A very close friend of my family, whom my grandmother has known since high school, has been diagnosed with Acute Leukemia. Why does this disease seem to be everywhere? Why can't we figure out ways to beat it? What's the hold up people?!?!
Maybe some people would say that she's lived a long, full life. So what does that mean? Better her than a younger person? WTF kind of attitude is that?!?! I hate that this woman who's life has already been soooo hard is now stricken with this. It just really pisses me off and makes me heart-wrenchingly sad all at the same time.
F-ing cancer.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Happy B'day to me...Happy B'day to me....
Another year older today and definitely feeling it. As I mentioned yesterday, I seem to be getting slower with less energy. I think my old age is finally catching up with me. Seriously tho, I'm not sure what's going on.
I think part of it is that Bam, my pup, has been really restless around 3 or 4 am. She's crated at night and when she moves around a lot I wake up, as I'm a really light sleeper. She's been having bad allergies this year, so she starts scratching in the middle of the night. Or sometimes she just wants me to let her out of her crate, so she paws at the door or whines. Argh! I need a good nights sleep dog! Poor thing, tho, I feel bad that she's so itchy.
Got some cool presents for my birthday including an iPhone and roses (from Jeff of course), a happy birthday message on the phone (from Spencer), and a DVD, running stuff and a huggy Jesus stuffed doll, "Have you hugged Jesus today" (from Tina ~ that one is a long story).
There was also sad news today. I've mentioned Miles a couple of times before, a young man battling cancer who has an awesome blog about his experience. He passed away early this morning. He was just days away from his 19th birthday. Working at a biotech company that is focusing on oncology drugs, I understand that it takes a really long time to develop new therapies and the chances of success are really small, but I wish things would progress so much faster. But then I'm sure that I'm only one of many with that wish.
I think part of it is that Bam, my pup, has been really restless around 3 or 4 am. She's crated at night and when she moves around a lot I wake up, as I'm a really light sleeper. She's been having bad allergies this year, so she starts scratching in the middle of the night. Or sometimes she just wants me to let her out of her crate, so she paws at the door or whines. Argh! I need a good nights sleep dog! Poor thing, tho, I feel bad that she's so itchy.
Got some cool presents for my birthday including an iPhone and roses (from Jeff of course), a happy birthday message on the phone (from Spencer), and a DVD, running stuff and a huggy Jesus stuffed doll, "Have you hugged Jesus today" (from Tina ~ that one is a long story).
There was also sad news today. I've mentioned Miles a couple of times before, a young man battling cancer who has an awesome blog about his experience. He passed away early this morning. He was just days away from his 19th birthday. Working at a biotech company that is focusing on oncology drugs, I understand that it takes a really long time to develop new therapies and the chances of success are really small, but I wish things would progress so much faster. But then I'm sure that I'm only one of many with that wish.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Swim Bike Run again
Tina and I did another sprint tri today. It was one of the "Tri for Fun" series, the last one of the summer. The organization offers 3 'fun' tris, one in June, one in July and one in August. Then in September they have the 'Tri for Real.'
They were pretty late getting started and Tina had somewhere to be later in the morning, so we slipped into the wave for 45+ yr old men. We weren't the only ones, there were maybe a dozen women who tagged along....and beat quite a few of the men. :-) We were around the 1/4 mile swim course in about 8 minutes, which is quite an improvement for us. We hit the transition and headed out on our bikes. I soon lost sight of Tina. Just couldn't seem to find my rhythm. Then up the one 'big' (not that big) hill on the course, I managed to kick out of my clip and lose all momentum. Sigh. Oh, hey, this is supposed to be 'fun' right? Back into the transition where Tina was waiting. I told her there's no 'waiting' in the transition area! She should have headed out already! We hit the road for the run and I still wasn't feeling it. Maybe I should have skipped my gym workout yesterday. I'll never learn. Tina beat me in by several minutes, but I think it was still my tri PR at about 1:18. Not bad.
Just wish I could figure out why I'm slowing down and getting more tired when I should be getting stronger with all the training. Sigh. It's always something. Well, at least I 'did the damn thing' as coach would say. :-)
They were pretty late getting started and Tina had somewhere to be later in the morning, so we slipped into the wave for 45+ yr old men. We weren't the only ones, there were maybe a dozen women who tagged along....and beat quite a few of the men. :-) We were around the 1/4 mile swim course in about 8 minutes, which is quite an improvement for us. We hit the transition and headed out on our bikes. I soon lost sight of Tina. Just couldn't seem to find my rhythm. Then up the one 'big' (not that big) hill on the course, I managed to kick out of my clip and lose all momentum. Sigh. Oh, hey, this is supposed to be 'fun' right? Back into the transition where Tina was waiting. I told her there's no 'waiting' in the transition area! She should have headed out already! We hit the road for the run and I still wasn't feeling it. Maybe I should have skipped my gym workout yesterday. I'll never learn. Tina beat me in by several minutes, but I think it was still my tri PR at about 1:18. Not bad.
Just wish I could figure out why I'm slowing down and getting more tired when I should be getting stronger with all the training. Sigh. It's always something. Well, at least I 'did the damn thing' as coach would say. :-)
Friday, August 10, 2007
Bricks
In preparation for our upcoming 'mini' triathlon on the 18th, Tina and I have cut down our running days and added in a swim day, a spin class day, and a brick day. What is a brick, you ask?
I googled it to see what it actually means, but didn't get a satisfactory answer. One answer was that it's how your legs feel during the workout. The other one says it stands for 'Bike Run Ick.' I like that one. :-) So basically, you do a bike ride followed by a run with as quick a transition as you can manage. It's supposed to get your legs 'used' to the feeling of the transition in a tri. The bike to run transition is tougher on the legs than the swim to bike transition, so that's the one that needs more 'practice.'
Since we're still tri beginners, we've been doing a 5.5 mile bike followed by a 1 mile run. Oh, and we only had 3 weeks between our last 1/2 and our upcoming tri, so there's only so much training we could jam in. :-) I've been impressed that we've been able to keep our pace for the run somewhere between 9:00-10:00. Usually close to right in the middle of 9:30. It's a really weird sensation tho, running on jello legs. Give it a try sometime...it's fun. ;-)
I googled it to see what it actually means, but didn't get a satisfactory answer. One answer was that it's how your legs feel during the workout. The other one says it stands for 'Bike Run Ick.' I like that one. :-) So basically, you do a bike ride followed by a run with as quick a transition as you can manage. It's supposed to get your legs 'used' to the feeling of the transition in a tri. The bike to run transition is tougher on the legs than the swim to bike transition, so that's the one that needs more 'practice.'
Since we're still tri beginners, we've been doing a 5.5 mile bike followed by a 1 mile run. Oh, and we only had 3 weeks between our last 1/2 and our upcoming tri, so there's only so much training we could jam in. :-) I've been impressed that we've been able to keep our pace for the run somewhere between 9:00-10:00. Usually close to right in the middle of 9:30. It's a really weird sensation tho, running on jello legs. Give it a try sometime...it's fun. ;-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)