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 World Championship

Our friend, Heidi, is racing in Kona today, you can follow her here

https://track.rtrt.me/e/IRM-WORLDCHAMPIONSHIP-2017#/tracker/RKBGDTZP

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.

Taking the Plunge

I signed up for another run/race. Its the

RUN FORREST, RUN 5k

at Joint Base Lewis McCord,

followed by a free concert by Gary Sinise & the Lt Dan Band.

This will be my first race since my foot started acting up a year ago and needless to say, I'm pretty excited to participate. 

AND I'll get to see Gary Sinise, whom I am a HUGE fan of. 

Ironmans Injury

My Ironman has an injury and hasn't been working out. He's using the barn building as an excuse and though I appreciate it, he needs to get busy building up his body. Hes got a big race in November to FINISH and do it well.
From some of his comments hes made it sounds like he wants to use his injury to get a pass on the race this year and defer till next year. Um, NO. I paid for him to do it THIS year, not next year.
I was checking out the calendar and I wouldn't be able to do it till 2020 if I remained on-call at work, since we can't take days off of Thanksgiving week.

The barn/lean-too

is now completely off the arena, its a lot lighter & brighter in there. But if we are smart it can stay light and bright, with use of windows and clear roof panels.

He has been moving dirt out of the way to make room for cement. Its going to need 6 inches of sand + 4-6 inches of cement so hes got a lot of dirt to move.

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.

 

Swimming 100's

I'm not doing my own Ironman this year but I'm helping Lan with his training for IMAZ.

 

Tonight I timed his 50's & 100's:

 

WARM UP

600 easy swim, holding proper form and letting your HR rise to 70% by the end. (ALTERNATE SET: Trim this to 400 Swim)

Intermediate set: 4 x 50 hard (@80-85%) w/15 sec rest after each

1. 39.00

2. 44.09

3. 43.17

4. 42.95

Average 42.73

MAIN SET -- BIG TARGET!

10 x 100 @race pace (85+%) w/10 sec rest between each

1.   1:30.09

2.   1:38.32

3.

4.   1:39.58

5.   1:33.51

6.   1:38.20

7.   1:39.02

8.   1:36.14

9.   1:41.34

10. 1:39.55

Average 1:37.10

-- keep track of your total time (add up the time for each of the 100's) and record the average pace per 100 in your log book, for future reference.

(ALTERNATE SET: 8 x 100)

COOL DOWN

6 x 50 @60% w/10 sec rest after each

 

 

He was supposed to follow up with a 35 minute run but his calf has been bothering him. If its not better in 2 weeks I'll insist he goes to his doctor.

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.

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.

35 Hours

Officially counting down the hours till we leave for Kona and Maui,

currently at

.

I still have packing to do but I've made arrangements for the dogs, cats, horses and chickens. I've gone shopping for the house sitter and made sure all the animals have enough food to last. The VETERINARIAN EMERGENCY CONCENT FORM has been filled out, printed and signed.

 

I've purchased enough snacks to feed an army on the plane because you never know how long it's going to be before your next meal and who knows what kind of crap they're going to feed ya.

 

I didn't want to get stuck with a big ass heavy carry on but Hawaiian charges $25 for a checked bag so I have to get everything in the carry on and the small backpack.

Backpack still has room but the carry on is getting loaded. I can still unzip the extra 2 inches all around if needed.

What we have done before on trips is go light and come back heavy, purchasing big ass bags where we are at so we only have to pay one way to check them. We've done it before in Hawaii and England and the junk store is by the old jail.

Kona & Maui

We'll be leaving in 4 days.

IMAZ 2017

A text conversation I had with my friend, Suzie this morning, at about 3:15am...

Suzie: Hey, are you serious about IMAZ 2017?

Suzie: I may do Chatty

Suzie: And give you my early registration

Me: I am very serious about it. Let me know asap so I can start saving for it!

Suzie: I'd plan on it. Right now I'm 80% certain that I won't be doing IMAZ, but either Chatty or Maryland

So this is where we are right now. I don't have $1,000 cash for the registration fee and insurance and I'm saving for Hawaii right now with only about $500 in that kitty and we leave in 3 weeks. Ugh. I'll need to have the money ready in Mid-November.

