Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight...

I want to ride like an eagle...

2011-04-30T14:22:00.000-07:00

OK, that's not exactly how the Steve Miller band sings it, but I was belting out my own lyrics while cycling today over the I-90 bridge westbound. I was on about mile 46 of today's brick ride and thought I saw a shadow or an airplane above my right shoulder. I looked up and there was a big 'ol bald eagle cruising along side me as I was descending down onto the bridge deck. It was pretty cool to get a boost from watching it flying next to me for a couple seconds before it headed south.

And I must say, the rest of the brick was pretty good, too, today, and I felt strong and had fun out there. (Note: I didn't say I was fast, I said I felt strong...I looked at the stats and I know the difference, but hey, it's nice to feel good). The weather was good, I was happily over dressed and warm (as usual, I had on more stuff than any/all of the other cyclists out and about), and I'm thinking I was also pretty well fueled from an excellent dinner date last night. This week, my life does NOT suck. Anyway, back on topic. I had a 55 mile ride/40 minute run and am a little tired of the same routes I've been doing, so I resurrected an old one I haven't ridden in a couple of years. I rode over the short side of Mercer Island, through Factoria, down Newport way, around Lake Sammamish, and back. It's a nice route with a few good hills; I especially like the slow steady climb coming back up Newport from Issaquah. I'm still riding the second of 2 bikes I've had to borrow during my unfinished bike crisis, but this one fits me pretty well and gets it done. The current ride, however, is a bit heavy and I am REALLY missing and craving my aerobars. But today I decided that maybe riding this bike (that, sidebar I'm very thankful my pal, Heather, loaned me as it's saving my bacon) could turn out to be the cycling equivalent of swimming with a drag suit. When my new carbon fiber (aka money pit) steed is up and running, maybe I'll have dormant speed in my legs that will unleash. Yeah, I'm going with that idea. Cause let's just say...cycling remains my weakest link.

Anyway, I enjoyed the ride today, and figured out a bike route to get me exactly 55 miles...did a quick transition, and got out for my run back down by Lake Washington. The first 10 minutes or so felt like, uh, a brick, but not too bad. Then I settled in pretty well and held a 9:22 pace which doesn't suck, especially since I ended on the short hill up to my house. I did about 2 minutes of extra credit (hey, it's something) and got in 4.5 miles.

The rest of this fine day will be spent getting a recovery massage, going for burgers with my Iron friends, Christie & Theresa (who did a 60 mile/12 mile brick today, how glad was I not to be them today, but will strive to eat at least as much as they do) and starting a dog sitting gig with Bugsy the cute curmudgeon pug.

5 weeks till race day and this coming week is a recovery week...works for me. I got in 13 hours of training this week, whoop!

Brick:

55 mile bike
3:49
Avg HR: 128 Max HR: 156
Avg pace: 14.4

4.5 mile run
42:08
Avg HR: 146 Max HR: 162
Avg Pace 9:22

Knee-covery

2011-04-16T11:42:00.000-07:00

This week was a recovery week...turned out I needed it. Last week's long run followed by a couple of bike rides on my friend's bike (i.e. not a bike fitted to me)...followed by running hill repeats on Tuesday...got my knee really pissed off by Thursday night/yesterday morning. Some ice and Aleve last night and ice this morning seems to have helped get it in check, but I was pretty stressed out about it yesterday. After talking with Cheryl (who has more sense than me, by far), I trimmed down today's brick and did the bike part on my old bike/trainer with my old shoes. The bike ride scheduled should have been 30 miles, but I called it good at 1:15 and did the scheduled run. Between about 30-50 minutes into the biking, the knee was a little cranky, but then it was fine again and I kept it to a moderate pace...no standing, etc....The run felt fine for the most part and I kept that pretty flat, too. I iced again after the brick and the rest of the weekend will be rest, with more ice and Aleve too...hopefully, a little more recovery time will have me ready for a building week again by Monday. Brick: 1:15 bike trainer (Avg HR 129) 1:25 transition 40 min run, 4.4 miles, Avg HR 144)

double digits and bagged brick

2011-04-08T17:38:00.000-07:00

What is it about alliteration that I like so much? Hm...don't know, but I do always try for an alliterated (is that a word?) title for my blog posts. Anyway...yesterday was the first double digit run in a long time...10 miles. It wasn't fast and it wasn't pretty (as witnessed by my friend, Tara, who was rowing on Lake Washington and told me later she saw me slogging along)...but it was OK. The last 2 miles were "pick up" or tempo, but I didn't have much to push and these last 2 miles were way slower than last week. I really felt body tired all day afterwards...my calves were tight by last night, my hamstrings were sore, and my back and shoulders felt it, too. I pretty much decided during this run that I'd like to go back to Olympic distance races for the rest of the season after Hawaii. The longer runs really take their toll on me. I took some Aleve before bed last night and slept OK, but not that great. This whole week I felt like I was dragging ass on workouts...my indoor bike workouts on Monday and Wednesday both really felt like a slog and were nothing resembling fun. It could be, though, that other stresses (like the bike crisis, for one) were spilling over into my workouts and body tiredness. Oh, and the quick update on the bike situation is that I borrowed my friend, Elaine's bike and I'm looking for a frame to replace mine as it is, indeed, totalled. But I have at least one lead and having a substitute bike in the meantime has reduced my freak-out factor significantly. Today was supposed to be a swim and weights day...however it was the first sunny day in quite a while---and might be the only one for a while. My afternoon was free, so I made a Carpe Diem mental health decision and rode the bike part of tomorrow's brick today because tomorrow could be crappy again and the idea of 3 hours on the bike trainer tomorrow and wasting the sun opportunity today seems almost criminal. My friend's bike fits OK...not as well as mine, but I put my pedals on and it'll do. I definitely missed my aerobars! Anyway, there was no way I was going to run off the bike today after doing a 10-miler yesterday, so I just rode and, I guess, kind of jacked up my training schedule by sabbotaging this weekend's brick, but...I think I'm over it. I'll get in at least one more run over the weekend. I get to go to a big dinner party tonight that will also be attended by my friends Christie & Theresa who are training for a full Ironman at the moment...they rode 102 miles today and the party host has been informed of the likelihood that we will eat everything in her house except the cat food. I'm pretty sure she decided to make a second roast when she heard they were riding a century today! Thursday's ridiculously slow 10 mile run: 2 mile super slow warm up: 21:37 (Avg HR 124, Avg pace 10:48) 6 miles moderate: 1:02:27 (Avg HR 134, avg pace 10:25) 2 miles pick up/tempo: 19:03 (avg HR 146, avg pace 9:34 Today's 51 mile ride: 3:28:22 Avg HR 124 Avg pace 14.6

Broken bike...

2011-04-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I decided, despite marginal weather, to ride outdoors...the lack of enthusiasm for the bike trainer outweighed the lack of enthusiasm for the weather. I had a 45 mile ride/35 minute run brick on the schedule and needed to get it done early, so I got on the bike about 8:00a.m. As I went down the street, I heard something bounce off my back spokes...wondered what it was and quickly dismissed the thought (later realized it was probably a tire iron). As I turned onto Lk. Wa. Blvd., my pedals felt funny...I looked down and saw that my spare inner tube had come out of my saddle bag (dumbass me left it unzipped after taking out my multi-tool a week or so ago), slithered down, and was snaked all through the rear cassette. It had pulled/broken the dereiller off, leaving it hanging alongside the bike. Fortunately, I was not thrown from the bike (coulda been a major crash causing situation), and, of course, I stopped immediately to cuss and assess WTF happened. It took a few minutes to take off the back wheel, unravel the tube, and then hike back up the hill home (about .7 mile) with my injured bike. It's seriously pathetic, the dereiller looks like a little broken wing hanging off the chain. I ended up (AGAIN) on the bike trainer for 2 hours and 25 minutes (then did the run outdoors) and on-demanded a movie to kill the time.

Anyway, the dereiller hanger is part of the carbon fiber frame, not simply a little replaceable part. I took the bike to Greggs Cycles on Sunday...had to wait 2 days for the Shop Manager to call Trek yesterday...to find out that this bike frame and its parts are no longer being made. I got a tip to contact Calfee, a company in California that specializes in carbon fiber bike repair...so I sent them photos of the bike's injury. They said IF they had the (nonexistant?) part, they could fix it for about $400...this does not include the hassle of disassembling the bike completely and shipping only the frame to California. So...I'm still problem solving and searching places like eBay for a new frame...and planning to get my old bike road-ready and take it off the trainer.

The human aspect of training is going OK...last week bumped me up to one more bike workout per week (timely, eh?), so I've got 3 swims, 3 bikes, and 3 runs per week...plus 2 short weights workouts. I'm feeling the addition of one more workout per week and have been sleeping a lot and pretty hard. Of course a couple nights ago, I woke up at 2:00 a.m. and had a short freakout about the bike situation...but...it'll all work out somehow and the need for sleep has been slightly greater than the stress of worrying about things, so I've been pretty religious about getting enough sleep.

I've been keeping up the spreadsheet, but haven't blogged about workouts in a while....so....let's just re-cap yesterday's interval/tempo run quickly. It was hard and I was dragging a bit, but got it done...was dang happy that yesterday only had one workout and I got it done early in the a.m. I ran outside this time for speedwork instead of the treadmill...it's finally getting light early enough to see both my watch and the road to do intervals!

5 mile run with 5x 3 minutes/1 minute intervals

1.27 mile warm up

3 minutes hard (.39 miles, avg. pace of 7:45, avg HR = 150)

1 minute recovery

3 minutes hard (.39, avg. HR = 153)

1 minute recovery

3 minutes hard (.38, avg. HR = 153)

1 minute recovery

3 minutes hard (.38, avg. HR = 153)

1 minute recovery

3 minutes hard (.38, avg. HR = 154)

1.47 mile moderate

First day of spring

2011-03-20T10:03:00.000-07:00

I'm glad to be done with another building week and on a rest day today...and an easier recovery week coming up. Tomorrow I get to move home after about a month of housesitting and am looking forward to a little re-charging of the batteries this week. The last few weeks have been a bit crazy.

Thursday was long run day (9 miles) and I had to do it at 5:45 a.m....in the dark (stupid time change last weekend made me cranky and tired all week). It was a super slow one, but I did pick it up the last 2 miles, as per the plan, and I was damn happy when it was over. I did get to run in West Seattle, though, along Beach Drive and Alki, and having a different route was nice... it was cool to hear the water while it was still dark and I couldn't yet see it.

Yesterday was brick day...and I had a packed day afterward, so I had to get cracking pretty early so I could be somewhere by 12:30. I was on the bike by 8:15 a.m. and it was gorgeous out, but about 38 degrees. I chose the right gear, so I wasn't cold and the sunshine was great. The brick was supposed to be a 40 mile bike + 30 minute run, but I cut the bike a little short, mostly due to time constraints and how I did my route. I rode to Mercer Island and did the long side twice (out-and-back) and got in 34 miles without any stops...definitely felt the legs by the end of the ride since I've done so few "real"rides and so many on the trainer. Did a pretty quick transition...about 2:30, and ran an out-and-back in my 'hood. My legs felt very brick-ish...mission accomplished...and I was done by about 11:00. The rest of the day was work, fun, and dancing...and I got to bed at 1:00 a.m. with my feet and legs feeling completely flattened...did I mention I'm glad today is a rest day???? It's the first day of spring and sunny, so I'm a little bummed that the weather is great on a rest day, but I'll try to enjoy it without sweating. I'm working this afternoon doing chair massage at the "Big Climb" event, and that'll be close enough to a workout for me.

Brick:

34 mile bike
2:14:45
Avg HR 127
Avg pace: 15.1

Transition: 2:30ish

3.3 mile run
30:10
Avg HR 143
Avg Pace: 9:11

Who wants my autograph?

2011-03-15T17:45:00.000-07:00

Well, after almost 45 years on this planet, I can finally say I've reached my career goal of being a professional athlete. A few days ago, Cheryl forwarded an email to me that advertised the need for runners to do some paid research on GPS devices in Seattle. I applied immediately and yesterday, I'm proud to say, I was paid to run 3 miles. My whopping salary was $25 (and the thing was downtown so I spent $7 on parking,one step forward...), but hey, it's the PRINCIPLE of the gig, right? And I'm going to call the free Gatorade my signing bonus! My friend, Kerry, got in on the study today (she made $50, clearly I need an agent!), and we're planning to go out for dinner with our cash sometime soon to toast our new careers!

Anyway, I have to say I wasn't that thrilled to run yesterday as it was a non-running day in my training schedule and they had me run 4 loops of a kind of ridiculous .75 mile loop in downtown Seattle...with lots of stoplights (read: I was jaywalking like a New Yorker despite their "safety first" directions on the waiver), but it was a cool project; they had me wear 2 Nike GPS gadgets and one Garmin (so 2 on one wrist, one on the other), to run 2 loops of the course....then go back indoors, change to 3 more gadgets, and do the same thing again. Interestingly, the Nike gadgets sucked and lost signal in the urban environment....the Garmin performed better. I overheard one of the tester guys who was supervising with his laptop say into his cell, "We have a serious bug..." Anyway, I was thrilled to post the photo above of my earnings to Facebook and I received many comments on my wall!

This morning it was time to do a "real" scheduled workout run...and it wasn't so fun. Today was Interval day and I did the working early on a treadmill at a gym in West Seattle...had to do 5x 2 minutes hard/1 minute recovery. I got it done...but did the last 10 minutes on the elliptical machine. I was bored, feeling the hamstring a little, and mostly I'm just feeling kind of tired this week. I'm trying to schedule some more sleep to recover...anyway, I didn't wear a HR monitor for the workout, but checked and the HR got up to 165 during some of the intervals, so I know I pushed it. I did each of the 2 minutes hard at 8.1mph (7:24 mile pace if the treadmill is accurate) and recovered each minute in between at an easy 5 mph jog, although those little rest minutes went by awfully fast!

Interval Run

15 min warm up (1.5 miles)

5x 2 minutes at 8.1/1 min at 5 mph

Jog at 6mph up to 4 miles

10min elliptical

47:30 total

Another brick bites the dust

2011-03-12T15:50:00.000-08:00

Well, another brick has been checked off the list...which included another somewhat purgatorial ride on the bike trainer. Pretty sure these workouts are harder mentally than physically...

I've moved from one dog sit gig to another and am now shacked up in West Seattle for about 10 days. When Zion, the dog, and I woke up this morning (slept in till 7:30, whoop!), it was pouring. No brainer...went home after breakfast and set up the bike trainer, grabbed the remote control, and had at it.

The workout was supposed to be 35 miles on the bike and a 30 minute run...I think I rounded down a little on the bike (don't know mileage indoors, just time and HR) and threw a little extra credit at the run. Fortunately, I had a few unseen episodes of my favorite show, "The Good Wife," that I on-demanded while on the bike...interspersed with some women's college basketball. 2 hours was about all (my butt and) I could take...stretched it out to 2:05 because the UCLA/Stanford game was almost to halftime, so I stayed on to see the end of the half. I made a quick transition and slopped out into the cold yucky rain for the puddle stomping run...went down to Lake Wa Blvd and out-and-back toward Mt. Baker beach. I have to admit that I added extra time because I knew I'd have to figure out my distance later (was using my Garmin with only HR and no GPS because I'd cycled indoors) and I wanted to run to a landmark that I'd be able to find on geodistance. And yes, I realize this is completely OCD and represents an over-dependence on statistics, but hey...I like my numbers...and now know that I went...about 4.2 miles total) I also figured it wouldn't hurt to run a little more since I biked a little less.

As I was approaching Genesee Park on the way back...and my hands were freezing (thought gloves wouldn't be necessary, wrong-o) and I just wanted to be done and eating a peanut butter sandwich...a funeral procession passed me going the opposite direction. I first hoped that this was not some kind of foreshadowing of my next race...then thought that well, I'm pretty happy to be alive, healthy and fit (albeit slightly uncomfortable and slopping through cold rain wishing for sunshine fairly often these days) and not horizontal in a black car! Could be worse, right?

After I got done, I drank a V8 immediately...then took a shower and had that PBJ soon after, but could really feel the workout catching up with me fast. About an hour later, I was having that old familiar "slow motion" loopy feeling...with the echo-y headache...that means I pushed it and am doing it right. :) I made it to a Starbucks a little while later and some caffeine (god love that drug) wiped out the headache pronto. Glad tomorrow is a rest day...I got in just about 10 hours of training this week and it's time to chill for a day.

Tonight I'm going to a small dinner party/movie night at my friend, Angie's...where I will do my best not to eat the entire pork roast she's going to have in the Crock Pot...better have a(nother) snack first!

Bike/Run Brick:

2:05 bike
134 Avg HR

1:05 Transition

4.2ish mile run
40:00
Avg HR 147

Unintentional extra credit

2011-03-10T13:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a good double...went to swim team at SU in the morning and then hit a spin class with my friend, Angie, at Allstar Fitness at noon. She hooked me up with a 1-week guest pass and the class was great--one of the best instructors I've ever seen and the class was huge (with really nice bikes, too). Good energy and I worked much harder than I would have riding on my own on the trainer, for sure. I was a bit body tired later in the afternoon and was wondering if the butt kicking I had on the bike would have an effect on today's long run. Fortunately, though, my legs weren't hungover and I felt good again today.

Today was long run day. I had a morning meeting and the weather forecast was awful, so I decided to sleep in and knock it out a little later after my meeting when there would be more light and with food and caffeine in my system. The morning news said it was supposed to rain with wind gusts up to 50mph by noon/afternoon, so I was both dreading it and wanting to get it over with before trees and houses started blowing around (the weather guy on TV was almost yelling "Auntie Em! Auntie Em!").

I got out about 10:30 a.m. and drove down to the BG trail by U Village to start. I guesstimated a route and took the GPS of course, to verify along the way. The workout was supposed to be an 8 miler with the last mile at a "pick up" pace. I ran the trail toward Montlake, over the Montlake bridge, up Eastlake and over by the Howe St. stairs (where I did what turned out to be an unnecessary out-and-back further south past the stairs). By this point, there had been a few wind gusts and showers, but also sun breaks and the whole wind/rain prediction was fiction...I was happily too warm and took off my gloves. Anyway, then I went up the Howe St. stairs, back down 10th, over/through Interlakken to 23rd, then back on the trail to the car. As I was approaching the 7 mile mark, I knew I had quite a bit more than a mile to get back to the car, but decided to do the 8th mile at the push pace and then whatever was left as slower extra credit. I took it up to a tempo-ish feeling pace, which turned out to be an 8:23 mile (not bad!), then took it back down to moderate and stopped at 9 miles. I was not looking forward to this run (and the stupid weather) but it turned out great. When I came back to the dogsit house, I did planks with one dog trying to snuggle and a cat who jumped on my back. Makes things a little more interesting!

Now it's blowing pretty good outside, but who cares!

9 mile run:

7.1 miles: 1:12:31 (Avg pace 10:13, Avg HR 137)
1 mile pick up 8:23 (Avg HR 155)
.9 mile 8:25 (Avg pace 9:21, Avg HR 149)

Total time: 1:29:19

Morning Tempo run

2011-03-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

Did a rainy tempo-ish run this morning...but at least there was some day light, so seeing the GPS wasn't so hard. I'm still staying up north, just about a mile uphill from the Burke-Gilman trail, so I ran down to the trail to do the tempo part. The workout was a 5 mile run with 3x 4 minute tempo pieces.

13 min warm up (1.4 miles)
4 minutes Tempo: .5 miles (8:05 avg. pace), 156 Avg HR
3 minutes moderate (.31)
4 minutes Tempo: .51 miles (7:57 avg. pace), 159 Avg HR
6 minutes moderate (.65)
4 minutes Tempo: .52 mile (7:43 avg pace), 157 Avg HR
12 minutes moderate (1.23)

Total: 5.1 miles, 45:54, Avg HR 144/Max 169

Fate and the forgotten shoes

2011-03-05T16:45:00.000-08:00

This was another pretty good training week...ran hills on Tuesday morning which made me sore, but just sore enough to know I did something and to recover before running again on Thursday...that was pretty cool. Receiving a massage on Tuesday afternoon probably helped...had a trade lined up with another LMP that was timed perfectly, whoop!

Today was the usual brick Saturday...I'm dog sitting on the north end of town and went home to do the workout, waffling on the drive home about whether to ride indoors or outdoors. It wasn't raining, but still pretty cool and all the pavement looked wet (translation in my head = if I ride, bike gets dirty, I must clean it...), so I finally decided to ride indoors and run outdoors like I've done the last few Saturdays... and went about setting up the bike and getting everything organized...was almost all set up until it was time to put my shoes on and I remembered that the shoes for the indoor bike were at the dogsit house. OOPS. I figured it was fate making me get outside for a ride...so I re-organized all the gear, the other bike, and the shoes that were in attendance, and went out. After all the gear shuffling, I was really happy I rode outside! I went around Mercer Island and, although the bike did get kinda dirty, it was warm enough that riding was very comfortable. I know it was good for me to deal with some hills and wind instead of....just the remote control and a steady state ride. The workout on the plan was only 25 miles on the bike and a 25 minute run. Sounds easy enough, but "real" riding felt harder than indoor riding and my legs were a little slow on the uptake for the run. The run was really slow and clunky at the beginning...I really thought I was at snail pace, but was pleasantly surprised when I looked at my stats later and I was actually a little faster than a 9 minute mile pace, despite how it felt in my legs.

I felt pretty dragged out for a few hours after the workout and struggled a bit to give a massage...but thankfully, I only had one client and I think the "dragged out" effect may have had to do with recovery nutrition a bit, because the more food (and SALT) I continue to throw at the problem, the better I'm feeling (a can of V8 plus a can of soup in the last hour or so...probably the RDA of sodium for a week, but I'm thinking a salty dinner later may sound pretty good, so I must need it).

Tonight I'm going to see one of my favorite bands at the Triple Door...and tomorrow is a "rest" day which will include snowshoeing with some friends, but I'm hoping it'll be more of a glorified walk in the snow than a real hike. Let the weekend begin!

