This summer has been very good to me so far. I got my old job back and couldn’t be happier in that respect now that I have a title (Web Developer) and received a nice raise over the winter. I have also been very grateful to have the time to put a sublime amount of miles on my bike. I am fast approaching having it for a full year and have already put on well over 2000 miles. In fact, here are the stats:

Totals from 08 August, 2008
Time: 283h
Kcal (Calories): 111 161
Odometer (Miles): 2184.91
Max Speed: 42.5mph
Max Cadence: 130
Ride Time: 133h

Anyways, being able to put so many hours into being on the saddle and just enjoying the ride has taken a serious toll on my weight. On 25 February I decided that at 240 pounds, enough was enough and realized that I could be a serious cyclist within a year or two if I poured everything into it. No fancy tricks, no secret diets; nothing but extremely long hours on the bike whenever I could and reducing the consistency of junk food. It has been 103 days since that day and I have lost roughly 25 pounds. As you will see I didn’t lose it all at once; the first few weeks were really rough as I couldn’t always get on the bike but now that my diet is balanced and my body is used to consuming large quantities (faster metabolism) I can slack off a bit during the week due to work and still lose weight.

The ultimate goal would be 180-185 pounds and if I achieve that I will certainly reward myself with some nice Zipp 808s but I keep in the back of my head the knowledge that at a certain point I will stop dropping body fat and my weight loss will seriously plateau. The other problem is that it is already June and the Winter is fast approaching. I haven’t decided what I am going to do when the snow hits and I can’t ride every day, but I plan to seriously reduce the amount I eat every day when my metabolism slows down. The realistic goal right now is somewhere between 190 and 200 would make me very happy and I would be okay with 200 on the dot.

I have also seen some major changes to the basic physique of my body. Obviously my stomach has gotten quite flat but I have also lost quite a lot of muscle and fat on my arms which was a welcomed change from the days of throwing shotput and discus.

My bike has also changed a lot since I got it. I just recently installed new bar tape, got a new chain (Dura-Ace 7900!) and have dropped the handle bars about 1-1.5 cm from the stock position. The goal with that is to never be comfortable on the bike for weeks while there is still a more aero and powerful position to be achieved by dropping the bars further. Also, I love that pro look of a huge drop from saddle to bars.

I think the best part about this sort of “diet” program is that it is long lasting because I enjoy doing it not just for the fitness aspect but the simple enjoyment of riding and feeling good as well. If only I could solve the dilemma of having to work in a cubicle for 40 hours a week…

Here is a video of me (in the blue) finishing the Cape May Time Trial. I ended up with a 19:59 which over the 7.5 mile course comes out to a 22.5 mph average.

For awhile now (62 days) I have been trying to lose weight. While I have only lost 12 pounds overall, I have certainly gotten stronger. This past Sunday I entered a 7.5 mile ITT (Individual Time Trial) and got clocked at 19 minutes and 59 seconds which equates to roughly a 22.5mph average. This is a lot better than what I could have done 62 days ago!

But it isn’t enough. My improvement in the races is going as I want, but on the scale it isn’t. So rather than get really drastic with my diet (I have cut out sugar, soda, and soon pizza) I am deciding to just go on two bike rides every day that it is possible. Today I went for a total of 36.2 miles over two outings but that number will increase drastically once it cools off a bit (it was 90F today).

The point of this is two fold: get a lot more miles on the bike without needing to spend constant hours on it and lose weight faster. Last year I was able to gain strength quickly after I bought my bike by doing large amounts of miles in a single day. This caused my muscles to break down enough so that they rebuilt much stronger. Furthermore more hours on the bike means more calories burned and more burnage means more weight loss.

Me at the Cape May ITT

The plan for the near-distant future is to have two weeks, one in middle May and one in middle June to spend an insane amount of hours in the saddle. For the week in May I plan to be doing large single ride days of 60 miles or more and mostly in the hills. This will set me up nicely for the week in June when I will be in the Adirondacks and am faced with nothing but incredibly large rolling hills.

