Congratulations from USA Triathlon

Congratulations from USA Triathlon

Congratulations Denise! You have qualified for the Olympic-distance race at the 2016 USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships on Aug. 13 in Omaha, Nebraska, after finishing in the top 10 percent in your age group at the Iron Girl Seattle. 

 

        

             
    Registration is now open. To register, look for an email invitation with the registration link to hit your inbox within the next business day. If you do not see an email in your inbox, please check your junk/spam folder before contacting USA Triathlon. This event has sold out in past years and is likely to sell out again in 2016, so be sure to claim your spot on the starting line early. If you would like to participate in the Sprint National Championships on Aug. 14 in Omaha – either in addition to, or lieu of, the Olympic-distance race – simply CLICK HERE to register.

The USA Triathlon Olympic-Distance National Championships race is the nation’s premier amateur Olympic-distance event with top athletes from all 50 states forming one of the most prestigious age-group fields in the sport. The top 18 finishers from each age group will also automatically qualify to represent Team USA at the 2017 International Triathlon Union (ITU) Age Group World Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The dates of the 2017 ITU World Championships will be announced later this year, and additional information will be added to the Team USA website.

For more information on the 2016 USA Triathlon Olympic-Distance National Championships, please visit www.usatriathlon.org/nationalchampionships. Please note: Athletes must be current USA Triathlon annual members through Aug. 13, 2016, in order to register. You may register or renew your membership at www.usatriathlon.org.

 

I have been hoping for this email since last summer when I finished in 10th place at Iron Girl but since there were only 98 people in my age group I had no idea if I would qualify or not. And look at that, I did! So exciting for me, to be in the TOP 10 in the nation in my age group.

 

There are a few other ladies I know who qualified, Suzie, Barb, Heidi in my A/G alone, plus Windy in hers.

 

I wish I could go but I can't afford it with Hawaii in October and my work will never let me have the time off for sure in the middle of summer. And that just bums me out. To work so hard, to do so well and not be able to go the next step.

 

If Windy decides to go I'll help her any way I can, maybe give her some cash for a new jacket.

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.

Kind Of

I'm kind of training for the Iron Girl sprint tri that takes place in 3 weeks. I have been riding my bike the approximate distance once or twice a week but I haven't swam in 2 weeks and I haven't run in even longer.

My previous years bike times on the IronGirl course are:
2009 Danskin 44:42
2009 Trek       44.02
2010 Danskin 39.40
2011 Danskin 38.32

My fastest overall race time is 1:36:27.  My plan every time I race is to do it faster than the time before and I really hope I do this year because they have shortened the course this year. The first year the swim was 1/2 mile, now its only going to be 1/3, the bike is 1/2 shorter and the run is .1 shorter. Iron Girl might not care but they are ripping us off. Just because we're girls doesn't mean we can't go the distance.

This is my favorite course and I just found out that Seafair used this last week so next year I'm going to sign up for that one instead of IronGirl. It will have males and females and a stiffer competition, since IronGirl is geared toward couch to 5k couch potatoes.

Linda and I have a place to stay that's right near the race venue at Genessee Park; Julee Warner had told us her other friends, Julias parents, offered their house to her friends for the race since they will be gone. I jokingly said I wanted to do it & then 2 weeks ago got the word that we were in. AWESOME!

Linda and I will carpool in her van to IronGirl and Lan & Steve will carpool to Lake Stevens for their race. Poor Lan, he has to have Brayden with them but at least Lindas not bringing him with us to a houseful of women. Actually he should just stay home or go to a friends house, he should be hanging out with kids his own age instead of only adults.

I've requested race day off work and they better fucking give it to me. Then yesterday I realized I really should ask for the Saturday off too or else they will fucking give me a 2-midnight shift. I don't want to do that, it would fuck up EVERYTHING. I've offered to bring dinner for us ladies and I can't do that at midnight. I'll talk to my boss and let him know that a morning shift would be OK if need be, but I don't want to work later than like 5. Fuckers better listen to me, this is my big weekend of the WHOLE ENTIRE FUCKING SUMMER.  If they don't let me have it off then I'll be damned if I offer to do anything for them again for a really long time.

Fucking Gail decided to have her hip replacement surgery today so shes out of work and she knew, SHE KNEW, that it was important for me to have that day off. If I don't get it because they have problems covering her shift or someone else gets sick, I'll put a curse on her. I've done it with other people before and I can certainly do it to her too.

I'm being a BITCH here today.

I would have put more time, effort and energy into training if I had known I was going to get the time off for sure. I've already invested hundreds of dollars into signing up, training and equipment but not knowing if I'm going to get the day off for the race gives me nothing to work toward. When I sign up for Ironman Arizona 2015 I will KNOW that I'm going to get the time off and I will HAVE to do the workouts. Right now I can procrastinate and since its only a sprint I know I can fumble my way through it and be fine.

