Today I went to a woman for a… well… it’s called Bowenwork Therapy, and it’s tough to describe. The Blue Fire website defines it as:

"Bowenwork therapy is a sacred bodywork that accesses inner healing wisdom. This amazing bodywork allows us to regain our health and to experience rapid transformation."

But I would call it "body strumming". Basically, it’s a massage that is supposed to get your body to heal itself, reestablish screwed up neurological connections, and force you to pay attention to the signals your own body is sending you.

Here’s how it goes down: I walked into the office while Jessica Riley (the therapist, left) was still with another client.  I was confused because the door to the massage room was closed, but Jessica was standing there as if she expected me to walk in at that very moment. (The moment I saw Jessica it became obvious to me why my mom and sister smirked when they referred me: she stunningly beautiful.)  My confused look must have been obvious (they often are), but she reassured me, "You’re in the right place. It’s Ben, right?" I nodded, she handed me some paperwork, motioned for me to have a seat, then walked into the massage room.  I heard some muffled voices, and moments later she reemerged, took my paperwork, looked it over, then disappeared again into the massage room.  My mom and sister have both been several times for this type of therapy and I was warned that it is nothing like a normal massage, but I wasn’t really prepared to see a therapist walking in and out of the room.

The woman ahead of me left, and while Jessica changed the sheets we talked a little about what has been bothering me. She asked what other types of physical therapy and massage I’ve done, and then explained a bit about Bowenwork.

Bowenwork is a bit like tuning a guitar.  The therapist grabs a muscle, moves it, then releases it.  She literally strums the muscle like a guitar string.  And after playing only a couple of notes, she leave the room.  The purpose is to let your body’s natural harmonics radiate through the body and allow the brain to connect with the muscles that have been treated.

It takes a leap of faith.  I disrobed, hopped on the table, and began to relax to soothing nature music.  Jessica came in and plucked a couple muscles in my hips, then left.  While she was gone I felt my heart rate increase, and a burning sensation near the area she plucked.  I told her, and she said that’s normal, then plucked a couple different muscles and left.  This went on for a little over an hour, and which point she woke me up from a really relaxing nap I was taking.  I actually can’t remember the final time Jessica came into the room, but I awoke on my back in a daze.  She told me to take my time getting up, and added that I should touch the ground with both feet at the same time.

Before I left Jessica told me to take 24 hours of rest, not to sit for more than 30 minutes, and to drink lots of water.  She said healthy athletes and children usually feel the effects much quicker, and said I may be sore tonight and tomorrow.  I was so out of it I called her Jennifer as I left.  Oops.

So far I feel pretty good, but it’s killing me that I can’t ride my bike.  The weather is so nice right now, and it’s supposed to rain and snow this weekend.  I’m just hoping that a day of rest will let me get back out for some running. My ankle is still really sore.

I will probably go again next week. I want to get the full experience, so I’ll try anything twice.  If you’re interested, check out Blue Fire Bowenwork Center in Seattle. If you’re not in Seattle, just google bowenwork therapy, or bowen therapy.  I think it’s worth checking out even if you don’t have a specific problem.  They do full body plucking as well.  For now, my plan is to drink lots and relax (wait, did she say it had to be water? )

Aside from teaching chem lab partner how to do overhead squats, I haven’t done anything interesting this week, so I’m posting pictures from last weekend and narrating them like a slide show.  Don’t worry, my muse will return.

This picture is crap. My buddy Noah visited for Thanksgiving, and I got to see him for the first time in over a year and a half. He’s been living in Denver working for the National Renewable Energy Labs (NREL) making viable ethanol. He proves to me that chemistry is more than just making drugs like the fabulous chemistry department staff at University of Washington has implied.

I met up with Noah on Friday. We hiked all around Seattle’s Discovery Park. It’s been years since I’ve been there and I’m not sure why. The picture (left) doesn’t show how happy I am to see Noah, or how nice a day it was, but I was and it was.

