Not The Biggest Fool

It’s 30-something and snowing right now in West Bend. No fooling; it really is. And that’s not unusual on April 1 but it’s still disappointing.

I’m heading into April far behind where I thought I would be. My 15 rides and 325 miles compare very unfavorably to last year’s pace: 25 rides for a total of 550. Those 325 miles are my weakest effort since 2009, when I entered April with only 275. But I ended 2009 with 4,800 miles—a personal record at the time—and this year my “official” goal is only 3,087, the number I need to reach 70,000, all-time. I’m not worried about hitting my goal, but I can’t say many good things about my 2019 cycling season so far.

Here’s some encouraging news: my weight is down. At 199 pounds, I am 7 pounds lighter than I was on April 1, 2018. Sure, that’s still too heavy, but it’s better. It’s something on which I can hang some hope. I have been working consistently in the home gym throughout the winter and I have made some positive changes to my diet, so there’s good reason to believe my weight will drop significantly once my cycling volume increases. Last year I went from 206 on April 1 down to 186 on October 16, the middle of the cyclocross season. This graph shows my body weight over the last 12 months:

Fat, fit, fat, fit … year after year. That’s a cycle I need to break.