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.

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.