Biking Update - July 18, 2009

Bad week for weight loss, but great week for biking this week. I started off last weekend by riding all the way from my home in Shelton, CT to my church in Trumbull, CT. The ride there and back took up 20.1 miles, which is definitely not my longest ride as far as distance goes. But unlike riding by the shore, I was working up and down significant hills the whole time. Some were mild, but many were good old New England roadways which are crumpled like a pair of pant thrown on the floor. It was a good ride, but exhausting. But it has cured me, for now, of most of my road fear. If I can ride that distance on real roads, I can certainly go farther and have little fear of what the local roads can offer. Later in the week for Guys Night Out, we rode up to and back from Captains Pizza (5+ miles accrued) and then on Thursday night, CRChair and I rode 12.1 miles along the Stratford Shoreline at sunset, which was a gorgeous ride. Perfect weather and glorious skies with the run setting behind the storm clouds from earlier in the day.

The weight story was less good and somewhat inexplicable. Despite the extra riding, I was actually on an upward trend all week until Friday morning when I was back down to where I ended out last week - about 206 lbs. I was not eating differently, except for a new brand of sugar-free candy that I bought last week. Looks like I won't be picking up any more of those, and we'll see if that helps. Or it is possibly just a burst of muscle-building after the long rides.

Not sure what the next week will bring. I am inspired to try and bike outside every day, since the weather is beautiful and a vacation is coming up where I plan to bike every day. But I also just got a new exercise bike, which I will probably set up tonight, so it would not be a bad thing to spend some time on that to break it in. We shall see. And we shall see if I bike to church again on Sunday. If I can work out a way to clean up after the ride, and before walking into church, it may be the beginning of a new tradition!