Monday, May 18, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
All done swimming. I think I made it out in the mid 30 minute range. The water was really warm in most spots but refreshingly cool in others. 1500m is a really long distance, the bouys seemed ridiculously far apart. My race number is 1142 check out my time and some pics of me running out of the water at honolulutriathlon.com :)
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Ring Raffle winner!!!
And the lucky winner is Mark Juanitas, ticket #298414!!! YAY congradulations Mark!
I would like to thank everyone who has donated and supported me in my efforts to train for this triathlon which then supports the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Together as a team, East Bay Tri (the team that I train with) has raised close to $150,000 thanks to people like you, our supporters. I have met several of our team's honorees and they always share stories of how LLS has really made an impact in their lives. It makes me feel really proud to be out there training for them and I hope it makes you proud to know that you have made a difference in their lives and in the lives of everyone battling blood cancer.
Stay tuned for details of how I do at my tri this weekend!! I leave on Friday and race on Sunday. I can't wait!!!!
I would like to thank everyone who has donated and supported me in my efforts to train for this triathlon which then supports the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Together as a team, East Bay Tri (the team that I train with) has raised close to $150,000 thanks to people like you, our supporters. I have met several of our team's honorees and they always share stories of how LLS has really made an impact in their lives. It makes me feel really proud to be out there training for them and I hope it makes you proud to know that you have made a difference in their lives and in the lives of everyone battling blood cancer.
Stay tuned for details of how I do at my tri this weekend!! I leave on Friday and race on Sunday. I can't wait!!!!
Raffle announcement!!
I was supposed to draw the winning ticket today at noon, but I left the tickets at home in my rush to get to work this morning so I will draw/post the winner as soon as I get home!!!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Less than a week to go!!
It's T-minus 6 days until the triathlon! Here's what I've been doing:
Friday: Rode my bike in my tri shorts and liked it a lot better than riding in running shorts. Right as I started my bike ride, I almost ran over a 4 FOOT LONG SNAKE!!!! I didn't even realize I had almost hit it until I passed it and then I had to stop and check it out. I think it was a garter (garden??) snake since it didn't have any rattles. I was going to pick it up and move it off the sidewalk but when I got close to it, it coiled up and looked like it was going to strike at me so I backed off and shoo'ed it away with my bike tire instead. I fininshed my bike ride, gluped down a power bar gel and set off on my run. I went running along Alamo (Alameda??) Creek Trail and it was gorgeous, aside from all the tiny flying bugs. Ick!
Saturday: Swam at Treasure Island Harbor. It was OK... the water wasn't too cold, but it sure wasn't warm either! The good news is that I didn't hit a bouy, mostly because there were no bouys to hit :) We swam for 30-40 min which for me was 2 laps around some boats. I'm getting better at putting my face into the cold water and breathing which really boosts my confidence. As I was swimming my second lap around the boats, I hit a stick in the water (not a big stick either...) and it kinda shook me up. I tried to get over it and just keep swimming but all of a sudden the water behind the turn around boat was HELLA warm and that just freaked me out too much. I couldn't swim past that point and through the warm water so I just turned around and swam back to shore. I don't know what it was, but I couldn't get over the fact that the water was suddenly 20 degrees warmer, it almost caused me to panic and stop swimming entirely! After we swam, we were supposed to run 3 1.5 mile loops (a total of 4.5 miles). I ran the first loop no problem, no shin pain and no gasping for breath. Unfortunatly, I had to stop and walk in the middle of the second loop because my stupid shin was hurting too much. Grr!!! At least the pain is in a different spot now, before it was hurting at the bottom of my shin but now it's hurting near the top instead. Stupid leg, just stop hurting!!!
Sunday: was supposed to be a bike and run, except we dropped off our bikes to be shipped to Honolulu on Saturday... go figure :) It was also Mother's Day so I didn't do any work outs, just hung out with the mom's in the AM and then went and painted all afternoon.
Today: is rest day. It's also the Honolulu social send-off party at the Tiki Lounge in Alameda. If there wasn't the social tonight I would probably swim.
