John Henry, Havva, Jenny

Our girls, John Henry, 8 years old.

 

Havva, 3 years old.

 

John Henry with Jenny, 9 weeks.

 

Jenny

 

Jenny, 10 weeks.

Back At It

Tomorrow I'm going to go trail running, it will be my first run since Ironman. Technically, I DID run on a treadmill on the 3rd or 4th day afterward but quit after about 100 steps, had that small blister to complain about, lol.

I've been a little sore since the accident that happened on the freeway on the way home from the airport. My left side is way tighter than normal and I've had headaches. Body tightness is one thing but having it bother me and create headaches is another and I don't like it. I've got a massage tomorrow and I hope it helps. I went to the doc and was prescribed massage and pain pills and muscle relaxers. I can't take pills when I'm going to be working, that is HIGHLY frowned upon.

I am signed up for the Yukon Do It half marathon on December 27th, the Hot Chocolate 15K Run on March 6th and the Tacoma City half marathon on May 1st. In April there is a 50 mile run in Port Gamble, on trails, and I am thinking about signing up for that too. I wouldn't do the entire 50 miles but I could certainly give it a try. Anita is doing it, this will be her 4th year and she's never gone more than 3 laps, which are 12.5 miles each. It would require running in the dark and I've never done anything that crazy.

HORSE NEWS:

Lan built 2 more stalls in the arena so there are 4 now. We were able to get 2 finished before Ironman and the other 2 he did last weekend. Now all 4 horses are warm and dry all night. And I am now turning all the horses out together in the pasture all day and they seem to be doing Ok with that.

Wifi, Sunshower, Joey & Roses

 

We had to buy 12 boards for the walls and fronts and 2 gates. I already had rubber mats for all the stalls so at least they aren't standing in mud every night. I need a few more bucket holders for their water, right now my girls are sharing a rubber thing for drinking but Joey and Roses each have 2 buckets.

 

I ordered more slow feed hay nets and that's saving us tons of money, as I knew it would. Who ever stole the old ones doesn't realize it but they were at the end of their usefulness.

 

Look, shit in the stalls already

 

We have to drag a hose all the way from the front corner of the house all the way out to the arena and that's a pain in the ass. Today I saw Joey drinking out of a mud puddle so I dumped the water trough that had a LOT of fallen leaves in it and moved it farther from the trees, cleaned it out and refilled it. I hope he drank at least a little water out of it.

 

We are planning on getting an excavator and digging a ditch from the house out to the arena to install a water line.  I am about done pulling the hose all the way out there or arguing with a frozen hose every morning.

 

It sure was nice this morning when it was above freezing and I got all my shit done fast and easy. Tomorrow all I have to do it put out hay and turn all the horses out, Julia and Tory will do all the cleaning, watering and feeding for me. I should set out hay nets so Joey gets alfalfa, Sunshower gets a bit less and the other girls get the right amounts.

 

I can't wait to be able to ride and take lessons again.

 

 

I DID IT!

16:11:33

Officially, I am an Ironman.

 

10 Days

No time for anything with all the work I have to do. Still have to swim 45 minutes and run an hour. Ugh. Might do a spin class instead.
Need to go get hay, its already loaded in the trailer. Took the truck over there last night with every intention of running home but she talked my ear off and I got 3.1 miles before Lan showed up to get me. Luckily I left him a note with my route.
This morning I spent 2 hours out in the barn cleaning stalls, feeding breakfast, filling 10 water buckets, getting dinners all set. Also had to fuck with the fence so I could get the girls out in the back and Joey & Rosie in the front but Wifi had other plans and wouldn't cooperate. I finally just left them out there and she found her way out to the piles of hay I had left & then I beat feet out there to close the fence off. Stinker.

12 days

Or something like that.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to bike and run but I have a massage at 11:30. I'll try to get to the Y to swim beforehand and maybe a spin class tomorrow night.

Training In The Rain

14 days until Ironman Arizona.

Shits getting real.

Today I ran 7.5 miles in a pretty good wind and rain storm. I got to the parking meet up spot before the sun had risen and thought it was going to be absolutely miserable.

But it turned into a pretty nice run. It was along the Cushman Trail, from Home Depot out to the other end of town, toward Wilco. There were several other people and I was middle of the pack. Two guys went out fast and strong, passed me when I was at mile 2.5 and the Rabbit was a bit ahead of me but I had to stop to pee. The turtle was behind me and two others brought up the rear.

