PNW Tri Novices

[salsabike]

Thanks, Wahine. I am having a ton of fun, especially now that I am on vacation from both jobs until late August. I didn't have much vacation the last two years, so for the next month and a half I plan to train and weave. Weave and train. That's IT.

Dex, come to this Sunday's pool clinic with me! That way there will be at least two of us who feel overweight, uncoordinated and dumb. And we'll do it anyway and leave feeling better, which is what happened when I went last week. Remember, I'm 70 pounds overweight. I am just fixedly ignoring any thoughts about how I look.

I have a Part B to my philosophy of life as articulated last year (Part A: If I'm not feeling like an idiot regularly, then I'm just not being adventurous enough), and I actually identified this Part B while driving to the pool clinic last Sunday, having never gone before and feeling pretty nervous about it. Part B (small drumroll) is: Do everything you're afraid of. (Because often it works out well when you actually do it). (no, I don't mean EVERYTHING. I still plan on never sticking my finger into a cobra's mouth, or whatever).

Sadly, I told this Part B to Chris when I got home, all excited, from the pool clinic, and he now thinks I am obligated to go do Juanita Hill on my bike because I said I was afraid of it. Juanita Hill is not steep but it is very, very long, about 2 1/2 miles. It's a favorite among area cyclists. We've done it on the tandem several times. The pool I swim at--which, Dex, is really nice, by the way, in case you want to come there--is WHERE ELSE? Right at the dang top of Juanita Hill. I think that in a few more weeks, I will have to try it.

I'm not usually this yakketty online. It's all the adrenalin.

[Wahine]

Dex, come to this Sunday's pool clinic with me! That way there will be at least two of us who feel overweight, uncoordinated and dumb. And we'll do it anyway and leave feeling better, which is what happened when I went last week. Remember, I'm 70 pounds overweight. I am just fixedly ignoring any thoughts about how I look.

FABULOUS IDEA.

I have a Part B to my philosophy of life as articulated last year (Part A: If I'm not feeling like an idiot regularly, then I'm just not being adventurous enough), and I actually identified this Part B while driving to the pool clinic last Sunday, having never gone before and feeling pretty nervous about it. Part B (small drumroll) is: Do everything you're afraid of. (Because often it works out well when you actually do it). (no, I don't mean EVERYTHING. I still plan on never sticking my finger into a cobra's mouth, or whatever).

Excellent way to live.

Sadly, I told this Part B to Chris when I got home, all excited, from the pool clinic, and he now thinks I am obligated to go do Juanita Hill on my bike because I said I was afraid of it. Juanita Hill is not steep but it is very, very long, about 2 1/2 miles. It's a favorite among area cyclists. We've done it on the tandem several times. The pool I swim at--which, Dex, is really nice, by the way, in case you want to come there--is WHERE ELSE? Right at the dang top of Juanita Hill. I think that in a few more weeks, I will have to try it.

This will be an excellent warm-up for Snowden hill that is pretty much straight out my back yard. We'll be doing it on the Tri camp weekend. It's a 6 1/2 mile climb at mostly 6 to 8 % I'd guess. It's about a total of 1500 feet of elevation gain in that distance.



......



Just kidding. Well I wasn't kidding about the hill, it is there. I was kidding about making you ride up it.
Unless of course you want to. Then I'm more than happy to oblige.

[dex]

Dex, come to this Sunday's pool clinic with me!

Send me details and I'll be there. (I'm actually free on Sunday, so this can totally happen.)

I'm totally down with your Life Philosophy Part B. One of my tattoos is to remind me to do almost exactly that, and placed such that I can't escape seeing it many times a day. I suppose that's why I do things like moving cross-country without knowing anyone here, randomly taking up rowing, deciding to ride the STP before figuring out if I could even ride a bike farther than a mile or two, quitting my Very Stable Job with no plan other than Do Something Besides This, and signing up for this tri on a whim. Hah!

(I'm over my whining now. I think some of that was the product of a very long couple of days at work.)

[salsabike]

This will be an excellent warm-up for Snowden hill that is pretty much straight out my back yard. We'll be doing it on the Tri camp weekend. It's a 6 1/2 mile climb at mostly 6 to 8 % I'd guess. It's about a total of 1500 feet of elevation gain in that distance.

Just kidding. Well I wasn't kidding about the hill, it is there. I was kidding about making you ride up it.
Unless of course you want to. Then I'm more than happy to oblige.

Well, just fire up the pickup truck and get the tow rope attached to my Bianchi. Ms. Sadist.

