Renee Benson's Blog

I learned of Renee few weeks back when my teammate Jame gave a mission moment about Renee. Renee started fighting cancer since she was 21 and she is now 29. A rough time for a young beautiful girl.

Time after time I ask myself what am I supposed to do when I hear things like this?

Do I want to feel fortunate after hearing things like this? No.
Do I want to feel bad for Renee? No, I don't think she wants us to feel bad for her
Do I help the world by donating more money? Maybe

I am still searching for the answer. The only thing I know is I should support her in some way, so I PR the Carlsbad Half Marathon in honored of Renee.


Renee's Blog

Procrastination will kill you!!!

I found myself wasting a lot of time nowadays. I will wake up at 6am in the morning, procrastinate, then go to work. When I get off work, I will do my workout, go home, procrastinate, then sleep. Days after days, all these time add up and I can't afford to procrastinate anymore.

There are just too much going on for me to procrastinate. So starting this week, I will try to post what I do everyday. I figure if people are watching over me, then I can't procrastinate (well at least not as much!). I think this is my new year resolution(See, I even procrastinate on new year resolution!!!).

Running the Boney Mountain Half Marathon just for the heck of it.

I ran the XTERRA Boney Mountain Half Marathon because
- I won't register for the race (TNT training every sat) but I want to know if I can make the cut off (finish in 3 1/2 hr)
- Do a write up for Alison and XXX.
- get back to my hiking shape.

Here is the stats
Finish in 3:48:07
13.4 mi on my GPS
3hr 37 moving time
11 min and 44 sec stopping time
Total Ascent 2854 ft
Took 66 oz of drink... only 2-3 oz left!
Mapping from my garmin running watch Please note that the evaluation chart is not accurate.


I start off with 66 oz of drink. Initially I was going drop off some water at mile 6 but the gate was locked, so I figure I just have to deal with 66 oz.

This is the breakdown for me (if I were to do it next time)
0 - 0.7 mi: uneventful
0.7 - 1.73 mi: downhill, keep at comfortable pace
1.73 - 3: rolling hill. take advantage of the flat and gain speed
3-4: uphill. try to run on flat
4-4.85: downhill. I use it to gain some speed. make sure you are not putting too much stress on your legs.
4.85 - 6: downhill. less steep. you can gain a lot of speed if you want.
6 - 6.6: rollling. get speed. If you are too beat up from the previous section you wouldn't be able to run fast (well for me)
6.6 - 8.7: uphill. It's like hiking. Try to run the flat. If you are running as fast as you hike. Hike!!!
8.7 - 9.11: downhill. you can use it to gain speed. Remember that you will hike up again. save some leg.
9.11 to 10: uphill. It level a bit toward the end. run the flat.
10 - 11.55: First part is fast descent... then it level out for a bit (since I was going too fast on the downhill I can't get myself to run fast on the flat)
11.55 - 11.9: last uphill. I walk most of them
11.9 til the end. The last downhill section is uneven. Please pay attention.

All pictures

The bottom of my left foot started to bothering me around 7 so I slow down a bit. I took a 7 min break because I need to take off my pack and find stuff to eat. My right knee started to bothering me maybe at mile 8.5 but it never develop into any kind of problem. My left arm also started to cramp starting I would say mile 10.

I was kind of beat for the last 1.5 mi.

Overall I had a good day. Even though I did not make the 3 1/2 hr cut off. I think I did pretty good (in my standard). I didn't even train for this race! The course is not difficult for me because this is the kind of terrain that I hike on. Running it definitely give you another perspective... it's so much harder. The downhill put a lot of stress on your legs, but I was ok because I took enough abuse on hikes where I don't really feel pounding. I was tired from 'running' toward the end (but I can still walk/hike LOL). There are probably a lot more places I can run if I were to do this again.

The biggest tip I have is to have a better average time (hike faster on the uphill, run little section, maybe go a bit faster on the downhill). I think it was 3:00 when I got to mile 10. I started running downhill but I can't get myself to go under 10 minute pace because my legs are beat up from previous uphill/downhill (muscle fatigue).

Have fun Alison and XXX!

I learned more about Cancer... this time from my friend.

