June 5th is National Cancer Survivor's Day and I invite you to take part in celebrating the lives of loved ones touched by cancer by honoring them with survivor's flags. The flags will be displayed in my front yard (13917 Maple Leaf Drive, Garfield Heights) in the days leading up to June 5th, through June 6th. We are hoping that this year we will be able to raise enough awareness to honor at least 100 survivors.

It's easy to procure flags in honor of your survivors. We ask that you make a $10 (or more) donation per flag, and provide the names and/or initials (or indicate anonymous) of your honorees, so that we may write them on the flags for display. 100% of your donation is tax-deductible and it all goes directly to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, to help continue to fund research that has saved thousands of lives afflicted with cancer. There are 3 ways to donate: securely online at
http://pages.teamintraining.org/noh/ambbr11/whaddix , by check written to LLS, or by cash. Please give checks to me at my desk on the 15^th Floor (next to Jen Tremmel’s office). When donating online please indicate by comment the name/s you'd like displayed on your flags, and when writing a check or donating cash please also let me know your survivors' names.

National Cancer Survivor's Day is just one month away. I'm getting a bit of an early start on this project for several reasons. First, I really want my front yard to host 100 (or more) flags on June 5^th. Secondly, this date is hugely significant to me because I will be in Lake Tahoe, riding my bike 100 miles for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, in honor of loved ones, on this very date! So, I'll need to get the flags made and organized before I leave on June 1st so they will be ready for display on the designated dates. This is truly a wonderful way to raise awareness and to honor and celebrate our loving survivors.

100 miles to ride and 100 flags to display on June 5th, National Cancer Survivor's Day! Please make a donation and procure your honoree's flag today. You can check how many honoree flags we will be displaying on my website. I'll be sure to keep the website updated with how many flags we have to date. If you have any questions please let me know!

Thanks for your time and generosity!

Bill Haddix

waiver

Team In Training Spin Class Registration and Waiver I recognize and acknowledge that there are inherent risks in my presence and participation in the Team In Training Spin Class on (Date). I certify that I am physically fit, have sufficiently trained for participation in the event and have not been advised otherwise by a qualified medical person. If at any time I believe conditions to be unsafe I will immediately discontinue further participation in the activity. I acknowledge that this Accident Waiver and Release of Liability form will be used by the event holders, sponsors and organizers, in which I may participate, and that it will govern my actions and responsibilities at said events. In consideration of my registration and participation in this event, I hereby take action for myself, my executors, administrators, heirs, next of kin, successors and assigns as follows: (A) Waive, Release and Discharge from any and all liability for my death, disability, personal injury, property damage, property theft or actions of any kind which may hereafter accrue to me or my traveling to and from this event, Bally’s Total Fitness and Team In Training, their directors, officers, employees, volunteers, representatives and agents, event holders, event sponsors, event directors and volunteers; (B) Indemnify and Hold Harmless the entities or persons mentioned in this paragraph from any and all liabilities or claims made by other individuals and entities as a result of any of my actions during this event. I am aware Bally’s Total Fitness and Team In Training does not provide health and accident coverage for me and it is my responsibility to pay any medical bills from injuries sustained while participating in the Team In Training Spin Class. I hereby consent to receive medical treatment which may be deemed advisable in the event of injury, accident and/or illness during this event. I understand that at this event or related activities, I may be photographed. I agree to allow my photo, video or film likeness to be used for any legitimate purpose by the event holders, producers, sponsors organizations and assigns. I HAVE READ AND FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS WAIVER AND RELEASE OF CLAIM FORM. Printed Name________________________________________ Signature___________________________________________ Date ________ Emergency Contact Phone Number ______________________________ If under 18 years old, parent or guardian must also sign below. PARENT/GUARDIAN WAIVER FOR MINORS (UNDER 18 YEARS OLD) The undersigned parent and natural guardian does hereby represent that he/she is, in fact, acting in such capacity and agrees to save and hold harmless and indemnify each and all the parties referred to above from all liability, loss, cost, claim or damage whatsoever which may be imposed upon said parties because of any defect in or lack of such capacity to so act and release said parties on behalf of the minor and the parents of legal guardian. I understand that the foregoing Accident and Release of Liability shall apply to my child. I hereby give permission for my child to participate in the Team In Training Spin Class, with the understanding that every reasonable effort will be made to plan for safe participation in this event. Print Participant’s Name_____________________________________ Participant’s Age__________ Signature of Parent or Guardian_________________________________________ Date __________ Emergency Contact Phone Number­­­­­­­­­­­­­­________________________________

