Cargo shorts in December!!

I am re-charging my solar panels! Today's highlights included driving with the top down in my mom's little cabriolet convertible and then sitting and walking on the beach barefoot and in shorts...not bad for December 28!! It was a little over 70 degrees today and pretty darn perfect except for a few clouds. I kept trying to think up more errands to have an excuse to drive around in the convertible, but all we came up with was the grocery store and then we went to the beach.

I went for a run this morning and stretched it to 4.5 miles (longest in at least a month) because it was so nice to be warm and on the beach. My hip is a little tight, but felt fine during the time I was running. I won't run again till I'm back in Seattle...but will keep doing other stuff.

Yesterday we did the morning family trip to the gym and I did a really good spin class and weights/plyometrics (while my mom did "Stretch & Tone class and deep water exercise because regular water aerobics is too wussy for her). The spin class was only 40 minutes of actual work, but a good butt kicking and, surprisingly, included neither country nor christian music...no small thing for spin class in Georgia. After an afternoon of going out to lunch and a tour of the Sea Turtle Center/hospital on Jekyll Island (very cool place and nice creatures, those turtles, although the injured ones looked pretty depressed, poor things), I went back to the gym for a swim. I was the only person in the outdoor pool as the sun was setting and the pool lights came on during my workout...the water was still ridiculously hot and I had to keep stopping to put my arms out and cool down, but it was a great swim and being outdoors to swim made me happy.

Tonight's event is happy hour (my mom has just called that "the bar is open!" as I type) at home and local fresh shrimp for dinner. YUM.

I haven't had a musical theme song in my head for a few days, but have read chapter 48 of "Eat, Pray, Love" at least 4 times followed by Chapter 49 at least twice...and those have provided some themes and a few one-liners to chew on...

Chasing retirees

I am at my mom & stepdad's on St. Simons Island Georgia for the week...got in on Christmas morning and will be here till Sunday. Despite the fact that I declared that I am boycotting the holidays this year as I just didn't have it in me, their tree, a turkey with my mom's amazing stuffing, and my favorite cheesecake (ok, plus presents and booze) mellowed my "bah humbug" a little...not quite to the point of "fa-la-la," but definitely an improvement. I also got in a short run on the beach yesterday before the aforementioned menu hit the table and I loooovvvve the beach here. It's supposed to be 75 degrees by Friday and I think I have landed where I'm supposed to be this week.

My parents are 70-year old German energizer bunnies (from whence I inherited the scheduling and efficency gene) whose mottos are "Getting old is not for sissies" and, my personal favorite, "It's 5 o'clock somewhere!" With these people, a 2 hour morning visit to the gym, followed by lunch, a nice walk on the beach, shopping, then dinner with friends at their favorite restaurant, "Mudcat Charlies" (and this was just today) is not a tough sell...as a matter of fact, I can barely keep up with them...I had to bring snacks on the shopping outing as I was bonking and they were going strong. This turbo parent scene is most excellent for my perpetual motion processing mode...as well as my efforts to balance my affinity for my mom's permanently stocked Christmas cookie plate (YUM). These people will do their best to spoil me rotten and make me sleep many hours per night this week. I am very fortunate to have such great parents.

Oh yeah, my training. Yesterday was a 3.5 mile run + 1 mile walk and my hip felt great on the run, though a little tight today. I am committed to getting out on the beach every day this week to walk and maybe one more run.

Today I got in a 30 minute hamster at the gym (while my mom did the "moving sidewalk" and weights), then both my mom and I hit the outdoor (yup, as in no roof! Whoop!) pool. Unfortunately, the pool temperature is set for "cauldron" and I about wilted, but it was really great to swim outdoors and see blue sky!!

First XC ski of the season

I went cross country skiing yesterday for the first time in almost 2 years. I rode up to Snoqualmie with my friend, Cara (great company), and dropped her off at Alpental so she could telemark...then I went on to Hyak for a nice solo ski. I remembered that my ski boots always give me blisters on my heels and tried a preemptive strike with bandaids, but I missed the mark on my left heel and shredded it anyway...oh, well, at least I saved the right one. I think I was the first person out on the trails and I was psyched when the grooming machine came right at me about a half mile out...sweet, I thought, fresh tracks all day! I didn't see anyone for over an hour (even after I took off my snow caked yellow lensed bike glasses because I couldn't see anything at all)...and I skied (ok, it's really just glorified hiking) up Mt. Catherine. It was dumping snow on me the entire time...my head and hat were a total snowball all morning. By the time I got to the top, there were no tracks to be seen anywhere as the snow had filled everything in completely (so much for the fresh fast tracks I thought I'd get). But it was beautiful and, at the top, I wouldn't have been gliding anyway because of the grade--it's just a bit of an uphill slog. I was smart enough to pack my "teflon" jacket and lobster gloves for the descent, so I quickly changed out of my soaked lighter layers and put on the warmer stuff. Coming down in the powder was really fun and I kept my heartrate up a bit because it required some pushing off to keep good downhill momentum. I never got cold (major win) and I think I skied off most of the remaining soreness from my butt...but, of course, my quads are sore today from skiing. I had a great workout and did almost 10 miles.

