46 Days and Counting ...

Here we are ... 46 days away from the big event. I'm like a bag full of emotions. Excited, nervous, doubtful ... in any case, I know I've been working really hard to get to where I am, and have confidence in completing this experience.

So, here is my team and my first 'real' experience with open water swim (without a beer in my hand - that is). Squeezed into my wetsuit, and out into the water I went. The first 5 minutes or so went fairly well, then all of a sudden, I felt the wetsuit start to feel like it was squeezing in on my chest and I started to hyper-ventilate. Luckily coach Steve was there, and started to pull on my wetsuit, and give me some air. It was a horrible 3-5 minute experience ... but I managed to relax and breath normally again. Once I overcame that feeling, I was good to go. A few laps around ... and I felt pretty good. So much different than swimming in the pool ...

Yeah, here's the shirt, I was told to wear ... and that I needed to 'represent.' My bro sent me this shirt ... and so, to ALL my fellow Canadians ... I'm represent'n it on my weekend rides. So send me all your Canadian encouragements ... coz I need it to help me conquer some of these darn hill work that Coach Steve puts us through weekly. (ha ha ha).

Lastly, after our ride this past weekend, we had a conversation over breakfast about 'shaving' our legs for this event. Well, here are my results ... "The BEFORE and AFTER" snapshots ...

Now, if that doesn't get extra donations ... I don't know what else to do ...
Have a great week, and thanks for popping in ...

http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/somatri11/ggazmin

1st Month down ... onto July ...

Hello all,

Yes, I'm still alive. One month into training and I've got to say, I'm loving the 3 sport discipline. Training 2 days a week on each sport, of which 3 days are with the Team. Throw in 'Brick' workouts on Wednesday and Saturdays with the team ... and I'm seeing progress with each of us.

Swim ... what can I say? It's the sport that I really need to work on, but I'm up to about 1100m. Three and half more months to race day, so I need to be patient and just keep working. It will be just over 1900m on race day ... and coach Steve and Liz promise to get me there. I'm putting all my confidence in them. I'm actually starting to like this .. but Micheal Phelps has nothing to worry about.

Bike. We're upto 25miles as of last weekend, and I did the same route this past Tuesday. We've started some hill work, which wasn't really too bad, til you turn around and see what you've just conquered. Riding on Tuesday inspired me to just enjoy the moment. I got on my bike about 4:40am, and about 11 miles into my ride, the sun began to rise just over the mountain tops. It was the sun rise, the mountains, me and open road. Purple and orange filled the sky and just letting my mind and my thoughts to be free ... it was a good morning.

Run. We've been doing much of our training on a high school track, which consists of interval training. Running on Thursdays at 6:30pm, for the past couple of weeks in over 105 degree heat. Water just refuses to stay cold ... argh. I haven't been doing much of the individual runs on Sundays which calls for longer runs ... but that's my goal to add it to the weekly routine in July.

The BRICK. If you don't know what this is ... well, it's combining two sports disciplines one after the other. So every Wednesday after the team swim ... we run a couple of miles and on Saturdays after our bike rides, we run a couple of miles. Swim to run has been pretty good and I've been feeling quite strong. As for the Saturday bike ride to run ... well, that's another story. I think this is exactly where the name came from, because your feet feel like bricks for each step. Like everything else ... this can only get better !!!

Fundraising ... thanks to all who have contributed thus far, but its not too late for the ones still looking to do so. Even though I've met my goals ... every extra dollar that goes into the fund is also always very helpful to this cause. http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/somatri11/ggazmin

Thanks again for checking in ... I'm hoping to have some pictures for my next blog.

Have a GREAT LONG weekend.

San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon

Chalk up another 1/2 Marathon under the belt.

San Diego Rock n Roll was this past weekend, and it was tons of fun. First off, it was a little family reunion as my brother and his wife came down from Toronto, my cousin from Connecticut and my cousin's cousin from West Virginia were down to join us on our race. Oh btw (see photo .. love our tye dyes?).

We received so many comments on our running shirts. Too cool !!!

Anyway, it was short lived to be with our family, but short is sweet and it was good times all around.

Update IronMan Training: Yesterday was a team swim, and omg .. I still can't believe that I am doing laps. Pools were only for hanging out, cooling down and having a drink ... now it's all about laps, laps and more laps. After the swim was my first 'brick workout'. What is a brick workout you ask? Well, it's a double sport workout ... so after the hour swim, we had to run a 5k. It was actually better than I thought ... legs and lungs must have already been warmed up from swimming, that they were just moving. We'll see how the brick workout is on Saturday when we ride for an hour and half, and then will have to run afterwards.

All in all ... good stuff. Loving the 3 discipline workouts too. I run, bike and swim three times a week, and it is just a totally different feeling from just running 3-4 times a week and I know, all 3 are good workouts. Anyway, have a good rest of the week ... another team run tonight and a team ride on Saturday morning ... and October will be here soon enough. Fun times !!!

New venture ...

So here I am .. back again!

I was originally on a quest for completing a full marathon. I've done about 7-8 1/2 Marathons, and NEEDED to raise the bar. I went to a Team in Training information session and was determined to do a Full Marathon .. 26.2 Miles.

Talked to a few people, and nearing the end of the night, ended up talking to Steve ... and yup ... he promised to get me to the finish line .. just go ahead and sign on the dotted line .. for a 1/2 Ironman. Argh .. what did I get myself into?

Visit my page http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/somatri11/ggazmin if you want to find out anymore on this program.

