Mary Leigh Burke's Team In Training Page
Training and Racing to Save Lives
Welcome to my Team In Training home page.
Follow my training: latest update below: February 5, 2008
What’s New: I Survived the Black Diamond
I've been a 50-plus athlete for a few years now, and while it's been extremely rewarding and fun, it's always been about me: getting stronger, faster, better looking (???!!), and feeling better. This is my chance to make my training about somebody else, and give a new kind of meaning to my effort. I **so** hope you'll feel moved to support me in this, or even to participate yourself!
I am training to participate in the Tour of Anchorage long-distance cross-country ski race in March, as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I'm completing this event in honor of all individuals who are battling cancer.
Honorees joining us in our training this season, the real heroes on our team, include:
*George Blenis
*Kurt Zimmerman
*Lior Jacober
*Jim Delaney
* Marialaina Knorpp
And our Team is training in memory of:
Brenda Donato, who lost her battle to Leukemia last April, 2007;
Susan Butcher, also a former team member and many-time Iditarod winner.
Why Ski??
Remembering their challenges only inspires me to keep going. I love to ski, I love to challenge myself, and I love to help others succeed. Team in Training pulls the community together – through participants, donors, and honorees – so we can ALL benefit from the love of sport and enthusiasm for life – and find a cure for blood cancers. What could be better?!! Let's get going!
I will be skiing in honor of my mother, my brother, my former CEO, and our team honorees this year. If you would like me to train and compete in honor of someone you care about who has or has had cancer, let me know. I will add their name to the honoree bands we attach to our gear, and they will inspire me to train harder and push through to the finish line. If someone dear to you has been affected, e-mail their name to me, tell me their story.
Honoree Names to Date for my Honoree Bands (IHO In Honor of; IMO: In Memory of) (last updated 11/6/2007):
IHO Bruce (Frank's friend)
IHO Dave Burke (Mary Leigh's brother – cancer survivor of many years)
IMO Margaret Dinsmore (Mary Leigh's mother)
IHO Ayodhya Prasad Rana (Abhijeet's grandfather)
IHO Steve Kirsch (Mary Leigh's former CEO)
IHO Richard le Blond (friend of Nadia’s sister – 10 years with leukemia and living life to the fullest.
I AM COMMITTED TO TWO GOALS
- Finishing the race – 40K if I can learn to skate ski, or 25K if all I do is fall on my tush
- Raising $4400.00 by January 31st, 2008
Won't you join me? I'll even be the one that freezes her *ss off!
How you can help:
You can make a donation now, on this page, of any amount, large or small, to help advance the Society's mission to find cures for leukemia and lymphoma in our lifetime.
Or you can write a check made out to: The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society ...and mail it to me at: Mary Leigh Burke, 1921 Rock St. #3, Mountain View, CA 94043.
Your contributions are 100% tax deductible. Tax ID#13-5644916. The Leukemia Society will send you a receipt.
If your company has online matching, let me know and I’ll send you easy instructions.
If you work at Juniper Networks: click on this link). Check “Cash/check” (even if you donated by credit card), and enter “For Mary Leigh Burke’s Team in Training campaign, winter 2008 ski team” for “Purpose”.
I’ll be blogging my training and the event right here on this page. Please don't hesitate to follow along, whether you contribute or you don't. Check out the workouts I've been doing all this winter. Find out if I can actually learn to skate ski, when I’m just a beginner at any kind of skiing. See if my triathlon training all last year will carry over (given the results of last week’s hill workout, I’m wondering!). See if a neophyte fundraiser and lifelong introvert can manage to come up with $4400. Hear about the amazing people who have battled cancer for years and are training with us.
Finally, thanks. Thanks if you contribute -- you're making an investment in fighting heartbreaking disease. Thanks if you follow along -- I'm glad to have you with me. And thank you to all of you who have already been so generous. Your support and friendship will not only help get me to the finish line but, more importantly, you have helped to accelerate cures for leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma and brought increased hope to the patients and families who are on the front lines of the battle against these terrible diseases.
