Little Miracles

OK, so this is in no way, shape, form really a miracle but it's a good thing, nonetheless.

On Saturday evening, someone decided that they really wanted my truck stereo and threw a rock through my driver's side window shattering it. Of course, they then took the stereo (ripping the dashboard in the process).

When I saw my the glass on my front seat and that my stereo was gone the first thing I looked for was my bike in back which, thankfully, was still U-locked to the rack. Whoever took my $150 stereo but left the $1100 (after all the extras) bike.

I really hope they like Broadway musicals or they're really not going to enjoy the CDs they snagged.

Life is about the little things. And little blessings.

Namaste

For more information about Team in Training please visit http://www.teamintraining.org/ or to donate visit http://www.active.com/donate/tntmn/evanelson

learning to count

I've been a bit delinquent lately - both with the blog and my training.

The operas that I've been working on momentarily took over my life. They open on Friday/Saturday so everything should settle back to normal soon. Until then - I'm sneaking in a workout when I can find it.

Yesterday was a swim day and I knew I wouldn't have time to swim after work before rehearsal (been getting home around 4:30 and have to be in St. Paul by 6...I need an hour and a half just to do the workout at this point) so I decided to swim over my lunch at the downtown YWCA. I walked the two blocks to the gym in the rain and went for a swim. My goal, after warming up was to swim 1600 yards or 32 laps which is approximately the distance for the swim in the race. The challenge then becomes how to keep track of how far I've gone. All too often in the middle of a swim I find myself without a clue as to how much I've swum. I was determined this wasn't going to happen.

First, I decided to complete two 800's without a rest. (It's easier to count to 16 without losing your place.) The first 800 I counted from 16 to 1 - a tip I picked up from SELF magazine in order to give yourself a feeling of accomplishment when you get to the end. In order not to lose what lap on was on I would think what happened to me in a certain year. (i.e. what happened when I was 15 years old, 12, 9 (I couldn't remember anything that happened when I was 9...)).

The second 800 became more complicated. I divided the 800 into 100's but didn't want to lose where I was in the 100 so I counted like this: 1.1 (first 100, first half), 1.2 (first 100, second half), 2.3 (second 100, first half), 2.4 (second 100, second half). I was counting the 100's and the 50's...you know for good measure.

I came back to work re-energized (though I crashed about an hour later due to lunch) and will work-out more often during the day. And the downtown YW is super nice. STEAM ROOM!

It's exactly a month from the triathlon...time to count the days....

Namaste

For more information about Team in Training please visit http://www.teamintraining.org/ or to donate visit http://www.active.com/donate/tntmn/evanelson

Bikes, bruises, and blue skies

What I would call summer (and everyone else in MN likes to call spring) has finally reached us here in the Twin Cities. After all, what's not summer about 60 degrees? I'm going to ignore the fact that summers here live in the 80's to 90's and that the triathlon is in July which is bound to be a hot month. I would not have any issues with a cool summer. It would make everything a lot easier on me.

Saturday was the first group ride I was able to attend. The ride started in Afton on the MN-WI border about 20 miles southeast of St. Paul. The ride was, literally, 20 miles of hills some of which were a 30 degree incline. Not much fun to go up or down in my opinion.

I fell. Twice. Once at the turn-around point because the person in front of me stopped short and I wasn't able to clip out in time to not fall over. The second time I was going up a hill (I was almost done!), felt like the gears weren't shifting correctly, slowed down a little too much and crash! down I went. My left knee is taking the brunt of these hits though my right leg has some fun bruises on it as well.

All in all, things are going well. I'm allowing enough time outside of rehearsal and work to train (I think). The real test, though, is July 12. Less than two months away!

Long swims and glacial erratics

Swim workout 4/24:

warm-up:
3 x 100 w/50 drill in between

main set:
200 (1 min rest)
800 (1 min rest)
4 x 50 hard (:10 rest)
200 easy (:20 rest)
4 x 50 hard (:10 rest)
200 easy (:20 rest)
4 x 50 hard (:10 rest)

cool down:
4 x 50 easy

I didn't finish this work out last night but I'm OK with that. By the second set of 4 x50's my body was slowing down. The 800 felt great but it was the longest I've swam without a break in a long time. I think I need to swim more on my own time. (Which is something I've been neglecting because it's my strongest section of the tri at the point.)

