Monday, July 4, 2011

A Bump in the Road

I would apologize that it's been 5 1/2 weeks since my last blog post and for being the most unreliable blogger of all time, but based on the enormous amount of comments on my last post I don't think anyone noticed.  Life has been hectic as usual, but I think I might just be able to sneak in a post before we ride our bikes down to the riverfront to watch the 4th of July fireworks (at least that's the plan).  Adam and I did some grocery shopping, went to the gym and lifted hard enough to generate some serious lactic acid, did some housework, and I just finished giving Ruffian a much-needed bath at the Muddy Mutt ,   so here I am with a keyboard at my fingers and a little time to spare.

Well, after FatMaryFastMary's first painfully slow bike race and wonderful Memorial Day weekend, she enjoyed a visit from her beloved supermommy in from Peru for the summer.  Mom bought a fancy new diesel truck in South Carolina and road tripped up to Arlington to see me before embarking upon a cross-country road trip to New Mexico with her friend, Linda.  Mary commissioned Supermommy and Barbara (the supermommy truck) to chauffer her to her next attempt at bike racing up near State College, PA.  The race was a 50 mile mountain bike race, aptly christened the Stoopid 50.  The event showed some promise as the organizers had a keg tapped for pre-race carbo loading.  It was definitely a different sort of scene than the way-too-serious spandex crowd you see at some races, but the course was no joke.

I rather enjoyed the first 15 miles or so before the first aid station.  The weather was pleasant, the trail was a little too rocky with a bit more "hike-a-bike" than an ideal race, especially one as long as 50 miles, but the scenery was lovely.  Unfortunately, my muscles had begun to cramp painfully very shortly into the race.  I have Monday-morning quarterbacked the cause of this ad nauseum, but it really was a freaky thing.  Stupidly undaunted by my pain, I consumed some Ibuprofen, sports drink, and a banana and expected the pain to work itself out considering I felt fine otherwise.  About 15 minutes after leaving the aid station in beautiful sunny weather, the sky let loose.  I was soaked... and so was the trail.  After the downpour, very little of the remainder of the course was ridable.  If I had been fitter, I would have covered more ground before the weather turned and dodged this bullet, but taking it easy was NOT an option on this day.  A 50 mile bike race turned into a potential "25 mile bike race plus running a marathon pushing or carrying a bike" race.  At around mile 27, the cramps were excrutiating and I knew that my race was over.  I passed a course marshall I was hoping would be equipped to pick up stragglers or at least point me to an easy way back to civilization, but all i got was "you need to ride another 8 miles to the next aid station".  "Ride".  Yeah right. 

I hopped back on the bike just in time to hit an unridable section of rocks and dismount and meet up with another friendly female rider.  We "raced" together for about a mile until my cramps became too strong to walk.  I bid her farewell and layed out prostrate until some guys met up with me and one of them gave me some electrolyte pills and encouraged me to join them for awhile.  One of the guys was feeling better than myself and the other guy, so he went ahead, while my new riding partner and I took turns alternating between riding/walking and writhing on the ground in agony.  The worst part of this ride/walk situation was that once i was on the bike I could sort of ride... sort of... the problem was that when i had to get off to walk due to the ridiculous soggy rocky nature of the trail, the motion of re-mounting the bike and having to push off the ground left my leg painfully stuck in the toe down position with no way to maneuver it onto the pedal without manually pulling my toe towards my face.  It was more over than over when i took a faceplant crossing a slick bridge and wished for one of those "Medic-Alert" bracelets because honestly, I couldn't figure out how to get up.  Every muscle I tried to use to push myself up off the ground would cramp into a useless and painful position.  I crawled to the next aid station at about mile 35, met by supermommy, and was never so happy to call it quits at something as I was at that moment.  I wonder if anybody doubted the extent of my agony based on the huge smile I was able to muster at the realization that my suffering was over.  I vowed to do some serious research on electrolytes before starting to train for the 100 miler coming up on Labor Day, which would mark the return of "Fast Mary"