Training Chronicles (most recent first)At the Top of the Black Diamond Terror Trail
February 5, 2008
I Survived
This photo is me on a midweek up-and-back trip to Bear Valley, after just having realized I took a wrong turn, and all that climbing I just did was about to become all that descending. I’m smiling, but you can’t see the gritted teeth.
I did make it down, wedging all the way, without one into-the-snowbank experience – and the view was amazing!
In other news, I have reached my fundraising minimum! Thank you to all my wonderful friends who have contributed to this great cause. We are now “tapering” for the race by cutting back on our training, by 30% this week and 50% next week. We’ll have a “sendoff ski” on the 23rd at Bear Valley, where we’ll get our team (something – jackets? Hats? TBD). We leave on 2/29 for Anchorage and will have a full day there to hang out, wax our skis, and watch the ceremonial start of the Iditarod (I hope they let you pet the dogs). The race is at 10 AM on 3/2 and, of course, there will be news and photos here when I return. Stay tuned!
Huddling in the Storm, Before Starting Out
Warming Frozen Bones Afterward, at the Team Apres-Ski
February 1 - 2, 2008
Getting Down to the Wire
…And we are nervous! The race is now less than a month away. Nobody feels ready except maybe the 2 or 3 hotshot guys who were already major skiers; the other 29 of us are quaking in our ski boots, and really pushing ourselves now to make as much progress as possible before getting on that airplane.
This weekend we trained at Bear Valley in a serious snowstorm. It was forecast to begin Saturday afternoon, but we arrived at the trailhead at 9:30 AM to freezing temps and blowing snow everywhere – obviously the forecast was off by a few hours. I had to take my gloves off to get my boots on, and just that few minutes brought sheer burning pain to my fingers; I was actually afraid I might’ve hurt myself, but our coaches encouraged us to get moving right away (even before the team meeting) to fend off (death??)
I said to Coach George: “What was I thinking signing up for this?” and he replied “You were thinking how amazing you’re going to be next triathlon season, after a winter of this.” It was the perfect encouragement. (Amazing, maybe not, but **way** hardier, for sure!)
We huddled all together for warmth as we got the announcements and course maps for the day’s workout. We were supposed to cover a 7K loop between 2 and 4 times, depending on the distance we are training for (and how much sheer guts we could summon in the face of the blizzard conditions plus the worst possible snow for cross country skiing, fluffy powder.) We all started together, as we will in the race.
Amazingly, it turned out to be fun. The group energy made all the difference as we passed each other, laughed about how bad it was out here, and traded advice about how to handle this or that obstacle. The powdery snow made the downhill portions easier (“slow snow,” as it’s known) and I made it down every one with not one dive into a snowbank. I even got really warm, despite my lack of a head covering that resulted in carrying an attractive white crust of snow atop my head for some 3.5 hours.
Unfortunately, though, I am still pretty slow. I have the skate technique down pretty well, but don’t have the strength yet to do it uphill very much, which makes for a lot of walking. 7K in 90 minutes, 14 in 3 hours. Not fast enough for the 40K in Anchorage, because there is a cutoff time and it’s a lot less than 7+ hours. Even given better conditions, I’m still not fast enough today.
But, they’re telling me I can’t know for sure until another couple of weeks go by. We’ll see.
The drive back this morning (Sunday) was another adventure: snowstorm, roads covered with it, all through the mountains. Important lesson: Be sure to knock the big snowdrift off the roof of your car in the morning, because otherwise you’re driving along and suddenly: Avalanche! And you can’t see out the windshield. Somebody up there is definitely taking care of me given all the near disasters I have averted.