This week is my taper week so my workouts should be real easy. I fly out to Honolulu on Friday and race on Saturday/Sunday :)
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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko
Friday: Rode my bike in my tri shorts and liked it a lot better than riding in running shorts. Right as I started my bike ride, I almost ran over a 4 FOOT LONG SNAKE!!!! I didn't even realize I had almost hit it until I passed it and then I had to stop and check it out. I think it was a garter (garden??) snake since it didn't have any rattles. I was going to pick it up and move it off the sidewalk but when I got close to it, it coiled up and looked like it was going to strike at me so I backed off and shoo'ed it away with my bike tire instead. I fininshed my bike ride, gluped down a power bar gel and set off on my run. I went running along Alamo (Alameda??) Creek Trail and it was gorgeous, aside from all the tiny flying bugs. Ick!
Saturday: Swam at Treasure Island Harbor. It was OK... the water wasn't too cold, but it sure wasn't warm either! The good news is that I didn't hit a bouy, mostly because there were no bouys to hit :) We swam for 30-40 min which for me was 2 laps around some boats. I'm getting better at putting my face into the cold water and breathing which really boosts my confidence. As I was swimming my second lap around the boats, I hit a stick in the water (not a big stick either...) and it kinda shook me up. I tried to get over it and just keep swimming but all of a sudden the water behind the turn around boat was HELLA warm and that just freaked me out too much. I couldn't swim past that point and through the warm water so I just turned around and swam back to shore. I don't know what it was, but I couldn't get over the fact that the water was suddenly 20 degrees warmer, it almost caused me to panic and stop swimming entirely! After we swam, we were supposed to run 3 1.5 mile loops (a total of 4.5 miles). I ran the first loop no problem, no shin pain and no gasping for breath. Unfortunatly, I had to stop and walk in the middle of the second loop because my stupid shin was hurting too much. Grr!!! At least the pain is in a different spot now, before it was hurting at the bottom of my shin but now it's hurting near the top instead. Stupid leg, just stop hurting!!!
Sunday: was supposed to be a bike and run, except we dropped off our bikes to be shipped to Honolulu on Saturday... go figure :) It was also Mother's Day so I didn't do any work outs, just hung out with the mom's in the AM and then went and painted all afternoon.
Today: is rest day. It's also the Honolulu social send-off party at the Tiki Lounge in Alameda. If there wasn't the social tonight I would probably swim.
This week is my taper week so my workouts should be real easy. I fly out to Honolulu on Friday and race on Saturday/Sunday :)
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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Swimming running and biking
Tuesday I swam. It was ok and it went pretty fast. The warm up was a 200 and a bunch of drills. The main workout was alternating 400's and speed drills. The total distance was 2500 yards.
Wednesday was a run day so I went outside and ran around Castro Valley for 30 min. I knew I couldn't do a straight 30 min so I decided to do 4 min run, 1 min walk for the first 15 min and then try to run the remaining 15 min. I should have planned my run better because I spent the first 15 min running up a hill (which was hard) and then spent the next 10 min running back down it (which was easy...) The good news is that my shin didn't hurt so I'm hopeful...
Today is exactly 10 days before the race and that means they were supposed to post the final decision about the swimming and the jelly fish. It looks like they are canceling the swimming and making it a run (5k) bike (40k) run (10k) with the orginial 1.5k swim offered the day before as a optional, separate race. Bummer :( but since there is now no swimming I have to decide if I want to run bike run in my running shorts or if I want to wear my slightly padded tri shorts which would make my biking more pleasant but my running a bit hotter.
Today I was supposed to swim, but I decided that I wanted to go for a bike ride instead so I took my bike out to Pleasanton down by Main street and biked along Stanley rd all the way into Livermore. I thought that it was quite far, getting all the way into Livermore and such, but google said it was only 13.2 miles round trip. Dang it...
As far as the butt-covering dilema, I biked today in my running shorts and I didn't like it much. I don't know if it's the saddle or the shorts, so I'm going to bike tomorrow in my tri shorts and make a decision from there.