Well... not so "Fast".  After the weird cramping incident, I started to train again and added morning runs with the dog to my repertoire to try and boost my weight loss efforts.  The diet has been a real struggle.  I got into the swing of things with my bike commute and working out at Ft Meade, but then I started a new project closer to home, but just the changes in routine make it difficult to think about nutrition when thinking about so many other things.  Today, July 4, I have done a great job with my food choices, so maybe this will be the first day of a long string that will melt off some of the FatMary flab.  I hope so!  Maybe I will do a little accountability blogging for my own sake in that arena.  I also have sort of given up on FastMary as far as bikes go for awhile... maybe "Buff Mary?"   Adam and I went to Harrisonburg, Va this weekend where I planned to mountain bike like a fiend and really use it as a training opportunity for the 100 miler, but I only made it out on one hour-long ride and it was hot, buggy, and miserable.  Not to mention, there are times these days where my cardio capacity is unexpectedly diminished to that of a 75 year old smoker, especially when it is hot and humid.  You see, the "bump" in the road is actually a "bump" in my tummy.  I may have engaged in slightly more amorous activity than the "cuddling" I admitted to in my last blog about my wonderful Memorial Day weekend and now I have to deal with a very opinionated little micro-person who says that he or she likes it better when mommy climbs or lifts weights than when she goes biking in 90 degree weather and 90% humidity.  sooo... i guess i should rename this blog "FatMaryFatterMary".... but i won't.  My idea is to just climb and lift enough to get my arms and legs cut-up and buff enough to make sure everyone knows I'm pregnant and not just FAT! 

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Adventures in Fauncy Paunts

It has been a pretty eventful month since my last blog post - and since I didn't seem to convey the  message as I intended in my last post, I became a little un-enthused on blogging in general.  I figured other people could relate to being used to having the awesomest friends in the world who could and would do anything you could possibly want to do in name of recreation... to moving to a new town and finding that yes, you could find people to climb/mountain bike/workout whatever with you... but you would have to pay them to do it.  Apparently it's just me.  So, moving on, I won't try to summarize how I  moved into a new house, had a great visit with my first houseguests, Nina and Andrew (whose visit meant the world to me!), have experimented with the paleo diet - very successful until I started cheating, so maybe i have time to do that blog as I get back into it, and also did my first mountain bike race last weekend (to finish was to win, let's say, rather than, I got creamed)... I can't even remember what else I've skipped, but now I'm moving ahead!


Looking at the Blue Ridge mountains I climbed from Airmont, VA
Yesterday was a fantastic day.  Adam and I both had the day off, so we were able to sleep in and catch up on cuddling... then it was off to accomplish our seperate activities.  Adam had an essay to write for his literature class and I had adventures to embark upon.

My first adventure was to drive out to Purcelleville for a horseback riding lesson.  Ever since I was a pre-teen, it was my dream to move to Virginia and ride horses cross-country.  Chase the hounds, compete in 3-day eventing, and just be immersed in horsey wonderfulness, which was pretty much all I could think about in those days.  Now, as an adult living in Virginia, I haven't given horses much thought, and all I have been able to think about is moving back out West - to the mountains!  I had actually completely forgotten about my childhood dream until it clicked back into my head somehow at some point, probably as Adam and I traversed Northern Virginia's horse/wine country in search of fermented grape juice.  So, my thought was, instead of whining about the traffic and the humidity and the East Coast people... why not get a taste of what I had wanted so badly so many years ago.  Better late than never!  It was only one 1/2 hour ride, but I did get to hop a few fences and I hope to be able to write  more on my horsey adventures in the near future.

After my horseback ride, I traded my riding breeches for my bicycle chamois.  The lightly travelled country roads that make chasing small dogs over obstacles on horseback seem like a good idea, also make for some amazing cycling adventures!  I started my ride in Purcelleville and road about 12 miles to Bluemont, where I had been warned on the internet would be my last chance to stock up on supplies for the next 50 or so miles I planned to ride.  I stopped at the Bluemont store around 2 pm for pie and cheddar for a late lunch and also got some country ham sliders for the road (not paleo at all, but I knew i needed some serious calories for the beastly climb ahead).  To make up for my diet indiscretion, I also purchased a gallon jug of water for added training weight (since the gallon was about as cheap as getting another liter).  I am seriously loving riding with panniers.

The climb up Blueridge Mountain Road was very challenging and unrelenting.  I think I went "up" for about an hour.  At the top, admidst the woods and quaint mountain homes, I spied the Department of Homeland Security's "Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center" amidst a sea of barbed wire fencing.  Kind of cool.  I wonder how I could get a gig up there... the bike commute would be fantastic!

