Swim/Bike

Today was a swim workout with a bike clinic afterwards. It was the first day back in the water for both of us. It was great to get back in, BUT for me, Matt, it was a rough day. I almost threw up during one of the drills. I'll tell you why. As Erin will be the first to tell you, i am a horrible kicker. I just don't have the strength in my legs to kick correctly to equal the strength in my pull with my arms. So when i'm swimming in races or doing laps i mainly just pull and every once in a while kick to keep my body level. That being said, during kick drills, when i can't use my arms, i use a lot of energy, and my heart rate gets really high. Today it got really high and i almost threw up. It just means that I have something to focus on this season.

After we got out of the pool we ran a bike clinic. I was with one of our coaches, Rudy, running a pace line clinic. For those who don't know what a pace line is, it's when a group of riders are 1"-12" from each other, in order to draft, and trade off every 10-30 seconds who's leading. Why did we do this, when you can't draft in a triathlon? It lets us do group rides, safer, and further then if every ride was on their own.

Erin helped the beginner riders get comfortable shifting. Which I'm super proud of, because she didn't know how to do that 9 months ago. She's made amazing advancements in her riding, and it brings a smile to my face every time i see her in the saddle!

After the workout we had a speaker talk to use about recovery. While somethings i agreed with, others were very out there, and as a whole she lost my interest when she said this "The key to good sleep is to have 0 electronics in your room. Electro Magnetic Radiation will not let you get a good nights sleep." She went on to talk very strongly about gause meters and how electricians don't wire things correctly, blah blah blah. She was talking as though it was cold hard fact, not as a theory and it lost me, and about 90% of the team. We'll see how that goes.

It's started

So training has started for the SF/Marin Summer Tri Team. So far so good! Erin and I have missed a few workouts because Erin graduated from COLLEGE! I'm so proud of her, and then we celebrated the next week in Vegas.

What we have gone to has been great. There has been really good turn out, and the coaches are great. A lot of new faces and coaching styles make for a fun start to the season. It's nice to get a fresh perspective on training, and i feel like this is going to be a great season.

So far all i've been to is running workouts, but that will change on Sunday when we will be doing a swim then a bike clinic. We still have to get Erin's pedals put back on after Hawaii! Tomorrow is a captains run through the presidio. I'm leading the large group, we'll go out for about an hour, run up to the Golden Gate Bridge and around the presidio. It'll be a shorter distance as we are staying in a low aerobic level to build fitness.

It's nice to be starting a season right off of a season. I already have a good base and will just add to it. This is going to be a good season.

Now we're looking for our first donor! It could be you! Rather, it SHOULD be you! That's lifetime bragging rights. Once we fix a little issue with Erin's page we'll have our team page back up and running. If you want to wait till then, thats ok, but i'm sure i'll post again about it. For now, if you want to donate use the box to the right, and click DONATE NOW!

thanks for all your support and GO TEAM!!

What? Another one?

At the Finish of LAVAMAN!

Yep. That's right. Team Searfuolo loved training, racing and fundraising together so much we signed up for another season together!

Lets do a little recap. We ended up fundraising over $10,400 last season! We both finished really strongly at Lavaman, and had a great time in Hawaii. We couldn't have done it without our supporters, our teammates and each other. Thank you so much for everything you gave.

We are so happy with it all that we came back for the summer season as staff. Matt is a training captain, and Erin is a fundraising captain. As staff we have the option to not fundraise, but that's all part of Team and Training, and without fundraising how will we find a cure? So we are. Enough said.

We're on the Team!

Matt is training for his second half ironman, Big Kahuna in Santa Cruz, CA. Erin is training for her second olympic triathlon, The SF Triathlon at Alcatraz (matt will be joining her). Yep that's right, we said Alcatraz. We both will be swimming from the rock to San Francisco. As Erin likes say, "They put Alcatraz there for a reason, you're not supposed to be able to swim to shore!" But we're doing it, and we couldn't be more excited.

Check back often to hear about out training and our lives this summer. As usual, anything you can donate will be amazing, we even made it super easy, just click the donate now button on the right!

I saved a life today

For my first blog post of the season i decided to go with a rest day. Why? Today, even though i didn't swim, bike, or run, i saved at least 1 life. Today i underwent apheresis, meaning i donated platelets.


