Past

Growing up I tried all kinds of things, probably spent at least one season on each thing. Softball, basketball, volleyball, cheerleading, ballet, gymnastics, and even dirt biking. I did a little of everything and a lot of nothing.  I had a shy side to me and whenever the focus turned my way, I hide. I was a quitter.

I’m not sure when I grew out of this, but I know it was not in high school. The cross country coach asked me to join the team my sophomore year. I made one practice and that was it. I did not have the ambition to try, wanted to hang out with my friends instead.

In my adult life, it was all about dieting. I moved to burn calories. I did aerobics, walked, ran a little (very little) and that was about it. Some time in my 30’s, I decided that I wanted to try cycling. It seemed like an activity I could do and enjoy. After a divorce in my mid 30’s I sought out new friends that had similar interests. I kind of hit the jackpot!

I met a guy (eventually married him) who was fairly new to the cycling game. He had been riding motorcycles forever, but through his friends he was embarking on a new journey. I watched for a little while, his first MS150 ride and an adventure race. And then I was hooked. I wanted to do those things too, not just watch. We spent the next couple of years do these types of event with a small group of friends. It was lots of fun.

Life caught up with us however and we had to put that kind of stuff on the back burner. Loss of work and income really makes it hard to do the fun things. We had to put all our time and energy (and money) into our business since it was the only thing we had going for us. Unfortunately the stressful situation led me to about a 30lb weight gain. No stranger to diet and exercise, after a while I pulled myself somewhat out of my funk and decided to make a change. I lost about 10lbs in 2010 by just walking but was derailed again by the business.

And then something changed. I started doing more “liking” on facebook of interesting sites and events. I started watching other people do things. I eventually got a strong desire to do them as well. I started a new, somewhat extreme diet, The Dukan diet. And I started training. First I started with the C25K program. I had started it several times in the past, but never made it out of week 1. Shin splints were always a big problem. So again, I did some research and bought some KT Tape, used it for a week and have been splint free since. And so I am clear, I have had chronic shin splints since my early 30’s (I’m 43 now). After that, I finished up 3 weeks of C25K. But I felt it was just too slow for me. I have since switched to a plan from diet website, Spark People. It is going quite well and I start week 3 tomorrow.

As of this posting I am 148lbs, down a total of 22lbs. My goal is 136lbs. I also have several running goals. As soon as I finish my 5k program, I plan to roll right into a half marathon plan. There is an all female race  in New Orleans 3 days before my birthday (Nov. 23) and I plan to run it.