Booyah!

So as I promised yesterday I was going to get back to the blogging about bicycling and this morning's ride was the perfect incentive. Now, its no secret that I'm not this guy;

But I'm not quite this guy either;

I'd say I fall somewhere in the middle although I have been working to reduce some of my spare baggage around the middle in an effort to climb better and ride faster. My goal is to ride with the group again and not get chewed up and spat out;

	The Kooks - Ooh La .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Well, today I took a step (or should I say a revolution) in the right direction. I've found that I have much better rides after a day off and I think I've learned that I need to give myself a day off before my next group ride.

For you see, today my average mph for the 12.75 miles to good old SHS was (trumpet fanfare please) 20.0 MPH!!!!!! My time for the ride in was 38.25 and that's what I'm talking about! Yeah, its geeky and its way to cycling centric but I don't care - I'm getting faster. Now, I won't lie, I wish I would have one a new bike in the contest and I could have chosen a bike that was a little bit lighter (hence creating a faster ride) but honestly since I would be getting a cyclocross/touring bike I don't think it would be that much slower.

No, I think the reason I'm getting faster is that I'm losing weight. Again, I'm not quite to the point of the guy in the second picture but I have been carrying a little too much extra weight - the results of my habit of eating after 8 o'clock. Slowly but surely I've been shedding that weight and when I weighed myself today I found that I was 166 - the lightest I've been since November. That alone is enough. You see, I don't need the latest, lightest or most expensive road bike ever (click on this link for the world's most expensive bicycle http://most-expensive.net/bicycle) - although I won't lie that a lighter bike would be great.

No, I need a lighter, more efficient engine - namely me. So, I'm embarking on a quest to get down to under 160 pounds by the end of the summer. I'm cutting back on the late night bingeing, eating breakfast to jump start my metabolism (something I have rarely done in the last few years as I really hate eating in the morning), eating more fruits and fibers and cutting down on empty calories. My reasoning is this - if I can lighten up the engine and gain some power from riding more maybe I can keep up with the big dogs - well that's the theory anyway.

So I now have a more immediate goal.  Every year I do the Gold Coast Ride (Official Gold Coast Link) and the fastest I've every completed the 100 miles is about 6 hours and 40 minutes.  This year I'm hoping to get my fitness level up  so I can do it solo (no trying to pace or keep pace with others just me and my ipod) in six hours.  I figure this will give me some perspective for the cross country ride I'm hoping to do in the summer of 2011. 

Now the plan is to keep this fitness level up and blow the lid off me previous pace - and become a lean, mean cycling machine in the process - BOOYAHHHHHHHH!

Stay well and I'll see you on the road!