M's win and

I'm still bored...........................................................................

Have been swimming, using the pull bouy so i don't kick. Endless 25 yard sprints. zz zzz
And spinning on the bikes. Not too hard, no standing. zz zzz
And doing a variety of sit ups and arm weights. zz zzz
Anything to raise the heart rate.
Jeez, even the hot flashes have subsided, so I can't even use those to work up a sweat.


OK, got the 2nd opinion on the knee. What else have I got to do while waiting? This guy was definitely better in the communication dept. Any doubts we had have subsided. Of course, the appt was supposed to be yesterday, til we got there and found out someone must have accessed the computer deleted me and inserted some other gimp. I've got the Rodney Dangerfield of knees !
The one week til surgery countdown has begun. zz zzz


My coach and teammates continue on..
Here's Coach Lesley (on the right) and Patricia (PNak) and Carol... out for a nice swim in the lake tonight. Carol and Les have an Ironman race in less than a month, which is why they are forcing the "open water swims" issue. I'd join them but putting on the wet suit would put too much stress on my knee. yeah, that's it. Well, HAVE YOU tried putting one of those things on??



oh, and it's RV season at the lake again. Time to call the parking enforcement. Doesn't Gina's car look nice? it's not. and doesn't our shrubbery look nice ? it's not.

Wildlife and Winds

So, I'm bored, have scanned all my fav. web sites, read both newspapers front to back, checked the mail, done some laundry..... so I'm milling/limping around saying "look how windy it is outside", "oooh boy, it's really windy", "I can't believe how windy it is", etc (talking to Gina who is not really listening), then I see a raccoon on the back porch, (now I'm un-bored) going around the house, I poke my head outside, it reverses direction.... now who knows where it is? all the while I keep saying things like "it's so windy it blew the raccoon out of the tree" and "wow, sure is windy out if even Rocky can't stay in his tree" and " I can't believe the wind blew that darn raccoon out of the tree"......... and I wonder why Gina doesn't listen to me.

Next thing we know, we both see the deck umbrella go flying !!!!!!!!! OMIGOD !!!!!.

DOUBLE OMIGOD !!!!!

Gina runs to the back yard, I cautiously venture/limp out front (remember, there is a wild rabid raccoon on the loose) .... One minute I'm looking for a raccoon, the next I'm wondering where the hella did that 'brella go ?

OH, it's up on the roof. Great, we don't have a ladder tall enough for Gina (NO , not me) to get up there. At least it didn't go flying over and into the neighbor's house. I get back in the house and before I can get a camera (or even think to get a camera) it comes flying back down onto the deck where I had been standing. Thank allah I was back in the house. "Oooh, boy, it's sure windy out there."

Don't worry, it's all settled now.. umbrella has been tied down. Gina is blaming me cuz I kept saying how windy it was so why didn't I go out and put the umbrella down?

SHE WAS LISTENING TO ME !

I still don't know where Rocky went off to but I'm not doing any yard work today.

This all happened cuz I'm not out riding my bike for 50 miles and running for 10 or swimming..... well, I can't swim in the lake, too wavy cuz .......

it's TOO gosh darn WINDY !!

Limping Along in Limbo

If you remember good ol Festis, and how he walked.. well ..................
That's me... just limpin along til June 4. Saw the doc today to go over a few things. Not much new to report, except he keeps mentioning it might be the arthritis that will be my pain, after surgery. HEY, I didn't have ol arthur bothering me before so let's not get ahead of that wagon.
He is pretty sure I won't be doing any Ironman races this summer. And unless I have some miraculous recovery , rehab, and an awesome 10 week training session, I guess I would have to agree. I do think it would be stupid to participate in such a huge undertaking at anything less than 80%. Full strength would be optimal but I'm not sure that even happens for a majority of folks.

But just for fun let me tell you about my last swim at the secret pool.. always something there. This time a dude was practicing holding his breath underwater. At first he'd just go down and hold on to this weight. Then he started doing a kind of crab walk along the bottom across the lanes. It looked very weird, was quite distracting. He'd be under for a couple minutes.

Trivia time

Yahoo ! The sun is out, I did a bit of yard work, to earn my beer and sat out on the deck. I was reading this week's Sports Illustrated and there was a great article about Dan Patch. And it got me to wondering.... have any of you loyal blog readers heard of Dan Patch ? If you are a Rinehart, you surely have heard the name.

Special prize for correct answer. No fair Googling, Wiki-ing or reading your copy of S. I. Oh, right, like any of you subscribe to that literary magazine. :)

OK, gotta go figure out the special prize.