Tomorrow is supposed to be another 30 min bike ride followed by a 30 min run and I'm really looking foward to it :)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko
Wednesday was a run day so I went outside and ran around Castro Valley for 30 min. I knew I couldn't do a straight 30 min so I decided to do 4 min run, 1 min walk for the first 15 min and then try to run the remaining 15 min. I should have planned my run better because I spent the first 15 min running up a hill (which was hard) and then spent the next 10 min running back down it (which was easy...) The good news is that my shin didn't hurt so I'm hopeful...
Today is exactly 10 days before the race and that means they were supposed to post the final decision about the swimming and the jelly fish. It looks like they are canceling the swimming and making it a run (5k) bike (40k) run (10k) with the orginial 1.5k swim offered the day before as a optional, separate race. Bummer :( but since there is now no swimming I have to decide if I want to run bike run in my running shorts or if I want to wear my slightly padded tri shorts which would make my biking more pleasant but my running a bit hotter.
Today I was supposed to swim, but I decided that I wanted to go for a bike ride instead so I took my bike out to Pleasanton down by Main street and biked along Stanley rd all the way into Livermore. I thought that it was quite far, getting all the way into Livermore and such, but google said it was only 13.2 miles round trip. Dang it...
As far as the butt-covering dilema, I biked today in my running shorts and I didn't like it much. I don't know if it's the saddle or the shorts, so I'm going to bike tomorrow in my tri shorts and make a decision from there.
Tomorrow is supposed to be another 30 min bike ride followed by a 30 min run and I'm really looking foward to it :)
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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Swam into ANOTHER bouy this weekend...
The Wildflower tri's were this last weekend and I'm sure glad I wasn't there :) Camping in the rain would be no fun and I'm not yet back to full strength running.
Thursday I was supposed to swim but couldn't because I had to go pick up my Jetta.
Friday I got lucky and I didn't have to come in to work until 1 in the afternoon so I got up in the morning and took my bike over to my parents house and biked around the Tassajara/Highland road area for 110 min and it sprinkled on me the whole time. Once I got back from my ride and put the bike back in the Jetta, I set out for my run. I got the schedule confused and I thought that I was supposed to run for 50 min, but it was only actually a 15 min run. O well, a little extra won't kill me. I ran/walked for the 50 min - 3 min run and 2 min walk and it worked out pretty well until the end. Why o why do my parents have to live on the top of a hill??!!
Saturday I also had to work (ugh!!) but I told them I would be in a little later, like 11 so I could do my swim from Thursday first. It was supposed to be a 3000 yd swim, but after an hour (~2000 yd I think... ) I got bored and got out of the pool. It's not terribly exciting to swim lap after endless lap but I didn't get a headache so I can rule out the goggles causing the problem :)
Sunday was an open water swim, but it was an on-your-own kind of thing. Knowing that the only way I would actually make it is if someone else was counting on me to be there, so I emailed all the non-Wildflower athletes and tried to arrange something. We decided on Shadow Cliffs in Pleasanton at 9 am, but by Sunday morning our already dismal group of 3 had shrunk to just 2, but 2 is better than 1 so Christine and I went swimming.
Shawdow Cliffs is an old gravel quarry in Pleasnaton by Livermore. In the summer they have 3 water slides open and there is a large puddle of water that you can swim/boat/fish in. The swimming area is roped off by bouys and is not very deep. As Christine and I waded into the scummy water we saw another set of swimmers and they said that the distance of the swimming lane is ~150m so we figured we would just swim it 10 times and be good to go. As always, I had a bit of trouble getting used to breathing in the open water, but it wasn't so bad. For the first couple of laps, I had to breathe every stroke but as I got more relaxed, I was able to breathe on alternate sides which I think is more efficient. Of course I would forget to practice my sighting and so I was swimming all crooked in the water, zig zagging all over the lane. I didn't really think it was such a problem until I hit my head on a bouy. SO INCREDIBLY GROSS!!!! So that's when I decided that if I'm not going to sight, I have to breathe on alternate sides so I can keep both lane markers in view. Since it was still early and there was hardly anyone in or on the water to disturb the sediment on the bottom, I could see all the gross stuff on the bottom of the lake and it totally creeped me out.
