Day 444-Weigh-in Day: 281lbs

WEEK 62

Start Weight: 365.4

2 Weeks Ago Weight: 284

Current Weight: 281

This Week’s Weight Loss: 3lbs

Total Weight Loss: 84.4lbs

To Go: 70.6lbs

Miles Biked this Week: 53.48

Total Miles Biked: 2370.11

Miles to Go: 5129.89

GEOGRAPHY (Where I'd be on the map having started at my house in Salt Lake City, Utah, heading for Tokyo):

Pacific Ocean (1649 miles off the west coast. I am heading for the Hawaiian Islands which is 2650 miles from San Diego)

Weekly Bike/Workout Totals

Last Week: 8.6 miles (bike)

Monday: 11.93 miles (bike)

Tuesday: 8.90 miles (bike)

Wednesday: 3.98 miles (bike)

Thursday: 5.73 miles (bike)

Friday: 14.34 miles (bike)

Saturday: Rest

TODAY:

You can read yesterday’s blog entry if you want to know where I’ve been over the past few weeks. All is well, I’m still here hummin’ along. Life at work got chaotic again resulting in 1-2am late nights with bad survival eating. But, this week was pretty much perfect. I will admit I ate a small cookie, had a dime size sample of Cold Stone ice cream, and a big handful of popcorn yesterday. I am sure it all added up to less than 100 calories. I was pretty perfect this week with eating, and I was able to ride to work, doing a longer route, each day.

Yesterday, I did some good hill climbing, including the monster hill I tried to conquer a few times last year. Guess what? I still can’t climb that darn hill. It gets to be about a 17% grade and I just can only move myself so far at that grade. When you think about it, 17% grade is 17 feet of elevation increase for every 100 feet of road. That is steep! I rode some other hills this morning that were about 8% that were fairly do-able. I got to the top and a fellow in a car rolled his window down and congratulated me on my hard work. That was surely nice.

I can’t tell you how I love my bike. I never knew how awesome it would be to move from a mountain bike on the road, to a road bike. Every day I catch myself peddling along with a smile on my face. The first day I rode it a few weeks back, my wife and her friend were driving down the street approaching me without my knowledge. They said that I was smiling while I was peddling. Really, is it that obvious? The bike is a 30-speed and hums along without any noise. It shifts so smoothly, and I’m getting used to how it all works.

I can’t remember if I told you, but we ended up purchasing our tickets to Japan from United Airlines. I bought at the cheapest time I’ve seen over the past 3 months. I feel good about it. It is going to cost $400 to check my bike in under the plane, round trip, so I am going to send United a letter asking them if they will waive the fee. I of course will give them a nice mention and plug in my film. I also found our hotel that we’ll be staying at by Mount Fuji. I approached the hotel and they will give me a little discount too for my film. I am learning that if you just ask, many times you’ll get what you’re wanting. I will be plugging the hotel too. It’s a pretty cool little place, with gorgeous views of Fuji.

I did something kind of scary today…

I signed myself up for a 52-mile bike race in 2 weeks. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I thought it would give me some good experience doing a longer ride. It has a 1500-foot climb in elevation during the race, and is out in the boonies of the desert, west of the Salt Lake Valley. It starts in Stockton, heads south to Rush Valley, heads west to the mountains, heads north to Grantsville, and then heads back south to Tooele. It’s like a big loop. It won’t be easy for me, but I think it is do-able…especially on my bike. It is a race, but I am not doing this to try and win, I just want to finish :) This will be my first bike event. I’m scared, but I’m also kind of excited.

Well, I’m going to leave you on a fun note…

Tonight, my little girl won 1^st place out of 22 Pinewood Derby cars that were racing at a Girl Scout Powder Puff race. As a little congratulations outing, we took her to get some ice cream at Cold Stone. Talk about delectable looking ice cream! Well, I let my wife and daughter have what they wanted, but for me, I simply had a dime-sized sample taste of the poison. ;) I have included some pictures of what I resisted this evening. I am proud of myself.

Well, I hope this upcoming week will be a good one for you. I have 14 more weeks to go, and still have a lot of weight to get off of my frame. The less weight I have on Fuji, the easier it will be to bike. I don’t know about you, but I want to be 210 Again!

Happy hill climbing!

Don