Sorry for the lack of updates, it’s been pretty busy with the new summer marathon season, which is already at week 5! As you can see from the screenshot above, I’ve been busy creating and maintaining that website. During the season, I will update fundraising updates on the Westside LA TNT Marathon Blog, and I will post updates on my training here.
Week 5 practice tomorrow will be in Marina Del Rey, one of my favorite running spots. It’s not too busy and it’s relatively flat. The tough part about tomorrow is the it’s Daylight Saving’s Time adjustment so it’s really 7am instead of 8am. I’m so glad to be back in Team In Training though, especially as a mentor. I love helping people out, and so far it’s been a great season. Everyone is so friendly & energetic (as always).
The Westside LA Chapter of Team in Training is now accepting participants! I will be the Web Captain for this season and I can’t wait to get started! If you’re interested, below is where you can get more information.
San Diego Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon and Half Marathon- May 31st
Mayor’s Marathon and Half Marathon Alaska- June 20th
Seattle Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon and Half Marathon- June 27th
Please join us for one of our upcoming information meetings to learn more about our fundraising and training program.
Upcoming information meetings:
Tuesday, January 13th at 7:00 pm
Sporteve
3849 Main St, Culver City
Sunday, January 18th at 10:30 am
Niketown
9560 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills
Wednesday, January 21st at 6:30 pm
Will and Ariel Durant Library
7140 W. Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood
Sunday, January 24th at 10:30 am
Montana Branch Library
1704 Montana Ave, Santa Monica
If you cannot attend the meeting or would like more information about Team In Training please contact Kristen McManus at (310) 846-4727.
My first EVER athletic event was a 5k WALK for diabetes. I didn’t think anything of it back then, but seriously, I had a hard time doing that. A few years ago, my friend got me to run around the block a few times with her, and it was hell! It was probably only a mile. Seeing how poorly I ran, I decided to sign up for the Nike Run Hit Remix 5 Miler. The only training I did was on a treadmill. I finished that (with a very bad time), but I wanted something more. So I signed up for the Long Beach Half Marathon. I was semi-dedicated, still treadmill training. When I finished that, I thought to myself, if I could do a half, I could do a full!
That’s when I signed up for TNT and my life changed from there. I’m always setting new goals for myself. The first season was to FINISH. The second was to help others. The third was to break my PR (personoal record). I’ll be back one more year, but I’m contemplating on an even greater challenge for 2010, a triathlon. I don’t know how to swim, I haven’t rode a bike in YEARS.
I guess I understand why people do some of the more extreme endurance events, like the Ironman Triathlon, or the AIDS Life cycle from SF to LA, or even ultra marathons of 50 or 100 miles. They probably started off like me, and just accomplished each goal that they achieve.
Here’s a sport preview of a film called “Indulgence“, following the training of an ultra marathoner Anton (Tony) Krupicka.
A few days ago, I was notified that I got accepted to be a Team In Training Web Captain / Mentor! Wonder what that slash is for? I guess I’m a hybrid position because captains are not supposed to have any mentees, but I will (but half as many as the other mentors). I get the best of both worlds I guess.
What does a Web Captain do? Basically I will create and update the team’s website such as: team news, staff bios, fundraising, information about the cause, links, events, and more. In the next few weeks I will be working hard to redesign the site (as with Running Without Music’s layout), but not only just the design, but rethink the UI navigation, and think of ways to make the site a little more automated and easy to update. The challenge? I don’t have full access to the hosting that it’s on, so I’ll have to be creative about that.
When I was a mentor a few seasons ago, I pretty much held the same position but I was officially a mentor with online duties. I was thinking, this position was mainly about updating the site, and pushing information to the team. This time around? I want to evolve the position into something a little more than that. I’ll tie in social media tools such as Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook to connect all our team, so that information can easily be communicated. There is a wealth of knowledge across not only our LA team, but across the USA with all the TNT chapters out there. Why not use it? I’ve already contacted some TNT folks from New York, San Francisco, and Florida to help brainstorm new ideas for fundraising. We’re living in an Internet age, let’s use it to it’s full potential.
Remember the movie, Cool Runnings, about the Jamaican track runners who decided to do a bob sled team? I previously posted about motivation, and here’s a scene from the movie where they would look themselves in the mirror and get hyped up.
Sometimes it takes just that to jump start your runs, especially at the big event. Maybe not as extreme as that, but that little voice in your head can do wonders.
Running 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.
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.
I can’t believe that the season is almost over. Four months have past on my third consecutive season with the team, and I’ve loved every minute of it! I’m actually pretty sad to see this season end, but VERY EXCITED for this weekend. I’m almost done packing, and my marathon checklist is almost complete. The remaining pieces will be bought at the Health Expo, which is only just gu, and maybe some running sunglasses.
At the beginning of this week, I was a little nervous, but not anymore. I was overthinking and overanalyzing what kind of strategies I should take, when I should drink my water, when I should take my Gu, what’s a good pace, etc., but you know what? I shouldn’t change anything from my normal training routine last minute. I trust my coaches, and I’m going to stick with whatever I did. I’m just anxious just as I was my first marathon. I already know what to expect, but this time some of my closest friends will be there at the starting line with me, and it’s awesome. I really want to see them complete their first marathon, to really understand why I’ve been coming back for more TNT.
Ok it’s not “real” training, but this I decided to skip out on this week’s long run to party it up in Vegas. We went to 4 different clubs throughout the weekend, and I’m guesstimating about 5 hours of dancing. Going back to the good ol Calorie Calculator, I burned about 2313 calories. Not bad. It’s good to actually keep active, even on crazy Vegas weekends.
Last night, I got a few hours of dancing (ouch, my thighs are sore) at the JLounge in Downtown L.A.. I would consider this part of my cross-training program. Kenn Kihiu seems to think so. According to this Calories Burned Calcultor, I burned approximately 925 calories @ 2 hours of dancing, give or take.
Ok, if you know me, all that dancing, especially at a club, cannot be done without the help of alcohol, which pretty much cancels out all the cardio I did. It is, though, better than drinking alcohol and just standing there.
The Westside LA Chapter of Team in Training is now accepting participants! I will be the Web Captain for this season and I can’t wait to get started! If you’re interested, below is where you can get more information. 
