I'm so close to my next weight target, I can almost taste it.
This morning, I weighed in at 180.4, down a pound from last week. Not bad for a week on the road. I wasn't sure just how close I'd be able to get to 180, but I kind of knew that I would not be under it.
It should not be hard to be under 180 by the next Saturday. Ideally, I'll be at 179.2, assuming that I follow the training program and eat right all week.
To put this in perspective, the last time I was under 180 pounds consistently was July 19, 2007. I've been over 180 for over two years now.
To me, the 170's represent a huge mental shift. When I was racing seriously, my weight never went above 178 pounds, even in the worst, most demotivated winter I had. Once I'm back under 178, mentally I'll be able to say that I'm back within a training weight range. Of course, once I'm back under 170, I'll be able to say I'm back withing a racing range again, which is what I really want. I know I've set an ideal weight target of 159 pounds, but seriously anything in the lower half of the 160's will be an amazing accomplishment. Assuming I can stay on-target, I should be under 170 by Thanksgiving and at my final target of 159 by my 36th birthday, on January 27. That's about 20 pounds in 20 weeks, which is pretty realistic.
I'm starting to resemble my old self again. Most noticeably, my face has slimmed down a lot. My cheek bones are visible again. I no longer have a protruding gut and my man boobs are pretty much gone. I don't look ridiculous in my racing uniform anymore. I'm able to wear clothes that I haven't fit into for two years.
Tomorrow, assuming the weather is decent, I'll be riding 42K on my time trial bike to see how my endurance is coming along. I'm sure I'll be posting more about that tomorrow. I'd like to see around 215 watts average and a time of about 1:08:15 (23.1 mph avg). Why such an odd time? Because my personal best ever was 1:08:18 and I think I just might be able to beat it.
Oh yeah, and I think my reward for getting back down to racing weight will be to get my right leg tattooed a little more so I don't look so unbalanced. I've already started to research designs I like again and, to be honest, I'm probably going back to the artist who did my other leg (Mony at No Ka Oi Tiki in Philly) since he did such an amazing job and his portfolio just keeps on getting more impressive. I'll probably start design work once I'm back under 170, so it will be done right around the time I'm around 160 (the last one took me 4 sessions spread over quite a bit of time).
