Racing in Honor of . . .

In all of the craziness of race prep, I often forget that I am doing this not just for myself. This weekend, I will be thinking of all of our team honorees and their families. And I will also be racing in honor of:

1) Jasmina - 5 year old god-daughter of my friends in NYC. She has been fighting Leukemia and is awaiting a bone marrow transplant. Here is an update from my friends:

Hi Melissa,

Our pleasure. Jasmina is feeling quite well. I saw her at the hospital on Saturday. She wanted me to hold her hands and lift her as high as possible while she jumped. Not exactly the picture of a sickly child. She tired me out. The only negative side effect was that her long, candy-apple red wig kept falling off. They still have not found a perfect bone marrow match for her, although one of the drives we did in her name turned up a perfect match for another patient on the waiting list. The cycles of chemo cannot be expected to keep the disease at bay indefinitely (she has gone through five or six already), so they are thinking about alternative (i.e., less than perfect-match) transfer procedures. If they go that route, they may look to her biological mother to be the donor (assuming she is healthy enough), or another donor who has already been identified as having a significant number of matching genetic components with Jasmina. They may have to move her to Philadelphia or Memphis, where they are doing trials of that nature.

Good luck this weekend!!

2) Buck Lauer - My friends father-in-law who was recently diagnosed with multiple myeloma this year. He has been under going chemo for the last few months. Hoping he's doing well.

3) Arylene (Kline?) - My friend Rebecca's grandmother. Arylene was diagnosed with leukemia about a month ago and passed away last week. Rebecca raced with us last year and wasn't able to join us this year. So I am racing for her and in her grandma's honor.


I'll be thinking of them all this weekend and during the race. Thanks to everyone who has supported me and LLS. I hope that in the future I won't have any honorees because we find a cure for blood cancers. Until then, let's keep up the good work.

And if you'd like to help Jasmina, please register for the bone marrow donor registry. More info here: http://www.oneforjasmina.com/

Peace and gratitude.
m.

Let the Taper Begin

Sunday we did a practice triathlon at Crissy Field. A 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, and 3 mile run all in one of the most beautiful places in San Francisco. It was a gorgeous day and I felt pretty good.

I swallowed an enormous amount of Bay water at the start and had to stop to prevent myself from throwing up. And then I really had to pee, so stopped a bit to try to do that. With no success and people swimming past me like mad, I pressed on. The water was cold and I got a bit dizzy. Wasn't my best swim. Oh well.

The bike was great. I love biking through the Presidio. There are a few nice hills and lots of rollers. The forest of Eucalyptus trees and the fancy Sea Cliff neighborhood keep you well entertained.

And the run was mostly flat, with one steep hill down to Aquatic Park. Jello legs didn't last too long, and I felt fine when I finished.

Someone ran into me on the bike, and I cut my leg. I didn't even notice but had a nice stream of blood running down my leg by the time I got back. Nice!

Anyhoo, now we begin the official taper. Light workouts, and no more drinking. Trying to get lost of sleep this week, too. Woohoo!

We head down to Lake San Antonio on Friday. Wish me luck!!

Sweepers Unite

Sometimes you just have to embrace your inner slowness. A group of four of us were officially the sweep team. We kept each other company and none talked of how utterly far behind we were from the rest of the group. Sort of an unspoken rule. With the pressure of catching up off of us, we had a lovely ride together.

We did a very hilly 36 mile ride around Mt. Tam. It was probably 2500+ ft of climbing and there were points were I was nauseous from exertion, wanted to give up, and pretty much thought I'd just fall off my bike or roll backwards. But I did none of those and am pleased to call that a victory.

One of our teammates had some flat tire issues, so there was a good 30 min break in there to help her out, not that I minded the rest. We had a good view of the fog over Stinson Beach and watched the paragliders set up shop and fall off of cliffs.

It was still a lovely day in the city when we got back. 65 or so. A teammate of ours had a fundraising bbq in Dolores Park, which is a fabulous people watching park in the mission. I scarfed down a hot dog and a burger. Ahhh training! This is my favorite part.

Tomorrow we do an open water swim in the Bay, which will be great, since it will be warm outside. But the best part of the swim is that it marks the beginning of TAPERing!!

Victory in the New Neighborhood

Today we were to do our peak week long run. I did 7 miles and decided to face the hills of new neighborhood again. This time, I took 2 dollars in cash with me in case I needed a bus ride home. I also took some sports gel and my ipod to keep me entertained. 7 miles at my pace, with hills, can take some time. I set out at 6:25 pm and just wanted to get home before dark.

