Skirts, Stylists, and Saddles

Yesterday I wore one of my running skirts for the run I did with my BAM buddies. One of the other girls asked me where I got it; she wanted one too. Then today I got my August issue of Runner’s World and there’s a whole article about “the rise of the skirt!” The magazine is right: I’ve been noticing more and more skirts on runners around town, and I must admit that I’m a total convert. Yep, I’ve come a long way from the day when I wussed out on wearing my pink skirt in the gym because I was too self-conscious about the cut and the color. Now, the pink one is one of my favorites — and I own six skirts in all! They are just so comfy and fun.
There’s also a very nice article about the Crews family — Bill, Dana-Sue and their two children, all triathletes, who live here in Houston. After Bill was diagnosed with lymphoma, the family became active with Team in Training and have since compiled a very impressive list of accomplishments, both personal and charity-related. I haven’t ever met any of them, but I have heard many things about the family from Jon and others, so it was cool to read about them in a national magazine! I wonder if Jon had anything to do with nominating them for the “Real Runners” section…
It’s been a girly day so far, with a haircut followed immediately with a pedicure. My hair had gotten to the longest it’s ever been, I was starting to get tired of the ends getting all tangled as my ponytail bounced around during workouts, and I was ready for a change, so I had the stylist chop off 6 inches of hair this afternoon. In order to properly convey what I wanted, I took her a photo of my from 2004! That’s the first time I’ve ever taken a photo to the salon, and I thought it was kind of funny because it wasn’t a photo of a model or a celebrity. Just me, in the past, with the haircut I wanted again. So here I am. (Note my awesome Life Is Good swim-bike-run shirt. It’s one of my favorite tees.)

Of course the day wasn’t entirely girly, since it began with a solid 26-mile bike ride around Clear Lake. The weather was overcast but it super humid, and within 5 miles I already looked like I’d jumped into a swimming pool. My phone was in my bento box, and I noticed halfway through the ride that I was dripping sweat all over it, but there was nowhere else I could put it. Thankfully it seems to have weathered the ride just fine. I’ll have to figure out a way to shield it in the future, because the last thing I want is to destroy my iPhone by sweating all over it. Ew.
Anyway. The ride. I did my standard “Tour de Clear Lake” and went out Bay Area to Port Road, then cruised down Todville to the bridge. Here’s a nice view of the part of Bay Area Blvd that most people miss — past the strip malls, past Armand Bayou, and into the lovely part of town filled with chemical plants. Let me tell you how good it smells out there: NOT VERY GOOD. Oh well. I am probably giving myself cancer riding through that area, but there’s hardly any traffic out there on the weekend, and that’s a good thing.

This was the first time I’d tackled the Kemah bridge on my new bike, and I wasn’t actually sure I’d make it — my tri bike has fewer gears than my road bike, and since speed is the goal on the tri bike, the missing gears are mostly low hill-climbing gears! Indeed, I could not shift as low as I have in the past on the roadie, but I managed to make it to the top in one piece nonetheless. Woohoo! From there I headed back west on the nice, wide shoulder of 96 before heading home on Egret Bay.
As I was nearing the end of my ride, I arrived at a red light where two other cyclists were also waiting. We exchanged hellos and one of them looked at my bike. “Time trial bike?” he said. “Tri bike,” I responded, “though I guess it is a kind of TT bike.” He asked how much farther I had to go, and since I was within a half mile of being home, I pointed and said “oh I just live over there, I’m almost done. I rode…(looking down at my Garmin)…26 miles.” Then he informed me that he and his partner were almost done as well…with their century ride. Whoa. Here I was patting myself on the back for a good hour and a half of riding when they were finishing up 100 miles for the day! Crazy guys. I was suitably impressed and said “I’ve never ridden that far in one day!” The other guy just pointed at his butt, and said “this is the worst part.” That made me laugh.