Bricks can't hurt me

Saturday was to be our first BRICK training day involving bikes... Maybe I should explain. BRICK days are biking + running... bike/run... brick! Hey, I thought it was clever! So anyway, we were supposed to have biking joy, but we were frozen out. Too much cold air + wind chill on bikes = frostbite. That's okay, with an 8am start time, there was little possibility of my making it to Riverside Park or Central Park after my 12 hour night shift, ending sometime around 7am in Queens. They went for a run without us, and I was sad... not awfully sad, since I came home and snuggled into bed with Jason, but still pretty sad. Which is weird enough, but it just keeps getting weirder!

We've had a few Saturday morning runs in Central Park now, and I kind of love it. I've gotten my second wind after being at work all night, and the brisk air is, well, invigorating. I kind of love running in chilly air. I don't even know who I am anymore! Jason comes with me, and even ran with me last week, which was *awesome*. There was chatting, and sweating, and lots of gasping breath, and it was actually fun, and no, we weren't having marital relations. You guys have one-track minds. Sheesh.

We had swim practice on Wednesday together, and we went up and down the rows side by side, and man, this is probably nauseating for you people, but I don't care, it was so fun! And and and I *know* how to swim! I mean, for real! It's been years since I was on that swim team in junior high and early high school, but it's all back, baby.

And then Thursday, I had my very first social run outside of TNT. Amy (you guys know Amy, she rocks) met up with me for an early evening run around the reservoir in Central Park. It was beautiful, and we ran the farthest I've been able to go so far - 3.16 miles, in 37 minutes! We felt like rock stars, and of course went out to cancel any calorie burning that might have accidentally happened.

Tomorrow, Jason and I are planning to go for an hour's swim after I get out of work at 7:30am. It should be nice and quiet, and we can practice all those moves we were taught by Jason's new man-crush tri hero god, Scott. (I tease, but he really is awesome.)

People, this is getting serious. I might be developing an actual liking for running. I might have to keep this up. Plus, it gives me an excuse to buy cute gear, and I can't resist that kind of incentive! This is a no-gym required lifestyle, and that's a big attraction for me. I can never seem to make it to a gym. And now I'm *doing* stuff, and it's invigorating AND good for me, and I am so befuddled by all these things! I have a stationary bike and a bicycle. I have running shoes and superhero tights. I have a cheap pass to a pool whenever I want. I think it might be on. We'll see how I feel about it all after July!!

How to talk about cancer

Words can just be inadequate. And as we stumble and trip toward trying to say the right and true thing, we often reach for the nearest rotted-out cliché for support. Better to say nothing, and offer the gift of your presence, than to utter bankrupt bromides.

This is from Dana Jennings' latest post on the New York Times' Well Blog, "With Cancer, Let’s Face It: Words Are Inadequate." Reading the post -- and the comments below it -- has made me re-think the way I've talked about cancer, and the way I've written about it in my e-mails to all of you about our fundraising efforts. I've used the cliches. Repeatedly. "The fight against cancer." Telling people to "stay positive." Many others. These are all things that I've always said with nothing but the best of intentions, without a thought of how they might have affected the recipient. I guess I never thought about some of it before -- like the thought that if you encourage someone to stay positive and fight the battle, will they feel like they've failed somehow if they die from it?

Tough call. I've been lucky enough to not have cancer in my life. If I did, I don't know how I'd react to these kinds of comments. I feel like I'd give someone the benefit of the doubt, knowing that they didn't mean any harm by it. And certainly for every person who comments that they're upset by the way their friends and family talk to them, there's someone else who is merely appreciative that someone is expressing any positivity to them at all. Still, the article's a good one; it puts me, temporarily, in the shoes of someone who has a life-threatening disease, and I'm always grateful for that point of view.

Swim Cap

Kick-Off!

This post is coming a few weeks late, but Team in Training's summer triathlon kick-off event was pretty powerful stuff, and I wanted to make sure I mentioned it.

Before any season of endurance events (half-marathon, marathon, triathlon, etc), Team in Training holds lots of informational sessions, almost on a weekly basis in every borough, as a way to recruit people to join the team and raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. As I mentioned, Jess and I went to one in December, and then another one in January, which is when we signed up to do the triathlon. At these events, you get to hear a little bit about TNT and why the fundraising we're doing is so important. After we signed up, we had about six weeks of just waiting for things to start, while TNT held many other recruitment events. It all led to the Official Kick-Off, held on February 24th at the New York Blood Center on 67th Street.

Jess couldn't make it because she had to work, and I barely made it, having scheduled the first day at my new job (did I tell you I have a new job? And it's actually somewhat related to my fundraising? More on that in a separate post), a kids' playwriting event back in Astoria, and the kick-off all in a 10-hour period. I was beat, having commuted to Astoria and NYC twice in one day, but had a feeling it'd be an event I wouldn't want to miss.

I walked in and saw a pretty awesome group of people, all filing in to take their seats. (This auditorium eventually became standing room only.)

