but yeah. that weight watchers goal. i am almost there. i will be there, soon. so it's time for some new goals.
goal #3 - weight:
i want my weight to eventually settle somwhere between 60 and 62kg.
i will keep counting points after hitting my official weight watchers goal and will regularly re-assess how i feel at whatever lower weight in that range. right now, at a little more than 65kg, i fit into size 38 and 36 and wear a size 30 jeans. a smaller jeans size and consistent 36s would be awesome, but anything drastically smaller could potentially suck, simply because of clothes availability.
goal #2 - triathlon:
on 27 june 2010, i want to participate in a local triathlon event.
that event consists of a 400m swim (in a natural lake), a 25k ride and a 4k run. while i always loved working out (when i got my ass up and going, that is), i've never been a particularly athletic person. so far. and a triathlon? is totally out of my league. but i have no doubt that i can do this. even though, right now, i don't even own a bike i could use. or a swimsuit that fits. or can actually swim proper crawl. all that will change. (and yes, i am majorly inspired to do this because of linda. obviously.)
goal #2, subgoal a: over the winter, i will find myself a swimming coach and learn to properly swim breaststroke and crawl. and i will swim once a week, after work.
goal #2, subgoal b: i will save money for and research suitable bikes over the winter and purchase one in spring of 2010. and i will then train with it. in some way that i don't yet know about. ha.
and well, then there is this one, the biggest one, that kinda depends on goal#2, subgoal b:
goal #1 - mont ventoux
in late september 2011, i will cycle up mont ventoux.
mont ventoux is one giant ass-kicking hill in provence, 1910m high, a legendary col of the tour de france. i've been wanting to ride up ever since i got into following the tour de france (thank you, lance armstrong!); i'm still not sure, why exactly i fell in love with that mountain, without ever having been there, but i did. the three times it was featured in the tour in the past decade, i watched the stages and marvelled at the eeriness of the landscape, the craziness of the ascent. i love ventoux. i just do.
during one of my failed getting-fit-attempts in 2001, i briefly entertained the thought of cycling up that mountain. "apart from needing a new bike, i need to loose a good amount of weight (15kgs or whatnot)", i wrote in a different blog back then. "there is no way i'll carry all what's on my hips at the moment up on that mountain (or all the mountain's that i'll do in preparation of it). no way at all. i guess it'll all sort itself out over the months as i get into work-out and training mode (and spend all of my free-time on a bike), but right now, it all looks like a mountain even higher than ventoux itself." well, i've crossed that mountain. there are no more excuses.
on wednesday, the boyfriend and i drove up mont ventoux. in a car. it was one of the things i really wanted to do during this holiday, and the boyfriend happily obliged, even though he had no idea what that mountain was all about. when we first saw it, driving out of carpentras, i couldn't believe my eyes, really. coming out of the plains, it looks completely surreal, looming above everything.
driving up from bedoin, i had tears in my eyes passing every single cyclist (wanting to cheer "allez! allez! allez!" for each and every one of 'em) and every time the bf reached for my hand. i smiled at every riders' name written on the road and told the bf a couple of glorious tour de france stories of ventoux. we also stopped at the memorial for tom simpson, the rider who died on the ascent during the 1967 tour. the drive up was unbelievably beautiful. and those last few k, above the treeline, were just about breathtaking.
how good that i've already seen it all. i won't be able to enjoy it that much during my ride up.
i will cycle up mont ventoux. and that will be hard. very very hard. training for this will be very very hard, too. i will have to ride a bike that i do not yet own (the cruiser i ride to and from work right now? it doesn't even have gears) up a shitload of hills round here. and geez, i hate hills. and the thought of riding up even one of 'em scares me shitless.
there are two paths to choose from on the south side of mont ventoux: from sault, it's 1210 m over 26 km (average gradient of 4,4%), from bedoin it's 1617 m over 21,8 km (average gradient of 7.43%). so the sault trip is longer, but easier, and hence the more popular. i talked to two dutch guys who had just taken that trip, and it took them just about two hours from sault. and two hours of full-on maximum exertion? are do-able. they might be horrible and nasty and painful, but they're just two hours (for me: more likely three), really.
i could have picked a harder goal, really. the 100k of millau take more than 8 hours. ironman more than 12. first time marathoners easily need four hours. compared to that, two hours on a bike are pretty survivable. and well, i don't have to ride 200k before that ascent, like the tdf pros. that's a plus.
oh, and up on that mountain, after riding up, i will eat a piece of castel cake made by patisserie martichon in carpentras. oh yes, i will.
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