Bike, Run, Swim, in that order

Yesterday I helped other people do things in the morning, then in the early afternoon I went to a movie with a friend. Since I had missed my morning workout Lan & I figured we could go to Silverdale Y to do it.

Silverdale YMCA pool

Wrong!

That place was packed & Lan couldn't get in the pool unless he wanted to share a lane with 3 other people. He hadn't brought any other workout clothes so we were going to go to Gig Harbor but on the road figured a half hour swim wasn't really worth it.

Gig Harbor YMCA pool

So today I did yesterdays workout in the morning and an hour ago I finished today's swim.
I'm beat now.

While at the pool today I saw Lindy, shes a tribabe and she used to do Torreys class all the time too. Lindy travels all over the world and I hadn't seen her in a couple months so it was nice to get a chat in.

Bremerton YMCA pool

We sometimes go to Bremerton Y for their Masters (now 'Coached Swim) classes but the pool is closed this week. I dislike going because they usually shove me into the slow lane (because I'm slow) with 6 other slow people & it never fails, there will be one lady who doesn't want to improve, she just wants to swim with other people. She can't aim so there have been plenty of accidents. She also kicks like a frog & I've been kicked several times.
Besides her, there are so many people in the class that there is never any individual instruction. I can get a better workout on my own.

I'm just bitching.

I'm tired, need a nap and am kinda grouchy.

Horse news:
Wifi is still at Amy's, Glory is still here and in training with Kate.

Here is a picture of Sunshower when she cut her leg & I found out she was pregnant. All the vet did was slice off the torn hide and its still bald in that spot, 5.5 years later.

Sponsors

Today I was offered a **MAYBE** sponsorship. Yes, me.

I had been chatting with a friend who uses a diving mask for swimming, to plug her nose. I use a nose plug, hate the dang thing but I can't swim without one.

While in Hawaii, whenever I snorkel, I use a dive mask and its fine. So she is offering to help me get a free dive mask, an $80 value, for free and I will in turn sport their sticker. Or, as she calls it, being sponsored.

This is too funny on so many levels!

• I am a slow swimmer
• I hate swimming
• I am not fast on the bike
• I can barely run

But if they want to give me a free dive mask & have me use their sticker, I'm all for it. Heck, I'd temporarily wear a tattoo on my forehead if it helped my swim.

Next Monday I'll be joining them for lunch to talk about this.

Linda NEVER got offered any sponsorships. NEVER.

Losing Weight

I've been working out pretty hard for 4 weeks and its beginning to show. Yesterday I was able to get into a smaller pair of pants, YAYAYAYAYA! These are pants I got last year when all my others were just too baggy and honestly, I didn't realize I needed smaller pants because I didn't know I was getting skinny last year. But this year I remembered the feeling so tried them on again.

Feels so good.

What I weighed this morning

Two weeks ago Lan & I signed up for the 'Shed Challenge' at Silverdale YMCA, a 6 week project for teams to workout together and lose weight. After 2 weeks Lan lost 4 lbs (217) and I lost 2 (149.8) but we were wearing heavier clothing today than we were when we originally weighed in so I'll add 1 for me & 2 for him because his pants and belt are heavier. Good job, us.
The teams of 4 people who lose the most weight will win the cash pot but I have no idea how much that will be. I think we're doing OK to have lost 6 between us.
There are 2 Y gals on our team also but one is the leader of the program & shes already skinny so she wont lose any weight. The other gal says she'd like to lose 15 lbs but shes nicely rounded now. Maybe I should tell her that??

I've been working out pretty hard most days and filling out the book Les gave me for my birthday. Thursday was hard for me, I had worked until midnight before that & then worked midnight til 9am Friday so I was messed up. I didn't run the half marathon I had planned on running, I slept right through the alarm.

Linda was mad at me for 23 days. 23 days! And when she did decide its ok to talk to me again it was to bitch about Barbara (not the one above). I miss spending time with her, I miss chatting about everything but I'm not going to let that happen again. Fuck that.

I usually only say that about my family but it now applies to Linda too. It was Windy who brought it to my attention and I'm glad she did. I know Windy has many other friends but shes pretty damn smart when this shit happens. So I'm betting it has happened to her, too.

Horsey things:

Sarah came over to day so her, Cassie, Page & I gossiped and chatted for 2 hours. It was so good to have some girl time that wasn't triathlon talk. But I miss that too.

Sarah filled me in on Barbara, who wants to board a horse here. If its Barbs big mare, Diva, then I don't want it here, shes too big, eat too much and do too much damage to the runs. But if its her smaller mare then she would be fine here. But I doubt the owner would come out to see her horse and they need their owners to pay attention to them. I hate when horses sit in their runs & no one does anything with them. LIKE MINE.

I am seriously thinking about selling Wifi so someone will do something with her but I'm terrified that she would some day end up at an auction or starved and it scares the hell out of me. Shes got some basic training and I'd take her on trails with Joey and Sunshower but I'd like to see if she wants to be a jumper. She can jump and she is beautiful.

When you can't work out

Today I needed to swim and run, figured I'd get the run done at the indoor track at the Y & then swim. Got myself all dressed and ready to go, bag packed, etc and the phone rings.

Its my boss, he needs me to come in to work. On my day off.

I could have said no but it was auto ticket sales, it pays a bit more than traffic attendant. So off with the workout clothes, on with the work uniform.

I worked 1-6pm and after I got off I headed directly to the Bremerton YMCA.

But walking in the door I heard them say the pool is closed. Hhhhmmm... Um, that's why I was there. So I left, called Lan & we decided to go to the Gig Harbor Y but then I thought I'd rather go pay for the 2 boxes of Jelly Belly Energy Beans I'd ordered so suddenly today became my day off and tomorrow I'll do my today workout.

