9.28.2006

Michael is tougher than he looks...

Today's workout, Michael, consisted of:
Run 800 m
50 Back Extentions
50 Sit-ups
3 Rounds for time


"No big deal," I thought. "I'll do this after I run a couple miles as a warm up."

I was wrong. Michael is a big, big deal.

It took me 29 minutes - far longer than expected - and I was breaking both the sit-ups and back extentions into sets of 20 by the 3rd round.

CrossFit is at once humbling and inspiring. I love every minute of struggle, every gasped breath....

I kind of wish I had the stamina for 2 workouts a day, but until then, I guess enough is enough.

9.27.2006

Today's Workout

Ran 20 minutes to warm up, then did "Cindy:"
5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 Squats
As many rounds as possble in 20 minutes.

I did 12 rounds, which I was very proud of. My first Cindy. I did "girls" push ups, though, and jumping pull ups, so those will have to be cleaed up next time.

I feel it now, 2 hours after the workout, in my arms and legs.

9.24.2006

I heart Santa Cruz

If I come upon a windfall of cash, the first thing I'll do is buy Brad land and a well in the Moab area. As much as he wants. Then I'll immediately fly to Santa Cruz and buy a house in this funky, earthy, breathtaking, creative, oceanfront town. There's a reason some of the best mountain bikes in the world come out of this hamlet. Not to mention skateboards and surfboards. And CrossFit. Smooth segue.

I'm in Santa Cruz with my honey for the CrossFit Certification Seminar. When we finish this weekend, we will be CrossFit Level 1 instructors. But that's not why I'm here.

Look: www.crossfit.com

CrossFit is new to both of us. We're both babies, kittens in this community. We have the same history, the same experience, the same base of knowledge, and nothing, NOTHING else in our shared lives is that way. It's exciting and relieving to embark on this new activity together - exciting because there's a world of potential and opportunity, relieving because it's new for him, too. We're learning tihs together, and with our different learning styles, different techniques and different communcation patterns, I think we're set up well to learn a lot together.

Today is Day 2, the final day, of the Certification, and I feel myself wishing it would last for another week.

9.19.2006

On Rilke

From his "Letters on Love and 'other Difficulties:"


The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky.

9.11.2006

Loose Change

Visit this website: http://www.loosechange911.com, and follow links to the "Order" page, where you can watch this haunting documentary for free.

I'm interested in this documentary because it inspires critical thinking and leads me to question what I'm told by the media. I think it's important to question what "they" tell us, what the newspapers and news pundits proport as fact. I don't know the truth; I don't know if it falls on the side of this documentary or with the current admisistration, but gathering facts and being as educated as possible about the issues might lead be to it.

9.08.2006

9.06.2006

Visiting Colorado

It's cooler here, crisp at night and in the morning. There are more yards left wild, choked with cosmos and paintbrush. There are more solar panels, there is more intentional smallness. Small, I understand, is the new big.

It's a little bit stressful to navigate the old, though, to keep it at bay. It's hard not to remember something - a sad day, a lonely week, hurt feelings, an unintentional and unmended mistake - that happened while I lived here. So I can only be here for so long - long enough to see the friends I love - before I start looking over my shoulder to make sure the past isn't behind me; before I start re-thinking where to go to lunch or dinner based on who may be there, who may remind me of something that hurts to remember.

Still, though, driving East from Rifle, through the town of New Castle, I looked at the fields and fences and sheep and horses and wanted to live in that idyllic and pastoral scene more than I've wanted anything in ages. I wanted to, as they say, live deliberately. I wanted to grab my husband and our dogs and the things that matter to us - our books, old letters, swatches of fabrics, old gear that's been with us for the important times - and settle into that picture.