Riding...Riding....Riding....

I'm really enjoying riding! I really am, when I got home from work tonight, the rain of the past few days was done and I decided to get on my bike and go for a ride. Now, even though it is MAY, someone forgot to tell mother nature and it is frigging cold out there. None the less, I bundled up, long sleeved shirt, under a short sleeved shirt with a jacket on top, long pants, my helmet and off I went. It was exhilirating. I'm loving it. I went down our horseshoe to the right, turned right onto Old Yale road, turned right onto Whatcom road, right onto South Parallel Road, Left onto Old Yale Road, and around Delair park, turned right back onto Old Yale road and finally turned right onto the second half of our horseshoe.

I don't actually know how long I was gone. I didn't look at the time when I left, I do know that the Canucks game had just gone into the first between period segment and when I got back they were about 5 minutes or so into the 2nd period.

I DO know that I worked my buns off. I did have to get off the bike at one point and push it up one of the hills. I just plum ran out of steam! The wind was in my face and I was pedaling for all I was worth but I didn't seem to get anywhere. So, I got off, and walked my bike to the top of the first hill. Got back on at the flat portion, built up my speed and made it up the rest of the hill, including the hill leading up to our complex.

I couldn't beleive how hard it was. Bike riding used to be so easy! At the Gym I can get on a stationary bike and go for a half an hour, or forty five minutes. However, in the real world, on a real road, with REAL hills, and REAL wind blowing in your face, it is so much more difficult.

Here I sit 4 hours later and my legs are still throbbing and are all jello feeling. I know that I was huffing and puffing when I got home, I was sweating up a storm when I got home as well. The next bike ride, I'm going to wear my heart rate monitor so that I can see just how intense my ride really is!

Proud

I had to change my weigh in day this week from Thursday night to Saturday morning. I have a few work shifts at night coming up and I'll be missing my weigh in so I think I'm going to make the move to Saturday mornings. I went to my first Saturday morning weigh in at 8am yesterday and found success. I was down 2.8lbs. That's a total of 13.1 pounds in four weeks. That's a pretty good average.

I felt good about my weigh in all day, it carried me through the weekly chores of grocery shopping,etc.

My husband and I decided to go for lunch at Tim Horton's. It is a little over a kilometre away, we drove down, I ordered the mushroom soup and I only ate half of it. That was enough, I was satisfied. Then I made the decision to walk home. It only took 14 minutes, and I once again made it up the hill without huffing and puffing along. I was happy, happy, happy.

After dinner, I made myself go to the gym. I really didn't want to but I did it! I did my 45 minutes on the Elliptical and then moved over to the treadmill where I am trying to learn how to run. Now, I realize so some people that may sound funny. Learn to run? What's to learn, you just run. But Trust me, when you have very rarely run in your life, you have to learn how to do it properly. Especially when you are my size. I had a trainer a few years ago, before I had my car accident who had put together a learn to run program for me. I pulled it out this week and looked through it and started at it.

I walked for the first minute, ran for 30 seconds, walked for a minute to recover, ran for 45 seconds, walked for a minute and a half, ran for 1 minute, walked for 2 minutes. You get the idea. I'm not ready for a race yet, I'm fairly certain it would make me keel over. However, I'm proud of what I accomplished today.