So this was the group I was going to be spending the next five months with. I looked around and wondered how many would always be strangers to me, how many would be people I recognized at different events, and how many I'd wind up becoming true friends with, having bonded over this intense goal. No time to find out, though, as Director Veronica Perez took the stage to introduce herself and tell us more about the importance of our training and fundraising.

She then introduced her support staff, the triathlon coaches, and the mentors. Before long, there were at least 50 people standing on the stage. These are the people taking us to the finish line.


Mike Woods, meteorologist from Fox 5's Good Day New York also talked for a short time. I love this guy -- I watch him in the mornings from the gym. He said he'd be doing the training with us -- I was skeptical at first, but in the past two weeks, I've seen him at two group sessions, so I'm guessing he's serious about it. He doesn't know it yet but I plan on beating him in the triathlon.

One of the very best things about Team in Training is their "Honored Teammate" program. Honored Teammates are people who have been affected by leukemia, lymphoma and other blood cancers. They're at the information sessions and at our group training sessions -- they're the people who remind us why we're doing what we're doing. This is Murph. Murph spoke about how cancer affected his life, how he lived in denial about his diagnosis, and how hard the disease was not only on him, but on the people around him. He spoke of TNT (and their parent organization, LLS) and how important their work had been to his struggle for survival. I'm not doing his speech justice, but it was profound and powerful and moving. And Murph's family -- his mother, his wife, his beautiful baby -- were in the audience to hear the whole thing. Wow.

Honored Teammates are not just people who have worked with the LLS or TNT. They're anybody you know who has been affected by cancer. You'll hear about George, Jessica's grandfather and honored teammate, and Melissa, my honored teammate, in future posts.

Wrapping up our kick-off event was Scott Willett, our head triathlon coach. Scott runs Tri-Life, an unbelievable coaching program, and he is 100% dedicated to us each week in helping us reach our triathlon goals. Seriously, we get a six-to-eight page e-mail every week with detailed training tips for every single day. Some might grow to dislike Scott for his unbridled enthusiasm at any moment, such as when we ran in the pouring rain and wind last Saturday. Not me. I love this guy.


At this point, none of us had any idea what we were in for -- and to be fair, we still really don't know, as he's starting us off very gentle and easy. I have a feeling he's going to kick our asses. I'm really excited about it. He told us all about what our training would entail, and assured us that he -- and all of our triathlon coaches -- would be there for us every step of the way, willing to answer any questions or give us the personal attention we need. People like him are why I signed up in the first place...but people like Murph are why I'm sticking around.

And with that, the Kick-Off was over. I sat in one of the front rows so I could take photos, and every so often, I'd turn around to look at the sea of enthusiastic triathletes, many of them new like me, some of them veterans of both triathlons and Team in Training, but all nervously excited about the road ahead.

Crazy

Just wanted to point out that it's currently 28˚ and pouring rain, at 7:30 on a Saturday morning. Jessica just got home from her 12-hour shift at the hospital. We are heading out to run in Central Park with other like-minded (read: INSANE) triathletes-in-training. There is a fine line between "this builds character" and "you are an idiot," and I'm not sure where we fall on that line. We're about to find out, though!

Rubber ducky...

1st realization: oh yeah, swim goggles ARE super dorky. 2nd: so are swim caps! 3rd: I don't remember junior high/early high school swim team as well as I thought, since I don't remember looking this silly. :) We went up to Riverside Park at 136th Street for our first swim training session. Walking into the building smelled like high school. Everyone was a little nervous, I think, and there were a lot of women wrapped in their towels - I'm not sure if that was due to cold or shyness. That brought me to my first realization - these people are going to be some of the only people in the world to see me with no vanity coverage. No smoothing out bags or zits. Lots of sweaty gear. Ack! But what can you do? Some things are just more important! I just feel bad for THEM.

Jason looked ADORABLE in his speedo trunks. I wasn't allowed to point it out at the time, but he bought these sporty little (and I mean little) swim shorts, and his tushie is just fantastic. They're like the boxer briefs of the swimsuit world. *Awesome* (Sigh - Jason)

I'm really bad at breaking my swimming into its pieces, but when we were to put it all together, it was just like old times... I'm fine for about 50 meters, and no more! I never did have a bit of endurance. That will just have to come with more practice, since we have 0.9 miles to go in July!

I'm looking forward to next week. We might even take an extra swim this weekend!

Astoria Socializin'

One of the nice things about Team in Training is that they hook you up with a mentor -- a volunteer who's done your specific event through TNT before and can answer any questions you have, help inspire and encourage you, the whole nine yards. What's even nicer is that they were smart enough to hook us up with a mentor in our neighborhood, Astoria. We love Astoria very much. We love our decently-sized apartment, our driveway, our backyard, our local restaurants and our grocery store where more than one cart can fit down an aisle at a time. We don't love that 98% of our friends live in Manhattan -- so we don't get to do a lot of socializing in our own neighborhood. Although we're not far from the city (it's easier to get to us than it is to get to many spots in Brooklyn or the Lower East Side), people seem to live in fear of a subway that actually goes above ground. Kinda sucks.

