Soren

Soren is 7 1/2 years old and he is staying here for the summer. 

He is my great nephew, grandson of my twin brother.

His mom has to work a lot so I get to spend massive amounts of time with him.

I'm trying to make this a memorable time and Lan & I both hope he leaves here happy and with great stories to tell. 

Here I had him help groom the horses. Every day he enjoys helping to turn the horses out to pasture and its now his job to turn the chickens out and give them their scratch.

Last week we went to Waterman Dock to look for the Orcas that were in the vicinity & while we didn't find them, he still made a monkey out of himself.

Soren likes Spiderman so when we went to the dollar store we picked up a Spiderman kite and he learned how to fly it. I should take him back down to the dock, it was perfectly windy there. Here, it would blow every different direction so he ended up running with it.

But it flies.

On Sunday, June 30, 2019

the might ferry M/V Hyak ran her last crossings Bremerton-Seattle so I made arrangements for us to go up into the wheelhouse and visit with Captain Steve. It was SO MUCH FUN and all of us got a chance to drive the ferry.

WE DROVE THE FERRY!!  

And Soren got to blow the horn.

This next photo is cool because just as Steve let go of the telegraph, Soren accidently moved it & a chime sounded, in the wheelhouse and in the engine room. We all gasped in surprise, Soren was scared & almost cried but Steve just communicated for them to disregard. Then we all laughed.

We got him a bike. 16" used, perfect. 

Lan built him a jump.

Then we got him a new bike and its perfecter.

Today he & I went out to Banner Forest and had a blast riding tails.

If we have enough warm sunny days, we can go for more rides in the 65 Mustang. 

We've got about 5-6 weeks until he goes back to Minnesota to live with dad for the school year. I wonder how many more really cool things we can do until then?

Carbon River Glacier Hike

Biked 5 miles uphill on the mountain bikes from the Carbon Ranger Station to Ipsut Campground, tented it over night, hiked 5 miles uphill to the glacier. 

WOW.

Hiked back down to camp, rode bikes back to car & rewarded ourselves for the 30,000 steps with burgers at the Wilkeson Saloon.

And Now, Triathlon

Went to the doctor today for the pain in my foot and the ultrasound showed the tumor is practically gone, which is a very good thing. But he couldn't find any explanation for the pain in the top of my foot.

Now for something weird: There is a tiny spot on the second metatarsal bone of my left foot, the foot that hurts and its an old stress fracture.

See the small gray spot here? This is where it is.

And something different, where the 2 small bones are circled in red on my right foot, I have 3 small bones. Obviously this isn't my right foot.

He said there isn't any arthritis in my feet at all, that the xrays show my feet looking

very good for my age.

So while there is no reason for my foot pain I do have the go-ahead to train for IMCDA 70.3 on June 24th so I've got 144 days to train.

Ironman Coeur D'Alene 70.3

I've decided to sign up for Ironman Coeur D'Alene 70.3 which will happen June 24, 2018. I'm kinda excited for it, I haven't done a tri since IMAZ so it will be a full 2.5 years. I've begun walking a couple times each week and will use my training plan to get in shape.

Lan bought a bike roller

and I plan on learning to use it. It doesn't provide resistance but gives you a better workout because you have to use your whole body and pay attention. 

I've been looking through my tri equipment and haven't been able to find my mini fanny pack I used for running. Sure was handy for carrying my car keys, ID and car keys when I ran so I'll have to get another if I can't figure out where this one is.

In horse news:

The cement has been ordered for Friday and I'm stinking excited about it!!!

Sunshower has been leased out to another family for a lifetime lease. I'm missing my girl so much but at least shes being used now. Shes got a 34 yr old mom who is horse crazy and a 7 yr old girl, plus a couple little ones. Couldn't ask for a better life for her. Shes close by and I can see her if I want.

After The Run

I wanted to wait before running again to see what happened with the foot, what kinds of weird pain it might have caused.

There was normal tiredness the first evening but it wasn't hurting.

The second day though, it felt like my sock was folded down a lot more than ever before. I actually took off my shoe twice to check it and of course both times it was fine.

Yesterday I didn't run, wore the usual compression footies and it felt fine, today I wore regular footies, not compression and after just an hour or 2 it felt fatigued. Changed socks and its fine again so I will just plan on wearing them for a lot longer.

 

I have 2 friends racing tomorrow in Ironman Boulder, excited for both. She's just happy to be there after a bad bike crash & torn rotator cuff just 10 months ago.

