Recent Awesome Stuff and Upcoming Events

(This is for the weeks of Wednesday, August 3rd through Tuesday, September 13)

Awesome stuff!:

• I'm not sure I've mentioned this yet, but in my Total Body Conditioning class I officially graduated to using 12 pound weights as my heavies. I even went out and bought my own to bring to class (I have an aversion to touching metal. Mostly it's the smell I hate. Don't ask...) So for a few months now I've been using the twelves. This kind of blows my mind, especially considering that I started with fives. I love how strong I've become!
• I've done a ton of biking. So much that yes, you may have noticed I've neglected this blog. I sometimes don't have enough time to shower. It's true. In fact I literally don't remember the last time I washed my hair. It's been at least 2 weeks. Anyway, my point is that when there are long lapses between posts, this is why. I also have not had time to do things like enter some data into my activity spreadsheet. Here is what I do have:

• Last month was Summer Streets (which I just wrote about on the Weight Watchers site!) Three glorious car free Saturdays in Manhattan. I was there for all of them, including the final one which happened to land on my 40th Birthday. Here's a few shots over the 3 weeks! (and a link to the photo album)

Summer Streets, the day I turned 40

I met Cruiser Dolly, and we met up with Maureen, Malaika & Jules

I met blog reader, Leticia, on my way to Summer Streets on my birthday!

I finally met blog reader Amanda!

With @KarmaPics and Ann on Park Ave

Waiting...

With my special panda!

This guy recognized me from my blog, I think. Or maybe it was a bike tour. I forget.

Amanda & Me!

Amanda, Me, Jules, Liz

My "Work Mom" Maureen came out on her new bike! I was so proud of her!!!

• Speaking of Summer Streets, a photo of me, Ann and Ross ended up in the Huffington Post. Super cool!
• Um, did I mention I turned 40 last month? I did. And I'm hoping to get time to do a recap of birthday highlights. It's too much to throw in here. Other than the summer streets stuff above.
• Beach, beach, beach! After that first daring trip to the beach, I went to the beach as often as possible. I'm not sure what I enjoyed more - the 45 miles round trip by bike, the beach itself, the vegan food or the awesome company. I guess it's really just a perfect combination of awesomeness.
• My photographer, Dmitry, has been getting a ton of exposure lately and good for him, he deserves it! One of his photos of me ended up in Flickr's Explore page, which is a huge honor. It turned out it was the photo we used on my revised blog header, so it should look familiar. Congrats, Dmitry!
• I turned up on the cover of a Japanese newspaper!

(That photo was taken before the World Naked Bike Ride in July. Thanks to Justine Megan, whose boyfriend noticed me, and brought it home for her. She then alerted me to this fact. I would have never known about it!)

• Brooklyn Based asked me a few questions about my cruiser. They mentioned me and showed a photo of mine (indluding the HK Cruiser) in this article.
• And I answered something online about why I love riding in my city. And they used it! Read the short Q&A here.

What I'm Working On and Upcoming Events:

• I signed up to do a Lose for Good Weekly Challenge. My weekly challenge? This should be no surprise: Tracking. I have yet to track a full week in months.
• This upcoming Sunday is my longest ever bike ride to date: The NYC Century. Yes, I've done the Century before. I did the 75 mile course last year, and the 55 mile course in 2009. This is the first time I'm doing the full hundred (closer to 115 when I factor in my ride to and from Central Park). In case there is any doubt, yes, I am doing it on the cruiser and yes, I will be wearing 4" heels. :)
• I found out my YMCA has a new kettlebell class! I can't wait to try this out - Unfortunately, I have to wait a month since I have running & biking events the next 4 Sundays.
• I signed up for a slew of events this week: 4 more running events this year with New York Road Runners, a local 5K in Greenpoint and the Tunnel to Towers 5K run again. I also signed up for next year's Rockefeller Stair Climb. I'll be hitting you up for donations soon :)

That's it for now. Have a great week!
xo
Sheryl