Song of Susannah

I know I've said this before, but one of the great side-benefits of biking into work is that I get to listen to audiobooks -- and I do this for hours a day, each day that I ride (a typical day, with the current route that I'm taking, has me on the road for about 2.5 hours). I just completed Stephen King's Song of Susannah from The Dark Tower. A lot of people said that they started to get tired of the story right around here, but I'm completely hooked -- well, the beginning of the book was maybe a little difficult to get through, but I'm fully into it now. The pieces have just been set up so wonderfully.

I have my average speed coming into the office up to about 18.5 miles per hour -- on the straightaways, I'm keeping things well over 20, so I think all is good. I have gotten a lot of questions about weight loss while I ride (see previous posts about how I'm trying really, really hard to avoid even looking at my weight), and I can say that there is certainly less fat on my body these days. However, my skin isn't quite elastic, so I have a bunch of loose skin - it's incredibly sexy.

Anyway, it's a beautiful day today, so the riding was wonderful (would have been great yesterday, too -- but I'll gladly sacrifice a day of riding to play with a symphony.

1,000 Miles

Well, my bike has passed the one-thousand mile mark. Three tubes, a replaced rear tire (because of the damn tube problem), a few nicks, a few very low-speed crashes (only thing ever hurt was my own dignity . . . I think I'm finally used to the damn clipless pedals), and a whole lot of fun.

This is the week for milestones, though -- yesterday morning, I finally made it to the office in under an hour. I swear, I hit my stopwatch and it was at 00:59:58.14. That wasn't much under that milestone, but it was what I was aiming for. Of course, I changed up my route this morning -- only added a half mile, but it was a pretty hilly half mile, and consequently, I added twelve minutes to my commute this morning. That said, with the construction on Trindle Road, and the reduced traffic on Schoolhouse Road, I think this may be a permanent change.

When Ignoring One's Weight

Those of you who know me know that I've had some weight issues through my life. See, ever since I was a little kid, "eating" was one of my favorite activities (in fact, I remember going through a scrapbook from a young age -- soon after I had learned to write (and therefore, when I had good handwriting), "eating" was listed as one of the things I liked best). My highest recorded weight was 287 pounds -- although I probably broke 300 at one point. My lowest recorded weight since I've been 18 was 174. I know that I weighed somewhere north of 260 a few months ago, as I was at a doctor's appointment. But, I'm trying to completely ignore my own weight.

Reading Junkfood Science has really put a new spin on things for me. I mean, I've always known that BMI was bullshit - but just reading about how much of the "obesity crisis" is a media creation is quite scary. I mean, it is illegal to be fat in Japan! And, that 33.5 guideline -- even at my lightest, I wouldn't have passed that test. Mind you, I don't know how many Japanese males are 6'3" (now I have "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" running through my head), but I'm not reading anywhere that height is taken into consideration.

So, where was I going with this? Oh, yeah -- I'm biking into work. Now, I've been on the Wii Fit lately, because it's damn fun. The only thing is that it measures your BMI - and I'm considering just skipping the daily body test, so that my BMI is never calculated. After the issues I've had with weight, I really don't care what I weigh anymore. My goals are:

• Exercise when I can
• When exercising, push myself within my means, but never to the point where I may get burnt out or injured
• Try to eat more fiber than saturated fat
• Eat less meat
• Limit salt intake
• Limit my alcohol intake

Each of those goals has an ulterior motive, though:

• Working out: look good on the beach, feel better about myself when I have to run up flights of stairs for an urgent meeting, be better in bed
• Avoiding injury: seems self explanatory
• Lower saturated fat/salt intake: I have a history of heart problems from both sides of the family tree -- no need to tempt fate
• Eat less meat: feel less guilty about eating meat
• Lower alcohol consumption: lower tolerance so that I get drunk faster

Right now, a lot of my friends & coworkers are commenting that I'm getting "skinny", but I don't know . . . although I feel like a schmuck when I'm asked how much weight I've lost and I have to answer that I haven't a clue. I'm going to try to stick with these goals for awhile -- while enjoying my favorite activity of "eating", and just see where things take me.

Didn't Bike In

The disaster recovery was a disaster -- but we finally got everything working at the very end . . . meaning that we didn't leave the site until nearly 7:00. This meant that I got home a little past midnight.

I slept in. I did not feel guilty about it. However, I'll probably be leaving work early and getting a nice afternoon ride in. Or a nap. I haven't figured that part out yet.

When trapped without a bike

I'm in the middle of the woods right at the NJ/NY border near the Tappan-Zee bridge. Here, I'm in the middle of a disaster recovery drill. The area is absolutely beautiful and it stormed last night, meaning that today was clear, cool, and non-humid. I miss my bike.

Of course, at a disaster recovery drill, especially when things aren't exactly going well, I find myself eating a ton of crap, drinking about 10 times as much as usual, and not working out. I miss my bike.

We should get back into PA tonight, and I will bike into work Wednesday/Thursday -- and I might try to get Friday in, too. I miss my bike.

Bicyling Pictures

I'm hesitant to post these just because I think I've lost about twenty pounds since they've been taken, but here is a photo of me at the finish line from the Tour de Cure and here I am on the course.

Gas Prices

Gas prices reached $4.049 / gallon in Pennsylvania today . . . meaning that I'm saving $10.75 in gas today. In actuality, though, money savings might actually be significantly bit higher when I bike in. Sure, there's stuff like automotive maintenance, but I'm talking about lunch here -- when I bike in, I really force myself to keep to whatever food I can bring with me and/or keep at the office (and, because food is relatively heavy, I typically try to keep fruit, granola bars, oatmeal, and the like at the office at all times). Those of you how know me know that I have a healthy appetite -- and I wouldn't be surprised if I save an additional $6/day in food alone when I bike in.

Of course, today is different, as my wonderful wife drove in with Wyatt to have lunch with me. See, we participate in a veggie box, and they included strawberries in this week's package. Being me, I left them at home, so she offered to bring them to me, and we had lunch while she was here. I'm still not sure if the following counts as a "salad", but it was good, and biking 20 miles in 90° heat will undo most of the damage:

• salad greens
• carrots
• tomato
• steak
• bacon
• bleu cheese crumbles
• onion rings
• bleu cheese dressing
• honey oat roll with butter

It was yummy, if not exactly "healthy" like a salad is supposed to be.

Another real benefit of the ride is the audiobooks that I'm listening to -- mind you, I typically am listening to some sort of audiobook whenever I'm in the car, but spending two hours listening really makes for good progress. Right now, I'm about midway through Wolves of the Calla, book five of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. It's the best of the books thus far - I absolutely love how he intertwines characters and plots from his other stories without ever making the stories actually reliant on those other items. I mean, so far, there have been clear references to The Stand and 'Salem's Lot, and I'm sure there have been a bunch more. King just brings back memories of these stories, but never forgets that he's telling his own, new story. Anyway, the books are fun. Now, I need George R. R. Martin to finish up A Dance with Dragons from his Song of Ice and Fire series.