Back under 230

Well, I'm holding, AFTER easter, under 230. I feel great, Easter morning I went for a nice little hike in the woods behind my in-laws house, where we spent easter. It was truly wonderful. I have gotten back in touch with so many things, one of the biggest things I've noticed is that I appreciate everything more now than I did before I was in shape. I like the fact that I can hike up a nice steep hill and not need a break, the fact that walking and moving is no longer such hard work that I don't want to do it.

I love being more in shape, and the fact that doing things no longer seems "hard" makes it a lot more fun when you do them. I had my peanut butter meltaway egg, but only a little slice rather than about 1/2 the egg, which is what I would have eaten before. I also had some other tasty desert food, as well as some home cooked food, but all in all, I just enjoyed the day, and refocused yesterday, stayed within my calories, and being back on the bike with fresh legs, found it very refreshing. I was rewarded this morning by being the exact weight I was Friday morning, so onward and downward with the weight! :)

F2PH

Second run coming up

I've been slacking on my running, mainly due to being a little apprehensive about running the actual runs, and wanting to make sure my legs are ready. I attempted my first 6 mile run last Sunday, I made it 3.9 miles running, then walked the rest, but I felt good doing it. I'm excited about tomorrows 5k, my strategy is to finish in the same or better time than my last one. Hopefully that's doable.

I've been steadily losing weight, down 31lbs officially as of yesterday, so that's GREAT news. Gotta stay focused, as happy as I am about where I have gotten to, I'm nowhere near the final goal. Thinking about it though, I'm nearly halfway there, so that's good news too! I know the last 30 or so will come off much more slowly and with more resistance than the first 30, luckily those last 30 will be fighting against the increased activity that is known as spring and summer. As the weather warms there are more group rides to go on, and the family decides to come out of the cave and ride on the weekend, all of which adds up to more monthly miles for me, so that's great news for my weight loss and overall fitness!

Clothes are starting to fit very well again, and I'm not like "Urggggggg" when I look in the mirror, more like "well, gettin there" which is a step in the correct direction. Oh, and in the next two months I NEED to start swimming. This will require a membership to some indoor facility with a hole in the ground which is filled with water. Gotta get on that if I want to have any chance at even finishing the swim! :)

Well, TGIF! Here is to a good and activity filled weekend!

F2PH

Legs!

Yep, they feel normal today. Almost completely normal. Nearly like they did before I started this whole running thing. Well, stronger, but I'm speaking of the absence of pain. So what does that mean? Well, that I need to run of course! :) I will be running tomorrow, I'm trying something new, I am stuck at 5.7 as my speed, I think my body is settling in ant trying to make that it's "comfortable" speed. I am fine with my body finding said speed, but I would like it to be a 10 min mile, so that when I push I can get down to closer to an 8 min mile, and when I want to slack off a bit, I can do that 10-11 min mile. Tomorrow I plan to do some intervals, 1 min running all out, hard as I can, chest nearing explosion speed, and 1 min walk to recover. I plan to do this for 30 min, with a 5 min warmup and cooldown. I will be using my GPS to lap between the runs and walks, so I can see what my max running speed at 1 min intervals is. Should be interesting to see how this looks on paper (well, on computer screen, as I doubt I'll ever print it :) )

Back on the road bike, have I mentioned how good a road bike feels after the mountain bike all winter? It's like holding 15mph is so easy compared to holding 9 with studded tires and about 300lbs of bike under ya. (Ok, not quite 300, but you get the idea). Feeling great and still dropping weight, holding around 234/235 for almost a week now, but that beats the heck out of holding at 255 :) It will drop again, this is just how my body works.

Well, I don't think I have anything else. Carry on. :)

F2PH

Running is fun!