I DO have another check between now and Hawaii and another in Hawaii but those will be smaller than what I'm currently getting. Down from $1,820 to $1,320 with different work shift and position. But hey, at least I'm making a steady check all winter instead of weeks without ANY pay at all like all past years.

 

 

 

Today I made another big life change. Transferred my entry into the Marine Corp Marathon (October 30 in Arlington, VA) and am making plans to do another Ironman race in 2017.

Hoping I can get in to the one I want.

 

Which is

IRONMAN ARIZONA 2017

 

Suzie has an early entry into it so I asked her if she doesn't use, may I please have it and she said maybe. She wants to do Chatty again. But I'm sure she will give her early entry to someone else that she likes better than me.

 

Lori sent me a text the other day, saying shes got the bug and would I like to do it again with her. I asked Lan, he said I can't whine to him about training. I promised I'd only whine half as much as last time.

 

 MCM was and still is on my bucket list and I'll enter the lottery again when I don't have something else going on at that time of year. This year its Hawaii for the Ironman Championships.

I also want Lan to have a chance to do another Ironman, I can't hog them all.

And I cried over this decision.

USAT Age Group Nationals

 

A few months ago I told you about how I qualified at Irongirl Sprint Tri 2015 in Seattle for the

USAT Age Group Nationals,

I came in the top 10% and was invited to race in Omaha, Nebraska against the other top 10%

in the nation.

This is the weekend they raced and several of my friends went;

Windy, Barb and Lindy.

 

And this is the medal they all received in the Olympic distance

 

Windy 3:20:39 age 44

Bard 3:25:47 age 54

Lindy 4:18:58 age 70

 

I wish I had been able to go to the race but working where I do just doesn't allow summertime vacations. My supervisor encouraged me to go but I'm not stupid, it would have been a waste of money. Today they were paying overtime for someone else to show up, he would NEVER have given me today off.

 

And its about 100* in Omaha, that would have sucked.



2016 Vineman 70.3

Lan raced Vineman 70.3 on Sunday in Windsor, California

 

The swim and T1 are 20 miles away, in Guerneville in the heart of the Sonoma Valley wine region.

The 1.2 mile swim is in the Russian River, 4-6 feet deep in most places but only about 12" deep at the turn so athletes had to walk the turn around.

 

  Lans swim wave was the 4th to start, 16 minutes after the pros started their swim. First wave after the pros was the 35-40 yr old women, then 3 waves of 45-49 yr old men.

 

 

 

Pros came out of the water in about 25 minutes.

 

Craig Alexander and Andy Potts are just two of the pros in this shot.

 

 

Here is T1

 

Lans swim was 38:01, he was 118th in his age group

 T1 was 4:10

 

The bike was on a rolling hills course through wine country.

The pros finished the 56 mile bike in about 2:10.

 

Here are Craig Alexander and Andy Potts with a couple other pro men heading out on the run and they are after it. These guys were #3, 4 & 5, the other 2 were ahead by 90 seconds.

 

A short time later Lan finished his bike, in 2:47:18,

an average of 20:08mph.

69th in his age group.

 

 

Right about the time he finished his ride the pro men finished their 13.1 mile run;

Andy Potts was the winner with about 3:48.

 

Lan, almost falling as he heads out on his run.

His T2 time was 6:15

 

Here are the pro men chatting after the race, still in the finishers chute.

 

There is Lan in the yellow shirt as he finished his run with a time of 2:17:09,

he was 96th in his age group.

 

Total race time was 5:52:23

There were 217 men in his age group and 1996 total athletes competed.

 

Just happy to be done.

Black Diamond Triathlon

 

Once again I'm in for the Black Diamond Long Course triathlon in Enumclaw, WA.

This year on September 10th.

 

I finished last year in 7:38:50

with times of

Swim~ 50:13

T1~ 4:48

Bike~ 3:39:38

T2~ 3:09

Run~ 3:00:59

 

All I have to do this year is beat each one by 1 second and I'll be good.

 

The next day is Tri Turtle Tri, our local sprint put on by Lisa every year; my fastest time on that was 2:00:26 so all I gotta do is beat 2 hours. This is weird, my fastest TTT was 2011, I also did it in 2013 but took 2 minutes longer and least year I was the bike in a relay team and I was still slower. Geesh.

