Keeping Secrets

Today after a 10 hour shift at work & then a 2 hour nap, Lan asked me to go swimming with him out at Wildcat Lake. I was hesitant at first, I haven't been swimming much. But I've never swam much.

But I did go and I had a good time and swam 1 mile in 46:34, my fastest time ever. EVER. My splits were 23 minutes each.

Lan said I had good form out there.

I concentrated on pulling faster, throwing my arm 'into the mailbox' harder/faster, kicking less & with straight legs, rotation, arms wide... It must have all worked because I swam a lot faster than I used to.

If I want any chance of beating Linda in Danskin this year then I'm going to have to work out more often, harder, longer and go faster.

And, KEEP SECRETS.

I'm not going to workout with or share my results with her. I'll fudge on my times, add a few minutes, slow my pace, shorten the distances, say it was a flat road when it might have been hilly.

On Daily Mile I am no longer friends with her husband since he will see my results and will share with her and encourage her to go ride/run/swim more.

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.

Pedicures for horsies

My farrier, Gary, came out to visit my girls today.

Wifi got a trim, she needed it badly.

Look how much he had to trimoff. Of course, those are treats for the dogs to chew up.

Shes so curious, wants to get into everything.

Lan standing here holding her & she looks like a pony next to him. Shes not that small!

Abby & I measured her last night, shes still 14.1hh. But everyone thinks shes getting bigger, its just width thats growing & thats fine. She was so slim last year.

Wifi's toes all done. Shes got mismatched hooves but thats what happens when an unplanned breeding occurs. But I love her in spite of all her weirdness.

It looks like shes got 1 shoe on but she doesn't.

After Gary got done with the stinker butt he trimmed Sunshowers hooves. She wasn't such a stinker but she still isn't perfect either. Gary WORKED for his $125.

And Sunshowers finished hooves with her new shoes. Shes got nice feet, perfectly sized for her and nicely round. They match each other well.

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.

Bipolar Day

The day started out BAD but ended up GOOD... I'll tell it in reverse so you can enjoy the good stuff & ignore the bad stuff if you want.

The GOOD:
After the gym I went to the barn where Sarah has Joey boarded and he got a new salt lick (they didn't already have one in his stall???) and he got a 5way shot. Then we got to go for a trail ride, which was just what I needed. Joey pretty much took care of me and I SO appreciate that, hes such a good boy.

The BAD:
This morning I woke up barely in time to get my ass to the YMCA for my regular Thursday class but first I had to get ready and feed horses too. And turn horses out that had been locked into their stalls all night (due to July 4th fireworks). I was a few minutes late to class but made it. After setting up my spin bike I got going & realized I DON'T WANT TO TRAIN HARD FOR ANOTHER YEAR.

And I started crying.

I got off my bike and went to the restroom and had a good tear fest.

Then I went back into the classroom, got my ass on my bike and finished the class.

Torrey, our coach, was great. Shes so nice and understanding. I had a hard time not crying again but I refrained, just barely, and the class ended up being OK.

This was the first time I've cried over not finishing CDA.

I have been kind of avoiding Linda because she expects me to be all excited for her finish, and I was and am, but she needs to feel just a little bit sorry for me. Just one time it would be nice to hear her say 'I'm sorry you didn't finish' instead of her crying because her spin class leader didn't congratulate her in front of everyone. They said it was because they didn't want to make Barbara feel bad.

I understand her wanting that praise, its what I was hoping I'd come home to. But she has to understand that Barbara and I had a sucky time in our races.

I don't want Linda to go next year.

My Ironman Coeur d'Alene Race Report

My Ironman Swim Experience:

 About 8 minutes before the start cannon went off I told Linda I wanted to experience the washing machine & I did it. No farting around on the beach, no slow entering. I go in that water and started swimming, which is unusual for me. I didn't freak out, my goggles didn't leak.

I got kicked in the face and every where else on my body, I was hit on my head, I was swam over, I swam over other people, I was fondled and groped on every intimate part of my body.