Alright, Here’s one of Noah, Me, Matthew (Bro-n-law), and Susan (sister) at the Sonic’s game Friday night.  They haven’t yet won a home game this season (and watching them play it’s pretty obvious why), but at one point in the fourth quarter they were within two!  Next year the Seattle Supersonics will be the Oklahoma City Supersonics.  Happy Birthday Oklahoma.

And this is where I went for the weekend. It would be a sweet place for a cheap training trip. In the spring, but right  now the lake may be a little too cold for me.

(Like the way I formatted my post? check out MS Live Writer, it makes it really easy to format your posts, and it works with all the most common blog software (blogspot, wordpress…)

And that means cake, beer, ice cream, brownies, chocolate cake, and Chinese food!!  Ok, maybe not so much, but it does mean I have a few weeks to do what I want, rather than what I need. I can work on my six pack, learn how to row with my Mom (if she’ll teach me), ride my bike wherever I want for as long as I want.

So far, however, doing what I want has pretty much meant studying organic chemistry.  My ankle is bugging me, so I cut my camping trip short last weekend (studying chemistry in a cabin in the woods is cool, wanting to hike and not being able to is really not cool).  I did go for one trail run while I was there, and I got to use my new Brooks Cascadia 3 trail running shoes.  They were awesome. They grip well, and they fit my feet well.  My ankle was already messed up before the run, so I can’t blame the shoes.  The new bright red color also matches my Northwave Polar Fleece Jacket.  (one last geeky product mention, my Garmin Nuvi 200 has state parks programmed in, so I just put in the trail head I wanted to go to and it got me there.  It was way easier than the sometimes cryptic directions in hiking books.)

Today I took my third Chemistry exam of the quarter.  I really hate the quarter system, we spend more time getting ready for exams than actually learning material.  The class is curved, which is good because everyone was complaining afterwards (the last test had a 62% average, this one may be lower).

To celebrate a night without studying to do, I rented Live Free or Die Hard. It was far better than I expected. My dog and cat were clinging to the carpet for fear of being thrown into orbit by the next thump of the sub-woofer, and my dad got a great isometric core workout while balancing on the edge of his seat.  It was just the kind of mind numbing, predictable action I needed after that exam.

Oh yeah, I also went in for my annual physical today.  Since I was in Hawaii last year, I had to find a new doctor, then I rode to his office from school, but left my street clothes in my gym locker.  The look made it a bit of a challenge to get into the doctors office because people kept trying to send me next door to the sports medicine clinic. It was all worth while for the look on my doctors face when he introduced himself to a guy in bib tights and cycling shoes (and a bit awkward when he asked me to pull down my pants).

This post is for my family and friends  (including my cat, Troy, who thought the post title  needed changing).  May you all have many thanks.

I ran a 5km Turkey Trot this morning in Tacoma.  Kurt and I forgot out cameras, so we don’t have a picture of how cool we looked after both nearly dying on the final mile, which climbed back up the hill we had meandered down for the first two miles.  At home, the feast had already begun.  I walked into a house filled with wonderful smells of turkey, stuffing, roasted vegetables, home made bread, and all the things that the Americans reading this probably have saran wrapped inside their fridges tonight.  We had dinner, we drank, friends came for dessert we watched a movie.  Another Thanksgiving, but I can see why this is my dad’s favorite holiday.  The time with my family reminded me of how much I have to be thankful for.

I accomplished a lot of goals this year, but I didn’t do any of them alone. My parents made it   out to nearly every race I did. My dad even stayed up most of the nights before races so that his snoring wouldn’t ruin my sleep while we shared hotel rooms.  They’ve fed me, put up with my quirks, seen my at my worst and still offered support.

I really couldn’t be blessed with a better support staff.  Regardless, my parents may own the hotel, but there are a lot more people on staff.  2007 is my first year with a brother. Not so much because it was my sister’s first year of marriage, but because it was the first time that Matthew and I have been in the same town at the same time.  It’s not easy to see your partner in crime run off with an east coast boy, but getting to know Matthew has been a journey that makes it worthwhile. Actually, in getting to know my brother-in-law, I’ve gotten to see my sister a lot more. It means a lot that they support me.