And now for the requisite fundraising pitch: The deadline is 2/15, and I am still approximately $450 short of my goal, so if you’ve been thinking about donating, now is the time. Following is a little blurb about what happens to the money. (Also, in case it has occurred to anybody that they might be financing Mary Leigh’s vacation, as one friend mentioned to me – you’re not! I donated enough myself to more than cover the expenses of the trip). This is **such** a good cause – think about it! And deep bows of gratitude (as we Buddhists sometimes put it) to all my dear friends who have already donated.
Where does the money go?
Here are some examples:
- $25 provides patients and their loved ones with literature that contains the most up-to-date information on their disease, helping them make informed decisions about their treatment options, and helps pay for medical expenses not covered by insurance.
- $50 makes possible a Family Support group with a trained facilitator where comfort can be found and experiences can be shared among patients and family members, and pays for a tank of gas so a patient can commute to the hospital for treatment.
- $100 helps supply laboratory researchers with supplies and materials critical to carrying out their search for cures.
- $1,000 makes possible one-on-one conversations with health care specialists who provide patients with information about their disease, treatment options, and help prepare them with questions for their health care team.
January 11 – 12, 2008
To Hell (a.k.a. Truckee) and Back
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My old insomnia problem, once the harbinger of a complete breakdown, came to visit in a somewhat milder form on Thursday night. For the moment, I solved it with Benadryl. But wait…
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I arrived at Tahoe Donner on Friday afternoon, with my co-competitor Nancy, for a short ski in advance of Saturday’s training day.
The snow was impossible. Solid ice. All hills. Skiing went like this: shuffle a few steps, fall on butt, shuffle a few more, fall on butt, stop at top of hill in terror, launch into the unknown, fall on butt, cry for a few minutes … and so forth. Switched from skate skis to stride skis and was able to at least move forward for the final hour or so.
Hearing about all the other people also falling down somehow didn’t comfort me as I compared this experience to the exhilarating hours of gliding 2 days earlier at Royal Gorge. It was as though I had never been on skis before.
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Arrived at the cabin we’re sharing with a group of other Team in Training people, after a one hour odyssey of getting lost. I quickly learned that since I’m a single person, the couples will get all the beds and all the privacy and I will be sleeping on the floor in the room with a guy who gets the king sized bed (because he rented the cabin). Spector of more insomnia raises its ugly head.
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And indeed, it was a second night of the same, accompanied by back spasms from the nice comfy floor.
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In the morning, I discovered there were perhaps 15 more people who had arrived in the night. In no mood to socialize with all the cheery, energetic people, I somehow found myself standing in the walk-in closet in tears, once again. I’m an introvert! Get me out of here!
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OK, suck it up, baby, we’re off to the training day, we’ve got to do this. Tough triathletes can do anything. Let’s get going.
On the way back to the ski place, we get hopelessly, irretrievably lost again, and now it’s a snowstorm.
We decide to give up and just go home now because at least we know how to find route 80 from where we’ve ended up, and having had no sleep, I’m afraid to try to drive home if the storm should get worse.
But first, we have to call Tahoe Donner and let them know we won’t be there (yeah, we could’ve asked them for directions, but we were both at the end of our endurance, Nancy having hurt her hand in one of those many falls the day before and not even being sure she could ski at all). We stop at a gas station to do that, since we do not (natch) have their phone number. - Backing up to get back on the road, I now run the back of my new car over a curb and hang the bumper on a fire hydrant that is poking up out of a ditch, the rear wheel spinning in mid air. We wait 90 minutes for a tow truck to lift the car out of the ditch before proceeding with the 4+ hour drive back home.
OK, full disclosure, I’m a Buddhist, I meditate daily (including for those 90 minutes waiting for the tow and believe me, looking into my mind in that state was not a pretty sight) and I’m now going to report on how I made (make) sense of this as a lesson from the sometimes-torturing universe.
Koans
Who else has no control over what their body is going to lay on them? Who else has a disastrous physical experience always hanging over their head? Why are we doing this event, and who is it for?