I've said before that the Cushman Trail is really hilly and I've only ran on it once before. There are a few hills on it that are 1200 feet of 8% elevation gain so it's a serious place for me to run. Today I was once again able to run the whole way but also turned around and went back to meet up with the slow pokes and ran in again.

This storm is just icky, they are saying the mountains will get up to 13.5 FEET of snow this weekend but if it does fall it will only melt and cause more flooding.

I had LAN put Joey in the arena so he can get dry. He's too old now to be left out in this crap, with the blowing wind he will be too cold. I also had LAN take Reign back to the inlaws and tomorrow there is a new horse coming in. An older paint mare for a 4h girl. They won't pay board but they will help with chores and feedings and buy their own hay. I've been feeding Reign for 9 months and never once got a thank you from Terry nor did he purchase any hay. He did offer to find me cheap grass round bales but that's only filler, the Tbs still need alfalfa and quality hay.

112

Today I did something I never knew I'd do in my life, never even imagined it. I rode my bike on the CompuTrainer for 112 miles. It took me nearly 8 hours but I didn't turn off the timer for all potty breaks.

 

Here I was still on the first lap of the Ironman Arizona 3 lap course, still felt pretty good.

 

And here I am at about mile 106, my hoo haw was SCREAMING and I wasn't looking forward to doing a run afterward.

 

Here is my awesome Helmet Hair

 

And the run.

I wasn't happy to start, I was scared it would be miserable but it wasn't.

 

So I was happy to be done, even though the run was only 1 mile.

 

Here is my nutrition table which doesn't show the bacon or the chicken sandwich.  I drank 5 bottles of water and 3 bottles of Gatorade.

I wore my helmet for the entire ride so my neck could work on carrying the weight.

 

I'm really tired but have to stay awake for The Walking Dead.

Fucking Bitches

I know I'm not the best friend in the world by any means but I thought I had better friends than the ones I do have.

one has been bragging about this costume party for weeks that took place last night. yesterday at noon she said I should go to it with her. FUCK YOU, Bitch, if you wanted me to go why the fuck didn't you invite me weeks ago so I too could have made a fucking costume?

The other friend was supposed to do a 112 bike ride tomorrow & I would be doing it here at the same time, on my trainer. She fucking did it today. Last week she had 95 miles to do, she fucking went 100. just so she could be better than me.
Then tonight shes like me & my husband are going out for dinner & they went and met up with a bunch of other mutual friends. No one invited us.
FUCKERS. I just want to not be FRIENDS with any of them anymore.

Shes already DNF'd 1 Ironman race and shes doing IMAZ so we'll see how she does there. I hope she finishes and does it well. I just hope I can finish at all.

3.5 weeks

with 3.5 weeks left until my race I'm getting a bit excited. Only a bit though. I've done this twice already, I know its going to be a hell of a day. Hard, never ending, I will quit a thousand times and just keep going.
Its time to start packing bags and making  purchases of the things I'll need that I don't already have. Time to inventory so I CAN shop.
I've already got a bunch of spare tubes and 2 new tires, I've got a couple C02 cartridges, I'd like 4 more.
I still haven't completely dialed in the nutrition for the day but I'm trying. I know I'm going to have cookies and chips in my special needs bag. I also k now the Bike Special Needs is at mile 66 so I'll have to carry a lot of stuff with me. I've done plenty of 56 mile rides with just the stuff in my pockets so I'll be fine.
I've begun using the fuels they will be providing on the course so I'll be used to them but I haven't gotten any of the Lemon-Lime Gatorade yet. I must get some soon and drink it on my run. I DO have a Red Bull, which they provide on the run, I should use that tomorrow to see what happens when I drink it. Might be interesting.
I'm going to start going over a packing list, see you later.

4 weeks

I have 4 weeks until Ironman Arizona.
Today I had a 95 mile bike ride. Since I live in Puget Sounds and its nearly impossible to ride on flat ground I got in 64.89 miles of HILLIER THAN SHIT done before I came home and rode another 31.11 miles on my computrainer.

Run. Swim.

Today I run and swim.
Tomorrow I run and Bike.
Saturday only about 5 hours of running, biking and swimming.
Sunday Running and biking. Monday biking and running.
Or I can swim Saturday and nothing else but we're getting so close. Only 4.5 weeks away now.

