when i first met richard i was already about 1 month into training for my 1st race. he has been there since the beginning and never saw another side. he was there for my very 1st 10k and almost every race since. but coming to be that fantastic support and being there everyday is a totally different thing. when we first moved in i wasnt training, i had just come off my 3rd 1/2 marathon and was ready for a rest. i was on a mission to lose the weight i had gained on an awful protein shake i had taken on my last training cycle, which at that point didnt even include the gym.
richard has always been super healthy and a gym rat the whole time i have known him. i may not agree with the weight gainer shake he takes or going to the gym at 8am when he doesnt go to bed until 2 am. but he is super dedicated to his goals and its amazing to live with someone so committed to the gym and health. he definitely helps motivate me to get up in the morning to do my own training.
now when i say get up in the morning, i dont quite mean at 8am to go with him. i mean more like 6am to go run 4 miles outside in january.
even in las vegas we get pretty damn cold in the winter. this was the morning i was still cold after the shower, coffee and about 2 hours into my work day. and its a 5-day a week habit. there are training plans and runs that have to get worked into the week. no matter how i feel when that alarm goes off i have to get up and go. if i skip a day it has to be for a fantastic reason. i went light on training for my 2nd 1/2 marathon thinking i have done this before, if i skip a day or 2 during a training cycle i still can hack it. i paid for it big time during the race and vowed i would stick to the training plan for every other race i trained for.
up until moving in with richard i only had to be semi-considerate of others for early morning workouts. when living at home i had my own room to turn lights on as i needed, open/close as many drawers as necessary to find all my clothes, and set as many alarms as i wanted to. once leaving my room i tried to be as quite and close the doors when i had lights on in the bathroom or kitchens. our apartment is quite a bit smaller and i didnt realize how much noise i was really making while trying to get ready. i do still set 2 alarms, its a pshcy thing that i think i am hitting the snooze button. except now i quietly get out of bed and head into the bathroom once awake to this...
it has definitely kept me a lot more organized and cut down on the time it takes me to get ready. who knew something as simple as getting my clothes together would be way more considerate to him still sleeping and so much easier on my life.
the other big thing we had to get used to is the food part. i have always been a curvy girl and have definitely let it get out of hand a few times in my life. when we met i was on the losing weight track without even trying because of all the training, it was fantastic! once that 1st race was done though i realized my body could quickly go back to the out of control curves if i wasnt careful. i love food, and have come to understand that i can continue eating what i wanted as long as i was mindful of my portions. richard and i have fairly similar tastes in food, both pretty plain and nothing too exotic. when we 1st met his dad actually told me that he was hoping i could expand richards eating horizons! (still one of the funniest conversations to this day.) with richard trying to gain weight and me training/always wanting to lose weight as any other girl i have definitely learned that i need to watch what goes on my plate. richard can eat whatever he wants whenever. getting off work at 11pm he can stop at mcdonalds and get 2 mcdoubles, french fries, and a large coke and be fine. i need to eat at a decent time and have become very diligent at counting calories. even though i am in pretty much constant training i still cant eat just anything. another example of our different dinners...
now our different work schedules for sure allow us to eat whatever we want when we get home. the weekends get a little tricky sometimes when trying to choose a restaurant to eat at. and when i get close to a race my food choices get stricter and stricter. but we have been able to deal with our different tastes really well. we are both even introducing the other to new food.
merging your life with someone else is really hard at first. you are trying to figure out how to share a closet and what to do when the other person is taking the longest shower ever and you need to finish getting ready (i would definitely be the one in the shower). merging your athletic lives though is sometimes just as hard. once you figure it out however it can really make both your lives so much easier.
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