It was tough to get up this morning. I had good intentions of going to bed early last night but wound up getting only about 5.5 hrs of sleep. Not good. As I lay there I caught myself trying to think of a way to sleep in and ride later. Again, not good. I forced myself to get up, drank a bottle of water, got dressed, and headed to the garage where my steed is housed. In that order. I know, the visual is kinda scary. Starting out my legs felt a little sluggish. Not unexpected since my first ride (Ride 1) in years was only two days old. Once I got the blood flowing, though, the legs started to feel ok.

So, I’m riding down the first long stretch of my short 10 mile loop when I realize what a beautiful morning it is. It’s about 5:15 and cool but not cold. Crisp is what I would call it. The sky is clear and there’s an awesome looking early-morning half-moon in the Southwest sky with Jupiter shining brightly not far away. I love the night sky. I’m a bit of an amateur astronomy buff as well.

Going along with my plan to slowly ease into it, today was a planned rest day.  I feel much better than I expected to with no noticeable effects from the ride yesterday.  I had no soreness whatsoever except for a little in my neck later in the day.    All-in-all not bad.  As I ride more this week I expect it to get worse.

I do feel “better” today.  Is it psychological?  Maybe.

Well, today marked day 1 of Biking To Live. The alarm went off promptly at 5:00 AM. Man is that early. I’m glad I went to bed early the night before. I was surprised at how dark it was outside. Well, I proceeded to get dressed and downed a quick bottle of water before even leaving the bedroom. It was a little more brisk than I anticipated so I went back inside and threw on a long sleeve t-shirt.

The ride, for the most part, was uneventful. Because I wasn’t sure how the traffic was going to be I stayed to the sidewalk for the first part of the ride. The sidewalk in this area is frequently used by runners but there were no other dedicated “athletes” out at this time in the morning. Maybe they were smarter and still in bed. I eventually left the side walk and hit the bike path. Surprisingly, I fell into a good rhythm and everything seemed to be going good. About halfway through my route my hands started to cramp up some and I had to shake them out every so often to get the feeling back. It was at this point that I decided I needed new gloves. The ones I had were….I don’t know….at least ten years old. I’ve also decided by this point that I need to get a flashing red light for the rear. There wasn’t much traffic, and I had the bike path, but I just didn’t feel too comfortable riding with it still so dark. I guess I’ll be visiting Nashbar later in the day to order gloves and a light.

With tomorrow being 21-Apr that means I’m on the eve of the day I will begin to save my life through riding my bike. I’m excited but cautious. I’m ready to change but know it will be a long, hard road both on and off the bike.

I made final preparations today ensuring my bicycle checked out ok and that I had all my gear (helmet, gloves, water bottle, shoes) prepped and ready to go. I put my bike up on a makeshift work stand I had created using a bicycle trunk carrier and an old Black and Decker Workmate Bench I had. While on the stand I lubed the chain and pedals. Eventually I’m going to have to purchase a quality workstand in order to maintain my chariot of life.

My wife has readied for tomorrow by preparing a special detox drink that will help clean me out. After that I’ll be going on a strict diet to help shed these 100 extra pounds I’ve accumulated. Strict may be too harsh a word. Anything I do with regards to my diet is better than what I was doing.

Everything seems to be in order so I guess it’s time to turn in and get some sleep. This is another area of my life that will need dramatic improvement. My last few years in the military I became accustomed to surviving on anywhere from 2-4 hours of sleep a night. Sometimes more and sometimes less. You can only imagine what that does to your energy levels. Since leaving the service I’m probably averaging about 5.5 hours of sleep a night. That has got to change as well.

Ok, it’s off to bed now. I’ll see you on the other side.

After some tedious searching Biking To Live now has its theme.  I always have a hard time deciding on a theme for a blog because I want it to be just right.  That’s hard to do when you’re using a free theme though.  For Biking To Live I wanted something that wasn’t too dark and not too bright.  I also wanted it to be easy to navigate, soothing to the eyes, and easy for me to add functionality to.  After some careful consideration, I settled on the Notebook theme I found at Skinpress.  I wanted a biking related them but there just weren’t any.  If Biking To Live becomes popular I may have a custom theme commissioned.  I think the Notebook theme is appropriate though since this blog will serve as my journal (journey?) to a new me.

Here’s a picture showing some of the functionality of the theme.  Click on it to get a bigger view.