I didn't get a headache sunday either so I guess that means they can't be caused by my swim cap/goggle combo. Maybe its the pool water at the Plunge :(
Monday was a rest day which was good considering that I worked from 6 - 6 on stupid Niacin. By the time I got home I was pretty beat. I should have gone for a short run or something to keep strengthing my running but I didn't. I didn't even have the energy to go to the super market and get toothpaste or shampoo or any of the things that we have been out of for at least a week now :(
Today I'm supposed to swim. It looks easy, the main workout is a bunch of speed drills and some 400's at race pace (my race pace is not very fast, lol) but I can feel a headache lurking just over the horizon. I hope I can hold it off until later tonight...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko
Thursday I was supposed to swim but couldn't because I had to go pick up my Jetta.
Friday I got lucky and I didn't have to come in to work until 1 in the afternoon so I got up in the morning and took my bike over to my parents house and biked around the Tassajara/Highland road area for 110 min and it sprinkled on me the whole time. Once I got back from my ride and put the bike back in the Jetta, I set out for my run. I got the schedule confused and I thought that I was supposed to run for 50 min, but it was only actually a 15 min run. O well, a little extra won't kill me. I ran/walked for the 50 min - 3 min run and 2 min walk and it worked out pretty well until the end. Why o why do my parents have to live on the top of a hill??!!
Saturday I also had to work (ugh!!) but I told them I would be in a little later, like 11 so I could do my swim from Thursday first. It was supposed to be a 3000 yd swim, but after an hour (~2000 yd I think... ) I got bored and got out of the pool. It's not terribly exciting to swim lap after endless lap but I didn't get a headache so I can rule out the goggles causing the problem :)
Sunday was an open water swim, but it was an on-your-own kind of thing. Knowing that the only way I would actually make it is if someone else was counting on me to be there, so I emailed all the non-Wildflower athletes and tried to arrange something. We decided on Shadow Cliffs in Pleasanton at 9 am, but by Sunday morning our already dismal group of 3 had shrunk to just 2, but 2 is better than 1 so Christine and I went swimming.
Shawdow Cliffs is an old gravel quarry in Pleasnaton by Livermore. In the summer they have 3 water slides open and there is a large puddle of water that you can swim/boat/fish in. The swimming area is roped off by bouys and is not very deep. As Christine and I waded into the scummy water we saw another set of swimmers and they said that the distance of the swimming lane is ~150m so we figured we would just swim it 10 times and be good to go. As always, I had a bit of trouble getting used to breathing in the open water, but it wasn't so bad. For the first couple of laps, I had to breathe every stroke but as I got more relaxed, I was able to breathe on alternate sides which I think is more efficient. Of course I would forget to practice my sighting and so I was swimming all crooked in the water, zig zagging all over the lane. I didn't really think it was such a problem until I hit my head on a bouy. SO INCREDIBLY GROSS!!!! So that's when I decided that if I'm not going to sight, I have to breathe on alternate sides so I can keep both lane markers in view. Since it was still early and there was hardly anyone in or on the water to disturb the sediment on the bottom, I could see all the gross stuff on the bottom of the lake and it totally creeped me out.
I didn't get a headache sunday either so I guess that means they can't be caused by my swim cap/goggle combo. Maybe its the pool water at the Plunge :(
Monday was a rest day which was good considering that I worked from 6 - 6 on stupid Niacin. By the time I got home I was pretty beat. I should have gone for a short run or something to keep strengthing my running but I didn't. I didn't even have the energy to go to the super market and get toothpaste or shampoo or any of the things that we have been out of for at least a week now :(
Today I'm supposed to swim. It looks easy, the main workout is a bunch of speed drills and some 400's at race pace (my race pace is not very fast, lol) but I can feel a headache lurking just over the horizon. I hope I can hold it off until later tonight...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko
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