There is a good steady hill at the beginning of this run. About 1.5 miles. I see people running it all the time and think, god, that looks awful. Turns out its not so bad. To be clear, I did walk one short section. But I cranked my ipod and made it to the top. Then I ran down towards Stern Grove and the beach. Didn't make quite to the water, but it was a nice downhill recovery. And as they say, that which goes down must come up, so a series of steep hills for about 1.5 miles coming back. And then a nice 1 mile cruise down hill home.

I pushed myself on the hills, thinking about the course at Wildflower, which is royal pain in the arse. But I did it, and came home to porkchops, roasted veggies, and turnip greens. Mmmm. Thank you Chris.

Here's the elevation chart of my run today. Nothing to sneeze at.

Driving Workout

This weekend I was on SAG (Support and Gear) duty for the bike/run workout. I didn't actually get to ride, but drove the course making sure no one had any problems with their bikes. It was actually really fun because the course is so beautiful. Part of it overlooks Stinson Beach. The day was glorious and it was just great to be up there. First picture is of me and Coach Tom before the ride started. Second one is the view from the course. Amazing!!

I had hoped to get in a nice long run when I got home, but I had failed to eat lunch and ate way too much Easter candy, so was feeling a little loopy. My tailbone also ached from all the sitting, so I took the afternoon off.





Saturday, we had an open water swim at Aquatic Park. It was another glorious day and I had a great time in the water. Here's a pic of us practicing a mass start of the swim. Lots of splashing and kicking.


We have one more hard week of training and then we begin the taper. Ack!!

New Neighborhoods

Today I went on my first run in my new neighborhood. There is a great park nearby with hiking trails, so I thought I'd go check it out. I should preface this all by saying in my old neighborhood, it is mostly flat. There are some hills in the Presidio, but they tend to be of the long, slow climbing sort. In my new neighborhood, there are short and long steep hills everywhere. You can guess where this is going . . .

I set off through the neighborhood, only to be stopped by a friendly neighbor, Connie, who has lived here since 1974. She had LOTS of stories to tell. I chatted for about 15 minutes and then had to make a mad dash before she launched into another trip down memory lane. I make it to the park and find a nice, flat fire road. A nice half mile jog and then I start getting into single-track paths, then some very muddy spots with alot of poison oak. So I think I'll head to drier trails up higher in the canyon. Soon I am at the top with lovely views of the canyon and the neighborhood. I follow the trail up a bit more, thinking I would come out near the major road the loops around the canyon taking me back home. I pop out in what I later discover is called Diamond Heights. Amazing views of the Bay and downtown, even.

Being that I am training in peak week, I take on the hills running them at first, then jogging, then walking. Then just stopping for short bit. Unfortunately, my navigating kept leading to dead-ends at the tops of very steep hills. I tried to run them all, but after some lung coughing up, I try another approach to get home. I start following the cars, figuring they would at least get me to the main road. Several more steep hills later, I find myself near a police station. I was about to go in and ask them how to get home, but then luckily spot a bus stop. This would have been awesome news had I had my bus pass with me. Ah well. But it was at least good news, as there was a bus map! Despite all the hill running, I wasn't too far off base, actually. It was probably a 2 mile run back home, and my overall run was probably just 4.5 miles, but it felt like an eternity with all of those hills!

Ah San Francisco!

Packing and Peaking

We're coming up on our peak weeks of training. The race is in 3.5 weeks. Ack!

This past weekend we did a very hilly 6 mile run in Tennessee Valley (that's the pic here). It was a gorgeous day!

Then on Sunday, we did a long and hard swim followed by a 36 mile ride from Larkspur to Nicasio. My tailbone was aching badly, my lungs were wheezy, and I was a little bit grumpy from not enough sleep. I was exhausted that night, to say the least. But it was beautiful outside, warm and sunny. So in the end, it was worth it.

In addition to all of the peaking, there was a lot of packing. And unpacking. We moved to our new home in Glen Park, and it has been a constant flow of movement and energy for the last 3 weeks. Every day, I get home from work and immediately start unpacking and organizing. Somewhere in there, I drink a beer. And then we collapse and go to bed. I've manged to get a few good workouts in, but not nearly enough.

Anyhow, I'm trying to focus this week and next and get all of my workouts in. Unfortunately, I woke up this morning with a terrible sore throat and unpleasant feeling all around. Do I push myself or do I rest? We'll see what wins out tonight at our track workout.