Triathlon has given me many things

I'm going into my 5th year of triathlon, before that I didn't even know what one was.  But since then I've gained so much, mostly due to triathlon.

new friends
memories
toys
time with Lan doing what he loves
learned to swim
learned about my body
sporting magazines

I could go on and on. But the most important thing is that I have met so many wonderful people. The Kitsap TriBabes are great & it feels good to ride with them, they think I'm something special but I just like to see them try hard.

West Sound Tri Club has a lot of members that I can call friends. They are also the ones who have taught me the most about swimming and lead the Masters swimming at Bremerton YMCA and Triday Friday. There are a lot of them that do a lot of Ironmans.

I have a couple new friends this year that I'm really liking, Windy, that drove me crazy for a long time, until I got to know her. And Heidi, who thinks I can do no wrong. I like both of them a lot.

I can now read a magazine and know so much about the sport, then I go thru the same magazine & check out all the ads for things I'd love to have.

Priorities

Yesterday I had a ton of shit to do and a ton more shit I wanted to do. I needed hay, we had a weigh-in, I needed groceries, workout, visiting friends, delivering compost. Here is how my day ended up:

Lan loaded up the truck with the compost & we drove it to Olalla, shoveled it out.
Went to Cenex & got grain.
Stopped at the post office for the first time in 2 weeks.
Got hay at his parents house.
Came home, traded cars, changed clothes and went to Silverdale YMCA for our final weigh-in for the weight loss challenge. Lan is down 12 lbs & I'm down 4* in 6 weeks!!
Stopped at Winco & got a cart of groceries that were badly needed.
Got home & I got on my bike trainer for a hard ride.
Went to work at Midnight.

And Lan got to go visit friends at their new property warming party out at Wildcat Lake. I had to stay home to ride, just had to. I was about 2/3 finished with it when Lan left and I told him to tell them they weren't my #1 priority. They understand, they were both Ironman CDA finishers last year.

I was supposed to run too, even got changed and was out on the road but heard horses kicking and squealing so went down to the barn instead. No one hurt but I spent too much time & it got dark.

Anyway... after that I watched some tv, read a bit of my book & then left for work at 11:20pm to work night watch midnight till 4am.

That shift sucks.

 *I haven't lost a lot of weight but I have lost inches in my waist.
<- 17="" 22nd.="" and="" difference.="" february="" huge="" january="" lower="" p="" photo="" taken="" the="" this="" was="">Look, the muffin top is going away. My hips aren't bulging. I have a waist.

I'm pretty proud of myself and it's only going to get better.



So today we went to Lowes and bought enough supplies to make 3 sets of jump standards to sell, I paid $101.38 for the stuff. Lan was helping but he wasn't too happy until I told him the money was going to purchase his birthday present.

His friend Les is selling 2 older bike frames for $200 and Lans bday is coming. Lans whole attitude was changed after I told him that surprise. He was more patient and talkative, more willing to go get a tool or drill out the pin holes.  I can't wait until we sell these and can go get the bikes.

 

I'm switching days off

With my job I have Wednesdays & Thursdays off but with my training plan I have Fridays off. For the last few weeks I've been called in for late night shifts, messing up my Fridays or I just haven't had the energy to workout of Thursday. So I've made a decision to switch my days off.

I'll now have Thursdays off & even if work calls me for work on those days I can say no, meaning I'll have plenty of rest for a good workout Friday. And If I know I'm going to work Friday ahead of time then I can always switch back.

I feel better already.

Today I did nothing all because a few weeks ago I looked at the calendar & said 'I need a DAY OFF' where I do nothing all day.

So I sat around and read a good book with my cat on my belly (because I was really laying on the couch). I drank some tea and ate a few Girl Scout cookies.

At 4:30 I did a load of laundry, washed dishes and started dinner.

Now I'm going to do some more nothing for a while.

Park 360, again

Today Amy, Kate & I took our horses for a ride at Park 360.

Kate rode Lolli, a Bashkur Curly mare.
Kate owns the new farm down the road, Windstone and she teaches Dressage. I've recently started working with/for her and shes in turn will help me with Wifi. Great deal!

Kate was also a bit buzzed from drinking with her mom & grandma.

I love this photo of me on Sunshower, its really a nice one.

We rode for about an hour & then had to head home so Kate could conduct business. I've got the trailer at home again so there should be many more rides in the near future.

I wish we had thought to take a few pictures of Amy on Glory. Next time for sure.

Found a new local park

Wauna is the home of a new park, named Park 360. Its right across the road from a house we used to live in and we spent a lot of time out in these woods with our dog, Picabu Street.

Picabu Street

So the park is the same size as Banner Forest but its only got a fraction of the trails, many are brand new, many still being built.

 nice dirt so Horses wont need shoes out here


This trail is under construction

 There is a main service road in a circle & trails mostly criss cross that circle and a few are on the outside. There are also a few dead ends that were a bugger to get back out of.

This was a dead end, pretty steep getting out of it. but I got myself started and rode out.

We figure we rode about 5 miles in the hour we were there. The trails are dirt with only a little rock. Of all the places where I have ridden bikes, this is the place most like sidewalks.

I love riding with Lan, he makes me work and he knows how much I can do & makes me do a bit more.

This is the HORSE ACCESS way from the parking area to the trails.

 and an up close photo. Horses can walk over it but cars, trucks, jeeps & motorcycles shouldn't be able to get over them. Yet. They will find a way.

