Sunday, July 31
Monday, July 11
The MS150 was fun this year...I little hot, but that's always my complaint. I did the MS104.
The first day was very hilly but not ridiculous. We started at 6:30am and I stopped at 53 miles because it was over 90 degrees and I was just too hot. I really wasn't rediculosly tired, I think if it had been just a little cooler I could have gone on, but over 90, almost 8000 feet and it was 1:30pm - I called it a day. The views were really nice and it was a fun day to see how well the old body coped with the climbing :-)
Day two was really windy and seemed to be uphill all the way when in fact it was a decent into Canon City, there were some fun downhills and the scenery was really nice again. We could see the fires in the distance and the big smoke cloud that got bigger and bigger as the day went on. Sunday seemed to be a much hotter day, or may be there wasn't as much shade, or we were at a lower elevation. I had planned to just ride from Colorado Springs to Canon City and not do The Gorge. The ride was against the wind the whole damn way, we were peddling in top gear, downhill and only doing about 14 mph. The last few miles were pretty bad, but I still managed to get to Canon City by noon - my plan (day time Cinderella because of the heat). I'm not sure what the actual temp was, but someone said the forecast for Pueblo was 100 degrees, and I don't think we were too far off that.
I'm happy with my 104 mile cycling weekend, I feel very fit and I don’t look too bad either :-)
The first day was very hilly but not ridiculous. We started at 6:30am and I stopped at 53 miles because it was over 90 degrees and I was just too hot. I really wasn't rediculosly tired, I think if it had been just a little cooler I could have gone on, but over 90, almost 8000 feet and it was 1:30pm - I called it a day. The views were really nice and it was a fun day to see how well the old body coped with the climbing :-)
Day two was really windy and seemed to be uphill all the way when in fact it was a decent into Canon City, there were some fun downhills and the scenery was really nice again. We could see the fires in the distance and the big smoke cloud that got bigger and bigger as the day went on. Sunday seemed to be a much hotter day, or may be there wasn't as much shade, or we were at a lower elevation. I had planned to just ride from Colorado Springs to Canon City and not do The Gorge. The ride was against the wind the whole damn way, we were peddling in top gear, downhill and only doing about 14 mph. The last few miles were pretty bad, but I still managed to get to Canon City by noon - my plan (day time Cinderella because of the heat). I'm not sure what the actual temp was, but someone said the forecast for Pueblo was 100 degrees, and I don't think we were too far off that.
I'm happy with my 104 mile cycling weekend, I feel very fit and I don’t look too bad either :-)
Friday, July 8
Closer to my goal
A couple of years ago I starting doing the Bridget Joes thing and trying to lose weight unsuccessfully. I was always between 6 and 8lbs from my goal. When I got 12lbs from my goal I stopped commenting on it, I was getting older, my metabolism was slowing, may be this was to be expected. Compared to a lot of people that was not a lot to lose, but to me it was this huge number that I could chip every now and then, but got nowhere. Three weeks ago I started reading about carbs, glycemic index and Atkins. Now Atkins is a scary word, the whole idea of not worrying about eating animal fats went against every fiber of my being; I be came a Vulcan at the thought - it is totally illogical in terms of weight loss.
Well call me Dr Spock, I have lost 10lbs in 3 weeks by reducing my carbohydrate intake by a third (anything under 100g of carbohydrates). This has involved not worrying about calories and just counting my daily carbohydrate intake while eating foods high in fat and protein. As an ex-biochemist I do understand some of the logic; the brain needs glucose from carbohydrates…if you don't eat enough to feed your brain the body breaks down fat to supply the brain with it's fussy glucose-only requirement. What I don't quite understand is I was eating fondue, brie and crackers, big steaks of salmon and beef and lost weight. Every morning I'd giggle on the way to the scales because I knew those digits would be less than the day before.
So now I can happily go back to being a pseudo Ms Jones and say "I am 2lbs from my goal". What this means is I am 2lbs from being the same weight I was in 1989, and exactly the weight I have on my drivers license…the one I lied about 6 years ago :-) This also means I have found what I need to do to lose weight. I believe we are all different and different things work for different people. All the diets out there do work for some people. You have to find what works and I think it takes a while to get something that is compatible with your lifestyle, body make and metabolism.
