"F" Words...

I'm dogsitting my favorite 12 year old mellow beagle, Rosie, this weekend! She's the best and I love it whenever I can bring her to the Shoebox!

So...it appears that I haven't blogged all week again...week #2 of school hit and it was the usual busy week. I kept thinking, "Was I really BORED 2 weeks ago?!" It's been a week of various "F Words" since Monday...

After Sunday's stellar bike ride, I thought I'd try to repeat the experience on Monday. It was sunny at the Shoebox at 11:00 a.m. when I went out...but by the time I got down to Lake Washington Blvd., I was in cold, socked-in (first "F") fog and was wishing I'd worn my uber-cold weather gear. My extremities were numb/painful and I was having fantasies about hot chocolate, hot coffee, just about anything hot by mile 7. The next F words for this day were frostbite (as in, "I am sure I'm getting it") and the most famous F word that, yes I know, I tend to overuse anyway... By the time I'd looped Mercer Island, I had to stop at the park/bathrooms to get some (next F) feeling back in my (next one) fingers. On the way back over to the Seattle side, though, the F-ing Fog was melting and I warmed up a little in the sun... just in time to get a Flat (next F word) right at the hairpin turns by the Bush School...augh!! At this point, I'd already used up my week's allocation of the usual F word and started paying it forward into next week's usages. I was less than 5 miles from home and just didn't want to deal with it. I tried to buck up and changed the tire once only to have it go "ssssss" as soon as I tried to inflate it (at this point, I'd used all of next month's bank of F word exclamations). At this point, I got out my most favorite trusty tool, my phone (ok, it's a "ph" not an F), and started calling people who could possibly scoop me with a ride home. After a few near-misses, I got a hold of Nancy who promptly dispatched her husband, Harry, to pick me up (thank you, thank you, thank you). My bike hung on the rack with its flat tire till this morning...

Moving on to the school week...the next F word was fascia. We are continuing to learn about superficial and deep fascia and the techniques of myofacial release. Fascia is kind of the saran wrap of muscles and is a webbing that runs throughout the body---the fibrous evidence that everything is interrelated. This technique of MFR has been something very difficult for me to embrace---for the very simple reason that it requires patience and sitting still. It's possible to hold an area of tissue for a really long time (our TA says it's like watching paint dry, totally true) to enable the fascia to "melt," change, and unstick itself...Of course, it's against my nature to wait for anything, especially with movement the speed of a sloth...so experiencing and working on my presencing with it has been pretty powerful for me. And, of course, it's not lost on me that it's a bit of a metaphor for the slowing down/being patient that the universe is suggesting-- via my broken butt muscle--that I do elsewhere in my life. Kind of like fascia, things all over the place seem to be webbed together and related.

Today, I fixed the flat with my last tube and set out for a bike ride again, wearing the proper gear this time. Since I'd blown through at least 3 tubes on Monday's little F-ing episode, I drove my bike to Leschi and re-stocked at Triumph Multisport before the ride. It was definitely brisk, but I had a nice 28 mile ride out-and-back on the long side of Mercer Island.

Later this afternoon, I went back to my trigger point guru, Dale, for a treatment. My butt has been killing me constantly and it was good to have him work on me again...and, of course, he talked with me about how valuable the pain is and yelled to me on my way out the door, "Remember, this pain is a gift..." I'm really really trying to hear that and accept that he's totally right (he's not the first person to suggest this lately), but was leaning more toward using the old F word again...!

Sunny winter bike ride!

Look out...I'm about to use the words "sunny," "January," and "bike ride" in the same sentence...yeah, and without the words, "frostbite" and "pain." As in....I went for a comfortable 30 mile sunny bike ride today, January 18th, without freezing or wincing.

On Friday evening, I went out to Ocean Shores with Heather & Chase and their family (i.e. Heather's parents, and the kids). As always when Candi (Heather's mom, the restaurant owner/Chef) is around, there was a mountain of food and good wine on site the whole weekend, including tons of homemade bread (super YUM). So great and cozy. The weekend started with the first season episode of my favorite show, "Friday Night Lights," and some amazing clam chowder. It was sunny on the coast and fun to hang out with everyone, watch movies and the waves crashing, and relax. I took my massage table, too, and was able to give 3 massages yesterday and log some good hours. This quarter I have to do a lot more practice hours for school, so I was happy to get off to a good start.

