Bring on the Miles

Setting out before dark with three times as much cycling gear on than you normally need. Sound familiar? You’ve been winter training. The last few weeks have meant one ride snowed off and all the others starting below freezing.
Don’t panic! The crappiest of all months is almost behind you. We’ve been through the holidays and all the drinking and eating. We completed January and we’ve almost completed February. February is so bad that you can almost see it in the mirror the first few days of March.

Yes, February is almost gone and I’ve only missed one ride due to weather.
In a way I feel bad for slagging off February. My dad was born in February as well as my first son. They turned out good. If you can survive February you’ll be ready for anything.

Weight
Weight seems to be weighing on my mind a lot since I took this on. At the moment I weigh 76kg (167lb or 11.9st). I’m 6 foot tall. In August last year I weighed a lot. I changed my lifestyle by adding running to my daily cycling. I ate more often and less each time and BLAM! Now I’m at a point where I am only 7 pounds from my ideal riding weight and there is 4 and a half months to go. I’ve been losing around 2 pounds a week and I have been eating everything. Jars of mayonnaise, whole pizzas, boxes of ice cream. 
Just joking. I don’t eat pizza. 
Still, I eat anything and the weight keeps coming off. I’m pretty lean so I think some muscle is being sacrificed, however, speed and performance has steadily increased. When we were on holiday in the US a woman came up to me at a bar and asked if I was a cancer survivor. This freaked me out. My wife said I look like an AIDS patient. This is in no way an image thing. There is no chance of me giving a free ride through the Pyrenees to a bunch of extra weight.
This brings me to bike weight.
I’ve always thought that I’d be better off financially and physically by dropping body weight than buying all the lightest kit. I admit I do get a sense of satisfaction riding by another rider on a very expensive bike. That is wrong, I know. It’s only about you and your performance. People are free to chase their own dream.

Training rides are still around 140 total miles a week. This will go up this week to 190 in celebration of nearly making it through February.