Originally Posted by professorbob

I turned 50 this in February so I'm now claiming my rightful membership to this exclusive club! In the beginning of April, I started thinking about this year's riding season and what I wanted to do. I'd had a physical and instead of the Dr. telling me that heart disease is looming (like all of my ancestors) he said my blood sugar was high and that I'm pre-diabetic. That one blindsided me, as no one else in my family has diabetes. Time to make some real changes. I'm usually only out for the 20-30 mile jaunts, so I set some goals. First was to ride my age by June 1st. I hadn't thought about that commitment in a few weeks, but yesterday turned out to be June 1. It also happened to be a beautiful day, if not a little windy. So I mapped out a route-flat as a pancake, mind you, and took off on my birthday present, a new Cannondale System 6 road bike. With a couple of water breaks and a bagel break, I did 51.51 miles at an average of 15.2mph. I was pretty tired at the end, but quite satisfied and proud of myself. Next goals for the season are a flat metric century, then a hilly half century, then a hilly metric. We'll see how things go. In September, there is a great club ride that is a hilly century, with shorter options. I'll decide closer to the event which I want to do. Meanwhile, I'm committed to doing at least 100 miles per week and tackling some good hills. My weight on April 1 was 278. I'm now at 263 and hoping to eventually get down to around 200. I've given myself quite an assignment, but I think it's doable-wish me luck!