Dinner Out

Last Friday evening I had dinner with some of my triathlon lady friends, Suzie, Windy, June, Linda & Terry. They are a great group of ladies and we are all good friends. June started Triathlon in 2008, Linda, Suzie, me & Terry started in 2009 & Windy in 2010. All of us did Danskin Seattle as our first race and we're all Kitsap TriBabes.

All of them are still in it and after seeing their gorgeous sexy bodies, I'm all over doing it again myself. But not this year, not seriously. I'm still not in the EXERCISE EVERY FUCKING DAY mode. I am still in the I don't give a fuck if I get kinda fat stage of my life. Ironman training last year kicked my ass.

So we ate tasty food (shish ka bobs), watched a movie (Despicable Me 2) and soaked in the tub (hot tub, that is). We all had a fun time catching up with each other even though they actually get together with each other quite often & I'm rarely there. But it was an enjoyable evening.

Back on the bike

I got out on the tri bike today for a good ride. Only went 9.42 miles, around a route I do sometimes. Last time I did it that I kept track of on this one site was August 2010 and I did it in 41.14 minutes. Today I was feeling all fast and proud of myself, thought I was being fast but I wasn't. I took 40:12 today, only 1 minute faster!

LOSER.

I am going to be keeping a lot of my training to myself for a while. I'd like to be able to KICK LINDAS ASS at Danskin and secret workouts is the only way I'll be able to do that. I'll need to practice transitions too and get my ass into the lake for some swimming.

I'll need to do some weight training and build up my running, along with more bike riding. I can do this same 9.42 every day if I want, its mostly hills, some steep and long, some not too steep at all but all hills. Perfect training. I can ride Bethel Burley too, its got a few hills at the beginning & end, depending on which route I take.

I'm trying to get in a good workout every day that I'm not working really early, Tuesdays & Thursdays I'll be hitting the YMCA for spin/strength and hopefully I can get to the lake for a few swims with groups. Or I can always go with Lan to Horseshoe Lake.

I found another race I'd like to do; Black Diamond Half Ironman in September. 1 week after Lan does Tri Turtle Tri and 2 weeks before I do Race For A Soldier Half Marathon, it should all fit together nicely. I won't tell anyone besides Lan about Black Diamond so I don't have to worry about Linda deciding to do it. the only sucky thing about it is that Black Diamond has icky medals, they are just stickers on cheap metal things. But I'd like to get the distance done for a 70.3 sticker. Ha, Linda doesn't have one of those.

In other news:

I had a boarder in the barn leave, no notice. She said she left a note a month ago then she didn't pay any board for this month. Bitch. I'll post all over the Internet that she did it just so other barn owners know.

Rest Feels Good

I'm taking the summer off from hard triathlon training.

I'm going to ride my horses, swim for fun, go out on the mtn bike & take walks, maybe jog a bit.

I'll continue with the TriBabe training for Danskin, that's fun to do. Just no 75 mile hard & fast bike rides for a while.

After August I'll start back up with some good long rides, going into winter I'll need that.

I do have several races & half marathons I'm signed up for so I do have to keep in condition for those.

But for now I'll have less posts about training and more about horses for a while. I'm letting my hip flexors rest and heal, doing more stretching and might just start a serious weights & yoga regime.

I'll be back here with another year of Ironman training soon.

My New Trainer/Coach

How is training going? Very good.

Today I completed 3 hours in the gym and another hour at the track with Linda and Lisa doing intervals. Well, we called it intervals, it was question time. Linda and I have never even seen a live Ironman so we had so many questions we needed answered, like where do the SPECIAL NEEDS bags go?

Oh yeah, Lisa is my new coach. Shes the leader of the Kitsap TriBabes and we have known her for going on 4 years. She was my first choice in a coach but I went with Ryan instead. That was a good choice, I learned a LOT from him. Lisa has basically ignored her duties with Linda all winter.

Yesterday they got together and swam a mile in the lake, which was only 60* and raining, hard.

I will be getting in next week myself to see what I can do. Yay, we all know I LOVE HATE to swim.

Today in the mail I received my new Pearl Izumi Women's Symphony Shorts, REI had them for $110, MSRP was $100 and I paid less than $40 including shipping. I'm hoping these will be my Ironman shorts but lets see how the West Sound Tri Club kit is before I make that final decision.

In the next week I should be getting my Garmin Forerunner 405 GPS Sports Watch with Heart Rate Monitor. Linda has one that I love, you can get all the info online with maps, elevation, heart rate, etc. totally cool.

I really need to stay off Facebook when I'm tired. Last night I signed up for Danskin. I had a $20 discount but still paid $125.20 but there is no tee shirt included and NONE OF THE MONEY GOES TO CHARITY. If you want to make a donation you have to pay extra. I call BS on that. But they have a new race feature this year, if you are in a group of 50 or more you get your own start wave, finishers tent, tee shirt and recognition. We have always been the largest group in the last 4 years, no other groups even come close to the number of TriBabes we have.