My goggles fogged up so bad that I couldn't see the bouys so I just kept track of the heads around me & went in the general direction they were going. There were legs kicking, arms stroking, bubbles everywhere, kayaks and surf boards in the way and thats why they call it the Washing Machine.
I was loving every minute of it, it was so much fun.

 I made it to the first turn fast & was expecting a tough time till the next turn but it wasn't bad at all. Going back to the beach was fast and I completed the first lap in 55 minutes, which really surprised me. I found out later that Richard Seibert was exiting the swim the time I got done with the first one.

My 2nd lap was a whole different story. The wind kicked up and made big waves so we were thrown around, up & down, rolling me side to side. I had to keep sighting land, see anything on the horizon to keep the motion sickness at bay.

I had been able to wipe the inside of my goggles at the turn around so I could see until they fogged again. This time it took longer to get to each bouy, I thought I was at the 4th one but it was only the 2nd, then there were 2 smaller ones to pass before I reached the big red turn bouy. Every time I sighted & breathed I sucked in water. The waves were having their way with me but I was still hanging in there, enjoying myself and having fun.

In the middle of the end of that lap I was being pushed by waves into the small red marker bouy; I tried to go right but suddenly some guy swam over me and my leg cramped, hard. I got away from him & the bouy, stretched my leg out some & tried to swim but it was very difficult. Waves were hitting me in the face, I was breathing water so decided I needed to hold on to a kayak. But none of them saw me waving for help!

I just started swimming again and made it to the turn heading back to the beach where I got ahold of a kayak for a minute. That guy told me there were white caps on the lake & he was surprised we were all doing so well. I then basically went from kayak to surf board to kayak for a ways, massaging my leg and trying to swim, trying to sight the shore through the foggy goggles. I knew I had a half hour with 1/8 of a mile to go, there were still plenty of swimmers around me and I HAD to get to shore. I still had the motion sickness going on, still had to sight every other breath.

I could hear Mike Reilly on the loud speaker cheering on the people coming out of the water and that was encouraging. Finally I could see the shore, I could see the volunteers and I stood up and walked out of the water, SO happy to see the time was 2:04:42 and not 2:20.

At this point I was just so surprised to see the clock hadn't timed out.

My leg was still cramping and it was difficult to walk so I was assisted to the grassy area where they stripped my wetsuit and booties off me & put me into the heating tent.

The tent had maybe 6 chairs and about 50 women sitting everywhere around 2 propane heaters, I swear it was 115 degrees in that tent. I wasn't cold though, just had that awful cramp. They brought me my T1 gear bag and I dried off & got out of there in about 15 minutes.

Ran to the bike...

I mounted my bike at 2:20:42

and headed out onto the course.

Its a 2 loop course in sort of a figure 8, the first part goes east along Lakeshore Drive to the end of the road where we turned around & headed back to town. I was having a good time and I was lapped by a few pros before I even got back into town.

I rode pretty well, or so I thought. People were passing me but I was thinking I wouldn't go all out on my first loop so I wouldnt use all my energy. But my leg was still cramping from the swim. It would ease up a little & then come on again and I was scared of hurting my left knee again too.

I had a good time riding, its a pretty course and the hills aren't too bad. I was able to just slowly turn the pedals going up hills and scream down the other sides.

I made it 85 miles before I knew I had to stop. I was 5 miles from the 90 mile turn around and I would have been pulled from the race anyway due to timing out at 4pm.

Viktor Zyemtsev was the winner at 8:32:29

Meredith Kessler (USA) won the womens race in 9:21:44

Dane-ger Ballou, in his first Ironman, came in 2nd in his age group, 18-24 yr old males so

HE'S GOING TO KONA!!!!

Here is the medal so many other people got; Linda, Richard, Alisa, Dane, Linda R. and so many others.

 But I didn't get one. I'll get another shot at it next year, there are only 360 days to go!

IRONMAN Coeur d'Alene 2012

How is training going? Its all done.

Tomorrow I will attempt to finish my first ever Ironman triathlon; swim 2.4 miles in 60* water, bike 112 miles and then run a 26.2 mile marathon. There are a lot of people here that I know and we're all going to have a great day tomorrow. Loving this weekend.