2/3 of a triathlete...

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!!

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...

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

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!

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...

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!

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

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

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!

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

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

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...

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

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

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

Forgot to post...

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

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

Passing out, pedalling, and pondering...

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

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

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

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

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

Love the one you're with

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

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

Feelin' cheesy

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

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

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

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

Growing gills?

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

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

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

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

"F" Words...

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

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

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

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

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

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