Training Blog


May 5th: We did it.  This last weekend I completed the Wildflower half-Ironman distance triathlon in 6 hours and 3 minutes!  70.3 miles of swimming, biking, and running.  More importantly, as a group the Team in Training participants in this race raised over $1.3 MILLION to help fight leukemia!  I'm really proud to have been a part of this amazing group of men and women these last 6 months.  I am also so grateful for all of your support throughout this journey. Go Team!

Feb. 10th: Yoga.  I can't believe I let nearly 9 months go by since my last yoga class.  I have rediscovered a long-lost love!  Throughout the entire class I could feel all of the positions and stretches targeting the exact spots my physical therapist has told me I am weak in.  With physical therapy and yoga in my arsenal, I am slowly but surely getting back on track with my half-Ironman training!  On Sunday I made it through my first bike ride in 4 weeks, a 28 miler.  It took it easy and it felt great!  Spent extra time afterwards stretching, which is going to have to be standard practice for me from now on.

On the fundraising front, we are only a few weeks away from our huge Ballroom Dancing Fundraiser!  If you are free the evening of Sat. Feb. 27th, I highly encourage you to come out to Pasadena, take a ballroom dance lesson, and then party the rest of the night away as we raise money to fight cancer!  More details can be found on the facebook event page here:


Regular price is $40 per person, but if you purchase your tickets between now and Valentine's Day, I can get them to your for only $25 a piece!  Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!

Feb. 1st: I need to give a huge THANK YOU shout out to my physical therapist, Shana Miller.  She spent a solid hour with me last Thursday and helped troubleshoot all of my IT band and knee issues.  Apparently, my butt muscles don't work anymore.  Seriously.  After a hamstring pull a few years ago and an adductor muscle tear ~6 months ago (that's around the inner part of your hamstring), the back of my legs have become super inflexible, and my butt's become super weak.  At the same time, my quads, IT bands and other parts of legs have been overcompensating, which is why I'm all out of balance right now.  The good news is, I now have a set of stretches and strengthening exercises to get me back on track, and I can already tell that they're helping!  I am confident that within another week or so I'll be ready to SLOWLY ease back into the running and cycling and be back on track.
The bike fitting last week also went well.  Scott over at Helen's Bicycles was great, and spent a lot of time with me making sure everything looked just right.  The bike is ready to go as soon as my legs are.  I ended up buying a brand new saddle too with a gift card my parents gave me for Christmas...thanks Mom and Dad!  It's a Fizik Aliante Carbon Kium Road Saddle and it looks like this:
Jan. 27th: Tomorrow's a big day for 2 reasons.  First, I have a physical therapy appt. in the morning to address some issues I've been having with my IT bands.  Your IT band runs all the way from your hip/butt area, down the outside of your thigh, and into your knee.  I've had to take 2 weeks off from any form of running or biking because of pain in my knees and quads.  I'm hoping that the rest, combined with icing and stretching, has fixed me.  The PT appt. tomorrow is so I can learn some preventative measures I can take to avoid this problem in the future.  I am seeing an excellent physical therapist by the name of Shana Miller, whom I hear works wonders!  If you are looking for a good PT, I can forward you her contact information.  Wish me luck.

The second thing is that I finally have a professional bicycle fitting scheduled at Helen's Bicycles in Marina del Rey.  Scott, the store manager there, is supposed to be the best of the best.  Hopefully he can get me dialed into my bike perfectly so I can minimize my chances of injury in the months ahead.  For those non-cyclists out there, a "professional bike fit" sounds pretty silly, right?  I mean, we've been riding bikes our entire lives, what's so hard?  Even if you haven't rode recently, picking up riding a bike again should be like, well...riding a bike!  Turns out it's not that simple when you plan to ride that bike for 112 miles straight!  If your seat is an inch off, your handlebars a bit too wide, or the cleat position a few degrees out of whack on your clip-in bike shoes, then that inevitably leads to injuries!  As I have learned first hand, a proper bike fitting is well worth it.

Jan. 11th: On Saturday our team went on a 30 mile group ride all around the rolling hills of beautiful Westlake Village and Thousand Oaks.  What a beautiful morning in sunny southern CA!  Immediately after the ride we tested out our legs on a 10 minute run.  If you've never done it before, it's a very strange feeling indeed.  Feet feel like bricks, and while your mind tells your legs to go go go, they sure put up a good fight!  

On the fundraising front, this week I need to step it up another notch.  When I committed to this program back in September I agreed to not only raise a total of $4000 for the cause, but to actually do so in steady increments along the way.  My first deadline is tomorrow and I'm still short of my intermediate goal.  If you can spare even just a few dollars I'd really appreciate it!  Thank you!  Donations can be made by clicking HERE!

Jan. 8th: After taking a much need break from training over the holiday break, we're right back at it.  Last Saturday I logged about 30 miles on my bike.  We did a timed 400 yard swim at practice Tuesday which took me 6:14.  The plan is to revisit that every month or so in order to track our improvements.  Tomorrow morning we are going out for our team's first long out-and-back bike ride (as opposed to multiple loops around a shorter course) all around Westlake Village and Thousand Oaks.  Can't wait!