Tri Cities 75 miler

Weber canyon.

Here is Gina making it to the top of Weber Canyon. I wanted to get a picture of her, so when I got to the top, she was not quite in sight at that bend.. I stop, get my glove off, get the phone out of bag, turn it on..... takes forever while "searching for network" .. hello, I'm not making a call, just want to use the camera feature.... just got it going as she passed by. whew.. that was harder than riding up the mtn.

This stretch of the road was about 6 miles long and all up hill. Not hugely steep, kind of like Stone Way, but 6 times longer. It was fun to do. I had a clicking noise that was bothering me, I thought it was a gear thing, (no, not my knee) and of course it only clicked when I was in the necessary granny gear. About 3/4's the way thru I looked down and saw it was some little wire hitting my foot, making the annoyance. I hate to stop on an uphill but did and bent that little wire and made my way up the rest of the hill in peace.

That was my favorite stretch of road on the Tri Cities 75 mile route. I love going up hill. But of course, what goes up.... must come down. There was a 2 mile section of 5%(or some such number) grade that truckers had to check brakes, and there were runaway truck ramps... so give you an idea of steepness. I was doing fairly well, trying not to brake the whole way down. But the cross winds were huge. It was scary trying to keep the bike upright.

The only other excitement came when passing the 2 farms/ranch that the dogs were not fenced in. One sure way to get the heart rate up and the cadence up to 127 is to have some huge barking dog come running at you.

Oh, and we did miss a turn, somehow. Just like last week. Only we didn't add any extra mileage this time. Just minutes staring at the map, and fuming about how we missed the "excellent marks on the road". And we got back too early. Cuz the beer garden wasn't yet open. Bummer.

Anne Miller

Anne Miller passed away on Monday. Peacefully, she just fell asleep, as was her wish. Thankfully, she got it. She deserved that much.

She lived with osteoporosis for, well, forever. I moved here in 1981, and lived with her and helped her with some chores (mostly it was a gift to me, a place to live and the opportunity to get to know her) and I'm not sure how long she'd been dealing with it then. Anne would have turned 95 this summer. And I'm sure I would have found the perfect "you are OLD" card for her.

FYI, Anne is my sister Joan's mother-in-law, Grady and Ardie's mom, but best described as a good friend.

Most of my memories of Anne are from my pre-digital camera days. But here are some pic's from the past few years. Mostly I remember sitting at her dining room table, having great conversations, or just quiet spells, and food (stuff we never had growing up in Michigan), and looking out at her fabulous back yard and garden. Gina loved talking with Anne, and sipping eggnog laced with booze at Christmas. A tradition that continues at the Young's, with a nod to Anne M.

\
2003 in her apt.


Christmas 2005, with Aileen

Grady, Kristoffer and Anne in the aloha spirit

Anne, Grady and Ardie, reliving their Hawaiian youth

Anne always hung on my every word.

Contemplating.

Spell Check

Got this off Utter Wonder blog..
love it. and she has such a nice shirt, too.

Hold everything !

So, last posting had me telling you the bad news of a lifetime on crutches. Today, it's different news, and nothing new has happened. hmm.

Seems the doc gave us the worst (best?) case scenario. But with a little googling, a brief chat with Gretchen the surgical nurse, talking to Dr. Trish, (our orthopedic surgeon friend who unfortunately moved to the northern territory, AKA AK) And a consult with regular sports doc (Anderson) , via Shauna, the world's best receptionist.... all info seemed to point to the fact that my horizontal cleavage most likely cannot be "repaired" (meaning the lifetime of crutches) and that he would probably trim the bad parts away, and send me home to a short recovery period.

And today Dr. Holland, via Dr. A, via Shauna...... confirmed that's what would happen... He will know best what he can/will do when he is actually in the knee. But that less than 5% chance for the repair surgery, most likely the trim job.

Why did he say the other? Did we just hear him wrong? Gina just had a hearing check and was OK'd , so we think he just forgot to add the ".... OR it could be this other scenario".

Whatever, we do have another pre-op consult with him, and this time we have a list of questions. And we are now hoping for a cancellation so that I can get in earlier than June 4.

Ironman is NOT off the schedule, yet.

OK so

I guess some folks can tear up their little meniscus, go have a quick little surgery, be out for 2 weeks and then be good to go..

I hate those folks. (except you Grady)

Me, I have to have the "horizontal cleavage tear" . The first time cleavage and me are in the same sentence.