4/20/2010

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. I've been training really hard and it's coming down the to wire. It's time for me to start tapering off a little. I've really been pushing it the last couple of weeks. I hope it pays off.

We had a nice indoor training ride and watched the 2006 Wildflower video. It was fun to watch. It seems like the event will be really great. The training session just kicked my rear end but that's a good thing. I always feel great after working really hard. 2 days later we did a moderately hilly ride with the Tahoe team and my legs felt it a bit but that didn't really hold me back.

The training session in the pool was excellent. Tim put us through the ringer so to speak. He wanted us to work on the start of the race so he had 4 of us in one lane struggling for room and he had a kick board and was making waves and splashing us in the face the whole time. We worked on looking up when we swim in order to stay on line so we don't stray too far off course and we also worked at swimming with our head completely out of the water just in case we choke or something that we'll be able to keep swimming and not get run over. Overall some good learning experiences.

I was happy with my running last week. I did 5 miles of a hill repeater. I found a hill that's a half mile long. It goes from the towpath parking lot on Rockside and up the hill to Independence. I checked it out on Map My Ride and there are sections that are a 20% grade. I was pleasantly surprised that I was not only able to run up it once but 5 times. Now I understand that running downhill is SOOOO much easier than up (I've had issues with that in the past). My knees held up fabulously on the run and have been doing well in general. Now the only issue is they started to burn a little last Thursday while I was running to work so I have to be careful, make sure to stretch and ice my shins after I run and I should be fine. I've been resting a little and will probably head to the gym in the next week or so and work a bit on the elliptical the keep my legs in shape and avoid all the pounding. I am so ready to get there and get this done. I know I have another week and a half but I feel good. My legs are starting to recover from the extreme activity that I've put them through over the last week.

On Sunday I went for a group ride with the Tahoe team. The coaches have been extremely gracious and allowing us to ride along with them. My legs were so tired to start the ride. It was raining and windy and cold. None of that really bothered me though. I just wanted to keep the legs pumping. I have issues with my left thigh if I don't remember to warm it up and stretch it really good before we start and of course I forgot. So I had some problems until about mile 25 once I was really "warmed" up. Poor Jan had a flat tire. I'm not surprised. We hit some pretty rough roads. I'm surprised I didn't have a flat. We had some issues in getting the tire changed but managed well enough. It's better that he had the flat yesterday than at Wildflower. My legs were really tired when we finished but I still felt like I could run afterward. I wish I could've run with Jan but I had to go meet with my parent's then head to my brother's for my niece's birthday. My feet were frozen by the time we finished and I actually wore my shoe covers.
I took yesterday off as a rest day. (still did some running to work, lol always late).

Yesterday we dropped of our bikes to be shipped out today. Kadence is now on her way to California. Of course I had issues. We have to remove the pedals from our bikes and my left pedal just refused to come off. We tried everything. We ended up partially stripping the bolt on there and we tried removing it with the allen wrench but it wouldn't budge. I think we even partially stripped the wrench itself. Tim said he was going to stop by this morning and see if he could get it off after we let some lube soak in. If not, she's going with one pedal. I rode to work this morning and I can't believe the difference between bikes. It felt so weird to ride my old bike. As usual I felt great when i got in to work this morning. I love to ride :)

4/6/10

My legs are a little tingly today. Had a nice brisk ride to work this morning. The training the last few days has been good. We rode with the Tahoe team again last Saturday and it was a blast. It was a hilly ride and I had so much fun. I rode 43.5 miles then we decided to run after our ride and we managed to run 3 miles afterward but we were all beat and decided to stop after 3. I would've liked to go farther than that but I was gassed. I had nothing left in the tank. I need to eat more while riding so I have something left for the run.

