Dog days

These were my lovely companions...or, more accurately, I guess I was theirs this week. Maddie and Winnie are 2 of the cutest silky-coated residents of Ballard, and they hosted me in their home since Sunday while their moms have been in St. Maarten. We established a nice daily morning "chuckit" routine at the local school (aka the "do it yourself off-leash area") where we managed not to get busted the entire week. I'm calling it a success. The up sides of sitting for these guys include the fact that they have a zillion cable channels so I was able to "on demand" the last episode of the "L Word" that I missed and I also gorged myself on "Big Love" and am almost caught up on that, too...I took my bike + trainer over and did a few workouts with the TV as Winnie sized up the trainer and wasn't quite sure it was something that should be in her living room. The down sides of this gig were that I didn't make it to Seattle U this week to swim until today, and that the family has a very vociferous fat cat. The cat is not only upstaged by the 2 beautiful labs, but she is also on a diet and really not interested in being the feline "biggest loser." She has been at the mercy of an automatic feeder thing that dispenses very small portions of food 2x per day, at 4:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. The dispenser ran out of food yesterday, so I had to scoop out the food for her...and this morning, at 4:30 (the usual dispenser time), she was incessantly yelling that she was absolutely starving to death. And we all know how much I love cats in the first place...somehow, yelling "Shut UP!!" from the bed didn't cut it and I got up and fed her...

Anyway, it's been fun to hang out in the animal kingdom and I'm also quite happy to be returning to the Shoebox tonight...competing with the dogs for bed space hasn't been as restful as my own bed and I'm very much looking forward to crashing at home tonight!

Forgot to post...

Malia sent me the photos from a couple of weeks ago when she was here...late now, but what the heck.

Here's Maddy, my favorite 3 year-old, and me...and Malia and me...It was great to have Malia home for a few days!!

Passing out, pedalling, and pondering...

As usual lately, my blog has been a bit under-attended...so I'm heeding the prod (thanks to Carie and Penni) and am back at the keyboard. I had a bunch of stuff happen last weekend in Portland that was excellent blog fodder, but it now seems like ancient history as another week has sprinted by, but I'll recap...

Last Friday, I went for a great treatment from my guru, Dale, for my hamstring, tucked an icepack in the seat of my pants, and drove myself and my sore ischial tuberosity to Portland for the weekend...It was a combo work/fun trip for the "Worst Day of the Year" Ride and some time with my new pal, Holly and her cool dog, Shade, who is a currently long-haired rasta standard poodle. I had to work most of the day Saturday as well as a marathon day on Sunday for the ride, so Friday was to be the more fun/social evening...and it was until I fainted for the first time in my life late that night. Holly, a most excellent host, took me out for a couple good beers, some great conversation, and a great (salty pasta, anchovies included, super yum) dinner and well, I didn't drink much water (and, come on, why would you if there's a good beer and a glass of wine?). I went to sleep at about 10:30 p.m. and woke up at about 2:30...by instinct, I got up and went downstairs to the bathroom where I suddently realized that not only did I not need to be there (dehydrated, didn't really have to pee), but also there was something that felt like a wave of gross "Am I gonna puke? Am I gonna faint? I feel like CRAP!" energy going through my body...the only time I remember feeling anything like this was after my IMC 20 mile training run when I was writhing on another bathroom floor (and that time I did puke, so I thought that might be what was happening, but no). I felt horrible, my T-shirt was suddenly soaked in sweat, and I set a goal to make it from the bathroom to the couch. Unsuccessful. I collapsed in the hallway just outside of the bathroom and all I remember was how good the cold floor felt when I hit because I was burning up. Holly heard me hit the deck and yelled, "Are you OK?!" to which I replied, "NO!" and she and Shade sprinted to the hallway...in time to see the triple scrape down the left side of my face (still not sure if I hit the floor or the wall or wtf)...and to sympathetically listen to me whimper about how crappy I felt. She (ok, they, Shade was involved) was really great and took care of me, and pumped me full of Emergen-C and water, and got me back to a bed. I conked right back out and within a few hours I was totally fine, I just looked like a victim of domestic violence (I was kind of horrified when I saw myself in the mirror in the a.m.)...the last of the scabs is just now starting to peel. In the morning, I felt totally normal and went to the gym for a short swim (despite Holly advising me not to and thinking I was a total nutcase). I was tired during the day on Saturday, but more just wigged out about it than anything else. Since I was working at registration for the ride all weekend, I had a few inquiries about my battle wounds and was SO tempted to say that yes, I'd fallen off my bike as I was doing 50 mph down a screaming descent...but...I'm such a bad liar I just told the stupid boring truth or dodged the question...

