Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The countdown to Wildflower

Just a few days until my first Olympic triathlon at Wildflower. On Friday Chris and I will leave for Lake San Antonio.

We sent our tent ahead last week with some wonderful folks in the tri club who were going to grab space for all of us. It merited a mention in the email sent out to the club: "I'm returning tomorrow afternoon to the lake and will be there until the festival is over. If I'm bored, I'll probably try to erect some of the tents (although Paul might have done that before I get there). Thank you to those who included directions for what might be challenging construction jobs. :-) I can't remember who had the tent with three rooms and sleeps 7-8 but I want to party with you! I think it will give TNT's tent a run for its money. ;-) "

Anyway, Chris and I head down to our party tent on Friday, will watch the other races on Saturday, and then have our race on Sunday! The waves start at 9am and go off every 5 minutes through 11am. My start is around 10:30am so I will be racing in the heat of the day - blech.

Please think happy thoughts...I do not want to be hauled out of the lake gasping for air!

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Holy cobwebs, batman!

Jeff is hanging upside down to help out his wrenched back. The dogs take this opportunity to lick his head as much as they can!

Monday, April 21, 2008

Wow, that was fast!

The rough cuts of win photos from yesterday are online already.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Lynn, were you taking bets on this?

Back to the show for us today, where Mr Stanley showed quite nicely. Nicely enough to....





take Winners Dog and Best of Winners for the major and FINISH HIS CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!!

Not bad for a 13-month-old, huh?

He is now officially CH Highlander He Shoots He Scores. Now on to herding and agility and obedience!

Saturday, April 19, 2008

99.9 miles, baby

Today Jeff and my father and I completed our very first century ride in the Tierra Bella event.

*slumps into a daze*

Alternately cold and hot, and 100% windy throughout. It's DONE though!!!!!

Back to the show tomorrow.

At the first rest stop of the day

























35 miles in, 2nd rest stop













On top of the big mountain

























75 miles in, 4th rest stop

Friday, April 18, 2008

Another day, another event

and another darn good day!

Stanley went 2nd place in his sweeps class to the dog that took Best in Sweeps. Beatrix went Best Opposite in Sweeps.

Stan then went Reserve Winners Dog in a big major to the same dog, and Bea took Reserve Winners Bitch. Stanley's most wonderful true love Mary took Winners Bitch for her first major!

Now it's on to carbo-loading and sleep.

*edited to add photos*

Goofball in sweeps
















I see his grandfather in him here
















Mom Maude (left) with kids Bea, Mackenzie and Stanley

Thursday, April 17, 2008

So Far, So Good!

The day in summary:

* The agility trial ran seamlessly.
* Max had fun.
* Stanley had fun.
* Max picked up...1st place in Excellent A FAST, 1st place in Excellent B Standard, 2nd place in Excellent B Jumpers, and High In Trial in Standard!
* Sharks WIN!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Brain in overload

Let's just look at my schedule for the next few days....

Wednesday - Drive Stanley 30 miles to groomer. Drive 30 miles home. Run. Bike. Run. Bathe Max. Drive 30 miles to groomer to pick up Stanley. Drive 30 miles home. Pack car. Obsess about having everything ready for weekend. Go to SVTC swim workout. Eat everything in sight.

Thursday - Drive Stanley and Max to Vallejo for NCBCF Regional Specialty agility trial. Spend hours running around like crazy trying to make trial run smoothly, as I am the trial secretary. Drive home at warp factor 10 to make it for Game 5 of the Sharks-Flames round 1 playoff series. Hope that my Sharks don't make me cry.

Friday - Drive Stanley and Max to Vallejo for the NCBCF Regional Specialty conformation show. Run Stanley around the ring repeatedly. Drive home. Go to century check-in. Carbo-load with enormous amounts of pasta.

Saturday - Ride 100 miles as part of the Tierra Bella century ride. Go home, collapse.

Sunday - Drive Stanley back to Vallejo to show again.

Is it any wonder I'm a bit anxious this morning?

Friday, April 11, 2008

Training training training

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Besides prepping for our beardie regional next week, I've just been focused heavily on training for upcoming events.

First up is the Tierra Bella century on April 19th - 100 miles on my lovely bicycle. Check out this elevation profile:

To train for this, we've been riding long every weekend (topping out at 75 miles tomorrow) with shorter trips in between, checking out various features of our course. That climb to Henry Coe is a monster!

2 weeks later, I'll be racing at the Avia Wildflower Triathlon, olympic distance, down at Lake San Antonio in central California. My friend Chris is also entered in this race, so we went down there last weekend to train on our race course with the Silicon Valley Triathlon Club.

A quick assessment:
1500m Swim: As we all know, my weakest area. The lake was cold and I know I will be slow - I will have to just focus on settling down early and taking my time.

40K Bike: Described by the folks at Tri California as "extremely hilly," it looks and rides a whole lot better than the century course! It will be difficult at race pace but looks quite do-able, assuming I have any oxygen left after the swim.


10K Run: Encouragingly labeled by Tri California as "brutal," this course is uphill, the whole way. With any luck, I'll be too damn tired to care! Feeling strong on this one will depend on how warm it has gotten by the time I get out to run.

So anyway, that's what we're up to here. No agility classes because our teacher is on maternity leave. No dog shows for the last few weeks. Just work and training and trying to keep the puppy clean.

Oh, and how cute do Bea and Stan look here???