On the home front:
Lan and I went to Olympia and met our new family member, a Brazilian Mastiff puppy, a little girl. I think we're going to call her Jenny.

88

Yesterday was 88 miles of pain on the bike. I rode 56 outdoors, until I almost got killed when some asshole pulling a trailer cut me off and almost hit me with his fucking trailer. Since I was doing laps out on our own road, I just decided to come home and finish on the bike trainer. Took me longer to go another 30 miles than it did the 56. And then it was getting dark so I couldn't run.
There was a lot of tears and frustration involved.
I do not want to train fro Ironman any longer, I just want to stop it and be ME, not some dumbass triathlete thinking they will do anything spectacular. I won't, I never will. I hurt all the time and never have time for anything else.

House Work

Today I'm supposed to be running for 1.5 hours then riding my bike for 2.5 hours and working 1-6 in the middle of the day. Yesterday I rode and swam, went to the store for lunch stuff and was scheduled for the same hours but when I got to work I was informed that I had to stay until midnight. I wasn't happy about it at all, not at all.

So today if they spring that crap on me I'm going to say NO and tomorrow too. The supervisor, not our usual ones, could have given me a courtesy call but she didn't and I think it was just rude of her. So I won't stay today. She can pay Gina triple time for all I care but I have shit to do at home and I have the right to refuse. But it was nice to be getting paid the $25 bucks per hour of sellers wages instead of just $23 for traffic.

So today I'm just exhausted, again, not enough sleep, too much stress, not enough fuel. I have things to do around the house, today I got some of them done like getting the dead hanging baskets off the front porch. Tomorrow I'll take them to Harmony and trade back for the big luggage I gave her from the yard sale.

So today, I'm not working out in the morning and we all know that means I won't work out at night either. Tonight we have a meeting from 6:30-9:30 at the sheriffs office and that's pretty important to me. Hhhmmm... Maybe I should get off my ass and just run a couple miles......

Bucket Of Fear

Today has been very emotional for me, mostly due to being too tired. Working 4 ten hour 4am shifts and not getting enough sleep is taking its toll. I'd get more sleep if I could just stay asleep.
So today I've been crying for no reason and I'm irritable; I've yelled at a customer (and by yell I mean swore under my breath and they couldn't hear it) and then my massage got cancelled. I can't say I was looking forward to it, I had completely forgotten about it but it would have been nice to have anyway.

Then there is the fact that my FIL took our truck and trailer to haul his FUCKING horses to Arizona. Lan promised that he wouldn't let his dad borrow our truck for any reason when we gave him he old silver truck, so he wouldn't ruin this one. So now he's got both of them. He doesn't fucking care what he does to them, spills shit inside and doesn't clean it up, scratches the outsides. When we get our next truck, which he will NEVER drive, I'm having full control of what we buy and Lan better not let his dad anywhere near it.

His dad needs to quit horses all together or be owner in name only, go to the track and watch it run from a box and then go home. Home to a place with no horses and no need to borrow and ruin our truck.

Triathlon news:
I picked up another wetsuit today and will try it out at the lake sometime this next week. I've renewed our Y membership so I can go there to swim before work as needed. If this wetsuit works for me I'll be glad, I'm tired of worrying about it.

2015 Race For A Soldier

 

 

Kyle Marshall Farr came back home “safe” from Iraq, but no so safe. He had PTSD, which sadly claimed his life. His mom, Leslie Mayne, an admirable woman, decided that Kyle’s death would not be in vain. Her mission was to get the necessary reform to help our military men and women suffering PTSD. She was determined to make Race For A Soldier, an instrument to bring awareness to our communities, military, and government that PTSD is a heartbreaking reality costing the lives of our men and women that have served for our freedom.

Exhausted

I'm not the only one, I've read several reports from other FB people that they just can't get enough sleep. This is when injuries happen so I'm being very careful. This morning I slept in until 9am, unheard of for me lately.
Today the only exercise I got was a 22 minute walk at the YMCA after I renewed my membership. I need a place to swim and the Y in Bremerton is so close to work that I can't go wrong. I'll swim before and/or after work. But I need a new bathing suit, my old one that fits is threadbare and see through, my others are too small since I've gained weight in the last 9 months.
This morning I did weigh in at 149.2, the least amount I have weighed in about 3 months.
I am enjoying having the CompuTrainer, its getting used a lot. The bummer is that if I take my bike outside for a good weather ride then I have to reset the CT and I'm too lazy. So last week I rode the trainer for a 3 hour ride, and I've ridden it several times for 2+ hour rides. They say indoor training is better for you than outdoor.

