I wasn’t kidding when I said it was a whirlwind. As you can imagine, I’ve had more important things to do and haven’t ridden or prepared new articles. In fact, I haven’t even thought about this blog for a couple of weeks. I will probably start riding again soon. I need it. If I end up moving to Dallas my bike will go with me so I can ride there. While I was with my mom in Oklahoma my wife found my cold weather gear so I can use it when it starts to get colder here in Jax. I know I’ll need it in Dallas.

One bright spot I’d like to point out is that Genuine Innovations is now a sponsor of Biking To Live. You can see the banner, created especially for Biking To Live, on the front page of the blog. Be sure to check them out.

I’d like to thank those that have emailed me and offered their support during these difficult times. I sincerely appreciate it.

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When I attended Officer Candidate School back in 1996, the Drill Instructors had us on a rigorous training plan that was very well planned out. By doing that, they knew what days were long distance running days, which ones were sprint days, and so on. At the end of the 13-week school I had lost over 30 pounds and reduced my 1.5 mile run time by over 3 minutes. If it worked for me running (which I can’t do anymore due to ankle problems) why won’t it work for cycling? Because of that, I believe that I would benefit from following a regimented bicycle training program to help me build my fitness and lose weight. So, for the past week I’ve been developing a schedule to improve my cycling fitness. I knew several things going in:

• I knew what I was capable of riding per week based on my bike riding earlier in the year.
• I knew what my normal weekday mileage was for my morning bicycle ride.
• I knew I was basically starting over again and needed to build my fitness base back up.

Armed with this information, I designed a small spreadsheet that displays some mileage totals based on the number of weekdays I ride and how far I ride on Saturday. Sunday will always be a rest day. The result is this table.

The number of weekdays I ride (3, 4 or 5) are in the first column, the second column is the distance of my morning ride (13 miles), and the remaining four columns are what my weekly mileage would be if I did a 30, 40, 50, or 60 mile Saturday ride. For example, if I ride my bike 3 weekdays, plus 40 miles on Saturday, my mileage for that week would be 79 miles. The color coding will make sense in a minute.

The next thing I did was determine how many weeks were left in the year (18 full weeks) and determine on what days I would ride my bike and how far. I again went to Excel and developed the table below:

The weeks until the end of the year are listed in the first column with the total mileage for that week in the third column. The next seven columns are the days of the week and how far I will ride on each day for the given week. The days I ride are easily adjusted due to inclement weather, lack of sleep, etc. The key, for me, is getting the required mileage in each week. You’ll see in the weekly mileage column (column 3), that I started at 69 miles for my starting mileage for the week of 25-Aug. I knew going in that I’m capable of doing that so it’s a good starting point. You’ll notice that the 69 cell is shaded a light blue. That corresponds to the light blue shaded 69 in the top table. This means I’m supposed to ride my bicycle on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (three weekdays) at 13 miles in the morning and ride 30 miles on Saturday for a weekly total of 69 miles.

When determining how much I would ride each week, I tried to follow the rule of not increasing my mileage more than 10%-12% each week. In my plan I decided to do that for each three-week period and for the most part I did. The only thing that bothers me is the Saturday miles. I’m not going to have a problem riding 30 or 40 miles but getting up to 50 and 60 miles on Saturday, with only short 13 mile rides on the weekdays has me a little concerned. I’m hoping my plan to be in each “phase” for three weeks will help with that.

Finally, you’ll see that there’s a red line after the week of 6-Oct. That line splits my base fitness and interval training phases as seen in the last column. Cycling Performance Tips says that you should have a solid aerobic base of 500 miles of steady pedaling before adding intervals to a cycling training plan so as to prevent injury. Even though I have already ridden 300 miles earlier in the year I decided to follow this rule in my new program. Why? Because, let’s face it, I’m overweight and not ready for intervals yet. After finishing the week of 6-Oct I will have accumulated 526 miles of base fitness. As I get closer to the interval phase I’ll make another post on my plan for the intervals.

If I follow my plan as it’s set, I’ll ride 1,608 miles between today and 26-Dec. This should get me in good shape, help me lose some weight, help me get into some of my smaller clothes, and prepare me for some hard training in early 2009 so I can do some local rides or charity events.