Brick:
25.85 mile ride
1:42:10
Avg HR: 131/Max 157
Pace: 15.2

1:45ish transition

3.1 mile run
27:43
Avg HR 144/Max 157
Pace: 8:55

Gotta take a B

2011-02-27T07:45:00.000-08:00

My blogging has been lousy again, but I have been doing the training and putting it on the spreadsheet...I often create a narrative in my head during my workouts, but the full story hasn't made it from my head to the keyboard very often...working on it.

This past week was crazy busy and ridiculously cold...I was filling in doing some dog walking for a friend who has a dog walk business and was on vacation, plus dog sitting myself, plus doing several other part time gigs and balancing the workout schedule. Thursday was a bit of a breakthrough workout as I ran 9 miles in the snow at 5:30 a.m. That was definitely one of those workouts that happened only because it was on the training plan, but I was really psyched once I did it...it was quiet and scenic and daylight by the time I got done. I felt pretty good, but was slightly sore on Friday from it. Anyway, due to the number of plates spinning, dogs walking, and temperatures plunging, I was pretty flattened by the end of the week and one trip to the gym for weights got scrapped this week.

Yesterday morning I was up at 5:00 to work at a charity walk in Everett...It was well below freezing and I ended up walking the 1.8 mile route twice while it was snowing. By the time I got done and organized for my brick around noon, I was not exactly brimming with enthusiasm for it. I thought about cycling outdoors (and talked to Seujan about joining forces), but it was just too dang cold and, after being out in it all morning, I just wanted to "on demand" some TV and get on the trainer to get it over with. The workout was supposed to be a 30 mile ride and a 25 minute run, but...I just couldn't pull it together to sit on the bike for 2 full hours. I usually go for "A" delivery of planned workouts...or even push for extra credit...but yesterday I decided that I'd settle for "B" level work and give myself a break. I'm 14 weeks out from the race so I figure there's a little wiggle room in the plan for "life" to affect training here and there. Anyway, I watched 2 episodes of my favorite show, "The Good Wife," on the bike and did the run in the cold...and called it good. Later, I was quite happy to sit myself down in a movie theater for "True Grit" and decompress the week over a beer with a new friend.

Today is scheduled to be a rest day, but I can't get to the Masters' workout tomorrow, so I'm going to swim today and take rest day tomorrow...and get back to the gym for weights.

Brick:

Bike: 1:32
Avg HR: 137
Transition: 1:28
Run: 2.92 miles, 25:45
Avg HR: 147

Another sunny Wednesday!

2011-02-09T21:31:00.001-08:00

Got in a double today...started out with the usual 3,000 yard wake up swim at Seattle U and got out on my bike in the sun this afternoon again (2 Wednesdays in a row, whoop!) and did the Mercer Island loop, same as last week. It was colder this time, but dry pavement and a bit of sun in February is still a thing of beauty.

23.5 mile ride
1:38:11
Avg HR = 122
Max HR = 152

It's best to digest

2011-02-08T13:44:00.000-08:00

Got a little slack on the blog again, but have been doing the workouts, at least. Last week was a bit of a trainwreck on other fronts, but that generally fuels good workouts for me...so this part of things is good at the moment. I was even able to run off a potential hangover on Sunday, although I had to have 3 cups of coffee first.

Today was long run day...not the usual long run day, but that's the deal this week. Due to some morning stuff on the schedule, I'd planned a midday run and figured out a double breakfast strategy to prevent a bonk before the run. However, after I ate a pretty good amount at 10:00, my 10:30 client bailed (grrrr), so I decided to try to go out for the run about an hour earlier than planned, at about 11:00. The good news: having what felt like a spare tire around me forced me to run slow. It was, however, pretty uncomfortable for the first 4-5 miles. I'm (I think?) happy to report that no banana bread or yogurt was tossed in Ravenna Park, but I really was not sure whether I was hoping not to barf or hoping TO barf there for a while...I kept trying to create a new mantra but "I'm best as I digest," was about the best I could do---and that obviously sucked--- and before long I had the stupid "Do-re-mi" song from "Sound of Music" in my head ("Fa---a long long way to run" is probably how I landed there in random thought land). Clearly, I need to make up some new mantras...

For the most part, the run felt good and by halfway through, the stomach calmed down and the sun came out. Funny how during one longer run (and yes, I say this knowing that 9.5 miles is a short run for many people I know, but I still consider anything over 6 to be long), the entire day, body, and experience can feel completely different than it did at the start. Glad that this time it was better at the end than at the onset.

Anyway...glad I did it and good to know I can eat an hour before running, even though it's not optimal, and can handle it if I keep things slow. Better than running on too empty a tank and feeling bonky.

9.5 mile run
1:37:26
Avg HR: 134
Max HR: 159

Sunrise, sunset

2011-02-02T18:00:00.000-08:00

I was running along Lake Washington when the sun came up this morning...and I was biking along Lake Washington when the sun set tonight. The fact that there actually WAS both a sunrise and a sunset in Seattle on Groundhog Day is no small thing and was not lost on me. Puxwatawny Phil did not see his shadow this morning, (apparently signalling an early spring with a 39% historical success rate as per the local TV weatherman...whose personal percentage of accuracy was somehow not mentioned in his commentary a few minutes ago, but I digress), but I'm more than happy to report that I could see MY shadow most of today.

This morning I got to sleep in a little and took off for a run around 6:45 a.m., just as it was getting light out...the sky was clear and it was really pretty along the Lake. I added a little out-and-back to my usual 5 mile route when I got to Seward Park, mostly just to get a better view of Mt. Rainier, which was pretty magnificent (Mt. Rainier, magnificent, that's redundant, but couldn't help saying it anyway). I could, unfortunately, feel my knee a bit, especially afterwards, but it was a good run with that good .5 mile hill and really nice to be out first thing on a clear 34 degree morning.

Today was my bi-weekly gig doing corporate massage at Seattle Magazine, so I was fortunately working by big west facing windows and could see the Olympics and the sunny day while doing massage for a few hours. Pretty cool. I was done at 3:00p.m., with enough time to hurry home and get on my bike.

I'd pumped up my tires and set out my gear this morning in the hopes that I wouldn't weenie out due to the cold and ride...a combination of factors (including my new Ironman friends who sent me their training calendar/schedule this morning... and the sunshine) motivated me to get my ass outside. As soon as I pedalled the first few times, I almost heard the old cheesy song, "Reunited," and fell in love with my bike again. I use my old chunky bike indoors on the trainer and I'm pretty sure I haven't ridden my good bike outdoors since...um...October? It felt great! I felt like I was riding strong and fast....which was refuted,of course, by the final stats (14.6 mph average), but I had a nice 23.5 mile ride from home around Mercer Island and back. I was SO happy I went...got home just as it was getting dark. Just enough time now to blog, eat, and go for a massage...sweet.

5.5 mile run
51:44
Avg HR = 139
Max HR = 157
Avg pace: 9:19

23.5 mile bike
1:36:14
Avg HR= 121
Max HR =147
Pace: 14.6 mph

Uneventful Monday

2011-01-31T21:14:00.000-08:00

Today was a planned rest day...just weights. I was a little sore from yesterday's run, but not that bad. I did feel a bit stiff and "cob-webby," so I did a light 15 minutes on the elliptical before the weights. Otherwise, I cleaned my apt. this morning and walked a bit to/from the bus to go to work this afternoon.

Last night I went with a bunch of friends to "Sky High" in Bellevue where they played trampoline dodgeball. Being the pansy injury-phobe that I am, I didn't play...just bounced a little to try it out in between their games. It was a kick and I kinda wanted to get into it, but when I got a note from a friend this morning who could hardly walk on her bad knee after bouncing around all night last night, I felt I'd made the right decision. Anyway, within the big group, I met a bunch of new people, including a couple of nice girls who are training for Ironman CDL in late June. Looks like I may have found a couple people to train with, at least on the bike. Yea!

Slow 'n steady

2011-01-30T15:27:00.000-08:00

So the pre-training training is coming along pretty well, I think. I got in over 8 hours of training this week and 2 doubles, although both of those doubles were fairly small in terms of volume (yesterday was a 3600 yard morning swim team workout and a half hour spin on the trainer later in the day). But...I have to admit... both days I did doubles, I felt like they'd been longer workouts. But starting kind of small seems smart since I have 4 months till the race...and also since my cycling is such a weak link and I gotta muster some enthusiasm in that dept. Being "on strike from the bike" is the general mantra from about October to April or May in my world. I know, I know, time for a new mantra or I'm going to be a miserable pup in Hawaii.

Today was my long run...and it was the longest one in several months. I did 9 miles with a few decent hills included, and purposely kept the pace down to about a 10:05 mile. Keeping the slower pace definitely helped me make it without too much trouble. My body and, especially the hamstring/butt is feeling it now, but not too bad. I went out for the run right out of bed--as usual-- and I was about ready to kill for coffee and food by the time I got done. And the day is continuing with the necessity for regular feedings. It's so interesting how just bumping up the long run a little makes me super hungry all day...most people feel that effect from swimming, but I find it with running. By lunchtime today, my stomach alarm was blasting and I wanted salt and fat...NOW. Fortunately, there was some leftover beef stew in the freezer and I didn't eat the entire bag of chips that was calling loudly...not sure I can responsibly control the rumblings for the rest of the day, TBD.

9 mile run
1:31:20
Avg HR = 140

Brick with a break and back to the blog...

2011-01-26T11:53:00.000-08:00

Sooooo...looks like it's been 5 months since I last blogged.

It appears that, well, it's 2011 and I've signed up for my first race that will put me in the 45-49 age group category. I haven't done a half ironman in well over 2 years and my longest run since I jacked up my knee last February has been a little over 8 miles, but the offer to go to Hawaii in the first week of June was too good to pass up. I'm registered for the Hawaii Half Iron on June 4. My knee and hamstring are both not sure this is a good decision, but my need to deal with seasonal affective disorder and not commit suicide in the Seattle winter has superseded all else. Having this on the calendar should help with the suicide prevention.

My biking is probably --no, certainly--what needs the most help (and enthusiasm). I've been getting back on the trainer about once per week to start getting back on track. This morning I did a 45 minute spin on the trainer (thank god for the Pandora disco station)...then had to go to the eye doc...then got in a short run. I didn't mean for it to be a tempo run, but it was a little faster than usual. I'm calling this workout a brick with a break...I mean, it was in bike/run order, I just had a, um, 3 hour transition that included breakfast, a shower, and a few other things. Hey, it's a start, right?

45 min bike trainer:
Avg HR = 133
Max HR = 150

3.9 mile run
34:58
Avg pace: 8:51
Avg HR= 145
Max HR = 161

Race report: Raise the Bar

2010-08-22T14:04:00.000-07:00

Soooooo...the last 3 weeks were pretty dang busy...work, dog sitting stuff, Storm games and lots of social stuff...lots of plates spinning. Obviously, I didn't blog anything about the recovery of the last race or anything resembling a race plan...and suddenly yesterday morning I was out there with a timing chip on my ankle again.

I appear to have a little black race weather cloud following me this summer...as usual, the weather was crap yesterday (today, of course, stellar). For the last few days, I was watching the forecast and, as predicted, it was raining when I got up at 4:40 a.m. AUUGGHHH...I must admit, that had I not paid for this race in advance and picked up my packet on Saturday, I likely would have bailed. I cut short 2 super fun social outings Saturday to get prepared (read: limit alcohol consumption and prioritize sleep) for this race, so it was more of a "have to" than a "want to" when I saw that drizzle. Fortunately, however, the race site was dry and it never rained on the actual race...

This race included a super sprint, a sprint, and an Olympic Tri...the Olympic was a the smallest with only about 140 racers. However, the other races had a few hundred and they were all starting later than us, but that seemed not to matter in the early competition for parking...I shoulda coulda woulda gotten up a little earlier to get a good space, but didn't and had to hike. Then...I went into the transition area and promptly racked my bike on the wrong rack. I was almost all nested into my little zone when I realized it and had to move to the rack where I was supposed to be...I was not loving the fact that I'd committed 2 rookie mistakes before the race even started. Oh, well...still had time to wander around and wait in the porto line.

Swim: Deep water start and the men's wave was 5 minutes ahead of ours...spint and super sprint a few minutes behind us. The lake was really warm and comfortable...as usual, the swim felt fast and fun. I was head to head with another person right away...we both were passing a lot of the men by the halfway buoy (love that)...and thought I dropped her...but then saw her again at the end out to my left. I thought I had a better angle to the finish, but she edged me out by about 6 seconds. I was probably 2 yards behind her as we hit the chip pad...dangit, I wanted to win the swim.

Swim time: 25:07

T1: Not too bad...though I did put my 2nd sock on upside down and thought that it might pay off later if I put the heel back under my foot...so that wasted a little time. Otherwise, it wasn't too awful this time. T1 time: 1:25

Bike: As usual this summer, I was not as warm on the bike as I prefer...but I must say, it was warmer than the other 2 races this summer. The course was fun...some rollers and some fast short descents. Good, smooth, clean pavement. Also, Ann Sloan was volunteering on the bike course, and it was great to see her...the only familiar face of the day out there today. About halfway through the bike, though, I was just not really feeling it...although my legs felt better (better taper week) than the last race, I just didn't feel like riding hard. The left side of my low back was cranky and I was distracted here and there... had quite a few thoughts about this being my last race of the season. I just didn't feel like cycling redline hard and had to buck up to hang in there. I wasn't physically miserable by any means, but just didn't feel hard core on the bike...mental hunger and edge was lacking, for sure. I also was a little demoralized by the usual 2-3 women in my age group who dropped me like I was standing still on the bike. I was looking forward to running by mile 15.

Bike time: 1:20:21

T2: I wasn't as cold as the last race, so I had a little dexterity in my hands...only took 2 tries to get my helmet off and I was off and running in a decent amount of time. T2 time: :49

Run: I had been looking forward to the run for a good hour, but again here I wasn't feeling like busting it. I managed "comfortably uncomfortable," though, and I did enjoy running on the Soos Creek Trail. I'd read the course description and knew it was an out-and-back with a short, steep descent in the first mile...which, of course, meant dreading the climb in the last mile and no real chance for any kind of negative split. There were 2 guys on the hill in blue body paint who were cheering for people all day...they were pretty funny and were yelling "Raise the bar!" since that was the team sponsoring the race...I made them laugh when I yelled, "Raise the BARF" back at them. I also chatted with another volunteer guy who was out on the course on a bike...he was cool and it was fun to chat with someone a little.

On the run, too, I found myself thinking that I'd rather not be "racing" at the moment and, note to self, this really should be my last race of the season. But the 2nd half of the run actually felt better than the first half and it went by pretty quickly.

Run time: 48:21

Total time: 2:36

This race was so small that they were only doing awards for the top 3 female and male finishers...and this time it was cash. I'd counted 3 women ahead of me on the run (out and back makes this painfully possible)...I was hoping that one of them may have been on a relay team, but no such luck. Turns out I was actually the 5th woman. Always the bridesmaid....

I was really glad I'd done the race and I would highly recommend this race (well organized, great volunteer support, etc.), but I think I'm done racing for a while...I'm going to do the Aquathon on Sept. 1 (thank god, a race with no biking), but otherwise, I'm gonna work a few more this summer and let others wear the bibs for a while. Junk miles on the bike, here I come!

Federal Escape Race Report

2010-08-01T21:05:00.000-07:00

PO-DEE-UM!

Yesterday was the Federal Escape Tri...and my friend, Stacey, and I both had a good race and a lot of fun...it was great to go with her to do this race. Stace is not a morning person (um, understatement), but she agreed to let me pick her up at 5:30 a.m. to get to the race...and I must say she was totally ready to roll when I got there to scoop her. It was such a small race that we had plenty of time to park and get things set up before the race meeting at 7:15 (which included complete set up in the Sprint area and subsequently moving all our crap to the Olympic area and getting not-so-great transition area real estate, but whatever, it killed time and I only visited the porto once before the, um, last pee in the lake before the start, don't act surprised everyone does it).

The race went off in 2 waves...and what was great (other than the lake being very small and WARM, as in warmer than the air), was that they sent off the women 5 minutes before the men...and the Olympic race an hour before the sprint. So we got out there before everyone else.

I pushed up to the front for the swim start and recognized Alicia, the rocket fast swimmer who is 22 and swam with us at Seattle U last year...and who, I know, is a really good and really serious triathlete (guess who won the whole race...yup, Alicia). I knew she'd go off the front of the swim, but who knew that I'd be 2nd behind her! I took off fast to get swim space and after someone touched my foot at the first buoy, nobody was close to me. Alicia was pretty far in front, but I was second and I have to say it was quite the rush coming through the first lap (2 lap course), and seeing a lot of people watching ME. I thought, "dang, this must be how it feels to be Macca or Chrissie Wellington and in front of the WHOLE field...I could really get used to this!" By the second lap I was picking off men who were in their first lap (HA) and I did come out of the water in 2nd place. Pretty cool. Swim time: 26:40

T1: It was a cool morning and I'd put out a zip-up jacket to wear on the bike. After the internal "calm and efficient" internal mantra which resulted in a cumbersome yard sale just like 2 weeks ago (time for a new mantra? more practice? something...I'm a mess here), I gave a short attempt at putting on the jacket...first sleeve, totally tangled. Pretty sure I said "fuck it" out loud, threw the jacket down, and decided to buck up and face the cold. T1: 1:22

Bike: As I hit the mount line, the volunteer told me "you're 3 minutes behind the leader..." Kind of nice to have that rush again of being at the front of the race for a little while (needless to say, the thundering disk wheels started coming by soon as the fast dudes started dropping me).

The bike course was 4 laps of the same course and I thought I'd hate that, but...I really liked it! There were a few rollers, but overall it was a fast course and it was kind of fun to do it 4x. I never wrote up a race plan, but as I started, I came up with a nutrition plan. I'd done a PowerBar fillet (ode to Seujan) and had a PowerBar cut into 5 pieces in the bento box. I took piece 1 right away and then decided to do another piece every 5 miles. This turned out to be an excellent plan and I will do it again (i.e. eat a scooby snack at at 0, 5, 10, 15, 19ish miles). My legs were tired and burning a bit by lap 3...the taper was off a day due to my schedule last week, and I felt like I did during that last brick...I would have liked to feel stronger and have more power in my legs. Note to self, the next race will include another day to rest up/taper down.

On the 4th lap, I sped up to pass one of the sprint course racers (on her first lap, I think, in caged pedals on a crappy bike) as we were going around a corner and up a slight hill. Just as I was about to go around her, I shifted too fast and dropped my chain....sshhhhiiittt....had to stop and throw it back on. I still buried her within a half mile, but I was cranky about having to stop as I was holding a good pace. Turns out it didn't cost me in placement, but still.... Right about that time, I was realizing that my body was really warm, but my hands were numb. I wondered about my dexterity for T2 and getting my race belt on. Well, it wasn't the race belt that turned out to be the problem....Bike time: 1:14:14

T2: Got into T2 and tried the "calm and efficient" thought again...and it tanked again (how about a mantra of "I'm crazy and making a mess," I mean it couldn't be much worse of a result than the old one). My fingers were not working and I could not get my friggin' helmet clipped off. I kept trying, kept swearing, attempted to pull it off with total force, thought about running with the damn thing still on (um, no way, that is the nerdiest thing possible), tried to wrangle with it more, swore AGAIN, and finally, a spectator outside the fence yelled, "Do you need help?" I thought about the possibility of DNF'ing for assistance, but this was a really small unpoliced race and I'd already wasted so much time, I had to risk it. I ran over to the fence, she unclipped me, and I'm eternally grateful. I was still clunky getting out (race belt was also not smooth), had to use my teeth to adjust my hat before putting it on, too...but got out. Shew. T2 time: 1:19

Run: The run course was 2 laps of the same course, some of which was the same as the bike. This meant that I saw some of the same volunteers 6 times total...felt like we were old friends by the end of the morning. I managed to make a few volunteers laugh as I went by and thanked several of them, which made the run more fun.

I also felt my legs on the run, but not quite as bad as on the bike. I didn't feel that I was super-pushing it, but I was comfortably uncomfortable...and happy it wasn't any more than a 10k. I'd have needed nutrition I didn't have with me if it had been longer, all they had on the course was one water/electrolyte station. I had nothing left to push a sprint at the end and "last mile, fast mile" didn't feel so possible, but when I saw my time, I realized why: 48:44 (um, that's a 7:50 mile pace, which is damn good for me if I say so myself). Only one woman passed me on the run...and of course, some dudes...but that's OK.

Total time: 2:32:17

I ended up the 7th woman overall (out of 65) and 2nd in my age group (out of 12). Stacey also rocked her race and was 3rd in her age group, whoop! The food afterwards was pretty good (pancakes and sausages and some other good stuff), so we stuck around, chatted with some people from Stacey's Tri club, and waited a riduculous amount of time for the awards ceremony to get our plastic trophies! :) Hey, it's the little things, right?

Today I did a "recovery" ride...I love how junk miles = recovery ride the day after a race. Lord knows I love me some junk miles. I went around Mercer Island, just 23 miles, light and fun. I ran into my friend, Ann, about halfway through so we stopped and chatted for a while. Nice to have a fun, relaxing ride and to see her.

My friend, the bike racer, had a bad crash yesterday on a descent on a training ride...which included a trip to the ER and some fractured pieces of vertebrae (oh, and the imprint of a guardrail on her back). I saw her last night and today and, despite her feeling that it's all part of the game (for her), I've reaffirmed my desire NOT to be a bike racer...regardless of the potential vicodin supply. Yikes.

Almost race day

2010-07-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

This is the 3rd time I've tried to post this blog entry and it keeps failing. Nice when I keep talking about how much time I don't have this week and after I have carried my stats around in my pocket for days hoping for time to update the blog. So screw it...just the facts, boiled down even more.

Race week...did what I was sposed to except for the race plan which might happen today if I'm lucky. Swam Monday, Ran intervals (5x .25) on Lk Wa Blvd on Tuesday, biked intervals (5x 1 min on/2 min off) on Wednesday, solo swam at Seward yesterday. Today could be a light spin...TBD.

