The 2012 ride season turned out to be better than I hoped for. Our mileage goal was 750 miles. We surpassed and nearly doubled that, ending the season with 1415 miles. I wanted to finish at least one 100 mile ride, and we did that. We did pretty good on the pioneer rides (multi-days) as well.
The year is a bit of a blur. I suppose that's to be expected considering we did at least one ride a month except for July and August.
We ended the ride year looking pretty good in the national standings. We finished in 7th place in national miles, 4th place in our weight division in the Pioneer award, and 2nd place in Regional points. I'm pretty sure, if the Intermountain Wild Horse and Burro Association is still doing an endurance award, that Hoss has far and away won it. He is, after all, the only Mustang in the top ten in National Miles. So I am planning to attend the AERC convention this year. It's not exactly on the top of my to-do list. I definitely want to go, but I haven't made all the arrangements as it's more important to me to keep the money in the go-to-rides budget than to go to the convention.
The year was not without it's ups and downs. Our failure to finish at Virginia City was tough. My husband's employment woes really took a toll on our ride calendar for the near, not to mention the stress it caused in our household. We made it through, at sometimes it felt like by the skin of our teeth, but we came out the other side okay.
In mid-June, I decided to try something new. Many years ago, it was recommended that asthmatics cut out all red wheat, dairy, and refined sugars. My asthma had started getting bad, so I decided to give it a try. Rather than just skip red wheat, I went the whole way and went gluten-free -- meaning no wheat, rye, or barley. These days it's pretty easy to go gluten- and dairy-free. The refined sugars were a little harder to get around, but I've found most producers of gluten-free products also don't use refined sugars. It's simply a matter of reading the labels.
A couple of things happened. One was I dropped ten pounds virtually over night. The other, and more important, was a pain I had been putting up with off and on for over ten years vanished within a week. Turns out, I'm probably gluten intolerant. Okay. That's fine. I can live like this.
The only thing that didn't change was my asthma. I had no improvement as a result of the diet. In fact, since October, I've been getting steadily worse. I had to drop out of choir at church until I get it under control. It's bad enough I have a hard time raising my voice to call the dogs.
Hard as it's been to lose out on choir, I did quietly do something else: in September, I started taking piano lessons. When I was a kid, I took lessons for a while, but never really took it seriously. Now I am, and I'm having a good time with it. I'm learning a great deal and trying really hard to take it all in, which is not as easy as it seems. There's a lot I never learned to begin with, and probably an equal amount I've lost due to brain trauma. My instructor often asks if I know something. I've taken to just telling him to pretend I've never learned anything. It seems to work best this way, as it means I get all the "holes" filled in.
The 2013 ride season is looking like it will be good. Tevis, here we come.
No comments:
Post a Comment