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.
3 comments:
I am also a religious reader of your blog so that makes 4! Stacey
Wow, I got a mention twice in two weeks. That must be some sort of record! :-) Totally psyched! Must say that the blond in the picture is a total cutie! (Note the number of blonds in the photos ...) Much preferred over Zoe. Living viciously through your ride yesterday since it was typhoon winds followed by blizzard snow here. I think your fainting was a combination of things, including fatigue and stress, but maybe you should drop in to see your doctor. Oh, and even though there might be only four blog fans, we're extremely loyal (but I have a feeling there are more of us).
Oops - viciously, vicariously. Probably I should proof read after I write.
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