My boyfriend rocks

Here's reason #501,546 that my boyfriend rocks...

Last year I went to Miami Beach for a work-related conference and ended up getting the worst sunburn I've ever had in my entire life. It was really a sort of cloud burn. I was sitting next to the pool for a few hours, under an umbrella, under cloudy skies, and by the time I got on the airplane to head home I was radioactive.

I have to go to the same conference again this year and Marcus bought me a little UV exposure watch for XMas. It measures the UV index and if you program your current SPF and skin type, it tells you when enough is enough. He said, "I don't want you to get fried again." Isn't that cool? I can test it out when I head down to Phoenix this weekend...

Nice day for a ride

I left UZoka at 9am this morning for a south lake loop ride with a few of the guys. Having the day off rocked! I felt really good and strong on the ride today and had no trouble hanging with the pack. I'm sure we weren't going super strong, but we did a good solid 35 miles. I was even able to paceline down Lake Washington and take some short pulls at speed (20+ with a good headwind). I need to work on being able to do longer pulls before fading, but all in all I felt pretty good. We even had some sunshine today!

I've been riding with the heart rate monitor and it's a great way to track effort. While we were pacelining down Lake Washington I got into Zone 4 and slightly into 5, which is 190-200 for me, and I could definitely feel when I was starting to go anaerobic. I know, I have the heart rate of a mouse. My hammies were screaming at me today, probably from the power builders I've been doing this week. I need to hit the shower, stretch out some, and grab some grub!

I was born to run!

At least that's what BioSportsNW says. I went there last night for my first appointment. After a physical exam the therapist marked up my legs and stuck little white dots all over my knees and shins. I hopped on the treadmill barefoot and did some walking and running while they videotaped everything. Then I did the same with shoes on.

It's very fascinating to watch yourself in slow motion on video. The therapist said that based on the video she'd guess I was suffering from ITBS in the left leg. It's actually in my right. What can I say? I've never been normal. The bottom line is that I have a slight pelvic tilt on my right side that makes my right leg appear shorter. My left foot is very flat, probably as an attempt to correct the issue.

My orthotics weren't really designed for running, so they're both helping and hindering me. I do have a slight foot pronation, and the orthotics help that, but they're so rigid that they cause other problems. I go back tomorrow to get a new set of orthotics made and to start a stretching and strength training program.

The awesome news is that the therapist said I should be back to running in no time. Aside from a few minor hiccups I was told that I have near perfect running biomechanics. Great! I'm destined for the Boston Marathon after all...is that good or bad news?

Doggy graduation

Tonight Jake graduated from his Beginner Education class at Petsmart. He even got to wear a graduation cap! Cute isn't he? Even though he looks pretty mellow, getting him to sit there quietly with the hat wasn't easy.

As an extra treat tonight our instructor set up an agility course. Jake did an awesome job and even ran through the big long tunnel thing after a little indecision. Once he ran through he decided it was really fun and kept the class entertained by continuing to run through it. Only one other couple showed up with their dog for graduation, so it was a small class tonight. They even brought in some toys - how nice!

Now I just need to get my butt to sleep. Somehow I've gotten myself all screwed up and I've been staying up until 3am and sleeping until 10am or later. Ugh. Enough already! I just did a set of power builders on the bike trainer to wear myself out but I'm not sure it's working.

Windstorm afterthoughts

I took the night off from bowling to work on the house and started thinking about some of the funnier aspects of the windstorm. I had driven most of the way to Renton this morning to go to work before finding out that work was closed. It seemed that everyone had flocked to Renton, which was one of the few places with power, in search of two things: gas and coffee.

Yup, in a major crisis Seattle can only think, "Where can I get my coffee?" I figured I'd stop and get a Tully's on my way back home and the line was ridiculous. I swear there were 600 people crammed in the Starbucks across the street. I was listening to KIRO7 this morning on the radio and people were phoning in locations of open Starbucks. Haha! The gas station was even worse! Hundreds of cars were lined up all trying to force their way to the pump.

I have to admit that I was one of the idiots who didn't fill my gas tank Friday before the storm, but I figure there's no where I need to go that I can't get to on bike or on the bus. I can't help but smile a bit when there's a major gas catastrophe. I love anything that causes people to stop driving cars and think about alternate transportation. If you're willing to sit in line for 4 hours to get gas, do you really need to be somewhere that badly?

Windstorm 2006

We had a monster of a windstorm last night. It rolled in pretty strongly about 10pm. We have a great view of the I-90 bridge and Mercer Island and it didn't take long for half of the island to go dark. We kept seeing blue flashes all over the sky from the power outages and within an hour all of Mercer Island and nearly everything we could see was dark. It was weird how suddenly the sky would be lit up with blue and then one big area would just go dark. We finally lost our power about 11pm just as I was getting ready to prime the bathroom. Good timing I guess! I hear a wind gust of 113mph was clocked at Chinook Pass near Mount Rainier. Crazy!