Ramping Up

This week the official amount of hours my training plan calls for is about 15 hours. So far I've completed 4 hours of training, all running and biking. Tomorrow will be more biking.
Neither of the two wetsuits I picked up from Wetsuitrentals.com will work, both are too big so I'll be returning them for another one or two.
I am also going to sign up for the YMCA again so I can get my miles in swimming. I think I'll be going in tomorrow for that.

58 Days To Go

There are only 58 days until Ironman Arizona. I got in a good 2:28 bike ride today, completed one loop of the IMAZ bike course on the computrainer. it kicked my ass. But I did it in good time. But I won't be able to do that fast two times in a row and I will need to do 3 loops come race day.
I also took one of the borrowed wetsuits to the lake and tried it ut, its too big. Arms too long, just big all over. Rinsed out, drying in the shower. I'll have to get out to the lake in the next 2 days to try the other one.
Tomorrow I'm supposed to run and ride. I'm so far behind in my training, it just sad. I have a full week of work coming up too, Tuesday I'll be working 4:15am -6:15pm. Too stinking long. Tomorrow its just 10 hours, I might have time to run afterward.

Black Diamond Race Report

Black Diamond Half Iron Distance 70.3 miles

 

1.2 mile swim: I chicked a dude and peed in Lindas wetsuit 5 times. FIVE TIMES! Before swim start Lan asked me what my swim time would be, I told him 50. It was 50:12.9.

 

T1:  Its always nice having the whole area to use because everyone else is already out on the bike.  4:48.6

 

Bike 56 miles: I chicked a dude. Stinky dead deer on the side of the road, had to smell it 4 times. I always thought this was a hilly course before but its not, its nothing like the hills we have in Kitsap County, so I was in aero a lot. My neck hurt from looking up so I didn't look up sometimes, just followed the white line. Greg Pelton chit chatted with me for a sec as he passed me at mile 50-ish. (WHY did Greg pass me at mile 50? Could it have been the 4 flats he got?? (Thank God it was him and not me (or I'd still be out there (and I wasn't calling YOU an asshole when you passed, I was calling that truck that honked at us an asshole)))) PR'd for this distance of a ride with 3:39:38.8.

 

T2: Once again I had transition all to myself. 3:09.8

 

Run 13.1 miles: I'll just set this right here, I needed to poop and it wasn't happening. This was my problem at IMCDA and a couple months ago at the See Jane Run Half Marathon. Tummy hurt. I will test prunes soon. My slowest time for a half marathon is 3:29:14 and my fastest was 2:24:28, today I took 3:00:59.5. It wouldn't have taken much to sub 3 hours, shoot.

 

Overall race time 7:38:49.6 was a PR!! and I beat 2 other people, yay, so proud of myself. But it's the only 70.3 distance race I've ever done.  7/ 7 in my age group, 58th of 60 female finishers,  48/60 swim, 44/60 bike and 57/60 run. (additional results not posted online yet).

 

I stole the results sheet off the restroom wall and I see 3 other ladies I know. And I got to talk to Patty Swedberg and Diana Hull.  And Lan ROCKS as a Sherpa, I'd hire him any time.

 

I HIGHLY recommend this course in case you were interested and Raise The Bar did a fantastic job with the whole event, there was plenty of good food at the end and everyone was all smiles, all day. OK, maybe not everyone all day.

 

I lost 1.2 pounds today.

 

 

 

Big Race Coming Up

I've got my first Half Iron Distance race this weekend, the Black Diamond Triathlon.

 

 

I've done a sprint out there, and the Olympic, this is my first HIM. Ever.

 

I've done a few practice halfs so to actually race it will be different. I'm not excited about the swim at all.

Swim- 1.2 miles

 

I AM excited for the bike ride, 56 miles in the countryside. I was out there the other day and tried to ride the course but the road signs don't work very well. I was going to right way but couldn't tell so I turned around and went the other way so I went about 2/3s of one loop. I was surprised because in the past even those hills were very trying to me but the other day I felt great and I got up them easily. They didn't feel like never ending misery mountains.

