Riding with new people

Today I rode bikes with a lady I'd never met before even though shes been a TriBabe for as long as I have. Her name is Janet.
Last year she did the STP in 2 days, it was hard for her but she did it. Yay for her.
Today we met at Starbucks and rode around the neighborhoods there. There was a lot of traffic and I wasn't so happy with that but what the heck, I got out into the sunshine.
But I'll try to avoid riding with new people for a long time. First of all, she parked in the small parking area of a busy coffee shop even though she could have parked 100 feet away in a much larger area and not taken a spot that could have been used by 5 people in the time we were there. Also, she could have ridden her bike there, like I did. We're practically neighbors.
Second of all, she didn't want to leave the neighborhoods. There were so many cars zooming by and people all over the place. She might be safe but I feel safer out in the rural areas.
Third, she was SLOW. I don't know how she could possibly have finished STP in only 2 days, she didn't get over 10mph today. I was going so slow and just pulled away from her, had to go back.
I'm a bike snob.

I need to get my numbers up there

2 weeks ago I worked hard for 124 miles of working out, last week I had 88 miles, this week 100. I am hoping for many more this next week.
We're supposed to have 3 days of damn nice weather and I plan on taking advantage of it.
Swim Monday morning, easy ride in the afternoon
Tuesday 70-ish miles on the bike and supposed to run for 45 minutes afterward. That's gonna be hard but no ones going to do it for me.
Wednesday swim and bike. its supposed to be in the low 70's so I'm definitely going to get outside and ride!  I usually meet Heidi for a 2pm swim but not if I'm riding. :) sorry Heidi.
Thursday swim & run
Friday day off, which is a good thing since I'll be working all day & again at midnight. UGH!
Saturday early in the morning we're leaving for our vacation, going through CDA so hoping to meet up with Connie and ride the IM CDA bike course. I can follow that up with a run.
Sunday longer run followed with short bike. I don't know if this will happen, we'll be driving most of the day.
Ending up in Las Vegas!! Can't wait to get there.  Below is the weather forecast for Vegas...

And here are my weekly totals:

4.15.13 thru 4.21.13 Weekly Totals: 
Swim: 2000 yards (1.14miles)
Bike: 86.08 miles
Run: 13.1 miles
Total Miles: 100.00
Total Time: 10:20
2 months and 2 days until Ironman Coeur d'Alene

 

Full Barn

Here is a picture I took 2 days ago, Hannah on Sneakers, Ashton on Joey & Katie on Mark. Three girls on 3 big red TB's. Awesome.

 

Ashton is a friend of Hannah's and she is thinking about leasing Joey for the summer. She rides OK but seems a little timid but she did get him to canter the other day and wasn't scared to do it.

Hes totally taking advantage of her so far but as she gets to know him, her confidence will grow and she will make him behave.

Hannah & Sneakers and Katie & Mark are new to the barn. Actually, Mark isn't new but Katie is doing a 30 day try out with him to see if she might be interested in buying him.

He is a totally different horse now than he was 4 months ago. When he was here he had no energy, he was nice and docile and just a sweet horse. Now hes got energy to burn, he looks fabulous and hes sort of a jerk. LOL.  I like this one better.

Mark is coming back!

Remember Markster?

Hes coming back to my barn.

Not for me, but for a girl named Katie.

She found him by herself and was talking about him to Cassie & Cassie figured it out.

He was such a nice horse to have here, its going to be nice to have him back WITH HIS OWN GIRL.

These photos were taken in November, between the 14th & the 28th, with Kate at Windstone. Not the same Katie that's trying him out for the next month.  What a small world. I hope Katie likes him & ends up buying him, that would be so good for him. He needs his own girl.

teensy bit cow hocked??

I can't wait to see him again.

At least hes not being moved to a strange barn. He was in Arizona last summer in race training. Then in Enumclaw for a month, then at Terrys (my FIL) for a month or so, then at my barn for 3 months, then Kates barn for 2 months then back out at Enumclaw. Poor boy, being passed around like that.

I just hope Katie likes him enough to buy him and keep him forever, whether or not he remains at my barn.

I ran today

My Achilles tendon has been acting up so I took it very easy for the last couple weeks. Last weekend we went hiking and its been fine since then so today I gave running a shot and it was fine. I'm a happy camper.

It was raining and cold so I was glad to not be going far.

Plus, I have a new toy. Its a GymBoss, a beeper that I can set to beep at intervals. Its already set at 3 minutes then 1 minute so I walked for 3 minutes & jogged for the 1 minute. It worked great. I'll use it again at this setting & then change it to 2 & 2, eventually 1/3. Heidi, who gave it to me, said to try the 40/20 seconds, she did 14 miles last week like that and felt great afterward.

The GYMBOSS is a small, easy to use, repeating interval timer. This multi-use timer has many versatile functions that make it beneficial to virtually any type of exercise program.

1 or 2 intervals - 2 seconds to 99 minutes

Repeat up to 99 times

Beep and/or Vibrate alarm

Alarm duration 1, 5, or 10 seconds

Stopwatch function

Secure Belt clip

Compact Size (1 ¾ x 2 ¼ x ½ inches)

Water and shock resistant

AAA battery required

This is one of the coolest toys I've ever been given.


