Think training for a Triathlon is tough? Try Chemotherapy!

Every 4 minutes, someone new is diagnosed with a blood cancer.

Every 10 minutes, an adult or child loses their battle with blood cancer.

Leukemia causes more deaths than any other cancer among children and young adults under the age of 20.

Believe it or not, these statistics are much improved from the death sentence that blood cancers would have given you earlier in my lifetime. But, I believe we can do better.

Leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and myelodysplastic syndromes are diseases that can affect the bone marrow, the blood cells, the lymph nodes and other parts of the lymphatic system. An estimated 912,938 people in the United States alone are living with, or are in remission from, leukemia, Hodgkin lymphoma, NHL or myeloma.

I believe I mentioned it before, that when I first found Team In Training years ago, I had no personal tie to blood cancers. Back then, my only experience with big scary cancer was losing my amazing god-mother after her valiant fight with breast cancer, my beloved grandmother who battled several cancers before succumbing to lung cancer, and a young second cousin who endured a lot in his short life. But at that time, my naivety lumped all cancer together, just that it happened to land on a different body part. So when I found Team In Training, the signature fundraiser for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), I believed that any progress made in relation to any cancer would help in the long scheme of things.

To learn more about Team In Training's 21-year or LLS' 60-year histories, click on www.teamintraining.org/firsttimehere/themissionandhistory/

We just kicked off another season for Team In Training, and as usual, the high-energy event was inspirational, motivational, and just nothing that I can describe. You just have to go to one, even if you aren't there to sign up. It's an amazing, humbling experience. This one in particular was especially moving because we had an honored teammate reception before the kickoff. Honored teammates are people from our communities that are either in treatment for or remission from blood cancers. Their stories will break your heart, give you hope, and amaze and inspire you all at the same time. Having so many honored teammates in one room was a beautiful occasion. However, we also recalled that for every honored teammate that was present, there were others that were in the hospital, too sick to attend, or who were absent since they had recently lost their battles.

Now as I mentioned, the statistics have improved in the recent past thanks to LLS's efforts to cure blood cancers and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

LEUKEMIA: The relative five-year survival rate for leukemia patients has nearly quadrupled since 1960.

LYMPHOMA: The relative five-year survival rate for Hodgkin Lymphoma patients more than doubled since 1960 to just over 86%. During that time the relative five-year survival rate for NHL patients rose as well from 31% to nearly 69%.

MYELOMA: Overall five-year survival has increased from 12% to 37% in the last 50 years.

While reading that there are 912,938 people in the US are living with a blood cancer, it's a bittersweet statistic. While the number of cases still keep going up, part of the high number means that people are surviving the disease so more people are living in remission, not dying because of blood cancers.

Since LLS was founded in 1949 they have invested more than $680 million in research for blood cancer, much of which takes place at local hospitals like USC, UCLA, City of Hope and Children's Hospitals. One amazing result of such research was the development of Gleevec which has changed some forms of blood cancer from a death sentence to a very manageable, livable disease. They also put money into patient services to provide free patient aid in the form of support groups, mentors for newly diagnosed patients, financial aid.

I believe in the Society's mission, in their vision to find a cure by 2015, and see the results of everything that they do in our community. I run, bike, and swim because I can. Please help find a cure, every $1 helps!

Goals and Rituals!

Happy New Year all! THIS is the year that I will beat Wildflower! Training is officially ON!

January marks the start of our more stringent 18-week training program. Up until this point we were focusing on technique, drills, and building a foundation. Our workouts are already at approximately 1/3 the distance that we'll do on race day, we just haven't done them all at one once yet. My runs are up to about 5 miles (no intervals needed yet, running about 2 minutes/mile faster than I was in August!), my highest biking day (out of 2 that I've done so far) was 18 miles, and our swims are around 2,000m.

Now we will start increasing the workouts, doing more than one workout in a day, and learning how to be triathletes!

One of the most important parts of training is to experiment with different things such as clothes, what you eat the night before or during the race, transitioning, etc. so that nothing is new on race day. From doing my running races, I've developed a few pre-race rituals. I do the carboloading, do extra hydrating the week before, get my clothes ready and get number onto my jersey the night before. I set two alarms, eat oatmeal the morning of, and get out there early to feed off of the adrenaline of the crowd.

I even have rituals for the night before Saturday practice (which is usually a larger or more challenging workout). My ritual is to make sure I haven't eaten anything too crazy the day before, and then to stay up late the night before worrying about it. This is a habit that has carried over from my previous Team In Training seasons. I've only been to two of the IronTeam Saturday practices so far, one was a run and one was my first biking workout with a tire-changing clinic. Tomorrow is my first time riding with clips as we do our first big hill challenge, plus it's my first time riding in the big pack in real traffic. While I passed my parking lot test today, doing 45 minutes of clipping in and out, I'm still here at 1:48am watching Jamie Durie create an Outdoor Room, wishing I were in Bali and trying to keep my mind off of tomorrow's ride.

For marathon, this plan was alright because rolling out of bed, showing up to practice and not really waking up until 1/3 of the way into the run was fine, but I only had to put one foot in front of the other. For Tri, especially at this stage, nothing is simple, nor is it second nature - it's all new and requires a lot of thought! I know it's not the smartest thing to stay up late then get up and try to have my best wits about me for the challenge ahead of me, but at this point, my rational mind isn't in charge. The silly thing is, I know that in the past, at the end of every workout I was worrying about, I'd say "I can't believe how great this felt, I can't believe I was stressed about it!"

My first goal for this season is to overcome that ritual. Instead of being stressed or worried about the process, I'm going to hit it head on, and be prepared to do so with a great night's sleep and a positive attitude.

My second goal for this season is to improve my running time for my upcoming marathon in the fall, and as you can tell, I'm well on my way with that! I'm super excited at the progress so far and can't wait to see how much of an improvement occurs by the end of the season. Part of that is due to the cross-training, which in turn has strengthened my core. I'd heard all along that if you really want to get in shape to try a Tri, and they aren't kidding! It's only been about 8 weeks and I feel and see drastic differences in my body.

My third goal for the season is to form a more routine schedule. Doing this training while working and being a single mom requires a lot of tightly fit scheduling to ensure that nobody suffers and nothing slips through the cracks. It's something that I crave and hate all at the same time. Part of me is really resisting being that scheduled down to the minute, but the other part of me knows that I will be able to relax and be more in the moment if I know it's all got its time and space.

My last, but not least, goal is to accomplish something large while raising a large amount of money to find a cure for blood cancers! For me, the ritual of giving is very important. No matter what this economy is doing, people are getting diagnosed every day with blood cancers. These are indiscriminate, aggressive, brutal diseases that people must endure harsh treatments for in order to save their lives. Especially in this time of a tough economy, when budgets and public assistance is being reduced, we need to help fund a cure, and fund the efforts to improve the quality of life for current patients and their families. When I did my first Team In Training event, I had no personal tie to blood cancers. By the time I was training for my 3rd event, a family member had been diagnosed with blood cancer. Since then, I've gone to work for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and have met and lost so many honored teammates along the way, how can I not continue to do events with TNT?

Yes, I skated around the obvious goal of finishing the race in one piece and within the time limits (if they exist, not sure yet). However, as some people say, the journey is more important than the destination, and I'm embracing the journey!