I confess. I have fallen pretty far off track with my training over the last few weeks. I did such a great job for the first two months - actually, I think I may have even overtrained. Not for fear of falling behind, but just because I was having so much fun. I was seeing new parts of Sacramento essentially on a daily basis, what with new bike paths I was riding, lakes I was swimming in and trails I chose to run on. I craved the next hour or 2 out on my bike. Not to mention, after two months I lost a good 15 pounds, felt mentally awesome and was handling presonal and work stress much more easily. Fresh air will do that to you :-)

Well, after two months going strong, I am officially proclaiming that I've hit a pretty big slump. Yes, I've been keeping up with training to an extent - but not at the level I was before, and I definitely haven't been taking care of my diet, which for me is really half the battle.

I have just over six weeks to get ready for this thing, and I am fully committed to getting back on track and finishing strong. Why? Becuase I'm lucky to have the option to train for a triathlon and am lucky that I'm healthy enough to bounce back from a slump like this.

At my last open water swim practice, a member of my training group announced that he had just finished his final round of chemotherapy for a blood cancer he's been battling. He's training for a half Ironman. I think I'll cut it with the excuses and get back in the pool tomorrow morning.

Well, it’s official – I am training for the Triathlon at Pacific Grove (1.5k Swim, 40k Bike, 10k Run) in September 2011 as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Team In Training! Crazy? Yes. Excited beyond belief? Yes! Now that I’ve crossed “sky diving,” “CrossFit” and “half marathon” off my bucket list, it’s time to take things to the next level. So, why a triathlon and why Team In Training?

After moving to Sacramento two years ago and knowing hardly a soul, I joined a local CrossFit gym both to meet new people and to try something new. Well, CrossFit stuck, and so did the obsession with setting new goals and pushing myself to new limits. While my connection with LLS and my participation in this triathlon may seem a bit disconnected on the outside, crossing that finish line (be it half marathons, this triathlon or any future competition I partake in) has recently taken on an entirely new meaning for me.

Back in November 2010, having never run more than three miles in my life, I thought it’d be cool to train for a half marathon. I decided to go big and run in the Surf City USA marathon/half marathon in Huntington Beach, where I could take advantage of the trip down south to make a long-overdue visit to my Aunt Leslie and Uncle Jerry.

Anticipating my last big training run on Saturday morning (and realizing that I was actually going to run 13.1 miles the following weekend), I called my aunt on Friday evening to chat about the race and my travel plans. Leslie was more excited to cheer me on from the sidelines than I was to run the race! After talking to her that night, I was more excited about the weekend ahead of me than I had been since I started training in November. I ventured out the following morning with two friends to run eight miles along the San Francisco bay, across Golden Gate Bridge and into Sausalito. Talk about an amazing day that I will never forget.

On my drive back to Sacramento that evening, I received a phone call from my mom saying that my Aunt Leslie had been taken to the hospital. What I didn’t mention above, is that Leslie had been living (and thriving) with Stage IV breast cancer (a diagnosis with a five-year survival rate of just 20 percent), for 19 years. On this day, while I was out on one of the best runs I’d had to date, Leslie had taken an unexpected turn for the worse. The next few days were a whirlwind of tears, sleepless nights and, of course, laughter as my family shared old memories with Leslie. On Wednesday, February 2, Leslie succumbed to the cancer and passed away surrounded by family and close friends.

Two days later, I got in the car and made my way down to SoCal, as planned, to visit my Uncle Jerry and to run my first half marathon. Jerry and my older brother Elliot came to cheer me on that Sunday as I took off for a brisk 13.1 mile run down Pacific Coast Highway. When you run for a solid 2:15-2:30 hours, you have a lot of thinking time. Of course, I thought about work, and about The Bachelor, but I also thought a lot about Leslie, and even talked to her for part of the way. When my knees started to ache or my feet started to hurt, I thought about the warrior she had been for 19 incredible years. It kept me going.

When I crossed the finish line, I could feel her there with me, taking pictures and making some joke about how I was really just running to get to the beer garden the entire time – I couldn’t help but laugh. What do I remember about my first half marathon? My Aunt Leslie. So, in celebration of Leslie, I’ve decided to push myself again and train for my first triathlon, racing against cancer and “Against All Odds” (a team name Leslie carried for over 10 years to raise thousands of dollars in the fight against cancer).

The most obvious question from here is, “why LLS and why not raise money for breast cancer research?” Well, there are a couple of reasons:

1. Leslie was the definition of a social butterfly. She had her tennis friends, her bunko friends, her Komen Foundation friends, her neighborhood friends, her grade school friends, her sorority friends, her friends from days working at America West Airlines…I think you get the picture. She was always interested in my social life and would be the first person to tell me not to train alone and to go where there’s potential for new friends.

2. While Leslie was passionate in the fight against breast cancer, it was not her end-all-be-all. She truly cared for everyone’s health and happiness and I know she would see great value in and appreciate fundraising efforts benefitting any cause helping the overall fight against cancer. Cancer research for one cause will benefit cancer research for all causes.

So, in celebration of my Aunt Leslie, and in celebration of all the warriors out there fighting their own battles, please help me cross the ultimate finish line – a cure for cancer. Your support, both monetary and spiritual, is much appreciated and I look forward to sharing this experience with you along the way.

3, 2, 1…GO!

One week into training and I'm loving it! First of all, I want to say thank you so much to everyone who has been so incredibly generous with your support and donations since I decided to take on this new adventure. I'm blown away by your generosity and am so grateful to have all of your support - it really is what will continue to push me through the next four months of training. Of course, I know I'm bound to hit some hurdles and frustration along the way, but I'll continue to look back on the excitement I'm feeling now and look ahead to when I cross the finish line in September - and I'm incredibly appreciative to have you all there along for the ride with me.

The hardest part about training thus far? The swim! But that was to be expected, considering my swim background consists of doggy paddling the length of my backyard pool growing up. After just three swim sessions, though, I already feel like I've improved by leaps and bounds! My TNT coaches and training group are unbelievably encouraging and helpful and I'm confident that they'll push me to where I need to be in four months.

Right now, I'm working on finding the right balance and training schedule for me. What does that mean? Figure out how to balance my what can at times be a very rigorous work schedule with a rigorous training schedule (swim, bik, run twice/per + CrossFit twice/week), while also finding sufficient time for down time - and DVR time :-) I do know that the next four months are going to be a huge personal commitment and will take a lot of dedication (and maybe even a massage or two every month!), but I'm up for the challenge. Two years ago, I never would have believed that the entry way to my house would soon look like the below picture, but I can think of a lot worse things to be spending my time doing these days...and at least it's pink!