1OK, it's time to start telling the world what good shape I'm in, so I can track it and hopefully shame myself into improvement.

Height: 6'2"
Today's weight: 262
Body fat: 31.4%
Skeletal muscle: 32.5%
Metabolic: 2278
BMI: 34%
Visceral fat: 14 (is this lbs? That sounds like a lot. I have to look at the manual)

OK, so I'm definitely overweight. I thought I had dropped a few pounds since I started biking since my pants fit a bit more loosely. I suppose not, though. On the bright side, my skeletal muscle is a bit over the average they give...which makes sense, because I have never really stopped biking over the past few years, so I think I just need to control my diet.


I don't really think I'm obese, though. I think BMI loses a bit of accuracy depending on the body type. I could definitely stand to lose a few pounds, though. The pic on the right sidebar was me at about 225 or so, which isn't too far from my target weight.

I bet my numbers will look better when I post tomorrow because I will be using my new magic scale first thing in the morning instead of an hour after dinner. So if nothing else, I shall endeavor to post a couple times a week to get my weight recorded.

It is sad that life sometimes conspires against biking. Tomorrow I shall have to drive to work because I have to go by the hospital in the morning to try to figure out how to convince them that yes, I really DID live here at the time of my surgery. That will help me get some financial assistance, because the $42,000 total for someone between insurances is a bit hard for me to handle.

It might be possible to bike down there, but I think I would have to leave entirely too early for it to be practical. Plus I have an annoying tendency to get lost every time I go there (the first time I was navigating while my brother drove me to the ER, the second time my GPS gave confusing directions went I went to my followup). This weekend I might try riding down to the hospital, it looks doable on Google Maps, but the 4-5 lane roads downtown might be kind of terrible to bike, and I would hate to find out during rush hour.

Remember, kids: If you're without insurance for a month, tell you appendix to wait a while before it becomes inflamed. It will save you money in the long run.

OK, so I slacked again. Whoops.

I have still just been averaging 3 days a week biking to work....the My Cycling Log sidebar tells me that that's been enough to save close to $50 in gas costs, though. So I guess that's still pretty good.

I have biked to the grocery store a couple times as well. The first trip I carried 4 bags of groceries plus a 24 pack of Coke Zero in my rear panniers--and two bags that had to hang from my handlebars. Ortlieb Back Rollers are surprisingly roomy, but two panniers aren't enough for serious grocery shopping.

Keeping this in mind, I set off for the grocery store again today. I had my Burley Nomad attached, so capacity would not be my problem today. I loaded it down with quite a bit of stuff...4 12 packs of Coke, one 2 liter (they only had Cherry Coke Zero in 2 liter form), a couple quarts of ice cream, a bunch of Crystal Light, and some other small things. Pulling the trailer wasn't as bad as expected....the Long Haul Trucker has super low gearing, so my acceleration was crappy and speed up hills was not great, but I ran into zero problems actually getting back to my apartment.

Funny story, though...It was hard to get to my apartment. I elected for a unit on the ground floor because I didn't want to carry my bikes up stairs all the time, but I still have a small staircase to climb to get to my door. I tried to push the bike and trailer up the stairs.....wasn't gonna happen. When the trailer wheels hit the bottom step, it was made clear to me that they would NOT go any further willingly. "OK," I thought, "I'll just push it up the steep grass near the steps!" I made it a couple steps before my shoes informed methat they were not going to grip the grass. Down I went, bringing the bike with me. I ended up having to brace myself, push the bike forward, grab the brakes, re-brace myself, and repeat. Not an ideal situation, I need to find a better way to get there.

The trailer itself hauled a big load for the first time....it handled kinda funny. It never felt like I was going to lose the load, but going over cracks in the asphalt was odd. I think the boom has some flex to it, because every bump caused a "push/pull" sensation, like the trailer was attached with an elastic band. Tolerable and probably not dangerous, but weird.

I have deicded that I am going to use the trailer for now, but when I get a bit more money, I will sell it and get an Xtracycle. I am not sure if I want to put the Xtracycle on the Long Haul Trucker, or build a up a hardtail MTB to use it on. Maybe I can do the LHT first and then move it to the MTB when I get one.

Speaking of MTB, I discovered a mountain bike trail only about 7 miles from my apartment. Considering I had to drive at least an hour north or south to find anything when I lived in KY, I would have been happy if it had just been a crappy oval in the dirt. Luckily though, it is no such thing. The trail is called MoMBA (I believe it stands for Metroparks outdoor Mountain Bike Area). It is an 8 mile system of beginner to advanced trails, built on land the city provided just for that purpose. It is all built to IMBA standards, and it one of the sweetest trail systems I've ever ridden. If you live in the Dayton area and like your trails tight and twisty, come ride it, you will have no regrets.

I really need to get some batteries in my camera, this thing looks kinda dull.

Edit: Looks like I caused some confusion. I do have a mountain bike already, a Santa Cruz Heckler, but I was thinking of purchasing a hardtail mountain bike and then putting an Xtracycle on that. Full suspension is the enemy of the Xtracycle.

So, so true

I am fully convinced that XKCD knows secrets.

I am doing rather a bad job with regular updates, for that I apologize. I figure that either I will get the hang of this blogging thing and start writing good entries with more regularity, or I will run out of ideas and fade back into the void.

Either way seems fun, I guess.

I had hoped to bike to work every day after I moved to the new apartment, but that hasn't really been as much of a success as I had originally hoped. I have had to run around to
various licensing bureaus and BMVs (Ohio oddly has the BMV instead of the DMV) to get my truck's title transferred and get new license plates. Sadly, they did not have the "Share the Road" plate locally--it has to be ordered beforehand, and my KY plate expired 2 days after I discovered this. Next time I need a new plate, perhaps I can have my truck proclaim my love of biking. Or maybe I can just get a bumper sticker.

Anyway, I've managed to bike to work 60% of the time since I have been in the new place. That's not too bad, since everyone else where I work is sitting at 0%. I need to figure out how to really spread the word and get people riding--this is such a great city for biking, if only people would give it a try.

Speaking of people at work, can someone explain to mye why it is that it seems so amusing to others when you don't bike on a given day? I'm sure they all think it's very clever to look out the window at the light rain and say "Hey, where's the bike today?"....but somehow I miss the incredible humor. Maybe it's a Seinfeld joke. I never thought Seinfeld was funny either.

Anyone have experience with the body fat scales? I was thinking of getting this one from Performance, but I don't especially want to waste my money on something that's pointless.

I guess that's all I have for today. Keep the rubber side down, kids. I think I've only ever heard one person actually say that.