Biking Banner Hill

I knew a week ago that I would be riding Banner Hill today.

 

I have been wanting to attempt this hill for 3 years. I have driven up and down it many times and ridden down it a few times but never gone up it.

Until today.

 

Linda was supposed to go with me but at 8am it was misty/rain & I cancelled,

our planned start time had been 10am.

 

But at 1pm the weather was PERFECT so I went for it.

 

This is the whole planned ride but I cut it short due to time restraints

 

I took this photo 1 mile before the beginning of the UPHILL.

This is at the top of a 1 mile downhill, its a good 35MPH hill. I will ride farther than I have to so that I can ride down this hill.

 

Here is the ride with color coded hill up & down grades.

 

And here is the 1 mile hill I was so anxious about. I had thought the very first part would be the hardest but I was fresh off that downhill so was rested.

 

Here is a play by play:

 

2:23 Start up Banner hill.

2:24 Laugh, tell self this isn't so hard. HA! What have I been so afraid of??
2:26 OK, maybe its a bit harder here.
2:26:10 What a beautiful view, I should do this ride every week.
2:27 OH MY GOD. This hill is KILLING me but I continue up, half way to the top now.
2:28 Don't you DARE honk at me, I have a right to this road.
2:28:15 Flip off offending little blue SUV.
2:28:25 Wish they would come back so I can kick their ass.
2:28:26 Realize if they come back I would have to stop riding to kick their ass.
2:28:27 Realize that I'm too tired to kick their ass right this minute and I'd lose.
2:28:28 Laugh.
2:28:29 Die laughing. I mean, I'm dying here, I can barely breath let alone laugh.
2:29 Pass a side street.
2:29:05 Turn around, go back to side street, ride 3 circles to recover & breath but do not stop moving.
2:30 Continue up the hill on second wind.
2:31 See the last corner before the top.
2:32 What, another corner? WTH? UH!
2:33 There it is, this is the last corner, I have beaten Banner Hill!
2:34 Stop at top of hill for sweaty red faced I MADE THAT HILL SUFFER MORE THAN I DID selfie.

That dark purple shit was on a freaking sharp corner so I was lucky no cars were coming because I took the road.

 

That's Colvos Passage, I was just down there 11 minutes before I took this photo.

 

15.88 miles in 1:15:47

R/T 1:21:35

average speed 12.6

high speed 39.7

 

 

IronGirl Seattle

This was a very good year

953 Finishers
100 in my Age Group

 

Shit just got real

Don't FUCK with my bike.
Some bitch MOVED it.

Correcting the arm race number

HI!

Im right above the green cap, she stayed near me the whole race & kicked the whole time.
Swim 1/3 mile 13:20
237/23

 

Getting that wetsuit OFF
T1 5:53
74/11
 

Off the bike
11 miles
40:21
119/15

T2 was :58
11/2

Run 3 miles
32:10
402/32

Total time:  1:29:42

14 in Age Group
161 Overall finisher

Best of all, I beat Linda. By less than 1 second.

2014 Kitsap TriBabes
I wasn't in this photo

last minute decision

I made a last minute decision to race the Wild Hare triathlon, put on by our tri club. I had to pay way more than the initial sign up fee but it was so much fun that it was worth it.

There were about 68 people signed up, I had bib #163.

 

Swim warm up

There's me, in the orange cap.

 

Swim start.

My swim time for the half mile: 21 minutes

 

T1 time: 3 minutes

 

Bike time, 15.8 miles: 1:02

 

Here is Lan, who took 3rd overall.

 

T2 time: 1

 

Run 3.4 miles time: 42:45

 

Finish time: 2:09:45

 

I placed 38 out of 53 competitors, there were several relay teams.

 

There is one time clock and our times were hand written by volunteers. I'm sure my T2 was much closer to 2 minutes and felt like 5.

 

And here I am after the race, freshly sponge bathed off and ready to go to work.

