This summer, I'll be competing in a triathlon through Team in Training (TNT), a charity organization run by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). LLS is an organization devoted to fighting blood cancers: leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma. My life has been directly impacted by the latter: my uncle Tiny passed away last year after a very long fight with myeloma. His cancer was diagnosed over ten years ago, and ruined his kidneys in short order and forced him on to dialysis for years. Even a kidney transplant from one of his brothers provided only borrowed time, but that extra time was incredibly precious. If not for the treatment methods that have been developed in my lifetime, he would have never been able to see his younger daughter grow up in to the young woman she is today. A messy divorce many years ago more or less cut him off from his elder daughter. In his last years she reconnected with him on her own, and has rejoined our family. His daughters are now close friends despite growing up in different households. These years gave our family a chance to mend itself. Without groups like LLS funding research, this may never have come to pass.
A year ago my girlfriend Katie ran in her first triathlon through Team in Training to honor her grandfather and I did my best to support her and cheer her on. Through the five month program she and I met many new caring and inspiring friends who helped Katie to finish her first triathlon in San Diego. Last April we had just returned from a training weekend with her team when my mother called with word that Tiny had passed away. I knew not long after that I wanted to honor my uncle by racing through Team in Training. That is why this year I am raising money for the LLS while training to swim 1.5 km, bike 40km, and run 10km in an Olympic distance triathlon. Days where I wake up with sore joints and muscles are nothing compared to the pain that cancer patients suffer every day. I'm fortunate to have the heath to participate in such events, and I think Tiny would be happy to see the positive changes that TNT has made in my own life. Many of the people Katie trained and raced with in her first season are back this year as mentors and coaches, and I've made many more friends on this year's team.
Since its founding in 1949, the LLS has raised over 600 million dollars for research to cure blood cancer and to support families stricken by it. When I meet my fundraising goal, my supporters and I will have contributed nearly three thousand dollars to those who need it to perform research, and to those who need it to become survivors. If I can help save even one family from the hard times that cancer caused my own family, it will be worth it to me.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Time flies! 95 days to T-Day
It's been a busy month! The moving process is finally complete and we are fully settled in our new apartment. There's still the matter of a futon and an L-couch to figure out, but it's perfectly livable and with new pictures of both of us up on the wall it feels like a real home.
Why'd it take me the better part of two months to move? Well that's easy -- it turns out triathlon training is somewhat life-consuming. I've swam more in the last month than I have since I was a lifeguard in high school, and I've gone further on my bike since I was a paperboy... in high school. Hm. I guess this explains where all my weight in college came from.
That weight is going away, ever so slowly. My holiday belt line bloat has been strongly reversed between some vigorous physical therapy and TNT training. Physical therapy was really great for me and I'm sad I couldn't continue it; losing access to my Orange County apartment means I have nowhere to shower afterward and I don't want to be stinky all day at work. Fortunately training is making up the slack: two days a week on my bike and two days in the pool means my legs are strengthening up and my shoulders are broadening out. I feel better than I have in six months and I know it's only going to get better.
Since my weakest event is running, I've been trying hard to keep pace with the intermediate group in the water and on the bike. This morning's swim was 1800 meters and I finished it feeling like I could have gone further if I would've needed to. It's a stark contrast to just starting out running last summer where I felt completely spent by the time I was done. I feel that I will be fully able to do the distances even if my time isn't great; I have more of a problem with pace than with endurance. Right now my oxygen efficiency is a huge problem: my lungs are the weak point. I'm constantly gasping for air and I have to take frequent short breaks to let my body catch up.
The slack weeks to start the season are rapidly going away; this weekend we're hitting Griffith park for some hill climbing and my lungs hurt just thinking about it. I do have a silver lining waiting for me after chugging up a hill in my granny gear: flying down the other side at rocket speeds. Getting a straight line shot down San Vicente last week was an amazing feeling and I never wanted it to end. The trek back to the car after it was far less miserable than it would have been to do it the other way first!