I want to take Sunshower out there tomorrow if its not totally raining.

This park is now part of the BuDu Racing spring mtn bike race series, they will race here March 10th. Its going to be a fast race since there are no technical areas.

This would be a great place to take Wifi to learn about trails.

Comparisons

I had another hard week with work and working out. They had me work midnight to 4am Thursday morning so I was exhausted and didn't do an important workout, a running one. It makes me mad & there is no way to make it up by the time I've had enough rest. So far I'm not on the schedule for next week but that can change at any time.

Last week my workouts were:                   and this week:

Swimming    3700                                      3700

Bike              48.25 miles                           52 miles

Run               6 miles                                   6.1 miles

total distance 55 miles                                 60 miles

total time      10 hours                                  7:40 hours

Now how the heck did that happen? That is a HUGE improvement. I'm certainly not running faster or farther, my swimming is faster but not enough to take that much time off. So its got to be on the bike.

One change we made on it is that Lan put the tension on the bike trainer lower, he said I had it way too tight. So I can spin at 15.2 MPH instead of struggling to get 14 MPH. But that's not a huge difference either. Maybe its just the way they have me training now as opposed to a few weeks ago.

I was reading in a 2 year old Triathlon magazine that one of the best ways to get faster on your run is to race. So I'm going to try to find a local race that I can do, 5-10k. Just so my body remembers how to go faster than a slow jog.

Horse news:


I started working at Kate's barn, for now its just cleaning stalls & doing water buckets but I'll learn how to do everything eventually. I guess I need to figure out who each horse is so if I have to bring them out of pastures into stalls I know which one goes where.

Anyway for payment for me working there Kate is going to help me with Wifi. I have NO IDEA what Wifi will enjoy doing in her lifetime and I don't want to make her be a jumper if she wants to be a barrel horse.

WHo knows, Wifi might end up loving Dressage and Kate is a good trainer.

Wifi is at Amy's farm now whole Glory is here. These photos were taken yesterday and my mare looks GREAT.  She will be shedding this month and will soon be white with black points.

Shes going to be 5 years old soon.

Swimming makes me hungry

I had to swim today, plan called for up to 44 laps, I did 34. Which was fine, I had choices.

I chose the shorter swim because:

• A fast lady got in my lane, I felt clumsy and awkward
• Another woman & her son were waiting for a lane
• I was hungry

I ate lunch right before I left but I guess swimming doesn't care, if it wants you to be starved then you will be.

Stopped at Albertsons for a Recovery bar but they didn't have any, I had to settle for a different bar and it wasn't as good.

Horsey news:
Kate at Windstone wants me to come out Sunday to start working for her. That will be great except I wanted to go to the mtn bike races at Dash Point that day. sigh.

Cat Planks

Dave helping me with my backward plank. At this point I was at 3 minutes, my butt was sagging and I was about to die. I had aimed for a 2 minute plank.

My Training Booklet

For my birthday I was given a training book to keep track of my training.

I've been doing pretty good but this week I've worked some crazy shifts at work and training got to be too much so I didn't write it all down, I just went to bed. I now have 5 days to keep track of. DOH!

But someday I plan on giving it to a grand child to keep or at least take to school for their show & tell. Because their granny is going to be an Ironman and bragging rights are hereditary.

Every day I check out my plan, I print it out so its nice and large, easy to read while I'm in action. I take the swim papers to the pool, set them on a kickboard so it stays out of the water and away I go. On the bike I set it on a table, right at hand. Anyway, I've been keeping those papers too. They actually have all the miles/heart rates/speeds that I am trying to keep track of.

I guess those papers can go to a second grandchild...

I've had to work to 4am-2pm ten hour shifts in a row, I've been beat. Today instead of going swimming after work I went home to bed thinking I'd go to Gig Harbor Y tonight but that pool is closed until Friday. NO WORKOUT FOR ME TODAY. Shit.

Part of this no workout crap is that I've been trying to encourage Lan to workout more so I'm offering to wait for him so he can join me. He's way less likely to do anything if I'm not doing it too. But hes so fucking slow, it took him an hour to cook dinner tonight & I couldn't ride the bike after getting home from the failed swim because I was still full. I CAN swim on a full belly but not bike not run. Its so frustrating when he makes me late. I'm going to have to leave without him, just once.

Horse news:
Nothing. I'm too tired to do anything in the barn, I miss my horses and wish this could hurry up and be over.

Outside ride today, Bbbrrrrr

Today Lan & I joined a group of other WSTC riders out on Bainbridge Island & we rode the Chilly Hilly bike route. Normally its about 31 miles but I cut some of it out & ended up going 26.35 miles. I was slowest.  In my defense, ALL of them finished half or full Ironmen in the last 3-4 months and I have barely ridden at all between June & December.

Last year I was pretty good on the hills, I could outride a few of my friends. I have been riding my bike trainer but its all heart rate, cadence, 1 leg drills, etc. Not any 'hills' at all.

Here is the elevation of my ride today.

I cut off the biggest hill and a loop following it but I did ride out and meet them at one point. It was pretty.

Pretty effing COLD.

On the way to B.I. this morning I had my bike covers on a paper bag with a bottle of water. Stupid mistake. They were soaked so my feed ended up getting frigidly cold. The rest of my was fine, cold wise.

My legs were killing me, 3 hours later and my hips are aching.

I rode for 2:11:12, my average speed was 12mph and max speed was 41.4. I was on my Felt TriBike.