 

The run is 13.1 miles, mostly flat. I've been out there cheering for other people doing the HIM and it seems like they were always in the heat. I know two years ago it was about 90 out there. The current forecast is calling for 72* in the afternoon so a bit chilly in the morning.

 

The sucky thing about the race is that they will start the spring swimmers first, then the men HIM's & finally the women HIM's. I'm such a slow swimmer that I'll be the last out of the lake and last onto my bike. Its going to suck really bad.

 

Here is some good news:

Lan & I sold the old farm, it no longer is a cause for stress in our lives. We did get into an argument this morning about which bills to pay off because we didn't get all we had wanted and he insisted we pay his parents back. Meanwhile, I was insisting we pay off my VISA that we've been making house payments with. Fucker was up to $13,300 and I've never owed that much on credit cards before. It was freaking me out, especially since the payments were $354. But we didn't pay off my BECU and ALL of that was for fencing and crap over there so I'll still be paying $3300 to them, probably for the next 5 years. Ugh.

 

He insisted that we pay off his VISA and leave me with mine but no fucking way. I am the one who paid the $20,000 down payment for the old farm, I am the one who paid the Voses $15,000 cash plus $7,000 for their back taxes. That came out of the sale of my Tacoma house so he might think the old farm was HIS but we wouldn't have had it at all if I hadn't paid that shit. I also paid off the timeshare that he enjoys every year.

 

So we will get a cashiers check to pay off his parents for the $16,000 they loaned us for the new farm down payment, plus his dad made one farm payment for us $1,300 but after paying off the car and my VISA we are about $1,000 short in what we owe them. So they will have to wait for that last thousand.

 

And his dad will just go squander it anyway and that pisses me off. I mean, they can do whatever with it that they want but it came out of his moms 401k and should go back in to it but his dad will go to all the auctions and buy all the crap he can cram into his car or truck or fuck, why not buy another fucking RV or trailer?

 

They took this thing out ONE WEEKEND and until 2 months ago it was sitting over at the old farm. Now its sitting over at their own farm and its going to be destroyed. He paid $12,000 for it and right now it might be worth $8,000, if he was lucky. On the one weekend they did take it out after they got home they didn't clean it out. just left the blankets half on the bed, the sheets were half off and blankets half on the floor. There were dirty cups in each room and bottles half full of pop all over. They left garbage in it, food in the fridge. WTF?

 

 

 

So Much To Do, So Little Time

I have a half Ironman Distance race this weekend; I'm pretty sure I can do it but what if?? I still haven't gone farther than 60 miles on any of my rides. That's NOT good enough for an Ironman. Tomorrow I'm going out to Enumclaw to ride the bike course, one lap of the 2 lap course. Then I should run for a while too, since my training plan calls for it. I could run around the lake. I'm such a slow swimmer that I'll be last out of the water of all the racers of the day.

Two weeks later I have the Race For A Soldier Half Marathon in Gig Harbor. Its my favorite half because the proceeds go to a good cause, to soldiers with PTSD. At the race, they call it Permission To Start Dreaming. The lady who founded it lost her soldier son to suicide and this helps more soldiers to deal with the bad stuff. One of the ways is by supporting a horseback riding program and it helps a lot of them.

Ironman Arizona is only about 10 weeks away. I don't feel ready. Today I was stressing out about that and a whole lot of other shit.

Like, the old farm hasn't sold. It was supposed to close on the 10th but the appraiser didn't get the shit done in time. Now they need ANOTHER extension. This bullshit is stressing me out and I'm gaining weight.

I've also been working full time and that cuts into my working out time and makes me more tired. We do have a new bid out and I'll find out in a week or so which position I'll be in. They have made two more shifts at my dock, a 38 hour and a 31 hour, both have graveyard shifts, one has two graveyards and 2 swings. All selling hours so they will be paying $25 per hour. Of course I bid on them but I don't really want to get either of them. I also bid for the Point Defiance positions, one of which is Monday - Friday, 11:30-6:30 mom & tues and 1:30-6:30 wed thurs fri. I could ride my freaking bike to work!

Irongirl DONE

 

And I got top ten, which was my goal.

 

1:06 faster than last year; not as fast as I had hoped

but had a swimming problem that followed me through the race.

Got over it.

Every Year

It seems that every year someone has an injury that stops them from being their best for irongirl. These are invisible injuries and you don't go to the doctor for them because they aren't that bad. But still.
Did they really happen or is it an excuse?
Someone is mad at me because I told her to quit whining and go ride.

