Mind over matter and all that jazz

This week has been a challenging one, motivation-wise. For whatever reason, I just haven’t been feeling the desire to train and this weekend’s long rides were particularly tough. So, T agreed to go out for a ride with me for company and motivation. He was even willing to do a long ride, so I plotted out a 75 mile ride – challenging but doable. Unfortunately, we got a later start than intended and it wasn’t until 1:30 until we were on the road. Most of this was because T. had to work and it took longer to drive to the ride start than anticipated, but there was a small amount of tomfoolery as well.

At the park where we parked the car, we came across this awesome piece of playground equipment, it’s basically a swing on a zip line/cable thing with a tire at the end:

(Embrace the dorkdom, that’s my motto.) After all of the fooling around, we hit the road. Unfortunately, mapmyride.com is a filthy lying website, because the first five miles were ridiculously hilly. Even T was huffing and puffing up some of them, until we hit the mother of all hills that caused both of us to have to stop and walk up lest we topple over. T was brave (stupid) enough to start riding again at some point, so he reached the top before me and was resting in the shade of a tree by the time I wheezed my way up there. The view was almost worth it…

It all looks very innocent and whatnot, but that street is evil I tells you, EVIL! T was definitely not feeling the love for the ride and was honestly nervous about being able to climb back up those hills on the return trip, but we pressed on. After about an hour or so, we happened upon this pretty park in Everett:

My camera still hates T:

We talked it over and decided that it would be better to turn around and cut the ride short rather than turning it into an all out suffer-fest. Our new plan was to stop for coffee if we saw some place nice and possibly try to find an alternative to the craptacular hills on the way home.

We headed back and decided to go down to the town of Mukilteo, a really cute little harbor town next to a ferry line. We looked at the historic lighthouse:

And stopped for ice cream:

The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. We traded horrible hills for riding along busy roads (most of which had a bike lane) but the trade-off seemed worth it. Before long we’d made it back to the car and headed for home. T was totally wiped out, so we made a simple dinner and crashed on the couch. There was some serious competition for the couch though:

But nothing that a little snuggling couldn’t cure. Even though it wasn’t the workout I should have been doing, it was a fun ride and nice to spend some quality time with T.

West Seattle Saturday

This evening, I convinced T for a trip over to West Seattle to swim in Colman Pool. (The awesome pool referred to in this post.) T hasn’t been swimming in a while, what with being busy at school and all, so he was less excited about the expedition than I was:

It was a largely uneventful swim, except for one notable exception where T,  swimming toward me got a little too wild with his arm motions (and a little too far in the center of the lane) and accidently punched me right in the nose. (Let me tell you, that really smarts!) To his credit, he felt terrible and apologized profusely. (I think he was relieved I didn’t punch him back on the return trip!) Oh well, I guess it’s good practice for the swim start at Ironman Canada…

Otherwise, the swim was great. T did well and more importantly was willing to wait for me to finish swimming my much longer set. Afterward, we walked back through Lincoln Park and let the dogs out for a little frolic in the park:

Both of us were starving after all of the swimming, so we decided to treat ourselves to a little Alki indulgence:

It wasn’t the healthiest recovery meal, but I will admit it was pretty tasty. We walked around Alki a little bit and then headed back from home. We made a brief stop for cupcakes, where I saw this awesome sign (doesn’t it bring to mind a Monty Python sketch?)

All in all, it was a really fun Saturday evening.

Long run home

I’ve been steadily increasing my weekly long run and combining it with my commute home. At first, it was just me running home, but as the time/distance has increased, it’s made me have to get more creative with my routes home. Tonight I had to do an hour and fifty minutes and was aiming for about ten miles. I decided to do a route through the Seattle Center, then along Elliott Bay and across the Ballard bridge home.