45 minutes of swimming & a half hour run.

Tomorrow afternoon Lan & I will go have dinner with Les out in Shelton or where ever the hell he lives. I want to take some lasagna or something. Anyway, while we're out there we'll got for a bike ride if its not too stinking cold.

See my picture? Thats me riding my indoor bike trainer with my helmet on. So I can build my neck muscles & not get a sore neck when I can go outside to ride.

Carry on.

Riding in the snow

I hate that this site wont let me post pictures!

Yesterday we signed up for the YMCA weight loss challenge at Silverdale Y. You're supposed to have 4 people on your team but the 2 people who I had first started out with had a 3rd person & then we lost Alyssa, then we lost 2 other ladies... I think we're on a team of just ourselves. I want to lose weight no matter what so I'm going to try, no matter what, and Lan needs to eat healthier because hes got hereditary high cholesterol. I don't want him to die!

After the Y we decided to take the mtn bikes out for a ride in the snow. Actually we were going to go to Banner Forest but I wanted something more difficult, something that would make me work harder, so it was me who said Wildcat Lake Trail. On the way home from the Y, I texted Les and asked him if he wanted to go too and even though hes not a mtn biker so much, hes got a mtn bike and he decided it might be fun.

We met at the trailhead at 12:30 and started out, and it was pretty fun. The temps in the parking lot were about 34* and I was scared I'd freeze but starting out uphill warmed me perfectly so I was pleasantly heated up.

The only problem I had was that Les was in front of me & he had to keep stopping and I had to stop for him. There were a few spots where I could have kept going. I felt bad for him but then realized that I used to be in his shoes on the mtn bike and that while we're out on the road bikes its me slowing him down. So I had plenty of patience and tried to encourage him.

It was funny, though, to come around a corner and find him spread eagle on his back in a bush alongside the trail.

From the trailhead to the top of Green Mountain on Wildcat Lake Trail its about 1000 feet of elevation gain. We were only able to go about 4 miles up & had to turn back because the snow was getting a little deep and then we came to a place with trees down across the road and it wasn't cleared on the other side. it wold have been too hard to ride thru the hard crunchy snow so we had to turn back.

Coming down was a lot of fun. We had all brought extra clothing to wear down & after bundling up we headed down. I wasn't too cold, it was about 30* up there, but its hard work on the core & legs to come downhill. I did great, no crashes, no getting off to make it over rough areas. I was rather proud of myself.

My official Ironman training plan had called for 90 minutes of riding, we rode for 2 hours. I was going to call that good but last night I got on my bike trainer and did the entire 90 minutes too, timed perfectly. I went to bed and slept for 15 hours.

Today I have an easier workout so I'll get to that in a few minutes, just 50 minutes of running and 35 on the bike. Easy peasy.

My favorite 2012 photo

This is Julie, one of the lovely ladies in our triathlon club. She did 15 big events in 2012 and this is her right after finishing Ironman Florida.

This photo tells it all...



Shes happy to have finished, shes sweaty & tired from the effort, shes fit, shes got loving supporters.

Someday I want a photo of me thats just like this one.

My First Duathlon

Today I participated in my first duathlon, the JFROG (the J is silent). It was very low key, just 11 people from the triathlon group who showed up to do it but 1 guys bike broke so there were 10 finishers.

2 mile run through trails, 6 miles on the mtn bike & 1 mile on trails again.

I ran with Lisa and Lan for the first run, finished in 22 minutes.  Changed into biking stuff, was last one out of T1. 22 minutes.

I got lost on the trails 3 times in the first section, they were poorly marked, everyone said it & many went the wrong ways. I was getting discouraged that I was so slow. I was about 5 miles on the bike when I came upon Lisa pushing her bike. Its an old bike and the derailleur pulley was broken. She pushed/ran for a while, then Lan took her my bike to finish up. 49 minutes.

We both ran together to finish up, deliberately cutting the last mile short. Well, she was leading, I was following but it was nice to be done. 11 minutes.

Afterward we all enjoyed hot cocoa and spiced cider, then we all participated in a WHITE ELEPHANT gift exchange. Lan & I had brought a light blue Alaskan Amber sweatshirt and a DVD of War of the Worlds. The first place guy got to pick first, I was #9. The gifts we bought were taken right away (yay!) and I brought home 2 books, something about rock climbing & Jurassic Park. Lan chose a small trophy and we WILL be putting in on display and he WILL say he got it in his first Duathlon!

This is the post the organiser had on FaceBook:
Congratulations to Dane Ballou who came down from altitude for todays muddy duathlon. Getting separation on the initial run leg he poured it on during the bike and cruised off the trails in the final run. Also, a great job by Lisa B, Denise, Lan (da Hammer), Egan, Ed, Keith, Riley, Joe and the Amazing Frog, Greg Pelton...aka crash. Thanks to the support crews who kept the hot water hot and the spirits high. It was fun, challenging, muddy and fast.   Get outside and play people!

Beautiful weather outside & I'm stuck indoors

The sunshine is gorgeous but its stinking cold out there, only 29 right now. I hope the gym is warm inside this evening because I have a swim workout planned.

Yesterday I rode the bike trainer for 60 minutes at 80-90 RPM's for a total of about 10.5 miles. I like my new bike computer with the cadence feature. In the past its been too easy to slack off & slow down, not even knowing it but now I can easily see that I need to get my legs moving faster.

I'm working on endurance for the next few weeks, at least on the trainer. I'll still ride my mtn bike outside and take some spin classes and if it works out I might get in an actual outdoors bike ride.