Ok, so i'm crazy, I know, but I have actually decided that running is fun. It's not as much fun as biking, I think mainly due to the lack of speed, but it is oddly relaxing, peaceful, and freeing. I like running, and I'm looking forward to doing it, both a short run with the family tonight, and a longer one over lunch tomorrow. I also am planning to run my first organized run in about a week and a half, and I'll be doing my first 5k a month after that. I'm pretty excited. I feel great, I'm losing weight, I'm still biking to work and home every day, in short my body is working as a machine now, rather than as a storage battery for potential energy :)

I'm also looking forward to trying to become a decent swimmer, I'll have to work on that, mainly because of the whole deal I have of hating water in my face, and it seems the head up doggie paddle version of swimming I do isn't going to go very far when it comes to real swimming. I don't have any illusions whatsoever about swimming, I know this will be my weakness, but at least I know it, and I'm prepared for it.

I don't have much else to add today, just wanted to update, and keep logging my thoughts.

F2PH

Milestone- down over 25lbs

I'm officially down over 25lbs as of this morning. I was 237.4 this morning, the least I have been since starting my journey down and the least since about two years ago (man, it kills me to type that, I danced in the mid 240's for almost a year, telling myself that since I was "fast" on the bike the 240's were just fine for me) I had myself convinced that my body was just there at 240, 243, 245, 248, 250, 253, 255, 259, etc due to a random bump in weight, and that as long as I kept biking I'd come back down.

Let me tell you all, that's a cop out. It's every bit as much of a cop out as the hundreds of excuses we as a lazy society make for not working out. It's bs, and even when we're selling it to ourselves, I don't think we're really buying it. I know I wasn't. It sounded good, but I know that in my mind I really was aware I was backsliding, and badly. Had I kept going I have no doubt I'd be the 300lb guy who still bikes to work. I don't want to be that guy, I want to be the 190lb guy who runs at lunch, competes every year in multiple runs, tri's and maybe even an honest to goodness bike race sometime. I want to push myself so that I don't have the option of ending up on the wrong side of 240 again. I have found that when I lack goals, I lack focus, and when I lack focus, I find excuses. I have some pretty interesting goals for this year-

Complete a 5k in under 30 min.
Complete a sprint duathlon (not sure on time here yet)
Complete my first triathlon (sprint)
Complete my first Olympic Triathlon

From there, I am forming up next years goals in my mind already-

I'd like to do a 1/2 marathon
I'd like to do another olympic tri, as well as a sprint again
and I'd like to train for a 1/2 iron.

The following is the ultimate goal-

Reward completion of the 1/2 iron with a nice tri specific carbon bike (built up by myself of course, I love building bikes)

And with said bike, compete, before age 45, in my first Ironman. And win it.

Ok ok, I know I'm most likely not going to win it. I will however finish it, and that will be a win for me.

So, there they are, in print on the blog that only I read (I'll have to make sure I work on that too, have to have someone holding me accountable huh?)

F2PH

Perspective

I have had many lessons in perspective over my life, but many more have made themselves evident since I have started paying attention to them. We attempted a foolish trip this past weekend, we tried to go to visit my wifes parents, in western pa. We got on the road early on Friday, thinking we might get there before the roads got bad. We succeeded in getting halfway there before the storm truly hit. The roads got bad fast, and to our credit, we stopped being dumb just in time. We stopped in Somerset and hunkered down for the night in a hotel, fully expecting everything to be cleared up early the next day and to finish our trip. Well, 33 inches of snow fell in Somerset, and we were stranded there for the weekend. What did we do? Well, our daughter made a friend, and they played most of the time, we visited with the new friends mom, and others at the hotel, and pretty much had a great time.

Just when we were focusing on how things were not what we had expected, my wife realized she had misplaced her wallet. We had walked though the snow down to a fast food place to get something quick to eat, and it turns out she left it there. The good news is, we got it back, and that had a very nice effect in reminding us it could always be worse. It's funny how that happens.