They’re not alone.  I had help this year from a lot of friends, not the least of which came from a guy I only met in January.  Loren and Greta took me in and made me part of their family, and that feels incredible.

This weekend I’m taking off for a few days.  I’m going to be away from computers, phones, and triathlon.  It’s me time, and I feel like I deserve it. I’ll take pictures, and hopefully have some stories to go with them when I get back.

There are a lot more people to thank, and I will. Carl, Boomer, Katie, and Jesse, I miss you. My friends in Seattle, San Francisco, Honolulu, and the global CU entourage… I love you too.

Ok, one last thing to be thankful for: My broken Serfas still make Troy happy, even if they no longer work as sunglasses.

This week my coach, Dr. Michael McMahon gave me the rare opportunity to do whatever I wanted. I figured the season was over, and that meant I could do some new activities, maybe row with my mom and sister, rock climb, hike, or maybe something crazy, like just chilling.  My creative thoughts were overwhelmed by travel, school, and poor planning, however, so instead I spent the week biking and running, but not in a training sort of way.  More in a bike for fun and run to punish myself type of way. I talked to Dr Mike on Friday night, and he again suggested I find a 5k to run, and added that he would also like me to do a test set in the water and on the track, "just as a benchmark for next season".

"Well crap!" I thought.  After the swim was canceled in California, I decided it was time for my annual dechlorination phase, in which I let my pores clear out and spend a couple weeks away from the pool.  It was Friday night, and I hadn’t been in the water since Wednesday of the week before.  "That only matters in your head." Mike said, which I tried to believe, but either my head is strong, or Mike was only saying that to make me feel better because my times were awful.  In my 200 for time I positive split by seven seconds! (That means my second hundred was seven seconds slower than my first).  For those who don’t know, that’s bad. You want to try negative split, or at least even split your time trials.

Regardless of my times, the trip to the gym was worthwhile because Aaron Scheidies joined me, and afterwards he taught me some core exercises. I swear my core used to be strong, but the stuff Aaron is having me do is really hard.  Here’s a picture of the situation:  I’m sweating over a pilates ball next to Aaron — who seems to think his hangover is more painful that the exercises we’re doing, but he’s still able to crunch, sip from his bottle of water, and give me orders of how to correct my technique.  I’m not sure how he knew when my hips were dropping without being able to see me.

I’m going to finish with a non-sequitur.  I went to Sushi the other night with my parents.  It was crowded, so we sat at the bar. When our Sashimi showed up ate my first few pieces like I normally do - sans-soy sauce or wasabi.  As I scarfed down chopsticks full of raw salmon, tuna, prawn, scallop and sea bass, I got a wonderful lecture from the woman next to me at the bar about how good the sushi is if you dip it in soy sauce and wasabi.  If you saw a guy throwing down pieces of raw fish would you assume it was his first time eating sushi? I thought it was a little funny… made me want to go into Starbucks and give unsolicited lectures on creme and sugar.

Tomorrow? School and a track workout.  Thursday I’m running the Turkey Trot in Tacoma. Kurt’s doing it with me, anyone else want to join me? I have three more seats in the car!

The past three days I’ve been running with my Dad (he rides his bike).  He’s hurting because he hasn’t been out with me in months.  Today we ran my 10k loop which turns out to be 12.2km.  It has a nice hill from 3k to 5k,where I see how far I can get ahead of my Dad, then how long I can stay ahead once we start going downhill.  It’s fun, but today it was even more fun because I was playing with my new Garmin Forerunner 50.  It’s a super small, no frills HRM that also gets speed and cadence data from a foot pod (while running) or a magnet sensor (while biking).  It was the first time I’ve had accurate running cadence while training, and I found out that my turnover isn’t as high as I thought.

When my dad finally caught me on the downhill we were both exhausted from the chase, and we backed off for a minute.  Our break was just in time to find a red lace bra that somebody had left hanging on the barrier.  I’m not sure how underwear is lost on the side of the road, but apparently it happens regularly in California. Who would have thought?

