weigh in and training

Lets see...what to type about first. Should I type about my weigh in and the meeting? Or should I type about my bike ride this morning? I mean, which one? Bike ride? Weigh in? Oh heck, I'll go chronologically.

Went to my meeting. As I wrote yesterday I was optimistic about the results. I was actually estimating (based on my home weigh ins) that I would be down about 4.5 pounds. I stepped on the scales with confidence. I mean, I was pretty sure that my weigh in was going to be a good one. Uhhhhh it was not what I expected. I did NOT lose 4.5 pounds. Not even remotely close. Yeah, I lost 5.8 pounds! YES you read that right. I lost FIVE POINT EIGHT pounds! Five and eight tenths of a pound. Holy cow...that is almost 6 pounds in one week!

There was some sad news. The weight watcher leader that was there......Bonnie is actually the leader that i have had for most of my weight loss journey. She is not going to be leading any more meetings as she accepted another job. Sad. Makes me nervous. I've sat in on a lot of meetings in the last few months...and I have heard some pretty lame leaders. But we'll have to see!

Last night I came home and I admit that I ate a bit more food than I probably should have. I ate pancakes and turkey bacon. I then followed that carb laden meal up with a 70 minute exercise bike ride. (I had ridden for about 35 minutes early yesterday morning also). I was kinda nervous about what the scales would say today. But the results were not bad. (hey, it showed me down..that's all that matters)

This morning the cat (Ethel) started at around 4AM. She just didn't want me to sleep. She wanted to tell me something. She pawed at my face. She bit my hair. She meowed and tapped me with her pay. It was terrible. Finally at about 6Am I got out of bed. I guess she just wanted me to get awake...because from then on she was fine. But, no problem...I was hoping to get an outside ride in this morning as the weather was supposed to be gorgeous today. I looked at the thermometer. YIKES 43 degrees outside! That's cold! (yeah, I'm a wimp) I turned on my computer. I made my oatmeal. I ate my oatmeal. I answered some emails. Ohh yeah, life was just moving along. 7AM. Ohhh joy, it was up to 44 degrees. At about 7:30 I looked and we were up to 45 degrees. I stepped outside (gave a truck driving by a nice sight, me in my nightgown with my flannel pants standing on the front deck stretching and feeling how cold it was). Hmmmm...it wasn't that cold. So I went in, bundled up and grabbed my stuff (I took extra care with my cell phone....I'm not sure it could handle another submersion in the cats water dish) and off I went. My IPOD was fully charged so I was able to listen to music on this ride.

My goal that I set for this week, in my training was to ride as much as possible (exercise bikes if I couldn't get outside) and try to do at LEAST 12 miles outside on the roads. (last weeks goal was 10 miles.....I did 11.21...averaging 9.1 mph). I don't know what overcame me. I had a route all planned in my head. I came to the turn off that I should take to do that route. And I thought, "why the heck not" and I went straight to a longer route and definitely more hilly. It seemed at every turn, when I had the option of choosing to go the 'easy/short' way or the 'long/more hilly' way I chose the harder option. Heck, I even swung around once and did a second lap on the north end of the battlefield. Probably because it was so bucolic. Ohh wait, that was the manure that they were spreading in the fields! (haa haa haa) I'll admit, the first mile or two was rough. My legs were KILLING me. But it seemed to get better the further on I went. At one point on the battlefield, I was riding along and singing at the top of my lungs. (hey, I heard that singing while you exercise helps to expand the lungs and actually helps your workout....and I like to sing and the music was really good so why not? And NO, I didn't sing aloud when I was in town...or anywhere near where others could really hear me....well, not including the cows).

Soooo the results of my ride. One hour and 41 minutes. 16.17 miles! Average speed of 9.5. SOOOO, I went further, (true it took me longer, but that's expected) and I bettered my average speed. :-)

The other thing that I started working on during the ride. Hills. I've been doing the hills. I just gear down, stay in my saddle and pump my legs to get up the hill. I go mighty slow on some of those hills, but I make it to the top. WELL, today I started experimenting with getting out of the saddle and really working on the way up the hills. Well, first of all I learned that I can't have it in too low of a gear or else it's like near impossible because it is actually wobbly and you feel as if your legs are just flying through the air because there is not enough resistance. SOOO the next attempt I left it in the higher gear that I had used to approach the hill. Uhhh nope... It worked for a little bit. But after just a bit, you start to slow down and it feels as if you are trying to ride through quicksand. Uhh that doesn't work! So it's a middle of the ground gear that you need to be in. Ohh yeah, I found out that one of my middle of the ground gears slips. Yeah, that hurt when my leg jarred when it slipped it's gear. But i kept riding and ignored the pain (that was at about mile 4....) and whadya know...by the time I got home it didn't hurt anymore. (Maybe it's because my butt was so numb...yeah, I forgot the bike shorts/padded underwear again...ok the butt wasn't that bad..but I was mad at myself for forgetting). But you know...with the gear...it's only on one tier of gears...so if I knock it up to the next 7 (my middle 7 out of the 21) then I'm ok. Well, that's good...I shouldn't be wimping out and riding in that low gear anyway should I?? tee hee hee

So, I'm pretty stoked about my ride this morning. I blew my training goal out of the water...that's a REALLY good thing! :-) I still haven't faced the south side of the battlefield yet....that's like ALL uphill. I'll get there though! I'll get there!