sure felt good to do it and even keeping a steady run (well, my jogging pace of "run") 99% of the time.

On Sunday, I took advantage of the glorious weather and went for a long ride with my dear friend and massage therapist, Stephanie (she's excellent, I'll give you her number!!!) and another friends of ours, Sara. Oh, we had a blast! I LOVE LOVE LOVE riding my bike!! And, did I mention that I have a new bike? She's fabulous!

Last night... GROUP SWIM! It was our first night in PSU's pool. It's a nice place! Now, I learned a valuable lesson... I must get some food in me before an hour and a half of swimming. Otherwise, my usual cheery disposition is replaced by a snippy, crabby grouch!

First Team Swim!!

WOW! How fun! Last night I participated in my first team swim practice. I had a great time! It is so much more enjoyable (and productive) to swim with the team and the coaches! We did drills and techniques to help with our body positioning. It was very nice to have feedback from coach Julie, Coach Glen, and my lovely mentor Matilda. I felt more at ease and felt like I was actually doing the strokes right... or at least correcting as I went along. It's amazing to see what a difference a little accountability makes. I've been doing my swimming mostly in my twice a week swim lessons at my local pool. Don't get me wrong, i love the class and love love love swimming with my dear friend Christine, but I'm not very focused on much except fun. :-) Honestly, I'm new to the concept of self-discipline... well, not the concept isn't new, but the practice of it is. TNT is proving to be good for me on soooo many levels.

I'm looking forward to tonight, TNT is offering an injury prevention clinic. I must say, TNT is GREAT for giving us all the tools we need to be successful in this entire enterprise. THANK YOU TEAM IN TRAINING!!!! You Rock! Oh, and I just found out, there's still time to join the Marathon (walk/run) and Cycle teams with Team in Training if you want to get in on this awesome experience. Especially if you were already planning to do the Portland Marathon, or dream of doing the Nike Women's Marathon (or half) in San Francisco.

'Til next time!

The Mock Triathlon!

Oh, what fun! On Saturday, we met as a team at Vancouver Lake Park to participate in the bike portion of a mock triathlon put on by the Portland Tri Club. It was awesome to watch other Team in Training triathletes gear up in their TNT wetsuits and a whole gaggle of them jump into the lake on a chilly morning! They are normal folks like the rest of us and it's great to know that they were right where we are in our training only four months ago. In a few weeks WE will be swimming in that same lake! The bike ride was a lovely 13 miles and the weather was perfect. A little chilly, but not too bad. We learned about triathlon rules and regulations before we set out on our ride. It was interesting to find out how many specific rules are involved in triathlon.