I get a call about once a month to donate blood. I haven't had the time or the want really to give up my precious red blood cells during my training because i thought i'd lose out on what i've gained. Silly, and selfish, i know, but it's the truth. About 2 weeks ago, i got one of those calls, and this time i decided to donate, it had been about a year since my last donation so i figured why not. I set up the appointment and about 2 days later got another phone call. it went something like this:

Hooked up to the machine

Me: Hello

Blood Lady: Hi can i speak to Matthew?

Me: This is Matt.

Blood Lady: Hi this is Elizabeth from the Blood Centers of the pacific, i see you have an appointment to donate blood.

Me: Yep

Blood Lady: So you have A positive blood type, and that is really sought after for a platelet and donation. Platelets are the...

Me: Yes i know what platelets are.

Blood Lady: Oh, ok, Great! Do you want to donate platelets instead of whole blood?

Me: sure.

3 Units of platelets!

That was it. So i went in today to donate. It took an hour and 45 minutes to donate 3 units of platelets, the most anyone can give at one time. That was impressive. And during that 1:45 i got to surf the web on this cool computer that swings over the bed you're laying in. The cool part that i didn't know about was that they pump the red blood cells back in after they separate the plasma and the platelets.

Not everyone can or wants to train for a triathlon to help cure cancer. Not everyone can donate blood (Erin can't, not enough iron). But everyone can support us, either through encouragement or donations to our efforts.

So today i saved a life. What did you do?

What an AMAZING week!

Wow! What an amazing week it's been...err well 9 days. I've wanted to share every moment with all my friends, families, supporters and loved ones but I was going non stop. Training like I've never trained before. Doubling previous distances, times and miles. Pushing myself to do things I never thought were even possible. But, here I am, at the end of one of the most amazing weeks I've had in, well, a long time, I hope you'll enjoy hearing my reflection.

Last week I was horribly sick. Luckily, I was able to take some time off work and relax on the couch for 4 days. I was afraid it was going to have a huge impact on all my work thus far and it would be be hard to recover. Turns out, it seemed to have the opposite effect. I guess my body was just so exhausted from all the holiday and Coraline for a Cure craziness...turns out all it needed was a few days of nothing to recoup and come back even stronger!

Saturday

So after a week on the couch, we woke up at 8a last Saturday to one of the most beautiful days in San Francisco. Yes, it was 60 degrees in SF on January 15. Matt & I walked to Aquatic Park (less than 4 blocks from our apartment!). I wasn't feeling too great, but the team's energy held me up. Saturday turned out to be one of the most amazing days of my life thus far.

I'll be honest...I was scared to death that morning. I was completely frightened that I would either freeze or drown in the bay even if I was completely healthy. But, I was recovering from a cough and cold so that freaked me out even more. However, my fears were assuaged when I felt the energy and excitement of my team members many of whom were also SF Bay swimming rookies.

As a little extra boost of confidence...Matt & I won the Spirit Snuggie (kind of like a Gypsie coat for you theatre people). Gets awarded to someone every week for having good spirits and then you have to add something to it. What an amazing day for us to win it!

After an amazingly inspirational story from one of our honoree's Graham (Graham is living with Leukemia. He is surviving because he takes a drug every day. That drug was developed by research funded DIRECTLY by LLS. He is alive because of people like us who are raising money for the cause. And people like YOU who are donating to the cause), we all suited up in our wetsuits (including Graham who swam right beside us in the bay).

Then we swam! We did 5 out and backs around buoys. In between each swim, we did some intense core exercises (ie: jumping jacks, push ups, burpies -- which are HORRIBLE, wheel barrows, etc). It was a rough workout for me. The water was freezing...though it was too bad after my face, feet and hands went numb. I had absolutely no lung capacity because of being sick. But, despite the fact that I almost cut the workout short like 10 times (coaches even said it was ok for me to stop since I was sick), I completed the entire workout!!! See, no matter how difficult it was for me to conquer my fears, fight my sickness and do the workout...it's NOTHING in comparison to what cancer patients deal with every day. If Graham could do it...so could I. And I did! And it was amazing. I've never felt that alive than I did that day in the bay. AMAZING.

