Big Life Change

Wow, it's been exactly one month since my last post, and a lot has happened since then. I've still been keeping up with my running (not so much with the cycling and yoga and other things), but I've been preoccupied and distracted by a big life change.

We're moving to San Francisco, California! 

One week from today on July 1st, Jason and I are getting in a rental car with a month's worth of possessions and driving across the country for a week, ending in our new home after stopping at some great sights along the way. We'll actually be staying in a temporary corporate apartment for a month until we find a permanent home. The rest of our possessions will be loaded up into a moving truck on Thursday and stored until we are ready for them to be delivered to our new apartment sometime in August.

I am excited and terrified, but the excitement far outweighs the fear. Change is always hard, but I am ready for a fresh start. Jason got a great job offer that we could not pass up, and this will be a great time for me to get out of my comfort zone and reinvent myself. After working at UCF for 15 years, where I also went to school, it finally feels like I'm leaving home and entering the real world. I'm really looking forward to the new experiences that San Francisco has to offer, and the new running environment with less oppressive humidity. I will certainly miss my family and friends dearly, but we'll keep in touch via Facebook (and maybe I'll start tweeting again for those who don't have Facebook).

Since we already registered for two big races in Orlando, we'll be flying back in October for Jason's Great Floridian Ironman Triathlon in Clermont (I'll be running the Floridian 15K there), and also in January for me to run the Goofy Challenge. I'll be training for it remotely along with my group, and we'll reunite to run it together in January. Hopefully some of them will also join me for the 15K in October. But San Francisco has no shortage of great races, and we are already registered or our first race there, the 1st Half Marathon of San Francisco Marathon on July 29th. The course looks gorgeous, and I can't wait to run the full marathon (or perhaps the ultra) next year. The hills won't be easy, but I'm ready to tackle a new challenge.

Do I have any readers living out there? I'd love to connect when I arrive. I've already scouted some running groups that I'll check out when I arrive, but my plan is to start the San Francisco Galloway Program since the closest one is several hours away and we don't plan to own a car (I'm so excited about that!).

I better get back to packing now, but I'll try to blog our cross-country trip and will be sure to take lots of photos.

See Kitzzy Build

When I'm not running, I'm likely building with LEGO. I've loved LEGO bricks since I was a kid and never really stopped. I still have some of my original bricks and I'm constantly adding to my collection. I recently brought them out and have been building again regularly, so I started a new blog to share my creations one photo per day.

Check it out at http://kitzzybuilds.tumblr.com/

Below are two examples, but there is a month's worth on that blog. This week I'm featuring Halloween themed builds and next week I'll begin posting my Doctor Who creations.

This is the oldest photo of a LEGO build that I have, so I thought it was fitting for my first post and this blog. I built it and took the photo on September 10, 2004 for a photo challenge. The theme was to take a photo inspired by the quote “Racing is a matter of spirit not strength.” I only had one day left, so I thought the easiest thing to do was create something in LEGO that fit the bill and this is what I came up with.

This is how you write the word “LEGO” in braille. My initial thought for this theme (Less is More) was to take a photo of a single bright lego dot on a white lego base plate, but that wasn’t satisfying enough. I wanted the photo, the dot, to mean something, and that’s when I thought of braille. I wanted to write lego with white dots on a red plate (like the lego logo), but I didn’t have enough. I’m glad because I think black on white has a better effect and lets the message be the focus of the photo in the true spirit of minimalism :)

Three Things Thursday: Name Change, Big Coat, HBBC

#1 - I changed the name of my blog to "See Kitzzy Run" so if you link to me, please update your link text (the url is staying the same). I've always thought that "[Kitzzy] Lifestyle Change" was a bit clunky. While this blog is still about my lifestyle change to a better me, it is predominantly about my running adventures. I'll still post about other aspects of my lifestyle change too, such as green living, vegetarianism, cycling, and living without a car, but most posts are about running so the new name seems fitting. Besides, it doesn't say what I am running towards :)

#2 - I've been doing pretty well in the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge (HBBC) so far, but I am far from winning. I earned 37 points during the first week, which included the Thanksgiving Holiday, and I've earned 32 points this week so far with 2 more days to go (weeks go from Saturday to Friday). I also earned extra credit points for promoting the challenge and getting family involved with exercise on Thanksgiving, which brings my grand total so far to 74. That's not too bad, and it puts me in the top 25 out of almost 400, but there are a few with over 100 points already. I doubt I'll actually win this challenge, but it's good motivation to stay active and I still have a chance to win prizes by just participating.

#3 - The forecast for this morning said feels like 35º! Yikes! So I broke out the sweater, scarf, and my big coat that anyone in Florida would consider overkill, but I love it and look for any chance to wear. I was going to run to work from the bus, but running after work when it will be a little warmer sounds way more appealing.

Cycling Savvy Course in Orlando

Last night Jason and I attended The Truth and Techniques of Traffic Cycling. This 3-hour classroom session is one part in the Cycling Savvy Course. This course is designed to show students simple strategies to eliminate obstacles and ride with ease and confidence in places they might never have thought possible.

It was great to review the bike laws in our state/city, including how to interpret the new mandatory bike lane use). We also discussed traffic dynamics and problem-solving strategies for safely riding on the road, even at night or in the rain. Keri is a great teacher with plenty of first hand experience and the video footage to prove it. Through a series of flash animations and videos of cyclists riding on our local roads, we could really see how to apply the principles to ride safer in our community.

This weekend we will attend the Bike Handling portion of the course, which involves a set of progressive drills designed to increase control and comfort handling our bikes in various situations. The course culminates next weekend with an experiential Tour of Orlando roads, where will apply our knowledge and skills to real life situations in our community.

If you have been wanting to ride your bike around Orlando more, I highly recommend you take this course. It will help you gain confidence and the skills you need to make cycling safe and enjoyable. Even though we already knew most of the laws and strategies for riding on the road, and we've been doing that for a while, we still learned a lot. Riding on the road is still not 100% comfortable for me. Smart route planning solves the problem most times; I'm hoping this course will do the trick for the rest and I won't be afraid to tackle any road.

Upcoming Class Offerings:

• Train Your Bike — Saturday 7/17 @ 8-11 am
• Train Your Bike — Sunday 7/18 @ 8-11 am
• Tour of Orlando — Saturday 7/24 @ 9 am - noon
• Tour of Orlando — Saturday 7/31 @ 9 am - noon

They will be scheduling more classes soon, so visit CyclingSavvy.org for details on the course and upcoming class offerings, and sign up today! :)

ETA: If you do not live in Orlando but would like to attend something similar, check out the Bike Education page at League of American Bicyclists site for options in your state. They have a lot of information online and you can search for upcoming classes or instructors in your area.

New Comments System

A real post is coming soon, but first some housekeeping.

I've been looking for a better way to manage comments on this blog and allow me and users to be notified when replies are posted to their comments. After seeing Frayed Laces implement IntenseDebate on her blog, I knew I had to give it a try.

It allows for threaded comments (yay!) and you can subscribe to be notified of replies to your comments or all comments. I'll also be able to reply to comments via email. You can login using your blogpost url, facebook, twitter, open id, or as a guest.

This is the first post to use this new comment system, so help me test it out and check it out if you have a blog of your own.

Blog name change

I changed the name of the blog from "Road to Fitness" to "Lifestyle Change" because I feel that better reflects the focus of this blog. While it will still be largely about getting fit, and therefore losing weight, I also want to post about healthy eating, green living, and saving money. These are all related because changing one aspect of my life has inevitably changed other aspects as well (for the better we hope). More on this soon.