Yesterday I was going to swim after work and but when I got off work I was extremely tired. I was determined to at least get in the pool yesterday. After all it was the only chance I'd get this week to swim and I don't think I can really afford to take a week off at this point in my training and so close to the event. So I trudged to the gym. I got into my suit then the shower and I was already cold. Just didn't feel like swimming. I went to the pool and all the lanes were taken. Bummer. I was going to wait till a lane opened but by the time I hung up my towel there was an open lane. Good for me :)

I started my swim thinking I would do 3 sets of 500 yards followed by a 200 yard cool down. As I got swimming, I felt pretty good. The longer I swam the more of a rhythm I go into. The pool length is 20 yards so I figured 25 laps and I would take a brief respite. Then I began to think that I'd do 50 laps then rest. But as I got closer to 50 I though why not just swim 75 laps and that would be my 3 500's. The more I thought about it (and believe me there's plenty opportunity to think while swimming back and forth in a pool) the more I tried to figure out how many laps would make a mile . I came up with 88 laps. 88 laps??? That wasn't really that much farther than the 75 I had already set my sights on. What's 13 more laps? I managed to swim those 88 laps in 50 minutes. Earlier in the year Tim had us time ourselves in 10 minutes of swimming. I swam 14 laps in 10 minutes. Yesterday at an easy pace I swam 17.6 laps in 10 minutes. Not bad I'd say. Especially for someone who up till now swam purely to stay alive. When I got out of the pool I felt a little wobbly but I'll take it. I felt good after I had dinner. I slept really well last night that's for sure. Bry kept me up late all weekend and we got up early both Saturday and Sunday.

Managed to drag myself out of bed early this morning and ran 3 miles on the treadmill. I would've liked to run more but I just don't have enough time in the morning. I'll start running after work now. I need to get used to running after I ride my bike.

So far I've lost 7 lbs over the last three weeks. It seems that the weather has turned and that's always when I start losing. I don't know what it is but I can never seem to lose/maintain my weight over the winter.

4/2/2010

We got our new wetsuits! I feel like Steve Martin in "The Jerk" "The phonebook is here! The phonebook is here!..." Yes it would seem that this isn't a reason to get all worked up about but I took it to our group swim session to make sure it fit and holy cow! What a difference!!!. I swam 1700 yards in less than an hour and it didn't feel like I hardly got started when it was time to finish. Of course it took me 10 minutes to get into the suit but once I figured it out it was no big deal. I couldn't believe how much easier it was to swim in the wetsuit. I feel really good about the triathlon now. I feel confident that I'll be able to do the swim it's just how quickly I can get through it. The the bike ride is going to be tough. I really need to get my hill work in. The run is going to be equally as tough maybe tougher because it's really hilly. Again I need to get my hill work in. So now my training pretty much looks like run, run, run, swim, ride, ride, run, ride, swim, run, run ....LOL run as much as I can, ride as much as I can, and swim as much as I can and sleep in there at one point or another.