This particular repair cannot be cut out, a meniscus-ectomy. NO, I guess due to the horizontal plane , it needs to be repaired. Which means suturing it up or whatever he's gonna do. Which means WEEKS OF NO WEIGHT BEARING . Did you hear me ?.... WEEKS OF NO WEIGHT BEARING. That means crutches... then more weeks of recovery...

Surgery is scheduled for June 4. I might get in sooner if someone cancels. woo hoo !

BUT, the good news is, and there is always good news, it should be good to go and it won't cause future arthritic type issues. So I should be able to train for another Ironman when I'm 65. I'm gonna knock Sister Madonna B.'s age group records off the charts.

As for my crutches life style... the Mariners suck so I should be able to see every inning of every loss.

MEN... who (k)needs them ?

Between the sleepless nights caused by hot flashes from what is most certainly "Early Onset MEN opause", and the knee pain from my damaged medial MEN iscus, I am not a happy camper these days.

Here I am playing doctor with the films from the MRI.


good lateral meniscus (one a 15 yr. old would be happy to have, says doc Anderson)

bad medial meniscus

ok, so the meniscus is that sort of triangular/arrow looking thing betwixt the large shapes... and it should be all dark, the little white-ish area denotes some tearing.

But on a GOOD note, check out my toes these days. looking pretty good, wouldn't you say?

The bruising on my left foot is a result of my plastic hairbrush (weighing about, what? half an ounce?) falling and hitting exactly on one of those veins. Lumped up immed. and then bad bruising.

Anyway, I have a surgical consult on Thur. morning to decide if arthroscopic surgery can help the situation.

Meniscus Surgery
The meniscus is a C shaped pad of rubbery cartilage inside the knee joint. It is similar to a shock absorber and cushions the knee during movement. It may tear when placed under too much stress causing pain. Arthroscopic surgery will involve either removing a damaged section or repairing with sutures. Recovery will take approximately 4-6 weeks and physical therapy is usually needed.

Coach Lesley is thinking positively (and so am I) and does not think that even surgery would throw off the schedule TOO badly. We'll see.

And hey, I lived thru the Boston disappointment once... ok twice.. :)

Stay tuned.

I don't KNEE'D this

Yes, it's been 10 days since posting on this blog. Ten days of knee pain. sheesh. OK, so mid Feb. I come down with this lame knee ache. It starts to get a bit better. Then relapses badly. But then starts to get better. and better. and better. OK. Then I decide to do a 4 mile run on the treadmill (cuz I'm so sick of the cold wet weather and I just wanted to run in shorts). And cuz it's so boring on the treadmill I decide to up the speed, and up it a bit more. And it was fine. Til later. And this time the relapse was/is worse. I'm scheduled to see the doc tomorrow. It is getting a bit better. I can ride and swim.. can even run but that hurts. arrghhhhh.

Did I mention I can ride ? Yesterday Gina and I rode around Lake Washington (approx. 55 miles) It was a beautiful day. We still bundled up. Shed a layer here and there. But it was 4.5 hours of fun. And today we got back on those bikes and rode from here to Seward Park and back (approx 30 miles). and each day I spent the ensuing hours icing my knee.

One of the reasons for no blogging lately is the knee totally stiffens up while sitting here.
So, I'm outta here !

Week 13 Totals : Apr 21 - Apr 27
Swim Time = 1hr. 4 min. (2900 yards)
Bike Time = 8hr. 9 min. (100 miles)
Run Time = 1hr. 0 min. (6.25 miles)

Total Training to Date
Swim Yards = 18hr. 12 min. (51050 yards)
Bike Miles = 51hr. 58 min. (755 miles)
Run Miles = 38hr. 37 min. (241.85 miles)

Mercer Island Poop

We swam at the M I Pool, and rode the M I Loop, so anagrammically I'm calling it the MI Poop.

Here's how i described the day to coach:

by the by, we did our swim and mercer is. poop today. it took all day. but only cuz when we got to our pool the guy (Russ) said closed.(and yes we did call before but no answer)... til the health insp. comes and gives them the ok, which he figured would happen, then we could swim (actually he nicely gave us directions to bellevue pool but i don't do bellevue). insp due some time before 11. so we waited. (insp. showed at 11, which we also predicted) we figured we'd have the whole pool to ourselves. and then he tells us "a disgruntled ex employee called the health dept" OMIGOD i said was it diane? the nut job from last week? yep. we really hate her now.
and then some old lady showed up, wearing a big ol neckbrace (should she be driving?) so i told her it was closed, to save her the steps to the pool. then she starts chatting... i mistakenly asked how she broke her neck... that story was gonna be endless... til the guard poked his head out to say "we passed!". gotta go lady... then i hear her at the desk moaning about who's gonna teach water aerobics.... sure enough a little later, 2 ladies in the pool, and russ the guard doing the motions on the deck. quite cute.

