TNT San Diego Schedule -- Week 9

Tuesday: 6 p.m. at Winthrop Park for four miles.

Thursday: Meet at the Leon County Animal Shelter at 6 p.m. on Easterwood Drive for four miles through Tom Brown Park. Easterwood Drive is off of Capital Circle NE at the National Guard Armory. Turn down Easterwood, drive past Weems Road, the Animal Shelter is the next driveway on your left. Here's the map.

Sunday: Meet at the St. Mark's Trailhead at 8:30 a.m. for a flat 14 miles.

TNT Yard Sale

Our team raised over $1200 at the Tallahassee Team in Training Yard Sale on Saturday, March 15! Go Team!














Yolanda and Michelle were ready to cut some deals!














Tien and Beth (soon to be engaged at time of photo) were some of our top sellers! Double congrats!!



















Tricia and Edwin graciously hosted the sale -- and grilled burgers. Tally TNT loves us some free food!














Stacey and Leah are our busy fundraising bees! Always making me proud.














Would this face rip you off?


















The Team with our top customer. He spent over $175, so we let him have free breakfast.














Hand over that money, mister! And yes, that is a Benjamin. No small bills at this yard sale. W'ere fighting cancer here, people!!

Our Team

What a great looking group the Tallahassee TNT Team is!

Great Video

The Day After the Marathon

It's funny whether you've seen it before or not -- because it's true!

Thomasville Rd Baptist Church 10K

First of all, how awesome is this picture?

Michelle's Rocky-style finish makes for my favorite finish-line picture ever! It didn't hurt that I sang "Eye of the Tiger" to her all the way up Tville Rd 10K's killer hill!

More fighters from Saturday's race:

Berinice and John show the crowd how TNT rolls: all smiles!

Christie, Michelle and Tiffany finish strong!

Great job, team!!

Triathlon Training: Week 9

Wed: 30 min swim
Thurs: 40 min bike
Fri: 20 min swim
Sat: 45 min bike / 30 min run
Sun: St. Marks ride with Red Hills novice group at 1 pm, followed by run

TNT San Diego Schedule -- Week 6

Wednesday: Meet me in Bobbin Trace at 3 pm for 3-5 miles. The Recommitment Party is at Jodi's house at 6:30, so after the run, Robin is planning to swim/change at Premier Gym. Bring $5 and they'll let you in as her guest.

Thursday: Meet at Forest Meadows Park for some trail running -- three miles at 6 pm. Directions to Forest Meadows: Go out Thomasville Road and turn left onto Maclay Road like you're going to Bobbin Trace. Go another 3 miles or so to the stop light and turn right onto Meridian Road. You'll see Maclay school on your right, then you'll see the soccer fields on your left. . . keep going and then you'll turn left at the yellow caution light into Forest Meadows Park. Turn in, then bear to your right and park at the end of the dirt parking lot. Robin will be there early to wave you in.

Sunday: Saturday is the TNT Garage Sale, so we'll run on Sunday this week. Meet Robin at 10:30 am at Bradley's Country Store to run 10 miles on Old Centerville Road.
Directions to Bradley's: Get on Centerville Road and go north 11.5 miles from the Capital Circle NE intersection where Lowe's and Publix is. You will go over I-10, past the Killearn entrances and past Pisgah Church Road. You will see Bradley's Country Store on your right - its a little white house with big oaks out front. Robin will have Gatorade and water out at 3, 5, and 7 miles, but you need to bring your own GU/blocks/beans.

The Reason We Run

I wanted to share with all of you (especially you TNT people) the following link:

http://www.blonshine.blogspot.com/

This is the amazing and inspirational story of Erin, a young girl who is currently battling Leukemia. The blog is written by her mother, Janet Blonshine, and her detailed account of the days since Erin's diagnosis is incredibly intimate and full of hope, love and praise.

Erin's story is a great reminder of why we got involved in Team in Training, and it reminds us of the miracles that are possible when you have the love of your family and trust in God.

Glory Hallelujah!

So this whole time I thought I had to swim 14 100-meter laps in order to reach the equivalent of my triathlon, but it turns out that .33 mile = 531 meters! That means I only have to swim 5 1/2 100-meter laps! Thank the Lord for small miracles!

I'd like to thank Cathy and Hope for clearing this up for me. :)

TNT San Diego Schedule -- Week 5

Tuesday: Meet at the Leon Track at 6 pm to run 3 miles. The track is 1/4 of a mile, so to get 3 miles you need to run around it 12 times. That may sound like a lot, but really it goes pretty fast.