The rest of the weekend was good/busy...the ride was really cool and hosted at a micro brewery in Portland called the Lucky Labrador that has lots of dogs around and really great beer...it's a great scene. There were almost 3,000 cyclists doing the ride on Sunday, and I got some good experience working with my new colleagues at Good Sport Promotion--it was a totally cool event. On Sunday, I worked from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., said a quick farewell, grabbed the icepack, and drove back home to the Shoebox, totally whipped. Since then, another good busy week of school has gone by and, thankfully, it's weekend again.

Today, I swam and had coffee with the usual suspects (Julie, Duncan, Tatyana) and did a practice massage with Penni this afternoon (I'm pretty sure I just committed a HIPPA violation by saying that, but who cares, I'm still a student and let's just pretend it's a made up name). I hadn't seen Penni since a lake swim last August and we had a great visit. Although I was supposed to be the practitioner, I think she did an equal-- if not greater-- service for me as we swapped athletic injury stories and she continually reassured me that (1) I'm still a triathlete despite the fact that I'm not running and have not donned a bib number in 6 months, and (2) that resting my hamstring is really PART of my training...She also obviously mentioned that she's a loyal reader of my blog (GREAT! there are now 3 including my mom and my friend, Carie in Colorado!).

After Penni took off, I got re-aquainted with my bike and took it outdoors for an easy ride (No HR monitor) to Seward Park and back...it was a gorgeous sunny afternoon and the hamstring was only slightly peeved, not totally cranky. It was a nice hour to ponder and pedal...I have had a lot of things on my mind lately between school and life and it was nice to have a leisurely ride to mentally chop some wood. I came home and made myself a big everything-in-it spaghetti...and am having a nice start to the weekend.

Love the one you're with

Above is a lousy photo of my bedmate this week, Zoe. I'm housesitting for Michele & Jill who are in Mexico. I'm proud to report (dare I speak too soon, I still have 2 days to go) that I've managed to arm/disarm the house alarm daily without setting it off. I am also happy to report that Zoe and I may actually be friendship material. The last time I sat for these guys, I was completely convinced that she hated me (we all know, I'm not exactly a "cat person," so this was not super surprising) and, to be honest, I was a little more engaged in the care of Roxie, the chihuahua, than with her. Oh, and she pissed me off when I had to get her off the porch by climbing into the bushes a few times. This time, they farmed the dog out elsewhere and it's just Zoe and me. Maybe she's just missing her humans and her dog--and is in the mentality of the old song "Love the one you're with"--but she is way more into me than the last time. I keep waking up during the nights with a cat on my stomach and she is in the bed with me all night even when I make her move OFF of my person. I must admit, she is a gorgeous fluffy soft cat and I've very much warmed up to her...we have 2 more nights together before I'm done with this gig on Friday.

The other good news of late is that I got on my bike trainer this morning! After 2 full weeks of swim-only workouts, my shoulders were/are annoyed and my hamstring is feeling a little better...so I came home this morning after feeding Zoe and got in a 45 minute spin before school. I did NOT use my HR monitor--despite wanting to-- and just tried to focus on high cadence/low resistance. I actually got a decent workout and then walked down to school...figured my hamstring would inform me if I'd made a bad decision to get back on the bike, but we agreed throughout the day that it was OK. I'm not going to push it, but am quite happy that I may actually heal at some point!