3/31/10

D Day!!! OK it looks like my Shave To Save Lives campaign has been a success! My goal was to raise $1000 during the month of March to go towards the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and as of right now (and there's still 14 hours left) I've received $2110 in donations ranging from $5 to $150! That just goes to show you that every little bit counts! I am definitely going to be shaving my head for a very worthy cause. I was in the shower this morning and noticed I was running out of shampoo and made a mental note to buy more. Then I realized that after today I won't need any shampoo! LOL

We had a group ride last night that was supposed to be a brick but as usual I was not able to get my run in. We rode 25 miles and it had some nice hills. I really love riding the hills. We were going along and I had no idea where we were going. I heard Jan telling Darryl where we were going and heard him mention something about County Line road. We were climbing a decent hill and I was pretty far ahead of Jan and I saw county line road about a tenth of a mile before the crest of the hill. I didn't know which way to turn on County Line road so I just kept going up the hill with the intention of reaching the crest and heading back down to follow Jan whichever way he turned. It worked out pretty well. I made it to the top and turned around and met Jan at the turn. That ride made me remember how much I like hills. That being said, I still need to get in a lot of hill work before the event. I plan to get at least 3 hill rides in a week before I go. Something that I'll start tonight on my way home. I'll circle around Rockside and up Granger hill which is the steepest hill I can find around here. I figure if I can make it up that hill on a regular basis I should be able to handle the first hill at Wildflower and likely "the Nasty". Now all I have to do is to continue to train like a maniac. I only have one month left!

When we got back to our cars we thought about running but it was already getting a little dark and my feet were frozen (didn't bring the shoe covers again! Perhaps I'll learn one day!). So we decided to nix the run. I realized on my way home that it was Tuesday and I forgot to record my favorite show (Biggest Loser) so when I got home at 9:00 I got changed, got under a blanket and watched the rest of the show. I felt a little funky when I got up (as in not well not as in James Brown) this morning so i didn't run this morning either. That's what's on my plate for this evening. I will get a hill ride in. Then shave my head and I'd like to do about 5 miles tonight. Yes there will be pictures to follow.

3/29/10

I had a pretty good week of training. I haven't been able to get out and run as much as I would've liked so I'm really going to focus on running primarily then swimming then of course riding. I'm going to have to start training on two different disciplines each day to get in as much work as I would like. That's not much of a problem for me considering I ride my bike to work whenever possible. So all I need to do is to run or swim after work and I've got my "brick" in for the day.

I showed up last week at our indoor bike training session and I swear I'm lucky I brought my head with me because I forgot everything else! I'm certain I had my trainer in hand as I was walking out the door. When I got to the LLS office I brought my bike inside and realized I didn't bring any towels. I was grumbling about it and Mike asked me if I had my trainer. I told him yes it was in my truck. I went out to the truck and looked for the trainer and no go. I left it at home. I couldn't believe it. I had it in my hand as I was walking out. I must've set it down when I went to get some socks out of the dryer. That's the only thing I can think of. At least I had my socks. :) I went and got changed into my biking clothes. Tim was gracious enough to let me use his trainer. (Which was a huge sacrifice because he just got his new tri bike and hadn't even had the chance to ride it yet) I got ready to get on my bike and sure enough, I forgot my shoes! UUUGGGHH!!!! I managed to get a decent ride in even without my shoes, towels, and trainer.

I really wanted to run this weekend but there seemed to be all sorts of things that came up that prevented me from going. I ended up practicing my French horn most of the day and also playing guitar. I decided not to run because I was going to do a brick with the team on Sunday afternoon. We had planned to go Sunday because the weather outlook at the beginning of the week was better on Sunday. Well it poured rain and Tim got sick so we decided not to go. I didn't get to do my brick on Sunday. I went to Rick's house and we watched basketball all day. Had some beers and subs. Had a really good time. I planned to run when I got home but realized I had to replace the brake shoes on my bike for my ride today. Of course I had all kinds of issues putting these simple little things on my bike and as usual it involved breaking a small part on my bike that will now have to be replaced causing more damage most likely. LOL So it goes. Well I got the shoes on anyhow and was able to ride to work this morning. Really windy today. Can't wait for the ride home when the wind is at my back. :) I ran on the treadmill for a half hour this morning. I felt really good. I could've run much longer but didn't have enough time. I was a little late to work as it is. Gonna head to the pool tonight and get some swim time in.