Biking Update - 9/27/2008

This was a good week for weight loss, though less good for health as I was sick from Monday thru Wednesday. Still, I'll take it as I lost about 4 lbs this week and am almost past the next decade in weight loss. I can hardly wait to be able to say I have lost 45 pounds, but I can't quite say it yet. :-) Of course, sometimes after a week of significant loss there is a bounce back up. We'll see how the old metabolism does it. But something else that might help is I picked up a Wii Balance Board/Wii Fit this week on a big sale. The functions in it allow you to track weight/BMI and it primarily seems to work balance and flexibility. But these can only be good. Although, I have found a few of the flexibility games are murder on my back.

But this was a fantastic week for biking, as we rode the Airline Trail in East Hampton, CT on Saturday which turned out to be everything the websites and books said it was. While not paved, it was a well-maintained trail that winds thru a whole series of natural New England wonders. We started in a natural cranberry bog, rode thru some amazing hills and along some small mountains, thru a forest, along a river, and even along a small bit of folksy civilization. It was truly gorgeous. The trail is about 24 miles long and we only managed 11.1 miles of it before we had to turn back, so as to make sure we were back before dark. Still, it was our longest ride to date. I really can't recommend it highly enough. The one problem is that it is an hour drive to get to and to get back from, so I really can't say we reduced our carbon footprint at all with this particular ride.

This next week will probably be a poor week for biking. Today, we are taking the Bible Quiz Team to Essex Fells, NJ for a meet, and if the weather behaves then we will be going to Ellis Island, as well. That knocks out any possibility of biking on Saturday - usually our big day. The rain may last as long as into Wednesday which would make getting in shorter rides around the neighborhood difficult as well. And we are pretty tightly scheduled until Thursday. We shall see. Bad comes to worse, I will hopefully still have progress to report next week from the Wii Fit and the exercise bike in the attic.