We finished the run and Dad made me lift his bike onto the hanger for him.  I will never tell him he climbs hills slowly.  I would have trouble going uphill on a lead bike too.  That thing is a tank (though it is nice to have his saddle bags to throw layers in as I get hot, and to carry water bottles).

I’m off to Sushi with my mom.  I’m still looking for more corny jokes, so please leave a comment.

A year ago I was living in Hawaii. I had just returned from World Champs in Switzerland, and was on the disabled list. My sources of income were teaching bike safety to 4th graders and cooking at an Indian restaurant. Life was pretty good.

Hawaii was where I became interested in triathlon, or at least the training part. The first friend I met in Honolulu was a kid named Kurt Chambers. I walked into Island Triathlon & Bike (IT&B), which at the time was the only triathlon specific store on the island. Kurt was at the check out counter, and when I asked if there were any groups to train with he told me to join him with the Volcano Triathlon Team (VTT), which was loosely affiliated with University of Hawaii. I showed up the next week, and was shown some local riding routes, some hills, some running paths, and I met the people that became my closest friends in Hawaii. As for Kurt, he taught me a lot about triathlon. He did my first track workout with me, and introduced me to the "art" of living on practically nothing while still having a lot of fun (others have referred to this as "mooching" or simply being "cheap", but I would call them "frivolous").

The more I got to know Kurt, the more I realized how unique he is, and I wanted to find a way to show the world what they were missing out on. So when I returned from Switzerland, finding myself with more free time than I knew what to do with, I decided to team up with my friend Rory (former president of VTT) to make a documentary about Kurt. The result is only a small glimpse into the anomaly that is Kurt Chambers, but it did succeed in taking a snapshot of Honolulu’s triathlon community, and the people that make Hawaii a great place to visit, and a better place to live.

Here’s the video. It’s 12 minutes long, so I won’t blame you for coming back to it later. Look

closely, and you’ll see my coach, Dr. Mike, Chet "the Jet" Blanton (former record holder for most Ironman’s completed in one year - 27), and even a topless guy that looks remarkably like myself.

We made a bit of a mockery of the endeavor, but I really do appreciate Kurt for what he’s done for me. If it weren’t for him, I probably wouldn’t be where I am now. And that means a lot. Thanks Kurt.

If anyone living near me needs a mentor, I’d be happy to pass on the favor.

I am exhausted.  I thought I would get back from my last race and be ready to party like a rock star, but alas, my bed is the only venue I’m interested in.

Today I was supposed to meet some people from Advocare at a product show they put on in Seattle, but I fell asleep four hours before it happened and didn’t wake up in time.  Oops.

Next week is Thanksgiving, and I’m debating whether to race a 5k Turkey Trot.  My fitness is superb right now, but at the same time I’m yearning for some down time.  Last time I ran a 5k I PRed after staying up the entire night at a U2 concert drinking an eggnog milkshake from Jack ‘N the Box at 3am.  If that’s my PR, then I should be able to extend my season a week and a half to prove I’m better than that.  I just need a mental push.  Does anyone have a corny joke to get me back in the game?

My good luck present for 2006 Worlds.

I am back home. I’m not sure why I picked such a late flight out of Oakland, but now it’s midnight and I’m exhausted. The past two days were a jumble of quick hello’s and goodbye’s and I was squeezed paper thin trying to see as many people as possible in my final hours of an already short trip to San Francisco.

Sunday I rode with Loren and Ian (as in Ian’s House of Pain) up to the highlands above the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a cloudless day right after the showers that plagued Saturday’s race, so San Francisco was crystal clear below us. I would have stood for hours staring, but Ian was quick to point out that we were "burning daylight" as he clipped in bombed down the 17% grade descent from the lookout. I think Ian’s daring speed on such a technical narrow road must have been an effort to make up for his acrobatic stunt earlier in the ride, in which he pulled a wheelie at a stop light (unintentionally) and landed on his side (the best part was the car that thought to honk at him while he was laying in the middle of the road). Got to love the Sunday drivers.

