Put a fork in me...

I know it's a shocker, but I might have over-rallied this weekend. Like I could say no to this kick-ass weather!

I spent a beautiful day Saturday sailing on the Sound in the Blakely Rock Benefit Regatta. The race took us more than twice as long as expected due to poor wind conditions. We lined up for the start in good position ready to crush the field. Then...no wind. We sat there for quite a while at a smoking speed of zero. Rest assured, we did finally get moving: backwards. About an hour after the start we made it back to the start buoy and eventually passed it. Progress!!

The sail out to Blakely Rock was pretty slow but after the turnaround we found some wind and got moving. We rounded the final buoy for the finish and surprise! Stalled out again with no wind. The final stretch of the race became a very intense 1 knot duel with two other boats. I'm proud to say we fought hard to finish second...to last. With a 7-hr sail time, the committee boat rudely gave up on us and headed back to dock while we were finishing.

What an awesome day with great people. Thanks to Kirk for the invite!

I started this morning with a kickin' run at the Arboretum, followed it up with a few hours of mountain biking at Philip Arnold, and capped that off with a 40-mi road ride around the north end of the lake. I don't think I'll do that sort of triathlon again. 10 miles from home on the road bike, very essential and necessary muscles started seizing and cramping. First my quads, then my calves, then my hip flexors. I'm sure my legs are atrophied and getting off the couch will result in a face plant.

At least I survived the weekend with no major injuries, though I did manage to sideswipe a tree on Tapeworm in a spectacular fashion. Didn't really know you could get "tree rash". I really need to quit hugging trees.

Sailing pics!

Check 'em out!

Love the sun!

Unlike most people around here, I love it when the temps go up and the weekend is filled with wall-to-wall sunshine! Fabulous!

Saturday morning I hit Tiger to do a light jog and test out the IT band. I made it halfway up the Nook Trail before I got concerned about the increasing steepness and turned around. It took me about 10 steps before the damn "IT snap" set in. All of a sudden, bam, and that stupid lateral knee pain snap was back. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. Ok, sure, I had done some jogging on the flat trail and might have pushed it a little hard jogging uphill, but come on already. After two months of ASTYM I was really hoping to have made more progress than this. Once I got back to flatland I could barely even walk. Guess I have a topic of conversation for physical therapy this week....

Saturday afternoon I had an invite to go sailing and I spent a beautiful afternoon on the Sound. I've always wanted to go and the outing was awesome! In just over eight hours, we sailed north out of Shilshole, eventually made our way south to Blake Island, then headed back up to Seattle. The marina at Blake Island was too jammed up to allow us to stop, but it was cool to cruise in and check it out.

Sailing was just an entirely new experience. It was quiet, peaceful, fun as hell, and just a good, mellow time. There is definitely something beautiful about being on the water completely under the wind's power. I even got a crash course and got to captain for a while! Our hosts cooked chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen and we saw a school of porpoises shortly after leaving Shilshole. It just doesn't get any better than that!

I've had some trouble on boats so I was happy that I didn't get sick while sailing, but somehow I managed to get seasick once I got home! I felt disoriented, dizzy, and like I was still rocking on the water. After talking to a few friends, I guess "land sickness" isn't entirely uncommon after a long time on the water, but give me a break already! I went to bed and by morning was fine.

Sunday I skipped the Des Moines crit to give the knee a break. I don't need to push it right now. I was disappointed but it was the right decision. Sunday afternoon I headed over to Marcus' and we hit the water on the jet skiis for a few hours. Damn those things are fun! I'm getting much better and even caught some air, though I can only hope to be as good as Marcus is on them.

We were playing in the wake of the larger boats and I managed to launch myself and have a less than spectacular landing. Going down nose first isn't so good and I somehow flipped over the ski. At least I gave the people in the boat some live entertainment. I cracked my knee pretty hard on the ski and now have another bruise to add my awesome collection. Between softball, mountain biking, and jet skiing, my right leg is all sorts of pretty colors now. Ridiculous!

The lightning storm we had last night topped off a spectacular weekend. Can't wait for the temps to go up again! :)