I can now check SWIMMING IN THE BAY off my bucket list. Done!

I used Sunday and Monday to continue recovering. Then Tuesday started my most intense training thus far.

Tuesday

Matt & I went on a bike ride through the Presidio. For those of you who haven't spent much time in the Presidio...it's basically one big hill. And I climbed that hill! We went for an amazing 9 mile ride. I finally started getting comfortable on the bike on roads with cars. I just want that I never rode a bike as a kid. I was the kid who fell off and never got back on...and I rode 9 miles! It was another absolutely beautiful day in the city. I am so blessed to live in such a beautiful place!

Wednesday

Wednesday's are team track workouts in Kezar stadium. After warming up and drills, the coaches told us the workout: mile repeats with no walking. In the past, I've usually been doing workouts in intervals. I'll run for some time (5 min - 9 min) then walk for some time (1 min - 2 min) and repeat until I get to a certain distance or certain time. You'll remember from my previous post that the other week I ran 17 min without stopping...the longest I had EVER run straight. I was very nervous when I started the run on Wednesday night...I was sure there would be absolutely NO WAY for me to run 3 miles straight without stopping to walk at least for a little bit.

Before the run, one of our teammates, Kevin, emotionally shared with us that his sister had JUST been diagnosed with breast cancer and was about to start intensive chemotherapy and then radiation. So, as I was running and my calves, quads and hamstrings were burning, I, again, thought that this was nothing in comparison to what she was about to face. I am proud to say that I ran 3 miles straight without stopping a second to walk. I ran it in exactly 33 minutes. I nearly doubled my previous record.

Following the run, there was, of course, a Coach Dana core workout. (Coach Dana is notoriously known for her intense core workouts and trust me THEY ARE INTENSE!) Another amazing night!

Thursday

Matt & I hit the pool on Thursday night. We did some long sets (900 yards for Matt, 800 yards for me). All in all, we each logged over a mile in the pool that night. I've still got a lot of work to do with the swim. Most of it is mental (ie: I'm so totally freaked out about getting water in my goggles that I can't focus on anything else). More time in the pool should help that!

Friday

We went for another ride this afternoon. This time we went up into the Presidio then over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was my first time riding across the bridge. Again, it was absolutely gorgeous and the entire ride I was overwhelmingly thankful for what a beautiful place I live in. In total, I logged 12 miles that day. That was my longest ride at the time. A few big accomplishments...I can finally drink out of my water bottle while riding (a huge necessity!), and I'm getting better at signaling and climbing hills!

Saturday

Saturday was a team workout. Matt had to miss the workout for a huge design conference in SF -- Compost Modern. Evidently anyone who's anyone in the design world goes to it, so I'm glad he was able to attend. I started the morning at Sports Basement hearing great advice from our coaches about transitions and nutrition, both essential for triathlon success. We then went for a run....down the Marina Green, through Fort Mason, down to Aquatic Park. I logged 4.5 miles. Another 62 degree day in SF.

Sunday

Today was a coached bike / run in Pleasant Hill. We started the day by revealing the Spirit Snuggie to the team. We added swim, bike, run symbols to the sleeve (since that's what we're doing 6 days a week!). We also added a phrase below the symbols since we're spending just as much time doing this as we are training: FIGHT CANCER.

Then we rode. We were doing an out and back. I was doing the beginner distance which meant that I should turn around at 10 miles or when it had been an hour, whichever came first. Let me say...the ride was ROUGH. The way out was basically one huge uphill climb. Evidently, we learned this ride is notoriously known as an extremely challenging bike route in the East Bay. For bikers...it was the road to Pig Farm. After the ride, the coaches claimed they didn't know exactly how difficult it actually was. Haha. Well it was rough. But that also made the ride amazing. I was so proud of myself for conquering those hills and not giving up. I ultimately made it out to 8.25 miles at an hour then turned around. The good thing about climbing the entire way out is that the entire way back is DOWN HILL. The ride back took about 35 minutes and was an amazing ride! Total I logged ~17 miles on the bike today -- a new record! I broke my bike distance record TWICE this week. How amazing!