Send me details and I'll be there. (I'm actually free on Sunday, so this can totally happen.)

I'm totally down with your Life Philosophy Part B. One of my tattoos is to remind me to do almost exactly that, and placed such that I can't escape seeing it many times a day. I suppose that's why I do things like moving cross-country without knowing anyone here, randomly taking up rowing, deciding to ride the STP before figuring out if I could even ride a bike farther than a mile or two, quitting my Very Stable Job with no plan other than Do Something Besides This, and signing up for this tri on a whim. Hah!

Yes!!! Will PM info. And I figured you were like that.

[teigyr]

Hrmm....the clinic is sounding like fun.

Anyone up for a small tri on Saturday? It isn't sold out yet, is womens only, and is limited to 500 people. The water looks NICE and will be around 68 deg. I'm actually excited about it.

When I first went to the pool clinic (my only time, actually) I didn't even know how to put on a swim cap I had it on backwards meaning the side to side part was forward to back. It was a lesson in humility. That and I was mortified that someone was seeing me in a swimsuit.

I greatly agree with Part B unless it has something to do with Snowden Hill

[salsabike]

Anyone up for a small tri on Saturday? It isn't sold out yet, is womens only, and is limited to 500 people. The water looks NICE and will be around 68 deg. I'm actually excited about it.

When I first went to the pool clinic (my only time, actually) I didn't even know how to put on a swim cap I had it on backwards meaning the side to side part was forward to back. It was a lesson in humility. That and I was mortified that someone was seeing me in a swimsuit.

I greatly agree with Part B unless it has something to do with Snowden Hill

Wish I was ready, because it sounds like a nice one, but know I'm not yet.

[NbyNW]

Salsa, re: what other newbies are doing:

My goal for my first tri is for 2009. I fractured my sacrum nearly two years ago, and I am still dealing with some soft-tissue trauma and muscle pain in my right hip and lower back. I do pilates 1-2x a week plus my home PT exercises 2-3x a week for that. And lots of stretching.

Getting back to pre-injury fitness is like building a sandcastle. I make a little progress, and then something will flare up which forces me to rest and back off and lose the base I've built.

I've started bike commuting 1-2 times a week, it's about 5 miles each way. Cycling is pretty much the only cardio I've been able to do since my injury. Hoping I can work up to 3-4 times a week by end of summer.

Swimming is a little less convenient. I bought a pass for the city pools, but I can't seem to get to the pool during lap swim hours. Maybe I'll have more energy as the days get longer.

I'm not sure when I'll be ready to start running again. It's partly a question of when my body tells me it's ready, and then I have to get over my fear of doing too much too fast and setting myself back.

This week I'm resting. I had spent Saturday planting seedlings in my garden and woke up Sunday with lots of overly tight muscles in my back and hip. Trouble going from sitting to standing and standing to sitting. Sunday night I took an epsom salt bath, Monday night I took a muscle relaxant, and today I went to see my massage therapist, who did a lot of work around my piriformis, psoas, glutes, and lateral rotaters. I think I have control of my muscles again, but I'm gonna take a couple more days before starting on my next sandcastle.

Where is Juanita Hill?

[salsabike]

Thanks, Jocelyn! It is really interesting to me to hear how and what others are doing. Oddly enough, I met someone yesterday who had fractured her sacrum--a runner. I am sorry for the sandcastle thing---that can be so frustrating! It sounds like you are trying to deal with it with care and patience, which is hard! But good.

Re getting time to swim: I am SO not a morning person. But just before my school year ended, I took to getting up really early to do the bike trainer thing before school, only because I'd spent months saying I'd do it after work but was always way too pooped. Now that I'm on vacation, I can go swim midday, which makes it ridiculously easy to do, of course. It'll be interesting to see what I do with all this when I go back to work in late August. Will I really get up at 5 am again to do stuff that I know I'm too tired to do after work? We'll see....

Juanita Hill: Go up Lake City Way towards Bothell. Turn right on 68th, which becomes Juanita Drive. That becomes Juanita Hill. MM_QFC, I'd be coming at it from the Kenmore side. It would be more fun to try if I wasn't carrying all this extra weight with me. I once had a ballet teacher who, cautioning us not to gain weight over the holiday season, said, "Imagine coming back here to the studio after Christmas and having to dance holding two five-pound sacks of potatoes." It was an image I never forgot. And the sacks of potatoes I'm hauling now are way more than ten pounds' worth. But anyway. I am working on it.