After the killer climb, I descended into Paris, VA, where the mountains turned into a lovely flat/rolling ride through country inns, farms, and estates so large you couldn't even see the mansions and stables from the road... just elegant signs proclaiming that they were there.  All along they way, I noticed that the fences to the farms were made up to be a horseman's playground, with sections angled and lowered perfectly to invite the horses and riders on the hunt to go over them.  Eeeeeek!  Apparently these fox hunts are very hoity toity affairs and one must be invited to join... but I am going to have to figure out how to get in on one or two as a critical element on my bucket list.

Very tired and sore, I headed back home.  As beautiful as the weather was all day, the radio was calling for a tornado warning not far from where I'd been riding.  Thank goodness all that waited!  When I got home, Adam put some steaks on the grill and we enjoyed a wonderful candle and lightning-lit dinner thanks to a fierce and fast-moving storm that knocked out the power for a bit.  Icing on the delicious cake that was my day was a care package from our recent houseguests, Nina and Andrew, which included about a dozen thoughtful items in typical, over-the-top Nina style.  Most appreciated was a toy with six squeaky devices inside for Ruffian.  24 hours later... One squeaky down, 5 to go!
Ruffy loves her new squeaky (it has 6 separate squeak features and only 1 is out in 24 hours!)

Friday, April 22, 2011

What's a Friend Worth to You? - the Newest Oldest Professions

Mary's bike enjoying the company of its "friends" at the DC Union Station Bike Station
.
My original plan for today's blog was to share some pictures of my daily commute going past some of DC's monuments.  There are two main reasons you are getting a much more cerebral read today.  1) The morning commute was chilly, but my ride home was cold and very very wet, so no time to stop for pictures 2) Even if I did want to stop for pictures, my contact lenses that I forgot to order until I was completely out did not come in yet, so I couldn't be held responsible for what might actually be in those pictures. 

When I zoomed in on my camera, I noticed that this "log" I took a picture of
 was actually one of Georgetown University's Crew teams out for an early morning row.
With my vision impaired, the only place to look during my cold rainy ride was inward... and this is what I came up with...

A friend of mine posted an advertisement to go rock climbing in Garden of the Gods for a great deal of only $50.  I found this odd, since climbing is free.  It was a plug for some friends with a guiding business, and yes, the going rate for climbing with a guide is more than $50.  Rock Climbing has become an increasingly popular sport, with the local crags being more and more crowded even since I was learning back in 2003.  When I saw my first human monkeys scaling the walls at Clear Creek Canyon and started thinking that was something I might like to do, I didn't go out and hire a guide.  I sought out everyone I could find who knew how to climb and begged and pleaded for them to take me with them.  As a beginner, I had to be very persistent in seeking out teachers and mentors, but I never had to pay them to teach me.  I just had to convince them that I was an interesting person to be around and that they would have fun taking me with them!

As my skills progressed, I met more and more friends who were climbers, and most of the time somebody was available who had the same need to get their vertical fix as I did.  When other climbers weren't around, I often had to recruit more reluctant participants into coming with me and give them crash courses on belaying.  In some cases, like in the case of my mother, I would tell them I would give them a "repel lesson" and end up using their newly taught belaying skills to take us both up a 500 foot cliff face.  I should have told my mom the experience would cost her $250, and I would increase my fee if she continued to yell at me for putting her through it!  I made friends of climbers and I made climbers of friends.

As I was surfing the internet to find some mountain bike races to do this year (why am I going to pay somebody beaucoup bucks to ride on public lands I could ride for free any other weekend???), I got sidetracked on links to a coach who would sell you a 12 week plan to become a better racer for $100.  If you paid $400, he would go on a ride with you!  For $250 a month, you could get his plans "customized" to you and even talk to him on the phone about bikes for only $90 an hour.  The thing is, now that I don't have a large group of cycling friends to go riding with and talk about bikes with, I can see how somebody with that kind of disposable income might just go ahead and pay somebody to fill that void.  And you've probably guessed what comes next... but, the next thing i thought about was how paying somebody to do something one would usually do in the context of a friendship, is a bit like hiring a prostitute.