Feelin' cheesy

My butt is still broken, I've worked out less in the last 2 weeks than I have in years, and I don't want to talk about it (besides, everyone is tired of me talking about it by now I'm sure). Tatyana told me that backing off the training "opens up time for other things..." to which I replied, "But I don't WANT other things!" However...maybe...there are other things out there and slowing down COULD be (maybe, I'm not quite convinced and for godsake don't quote me) less than catastrophic. Hm.

So a cute girl in a striped dress swept me off my feet last night...she is 3 and my friend, Marci's, daughter, Maddy. I met her the first time a day after she was born 3 years ago and have seen her several times every few months since. Until recently, however, I basically admired her from afar and didn't think I hit her radar as anything with any appeal at all...I actually thought she didn't like me. About a month ago, I somehow made some kind of positive impression on her at a group dinner and Marci told me that she mentioned "Root" a few times since then. Last night, I went to Marci's 40th birthday party--which was a total blast--and Maddy and I really hit it off. I was beyond flattered that she hung out with me throughout the evening and informed me that they should come to my house to play Candyland sometime. She also insisted on emerging back out of her bed after her story was read to give me a hug and wish me good night. I will post some photos of my little pal as soon as Malia sends them along to me...the kid is about the sweetest thing ever and for some reason has taken a liking to me. I'll admit, I pretty much melted.

Either my new smitten-ness with Maddy --or PMS-- or something (did somebody slip me a super zoloft?)--is in the air because all afternoon today I've just been thinking about how many great people are around me and how much love is in my life. Malia was in town the last few days and it's always great to re-connect with her...my friend, Erin, has recently become my carpool buddy for school saving me time and cash on commuting whenver I need it...and today after working for about 7 hours schlepping boxes on and off a truck at the "Love 'em or leave 'em Valentine's Day Dash," (where 2700 people paid money to run around Green Lake, wtf?) I felt pretty beat up and called my school buddy, Shannon to ask for an "SOS" massage. She had me come right over and land on her table immediately. Then there's my text message good-vibe sending friends in Colorado and Portland...and that's just the short roster of my cool human support staff and people who make my life pretty great and fun every day.

I refuse to believe that my current warm fuzzy moment is in any way related to the current lack of exercise-induced endorphins...but...it's kind of cool.

Growing gills?

So...my learning curves in various parts of my life are still going upward... Starting with my hamstring/butt thing which is continuing to cause a good amount of pain and inconvenience. Yesterday in my anatomy class, I was taking notes about pain and the nervous system while sitting on my tennis ball yet again and constantly re-positioning. No irony there.

I went back to Dale, the trigger point/pain guru guy, last weekend and then made a decision to lay off almost everything that hurts for a while--including the elliptical machine and cycling. Of course, the laying off hurts emotionally/mentally almost as bad (ok, no, let's be honest...it's way more) as trying to work out on it hurts physically, but...I'm trying to be smart(er) and really try to get it healthy. And it appears I'm supposed to be learning something(s) here. This leaves me swimming, swimming, and occasionally walking for workouts. I don't love it, but at least I love swimming--and I can do kickboard workouts when the shoulders aren't in the mood. Someone (ok, I'll admit it, my kickass brilliant therapist) pointed out this week that my body is teaching me some things instead of me training IT...I'm trying to give myself a break, slow down a little, and face some demons. Yeah, it's a good time.

In the meantime, school is still really good and there are some new fun things and people to get to know. My new friend, Holly, just sent me my "Real Astrology" horoscope for this week and it's pretty right on:

"There's one supreme standard by which your progress in the coming weeks should be ultimately measured: Will you understand yourself better at the end of the adventures than you do at the beginning? A new privilege may come your way, or an honor that'll perk up your résumé, and maybe even a breakthrough that'll help dissolve your phobia of success. But they will only manifest a fraction of their potential unless you heed my updated version of Socrates' best soundbite: Know thyself -- or else."