Updates

It's been quite a while since my last post. Things got pretty hectic with law school finals, work, training, and so forth. But it's been a great couple months and things are moving along on the training front.

We've started doing open water swims at Lake Nokomis and it's been a bit of a shock. It's a lot different from swimming in the pool. First, running into the cold water isn't as fun as slipping in to the heated pool. Second, there is a ridiculous wall of weeds we must swim through before getting to the area where we circle buoys for 30+ minutes. I've also had some trouble with "sighting." Since you can barely see your hands in front of you, you need to periodically look up to make sure you're still on track in the course. I have been tending to veer off left a bit, so I'm working on that.

Last weekend I went for a 45 mile bike ride with Steve. We went down to Faribault and rode the trail down there to Elysian. And of course, we had to stop for an ice cream cone at Dairy Queen on the way back.

I've also realized that my running training needs to increase because I have yet to go over 3 miles, and it's going to be especially difficult when transitioning from biking to running.

As for fundraising, I'm still a couple hundred dollars short of my fundraising minimum with only about a week left before the deadline. Hopefully I'll have some last minute donations coming in from people who have said they were going to donate but haven't yet.

Less than a month til the race! Time for countdown!

It's been a while...But there's exciting news!

Sorry about such the long break between posts - but first I was in Australia for about 10 days and I've been trying to get caught up on sleep and work ever since returning. However, I was very fortunate to arrive back from the "down under" to a number of online and mailed donations!

So today marks the beginning of our new training schedule, and that's a good thing for me! Previously most of the swimming trainings were on Tuesday nights, which conflicted with one of my school courses. But now we'll be swimming on Monday nights and so I will finally be able to attend my second team swim training.

The big exciting news is that there is a new member joining the triathlon team...my mom! She has decided to take on this challenge and will be attempting to do the short distance Life Time Triathlon. It will be interesting since this is the first TNT event where I won't have her cheering me on from the side lines, but hopefully with the event being in Minneapolis there will be plenty of other friendly faces along the course.

It's also great that the weather is starting to get better and soon I'll be up for outdoor cycle and running trainings! Because as much as I prefer to run outside over a treadmill, I refuse to run when there is still ice out. And as a supplement to my normal training, in April I will be running the Race for Justice 5K with a number of my law school peers.

Well that's all for now - thanks to everyone for their support!

Over half-way to my fundraising goal!

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated - I am now over half-way to meeting my fundraising goal of $2300! The TNT fundraising page currently only shows 17% but that is because there is a delay in the check donations getting posted to the site. I am so grateful for all the support people have shown in this fight for a cure!

This week I tried something new on the training front - a class called BodyFlow at the YMCA. It is a combination of tai chi, pilates, and yoga. I definitely learned I could use some work on my flexibility and balance, so I plan on going again. However, it will have to wait a couple weeks because tomorrow I head off with my mom to Australia for Spring Break! Hopefully snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef counts as a "swim" training :-)

Slow and Steady

Things are coming along steadily with training and fundraising. I've been able to make all the cycle/spin trainings and have been keeping up with swimming on my own (since my night class interferes with the team training). I'm still swimming about 1000 meters each time and can usually get through this within a half hour. But I've tried bumping it up to swimming 400 meters at a time before doing "recovery" laps. Next week I will be out of town with my mom for Spring Break, so it will be even more important to keep up with training on my own. Also, some of my fundraising letters have been bringing in donations and hopefully that continues over the next several weeks. Otherwise I have just been pretty busy with school, work, and social activities.

Things are getting busy!

In my last post, I said things would start to pick up - and I was right! In the last week I had another spin training, swam 1000 meters on my own, sent out over 100 fundraising letters, and sold about 20 Twin's tickets (with $6 going to my fundraising for each ticket).

I unfortunately had to miss the Tuesday night swim training with the team because of my night class. But today I made up for it by going to the YMCA and swimming 40 laps (1000 meters). I would swim 200 meters at a time, then do 50 meters slow with a kick board, and then repeat. My endurance is definitely increasing, which makes me happy. The goal I have is to build up my endurance right now and then hopefully work on my speed and brick training (where I move from swimming right into biking within the same workout) as the season progresses.

Thursday night we had our spin session and worked on our form some more. Although I've always enjoyed biking, I've never been very fast. Plus I have had two bike accidents (all due to my own clumsiness, not involving anyone else) in the last 4 years. The first crash I had was so bad I cracked my helmet and ended up in the ER with a concussion because I couldn't remember how I'd gotten from the crash site to my apartment. The last crash was just this past summer as I was biking home from work. Luckily I wasn't really hurt, but the dress shirt I'd been wearing was destroyed. Therefore, my main goal with the bike training is just to get more comfortable on the bike and with being in a big crowd of other bikers.

As for my fundraising, things are moving along pretty well. I was able to send out over 100 letters this week asking for people's support. And TNT was allowed to sell 800 Twin's tickets as a group fundraiser. Each ticket was sold for face value ($22) and $6 of each ticket would go towards our fundraising. The tickets went extremely fast and there was definitely more demand than supply. But I was able to place orders for about 20 tickets, so that should amount to $120 towards my goal. So thank you to everyone that ordered or donated!

Back in Training and Fundraising with TNT!

A new training season has started! After completing the Nike Marathon for the second time in 2009, I (or rather my knees) decided it was time to switch things up a bit. So this year I am back training again, but this time it is for the LifeTime Triathlon in Minneapolis on July 10th. And once again, my purpose is to raise money for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. Please help me reach my goal of raising $2300 to fight cancer!

Above is a photo from our season kick-off party -- I am located directly behind T.C.'s big head. Here is a quick update of what has been happening so far this season, which started about two weeks ago.

I am unfortunately having to do most of the swim training on my own rather than with the team because I have Tuesday night classes - which is when most of the swim trainings are. This has been a struggle since swimming is probably the skill I will need to work on the most in order to cross the finish line in July. But I am optimistic and enjoying the chances I do get to swim with the team. I've already met some really amazing people and am looking forward to getting to know my teammates better. We've also done some spinning and running sessions. From that, I've learned that I will definitely need to get a good pair of bike shorts. Enough said - ha.

As for the fundraising, it has gotten off to a slow start but things should pick up this week. I am hoping to send out over 100 letters in the next week, letting people know about my goals and asking for their help. Last Friday I also had a fundraiser that brought in over $100 in just 2 hours. Also, this year we will have the opportunity to sell tickets to the Twins game on May 8th and part of the proceeds will go towards our fundraising. If anyone reading this knows of other great ways to raise money please let me know.