T O T K a t

Almost forgot my little cycle on Saturday... 7.5 miles back to my house. At an average speed of... wait for it... 14.5mph. Another 0.3mph faster even though I got a bit disheartened on the long, shallow hill at Putney. *beam* I've done a total of 96 miles now and there's a long weekend away coming up where there will be bikes coming in the back of the car, so I might just make it to 100 this week.

(7.5 miles)

It was pretty cool to see other bikers nodding at us. In some ways it's like being on a boat; the way that people are friendly to other boaters and I guess it helps that we were on quite such a yummy bike (it does rather rumble). Not sure it'd be hugely fun to sit on the back of it for hours, especially not in town traffic with all that braking and weaving but 90 minutes each was wasn't too bad. Shame I was a bit ill on Sunday (still recovering now, sipping bitter lemon and snoozing a lot) as it made the ride back a bit unpleasant (high speeds were fine, but low frequency rumbling, weaving in between traffic and the effort of bracing against braking took its toll on my stomach once we hit town again) so we had to stop for a breath of air and some water; not that far from home as it turned out, but then you can't see an awful lot in the position I was in so I had no idea where we were at the time.

Thanks loads to R for lending me her leathers for the trip back; they fit soooo much better than N's jacket and felt a lot better than wearing a huge jacket and jeans.

OK, I bow to N's advice on the cycling shoes front; he was so right. I got a pair of stiff-soled shoes yesterday and then wore them to cycle over to Richmond. And what a difference they made; my average speed for that trip was up to 14.2mph (despite really slogging up Wimbledon Hill at just under 7mph) and working against a stiffish head-wind for much of the journey. And my bike computer is a little bit out.) 31 minutes to do 7.5 miles. *pleased*

(7.5 miles)

Went for a little bicycle ride with N last night. t didn't go so well, as I thought at the time. I got quite frustrated and lost a lot of confidence. The confidence thing is because I don't like not being brilliant at something. So when I'm with someone else who is, I lose confidence and get really frustrated despite maybe being only a beginner. I totally lose perspective; it's quite odd. It was also a touch windy, which didn't help.

Still. 9.5 miles or so (I think. My computer had reset when I got to it, I think something may have been leaning on the button.) and an average speed of around 13mph (I noticed that before the reset happened). Not too shabby really. And there were a couple of little hills involved and a little bit of getting lost in Sutton town centre.

(9.5 miles)

Got lots done this evening, due to crossness mostly. I had intended to race straight out of the door on my bike as soon as I got home, but it had fallen over again and taken the Cave with it. So I was quite cross and had to do something about it. I fitted a hook for the top eyelet, to hold the top in place; and fitted a bracket to the wall to lock the bike to to keep it upright. Drilling and hammering of rawlplugs and screwing in of security screws (they won't ever undo, they're designed only to be done up) and it's all a lot more secure now. I've also compiled the mortgage application pack for when I remortgage in September (fixed, discounted rate comes to an end, booooo!) and vacuumed the whole house. Lots done. *satisfied*

Quick cycle to Richmond (7.5 miles).

I got fed up with my bike falling over under its little cover in the back garden, and bought a Bike Cave and it's pretty huge (though I got it more cheaply than from Amazon :o)). I reckon you could happily get 3 bikes in it and it just about fits to one side of my kitchen window, against next door's wall. There's a little flap in the back to put a fixing bolt through; which I'll do, purely to keep the damned bike upright more than for security.

(9.5 miles)

It's amazing how quickly I get cold after stopping cycling. I got home just now after a little 8.5 mile trip and started dealing with the recycling for tomorrow morning as soon as I got in to the house, while still in my shorts and t-shirt (with a thermal vest underneath). To my surprise, after about 5 minutes I got pretty cold. I'm now wrapped up in a fleece and jeans.

Neat little ride to Wandsworth and back; lots of shallow downhill on the way out and a couple of short uphills on the way back. I overtook 3 other cyclists (one of them on one of the uphills). Oh and my average speed was 13.5mph; up from 12.5mph. Quite pleased with myself. Again!

(8.5 miles)

I hit my final target weight on 26th January 2007, having lost enough to get to my initial target weight between May 8th 2006 and 28th August 2006 (hitting a BMI of 24.9). I've kept it off since (despite a brief dip down, under a weight I thought I would not want to go below, for a few weeks at the end of last year/beginning of this year). I think that's pretty good going. Currently I have a BMI of 21.3 and I think that's pretty good too. If I carry on cycling a reasonable amount that may go up due to changing fat to muscle, but we'll see. I never intended exercise to be part of this weight loss and maintenance thing because I know how difficult it is to sustain an exercise programme. Right now, I'm really quite happy with how I am and how healthy is my diet. Averaging 7 portions of fruit and veg per day seems good to me :o)

(8 miles)

N took me out for a little bit of a bike ride yesterday; from Richmond to Walton on Thames. 25 mile round trip! On the way, we averaged 13mph, but dropped to 12.5mph on the way back mostly due to me having a bit of a moment on a hill (well, OK it was an actual panic attack, which I've never had before and my throat closed up, I couldn't breathe and I sounded almost exactly like someone having an asthma attack. quite scary, but I got over it and finished the hill without walking up).

25 miles! That was 800kcal (according to www.weightlossresources.co.uk) so we stuffed our faces silly with pizza in the evening. J and N are off doing London to Brighton today, so they had totally free rein over scoffage. 'course, even though I'm a bit sunburnt and feeling a teensy bit dodgy in the belly due to that, I really want to go out again on my bike today. So. I have maps... :o)

Oh, and on Friday I cycled to N's in the evening. TfL said it should take 40 minutes and it took me only 35, by a far less direct route *beam* This is fun!

(7.5 miles on Friday, 25 miles on Saturday))

Fun! Wanna play some more now!

(6.5 miles)

I've not updated in a long while on the green stuff, so it's almost a month's worth of green here:-

• Accepted 5 plastic carrier bags! (I'm now carrying a couple in my handbag so this doesn't happen any more).
• Thrown away two carrots that had liquified in about 4 days and a tiny bit of cheese that had sweated itself green.
• Taken 4 more items of clothing to the charity shop and bought two - trousers and a skirt.
• Ignored the pile of 18 cans of out of date Diet Coke that need pouring away and the cans recycling.

And in other news, I now have two working dance mats for StepMania and a bit of floor to play on that doesn't scare me that someone might go through it, or wobble the TV so much that it falls off the table and breaks. There's a buttload of really good new tracks on the European StepMania sites as well, which is really cool; while I was waiting for the main song pack to download, I spent a couple of hours pounding through the new ones and they're really really good. So, now I don't need to spend £20 in Namco when I need a DDR fix, I can plug in at home :o)

And the weather is fabulous today!