My good friend Matt (former bass player in my now defunct band) is hosting a beer olympics fundraiser at the Dakota Lounge in Santa Monica next Friday night (Jan. 15th) from 6-9pm.  I'll be there for sure!  Come out, support the cause, and enjoy all-you-can-drink beer for only $30!  Here's the link to his facebook event page:  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198338439701&ref=mf  

Dec. 11th: This Sunday, from 5 to 9pm, I will be at the Century City Mall with my teammates wrapping holiday gifts for FREE!  In return for our services, the mall is donating money to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in our names.  Please come out, do some holiday shopping, and come visit us at the Team in Training gift wrapping booth!

Dec. 7th: Yesterday I qualified for the Boston Marathon!  I ran the 26.2 mile CIM marathon in 3:08:01, beating my goal by 2 minutes!  What an emotional roller coaster of a race.  Fortunately it didn't rain, but it was a chilly 35 degrees at the start and the winds picked up during the whole second half of the race.  I wore a cheap beanie and pair of gloves that I planned on tearing off a few miles into the race once I had warmed up, but they never came off.  I couldn't even move my fingers well enough to grab the water cups provided to us at the water stations throughout the course!  I flew threw the first half in 1:25 and then started to loose steam around mile 15.  By mile 23 I had slipped down from a 6:30 mile pace to a 8:30 mile pace, but managed to hold on there until the finish.  I don't know if I could have made it through if it weren't for my fiance Sarah and childhood friend Dan Loomis cheering me on at multiple points along the course.  Thank you so much!  It feels so great to have accomplished this goal I set for myself 6 months ago, but I have to admit I'm really excited to be able to shift gears to biking, swimming, and most importantly, FUNDRAISING for leukemia!  This week I finally get to devote 100% of myself to my Team in Training group and catch up on what I've been missing!

Here is a link to photos from the race:

Dec. 3rd: While I am as busy as ever with work, teaching, and now wedding planning, fortunately I've been able to spend less time training as this is a taper week leading into the CIM marathon on Sunday. The morning of the race is looking to be a chilly 33 degrees, but no rain or heavy winds are in the forecast, so that's great news!  Over the weekend I bought a few cheap, warm outer garments from Walmart that I can wear at the start of the race and then just peel off and ditch as I warm up.  It's hard to believe that after 5 months of preparation the end is just days away.

Nov. 23rd: Last week was a BIG one for me, and not at all because of sports.  With the Malibu marathon 4 days behind me, by Thursday evening I was finally able to walk normally and kneel down...good thing, because that meant I could properly propose to my girlfriend Sarah!  She said yes, and the next thing we knew we were on our way down to Temecula for 2 days of wine tasting and relaxing.  We came back into town late Saturday feeling completely refreshed.  On Sunday I flew through my last 12 mile training run for the California International Marathon in Sacramento on Dec. 6th. Aside from major sickness, injury, or heavy rain, I feel really good about being able to break that 3:10 mark and qualify for Boston in 2 weeks!

Nov. 16th: Yesterday was the first ever Malibu International Marathon. I was pleasantly surprised to finish 6th place overall (2nd in my Men's 30-34 age group) with a time of 3:12:43!  This was a full 1 hour and 10 min. faster than the only other marathon I ran 4 years ago down in San Diego, and only 1 min. and 44 sec. slower than I needed to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  The hills during the second half of the course took absolutely everything out of me.  The good news is that I am now very confident that I'll be able to beat that time in 3 weeks at the California International Marathon (CIM) in Sacramento, which is known to be one of the fastest courses in the country.  I'm really sore today, but hopefully the Advil and Aleve I've been taking will do the trick and I'll be ready to go in a few weeks.

Right after crossing the finish line I was interviewed briefly by the race coordinators over the loudspeakers.  I talked up Team in Training and encouraged everyone to join in the organization's fundraising efforts for their next race!

Nov. 13th: I finally finished setting up this webpage as the place to direct everyone who wants to learn more about what I am doing and how to contribute to fighting leukemia and other blood cancers! Please come back often to read my updates!  

We have our next team practice tomorrow morning.  I will be taking it VERY easy during our short run around Griffith Park, because on Sunday I will be racing in the first ever Malibu Marathon!  I have been focusing the last 4 months on solely running in efforts to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  For those of you who don't know, the Boston Marathon is special because it is the only marathon in the country that you have to qualify for (beat a certain time in another race) in order to be invited.  For men in my age group (< 35 years) that time is 3:10:59.  That means I will have to run at about a 7 minute and 15 second mile pace for the entire 26.2 miles.  It's a long shot, but I'm going to give it a try.

Nov. 7th: First team practice. The general theme from the coaches this early in the training program is "slow and steady wins the race".

Oct. 31st: I just met all of my coaches and teammates for the first time at our kickoff information session. Everyone is fired up and ready to go!

Sept. 17th: Tonight my girlfriend Sarah and I attended an information session on Team in Training's upcoming events.  Before the end of the night, we had both signed up for the Wildflower Half Ironman event




The Cause:

1 year ago, as a member of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's "Team in Training" program, I competed in my first ever triathlon and raised money to develop cures for leukemia, lymphoma, and other blood cancers! It was such an amazing experience, I've decided to take on an even greater challenge this year...

I am raising $4000 and training for the Wildflower Half Ironman race! A "Half Ironman" is a 1.2 mile swim, followed by a 56 mile bike ride, and finally a 13.1 mile half marathon...back-to-back-to-back!

I am participating in honor of all my family and friends' loved ones who have been affected by this tragic disease: Christine Linnerud, Aaron Rutz,Darlene Parkos' Godchild Leah, Gordie Lat, Mike Djajich's family, and Kyle Garlett.



Coach Erica and I after the 2009 Honolulu Triathlon!