March 2, 1988

Here is a family photo from Manila that one of my seven half/step/awesome sisters recently posted on facebook. It’s from her 14th birthday. My mom was taking the photo, so she’s not in it. The first thing I noticed was that cake – totally not the work of my artsy craftsy mom, who in that same era made Transformer birthday cakes and lemon meringue pies with the meringue whipped into the shape of a horse. No, this cake had to be my handiwork, why else would a 9 year old be that excited on someone else’s birthday right?

Right, sorry, I forgot, I started this post with the intent of describing my CURRENT balancing act. Poli Sci has probably enhanced my verbosity, who knew that was even possible (my same sister recently reminisced with me over how my mom used to say that I “talked to hear my head rattle”).

Whatever. I’m balancing! It’s awesome! Mondays and Tuesdays I am at school for FOREVER, from 7:30 to 5:30, omg it’s like working FULL TIME or something terrible and shudder-worthy. On the plus side, the rec center at school has Woodway treadmills, and my office at school has a pretty view and fellow students who are always good for a laugh or insult.

For example yesterday, I wore some makeup, because when I teach I try to look like I take myself seriously. But during the snowy 4 degree 1 mile walk to school my mascara got wet and then frozen and it was an unattractive pain. My program is mostly guys, and Matt was the lucky officemate I got to complain to about my non-waterproof mascara. He said he thought his girlfriend’s mascara was non-waterproof as well.

“Yea,” he said, “hers definitely runs.”

Matt! Do you make your girlfriend cry?!

“God dammit.” Busted

OK back to work… this time next week I’ll be in Costa Rica! I’m super excited for Team Trakkers/REV3 Camp and for my first race of the season, and I’m trying to get most of my schoolwork done ahead of time so that I can hang out and play with my new teammates and all the athletes who will be there. I will also integrate some learning… Costa Rica is probably Latin America’s most stable democracy. Pretty cool!

So cold right now

Indeed indeed. When it comes to swimming, Boulder seems to think it’s in the tropics. People swim outside, regardless of whether it’s 13 degrees (yesterday) or 9 (Friday, when I actually wussed out and went to the indoor short-course yards pool, oh how inferior, at North Boulder Rec Center. Julie Dibens and Mirinda Carfrae were there too. But yesterday, since it was New Year’s Day, my indoor options were closed and I had to suck it up).

Luckily, I bought a swim parka at the very first hint of icky winter, so the long walk between the pool and inside isn’t too unbearable. The most treacherous thing right now is the ice, which is on the walkways and pool deck as well as on any pool toys left on the deck for more than a few minutes.

"Icy Conditions May Exist"

Just now though I realized I totally get it, deductive vs. inductive. Because, talking to Ben who is so smart, I deductively concluded that my Training Peaks needs reorganizing. Let me explain…

Me: How was your training?
Ben: Fine. All I had was a two hour ride.
Me: That’s it?
Ben: Yea. Well, I swam too.
Me: But you said your training was just the ride.
Ben: Well I said that because I swim every day.
Me: No you don’t.
Ben: OK, I don’t swim on Sundays, but still.

From this evidence I used inductive logic to arrive at my theory: swimming isn’t training, and Sunday’s aren’t days. What a relief.

Honestly though, I’m not sure they are very effectual. I think I need some regular medical compression tights. The Skins don’t have feet on them, even though I pull them over my heels and ankles, I still get really fat toes and feet at the end of a travel day.

So anyway, yesterday I left the east coast and now I am in Bend, OR! It was a typical Courtenay Brown Keep-Life-Interesting Travel Day, i.e. 12+ hours with at least one delay, dire need of antiperspirant, and a few instances of getting lost. I got up at 4 a.m. (!?), my mom drove us to the airport because she had a flight to Montana that left an hour after mine, but on the way she wanted to stop at the barn and check the rain gauge, then she wanted to drive cautiously, then we got to gossiping, then I almost missed my flight. I didn’t though. I sat next to a nice teen-aged girl from Kenya who was on her way back to her home in the U.S. after graduating from her Kenyan high school.

