This picture was taken out of the window of the car as I was coming down a hill on my way home from work. This, for those unfamiliar, is what traffic at about 5:30pm in the middle of the week can look like in Seattle.

So, what does one do when in such traffic?

Option 1: Get Mad

The option that some might be inclined to take is to simply get mad. This could be accentuated with various exclamations: “Oh my WORD this traffic is slow!” “What on EARTH is going ON?!” “CAN WE GO ANY SLOWER!??”

As you get mad at the situation, you can then extend that to the cars that are trying to change lanes in the middle of the craziness. Again, some worthy exclamations might be: “NOT in front of me! I’ve already been in line too long, buddy!” or “You’ve GOT to be KIDDING.”

Once in awhile, just for added measure, you could try smacking the dash of your car. This is best done while uttering some exclamation (see above for examples of things to exclaim).

By the time you get home from the drive, you’re thoroughly disgusted with the traffic, with Seattle’s traffic system, with the lack of more lanes of traffic to ease this situation, and with anything having to do with cars, people, or life in general. “I HATE Seattle!” would be the culminating exclamation for this choice.

Option 2: Chat on the Phone

Here’s a second option for drivers stuck in this traffic – get up to date on your friends’ lives by chatting on the phone! After all, it’s not like this will be hazardous to your driving, right? Nobody’s really moving that fast anyhow, and you’ll be plenty aware of what’s going on around you.

As an added bonus, if you see something cool happen, your friend could get a detailed description of the scene! It’s like being there live! Depending how far you need to go while the stop and go traffic is stopping and going, you could get a great half hour conversation in!

Of course, if you’re really getting into the conversation, you could find yourself not moving, or not paying attention, leading to one of two things: people honking at you to MOVE (perhaps by someone choosing Option 1 above) or people honking at you because you’ve now been involved in an accident in which you rear-ended the person in front of you when you didn’t realize how close they were.

But hey, your friend got a full description while it was happening!

Option 3: Contemplate Life, Learn a Little!

Here’s another option for these traffic times: enjoy some time to contemplate life and maybe even listen to some great music or a great book.

Let’s reflect on the situation: nothing I do will move the traffic any faster, or move me any faster. I’ve learned that changing lanes to get into the “faster lane” only seems to make it the “slower lane” and I end up in the wrong lane when I need to get off, making the people around me upset as I try to squeeze in the 6 feet of space that someone has left for me so I can try to get across to my exit. It’s better to just keep plodding along on my course for home, and take some time to listen to some great music.

I know it sounds cheesy, but the traffic time turned into “me” time. I haven’t yet actually started listening to books on DVD, though I’m planning on it. After all, my drive home is usually about 30 minutes anyhow, why not get something nice out of it? I’d rather spend 30 minutes winding down than spend 30 minutes fuming…or catching up with friends and getting into and/or causing accidents (this is of course not taking into account the fact that talking on a cell while driving is now a ticketable offense, secondary, yes, but I’d rather just not do it).

Option 4: Take the Bus

I’d be remiss if I didn’t post this fourth option of mass transit. My only problem with this is that it takes me longer, even in poor traffic, to take the bus than it would to simply drive. We live near an entry to the express lanes, which typically reduces the time I spend driving were I to take the regular interstate route, but it can still get slow at times. There are days I wish I took the bus just so I could catch up on some reading, but I also know I’d spend my time looking out the window and seeing what’s going on, rather than reading. So, car it is for me for now!

Quick…name the person who originally said, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

The past couple of weeks, I’ve been getting back to an early-morning workout routine. I’ve been taking it easy, so that I don’t make the knee and foot pains bad, but I’ve been getting up early a few days a week to exercise. I decided that today, instead of exercise, I’d get to work early to work on a big project.

I didn’t get less sleep than I have on other days, so I don’t know why I was so out of it when I got to work, but out of it, I definitely was.

