I have continued to train faithfully througout the summer months. Thankfully, I have been successful in completing longer and longer distances. It's satisfying to know that even at my age, I can improve my endurance and athletic endeavors. I am thankful everyday that I have the health and strength to do so. It seems our friends have one thing or another to deal with healthwise while we stay relatively healthy.
I competed in the Beaver Lake Sprint Triathlon (1/2 mile swim/14.3 mile bike/4.2 mile run) to practice my transitions and see the results of all this training. I did better than I hoped which confirmed that training really does get results! I was amazed that I came out of the water seconds behind 2nd master's woman in the swim in the fastest time ever in a swim. Then, on the bike I maintained a decent speed in spite of a very tough 2 mile hill going up to the plateau. On the run I thought I was going to die as there were even more hills (5 to be exact) but I managed to finish in a very decent time taking 2nd place in my 60-64 age division. I missed out on 1st by only 48 seconds!
Another challenge was the 2.5 mile swim across Lake Washington, in which we swam from Medina to Madison Beach Park. I had to get a team of four together and needed a kayaker to accompany us to be able to participate..well, guess who I enlisted: Mike of course! We borrowed Dorie's kayak (we have friends that do these things, as you know). It was quite interesting hauling it from her house on the top of the 4Runner. The swim was so much fun! There were over 200 swimmers and 60 kayaks spread out all over Lake Washington on a most perfect day. I enlisted Angela (pictured, training for an Ironman of her own), a gal from my master's group named Jane and Jane got her step dad to join in. We swam as a group stopping along the way to be sure everyone was feeling okay. It took us approx. 1:30 to complete. I am looking forward to making this a tradition every year!
This weekend (9/12/09), my training calls for my longest ride ever: 117 miles (it will take 7:15 min in the saddle). It's difficult to find anyone who is willing to do such a long ride, but Amy, the gal who is training for IMFL, said she'd go with me! We plan to ride from Woodinville to Arlington and back, adding a 25 mile loop to get in the distance. Mike is going to join us for part of the ride. It promises to be a beautiful day, thank goodness. I should add that after the ride, I'll have to run 30 minutes. It will take some kind of will power to put on those running shoes, but it's got to be done if I'm going to successfully do this Ironman!
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