To Liberia and back, or, the joys of padded spandex

I've been on a bit of a fitness/diet kick lately, most of which resulted from seeing some photographs of myself taken at my 30th birthday party (I swear, I suffer from reverse body dysmorphic disorder in which I am totally convinced that my body is smokin' when indeed it is not). Since the start of this month, I've been monitoring my daily food intake, cutting back on pop and booze, and hitting the free fitness center that comes with our membership in the HOA. I've managed to drop about 8 pounds (which equals 1 Sandy, fyi) in the first two weeks, which has motivated me to stick with the current plan of action. Last week I decided to step things up a notch and break my bike free from the confines of the garage. I'd had it tuned up the week prior, thinking I might take it with me to North Carolina, but the torrential downpours discouraged doing that. Now that the weather has cleared up a bit, it seemed like the perfect thing to do.

I love my bike and it has served me well these past 7 years, but it's not really cut out for the Northern Virginia terrain in that it has no gears. That was all well and good when I lived in Philadelphia, a relatively flat city, but boy oh boy, did that first ride on the Prince William Parkway trail kick my butt. I rode about 12 miles and I felt every single one, but not enough to make me call it quits. I went out for a ride the next day, and the next. It was then that I realized that I could probably commute part of my way to work on my bike, if I drove to Mount Vernon, parked the car, and rode in the rest of the way to Alexandria. But I was going to need some gears. I berated my bike-riding friends for advice and they pointed me to the Specialized Sirrus Sport:
My local bike shop happens to be a Specialized dealer, so I planned my day off today around a trip to the shop to try one on and test ride it. It's amazing the difference some gears can make! It's also a lot lighter and more responsive than my current ride; a couple of loops around the parking lot, and I was hooked! I used part of the tax refund that I'd been hoarding to buy it and the shop threw in a free water bottle and bike computer--sweet! I brought the bike home, put on my trusty padded spandex shorts (which I wear under a pair of normal shorts; I effin' hate spandex) and went for a 16.3 mile spin to Liberia Avenue in Manassas. I'm going to ride it around here for another week or so before I try the commuting idea, but so far so good!