Looking forward to the race tomorrow, though I think it may be another experience in Seattle summer hypothermia...going with Stacey who is also racing and I'm pretty jazzed about that part, for sure. Yea for having a race buddy!

Biggest brick this year

2010-07-25T15:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I worked all day doing sports massage at the Ragnar Relay finish line on Whidbey Island...it was a gorgeous day and a fun, upbeat event, made even better because I got to work with my BFF from massage school, Shannon. It was, however, a long day (had to wait through 2 ferries on the way there and 3 on the way back) and, despite the fact that there was no workout yesterday, it didn't exactly feel like I'd had a "rest" day during today's brick. (Of course, I probably didn't help the brick prep by my beer consumption or by being the last customer at the Coastal Kitchen and having too much garlic heavy Greek food at about 11:00 p.m. last night...oops).

I had one early client today (a Ragnar survivor) and then got out on the bike at 11 a.m. for my big 'ol brick. This one was a 45 mile ride (incl 25 miles tempo) + a 5 mile run. In the interest of time, I just rode from home to Mercer Island and did the long side 3 times (I know how lacking in creativity can one be, but hey, if it ain't broke...) for the miles and tempo stretch I needed. Let's just say 25 miles is a longass time (for me) to hold tempo pace...whew. This ride was friggin' hard...I really had to mentally stay with the program to keep the workrate through it and strangely, I think I felt the worst in the last 11 miles --after the tempo part of the ride. I was totally limping home dreading the run. I did a decent transition and started running slowly downhill to the Lake...purposely holding back on pace because I didn't trust that there was much in my legs. I was pleasantly surprised, however, that the run felt better than the bike, by far. Not sure what's up with that, maybe it was just because I wasn't supposed to push it. I was definitely ready to be done by the last 1.5 mile or so, but I was not that miserable. My HR was a little high, but I really didn't feel I was pushing it, I think it was the temperature and just cardiac drift since I was out about 3.5 hours total. It was a nice hot afternoon, but a lot of Lk WA Blvd was shaded and pretty pleasant. I will admit that I ran about a mile downhill and didn't run back up, so the run was downhill then flat. I ended by the lake where I threw myself in and then walked up over the stairs to my house. My knees were pissed about the 6 flights of stairs on the way home, but otherwise felt good today...hamstring was a little surly on both the bike and the run.

The great thing about this brick is that I learned I can feel good on the run after feeling like total crap on the bike...I have a feeling I may need to pull up that memory at some point.

6 days till the Federal Escape Tri :)

Brick:

Bike: 45 miles
9 mile warm up: 38 min
25 mile tempo: 1:21:41; Avg pace 18.4mph Avg HR=142
11 mile moderate: 42 min

Run: 5 miles
45:21
9:04 min mile pace
Avg HR= 155
Max HR = 168

Ducks in a row

2010-07-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

This morning I did a solo lake swim at Seward Park...It was a little odd to start out totally alone with calm water in the same place where 1,100 triathletes were stirring things up last Sunday. I had a really nice swim and, on the way back, as I breathed on my right, I saw a row of about 8 ducks in a perfect paceline swimming along side me. Glad somebody's got their ducks in a row!

Yesterday was a long run...8 miles, which is the longest I've run in quite a while. And, I gotta say, 8 miles feels long again. But it was OK, except for the last mile which was a bit of a slog. My hamstring was pretty mad later in the day, but I threw 2 Aleve at it and it seemed better this morning.

Yesterday's run:

8 miles
1:15:38
Avg HR=149

Just say no to extra credit

2010-07-21T19:43:00.000-07:00

So Monday was a recovery day from the race...although it was only an 80 minute outing and I wasn't sore, I felt pretty body tired. I did weights, but that was it on Monday.

Yesterday was not a double, but I went for some extra credit and made it into one and questioned that decision later. I had a bike ride to do and wanted to save it till the afternoon when I'd have more sun and more time than I did in the a.m. But... I wanted to get moving again after the rest day, so I went for an easy 3 mile run when I got up. It felt OK, not great...However, when I got on the bike in the afternoon, my legs had a few things to say. First they said, "Aw hell no" when I started out for an hour-ish ride that included 2x 5 miles tempo...they slowly got a little less cranky, but "light and fast" are not words I'd use to describe my lower appendages so far this week.

I started out thinking it'd be a good idea to do the 2x 5 mile pieces over on Mercer Island. When I was almost over the bridge, not only were my legs questioning this decision, but my BRAND NEW front tire was slowly saying, "pppssshhhhh...." Now these are the tires that I got last week for the race...the ones that, after much discussion with the bike racer, I voted for because even if they aren't the most light fast tires, they are unlikely to puncture. And again, I learn there are no guarantees in life. Seriously, this was less than 20 miles into the lifespan of the tire...I got to the Mercer Island side of the bridge and texted the bike racer: fuck Continental, got a flat. However, it was sunny, I wasn't in a hurry, and it was after the race, so I realized pretty soon that it wasn't really that awful (especially since my legs thought sitting in the grass and not pedalling was much more fun than the alternative). I also didn't have any trouble getting the tire back on the rim, so later I was kind of thankful that it happened as I now feel closer to the Continentals afterall. After fixing the flat, I decided that just in case, I'd go back over the bridge and do the speedwork on Lk Wa Blvd, business as usual. The first 5 mile piece felt really really slow...felt like my legs couldn't push hard enough to give me much cardio...It was pretty much just a slog and a mental exercise to do it. As usual, I threw food at the problem and 1/4 of a Powerbar after the first one helped the second. Despite feeling sluggish, my speed on both pieces was in the speed range it usually is...interesting. The last few miles home I just spun it out and enjoyed the sunny afternoon along the lake.

Today was a sunrise swim with my swim pal, Robin, again...this, too, had that same "this is a lot of work" feeling, though I think we were pretty close to regular pace. The water was a little more roll-ey than usual and I was glad to be done working out for the day before 7 a.m.

Tuesday:
Morning, 3 mile run: 28:33, Avg HR = 140

Afternoon, 24 mile ride (1:30)

34 min warm up, 8.5 miles
5 mile tempo: 15:15 (avg speed 19.7mph), Avg HR = 145
6 min recovery
5 mile tempo: 15:12 (avg. 19.8mph), Avg HR = 144
4.3 mile recovery

Race Report: Seafair Sprint

2010-07-18T14:07:00.001-07:00

My friend and swim buddy, Robin, and me...pre-race...

And Post-Race...with my clean bike!

I'm back!! First race in 2 years and I'm as hooked as ever...had a great race at Seafair today! Sprint triathlons hurt...all that scoffing I did about short distance races in the past few years bit me squarely in the butt.

I am dog sitting again this weekend, so I was up at 4:30 a.m...after locking myself out of the house at 4:42 a.m. (thank god and/or detail oriented homeowners or both for spare hidden keys that saved my bacon after I yelled, "NOOOOO!" and the dogs were like, "dude, it's 4:42 a.m. what are we doing in the damn garage anyway?"), I busted it to go home to eat and grab my stuff. I was so amped that caffeine was barely necessary...I tried out my new tires and tuned up bike briefly on my block before loading it in the car and got even more psyched...felt and looked like a new ride. Sa-weet!

Got down to Seward Park with plenty of time and set things up...met a great 62 year old woman in the Porto line who started doing triathlons last year at this race. She was super cute and mentioned that last year there were only 5 women in her age group...Note to self: take care of injuries, continue to age up, and someday I will win my age group (although, crap, I looked up her results and there were 8 in her age group this year, my strategy is already being practiced, I may have to race till I'm 102...).

I tried to keep a lot of clothes on and stay warm...it was cloudy and in the 50s and I was in the 10th wave, so it was the usual hurry up and wait. I found my friend, Robin who was racing and her boyfriend, Kevin. He took our bags so I could keep my sweatshirt on as long as possible and he got a couple of pre-race photos.

Being in the 10th age group wave also meant that the elites were already off their bikes before I started swimming...hate that...

Swim: Finally...in the water...wore the sleeveless wetsuit and kept my arms out of the water as long as possible while we waited for the start. Brr. I took a position right at the front of my wave as I decided I was no messin' today, especially on the swim. I pretty much uncorked when the swim started and went right off the front. I have never gone totally off the front sprinting like that...I kept thinking, "that may have been a little ambitious, but maybe I can hold the lead till the next buoy..." then the next, then the next...pretty soon I was rounding the last buoy and running over people from the previous wave (seriously, someone doing backstroke perpindicular to the course? I almost T-boned them...NO MESSIN') and thinking, that hell, I'm gonna go #1 in my age group, there are no other green caps around me...COOL! Swim time: 12:30. Started the old mental mantra, "calm and efficient" in the final stretch to prep for T1. Lotta good that did...

T1: Um, I'm rusty. I began a day of poor triathlon ettiquitte and making my row look like a bad yard sale. Got myself out of there, neither gracefully nor as quickly as I shoulda...2:13.

Bike: Brrr. Dude, it was COLD out there. Tried to push it and stayed in the aerobars most of the ride. I was happy that I knew the course and where we'd go up onto the I-90 Express lanes, etc. (where it was even colder, augh). I got passed by 2 women in my age group on the bridge...which is predictable and sucks...went into the tunnel where it was a bit warmer...NICE...but then had to come back out and freeze again. I tried to push it...wondered if I should be going harder, but really I don't think I could have. One more chick from my age group passed me on Lk. Wa Blvd...dammit...down to 4th. Didn't worry much about nutrition, just drank about 2/3 of a bottle of gatorade on the bike. I was SO looking forward to running and getting warm. Bike time was good for me, despite it being my weak link: 38:06 (Avg. 18.9 mph).

T2: Did I mention I'm rusty? This one was better, but I added to my yard sale...1:30

Run: I could not feel the bottoms of my feet until the last half mile...seriously, running on stumps. The run wasn't easy...I wanted to push more on the first mile, but knew that hill was coming...another member of my age group dropped me hauling butt through the park...(down to 5th, crap, hang on...the goal was top 10 with a fantasy goal of podium). I thought about chasing, but she was really fast and I decided to just stay with my own race and not blow up, I mean I wasn't exactly sucking on this race.... When I got to the hill, I was happy I'd done some homework and had run that exact hill 3 days ago on my tempo run. A LOT of people were walking it (don't even ask, hell no I didn't). Coming back down was nice (though my quads may not agree tomorrow), as it helped to bring down the heart rate a little before the last push. I passed a lot of people throughout the run---younger people, I might add---and felt really good about it. My running has definitely improved, but I was just a tiny bit short of goal pace on this: 24:56 (Avg. 8:02 min mile).

My race support fan (the bike racer and tuner-upper!) was at the end which was GREAT...we went out for breakfast and I ate a lot more food than a less-than-90 minute workout should warrant, but I was dang hungry and will need another feeding later, for sure...Hm, how is it I'm eating as much as when I did half irons...hope I can really get away with this trend!

And now, at 3:00 p.m....out comes the sun. Friggin' tease. But I had a great day and I guess my race conditions may have been better than those my friend in NYC had today for her Olympic Tri...

Total results:

Swim 12:30
T1: 2:13
Bike: 38:06
T2: 1:30
Run: 24:56

Total 1:19:16
5th/59 in age group
225th/1104 overall

Me 'n Eminem

2010-07-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

So my favorite "get amped" song for traning and races is Eminem's "Lose Yourself." I heard it in the car yesterday morning on the way to work --after a hard tempo run--and pretty much rocked the Rainier Valley in the old Rav4. It appears I'm getting kind of excited to race on Sunday. Yes, I do realize that 2 years ago I scoffed at short races and thought I'd NEVER do a sprint again...well, never say never, I guess. Did I admit yet that I studied last year's results to guesstimate where I can place in my age group? Yeah, guilty...

I had 2 really good lake swims this week, one at sunrise on Wednesday with my friend, Robin, and today at Seward Park alone. It was nice to do a solo swim on Sunday's race course...last workout before the race.

Yesterday was originally a brick, but I begged for a split due to schedule and got approval from Cheryl...I did a 6 mile tempo run early yesterday morning (which, surprise surprise hurt as tempo is listed under "Pain" in the triathlete dictionary) and got in a 31 mile moderate ride yesterday afternoon. I felt body tired and sleepy tired on both workouts, but felt great AFTER the tempo run (emphasis on after) and did enjoy the sunny late afternoon ride. Today again I felt like I was pulling telephone poles behind me in the lake, but that's OK...I think it means I'm doing it all correctly.

I had pretty good splits on yesterday's run (although I got another sideache in the middle, dammit) and have a solid goal to hold 8 minute miles on Sunday. I didn't run the BIG hill back home, but I did do one of the hills at the top of Seward Park on my last mile as I know I'll have that hill or some part of it on the course on Sunday.

By the time I got out on the bike, it was perfect outside...close to 80 degrees and sunny, my favorite conditions. I got to ride the north end of the lake to Bellevue where I got a pre-scheduled scoop home...fun to ride TO somewhere instead of the usual routes...and there was a chocolate milk recovery drink waiting for me, which was awesome as I finished at about 6:30 pm and the hunger meter was going up. I also scored an extensive bike cleaning last night (for which I'm very grateful) and my bike is shiny and twitching.

Tomorrow I will be doing sports massage at STP in Centralia all day...not exactly a taper day, but I think it will be super fun.

Yesterdays' stats:

6 mile (mostly tempo) run:
1 mile warm up: 8:47/ HR 133
Mile 2: 8:05/153
Mile 3: 7:59/159
Mile 4: 8:20/161
Mile 5: 8:13/164
Mile 6 (incl. hill): 8:25/164

31 mile ride:
2:00
Avg HR: 120
Max HR: 153
Avg speed 15.6 mph

Intervals, intervals, intervals...

2010-07-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

I got hit with a Monday stick first thing yesterday morning...had a running interval workout to do and went to the Franklin High School track. Something about running on a real track makes me feel like I really did speedwork more than doing it by the lake with the GPS. The workout was 4 x 400 and 3x 800, and I did a mile before and after the hard stuff. I haven't done 800's in a llllooonnnggg time and it didn't take long to remember why (other than that I was injured): I didn't have to. 800s are friggin' hard. But it IS nice to get tough guy points before breakfast. While doing the workout, I really started thinking about the Seafair Tri this coming Sunday...never thought I'd enter another sprint Tri, but I have to admit, I'm kind of psyched about it. Anyway...I think I did pretty well on the run and later in the day, I went to the pool and did a swim. I'm planning to be in the lake on Wednesday and Friday this week, so I figured I should do a little speed work in the pool this week, too.

I went to bed late (for me) last night, and slept really hard...I think the run and all the other stuff of the day kind of zapped me. I woke up at my usual time today, but could not get up...went back to sleep till about 8:00 a.m...almost undheard of for me, but nice.

It took a couple hours and a good deal of caffeine to get the cobwebs cleared this morning...eventually went out for today's interval bike ride. That one was 10x 1 min sprints with 2 minutes recovery between each. Seemed like a lot of rest on paper, but...nope, 2 minutes in between each was just fine, thanks. Had a great workout on Lake WA Blvd and did half with a slight headwind and half 5 with a slight tailwind.

Whew, lots of stats...not even gonna bother with the swim ones.

Monday's interval run:

1 mile warm up 9:13
400: 1:39 (Avg HR:148)
1:27 recovery
400: 1:44 (HR 151)
1:29 recovery
400: 1:43 (151)
1:33 recovery
400: 1:43 (151)
1:59 recovery
800: 3:34 (159)
3:02 recovery
800: 3:35 (159)
2:29 recovery
800: 3:37 (159)
1:59 recovery
1 mile: 9:06

Today's interval bike (max HR on each hit high 150's)

Warm up: 22 min/ 6 miles
10x 1 min hard/2 min recovery

Headwind:
1. Avg speed: 22.3
2. 22.1
3. 20.5
Tailwind:
4. 23.4
5. 23.1
6. 22.6
Headwind:
7. 21.2
8. 22.8
Tailwind:
9. 22.6
10. 21.8

Total mileage was 20 miles, time 1:15

Race in a week!

2010-07-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

Whoo-hoo...Sunday rest day and I'm due. I had another good training week...registered for the Seafair sprint tri next Sunday (despite the fact that it means I paid $65 to do a short brick on the same roads I ride/run all the time, but whatever), so it's T-minus one week till I get to race and see how the training is really settling in.

Yesterday was a run/bike double...neither was at a "push it" pace which was just fine with me. I'm dog sitting in West Seattle and took advantage of the change of scnery and routes... went for an early flat run on Alki. It was fine, but I was definitely not jonesing for speed, hills, or extra credit distance. Nice morning with a cloud cover that burned off right about the time I got done running, giving way to another day of perfect sunny weather. After coffee and breakfast, I went out for my hour ride, and did a loop around West Seattle, along Alki and up past the ferry dock, up and over Marine View Drive. Nice to get a few hills, but I didn't kill myself on this ride...it was really pleasant and just fun to do a quick ride. I didn't know how long it would take and was supposed to do an hour...turned out to be exactly an hour when I pulled back up to the house. Perfect! Later I went to watch the Crit at Redmond Derby Days...and it was quite nice to watch other peoples' legs working hard while I did some good work on my tan.

7 mile run
1:06:14
Avg HR: 145

14.65 mile bike
1:00:39
Avg HR: 123
Max HR 155

Had to fly the white flag....

2010-07-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I pretty much got my ass handed to me yesterday out in brick-land...Went out for a 40 mile ride (with 20 miles tempo in the middle) + 4 mile run...and...well...didn't exactly have that "always more in the tank" experience of last Saturday.

Not to make excuses, but...I'd like to preface by saying that I did do cycling hill repeats on Tuesday and that yesterday was a "record heat" day. I'm not complaining about either of these factors (god forbid I EVER EVER EVER say anything negative about heat in Seattle or may a bolt of lightening strike me down stat), but I think they were factors.

I warmed up riding over to the far side of Mercer Island and rode the long side each direction to get the 20 mile tempo piece. As soon as I took the pace up, I passed a guy who then sucked my wheel for 10 miles...I don't love it when people do that, especially when they don't announce themselves/ask and I was a little annoyed (and thus, did a few farmer's blow nose clears that, guess what, did not shake him). But I must admit that him being there pushed me a little and knowing that it was a dude on my wheel was a slight confidence booster (unlike that day last week when a guy with a double trail-a-bike carrying 2 non-pedalling small girls dropped me on Lake Wa Blvd). Anyway...rode the clockwise direction first, hit the lap timer, and flipped back alone for the 2nd half. No way did I negagive split, but I was close to holding pace in the 2nd half, so I'll take it. Then rode 12 more miles home. The knee hurt while riding and I felt pretty beat from pushing the ride...there was no enthusiasm for the run. I ran downhill to the lake with minimal confidence that I had 4 miles in my legs...the hamstring joined the knee in complaining, a dull sideache started, and my HR was really high for the pace I was(n't) running. OK, talking myself down...maybe I can make it 3 miles...at about 2.5 I was really feeling like crap and went through the little pullout park just north of Seward Park. I saw a poor overheated pug under a park bench, immobilized on his side, and panting/wheezing as if he were having a near-death experience...he pretty much sounded like I felt. I dragged a little further and, for once, listened to my body when it suggested we throw up the white flag and surrender. I walked a little, tried to run again, went back by the pug, and gave up. I threw myself into the lake and got my head under water to cool down...then walked over the hill back home (quad and knee fatigue bigtime going over 6 flights of stairs). My knee was pretty pissed when I got home, so I iced it and went to a great accupuncture/massage with Magical Monica...helped a lot.

This morning was another sunrise lake swim that was totally perfect. Swam to the yellow house again and the water was perfectly calm with Mt. Rainier in view...These are the mornings I dream about when I schlep to the pool all winter in the dark and the rain! Love it.

Yesterday's Brick:

40 mile bike: 2:20

8 mile warm up
20 miles tempo:
1st 10.3 miles: 32:27, Avg HR=145, Avg Pace: 19.1 mph
2nd 10.3 miles: 32:40, Avg HR = 149, Avg Pace: 18.9 mph
12 miles moderate

Lousy-ass run:
2.85 miles
25:28
Avg HR = 155

Mermaid morning

2010-07-07T08:22:00.000-07:00

Ah, those 3 words I love to hear, "Record heat today..." I could kiss the weatherman!

With the clear and sunny forecast (finally! Seasonal suicide tendencies averted just in time!) on the way, I emailed the unofficial Mermaid Captain, Karin, yesterday to see if I could lure her away from her pool workout to swim in the lake this morning. Hm, she was the 2nd person this week who accused me (oh, wait, I mean complimented me) on being a "bad influence" and tempting people into races and workouts. Thankyew, thankyewverymuch. Karin worked her captain powers and rallied Liz and Tatyana, so the 4 of us met at 5:45 a.m. at Madison Beach. It was the first swim of the year with Mt. Rainier and the sun smiling on the water. Oh, YEAH, this is why I live here! We swam to the yellow house and back...perfect morning!

Didn't blog yesterday, so catching up a little...Did weights and hill repeats on the bike (with its newly installed computer...kind of a buzzkill to see mph and cadence for a hill repeat day, but whatever!).

I rode over to Madrona and did it 5 times...measured from the crosswalk at the bottom to Pine St. at the top (.85 miles). I didn't exactly hold a consistent pace through the 5 hills-- and honestly, the last 2 felt kind of shabby. But being out in the sun makes everything fun, so I mostly just got it done and relished the fact that I was sweating in the sun while wearing only one layer. And I also thought about the fact that this workout will pay off later...hopefully, during the next race.

Sidebar: My training plan calls for a "mini tri" on the same day as the Seafair triathlon...I may buck up and do a sprint race...even though a $65 entry fee feels a little steep....toying with the idea...

Bike Hill Repeats:

4ish mile warm up

Hills:

1. 5:33, Avg HR: 149

3:30 recovery

2. 5:43, Avg HR: 147

3:31 recovery

3. 5:50, Avg HR: 149

3:34 recovery

4. 5:54, Avg HR: 149

3:46 recovery

5. 5:59, Avg HR: 149

3:36 recovery

Moderate ride home: 6.5 miles, 26 min.

