Hurricane season upon us. Obviously not as bad as last year when we had Isabelle hit. That was a mess - I was living in Richmond, VA when it hit - we got slammed. We were without power for almost 2 weeks - and I was living in DOWNTOWN Richmond. Today we had a horrible leftover wrath of hurricane Bonnie (ironically, my mother's name)...and later this week, hurricane Charley will hit. Touch and go with the weather for biking - but will ride the storm out.
Tomorrow huge night to bike with my training partner, we gonna do a festive 40-42 miler and do our dinner/drinks thing afterwards. Should be fun - she'd been out of town for a week and the 2 weeks prior she was finishing up some grad school classes - so we have alot to catch up. And she has not ridden with me since I got the new bike. Ha!...she may not wanna bike with me evar. Well, I don't run...nor swim competitively - she does. She'd kick my ass in the pool. SHe started this intensive triathalete swim class - she swims a mile every morning, with sprints. Then she goes on a 10 mile run or a 30 mile bike ride in the afternoon/eve everyday. Pretty hard core. So when we have dinner/drinks after our ride - we basically say...screw diets....i'm getting a huge ass cheeseburger with bacon with fries and a beer or two.

I was telling my training partner about this website
www.caloriesperhour.com that allows you to calculate how many calories you burn in an hour (or minute) for all sorts of activities - from the mundane (like walking a dog, or house cleaning)to the hard core sports crap. You put in your age, weight, height, and type of activity...and how long you do it. Then you hit calculate - it's pretty cool. I put this in for what I do daily:
Male 36, 5' 6", 140 lb BMI=22.6 RMR=1,508
Bicycling - over 20 mph (racing)
2,286 calories in 2 hr 15 min
Made me think how many calories I'll be burning when I do the Reston Century on the 29th (the race is 100 miles...I should finish within 5.5 hours, 20mph is average speed, the course is very hilly so I could be biking between 16 and 32 mph):
Male 36, 5' 6", 140 lb BMI=22.6 RMR=1,508
Bicycling - over 20 mph (racing)
5,588 calories in 5 hr 30 min
Pretty scary - I'd have to consume 24 Power Bars (they contain 230 calories each) to make up for what amounts of calories I'd burn. So generally, you shed some major fat and what not (sweat) from doing this. I'm Stoked.
Tonight, only did a minimal 42 miler - was a nice trip, albeit extra humid - I think I sweat a gallon. I have this new trick that I do when I stop at intersections. My helmet has removeable spongelike liners for comfort - but they turn into sponges for sweat....when I get to an intersection or place where I have to stop - I grab my helmet and push it up against my forehead thus wringing out the sweat sponge liner. It just gushes sweat - it's strangely impressive - looks like I have a leaky water bottle in my helmet.