Anyway, first run practice was last Thursday and we ran 5 miles. I didn't have any issues, except for the 95 degree weather. Who runs in that heat? I'm used to being up and hitting the pavement at 4:30am, when its nice and cool out.

Last night was the first team swim. I'm terrified of the swim, as I don't do much of it. Actually .. lies .. I don't do it at all. I know enough to survive, but not to be continuously doing laps after laps after laps. Got in the pool last night, and I surprised myself. I eneded up doing about 25 laps last night (a rest after a couple of laps of course to catch my breath). I'm sure with the coaching from Steve, he'll get me there ... I have 5 more months ... I may be in decent shape.

Here we go ...

Well Hellooooo ...

Hey Stranger .. how goes the battle?

I know it's been a while since my last blog ... but been so busy the last couple of months, with work and vacation (and planning of course), that there hasn't been anytime for anything.

Let's see ... what have I been up to? Well, I'll skip all the work stuff, b'coz that's just boring as heck. New system installs, a lil travel'n blah blah blah.

Vacation .. yeah! So had a boys week up in Moab/Colorado for some mountain biking ... I've been up there before, and the views are still breath-taking. We rode 2 trails in Moab and 1 trail in Colorado.


1)SlickRock - not really my cup o'tea, but it's a totally different experience. Riding on rock ... yeah ... could be painful to take a spill on those darn things. Check out some of the steep hills we had to tackle.

2)Porcupine Rim - 8600 ft elevation, rocky downhills, gnarly terrain makes up what they call Porcupine Rim. This narrow single track with a drop on the right makes it more interesting and of course a more challenging ride. I took a pretty nasty spill on this path, half my bike overlooking the drop ... crushed my rear derailleur, bent my rim ... but managed to finish off the trail. Unfortunately, my bike was in no condition to Colorado the next day. Luckily (or not so lucky), Ken crashed earlier in the ride, broke 2 ribs and was out for Colorado ... thanks to Ken, I had a bike for the next day.

(Poor Ken slouched over, after his crash - up n over the handlebars).

3)Dead Horse Trail - A much easier ride in Colorado to end the week. Riding along side the Colorado River. All single track and switchbacks and awesome views.

After Moab/Colorado, we decided to hit Vegas for a couple of days to wind down, also to celebrate my big Four O ... so did I really say wind down in the same sentence as celebrate my big Four O? Doh ... yeah ... it wasn't really winding down ... and I'll stick to the saying 'what happens in Vegas .. stays in Vegas' ... and let you figure it out.

Oh yah ... this is suppose to be a running blog .. well, I have been running (early early in the morning) and am prepping for the Rock n Roll 1/2 in Vegas in December. Got a few people looking to sign up and run ... so it should be pretty good. What's better than a run then a major partayyyyyy? Could be bad ... but could be really really BAD ... ha ha ha.

I'll try and get better at updating more frequently ... and btw ... didn't make my goal of doing a full before 40 ... the more I run, the more I'm scared to tackle the full ... so might move this goal out a bit ... we'll play it by ear !!!

Have a great week !!!

Get'n back in da groove ...

Phew ... finally feel'n good about runn'in again !!!

Ran Pat's Run on the weekend, and even though it was soooo packed, I just ran for myself ... ran for the mere fact of getting back into the 'groove.'

28,000 people got together to run for a great cause, a fallen hero.

On the flipside, got some bad news this morning ... even though I knew it was time coming ... but I guess, we're just NEVER prepared for a 'friend's' passing. A good friend of mine passed away last night after battling a year long bout with Pancreatic Cancer. This time last year, she called me, and made me aware, that she needed me in her corner for this one. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer. I did my research, and contacted the doctor's in my family and I wasn't aware that Pancreatic Cancer was one of the most aggressive ones out there. My uncle told me, that at stage 4, she'd probably have 4-6 months. Well, Diane (aka Big D), fought and fought, and finally lost the battle last night.

I talked to her about 2 weeks ago, and she was on the positive side of things, even though she mentioned she was dwindling to almost nothing. She was about 110lbs soaking wet to begin with (on a good day) and I just can't imagine her dwindling anymore.

Anyway, I think I've just found another reason to go forward, continue the training, and dedicate my runs to battling Cancer. I've lost family and close friends to this disease, and however I can help to hopefully assist in finding a cure ... however little ... it'll be for my fallen friends and family.

Big D ... you'll always be in my thoughts and prayers ... hope you're dancing on the clouds and looking down on us. Luv ya !!

Back from a 2 month hiatus ...

Okay ... got the groove back ... and finally settling into my crazy schedule.

Work is getting pretty busy and with some newly added responsibilities, it's been pretty draining. To add to it, working as a massage therapist on weekends, I think the workload is finally catching up to my energy level (okay, I never thought I'd say that ... b'coz I 'always' have excess energy).

It's been almost 2 months since my race in Sedona and to be honest ... the training has gone down the toilet. A run here, and a run there, just doesn't cut it. I've postponed my full marathon (that was supposed to be in early May), to possibly the Vegas Marathon in December, or might opt out for a duathlon instead near the end of the year.

I've been riding my bike again, more and more ... and have always contemplated a duathlon (no tri's ... don't really swim well enough for that). This past Sunday, I was out for a 2 1/2hr ride, through downtown Phoenix (wow, so peaceful in the early hours of a Sunday morning). Small baby steps ... we'll slowly get back to proper training !!!

Pat's Run this weekend ... a quick 4 miler ... hoping I'll be okay for this one !!!

Wish me luck ...