March 12, 2012 Entry

I know, I know. It’s been a long time since I posted. 2012 started out a bit rocky for me and I’m just getting my feet back under me.

I’m making progress (slowly but surely) on my goals for the year. Last week, I swam ¼ of my laps using a new stroke. That’s cool mostly because when I started swimming, I couldn’t even complete one lap doing it. Now that I’m comfortable with my old standbys (breast stroke and backstroke) I needed to add some challenge. I’ve bumped up to ~1/3 of the laps this week.

For the first time in our memories, the Conoco-Phillips rides have been rained out three times this year! We’ve had more rain in the last 10 weeks than we had in the first 11 months of 2011. It’s wreaked havoc with our training – in fact, we went 8 full days without a bike ride before tonight. (We made up the other two rides by riding on our own either before or after the scheduled rain-out!) We rode in the neighborhood tonight. The county has finished the trail we like so that it goes all the way to the beltway now. We can pick up the trail right at the top of our neighborhood and then ride all the way out to Katy if we want to! (Haven’t done that yet, but if we keep getting rained out, we might get stuck doing so!)

I’m ok with the rain as long as there’s none on April 21 and 22! Don’t forget to make a donation, if you’re so inclined! Here’s the link in case you are!

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/TXHBikeEvents?px=2581539&pg=personal&fr_id=17896

Goals for 2012

This year I decided that instead of making resolutions, I would riff off the “100 things” craze. I found that the “100 things” starters were a little daunting, however. So, I decided to make goals for each week of 2012. I haven’t dated them and I’ve got more than 52, just in case some of them never really happen. Each goal is either personal, professional, health related or fitness related – so I can’t just say I’m going to ride more miles on my bike.

This week, the goal was to burn 3500 calories. That one’s met – although it was a bit of a squeaker! I can’t burn much when I walk because I can’t get my heart rate up above 100 bpm. I had to get BACK into the pool this week after 3 weeks out while the pool was being refurbished. That was tough – and exhausting! (I’ve slept better this week than I have in a month!) I rode by myself one day this week. I’m going to have to rely on that for a while until day light savings time springs forward again. Stephen can’t get home while it’s still light.

The highlight of the week was Stephen’s and my ride on Saturday. We rode our old standby route in Katy. While I wasn’t at the top of my game, Stephen sure was! He finished with gas in the tank despite having to drag my sorry behind for the last 15 miles or so. We had a rather unpleasant surprise when I had not just one but TWO flat tires on the last leg. I changed the first one – with a lot of coaching – and Stephen changed the second one.

Official MS 150 training season begins the last week of January. The schedule seems to be a bit more challenging than in previous years, but Stephen and I have stayed on top of our game all through the summer, so we’re pretty confident that we’ll be ready for the hills as soon as they come! Nathan’s not going to join us this year. Instead, he’s participating in a competitive percussion group. Erin’s, of course, busy with school. So, it’s just us two. I’ll keep you posted as the season progresses!