I woke up early today and solo road tripped myself back to Seattle...as was the case on the drive down, I took Aleve and sat on an ice pack in pain almost the whole way...my hamstring just KILLS sitting in the car, it really sucks. When I got home, it was sunny and warming up nicely, so I decided to try a bike ride. Fortunately, sitting on the bike is way more comfortable than sitting anywhere else and I had a really nice ride around Mercer Island. It's been weeks since I've been outdoors on my bike and the poor thing has been cleaned and sitting on the rack looking forlorn for weeks...it was great to get out in the fresh air and sunshine. I got home just in time to shower and head downtown to meet a bunch of fun girls for the "L Word" premiere at Cinerama (they killed Jenny--whoo-hoo! I've hated her for 5 seasons!)...and then we went for drinks at Purr. Super fun weekend with lots of my favorite people.

I have the MLK Day holiday tomorrow, so I'll have some time to get some stuff done before hitting the ground running again at school on Tuesday...

Bring on the sports massage!

Whoo-hoo, I'm back to school this week! As much as I love having time for leisurely coffee and a lot of the "Today Show," our winter break from school was really just too damn long. Back in class today, it seemed that several of my classmates also wouldn't have minded coming back last week instead of this week...glad it wasn't just me who was getting stir crazy.

I had my first day working in the school clinic yesterday and it jolted the cobwebs out...and today was back into the full classroom days. We have a few different instructors this quarter and our Anatomy teacher is my new favorite. He is a cool uber-knowledgeable naturopath with a lot of interesting experience. I love his energy and think I'll learn a lot from him. Our practical classes this quarter will include sports massage, chair massage, and myofacial release...I suppose it goes without saying that I'm totally psyched about the sports stuff. We already started learning it today and, of course, I'm digging it and looking forward to learning more and practicing on people!

Obviously, school is the good news. The less good news is that my pain in the ass hamstring (perhaps the piriformis?) is still, literally, a pain in the ass. The most painful thing is sitting in the car (I went to Olympia over the weekend to play with Heather & Chase and was pretty miserable in transit). Sitting in class today was not so fun, either. I just spent almost half an hour rolling on my foam roller and tennis ball to try to start breaking things up...thanks to massage school, I have a visual impression of the scar tissue and am trying to implement a little cross fiber therapy on myself. But I think this may be a long healing process. Again. Sigh. I'm able to swim (though flip turns hurt) and am doing a lot of hamster impersonations on the elliptical machine at the gym. I don't love it, but am quite thankful to have SOMETHING I can do to maintain some fitness...I haven't tried the bike, but may try my trainer a little in the next couple of days to see how it feels.

Spoke too soon

As I write this, I am sitting on an ice pack. The Goddess of Chronic Injury apparently frowned upon yesterday's blog post and my (apparently premature) prediction that I was on the comeback trail...that b*&$! swooped in with a "Not so fast, sister" snap of the bad hamstring today.

I had a good swim this morning and then went to the gym a few hours later. I was done with my regular workout and was stretching on the floor...nothing funky, wierd, or unusual, and I swear, I wasn't trying to push it. The second time I stretched my hamstring, I felt it go SNAP-POP...kind of like it rolled itself medially right over the butt bone attachment (same location that's been painful for months). For a brief second, I had this fantasy that maybe the pop was a super self-healing thing that it did to push the last of the pain OUT. Um, no surprise, fantasy was not reality. It didn't start killing me immediately, but gained painful momentum within an hour and worsened through the day. I met Stacey for a while after the gym and, since she had a stash, I threw 2 Aleve at the problem as soon as possible. Later, I walked downtown to meet Michele for a movie...thought maybe some slow downhill movement might be a good idea...I was right that going downhill is better than uphill or flat, but movement in general seems contraindicated. By the time I got to the theater, it was really hurting. We saw "Gran Torino," (I recommend it) while I continually shifted trying to be comfortable. After the movie, I begged Michele for a ride up the hill and thankfully, she obliged, although sitting in a car friggin' hurts, too. Yeah, pretty much anything more than breathing sucks at the moment and I'm pretty bummed.

I'm hoping sleep will help and am headed to bed shortly...