I feel like I have to share all my experience at once, so this is going to be a long one. If you don't want to read everything... skip a few paragraph and start reading after the red text.

Before joining Team In Training, I really don't know much about cancer. My first 'encounter' with cancer happened 10 years ago when my grandmother had advanced stage of breast cancer. I love my grandmother. She lived modestly and care about her family. She was sick while she was in Hong Kong so I flew back a few times to see her. Doctor said she has a few more years to live after the chemo treatment. However she did not finished her treatment because it was too painful for her. She went with alternative medicine and passed away. I was at college during that time. She did not get to see me graduate from college, she did not get to spend money that I earn (cause I was at school), and she did not get to see my wife and my kid (I am still looking for 'the girl'). I know these are some of the things that she look forward to. I know there isn't anything I can do, but this is one of my biggest regret in life. Now I am reduced to offer my respect by burning paper money and material things made out of paper when I visit her at the grave.

I am devastated of her passing, but I think I had an easier time just because she is half way around the world so I don't see her in a regular basis. My family also know about her condition for a while so we know that this may happen.

Fast forward 10 years. My second encounter about cancer is from Team In Training. I joined the marathon team and I started to know people that get affected by cancer. I met cancer survivors and I started to know people that lost their love one from cancer. I still remember my coach broke down in tear while talking about his dad. Yet I try not to think too much about it. The survivors that I know were doing fine so I don't want to bring it up.

I think it's typical response from people. Since most of us don't know how to react we tend to avoid the topic all together.

Few months after joining Team In Training my friend told me her mom has Lymphoma. I care about my friend's family and I offer any help I can. I talked to the mom and offer my support. She did her treatment and she is fine. But beyond talking to them and eat with them I did not do anything else.

Everything changed in Sept 2008. My honored teammate Tyler got sick. One day the doctor said he needed bone marrow transplant, few days later the doctor said he needed chemo instead. During that week I was literally riding the roller coaster from hell. Not knowing what may happen really put me in fear. I felt useless about the situation because there wasn't anything I can do. This is the reason why I joined the Ironteam. I want to do something for the Kid. If Tyler can go thru chemo, I can learn how to swim.

So up to this point, I pretty much don't have to really think deep about cancer. I continue to train for my Ironman, fund raise for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and I eat. I continue to be myself.

You can start here if you want (Sorry if I jump around... too much feeling is going on and I can't tie everything together!)!!!

Then 2 weeks ago, I got a text from my friend. She said. "I am going to start my chemo tomorrow and I am scared". The sentence is short and emotional.

I called her and she told me she listened to the doctor about the treatment but she wanted to talk to someone that actually been thru Chemo. I called up Virginia Garner (a good friend of mine, also a honored teammate) and have her talk to my friend. Virginia shared her experience and offered tips better cope with the disease.

I know cancer can happen to anyone. She is young, beautiful, and very active, why her?

So few nights ago I went out to dinner with my friend and talked for a long time. She told me she had a routine check up and the doctor found out she has an early stage of cancer.

But before she can deal with the treatment, she needed to overcome her emotion, found out more information about cancer, and think about the cost of treatment.

I know medical treatment made a lot of advancement in recent years, but cancer is still cancer. If I were to have cancer, that would of be a death sentence for me regardless of the stage. Since both of us are serious backpackers, I am glad that her hiking experience and her mindset help her control her emotion and being positive. I talked to her and we realized we both thought about our own death and how we need to move on and keep hiking if one of our close friends die from a mountaineering accident. It actually happened to her in 2006. One of her closed friend passed away while doing a winter ascent of Mt Morgan. It took her a few good months before getting out there again... but this is something we have to do. We need to move on. I wouldn't want my friend to stop hiking/running/doing triathlon if something happened to me.

ok... getting back to the cancer. My friend started to read up information about cancer and she also talked to the hospital about her treatment. She was a month away from having insurance so this thing took a big chuck out of her saving (for people that don't know, a chemo shot is $10,000 per dose)

All these things reinforce the idea that when you are seriously ill, you don't just deal with the diseases, you need to deal with everything that surround it. A lot of time you need to talk to somebody but your friend/family don't understand. It also make me realized why The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is spending money on things like educational material and first connection program. I used to question why they spend money on 'educational' material and web broadcast? Why do they set up the First connection program so people can talk to other people with similar cancer. Now I know.