Got a trainer for Christmas (see below) and got my bike setup on it. Man is training instense on this thing! It is quite different than riding on the road, really really different. It is totally intense! If you stop pedaling, the bike just slows done a ton, and it isn’t as if you are going anywhere so why stop pedaling. So I keep pedaling and man does it wear me down quickly. I also have to figure out how to get a breeze flowing through my room so I am not just breathing in stale air. But man the trainer is going to be awesome!

I love cycling in the fall.. next time I am probably going to bring my real camera to get some good shots of the area.

Today I went for a nice 16 mile ride just for fun. I almost forgot how much fun and relaxing cycling could be because of the work I have been doing for next year’s racing season. I am also in love with my arm warmers; they feel so amazing. Cycling is also a good time to think. I generally ponder about the current projects I am working on, today about Vodka and Thrust. It is nice how easy problems become when you aren’t forcing yourself to think about them.

Well, my favorite time trial loop got decimated because the town decided to lay down tar and then pile on a bunch of loose gravel. This forces me to ride at a much slow pace because it is (a) bumpy and (b) hard to spot the big potholes.

If I continue straight where that road starts I am forced to climb a fairly steep hill (5% maybe?) which, although doable, will wreck any meaningful capture of a flat 16 mile time trial workout. Looks like I need to find a new route that gives me a flat 20 mile (or less) country road. Not that easy in Jersey where ridges are plentiful and have steep albeit short drop offs.

But there is good news in all of this… my 80 mile workout last Thursday really killed my knees but also tormented my leg muscles. I am finding that high resistance riding is getting a lot easier, including steep climbs and big gear churning. On the major flat part of my 16 mile TT route I am able to hold 23-24mph with greater ease.

Plus, climbing is just so much fun. Gotta love dancing on the pedals and making others jealous that you, a 200+ lb rider can beat them up the climb.

P.S. Scale has me down ~10 pounds! Onward and downward I go.

Basically I failed today. But I am still proud of the effort I put in!

I wanted to do my first century so badly. Boy did I pick the wrong day to try it! It was so windy and so cloudy and just at the temperature where warmers would overheat me and not wearing them meant I was a bit chilly.

I also picked a very tough route. The first 50 miles was 4000 ft of climbing and 4000 ft of descending. It was a very exciting new route though and I am definately getting better at climbing.

The second 50 would be a little more flat but with some steep but short ascents.

I stopped at mile 44 for a quick sandwich and to refill.

At mile 60 my knees started hurting.

Mile 65 my right calf was about to charlie horse which meant I had to stay in the saddle during every climb. I hate that, much more comfy out of the saddle.

By mile 78 I was coming back in to town to start another loop and decided to call it quits. I had been out for 5 hours and I was barely keeping 15 mph.

Hit 80.xx by the time I made it home. Put all my data into TheDailyPlate and my log and now TDP is saying I can eat roughly 6.5k calories because I burned ~4000 on the ride. hahahahah. not going to happen.

I hit 1 000 miles of riding this season. I actually hit it sometime last week, but was too lazy to post anything about it. This is by far the most miles I have done in any year of biking and the year is not over yet! I attribute a lot of those miles (682 to be exact) to the fact that I got a new bike that is just such a tremendous joy to ride.

Today’s ride was a 21 mile loop that I did pretty hard. I came in at 1 hour and 12 minutes, a 17.x mile per hour average. While this speed not what I will need to compete in TTs next year, my loops include a few hills (TTs around here are mostly flat) including one I can only go up at about 8mph. In the flat sections I am consistently above 21mph and on descents I stay at around 30mph just to be safe. So if I can get a trainer for the winter and work on my aero form I should be in top form for next season.

Today I went on my first group ride. It was a fairly quick and simple 20 mile loop from the local bike shop. There were about 15 of us with many different bikes. I had lots of fun chatting, riding, drafting, et cetera. I will definately be doing it again. Tomorrow is a 50 mile ride to some place that should have some good food. I really need to get a small digital camera to take some pictures on the rides…