Bike Sandwich

Run, bike & run again, sounds easy enough.

 

 

Today I was supposed to run 1:20, bike 1:00 and run :40 but I went over on my first run, to 1:45. Ran 8.56 hilly miles. Did a 15 minute transition and rode my bike exactly 16 miles in an hour.

Then back into my running shoes and out onto the road.

BOOM!

But I was out of gas.

I ran / walked half mile up the road, turned around and headed home. Got halfway back and notice loose cows in the yard beside me, no one lives there and neither do those cows.

I know, because I've seen those cows loose a few times this week, usually in the pasture across the street from here.

Obviously that red cow this the hard bossy cow. Today as I stood on the side of the road I watched her pushing the others around until they left the scene of the crime, faded into the woods behind the empty house.

Animal Control was finally called.

 

I tried to call Lan, got no response. When he finally called me back I was pretty upset since I had just told him an hour earlier that he needed to keep his phone on him when I was out for long periods of time in case I needed him for anything. And I HAD needed him during my long run. Forgot my bottle and he could have brought it to me a lot easier than me running back for it.

So I had to run 5 miles without water and while I didn't die or at any time feel like I was going to, it would have been nice to wet my mouth and have my tissues so I could blow my nose. I totally DISLIKE logger blows.

 

 

I got a total of 9.5 miles ran today and I'm OK with that.

 

As for the bike, I figured out a lap out here on our very road is pretty 'flat', for our area. Go from out house down to Cenex, turn around and come back here, past home, past my friends road to the Possum Run Farm (where I thought the cows go but they don't) and back to our house and its 8 miles. If I ride that 14 times, its 112 miles.

 

Here is what I would like to do this week:

 

7 laps, 56 miles.

I think its a pretty good plan.

 

Next weekend is Irongirl.

 

So Tired

I woke up ready and raring to go but now I have lost all motivation. I just want to sleep.

Competitive Season

I just spent a week doing some pretty hard workouts and lived to talk about it.

 

Swim 1.73 miles in 1:20 with an average 1.30mph / 46:09 min/mile

Bike 103.45 miles in 7:25 with an average of 13.95mph 4:18 min/mile

Run 24.52 miles in 5:00 with an average 4.90mph / pace 12:14 min/mile

 

13 hours 45 minutes of working out that ended yesterday, right before my 10 hour shift at work.

 

 

I lost ZERO weight. I did rearrange workouts so I could get in a long ride (60 miles) on Thursday instead of the weekend and didn't do a bike ride so that I'd save energy for a long weekend workout.

 

In the coming week I hope to keep up the good work.

 

Today I made a trip over to Seattle and purchased a new CD for my computrainer, Racermate One. Its got all their current courses with video so I can RIDE THE COURSES. Of course, it will be here, in my own home. I'll get a better workout than if I were riding on the road. Can't wait to try it out.

 

 

I'm in, again.

 

Yukon Do It

 

half marathon, December 27, 2015.

 

One of my favorites.

 

Alone or Not Alone

Sometimes I have to ride my bike on long rides alone and I hate it.

 

Or, I think I hate it.

But only up until the point of being out on the roads.

I actually enjoy those rides because I can go my own speed, I have to wait for no one else and there is no one to bitch if I have to stop to pee or take a picture.

 

At the same time I do not like to be out on the roads with out someone who knows where I am. I'll be having a lot of big rides coming up, I need to go 60+ this weekend and get home in time to work at 4:00. That means I need to plan the ride, get my shit ready and hit the road early and not have any problems. I need to know where I'm going, I have to be able to call home if I need to, I have to have someone that can rescue me IN TIME FOR WORK if need be.

 

And I have to make sure Sylar is doing well. He's had some problems lately that have been bugging the shit out of me. He squeaks, damnit. I know some of that is my shoes but not all of it and there is a clunking sometimes and I don't think its my feet. It feels like the chain is hitting a big ring tooth crooked or something.

I told Lan I want him to ride it 5 miles, not just around the yard, so he can hear and feel it.

 

If you look closely you will see a lot of dirt and dust on Sylar. I haven't washed him in a year and I've put a lot of miles on him, over 1250 since January. I have Irongirl coming up in 3 weeks so I'm going to give him a bath tonight and ask Lan to tune him up.

 

 

 

Today

Today, because I needed to, I rode my bike.

