Today was a coaching day for me so I walked 7 miles with the Capital City 1/2 Marathon team. The path is still snow and ice covered so it felt much longer than 7 miles! I redeemed myself on Thursday morning at our first weekday swim practice (5:15 wake up call and in the pool by 6 am!!). I timed myself at another 100 yards and made it without choking and my time was 1 minute, 30 seconds. I also did a timed mile running this week and did that in 10 minutes, 57 seconds. I can now run 2.5 miles without stopping, which is further than I've ever run! Despite all the training successes this past week, I do have a heavy heart. One of our honored patients relapsed in January and is now in a coma. He has been in ICU at Nationwide Children's Hospital where he and his family are fighting for his life. They can use your thoughts and prayers right now. They have a fan page on Facebook called "Praying For Seth Jenkins" and I encourage you to become a fan and post your status as Wake Up, Seth with a link to the page. Seth's parents have also been keeping an online journal to follow Seth's battle. Feel free to visit: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/sethjenkins/journal

Today was the first official training day! We had a swim clinic so the coach can get an idea of where everyone's skill level is. I didn't need water wings but I have a long way to go! We did a timed 100 yard swim (2 laps) and I did it in 2 minutes 13 seconds....but unfortunately I lost my rhythm on my last lap and sucked in some water. I'll definitely need to try to time it again at the next practice...this time without choking half way down the lane. :) I hit $1,045 raised today! Thank you so so much to my amazing supporters!

I coached the marathon teams on Sunday and we did 6 long miles in the snow and ice. It felt like we had walked 10 miles because we had to be careful not to slip and walking in snow is a lot like walking in sand. I think I get to skip the gym again today because we got another 8 inches of snow in the past 24 hours so that means more shoveling. I REALLY can't wait for spring training! Group training officially begins on Saturday with a swim clinic so the triathlon coach can get an idea of where we are currently with our swimming. At least I won't be wearing water wings!

I went to my first spinning class today. It was "fun" in a sick and twisted sort of way but I managed to not fall off the bike and I didn't puke so that is a success in my book. I skipped the gym yesterday because I spent most of Friday night/Saturday morning digging a path to the car and then digging the car out after it got stuck. We had 12 inches of snow and when you have a car that sits 6 inches off the ground....that is a problem. Working a shovel to lift wet, heavy snow is more cross training than I would have gotten at the gym anyways!