Back to March

I hit 186 again today, back to my pre-vacation weight of March. Only 4 pounds to tie my lowest weight ever. In the past I always felt it was a struggle to get to these mid-180s. Now it's really been a breeze. Refined eating habits and eating more at the right time have really helped. Aiming for 181 next.

Media

Nat picked up the movie Babel from the library for me, which I watched on the train today. Well some of it. Going in it was ok, but coming home I was getting pretty into it and was afraid I was going to miss my stop. That has to be some level of positive endorsement.

Some old guy was watching today. I guess people can't keep their eyes off a TV screen, even if they can't hear the words.

I also started the 5th book in the Evanovich series on Stephanie Plum the bounty hunter. Good stuff, very entertaining. I got the tip from a girl I sat next to on the train last year who was reading Tom Robbins.

I watched ESPN while I was on the trainer this morning. Watching pro sports is really useless. Today the lead story was exhibition NBA. Why not fork bending? It's about as pertinent.

I listened to My Morning Jacket and Sufjan Stephens today.

I've been forced to find new Chinese Podcasts as chinesepod.com no longer allows free downloads and I'm not paying them.

Last week I gave up on Creation by Gore Vidal and Another Roadside Attraction by Robbins. The former just wasn't my cup of tea and the later doesn't stand the test of time. I also watched Python's Grail last week.

That concludes the media report for today.

The Plan

So here's my current biking plan. I've toned things down for now. After going back and forth with Ben I finally got the message that I need a goal. And when I assess everything my goal is that I need to drop weight. Going as fast as I can doesn't address that goal. Going as long as I can does. So the plan is to go longer, not harder.

I mentioned I now WFH Tue/Thu. I ride the weekend plus Tue-Thu. That means I only have Wed where I need to get up super early (4:40 today) to get bike time in. The idea would be to limit my trainer time to Wednesday only. All other days I go outside. Today I didn't have it in me to hit the trainer for night riding in the 30s. Maybe next time, which will be in 2 weeks since I'm WFH next week.

This will last as long as it lasts. When it's 22 and dark out, we'll have to see. Right now I'm getting good miles in and chipping away at the scale. The aim is 175 right now. Actually the aim is 186, then after that I can reassess, but I'll be shooting for the 170s either way. Ideally this gets close towards the end of the year.

After that I can start to think about the 2009 race season. Right now I'm getting as many hours in the saddle as I can. When there's snow on the ground, I'll have to adjust. Right now there's not.

Pre Dawn Rides

When it gets colder, you're not supposed to start the majority of your rides before the sun comes up. But I find myself doing that recently. Today was 6:20. Saturday was 6:05. Same story last week, and tomorrow, and Thursday no doubt.

The temps are supposed to bump up for Thursday morning and it may be 50 when I ride. So I may extend this one to a solid 3+ hours just to enjoy what little warm mornings I have left. Before long it will be dipping well below 37 degrees like it was today. Not sure how well I can handle an hour at 25 in the dark. But if the goal is worth it the answer should be easy enough.

The one thing about riding on these cold days, when the sun comes up it feels so amazingly refreshing. It's just great to be out on the bike at that hour of the day. It's also great to have been out for 2 hours and think, "I'd just be getting to Penn Station right now."

Blog No More?

I have been very lax in my blogging lately. I figure that's a good thing for me, maybe not such a good thing for the readers. It's good for me because it means I'm not looking to waste time on the way to work as much. It also means I'm not going to work as much.

A few things going on here:

* I'm working from home almost every Tuesday and Thursday. I use that commute time to ride my bike.

* We bought a portable DVD player for Julia so we can go on long car rides. That means I get a DVD player to watch on the train.

* I picked up a base building book which is interesting to me.

Add it all up and my blog time is less than ever. Like I said, it's a good thing that I only go to Brooklyn 3 days a week, and every 5th week I'm home the whole week since I'm on support. That will be next week. So that amounts to 12 trips to the office every 5 weeks, for an average of 2.4 days a week, compared to what used to be 25 days a week. That's rich, and phat, and all that good stuff.

On the bike, my season is over. I've revised my goals. I now have 2:

1. Drop into the 170s. Enough of this bouncing around. I'll explain more about this someday but it's time to start living long-term with my plans.

2. Have fun.

That's it. Ok, in NYC now. Enjoy your Monday.