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Doing What I Wouldn’t Do Last Year To Lose My Dad Body
Now, all things considered, my idea of a dad body isn’t the definition. I’m just not happy with what I see in the mirror… and it’s certainly getting to that mid-50s look and that’s just not going to cut it.
The first phase of this is eating better. Gone is the pepperoni & bacon pizza, much to my dismay. I don’t have to deal with a cardiologist and the plan is to keep it that way. I’m also cutting my portion sizes in half, because I eat way too much.
I’m also going to get back into running a little bit, at some point. One of the guys at work said, just the other day, that “I don’t run anywhere unless it’s for my life”. Well, I’ve noticed that my gate when I do try to run is shit, so I chuckled and added, “if I don’t run, I’m not going to be able to run for my life when the time comes”. It’s about time to get back into running a few miles a week for a while. I think my bones could use the jarring (at least that’s how it works according to science – we need a little impact for the brain to signal bone growth).
Getting to this point of commitment in my head took the better part of a year. I knew I was in trouble last winter but figured I’d ride the weight off in the summer. That didn’t happen, so now it’s time to take this seriously. The exact tipping point in my head, and I’ve given this a lot of thought, is in my desire to stay happy and active outweighing my will to abuse my diet. Eating fun isn’t “fun” when I know I’m slowly killing myself. It’s easy when I’m rocking out 10,000 miles in a summer. Not so much when I’m tipping the scale.
So far, so good, too.
Ah, After All Of The Whining About Trainer Season Over The Years…
It’s trainer season again. I got a text the other day that Diane would be riding at 10, after “it has a chance to warm up”. I replied, “ewww” and left it at that. I hate riding in the cold. I hate putting on all of the crap. I hate taking all of that crap off. I hate the shower after, trying to warm up.
I’m not a fan of the cold. Unless I’m skiing in it. Then, I love the cold. Otherwise? Give me my trainer, a good DVD/Blu-ray and 45 minutes and I’m all in.
The trainer is easy. 45 minutes, a 10 minute shower and five minutes in between. One hour from lace up to doing whatever. No bitter cold, no four miles to warm up because you don’t want to dress too warm and sweat…
After all of those years complaining about the trainer, I may not be happy about trainer season. I may feel like I’m missing out on some fresh air. I may even miss cleaning my bikes and chains once in a while. But not much.
Now if I could just slow down on the barbecue in conjunction with trainer season… cursed barbecue.
That Bonk Over the Weekend Really Hammered Me…
I went out on my own for a solo 26-mile ride Tuesday. My wife went in to the office and I had some things to take care of around the house, so I was set to ride with my buddy, Mike. Then something popped up that meant he couldn’t ride, so I prepped my Trek 5200 and figured I’d hammer out some good miles.
Ah, the first mile flew by… well, once I got used to being on a single bike. Heh.
I saw a runner-friend of mine up ahead, so I went off-routed and caught up to talk with him a bit. After, turning south, I found the wind. Not even a mile had me huffing and puffing like I was a pack-a-day smoker. “What the h-e-double-hockey-sticks is going on here”, I thought in much more colorful terms.
A couple of westerly miles at 19 to 20-mph and another slogger of a south mile. That’s about the time I remembered my electrolyte bonk Sunday. I felt a ton better by the time we got home, but it occurred to me there might be longer-lasting effects related to this. It’s been so long since I’ve bonked like that, I didn’t really remember much of how it went. It seems looking back that it does indeed take a little time to get back to square.
I hit the Gatorade pretty hard after that ride and I’m going to keep after it. I don’t like putting that much effort into going slow!
Sheesh.
Fifty-Six Miles & An Electrolyte Bonk… A BONK!!!
We were 10 miles into our planned 56-mile ride and I was dripping sweat on the downtube like it was 95° out (that’s really hot in Celsius, too). It was a touch on the humid side but barely over room temperature. I felt like I was standing on the pedals and I was sure my wife wasn’t pedaling as hard as she had the day before. Still, it was a nice ride and after that ten miles of knocking myself out, I dialed it back a bit and did much better.
Sadly, because I tinkered too much the day before, the shifting was a little off and I had to tinker whilst on the road… with the low limit set screw. I got the shifting so the chain wasn’t so noisy in short order but didn’t eat anything. I did, however, fire down a gel.
