You know that good kind of tired?

Well, I'm there. I'm in that tired but it feels good place. I found that I was pushing myself up too far on my heart rate by looking at my monitor's settings (duh). I dropped it down a bit and didn't feel like I was trying to murder myself by going almost flat out. I also broke out the spandex. I've got a set of bibs that are so great for riding but I wasn't thinking about using them inside but my butt feels much better. I know that's TMI, sorry. I think my saddle is just barely too thin so my butt bones aren't on it perfectly but if I wear my bibs with their chamois it makes it feel fine. Maybe it's just like my grandma used to say and I've got a bone-y butt and need that extra padding.

Beginning Exercise

I've been putting it off for way too long. I started what they call "bonk" training Saturday morning. I rode my bike on my trainer for 10 minutes at 60% of my max heart rate. I skipped Sunday because I was lazy. I got up this morning on time and did it again for 10 minutes. I'm trying to lose some weight and it's been a long time coming.

When I started working where I work in 2001 I started a 4 hour daily commute. I was already fat but man this made it much worse. I woke up every morning, drove 2 hours to work, then worked 8 hours and drove 2 to 2 1/2 hours home. Ami was working and we were both worn out and she didn't feel like cooking (can you blame her?) so we ate out. I ate out a lot at work because people were always asking me to go and it was good to get out of the cube for a while. We were always going to a local bar that had a cheap (and bad for you) lunch of bar food. I packed on the pounds and it really sucks. There was no time for exercise and after being exhausted from driving I didn't feel like it anyway.

I got myself a bicycle a couple of years ago and rode it with gusto every day when it was warm enough outside, which is often in Georgia. I would go out at lunch and attack hills and ride around our neighborhood and have a good time. I lost about 30 pounds in 3 months. I stopped for the winter and never did pick it back up. I know it's laziness and I'm prone to that. I'm prone to procrastination, too, which you can tell by how often I update this blog.

I've become inspired to lose some weight by a few things. We watch Ruby on the Style Network and she seems like a "down home girl", like she's someone we grew up with and she's come a long way in her weight loss. She's really dealing with a lot of demons that I don't even have and she's making great progress. That gets me a bit fired up. Second, we watched You Are What You Eat on BBC America yesterday. That kind of wakes you up, too. Not the bad eating part, we don't really eat badly often, but it's more than it should be. It's the part where she shows the people what will happen if they continue on the path they're on. It's scary and I don't want to go down that road. My dad has had triple bypass heart surgery and I don't want that for myself. Sure, he was a heavy smoker for most of his life, but I still think that being overweight will put me on that operating table if I don't do something about it now.

I'm not going to lie and say it's fun to ride that trainer, it's not. I know that it's good for me though and that's going to keep me on it. I'm also going to start doing some exercise before other meals to try to help keep my body burning calories during the day. I'll keep posting what's going on with this on my blog to keep me honest and keep me going. I think if I know someone is keeping tabs on me here that should keep me motivated to not sleep in and get on that bike every day or go for a quick paced walk or something!

Tour de France 2009

I'm watching an encore showing of the Tour de France coverage right now. It's time trials today and I usually find them kind of boring but not today! It's pretty crazy how fast these guys are going.

Georgia Cup Race

Last Sunday Ami and I went to watch the Georgia Cup Road Race out in the east Macon area and we got some pictures. Wanna see 'em? Here they are.








Peloton coming up a hill.


The look on these guys faces. It's just getting started.


And they were gone.



The riders coming up on a turn that goes up a hill.



In the turn.



I like this shot of some of the guys going up the hill.



I have decided to get back on my bike and try to get back into shape and hopefully ride in one of these races in a year or two.