Kyna's Journal

seanb made me mostly stay in bed today. He is no fun. My throat hurts and I am coughing and he seems to think this makes me sick or something. Rotten boy.

On the plus side, I got a lovely holiday present from grymor. Thank you, there shall be pie. My missing Fed Ex package also showed, meaning that all I need to do now is wrap the holiday presents and get them to the various parties. I also need to plan the holiday meal with the parents, which may have to wait until after the meet on MLK weekend.

Speaking of the meet, it turns out Classic Ladies have heats. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how that happened. I haven't had heats since I was a Senior. This will NOT be a cake walk.

Everything else is coming along. I need to decide what to do for my birthday, which probably means writing a poll in my future. Right now though, I am thinking smoothie.

It's the night before the first meet of the season. I've waxed my legs, changed wheels, packed up, made bread and ran laundry. There is nothing to do but sleep. Of course, I don't want to sleep. Stupid nerves.

Sean says he's going to bed. Guess I should too. Gotta be in Everett by 5.

One of the skaters from Pattison's West in Federal Way had their purse stolen out of the rink during a practice. Scary. You can see the story here. I'm usually pretty good about making sure my purse and what not is in my bag and I always sit near our cadre of parents who make excellent watchdogs, but I think I'm going to start being extra careful.

Long weekend. We had some great racing and some bad crashes. My team did not do fabulously, but that's okay. We don't want to be too cocky as we head to Regionals next month in Portland. I raced better than I expected, given the allergies. Only really died in one race, though the hacking and coughing was (still is) impressive.
( Day by Day Breakdown )

All in all a good meet. I saw some friends, got some new outdoor wheels at a discount, and picked up a bunch of gossip. I know what I have to work on headed into Regionals and then Nationals in July.

Before all that fun, we have Outdoor qualifying clinic this weekend. For once, I am praying for clear weather. Josh and Linda Wood are great coaches and I really want to see what they can teach me about outdoor, which I am not comfortable with.
After this weekend, I can breathe, if only a little, maybe remember what my friends and family that don't skate look like.

Last night I went skating outdoors for the first time since summer 2005. Amber, Monica and I hit the Cedar River trail, starting from the Renton Community Center and heading out about 5 miles to the bridge. While slightly gravelly in places, by and large the trail in a cinch. There are 2 corkscrews which serve as road underpasses that you need to watch, but beyond that it is mostly flat. A slight incline headed out means that coming back is a much faster prospect. Best of all - very few people and NO rumble strips, the two things I hate most about the Burke.

My performance wasn't great, my left leg does not like outdoor (hence the reason I need to do more), but at least I got out there and now I can strive for improvement. I ended up telling the others to drop me about a mile and a half from the turn-around, because my leg was starting to hurt pretty badly. I met up with them at the turn around and we pretty much kept together on the way back. I'm thinking of trying to do Cedar River regularly after work,Thursdays and possibly another weekday as well. It's so close to work that I really have no excuse. Any skaters want to come with?

I was going to go to practice tonight, but Amber called to say she's not going and frankly, I don't want to pay $10 for a practice in this heat. Once it cools off, I may try and talk Sean into walking Chief Sealth with me again. Tonight for dinner, it's cold Cha Soba with chicken and cucumber and I promised Sean I'd make rice pudding.

Currently Sean is sleeping on the other futon and I am cursing the fact that we need to dry sheets in this weather. I need to find a place in the backyard to run a clothesline. Until I can get one of those, I think I'll abandon the den for my office and a cup of frozen grapes.

This weekend was regionals, aka "national qualifiers", aka "longest weekend on the planet. Here's a redux.
( Skating Blather )

All told, it was a good weekend. I raced better than expected, had some fun, got to know my teammates and hang out with the old ones. Now I am exhausted. Work tomorrow will be tough, as is the thought of having to start going outdoors. I loathe outdoors, but Amber swears she's going to make sure I go skate outside this summer. I know I should, I just dislike it so much.

That though, is another worry for another day. Sleep now.

Between today and yesterday my individuals are done *happy dance*. Now onto the good stuff - relays.

A quick summary ( I realize none of you care):

1000m (Friday): Amber had a really good start, so I picked it to make sure she didn't get ahead of me, which go me fwapped in the face (not hard) by somebody else for my trouble. Okay for the first 5 laps. Then, I couldn't get my legs to do a full cross. My left leg would not do a full under push, no matter how hard I tried. Given my height, I can't afford to lose that.

500m (Saturday): My strongest race. The start my not stellar, but tolerable and I held Amber off, even with the leg hurting like hell on the last lap. I love sprints.

1500m (Saturday): THE SUCK. Leg got even worse. Had to ice after the race and it still aches now. I had an okay start and was with the pack until about lap 5, when Angie passed up and I couldn't go after her.

In other meet-related news, we've seen very strong racing, with multiple national records broken and minimal falling. We have enough Pro skaters visiting to keep in interesting, but I think the NW is holding it's own. If you've ever wanted to see what this inline speed skating thing I blather about is tomorrow would be a good chance to take a gander.

Now I need a nap.

I read the ferry schedule wrong. The first ferry to leave Seattle to Bremerton is at 6am not 4:50am. I won't miss any races, but now I'm awake. *mutters* I have no one to blame but myself for this. Maybe I'll go try and catch another hour of zzzzs.

I've been back from the meet since about 1:00 today. I cut out early and went outlet shopping, thus getting a fair amount of my non-amazon Winter Solstice shopping done. Since I have no voice at this point, dealing with the all-too friendly clerks, was not too fun. Luckily, they all left me alone when they heard my voice. After that I headed home. Once home, I got my cuddles and food, and then Sean and I went to Uwagimaya for a few supplies and (most importantly), milkshakes, which I had been craving all weekend.

My final results at the meet:
Individuals (5 competitors)
500m - 4th
1000m - 3rd
1500m - 5th (We had to run the race twice!)
Classic 2 Lady (2 teams) - 2nd
Classic 2 Mix (5 teams) - 3rd

Not my best showing, but since I was completely blind during the individuals, I'll take what I can. At least I have a baseline and it wasn't a total trounce. The next meet is the weekend before my birthday, in Auburn. This will be the first time in 3 years that I've skating the Auburn meet, which will be weird. Now I should balance my checkbook, and fold laundry (may skip this), then onto sweet, sweet, sleep.

Went and saw the doctor yesterday. Yeah, I'm getting myself some of that sinus surgery action. Drugs just aren't cutting it. Got a shot of steroids to try and keep me out of headache land (reduced swelling = less hurty). It's been awhile since I was stuck with needles to put something in rather than take something out. I think I prefer blood draws, Not sure when the surgery is going to be because I am having a pisser of a time trying to get a hold of the surgery scheduler at my ENTs office. Grrr.

Tango last night was hellaciously hard. Backwards secadas are to be feared. I swear I have never had my toes stepped on so many times. Nearly EVERYONE had some issue(s) with this step. In fact, I repeated it so much on the same side, that I woke up with one half of my butt sore. It was....odd.

In other news, I skipped ballet tonight in order to rest and prepare for my first skating practice at Federal Way tomorrow night. I'm actually kind of scared. New coach, new team, new rink, it's all just a little much. Bryce is supposedly going as well and I'm going to cross my fingers that other Southgate people show up, just because it'll make things a little more comfy.

Now Sean and I go eat apple crisp. Between the weather change and the nerves from potential surgery and skating I have been baking up small storm recently.