New Years Resolutions

Ahh New Years Day… It’s 7:50pm and I’ve spent most of the day watching TV, and playing online with the personal finance software at www.mint.com. I got sucked into a marathon of the biggest loser. Reality TV is such a train wreck but I really like the message that this show conveys. I think it really captures the emotions these people feel while building healthier lifestyles and literally reshaping themselves. I almost shed a tear or two watching these people reunite with their families.

On a smaller scale (pun intended) I put on some weight over the past few months, I’ve been riding less and eating a few to many burritos. I weighed 185 lbs when I stepped on the scale last week in NY. When I’m riding a lot I’m usually down to 165. I think this year, a healthy racing weight will be around 155 lbs to 160lbs. This means less beer.

I’m picking up my trainer this weekend and I’ll start rebuilding my base training. I’ve written before that the two goals for this year are the mountain bike races; 12 Hours of Lodi Farm in May and the Shenandoah Mountain 100 in September. As a side effect of training for these events I’ll become more “fit” then I’ve ever been. That’s almost more important than doing well at either race. I’m looking forward to losing the belly and building some functional strength.

The other fitness goal I have for this year is to become more financially fit. I am trying out this new online budgeting software at www.mint.com. This works by bridging with your banks, credit cards and giving you a snapshot of where you spent you money. I know now that I spent over $26 at Starbucks in December. So the path from here forward is to continue to build up a decent emergency fund, and then start socking money into a money market account, or an index fund to start stacking cash for a home down the road. All while continuing to save for retirement and probably pick up a full suspension bike that will help over the longer races this year.