Adventures of Rachele

Today, a bunch of us met in Wallingford for a nice chilly ride in the sun.  I think the ongoing joke is that we're just going out for a 2-hour ride.  Yeah, right...it never is only a 2-hour ride.  After eliminating the icy routes (some of the trails still haven't thawed), we decided to go to Alki.  We rode from Gasworks, through Fremont, over the Fremont Bridge, up Nickerson, through Ballard, on the bike trail to Myrtle Edwards Park, past the Sculpture Park and along the waterfront.  This is where we had a slight delay.  Bill took a pretty bad spill when he tried to maneuver around a crevace in the road.  He flew, broke his helmet and the ambulance came.  Thankfully, he's bruised, but okay.  His helmet is totally thrashed and it was a good reminder to make sure your helmet is in good shape and secured properly.  He would have been severely injured without it.  Plus, our group was really good at regathering and making sure everyone was safe.

After the bike ride

After two of our riders escorted Bill back, the rest of us continued to Alki.  It was an extremely clear and beautiful day.  On the ride back, we decided to take a different route (actually the others decided and I just followed).  We went back through Pioneer Square, then up the International District to Beacon Hill.  When you're around the area next time, take a look at the incline from the Waterfront to Beacon Hill...it was long.  We went through the I-90 tunnel to Lake WA Blvd, up to the Arboretum (this stretch is dangerous unless you can keep up with the cars and peddle close to the speed limit), up Boyer to Montlake, along the water, down the Burke Gillman trail and back to our starting point.  Whew, I'm tired just typing this route!  Of course that wasn't the end of it.  The remaining group was made up of 3 people training for the Coeur d'Alene Ironman, two people training for a 1/2 Iron, and me.  They still wanted to get a run in after our 40-mile hilly ride.  Crazy!  My carpool buddy, Lily, totally tricked me.  She wanted to go running and she had the keys to the car.  Everyone wanted to run, but me.  So, I said I didn't know we're running (plus, I'm not training for Triathlons right now!), so I can't run.  Then evil Lily said that she had an extra pair of running shoes in the car and we have the same shoe size.  Ugh!  I got suckered into a short run.  My legs were done and I could only run a mile, then walk the remainder back.

So, my friends tricked me into doing a BRICK (bike-run) and then they even went one step further and suggested that I may as well do a 1/2 Iron or at least a Duathlon since I'm training for it anyways.  That was really twisted logic.  Thank goodness my peer pressure is only race-related. 

Lily showing her legs..burrr!

Bert, Minera & Glen

Jim

Sculpture Park

Last night I did my fourth appearance on Confab.  Go ahead and click on the link to hear the latest show.  We go to Richard's, wear headsets and discuss whatever topics come to mind, and then Gavin puts our discussion as a podcast on ITunes.  Richard, Gavin, Adrien, Andy, Keith, Jeff and I discussed the jaywalking law, the major automakers, and what we think there are the differences between Asian management/processes versus those in US companies.

Every now and then I feel the need to tackle a home project.  This usually happens when I'm frustrated and need to blow off some steam.  And the last time I was in this state, I painted several of my walls.  I'm not the most handy person, so it takes me a lot longer to figure it out.  The one thing on my side is that I'm not afraid of just diving in and figuring it out.  Today's project was to switch the direction of the doors on my refridgerator/freezer.  It sounded pretty simple, but there were a lot of parts involved.  I had to use my allen wrenches, phillips head screwdriver, screwdriver, and a torx driver.  Yes, I learned a new tool today..torx driver.  It is a trademark screw that was created by Textron Fastening Systems, and is characterized by a 6-point, star-shaped pattern as shown below.  The funny thing was that I actually had a torx driver in my toolbox (thanks, Dad!)

Torx Screw

Needless to say, I had duct tape, screws, screwdrivers, and shelves flying everywhere!  It also took me a couple of attempts to realign and change all direction of the hardware (no, you can't just move each piece to the other side...it doesn't work).  I took a break to visit with friends, then tackled it again.  They offered to help, but by now, it's a personal vendetta for me!  If I can't handle it, I'll ask for help tomorrow.  I resisted the urge to call my dad for advice and tackled the project again.  After dropping a shelf on my foot and getting grease all over my sweats, I conquered!

With a bit of delay, I'm responding to Richard's Five Things Meme tag.  It's actually hard for me to find five amusing things that you may not know about me because I usually share my quirks.

1. When I was 4 years old, my Kindergarten teacher came to my parents house to persuade them to keep me from enrolling in school.  He felt that I was too young.  My parents stayed with their decision to start me in kindergarten, and for the next three years, the school kept me in the slower kid class.  Things didn't change for me until we moved and my new school district actually had their pyschologist give me an IQ test.  This is when they bumped me into "gifted" classes based on my actual performance instead of my age.
2. When I went to college, they stated facts about the entering class.  We were about 80% male, a quarter of us were National Merit Scholars, and so forth.  One factoid was that our class had one cheerleader and my classmates were obsessed with finding out who was the cheerleader.  I don't know why, but everyone thought I was the cheerleader. I'm putting this down for the record...I was never a cheerleader.  I just dressed well. I played in the band, competed on the math team, performed on our TV show, was in ASB, lead a volunteer group at the local convalesant home, class Salutatorian and the captain of the tennis team.  Pretty nerdy, huh? 
3. I love biking up hill and on the flats, but I'm deathly afraid of biking downhill.  Sometimes I whimper as I "fly" down.  The fastest I've ever gone was a little more than 30 mph and I think I was silently praying until I reached the bottom.  I even had to get off my bike at Danskin (my only Tri) as we rode down the fireroad from I-90 because I was afraid that I would cause an accident as I rode my brakes.
4. I am double-jointed.  I can clap my fingers while my palms are still touching.
5. The one material gift I want more than anything is the talking Barbie that came out in the early 90's.  There are not very many of them since they were pulled off the shelf.  She said the phrase, "Math class is tough."  I love math and it's so stereotypical to have Barbie say that...I am laughing right now thinking about it.

