150lbs! That's awesome. Congrats and welcome!
2009-10-13 17:34:20
8
Delayed Introduction
So I've been a bike-pgh member for about a year, but haven't introduced myself. Hi all.
I cycled a great deal when I was high school and college, but slowly gave it up over the course of my 20's. (Partially because I had one bike too many stolen and partially due to lack of time.)
About a year and a half ago, I was seriously overweight and was diagnosed with sleep apenea. Shortly after that, I ended up moving to Pittsburgh while going through a divorce.
Around that time, I started thinking of what I might want to do to celebrate my divorce and get into shape. In August last year, I decided that I was going to set a lofty goal. Remembering that I used to love to cycle and combining that with an interest in going to Wales, I decided to cycle from Holyhead to Cardiff following a path called the Los Lan Cymru. Only problems were that 1) I hadn't cycled in 15 years and 2) I didn't even own a bike.
So, in October last year I ordered a cheap "mountain" bike from Amazon and started cycling,using a mag trainer in the winter months. My first "ride" was 4 miles, took me about half an hour and I had to rest for about the same amount of time after wards to catch my breath.
By Feb I was doing 15-20 miles a day on the mag trainer and by the time the weather turned nice again, I was going the same out on the road and in Frick Park. Over the summer that jumped to 25-35 miles a day. (And over the course of all this losing 150 pounds....)
Well the trip to Wales was at the start of September, 8 days and 270 miles. Not the longest trek, but it was pretty intense at times... especially when we got lost in Snowden, the most mountainous region of Wales.
I enjoyed it so much that I decided to get a more serious bike.
So that's my story.
2009-10-13 15:30:27
^that. Wow.
2009-10-14 14:18:42
150 lbs? Good job.
Here's that bad news - you're done with the easy part now (losing wt). No matter how hard that may have seemed, the hard part is keeping it off.
Good luck. Keep it up.
Mick
2009-10-14 16:21:30
wow, great story!!
did you write about your trip thru wales anywhere?
i've always had some british isles trip in the back of me noggin.
2009-10-14 18:25:16
That's an awesome story.
2009-10-14 19:24:31
Those pics on your blog: between the pint at the bar and Day 5 into the Wales trek, that is an amazing transformation! Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!
(exclamation point)
2009-10-14 19:43:28
Thanks all. Yeah, keeping the weight off isn't exactly easy and to be honest I have another 20-30 that I'd like to loose. But, I've been working on developing good habits. Cycling, eating better and perhaps most importantly weighing myself on a regular basis!
erok, I blogged about it at my blog http://www.myddrin.com
If you are interested, the company I used was Drover Holidays (www.droverholidays.co.uk). They made all the travel arrangements, took care of my luggage for me and provide maps, hints about where to stop and just generally did a great job of making sure that I had a great time.
2009-10-14 20:20:47