Our neighbors had a close call with their pine tree, which took out their XMas Santa, some potted plants, and part of their fence but spared the house. Co-workers let me know that power was out at work and the parking lot was blocked by a tree, so I got a nice 3-day weekend. I decided it was a good excuse to get out on the bicycle for a light recovery ride and check out the damage. There were tons of bikers out, probably enjoying an unexpected day off and light traffic.

This tree was suspended above the road off Lake Washington Blvd near the arboretum and Bush School.

Here's another huge tree that was blocking the road to the arboretum. The road is closed while city crews are cleaning everything up.


Just north of the arboretum someone's Prius bit the dust. They had a cardboard sign taped to the tree and though I was curious what was on it, I didn't get too close since power lines were down across the road.

All the poor residents of Mercer Island are apparently stuck there for a while. There's so many trees down on Island Crest Way (which is the main thoroughfare on the island) that no one can get through.

I guess Robin Hood Lanes in Edmonds is open and bowling is on for tonight. Our power is back on so I need to get the primer up in the bathroom and then I might be heading out to bowl. To be honest I was looking forward to skipping out tonight and staying home!

Gymboree

I've made it to the gym twice this week! Wow...I might be back on my road to recovery!

Ducati finished up my bike and called me yesterday to give me a four-figure bill. For that price it better run better than they say it does. Now I just need to find the next day it's not monsoon raining or the wind is blowing 60+ to go get it.

Ahhh, work-subsidized massage is the best. I'll forget all about the Ducati bill and the gymboree in no time...

Roller Sunday

I hopped on the rollers last night for the first time in a while and spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out how to get on without crashing. Considering I've only ridden them a handful of times, the most recent being about 6 months ago, I'm pretty dangerous. I could only manage to ride with one hand on the handlebars and one on the wall.

I've decided that from now on Sunday night will be roller night! The rollers will help me improve balance, handling, and my spin, all of which are desirable this year. I'll be sure to take a picture, especially of the injuries.

Swimming practice yesterday

Yesterday the Zoka ride started from the Exit 9 P&R, headed through Newport Hills out to May Valley, Issaquah and back. The CycleU performance test Thursday night wrecked my legs. I was lagging a bit on the team ride and I shouldn't have been. We did the Tiger Mountain climb, which is a first for me. Even though the Giant is heavy, I'm realizing that I'm not as good on long climbs as I'd like to be. Short, steep climbs are cake, but I need to focus on my endurance and get better at the long grinds.

Once we got over Tiger Mtn it started pouring and the rest of the ride was cold, dark, and very wet. There were quite a few testy motorists yesterday. A few people honked at us and some guy even pulled a U-turn on Tiger Mtn to yell at us to get out of the road. Issaquah-Hobart Rd was full of motorists who had PLENTY of room to slide left and give us a few extra inches in the nasty weather but who insisted on getting as close as possible. I never understand that. Give us a break! We planned for a 50+ mile ride continuing around Lake Sammamish but we all decided to cut out the lake loop and just head back through Newport Hills. We clocked about 40 miles, which was just fine for me since my legs were toast.

Biosports NW

Oh yeah, I visited my knee doc this morning since I'm about at the end of my rope with the whole ITBS problem. Unbelievably, it dates way back to October 2005. Has it seriously been that long? After spending 6 months in physical therapy and then doing strength training with Joe at Headquarters I haven't really seen any marked improvement. Ok, so that's not entirely true. I did improve a bit since I can now run about 2 miles without problems, sometimes 3. At one point I couldn't even run a block let alone make it down the stairs. I run so sporadically these days that it's hard to gauge my progress, but my knee has never felt like it used to.

My running bug is back though, and I'm tired of getting tweaky at 2 miles. I want to run again damnit! That marathon thing is still lingering out there and it's pissing me off. My doc said I'm getting old. Yup. He said it's a combination of biomechanics and age. Shit. He said some people never run again after having ITBS. Great pep talk eh? At least he set up an appointment for me on Dec 20th over at BioSports NW to get a gait analysis and new orthotics made. Mine are 7 years old and I know that I pronate when I run, so here's hoping they discover some miraculous cure through shoes, orthotics, PT, or something. At this point I'm ready to do ANYTHING. I guess I should be lucky to have cycling, but I still can't get away from the running bug.

CycleU Performance Testing

I know it's random, but wet cats rock.

The performance test at CycleU last night went much better than last time and my times seemed much more reasonable. A bad computrainer can really ruin your day! I'm nearly even with where I tested last March, but I have been couch potatoing for the last 2-3 months. Compared to last time I recovered much better for the second test so that's improvement.

Note to self: bring food next time! We stayed after to discuss Craig's training plan and I kept getting hungrier and hungrier until I nearly devoured the bike. Marcus rocks. I called him as I was driving home at 100mph and all I had to say was, "Hungry. Food". He got the picture and I had a nice dinner waiting at home.

If it sounds like a Duck and walks like a Duck...

...be prepared to spent lots of $$$ on it.