Everyone has personalities, perspectives, talents, skills, and ideas that make them unique, interesting, and somebody that other people want to be friends with.  So when does what you do stop being who you are and start being your profession?  I would not ask my Doctor friends to write me a prescription or my Architect friends to design my house.  I might ask Architect/Builder friends their opinion on what siding colors and styles and architectural features might blend well with an existing brick facade, but I would hope that could be part of a normal human dialogue and that i wouldn't get a bill for the conversation.  Where do you draw the line?

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

6 Small Meals A day my (big) a@^... aka Skinny People are lying liars.

Today I had what I think was a pretty good day as far as getting my fitness on track.  I took a hillier route to and from work (due to flooding on the lowlands I usually ride) and totalled a little over 1.5 hours on the bike.  After dropping my bike off at home and taking the pupster on a little peepee walk, I actually got on the ball and went to Bikram Yoga class for a 90 minute sweat fest.  Incidentally, my studio sells passes that expire and I have about 25 classes that expire in about a month, so I might be having a lot more gumption as far as Bikram goes in the next few weeks.  I had a Fiber Plus and coffee for breakfast, stove off hunger with a banana and apple before lunch, had a wonderful salad at Devon and Blakely for said lunch, and now i'm at home, contemplating dinner. 

I started contemplating food and dieting during my yoga class (Focusing on the moment and the breath was not in the cards today).  Some of the postures required me to shift my adipose around in order to maneuver my body into the pose and  Bikram Yoga is also done in a room with mirrors; you are told to look at yourself in the mirror between your asanas.  The reflection was sobering, but I was able to picture myself a few months down the road - leaner, stronger, reflecting self-discipline and self-respect.  After the Bikram euphoria wore off though, I started having doubts about whether or not I will really succeed in getting back on the right track with my body and fitness.

I have never been a skinny girl.  As a competitive or at least hard core athlete, I was usually 10-20 lbs heavier than the other girls, with significant "junk in the trunk" and heavy muscling in places I was told by tunnel-vision afficionados of whatever sport I was in at the time I would be better off not having.  As a cyclist, I was told that my arms and back were too heavily muscled (there has never been a time in my life I couldn't do at least a half dozen pullups... no training or trying, it's just the way I was made).  As a climber, especially in korea, I was told that my back and arms looked great, but my butt and legs were just too big for me to tick off the higher numbers.  Despite this unsolicited advise, I pretty much loved my muscles, my sprint was great on the bike, I could tackle powerful cruxes a lot easier than similarly skilled or more highly skilled climbers, and there were plenty of boys who did not have any complaints about the appearance of my rear end.


Adam's latest homebrew in the foreground (ie... i don't drink THAT much!)
 I never really learned how to eat right though.  My active lifestyle kept me from putting on any serious weight, so I just ate whatever I wanted.  I lived with a fellow bike racer for few months who tried to counsel me on my eating habits.  "Mary, you can't eat chips for every meal and expect to be a fast bike racer"... Me: "I am a fast bike racer".  I was happy with the level I was performing at and didn't really see myself as ever being able to move up to the next level.  The next level was for people with real talent and I couldn't picture myself in that category.  Now I've seen a lot of friends move up to the next level and I've come to the conclusion that their diet and nutrition have something to do with it.

I wish I could put a hidden camera on the skinny people I know to find out what they were really eating.  I think they really want to keep it a secret so that they can keep all the skinny-person perks to themselves - like finding clothes that fit right, looking cute, climbing hard, and winning bike races.  The books say "don't skip breakfast", "eat 6 meals a day instead of 3", "don't eat bread", "eat bacon fat for every meal", "eat fruits and vegetables" "eat like a caveman".  I read a book that said eat a big bowl of oatmeal for breakfast every day and don't eat processed foods.  I followed that.  Oatmeal makes me want to choke... and I gained weight to add insult to injury.  I can't count to 6, but i stopped eating big meals (except dinner or lunches out or that "big" "important" breakfast I heard so much about), and I just grazed on healthy things throughout the day like fruit, veggies, tuna, yada yada... i don't think that approach has done me any favors.  I also used to cut out all alcohol except for rare occasions, then all the lying liars started bragging about how great wine was for your health.  "Have a glass of wine" they would say.  So I did... and then I realized that by "glass", they really meant shot glass.  Oh, and let's not forget chocoloate and all of it's "antioxidants".  Bastards.