Life often gives us little reminders that things that go wrong, could have gone a lot more wrong, and we ought be happy with where things ended up, even if it's not always where we set our sights on when we started. The first step to being depressed is focusing on that first negative thought. It really is that simple, and it's taken me many years to figure that out. Hopefully I don't find a way to forget that simple lesson any time soon.

F2PH

A little ouchy

Well, I'm back! Good January this year, feeling good, well till this morning that is. I was biking to work, in the snow, made it here without issue (thank you studded tires). I get to work, and there is this little path (paved) I take behind the building, it's made for walking, so the only turn it has is a nice 90% turn, the path is about 2 feet wide, so that turn is a bit tricky even when it's dry. I'm back up on the bike, taking my time (I had pushed the bike, and had considered pushing it the whole path, but thought riding would be more fun) so I'm coming around the corner, really taking my time, taking my time, taking so much time that, well, I must have stopped, and over the bike went! :) I hit with my right knee, looking at it this afternoon it looks like I hit the edge of the pavement, then slid into the gravel, and stopped. I stood right back up, got my bike, hopped back on, and pedaled though the parking lot to work. I thought "man, there goes my run today, F&*K! Well, that's what I thought, but as the morning went on, the knee while nowhere near normal, just didn't hurt all that bad....

Fast forward to lunch, I suit up, and go for my run, I'm on couch to 5k, week6, and this is day 2. I hit the same path, on foot this time (not as far to fall!) and start running, I feel my knee not doing great, but not too bad either. Now for the funny part of the story, this is my "good" knee, my other knee is weak from being dislocated several times, so I now have no way to limp and provide help for my "bad" knee, as my "good" knee isn't so good today either. Result is I think I ran more balanced than normal. Now on to why this is worth a post.

5 years ago, I wouldn't have run over lunch if you had been chasing me on the back of one of those raptors from Jurassic park. I'd have just given up, actually, I had kind of given up, on health anyway. Today I had a crash, albeit not a major one, it would have however served as a most excellent excuse as to why it just wasn't wise for me to run today. I don't think anyone would have argued the point, and I could have sold it to myself as well. Difference is, I didn't want to sell it to myself, I wanted to run. I wanted to get out there and get those miles in, I had been looking forward to it since my last run. My life, and my outlook, are vastly different than they were just a few years ago. I can't imagine going back to that way of thinking, and that way of feeling. I love being active, and I love looking forward to miles and miles of human powered travel in the coming years.

F2PH

Week 5 C25K

So, I skipped week 4 of the couch to 5k program, I did the first day and was like, ok, this isn't pushing myself enough. I moved to week 5 day 1 yesterday, now THAT'S more like it. I felt it, still feeling it a little today, and am looking forward to tomorrow which is day 2 of week 5.

Not a whole lot to add, I feel great, losing weight, down almost 13 lbs since the last week of December, so I'm starting off the new year well. One day at a time, followed by one month at a time, etc. I'm staying focused this whole damn year, this is the year I get below 200, damnit!

Oh, and I've been increasing my bike speed and intensity as well, trying to gear up for spring a bit. Woo hoo, come on spring! (I know it will be a little while till it gets here, but I can get excited early, right?) :)

F2PH

Break today

Well, today I did take a break. I just relaxed over lunch rather than running, I'm coughing and sneezing all over the place, so I figured better to not run today and save up all that energy for healing and run on Monday! I did bike to work (of course, now that I don't own a car, it's pretty much my only option, but I really am diggin that, talk about self reliant). No more did you bike to work today questions, simple, if I'm here, I biked (or ran ;) maybe this spring) here.

I've had a hard time focusing today, I think it's just being under the weather, this weekend will be good for me. If the weather holds I plan to take my oh so light and svelt road bike out for a little spin, mmmmm roadie miles, how I've missed them! If it's crappy, I'll just do some around the house stuff, Wii fit has been fun lately!

Not much else to add today, maybe I'll hop on over the weekend too.

