Biking Update - December 13, 2008

This is one of those fun weeks where I have a lot to talk about both in terms of weight loss and biking. First, this was one of those rare winter weeks where I did get to bike. Last Saturday, CRChair and I took a long COLD ride along the beach in Stratford. I had been wanting to bike for several weeks, but the weather had not cooperated. Finally, we had a sunny, dry day. We brought out Trek (i.e. non-folding) bikes and by the time we were able to bike (more on why it was so late, later) we realized sunset was pending and most of the biking trails would be closing. So we went to the beach instead, because the roads never close. We got there with temperatures around 35 - the coldest we had ever ridden in - but were dressed up in our "winter biking clothes". Multiple layers, long sleeves, long-fingered gloves, etc. It was a great ride, but much colder than I had expected. The layering worked, but was not entirely effective until we had been moving hard for a while and were generating internal heat. We went about 8 miles in the end, took a lot of really nice sunset photos, and confirmed that humans lose a LOT of heat out of the top of their heads... especially when wearing helmets with wind holes in them.

The other biking story of the week concerns my new folding bike - a Dahon Matrix. I reported the purchase last week, and that we had brought it to a local bike shop, Amity Bikes in Woodbridge, CT. What I did not know at the last report, was that I was in for a LONG day when I came to pick up the bike. We got there about 11:30 AM and found that a squirrel-related emergency had stopped them from working on my bike Friday, so they had only just started on it when we arrived. They asked us to give them an hour, so we went to lunch. When we got back, the owner had a worried look on his face. "Uh, did you buy this in a scratch-and-dent, as-is sale?" Nope. "Um... You'd better come in back with me." He showed me a number of scratches that I had failed to notice the first time, informed me that the front wheel was unusable, one of the shifters was completely useless, that the stem was broken and unsafe, that the clamp that held the seat in place had been stripped, and... well, you get the picture. Apparently, when I got my great deal on this bike, the online bike store sent me the worst one in their inventory. They were able to replace all of the components, and most of them actually got upgraded in the process. But I wound up spending $150 on a bike that I have saved a little over $300 on. I have contacted the bike shop that sold this to me to see what we can work out. So far, they have opened a ticket for me, and are researching my case. I'll let you know how it goes. Dahon, on the other hand, has been great to work with and sent me a bottle of touch-up paint for the scratches free of charge. And the bike itself rides beautifully. If the weather agrees, I hope to do my first real ride on the Matrix tomorrow.

Weight-wise this has been a good week, too, as I finally fell below 225 and stayed below it for at least 3 days. You may recall that 230 was my goal weight, and now I am seeing how low I can go. After thanksgiving, I saw a spike in weight and then a quick return to nominal. But it was struggle for a bit afterwards to begin losing again. Now that I am eating on plan again, every day, and exercising regularly, I appear to be losing regularly again. I am hoping to reach 220 lbs by February - giving me time for Christmas to cause food issues - but at this rate I might reach that by the end of the year. Either way, I have now lost over 60 lbs since I started back in June. This is amazingly encouraging to me, and hopefully means good things for my health in the long-term.