First back to back...

Since I'm not running due to injury, I've updated my training schedule to include more biking and swimming. Because of this, I had my first back-to-back bike ride today.

I was actually looking forward to it, as it was to be an easy ride and keep my heart rate at 122 bpm or less. The reality is I had no chance of keeping that heart rate at 122 bpm. First off, I'm fat, over 40 lbs overweight, and secondly, it was 32 C and sunny outside. 

I really tried to keep my heart rate low, but after about the first 5 minutes of riding, I gave up. I would have had to walk my bike to do it, and even then, it may not have stayed that low. Instead, I just focused on keeping my cadence between 85 and 90 rpm. 

As I rode, I realized that I needed to stop being so paranoid about traffic. For all the years I rode, I never thought of that. Now, after my first crash and not having any accidents with a car with the 60,000+ miles I did prior, I keep thinking the odds are against me. 

Instead, I decided to stop the mental madness of thinking I was vulnerable. I find that doing that actually causes me to ride too close to the edge of the road, and if I don't pay attention, I almost go off the road. Being too cautious seems to put me in more peril. So I've decided to stop it, or at least keep telling myself to stop until I stop. 

I was going to swim tonight, but I had a late work conference call at 7:30 p.m., and by the time I was done, I needed some time to relax, so the swim wasn't critical. 

Food-wise, I'm still on track. I have six more days of clean eating until I weigh myself. I know I've lost weight; I can see it. It's just a matter of how much weight I've lost, and I don't want to set an expectation and be disappointed. I keep telling myself to remember that I'm losing weight but also gaining muscle. In the past, I'd lose 6 - 8 lbs per month; my record was 12 lbs in the first month I went on the meat diet. 

Tonight, it was not a very sexy meal. It was a grapefruit and steamed vegetables. No meat. It was a hearty lunch of pasta and a toasted tomato sandwich. Then, a dinner that doesn't seem like a dinner, but I was thinking that it's just that I expect more from all the years of conditioning of what a dinner should be. 

For the first time on this journey, I felt like snacking tonight. Instead, I fought the urge and had a cup of coffee, which turned off the snacking imposed. 

Bike - 1:11:32 / 26.86 km / 22.5 km/h avg pace