 

It was a hot day, I had on sunscreen but I still got burnt, my ankles have a very definite sock line.

You think you're getting ahead

I thought I was doing so well on my swim but today I checked and I'm still the same slow ass speed I always have been.
Fuck.

Getting There

Slowly but surely, I am relearning to swim. Today I swam .65 mile and worked on my rotation, pointed toes and elbow high. It works well if I concentrate. As soon as I get tired it starts to fall apart.

I have tried using my upper hip to rotate me & it doesn't work, using my bottom hip is better but also doesn't work but I kept at it today. What works best is rotating my shoulder down and body turns.

I'll be swimming again tomorrow morning and will test it some more then.

They Just Don't Get It

I'm sick & tired of making plans to, say, ride bikes, and everyone else has to change them.

Last night I told Linda that I wanted to ride Sydney Rd from the lake & back, its totally flat & fast, I wanted to get in some good speed followed up with a lake swim at Horseshoe Lake.

Shes like OK, lets do it.

But this morning she decided we'll just ride from here, not the lake and no swimming.

FUCK.

I have NO PLACE around here when I can get in the flat/fast shit I want to do. I have hills everywhere. I have to leave going downhill and I have to come home uphill, no matter what direction we go or come from. Pisses me off.

So this mornings ride was 12.7 miles of hills, again. I wasn't fast at all, 1:02 total.

 

But I picked up my mail during the ride and got disappointing news, Wifi's DNA sample didn't work, it was untestable. So I'll have to pull more hairs, pay another $25 and mail it in again.

Crap.

 

I need a nap but Lan is going to want to go swimming when he gets home in a few minutes.

Ironman Boulder 140.6

Tomorrow I have several FaceBook 'Friends' who are competing in Ironman Boulder. I will follow then as much as I am able and can't wait to see them cross the FINISH line.
Last week I watched Tim cross the line at Canada, that was pretty fun. He was the Aussie with the flag that ran around in the chute like a mad man.

Swimming

Last Tuesday I had such a crappy swim that I quit after 1 lap in the lake, aprox 1/4 mile. My goggles were leaking, wetsuit was tight & bunching up, just not getting in to it. So I got out, got dressed and got away from the lake.
For the next couple hours I was feeling blah and even cried on my way to work, with NO reason to do it. I'm not stressed out, I'm not sad, I'm not working too crazy of hours.
But work was a different day, the system was down 3 boats and we had people going all over and even though they were OK and NICE, it was still a different day.
But I met people who were missing airline flights, trains, dr appts, etc. So I felt much better because I seriously didn't have any reason to cry.

On Thursday morning I met Dave out at the lake and swam a  mile with him. I used a different arm stroke, keeping my elbows high; my toes pointed and used my shoulder to roll my body instead of pushing it with my core.
It worked, it only took us 20 minutes to swim out to the buckets and 18 for me to get back to shore. My fastest time, ever. EVER, for a mile. I felt good, my shoulder didn't hurt and still doesn't and my feet didn't cramp. I did have to stop a couple times to empty my goggles but I got back to shore 1 full minute faster than Dave.
Then a damn leech got on my foot, freaked me out, I made Dave get it off me and I got out of the water, fast. Little fucker.

Today I went back out to the lake and even though I was hesitant to get into the water, I still did and it was just an OK swim. 1/2 mile but I was OK with that since I had such a good swim yesterday.

Then Lan & I rode mtn bike sup Wildcat Lake Trail, 9 miles round trip. I pushed my bike about 3 miles UP and rode about 6 miles all together. it was a HOT ride, I was RED faced well before we got to the top but I rode more, faster, than usual. Lan was happy with me. I tipped over twice, once on the way up and get onto the dirt on the side of the trail and once again at the very end, just couldn't get unclipped on the right side. I literally had 50 feet to go to the end of the trail.

Then we went into Silverdale and did a bit of shopping, didn't find anything I couldn't live without.