9.75 mile ski
2:14

This morning I had a really good swim at the Helene Madison pool masters workout again...swam with 2 guys and chatted with one afterwards who's done several Ironmans. I realized while I was swimming that I haven't taken a rest day in at least 2 weeks, and perhaps I'm almost due. However, it's just felt necessary to be in motion as much as possible lately and stacking up workouts has seemed like the right thing to do.

1 hour swim
3,500 yards

Celebrity sighting at the gym

Today was a swim-in-the-morning and lift-weights-at-lunchtime day. I had a great swim at the Greenlake pool as I met my friend, Robin, at 6:00 a.m. lap swim and we made up a workout as we went along with 2 other dudes in the lane. It was way better than a solo swim and a good filler in lieu of "real" swim team...though I'm counting the days till S.U. swim team re-opens (that'd be 12 days, are we there yet?).

So then...went to the gym to lift weights a little while ago. I had already listened to today's theme song (The Clash, "Train in Vain,") about 5 times and had finally let the ipod shuffle onto something else when I saw a woman walk by that I knew I recognized...super tall, skinny legs...yup, I bet that's her...Stanford basketball shorts...yup, definitely her. Now, a few years before Sue Bird was the Seattle basketball celeb, the basketball "bird" in Seattle was Kate Starbird and that was her, sure enough. I'm sure nobody else in the stupid gym recognized her, but I was all over it. I pseudo-stalked her upstairs where I saw her get on a hamster machine (how relieved am I to know that a very recent professional athlete does that damn hamster thing, too...I feel so much better!) and I talked to my friend, Phi, a trainer, just to make sure it was actually Starbird and to look casual and scope her out for a few minutes. I decided not to bug her while she was on the hamster, finished my workout downstairs, and waited for her to go into the locker room...where I then stalked and tried to look like I wasn't (completely transparent, I'm sure). Here's my conversation with Starbird:

Me: You're Kate Starbird, right? I'm a big fan of yours...
Bird: Well, I was Kate Starbird, now I'm just 'Kate.'
Me: You're still Kate Starbird! Do you still play?
Bird: I played in Europe for a few years, then came back and took some time off. I just started playing again recently. My back is finally better...
Me: Well, I was definitely a fan (dumbass, didn't I already say that?)
Bird: Were you around for the ABL?
Me: Yeah, I was a season ticket holder, 4th row (double dumbass)
Bird: Yeah, I recognize people who were around then...

Can't remember how the conversation ended exactly...but hey, at least I talked to one of my heroes, and I don't think I was TOO much of a dork...OK, I take that back. But what the hell, I figured she might like to be recognized and get a little fan adoration. I ditched out on my abduction/PT exercises to chase her around the gym, but my case of "lunge butt" from Wednesday is still very apparent and this seemed more important. And I did everything else!

The other momentary distraction today was a hilarious race report that Julie sent around this morning. The quote at the beginning is so good, I copied it and hung it in my cubicle:

“Blessed are the flexible for they shall never be bent out of shape.” – Ancient Xterra Tribe Race Director Proverb.

The rest is a must-read and a total crack-up. After that classic quote above, the guy leads off with, "This is a chronicle of the evolution of triathlon fear, and a big hairy, then shaved, then once again hairy moron (that would be me) who tried to conquer it. "

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=689

Definitely, the bug...

OK, I'm continuing yesterday's theme song...because the results of yesterday's PT (and by the way, PT no longer means "physical therapist," but rather "personal torturer") session are now making me feel like I was the bug smashed by a windshield butt-first. My butt and quads are the most sore they've been since Ironman...the lunges, "skaters" and various other hopping and squat things are exactly what I need, but youch...all night I was waking up and feel more and more sore each time. I somehow managed 50 minutes on my bike trainer this morning, but every time I sit for 5 minutes or more, I have a hard time getting up and moving. Tin man city.

Had a great meeting with the coach this morning and will be ready to hit the ground running---or I guess I should say biking--with a newly designed plan the first week of 2008. I have to stay conservative on the running until the hip is back to 100% ("long" runs at 4-5 miles, augh) but the focus will shift to cycling and a spring training bike trip is in the planning stages to give me a training goal (half marathons are not allowed for a while). I'll also work on more strength stuff for legs/core in the hopes that I will not be as sore as I am at present...

I'm planning to go cross country skiing this Saturday...it's dumping snow up in the mountains and a good ski workout might be a good pretend-long-run.

Windshield or bug?