I feel a little like Ophra!
Well call me Dr Spock, I have lost 10lbs in 3 weeks by reducing my carbohydrate intake by a third (anything under 100g of carbohydrates). This has involved not worrying about calories and just counting my daily carbohydrate intake while eating foods high in fat and protein. As an ex-biochemist I do understand some of the logic; the brain needs glucose from carbohydrates…if you don't eat enough to feed your brain the body breaks down fat to supply the brain with it's fussy glucose-only requirement. What I don't quite understand is I was eating fondue, brie and crackers, big steaks of salmon and beef and lost weight. Every morning I'd giggle on the way to the scales because I knew those digits would be less than the day before.
So now I can happily go back to being a pseudo Ms Jones and say "I am 2lbs from my goal". What this means is I am 2lbs from being the same weight I was in 1989, and exactly the weight I have on my drivers license…the one I lied about 6 years ago :-) This also means I have found what I need to do to lose weight. I believe we are all different and different things work for different people. All the diets out there do work for some people. You have to find what works and I think it takes a while to get something that is compatible with your lifestyle, body make and metabolism.
I feel a little like Ophra!
Thursday, July 7
BSc (Hons), PhD, PMP
I got the monkey off my back today!
In '98 I had a boss who said the project management professional (PMP) certification was it! We had to get "it" to remain in the profession. The other PMs and myself were ho-hum about the whole deal and most of us ignored him. I left the company shortly after and continued the life of a PM, sans certification.
After the dot-bomb and jobs became scarce the requirement for PMP certification started to appear in job requirements. Holy crap that Sicilian-Scot boss (with a temper like Satan, I might add) was right, we do need PMP! So in December 2003 I met up with some PMs while I was contracting and we formed a PMP study group. That lasted about a month, one person took a course and got the certification, two people dropped out leaving myself and Steph.
Steph and I worked our way through the PMBOK and various study guides…we took months off and one of us would pull the other one back in. This went on until March of this year and we stopped again. We had gone through everything, we knew it, we just needed the guts to go get it! In June I said I was going for it and didn't hear back from Steph. I deliberately waited until a week before I was to sit the test and then studied up until the exam.
I hadn't sat an exam in almost 20 years, holy moly I was scared. I was annoyed that people said, that with the education and degrees I had, PMP would be a breeze. I resented their faith in me. I was scared I'd fail. I was scared they were wrong. I had no confidence.
Today I almost took the whole 4 hours, but I got it. Tired and weepy I walked out of the testing building with another 3 letters to add to the end of my name.
In '98 I had a boss who said the project management professional (PMP) certification was it! We had to get "it" to remain in the profession. The other PMs and myself were ho-hum about the whole deal and most of us ignored him. I left the company shortly after and continued the life of a PM, sans certification.
After the dot-bomb and jobs became scarce the requirement for PMP certification started to appear in job requirements. Holy crap that Sicilian-Scot boss (with a temper like Satan, I might add) was right, we do need PMP! So in December 2003 I met up with some PMs while I was contracting and we formed a PMP study group. That lasted about a month, one person took a course and got the certification, two people dropped out leaving myself and Steph.
Steph and I worked our way through the PMBOK and various study guides…we took months off and one of us would pull the other one back in. This went on until March of this year and we stopped again. We had gone through everything, we knew it, we just needed the guts to go get it! In June I said I was going for it and didn't hear back from Steph. I deliberately waited until a week before I was to sit the test and then studied up until the exam.
I hadn't sat an exam in almost 20 years, holy moly I was scared. I was annoyed that people said, that with the education and degrees I had, PMP would be a breeze. I resented their faith in me. I was scared I'd fail. I was scared they were wrong. I had no confidence.
Today I almost took the whole 4 hours, but I got it. Tired and weepy I walked out of the testing building with another 3 letters to add to the end of my name.
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