He is competing in his 12th Ironman event and after this he will qualify for Ironman World Championships in Kona. I've already told him if he makes it I'm going to be there to see his finish.

 

Horse related:

The barn work is going slowly, as I imagined it would. Without a bulldozer in the area to rent the ground work is taking 10 times the work. It has been fun doing the planning and measuring, making orange marks in the dirt.

60 feet long, 5 stalls

Not the straightest lines but this is just so we can imagine it



If we open this end of the covered arena and extend it, it will come out to this rock.

Sunshower & Roses in stalls

And Wifi in the aisle & Joey in  the arena

 

Joey & my girls were turned out in the front grassy pasture this morning for 2 hours, then when I went to bring them in all I had to do was whistle and they came to the gate to go to the back pasture. Slowly and calmly, no messing around. Good horses!

They are learning to come to my whistle and I love that.

 

326 Days

Lans IMAZ is in 326 days and training starts in 1 week. I gotta admit, I'm kinda jealous and excited for him. As long as I am not to bitchy about his training and he DOES it, he will be golden. Here is the 1st days workout:

Monday
We begin easily enough with one short swim. Nothing too crazy here, just allow yourself some time to get used to the water again and be patient with speed.

SWIM 0:30

WARM UP:

200 Swim - 2 x 100 Kick -

4 x 50 Choice, w/10 sec rest after each

MAIN SET:

5 x 200 w/:20 rest, done as follows:

(50 right arm only - 50 swim - 50 left arm only - 50 swim)

COOL DOWN:

2 x (50 Kick/50 Swim)

See, pretty damn easy. The following day is a 50 minute bike and a 35 minute run, both easy. In fact, so easy that the bike is in the small chain ring. AND HE BETTER DO IT RIGHT.

Results IMAZ 2016

Dave didn't Finish, as NO ONE thought he would. He 'CRASHED' on his bike at about mile 40 and had to stop. Whaaa. Poor big baby. He didn't finish a single race or long ride this summer because every time, SOMEONE ELSE made him crash or 'hit him with their car'... EVERY time. So no one is surprised.
His swim was OK, 1:46:45.

Ironman Arizona 2017

I'll find a way to get there, even if I have to call in sick.

 

Lan will be racing and I'll be damned if I make him go alone. I'll drive the car down and probably back or he can drive it back and I'll fly...

 

But this next year is going to be dedicated to his race.

 

He asked a local coach to help him but as far as I know Lan hasn't heard back yet. I'll be pissed off if the coach doesn't at least tell him personally why not, if he doesn't want to coach him. Lan has tons of potential to do very well at IMAZ, even in the largest A/G.

 

At Vineman he was 96th out of 217 in his A/G and he admits to being under trained. If he had a coach, someone that would demand accountability, then he could get into the top 25% and that's HUGE. He won't listen to me though so I can't help him at all and he's going to have to speak up when he has a problem, any problem.

Spring Weather, Bike Rides

Today I had a fun ride on the mtn bikes with Leona at Banner Forest, about 6.26 miles in 1:40 hours. So much fun. Shes got skills and is about equal to me so we ride well together.

 

Here is her bike, leaning on a log. We had to climb over that sucker.

 

I've been asked to ride 32 miles tomorrow.

 

Going long.

 

This morning before I rode the bike I had a massage, she worked hard on my left shoulder and right hip. The hip is messed up because the shoulder is messed up, all aggravated by the accident. I have stretching exercises to do to help it get better and IF I JUST DO THEM it can only make me feel better.

 

I'd be able to swim faster too.

 

Horse news:

Joey is awesome.

Wifi is shedding, should be white soon.

Back On A Bike

I rode my mtn bike today for the first time since November and I only rode it then to go to a friends house and to get my 50 minutes of riding in before IMAZ.

 

 

  I asked Lan this morning if he would go with me and he agreed so we went to banner Forest at noon. The parking lot was full and the secondary parking area too but we only saw a few people.

 

I didn't crash but I did side swipe a tree, it didn't hurt at all but I got dirty. And it scared me so I lost all my confidence for a few minutes. But I was back at it in no time.

 

I wore my IMAZ FINISHERS cycling jacket for the first time and it was PERFECT. I felt like I had warm air surrounding me, I wasn't too cold at all. OK, my butt was cold but it wasn't in my jacket either.

 

We rode for about an hour and it was so perfect.

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.

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.

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.

 

 

 

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.

 

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.