My goal is to work my way down to about 10 lbs less than what I used to consider my "fighting weight."  If my hypothesis is correct, my race results should reflect that difference and I could quite possibly get to a level I never really considered for myself before.  If you skinny people are reading, maybe you can fess up and throw me a freaking bone here.  What the heck do you really eat to get those knobby knees?!?

Saturday, April 16, 2011

FU Lance Armstrong

Recently, Adam was looking forward to one of the random 4-day weekends the military sometimes give Soldiers to make up for all the midnight phone calls, last-minute working weekends or late nights without compensation, charging leave for weekends and holidays if you leave town, and all the other BS that makes me so happy to be off Active Duty.  His plans to do some more much-needed repairs on the green bus were derailled however, when he was ordered to be on base at 0530 the Friday morning he was supposed to be off.  I asked him why... and the answer was "I have to go run with that bike dude..."

"What bike dude?" i asked. 
Adam: "The guy who won that race in France all those times."
Me: "You mean you have to go in to work to run with Lance Armstrong?"
Adam: "yes."  And then Adam had to call up all of his soldiers to let them know they had to come in for the run.  "You know those yellow bracelets everyone has... that guy"... or "the bike dude that had cancer and lost his nuts".  It was amusing to be privy to only one side of those conversations.

Anyhow, i know a lot of "Livestrong" dorks who would really get a kick out of running with the Lance, and I thought about all of those amazing guest speakers we would have at the Air Force Academy.  I can't really remember who any of those speakers were, because I was always pissed that I had to end my bike ride early for them or had to listen to them when I had a big project due the next day and wanted to go to sleep by midnight.  After I returned to the Academy as faculty however, and got to attend presentations by DJ Skelton, founder of Paradox Sports, and Greg Mortenson, author of 3 Cups of Tea, and countless leaders of the free world and industry, I started to wonder how much I might have missed back in my cadet days with my myopic priorities shading my ability to give these speakers their due. 

I googled "Air Force Academy Guest Lectures 2002", but just came up with some Economics guy with a lot of publications who sounded pretty boring... and I do remember getting my "Contrails" book signed by Chuck Yeager - so I must have been listening that time... so my hope is that i really did just blow off the kinds of speakers who presented things like "Peace by Numbers: Disaggregating IGOs in Time and Space."  (taken randomly from the google search from a guy who had been one of USAFA's lecturers at some point - not sure what speech he actually gave at the Blue U). Yawn.  Or not yawn... if I hadn't been busy playing grab-ass with my buddies or surrepticiously working on a problem set when none of the officers were looking, i may have learned something important or at least interesting.  i don't know.  I will never know, but as I attempt to travel the path to being an athlete and re-learn to prioritize and focus on things that will lead me to my goals, i hope I will remember to keep my eyes open to my surroundings and be open to opportunities that aren't exactly on my "to-do list" for the day. 

Who knows... maybe someday i will get to trip Lance Armstrong.

Life of Pie

After a promising start to the bike training yesterday with a ride into and out of the city, a total of about 20 miles with some of my side-tracks, my fit-quest went to the birds... the Antique Pie-Birds, that is. It was another positively gorgeous day when I got home around 3:30 (teacher wanted to start the weekend early.... yippee!).  While I was riding home, I thought I might eat a quick salad, exchange the road bike for a mountain bike, and work on discovering some of the dirt tracks I've not bothered to look for in the year+ I've been in Northern Virginia.  I was conflicted however, when confronted with the hopeful eyes of my beloved Ruffian.   Ruffian, who, as a puppy and young dog spent many hours tied to a tree or next to my car at bike races waiting for me to cross the finish line.
Sometimes "Take out the Trash" is the most exciting phrase
Ruffian hears all day.
Part of what eventually turned me away from competitive cycling in the first place is the self-centeredness one must generally have to be willing put so much blood, sweat, and tears into the perfection of his or her body and what is arguably an ultimately meaningless pursuit of the ego.  Between weighing every gram of food, spending 2 hours a day in an ice bath, making sure you get exactly 8 hours 15 minutes of sleep per night, and the worst... not being able or willing to go on a mountain bike ride with your friends on a gorgeous day because your training plan says that day you must do maximum intensity intervals for 3 minutes on 2 minutes off at exactly a 4 percent grade (which, of course cannot be recreated anywhere except for your living room cyclotrainer)... there is little time for giving of yourself to others.