Fireworks shmireworks

2010-07-05T17:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a pretty mellow and needed rest day...strangely unstructured, but turned into a great day and a fun evening with a new friend, followed by neighbors' loud stupid fireworks (bah humbug, I know, I get cranky about loud things that happen past my bedtime). Debris rained on the roof and scared the dogs...good times.

Today was a holiday for most people (the people with "real" jobs), but I had 2 workouts and 2 clients, so I was happily busy again after yesterday's chillfest.

Since I'm housesitting on the north end, I started the day with a tempo run at Greenlake...another double loop for mental toughness. The task was 5 miles with 3 miles tempo in the middle. I took splits for each mile as it was a bit of a "field test" to ballpark my AT. By the end of the first hard mile, I had a lousy sideache...pretty sure I just hadn't hydrated well yesterday (story of my life)...fought it the rest of the run, but managed to keep the pace hard. It was not fun while I was doing it, but somehow it got fun in retrospect (isn't that what they say about childbirth? Still not interested in that one, but I kinda get it on a small scale) when I looked at my pace stats...all 3 of the tempo miles were just under 8 minutes. I always think I "should" be running 8 minute miles as that was my usual moderate pace in college when I trained for soccer...I did realize today while thinking about that, that I'm twice the age I was as a senior in college. But I don't care, dammit, 8 minute mile pace should still be my norm and I'm stickin' to it whether I get a sideache and trip on my tongue or not.

I was supposed to have 3 cilents today, but the latest one bailed so I had more time this afternoon to get in a swim. I thought about going to the lake, but the clouds hadn't burned off yet, so I went to the gym... figured it was good to do some speedwork in the pool anyway. The forecast is (finally! Maybe the summer gods are back on the job) really good for the rest of the week, so I figured this will be my only pool swim this week. Nice to go to the gym on a holiday...free street parking and had my own lane in the pool. Sweet!

5 mile run:
1 mile warm up: 9:04, HR 139
3 miles Tempo:
7:57, HR = 163
7:59, HR = 162
7:56, HR = 168
.1 mile walk
1 mile moderate 8:47, HR = 158

2700 yard swim
42 minutes

Hit by the brick and hit it back

2010-07-03T21:32:00.001-07:00

This weekend finds me in Dr. Doolittle double dogsitting mode...I have the pug until tomorrow and he & I are bunking with 2 other dogs at their house in the north end. The good news is that there's lots of cable, a big backyard where I hosted a BBQ this evening, and a hot tub that I'm heading into before bed...I'm feeling happily wiped from a killer brick today and another good training week.

Yesterday was a lake swim day...I got up at 5:00am and it was raining and crappy...again. I threw my shampoo in the car thinking, "maybe I should just go swim at the gym..." then realized that it's really pansy to skip a lake swim because it's raining. I bucked up and it proved to be a really good decision. The rain let up and the water was really calm. I had a really good swim with my friend, Karin, who is much faster than I am. She had raced really hard at the Canada swim the morning before, so she was in recovery mode and it worked really well to swim together.

Today was brick day...I have to say my enthusiasm was not super high again. The weather was crappy and I felt a little body tired from the week. I watched the first half of the Germany - Argentina World Cup game in the leather chair with the pug and my coffee and really wanted to stay there for the rest of the game...and maybe Wimbledon, too. But...got my butt in gear. Just like yesterday, a good decision.

The brick was a 30 mile bike + 5 mile run. I based myself at Seward Park as I wanted to do 2 laps of the park for my run. I hate doing 2 laps of anything, but that's what the run will be for the race in 4 weeks, so I wanted the mental practice of the double loop slog.

I biked around Mercer Island and some extra on Lk Wa Blvd to get the 30 mile ride. My legs were feeling it within 5 miles, but it did get a bit better as I kept going. I always love to ride Mercer Island. On the way back over the I-90 bridge I reached for my Power Bar in the bento box...note to self: don't reach into your bento box with full fingered gloves...on the bridge...when your keys are in it. Clang...keys hit the pavement. I had to circle back, stop, and pick them up...thank GOD they clanged on the pavement and didn't splash into the lake...holy crap. Spent a few minutes thinking about what a nightmare it would have been if my keys had gone to the salmon and being thankful they didn't. I kept an OK pace, but I was a little nervous about the run. However, if I say so myself, I kinda rocked it. I did a quick transition and hit the Seward Park path going counter clockwise. I was supposed to keep tempo pace, but purposefully didn't look at HR or pace on the GPS...just wanted to go by RPE and see what happened. At the end of the first loop I decided to take my split and see how the first loop compared to the second. I wasn't exactly trying to negative split, but was curious about whether I would/could at least hold pace and not get slower. By the end of the second loop, I was playing that mental game one plays with oneself (OK the one I play with myself) when the fuel light is going off in the car...do I slow down and conserve what's left of the fuel or just hammer down and hope to reach the gas station and relieve the anxiety ASAP. No surprise that I generally go for the latter of those 2 strategies. I didn't sprint the end by any means (felt more like "last mile, hashed mile" than "last mile, fast mile," but I got it done and, in fact, did negative split it. My average pace on the run was an 8:14 minute mile pace and, for me, that's freakin' fast. I was really proud of this brick, especially since I wasn't exactly jonesing to do it. To celebrate, I took myself out for a soy latte recovery drink and took my bike to the shop to get it a new computer (mine's been dead for a year).

Things I learned today: I can eat both Clif Bars and Power Bars on the bike and run well...and I probably could have eaten a bit more of both. I should plan for nutrition on the run (didn't bring anything to carry for the run and coulda used some gatorade), my knee and hamstring feel better when I run off the bike than when I run cold (although the knee was pissed after the brick). I should not mess with my bento box on the bridge. I can do half a ride and an entire run without a bathroom stop if I'm too lazy and stubborn to stop even though I have to pee. And there's always more in the tank than you think. I knew that last one already but it's always good to have more physical evidence.

Brick:
30.3 mile ride:
1:53
Avg HR: 122
Avg Pace: 16.0mph

5 mile run
41:12
(lap 1 = 20:55, lap 2 = 20:16)
Avg HR: 156
Max HR: 168
Avg pace: 8:14!!!!! Yeah, baby.

Subdued, dude

2010-07-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I left Otto and Olive and moved to my next dog sitting gig, with Bugsy, the senior citizen curmudgeon pug. After getting pulled around the neighborhood all week by the other 2, this is a definite (and, OK, welcomed) change of pace. If this guy had a puppy pedometer, he'd be hard pressed to register a few hundred steps per day...he gets carried like a football up and down stairs and lifted to the couch; not a bad deal. He's a pretty subdued dude.
I tend to love old guys, especially cranky ones, so I love hanging with Bugsy (and find his little underbite charming, even when he can't see who I am and snaps it at me).

So anyway...catching up...yesterday I swam with the impromptu mini masters' group at Medgar Evars. It was a good butt-kicking and I was glad I had a swim-only day and that the workout was done early.

Today was a run and bike day...I had a good 6 mile run this morning and felt the knee and back a bit. The work day was busy (14 x mini massages at Seattle Magazine) and I would have liked to hang with Bugsy on the couch afterwards....but the power of that color-coded piece of paper is strong and it got me out on the bike. My knee hurt more this afternoon, my back was stiff, and it was in the 60's and showery...I was right up there on the curmudgeon scale myself. But the ride was just an hour and not speedwork, so it went by quick. Afterwards, I used the foam roller on my IT bands, had 2 Aleve, smeared on the Arnica, and then threw beer (of course, to complete the AAA remedy of Aleve+Arnica+Amber for the knee and hamstring) at the problem while having a great dinner with my friend, Jason, whose birthday was today.

6 mile run

55:35

Avg HR: 144

16 mile bike

1:03

Avg HR: 122

Tempo--oooohhh ride

2010-06-29T17:04:00.000-07:00

Today's workout was a tempo ride...just 2x 5 miles, which sounds easy enough, but the legs felt heavy from the time I got up today. I was dragging all morning and not exactly looking forward to the ride. I'd actually thought that maybe I shouldn't do a "hard" ride when my legs were tired from running intervals yesterday and then I realized that oooooh, I bet that was exactly the point. I also remembered that oooooh yeah, biking hard is more difficult to wrap my head around than running or swimming hard. The tougher stuff on the bike is stuff I'd never do without somebody telling me to...so...the piece of paper with the training schedule got me out there to do something other than junk miles.

I warmed up by riding a little in each direction on Lk Wa Blvd to strategize how to do the first TT into the wind so I could go with the wind on the second one. I never figured out which direction the wind was actually blowing, but I'm pretty sure it was a headwind in both directions :)

Of course I was quite happy to have done the ride when it was over...and most of it felt pretty good, but I was definitely limping home the last mile or so. I was also trying to indirectly figure out my AT for cycling and am pretty sure it's between 138-142 bpm.

Tempo Ride:

7.5 mile warm up
5 miles Tempo: 15:15 (Avg speed 19.7)
10 min recovery
5 miles Tempo: 15:37 (Avg. speed 19.2)
20 min recovery

Total: 24.5 miles, 1:28

Seeing Double

2010-06-28T17:55:00.000-07:00

While being fully aware of what a nerdy thing it is to love schedules and calendars...I must admit I'm quite happy to have gotten that color-coded training schedule last night, and I happily started following my marching orders from the coach today. Well, most of them. I kinda cheated a little. But I can rationalize it 100% (and I feel good about it).

Today was a double...an interval run and a swim. The interval run was to be 8 x 400's. I needed to make sure the dogs ran off some energy early and I also wanted to do my workout, so we met in the middle. I drove Olive & Otto down to Seward Park and ran them one loop for my warm up...then threw them in the car and ran another loop with the GPS so I could measure the 400's. I ended up getting in 6 x 400's...and they were hard...so I'm calling it good (while trying to supress the thought that 6 is 75% of 8 and that 75% would be a "C" if I were getting a grade, and I mostly prefer to get A's...oh god, shut up eternal chattering mind!).

I was thinking about another outdoor pool workout at Colman today, but (fortunately) had to change things up to accomodate a client, so I swam at 24 Hr Fitness late morning. Had my own lane, so no complaints.

Not much else to report...day of doubles = 2 laps of Seward Park with 2 dogs, had 2 clients, did 2 workouts...a nice day of pairs... If I have time tonight, perhaps I'll "on demand" the 2 episodes of Friday Night Lights that I haven't seen.

Interval Run:
2.4 mile warm up (22 min)
6 x 400 (with walk/jog recovery of .10 - .15 between each)
1:41
1:41
1:39
2:06
1:40
1:41
(max HR on these was 168)

Total: 5 miles, 46:29

2600 yard (2400m) swim: 42 min.

Rock 'n Roll...

2010-06-26T14:02:00.000-07:00

I spent the morning unexpectedly on the periphery of the Seattle Rock 'n Roll marathon...

The dogs woke up amped and a little bonkers from the get-go this morning. They were twitchy and ready to blow off some steam at 6:30 a.m. (they did not care that I started the Pride weekend beer-for-dinner regime last night). I wasn't in the mood to have them pull my arms half out of the sockets walking (again), so I drove them down toward Seward Park for a run. Most of the roads to the park were closed...took me a few minutes to figure out that the Rock 'n Roll marathon was this morning and the route goes by the park and along Lake Washington. Luckily, we could weave through the water station set-up that was happening and the loop in the park was pretty deserted. We ran about 4 miles out-and-back in the park and came back out just in time to see the lead pack of the marathoners float by behind the lead motorcycles...always awe-inspiring to see elite runners, I love it. Our little 4-miler adequately flattened Olive and Otto for today, I think...shew.

After breakfast I went for a bike ride around Mercer Island...had to bob and weave a bit to get to the I-90 bridge due to the whole marathon cluster-mess and road closures, but once I got on the bridge, it was fun to ride alongside the mere mortals (those elites from earlier were long gone) who were running down the express lanes on miles 10-11 of their marathon...it was just fine with me to be pedalling, not running. I had a nice loop around the island and on the way back across the bridge, I ran into Seujan who was running the same direction as I was cycling...I slowed down and we chatted across the bridge for a bit before I finished my ride.

I got in about 12 hours of training this week...pretty sure that's the most/best I've done in a week in about 2 years. NICE to be back! Recovered by watching the US tank in the World Cup game (augh, those dudes should take a lesson from the US Women on how to WIN in the World Cup, fo sho)...and am ready for more Pride festivities and a rest day tomorrow!

4 mile run
36:01
Avg HR: 138
Max HR: 155

24.75 mile bike
1:42:30
Avg HR: 117
Max HR: 152

Back in black...neoprene, that is

2010-06-25T15:05:00.000-07:00

Finally! This morning was my first open water swim of the year in Lake Washington...it was cloudy and cool out, but the water was flat and it was a great swim. A few of the braver and tougher swimmers have been in for weeks, but the water temp. was 59 a few days ago and I've been waiting for non-hypothermic conditions...or just a few more days that impersonate summer. But...Julie sent out the all-call email this week to the usual pod and this morning I was back in black..wetsuit, insulated cap, and socks...and was actually just fine. A little brisk on the entry, but we were in for 45 minutes and I wasn't even shaking when I got out. Many of the usual suspects were there and it was great to catch up at the Essential Bakery after the swim. I also had a great accupuncture & massage session today and my back is feeling MUCH better.

Didn't blog yesterday, but had a good early morning run on kinda tired legs and felt pretty good. Met with the coach, too, yesterday, and will soon have the color coded plan for the next 4 weeks till my race in hand...whoop!

Run:
6.25 miles
58:37
Avg HR: 140
Max HR: 153

It's all fun and games...till somebody eats the toothpaste

2010-06-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

Meet Otto, the 2-year old French bulldog...

And his pal, Olive...

I am on day 5 of an 11 day dog sitting gig with these 2 innocent-looking pups...and, honestly, most of the time they are pretty dang cool and easy to hang with. However, their humans put them into my care with a few caveats, the main one being that, well, they get into everything if you're not careful... especially if they don't have enough exercise, human time and are left to their own devices (which, obviously, I can relate to). I have been careful to keep gym bags up high, powerbars and edibles stashed, and shoes/clothes on top of the armoir in the room where I'm sleeping. However, I appear to have slipped yesterday...

I'd picked up some groceries and left a new toothbrush and some toothpaste (both of which were still in their wrappers/boxes) on the kitchen table. Oops, my bad. I was in and out during the day, and went out last night to freeload some Showtime at some friends (sidebar, the season finale of "Nurse Jackie" was awesome and the jig is UP...next season will be great). A few times in the afternoon I kept wondering, "Where the hell did I put that toothpaste?" as it wasn't in the bathroom or in the kitchen where I left it...hmmm. I got home about 10:00 last night and let the dogs out for the last time of the day. When I called them in, Otto had a shredded banana peel in his mouth. Nice. Then Olive came trotting in behind him toting this:

I investigated further and found the staging area of the crime in the living room....

So...this morning the 3 of us were at Seward Park by 6:30 a.m. and I ran the toothpaste out of them...boot camp for toothpaste eaters, that's what I'm talkin' about. I was hell bent on making them too tired to misbehave today and it worked...we did basically a tempo run, some of which was at about an 8:30 pace (for me these days, that's pretty fast). By the last half mile, Otto was actually not pulling me and was panting pretty hard. HA!

The dogs have been chillaxing since early this morning (victory for the human!). I didn't have any clients today (well, other than them), so I went for a good long bike ride...did the north end of Lake WA and got in 43 miles...finally in shorts and a short sleeved jersey....sweet! Can't wait for that familiar ugly biker tan and got a start on it, I think. My legs were ready to be done at about mile 30, but I kept throwing food at the problem and finished pretty well. Perfect day for it.

Early run:

3.5ish miles: 30 min (didn't have GPR/HR)

Midday ride:

43.4 miles

2:52

Avg HR: 119

Avg pace: 15.3

Almost open water time...

2010-06-22T15:40:00.000-07:00

So it's almost July and the only open water swim I've done this year was a 23 minute attempt at a campground in upstate NY last week...just haven't felt tough enough for Lake Washington yet. But I'm edging closer and am at least swimming outdoors now (I know, lame, I really do have every intention of getting in the lake by July 4 if not sooner).

I went out to West Seattle for lap swim at Colman Pool today and was pretty happy with the vitamin D production. I could use another 20 degrees, but summer is slowly coming around. The masters' workout at Colman on Sunday was kind of grim... in the 50s and raining; the poor lifeguards were wearing parkas...today was a huge improvement on that scene, for sure! Really nice to be outside and warm in the big pool.

My legs were a little hungover from that brick yesterday (OK, it kind of felt like I was pulling telephone poles behind me in the water, I'll admit it), but the sunshine made it all good and I basically did an LSD swim with a few 50s at the end.

I strained my lower back loading a truck at the end of the GYGIG ride about 10 days ago and it's yelling quite a bit louder than my hamstring and my knee put together....It hurt a lot overnight and a bit in the water today...working on scheduling accupuncture and massage by the end of the week.

3000m swim, 1:00

ReEntry...

2010-06-21T17:03:00.000-07:00

I have not blogged in at least 6 months, and haven't raced since Troika, almost 2 years ago...after that best-of-my-life race, the injury parade started, everything else in my life flipped, flopped, spun and landed....then rinsed and repeated. But you (the 3 of you who might possibly still check this damn-near dead blog) know all of that.

In the past 2 years, I've continued to subscribe to "Triathlete" magazine, but several issues went unread as I didn't even feel worthy of calling myself a triathlete...and the 8+ months of no-running made it downright painful to see "Runner's World" arrive in the mail. Slowly, but surely, though, with several one-step-forward-and-I-hurt-myself-again stages, I think I'm reentering my tritahlon life.

Last week I gave my 2007 Ironman Finisher T-shirt away to someone important to me who's doing her first tri this summer...I'm hoping it still has a little motivational mojo in it, although it almost seems like another lifetime since I did IMC 3 years ago. I kind of figured it's time to get back out there and get create some new mojo...guess we'll see.

Anyway, my hamstring, knee, and most recently my back, are not at 100%, but I've been jonesing to race and I gotta get my life back. I mean, what's the meaning of life if not to spend time, money,and energy to earn ill-fitting ugly race T-shirts, right? And how else am I supposed to deal with everything else in my life if I don't have a color-coded training schedule to keep me grounded? (sidebar: rhetorical, don't answer that one, I know I'm supposed to learn meditation and yoga, but I'm continuing to resist). So...yesterday I renewed my USAT membership and registered for the Federal Escape Olympic distance Tri on July 31...and today I did my first (kind of kick ass if I say so myself) brick in god knows how long (boring stats to follow, of course). I also re-hired my coach, and while on the bike today, I decided it was time to resurrect this blog. I mean, let's face it, I LOVE Facebook and am happily addicted, but I'm really a little too long-winded for those little updates. Plus, my mom quit Facebook, so I feel somewhat obligated to get this thing up and running again.

So...off I go...reclaiming my triathlete identity, purchasing Aleve, Arnica, and beer with wild abandon (that's a recovery trifecta for 40-something injured athletes if I've ever seen one) and happily scheduled to meet with the coach on Thursday to get that tri-colored training calendar I love so much! Bring it!

Today's Brick:

31 mile bike, south end of the Lake
2:00:30
Avg pace: 15.6mph
Avg HR:121
Max HR: 151

2.3 mile run
20:00
Avg pace: 8:40
Avg HR: 147
Max HR: 158

Social Networking is not for sissies

2009-12-06T13:26:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know I have not blogged in about 2 months. Again.

Frankly, I've been a little webbed-out lately and the blog has fallen to last place among the other self-promoting online presences and the cat-herding they require. I just completed my 3rd month as a small business owner and, in additon to this blog, I now have a website for the biz (www.ruthfrobe.com), a fan page on Facebook, and a Twitter account...these, of course, supplement profiles and professional networks on LinkedIn and Biznik. As of today, I've managed to get the Facebook Fan page to talk to/through my Tweets, but the rest of the cats are not completely herded. I'm sure "there's an app for that," and my love affair with my iphone grows daily.

This I have learned: Social networking is not for sissies.

However, I'm getting some tips here and there ...went to one workshop this past week on "The 10 tips for Marketing a Small Business," (guess what she said: use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Biznik...cool, I'm on the right track) and another lecture by one of the inventors of Twitter, Dom Sagolla. He, of course, is about 12 years old (ok, maybe double that, but not much more) and talked about his 21 month old son who has-- and easily manages --an iphone and a laptop. Fortunately, Dom's presentation included a take-away copy of his book, "140 characters, a style guide for the short form" to coach my Tweeting. This book (yes, the irony of a book in actual print about using Twitter and Facebook was acknowledged by the author) is now on my stack of reading material with "Book Yourself Solid," "Outliers," and the book Seujan's mom recommended, Magic Johnson's "32 Ways to be a Champion in Business." I'm hoping that one has a strategy for how to manage 32 business building tasks at once.

The other small business owner trick that's not for sissies is improving the actual product as well as the promotion of it. That aforementioned book list also includes "Job's Body," (been trying to get to that one for a year)... and I also went to another workshop this past week on "Navigating the suboccipitals." Last week there was a skills calibration for the Washington State Sports Massage Team and I'm now on board with them and worked at the Seattle Marathon last Sunday (super fun). Believe it or not, I actually had a few clients in between all the training for how to get them and treat them this past week.

Massage School was great, but the business instruction was a little short on how to get and keep the plates spinning once you're "out there." I need a personal assistant. Oh yeah, that'd be me. And a librarian....oh yeah, that'd be me. And an accountant...think that's me again (did I mention my first conversation with the Dept. of Revenue on Friday as my first submission to the State Tax people was a little, um, tardy? Oops, all cleared up now though)...and a Marketing/Social Networking Director...K, think I'll pick up that job, too. But hey, bottom line is that what I don't need --and don't have--- is a boss or a requirement to have my butt in a cube every day from 8 to 5. THAT works for me and I'm digging it.

In unrelated and nicely familiar territory, I'm happily flattened from my longest run in 14 months. I did 11 miles today...10 running + 1 mile walk/run. I'm kind of on strike from the bike these days and the running has been fun and coming back again...not totally hammie pain free, but just being able to DO it is great...

Follow me on Twitter @FrobeLMP!