I spent a lot of time focusing on making sure my form is correct when I'm running or swimming or that I'm in the right gear on the bike, but inevitably my mind has some time to wander. I often think about how remarkable my own life is and how lucky I really am. I also try to remember why I'm out: it's not because I'll get in shape or because I want to be a triathlete, it's because cancer sucks and I'm helping to fight it. We're about a month away from the time when my Uncle Tiny passed away after his long fight with cancer. It was very hard to see him fall from being the strong man he was to the frail person that the disease left him. Even at that, I have to remember that his fight with cancer was long. A decade earlier the same treatments that prolong his life and let him see his daughters grow up in to the young women they are today wouldn't have been as effective, or even available. The research and treatment provided by organizations like the LLS who run the Team in Training program provide tangible changes in people's lives. Even if we're not yet eradicating cancer from the world, we're chipping away at it and sooner or later people will remember this terrible disease in the same way they remember smallpox: as a memory or a footnote in a history book. Your support for my campaign goes straight to LLS and will make a difference in the fight against cancer, and in the life of someone fighting it head on. Donate at http://tinyurl.com/RunLittleBuddy and be the one who makes the difference.
Why'd it take me the better part of two months to move? Well that's easy -- it turns out triathlon training is somewhat life-consuming. I've swam more in the last month than I have since I was a lifeguard in high school, and I've gone further on my bike since I was a paperboy... in high school. Hm. I guess this explains where all my weight in college came from.
That weight is going away, ever so slowly. My holiday belt line bloat has been strongly reversed between some vigorous physical therapy and TNT training. Physical therapy was really great for me and I'm sad I couldn't continue it; losing access to my Orange County apartment means I have nowhere to shower afterward and I don't want to be stinky all day at work. Fortunately training is making up the slack: two days a week on my bike and two days in the pool means my legs are strengthening up and my shoulders are broadening out. I feel better than I have in six months and I know it's only going to get better.
Since my weakest event is running, I've been trying hard to keep pace with the intermediate group in the water and on the bike. This morning's swim was 1800 meters and I finished it feeling like I could have gone further if I would've needed to. It's a stark contrast to just starting out running last summer where I felt completely spent by the time I was done. I feel that I will be fully able to do the distances even if my time isn't great; I have more of a problem with pace than with endurance. Right now my oxygen efficiency is a huge problem: my lungs are the weak point. I'm constantly gasping for air and I have to take frequent short breaks to let my body catch up.
The slack weeks to start the season are rapidly going away; this weekend we're hitting Griffith park for some hill climbing and my lungs hurt just thinking about it. I do have a silver lining waiting for me after chugging up a hill in my granny gear: flying down the other side at rocket speeds. Getting a straight line shot down San Vicente last week was an amazing feeling and I never wanted it to end. The trek back to the car after it was far less miserable than it would have been to do it the other way first!
I spent a lot of time focusing on making sure my form is correct when I'm running or swimming or that I'm in the right gear on the bike, but inevitably my mind has some time to wander. I often think about how remarkable my own life is and how lucky I really am. I also try to remember why I'm out: it's not because I'll get in shape or because I want to be a triathlete, it's because cancer sucks and I'm helping to fight it. We're about a month away from the time when my Uncle Tiny passed away after his long fight with cancer. It was very hard to see him fall from being the strong man he was to the frail person that the disease left him. Even at that, I have to remember that his fight with cancer was long. A decade earlier the same treatments that prolong his life and let him see his daughters grow up in to the young women they are today wouldn't have been as effective, or even available. The research and treatment provided by organizations like the LLS who run the Team in Training program provide tangible changes in people's lives. Even if we're not yet eradicating cancer from the world, we're chipping away at it and sooner or later people will remember this terrible disease in the same way they remember smallpox: as a memory or a footnote in a history book. Your support for my campaign goes straight to LLS and will make a difference in the fight against cancer, and in the life of someone fighting it head on. Donate at http://tinyurl.com/RunLittleBuddy and be the one who makes the difference.
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