We knew that, Wahine.

Salsa, re: what other newbies are doing:

My goal for my first tri is for 2009. I fractured my sacrum nearly two years ago, and I am still dealing with some soft-tissue trauma and muscle pain in my right hip and lower back. I do pilates 1-2x a week plus my home PT exercises 2-3x a week for that. And lots of stretching.

Getting back to pre-injury fitness is like building a sandcastle. I make a little progress, and then something will flare up which forces me to rest and back off and lose the base I've built.

I've started bike commuting 1-2 times a week, it's about 5 miles each way. Cycling is pretty much the only cardio I've been able to do since my injury. Hoping I can work up to 3-4 times a week by end of summer.

Swimming is a little less convenient. I bought a pass for the city pools, but I can't seem to get to the pool during lap swim hours. Maybe I'll have more energy as the days get longer.

I'm not sure when I'll be ready to start running again. It's partly a question of when my body tells me it's ready, and then I have to get over my fear of doing too much too fast and setting myself back.

This week I'm resting. I had spent Saturday planting seedlings in my garden and woke up Sunday with lots of overly tight muscles in my back and hip. Trouble going from sitting to standing and standing to sitting. Sunday night I took an epsom salt bath, Monday night I took a muscle relaxant, and today I went to see my massage therapist, who did a lot of work around my piriformis, psoas, glutes, and lateral rotaters. I think I have control of my muscles again, but I'm gonna take a couple more days before starting on my next sandcastle.

Where is Juanita Hill?

[MM_QFC!]

Kenmore-shmenmore...you can do it, Salsa! There are pull-outs up that side too, in case you need a break...I don't want to hold you up, but I'd love to ride it with you so, maybe when you're ready, then I may be back on a bike...we'll see!

Yep, Teigyr's doing a sprint tri in Federal Way tomorrow...sounds ideal...women only and a 500 participant cap...Linda and I had a fun quick visit with her at SeaTac last night and she's ready to swim, bike, run!

[MM_QFC!]

Thanks, Wahine. I am having a ton of fun, especially now that I am on vacation from both jobs until late August. I didn't have much vacation the last two years, so for the next month and a half I plan to train and weave. Weave and train. That's IT.

Dex, come to this Sunday's pool clinic with me! That way there will be at least two of us who feel overweight, uncoordinated and dumb. And we'll do it anyway and leave feeling better, which is what happened when I went last week. Remember, I'm 70 pounds overweight. I am just fixedly ignoring any thoughts about how I look.

I have a Part B to my philosophy of life as articulated last year (Part A: If I'm not feeling like an idiot regularly, then I'm just not being adventurous enough), and I actually identified this Part B while driving to the pool clinic last Sunday, having never gone before and feeling pretty nervous about it. Part B (small drumroll) is: Do everything you're afraid of. (Because often it works out well when you actually do it). (no, I don't mean EVERYTHING. I still plan on never sticking my finger into a cobra's mouth, or whatever).

Sadly, I told this Part B to Chris when I got home, all excited, from the pool clinic, and he now thinks I am obligated to go do Juanita Hill on my bike because I said I was afraid of it. Juanita Hill is not steep but it is very, very long, about 2 1/2 miles. It's a favorite among area cyclists. We've done it on the tandem several times. The pool I swim at--which, Dex, is really nice, by the way, in case you want to come there--is WHERE ELSE? Right at the dang top of Juanita Hill. I think that in a few more weeks, I will have to try it.

I'm not usually this yakketty online. It's all the adrenalin.

Hey adrenalin-woman!
Yep, Eleanor Roosevelt is known for advocating your Plan B: "We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot."

I've done Juanita Hill in both directions more times than I can count and you'll do just fine. Yes, it's a bit longer when you ride north from Juanita Beach park, however it's not as steep a grade as riding south, up and over it from the Kenmore side - plus it has some gentle 'shelves' built in and a good-sized bike lane. Just take your time, get in a rhythm, with an easy gear to relax and spin, sit back in your saddle, open up your chest/lungs to breathe freely and roll on up there!
Then when Ms. Sadist Yoda starts yammerin' on about Snowden hill, you can just smile sweetly and impress the he!! out of her!
Tailwinds!
Mary

[Wahine]

Did I mention that I like to pull the wings off of flies.

JK.

[MM_QFC!]

Did I mention that I like to pull the wings off of flies.

JK.

You didn't need to...we already assumed that.

Hey, good luck and have tons o' fun this weekend yerself!