The next 25 miles were quite awesome and my wife and I had a really good rhythm going. However, at a particularly tough spot for me, she asked if I’d eaten anything at the first stop. That said to me she noticed I wasn’t pedaling with my normal vigor. We trundled on, though, and had a decent time of it. We had a little bit of a sprint heading up a small hill, messing with our friends, to our next stop that really took the wind out of me, though. I had a Coke and a Clif Bar before we rolled out and I thought I felt a lot better. Right up until that Coke started sloshing in my belly.
Ten more miles, somewhere around the 40 mile mark and I realized I was in trouble. My wife had been right; I was way out of sorts. I had a tough time placing it until I thought back on the entirety of the ride… sweating too much, not much power but thinking I was hammering the pedals, struggling… I hadn’t had a drink to replace electrolytes in several weeks going under the assumption that, heavier than I should be, I wouldn’t need as much in terms of electrolyte replacement, that I’d get enough from food.
I was mistaken. I had a Gatorade deficiency.
Mike asked if we wanted to head into Gaines to see if the town’s party store was open so I could get a Gatorade and Jess and I both, at the same time, said yes. We still had a few miles to go to get there and they were painful, but Jess really kicked butt to get us there. I felt quite awful as we pulled onto the sidewalk and headed in to purchase the biggest jug of Gatorade I could find. Grape sounded delightful.
We sat out on a sidewalk bench and I drank my medicine. It took about ten minutes, maybe a little more, to get to the last swig and I started feeling better shortly after. When I felt I was under control, we rolled out for home, about ten miles away. With each pedal stroke I gained confidence… until the first hill, and a tiny little molehill at that. I put on the extra power as I normally would for a hill and, just feet from the top, my left quad went into cramping. Over the top and coasting, I straightened my leg and the cramp subsided. I eased back into pedaling and my wife let me slowly work into it. Mike and Jeff dialed the pace way back to around 16-mph until I could regain my composure.
Even with the cramp, I was feeling a lot better and progressively improved as the ride went on. We took the pace up, Jess and I, when we got up front, to a moderate 20 to 21-mph. We’d gotten through the bulk of the hills by that point and it was gentle rises and drops at worst. With five miles to go, we took it to the barn.
I owed, and gave, Jess an apology and a good bit of thanks for getting me through that ordeal. She was pretty amazing, no doubt about it.
Let’s just say I drank enough Gatorade throughout the day that I won’t have a problem today. After all of these years cycling, I was shocked that happened. I thought I’d know better by now.
WordPress Wants to Know What My Feelings Are About Eating Meat…
Oh, how I hate the fascists…
This is a screenshot of a post I just started working on:
I hate this bullshit. My feelings about meat are this; I’ll always eat meat. Meat is fantastically healthy for human consumption under any honest scientific metric that is used, and as important, or more so to the human diet, than vegetables. Arguing against this is futile, dishonest, and usually just plain stupid.
Worse, what do people with Celiac disease eat if there is no meat? See what I mean about the ignorance? It’s hard enough to go through life with a gluten sensitivity, going through life where gluten really harms you is twice as hard. Almost impossible if all you’ve got left will kill you.
WordPress, it’s none of your business what I feel about eating meat. It’s necessary and I’ll be plunking off squirrels, rabbits and birds in the backyard before I stop eating meat. And there are many more vastly more adamant than I am.
You don’t want to start a discussion about meat. You’re not thinking this all the way through. You envision a world without cows and farm animals. What you’ll get is far worse. Try a world with no wildlife because it’s being eaten by those who won’t sit still for the pampas bullshit of others who, from their gilded cages, pronounce they want to change the world into what they deem “better”. Do us all a favor; jump off a building. A very tall one. Save us the misery of putting up with you. Or better, before you attempt to change the world, worry about cleaning your part of your parents basement, first. At least then, maybe you’ll realized just cleaning yourself up is close enough.
This is what my feelings are about eating meat; you suck.
When Life Turns too Full For Blog Posts…
We’ve got an intense day today, a nice two-hour morning bike ride on the tandem, taking my daughter to her friend’s house so she can go with her on vacation, hitting the hardware store so I can do some repairing on the camper for an upcoming road trip… and the weather’s fantastic.
My wife and I are riding alone on the tandem, out of an abundance of Covid-caution for the rest of the weekend and having a wonderful time with our newly found affection for each other… and the romance.
My friends, sometime it just gets too good (and full) for a blog post.