I've taken my bike out a few times and have yet to fall in front of other people. I have managed to fall in my apartment while practicing clipping in to the pedals. Important note to self: you must be going forward before you even attempt to clip your second foot in or you will fall over. While it makes for a good story (falling over in ones kitchen on their new bike is always good for a laugh) it's not recommended.

Rehearsals start up soon for the operas. I've changed my work schedule to 7:00 - 3:45 so I'll have time to train before rehearsal every day. (hopefully.)

One thing that's great about training (and especially swimming) is I get a lot of time with my thoughts - even when I'm listening to my iPod while running or biking. While swimming I have a tendency to think about Tony. Probably because high school is when we became friends instead of annoyances of each other and I was on the swim team in high school. So here's a little more background about Tony and myself.

I don't remember the exact year Tony and his family moved in to the house behind ours but I'm pretty sure it was in elementary school - maybe around fourth grade for me. Our backyards shared a fence and a large glacial erratic (a large rock - the size of a VW bug - left behind by Eagle River Glacier when it receded up the valley). Because the rock was so large, it wasn't moved and the fence was built over the rock. Growing up, we would argue over whose rock it really was. I claimed we had more rock on our side of the fence and we had lived there longer and, therefor, it was my family's. Tony claimed they had more rock on their side of the fence. We never bothered to grab a tape measure from either of our fathers to measure it. I don't think it would have mattered. We still would have fought about it. I also used to try to annoy Tony by sitting in my window and singing loudly. I'm pretty confident I succeeded.

Namaste

For more information about Team in Training please visit http://www.teamintraining.org/ or to donate visit http://www.active.com/donate/tntmn/evanelson

Week 7: How to buy a bike

The snow is melting, it's the first day of spring, and I can no longer delay the inevitable. I need to buy a bike.

This is more daunting than I thought it would be. There are so many choices and I know close to nothing about bikes. So I'm jumping in with a list of things I'm looking for, a price range, and not much else to guide me. Wish me luck.

I missed the run on Saturday morning because I didn't hear my alarm but I think I made it up on Sunday buy going to yoga and a super-tough cardio kickboxing class followed by a core class. (I later found out the team did hills on Saturday so I don't feel too bad about missing the run...)

Fundraising has slowed down a little bit and I'm still $1200 from my goal of $3000. I need to brainstorm some new ways to raise money. I will make my goal. (You can help me make it...)

I think that's all for now.

Namaste


For more information about Team in Training please visit http://www.teamintraining.org/ or to donate visit http://www.active.com/donate/tntmn/evanelson

Week 6: After Shakespeare

Thanks to everyone who made it out to the reading last night! I can't wait to fully stage the production (once someone gives me the money to do so).

Favorite moment in the reading: Brandon running off stage as Douglas and saying "Alright" when Hal tells her to run. Seriously. Funny.

Next on the fundraising radar: a cabaret night...more details TBD.

Namaste

For more information about Team in Training please visit http://www.teamintraining.org/ or to donate visit http://www.active.com/donate/tntmn/evanelson

Week 5: Leaky goggles and no lane lines

I've been a bit absent from my blog of late. I've been a bit busy changing jobs, rehearsing for the staged reading, and, well, training.

Last night's swim was interesting - good interesting. We swam without lane lines for the first time (which is good as there won't be any lane lines in Lake Nokomis this summer). The result: choppy water. This also was a good time to become aware of breathing techniques in choppy water which will decrease the amount of pool/lake water swallowed. My goggles also decided to leak. And by leak, I don't mean a little water at the bottom which is annoying but you can still see. I mean, I had to swim with my left eye closed which makes swimming without lane lines ever more adventurous. Eventually, my goggles decided to start working again and I moved up to a faster lane so I would be tapping everyone's feet every other lap to pass them.

I have a (not-so-secret-anymore) secret goal to keep moving up in the lanes so I keep pushing myself to go faster. I also keep hearing Coach Karl's voice (high school swim coach) in my head as I swim telling me not to breath on the first stroke coming out of a turn and to keep my head down for the last five yards.

I've started my bike search and will post more about that when I have a picture of my pretty new bike (hopefully, in the next few weeks).

We did a time trial last Saturday so we have a benchmark for our 1-mile. I ran it in 10 minutes. Not bad for a non-runner. I'd like to have it down to 8:30 by the time the race comes along. We'll see how that goes.

For the next few days, my focus is on Henry IV, part I and getting people to come see the performance. If you're not doing anything on Monday evening, come down to the Lowry Lab in St. Paul and enjoy a fantastic reading.

