Summertime

Well, it has been a good summer. Other than work, which is, well, work I have been spending the majority of my time outside. I am either swimming, biking, running, working in my flower beds, or just sitting on my deck.

Several weeks ago I raced in a local sprint triathlon. I raced this a couple of years ago and here is the race report from then. This year, I was sick Saturday night and lost a good portion of the fluids and calories I had been working on all day for the race the next day. Sunday morning I got up and had a Nutrigrain bar and a bit of Gatorade as I was still afraid to eat. The swim was not great and I felt really sick on my bike. I considered turning in my chip after the bike ride because I felt so bad but by the 3rd loop of the 3 loop course I finally started to feel better and so I continued to race. I had a great run and I held on for 3rd overall female, 2nd in my age group. (Note: this is just a small local race.)

Place in age group: 2/13
Gender place: 3/73
Swim: 10:13 (Pace: 1:54/100 m)
TI: :53
Bike: 41:58 (Pace: 21.4 mph)
T2: :45
Run: 23:57 (Pace: 7:49)
Finishing Time: 1:17:15

Something else that was sort of amusing to me was the guy's set up next to me.

Here is my transition set up...


And here is his...


Note this little detail...


That would be the bucket 'o Gu. Two words...

SPRINT TRIATHLON.

Oh well, to each their own. Everyone is entitled to race their own race and he was a veteran triathlete. I say do what works.


Last weekend I raced with a few friends at Big Creek Triathlon near Des Moines. This was an Olympic distance race and this particular race previously held the distinction of most miserable race ever in my book. I wrote a rather wordy race report on it then. Anywho, the weather was much cooler this year which helped. The swim was wet suit legal but I didn't use one. I ended up starting too far left and having to swim across everyone. That was dumb. I then had trouble getting my legs going on the bike. The race's website boasted that the bike course was flat and fast. Somehow, this morphed into hilly, windy, and slow. I had a decent run but by that time it was too late. Overall, I had a sucky race. I felt pretty good until about 5 pm that evening. My head was throbbing and all I wanted to do was go to bed. I guess now I had better find another race to end on.

Place in age group:10/20
Gender place: 33/97
Swim: 31:32 (Pace:1:56/100 m)
TI: 1:03
Bike: 1:16:33 (Pace: 19.5 mph)
T2: 1:00
Run: 53:15 (Pace: 8:35)
Finishing Time: 2:43:24

It has been a busy summer for Mr KT and we both felt like we had hardly seen each other. He had a week off work last week to recover and energize himself for the fall and I took Friday off. We had intended to do a mini vacation but for several reasons this didn't work. Instead we opted to take the dogs to the lake for the afternoon. It thunder-stormed hard over night and it was grey and cloudy when I got up to swim at 5:30. By 11:00 all the clouds had burned off and it was hot and humid. We packed up the dogs and lunch and our gear and headed to the lake. When we arrived it was already 90 deg. We took the dogs on a short trail run but had to short cut back because it was just too hot for them.

Mr KT and Brick and Kona in the shade after running, trying to cool off.


We threw on swim suits and got in the water. Kona is a little fishy. She swims all over and she looks so cute. Brick seems to like to swim but always looks like he is drowning. He picks his head up too high and then his backside sinks. He swam out to his dad and then quit paddling when he got there. Mr KT then decided it was time to put his life jacket on. I thought maybe Brick would be embarrassed but Mr KT said, "all the kids are wearing them" and he was right. All the kids on the beach had life jackets on so Brick fit right in. We had a little lunch and put the babies in their beds for a quick nap. Then a little more swimming and home for the evening. It was a really fun afternoon.


Brick shaking it off



A soggy Kona.



KT and Kona loving the sun, water, and wind.



Brick looking stellar (and safe) in his doggy life jacket.