Well, that’s it. I started the plan this morning with my 13-mile ride on Bike Ride 26. I’m in no way a trainer, or accomplished cyclist, so I’d like to hear your opinions and/or recommendations.

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Why do we have goals?

We set goals in order to achieve something important. Goals are our recognition of a problem, or opportunity, and serve as a target for us to focus on. Without goals we risk wandering aimlessly in our bicycle riding. Setting goals requires that we establish our baseline and determine where we want to be in the future. Setting goals puts the proverbial carrot out in front and keeps us moving towards the completion of that goal.

A goal properly set is halfway reached.
-Abraham Lincoln

Defining your goals

There are several factors that must be taken into account when you want to define your goals.

1. Where are you now? You have to have a starting point which means you need to make an assessment of your current situation. If you’re looking to lose weight you need your current weight. If you’re looking to improve your health see your doctor and get a complete checkup. If you’re looking to improve your riding record your most recent workout data to set as a baseline. Only by knowing where you are now can you plot a course to get where you want to be.
2. Where do you want to be? Do you know where you want to be with your bicycle riding, weight, or overall fitness? If you don’t, you need to figure it out. Do you want to ride a certain number of miles per week, month, or year? Do you want to drop a specific number of minutes off your weekday loop or commute time? Do you have a target weight you want to be at? Do you need to drop your cholesterol, blood pressure, or resting heart rate? Do you want to complete your first century ride or compete in a race next year? These are the types of questions you need to answer before you can figure out where you want to be.
3. How do you measure your progress? In order to determine if your bike rides are doing you any good you have to determine how you’re going to measure your progress towards your goals. Setting a goal and not measuring your progress leaves you wondering if you’ll ever achieve the results you wanted. So, how do you measure your progress? Some are:
   • Going to your doctor and getting your blood work checked periodically.
   • Measure and record your resting heart rate when you wake up each morning.
   • Use a bicycle computer to track your ride statistics (mileage, average speed, heart rate, etc.)
   • Weigh yourself periodically.
   • Are you able to keep pace on the group ride?

   These are just a few ideas and I’m sure you can think of others.

4. How do you get to your goal? This is where the rubber meets the road. Literally. If you want to improve your bike riding, fitness, or health, you have to define, specifically, the action required to get there. For example, if you want to put in 5000 training miles this year you need to determine the number of miles you need to ride per month and per week. In this example, you’ll need to put in approximately 417 miles per month or 104 miles per week to achieve that goal. You’ll need to measure your progress periodically to ensure your on track to meet that 2000 training miles goal. If you find yourself trailing behind you’ll need to re-adjust your plan (increase the daily/monthly mileage) to achieve your goal.

SMART Goals

SMART is a common method used to help in defining goals. SMART stands for:

• Specific
• Measureable
• Action-Oriented
• Realistic (yet challenging)
• Time-defined

1. Specific and Measureable. Your goals must be specific and you must have a way to measure them. If you simply say to yourself, “I’m going to ride my bike more this year” what do you think the chances of you actually following through on that are? How would you know if you were riding more than last year? It would be better to write your goal as, “Increase my training mileage this year by 30 miles per week.”
2. Action-Oriented. How are you going to increase your mileage by 30 miles per week? Expand your goal by defining exactly how your going to do it. How about, “I will increase my training mileage this year by 30 miles per week by commuting to work one more day per week”, or, “by increasing my Saturday training ride to 50 miles”, or, “by participating in the Monday night group ride at the local bike shop.” Writing your goal this way reminds you exactly how you were going to achieve it.
3. Realistic and Time Defined. You’ve got to look at your goal and make sure that it’s both realistic and can be achieved in the time you allot for yourself. If you’ve only been putting in 500 training miles per year how realistic do you think it is to set a goal to ride 5000 training miles the next year? Not very. You have to make an honest assessment of your abilities and use that to help set your goal. Additionally, you’ll need to propose a realistic time scale to accomplish the goal. If you’re looking to lose fifty pounds and give yourself twelve weeks to do it you’re setting yourself up to fail. Healthy weight-loss is 1 to 2 pounds per week which means a fifty pound loss should take, at a minimum, 25 weeks to accomplish.