On the comeback trail

So...the yoga thing seems to have been a good idea. I slept late with the dogs and woke up a bit stiff this morning--the hammie was really feeling it when I first got up. But...I stretched with the morning coffee (I'm becoming pretty religious about stretching--old age and wisdom? OK, more like old age and necessity) and went for a run a couple hours later. I was able to run 5 miles on Saturday and went for 5.25 today. Both times I didn't push it hard or do any hills (ran at Greenlake) and I DID feel the hamstring...BUT (butt), it was only a dull roar so I'm calling it progress. I stretched again after running and later in the day felt much better than I usually do after a run. I'm happy to be getting re-introduced to my running body...I've missed it and hope I'm really on the mend...I can hardly remember running without some pain and hope it happens again!

Today also included hanging out with my friend, Shannon, from school. We had a great chat and it was good to hear that I'm not the only one who's ready to get back to school soon...we're both enjoying a bit of leisure, but starting to burn out on TV and chill time. Later today I got my report card from first quarter and was happy that I did better than I thought...guess you could say I nailed it :)

What's so hot about hot yoga?

These are my companions this week, Ruby and Rafiki. I'm staying at their place until Thursday and have thrown the tennis ball more times with more weather variables than I can remember at this point. Ruby is Ms. Fetchy McFetchington and would chase a ball until her paws fell off if given the opportunity...she will beg to play in the dark, in the snow (when the ball is frozen and gets lost or she slips on the sidewalk and the deck), in the rain, in the mud, at 5:30 a.m., and most recently in crazy wind.

Other than throwing (and throwing and throwing) dog toys, I'm managing to find things to do in this last week of the llloonnnggg winter break. Yesterday I got in an almost 2 hour ride on my bike trainer, went to the gym, and met up with a friend I hadn't seen in years.

Today was my first day back to swim team at Seattle U...woo-hoo! As always, I'd missed it over the holidays and was psyched to be back in the water with my regular lane mates...the other good news is that we'll be able to have slightly longer workouts this year. Sweet.

After swimming, I went out to Preston and Redmond to sleuth out some route stuff for the Seattle Century this July...kind of wierd to be thinking about a summer ride in gray, rainy, windy winter, but I got some good work done.

I came back through Kirkland and went to The Ashram to try out a Bikram yoga class. I'd never done a "real" Bikram class and know a few people who rave about it, so I wanted to give it a try. Hot yoga does have some selling points...I love being warm, my hamstring stretched further in the warm conditions, I love being warm, it was challenging (OK, I'll admit it, it was hard), I love being warm (did I mention that?) and well, the instructor was nice to look at. Unfortunately, it did make me a little light headed at times and my hamstring/butt thing was killing me in the car on the way home (the drive in rush hour was over an hour, that was probably the problem). Also, Bikram yoga turns Nuun into something resembling hot cider which is not so appealing. Anyway, not sure I'll be doing it regularly, but it was definitely humbling/challenging and a good change of pace...I don't totally love it, but I certainly have respect for the practice...some of those human pretzels are damn impressive and strong!

Happy new year?

Back in Seattle and, of course, have been colder than I prefer to be since I stepped off the plane on Wednesday evening...I made a showing on New Year's Eve with some girls on the Hill, and lasted almost till midnight, but crashed while barely still in 2008.

I guess the good news is that the days will start getting longer again now...onward and upward toward spring! Note to self: keep working on that someday strategy of being a snowbird. I'm dogsitting at Jenny P's till Thursday and throwing the almost-frozen toys for the dogs to fetch often results in some pretty cold fingers.

2009 will hopefully be a good year and things should pick up when school starts again a week from Monday. So far, though...things are mellow and not exactly stellar...I guess the solo down time is prodding some food for thought (dare I say resolutions?) and some vision for how I want to show up for 2009. I got a cool tarot card reading yesterday (becoming an annual traditon) that is slowly putting me in a hopeful mindset for a coming "year of strength."

This morning was great, too...I went to the swim team workout at Green Lake and, after swimming alone for the last 3 weeks while our team has been on break, it was really good to be in the water with some of my favorite swimmer pals. Rebecca, Tatyana, Karin, and Liz were all in the pool and I got in a good 4,000 yard swim. Then we all went for a long coffee/chat afterwards...perfect morning. Today: hair trim and Hot Flash with the usual suspects on the Hill.