I parked the car and decided against the stairs. I’d done some pretty intense workouts the prevoius two days and wanted to give my legs a break. So I went to the elevator and pressed the Up button. The elevator showed up, I got on, and then it went…DOWN. Confusion point #1: I thought I pressed the UP button?

A security guy got on the elevator and pressed the button for the 1st floor, so up we go. He gets off, the elevator closes, and…nothing. It does nothing. Confusion point #2: why isn’t the elevator moving?

I look up and realize the button I’d pushed to get me to the floor I work on wasn’t lit. Confusion point #3: didn’t I push the button for my floor?

So, I do what any normal person would do. I pushed my floor button again. No light. Again. No light. Again. No light.

Now I’m really confused. Why won’t the button stay lit? Worried the elevator DID move and I’m stuck on the elevator (note: I never felt it move after we reached the 1st floor, but I could have been mistaken), I press the Open Doors button. Half-expecting to see a wall, I instead see…the 1st floor. I press the Close Doors button. THEN I press the button for my floor. (See? It was DIFFERENT.) Nothing.

Open Doors. Look out. Close Doors. Press Button. No light. Repeat.

Review the definition of insanity…again.

Open Doors. Looks out. GET OUT. Let doors shut BEHIND me. Press the Up button to call a DIFFERENT elevator (because obviously, that one was broken). No light. Press the Up button to call an elevator again. Elevator doors open. I look at them. They close. I decide the elevator has something against me.

I take the stairs.

As I went to the stairs, I saw a guy heading to the elevators. “Good luck,” I think to myself. “You won’t ever get them to work for you! They’re BROKEN. See you on the stairs, buddy.”

Only…I never hear the door to the stairs open. NOW, I’m irritated. How’d he get the elevator to work?!

I relayed the story to a co-worker later in the day. She reminded me that when you show up outside of the building core hours, you need to swipe your badge in the elevator so it knows to let you go to any floor of the building.

DOH. Foiled again by security systems. (Sadly, I had figured this point out before when needing to get into the building AFTER hours, but it never seemed to occur to me there would be BEFORE hours building hours.)

P.S. Benjamin Franklin.

So, last night, I felt pretty guilty about having come home to simply eat and then work, pretty much blowing off Family Home Evening. I’ve enjoyed the FHE nights that Rich and I have, mainly constituting playing a game together. It’s just nice to have that dedicated time together.

Last night, though, I ended up working and Facebooking while Rich was playing a video game. Go me.

So, after finally shutting the computer, I offered to play a game with Rich. Since he was already on the XBox, we chose something there. My favorite thing to play on XBox 360 is Settlers of Catan but we’d just played that over the weekend and I didn’t know if Rich would be up for it.

Instead, we played an old classic, now playable on XBox 360 thanks to EA Games, Battleship!

Here’s a game that’s a definite classic. And yet…there are variations I’d never heard of before playing it on the Xbox. My favorite variant is Salvo – you start with 5 hits (one per unsunk ship) and lose one hit for each ship your opponent sinks. MUCH BETTER than the one by one shots in the traditional Battleship.

When we first got this, Rich got such a kick out of me playing … with every hit, I’d kick up my legs (we, of course, were sitting, not standing) and shout, “BOOM!” much like a little kid. I was having a BLAST (no pun intended). Last night, I was tired, so no shouts, but I still get a kick out of this game. I think part of it is having Mr. Potato Head watching to the side as you play. Yes, Mr. Potato Head. What can I say, I’m a fan!

I still feel guilty for having to bring home work. I really hate when it happens. I treasure my home time and do whatever I can to keep work and home completely separate. It’s just worse when we have plans for a great FHE that have to be set aside so I could get work stuff done!

I’ve read a few friends’ blogs recently and wondered…why can’t I write fun stuff like that?

Then I realized: I don’t have a camera that I take snapshots with, so my blogs end up picture-less.

I don’t write short things, but long exposees on random topics.