After she had her first chemo treatment her hair started to fall off. She realized that some people started to treat her different. People started to stare at her. She told me she would say hi to some people and they wouldn't even look at her or response. She became very aware of how people see her. She was getting the impression that people see her as a sick person now, not the old person they used to know. She wonders why. She is still the same person... only with no hair. Why do people act differently? Maybe these people think that she is contiguous? I don't have an answer for that. I think some of these people are trying to avoid contact because they don't know what to say or how to react? I used to be one of those people.

She is now feeling more confidence about her new appearance. People actually talk to her about their own experience (either themselves or people they know) and she think this is helping others. This is one of the reason why I am writing this blog.

Sometime people ask why I fundraise for Team In Training and why I sponsored a family from the Children Hospital. I still remember one of my friend question my motive because I don't have a strong reason for doing Team In Training. Apparently helping someone and 'I think running a marathon is kind of fun' was not enough. I'll probably say the samething if you ask me why I am doing the Ironman with Team In Training. It doesn't matter. I think you just have to go out there and do some charity work. Donate money or become a volunteer. You'll find your reason one day.

Everything is working out so far. I am glad my experience allow my friend to talk to Virginia.

The experience make me think more for others. In turn I become a better person. These experience is not something that I can understand by reading an article or a book, you need to experience first hand. Sometime the experience is not a good one, but we all have to learn from them and move on.

Louis

Ironteam 2010

The season is started and I am training for another 9 months. There are a few things need to take care but I'll give you guys an update soon.

But I did get the new ironteam facebook page set up. If you have facebook and you want to see what's going on in my team, be a fan. (The page may sounds like me because I am the one updating the content LOL)

Ironteam Facebook Page

My first Walk Of Shame

Back in Oct 11 2009 I ran the Long Beach Marathon. I wanted to PR this race. I was so determine to go under 5 hours I even follow the pace group. My knee bother me early on but I push on to mile 16. Then everything fell apart. My knee started to hurt and I have to slow down. I did not want to injure myself because I was flying to Hong Kong that very same night... and did I said I haven't pack! I chill the run and I finished around 5:30. I did not even run the finish. I walked across the finish line with my friend Da and this girl Andrea because they are also in pain. Andrea ran like 29 marathons and she was laughing at herself because she felt so bad. Another failure after LA Triathlon. Oh well, you can't have the best day all the time, you get up and walk again.

Nike Human RaceTraining

Some of my friends are attempting their first 10k so I made something for them. You can say I am wrong or whatever. But this is better than them going out and do their own thing.

What are you doing? Finish your first 10K!

So, I am not a coach. Don’t kill me if you end up injuring yourself =P. But I did ran 5 marathons, a bunch of half, and an Ironman (swim 2.4mi, bike 112mi, and run a marathon) so I have ideas to help you to reach your first 10k.

For those of you who are doing your first 10K. I can’t stress this enough. You are training to complete your first 10K. Don’t worry about how fast or how slow you run. Our goal is to get you to the finish line and injury free. This is especially true with first timers. They worry about running too slow, over-train, run too fast, and injury themselves.

Clothes and Shoe

I don’t want you guys to spend a lot of money (unless you want to LOL). But in general you don’t want to wear cotton. You want stuff made with polyester.

The only polyester thing I suggest you to get it’s polyester socks. They help you so you are less likely to get blister (and this time is real… not beach chair LOL)

For shoe, I guess you can continue to use what you have. But if you want a pair of running shoe, you talk to me or Josephine (if you know who she is). Don’t go out to Nike outlet and buy a pair of running shoe =)

Interval Training

Most people who does marathon don’t run the whole thing. A lot of people do Interval. You’ll hear me say 1-1, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1. What does that mean? The first number is the number of minute you run and the second number is the number of minute you walk.