So we were pretty psyched when our awesome mentor, Ashley, decided to organize an Astoria-specific meetup this past weekend. We met at Crescent Lounge, which is just a couple of blocks from our old apartment, by the Broadway stop. Ashley and Marisa, another Astoria mentor, were in attendance, as were other tri newbies: Will, Lance, Jessica and myself. Ashley's fiancé Ryan was there for support.

We had a really nice night with everybody. It was reassuring to find out that nobody in the group was a hardcore athlete. Ashley's first tri was last year, Marisa's on her second -- but the rest of us were in various stages of "what the hell have I signed myself up for?" We discussed lots of logistics and traded stories about our various previous athletic experiences. It was really nice. The group eventually thinned out, leaving Ryan, Ashley, Jess and I to challenge each other with '80s trivia in the bar. The four of us went out to dinner at Sac's, one of our favorite restaurants from the neighborhood, and just had a great night.

It was really nice to spend some time with fellow Astorians. We'll be doing much more of this as training begins. Right now, training only happens in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island -- wouldn't it be great if, at some point, TNT does training at Astoria Park, 15 minutes from our apartment...?

My first month of running

So, you may be aware that I... am not a runner. My stance has always been "Run only if chased. With a knife. A big, big, ginormous knife." Guns weren't enough of an impetus to run since I figured I couldn't outrun bullets. But then, my ever-brilliant, ever-searching-for-new-ways-to-be-busy husband started talking about doing a triathlon. And oddly enough, it sounded appealing to me as well. I used to think of myself as kind of tough - the kind of girl who could bike 20 miles to build a set, and lift her 250-pound friends for fun. The kind of girl that can help her mom move and carry the 600-million-pound TV (my back *still* hates me for that move).  The kind of girl that was never intimidated by a physical challenge. That kind of girl pretty much died out after high school, and I've missed her.

So when Jason started talking about Team in Training, I suddenly felt her wake up. This, I thought, this could be my new thing. After all, I just finished PA school with its insane schedule. Clearly I need something new to keep me running 7 days a week. And maybe that something involves actual running! The idea of being strong again, tougher than the average bear... well, that was more appealing than I could have imagined.

We went to the intro meetings, and we were hooked. Both of us have people to run for - in my case, it's my grandfather, George Kohn. He was a young grandpa until non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma crashed in, and my whole family still feels the loss 15 years later. I'll talk about him more later... just now, I want to talk about light things, like the agony of certain movements after your first-ever run.

We signed up after the Astoria meeting of TNT (that's Team in Training, and the N is a lot more PC than using the I... think about it... got it? Good!) and then we went shopping for running shoes at Jackrabbit on 14th Street. They videotape you running so they can see any stride issues (like my flat feet) and then see if the new shoes correct it or not. I discovered a heretofore unknown bit of information: I run like a girl. I know, I *am* a girl, but I mean the whole feet flailing to the sides thing - like some kind of cheerleader stereotype!! Gah! This was horrifying news to contemplate. I'm trying to move past it. I guess I'm trying to run past it, aren't I?

I now had sneakers. I was also lusting after some awesomely dorky running tights. Hey, you read all the running articles, and they all say you should have running tights for winter runs, and it's cold out, and and and... they are so awesome. They have zigzagging lines for the compression panels, that keep my quads all in alignment so my knee doesn't whine at me, and they're pretty, and they make me feel like a superhero! And I just realized I wrote a whole paragraph about tights. Hm. This may be a problem.

Moving on....

So NOW I can go run! This... is a scary idea. I mean, I hate running... right? So I gear up. It's the afternoon, not too cold out. I know I tend to overheat, so I dressed lightly. And discovered the gap between my socks and my tights. But I digress... I walked up the first hill trying to warm up, and I tell myself that if I can run one block, I'll try for two. It was downhill, so I made the first block. AND the second block, too. I made it all the way to 37th Street before I had to stop for a minute and walk (that's around a quarter mile, which was startling, since I was betting on not being able to do one block!). I just went for 15 minutes - 7 minutes out and 7 minutes back. And I felt awesome! That was the weirdest part - I didn't hate it!

I've tried to go regularly since then. It's not always easy, especially on work nights, but I'm trying. I made it to a whole mile without stopping, which was *awesome*. Then I got to run with my brother upstate, and that was fun! My first time having someone to run with, and he was very patient with my very slow pace. We ran over 2 miles, and even though I had to walk a bit, Ross said he thinks I ran at least 2 of those miles. I got sick after that trip and lost some of my steam, which lead to the now obvious conclusion: I can't let it go for too many days, or the next run will just SUCK. Choppy, painful, and feeling more and more like maybe I do have asthma (thanks a lot for putting THAT in my head, Denise!!). Right now I can still only run about 20 minutes without wanting to die. I tried 30 minutes tonight, and that was... not in my best interests.

I know I'm not yet going as much as I should, but the official TNT training sessions started this week, so I'll have all kinds of running time now. They have Tuesdays and Saturdays scheduled every week, and I'm to go on my own as well. Saturday is my first group run in Central Park, and I'm actually looking forward to it. I bet I'll get beyond 20 minutes any day now! Wheee!!