Monday I took a ferry into San Francisco and met up with Jillian Petersen for a super easy spin around the Alcatraz course. No falls! We did get lost, which is my fault because I decided not to load the course into my Garmin Edge 305 before heading out. We ended up about three miles off the course and a cop laughed at us when we asked him where Martin Luther King Jr Blvd was. I’m hoping Jillian is going to start blogging soon (which I’ll keep you updated on) because it should be fun to hear about her preparation for her first World cup race in Eliot, Israel on December 1st.

That night I said goodbye to Christine (a.k.a. gimpy, or the accident queen), who went back to Wesley to find her nanny job in serious jeopardy (she lost it), which gave her only a day to find a new place to live. Wow. Back to reality, eh?

This morning I gave Loren a swim lesson, told him to ditch his Zoomers for good, and showed him how to make monster ovals with his arms. He’s gone from being about as fast as plankton, to being more flounder-like. I wish I could give him lessons more often because it’s nice to teach somebody that not only wants to learn, but also listens.

After the pool I had breakfast and packed while I watched Tim Allen play Santa Claus, then filled the car and headed into San Francisco for a Burrito and a meeting with the great Richard Decker, who is kind enough to let a small group of people use his dock as a starting point for morning swims in the Lagoon. Shortly after leaving Richards office with a new book (Reversing Heart Disease by Dr. Dean Ornish) I met up with my old Columbia Teammate Reid Evans for a quick chat before heading back to Loren’s office to grab my luggage and hit up the train to Oakland.

I think I did a good job of cramming my time, but now it’s back to the old grind. I’m giving myself a week before I start obsessing about becoming a world class runner.

Honestly, Karma’s a b****. And for some reason it’s been catching up to me really quick lately. I made fun of Brian Davis for a giant pimple on his face, and that night I woke up with a volcano ready to erupt. Then I spent a week responding to wishes of "good luck" with "I don’t need luck", and bragging that while my friends were going to be spending a three-day weekend in rain city I was going to be basking in warm and sunny California. First, the TRIathlon was turned to a DUathlon (bad luck #1, but like my previous post said, probably one of the most insignificant effects of the ecological devastation that has taken place in the bay.). I tried to renege on my claims, and spent last night begging for my good luck wishes to be reinstated. Somebody was not thinking positive thoughts for me, however, because this morning the clouds looked thicker and darker than normal mornings in the bay, and actually had a familiarity that brings memories of family, friends and North Face Jackets.

I arrived at the course sitting shotgun with Loren, who was wearing a one-of-a-kind I [heart] Ben Collins T-shirt (autographed). Then I saw Christine, and found out that it was a two-of-a-kind shirt (her’s is not autographed) and her mom had an I hear BC shirt. I was embarrassed, but it lifted my mood (3 days without water is not good for my attitude).

Christine and Brandon came out to cheer me on

Run #1. Went well, I was about 22 minutes for the 4 mile run, which isn’t too bad, and I was in about the third group on the bike.

Bike: I rode hard with Kevin Collington, and Brandon Rakita, but on the fourth lap it started raining, then there was a bad crash right in front of me (I hopped over a guys head), then at the end of the fourth lap I heard a sound similar to balloon that comes untied. (flat is bad luck#2). I had put a spare set of wheels in the pit, so I switched and got back into the race. Unfortunately the group I had pulled along for 60% of the bike was long gone, and the guys behind them were too far ahead to catch by myself. I finished off the bike alone, and set off on the run. A ton of guys dropped out, so the field was thin, and there was nobody near me to try to race. My legs felt good for about 5km, then I told myself, "balls to the wall", and nothing happened. I was trying harder, but running backwards. I finished, but it was not fun. I need to run more, and maybe not do duathlons.

Oh, Hunter didn’t lap me this time. That’s good.

"Run Ben Run!!"

Funniest moment of the day: I was watching the DVD from Scott Tinley’s with Sada and Loren. Sada sees me going through transition and says, "Ben, your curly hair looks RIDICULOUS!" Thanks Sada (She’s 4). This was the first time she’s ever spoken the word ridiculous.