First Open Water Swim

I swam in Turtle Lake with Susan last night after work. I have been worried that my wetsuit is too small in my shoulders but it seemed fine in the lake. I just pulled up the sleeves far to leave extra room near the armpits. We swam for about 30 minutes. I was trying so hard to do straight lines and sight in a house but I ran into Susan twice.

Rodeo Time in Hunt Seat Pleasure

Last week I had a great idea to take my Mom's horse, Sherman to an open show. He had cut his leg bad last year and my Mom hasn't been able to take him out since she bought him. On a side note I took Roxy and Zorro (my minis) to drive. My Mom has never driven Roxy and I gave her my everyday cart, well of course she beat me. I had my fancy driving mini (supposedly placed well at a lot of mini shows) and my fancy Gerald show cart and I got 6th place and my Mom and sassy Roxy got 4th. Whenever I do something new it seems to be when it's the most popular. Driving classes 8 years ago had one horse, maybe two in a class. Now theres 8 - 10 and they are all awesome.
So back to Sherman. I have riden him a few times. He's 11, been shown to death AQHA and won at Congress a few years back in Hunt Seat Pleasure. Showmanship we had a perfect pattern and as the judge was just stepping back in fron of us Sherman moved his hind end. The judge even said "Oh, if he just waited two more seconds". Hunt seat was much worse. He was great in the warm up ring. In the ring going to the left he hopped a little in the corner but no on really noticed. We reversed and he at the canter he was literally bunny hopping down the rail. I stayed on fine but I really thought if I fall off what about the IronMan. Here I am riding a horse that should be dead broke and the whole class had to walk their horses because of Sherman (the Congress winner) bucking me. The judge told me that we would canter again and I said I wanted to stay in. After that the two judges decided that they would cut part of the class out to pick the top horses. I guess that is a polite way of getting me out of the arena. I tried him again in the warm up area and he bucked again and even harder. I got off and slugged him and backed him up...but still he won. He won in the show ring and in the warm up. Argh! After Sept 13 I can't wait to get on his back and show him who's boss. Sherman is my added motivation to get this IronMan finished so I can beat him up. I think when I return from Madison and have some strength in my body that he is going down.

Dead Dog on a 86 degree day.

I had a long run today and I was supposed to get up early to have it done before it was too warm out. I didn't get on the road until after 9 am. I got home about noon. This was my first really warm work-out. I have lucked out on all my training until now. The weather was always 50 or below early morning and I would need a jacket. I ran past a dead dog about mile 2. I thought it was a wolf so I had to look and it was a German Shepard with a red collar on. It was hit bad. Coming back home it was gone or someone must have pushed it into the ditch because when I hit that smear spot I had a nice round of dry heaves. I can't handle dead, rot smell while running. It gets me every time. I can't even stand the smell of myself running on a hot day. I don't know how a human can smell so terrible from a long run. I told Olaf about the dog and he said he saw the dog on Friday running near the road. I have no idea who's it was. Poor dog. Other dead animals: a skunk (that Olaf hit a week or so earlier but didn't mean to, PU!), a huge turtle and another smaller turtle nearby.

Another Vacation/Training Day

Today I had a 90 mile bike ride. It was uneventful in a good way. No flat tires, no wind and a perfect overcast day. I reversed the tires and put my bike tire on the front because of the flats I was getting on my rear tire. It seemed to help. I did buy new tires and will put those on in August before Dairyland Dare.

I biked the same route as my 80 miler but went farther south and crossed 94! I made it to the town of Afton. It was pretty hilly but that is great for training. I took me 5 hours 55 minutes to bike 92 miles. My average speed was 15.2. I know that seems so slow but some hills I was at 6 MPH. Argh, and 92 miles is kind of far. I still get a little shocked when I think about this and the fact that I'm riding so many miles when last year I was scared to ride my bike and went to my first Tri only having ridden it about 4 times. I wanted so bad to ride just 7 more miles and make it 100 but that ride isn't until June 26. I can't wait to hit the 100 mile mark!

Good Thing It's a Down Week

I'm down - down and sick since Monday night. I had great plans for this week but I guess not. My belly is sticking out like an ethopian baby. No joke. I went to the Dr. today and I have a stomach infection. I just have to fight it out.

On a bright note today my shirts that I ordered for the people cheering for me came in. I ordered the "slow" option which should have taken over a month and they arrived in 5 days! I have 20 t-shirt in a variety of sizes for whomever says they will be there now. I just have to order the stove pipe hats so I can see everyone from far away. Hey, if I'm going to be in pain for hours/days then my friends and family can look silly for a few minutes.

Never Trust a 80 Year Old Cyclist

I took Friday off from work (best idea ever, I would so much rather be riding my bike for hours then working!) so go for a 80 mile bike ride and 4 mile run. I left about 7:30 in the morning and it was cold for the first 40 miles. I was really glad I had my jacket. I would have froze. I don't think I could ever start out on a 80 mile ride and turn around at mile 3 to get a jacket and leave for a second time. I'm pretty sure I would just stay home.

I went out down Manning and cut across and headed a little west on the Gateway trail. It was a nice break from the hills, plus they have porta-potties along the trail. I ran into an 80 something year old cyclist and he asked where I was heading. I told him Afton and he gave me a 'interesting' way to get there. I headed down lake Lake Elmo Avenue and turned on 30th Street (this is the interesting way). My eyes were popping out of my head...the hills! I'm sure he was laughing all day about my ride, but I did tell him I wanted hills. He was kind of a character because he told me he just biked up to Columbus last weekend to visit his parents. I was shocked because this guy was 80's but really healthy because he's out biking for miles. He said they are on Coon Lake near Carlos Avery. I said I knew where that was then he finally said "they are in buried in an old cemetery". Ah - then my math made sense. I was thinking they were at least 100 plus years old.

I made it to the 40 mile mark and turned around to go home. Around 50 miles I got a flat from a huge piece of glass in my rear tire. Argh - the rear tire. I was covered in grease on my legs, my hands. I wished I had a rag and sure enough about 4 miles later there was a white rag on the shoulder of the road. What luck! I tried really hard to not think about what might be on the rag that I can't see. Thankfully that was my only flat because I carry just one spare tube, I probably should carry two next time.

After my ride I had a 4 mile run. The first 15 minutes were hard to get my legs moving but once they were able to stride it wasn't bad running. I was so happy to sleep in on Saturday!

I ran to Penn Cycle today to get more tubes. 6.99 a piece. They went up a dollar compared to last year. I'm pretty sure no one ever said this was a cheap sport. I bought 5 of them. Hopefully they will last me until IM. They said I should switch my front and bike wheel and perhaps order new tires since mine are probably well over due.