Fort Ebey Kettles Run 13.1 Half Marathon

Fort Ebey Kettles Run 13.1 Half Marathon was the 2nd HARDEST half marathon I've ever finished, (1st hardest being Tacoma City half marathon, which was my first ever half marathon)

with 2750 feet of elevation gain.

This was all trails at Fort Ebey State Park, Whidbey Island, Washington.

 

Views of the beautiful Puget Sound and trees.

 

 

ALL UPHILL, all the way, barefoot, in the snow, hungry.

 

We rode the ferry over in the morning. This is the Kennewick, it holds 64 cars. 

 

Linda, Steve & Brayden

 

 

Before the race. Lan did the 5k, he was smart but he still had 660 feet of elevation gain.

(UPDATE: Lan finished 8th overall with a time of 37:23.8!!)

 

The weather said rain all day but we were so lucky and didn't get rained on at all. The trails were mostly all just wet and a little muddy, only 1 puddle we couldn't go around and it was at mile 1. I'm sure there are a lot of people with blisters from running in wet shoes for 12.1 miles, or the people who did the full marathon, twice on the same course.

 

Start of the race, big bottleneck because 200 people want to all get onto a single track trail. That's Linda in the pink.

That's Walking Stick Dude in the yellow. He wacked my leg with his stick cuz he was stupid.

 

See, UPHILL. Steep uphill.

 

And here is at the end, after we finished and DIDN'T GET A MEDAL because they didn't give any out. Maybe should have stated that in the registration process?? I mean, come on, I paid $42 just to race, didn't get a tee shirt either.

I'll never do it again and will strongly suggest no one else do it either but that's due to all the hills.

Oh, and no porta potties on the course, except the old shed outhouse near the very end of the course but none at the aid stations.

 

I did have a good time, got to spend 4hrs 28 minutes with my bestie. Who sprinted the last 10 feet to beat me but I still finished. And I had to wait 10 seconds for her to even cross the START line since she was tardy getting to it. so I technically beat her but if it makes her feel better...

and she did have to go slow for my sorry ass the entire second half.

Nationals

I woke up this morning wanting to do something nice for someone, someone who means a lot to me. I offered to pay Windys registration fee for her to go to Nationals since she qualified too (1:21:45, 8th in her A/G) and she is going. But she totally shot me down.

Made me feel like a heel for trying. Hurt my feelings and pissed me off.
She just doesn't get it, that I can't go but if I could pay her fee then I will feel a lot fucking better about NOT GOING. I'd feel like I was there, just a little bit.

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.

Post Ironman

I am an Ironman. I love being able to say it out loud and I brag as often as I can. Because I can.
I have ran just twice since the race and both times it felt wonderful but its dang cold out and I'm lazy so I don't do it often. I want to get my house in order but its cold in here because I'm too cheap to turn on the heaters.

But I have signed up for another race so I'm up to 3 again. I didn't do Yukon Do It half marathon, with the accident I seriously wasn't in shape to run but I did volunteer at the club aid station.
next race is Hot Chocolate 15k in Seattle, with Lan, on March 6th. Then Tacoma City Half May 1st and Harstine Island half June 16th.

I was thinking about doing a half each month, there is one at the end of January on a Saturday in Seattle, its free or $10 donation to the local food bank. Unsupported, you bring your own food and water and you know the way, no medals or tee shirts. But it is timed and a Boston qualifier if that's your thing. That's not my thing. But I could use it, if needed, to qualify for Half Fanatics if I wanted to and if I were to run 2 others within a 90 day period. I can't use the time & bib number 'I' had for Yukon because I sold my bib to Sandy. I want to qualify for HF's on my own.

So if I'm going to run a half each month I have to start looking for a February run that I can afford and that's on a Sunday and local, or at least in Western Washington. OK, make that within 50-100 miles from home. I really don't want to drive to Bellingham for a half marathon.

I see a lot I like but this one http://www.rainiertoruston.com/FoothillsBOHalf.html is in my home town, or ends up there anyway. Only $60 and limited to 250 participants. If I could get the day off...