Yup, Ducati called me this morning and my bike has crappy compression. The good possibility: a tight intake valve. The bad: a bad valve or ring. They used up my 1.5 hours of shop time and $200 just rebuilding the rear master cylinder, which was in poor shape. *sigh* Today it's getting torn apart so they can diagnose the problem further and call me with the anticipated $1000 repair bill. At least the bike quit starting so they can diagnose that as well. I think the starter button housing was damaged in the crash so a bad connection is likely the culprit.

They say the bike is in good shape, but the previous owner likely never serviced it and it's jonesing for some TLC. New belts, plugs, and a much-needed tune-up should hopefully make it all fat and happy. RMC just called me a few weeks ago to ask how I'm liking the bike. Maybe I should call them back and tell them...

Night riding is fun!

I woke up this morning with a bit of a scratchy throat, so I stayed home from work and slept until an unbelievable 3pm. I felt much better once I woke up but I've been very discouraged with myself lately as I seem to be having a hard time getting back to a gym and biking routine. Marcus suggested I ride the south lake loop, so I decided to throw the lights on my bike and head out.

I took off around 5pm and went clockwise around the lake. This is the first ride I've done at night and it was super fun, though a little scary in places. The I-90 trail is filled with people walking in dark clothes with no reflective tape, so they can give you quite a scare when you come around a corner. Somewhere around Mercer Island I saw this little faint twinkling light on the ground near the side of the trail. I slowed down as I was trying to figure out what the hell it was. Let's just say I ended up with way too close of an encounter with a dog AND his tennis ball. Who walks their dog unleashed on the I-90 bike trail at night? Bad idea!!

The ride pulled me out of a bit of a funk and I'm glad I headed out. It's clear I've lost some fitness though. At one point I thought I was hauling ass down Rainier Ave and I was going 17. Sad!!! The Giant does take quite a bit more work to move, but that's still pretty slow for me. I think I'll start doing some rides at night more often, but only with a better headlight. I also need to start biking to work again. I tend to get demotivated in the winter and exercise helps immensely but I never feel motivated to exercise, hence the vicious circle.

Tomorrow night I'll be performance testing at CycleU again and getting our team training plan started. I'm stoked!

Ducati blues

On Sunday I fired up the Monster to take a spin and it just sounded horrible. The RPMs would drop off and the bike would die every time I tried to idle it. I managed to get it around the block with the throttle rolled almost all the way on and it had no power. Suck! Riding with the throttle nearly fully open is also not a comforting way to ride a 900cc bike.

Since it's had some quirks since the accident I decided to convince Marcus to ride it to Ducati for me today. The guys there looked it over, talked a lot about the very obscure after-market exhaust system, and said it likely hasn't had a major service. I got it at RMC so I doubt they did anything to it. Ducati's estimate for a full service: $800 - $900. Ugh. I opted to pay them $200 to go over the bike for about an hour, do a compression test, and see if they find anything obvious. Then we'll go from there. They said it likely just needs a good tune-up and a little TLC so hopefully that's the case and there's no major engine problem. Between this and the bicycle overhaul I'm about done with toys.

WTF

If someone out there can explain to me how in the hell Florida miraculously ended up in the National Championship game please share. Everyone in the country knows Ohio St and Michigan are the deserving teams. So what if they're both in the same conference? You can't penalize the two top teams in the country just because they're both in the Big Ten. Seriously, how many times does that happen? Give me a break.

And don't even get me started on how the Irish got a Sugar Bowl bid. Just when I thought I couldn't hate them anymore...

Brrrrr

I hooked up on the Zoka ride today and man was it cold out there! I honestly didn't think it would be that bad since it looked so nice out. I joined the ride just south of Leschi and by the time I got to Seward Park my fingers were numb. I'm happy I grabbed the good 'ol hand and foot warmers. Those things rock! I bought a ton at Lowe's so I'm stocked up for the winter.

We have a lot of new people not in uniform and there were so many bikers out there this morning it was difficult to tell who was riding with our team and who wasn't. When the pack went by I could barely tell it was Zoka. The Giant felt absolutely amazing since the overhaul. It's still a very heavy bike to get up hills, but the drivetrain is working so smoothly that it's actually halfway enjoyable to ride. I really need to get off my ass and hit the gym and start riding though. I'm surprised how quickly I lost my fitness and it'll be race reason before you know it. Ok, off to drywall mud...yippee!!! Oh yeah, and those pictures are still coming...

I have to admit it's getting better

Yes, I'm listening to Sgt Peppers, but things are getting better. I've been in a weird funk since my Labor Day stage race in Eugene. I think part of the issue is that I've been so busy and focused at work lately. Today was a great day in that we finally launched the application we've been working on. It's been a long road for something so small and simple.

I manage a dev team dedicated to providing tools for our Member Care department, so needless to say, we're always at the bottom of the totem pole priority speaking. We get bumped and stepped on by all of the bigger projects and project teams so it takes an amazing amount of perserverance, dedication, bribing, crying, and pleading to get our stuff the attention it deserves.

I did manage one gym workout this week. With this big project done, I should be able to settle into a more normal routine. I'm hitting both the Zoka ride on Saturday and the women's ride on Sunday. Sammamish Valley Cycle did a kickass job overhauling my old Giant and I can't wait to get out there this weekend.