It's all about heart.

The theme of this post is heart.

It takes heart to push yourself out of your comfort zone or sometime to stay in it.

Todays practice was a ride-run-ride-run-ride-run and I am starting to focus on my heart-rate. My coach is having me work on staying in my "aerobic" zone which means I have to try and keep my heart-rate under 142. This meant leaving my ego in the car and listening to my heart, literally. I have been feeling great on the bike staying towards the front of the team. Today my pace was much slower than usual, it was a mental ride for me. I tried to focus on the fact that going slower now will make me faster later, it is not important to have great practices every weeklend, but great race days, and staying aerobic will teach my body to burn fat not carbs. Reason #3 is a big incentive. :)

As I plodded along on my 2nd run, getting reqally grumpy about how slow I was going to stay at my heart-rate, I came up on Gordie our team's honored teammate. Not only is he fighting cancer, he had a stroke back in December that he is coming back from. I could tell he was having a hard time, but when I got next to him he flashed me a huge smile and said 1-1! He was running one minute walking one minute...as I left him he said this was going to be his last lap (we were supposed to do 3). An hour later when I was back for my last run lap, there was Gordie. He had found the heart to keep going. He is amazing.

Also amazing in the heart department is Paul. 2 1/2 weeks ago Paul hurt his shoulder and I temporarily lost my training partner. It would have been really easy to check out for a couple of weeks while in recovery mode, but not Paul. He is committed to being my training partner...still. He braves the CA cold nights to come watch swim practice and keep me company on the drive, I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to be on the deck not swimming. For our Sat bike practices he brings his trainer and rides his bike at the parking/meet-up point while the team hits the road. Again, must be frustrating, but he wants to be a part of the team and support me too. Today as we biked-ran-biked-ran-biked-ran he biked-walked-biked-walked-biked walked. I was so proud of him and the amount of heart he showed. He has a couple of more weeks before getting cleared for PT, running and more, but for now he is staying positive and making me proud. I heart him.

Oh and as for the new heart-rate plan... I felt great today. Just need to get outta my head and listen to my heart.

Thanks for reading and supporting us.

Saveria

INSPIRATION

Craig, Mark, Machu Picchu, Paul & I

Paul & I ended 2009 and rung in the New Year hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. I had wanted to do this trip because I thought it would inspire me and start this year off better than last year. Instead of being in a wheel chair I wanted to be hiking mountains with Paul. 2009 was about recovery. 2010 is about BIG goals, going long and taking life by storm.

My friend Mark had told me about this trip to Machu Picchu he was doing and suggested I go too. I was in immediately! Shortly after he donated to our TNT Wildflower fund and shared that in July of this past year his husband Craig was diagnosed with low-grade non-hodgkins lymphoma. I suggested that he sign up with TNT and do Wildflower with us. He was in immediately!

The first time I met Craig was at the airport as we were all on our way to Peru. I liked him immediately... no big suprise being that Mark is great. It turned out that Mark, Craig, Paul and I were very evenly matched on the trail and spent four amazing days together. We climbed mountains, hiked up stairs, down stairs, back up stairs and back down stairs, shimmied through caves, paused to let llamas go by, explored Inca ruins, shared snacks, stopped to appreciate the beautiful flowers, marveled at the peaks surrounding us, and took pictures...lots and lots of pictures.

Paul & I had decided as soon as Mark told us about Craig's lymphoma to dedicate our season to him. We have and official honored teammate, Gordie, but Craig is our Team Tilden's honored teammate. While we were out on the trail Craig thanked us for this. It made me pause and think about the fact that Craig has Cancer. He is asymptomatic, so you would never know by looking at him. He took every challenge of the trail in stride, had such a positive attitude about where we were and what we were experiencing and was just fun to be around. Cancer may now be a part of his life, but it is definitely not stopping him from living life to the fullest.

I went to Peru to be inspired by hiking the Inca Trail and to start 2010 standing with Paul at the top of Machu Picchu and I was. But it turns out that I had another source of inspiration, Craig. I know that as training gets hard and the miles get long, memories of Peru will keep me inpsired to push on and keep going.

-Saveria

Hey all it has been a while.
Our training took a small break as we went to Peru for New Year's to hike the Inca trail, it was amazing. The New year came with a ramp up in training that was going great until a car decided to turn left in front of me on Linda Vista on Wednesday, I avoided the car but was hard on the breaks and went over the handlebars landing on and seperating my shoulder, but do not worry the doctor has given the ok to be back on the trainer Monday with the road and running to follow, the swim will take time.
With all this I still realize how good I have it to be able to recover and train with Saveria and great coaches, Paul and Rad and a fantastic team to pull me through and encourage me. Keep watching this season isn't done yet!!