Zeee-Dub !!

http://propix.propixonline.com/view.php?pic=316%20-%20HIP%20HOP%20HONKIES%20-%20E/34005.jpg&which=7&page=1

This link should take you to a photo of Wendy (Gina's Wyoming rellie) starring in a dance competition, not sure which one... Dancing with the Stars?? America's Next Top Dancer? Survivor:Dance off the Island? Project Dance Costume??

We are waiting for the video. They won their division, so congrats on that.

Z-Dub is slang for Zumba Wendy.. She's been teaching that class at her gym, and some birthday parties, so I guess she hires out.

And in case the link doesn't work, here's a couple pic's... One of Wendy, and her son Super Lee, in a quiet moment. One of the few photos of Lee where he's not holding a fish he's caught. And a photo from last year's dance show.. or is it her part time job?

Daffodil Classic Bike Ride

On Sunday Gina and I headed to Orting, WA to participate in the Daffodil Classic Bike Ride. We rode for 62 miles (4hrs, 25) We started early to beat the rain. It was a bit chilly but we had several layers on. And our new bike jackets, gloves, and toe booties. (cute little things that covers the toes of the bike shoes and keeps the wind and cold out) $ $ $


Mt. Rainier

Mt. St. Helens

http://www.twbc.org/events/daffodil/2008ElevProfileEatonville61.pdf

We did not really ride up either of these mountains but were close enough for good looks. These are not my photos, grubbed them off the internet. I've got too much food, spare tubes, rain gear to carry my camera when I ride. There were a couple good hills that we rode, and a fierce headwind on the final 20 miles. All in all, it was a good day. We actually rode outside without the temp's being in the 60's. and survived. Don't tell Coach.

Oh, and because spring has not sprung around here we saw NO DAFFODILS.

and lest I forget,

Week 11 Totals : Apr 7 - Apr 13
Swim Time = 1hr. 10 min. (3100 yards)
Bike Time = 6hr. 18 min. (92 miles)
Run Time = 4hr. 15 min. (26.8 miles)

Total Training to Date
Swim Yards = 15hr. 14 min. (42450 yards)
Bike Miles = 40hr. 16 min. (609 miles)
Run Miles = 34hr. 55 min. (218.1 miles)

Bracket Master

So, for once in my life I won the March Madness bracket pool. And lucky for me, tons of folks at the gym entered, too. That meant big bucks ! And bragging rights. Also, for once in my life I mostly went with higher seeds, but I did go for some upsets ( I picked Siena first round )
Cat, the gal that works at the gym took 2nd place, which means the only 2 women to enter, WON ! We've been high fiving all week.

I figure you really wanted to see a picture of my bracket. Am I right ?
The real one is under glass, framed, and hanging on the wall.

ace. I'm not THAT weird.

Spring Ahead, Rocky

Rocky forgot to change his clock. Came out during the daylight. Got the crows all fired up. They started screaming, which upset the robins. (it's like a wildlife refuge here) And got our attention. He walked around the house and up onto the neighbor's garage.

The bad part about these photos is that they make me see that our back yard really looks like a dump. That white garage is the lady behind us. We are thankful that when she painted her house pink, she asked what we'd like on the back wall. But those boards are part of our fence and the grape vines just look shabby. Hmmm, who is the outdoor worker in this family? Oh, me. Hmm

Am I a Biker, or what?

I guess I should say "cyclist". Well, really I guess I should say "geek". Don't worry, my helmet is down in the garage. I don't even ride the half mile to the gym without it. Esp. after a fellow gym gal scolded me. She was a nurse in the head trauma unit at Harborview. ok, ok.

How do you like the new jacket ? Gina has one, too. To add to the geek factor of wearing the same outfit. Hopefully it just screams " HERE I AM, SHARING THE ROAD WITH CARS, DO NOT HIT ME". to all the folks driving while cell phoning.

But we did actually ride outside today. It was 40 degrees. But we bundled up, and did 5 hot laps around the lake. Then over to the gym to take the spinning class. Then off for a 6 mile run. What fun it all was. I joined up with Darcy and Karen on the run so that made it go much nicer. It's all about the distractions.

Unfortunately, one of our CoachLesley buddies, Jan, did have a spill on her bike and landed "just wrong".. broke the neck of her femur. Is in surgery as we speak. :( doctor has high hopes for a speedy recovery, tho. And so do we.

