Biking Update - March 13, 2010

This was the big week when I got back out on two wheels! The first ride of 2010 was taken along the Shortline in Stratford, CT. I only managed a little over 8 miles before muscle soreness made it clear it was time to stop, but it was a beautiful ride and even the aches were like an old friend. I have also ridden a bit more on the stationary bike in the attic and am slowly starting to get back into shape. Looking forward to a good riding season for 2010. So far the weight is not responding, but I expect more soon.

But probably no biking this weekend due to heavy rains predicted. We'll have to see if I can sneak in a ride after work some day. Otherwise, I'll be seeing a lot more of the attic.

Biking Update - September 26, 2009

Back pain all week this week - not sure if it started as physical or emotional - meant no biking. Stayed strictly on plan for eating, but weight fluctuated wildly. I am still in my range, but nowhere near where I'd like to be. Hopefully, this weekend I can get back on the bike and start losing again.

Biking Update - August 8, 2009

This post is a bit late, because I was out of the habit of the weekly biking updates. Last week was vacation, and I chose to include the weekly update in my "things to skip while away". But the accountability of this is very important to my weight-loss and fitness plan. It is easy to lie to yourself. It is hard to lie to a blog audience to whom you have to show your weight-loss graph every week.

It was a great week for biking, while down in New Jersey. I biked every day that we were not traveling (traveling days generally were impractical for biking, because of early wake-ups and early check-outs or late check-ins). I racked up 107.55 miles on the bicycle while we were away! (Plus, 43 miles on the boardwalk walked in Wildwood.) That was between 10 and 18 miles a day, every day. And it was worth it on multiple levels. First, the exploration was great - I saw a lot of wildlife (rabbits, terns, geese, herons, etc.), learned new things about places we had been visiting for years (Wildwood Crest has a wildlife preserve!), and felt the freedom of the road every day (stress melted away). Second, because I was burning so many extra calories while away, I saw very little jump in my weight, despite having pretty much whatever I wanted to eat. I started the vacation at 208 lbs, and ended it at 209.8 lbs. After french fries, motz sticks, and cheese steaks all week! I never did indulge in sugar, though, as it appears my body doesn't crave it the way it used to. I was going to have ice cream while on the boardwalk, but was never in the mood.

Of course, there were costs of going from 20 miles biked per week to 150 miles biked and walked. My knee has been very sore since I got back, and I have small blisters in a number of places on my feet. So, I have been taking it fairly easy on the exercise this week to let the body heal and my diet return to "normal." Because of that, I saw a slight bump up in weight over the course of this week, but it all came back down to lighter than when I left on Friday (207.2 lbs). I am still chasing the elusive 205 lbs, and we'll see how that works out in the coming months.

This next week should be interesting as I get back into the swing of exercising every day. Hoping to have a bike ride today with CRChair, and then ride to church tomorrow on my own. And who knows what the upcoming evenings will offer in terms of weather and conditions. But it was a wonderful vacation, and I feel truly ready to return to "normality", refreshed and raring to go. (Actually, went back to work last week to an incredibly tense week, but still feel refreshed even today.)

Biking Update - November 21, 2008

This week's biking possibilities were sidelines by my old friend - influenza. It hit me hard last Thursday, Friday I had a reprieve, and then I was down for the count Saturday and have been slowly healing all this week. While I was not so sick by Monday that I could not have biked in July, in December - in the middle of a cooling trend - it was a bad idea. I also have been fighting some knee pain. Anyway, I have been using the Wii Fit as my main tool for exercise this week. It is generally low-impact and fun. And it has been sufficiently effective.

I started losing weight slowly again, and reached 227 this week and flirted with 226 but never actually had an "official" reading for the graph. I am hopeful of reaching 225 before Thanksgiving, so I have some cushion to eat turkey and associated carbolicious or sugary foods without having to worry about blowing by my target weight of 230. I have set a new target of 220 to reach by February, which seems doable and not insufficiently ambitious considering the upcoming holidays when my eating will not be entirely under my own control.

Next Saturday, I will be in Bath, NY celebrating Thanksgiving Weekend with my family. So I may or may not have an update for our readers. I am hoping to bring my bike up there, so if the snow holds off, I may have some pictures taken against the picturesque Upstate New York hills. We shall see.

Biscuit Update - Home and Sleeping

Well, it has been an eventful and uneventful day, depending on your point of view. The good news - Biscuit is home safe and snoozing next to me (as pictured below). The bad news - they could not do the endoscope because she was too swollen to put in an IV for the anesthesia. This means we still do not know what is wrong with her, but have to treat her on the doctor's best guess. This is probably okay as the doctor has been practicing medicine for 40 years and is renowned for his instincts and intuition. But it may mean that we are treating the wrong thing.