Tuesday EARLY RUN: Meet Robin at Bobbin Trace for an early run at 3 pm.

Thursday: Meet at Winthrop Park for 3 miles at 6 pm.

Saturday: Gate River Run in Jacksonville with Robin or the Thomasville Road Baptist Church 10k in Tallahassee with me. Tville Rd people will stay afterwards to run another 1.8 miles to make it an even 8 miles.

Sunday: For anybody that doesn't want to do either race, Robin will meet you at Southwood at 12:30 pm. to run 8 miles, but you have to let her know if you want to run with her on Sunday.

Triathlon Training: Week 8

I really did train last week. In fact, I rode 14 miles today in one hour over a very hilly course in Southwood and then ran 2 sub-9-minute miles! I think I can do this!

Mon: 20 min swim
Tues: 30 min bike
Wed: 30 min swim
Thurs: 45 min bike
Sat: Thomasville Rd Baptist Church 10k plus 1.8 miles with TNT San Diego Group
Sun: 60 min bike

Dodging the Wall

Marathon runners avoid hitting the wall with well-planned carb loading
Oakland Tribune 02/28/2008

You're at mile 20 in the marathon, feeling no pain, striding at a comfortable pace, wind at your back. Suddenly you feel a wave of fatigue so strong it's as if your body wants to melt into the pavement. Then comes a rush of dizziness and disorientation. You've hit the wall.
The bane of long-distance runners and endurance athletes, the dreaded wall can derail the best marathon plans. But it's neither inevitable nor insurmountable. The feared episode occurs when the body uses up its stockpile of glycogen, a stored form of glucose that's kept in the liver and muscles. Glycogen is the main fuel used during sustained exercise and largely comes from carbohydrates such as pasta, bread, fruits and vegetables. When the glycogen stockpile is gone, "the body doesn't have that fuel source available and must then transfer to another fuel source, which is fat," says Dr. John DiFiori, chief of the sports medicine division at the University of California, Los Angeles. "It can be used as energy, but it's not as efficient an energy source as glycogen." Low blood sugar doesn't just distress the muscles, says Dr. Robert Sallis, director of sports medicine at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fontana, Calif., and president of the American College of Sports Medicine.
"The brain needs sugar to work as well," he says, "and actually it's more sensitive to low sugar than the muscles are." In a marathon, that depletion can happen at any time -- often around mile 20, sometimes at about two hours. The telltale signs can develop slowly or quickly; many runners describe it as a switch being flipped. When hitting the wall, runners should slow their pace and immediately take in carbs in the form of sports drinks, gels, energy bars or fruit, says Sallis. He suggests taking in carbs every 45 minutes or so during the race and being aware of any major drop in energy or feelings of wooziness.
"For a lot of people who are doing their first marathon, their longest training run has been 20 miles, so the rest is uncharted territory." Sallis adds that if runners decide to pass on the carbs and keep going, "most are still able to get through it. It's not typically something that makes you collapse -- it just slows you way down. Most people still finish." The body, he says, has enough fat stores (even in thin people) to keep it going. But feeling as if you can't go on at all, he says, may be a sign of something more serious, such as heat stroke. It takes just a few minutes for carbs to hit the blood stream, and taking in those carbs via energy gels, carbohydrate- rich sports drinks and energy bars is the best way, Sallis says.
"When we're running, we have all of this blood being shunted away from the gut to the muscles, so there's not a lot of blood to go to work in the gastrointestinal tract. The simpler the source of carbs, the easier they'll be to absorb." Heat can exacerbate the problem, Sallis adds. "The heart is pumping harder, and you have the body's cooling systems that are stealing away glycogen to work." So staying hydrated is important as well.
"People who are better trained are able to use their fuel sources more efficiently, " DiFiori says. "They're using less energy to perform the work." Experienced runners know to load up on carbs before a race, but Sallis warns about piling on too much.
"We can only store so much," he says, "and by eating too many carbs, you can become bloated and sluggish, and that's no way to start a race." Most exercise experts recommend having sensible portions of high-carb foods such as pasta the night before a marathon, then more carbs on the morning of the race. This is the optimum fuel the body will need to perform. Runners need to take in carbs immediately after the race as well, says DiFiori.
"The first 15 to 30 minutes is important. You're excited that you've finished, but it's not over yet. You have to begin replacing those depleted fuel stores with a high-carbohydrate beverage or snack," he says. "You've exhausted all those carbs, and you're going to feel lousy and sluggish. Start with the basics -- energy bars, really digestible stuff -- then work your way into more normal foods. It still takes a while for the circulation to go back to the gut."