I tossed my mountain bike plans aside and took Ruffian to the dog park.  I chose to put her joy above my goals, and seeing her happy gave me so much more satisfaction any number of medals or winning rides ever could.  I could have come home from that excursion and dug up the self-discipline to find a way to work in some training, but then Adam was home from work, and I did want to spend some time with my husband.  So we packed up the bus and went in search of... whatever... and whatever turned out to be pie (and some beer and scouting out some trails i hope to get to tomorrow!)







Thursday, April 14, 2011

I had one of those 4 hour DC commutes today... so why am I smiling?

I had one of those 4 hour DC commutes today... so why am I smiling?
After my class ended today, I unhitched my bicycle and started heading home.  My plan was to drop off my heavy panniers full of binders, U-lock, clothing, and whatever else I put in there to add 40 lbs of "training weight" to my ride, and figure out what to do for the remainder of the lovely afternoon.  It truly was a lovely afternoon though, so when I reached the Potomac river trails that could take me South to home, I headed North.  I rode leisurely, stopping to look at my GPS to figure out where I was and where I was going and also to take these fantastic pictures I'm sharing here.

Speaking of pictures... my deep thought of the day is largely inspired by the image below.
Is it really about the bike?
Yesterday, I shared my goals of getting in shape to compete in some mountain bike races this summer.  Being fit and athletic is a big part of being happy and confident for me, but more than just the body image and endorphins, it's also about the community you become a part of when you plunge into the world of sport.  That is what I was thinking about when I passed the Mormon Temple on my ride today and decided to try and capture the juxtoposition of sport and a symbol of faith and community on my little Canon.
Do I really want to be a hard core athlete?  Or do I just want to find my niche in a community and feel a sense of camaraderie with others? 

I spent a few more miles thinking about trading in my bike chamois for knee length bloomers*, but as I pedaled, I begain to imagine my flabby white legs turned to efficient steel pistons powering my ascent on the tough stages of New Mexico's Tour de Gila (my all-time favorite bike race), and I resolved that I will do what it takes to get there by this time next year.

*Sorry if you didn't grow up 20 miles from the Utah border and have no idea what I'm talking about.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Chapter 1 : BACKGROUND

I haven't even started this blog and already I've killed one idea for what I'd like to be when I grow up... "person who synopsizes movie plots on the box so you will want to watch them".  Maybe painful images of Marissa Winokur in Beautiful Girl flashed before people's eyes in reading about a chubby girl attempting to rediscover her zest for life and they clicked exit to leave me alone on my little piece of the net.

By starting this blog, I'm procrastinating on a homework assignment I need to finish for a class I'm taking for work.  This assignment will take me all afternoon and evening - which will prevent me from getting started on the goals I'm about to set forth in this blog pertaining to fitness and "lifezest".  I find myself doing this a lot... if I can't dive full in to what I really want to do, I focus on getting the tasks done that don't really play into my overarching goal, telling myself that once I get them out of the way, then I will have time to focus on my priorities.  It sounds dumb... but I bet I'm not the only one!

Before I get started on that assignment though, I'm going to stop thinking about what I'm going to write about and just get it down and worry about being a good blogger later

BACKGROUND: I used to be a pretty good mountain biker and competed in cycling, cross country skiing, triathlon... you name it... then I got hooked on rock climbing.  Outdoor sports were my life and fitness was a huge part of my identity and I met most of my friends through my athletic endeavors.

Mary Climbing at the Red River Gorge in Kentucky 2006
Erica, Wing, Nancy, Angus, Ruffy and Mary climbing
in Arizona (right before Ruffy found a huge pile of human poo to roll in)
Ruffy, Erica, Mary, Wing and Nancy all cleaned up