F2PH

Lost 10 lbs! And getting sick. :) Yay

Well, since I hit my highest weight at the end of December since coming down (yes I finally hit a weight that I had last seen on my way down, not since till that day in December) I am now down 10 lbs officially and getting much closer to the weight I felt best at which was 225. I don't plan to stop at 225 this time, I got a little full of myself last time I went down this road, and it came back to bite me. Many things conspired for this, one of which was that in my little circle of bike riding friends, I suddenly became the fastest, and while not fast by any measure other than that group, I thought I was in truly amazing shape, and could eat more liberally. After all, the guy I had been chasing, who had lost 100 lbs biking, was now trailing me up every hill (sorry Dave, just tellin it like it was ;) ). So I got the big head, and soon followed by the big gut again. :) Live and learn, and speaking of living and learning, on to the rest of the news.

I have started the Couch to 5k running program, and am doing pretty well with it. I feel good, and I'm progressing along with the week to week progression. This Friday I will be moving to week 4. We'll see how that goes, I'm holding on to the fact that the way I'm doing it I get two full days rest between starting a new level, and having to repeat that level (going fri, Mon, wed as my weeks). So, we'll see how that works. And this week I got a bonus, I got sick sometime between Monday night and Wed. The good thing is I ran Wed over lunch after going though about 273 excuses I could have used to not run, I decided they were all just that, excuses, and went out and ran. And I biked home (I thought a few times about asking for a ride). So, go me. I view it as making up for having the big head that led to the big gut. My goal this time is simple, 1derland. I will be 195 or less, and that's where I'm going to hold. I will get there, and I will continue to post here, and on livestrong till it happens, and (here is the important part) AFTER it happens as well. Last time I abandoned the forums and online communities that made it possible for me to lose once I had lost the weight. Some of that was due to other changes in my life, but that's no excuse. That's not happening this time.

Have a great day all, one more till the weekend!

Joe

Couch to 5k

Well, I did my first couch to 5k workout today, pretty cool. I started on week 3 day 1, that seemed about right given I bike to work every day, the cardo isn't the issue, the new parts of the legs I'm working is. I gotta say, I loved it, oh, and I love the iphone too. I just got one from work, long story short I fixed one that was supposedly too broken to fix, and got to keep it as a result. I'm loving this thing, and it just so happens to have both a livestrong/daily plate app, as well as a couch to 5k app, so using both of those has been pretty cool too.

That's pretty much all I have for today, but I want to keep active here, so here I wuz.

F2PH

Still the new year! :)

Today is one of those days I have no idea what to write here so I'm just going to ramble.

I am a member of a weight loss website (www.livestrong.com) the daily plate section. I have found it helpful to reach out to people there to keep my focus, it's not always easy to keep away from the things I am surrounded by (I work at a chocolate company!) so it's good to be able to keep in touch there. Last night started the biggest loser, and again there were people there all helping one another toward the common goal of health and wellness. This got me thinking, how can we make this more global? How can people start encouraging one another in bigger groups? I mean, the whole country is facing a huge issue due to this food that we are consuming, and the rates at which we are consuming it are causing so many health issues, if we could move more people out to do things, and get them more active, while watching what they eat, what a difference we could make.

I'm just not sure how it would work. I mean with the web now all kinds of people can connect and share stories, but at some point if too many start sharing at the same place it becomes white noise. At the same time there has to be a way to get more people involved. So much of what we are being sold is excess. So much of what we see is "bigger pizza, bigger burger, bigger cars". Why? And how can we start the trend to "better portions, healthier burgers, cars for what you use them for"? The shift from the "I wants" to the "I needs" and the "Bigger is always better" to "What I need will do, thank you".

Actually that line above should sum up whatever decision a person makes, whether it be food, or cars, or houses. Well, perhaps a little more than one needs is fine, but an SUV to carry a two person family around? A 3 bedroom house for a married couple? A DOUBLE baconator? Really?

The thought process of excess is what leads to so many ills, weight issues, hoarding of things, hoarding of money, etc.