Nookachamps 5K, 10K and !/2 Marathon was this morning.  Despite the snow and ice, there was a large group that went up to run the 10K and 1/2 Marathon courses.  Yesterday there were a flurry of emails between us, trying to figure out who was still going up in these snowy conditions.  Of course, like most little planners, someone emailed the race director to find out the conditions.  We got the message that the race was on, the main roads were clear, and to "just use your judgement" when it comes to the icy parts.

The snow started to fall down when I reached mile 2, and I was REALLY glad that I was only doing a 10K.  6.2 miles is plenty in the snow.  I tip my hat to those who stuck it out for the 1/2 Marathon.  I wish I had my camera during the race because it was probably the most beautiful race I've ever done.  I've run through some amazing landscapes and spectacular cities, but the weather created an experience that was absolutely magical.  Imagine this...light snow flakes falling around you while you run through the countryside.  Trumpeter swans in formation flying above.  Mountains in the background.  An eagle perched.  A mile of snow covered trail winding through a park before the finish.  No wind.  No rain.  Sun shining through the clouds, and a sea of runners gliding on the roads.

This was the first time that I've run on ice and snow.  Only some of the course was icy, so wearing cleats was out of the question.  I think we still had quick times because we wanted to get out of the cold.  However, navigating through the icy spots was comical.  I remember running downhill on a snowy trail towards the end.  I concentrated on keeping a determined stride, just so I wouldn't tumble.  Actually, running on a snowy trail wasn't bad because I felt sure-footed on the fresh snow.  The tricky part was the icy patches on asphalt.  That's when I "ran like a girl" with my arms held out and tiny prancing baby steps.  I'm sure it was a funny sight.  All in all, I am so glad we went up and it's turning into a fun race season as we gear up for our big Spring races.

Last night we saw snow again in Seattle.  Since I grew up and went to college in CA, the idea of snow around my home is still new to me.  I have at least one appointment rescheduled and another one still in question because of the icy roads. Some of the snow has melted, but here's the view outside my window right now.  Hopefully, it'll be dry enough to run later this afternoon...maybe we should stick to flat roads today, though. 

I recently watched "What the Bleep? Down the Rabbit Hole."  It's a documentary, interlaced with theatrical scenes to help explain the concepts.  The main character is played by Marlee Matlin.  Without trying to sound too dorky, if you like physics and math, you'll really like this movie.  If you moderately like science, but like hearing about mind-bending phenomena you'll also find some interesting points to this movie.  Anyways, the movie is a look at how our thoughts and reaction to events and other things around us change the outcome of our physical reality.  There are examples of experiments done to try to prove this.

You'll have to give me a little room for creative interpretation here because it's been many years since I've taken quantum physics and my math only goes up to Differential Equations (which was also long forgotten).  The movie explores how we perceive reality and process the images we see by using analogies from quantum mechanics and neurobiology.  There is the idea that thought carries a wave of energy and that different thoughts emit different energies, and therefore effect our physical world in different ways.  Huh?  Okay, there is an experiement done by Dr. Masaru Emoto involving water crystals.  He had one drop of water on the petri dish, and a word or phrase next to each drop.  He treated the controls and each experiement the same way.  Each drop was at room temperature for the same amount of time, each was put in the same freezer for the same amount of time, etc.  The dishes that had the words, "Chi of Love," "thank you," and other positive phrases all had beautiful, symmetric crystal patterns.  The dishes that held phrases such as "I hate you," or "I want to kill you," had very disruptive, assymetrical crystal patterns.

Last Saturday, a few of us went to the Olympus Spa in Lynnwood.  This is a women's only spa that has whirpools at various temperatures, warm-hot saunas with different benefits, a Korean restaurant, and a tea ceremony room.  The Spa is modelled after Korean women's bath houses.  We walked in and the first thing I noticed was the cleanliness of the place.  Shoes and socks are not permitted past the lobby.  The only clothing allowed past the locker rooms are the robes and pink & white striped shower caps provided by the facility.  I wish you could have seen the sea of women going in and out of the therapeutical pools, with only their shower caps on.  Of course, I don't have any photos from the day.  They are known for their exfoliating scrubs, which some of the girls had and loved.  Be warned, that you can't be shy about your body if you plan on going.

I personally loved the energy rooms.  We went after our long run, then stayed for hours.  One room was the "Sand Room."  The Sand Room had sand covered in canvas tarp, small pillows, dark lighting, and ocean background noise.  The room was 150 degrees and you would lay down and meditate.  It felt like being at the beach, lying in the sand, without the grit between your toes.  The Salt room was simliar, but it was at 140 degrees...the salt conducts heat, so I had to turn occassionally since I felt like my skin was on fire!  There were also Charcol, Mud & Jade, Elvan Stone, Cabin and a 60 degree Chill room.  All the wet facilities, whirpools, steam rooms, scrubs and mugwort baths were in a different area.

The restaurant had good Korean food, but they were very understaffed and the service was extremely slow.  Other than that, I would highly recommend going.  They have a sister spa in Tacoma, but the Lynnwood one is their larger facility.  I felt so relaxed and exhausted that I barely stayed awake when I got home and I had my best night's sleep of the year!