Less than 3 days to go

How is training going? I'm not training now, not at all.

I am not looking forward to the half marathon I'll be 'running' in less than 3 days. Its going to be a miserable time for me with my hip flexor still injured.  The hip is getting better, much better, but I still have pain and can't lift my left leg very high without holding it with my hand. I can't put panties on without lifting my foot by hand. Sigh.

On a brighter note, I met Phil Keoghan AND Ron Hsu in Seattle the other night along with several of Phils family and friends.
 Phil is the host of ABC's The Amazing Race and Ron was one of the contestants who just got eliminated from the current race.

 Phil  signed a pile of photos we had printed out, some for us, one for Kris. Kris is in Dallas, she met Phil a few weeks ago and had posted her photo of her with him on FaceBook so we printed it out, got it signed and will give it to her as a surprise. Way cool.

 This is Ron Hsu, he was so nice and he came to us and talked about getting the The Amazing Race. He told us secrets about why some of the other people didn't get onto the show, even after they had thought they were on it.

 we saved a seat for Phil so he sat with us for a while up in the very front row. he was sitting next to Steve, talking about his cowboy boots.

These boots.

I'm meeting Phil Keoghan tomorrow

I'm meeting Phil Keoghan tomorrow in Seattle.

He is the host of The Amazing Race on CBS, one of the shows I watch religiously and wish I cold get on to.

Linda found out he is going to be in Seattle for his movie 'No Opportunity Wasted'. Beforehand, he will be meeting fans so Linda and I have printed out a few photos for him to sign for us. One looks like this:

The awesome lady in the photo is Kris Parks. Kris met Phil in Dallas last month and we thought it would be cool to have him sign her photo and we'll send it to her. How cool is that??  Kris has 9 more weeks of training until she does her one & only IRONMAN triathlon.

Linda is taking her husband Steve and her son Brayden and I am taking Lan. We're hoping we can get into Seattle on the 3pm ferry out of Bremerton and then go to the Smith Tower for a viewing of the city. Smith Tower is right across the road from the Coleman Ferry Dock where we will land and within walking distance of the theater where we will be meeting Phil.

My half marathon is in 6 days and I'm not looking forward to it at all.

Riding with an Ass

This is Kari, a morgan mare owned by Bonnie. Bonnie just bought another horse so Kari is for sale. This mare is super sweet, an extremely nice mare for anyone to ride. Level headed, gentle, kind and patient with other horses.

Helen rode Kari out a Banner yesterday when I was on Joey and here is our other companion:

Jonny.

Jonny is a 16 year old mule, he was ridden by Patti. I have never ridden with a mule before and didn't remember Joey ever being with one so I was happy to see that Joey liked him. There was no freaking out, no snorting & screaming, no squealing.

Jonny wasn't stubborn nor lazy, he carried Patti on the whole trail ride (about 5 miles) without batting en eye and he willingly went everywhere and for a while he led the way. Jonny didn't like when Joey got on his ass and actually bucked/kicked but Joey needed that warning to back off.

This mule is only about 14.2hh and from what I understand, he is quite strong. His previous owner was about 300 lbs. Patti isn't nearly that heavy, shes skinny. But a dang good rider.

Yesterday was our first official day with a temperature over 60 degrees, it actually got up to 65 so we were all in heaven.

Running sucks

How is training going? I'll be walking the whole damn thing.

In order to not re-injure my hip or make the current pain worse, I will walk most of the Tacoma City Half Marathon. I walked 4 miles with Linda last week and the next day experienced calf cramps so this will suck no matter what; can't run for any reason. *sigh*

I do have some good news though that I'm more than happy to share.

Last weekend I raced in a mountain bike race and LOVED IT!!!!! It was the last race in the winter series that Lan has been doing for the last few months, I raced in the beginner category.

I got 5th out of 7 women my age, whoo hoo.  They started us a little after 10am along with all the little kids. I made a huge mistake by being nice and letting too many of the buggers get in front of me. They have no trail sense, wouldn't move over, always crashing in the trail.

 I am very happy to say I can't wait to do another one. Lan and I have been looking for one in the next couple weeks but they are hard to find. There are lots of calendars but they all have different lists of races so nothing is coordinated.

Lan got 2nd in this race but he took 1st place overall in the Clydesdale division for the whole series. I'm very proud of him.

Here he is with Pat Ellis, the man who got 2nd place in the series. Pat is a super nice guy, always smiling. we wouldn't mind running into him again out on trails.

Boot Camp

How is training going? Much better.

I've started a 3 week Boot Camp with a local personal trainer. its not really boot camp but 3 days per week for the next 3 weeks & its free. Last night was our first workout. Our leader is Ginger and besides me there were about 8 people for the first night.

Ginger had 10, 20 & 30 pound sand bags for us to carry, one person per turn; we would choose one & haul it up a steep hill to the top where she had set a bunch of flags. We would return and read the flags which were each labeled with different exercises to do. If we had carried the 10 lb weight we had to do the exercise for 2.5 minutes, 20 lbs=2 minutes & 30 lbs=1.5 minutes. While the person was going up the hill everyone else had to be doing something cardio: jumping jacks, running in place, etc.

I ran up the hill first with the 20 lb bag and my flag had some kind of lunge on it. They were hard. A lot of them I didn't know but Ginger taught us and she kept time. She wasn't an in your face leader but she did yell at us to keep going.

It was a fun workout, we all broke a sweat and were breathing hard. Tomorrow evening is our next class and I just can't wait. It's going to be hard but a good hard.

I told Ginger about my injury and she gave me some tips on good stretches to do to help it, one I already to often but the other was new to me. Sitting Indian style and leaning over to stretch my side and hip.

I'll be putting a lot more effort into tomorrows class because I want this to work for me and help me lose a little weight.

On Saturday Lan & I are supposed to go ride bikes at Black Diamond in preparation for Lans last Sunday race. He was invited to go ride there with the guy who is taking the 2nd place award, Pat Ellis. nice guy, ends up hes a Police Chaplain. Cool. Super nice guy and FAST on the bike.

Its been 2 weeks since I posted

How is training going? I'm getting a do-over.

That's right, I'm taking a do over for my half marathon training. I'm still going to complete the Tacoma City Half marathon but only because it's already paid for. Otherwise I would postpone it.

My hip flexor is not right and I'm not going to ignore the pain. Today I ran a very easy 30 minutes & got in 2.25 miles. No strain, just a little discomfort in the hip. But its still there.  Tomorrow I'll see a physical therapist and ask her what I should do.

I'm already taking 2 core classes at the YMCA each week and I'll be doing 3 days per week for 3 weeks a Boot Camp so that should help me a lot to strengthen my core.

This mornings run was in nice sunny weather, totally enjoyable.

This morning I took my horses Joey & Sunshower out to Banner Forest and Sarah joined us for a ride.

The horses went almost 4 miles at a walk and both were DONE at the end of it. I will be sure to lunge them both tomorrow because last week when I walked the same 4 miles I had sore/crampy calfs the next day. All I will have sore on me from today's ride is my sit bones, aka SADDLE SORE.

Sarah rode Joey for the first half of the ride then we switched horses. I like riding both of them a lot and he is such a nice trail horse.

This is a view I will never get tired of looking at.