So when I say 2-1… that means run 2 mins, then walk for 1 min… then run for 2, walk for 1, run for 2, walk for 1…

I suggest people with no running experience to try 1-1, 1:30-1, or 2-1. You should be able to do this for your whole workout. If you do 2-1 for 30 min and you got very tired half way thru… then you should lower to 1:30-1.

If you think you need extra break, you can do 1-2. But try to keep walking for 1 min and see what happen first.

How to keep track of your Interval

Well I don’t want you to spend a lot of money on running unless you are going to keep doing it. For starter any digital watch with a stop watch will do. You just do the interval with the time. (it’s tougher if you are doing half min like 1:30). People can’t do math while they run, it’s true!

But if you want to spend the money, you can buy a digital watch with a dual interval timers (nowadays some watches have multi timers). How it works: say you do 2-1. It beeps every 2 min (tell you to stop running and start walking), then beep again after 1 min (tell you to run). It will do the same thing if you do like 1:30-1… 2:30-1:25. You don’t have to count and it has a countdown to how much you need to run/walk.

Not all watches have this funny. Sorry, your Baby-G probably don’t have this feature (but you can use your Baby G and just keep track of the interval yourself).

Timex is usually the brand of choice. Something like below will do.

http://www.runningwarehouse.com/descpage-TISLK50PK.html

I strongly suggest you to get your watch at an actual running shoe store. They know which watch you need and they will teach you how to use it. (I have a timex and I don’t really know how to set mine up… I use my Garmin watch for Interval). It may costs a bit more, but save you a lot of trouble. They sell Timex at target but you really need to look for the right model… and the staff is probably not that useful.

Local Running Shoe Store

Run With Us (Pasadena)

Snail Pace (Pasadena)

A Runner’s Circle (Los Feliz)

Nutrition

Remember to drink during your training. Eat something an hour before if you were to run in the morning.

Schedule:

I gave it some thoughts and came up with the following schedule for people who never ran before. ALL TIME/DISTANCE are supposed to be easy pace. REMEMBER, YOU ARE TRAINING FOR YOUR FIRST 10K (6.1 MI RACE) AND YOUR GOAL IS TO FINISH. You can worry about your time on your second 10K.

Here is the breakdown.

When I say 30mins, just jog 30 min easy pace (with run/walk interval). If you can’t do the run walk interval. Just walk (but try to walk fast).

When I say 3mi, just go 3 miles EASY PACE (You should be able to sustain this pace and even talk whil you jog). Again please do the run/walk interval. On 10/17 you will I have 4.5mi/1hr10min. You stop whenever one of those comes first. If you ran 4.5 mi, then stop. If you ran for 1hr 10min but you haven’t reach 4.5mi, STOP!

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat
10/04 REST	10/05 30mins Or Almansor Park at 7:30PM	10/06 REST	10/07 Arcadia Track: 6:30pm	10/08 Walk 40mins	10/09 REST	10/10 3mi (Don’t go to Rosebowl, football game)
10/11 REST	10/12 40mins	10/13 REST	10/14 35mins	10/15 Walk 40mins	10/16 REST	10/17 4.5mi/1hr10min
10/18 REST	10/19 30mins	10/20 REST	10/21 Very Easy 30min or Walk	10/22 REST	10/23 Nike Human Race Fri Night	10/24 Gun starts at 12:00am

My LA Triathlon Race Report (DQ)

LA triathlon starts at Venice Beach and it ends at downtown LA. I got to downtown at 4:30am this morning and I spent 15 minutes looking for a parking spot because none of the parking lot appears to be opened. I ended up parking on one of the meter parking and bike my car to the shuttle.

I got to the transition area and setup all my stuff. I walked around and bumped into a few of my Ironteammates. We did warm up and the water is very choppy. I am concerned because I get motion sickness. Whatever, we'll see what happen.

So the Gun start and we all headed to the first buoy. I decided to walk a little bit and the wave is very strong. As I was walking I can feel the water retrieving to feed the wave... I was like oh god. The wave itself wasn't really that big of a problem. But you get these double waves where you dive under one and you will get hit by the second one. Which is also ok. But then you also get wave from different direction... well actually 2 directions. I get wave coming straight at me and I also get wave that come at a 45 degree angle... and did I say the water was very choppy.