How Far I’ve Gotten With Them
Feeling good and being in control of life are illusions, and depending on either one brings suffering. What really matters is to find a way to be OK with whatever the present moment consists of. So today, my mantras are “present moment” and “no control,” with a harmonizing note of “courage” - exactly what it takes for people like Marialena, George, Kurt, and Lior to get through the day.
Not that any of this is any **solution**. It’s a practice. Moment by moment.
Thank you to all who have recently donated to my fundraising - and my awakening, which you probably didn’t think you were donating to.
Mary Leigh and Web Captain Bruce at Donner Pass Overlook
December 29 - 31, 2007
Training at Royal Gorge
Although our team trainings are only every other week, I’m determined to go somewhere every weekend and train – it seems like the only way I’ll get good enough to do this (and enjoy it). I know “dying out there and toughing it out” is a good thing too, sacrificing for a cause and all that, but I’d rather have fun while helping the cause!
So for New Years weekend I made a reservation at Clair Tappaan Lodge, a funky, communal place run by the Sierra Club and 10 minutes from Royal Gorge, the nation’s largest cross country ski area. You sleep in dorms, eat all together, and everybody does one chore a day. It’s extremely cheap, friendly, and fun as long as you have good earplugs.
I did a **lot** of ski practice, especially hills (of which Royal Gorge has many, even on the so-called “beginner” trails). It was gratifying to realize that the hills that scared me to death last winter now feel like nothing. Who knows, maybe I’ll even try downhill (my all time worst fear) in a couple of years.
On Sunday, Bruce, our team Web guy who lives in Reno, joined me for a 2 ½ hour ski that included a spectacular view of Donner Pass, which you can see part of in the photo. This is one of the best things about cross country: you not only get a great workout, but also get to do it in the most breathtaking surroundings, with no crowds or noise.
Yesterday (New Year’s Eve) I got on my new skate skis for a morning of skate practice. As I was fighting a headwind about 30 minutes into it, along came a Trail Angel: one of those kind souls who take it upon themselves to help beginners. He was an elderly gentleman who obviously had been skiing his entire life, and he showed me what I was doing wrong that was causing me to work so hard – he actually gave me a demo of what I looked like versus what it’s supposed to look like! When I tried his suggestions for how to correct my technique, I immediately got hugely better and stopped fighting so hard. I hope once I know more what I’m doing out there, I can pass on this great kindness to some other struggling beings in one more demonstration of the Bodhisattva way.
A heartfelt thank you to all who have recently donated. And to all who read this, I wish you a wonderful New Year and may all your resolutions bear fruit!
December 15, 2007
Second Team Training weekend , Bear Valley
Click HERE
to see what real ski racers look like doing the skate ski technique: (OK, well, at this point I sometimes look more like a waddling duck with occasional glide thrown in…). Actually that was an exaggeration, I saw real progress this week - I felt much more confident doing the technique and I spent more time practicing it before swapping skis and getting back to striding.
I found I kept getting distressed over my lack of stamina, and then had to remind myself “Don’t forget, we are at 7000 feet right now.” In fact, when I get back here to sea level, I recover much more quickly than I did last summer during triathlon training, and am “good to go” by Tuesday morning’s Masters swim workout. The extra good news is, Anchorage is at sea level, so those of us training in the mountains will have an advantage over the Anchorage team (the only other ski team in the Team in Training program). All the same, I can’t wait for the day I no longer finish a workout so exhausted I can barely remember my name.
An additional feature of being on the ski team is that somebody’s in charge of arranging cabin rentals at our training venues, so we are all hanging out together considerably more than teams who don’t have to travel to do their training. This means we all get to know each other really well (for better or worse) via carpooling, sleeping in the same big rooms, dinners together, and early morning bathroom fu. I am not good at group living, to say the least, having bombed out of at least one spiritual community in the past…so I consider this having come back to me as something I need to work on in my life. My journal and I are good buddies these days!