Lately, I've been choosing a new theme song every day or few...or perhaps it's more accurate to say that songs are chosing me...regardless, a soundtrack for the current chapter of my life is developing. Yesterday at the gym, the ipod shuffled up Mary Chapin Carpenter and "Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug..." Perfecto...this one will last a few days, at least. Que up the background music and karoke along if you'd like:

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/The-Bug-lyrics-Mary-Chapin-Carpenter/7C9C06B880443FAD48256938000DBC90

The latest hip report is that....tah-dah...I ran on both Saturday and this morning with hardly any hip pain (making me "the Louisville slugger, baby")...but each day I only ran 4 miles and I felt the hip a bit afterwards ("sometimes you're the ball..."). This morning it was dark, pouring rain, and 39 degrees, but I was damn happy to be splashing around Greenlake and actually RUNNING instead of on the hamster machine at the gym. After the run this morning, I had another great PT session. She has me doing some cool balance stuff on the Bosu ball and some plyometrics, too. I came out of there humbled with legs shaking again (the kind of shaking where I would prefer my car didn't have a clutch), but totally psyched to be doing some new training stuff that obviously is a new challenge my body appreciates. Perhaps do-it-yourself Santa will come up with a Bosu Ball and medicine ball...hmmm.

I've dropped about 5-6 pounds in the last few weeks, but this morning I weighed myself and had gained a pound or so back (2 beers and a small mountain of phad thai at the Triple Door last night during the "Nutcracker Burlesque" show probably contributed...). I'd like to keep a few of those pounds from creeping back and maybe when I can run long again, I'll be a little faster.

The S.U. Masters swim team is on holiday break until January 2 (ggrrrr), so I'm winging it and looking for aquatic alternatives...swam alone yesterday at 24-Hr Fitness and managed to do the usual 3,000m, but I really miss the team workouts.

Overall, I'm just wishing I could hit fast forward and land in about...let's say March of 2008...with all manner of things healed and in a new more stable and happy chapter. But...there are a few moments of being the windshield and smashing that damn bug, so I'll take 'em where I can get 'em.

Pedal 'n process

I'm staying at a friend's place on Alki for a few days while he is out of town...it's a really nice place with a great view. I woke up early this morning, went for coffee and an aimless walk through a Safeway, then got back to see it get light; the mountains and the water were gorgeous. I slowly got my crap together and drove over near the I-90 lid to go for a solo ride. It was sunny, but less than 40 degrees and my face and head were numb throughout (wierd headache like my head had shrunk when I got done) . I lost feeling in some toes, but otherwise my trusty gear ("teflon" jacket and lobster gloves, I don't care how dorky they are) kept me pretty warm. My thoughts and head were spinning and processing about the whole break up situation the entire 3+ hours (kind of a 24/7 routine these days), but it was good to have my legs and pedals follow, making for a really good ride. I thought I'd probably do the south end of the lake...on the long side of Mercer Island, though, I felt good and had the urge to CLIMB something. I think it was the need to symbolically "get over" something huge in front of me. So I decided to do the north end and go over Juanita. It was a good decision, a good climb, and the trail didn't even annoy me too much from Logboom to the UW--I think I was too pre-occupied to really even notice much. My legs were definitely getting tired by the time I got close to the car...this was my longest ride in 3 months, I think (48 miles). I did get a few things "thought through" out there... and hopefully got enough of a workout to get some decent sleep tonight.

My GPS/HR monitor battery went low after about an hour, so I didn't get HR data...however, I noticed on at least one small hill that my HR hit 164...which is crazy high for me.

Ride summary:

48 miles
3:16:22
Avg pace: 14.6

So much for race magic

Whatever relationship-repairing magic the Seattle Half marathon day held unfortunately didn't last for more than a few days. Game over. This week has included an apartment hunt (successful), purchasing at least one recommended inspirational book ("Eat, Pray, Love," thanks, Erin), and a lot of workouts in between several epidodes of spontaneous combustion.

I've felt the best in the pool this week and Julie told me this morning that she thought I was a bit faster than usual in yesterday morning's workout. I definitely know that training is my center...it works for making me happy, for burning off grief (ok, maybe a little anger, too), and for just about anything in between. I can usually only get my HR into the 140s in spin class and yesterday afternoon my average for a 45 minute class was 150bpm. My new marketing idea is that I think that 24-Hour Fitness should have a banner ad on Match.com and the other dating sites that says, "If your relationship tanks, click here..." with a reminder that you can go to their gym 24/7. This is extremely convenient when you can't sleep...nothing like an hour of the elliptical machine at 5:00 a.m.

In my true disco loyalty, I'm starting to believe that Gloria Gaynor will eventually (soon, I hope) be my theme song singer of choice, but I'm still feeling a little Dave Mathews...

It's finally supposed to be clear and cold tomorrow...planning to get out on my bike.