I hate hills just a little less these days.

This week...

I finally got my license, sorta, and signed a contract down at the counseling center. I is all legit an' stuff.

Today Cindy and I did some hill climbs near my house...I've seen, but never climbed these hills. It was hot. I took my trusty Trek 1000 with the triple chain ring out, not testing it beforehand. I hadn't ridden this bike in about 2 years.

I don't recommend this, by the way. Especially if other people have used said bike in the interim. Turns out, as I figured out as soon as I mounted it, that it was set up for my much taller son Mini-me to ride. I could barely extend my legs to the bottom of the pedal stroke and I could barely reach the bars. But I CLIMBED those hills.

As ShyTryGirl says, do you what you hate. I used to hate running, and then I did a bunch of marathons, and now I love it. Now I hate cycling hills. Is there any hope that one day I'll love cycling hills as much as I love running them?

Both Cindy and I forgot our Garmins, and MapMyRide is being a bit, shall we say, BITCHY today and not giving any elevation profiles, but soon I'll share the elevation with you, so that you'll be aghast and amazed that I got off my fatt but and actually cycled some HILLS.

Meanwhile, in one of my many efforts to economize, I've switched over to SparkPeople (thanks to TigerLily who told me about it). Both WeightWatchers are pretty good, but SparkPeople is free, and also includes a gentle nudge toward a more balanced diet. I've been trying it for nearly a week now, and I have to say I'm impressed - gives you lots of options. Apparently the founder of eBay, after selling it falling buttz over heels into money, started this because he wanted to do create a website for people to help them lead healthier live that would be free. You get points for doing various things and I'm a sucker for tokens...as my finish medals will testify.

I've started doing upper body weight stuff: side laterals, front raises, tricep extensions, and shoulder presses, crunches, something called the "plank" and pushups. I do these twice a week, for about 40 minutes now. I think I have pretty good swim form, but my upper body is pretty noodly. I tried a "plank" and nearly passed out when I got to 60 seconds of it.
However, I am proud to report that I can the following:

Two. Whole. Pushups.

Not the girly ones, either.

After posting this, I'm going to finish packing for the La Scorchita, which starts tomorrow night at midnight in Fort Worth. Because I am all kinds of crazy these days.

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