I just finished my first Team in Training event and now I am hooked. I just finished the Carlsbad Marathon on January 24th and now I am on the cycle team. I have chosen to do this again for many reasons and one of them being able to help The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society raise money while training to do an event I have always wanted to do.

During my training , I have learned a lot about the disease and have met people that have been affected by it and have gained a new insight into why I am doing this. Please donate to the cause and help me in my training but showing some support.

I'm training to participate in an endurance event as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I am completing this event in onor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission.

I hope you will visit my web site often.

Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress. Thanks for your

support!

Feb 13 Update: I found a new love for cycling now with Team in Training. It is kind of weird though. I learned so much this past Saturday about cycling. We had some first discussions about what to do before each ride and also what to look out for. The most that I learned was when I was riding in a pace group. There are a lot of things going on when riding in a pace group. We have to learn to yell out commands to each other while riding.

There are some hand signals that we learn as well. There is this chicken wing thing we do with our right arm to signal the person behind us that we are coming off of the front to go to the back to rest. The person that is behind the first person is supposed to acknowledge them by saying “got it†then the first person can then look over their shoulder to check traffic then back off. Then each person behind them says rider coming back till the last person of the group says last rider to tell them that there is nobody left. Then when the rider goes to the rear, the rider says rider on and they message passes all the way to the front till the first person says got it.

We also learned the pace and gap words to use when somebody is falling behind and there is space between riders. The first one to use is pace because it signals the first person to slow down. Gap is used when there is a large gap behind.

Feb 20 Update: We were not able to get outside the past Saturday due to the rain over the weekend. I wanted to get out and do some more road biking. We were inside instead and doing spin class. It was pretty much exactly the same as our thursday spin class. It is still tough but I like it.

March 6 Update: We took the train to San Juan Capistrano and road down to Encinitas. Wow what a ride. It was about 50 miles and it was tough. It was more mind numbing than phsically. I was tired but not beat at the end. We went through a lot of hills. We had a team of 8 going through and luckily for us it didn't rain. We had a mishap in Camp Pendleton and had a mentor fall of her bike. I hope she is ok, she is a great mentor and teacher. We finished in about a little less than 4 hours. I can't wait for the next one.

March 13 Update: This had to be the toughest ride for me. I was tired after this workout. I wasn't sore really but I felt tired after. We started our morning in La Jolla at UCSD. It wasn't early and it wasn't too cold. I felt a little cold in the morning but once we started it was ok for me. We made our trail through La Jolla riding into La Jolla Shores and through La Jolla Shores drive like the La Jolla Half Marathon. We then turned into Torrey Pines Road and seemed a little easier than running it. We then turned into Coast Blvd and followed through the neighborhoods that seemed too familiar during my training in the Carlsbad Marathon. After finally getting onto Mission Blvd, we made our way onto Mission beach and rode through sea world and went through more familiar areas. We were heading south and our destination was Point Loma. Our first hill was Hill Street. One of the guys said he was going to try to get to this workout and it was tough. That hill was amazing how steep and high it was. I almost died and finished last compared to the other guys on the team. We got onto Catalina Blvd and it was awesome. We went through some rolling hills and made our way to the top to the Memorial. But first we had to make a stop to the tidepools. It was a nice downhill with some turns to the bottom and then I knew we had to make our way back up. That was tough. I was super tired but we were lucky to get a break at our SAG. We had a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich and some drinks to get us back into our spirits. On our way back we took Catalina Blvd all the way down to Nimitz where we got back into Mission Bay Area. Now we were heading into another Crazy location, Mt. Soledad. We went through some areas and once we got into Mt. Soledad area, I knew it was going to be tough. I was already tired and the sun was coming out. I had to take my jacket off. I once again died getting to the top of Mt. Soledad. It was hard. I was the last one again. On the way down from Mt. Soledad the ride was nice. It was all downhill. We almost lost a guy at the bottom. We got into a neighborhood and went close to Bicycle Warehouse in PB and got onto a fire road. We caught up to the B1 group and had a little ride with them. We made our way up through Gilman Drive and finished with some climbing into UCSD where it ended. I was happy and tired.

March 20 Update: I just finished my longest ride ever this past Saturday with Team in Training. It was just about a 61 mile ride starting in La Jolla and rode south for a little bit as we made our way north along the 5 and the 805 freeway into Rancho Santa Fe through some beautiful San Diego areas which included some homes and ranches. We made our way back to the Coast to Carlsbad and rode north and turned back and rode back along the coast back into La Jolla and finished it off with a ride up Torrey Pines State Park which blew me away only to finish exhausted.

April 3 Update: New ride for this week. We started our journey in Carlsbad to head south and then north along the coast into Oceanside. We head east towards the 15 freeway along the 78 freeway. Our first climb of the day was W Lilac Road. We then headed south on Old Highway 395 before we took our toughest climb of the day on Champagne Blvd. We then head back west towards the coast through San Marcos and Palomar Airport Road. We finish with a small hill off of Canon Road and back to our start.