Usually I just need to dive under a few waves to get to calmer water. This time I lost track. I am concerned because it seems like every time I swim 1 feet forward the wave will push me 2 feet back. After I don't know how long I made it to the first buoy.

I then focus to swim to the second buoy. As much as I try, I need to take a breather every few minutes because I wasn't sure where I was going. I try to swim straight but I am just getting beat up by the choppy water. Then I wanted to vomit. Since I didn't want to waste time I actually try to vomit while I swim. That did not work out because there is nothing in my stomach!!!

I didn't want to give up just yet so I continue to swim. Eventually I swim to one of the lifeguard and rest on his board. That was half way between the first and second buoy. I know it's kind of nasty but I try to vomit while resting on his board (my desperate attempt to feel better). Again nothing. I thanks him and continue to push forward.

The choppy water did not improve and I continue to swim off course. When I got to the next buoy I again took sometime to rest on this lifeguard's board. Again, I use this time to rest and vomit.

I moved on.... for a short period of time. I was thinking this is very bad. Physically I am totally capable of swimming the distance (even though I haven't been swimming). Mentally I am good. But this whole motion sickness thing sucks. The turn buoy is still a good distance away. I then have to swim close to the shore (more choppy), then I have to swim against the current.

I can continue with this thing and I am sure I'll get to the finish line eventually. But given that I wasn't really going anywhere and that I need to stop every 20-30ft to take a breather because the water is so choppy.

I raised my hand to have the lifeguard come to me so I can rest. I rest a little and told her I am calling it a day... I am maybe 30 meters from the half way point. There was a lifeguard boat around the area so I got up and tell them I want to go back to the shore. The guy radio my number to the med tent, then I jump back to the water and climb on a board attached to a jet ski.

I was kind of glad that I made the decision because even the time I spent on the jet ski seems like FOREVER!!! Eventually he told me to get back on to the water and just walk back to the shore. Geez I even have problem with that!

Fine, my first disqualification. I was ready to surrender my timing chip and take the shuttle back to downtown LA. When I got to the finish line I don't see any race official. I went to the Med tent to let them know that I am ok. I continued to the transition area. No Race Official there, so I was like screw this I am doing the bike and the run too. I jumped on my bike and start riding.

My fear was realized. I still want to vomit and I am physically tired from battling the waves. I did not go very fast on the bike. And yes, there wasn't any porta potty. I was going to try peeing on my bike but I couldn't get myself to do it. I will wait until I hit transition area in Downtown. I did my good deed by giving away one of my tube. So that's 1 tube for Vineman and 1 tube for LA Triathlon.

I got into T2, did a quick change and head out. What the heck... no porta potty. Right then I know this is my last LA Triathlon.

The run was uneventful. I took a few pictures of Carlos and Tom. When I see TNT people I will say Go Team. When I see WB people I will say Go WB. When I see KP people who are struggling I offer a high five to them and tell them to give me a big smile.

Toward the end of the race a KP girl was walking so I tag her shoulder and told her to run with me. We finished together.

Overall it's a bad day for me.
-lack of direction for parking
-lack of porta potty during BOTH THE RUN AND THE BIKE COURSE (ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME)
- and of course the choppy water... but that no one has control of.

P.S. My friend was listening to the podcast and he said the official were actually consider to cancel the swim. But this doesn't give me an excuse to quit.

There you have it, my bad tri day.

Good Job for all my teammates that were able to conquer the Pacific Ocean.

Onigiri is good for you!

http://missionbee.blogspot.com/2009/09/onigiri.html

Aero Helmet and a digital SLR

When you wear an Aero Helmet you are telling people that you are fast. So every time I passed a dude with the Aero Helmet I laugh at him. Actually I shouldn't be shallow like that because he may have mechanical issues or he may be injured.

Recently I felt the same way about Digital SLR. I have a digital SLR but I don't know how to use it. I always set it to the Auto Mode and I just shot away. I feel like I am the guy riding with the Aero Helmet. I feel like I don't have what it take to shot with a digital SLR.

I am now a photo and mission captain for the Ironteam, maybe it's time to learn.

My new blog about losing weight