My first blog

I start this blog with trepidation since the fact of writing it presumes (a) that I have something worth writing about and (b) that someone will read it - I have little confidence in either. Nonetheless, here I am.

The trigger for beginning this blog is a culmination of events that began last fall. That is when mid life crisis angst overcame self indulgent inertia and I decided I needed to lose weight and get fit. More correctly, that is when I took action since the deciding part happened once a week, every week for the previous three years.

Beginning in October (or "Q4" as I think of it), I stopped eating junk, started eating healthy foods and reduced portion sizes. Over the winter I lost 43 lbs and today I am at the top end of a healthy weight range for my height. My goal is to lose another 10lbs over the summer.

As my weight came down, I also started exercising. I set up my bike on an indoor trainer and started watching back episodes of Heroes, MI5, and Battlestar Galactica - hmm, what kind of fantasy land am I living in? One day in January I was boasting to my sister Paula about my weight loss and new found fitness. She caught me off guard when she challenged me to join her in running the New York marathon. Now, I can think of few things in life I enjoy less than running so, being the clever negotiator that I am, I countered with a bluff-calling challenge I knew she could not accept - "lets do a century ride instead", i texted. And this is where it all went wrong, she accepted.

To answer my sister's question, yes, it is 100 miles and, yes again, it is in 1 day. So, at the beginning of May we signed up for The Flattest Century in the East (TFCE) http://www.nbwclub.org/events/2009-TFCE/2009-TFCE.html. We persuaded some friends and family to join and our merry group is now 6.

Although I have been training consistently on the bike, it has mainly been indoors. Yesterday, I rode 51 miles through Bedford, Carlisle, Acton, and Concord. As I collapsed on the couch last night, I realized I have some work to do before TFCE on September 13th. I also realized I have an experince to blog about. Perhaps noone will read it but I think it will be therapeutic to write about, so here i go....

Day 1: Today is a rest day :-)