Then on the next flight there we sat on the runway waiting for thunderstorms to pass, so I got an extra hour to sit next to Mr. Portland Super Hipster. He mostly watched old movies on his iPad but he also did some graphic design work on his MacBook Pro (17″), received a jillion text messages on his iPhone (while we were on the tarmac of course), and took handwritten notes about something on his teeny lime-green graph-paper notebook with a fancy pen. I accidentally spilled apple juice on his leather boots and tight jeans, LE OOPS! but his well-coiffed hair and logo-less gray T-shirt went unscathed, as did his full-sleeve tattoos.

When I got to Bend, first order of business was to sort out my sunglass situation. My Specialized glasses were stolen last weekend! I was so bummed, I loved those glasses, and I didn’t bring any others with me. So. I bought my first pair of Oakley’s!! Pricey, I know, but they are super cute. Option b. was to get a $40 pair of Tifosi’s that I would race in this weekend and never want to wear again. Good sunglasses are kind of important. I don’t have a sunglass sponsor, so, might as well buy them in a state that doesn’t have sales tax!

Second order of business was to chill with my cousin and his family – the kids are 11 and 8 years old, and they are excellent unicyclists! It’s pretty adorable to watch. Colin is confident that I too will be very good at unicycling, because I am “such a good athlete” (his words, not mine). I think I’ll wait to test his theory until after Pacific Crest on Saturday.

Today I had a little encounter with “if you’re never going to be the best, then why bother trying.” It’s an encounter I’ve had many times, so thankfully I’ve learned to deal with it efficiently and effectively. 1. Call someone who won’t be available and leave a message, 2. (optional) post on twitter detailing how awful everything is, 3. maybe shed a tear, and then 4. get on with swimming (it’s always something to do with swimming). I bother trying because even though it sometimes sucks, it usually doesn’t suck. It’s usually fun, satisfying, and, until I get to my mom’s and have horses to ride, better than the alternative .

Somewhat related: Ben is at the place-for-important-athletes, the Olympic Training Center. I’d like to share with you some of the more amusing tidbits from his current stint there:

-He’s made friends with some of the women wrestlers, one of whom appears to have a giant crush on him.

-Did you know that male gymnasts smoke? Ben’s room was previously occupied by a male gymnast, and the room reeks, he says.

-Oh, he was complaining about how far away his room was from everything, and how it took forEVER (i.e. 8 minutes) to walk to sports med to get a massage, or to walk to the cafeteria for Valentine’s Day dinner of filet mignon and mashed potato martini’s. I was incredibly sympathetic.

-The other day he was mystified by a pack of girls who were all tall and thin and had their hair in really tight arrangements and wore a ton of makeup, what sport are they? I guessed rhythmic gymnastics! Then the next day he said he was still totally mystified, now they were walking around with props, what sport uses a HULA HOOP of all things? (Rhythmic Gymnastics, Ben, like what I said yesterday.) (I am an expert at random Olympic Sports and at dog breeds.)

I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll be invited to take a peek at it all when I’m in Colorado next week. Failing that, I’m pinning all my hopes on the swim lesson I have scheduled in Seattle the week after. I’m going to get so fast and so good at swimming and then I will be worthy of a tour of the OTC.

To me (and him) it’s incredibly obvious that this is a training question infiltrating non-training life. What kind of run are you doing, are you going to the track? What kind of ride? What kind of swim?

What kind of nap? *

Nap intervals? Nap LT? What??

The question, and its obviousness to me, both mean that obviously I am even more boring than the endless stream of WTC announcements. All I think about right now, even subconsciously, is training training training racing training. I’m really hoping I can score a rec center guest pass for when I’m in Boulder.

* Little-known fact: Ben sleeps with his eyes cracked open. It’s really cute. His mom told me that when he was little and was falling asleep, he would sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to himself!

Speaking of mu-zak, I went and bought myself a ticket to see Ghostland Observatory at Showbox SoDo this Friday. The 21+ show is on Friday night, and the all ages show is Saturday. I asked the girl at the box office if one was better than the other. “What kind of question is that? Do you LIKE being at a show with a bunch of high schoolers?” Also, in order to “afford” this ticket (thanks, Ma), I’m not buying coffees at all this week. Day 1 just about killed me, not so much the caffeine withdrawal as the diversion-withdrawal.

