(For those of you who don’t get the reference in today’s entry, it’s a line from a song popular back in the early 80’s, back when I was current with music.)

I mentioned in an earlier posting that it’s high time I don’t blame what’s going on around me for my Fat Cyclist-ness. I’m fat because I lack willpower and eat salty fatty foods. So I’m now going to contradict myself and say that at least part of the reason I’m fat is because I didn’t do any training last year. And since I’ve alluded to this past year so many times, I figure it’s time I give a quick overview of what’s been going on.

We used to live in Utah. I worked as the editor-in-chief of a programmers’ magazine, which had fallen on tough times. By the time I took my third paycut, we were no longer making ends meet. It was time to look around.

I looked in UT, but simply couldn’t find anything. Lots of people were looking for work in UT back then. So I started calling friends at Microsoft, and before long had a couple of very interesting job prospects.

In December ‘03, the night before I travelled to WA for a day of interviews, my wife got the news that she had breast cancer.

In early January ‘04, my wife had a mastectomy. The day before she did, I got a job offer at Microsoft. I remember going out to the hotel parking lot while my wife was getting an operation, calling MS, and accepting the job, going back in to the hospital and seeing if she was awake yet (she wasn’t), going back out to the parking lot to call my employer and give notice, checking again to see if she was awake (nope), calling a real estate agent to put the house up for sale, and then going and telling my wife what I had done while she was "napping." A very productive morning, all told.

We moved out to WA in February ‘04 — my family, our four kids (including twin 2-yr-old girls), and started house hunting. My wife started chemo three weeks after we arrived, and was going through chemo the entire time we were doing our house hunting, house buying, and moving-in. All while I was, of course, trying to get the hang of a new kind of job at an incredibly intense, competitive company.

I was kind of busy. Not much time for training.

And now? We like where we live, my wife has her hair back and has great prospects for the cancer never coming back, I like my job, I’m starting to ride again, and things are — in general — good.

The year has changed my priorities. I don’t think I’ll ever train as hard as I did before, because I’m a little more focused on my family than I used to be. Which is a good thing.

But that doesn’t mean I want to be fat.

Next up: Renegade Geese from Hell

Today’s weight: 182.8. That’s about 2.4lbs gain during my biz trip, or a pound per day. I really hoped I would do better than that, but was foiled by two things:

• Free Haagen-Dasz: During the afternoon parts of the conference, the hotel wheeled in a fridge full of ice cream bars. I resisted. I was strong. For a while.
• Fajita Buffet: Lunch on the second day was fajitas, against which I am powerless. And there was a big bowl of good guacamole sitting there, against which I am less than powerless.

By the end of this week, I will be in the 170s. I swear it. And then, by the end of June, I will be in the 160s. And by Leadville, I will be at or slightly below 160. It can be done.