Well, It's obvious I'm not going to solve the problems today, but at least I've stated them to a degree, and I do think it all ties together more than we know. I wasn't much for the butterfly effect theory in the past, but the older I get the more I think things are truly connected more than we can know.

F2PH

Happy New Year!

Hello! Welcome to the new year, 2010, what a turning point. In 2000 many things in my life changed, but it took till 2005 for me to start working toward a healthier life. I discovered biking (Thanks Dave) and now I'm an addict. I have pedaled 13,540 miles since 2006, and I feel a ton better than I did before I started that journey, but as with anything my body has adjusted, and over the past two years I have put back on about 30 of the 70 lbs I lost. I am now tracking all my intake again at www.livestrong.com and still biking to work every day, except now it's different. I shall explain in a moment, let me first state that I am happy now, which is much more than I can say for how I felt at the start of the last decade. from 99 to 00 I was in a marriage that I was wondering how to get out of, I was being pressured by my wife to have children (and I think somehow I KNEW this would be the final nail in the coffin) and my life was empty, almost painfully so. Fast forward to today, I have a brand new wife that I met late in 2000, she came with a daughter, but I wouldn't change that and my life is completely different than it was 10 years ago.

I have turned over a few new leaves with the turn of this decade, the largest being I sold my car. Yep, that thing that most Americans are convinced they would die without, I sold. Now we are not a car free house, but we are a one car house, and that one car is currently paid off, so our costs are insurance, upkeep, tags, etc. Now this does present some challenges, there is no way for me to bag out of riding to work now, ever. So every day I suit up and ride my bicycle in to work, so far I've had to deal with 3" of snow, rain, cold down to 16 F, and did I mention wind? :)

Still I'm looking for some challenge to get me back into shape, like really good shape, and I think I have it. Last year I did a Duathlon and I LOVED it, but I haven't ever been very good at running, and I'm way worse at swimming, I just LOVE biking though. So, what's the next logical step? I'm going to do a tri this year, actually two. I'm doing a spint tri, and an olympic distance tri. Next year I'm going to dig around for a 1/2 iron, and perhaps a marathon, and the following year, so long as none of the above actually kills me (which is entirely possible) I plan to attempt an Ironman.

Wow, just saying that makes me think I'm nuts. But, there it is. Can I do it? I don't know, I didn't think I could press 360lbs when I first started lifting weights and I was just hoping to get 225 up for one rep, so anything is possible. I never made my 400lb bench goal with weightlifting, and my focus has shifted since then of course to health and endurance training.

What I know is as much as I loved pushing iron plates around the gym (and I did love that) I love biking even more, and I'm starting to like running. Swimming? I doubt I'll ever love that, but maybe by this summer I'll at least like it. What I do know is it's time for this, because I think if I can become an actual triathlete I will finally have control over my weight and health, and that's the goal I have for this decade.

My family and I are going to a TOPS (Taking off pounds sensibly weigh in this wed as well, our friends have invited us, and we're excited to have a public group to share our goals and progress with!

Welcome to the new year all! Lets make this year a start to a decade we can look back on in our own personal lives with pride!

Starting in 2010

I will be posting here on a much more regular basis, sharing the daily grind of biking to work, I plan to post here at least 3 times a week, even if it's just to gripe about some yo yo in a cage yelling as he passed me.

I promise to be interesting witty and funny at times, and boring at others, but I'm doing this for me, so I think I'll like it just fine. :)

Food Intake- Bad

So, I've been pedaling all year, more this year than any other, if my current pace holds. I'm pretty fit at this point, and I feel pretty good. But there is one problem, I'm about 15lbs heavier than I was last year at this time. I tried the whole "you're healthier" and "maybe it's all leg muscle" but I don't think leg muscle hangs over your belt in most cases. So it's time to start watching again. For anyone who's interested the site I use to watch what I eat is www.thedailyplate.com and it's very helpful with keeping track of what goes in. There is a section where you can add in your workouts too, but it seems a bit generous with the calories it subtracts, so I just use it more to keep a count of the total calories that go in.