In triathlon news, cause let’s please recall that I’m a triathlete, back in August I applied for a spot on the US team for ITU Long Course World Championships next month in Perth. It’s kind of hard to tell, but by some miracle (called “kona two weeks before and clearwater three weeks after and it’s october and the race is in perth and the stipend doesn’t even fully cover airfare”) I seem to be in the running for a spot!! Which is totally awesome, exceeeeepppt for the fact that the swim is 1.8 miles long, which is like 3000 meters, which is a long way. Training for a 3k swim is a little more stressful than training for my other option that weekend, a 1.2 mile swim at Longhorn, and a lot more stressful than my third option, which is jump headfirst into the off-season already. Eek! We’ll see. Honestly all three options are really great for me. And obviously I am not pinning my hopes too high on Perth because otherwise I wouldn’t be blogging about it already.

Uh let’s see what else. Tomorrow I’m going to see Gaslight Anthem at Showbox at the Market, and I’m super stoked. It might be my last show for a while, I bought the tickets before my computer broke, and before I noticed a giant crack in my front tooth, and before I realized that taking Chemistry at the local community college would cost me $1,536 for the quarter. And three quarters constitutes a year, no that doesn’t make sense to me either. (Who wants a triathlon coach?? Or a dinner conversationalist? An opinion-offerer? I have very reasonable rates and I am highly qualified in all three areas.) Anyhow, my little Seattle-ite concert-going career promises to go out with a bang, because Gaslight is going to be awesome. If nothing else, I’m making my little sis super jealous. She’s back at school in Hanover, New Hampshire, where they never get any good bands. Between Gaslight this week, and Gossip next month, and the Bumbershoot bands a couple weeks ago, she wants to know “why is Seattle getting good shows all of the sudden?!” Um. Earth to Sarah. I know you were born in 1987 but come on .

On Monday I turned 31! Yay. Here’s all the awesomeness that happened.

-I got a book about Genghis Khan from my mom. She says “it’s the BEST book I’ve EVER read, oh it’s just FASCINATING” so here’s hoping my achilles heals in time for Longhorn 70.3 so that I can read it on the plane.

-I also got a phone call from my mom. She sang me Happy Birthday!

-Phil Spencer hand-delivered a giant smorgasbord of awesome presents “from him and Ben” which means Ben was on the phone offering occasional advice while Phil did all the legwork. Two magazines, two books, wine, a bouquet, and a card with Bert and Ernie! Basically octupled my birthday present count

-In the meanwhile I also had plenty of woe-is-me moments. Standard stuff… I’m getting old, last year I got to race and wear an awesome swimsuit and be on a podium and fly to Hawaii on my birthday, this year I’m old again and it’s raining and my boyfriend is gone and everything is just terrible, etc. Side note: I know by now not to seek consolation from Ben when I am upset or struggling. Trying to get help with my swimming? “What are you doing, some kind of drill?” Depressed at the thought of going grad school as an escape from $14/hr boredom? “You just need to find something you’re passionate about and do it.” Upset about him being gone? “Well it would be easier to miss you if you weren’t crying.” Frustrated about racing badly? “Obviously you need more in your life besides triathlon.” This weekend’s line: “age is just a number. Cheer up.” OK Dara Torres, thanks, now I am going to go call Kelly and compare boyfriend notes.

-OK so then I went to Bumbershoot! I had gotten a one-day pass for Monday. I found an awesome parking spot. I got some pizza. It was raining. I finally found the entrance. There were seven million too many people milling around. I went to find Ben’s friend Peter, I finally figured out what stage he was at and I got there and the band was terrible. TERRIBLE. They were only supposed to play another half hour so I was going to just endure it and people watch but of course they played extra songs, so that’s when I bailed and called Kelly to compare boyfriend notes and generally get riled up over the world’s ridiculosity, and why the fuck are there so many kids (yes I was appropriately crotchety on this, my 31st birthday) and bad bands at this dumb festival.