This route has the advantage of passing some famous landmarks:

(A little side story: hidden behind the tree is the “dragon swing” ride that is the site of one of my favorite early dating stories with T. We worked at a theatre company nearby and would occaisionally wander over to the amusement park on our breaks and ride some of the rides. My favorite ride of all time is the dragon swing, so that was my choice. T, trying to impress me, said that it was his favorite ride also, so he’d go with me. When we got to the ride, it was closed while they mopped the vomit out of it, much to my actual (and T’s faked) disappointment. It wasn’t until another visit later on that I found out that T absolutely hates the dragon swing and gets super nauseated by it. Ah, young love!)

My route also took me through the sculpture garden and this lovely view:

It was a tough run, crampy and hard to get in a groove. But I made it 9.5 miles and got to try out a new route, so it was worth it.

Memory lane

As I mentioned in this post, my friend M is training for her first triathlon. As with any new endeavor, there have been a lot of highs and lows, including having to find a new race when the one she was originally training for got rescheduled to September. So, we went from the beginner-friendly, all women’s Trek to the relatively unknown quantity of Seafair.

It’s been really interesting working with M through this journey. Some of the milestones I remember well: the elation of the first successful ride in clip-in pedals, the longest swim, etc. Her enthusiasm for the increased fitness and new skills energizes my spirits and training. Some things I’d forgotten about, the anxiety that open water can bring. On Sunday, M had her first “open-water freakout” and the loss of confidence that always brings. I struggled with these same issues when I was starting out, so I know all too well how she’s feeling.

But to her credit, she’s coming back strong. We’ve spent the last two evenings in open water, first at Green Lake and then at Cottage Lake and each time she’s faced down her fears and gotten out there. Everyone feels afraid, but not everyone faces down that fear and sets out to conquer it, and M is doing just that. I’m both impressed and extremely proud of her. I know she’s going to kick ass and take names.

Showering a cyclone

Today we were blessed with a visit from Ms. Cyclone, who was in town for business and came up a little bit early so we could hang out. Ms. Cyclone is also part of the Year of the Baby, pregnant with a daughter. I miss having Ms. Cyclone up in Seattle and hanging out with her, so I wanted to do something fun for the few hours we had to hang out. I thought it would be fun to do something “baby showeresque” to celebrate her pregnancy, but still low-key and fun.

So, M & I kicked things off with a cooing, squealing trip to Target earlier in the week. (Apologies to the shoppers/workers at the Northgate Target for all of that ruckus… ) Then for our main event, we decided to have a picnic at Golden Gardens. The weather wasn’t as sunny and warm as it’s been all week, but it was still good picnic weather. The gang was in rare form:

And my camera still hates T:

But the food was awesome and plentiful, with homemade bread provided by T, some awesome mac & cheese from M&J, a bunch of other yummy things, including cupcakes for dessert.

And most importantly, creepy baby-themed toppers:

Ms. Cyclone seemed to have a good time and appreciated our take on the baby shower, sarcastic card included.

It’s hard to believe that the next time we see her, she’s going to be a mother. Crazy talk.

Dear jerkwads, an open letter to the folks on the Burke Gilman

Hey you! Yeah, you. Idiot who’s riding right down the middle of the path, or worse, on my side of the path. What’s with that? I realize that it’s 8:00 am on a Sunday morning and there’s hardly anybody out, but do you really have to take up the whole freakin’ lane? And there isn’t just one of you, there are dozens! And don’t think I didn’t notice you, pack of group riders riding three abreast. And the most vexing part? That it wasn’t just the newbies, roadies, oblivious ladies chattering away. No. It was all of you. Apparently idiocy is an equal opportunity affliction.

Maybe I need to go get myself some football pads and mount a cowcatcher to the front of my bike and let the chips fall where they may. Consider yourselves warned, a$$hats.

Super awesome Saturday

Tonight M & I took a little field trip out to West Seattle to swim at Colman Pool. Colman is this huge (50 meters long) outdoor pool right next to the water. (Photo courtesy of Flickr)

The weather was grayer and cloudier than the photograph above, but it was still an awesome place to swim. Even with numerous people in the lane, there was room to spread out and not feel crowded. I did manage to get hit in the head and the back (?!) by an oncoming flailing Asian guy, but otherwise it was a nice uneventful swim. M did awesome, busting out 800 meters and generally dominating the easy lane.