I don’t do enough fun things to capture people’s attention. My blog would probably end up being about work, the LDS Young Women’s program, and boardgames.

Okay, maybe it COULD be a cool blog after all.

So, apparently, in my old age, I’m starting to break down. A couple of months ago, the toe-next-to-the-big-toe on my right foot started feeling odd after long walks, or after a spin session, or after running… You get the drift. It wasn’t all the time, but once in awhile I’d get this odd tingling in that toe. After awhile, the tingling became a dull ache. I also started getting weird pains in my right knee – and not really pains, I just couldn’t lock my knee like I usually do without feeling like it might break. And my right hip started feeling wacky; I’ve always had times when it feels like it needs to pop, and I usually can get it there, but this time, no matter how to contorted my leg, it wouldn’t pop. In true Z fashion, I kept working out, but I finally decided to go to the doctor when the toe wouldn’t stop bugging me. Doctor told me to try a physical therapist. Physical therapist found issues with my lower back, in addition to the knee and foot issues. For awhile, I was starting to just do the elliptical for a workout, but my doctor had said healing might go better if I laid off for awhile from the workouts. So, though I’d cut back quite a bit, I figured I’d actually try to do what the doctor recommended and lay off for a bit.

Meantime, I had a flight to Atlanta and then girls’ camp for church. Both were enjoyable, but sleeping in a long house for camp didn’t help the right side issues. My pad wasn’t really thick enough to mask the fact I was sleeping on a wood shelf, which made sleeping…interesting. At any rate, I felt active, but it was going on two weeks without a workout. I did one workout before going to camp, but my knee kept me from feeling comfy doing squats or lunges, and though I was kickboxing, I ended up just shuffling a bit on the ground and punching as much as I could. I felt like a total mess.

It’s now been a week back from camping, and I still haven’t worked out. Rich and I finally went on a 3-mile walk a couple of days ago, but my knee started aching on the last hill back. For those of you who know me, you know how much of an exercise junky I am. This is like torture for me! I was loving my running and the long walks Rich and I were taking, and to think that my knee was bothering me just after a 3 mile walk is really painful. I got a massage yesterday that felt great – except I realized afterwards that I couldn’t bend forwards! At that point, I just wondered – what on earth is going on, really? Why am I suddenly feeling like I’m 90?! I want to run, cycle, kickbox, jump!

I keep thinking of all of those articles I’ve read about people becoming huge pilates and yoga fans after having injuries that kept them from doing their high-impact workouts and how they all got flatter tummies than they’ve ever had and better muscle toning… But I just can’t bring myself to do the pilates and yoga! If I’m not drenched in sweat after working out, I haven’t worked out in my book. I have no problem adding it to a workout regimen, but I can’t grasp the concept of that being my WHOLE workout regimen. On the other hand, considering I can’t do my other workouts without worrying about getting seriously injured, I might get a lot of benefit from the stretching and toning that could come from the low-impact stuff.

Interestingly enough, I actually have been so busy for the past two weeks (camping included) that I haven’t given too much through to my limited exercise ability. It’s been odd not to really be going completely crazy because I can’t do all my zany workouts. I expected to be handling this much worse!

Rich and I have been doing some long walks in the past couple of weeks – it’s been a BLAST. Today, we visited a couple of game stores along our way and got to see LOTS of fun shops! Last weekend, we went to a bike store and then did the Green Lake loop before coming home, which ended up being ~5.5 miles. Today, we walked down to Greenwood and ended up walking down to Green Lake from there! I’m enjoying Mapmyrun.com to see our routes. Here’s today’s route. Total was a little over 4.5 miles.

We hit Duke’s Chowder House on Green Lake on our way home for lunch/dinner. YUMMY chowder. YUMMY mixed greens salad. And YUMMY blackened fish tacos. We’re planning on going back some time to just order chowder and a couple of appetizers!