A big THANK YOU to all the kind souls who donated recently! (For those considering it, remember that 2007 tax deduction!)
December 8, 2007
FINALLY on the snow!
Our first ski training at Bear Valley happened this past weekend, and it was glorious and exhausting. (Click here to see where we ski most weekends.)
My group (beginning skate skiers) spent the morning having a lesson and practicing the skate technique, which turns out to be quite difficult, as I expected.
But then, in the afternoon I got back onto my “regular” skis and used the technique I learned last year, and suddenly, by some miracle, I was WAY better than last year! I think all those exercises we’ve been doing are paying off – I have the kick and glide down, I’m moving along, sometimes even flying along, I’m not so afraid of a little hill, I feel at home on skis – all in all, a very pleasant surprise.
So now the question is going to be: should I perfect what I already know, or leap way out of my comfort zone and do this entirely new and HARD thing? Coach Larry says “Don’t decide yet, do some of both and see where it goes.” So that’s what I’ll be doing.
It is beautiful right now up there – our team was just about the only people on the trails so there were long stretches during the free ski time where you got to be out there alone, amid the pristine white snow, the achingly deep blue sky, and the tall, tall trees crowned with white. I had to remind myself to stop and experience it (that was easier on Sunday when I was tired!).
A special thank you to all those who have donated recently – I was feeling like nobody would ever do it again.
See you soon!
December 1, 2007Up a LOOOOONG Hill at Mission Peak (Fremont)
This was supposed to be our first snow training day, but mother Nature had other ideas, so instead we met at Ohlone College, in Fremont, for a long uphill workout with our poles and with ski exercises interspersed. We went straight up for one hour and then down for another hour with stops at 4 stations set up by the coaches, each one focusing on one ski-specific exercise.
One thing about training with this group is there’s a lot of standing around at the beginning, for announcements, awards, and such, and this place was FREEZING, way up high and on an unusually cold morning. That little voice in my head started whining “Are you NUTS? What have you signed yourself up for???” but I forced myself to ignore it. I still, however, found myself gazing longingly over at the Ohlone College pool, where people were swimming in the nice, warm water. That’s my comfort zone; this is my challenge zone.
On the hike-with-poles we eventually started, I found I’m pretty good at the poling and hill bounding exercises, and I’ve improved a lot on the balance stuff since I’ve been doing those exercises every day; so I felt encouraged, although once again exhausted at the end (came home and slept for an hour).
Also today, we had our first training in honor of somebody – each one from now on will be dedicated to one of our honorees. This week’s person, George, told us about his harrowing journey including, among other things, multiple bone marrow biopsies and an eventual bone marrow transplant that resulted in chronic graft-vs-host disease, which he still has to live with. He said he used to be very athletic but everything changed with this disease. He is skiing with us, though, and looking good! It’s a real motivator to think about these people and the obstacles they have overcome when I feel like my own obstacles are so huge.
November 17, 2007
Hill Training at Redwood Park (Oakland)
We met in a spectacularly beautiful location I’ve never been to before, and hiked/ran the fire trail for about 90 minutes. I was psyched, so I ran most of it with coach Sigrida, including a couple of major hills.
I had a wonderful time, but I must say, I may think I’m a serious athlete, but my quads do not agree! I’m still hurting 2 days later from those hills, and yesterday (the day after) I was wiped out exhausted. Guess there’s a wee bit of training to be done here!
November 4, 2007
The Kickoff
Yesterday was the big kickoff meeting for the San Francisco area Team in Training, at a hotel downtown. Huge crowd, hurried people in Team in Training regalia running around, squeals of delight as old friends found each other again, and many confused looking newbies like me wandering around looking nervous and nibbling on muffins from the hotel.