We start on some new meds today and see him again in two Mondays. Please be praying the new meds are efficacious and that she begins to feel better soon. As of now, she is just muddling through life.

Biking Update - August 23, 2008

This was a strange week for weight loss. I started at a new low and ended at a new low, but they were only 0.4 pounds apart. So, while there was weight loss, I am not sure whether to call it "significant" or "within the margin of error." But either way, I prefer a small loss to a small gain. :-) And, as I have to keep saying to myself, "When you are looking for long-term weight loss, weight that is slow to melt off is slow to come back." Patience is a virtue because it is so incredibly hard. Or at least that is why it is a virtue that is praiseworthy.

Not a lot of biking this week. Saturday is our usual big day for riding, but instead this week we took Shadowmom down to the Galloping Hill Inn which is a hot dog stand in Union, NJ where our parents used to go on dates (back when it was called "Petersons" after the two brothers who founded it right after WW2). We met Ward, Muse, and Baby E there for a nice day together. Baby E is getting so big (I know, I know, it is required to say this about EVERY baby, even though all they do is "get big") and is far more ready to smile and interact now than when we saw her this summer. Ward and Muse looked great, and happier in their new home. It was a day without biking, but we did manage to get in several hours of walking around Target and Circuit City, and probably burned off several thousand calories trying to figure out the traffic patterns in Union! They say the brain burns more calories than you'd think.

The rest of the week was better for biking, although I got sick toward the end of the week which grounded me for a few days. I took my first long ride around the neighborhood this week. I had been kicking myself for driving to places to bike, since one of the reasons to bike is to save gas. So, I figured I could simply find some roads around the house. Unfortunately, Shelton, CT is a place of busy, winding, and illogical street layouts. So after 20 minutes of biking up hills, around blind turns, and alongside SUV drivers on their cell phones, I gave up and came home, mentally exhausted. I am sure it will improve as I get used to the streets - I have no sense of direction, do I need repetition to build knowledge of landmarks - but for this season, I think most of my biking will be "drive to bike" arrangements. It has been wonderful, though, to feel cool breezes for a change! Our ride home from Captains on Wednesday was downright chilly!

Tomorrow, we're hoping for a ride on the Trumbull Trail or along the beach in Stratford. Here is hoping it is the start of my feeling better, and the next jump-start for weight loss.

Biking Update - August 16, 2008

Another good week of weight loss. It was a bit of an emotional roller-coaster because the graph was quite sawtoothed (down one day, up the next, then down again) but overall the trend was in the right direction, and I wound up at a new low since the start of the program. I don't have a lot of exciting examples to show off the weight loss, no new belts or major milestones or clothing changes. But it is still a good feeling to be moving in the right direction.

In the area of biking, however, we did have a major milestone. Last Saturday, I rode with CRChair, Nick, and Nora on the Larkin Bridle Trail, a biking, hiking, and horse riding trail that begins in Naugatuck and ends in Oxford. You may recall the last time we were on the trail, we got caught out in a storm that reminded us all of two things: Noah and how much we liked dry underwear. This time, it was a beautiful day with nary a cloud in the sky (which made the largely tree-shadowed trail even more pleasant). We even saw several groups of horse-riders who were amazed to see us dismount when they came near and pull off to the side of the trail. This, of course, is trail etiquette - apparently horses have a great fear of bike riders and have to be carefully calmed after seeing such a ferocious beast. We also spotted a snapping turtle and lots of wildlife just off the trail. The milestone mentioned earlier is that this time we rode the whole trail, from start to finish and back again. This was a ride of 17.4 miles, by my GPS, which is the longest ride we have done so far. This may bode well for Bowhunter's dream for next year to have us all come along on the Ididaride.

This next week may be a bit more dry on the bike-riding front. For her birthday, we're taking Shadowmom down to the Galloping Hill Inn in Union, NJ. Despite the name, it is a hot dog stand. It is a place that she used to frequent when she was dating our father, and full of good memories with good friends. We're planning to meet Ward and Muse (and La Bambina) down there, too, to get some good friend-time in. But it will rule out any trail-riding for the weekend. Which means, I will have to work hard to get in riding the rest of the week. Please keep praying that I stay on the "wagon" diet and exercise-wise. So far, so good, but I still have a ways to go before my goal.