It’s a Tornado, It’s a Cyclone; No, It’s Life!
And that’s exactly where we are right now.
This morning I walked Molly up the Bluff for the last time; to lay her to rest; dust to dust.
The week of Chicago ITU, on Monday, I said good bye.
It was a tough time.
She was such a good girl, she had so much love. She also had a lot of fear and anxiety.
I’m glad that she doesn’t have any more fear or anxiety because it made her life, and my life, so difficult.
She was such a good friend for so many years.
It’s sad to say good bye.
She was such a good Grandma to Ringo. She only tried to eat him every day..
Those of you who knew her, knew us, knew her as crazimolmol. Because she was crazy. She had her lovely moments, as we all do. She couldn’t meet people until crated and calm, she could never meet dogs; it’s amazing that we have been able to bring in two with her in existence. It wasn’t easy, that’s for sure!
She was my cuddle queen, my reincarnated cat, my thorn in my side.
She was all of those things.
She spent 2 weeks in doggie jail, and bit many people.
She killed many animals and brought them to us at the dinner table; including the squirrel she caught in Keller, Texas during Thanksgiving.
She liked to dig up rattle snakes, and whatever else.
I am a certified dog whisperer now because I had to invest thousands of hours in watching Dog Whisperer episodes in my attempt to tame the beast, that could not be tamed.
I miss her, my life is so peaceful now; my walks, relaxing joy.
She is one with the wind and has gone to meet her brothers on the other side of the rainbow.
Thank you Molly for being such a great friend for all those years. We love you!
That preludes Chicago ITU. Having said good bye to Molly, I didn’t really feel that great, I was tired, hot, not right. I thought, well, I am under so much pressure right now, I must just be feeling an emotional toll and suffering from pre-race pneumonia.
I missed my breakthrough taper workouts, which I needed, to bring my bike together.
I stuck the thermometer in my mouth Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday and each day I had a fever 99-100.
No wonder I didn’t feel great.
We were going to Chicago, I have Thursday, Friday, Saturday I will either be able to go, or not. At this point, even though I planned it as my ‘A’ race, whatever happens, happens, and there’s nothing I can do about it; except have fun and enjoy the ride!
Chicago is always a trip. I’m not much of a city girl. I like visiting the city, that’s one of the reasons I like Albuquerque so much, it’s big city but not really.
Chicago is an opportunity for me to wear my super cool Dope hat I got while Ken and I were in Vegas.
The highlight of people watching was the dude, who nearly naked, dumped his bike, his back pack, and ran ranting in the opposite direction. A nice clean cut guy who clearly was tweaking.
So I’m just going one day at a time, taking the girls shopping,
taking pictures of the Chicago Skyline in “The Bean”,
watching movies,
checking out the course,
and
watching the Pro Women:
Gwen Jorgensen ended up winning for a historical finish.
We didn’t see her cross the line, well, except on T.V when we got home.
We got to see her come out of the water,
Bike almost all of the 8 loops,
and 2 laps of the run.
My race was mediocre.
A huge storm rolled in while in transition at 430 am.
I knew the bike course was going to be busy,
I knew it was technical, I knew I had been sick all week, and I knew I might have it, I might not, and if the asphalt is wet, I am not going to have a good time. I also don’t want to be in Lake Michigan when lightening strikes.
I waited it out.
I’m glad I did.
At 6 am we went down to the water. I decided to wear my sleeveless wet suit, which would end up being a huge mistake. It’s tighter than my full, and after sitting for almost 2 hours with it on in the heat, I could tell, that it was going to be a limiting factor in the race.
We began the swim at 720 and the first thing I noticed is I felt as tired as in Trinona, without a TT the night before. Oh well, what’s a girl to do? Her best!
I should have been able to pull off much faster times; the truth is, not all races can be good races, we are able to learn from all of them, and bring that knowledge to the forefront to use in the future.
I need a larger sleeveless wet suit.
The bike was awesome, we did 4 x 10k loops. It could have been sketchy, there were a few wet corners, and the guys on their fancy TT bikes taking corners with their inside legs down. Thank God we survived!
I thought I would get great power numbers from the 40k TT. As it turned out, I was only able to perform in Z3 on the bike. C’est la vie.
It felt like I was going hard enough to get a raise in my FTP. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles some times.
The run:
I knew I could run the 10k in Zone 4, I took the Garmin off the bike, switched to run, and used it as a tool to keep me from slowing down. This was working great until the 2nd loop when I dumped water on my head and my HR contact was lost and my HR was showing 60-80 bpm. I was hoping that wasn’t right, so once that happened I went by pace.
I met a new friend on the bike from New Mexico, that was super cool!
Finally the finish line. 2:41 and some change, a mediocre day was good enough for top 1/3rd. I’m not going to complain at all because I have been off Tri’s for 2 years, and I think, that’s pretty darn good considering!
I was so happy to be done.
I have never been so sore as I was after this race. Weird, huh, cause it was less than 3 hours?!?!
I love swimming and running, but I really miss my 6 hour mountain bike rides and getting lost out there.
Lost in nature, lost in the beauty, lost in my own mind.
I took a couple of days off,
Ken didn’t have to travel the 11th of July as planned, so I got a wild hare and checked it out; Silver Rush 50 Miler in Leadville July 12th.
Let’s see if I can ride 5.6 to 6 hours.
6.5 hours: total rolling time: 6:02, 51+ miles, and over 4600 elevation climbing.
So I am heading to NM a couple of days early, through Leadville, going to “drop the hammer” at the Silver Rush, I can’t wait to freeze my ass off and be so high and feel so free like I do when I’m in Leadville.
Batman and I have wanted to ride Leadville, I couldn’t get him in time for last year’s LT100 so let’s see what we can do!
I ran the Silver Rush 2 years ago, and I can’t wait to ride it!
I may not make the cut-off, I may get an LT100 entry. Only God knows.
I do know it is going to be a good, long, hard ride.
I can’t wait!
Thanks for checking in, Happy Trails and Keep the Rubber Side Down!