Biking Update - July 12, 2008

This was a definite good news-bad news kind of week. The good news is that after letting myself eat whatever I wanted on Sunday (my birthday), I gained no significant weight and the "shock" to my system got me losing weight agaun. The bad news is that after photographing a softball game on Tuesday (3 hours on my feet), my knee was really, really hurting badly. It may have re-strained it. Afterwards, I decided it was best to eschew biking to let the knee heal. Instead, I have been doing weights for my arms and crunches. So far, it has been working. I am hoping to get back on the bike tomorrow as we re-ride the Trumbull Trail, since it is not too hard.

I did get some cool biking-related stuff for my birthday as well. I got a stand-up pump from Nashbar, reflective snap-bracelets for night biking, and an iPod lanyard for biking. On the day of my birthday, we rode for a while down by the Shelton River as well, which had a wonderful breeze of the water. It was very hard staying away to let my knee heal. But another friend sprained his ankle to a similar level and his doctor made him use crutches for several days. So I figure it was wise to let it heal rather than possibly doing more damage. If it does not do better very soon, I'll probably have to see a doctor myself. But it is fine to walk on and merely aches, so I hate to bother a medical professional.

This coming weekend will have two highlights. The upcoming Trumbull Trail and hopefully the purchase of an iPhone 3G. We'll have to see if both work out. The good thing is since I already have an iPhone and it runs the iPhone 2.0 software, I have some time to let the lines die down a bit. But the new GPS capabilities will be useful on bike rides, especially to a guy like me with no sense of direction. Plus, there are lots of health and fitness-related pieces of iPhone software now to help track how I am doing with my weight loss.

Please be praying that I stay on track, but also am wise about how much to tax my body. I have a tendency to overdo things. And while I want to lose weight, I do not want it to be at the expense of long-term fitness.