 

5.21

I did that run, ran for a bit over an hour, 5.21 slow, hilly miles.

 

Now my back is sore. Taking today off to rest up for tomorrows long bike ride

and Sundays long run.

Postponing

I'm writing this post so I can postpone my 1 hour run a bit longer.

 If I had started earlier on my run, I'd have been finished by now. Its 9:45am, my time limit to fuck around is until 10. I have no idea where I will run to, which direction to start out going or where I will end up. I don't want to run hills but if I want to get off this main road then hills are a must. I could drive somewhere to run, I guess. But I don't want to run on country roads I don't know well nor do I want to run on city streets where shitty drivers are texting and stinky exhaust truck blow past every 2 minutes.

The speed limit on my road is 45 but people blast past going 60 all the time. I've had to jump off the road many times because people veer toward me then think its OK and they didn't hurt me so they can just keep going.

GET OUT OF YOUR CAR, MOTHERFUCKER,

SO I CAN

KICK YOUR ASS.

I HATE inattentive drivers or people who are obviously texting. They scare the shit out of me and ruin an otherwise good run. Not that I enjoy running or kicking ass but if you veer toward me you deserve an ass kicking.

Cheating

I know a lot of triathletes, men and women, most of them are just like me, just going about their training and doing their best. Working out, training, getting better, signing up for more and more races.

And then there is one that has to do everything better than everyone else, has to be the best, wont take instruction, his way is always best and better than any other way. And this person cheats.

Dave did a Half Ironman distance race last week and after he did the turn around on his run and was heading back out for his last 6 miles, his back started hurting and he couldn't lift his left leg at all. He had to stop running and be driven back in to town.

But meanwhile, the generator back at the finish line was turned off and the timing mat turned off, so all the times were messed up. So what did the race people do? They took every ones first half times and just doubled them, giving everyone who had crossed the half way timing mat a finish time. Meaning, Dave got a finish time when he didn't even finish the race.

Usually I'd just laugh this off and say 'How funny' but this time, NO. He DNF'd and has no finish time and not only did he get this fake time but it qualifies him for Nationals. If he takes that spot then someone else who did deserve to go to nationals wont get the invite and that's total Bull Shit.

So I emailed the timing people and told then of my concern and I really hope they do something about it.

Makes you wonder how far he truly went on his Winterman miles, when he said he had finished 8 Ironman distances over the winter.

I DNF'd my second IMCDA but I FINISHED it and still I owned my DNF. Its on my FB page, right there for everyone to read. I'm honest.

Farm Sharing

Most people would think of FARM SHARING as me letting other people come here and utilize our farm for gardening or something but what I'm talking about is with the in-laws. They have 5 acres a couple miles away without any horses on it and I am running out of grass here, due to the super dry spring and summer we have had. So I asked if I could take all 4 horses over there for a month, until it rains and the grass has a chance to grow again. That way we wont have pastures of weeds here.

 

Here is there horse, Reign, in our front pasture.

They said sure, come over, we'll check out the fences. So off we go and what do we find? A total mess. No fence is complete or safe for horses, no water trough is clean or holding water, except one that is totally nasty but it could be cleaned and the pastures are all weeds. No grass is growing, its all weeds.

 

ALL WEEDS.

 

Our pastures hadn't been used in at least 2 years so they had plenty of grass when we moved in but also plenty of black berries. Lan spent a lot of time mowing them and now the horses have been grazing. The back pasture is bigger and has more stickers but less grass growing then the front pasture.

I'm thinking about buying some round bales to supplement the grass, just so they slow down a bit on the grazing. I'd love to have 10 tons stored in the barn before winter because I have a feeling this winter hay will be $500 per ton and I just can't do that.

 

All the dark spots are poop piles.

 

 

Poop and very weathered fencing.

 

 

I also want to take the tractor out there and scoop poop out of the front pasture. Lan and his dad think I can just drag it but horses don't eat around their poop so its got to be picked up.  I will do that later this week when its cooled off a bit and after I've done my daily workout, supposed to be only 75 in a couple days. Spreading composted poop is a whole other story, that's perfectly fine to do.

 

Last week we purchased 5 gallons of semi gloss white exterior paint and I'm going to repaint the porch rail and this fence. I wanted to pressure wash it first but with the sand in the well Lan said paint over the dirt if need be. Of course, I'll brush off what I can before I start.

 

I think the fencing will look pretty sharp when its finished.