But once the program got underway, I was immediately impressed, and moved, by how well they do things in this organization; for example:
- Starting with a movie that follows various patients through the many experiences of having cancer
- Having someone who currently has the disease give a talk about her experiences
- Organizing the teams within each sport into small groups, based on where you live, to facilitate carpooling with your friends (I was surprised not to be the only person coming from the South Bay - one even came from Santa Cruz)
- Giving every person a "mentor" who has done the event before
- Including numerous "honorees" who have cancer and are all doing the event along with us
- Creating a detailed team website that includes news, photos of everyone on the team, links to books about people with cancer for inspiration, fundraising advice, and much more
- Providing a packet with detailed bios of all the (5 or 6) coaches, team captains (another 4), and honorees
- And last but not least, having each sport give a weekly "team spirit" award (won by ME!!!) and a periodic "top fundraiser" award (also won by...ME!!!). How can I not be motivated after winning 2 awards right off the bat!
I know there will be even more ingenious and heartwarming surprises from these people. It's truly a wonderful organization I already feel a part of. I wouldn't be surprised to find myself doing these events year after year.
So last night I got home from there and was so overwhelmed by all the positive energy that I had to crash on the couch, watch a couple episodes of "Dark Angel", and eat too many homemade chocolates from my friend Tien, (who sends them to all her donors for the Aids Lifecycle ride.) Had to balance all that altruism and self-sacrifice with some serious vegging and self-indulgence.
October 25, 2007
Psyching Myself
Our training starts in November (snow training in December) so there's a while yet before I'm going to have anything to say about that. I'm still doing the tail end of triathlon training, plus the usual Masters swim workouts. I also just started going to track with my triathlon club (and our new one-percent-body-fat coach, Kenrick) which is a blast, although hard; maybe I'll actually beat 10 minute miles one of these days.
So anyway, while I'm not training yet for the ski race, I **am** psyching myself for it by reading any number of inspiring tales of major athletes. Here are some of my favorites in case you're interested too:
**Number one best** of all time psych-yourself book for swimming, cycling and running:
Zendurance: A Spiritual Guide for Endurance Athletes (Paperback)
by Shane Alton Eversfield
amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/Zendurance-Spiritual-Guide-Endurance-Athletes/dp/1891369431
This guy has thought of reasons to love your workouts I'd never have imagined, and every one of the things he's come up with is 1000% true. (Plus I've been practicing Zen for 13 years now and it's a true joy to be able to so completely associate my practice with my athletic life). I fantasize about moving to Lake Placid to train with him and take his workshops.
Number one best book about both cross-country skiing (and the personal issues involved in endurance athletics ):
Long Distance: A Year of Living Strenuously by Bill McKibben
amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/102-1066555-6152969?initialSearch=1&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Long+Distance%3A+A+Year+of+Living+Strenuously&Go.x=8&Go.y=10
I've read this one twice.
Interesting book about Olympic level ski training that has convinced me I'm better off never having had any athletic talent whatsoever:
Endless winter: An Olympian's journal by Luke Bodensteiner
amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/Endless-winter-Olympians-Luke-Bodensteiner/dp/0964392704/ref=sr_1_1/102-1066555-6152969?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193334686&sr=1-1
Enjoy!
October 23, 2007
Asking People for Money
You haven't really lived until you've contemplated asking all your co-workers for money. Or rather, you haven't really visited your own vulnerable nature. Will I be rejected? How will that feel? Does not giving me any money mean they don't like me? Should I remind people, or just let it drop? Am I alone in the world with no support? Is this all my fault for working so much and training so much and therefore having no time to develop close friendships? Is God punishing me for screwing up in life?
But actually it's been easier than I thought, because while many don't, many more do give something to my cause. And each time somebody does, I feel so extremely happy and affirmed that it makes up for all the self-doubt.
It's teaching me to reach out, put myself on the line, and bravely watch what happens next. It's showing me that I do have people in my life who care, not just about me, but about humanity.
I'm starting to wonder whether this isn't its own kind of "training" for a whole other kind of "fitness".
