The week away from our training routine made me (Andrea) nervous about falling behind. But as it turns out, I came back rested and have been feeling great at each training session...that is until I found out that I should hold off on running until I get my knee trouble diagnosed and a recovery plan in place. I am on the road to that on Wednesday with a sports medicine doctor appointment.

We are at the halfway point of our training. 12 weeks down. 12 weeks to go.

The workouts this week haven't seemed to be much more demanding but my muscles are aching all over again. So it furthers my theory that the TNT coaches are genius. They can trick my head into not being intimidated by the work, but my body does it and knows.

As you may have noticed from the inactivity of the blog, we've been on vacation in Hawaii--the beautiful island of Oahu-- for a week. That meant a slight change in our training regimen...from swim, bike, run to snorkel, hike, run (see photo for evidence of a rain forest hike).

It was simply amazing. The island has a landscape that is totally outside of anything that I've ever experienced. We had the opportunity to visit the island with very generous hosts (Dina and Jim-thank you!!!). And as a result had much more than the average tourist experience on Oahu. We toured the entire perimeter of the island and then some in a Mustang convertible.

After a record-breaking 42 straight days of rain we had only a few minutes of rain during the entire week. One of the things that I hadn't expected was how active, alive and changing the Pacific Ocean is. It is what makes Oahu such a great surfing destination (which I am happy to watch from shore). This is Sharks Cove where we snorkled in calm and shallow waters a couple of days before.
Now we're back in Brooklyn and trying to shift gears back into our routine. The jet lag has been something to contend with. But we'd better get it together quick because our coaches are letting us know that now is when the training starts to get hard. We're right in the middle of our training at this point... 11 weeks done, 12 to go. So here we go--we're off for a swim (in the wave-free Y pool)!

I (Andrea) have join the injured list. I apparently am experiencing something called "runner's knee" --which is saying something (not yet medically diagnosed but the symptoms match). I've never in my life run so much as to acquire such an injury. But basically my knees ache under my knee caps. So far it is manageable with ice and advil and it comes and goes while I am running and going about my life, so its not like every step is painful. yet. If this is the worst of it--in terms of injury--I'm ok with it. But I am afraid that I might be built for this problem. Doctors have warned me about my knees just looking at the way I stand. (thanks mom.)

But the good news is that it times out nicely so that maybe I can get a little rest for my knees in Hawaii! We leave on Thursday for a week in what I've heard described by many as one of the most beautiful places on earth. The plan is to get in some training in the beautiful environment and then recover on the diverse selection of beaches. We'll be sure to take pictures.

btw, in case you wondering: yes, our bikes are 100% identical.


and, if that wasn't enough, we wanted you to know: we have HIS and HERS water bottles.

rain, rain, go away! new york is drowning in cold, greasy rain today - and we STILL got out there and ran! we put in a hard hour of running in an absolute downpour, and settled down for a huge brunch that was hard earned and delish. the rain alone makes today perfection for naps, coupled with an early rise and some miles behind us AND a belly full of corned beef hash - forget. i can barely keep my eyes open to type.
noteworthy: i (murph) am a faster runner now than i have been since high school. i can hold a sub-8 minute mile pace for 6+ road miles, which is really not that far off from a decent cross country team race pace. (by comparison i was running 9.5 minute miles for my marathon training at my fastest and most injury-free). i can hang in with the fastest runners on the team. it feels good to be fast. "train fast / race fast" is what they tell me, so here goes.
further: at the beginning of all of our saturday practices, we have what's called a "mission moment" where someone on the team shares their personal connection to team in training - usually someone in their family or a friend has gone through treatment (and, hopefully though not always, survived) or they work in the medical field. today, another survivor on our team shared her story and really put voice to a lot of the feelings i've had myself but had no words for. there is a language of survivorship that everyone can hear but to which there are levels of understanding - i mean, when she talked about missing the routine of doctors visits, checkups and treatments because it meant missing the assurance that she was being constantly cared for, people got what she meant but i was FEELING it. and she described TNT as a place where she can feel cared for and grow better at caring for herself in her new life and new challenges - again, i think that's what everyone joins TNT for so everyone understood the idea but it got to me on a cellular level. it's like i need proof that i'm not just back to my old life before cancer, but that i've grown somehow through it and because of it. cancer is a bad thing that happens to good people that i would not wish on anyone, but since it happened to me and i can't change that, i feel like i have a choice between having it hold me back or having it fuel me. TNT is a great place to fuel up and go farther and farther than i've ever gone before, onward into new life that i've never known before and would NOT know if i hadn't survived.
this blog was more for me than for anyone else out there - i'm not sure if i came across coherent or not, and for once i don't care too much. i'm still learning that language of survivorship i mentioned, and it's only through practicing telling what it's like that i'll ever even learn HOW to tell what it's like to be a survivor, or how to pay attention to how the meaning of it changes. so if you're reading over my shoulder here, sorry for anything inaccessible. i'm just getting access myself. -- jfm

Well we had quite an active training weekend. On Friday we swam. On Saturday we biked. On Sunday we ran. Swim, bike, run. Just like that. Its how we do.

The weather was beautiful and we took advantage of it. Unfortunately, we kept forgetting the camera.

Murph discovered his love of speed on his bike. There are 2 substantial hills in Prospect Park, one up one down. Murph was getting in touch with his inner Lance Armstrong and I would say that it seems he has a bit of a talent for cycling. He easily got going about 30mph on the downhill and couldn't get enough of it.

Then we headed to Tom's Diner, a Brooklyn landmark that we'd never been to, for brunch with some of the team. They take the diner experience to a whole new level. On a beautiful Saturday morning the line was wrapping around the corner and they were serving coffee, water, orange slices and chocolate chip cookies to us while we waited. And that was just the beginning. I won't give the play by play of my breakfast three days ago, but let's just say I was impressed.

So that's what is happening with the swim/bike/run part of this. Let's not leave out the CURE. Thank you to everyone who is contributing to this cause. Because of your incredible generosity we've raised $4,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in the last 2 months!!!

I have to say--and it was unexpected for me-- that I feel so moved and supported everything a donation comes in. I expected to feel grateful and I do. But it is also an assurance that we're in this together. That we're doing what we can to make these cancers history. So thank you for that. And keep it coming! Our goal is at least $5,000 and we have 31/2 months of training yet to go (thank God!).