Horse news:
OMG, Mark is coming back to my barn! Katie is going to lease him. She had planned on bringing her arabian mare in 2 weeks ago but the mare colicked & was put down. Shes been trying out new horses & somehow found Mark out at the Back Forte barn in Enumclaw. I told her to be sure to bring his blanket home with him.

swimming today

The sunshine was coming through the windows into the pool today, making the bubbles very pretty. They were this awesome neon blue.

So I lifted my head a bit and even though that's wrong, I swam a few laps just watching the bubbles because it was interesting and fun. It definitely made the laps go faster. Maybe not swimming faster but the time seemed to go faster.

I haven't been running due to weirdness in my Achilles Tendons but after the hike Lan & I had yesterday I'm feeling pretty good again. We went up Mt Rose, a 2250 ft elevation gain in 1.8 miles. The first mile isn't so bad but the last .8 was straight up. Wicked up. It took us 1.5 hours to get up and another 1.5 to come down & today my legs are reminding me about it. If I were to stand up and walk right now it would hurt.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

In horses news:
The new horse, Sneakers, is a typical TB. He kicks the walls when he gets his grain so I had to have a talk with him about that. More   like, I yelled at him, surprised the crap outta him. I'm OK with that.

Cassie tried her saddle on Handy and we discovered something weird: the saddle is crooked. Tight on the left side of the horses, loose on the right. Weird. I told her she needs to sell it to someone she doesn't know.

We're having a BIG ASS BARN SALE on April 20th and I hope she can sell it then. I have 2-3 saddles to sell & a bunch of other stuff, Page has a saddle to sell... Every time I look in a cupboard in the house I'm seeing things that need to go. Anything I take down to the BIG ASS BARN SALE is not coming back into the house.

There is a new horse coming into the barn next weekend, a 6 yr old TB gelding. Katie was supposed to bring her mare last week with Sneakers but she colicked & was put down. As Amy said, thank god she didn't die at my place.

I only missed a couple

workout this last week, one was a hard bike ride but I did an easy 10 miler instead. The others were 1 swim & a couple runs but I'm trying to stretch my leg muscles before I hurt them. Achilles feels better but still scared of overdoing it.

Tonight I have a 2:15 bike ride planned and I better get started if I'm going to finish it today.

Riding outside so much

These last 2 weeks it's been pretty darn nice outside so I've been riding out there and LOVING it.

On Monday I had my 2nd annual Practice Half Ironman and I did pretty dang good. Swam 1.2 miles at Bremerton pool in 58:59, right where I wanted to be and then I rode my bike 56 miles in 4:05:52.
This is planned not for speed necessarily but to guage how I'll feel mostly and I planned a 90 minute T1, enough time to get changed and drive home.

Bike split times were excellent:   ( the seconds were for slowing down & getting stopped)
28 miles, half way:  2:00:14

42 miles, 3/4 the distance:  3:00:15

56 miles, completed: 4:05:52

I was really hoping I'd get this done in 4 hours and I did it. I wasn't home at the end, I still had to go another 1.5 miles to get there but I didn't come up short, either.

My mental toughness has something to be desired. At the 3/4 mark I called Lan to let him know where I was and my timing & he said he might ride out to meet me. So right about mile 48, out on Sunnyslope road, I was so tired, I knew if he was coming it should be any time now and I was feeling a bit low. I almost started crying. But its hard to ride when you're crying and I knew I only had a short way to go. But I really needed to see him, you kow, that moral support.

So I kept going and right around the very next corner, there he was. I was so glad to see him! Then I did cry!  And I was bonking, just needed a boost. So he rode with me for the rest of the ride, he listened to me cry once more and he was there when I finished. And even with the bawling I felt good to be done.

Yesterday I rode with Windy on hill repeats for 1:30 and that was another good ride. Shes only training for a half IM but shes going at it harder than I am. She can't run either so we're in the same boat.

I'm not able to run right now, my Achilles tendons are sore and I'm scared of hurting them but I am swimming and biking.

I have a long way to go before IM CDA but once again, I'm getting there.  Training comes 1st.

When I know I've got to work I plan around it, if I'm not sure about work I'll plan workouts 1st thing in the morning. Usually after 12:00 I know if they are going to need me or not but hopefully by then I'm done with my ride or swim or whatever I'm doing.

Today is cross training, cleaning stalls at the big barn with Amy.

Horse news:

New horse in the barn, Sneakers. 16.2hh TB gelding, 3 white socks and a blaze, very striking. Until you see him up close; hes got a Roman nose and the shape of his head isn't that desirable. But maybe I'm just used to Joey.

Wifi is white again, so pretty.

 Shes also shedding it pretty fast and with the warmer days (60's) she gets sweaty fast. And shes a stinker, I really need to work with her.

Other news:
WE'RE GOING TO LAS VEGAS!!!  Late April, early May. Might have time to stop in & see Jeff & Hitomi.