[mrbean]

Grymm, forget about the good old days and start living for today. Numerous study's have shown that medium intensity cardiovascular activity burns a higher percentge of fat calories than higher intensty. Although it may take longer to get the same results doing low to medium intensity work. Given time your body will adjust to the lower level of intensity as it seeks to maintain homeostasis. The human body is very efficiant at adapting to its environment. It sure beats the alternative. Hand biking may not illicit the same high as mountain biking did, but it will keep you heart healthy and burn off some of that fat that's been hanging around. As a bonus big arms are very aesthetic looking.

Keep track of your body fat percentages to make sure that you're losing fat weight instead of muscle. If you lose weight but your BF stalls than you're probably losing muscle, glycogen, and water. But you probably know about that already. So just be aware of the possibility.

Also give some thought to challenging yourself by entering a competetive bike race. I'm sure that would inspire a lot of people over here as well. Exceed your limits, become who you are.