Is it spring yet?

We are still awaiting warmer temp's before striking out on the roads with our bikes. So Sunday was a 3hour 15 minute living room ride. Mostly entertained by the Mariner game.... til the bottom of the ninth. sheeesh.

Today we went to the secret pool. But the staff did not. It was closed for unknown reasons. We did not leave before some crazy woman, Diane, showed up. In her suit and towel. Obviously she does not shower and change when she's finished. Anyway, she was a nut job. Was certain that something was terribly wrong, cuz she used to work at the pool. Started bossing us fools that hung around... "call the NW Center..give me the phone", as she rips it out of my hands, even tho the 411 had given me a wrong # , I tried to tell her. And of course it's freezing out and drizzly... "can I sit in your car?" as she gets in.. her car was 2' away. Sure, get in. It was like a scene out of Seinfeld. So we stuck around to see what would happen. Sure enough, some supv. dude shows up, cannot work the electronic key pad, she goes to talk to him (cuz she used to work at the pool) he waves her off, she's back in the car says " Just between you and me.... pause pause... he's(the supv.) not a swimmer" Gina and I " No ! " We hang around some more. She goes to talk to him again.. "you gotta wiggle the keypad" Then she comes back and says "you can go now". Um , thanks. So we stayed a while longer, just to prove to ourselves that she was not our boss.


Week 10 Totals : Mar 31 - Apr 6
Swim Time = 1hr. 57 min. (4850 yards)
Bike Time = 5hr. 55 min. (90 miles)
Run Time = 3hr. 34 min. (23 miles)

Total Training to Date
Swim Yards = 14hr. 4 min. (39350 yards)
Bike Miles = 33hr. 58 min. (517 miles)
Run Miles = 30hr. 40 min. (191.3 miles)

A Blogger in her Birthday Suit

ACE !!

APRIL FOOLS !!!

No, the look of dismay is due to needing to still run in long tights, instead of shorts. Sheeeeesh, it is April 1st, after all. and 30 degrees this morning. F not C .

But for birthday fun we ran 5 miles, then went over to the secret pool for 2600 yards of swimming fun. Now I feel the Rinehart gene kicking in which can mean only one thing.............. Nap time.

Too much

I could give this type of info, but I spare you all the details. You are welcome. But some dude whose blog I won't be reading anymore gives about 4 charts and a week's worth of workout details.
OK OK I cannot resist giving you another example of this guy's obsessiveness. (Mario, Italian, now lives in Cupertino and works in the tech sector.... ya think ?) (he's been charting since 2003) And you all should be happy I don't blog how he does about my injuries. He has more info on his blog about his achilles injury than I could shake a willow stick at.

"According to my measurements, the road is 3.37 miles long (from the bridge to the stop sign), and gains 1290 feet. Due to its twisting nature and constantly changing grades, the local gradiometer readings should be considered approximate. Even though I measured the grade every 30-50 yards, I still did not capture all the bumps and undulations in the climb. I did a lot of guesswork to try to pick a sample that was representative of each segment.Altimeter altitude (Altitude linearly interpolated from altimeter samples, and smoothed with a 0.04mi gaussian.) Each horizontal line is 100 feet. Each vertical line is 0.2 miles.Gradiometer grade (Grade linearly interpolated from gradiometer samples, and smoothed with a 0.04mi gaussian.) Each horizontal line is 2% grade. Each vertical line is 0.2 miles.Altimeter grade (Grade linearly interpolated from altimeter samples, and smoothed with a 0.20mi gaussian.) Each horizontal line is 2% grade. Each vertical line is 0.2 miles.Comparison of grades (Green grade is from the gradiometer, magenta grade is from the altimeter, and white is where they overlap.) Each horizontal line is 2% grade. Each vertical line is 0.2 miles. Overall (averaging my first 20 hills), the gradiometer grade averages 0.63 (% grade) higher than the altimeter grade, with a standard deviation of 4.5 (% grade per road). This error may be due to:Uneven sampling -- I take more samples when the hill gets steep.Calibration error (of the gradiometer or altimeter). In the end, though, I think that each individual sample is accurate to within about 2% for that instantaneous segment of road. My results may not always agree with my altimeter, but they are generally repeatable within 1%. I think that I just need to take more samples to generate more accurate graphs"

Yes, Mario, exactly. I have been so disgusted by those inaccurate graphs, I could PUKE.

http://trimario.blogspot.com/ just in case you love the data