Then Chris Tremonte came and he dragged me to see the Black Eyed Peas. Now, like anyone else who listens to the radio for at least 5 minutes per week, I have HAD enOUGH of “tonight’s gonna be a good good night!” but I have to say, they put on a good show. Even mid-day, in the rain, not headlining. Then we went to find food and find a bathroom and maybe get a beer and say Hi to a couple people and suddenly it was 2 hours later! So rather than going to see a couple of other bands, we decided to stake out good spots near the stage for Franz Ferdinand and Modest Mouse.

Good job us. We got great spots near the stage, us and the seven million too many teenagers, and more than a few kids who looked 12 and were holding up “free drugs” signs. Oh my god. Did I totally miss out as a kid? I don’t know.

Franz Ferdinand was awesome. I saw them in San Francisco in 2004 when they were touring for their first album, in some random non-music venue south of market, and they were completely great. I love when bands don’t save their big single for last! This show was even better than the one I had seen before. Energetic, every song was great, the set just totally flowed. If they came to Seattle for a show next week, I would definitely hunt down tickets.

Then came Modest Mouse, who I hadn’t seen before. They went on at like 9:45, which is a bit late for the last band of a 3-day festival, on a school night, in the rain, so the energy level dipped a bit. I loved their set and really enjoyed seeing them, but unlike with Franz Ferdinand, I wouldn’t go out and buy tickets to see them again soon. But they were still good. They played Wild Pack of Family Dogs! Yay.

So somewhere in there I got un-crotchety and had a fantastic time. I stayed up late, was on my feet all day, breathed tons of second hand smoke, ate a loaded spicy bratwurst (perhaps a mistake…), and it was so wonderful. I can’t wait for next year

—

I’ve been taking a week off from training, starting on Monday. Then this coming Monday I will resume training AND AND AND be starting my new job with Amazon!

But the week off has given me some much-needed time for relaxing, regrouping, and reassessing. As for relaxing, top activities thus far have included: riding a horse on Monday (for the last time in a while ), and shopping at Target, ostensibly for work clothes but really I just wound up buying my first-ever pair of “skinny jeans” from the teenagers’ section, which guys, this does *not* mean I am buying anorexic, lose-5-lbs-so-the-$200-jeans-will-fit jeans. In reality it means I found some $15 faux-hipster pants that don’t look leotarded and they are black and I want new black pants. Additional relaxing activities have included traveling from the East coast to the West, testing out Ben’s kombucha (it’s not bad, but I think the next batch will be better), “helping” Ben clean his motor boat (I have not shaken my lifelong, resolute distaste for aquatic motor sports. Total sensory pollution if you ask me), and catching up on some Tivo.

My major regrouping activity of the week involved a trip to the chiropractor. Lucky for me, Dr. Phil Spencer has become one of my good friends here in Seattle. I was able to pester him from afar when my back started hurting me in Maryland, and then yesterday was the appointed day for an in-person evaluation. Which basically confirmed what I already know: my friggin’ back hurts. In addition to the reverse curvature I have in my neck (which I have mentioned here before), I also have the beginnings of disc degeneration in the disc above my sacrum, and an obnoxiously zig-zaggy spine. Sweet. So yeah, my back hurts. My hope is that, with regular chiropractic treatments and an improved flexibility routine, my back AND my body will feel better.

And finally: reassessment! Like stay local, go back to basics stuff. I’ve decided that after a few months of pretty regular traveling, I’m going to stay here in Seattle until October-ish. I want to enjoy the most beautiful months of the year here, and there are a lot of cool races nearby. Cool races that aren’t giant superstar-fests – I’m hoping to gain a little confidence over the summer, and a little speed. Mostly in the water. Which, ugh, isn’t this always the case, but I thought I was doing soo well with my swim training! And yesterday when Ben and I went down to Phil’s office for our appointments, we decided to go swimming at the nearby 50-meter pool. I know it’s my week off, but long course meters! And Ben can see how much I have improved! Of course I’ll swim! But after only 50 meters of swimming, Ben stopped me. “What are you DOING?!” he said. “Is that a DRILL?!”.

No. It’s me swimming.

Apparently this whole me getting slower thing isn’t a fluke. It’s a fact. What the crap. Also now apparently I am not even allowed to mention that Ben has been helping me with my swimming, because he doesn’t want his reputation to be tarnished . But what can I do besides keep working at it? Keep working at it with guidance. Oh, and blame it on my back!