Biking Update - March 28, 2009

A good week for weight loss and biking! For weight loss, I hit a new low of 207.0 lbs after a few weeks or more or less static weight. I am back up to riding 12 miles a night on the stationary bike, which amounts to an hour of riding, and the hour of riding always makes a big difference over 45 minutes (10 miles) in my body's fitness and rate of weight loss. I am wondering if I might actually go below 200 lbs before the one-year anniversary of my biking career on June 1. My original goal was to reach 230 lbs before then, and I have been below there for a long time now (since December). It is nice to have a new goal to shoot for, but I need to remind myself that the real test is not losing MORE weight, but keeping off what I have lost in the long-term. That is why brings about real health benefits.

On the biking front, I had a new challenge at an old place this past weekend. We went riding with the Bowhunter Family along the Stratford Shore again. But this time, I was the carriage horse who was pulling the trailer with the Bowhunter babies for the entire ride (12 miles). This is like adding back in the 75 lbs I have lost so far back onto my body for the rate of the entire ride. The girls seemed to enjoy it (they both fell comfortably asleep to the smooth rhythm of the pedaling, and woke up happy afterward) and it forced my body to work a lot harder than usual. It also kept me from outpacing the others who are not biking every night. :-) Most of the time. Bowhunter confided to me at the end that after that ride I had pulled the girls in the trailer for more consecutive miles than he had ever done. Nice! (Bowhunter has been biking for decades, and had pulled the girls to the grocery store in that trailer many times.)

This upcoming week may be a bit leaner in terms of outdoor biking opportunities. Saturday is spoken for with Quiz Team and Sunday is spoken for with a family/friends-as-close-as-family commitment. But with the sunset later, it is possible we may be able to sneak in a few opportunities. We shall see.