Afterwards, M & J had T & I over for Coq Au Vin and old photo night. The food was delicious (especially after all the swimming) and the pictures were hilarious. All in all, it was a super awesome Saturday.

Another year older

Today was my 39th birthday, just a whisper away from 40. I don’t really think about how old I am until my birthday rolls around. In fact, when someone asks my age, I usually have to think about it. I figure, if you don’t act your age and you don’t feel as old as you are, then it doesn’t matter. That’s this year’s theory anyway, we’ll see what happens next year when I’m staring down the barrel of a whole new decade.

My work life has been crazy busy, trying to launch three new websites, but my co-workers were still able to find time to make a fuss over me. They decorated my office with this creepy balloon:

and these pretty flowers (both of which were photographed in my dining room, because I didn’t think to bring my camera to work)

They also bought lunch and had a little sundae party for me in the afternoon. Quite an impressive amount of fuss, to be sure. Then when I got home, T picked up the birthday baton and ran with it. When I opened his present, I was presented with this:

The box is from a Tazo tea display he’d gotten from work, and when I opened the little presents, each was a playing card with a post-it note giving me a clue of where to look for my present. This is the whole group:

So, as I looked around the house for my present, T followed me around looking smug/sinister:

Finally, I found the correct clue and uncovered two awesome posters that I’d seen in a shop down the street from our house. They’re basically typographic maps of cities and he’d selected my two favorites: Brooklyn & Seattle. Here Smokey Joe is doing his best Vanna White. (Unfortunately, he sucks at it… )

Cool, right? After all of the present opening, it was time to meet up with M and J for some dinner at one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants La Carta Oaxaca. It’s quite a testament to our friendship that M was willing to put aside her dislike of mexican food to celebrate my birthday, a fact I certainly appreciate. We started off with some delicious margaritas while we waited for a patio table to open up, since it was a gorgeous evening.

I ordinarily don’t like to be one of those people snapping pictures in restaurants, but tonight I made an exception. (I blame the margarita) Here’s M being silly:

and cute, while T picks up the silly…

And here’s T, drinking my “pink margarita” after disparaging it:

And a few shots of J & M, please note the couple behind them who were engaged in a fight on what turned out to be his birthday. (I didn’t hear about this until they’d left. My favorite quote: “I hear that, BUT… “)

One of the perks of hanging out with a talented photographer type is that you get super-awesome pictures to put on your blog. Here’s M’s picture of my margarita and appetizer:

And a shot of me:

The food was delicious, as always. I had the chicken mole, which was superb:

And I loved the final bill, it really says it all, doesn’t it?

After dinner, we stopped off to grab some more food for M, since she didn’t really like her dinner. While we were waiting, she snapped these pics of T & I goofing around:

What can I say, we’re silly people. We finished the evening with cupcakes and RockBand. All in all, it was an awesome birthday and a fabulous way to kick off my 39th year.

Goodbye, Gunn Ranch

We couldn’t think of a better way to bid adieu to the ranch than a little run down the dirt road. M had orchestrated this excellent plan that we’d run down the hill and then get someone to come pick us up, so we didn’t have to run back up. Bryan graciously agreed to be our sherpa and a group of us headed out. It’s still hard for this city girl to wrap her mind around this long expanse of empty dirt road:

We started all together, but eventually everyone found their pace: Jennifer way out front, Heather & Timmion running together, and M & I ran together. I had to stop and take a picture of the view:

But eventually we got down to business and finished our run. It was a nice gradual downhill, so it felt nice and easy. At the end, we had to stop and take pictures. Here’s M, looking fierce:

And me, goofing around:

And being a little less silly…

We finished our run and Bryan picked us up right on schedule. After a flurry of breakfast eating, showering and packing up, people started heading out. M & I managed to cram all of our crap into the car and hit the road around noon with the plan to poke around in Winthrop before we hit the road. And boy, was I glad we did because Winthrop is a gold-mine of amusing photo opportunities, starting with this guy:

Winthrop is a really cute little town that has all of these Western facades on all of the buildings:

We stopped to have our fortunes told by this ol’ miner:

We found this great gift shop that we knew was awesome from the first sight of this awesome cross-eyed cougar:

I mean, there was some spectacular merchandise to be had:

I also really enjoyed this mural:

After our tour of historic Winthrop, we headed for home. We’d mapped out a different route home, so that we could take in some new scenery. For the most part, it was very pleasant but unexpectedly we hit some traffic. Really baffling traffic, we’d sit without moving for 15-20 minutes and then it would be totally gone. Rinse and repeat. After an hour or so of this, punchiness set in and we started taking pictures of some of the amusing things we’d see from the car window. Here are the highlights, hillbillies burning trash in an oil barrel:

Sunbleached nativity scene:

And this weird town where two different churches had been converted into hippie shops:

But eventually traffic lightened and we made our way home, to regale the husbands with our adventures. Excellent Memorial Day weekend, many thanks to Erin & Timmion for inviting us.

The big swim

Sunday’s plans called for some swim action. We’d gotten a lake recommendation from one of Erin’s friends who’d joined us for dinner the night before, so we headed for Lake Patterson, about five miles away. Usually my Memorial Day weekend swims are just me or if I’m lucky, me and T, so it was really nice to have a big group to swim with. Plus, this was M’s first open water swim practice, so it was exciting to be a part of that and I was glad that she had other people in the water, so it wasn’t just two freaks in wetsuits amidst all of the fishermen.

The lake was really nice, with no jet skis or motorboats, just some kayakers and a few fishermen:

Timmion had a long-sleeved wetsuit that she was planning to sell on Craigslist, but which fit M perfectly. Plus, she looks disgustingly awesome in it:

It was very good that she had the long-sleeved wetsuit, because that water was COLD! Here’s M & I, freezing in the lake:

My mission for M was to just get comfortable being in the lake, in the wetsuit and not worry about how much/how fast/how far she was swimming. So, after spending a little time with her and making sure she was okay, I set off to swim for the other side and imagine my surprise when, a far ways from shore, I looked up to see M waiting for me so that she could swim in with me, which was pretty impressive. She did awesome, and I was very proud of her.

After our swim, some of us headed back into town and a group of us headed for the Sun Mountain Lodge for a little lunch. The lodge is pretty and overlooks the lake and valley. There was some “interesting” decor in the lodge, including this hallway of horror:

and this wild turkey:

Erin & David were kind enough to pose in front of the boar and javelina section:

But my very favorite was this giant stuffed bison by the front door:

After our lovely lunch, we headed home. I still had another bike ride and a short run on my schedule, as did M so we hatched an elaborate plan for her to meet up with me at the end of my ride, then we would ride together for the length of her ride and then run together. Erin, Timmion and I were planning to ride together on the same route that David & I had done the day before, so I figured I’d just turn back a little early and meet up with M.

The first part of the plan went fine, we headed out and I tried to keep up with Erin & Timmion, but my legs were really feeling the previous days ride. But I hung in there and we had a nice ride together and everyone agreed that it was a beautiful ride. Eventually, I had to turn back to meet M and they kept going. M and I were having a nice ride when we happened upon a familiar duo on the side of the road. Turned out Erin had a flat, but had a tube and was masterfully changing it, so after stopping briefly, we kept on.

We hit our turnaround point and headed back to the car. After a little while we noticed a familiar figure walking along the road. Poor Erin had gotten ANOTHER flat and because she had smaller wheels on her bike than I do, my spare would do her no good. Timmion had ridden ahead to her car, but it was much further away than M’s, so M and I hurried back to her car to rescue Erin. It was quite a comedy of errors as we tried to get Erin’s bike onto my rack (it wouldn’t fit) and then stuffed it into M’s backseat with Erin. Then hurried back to try to intercept Timmion. Our timing was impeccible, we caught up with Timmion just as she was leaving the parking lot. So, the run was cancelled in favor of a rescue effort, but it was a worthy cause.

Our final evening was filled with delicious food, good wine, some spirited bouts of Apples to Apples and CatchPhrase and was a great way to end such a wonderful weekend.