Bicycling update

I was doing calculus homework (never-ending!) and the batteries in my calculator needed to be charged, so I decided to go for another bicycle ride. The weather today has been amazing. Sunny, clear skies, and almost 70 degrees. Is it really November?

Since I bought my bicycle I've learned a lot about it. And I also learned that buying a cheap bike may have not been the smartest thing to do. The latest thing I've had to buy for it was a new rear wheel and gears. I discovered that the cheap wheels I have aren't going to hold up to my weight. At least the rear one. Even though I only ride on the streets and don't do any curb jumping, the old style (meaning cheap) rear axle is easily bent. And it did. After talking to the guy at the bike shop I've been going to (Citybikes) I decided to upgrade the rear wheel to a cartridge type so I wouldn't just keep bending axles. I bought a decent used wheel and the cheapest new gears they had for $81. I also got a couple of plastic tire levers for $4. I put the new wheel on, adjusted the brakes, and went out for a ride. I neglected to check the chain travel on the new gears and ended up hyper extending my leg after the chain came off. A couple of days later I ended up replacing the tube also, because I damaged the valve stem when I was putting it back together. This was definitely a learning experience for me. A couple of weeks ago I also purchased some fenders (another $40) so I wouldn't get too dirty when it is wet out. I hope that I am close to being done spending a bunch of money on it, but I should probably get a tire pump (instead of using my house mate's) and I will probably need to buy some rain gear. I keep putting that off, but it is an inevitable purchase.

I started out riding about 20 minutes at a time. Pretty soon it was taking less time to ride the same route, so I extended it a bit and was riding about 25 minutes twice a day. It didn't take long until I had to extend my regular ride even more to keep it at 25 minutes. I'm now doing that route in about 20 minutes if I push myself a little bit. When the weather is nice (like today), I either zig zag up and down the blocks on my way home (I did 50 minutes this way a few days ago) or I ride more than twice a day. I'll probably get in at least three of those today.

Between my continually changing diet and bicycling I've been able to lose even more weight. I'm creeping up (actually down) to almost 255, which is the least I've weighed for quite a few years. I'm hoping to get under 250 by the end of this school term. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the nice weather to continue. I need to start doing some strength exercises though. I'm thinking about using some 1/2- and 1-gallon plastic jugs filled with water as dumbbells. I haven't been able to get into a habit of doing any exercises other than bicycling and I need some options.