Clues

I went to the chiropractor this morning and she did a bunch of her voodoo on me.  She does some kind of strength testing on acupuncture points to diagnose certain ailments.  I have no idea how it works but it has been helpful to me over the years.  Anyway, I was telling her about the grumpiness and fatigue.  She did her thing and came up with two different clues.  One is that I was showing allergies.  That would explain the fatigue and sinus pain.  The other thing she found was hormones out of balance.  That would explain the crankiness.  There's not much I can do about the allergy.  There might be something I can do about the hormones.  I've been eating a lot of conventional  yogurt lately, like 25% of my daily calories.  And what do they give cows to make them make more milk?  Hormones.  Damn.  I love yogurt.  I guess I'll have to cut back on it and see what happens. 

Saturday Stats on Friday

Miles ridden this week: 68
Average calories per day: 1957
Pounds lost: 1.5
Current weight: 254 lbs (115.5 kg)
Total weight loss since 3/26/10: 37 lbs.
Weeks until next big ride (here to Cumberland, RI and back): 0

At 4am tomorrow, I'm taking my tired, cranky self and heading for RI for the weekend.  I'm hoping the trip will perk me up. 
 I'm taking the tandem with my friend MJ from the zen center.  I always feel funny riding the tandem with someone other than Stefanie, like I'm cheating on her with another stoker.  My goal, as always when doing a long ride on the tandem, is for us to be speaking to each other when we're done.  I think we'll be okay.  It's not that far and I found a better route than the one I used last year.  I didn't get much of a chance to scout it out but it goes through a lot of areas I'm familiar with and then picks up the old route in Dedham.  In fact, we'll be riding right by my grandmother's old house. 
The down side of bringing the tandem is that MJ doesn't think she's going to be up for riding back on Sunday.  I'm holding out hope that she'll have such a fabulous time riding down tomorrow and feel so good afterwards that she'll be dying to ride back.  The truth is that we'll probably be taking the train.  But hey, I like the train.

Grouchy McCrankypants

I'm having an interesting week.  I have been crabbier this week than pretty much any week since I started practicing zen.  I've also been very tired and there has been a major return of the afternoon sleepies.  Frankly, I'm not really sure what my problem is.  I have two theories.  One is that my weight loss is into 'old weight' by which I mean fat that's been on my body for years rather than months and that the toxins being released when it breaks down are that much more difficult for my system to handle.  My other theory is that I'm having a mid-life crisis.  I have several other friends who feel like they having mid-life crises as well.  We're thinking of having a party. 
The things keeping me going right now are biking, my shop and my practice.  If I didn't have those, there'd be trouble in River City.

Saturday Stats

Miles ridden in last two weeks: 94
Average calories per day: 1941
Pounds lost: 2.5
Current weight: 255.5 lbs (116 kg)
Total weight loss since 3/26/10: 35.5 lbs.
Weeks until next big ride (here to Cumberland, RI and back): 1

My weight loss got a literal shot in the ass this week.  I saw the doctor on Tuesday and told him that I hadn't been losing weight as fast and so he started me on the next thing.  It is an injection of three things your body makes anyway that help the liver break down fat.  I'm not sure what they are but people have been asking me so I'll find out.  It seems to be helping because, not only had my weight loss slowed down, I was getting that funny stuck feeling in my body that signals my weight loss stalling out entirely.  Since the shot, things seem to have loosened up.  The stuck feeling is hard to explain.  It just feels like something stuck in my middle.  I get another shot next week so we'll continue to see how it goes.
I'm laying off running today because my knees are a little sore and I'm also just weary.  I want to be super careful of my joints while my weight is still so high.  So, I'm going to relax this morning, maybe do a few errands.  Tomorrow, Stef and I are planning to ride the tandem up to the Lowell Folk Festival.  It's only about 22 miles from her house.  The team car may or may not pick us up there.  It depends on how we feel, what the family's plans are and how hot it is.  I'm looking forward to it!

Routes

When I ride a lot in the summer, I get so bored with the same old routes over and over again.  Finding new routes is time consuming.  Just going out and following the road can cause you to end up in the middle of a rotary muttering every filthy thing you can think of.  I end up cobbling together different routes from parts of other routes, a little bike path here, a little Mystic Valley Parkway there.  Sometimes, I just need some new scenery.
Here's some ways I like to find new routes:
~Cycling sites are never a bad place to start.  We've gotten some great routes that way this year.  Bike shops also sell maps but they can be expensive.
~When mapping, I like to use Google maps for directions and MapMyRide for mileage.  One of the really helpful things that Google maps does is it allows you to zoom in to street level live pictures.  This is excellent for getting a look at some of the crazy intersections they have around here.  It is also a good way to see if a route is shady or sunny.  MapMyRide is good for getting mileage on shorter routes and loops but tends to crap out if you are doing a ride longer than 50 miles.  I kind of have a love-hate thing going with that site.
~Getting across any major highway can be tricky.  Route 128 is about an even 10 miles from here in any direction so I'm going to have to deal with it on any longer ride I do.  I try to never, ever cross a highway using a road that has a highway exit on it.  People coming off the highway still have highway mind and it takes them a while to change back to "You're back on a regular road and LOOK OUT FOR THE BIKE!" mind.  Don't ask me how I know.
~Don't pick anything with too many twists and turns unless you have a printed cue sheet and sometimes not even then.  It can be easy to get lost.  Stef's iPhone has come in very handy this year.  We got real lost back in May sometime.  She texted her husband "We're lost."  He texted back "Use the phone, Luke."  We did and it has come in handy on many occasions.
~On the other hand, picking more main drag routes can be a problem because of traffic.  Numbered highways with three digit numbers tend to be direct, easy to follow and also much less busy than one or two digit highways.  Always double check them on the Google, though, so you don't end up in that traffic rotary.

Picking routes can be an adventure in itself but necessary to stave off boredom.  So, good luck out there and let me know if you have any favorite routes.

(no title, just the sound of Lucy sucking air)

Went for another run today and lasted a whole 90 seconds!  It isn't much but it was kind of exciting because I can feel my body getting the idea.  During my bike ride yesterday, I could feel a bit of difference when I stood up on my pedals to get up a hill.  I've just started doing that in the last few weeks.  When my weight is above a certain point, getting up out of the saddle isn't something I can do.  My friend Kit has always maintained that her running was better for her biking than actually biking and I'm really starting to see that. 

Holy New Sport, Batman!

So, I thought I was in pretty good shape, you know, for a fat chick.  Well, that little run put me in my place good and proper.  I was supposed to walk for 5 minutes, run for 2 and walk for 5 more.  I managed to run for 1 minute and that was really, really slowly.  Apparently, I need to start out with the remedial version of this  training progam.  But, hey, you gotta start where you're at.  I'll give it another shot on Monday.  My recovery is pretty quick so I might try a couple of runs broken up by walking.  We'll see what my feet and knees can handle.
BTW, the dog had a great time.