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 ...