April 11 Update: It was just about a 70 mile ride starting in Carlsbad and rode south for a little bit as we made our way north along the 5 and then east along the 76 freeway. We rode into Valley Center and did a lot of climbing. We went east from Deer Springs road off the 15 freeway north of Escondido and made our way west back to the coast through San Marcos. Our team rode about 3400 feet of climbing. Our total riding time was over 4 and a half hours not including the many breaks we take. We made our way back to the Coast along San Marcos, Palomar Airport road, El Camino Real and La Costa Ave.

May 1 Update: We started off not too early this week at 7:30am. We started in Poway at the Community Park. I had a week off since I was sick last week. I felt refreshed somewhat but had a late night since I was out and only had about 6 hours of sleep. I didn’t feel too crazy for the ride because they said it was going to be some climbing along with 80 miles. The week before that, we really pushed it to the limit for me.

We started off with the regular bathroom break and made our way through Civic Center Drive to where it meets Community Road. I couldn’t even remember this when we got back. We made our way to Twin Peaks Road and took a right and I knew we were heading towards Poway Lake. We made a left onto Espola Road. There were some small hills here but I knew we had a large group of 11 and that helped a bit. I think we may have gone out too fast in the beginning but it wasn’t too bad overall. We followed this and made our way onto a long straightaway. We hit Pomerado Road now and headed North.

At the end of Pomerado, we got onto the freeway for a little bit which seemed cool and dangerous. We exited onto Via Rancho Parkway towards North County Fair and made a right towards Kit Carson Park. We followed the road till we hit San Pasqual Valley Road. The light didn’t like us so we ended up running the light. It ended up turning into Ash Street and then hitting El Norte Parkway.

The left onto El Norte then right turn to Broadway looked very familiar. I was leading the group and going very strong. We eventually hit Jesmond Dene Road where there was some good climbing. I was tired and then coasted down to N Centre City Parkway. We then took a left onto Deer Springs Road and came to our first SAG. The SAG seemed very short. I just had a bathroom break and some quick food then we were off. We lost two members due to our speed. We were down to 9 people.

I led the group down Deer Springs Road. I really pushed it down. I got really ahead and had to slow down. We eventually got onto Twin Oaks Valley Road and passed the 78 till we go to Barham Drive and took a right onto Discovery Street then to Rush Drive. We took a right at the top onto Craven Road.

We got onto Discovery Street into a neighborhood and got onto San Marcos Blvd. I was doing good so far. We were going at a slower pace compared to the beginning. I think everybody had a thought in their mind to keep their energy for the last climb. San Marcos Blvd. became Palomar Airport Road which had some hills but not too many.

We took a left onto El Camino Real which took us through some hills and then a nice downhill to La Costa Ave. The headwinds were against us now. It was really windy there as it always is. We finally got close to the coast and got onto Vulcan Ave where we dodged some of the traffic before we hit our next SAG at Glen Park. The SAG seemed a little longer and I was happy. We were over halfway done.

We continued all the way through Del Mar with some hills and I had a great view of the ocean and Torrey Pines before we turned left onto Carmel Valley Road. I knew this route. I drive on it all the time. We turned onto El Camino Real and then took the bike route that went parallel with the 56 freeway. I liked this route a lot. I remember just riding it when I first bought my bike. The last part was a slow climb up to Black Mountain Road. We lost another one of our guys and a mentor. We were down to 7 people left.

Turing right onto Black Mountain Road was nice because it was downhill before we would turn onto Mercy Road. I knew how Mercy Road is. We were in for a climb. It started early. I think Mercy Road is a good climbing road all the way to the end. The first hill was long and somewhat steep. The next hill was shorter and better. After the long hill we got to the flat area of Scripps and that was nice till we go to the intersection of Pomerado and then there was a good hill there as well.

Once we go to the top of the last hill we headed over to the last SAG. It seemed deserted for some odd reason. Once of the guys we had a bee sting in his mouth and we lost another member. We were now down to 6 people. I asked at the last SAG if we had any hills left. They all seemed to joke with me. I didn’t know what was coming up. They called it the “Purple Monster.” I didn’t know what we were in for. I saw it and I almost died. I think I wanted to quit at the first 3rd of the way. I knew I couldn’t. I just keep doing my new climbing technique which included using pushing on each leg individually and pulling with each leg individually. I felt better doing it that way so that I wouldn’t cramp up. I was slow but I eventually got there. I was breathing hard and my hr was at 170+ the whole time. We turned around and went downhill. It was awesome. I was still tired and then we passed the SAG and made our way back.

We were finally back at the start and I was glad. I didn’t know how tough that was going to be and to finish without being too tired was good.