Tullamore dew drowns sting of crime

2009-10-02T13:18:00.000-07:00

Usually, I'd be writing an entire blog entry about how we snuck in a (last? I hope not) open water swim in the dark and cold Lake Washington this morning...however, the sting of being a victim of wallet theft yesterday was far worse than the October lake water...

So yesterday was the last day of my first month "in business," and I was pretty psyched to have 2 new clients (a wife and husband) at 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. I was about 45 minutes into the first client's 60-minute session when I heard the little ring of the outer office door. Monica is out of town, and I was the only person there, so I excused myself from the client to quickly stick my head out and see who was there. A girl, probably early 20's, was standing there and said her phone was broken and she needed to use ours...my first impulse (yes, I read the book "Blink," but apparently I am one of the people he talks about who discounts a first gut reaction) was to think, "yeah, this is some kind of story..." but I wanted to get her out of there quickly and return to my client, so I said that yes, she could use the phone in the back desk area. (And, sidebar, this is in Wallingford, not exactly a high crime neighborhood for chrissake). As I showed her where the phone was, I impulsively grabbed my iphone off the counter (at least I paid attention to this gut impulse), shoved it into my pocket, and went back into my session. I heard the girl in the office area on the phone for a minute...then as she left, she yelled, "Thanks!" and I said "You're welcome!" Um, well, I didn't mean THAT welcome.

Within the next/last couple minutes of the session, I was already remembering that my wallet had been sitting in my open bag on the desk and had a sinking feeling. Sure enough...as soon as I was finished with the client, I went right to the desk and realized the reason for the enthusiastic "thanks!" she'd yelled upon her exit...bitch stole my wallet. AUGH!!!!!!!!!!! Of course, immediate panic and yelling of the "F" word a few dozen times ensued after which I tried to call Seujan...who was unavailable (and really, what could she have done about it anyway...) and I tried to calm myself down.

I had just enough time (and, fortunately the iphone and, therefore, google) before the 2nd client's appointment to call the police, stop my credit cards, stop my debit cards, and start a list of the other things in my wallet that need replacing (gym card, Starbucks card, AAA card, health insurance card...blah blah)...and simultaneiously re-set the massage table & sheets. As the 2nd client walked in, I was still on the last phone call and over the phone said "Nice to meet you...please fill out the health history...on the phone with Visa for stolen credit card...." Somehow, I managed to chill back down enough to give a decent massage (well, I think/hope so anyway), though I really thought I was losing it there for a little while.

I was supposed to meet my friend, Dave, right after work for a quick happy hour and to see Drew Barrymore's new roller derby movie. I'd gotten free tickets last week and was psyched to take Dave, Mr. Lifetime Roller Derby Fan, to the movie (and stupid thief left the movie passes in my bag when she took the wallet so this was still an option). However, in between all the calls to Visa and the 2 clients, I'd placed a few hysterical texts and messages to Dave letting him know what had happened, and he was already parked at Murphy's bar enjoying his first beer and poised to buy me drinks. He'd already decided when I arrived that we would just have drinks, calm down, catch up....and see the movie next week. He truly is my forever boyfriend! I ranted to the waitress who (thankfully, didn't card me and) recommended a shot (which Dave quickly approved and shared) to chase my beer. I learned that Tullamore Dew is a pretty smooth spirit...note to self. After a couple beers and a couple games of darts, I felt much better...went by to see Seujan for a little extra grounding and still got home in time to get plenty of sleep before the dark cool morning swim.

Today I learned (thanks to Duncan) that you can renew/replace a driver's license online and avoid the DMV...of course this requires a credit card purchase--if you still have a credit card which I do not-- of $15 (thanks, Seujan!).

Nice that good people always seem to show up and help fix things, especially when NOT good ones screw them up!!

Back on the RUN!

2009-09-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know...I said I was gonna blog more often and, well, I fell down on the job again.

It has been at least 8 months since I got to say, "I went for a run this morning..." and today I just might say it ALL DAY LONG! Yeah, look out, I'm a runner...I made it all the way around Green Lake this morning (that's 3 full miles) without stopping/walking...and in less than 30 minutes. What could have been viewed as a pansy rest day a couple years ago is now a major win.

I'm thinking what may have helped to make this possible in a wierd kind of way is that I've been sick as a dog this week...I lost my voice on Saturday and have been coughing, snotting, and slogging around with low energy all week (and, of course, gave the crud to Seujan, winning me lots of girlfriend points). Anyway, I've barely worked out this week--yesterday I walked downtown and feared I might not make it back up the hill without laying on the sidewalk-- so maybe the inactivity (and the Aleve I took for my pounding headaches) gave the dysfunctional hamstring more rest than usual? I was mostly concerned with the coughing, spitting, "farmer's blowing," and trying to breath without wheezing this morning, so the hamstring was kinda in the background. Whatever, I'll take it...and I guess I'll see later whether or not I'll pay for it.

In unrelated news, I'm slowly building up the massage practice...I'm now doing massage on Mondays/Fridays at Seattle Fitness gym downtown and am trying to network and build a client base for the space I'm sharing with my friend (the acupuncture guru, Monica) in Wallingford. Last weekend, I did several hours of volunteer sports massage for a team at the MS 150 bike ride (way fun!) and on Tuesday, I did 4 massages at the "Massage for the Cure" event at Massage Envy. I was fighting the cold and praying I wasn't contagious for that one and, even after being embarrassed and apologetic for coughing on my first client, she asked for my business card, so I guess I did OK. I haven't received any "Dammit, you gave me your cold!" hate mail from her, so I'm hoping she might become a regular client...who knows.

I'm thinking I need to get a website up and in order, but haven't quite made that happen yet...

Shameless self promotion

2009-08-22T15:43:00.000-07:00

So....I got my business cards yesterday and am strategizing how best to wallpaper the city of Seattle with them to drum up some clients (schedule now, schedule now...like my subliminal messaging?). My pal, Shannon, in San Francisco, did the graphic design of my cards and created the little "RF" logo. He is a rock star and did a fine job, dontcha think? He also did them in my favorite colors, blue & green...I'm digging them.

Front of card:

I've signed a one-year lease for the new practice space with my classmate (and now business partner, how wierd does that sound?), Monica, and paid my first/last month's rent, so I'm set to get things rolling Sept. 1.

Tatyana, ever a member of my support staff, scheduled an appointment with me for September 1, so I've officially scheduled a paying client in the new space on my first day! A journey of a thousand miles...and all that stuff.

Until September (and yeah, I do know that's about one more week, deep breath), I'm trying to get a few more of my ducks in a row, calm myself down from intermittent freak-outs (holy shit, I'm opening my own business!), and well...allowing myself to enjoy the end of the summer a bit. Since wrapping up work on Danskin and the Portland Century last weekend, I've been swimming in the lake and on my bike a good bit this past week and, although I've been up by 7 a.m. every day, none of the wake-ups were due to an alarm clock...that's been pretty sweet.

Today, Seujan and I did a really nice 40 mile bike ride from Log Boom to Marymoor, down W. Lake Sammamish to Newport, through Bellevue, and over Juanita. It was a nice, sunny ride and she was cycling pretty mellow and, mercifully, didn't flatten me. Later, we're going for dinner and to the Storm game...nice weekend and great that she doesn't have homework this weekend and we can both relax a bit!

(schedule now, schedule now, schedule now...)

What happened to summer???

2009-08-09T12:36:00.000-07:00

I'm getting ready to move back to the Shoebox after 10 days of dog sitting in West Seattle...although I think I've visited my apartment daily for clothes/gear/bike/etc., it seems like a long time since I've been there! It's been nice to be in a big house with cute dogs, a LOT of cable, and, well...having the housekeeper come on Friday didn't suck, either. But the back-and-forth running around can be a bit of a hassle and it will be good to go home.

Yesterday I biked to the finish of Seujan's 13 mile trail race up at Cougar Mountain (as in I biked UP Lakemont to the trailhead/finish line). I've been riding hills a lot lately, it seems, and yesterday was another great ride, despite the fact that I started with 2 shirts and arm warmers on...and in August that is really unacceptable. Seems somebody fast-forwarded the calendar from the blissful heatwave of we had going a week or so ago right through August and September and landed us in October. Um, can I please have some August back??? 60's, cloudy, blech...I don't love it.

Today I went for a swim at an indoor public pool in West Seattle...the weather was crappy again and I didn't feel like driving back and forth to Seattle to get in the lake, so I went to a lap swim. I haven't been in a pool in a few weeks now and I have to say I haven't missed it much. I got through 2,700 yards (a mile and a half), but it was boring, the water was way too hot and chlorine-ish, and I had to share a lane. Desperate times call for desparate measures and I was glad to have a pool option, but I really belong in the lake for another month or 2.

Later today Seujan and I have a date to go see the movie "Julie & Julia." I've been Jonesing to see it since the previews came out several weeks ago and, fortunately, Seujan has put aside her ambition to see the latest Harry Potter movie (zzzzz) to see this one with me. A friend of mine just posted this link on Facebook...a cool interview with Julia Child on NPR from 1989. Julia Child says that people are too afraid of cholesterol, fat, and food in general...I keep hearing that fat is not to be feared (including from one of my teachers at Cortiva, who is a naturopath) and, well, if Julia Child made it to a happy 91 years old, I might need to re-think my relationship with butter! TBD and movie review to follow...

Vanilla Boston Creme Pie...+ coffee?

2009-08-07T16:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was in a consumer focus group about coffee creamer...or, well, fake coffee chemicals that don't actually contain real creme, per se, but that people like me use in our coffee pretty much daily. The totally artificial stuff that Seujan and I refer to as "goop." Yeah, I've read the label and use the stuff anyway...and now, having been paid $80 to discuss the tasty toxin (ok, that's not proven, but it certainly can't be classified as a nutrient by any stretch) for less than an hour, my little habit has only been reinforced. Anyway, turned out that the objective of the focus group was to review some potential new vanilla flavors/combinations being considered by International Delight. There were a few that I might actually buy if they hit the local grocery shelf, but there were some that were just gross. Like Boston Creme Pie? Cheesecake? Vanilla cardomom? Chai Vanilla? Blech....I'll just stick with my hazelnut flavored corn syrup, please.

Other activities yesterday included doing hill repeats on the bike (only 3, but they kicked my butt) on Marine View Drive in West Seattle and going to a free seminar on Energy and Bodywork at Cortiva, presented by one of the best instructors I had this past year. Kind of fun to hang out at school as an "alumni" and get a little more free education. I had a little "awareness" moment when I got into the building and realized that one year ago, I don't think I had ever even been in that building...then I was there a LOT for several months...and now I've graduated. Pretty crazy what can happen in a year.

This morning was our swim group's annual bridge swim. Once a summer, Julie organizes us all and we meet under the I-90 bridge, swim a Looonnnngggg out-and-back, and then have a tailgate potluck breakfast. The last few lake swims have been pretty choppy, so swimming along the bridge (i.e. with the floating bridge as a wind buffer) made for nice calm water and a good swim, despite the cloudy lack-of-sunrise conditions. I was a little late getting in the water, but caught up with the group at the turn around...just in time to get dropped on the return trip anyway. I'm not exactly speed racer in the water this summer. We didn't go all the way to Mercer Island, but Duncan and I guesstimated that we swam somewhere between 2.5-2.75 miles. I was in the water for about an hour and 13 minutes. The air temperature has tanked this week, but the lake is still nice and warm!

Back after another blog-less month!

2009-08-06T07:10:00.000-07:00

Looks like it's been another month since I've blogged...and, as of this weekend, I realized...it's been a full YEAR since I've done anything that required a bib number. Troika '09 was last weekend and I have not raced since Troika '08. Granted, I did a really great bike ride with Ann in North Bend last weekend (way fun) and I've got some other cool pieces of paper instead of bibs (like a massage school diploma/license and a business license), but...it's not the same. Sigh. Twice this week when I was wearing my Ironman sweatshirt, someone stopped and asked, "Did you do an Ironman??" out of the blue. I said that yes, I had done one 2 years ago...but it almost doesn't seem like I was inhabiting the same body when I did.

My stupid hamstring is still a pain in the ass...literally...and I'm pretty sure it's not just hamstring related at this point (the latest idea from my friend, Dawn, who has a similar thing is that it could be bursitis...who knows...the whole sciatic thing is a possibility, too...or maybe that I just haven't really really rested it...or trained through it correctly? Hell, I don't know). As per an idea from the coach (who I keep on retainer, but haven't officially consulted in way too long), I'm trying a little run/walk thing a few times per week on the treadmill. I'm running 1 minute/walking 1 minute, 10 times...with a little extra warm up and cool down I do 2 miles in 25 minutes. I can do the short run bouts, but it's not exactly comfortable (OK, it hurts). I know the whole thing is a little better than it was a few months ago as I can walk uphill now without having to walk backwards the whole time and I can do some parts of my bike ride in the aerobars, but...it's healing very very slowly. Last weekend's 60 mile ride with Ann was my longest ride of the year. A whole season of "junk miles" is, on rare occasions, kind of fun....but often it's just wierd.

Anyway...I think I've blogged less because it just makes me think about how I'm NOT blogging about training for anything. I'm cycling a pretty decent amount and have had some really really great swims in the lake, but there's no real training goal. Trying to see the silver lining, I must admit that despite the absence of training and races, there have been some other fun and interesting things happening. The big news of the last month was the super HOT record setting weather (whoo-hoo!)...I've been working on some cycling events including the Seattle Century-- which was a bit of a crazy day...I'm getting ready to launch my massage practice in September (spent 3 hours yesterday at the dept. of revenue learning about state taxes, giddyup)...and today I'm going to be in a focus group about fake coffee creamers ($80 to talk about CoffeeMate for an hour, sure, why not...pretty great that one of my bad nutritional habits will pay off).

I'm also dog-sitting in West Seattle for about 10 days, currently on day 7. This time I have 2 big dogs, Max and Zion. Max is an older yellow lab (apparently, I have a type) who lets me hug on him all the time--so sweet. The last time I sat for these dogs, Max was on a 2x per day feeding schedule and now he only gets fed once per day...of course, we know that I plan my own days around the periodic feedings of myself and Seujan (whether I'm training or not) and I find this one time a day bowl filling for Max a little tragic. Thus, I've been contributing to some bad doggie habits like allowing Max to hang out with me on the king sized bed watching "Nurse Jackie" on demand. He would prefer "All you can eat" food to all-you-can-eat cable, but he's getting through it and we're totally caught up on all of this season's episodes. With a few days left of HBO and Showtime, I need to maximize my opportunity and find some other trash to watch for the rest of the week.

Here are my roommates for the week....

This is Zion:

And this is Max:

I'm hereby re-commiting to more regular blogging...I do miss writing when I don't do it.

Lucky Foxy Belle

2009-07-08T19:41:00.000-07:00

No, that's not my new stripper name (I'm not done with the current midlife crisis and career change quite yet so I can't move on to another one and well, I don't think that would be a viable vocation anyway, though it COULD be a good stripper name).

I'm dog sitting again...it's been a while! This time I'm sitting for a massage school classmate, Christine, and her husband who've gone sailing to Victoria.

This is Lucky, the 13 year old lab...super cute, super old, super sweet.

And below is Foxy Belle (seriously, I'm dogsitting for straight people, not gay men, though I didn't ask who may have named this one, maybe someone has a brother...). Foxy is 2 and, like most small dogs, "large and in charge" as far as attitude goes. There was a note about the possibility of "dingleballs" that could occur (doesn't sound so "foxy" to me, how about you?) and where the soap for such occasions might be...I'm hoping I can pretend I didn't see that note and/or any dingling things that could necessitate finding that soap (yikes, that's worse than dealing with a litter box, dontcha think?).

There's a cat around here, too...named Pixie...but we all know that I generally consider cats an after thought....except, now that I mention the cat topic, I need to admit that I've become almost-friends with Wally, Seujan's (kinda dog-ish and that's why I like him) cat. He's pretty cool...so perhaps I'll give this Pixie a chance.

So far, so good...just arrived a couple hours ago and we've all been fed (yes, the cat, too) and are relaxing for the evening. I'm here till Sunday.

50 miles for 50 states

2009-07-04T19:50:00.000-07:00

So it seems I could be a candidate for having the most neglected blog ever...just realized it's been about a MONTH since I've updated it. Oops. When I let it go for a while, I start thinking that well...too much has happened to catch it up, it's all old news, and now there's not that much happening...I mean all the interesting stuff makes me too busy to blog and then when I have time I'm kinda boring. But...there were some cool things to report and today has been a stellar holiday, so I'm back.

OK...quick catch up on the last month: I finsished massage school (see photo above of my favorite classmate, Mari, and me at last Wednesday's graduation), I took (and passed) the massage licensing exam, I have made a few feeble---and not particularly successful or pain free---attempts at starting to maybe run but they're really to lame to even document, I supported Seujan at her 4th Ironman, and my I biked 4 of the last 6 days (140+ miles this week!). Oh, and I'm working on a few upcoming events, including the Seattle Century. And the weather has been beyond great the last week...lots of sun and I'm loving it!!

Today Seujan and I drove out to Enumclaw to bike the course of this coming September's Black Diamond Half Ironman, the next race on her list. It was nice to have the whole day free and to have a change of scenery...as much as I love riding Mercer Island, it is nice to get out of town and do something different. And it didn't hurt that there was almost NO traffic and no stoplights. We did manage to get a little off course on the first loop, but we never got truly lost. This summer, "riding together," has come to really mean just riding simultaneously as Seujan is uber-fit and I'm still struggling to get the hamstring functional and recover my cycling fitness. Fortunately, both of us are fine to ride alone and we end up in the same place within a few minutes of each other. After one of our route diversions today (OK, can I just say that Seujan over-shot a turn about 5 minutes after we discussed that we'd both be taking a left...and she had already dropped me, of course, but was in my sight, creating an uninvited interval for me as I watched my HR monitor go up and chased her down), we were backtracking on Kent Kangley road when a car just in front of us slowed slightly and a big black BEAR sprinted from our side of the street to the opposite side. Yeah, that's right, a bear!! A runner coming toward us commented on how fast the bear was running and I agreed whilethinking I was glad to be on 2 wheels and not 2 feet just in case...

Anyway, Seujan did a few more miles than I did in between the 25ish mile loops and we both went around the course again, ending up back at Nolte State Park a little after 2:00. I was at just over 48 miles and thought I should make a patriotic gesture in honor of the 4th of July and do 50 miles for 50 states. I was feeling pretty flattened and didn't feel like pedalling any more, but managed to get it done, probably because I knew I'd get to hop in the lake at the end and because I knew she had to do a brick and run after the ride. We both went for a brief post-ride dip in the lake and, after not getting invited to any of the barbeques going on by the lake but smelling all the grills raging in full force, we headed home (via 2 grocery stores for sustenance). It was a great day and a perfect way to spend the 4th of July!

2/3 of a triathlete...

2009-06-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

Until yesterday, Seattle had about a 2-week stretch of phenomenal sunny weather...I was LOVING it. On Wednesday, I declared "Carpe diem!" and skipped class to go for a bike ride...

The hamstring is still a bit problematic, but I've been back on the bike for a couple of weeks with a few 50ish mile rides...I figured hell, if it's going to bug me regardless, I may as well get out in the sun and do what I want to do. It's improving a bit and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to try running sometime soon. With the sun, it's been really nice to be back in my natural habitat and out on my bike...the good news is that I'm back out there riding, the bad news is that 50 mile rides have pretty well flattened me...seems those 45 minute workouts on the step mill at the gym helped, but didn't quite cut it and I lost a bit of fitness (how come consternation about losing fitness does not result in a training effect?? It's not like I wasn't willing this not to happen...). I keep trying not to, but continue to think that last year at this time, I'd already done a half ironman and was getting ready for the Lake Padden race...sigh. With the return of cycling to my repetoire, I'm just starting to almost feel like 2/3 of a triathlete...a hell of a lot better than 1/3, so I guess I'll take it.

Only 2 more weeks of school!! I'm in the home stretch and looking forward to being done and getting out there...I've scheduled my licensing exam for June 25 and graduation is on July 1...

Back in the lake!!

2009-05-29T09:22:00.000-07:00

Seujan is doing Ironman Idaho in about 3 weeks...she ventured into Greenlake on Monday afternoon for her first open water training swim of the season. Being my conservative and usually cold self, I opted to (kinda) study for a test on the beach that day and watched carefully to see whether she froze... When she got out, she claimed that the water was quite comfy warm and her story was pretty believeable--there was another pod of wetsuited swimmers who hopped in about the time she did and none of them were shrieking...

Watching SJ's happy swim on Monday--and another 3 days of solid sunshine--was just what I needed to bust out my wetsuit (ok, and the neoprene socks and insulated cap) this morning for the first Friday morning swim of the season.

Whoo-hoo! I'm happy to report that Greenlake was, indeed, comfortable and the first swim of the year was GREAT! Ann, Barbara Rose, Seujan, and I had a great sunny early morning swim. I was in over 40 minutes and was NOT cold! I still prefer Lake Washington to Greenlake, but hey, I didn't get hit by any stray oars of the rowers and it was a lovely MAY morning...we're almost never open swimming in May and this weather rocks.

Bring on summer!!!

It's like riding a bike...

2009-05-24T15:51:00.000-07:00

Oh, wait, it's not LIKE riding a bike, it IS riding a bike!! For the first time in, well, months, I went for an outdoor ride today. The hamstring is not exactly done giving me grief, but it's improved a little bit lately so I took it for a test drive today. The step mill at the gym and the indoor pool (my only cardio for many weeks) have gotten really old, especially with the return of the sunshine lately, so it was great to be outdoors for a little spin. I made myself leave the HR monitor at home and I also made myself stay on a flat route...but of course I kept an eye on the bike computer cause a girl needs at least a few numbers for validation! I rode from Madrona to Seward Park twice, so I got in 20 miles...and I averaged 16.8 mph. It definitely felt a little foreign and I'm NOT in bike shape, but I'm hopeful about the possibility of actually getting my body back this summer and was pretty happy with the ride.

