I have a terrible confession to make. I’ve been secretly “slumming it” on my bike by using unofficial cycling eyewear. I know, I know, I want to vomit too. I’ve never been one for fancy-shmancy sunglasses, as I’ve always been fairly happy to slum it with the cheap $8 ones you find at kiosks. Whenever I hit the road on my bike, I wear the same pair of sunglasses.

I thought, for a change, let me pick up a decent and somewhat inexpensive pair of eyewear specifically made for sports, including cycling. I found a decent $30 pair over at Performance Bike, and they appeared to fit the bill. Nice large frame to help keep the wind and dirt out of my eyes, interchangeable lenses for varying light conditions, and they’re grey. I like grey.

I tried them out today on a quick 70-minute ride, and they were good. This pair of Scattante (Performance Bike’s in-house brand) also comes with a case and cleaning wipe.

Lost another pound by the end of this week. The running total is 11 lbs lost. Nice! I don’t think I’ll realistically be able to get down to 185 in two weeks (before the ride), so I’ll have to work with whatever I’ve achieves. Two weeks to go, so maybe I can lose another 4-5 lbs by May 21st. 190 isn’t 185, but it’s a lot better than 206.

Not a lot to say, but I want to use this opportunity to mark that I’ve lost 10 lbs in my battle of the bulge. It is a battle in my ongoing war on…. being healthy? No, that’s not right. It’s my ongoing battle to fight my natural, bad, binging, grazing, sedentary habits.

So I started this war in Feb, albeit a little slowly. I ramped up in late March by beginning to modify my diet, but I really changed it for the better in early April. I think I finally found a sustainable dietary lifestyle.

Laurita Winery

On Sunday, the Laurita Winery in New Egypt, NJ, hosted a training ride opportunity for some of the big MS Bike Ride teams participating later this month. They marked out a 15-mile loop starting from their winery, and included a free wine-tasting. From what I notes on their website, his is tied into their “Spring Fling” event, so this is all probably a marketing/ promotional thing. Still, why not take advantage? A number of the Team CentraState ride group would be attending, and this would be an excellent opportunity to try out my knee, and my new gear. The ride starts at 9am, people could so as many loops as they want to reach 15 miles, 30 miles, 45 miles, etc. I was aiming to achieve 30 miles for the day. That’s a healthy distance in my book.

I was running a little late this morning, as I still had stop and pick up some Gatorade and a Powerbar. I got caught in some local traffic, but I got to the winery by 9:06am. Most of the team were just finishing stretching, so I hurried to park, unload the bike, sign in, and jump on. Again, another ride where I didn’t get to stretch properly, and specifically was supposed to. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Thankfully, the first loop around went well, and I kept up with the slower half of the team. My knee held up fine, and I wasn’t in bad shape. We kept a decent pace at around 15-20 miles per hour. We stopped back at the winery after completing the first loop to rest and for those intending to head home. The team rested for what I thought was an all-to-brief 5 mins, and mounted up again.

Clocked my first 34 miles of the season, May 1st 2011

I was about to depart with them, when I realized I had forgotten my helmet on a bench. I went back to get it, but by then the group was gone. I hurried along, but there was no sign of them. How fast were they going? I guess they didn’t realize I was doing the 2nd loop with them. Ah well, no big deal. I’m more of a solo rider anyway. Instead of being despondent, I took a deep breath, and said hell with it, I’ll go at it alone. And I was fine. The route was marked with spray-painted green pine tree symbols, so I wouldn’t get lost. I had no issues during the second loop, and I kept a comfortable 14 MPH pace. I reached the winery just before noon, and loaded up the bike. I saw at least one CentraState rider in the parking lot, so I think the rest were getting in on the free wine-tasting.

Free or not, it was a little early for me to be drinking, and I had to get back to meet my family. They were getting out of church, i needed some lunch, and Josh had a soccer game at 2pm. The weekends are so busy these days, but it was good to fit in a little riding time. This morning, I reset my cyclocomputer odometer, so now I’ve clocked my first 34 miles of the year.

The best news of all? The most difficult part of the ride was not my knee, but adjusting to the new SPD-SL pedals. They’re a little tricky to get into, but practice will make perfect. So, to recap, I’m not too terrible off. I need to lose another 8 lbs in three weeks, but my knee should be able to hold up for the big ride, if I take care of it. I’m pretty saddle-sore, but that’s to be expected.

President Barack Obama exacted his revenge Saturday after weeks of attacks from his would-be Republican challenger Donald Trump, joking that the billionaire businessman could bring change to the White House, transforming it from a stately mansion into a tacky casino with a whirlpool in the garden.

With Trump in attendance, Obama used the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner to mock the reality TV star’s presidential ambitions. The president said Trump has shown the acumen of a future president, from firing Gary Busey on a recent episode of “Celebrity Apprentice” to focusing so much time on conspiracy theories about Obama’s birthplace.