No plan is successfull without goals, so mine are going to be fairly simple-

1- log every day between now and Jan1 2009.
2- stay within carlorie goals at least 80% of those days, which leavs some room for that occasional pizza, etc.
3- reach goal weight of 210 by jan 1 2009

If I don't reach my goal weight, a nice spreadsheet with all my data and I are going to my doc to try to figure out what might be wrong. I have gotten stuck in the 220's before and haven't been able to get below, I figure I'll drop the first 10 lbs pretty fast, as is usually the case for me, I'd say 3 weeks max, so that leaves me with 23lbs to drop after that. Over the course of the time I have left between now and Jan1 2009, that really should be doable. We'll see how it goes, and of course I'll share my trials here.

I have found audiobooks make me slower, much slower, than music. I'm going to listen to two more I have downloaded, and then switch to some music for a bit and try to work on my speed. On a positive note, it's been a week today since I took any type of pill for my knee, so perhaps I'm getting to where I can use it without pain and without masking the pain with pills. That's a great thing, and it really does make you happy for what you have.

Well, happy pedaling all!

Joe

Still going

Well, I'm still going, every day, in and home. This week has been stressful due to some less than stellar accounting practices on my part, and our bank not finding it the least bit amusing that we seem to be convinced at time we are indeed much more wealthy than we in fact are. :) That being said, I'm glad I ride to work, for many reasons.

I'm glad because I feel very good doing it, and even with all the bike stuff I buy, I'm sure I'd be spending that money on some other hobby that wouldn't be getting me back and forth to work. I'm still enjoying the ride every day, so that is a good thing as well. My weight has not gotten much lower, but on the flip side of that, my eating this year has not been what it should be either, so the riding it is no doubt having an effect in keeping me less rotund that I would otherwise be.

Well, I don't have a lot to say today, but I want to keep posting here so that I can at least remember to come here when I do have more to say!

Trying this again

Well, it would seem that I have been away for a while, and it would also seem from the comments or lack thereof that no one has missed me. I call that a draw.

I come here because I just read an article about "desk rage" and how people can't stand waiting in traffic to get to work, and that's contributing to them being bent out of shape while at work. Oddly, I have the solution, bike to work. I know not everyone can do this, distance, fitness, etc, but I was as out of shape as they come, and now do it every day. Since Feb 15th I have driven to work one day, and biked the rest. I plan to bike every day for the rest of the year. I get to work in a good mood, and refreshed.

Last night I helped two friends out with their bikes, minor adjustments, but I like doing it, so that too helps with stress. I find myself mainly only stressed out when I encounter one of these cage drivers that happens to be pissed off at the world for no good reason.

I am going to re-comit to blogging, and to spreading the word about how much better this one change, this one adaptation, has made me feel. I am very pleased with my current method of transport to work, and want to share that wih any and all who will listen.

Joe

Back in the saddle

Well, today I got back to it, for the past 4 days I had just decided to take a break, the weather was crappy, raining every day, and I just didn't feel like getting drenched and being wet and cold. I am ready for the snow, have the mountain bike studs on and everything, but I don't want to be drenched. So today the temps were more reasonable, and I hopped on and pedaled in.

It felt good to be back out there, it was a nice day and a nice trip. I do feel so much better in the morning if I ride in, I have to remember that. This will be a short one today, just wanted to drop in and post that I'm back out there.

Joe

From snow to rain

Yesterday I got my first ride in the snow. I mounted the Nashbar Studded tires Sunday afternoon thinking that a chance of precip along with temps hovering around 34 degrees meant there was a good chance I'd need them, and like magic Monday morning there was snow. It only amounted to about 1/4 inch, but still it was a covering, and it gave men a chance to run over some nice patches to see how the traction of the tires would hold. The tires held up without a hitch, and much to my surprise I stayed extremely warm the whole way to work, that Columbia with the liner in it makes a 33 degree day feel like summer.