Once we got back to our origin, we put our bikes against the fence did a quick transition then ran for 20 minutes. The run was rough. My legs were burning the entire time but I ran with a teammate who kept me motivated! We did a great 2 mile run then stretched and cheered our team members back in.

My total miles for just this week are:

Bike - 40 miles

Run - 10 miles

Swim - 1+ miles

3 months ago, I never would have thought that my body could ever handle this. But, here I am, not only training and trying, but succeeding and improving. I broke so many personal goals and conquered so many personal fears this week. I haven't been this proud of myself in a very long time, but I know I couldn't have done this all on my own. I am so blessed. I have an amazing team. A team that motivates me, encourages me and believes in me. A team I can suffer through the workouts with. A team I can rejoice over my victories with. I am blessed to be a part of such an energizing, inspiring team...I know I couldn't do it without them. I am blessed to have Matt who is not only the love of my life but my best friend and partner...without him I couldn't do any of this. He's taught me so much and always supports me even when I get upset or frustrated. I am blessed to have a body that is allowing me to train. A body that is actually healing many of its' injuries because of the training. I am blessed to live in San Francisco where it can be 60+ degrees in the middle of January. In a city that is filled with beauty and spirit. I am blessed to have the opportunity to raise funds for research that will cancer patients lives...not just random patients...people who are my friends and family. I am blessed that I get to help save their lives. I am blessed to have so many friends and family who have supported me and cheered me on. Who have given $10, $25, $100 to the cause. Who bought tickets to Coraline for a Cure and shared that amazing night with us. Who have bought Superbowl squares. Who have pledged to donate when they can. I couldn't do it without any of you.

I'm excited to announce that once we have collected all the money for the Superbowl and all the corporate matching donations go through from Coraline for a Cure...Matt and I will have raised:

$7,500 for LLS

That means that we're 75% of the way to our goal of $10,000. Do you know what $10,000 for LLS can do?

It can pay for 3 months salary for a researcher at UCSF. One of these researchers spoke at a TNT event, he gave a powerpoint presentation about a drug he's researching. The studies they are doing are cutting edge. So many researchers are on the brink of HUGE breakthroughs for blood cancers that will undoubtably save MANY lives.

We have a little over a month to raise $2,500 more dollars for LLS. We need your help to reach this amazing goal. We need your help to save lives. Please consider donating today...even if only $5 ($5 is the cost of sending a newly diagnosed patient information about their disease and support). Any amount can help make the difference in many lives.

Thank you for your help and support! GO TEAM!!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/lavatri11/SearFuolo

BUY your tickets NOW to CURE CANCER!

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J is for Jean

The J in my name is for Jean. People always ask that. People think I'm being pretentious including a middle initial. Jean is my grandma's name. She died of colon cancer when I was 3. She was my mom's best friend. And I never knew her. I don't remember her except the stories I've been told or the pictures I've seen. I wish I could have known her. So that's what the J is for. I'm not trying to do anything by including it in my name...other than remembering her.

My mom is such an amazing woman. She's always worked so hard to make sure me and my sister had everything we could ever need. She still does. She's always put us first. And she loves us so much. I'm sure she is the woman she is today because of her mom, Jean. I wish I could have known her. I wish she could have seen me grow up. I wish she could meet Matt. Seen how happy we are. I wish she could see the woman I've become. And all the things I've accomplished. I wish she could have come out to dinner last week with my mom & I. We had such an amazing time. I wish she could have been there.

I wish she could she see me now. Training six days a week. Running, biking, swimming in the rain. Raising $10,000 so that hopefully every grandparent can see their grandchild grow up. I know she'd be so proud of me. I wish she could be at Coraline for a Cure next Tuesday. I wish she could have been at one opening night of the many I've had in the past two years. I wish I could just have one conversation with her. Just one. Or a hug. Just one.

I hope someday I can be a wonderful mother like my mom is to me. Like her mom was to her. I hope someday I can be a wonderful grandmother. I hope I get to see my grandchildren grow up. I hope I can spoil them with love. And support them. At whatever they do.

I wish I could remember my Grandma Jean. I wish I could have known her. I wish she could still be here.

So, Grandma Jean -- I know you're up there watching down on me. I hope you're proud of me because I'm doing all of this for you. I love you!

For Grandma Jean!

xoxoxo