Today I had went to Hardwood Hills doing some cross country skiing. It ended up being just Kim and I, but we made the best of it and had a pretty good time! After waking up with a bit of a hangover, we met up and hit the Tim Horton's to fuel up. I tried one of their breakfast sandwiches... actually two. I was torn between the sausage and the bacon one so I tried one of each. I had no idea how bad they actually are. 500 and 400 calories respectively! At least I wasn't going to run out of energy, but holey shit!

I knew I'd be paying a bit extra buying pants there, but it was a little crazy. The men's nordic ski pants were far too tight. I couldn't justify spending $100 on a pair of pants I'd only be able to use for that. They were too tight to wear downhill... I'd get laughed off the hills. So I actually ended up buying some baggy women's pants. Aside from the cameltoe the seam down the front gave me, they were a pretty good fit. Now that I'm over the stigma, I think I'm going to go back to buying women's jeans... they always fit so much better. Anyway...

It was a little slow skiing with Kim. She hasn't done it in over ten years and doesn't do much physical activity yet. She's just starting to get into it and hasn't been bitten by the bug too hard yet. It'll happen soon I'm sure, especially after days like today. We kept up for a while, but ended up taking the last three shortcuts after she gave up.



I can completely relate. I was in the same position two years ago trying to keep up with Christina. She was in much better shape than I was, and of course extreme geo thought he'd be a badass by starting off skating. Oh well. I was considering it this time, but I was worried that I'd end up in the same position. Although if I had I probably would have been better matched to Kim. It's definitely hard, but I'm going to give it a shot next time. I love the way it looks... absolutely graceful.

We didn't have too much of an opportunity to get a good flow going, and the few times I did pick up the pace I was getting tired relatively quickly. I need to start spinning ASAP to get back into shape. We're planning on going back in a couple weeks., and now that I've had a taste I can't wait.

After a few false alarms I think it's time to work on getting active again. Yes... again. I've posted about this before, so I'm not sure what makes it different yet... hopefully it sticks this time.

This week I found out that the parentals aren't planning on going to Greece this summer. This clears up the schedule for me to actually take a week off this summer to ride to Montreal. I'm VERY excited about the prospect of doing this. I've wanted to do it for years, and it looks like this might finally be the right opportunity to do it!

I'm still worried about my back and knee/IT band of course. Not enough to actually seek medical help. Yes, I'm afraid of going in for a routine doctor's visit and coming out in a body bag. Whatever... My back seems to be fine if I'm not running (ugh), and my knee I think is finally recovered. I haven't felt any pain in it for almost a month now. I'm going to finally make it to a spin class on Tuesday and see how that goes.

I'm also starting to realistically reassess my goals. I've been wanting to do the triathlon thing for almost a year. I like the idea, but when it comes to finding time and energy to train it's really hard! I subscribed to Caius' logs about a month ago, and he's out there almost every day doing something... on days where I feel like I can't even get out of bed, he's still out there working himself hard. It should be inspiring me, and maybe it will in the summer when I'm active again, but right now it just seems like I have so much other stuff to do right now.

It doesn't help that I'll basically be learning how to swim from scratch. On it's own I think it would be tollerable. But I have to build up a running base too... not so hard if my back wasn't in such pain, but now it's unbearable. It's taking months for the pain to dim down a bit. At least cycling isn't as punishing on it.

So right now I'm thinking it's probably the best idea to just concentrate on cycling for another year. Maybe lift some weights too, be totally vein and build an upper body or something. I still have another ten pounds I want to drop, and it's certainly not happening with diet alone. Basically the way I'm eating now is good for maintaining... I'm always going to have to watch what I eat after being the size I was. But I'm not going to drop anymore without some physical activity. The last 5 pounds only came off because I was running for a few weeks, so the last ten are probably going to be the same.

I'm sure there will be another crazy ride to Ben's cottage, or maybe some kind of European tour in Spain, even doing some stuff with the Radonneurs, or some mountain biking in BC. That's probably about my speed. Training for a triathlon is not like racing cars. You can't just research all day then pay someone to fix you up because you don't have the time to do it yourself. Neither is riding a bike... but at least I know I'll have the time and the effort required to do it well.

Maybe next year will be different... or maybe I'll change my mind in the summer. It just makes sense to start off realistically.

I just read this post that sums up most of what I've been reading this year about curvy women becoming the new skinny. I'm happy about that, mostly for selfish reasons. It seems like a lot of women are happy about it too, usually because they're curvy themselves. They see it as a relief that they don't have to work as hard to be considered beautiful... that there will be less for them to obsess about.

All this means is that they ideal woman is shifting to a larger frame, with more curves and less bone. It doesn't change that most guys aren't going to bend over backwards to love rolls, cellulite, and all the other unintended shapes that often come with a larger figure. The Dove women here all fit more or less the same profile—large tits, juicy asses with flat stomachs. I think they look awesome, but they hardly represent the typical larger woman.

If curvy really is the new skinny, not much is going to change. Most women will still have self image problems. They'll still stand in front of the mirror picking apart every imperfection, wondering why they weren't blessed with the perfect natural body. They'll still work out like champs, trying to achive the most they can with the cards they've been dealt.

I suppose that would still be better than starving themselves, but it's not the answer to everything.