Bikes 'n Ballard

2009-05-09T16:02:00.000-07:00

I'm on the Board of Bike Works and today was the annual community kids' bike swap. This is a super great annual feel-good event where people can bring used kids' bikes, get a value estimate on them, then shop for a "new" used bike with their trade-in credit...hundreds of bikes get traded/bought and many of the same bikes and families show up every year as the kids get bigger and the bikes don't. I was working the checkout for about 3 hours today and it was really fun (plus, a sunny spring day in the park, what's not to love about that). The little kids get super jazzed to get new bikes and some of the bikes are pretty damn cute, albeit too often pink, too (see example above...unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of the kid who was wearing a superman cape on his new bike and sporting a red cast on his arm-adorable). And here's the people-aren't-all-bad-have-faith-in-the-human-race story from the event. A guy came in with 3 kids and wanted to swap 3 bikes. The value of the bikes they brought was less than the ones the kids chose and wanted to buy, so he needed to pay the difference of $45. The guy was a little frustrated and obviously didn't have the cash...he went into the bike coral to look around again for other options. The guy who'd been behind him in line gave us a credit card and asked if he could anonymously pay for the other family's bikes. How's that for pay it forward??

At the moment, I' m in a coffee shop in Ballard behaving a kinda like a tourist. I'm dogsitting for Maddie & Winnie, my favorite Ballard residents (aka the velvet-coated Labs) this weekend. I don't hang out much in Ballard and there are a ton of cool places to eat, drink, shop, and people watch...I'm avioding the homework in my backpack and waiting for Seujan to meet me so we can look for a good happy hour location...

Here's Maddie after a chuck-it session this morning...she looks like I've been feeling the last week.

I'm a winner!

2009-05-05T20:10:00.000-07:00

On the first day of school back in October, some people from Massage Envy came to our school and annouced that there would be a competition for a $500 cash scholarship at the beginning of 3rd quarter. They announced that the criteria would be perfect attendance in the 2nd quarter, a 3.5+ gpa, and an essay...and that they'd be back at the end of the 2nd quarter to give out applications. Of course, when I heard the words, "competition," and "essay," I tuned right in and filed the idea in my head...where I fortunately re-visited it every time I considered ditching class (and there was at least one snowy morning when, I must admit, this little contest was the only thing that made me get myself to class and only about 4 of us showed up...fortunately, they didn't make us document whining about being in class, just the attendance stats were recorded). So anyway, the applications came out at the end of March and I was all over it. I wrote a super boring essay and fortunately asked Seujan and Carie to read it...they both gave me some good editing and some ideas so jazz it up. I took their advice, sent in my applications and...today...I got a $500 check. SWEET! Granted, it's not exactly enough to bankroll a small business, but it's my first "official" income as a massage therapist and I'm feeling pretty good about it (not to mention that I haven't had the opportunity to compete in anything else with my stupid hamstring and ok, I'll admit, I've missed seeing whether I placed in my age group, wearing a bib number, and having some external reinforcement--and, I also just realized that I never won cash in a triathlon...). And...as my mom says, "Money can't buy happiness, but it sure helps." Lucky for me, Seujan was available for a happy hour drink on me at the end of the school day today! Cheers!

The contents of my sock...

2009-05-04T20:28:00.000-07:00

So my friend Holly in Portland has this saying she uses when she's a little scattered and re-organizing herself or her space. It makes me laugh every time she says, "I gotta get my shit in one sock..." I have no idea whether she made it up or where it came from, but I love it (and always find myself thinking of a big tube sock like I wore when I was about 12...never thought to ask what kind of sock she means...). Lately, I'm hearing myself say this in my head almost constantly as I'm trying to keep a lot of plates spinning and feel like I'm chasing my tail most of the time. I guess most everyone has a lot of plates in motion and god knows I don't do well being bored...but holy cow, it'd be nice to learn how to sit still at some point. A week ago, I went to Portland for a day for work. I took the train and Amtrak provided a small gift of down time that I'm sure I would not have taken any other way...I took a nap, read several chapters of a novel (!), and actually studied for a test. I'm wondering when I can have another excuse to get on a train...in the meantime, I'm going to bed before 9:00 p.m. with that novel...

Good day sunshine!

2009-04-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

Whew, the old blog has been starving again the last couple of weeks, huh? Quick re-cap...got home from the Georgia/Spring Break "get spoiled by the parents" trip , the Brontosauruses have since accessed high speed internet (of course, after I left), I dog-sat last weekend, went back to school last week (serious cobwebs in my head that had to be sand blasted after 3 weeks off), and dog sat again one night this weekend. This was the cute face I woke up to yesterday morning...Maggie, the Great Dane, so sweet!!

I have a friend, CJ, who has a dog walking business...she has a couple of big dogs herself, so she can't offer overnight dog-sitting...and thus, I am benefitting as she is starting to hire me out for gigs like this past weekend's sleepover with Maggie.

Other than school kicking back up and my hamstring continuing to make me depressed, angry, and kinda insane-- alternately and sometimes simultaneously-- depending on the day-- spring has appeared and so have some of Seujan's family members. Seujan found her birth mother and 2 sisters that she didn't even know she had a few weeks ago...and at the moment, her mom, one of her sisters, Heather, and Heather's fiance, Johnny, are now visiting Seattle. I was fortunate enough to be asked to drive the airport shuttle on Friday night for the (re) union of the family and also got to take SJ's mom to SJ's latest nutcase race, a 50km trail run in North Bend yesterday, and to partake in the post-race party where SJ's mom cooked a seriously great dinner for several of us last night. It's been fun getting to know Seujan's family a bit as she does...good times.

Seujan's family, who are visiting from Georgia, appear to have brought real live spring weather with them...today was GORGEOUS...70ish and sunny. SWEET! I didn't have class today, so I slept in and went to 7 a.m. swim team workout with Tatyana...then later I had a nice walk downtown to the gym and to REI where I opened up my birthday week with a purchase of some new sunglasses (thanks, Mom!)...then spent the afternoon doing 2 practice massages. The Shoebox makes a pretty decent spa environment with the sliding glass door open, birds chirping, and a great view of Mt. Rainier. Nice!

Blogging with the brontosauruses

2009-04-05T14:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's planned adventures to the Masters' Swim workout and the pro tennis tournament, both experienced some curveballs. I ended up swimming indoors at lap swim alone instead of outdoors with a team (a little disappointing, but I got in a really good swim) and, well...we didn't exactly find the tennis tournament. Long story and let's just say there was a lot of family time in the car and some general crankiness, but we never saw any tennis. However, we did get back to the Island in time for me to get a nice long sunny walk on the beach and I was really psyched about it.

When I returned from my walk, my parents were in their usual happy hour poolside positions with many of the neighbors, one of whom produced a glass of wine for me before my butt even hit a chair. Love the neighbors!! These people know how to do retirement right. They all, also, understand the necessity of cable internet access...well, except for my parents...who are quite computer savvy, but insist on living in the "Land Before Time" and having a dial-up internet connection. For the love of god. I had conversations with several of the neighbors who are also fed up with trying to call the Brontosauruses on the phone only to get a busy signal. I was pleased to hear that the community has various strategies in place for getting them to conform to sane communication practices and I'm really hoping the village can come together and help solve this situation soon...It would be great to visit and actually load Facebook when I click instead of flossing, brushing my teeth, texting and taking out my contacts to pass the time while the damn page loads.

Today I hear it's sunny in Seattle and I'm watching/hearing a big thunderstorm here at the moment. This morning was OK, though, and I improvised something akin to a normal workout. I took out the mountain bike again and went to the Causeway, the highway bridge to the island. It's the only hill for miles and it was a godsend. I did 6 round trips over the bridge, making for 12 hill repeats. Each hill was only about 1:30, but it was great to actually be sweating, riding outdoors in shorts and doing something sort of resembling a real bike workout...and with the flat pedals, no hamstring pain (well, until later after I got off the bike). I was wondering, of course, whether riding without toe clips is creating some kind of bad triathlon-threatening pedal stroke habits and/or further muscle imbalances, but the endorphins trumped the worry about that. Also got in a nice walk on the beach later, too, with the parents before the storm (and accompanying tornado warning nearby) hit.

Toes in the sand

2009-04-03T19:13:00.000-07:00

So it actually WAS 80+ and sunny today...that's what I'm talkin' about!!

Yesterday I left Seattle and it was about 40 degrees and raining...as if I needed any more convincing to snow bird myself south. My mom called before I went to the airport to supplement NBC's report that there were thunderstorms and tornado warnings in Georgia...When the first plane bounced into Atlanta for my connection, it seriously looked like I hadn't left home...gray, rainy, blech. Atlanta's airport was packed with travellers who'd been delayed by the storms for hours. Pretty easy to figure out that when my flight was delayed (less than 2 hours for me, no big deal) and I went to the bar for a beer (wait, that wasn't the easy to figure out part...or, OK, maybe it was), I met some people who'd invested a large portion of their day and their credit limit in the overcrowded bar while waiting to get to Phillie...whoa, boy, were they lit. I had a single Michelob Light and chatted mostly with a dude named Maurice who had spent at least $100 in that bar. He apparently lives part time in Seattle, has run several marathons (he runs faster than he slurs, I assume), hadn't been "this drunk" since college--or maybe in the military, it was a toss up, and told me about a guy under his command in the army who shot over a hundred goats for target practice one day. Not sure why he thought that would be an impressive story...yikes. The bartender kept putting people's checks on the bar and the guys paid theirs. When it was finally time for us all to get on our flights, there didn't seem to be a tab sitting there for me...although I know I'm probably going to hell for this, I didn't ask the bartender for my check and decided that my weenie little beer was on the house. Although my karma didn't bite me in the ass immediately (i.e. the puddle jumper plane to Brunswick didn't crash, just a bit more bouncy turbulence), I'm hoping that somehow somewhere I'd paid this one forward or that it was simply a gift from the Universe.

En route yesterday I also read the first issue of "Triathlete" magazine that I've read in several months...Due to my hamstring, I've either not felt worthy of my subscription or have not wanted to get more depressed by reading it. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Reading it made me feel a little more connected to the Tri world rather than less...like maybe I'll be back out there again...and today when I finished the magazine on the beach, I came upon a great article advocating regular massage for triathletes...whoo-hoo, marketing material.

Today was a great chillax day...slept in, grocery shopped via my mom's cabrio with the top down, hung out on the beach with the Spring Break crowds (holy crap, when did college students start looking like they are 12? I'm old), and took my stepdad's mountain bike for an easy 10ish mile spin before a great fresh shrimp dinner. One way to bike and not aggravate one's injured hamstring, I learned, is to make it impossible to USE the hamstring. Flat pedals, no toe clips, and an upright position. Bingo...I decided this is biking for "exercise" and tanning, not for a "workout." At least it's biking and in a tank top and 80 degrees; for the time being, that works for me.

Tomorrow's plan is to hit an early masters' swim workout in Brunswick and then go to watch the prelims of the Bausch & Lombe women's pro tennis tournament down near Jacksonville and tan while watching healthy hamstrings in motion.

I heart vacation.

Rain, rain, I'M going away!

2009-04-01T21:06:00.000-07:00

Today it was 80 degrees with sunshine and bright blue sky in Seattle...APRIL FOOL! Actually, it was about 37 and snowing this morning after I came home from swimming...seriously not OK. I'm about as tired of being cold as I am of my hamstring hurting...ok, maybe not quite THAT much, but both conditions seem to be persisting long past what should have been their due date...sigh.

Anyway, I'm a week into spring (yeah spring, use the term loosely) break and have had a great relaxing week so far...did a short trip to Portland last week on Amtrak, have been cooking a lot, went to the Bikeworks auction, slept in most of the time, and have had a front row seat view of some major life happenings for Seujan...cool stuff. I'm not quite sure how I burned right through a week of leisure time, but my ability to lounge has been honed quite well lately.

Tomorrow, thankfully, I'm flying to St. Simons Island, GA for about a week to see my parents...while it may not quite be sunny and 80 there, either, it's looking like 70ish is likely and that'll work. I'm hoping it'll be warm enough for the favorite chacos and cargo shorts I've packed...oh please, oh please, oh please...

2-legged and 4-legged photos

2009-03-21T08:54:00.001-07:00

Gus & Graham are my weekend companions this weekend while CJ & Nadia are off to Portland. They and their cat friend, Charlie, are cute couch surfers and good hosts (cable--whoo-hoo!), although they had a few loud barking outbursts during the night. They also have a home alarm...I hate those things and this one, of course, is a little different than the one I proudly mastered last month at Michele & Jill's. It seems pretty idiot-proof, but...I did have a dream, I think, about screwing up and setting it off.

Also, Heather just sent me a photo of she, Chase, and me from their party last weekend, in Oly...

Finals week, 2nd quarter

2009-03-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

Whoa, my blogging has been pretty dang lame and sparse again lately...sometimes I think "Crap, I gotta update my blog because SO MUCH has been happening," and other times I think, "Um, nothing is really happening and I haven't done anything resembling triathlon training in months, so why blog?" Plus, now that the Seattle P-I in hardcopy has died and gone online, there's even more competition online for readership, so my 4 faithfuls could be drawn elsewhere to catch up on the haps in Seattle...

Let's see, what's up...I'm one clinic session (Monday) and one more Final Exam (Tuesday) away from being done with the 2nd quarter of school. Holy crap--it's flying by! Things have been busy lately and I'm definitely ready for spring break...looking forward to visiting my mom & Rolf the first week of April where it's recently been 81 degrees. Last Sunday, when it snowed yet AGAIN, the irony of simultaneously seeing daffodils on my counter and snowflakes the size of my hand out the window was not lost on me. I'm so DONE with winter! Tomorrow is the first day of spring (according to the calendar, anyway)...bring it!

My hamstring is still a pain in my ass, literally and figuratively. I've had several dreams about running and I tend to look mournfully at people jogging around the city and my 'hood when I'm out and about. I really wish one of the $%*&#! sedentary Americans (that'd be about, what, 98% of the population?) would just give me one of the hamstrings that they obviously aren't using. People who bitch about how much they hate to run and don't want to do it are getting even less sympathy than usual from me. Anyway, the ham is up and down day to day...and I guess it's a little better overall. My lovely classmates have been awesome about working on me, I can spin on my trainer a couple days per week (sidebar: I caved and had to bust out the HR monitor just to feel a little normal within the last week or so) and I have been swimming about 4x per week...although my shoulders have gotten a little cranky now, too (crap!). I often walk to school and, when I hit an incline, I usually walk backwards since that doesn't hurt...I look pretty wierd, I'm sure, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. Fortunately, I have not yet fallen on my butt or run into anyone while walking backwards. A few of my pals at school have noticed the contrast between my left and right hamstring in the last few weeks...since they hear me whine and work on my legs frequently, Mari, Shannon, and Phoebe have all told me that the left (healthy) hamstring is larger than the right. Great, I'm an example of atrophy at its finest. SIGH.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the weekend (yea!) and another short dog sit gig. Last weekend, I was at Stacia's with her dogs, and this weekend, I'll be at CJ & Nadia's with their 2 dogs (and cable!!). I'm thinking that, even if massage doesn't work out well, I'll have practiced other things during massage school that might, i.e. a laundry service (good god, massage generates a lot of sheets) or a pet sitting biz.

Short road trip report...

2009-03-09T21:07:00.000-07:00

Last week I had 2 tests and a paper...it was a(nother) pretty busy week and I was really happy to get to the first totally "free" weekend in a while (i.e. all mandatory massage hours for this quarter are DONE and I'm just doing them for fun now-boo-yeah!). Friday was one of my favorite days in a long time...in the afternoon, I went to see Dale, the pain guru, for a hamstring treatment. A friend from school, Shannon, went along, and a 1-hour appointment turned into a 3-hour tutorial as Dale spent a lot of extra time with us. We walked out feeling like we'd gotten a semester's worth of instruction and I think Dale enjoyed it as much as we did...he's becoming a great mentor. Friday night, I had a fun girls' night dinner with Tatyana, Liz, and Rebecca that gave me a long overdue reason to make a huge batch of chicken enchiladas...I've been craving the chance to cook for people lately, and we had a great evening over on Mercer Island (The Shoebox is a great place to create food, but not such a great place to host guests, so Liz hosted!).

On Saturday, I went south to Portland to play with Holly...followed by a stop on the way home in Olympia on Sunday to couch-surf at Heather & Chase's for the L-Word finale. Holly and I went to the Portland Saturday market and then to this cool micro-brewery called Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB), where one of the master brewers, Jamie, is a friend of hers. Jamie....seen here...gave us a cool tour and, of course, some samples. Way fun and some super great beer.
We also went for sushi with some fun girls on Saturday night and I got to see more of Portland on Sunday before I drove north.

This morning, I woke up at Heather & Chase's to snow (AGAIN??!!) and drove home in time for clinic/school this afternoon and book club...it was a good full low-stress weekend, and pretty much all fun except for sitting on an icepack in the car for the hammie...did I mention that twice in the last week, I've had dreams about running? Can't wait till those dreams become reality again...

Dog days

2009-02-27T08:47:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-02-20T19:43:00.001-08:00

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...

2009-02-20T18:53:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-11T19:10:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-08T18:37:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-02-04T19:57:00.000-08:00

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."

"F" Words...

2009-01-24T18:01:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-18T20:01:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-13T20:38:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-08T20:30:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-07T18:50:00.001-08:00

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?

2009-01-06T17:58:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-01-03T10:45:00.000-08:00

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.

Westward tomorrow...

2008-12-30T15:48:00.000-08:00

A week in cargo shorts and chacos (my uniform of choice) has passed quickly and my latest visit to "spa Bueken," aka the home of my parents, will come to a close tomorrow when I fly back to Seattle. It's been a good, warm week and I've slept and eaten very well as always. I also have had my feet on the beach every day I've been here...so nice. Yesterday we went to the movies and saw "Marley and Me" (I cried as much as when I read the book, yikes) and today we did a short trip over to the neighbor island, Jekyll, for lunch and a little sight-seeing.

In anticipation of sitting on airplanes all day tomorrow (and killing the very last piece of the Christmas cheesecake tonight), I got in a bunch of workouts today. I went for another 4 mile run on the beach (hamstring hurt, but the scenery and stretching a lot before/after helped)...then to the gym for an outdoor swim with my mom after breakfast...then back to the gym in the late afternoon for a spin class. I hadn't taken a spin class yet on this visit and it's always good to do at least one and get in the experience of a southern-influenced ride. Usually, this means a drawling and somewhat cheerleader-ish instructor playing country and christian music with several intermittent "whoo-hoo!" yells, but this time the teacher was a guy named, George, who was probably in his 50s. George had slightly less drawl than most of the health club staff and he was sucking down a venti cup of Starbucks on his bike in between swigs from his water bottle...however, he did kick my butt and the southern influence was still there as the music included one Lynard Skynard song and 2 Willie Nelson cool down songs.

I must admit, I do have a soft spot for visiting the whole southern scene and have found myself saying things like, "yes, ma'am" and "y'all" here and there. I didn't eat any grits this time, but the my mom's cooking has been steallar and the last dinner of the vacation my mom has made (upon my request, god love her) is another big heap of fresh boiled shrimp...YUM.

It's a nice place to visit...but...

2008-12-27T16:59:00.001-08:00

So here are a few reasons why it's GREAT to visit St. Simon's Island, GA for the holiday week...

1. Record high temps of about 80 degrees 2 days after Christmas. I took this attempt at an artsy photo today as I was walking the beach in shorts and a tank top with my feet in the water, wishing I'd packed my wetsuit for a swim:

The format of today was basically this, with a few breaks in between for meals and an errand to care for some friends' dog:

Run/walk on the beach
Nap on the beach
Read on the beach
Walk the beach text messaging with people in Seattle who would really appreciate this scene

2. My mom & stepdad who are way fun beach buddies and who go to the gym and appreciate happy hour as much as I do...my mom and I had a good workout yesterday on weights and in the outdoor pool at the island health club. How many other 40-somethings can brag about their mom like I can?

And now let's just contrast the reasons to visit with the reasons for me NOT to live here...I think this bumper sticker is pretty much 'nuff said:

WTF?

And then there were the 6 dudes (I'm guessing they were also Georgia Bulldawgs) on the beach next to us today, several of whom were literally peeing on the wooden fence in the public parking area at about 4:30 p.m. when they and we (unfortunately timed our exit and) were leaving the beach...

The good news about the "run on the beach" part of today was that I did exactly that...my first run in several weeks. I've still been feeling the stupid hamstring, but have been pretty diligent about stretching lately and decided I couldn't pass up the chance to run on the beach. I stretched, walked a warm up, ran 4 miles, walked, and stretched again...I felt the hamstring during and after, but it wasn't horrific...I'm calling it a success. I really want to have my running self back and healthy in '09...I miss it.

New Christmas carol from the Beatles?

2008-12-26T07:07:00.000-08:00

I always find it a bit odd how you can get on a plane in one kind of weather and get off to a completely different world --I love it, but it's a little wierd. I left Seattle late on Christmas Eve after a(nother) day of watching more snow dump on everything and navigating the city with big boots and my trusty 4 wheel drive. I had dinner with my pal, Dave, on Alki and then he shuttled me to the airport where I tossed my hiking boots and heavy socks in the back of his car. DONE with those for a while, thankfully. I put on my flip flops and boarded the redeye flights for the south. On Christmas Day, I got off the plane in Jacksonville to my mom & stepdad (also in flip flops), 75 degrees, and sun. Ahhhhh. As soon as we got home, my mom put the turkey in the oven and I put on shorts and took off in her car for the beach... where I had a long walk and did a little decompression of the last week(s)...more of that to come, for sure. I love my mom's cabrio (see photo above!) and am psyched that it's my ride for the week.

There were a lot of people on the beach flying kites, walking dogs, and playing frisbee. I saw some guys who were playing bocce' ball and "Good Day Sunshine" was playing on their boom box. I decided that song should be filed under "Christmas carols" in my head henceforth. After my walk was the usual great family dinner which included my mom's awesome stuffing and my favorite cheesecake--both of which were made in enough volume to create leftovers for me to keep eating for days...perfect. We watched "Mamma Mia" and then I crashed hard and slept for about 11 hours.

Today is foggy, but it should burn off...I'm pretty resolute on my plan to see/walk the beach every day I'm here and wear socks only when it's absolutely necessary.