Today I wake up and see it's no longer snow, but rain that greets me for the morning ride. I have come to a decision, I like snow a lot better than rain, at least when the temp is below 40. Rain has a way of making me feel blah by the time I'm halfway to work, whereas the snow kept me cheery all the way in. I can only imagine how the ride will be when I'm greeted with "freezing" rain. Oh joy.

Turkey day is just over the horizon, and that in and of itself is good enough reason to make sure I stay on the pedals as much as possible, this set of holidays will not result in weight gain for me, and this spring I plan to be lighter than I was this summer, that's the goal anyway, and so far I'm doing a pretty good job of getting there, the true test for me is always the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I'm coming into the hard part of the year.

well, short and sweet today, happy pedaling all.

Perfection- In the moment

My life has been filled with some interesting times. I have had some amazing days, and amazing moments. As a matter of fact when I look back at the number of quality moments I've had, I can't help but wonder if others have had as many, because many of the people I see though the course of a day just seem to be not as happy in life as they should be. But, that's not what this post is about, this post is about one of the most perfect moments I have had in a long time. I have to say the most perfect moment to date was the day I first met my wife in person, but this perfection is a little different.

I've had a lot of great time bicycling both with groups, and just with one friend, but also solo it can be quite wonderful to turn any way you like, and know that with enough of those turns you'll end up back home. Much as I love to cycle, I also love to spend time with my family, well, yesterday I went on a short ride with my 8 year old stepdaughter, my wife hasn't been feeling up to riding due to some complications with a surgery so she went along in the car, met us at our destination and brought our two crazy dogs so we could run them around a bit after feeding the ducks, which was the original plan. The ride to this destination was great, and we had a grand time, but the moment this is about happened even before that.

It started with me noticing that we actually had a sunny brisk morning outside, and that indeed my cappucino maker still funcitoned. I fashioned a nice cup of coffee, and ventured outside, I invited my wife to join me, asking if she perhaps wanted some tea, she accepted and we headed out to our little table in the backyard. Upstairs I could hear our daughter playing her trumpet. Now, I want to tell you, when this trumpet thing started, I would pray to the Gods that she be finished by the time I got home from work, as the sounds emanating from this unit were less musical and more of what you might hear from a dying seal. However, in just a few short weeks, the sounds coming from the end of this instrument have turned to music, or to notes at least, which as I understand it are parts of music. We ventured outside, and were enjoying our beverages, then we heard our daughter calling for her mom, and she came outside. She asked what we were drinking, and I told her I had coffee, and her mom had tea, and I asked if she would like something? She responded she'd like to go in and see what we had, so we did.

We came back out with her steaming cup of chai latte, and she was thrilled. I got her a chair, which she opted out of, she sat instead on my knee, talking away with us, and sipping her drink. It occured to me at this moment how vastly different my life was from what it had been just a few years ago, and how much happier I was now. Truly times of frustration and struggle make those moments all the more special later on. I remember dealing with many tantrums, head butting incidents where I was certain that this person living in our house would simply never be on board with the bigger picture, and now, here we all were, drinking warm morning beverages, and discussing whatever came to mind. The slight chill in the air, my wonderful wife and daughter, and the way it is to know that you are a part of something as special as a family, are what combined to make perfection, in the moment, for me.

I don't know if anyone is reading yet, but if you are, take a moment to remember, those around you are the reason for your health, the better you feel, the more you will enjoy every moment, and the more moments you are likely to be around to enjoy. Bicycling is a great thing, and I love every moment I get to do it, but I also remember that this pastime is just that, and that the people that I share my life with come before that 20 mile ride, and we all need to remember them when we plan our next multi hour outing. I'm not saying don't go, but I'm saying make sure you value the time you get to spend with them as well. Balance in all things, after all, is the route to true happiness.

F2PH