LLS posted a new video on their YouTube channel, with overview of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). It’s a first of a series titled, LLSpotlight. John Walter, President & CEO and others talk about “Why LLS?”
Read MoreNovember, 2008 Monthly archive
Last night, I was honored to be a judge of my friends’ TNT Fundraiser at Joe’s Tavern in Los Angeles, CA. It was called “The Battle of the Unsigned Bands“, which was also promoted by a local radio station Indie 103.1. Four well respected LA bands performed in hopes to win the grand prize of a two-page spread in Obscene Entertainment Magazine.
The bands were (in order of appearance, with links to their MySpace Music Profiles):
Each band had such unique styles and sounds, from elements of punk, hip-hop, rock, and ska. It was difficult to judge, but it was overall very fun. I was able to meet some of the bands afterwards, and it was awesome to put on such an entertaining show for free, to help out the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. There was also a silent auction going on at the same time, which included Autographed UCLA Football by Coach Rick Neuheisel, DVDs, iPod Shuffle, Fox Lot Tours, Reebok.
Read MoreRunning full and half marathons, jogging along the beach, spin classes at 24Hr Fitness, and row classes. I love to do all these things, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop. Five years ago, I wouldn’t even think about doing any of these things. I thought I probably would be married, have a few children, and settling down.
Thinking during Spin Class the other day, I realized that this is what I used to do as a child. I remember back in first grade, I would race my friend around the playground, probably showing off in front of the girls nearby. In elementary school, I LOVED riding my bike everywhere. I would bike a few miles just to buy baseball cards. The neighborhood I was in was fairly safe, so my parents would let my friends and I bike everywhere within reason. We would go from the park to my friend’s house, and so on. I guess it’s my childhood memories that are pulling me back to my running and biking roots.
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Almost a year ago, I donated to KCRW, a subscriber-run local radio station in Santa Monica. In return, I received a few music CDs, and a 3 session gift certificate to Indo-Row classes at Revolution Fitness in Santa Monica. The year had past, and the expiration date just ended. I called Revolution Fitness if they would still honor it, and fortunately, they did.
Since I’m on this cardio phase right now, I gave it a shot and reserved a spot in the class online last week. Coming into the class, I was a little nervous because the last time I did any type of rowing was during a personal training session at 24Hr Fitness maybe 6 years ago. I never attempted to do it again since because I wasn’t confident in my form to do it by myself in the gym.
Revolution Fitness is in the old town type shopping area of Santa Monica off Montana. If you didn’t know the address, the sign wasn’t that obvious, and the actual entrance to the place is not exactly at the street. The staff was very friendly at the door, accepting my expired gift certificate, and directing me to the correct room. The actual place itself is a bit small, but it’s known for the Indo-Row class, spin, yoga, and pilates. It wasn’t the usualy 24Hr Fitness I was used to. The class itself only had about 7 people including the instructor, Brian, who will be traveling to Japan next week for a rowing competition. He was very helpful in getting me started, showing me the correct form, and explained the rowing machine. Everyone else were 4-5 time repeaters of the class, but I think I was able to pick up very quickly. I wasn’t paying attention to the intervals of the training, but they were definitely intervals, going from very slow, to fast. He broke up the training with strength training with weights, and sit ups. We would go back and do sprint-type rows, and slower motion rows. There was a team aspect to all this, meaning we all had to keep up at the same pace, which is especially important when doing actual rows in the water.
The class was almost exactly like how I pictured it to be. I thought it wasn’t as cardio intensive as my spin class, I felt the muscle burn all throughout my body. I’m excited to go back next week and mix up my cardio training while I wait for the next marathon season!
10 Benefits of Indo-Row and Rowing
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That’s right, Team In Training is now on Twitter. Don’t know what Twitter is? According to the Twitter website, “Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” I use it on a daily basis, microblogging what I’m doing, and sharing ideas, opinions, websites, and like-minded people. I will soon compile a list of TNT and marathon twitters to follow if you have an account.
The Team In Training twitter is seriously one valuable resource for important TNT updates, survivor stories, fundraising tips, and discovering/interacting with other people from Team In Training. Even if you don’t have a Twitter account, it’s actually a useful news feed outside of your local chapter and main TNT website.
Follow in Team In Training via Twitter now!
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A few months ago, people from my marathon team did a group outing of a movie called Spirit of the Marathon. I never got around to it when it was out in theaters, so I was glad to see it released on DVD and iTunes. Late last night, I decided to rent it off iTunes, and stayed up until 2:30am watching it. The movie is a documentary following 6 different endurance athletes of different levels, training for the Chicago Marathon, which is a well known course for setting PRs and its great energy. The athletes are: Ryan Bradley – Boston Hopeful, Leah Caille – First-Time Marathoner, Deena Kastor – 2004 Olympic Bronze Medalist, Jerry Meyers – Four-Time Marathoner, Daniel Njenga – World Class Marathoner, and Lori O’Connor – First-Time Marathoner. It truly captures the essence of marathons, from training, to health, down to the excitement of the race, to the heartbreak of getting an injury. If you’ve ever ran a marathon before, thinking about doing one, you should definitely watch it! Even if you have no interest in it, but know of someone, this will help you understand what they went through, and what kinds of thoughts they have all throughout training.
You read more about the movie here, or download it on iTunes. You won’t regret it!
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Earlier today, my friends Erin and Greg put together an Amazing Race type scavenger hunt all around Los Angeles. What a great fundraising idea!
Each team will have 5 hours to race throughout all of LA trying to pick up the most points by going to each of the designated Tourista spots and snapping photos of their team. We had to show our special bright object (we had a bright green mitten with Santa Claus) to signify that the photos were true and not taken at some other date. The ENTIRE team that gets back to the original start location in time AND has accumulated the most amount of points wins the CRAZY HUGE jackpot of gifts/tickets/certificates etc.
Size of team: 4-5 people per team.
Cost: $40.00 p/team pre-registered.
There were only 6 teams for this event, starting from the Pan Pacific Park in Los Angeles. Our team was called Gretchen’s B!tches, and consisted of my friends Gretchen, Sheila, and Carlos. We went to famous L.A. spots such as Pink’s, Mann’s Chinese Theater, Highland for the Hollywood Sign, the swanky Beverly Hills Hotel, and much more. We only focused around the Hollywood / L.A. adjacent cities, but some teams even went as far as Dodger Stadium and the Queen Mary in Long Beach! Besides the tasks around L.A., there were bonus points for taking photos of current state license plates, and also taking photos of luxury cars (people didn’t think this was fair because people went to luxury car dealerships).
Overall though, it was crazy fun. I went to places that I’ve never been to in L.A. before, and that’s pretty sad because I was born here. It was also weird walking around Hollywood in the daytime, because I’ve always wandered those streets for the nightlife. Can’t wait for the next one (oh, there will be a next one for sure… so if you’re interested, let me know!)
Check out the photos from The Amazing Touristas Race of LA
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The New York Times’ Gretchen Reynolds just wrote a great article on stretching. I remember back in P.E. where we would have to do static, cold, stretches before any activity. Now, studies show that static stretches before any warm up to the muscles are ineffective. The best way to increase muscle strength and effectiveness is by loosening muscles and tendons to increase the range of motion of various joints, and to warm up the body. In Team In Training, we actually do a mix. We actually do some static warm ups, but only after a light jog to the beach. I wonder if this new way of thinking will change up our coaches mind about stretches? The article and video introduces some new dynamic stretches to try out.
You should read the article and/or watch the video at New York Times.
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