MORE snow...

2008-12-22T09:41:00.000-08:00

I honestly don't think I've seen this much snow in my life...even the year I lived in Chicago. I'm actually starting to miss seeing pavement.

Yesterday morning, I met some girls at Voluteer Park for a sledding adventure. April & Becky had hosted a dinner party on Saturday night and busted out their serving trays to use as sleds. They were more successful than I was in navigating these things...on my 2nd run, I ended up in a backwards somersault and felt my neck go, "munch..." It hurt the rest of the day and I'm still feeling it a bit today. Here are some of us with the tray-sleds:

After the morning play session, April & Becky came over to the Shoebox for brunch. My afternoon entertainment was 45 minutes on the bike trainer watching the Seahawks on TV and the snow dumping outside my windows...it just kept coming down.

The late afternoon/evening was spent with the same girls plus a few more on a bit of a pub crawl around Capitol Hill. We did some bad karoke at the Crescent, went to the Saint, and ended up at Purr. In between locations, we joined a group of about 100 Seattleites who'd congregated at the top of the Olive/Denny St. Hill. There were lots of sledders---manyof whom were pretty tanked---zooming down the hill (which has been closed to cars for about 3 days) toward downtown. I was waiting for the Advil to help my earlier tumble and limited my entertainment to watching. The funniest thing about this scene were the random and crazy items people were using as sleds...there was a huge pink surfboard (usually with about 4 people on it), metal mixing bowls, a dog bed, pieces of garbage cans, miscellaneous plastic things, stolen real estate and restaurant signs, a desk chair floor mat, and quite a few other random items. It was quite a scene. When I did my now daily walk downtown to the gym this morning, I went by the same hill and it looked like a garbage dump. There were piles of the once-sleds and all the beer cans and boxes all over the hill, it was pretty gross:

When I got back to the Shoebox a few minutes ago, I dug my car out from under more than a foot of snow and started it just to make sure it'd fire up. It did and I'm currently in the midst of deciding whether to road trip down to Olympia overnight to see Heather & Chase or whether to join the group on the Hill for a potluck...I'm itching to get out of my 2-mile radius, but it could be a little dicey getting to I-5...

First quarter DONE!!

2008-12-20T19:05:00.000-08:00

I wish I had a dollar for every one of these snow-caused fender benders around town...I saw this one today on Capitol Hill when I was on (my now daily) ice hike downtown.
There were no humans in sight of these marooned cars (and btw, don't you love that one of them is a Subaru with a ski carrier on the top...you'd think this might not be the most likely vehicle for this kind of mishap, right?!)...guess the drivers are just staying warm somewhere and waiting it out at this point.

Today started out sunny, beautiful, and COLD--like in the teens. Many of the streets were still covered, but not in snow, it was almost solid ice. This made it more difficult to find crunchier stuff to walk on and get any traction, but still fun to be out walking. I haven't started my car since Wednesday and am hoping it'll still fire up when this stuff melts! I also need the weather to change so I can wash my favorite XC ski pants that I've been wearing every single day! I'm starting to run out of running tights aka long underwear, too...

I hiked down to the gym for a swim and then to school where we were able to do our last practical exams...yea! A bunch of people made it in today and it was fun to have a classroom full of massages going on and most of our teachers there--really good energy. My friend, Mari, and I exchanged massages and got our final practical exams checked off. YEA!! I'm a third of the way through school and now on break until January 12! Whoop! By the time we all got done, it was about 3:00 p.m.and snowing yet again. Most people made a run for their buses and cars, but 4 of us went to Happy Hour at Southlake Grill to celebrate the end of our first quarter. I walked part of the way home with Laura and when we parted ways at 12th & John I slipped and fell on the icy/snowy sidewalk. How nice that I managed not to wipe out for the last 3 days when hiking up the icy hills alone, but bit it when I was with someone else.

Most of the Saturday night social options have deteriorated tonight due to the weather, but April & Becky may lead the charge out for some night sledding later at Volunteer Park...

Snow blast continues...

2008-12-19T21:16:00.000-08:00

The snow blast/ice roads continued today and, again, school was closed. However, I was really fortunate/lucky that one of our instructors went in to school in case any of us could make it. I was the only one who could/did and was more than happy to hike down the hill and get my hardest exam checked off. Shew! It was great to get that one done.

My car has not been started now in about 48 hours, but my trusty hiking boots have logged quite a few miles! As much as I prefer 80 degrees and sunny, I'm kind of digging the snow scene this time. It's fun to be out and about and the sun today on yesterday's snow was really cool.

After I finished my kinesiology final downtown, I went to the gym. I was on the hamster machine watching the noon news when a story came on TV that I could also partially see out the window of the gym....

Why in the sam hell a bus driver --wait, make that 2 of them--- would go down the Thomas St. hill when it's a sheet of ice is beyond me, but it certainly made the news...and my little workout...and my walk home...more interesting. Things are still pretty dang icy and I decided late this afternoon (when one of my carpool buddies got sick) to ditch out on a party I really wanted to attend in Ballard.

Just after I reluctantly ditched the party idea, Becky proposed happy hour part deaux at Liberty...a few of us rallied and had another really fun evening with Andrew, the super cool owner, at Liberty. Tonight he indulged Becky's tequila interest and gave us a few tastings that were a bit more my speed than the bourbon last night. I also expressed interest in one of the cool bottles and, when we left, Andrew had emptied it and gave it to me. I had admitted earlier in the day that I think Andrew is great ("man crush!" Becky texted back to me), but I don't even know HOW to flirt with a dude and I'm going to brush off Stacia and Becky's accusations that I was doing so. The bottle is way cool, though, and I will seek a good use for it in the Shoebox!

Snow Blast 2008!!

2008-12-18T20:05:00.000-08:00

Here's what my neighborhood looked like today!

Yesterday was a classic example of Seattle snow-phobia...schools were closed, the local news was amped, and it was all anticipation with no precipitation. Our school was open, though, and we had a review for today's big kinesiology test (definitely the hardest final of all our classes). After school last night, I knew I should study, but I went to Tatyana's for a walk, dinner, and a do-it-yourself tarot card reading with her new deck of cards. We had a fun walk near Lake Washington looking at Christmas lights, she made some great pasta, and next thing I knew it was after 9 p.m. when I was headed home. I tried to study a little bit and went to bed at 11:00 feeling a bit guilty and under-prepped.

I woke up this morning at 5:40 to THUNDER...huh??? I looked out and thought it was foggy, then switched on the TV and realized it was dumping SNOW. School was closed soon after...the universe had somehow rewarded my lack of studying with at least one more day till the test. Although I was really hoping to get 2 finals done today, I also love a snow day...and definitely needed some study time.

Living on the hill is great for a snow day---I was able to completely enjoy it without getting cabin fever and without having to even consider getting in my car. I lounged around with my coffee, walked downtown to the gym for a nice swim, went to a coffee shop to study, went for a walk with Martha and her pugs, and grocery shopped...as soon as I got home and was thinking about baking some holiday stuff, I got the heads-up from Stacia that some fun girls who also live on the hill were going to Liberty for Happy Hour. Sweet! I put on my snow gear for the 3rd time today and headed out yet again to meet them. They hadn't received the fish order for sushi at Liberty, so April & Becky went across the street and got us a pizza. We also had Andrew, the super cool bartender and owner of Liberty, educate us on several kinds of bourbon when somebody ordered a Maker's Mark. He brought us several samples and told us all about it. I'm not exactly a bourbon drinker, but it was kind of interesting (and throat warming) to try a few mini samples. We heart Andrew! I walked part way home with Stacia who had used her XC skis for transportation, pretty cool.

Throughout the day I saw some crazy car gymnastics, some wackos on bikes (one of whom was wearing ski goggles but no helmet), some kamikaze sledders, and watched a lot of happy dogs having fun in the snow. I also got to practice a little massage on Becky's feet at Happy Hour as they were really cold. And in between it all, I actually reviewed the 30 muscles I need to (hope to!) know when my test actually happens. I also swam a mile in the pool just to see how long it would take and did it in 26:07 with no warm up. I'm calling it a good day!

Furry fun

2008-12-14T09:57:00.000-08:00

I'm currently dogsitting 2 of the cutest labs on the planet, Winnie and Maddie (oh, yeah, there's a cat around here, too somewhere... as evidenced by loud meows at all hours of the night that sound like a small child who's very cold, hungry, or in pain though clearly this obese feline is none of these...but I digress from the protagonists of the story, the dogs and yours truly). Winnie and Maddie are 3 year old litter mates and cute, cute, cute, dontcha think???

Here's Winnie:

This is Maddie

This is "We're sitting for a cookie, why is that camera phone in our face?" pose

These wonderful creatures (and me until tomorrow) live in Ballard where, like everywhere else in the Seattle area, "SNOWSTORM 2008" hit last night. This storm-- which has been over-predicted for several days-- actually happened (!) and snow fell last night until past midnight.

I was scheduled to work this morning at the 12 K's of Christmas Fun Run in Kirkland with an arrival time of 5:00 a.m. After a beer and dinner with my pal, Lisa, at the 74th St. Ale House last night, I came home and attempted to crash early. This was unsuccessful for several reasons: (1) my head was way too busy, (2) 2 dogs in the bed leaves less-than-optimal space for a human (this does not help my body image, suddenly I feel too big for a bed?!), and (3)the snow/road conditions + alarm set for 4:00 a.m. I got up at 11:00 to watch the news, the snow, and a bit of SNL while the dogs didn't budge out of the bed (after all, why should they?). I think I finally slept from about 12:30 - 3:30 and then was UP again. I fed the dogs (who were like, "Food at 4 a.m., cool, you can dog sit anytime!") and enlisted their help for a quick walk and road condition assessment, trying not to think about how wacko it is to be walking in the freezing cold at 4 a.m. on a Sunday. Things weren't too frozen, so I decided to get out there and go to Kirkland with my biggest ski coat, toe and hand warmers, lobster gloves, boots...and a marginal attitude. The drive was no problem and I got to the site to meet up with my friend, Karra, and the other race prep peeps.

We set things up for the race for an hour or so at which time the Race Directors said that the Kirkland police might cancel the race due to slip 'n slide ice conditions...we had to wait till 7:00ish for a decision, during which time we idled at least half a tank of someone's gas blasting heat in a truck to sauna level temperatures. The cops cancelled the race and I was free to bail at 8:00 a.m....let's just say I was not disappointed.

I got home and took the doggies to a local school ball field for a little illegal off-leash action. On the way there, I did a little impromptu skating as 2 energetic 70ish pound labs pulled on their leashes in anticipation. They are really good on leash, but get pretty excited before a play session. Fortunately, I stayed upright, albeit leash tangled here and there. After some swearing and near misses of my butt-on-pavement, we arrived at the field to find at least 10 other outlaw dogs playing off leash in the snow with their humans. Good times. They are a blast to watch as Maddie will fetch endlessly as if impersonating a cheetah (ok, that's an embellishment, but she is crazy fast), and Winnie chases Maddie, never the ball. Yesterday we were at Golden Gardens where they turned into 4-legged mudballs, but today the grass and snow prevented a chilly post play hose session.

Not sure what's on the schedule for the rest of the suddenly free day...perhaps a nap or some studying. This week is finals week and I have 4 to go including one big one on Thursday. I can't believe the first quarter is almost over already!

Turkey day weekend

2008-11-30T07:50:00.000-08:00

5-day weekends are a really really good idea. I'm in the middle of the long Thanksgiving weekend and enjoying the break after the first 2 months of school.

The Seattle Half (and full) marathon is going on right now, but obviously, I'm not running it this year. My hamstring situation is still preventing anything resembling a normal running schedule and I'm continuing the trigger point pain release treatments from the gurus. I'm really hoping to be able to run pain-free again at some point, but am really frustrated in the meantime...I keep losing my patience and running 1-2 times per week, but I'm not sure that's such a great idea. I did the Howe St. stairs yesterday before a guru treatment and my quads are pretty mad at me today...it's been 4 months since Troika and I barely feel like a triathlete anymore.

So enough about running, let's talk about food. Thanksgiving was way fun. Chase went to the east coast this year and I claimed her spot at the table with Heather and went with her to her family's in Montesano. Let's just say that there was SO much food that even after 20 people had dinner, there was hardly a dent made in the food volume and it looked as though dinner had yet to be served. Super yum. Heather's mom, Candy, is a chef and owns the restaurant Savory Faire in Montesano. She also has a really cool BIG kitchen in their house with an island that's a huge cutting board---you can actually chop on it, it's not just for show. Heather and I got to her parents' house fairly early so we could help a little with the cooking...we were hungry already and Candy whipped up a frittata-- basically in her peripheral vision-- for us while all the other things were simultanously in motion the bigger dinner prep...impressive. The wine was opened just before noon and I had a blast using huge restaurant sized bowls and knives (really big ones!) and helping with the cooking (OK, it was more like just having a front row seat to watch the production, but I did do a little work on the stuffing). I'm also proud to report that Candy taught me a new way to cut onions. We went back and forth to the restaurant twice for supplies and it became apparent early in the cooking process that Candy is second only to Julia Childs in the use of butter...we're talking big hunks of it melting all over the place for various dishes. My "Cooking Light" tendencies went out the window and it was a real holiday. We (ok, she) even made a green bean casserole that was totally from scratch, down to the homemade onion straws for the top---no canned soup (it was real sour cream) or anything pre-fab in this one. I had a great time...by the time I got home to the Shoebox it was 9 p.m. and I fell into bed.

The rest of the weekend has been pretty mellow...Seujan and I went to see the kid's first JV basketball game last night and I've done a little studying, a bit of working out, and a lot of relaxing...nice to have some down time before the last few weeks of the quarter and finals coming up...

Hey-Hey, Ho-Ho

2008-11-16T20:49:00.000-08:00

Prop 8 has got to GO!!

These are some pics from the Proposition 8 Protest rally yesterday in Seattle...great event! Leave it to gay people to turn a protest about the lack of civil rights into a bit of gay pride in November. After a morning run, I went to a little pre-rally mimosa party yesterday morning before a group of us went to Volunteer Park for the gathering and the big march. We ended up with this cool flag and ran up to the front of the march, landing us within the big photo in the newspaper today (OK, you had to look really hard to see us, but we'll take it). Anyway, it was awesome and there were something like 7,000 people there.

After the march, I went to see a super massage guru at a running shop in Lynnwood about my hamstring. This 76 year old guy is amazing and does killer trigger point/pain release work with the assistance of some crazy machines that are like, well, little body jack-hammers. It was unlike any treatment I've ever had and pretty amazing--nothing like the stuff I'm learning in massage school, that's for sure. I'm definitely going back to him and am hoping he can become a bit of a mentor to me...he works primarily on runners/athletes and knows a ton.

After the marching and the hammering, I met the usual suspects back on the hill last night for Hot Flash and a bit more vodka than may have been neccesary...much fun as always. It was a totally fun day and the studying work ethic was, um, pretty much toast.

I studied a little today (still not enough, but the books were cracked, I promise), got in another nice outdoor bike ride, and made some guac burgers with Seujan. She is training for a crazy 50 mile trail run in about 3 weeks and had run 20 miles yesterday and 26 today...it's possible she's really the nutcase I always believed her to be...I mean, really, WHO DOES THAT, right?

School continues to be great although I have a test and a practical in my kinesiology class on Thursday that could be a bit of a challenge...last week in that class, I got to be the muscle model. Our instructor,Michael, used me as a demo and drew on my back with magic markers to outline the muscles. Then we all drew on each others' backs and it was really pretty cool. The only problem was in the practical class later that day when we were doing massage on each other and getting the marker ink all over our hands, the sheets, and our shirts...I think the last of it finally came off of me in the pool the next morning. Anyway...yeah, there's a test on Thursday that will probably be a bit harder than all the other tests so far. I've taken my muscle flashcards to bed with me a few times, but the information didn't magically jump into my dreams or my memory upon waking...I may have to actually study.

Mellow Saturday

2008-11-08T20:24:00.000-08:00

Another week of school flew by and it appears I'm already about halfway through the first quarter already...wow. Although I'm happily settled in to student mode, I'm still pretty tired a lot and have been really wiped out at the end of many school days. This week, I had another test and learned tons of new stuff in the hands-on classes including a great neck sequence--I zonked out about 3 times on the table in class that day when I was the recipient!

Despite being pretty tired all week, I kept the usual workout schedule and actually went for a run (2 in one week!) Wednesday after school...my hamstring is still pretty friggin' cranky, but I had another fresh air craving and went out for a 4-miler just as it was getting dark. The other highlights of the week were, of course, the election (which, fortunately, Obama slam-dunked before my bed time), going to Tatyana's for dinner on Thursday (what luxury---dinner made for me!), and having my new pal from School, Shannon and her partner, Emily, and Seujan over for dinner on Friday night. I made some killer chicken chili and cornbread if I say so myself.

This morning I was hoping to go out on my bike, but it was pouring. I got out my bike trainer and the 3 episodes of "Grey's Anatomy" I've taped over the last few weeks and settled in for an indoor ride. As soon as I really started sweating, there was a sun break outside and no more rain. By then, though, I was committed to my workout plan and absorbed in Grey's, so I stayed put and made it 2 hours on the bike...my butt and nether regions fell asleep at about the end of the first episode, but I took a quick break and regained feeling in all of my parts soon thereafter. Later this afternoon I walked down to Broadway and met Cathy and Cara at the movies to see "Happy Go Lucky." Unfortunately, the title of the film seemed to represent the writer's work ethic while creating the screenplay; the movie had no plot...all 3 of us walked out saying, "WHAT was that movie about???" as we walked to Siam for some good Thai food and conversation...good mellow Saturday.

I heart groceries!

2008-11-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

Today is my mom's birthday...go mom!!!

My hamstring is still producing a dull roar most of the time, but I got fed up with waiting to go running (and starting to feel like I'm not really a triathlete anymore) and took myself to Greenlake yesterday for a run. I did a nice flat 4 miler in between rainstorms and got reaquainted with my running shoes. The hamstring is annoyed, but it isn't too much more pissed off than usual today. I must admit that there are some other sore things, though, that I'm feeling...kind of embarrassing that a 4-mile run made me sore, but I haven't run in a month so I guess it makes sense...yikes. As my mom, the birthday girl, would say, "Getting old is not for sissies." Augh.

This morning it was back to the pool. A few weeks ago Julie decided that we should stay a little later on Mondays and do 4,000 yards. This was the 3rd 4,000 yard Monday and it was a great workout, but tough...went to the gym later and definitely felt it.

Today was also my first no-work Monday as last week was the end of my time at the ADA...I'd like to say I was incredibly productive today with a totally wide open day, but, well...let's be honest and call it marginally productive. I did complete a poorly drawn diagram of the 3 layers of the skin with my colored pencils (thank god, our anatomy teacher says it will not be graded on artistic merit), installed MSN messenger (cause I need a 3rd means for IM'ing besides on gmail and facebook), and, upon worrying about my finances yet again consulted craigslist. I answered an ad to be in a focus group about grocery stores and got a call tonight. Looks like I'll be hanging out for 2 hours with other shoppers in the 35-44 age range to talk about grocery shopping next Wednesday evening! I was quite happy that one of the screening questions was whether I enjoy grocery shopping and I could tell Louise, the nice phone screener lady who was following her script very carefully, that I do, indeed LOVE it! Can't wait to go talk about food for 2 hours and make $75 next week!

Hopefully, this is Obama-eve...looking forward to seeing what happens with the election tomorrow.

How is it November already?

2008-11-01T16:54:00.001-07:00

Holy smokes, how have 4 weeks of school already gone by??? This week flew...I was told that it must mean I'm pretty engaged in what I'm doing if the time is flying by so fast. True, I'm still really digging it and I think Tuesday was my favorite day of school yet. I had my first 2 quizzes on Wednesday and Thursday of this week and it appears that my brain is still capable of digesting academic content...good news there. I also made a new friend from the other day class at school which makes me pretty happy, too.

I just realized that I haven't blogged in a week and the week went by so fast I'm not even sure I can remember what to report! I had my last day of working at the ADA this week, so I cleaned up my cube and had a little send off from my colleagues which included a gift of a gift card to "Waking Life," a very cool massage supply store. Can't wait to go buy some more oil flavors to try! It was a little wierd, but really good to wrap things up there (although giving up my 24/7 downtown parking pass was downright painful).

I was lucky to get in a few nice sunny bike rides last weekend (Saturday, Sunday, and Monday) and walked to school once this week, too...but the weather is changing and this morning I realized that I hadn't been outside for a workout since Monday---deeee-pressing. I was pleasantly surprised this morning, though, when I got up and it was just gray and NOT actually raining YET (despite the forecast of rain/showers until the end of time). I got myself moving early and was out on my bike before 9:00 for a good 42 mile ride around the south end of the lake. I successfully beat the rain (whoo-hoo!) and had a really good ride...got home before noon and had plenty of time to prep for a practice massage on Seujan this afternoon.

The time changes tonight and it's fine with me to have an extra hour of sleep...or perhaps an extra hour of studying if I can quit screwing around so much (and doing things like blogging) when I SHOULD be studying...).

Bike a cold, starve a fever?

2008-10-25T16:43:00.000-07:00

I have a stupid cold. I'm pretty sure I caught it at school as my massage swap partner from Wednesday's class was really sick on Thursday and by about Thursday night my throat started getting scratchy...ggrrrr. However, as usual, I'm sort of in denial about it and decided that "Feed a cold, starve a fever" could be replaced by "Beer a cold..." last night --i.e. 2 beers at happy hour with Anh-- and "Bike a cold..." today. I studied a bit this morning, drank tea and vitamin C stuff, and had to get out when the sun started showing up around noon. The extra volume in my head deflated in the cool fresh air and I had a really great 44 mile snot blowing ride over Mercer Island and around the south end of the lake. The fall colors are really pretty and it was great to be out in some sun. Of course, my head is expanding again now that I'm back indoors and took a shower...but it was well worth it.! I'm going to see a movie called, "Steam" with some people at the film festival in a while and will do my best not to be too disruptively sniffy...