Namaste

For more information about Team in Training please visit http://www.teamintraining.org/ or to donate visit http://www.active.com/donate/tntmn/evanelson

Week 1: Life on a Bike

Holy workout, Batman. Spinning is hard. Not just in the "That was a great workout" kind of way but the "My butt hurts this morning because of the seat" kind of way, too. Mike (one of the coaches) insists we'll get used to the seats but for now I'm glad I have another week to recover from our first day. I probably could have pushed myself harder during the class but I need to pick up new pants before I go too crazy. I felt like the pants I had on were about to fall off at any second and there isn't a draw-string on them to tighten the waist.

Homework for next spinning class:

- do NOT forget water bottle that fits in water bottle cage as your Nalgene will NOT work.
- have pants that won't fall off as you do the sprints
- KEEP YOUR HEELS DOWN!!! No ballerina biking.


Namaste


For more information about Team in Training please visit www.teamintraining.org or to donate visit http://www.active.com/donate/tntmn/evanelson

Week 1: Jumping back into the water (literally)

I have so much new information floating about in my head from the past few days. (The TNT Kick-Off was on Saturday and succeeded in getting me even more excited to start training than I already was.) There are 119 people on the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon team. I don't know what kind of numbers I expected for the team but I didn't think they were going to be that high.

All of the teams combined are expected to raise over $500,000 for LLS. And even better news than that, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (with our help) has said by 2015 the majority of patients with blood cancers will be cured or able to manage their cancer and live their lives normally. Today, there's an average of 50% survival rate for those with blood cancers.

First day of team training:
Last night was our first team swim. This is what our main workout looked like:

3 x 100 15 sec rest
2 x 150 15 sec rest
1 x 200 1 minute rest
2 x 150 15 sec rest
3 x 100 15 sec rest

We also did some drills (swim like a knife!) to work on technique. (I need to work on keeping my stroke count low.) For my first day back in the pool, and after swiming 1600 yrds (with warm-up and drills for those of you counting), I'm hardly feeling it.

I didn't realize how much I missed swimming. I hadn't been in the water for a real work out like that since sophomore year in high school (eight years ago now...?). You get to be with yourself underwater - with your thoughts or your own soundtrack - without losing count as to where you are in the swim set.

I need to remind myself that this isn't a race (yet). At the same time, though, I want to push myself and challenge myself in all three events (I think that running after swimming and biking will be a challege in itself but I'll jump that hurdle when I get there).

I asked my dad once about how he gets through these endurance events and training for them when he's in pain (because, let's face it - the average person does not find running 26.6 miles fun). He said he knows it's a temporary pain and minor compared to the pain for those going through treatment. He'll hurt for a day but they have weeks, months, and maybe years of pain ahead of them. So anytime I get tired or hurt in this process I'll think of Tony and of Eric (the young boy who is our honored teammate) and remember why I'm doing this.

So I guess that's all for now. Tonight is my first bike training (Spinning at Bally's!!) so we'll see if I'm able to walk tomorrow.

Namaste


For more information about Team in Training please visit http://www.teamintraining.org/ or to donate visit http://www.active.com/donate/tntmn/evanelson

And so it begins....(3 weeks until training officially begins)

I've created this blog as an outlet to share my experiences as I train for the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon this summer as a member of Team in Training.

Training officially starts February 2 and I'm a little intimidated of what I'm going to have to do. I want to challenge myself so I'm doing the olympic length which means I swim 1.5 k, bike 40 k (I still need a bike), and then run 10 k. I've never done a distance or endurance event before so this is going to be a sink or swim experience....hopefully, I'll swim.

What is Team in Training?
Team in Training is an endurance event training program (marathons, half marathons, 100-mile bike rides, triathlons, etc). During training, participants raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Since TNT's creation in 1988, over 340,000 participants have raised over $800,000,000 for cancer research. The Leukemia and Lymphoma society is dedicated to finding a cure for blood cancers and improving the quality of life of patients and their families.

Why am I doing this?
In early summer 2003, I found out a good friend of mine, Tony Horton, had been diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He passed away in November 2005. I spoke to him on the phone the day before he died (I was back at school in MN, he was home in AK) and he asked me to thank my dad (gross paraphrase) "for everything he was doing to help raise money [through TNT] to find a cure because even though it was too late for him, it would help save someone else." I now have the opportunity to honor Tony's memory by participating in this event.

For more information about Team in Training please visit www.teamintraining.org or to donate visit http://www.active.com/donate/tntmn/evanelson