Quick post today – 4.6 miles on foot. Part run, part walk. Took a total of an hour.

Here’s the path I took.

One day, I’ll actually run that entire thing!

So, week 1 is nearly officially over for my duathlon training.

Rundown:

Monday: Run/Cycle
Tuesday: Cycle
Wednesday: much-needed break
Thursday: Run/Cycle
Friday: Cycle

Thankfully, the weather cooperated so I could run outdoors! There’s something about running on a treadmill that just doesn’t appeal to me, which is why I don’t do it often. Same goes for running on a track. Not that fun.

I did find that, as expected, the running was tough. I haven’t really done consistent running for YEARS. And, running from the gym I start at anywhere is downhill, which means, for those of you who might miss this lovely fact…running back to the gym is UPHILL. Talk about excellent training ground! Granted, I have no idea how FAR I ran – only that I meandered until I ended up back at the gym.

As for the cycling? Well, let’s just say that between the soreness from running and the fact I haven’t really done the type of spin I’m doing in months, I hurt! I forgot how many climbs and races there were in these RPM sessions. And after doing the 50 miles cycling seated, it feels like I’m a jack-in-the-box (NOT the restaurant) on the spin bike! Throw in a little BodyPump-esque weight training, and you have a recipe for whipping someone into shape real fast!

Not that I was out of shape, mind you. Just not in shape for another half century or for a duathlon of any distance.

Speaking of distances, I guess I should find me a duathlon to sign up for…

First, I have to start with one of the worst-named stores in Seattle. “Seattle’s Hugest Beer Selection.” Hugest? *cringe*

So – after completing the 50 mile ride, I started thinking about a duathlon. I have to admit this is in part due to hearing that a friend of mine is training for a triathlon. I don’t know I’ll ever get up to a triathlon – the thought of swimming in a lake/river just doesn’t sit well with me. Instead, I’m thinking of doing a duathlon – run/cycle.

Here’s the funny thing. I guess when you tell people you’re training for such a type of event, they expect you have a date in mind. Most people training for such an event probably DO have a date in mind. Me? No. I just like the idea of having a focus for my workouts, I guess. And it seems an achievable goal if I can find one that fits my schedule. I actually found a place called Elma, Washington, that seems to have a duathlon and triathlon scheduled for just about every holiday – Memorial Day, Father’s Day, etc. And it seems like a great place for this type of event – they have a novice level duathlon which is a 2.6 mile run and some distance cycle…don’t really remember. I just know there’s duathlons in July and August, which is my target date, if I can just find one that’s not too far away and that is on a Saturday.

Either way, I’m training for a duathlon that would be a 2.6 mile run and some distance cycling.

How’s that for targeted training?

Another funny thing – I’ve learned that not exercise is created equal. Doing cardio and the occasional spin is NOTHING like targeted training for anything. Once I decided I would start training (last Saturday), I decided on a game plan. Twice a week, run for half an hour, follow by cycling for half an hour. Twice a week, do RPM (45 minutes). Each of those days, do weight training – upper body one day, lower body the neck, etc. The schedule is Mon/Tues train, break Wednesday, then Thurs/Fri train. So far, it’s working pretty well. I’ve stuck to my Mon/Tues schedule. But here’s the thing – I’ve been exercising. I’ve been doing weights. But I went back to the BodyPump style of weights the other day and found my stamina for it has dropped, not to mention I’m SORE!! I also did RPM the other day and found myself struggling through some of the climbs. YEESH. I have some work to do!

I also found from my outdoor run Monday that everything from the gym I started at is downhill. Hey – makes for GREAT training with the running!

I feel much better about my workouts now that I have a focus again – it’s amazing how much of a difference that makes for me. What I’m really loving about things like the duathlon and the cycling events is that I can continually have something to work towards. I had no idea there were as many cycling events, duathlons, or even triathlons as there are just around Washington! It’s so cool! If I wanted, I could be doing some type of event every month! Craziness!