I'm getting addicted...

..to this thing called cycling.  I'm starting to slightly obsess about it and am thinking about it often.

Brian, in his post over at Mid Life in the Fast Lane, said it very well.  He mentioned how it starts out as a thought that maybe I can just do this a little better.  Then you progress to adding a little distance and the next thing you know you are contemplating doing a century ride.

I must be addicted since I've gotten some gear, I keep pushing myself to go faster and/or farther, and yes I'm starting to think about a Century ride.  I'm not ready for it as yet, but I know that if I keep pushing myself and actually putting in the miles I can do it.

Yesterday I rode the farthest I have in almost 2 years - 18.3 miles.  I wasn't fast, with an average of 11.4 mph, but the fact is, I probably could have gone farther.  When I got home I wasn't worn out.  I could walk up the stairs with no more issue than normal.  I didn't even feel especially tired.  That all combines to tell me I could have gone farther.

One area that was tender though was the saddle area.  When you are placing the amount of weight that I am, on that concentrated of a region, it tends to get sore fairly quickly.  I'm finding that I start to get sore about 7 or 8 miles into my rides.  This has improved, though.  I was getting sore about 3 miles in, so progress is being made in this area. :)

In the weight department, I have to confess that I haven't been nearly as disciplined or made near enough of the right choices to move in a positive direction.  I haven't gained (at least not since my one week binge following the final weigh in of the Biggest winner) but I haven't lost either.  I have a feeling its definitely time to buckle down and stop eating over 3000 calories a day.  Sure if I take into consideration what I've been burning with my riding I'm "allowed" these calories, but if I want to lose some of this fat, I need to start eating less calories on a daily basis.

So my goal for this week is to ride 6 out of 7 days for a total of at least 60 miles and to limit my total calorie intake for the week to 2500/day for a total of 17,500 calories consumed for the week.  I'll have to closely watch what I eat since we had Mexican food and Ice Cream yesterday for a daily total of 3,389 calories, (with a burn of 1858 calories from yesterday's ride but I'm not counting net calories here).  So far today I've had 1,165 calories.  If I were to try and balance yesterday's choices, I would only have 446 calories left for today.  I think I might spread the deficit across a couple of days :)