I met my husband, Adam, at a Country Western Bar in South Korea in 2007.  He is not a thrillseeker.  I had hoped that my love of adrenaline sports would wear off on him.  Unfortunately, his love of beer, cheese, and "relaxing" wore off on me, especially after we moved from Korea to Colorado Springs, away from all the pre-Adam athletic friends I already had.  When you are in a relationship, the motivation to go out and make new friends outside of your little "couple world" is sometimes hard to find, especially when you barely have time for eachother.  I just lost the will to try and cajole him into participating in the sports I loved and it broke my spirit to not have a partner as excited as I was to go out and conquer the world, so I just gave up.  I had just started to get back into climbing and meeting a new group of adventure buddies towards the end of our stay in Colorado Springs (late 2009) while he was deployed to Iraq for a year, but it was hard to not be at the top of my game . For some reason I couldn't see all the microholds to get me up the cliffs at Shelf Road, the most popular climbing destination around the Springs, where it is essential that you be able to climb harder than most of the yuppie punks from the Denver climbing gyms and old grouches with stick-clips up their butts if you want to have any sort of good time, and I was so climbing so badly that I was stuck on the wait in line ez climbs dealing with the crowds.  Eventually, I learned that I needed glasses pretty badly, which helped explain why my rock climbing skills had gone downhill so badly because I never saw the key footholds all my friends were able to find so easily. I really wish I would have known that sooner, since that was another blow to my motivation. but then we moved to Arlington, VA, a suburb of Washington DC, which is where we are now, and after recently buying a house (a few days before we got a notice in the mail that the landlords planned to raise our rent by $800 a month from $1300 to $2100 after our lease was up!), I think we will be here for a while.  This blog is hopefully going to document my making the best of living here vs. how I have previously been thinking in terms of "life can start again after we move back West". 
Mary and Adam and Ruffy hiking on Pike's Peak
After moving to DC, I was unemployed for about 5 months.  I thought that would be the perfect opportunity to recharge my batteries and get in the best shape of my life, but for some reason, that didn't happen.  I never found the motivation to train for an event and just when I started to make some kick-butt friends to adventure with, I started working again.  I briefly got into the sport of "Crossfit", competing in weightlifting and feats of strength in the gym, and having some success at that, but it hurt my knees, I tore a rotator cuff, I sprained my ankle in the rock climbing gym right before an important Crossfit competition... and I continued to gain weight.  FAIL.  I also joined the Air Force Reserve to keep my military benefits and earn some extra money, but after making my time committment expectations very clear to my first commander and making sure we were on the same page before committing to anything, we got a new boss who seemed to think that after I went home from a drill weekend I didn't have a family or real paying job and that I would enjoy spending my personal time doing pesky BS for the Reserve unit without getting paid for it.  FAIL.  I joined another unit that will hopefully have more reasonable expectations, and that I will be able to contribute what I've signed up to do without being squeezed for more and more.  We will see how that pans out.  When I was in the Air Force, there was a lot of garbage you had to do, but a lot of great opportunities and people that made it largely worthwhile... I wanted to stay in the Air Force part-time to weed out the garbage from my life but hold on to what I loved about it... but it turned out, at least in that first unit, that all the Reserves did was take all the garbage you had to deal with over an entire year while you were Active duty and compress it into a weekend a month... without ever really doing any of the "cool" stuff.  In addition, whenever I found an event that looked like it might give me something to look forward to, it always happened to be the same weekend I would have to go drill! Again, FAIL.


Fatty McCouchpotatoe probably too stuffed with inhumane
quantities of microwave popcorn or chips and queso to move!
Now I have eliminated that baggage.  I have a good job that I'm enjoying and although I have a pretty heinous commute (more on the commute later!), I have good bosses who understand the importance of a work life balance.  I just have to hope that I don't get another bad new boss!  I just did a half marathon a couple of weeks ago, and although it was slow (2:07), I did it.  Adam can't understand why I have to pay $100 to ride the same trails or run on the same roads as you could do for free any other weekend... but I did appreciate my darling husband waking up early to go with me, meet me at the finish line and drive me home after I wrecked my legs.  I am looking forward to identifying a few more events to prepare for to motivate myself to achieve my former level of fitness... and truth be told, I am hoping to achieve an even higher level than ever... but baby steps first.  I have identified a couple of local mountain bike events... the Greenbrier challenge and the Transylvania Epic Stage Race that might just be the ticket.

More to come on racing, goals, fitness and lifestyle changes, my attempt to get fit and still enjoy food - possible???, our NEW HOUSE, car-free vs car DC commuting and more in the future... but for now, I have to write a paper on Federal Acquisition Regulation Subpart 18.1!!!