Biking Update - January 10, 2008

This was a good week for both weight loss and biking. Let's start off with the biking. From January 1 thru 4th, I was down in Dover, Delware, visiting Ward, Muse, and Baby E. I had decided to bring along my new Dahon Matrix folding bike, just in case. Well, it turned out that the area around our hotel was a great area for riding. It was set back in a small corporate park with a few nearby apartments. Within a few seconds riding, I had several large parking lots, a few residential neighborhoods, a gravel path, and (most surprisingly to me) some nice bike lanes on the roads! (For those of you in more enlightened parts of the country, bike lanes are almost unknown here in Connecticut.) I rode about 7 miles a day, first thing in the morning, and really enjoyed starting each day out and about in the world. And with my daily exercise already out of the way. When we got back, I took Monday off to recover and was able to use a few hours in the day to go riding along the beach in Startford with frequent Mod-Blog commenter "Nick." We had a great ride of 12 miles from Short Beach to Long Beach and all around the area.

So, only 9 days into 2009, I have already racked up over 35 miles worth of outdoors riding! And that is with average high temperatures of 34 degrees. Not bad for a guy who has been seriously biking for less than a year.

Weight loss also ended out well. If you look at the graph (yes, I am aware it is getting harder and harder to read - eventually, I will show only 2009 data, so it will be larger) you may notice a strange plateau around 222. As it is for everyone, the period from Christmas to New Years weekend was a tough time. I avoided sugar, but had a lot of carbs and larger meals, especially while traveling. However, while I was not losing, I am also happy to say that I did not do a lot of gaining, either. The daily bike rides kept the weight gain down to about 2.8 lbs overall. And by the end of this week, I was back below 220 which was my original goal to reach by February! So, I am encouraged. Now that we are back home, and I am back on the normal regimen for eating and exercise, I should see some more weight loss ongoing.

This upcoming week is going to be interesting. There is a slight chance we might bike tomorrow, but a snow storm is expected which is likely to put a kibosh on any plans. And during the work week, we are look at highs of 17 degrees Fahrenheit most of the week. Too cold to think about getting anyone else to come along when I ride. So this may mean any cycling I do would be odf the indoors/stationary bike variety. We shall see.