What Every New Cyclist Needs to Know About Cycling as a Lifestyle and Losing Weight, Gaining Weight and Maintaining Weight
I was watching a video on YouTube about weight training the other day – it just popped up on my feed so I figured I’d give it a look. In it, the kid was doing what’s called the “dirty bulk” was trying to gain weight as he lifted to build muscle. He ate a lot… and put on a ton of muscle quickly that he attributed to his body not being used to that level of exercise.
And that’s exactly what I’m going after in this post. When we start out on a bike, we lose weight almost effortlessly, plausibly because our body isn’t used to the activity. At least, that’s how it worked for me. I dropped weight fast, and a lot of it. I went from 170 pounds to 150 in a summer. That was ten years ago.
Today, I can’t lose weight like that. First, I’ve gotten used to eating for the activity. Second, well, see first, and I truly believe that my body got used to the level of cycling I’ve been doing for the last decade and I just don’t lose weight like I used to.
And that’s really the problem at this point. I was a much younger 41 when I started riding. I’m going on 52. While I can still lose weight on the bike, I do every spring, I’ve come to find I have to be a lot more careful of what I eat than I did when I first got into cycling. And that’s been an uncomfortable and difficult lesson to learn.
If there’s a main bit of advice to this post, it’s this: Take advantage of that initial weight loss phase but use caution when it comes to gaining some of that weight back. That easy loss phase doesn’t last forever.
Don’t I wish it did!
Today’s Lesson in Journalism: The Headline! How Not To Write One in 1,005 Words (Ish).
Don’t do it this way.
… And That’s Why We Don’t Ride After Freezing Rain.
I stepped outside to take a feel. I’d heard the wind chime playing it’s song but it was technically supposed to be warm – well, above freezing by a degree, at least. It was still quite dark and Mike, Chuck and I were due to roll out in half an hour. Freezing drizzle.
The dirt roads were already out of the question, impassable by bike with a layer of compacted snow and ice we’d be riding mountain bikes on paved roads. With the freezing drizzle the paved roads were out, too.
I texted Chuck I was out with the freezing rain. Mike called in the second I hit send on the text. He confirmed the wisdom of my dropping out when he said he had to walk on the grass to get down to collect his Sunday paper. No way I was riding in that, and Mike was out, too.
I set up the bikes on the trainers and my wife and I had a nice spin to 6 Underground. I was 30 minutes into it when I realized I didn’t have to talk myself into getting on the bike, and I was on my sixth ride of the week – so I could have easily justified a day off. Thankfully, that’s a little more like me.
I received a text from Chuck right around that point that he’d gone out anyway and braved the sleet and freezing rain. It didn’t go well. He went down (though from the sounds of it, not too hard). The bike was fine but I’m sure he’ll be bruised up today.
And that’s exactly why we ride the trainer after freezing rain. It doesn’t matter how fat your tires are on ice. Once you lose it, you’re down before you can blink.
The rest of the day was phenomenal. I spent the whole day in my pajamas watching football and napping intermittently. It was better than a swift kick in the pants. I didn’t do very well with watching what I ate over the weekend, so that starts today.
First Miles of the New Year – Post Stomach Flu
That’s right, friends. I went all the way to the 4th of the year before putting foot to pedal. I got home New Year’s Eve (eve) after bowling, got cleaned up and went to bed… I never fell asleep. The fever started within minutes of my pulling the covers over my shoulders. I ended up out on the couch before long and, though I started feeling better immediately after finally vomiting mid-morning, it took another day and change before I felt like I had any energy. Monday, I could have ridden after work but I was still feeling run down. I’d almost left work early but decided to muscle it out, so I didn’t see the wisdom in pushing it. I did take a most wonderful nap, though.
I almost took another day off yesterday, too. Still feeling a little run down, maybe 85%, I sat on the couch and dozed off for a few minutes and woke up lethargic. I started talking myself into another day off when I realized it had been five days since I last turned a crank. I immediately stopped thinking and went to the bike room to wheel out the Trek and set it on the trainer.
I popped a Star Wars flick in the DVD player and got to it. Riding was laborious for the first few minutes but I settled in nicely and enjoyed the rest of the workout.
I did take it easy, spinning away the whole time. Just enough to break a sweat and, much to my amazement, improve how I felt… enough that I finally enjoyed eating.
Friends, I’ve heard the stomach flu is cruising around, so watch yourself. This one’s a doozy.
Fit Recovery 