The highlights of school yesterday included 3 of my 19-year-old classmates showing me some YouTube video of cage fighting that they really thought I would love because, well, they do (I had to say, "um, not so much..." within the first 10 seconds when there was blood and, of course, fighting) and later creating a limerick with Mari about "Strains." The class was broken up into small groups to research different pathologies and encouraged to creatively present them to the class. My rhyming was in classic form (if I say so myself) and I made up 3 verses about my hamstring and why massage would be helpful for it. I was glad we weren't assigned to research athritis like a couple of the other groups--I mean what the hell rhymes with rhumatoid or arthrits? I can't remember much of it now, but it started out with "In my hamstring I have this damn pain..." Our performance was well received.

school-induced narcolepsy

2008-10-23T20:55:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about massage school is getting bodywork several days per week...I swear I didn't think about that little perk when I decided to do this, but it is pretty great. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, our afternoon classes usually include exchanging/practicing on a partner and today I finally found my ideal partner: Jessica, the person who prefers to receive in the first part of class, allowing whoever she's working with (I'll be fighting to be this person henceforth) to finish the day horizontal on a table as the receiver. The bummer, of course, is having to get back off the table after a full day of school and get somewhere quickly or get in a second work out...I've been a little, um, narcoleptic during practice sessions a few times this week...I've always said that they never should have phased out the afternoon nap after kindergarten and I'm happy to have a few of them back as I've been pretty beat these last few weeks. Despite being tired, though, I can say at the end of week 3 that I'm still really digging school and am learning a lot. Our Thursday afternoon teacher is a little "out there" and we love him...today he wanted to show us some tools that were a little "out of the box," and by the end of the afternoon, Jessica and I got to practice standing and kneeling on each other's hamstrings and also standing on the soles of each other's feet (i.e. one person on the table and the other one walking around on the person on the table). It was a good day. Next week I have my first 2 tests...

Squished in before and after school have been the usual workouts...well, usual except for the continued absence of running due to the damn hamstring...but swimming is great, biking has been mostly great, too, and hamstering on the elliptical machine at the gym has allowed me to pretend that I might not completely lose all my running fitness before I can run again...I think I'm going to continue on running hiatus until at least the end of this month...sigh.

The fall is flying by and I can't believe the end of October is in a week---sometimes summer seems like a minute ago and sometimes like years ago. I noticed today when I wrote down the date somewhere that it was my half birthday...after all the changes in the last year, it kinda makes me wonder how various things will look by my real birthday...hm. I damn well better have a functioning hamstring by then.

Fallin' for fall?

2008-10-18T15:06:00.000-07:00

Last night I had a rare moment of restraint and chose not to go to Happy Hour with Anh...It was quite the dilemma and not an easy decision, but I was quite happy with my choice to re-group a little after week #2 of school and chill. I made a low budget dinner, studied a little with Jenny's dogs and then rewarded myself with 2 episodes of "Dalllas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making the Team" on CMT. Ah, trash tv at its finest and the first 2 episodes of the new season were on (I know, how could there have been ONE season, much less 3!?) I love America. And cable. I was psyched to lounge on the couch and laughed out loud several times while texting various people to tell them they should be watching it, too. I stayed up till 10:30 before sleeping 9 good hours to start the weekend.

Today has been another gorgeous fall day...although I definitely prefer summer and 80-85 degrees, I have to admit that the fall season is growing on me. Sunshine and fall colors made for a good solo double loop bike ride around Mercer Island...got in 42 miles. One highlight of the ride was the observation of real PAVING of the chunky pavement between Leschi and Madrona...there will be some blissful smooth blacktop for the next bike ride down there and it's about time (could somebody send that crew to the Burke Gilman trail next, please?)! The next stop is the gay/lesbian film fest with Chase & Heather, then Hot Flash...and if I can stay awake, SNL!

Tubercles, condyles and fossas, oh my!

2008-10-16T19:52:00.000-07:00

The last time I took anatomy and kinesiology was...um...about 22 years ago (yes, more years ago than the age of several of my classmates). I've been forced to admit that I may have forgotten a few things since then. Today in our kines class we had to locate a whole bunch of bones (like almost all of 'em) and boney landmarks. A lot of things sounded familiar, but I needed all the book photos and the help of my group-mates playing with a big skeleton to find it all. Fortunately, we had a few breaks in the middle as my head got a bit full and walking around the block seemed like a really good idea. It was another really good day, though, and the practical sessions yesterday and today were awesome...I even got some nice positive feedback from the instructors this afternoon about my body mechanics. I feel like there's a LOT to learn, but a lot has happened already and I'm looking forward to working on my friends soon. I'm really impressed with our instructors and the way everything is wholistic and integrated...it's really cool and I'm totally digging it. and liking my classmates more and more, too.

I'm hanging with Jenny's dogs and cat till next Tuesday and have been rallying them for kibble and a quick game of fetch-in-the-dark every day at 5:30 a.m. so I can rush off to work out. They are more reliable than the U.S. Postal service in their enthusiasm for fetching (cold, rain, dark...they beg for more) and they could go on and on and on...I play with them twice a day and am starting to fear for my rotator cuff! One of the dogs, Ruby, has been sleeping with me (for some reason I've been spared of them both being in my bed and actually have a little bed space) and I've slept like a rock every night, dreaming a lot of wacky busy stuff...I think it's just my subconscious taking a big burp with all the new stuff happening and settling in to school life. I've been in bed before 9:30 every night, but have craved a bit more sleep and recovery than I've been getting. I keep thinking I'll catch up over the weekend, but then I realize that I have a shitload of stuff going on this weekend, too...

This morning I went home to the Shoebox for a morning spin on the trainer and got in a short hamster session after school. Not so easy to do a late afternoon workout after a busy day, especially after swapping massage practice and feeling much more like a nap than a second workout...I was proud of myself for dragging my butt into the gym!

Tomorrow is Friday...sweet.

School is cool

2008-10-14T19:14:00.000-07:00

It's week #2 of school and I'm still really liking it...I had a great day at school today (my Ethics Class and the teacher rocks) and also managed to get in a hamster session at the gym before school and a short (brisk, brr!) bike ride after. We learned petrissage today in the afternoon class and I volunteered to be the demo person... which meant that I got to be worked on by an instructor and then again by my swap partner of the day, Mari. Sweet! It was a really great deal, but meant I didn't get to SEE the demo that had been done on me by the teacher...and I've recently discovered (via a learning styles test we are taking) that I'm a visual more than a kinesthetic learner, so I might not try to be the first volunteer to be the demo in the future.

Anyway, I've learned effleurage and petrissage and tomorrow is friction. Bring it! I have planned practice sessions for this coming weekend to work on Tatyana and Liz...hopefully, I can put enough of this stuff together to imitate an actual massage. Yea for willing guinea pigs!

I'm still feeling like I have a lot of plates spinning and adjusments happening, especially with dog/house-sitting this week, but it's possible I'll get them spinning in synch...well, maybe.

Brain out of retirement

2008-10-11T16:54:00.000-07:00

If chasing one's tail were an Olympic event, I'd have medalled this week...gold. Between a new schedule, bringing my brain out of retirement and into school mode, beagle and house-sitting, work outs, and some social stuff (somehow I managed to have plans every night but one this past week), I was pretty dang frazzled. Let's just say I'm reviewing my time management skills and next week will be (must be) different... I haven't NEEDED a weekend as much as I did yesterday in a loooonnnnggg time. But it feels great to have my head and energy wrapped around something new and very cool...I'm totally digging school! There are about 18 people in my class and, thank god(dess), I'm not the only one in my age group...there are about 3 of us. Of course, I'm old enough to be the parent of several (ok most) of my classmates, but it kind of keeps things interesting. One cool thing I noticed this week was that I was in tornado mode during almost all parts of every single day EXCEPT when I was actually in class at school...the place and the people have good energy and I was able to "land" and engage when I was in class.

It appears that I've started a house and dog sitting business on the side without really trying...I've had 3 dog-sit gigs back to back and just got another one starting tomorrow which will go for about 8 days. I'm pretty psyched to be re-locating up to Jenny P's house to hang out with her 2 cool dogs, Ruby and Rafiki and Noodle, the cat. These little gigs are helping to offset the financial crunch of school and things like, oh, spending $103 at Office Depot today for school supplies (a girl NEEDS colored pencils for the anatomy books, you know, but holy crap that stuff is expensive).

My stupid freakin' hamstring is still not 100% functional, not even close. I ran 4 miles on Tuesday (my only run in 5 weeks) and it got all mad again. I went to PT yesterday and Kristen gave me the "no go" for running for at least a week again and, of course, she found something else I'm doing mechanically wrong and gave me some exercises for my iliopsoas...augh.

After the deluge of week #1, I have a substantial to-do list this weekend. I knocked out a few things so far, but what I knew I needed most and first was a good long bike ride. Today was a cool but gorgeous sunny fall day and I went around the north end of Lake Washington...got in 50 miles and it was exactly perfect. I now feel more like myself again and ready to tackle a few more things...tomorrow...cause there's a Libra-palooza party tonight!

Beagle in da house!

2008-10-06T19:07:00.000-07:00

This week I'm dog-sitting my favorite beagle, Rosie...it's my 3rd week in a row with a dog/house-sitting gig (thank you, universe, for throwing these my way as the starving student chapter is beginning) and it's been great to be around so much dog energy. I had a blast with Roxy, the little football impersonator chihuahua (pick her up and run), had fun with Kirby & Nacho while my pal, Stacia was off winning the national Tennis Championships this past weekend in Tucson (go Staishe!), and I'm really digging having "the little potato" beagle this week. I love love love love LOVE this beagle and haven't gotten to hang out with her in several months, so I was psyched when her humans got a hold of me the other day. We're doing the stealth beagle-in-the-Shoebox routine like we did last spring and I'm hoping it'll fly again. I'm not exactly allowed to have a dog in the Shoebox, but the Potato never (and I mean NEVER) barks, so I'm hopeful. I'm visiting her cat friend, Tink (yeah, another cat, WHATever) at their house every day, but we're shacking up at my place until Saturday unless we get busted.

I'm getting in my workouts, but the weather has gone completely to CRAP and the Rosie triathlon of sleeping, reclining restfully with eyes at half-mast, and walking leisurely if necessary seems like a good idea as the season is gets increasingly more cold, dark, wet, and windy (augh, shoot me now). She slept while I went to the pool for swim team this morning and napped while I was on the bike trainer this evening...and, from the looks of things every time I come home, she pretty much sleeps in between napping!

I was going to try running around greenlake today (PT gave permission last week), but it was so lousy outside, I opted for watching the news with the dog on the bike trainer. I'm thinking that my aspirations of being a golden retriever in my next life could possibly be replaced by being a beagle. Seems neither would suck if you have the right humans looking out for you.

Tomorrow is my first day of school and I'm really looking forward to starting the new chapter...my brain is pretty hungry and it will be fun to get things going!

What me, competitive?

2008-10-02T15:10:00.000-07:00

Today was orientation day for massage school...don't think I've blogged about this, but I'm making a major life change and going to school full time to become a massage therapist. I'm totally psyched and school starts on Tuesday. I spent several hours yesterday working on a scholarship application essay and e-mailing it back and forth to my pal, Carie, in Colorado who is a great writer and editor to fine tune it (we ended up with 496 words on a 500 word limit). Between the 2 of us and our bantering back and forth online, I've been feeling more and more competitive and really want to (kick some ass and) win the scholarship...So that may have colored my mood today going into orientation.

Of course, as soon as I got there this morning I started sizing everyone up immediately (just like in the transition area when I get to a race...) and trying to figure out who could have possibly written an essay as good as mine. After the initial introductions (which included everyone answering the question of "What movie would you BE today?" I chose Thelma & Louise), we played an icebreaker "human bingo" game. As soon as they said that there were prizes, I went right to task. I'm happy to report that not only was I one of 4 winners, I was the FIRST winner to get a bingo. Hey, it was worth a $5 gift card to Taco del Mar, so I'm calling it a success and the starving student fund can certainly use some free food! Today a burrito, next may be the $2,000 scholarship!!

My last week before school starts seems to be flying by...I'm dog sitting again, this time for Stacia's dogs, and the last couple of days were still sunny so I was outdoors as much as possible. I played with Ja'Narah at Alki on Tuesday and yesterday I went out to St. Ed's Park to mountain bike with Jenny and Nicole...except both of them had to cancel. As soon as I got out there, I got text messages from both of them saying were stuck at work and couldn't get out to play with me. The perils of having real and important jobs, I guess. I was bummed, but was already out there and it was a really great evening so I did my first solo mountain bike ride. I managed not to kill myself or get lost...it was actually a really great ride--I had a blast!

Carpe Swimmin'

2008-09-30T10:07:00.000-07:00

This morning I managed to talk Karin G. into another brisk and dark lake Washington swim...no one else was even moderately tempted, but she's a champ and rallied. We met at Madison Beach for a 6:15 a.m. launch with the stars still clear and the beginnings of an orange horizon sunrise. The water was calm and, I swear, it was a little warmer than last Friday morning. We had a great swim and Tatyana was on the beach when we returned. Karin flew off to work and T and I went for coffee and an overdue "catch up and process our lives" session at Starbucks. Great morning, god bless neoprene.

Yesterday I had yet another weather-inspired bike ride (after a swim in the morning and weights at lunch, guess who can't sit still as usual). I've been photosynthesizing on a bike 6 of the last 8 days which might be a record for me. My legs felt heavy all day yesterday, but the sun was just too much to resist and once I started riding I felt good, even on the hills. I had a great ride around Mercer Island and to Seward Park in a sleeveless jersey with views of Mt. Rainier...not bad for the very end of September! The idea of fall is much more palatable on a sunny afternoon in record-setting temperatures, that's for sure. I was in bed crashed out at 9:00 p.m.

Bachelor Blue

2008-09-28T17:43:00.000-07:00

My toenail color is back to blue and I painted them myself...'nuff said... Fortunately, the blue color of my toes and, OK, a bit of my mood this last week, has been shared by the SKY and a last blast of warm weather has improved my disposition considerably. Thank god it's not raining all the time already as I just can't take it yet.

On Friday morning, I had a really great sunrise swim in the lake...it was basically a solo swim as the only other people there were 2 really fast dudes I don't know. After one of them helped me get my wetsuit on, I didn't see them again till we were back on the beach. It was a pretty dang brisk swim, but the moon and sky were amazing and when I stopped for a few seconds at the Tennis Club to turn around and clear my goggles, Mt. Rainier was totally clear and I could see the snow on it. Sweet...any lake swim at this point is total bonus as most people have already hung up their wetsuits for the season.

I road-tripped down to Olympia on Friday afternoon after PT (where, by the way, I got good marks for hamstring improvement) to hang out with Heather and Chase...exactly what I needed and they made a great dinner and I crashed there. Yesterday morning I went for a great 40+ mile bike ride around Olympia, out to Boston Harbor...lots of great scenery and hardly any traffic...really great. I also caught up with Stacy & Wendy for a little while and got to see part of Carter (age 6)'s flag football game which was about the cutest thing ever.

Today was sunny yet again and I went for another ride...I figure screw the rest day idea when it's sunny and 70 because it ain't gonna last. I had just gotten over to Mercer Island when my bike decided to become a single-speed and I couldn't shift the rear deraillier. And, of course, it was stuck in the hardest gear on the back. CRAP. I went right back across the bridge and to Triumph where the super nice dude (same one who first aided my bike on at least one other occasion) discovered I'd snapped the cable and replaced it. I was glad I had the emergency debit card in my bento box so I could pay the $12.50 and be on my way. I went back to Mercer Island again and got in a total of about 41 miles on a perfect sunny afternoon.

I managed to get invited over to Cathy's this evening for food and TV with she and Stacia...first episode of the Amazing Race is on tonight...cool!

The little Hoover

2008-09-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

Today was my last day of house sitting for Jill & Michele...here's a shot of the little football impersonator, Roxy. She was totally fun to hang out with and is a quirky funny (did I mention spoiled?) creature, for sure.I've always been much more of a big dog person (as in big dogs, not big person although there was my freshman year of college when I gained at least 8 pounds on peanut butter alone, but I digress...), but I now have a new appreciation for little dogs. Roxy is a total food whore (as one of her moms says, I didn't say it first) and I'm starting to call her the little Hoover. She really lives for food like nobody else, even me. She also became a good workout partner...the other day when I was on my bike trainer for over an hour, she chillaxed the entire time in my chair right next to the bike...and at least twice when I've been doing my PT and core exercises, she has literally ridden along. One morning I was lying flat on my stomach on the floor bemoaning the fact that it was time to do planks when she climbed on my back, curled up, and camped out. I rallied and did my planks and she didn't move at all, just stayed on my back...this morning, I was on my back about to do bridges and she climbed on my stomach, curled up, and stayed there for the sets of bridges. On both occasions, it was a nice distraction and I could give myself credit for the extra 3 pounds of resistance...good deal.

Today's housesitting snafus included waking up and discovering that I'd slept all night with the back door unlocked, fighting with the cat (who, I'm sure I mentioned, hates me) at 5:45 a.m.-- and having to wield the hose to get her back indoors, and falling down the stairs this afternoon. My friends have a gorgeous and very immaculate condo...the pretty bamboo floors are clean enough to eat off of, I swear--it's a great place. I made the mistake of putting on some socks and starting to go downstairs while looking to my left at the cat (who, I'm sure was still remembering the hose episode from the morning and set this whole thing up) and next thing I knew, I was halfway down the stairs in a pile with a few things hurting and the F word flying out of my mouth...youch!

The day ended well, however, with a really fun mountain bike ride with Nicole at St. Ed's Park. It was my first kinda-rainy and very-close-to-dark ride, but really fun and Nicole is a total crack-up...she navigated the trails for us, frequently yelling back, "Got 'er, Otter?" to make sure I was OK, and it was really fun. I also managed to get through a turn on the trail that I've never made before and felt pretty good about it...way fun! We may need to get some headlamps before next week as the days keep getting shorter (grr), and she seems to think that I should learn snowboarding this winter...hmmm...

I've also started using the old heart rate monitor this week...I got in 2 good road bike rides and started tracking things again. It's been almost 3 weeks since I've gone for a run, but I'm trying to behave and am religiously resting the dang hamstring and doing my PT exercises every day...it's getting better and I haven't lost hope for doing the Seattle Half in November...we'll see.

Stealth swim

2008-09-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

It's the first day of fall and it certainly feels like it. However, despite the "highs in the low 60's" forecast for today, I'm holding out a little longer and refusing to wear socks. I'm bucking up one day at a time here...can't handle it all at once.

I am housesitting at Michele & Jill's for a couple more days and taking care of Roxy, the (slightly spoiled) Chihuahua, and Zoe, the fuzzy cute cat who (as most cats do) doesn't like me so much. And I'm not making that up...this morning she just would NOT come back into the house, despite my rumbling of the treat bag and my 2 attempted mini-safaris into the bushes where she was camping out as far from me as possible and looking at me like, "yeah, just try to get me out of this corner..." I was unsuccessful and will go back later to work on my imitation of Jill's nice cat-enticing voice, but I'm not at all confident I can woo her indoors without the assistance of some tough love from the hose...

Anyway, I got up early in the mini animal kingdom today, got them fed, and headed for the pool at Seattle U...went in the door right on time, through the locker room, and onto the pool deck where I was completely alone. For the whole hour. No teammates, no coach, nobody. I think we must be in between sessions until next week...anyway, I decided to carpe diem the indoor open water opportunity and had a slightly lonely but decent 3,000 yard swim...

Gettin' out my ax

2008-09-19T13:14:00.000-07:00

"If Mother Nature had a second home, Idaho would be it." I cannot stop laughing at the slogan we saw several times in Idaho travel literature. Every time we read it, we just busted up. Despite the ridiculous-ness of that quote, however, I can say whole heartedly that Sandpoint, Idaho is a GREAT town...and I'd definitely go back in a hot second. The short vacation flew by (isn't that the theme of the last 3 months) and both HH and I didn't want to leave...we maximized every bit of the trip and got home as late as possible. We drove over on Sunday-- singing through the state to an awesome ipod playlist of cheesy 70s tunes -- and stayed until Wednesday at this too-cute "Cowboy Cabin" right on the lake...so fun!

Lake Pend Orille in Sandpoint is 43 miles long with mountains all around...gorgeous. The weather was perfect and we discovered that the whole place is a big 'ol playground for biking, mountain biking, hiking, skiing, swimming, and pretty much everything fun. And with the exception of one confrontational bigoted jerk-face resident we encountered (hopefully the exception that proves the rule), the people in Sandpoint were friendly and really cool.

On Monday, we drove all around the area, and up and down the mountain to Schweitzer ski resort so HH could look at some property. The morning of gaping at the views and saying a zillion times, "I like it here!" continued into the afternoon as we went for a really great hike near town, followed, of course, by a brisk (brr) open water swim in the lake and happy hour on the dock by the Cowboy Cabin.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we biked the same trail we'd hiked on Monday and I'm quite proud to say that my mountain biking ability (and thus, enthusiasm) continued to build some momentum...I LOVED riding up and down that trail with HH and am hoping to find more stuff around home that I can ride/learn this fall. I also got in another blissful solo lake swim on Tuesday afternoon while HH continued her real estate searching... I had a blast swimming around looking at the mountains and the lake front homes and then sitting on the sunny dock soaking up some late season sun and the view.

Unfortunately, things back on the Seattle home front are shifting into fall and after less than 48 hours of driving back from Mother Nature's 2nd home (and did I mention a near-miss speeding ticket when I was driving? Shew, just a warning), the trip already seems like the distant past and a bit of a metaphor for the entire summer (kick in the Elton John soundtrack, "Don't let the su-uh-nnnnnn...go down on me....").

My friend, Heather (the other Heather), has a saying I've swiped and use frequently now about people each having a pile of wood to chop--as in dealing with their own "stuff," and the fact that we all have our own "wood to chop." It appears that dealing with the transitions of the end of this summer is my wood to chop at the moment...so, along that theme, a visual from the Cowboy Cabin below. This summer has been so so so fun...and I'm not not NOT at all happy to be letting it go...chop chop.