Write your goals down

Can you remember everything without writing it down? I know I can’t. That’s one reason to write your goals down. Another is that writing your biking goals down allows you to refer to them often as a motivational tool to keep moving towards that goal. Another is that being able to refer to your written goals allows you to make modifications if necessary. You can’t make modifications if you can’t remember what you were trying to achieve. Written goals help hold you accountable as well. Put your goals on the mirror so you see them every morning when you get up. Share your goals with your spouse, friend, or riding buddy. If you’re comfortable doing it, you can blog about your goals as well. Sharing your goals lets others know what’s important to you and perhaps they can help you achieve them. Who knows, maybe they have goals of their own that you can help them with.

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Fat Cyclist Forever Tattoo

I discovered Fat Cyclist about a week ago and have really enjoyed reading some of the great stuff over there. Today Fatty announced a cool little contest where you enter to win some DZNuts Chamois Cream, a DZNuts tshirt, or a DZNuts flexfit cap. Also on the list of prizes is a box of Jelly Belly Sports Beans.

What do you have to do? Help design a tattoo for one of his friends named Kenny. If you can photoshop something that’s great. If not, just describe what you think might be a good bicycling tattoo.

The full list of prizes and rules is available in the post here.

My submission is to the right and was accompanied with the following text:

“There I was…rolling down the trail when I come across two dudes taking pictures of themselves in their form fitting hot pants. The guy pictured below had some weird lookin’ jailhouse tat that said, “Fat Cyclist Forever” written across a red heart decorated with roses. I’m guessing the flames represented burning desire for this Fat Cyclist dude. I don’t know who Fat Cyclist is. Maybe it was his Daddy in the big house. What really did it for me, though, was what he was yelling. He’s standing there trying to pull off his best Arnold impression yelling, “Take a picture of DZNuts!”

Realizing there were two of them and one of me, I quickly snapped this pic and took off before I became another tragic victim of tough love.”

There you have it. Good Luck!

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Tropical Storm Fay path courtesy of Weather.com

Well, I had hoped we would avoid the worst of this storm but it looks like that won’t be the case. This thing has taken one of the screwiest paths up through Florida and looks to hit Jacksonville right in the grill. They’ve already canceled school for the kids for the next two days. I’ll be going to work tomorrow.

Alas, it looks like I won’t be riding tomorrow. If I did, I might end up like this guy. He’s let the whole extreme sports thing to go his head and affect his judgment. What an idiot.

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I owe you an apology. Back on April 12, 2008, I made this post. It explained why I was overweight, what I was going go do about it, and why I chose to blog about it. I realized (with some help from a couple of readers (Pete and Arlyn), as of yesterday, that I had unequivocally failed to do what I had set out to do in that post.

Why you ask? Well, there are several reasons. Sure, I burned my hand here and I crashed pretty bad back on Ride 23 but I’m over those injuries and should be riding again. The only reason that matters, though, is that I have become lazy and lost focus of what this blog, and my mission, was about. Over the last week, instead of tending to my own health and fitness by riding, I tried to turn my blog into something it isn’t - a news site for bicycling. I’m sorry.

So, where does this leave me? I’m returning to what I started this blog about. Me and my fight to improve my health through riding a bike. I’ll return to posting about my rides but I don’t want the blog to turn into a boring training diary. I’ll post on other cycling subjects from time-to-time as well as my life as it relates to cycling (i.e. bike shop visits, local cycling events, opinions, etc.). I’ll also try and post some informative articles in weight loss and fitness. I think if I return to these core areas I can not only revive Biking To Live but also revive my riding, and in turn, my health. Hopefully my two readers (I say that in jest; I may have upwards of ten!) will appreciate this and I can reach out to those in similar situations to help them.

For those of you who have visited, commented, and encouraged me to date I sincerely appreciate it.

If you have an comments, or recommendations to improve this blog, I’m all ears.

Thanks.

Bryan

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2008 Tour of Utah Jerseys

The five stage Tour of Utah starts tomorrow with seventeen professional teams battling it out over five days. Encompassing more than 330 miles and containing more than 30,000 feet of climbing, the Tour of Utah is poised to beat even the strongest riders into submission. For those that are able to conquer the grueling climbs, the blistering sprints, and the individual time trial, they’ll be able to show it off with some great looking jerseys.

You can get the same jerseys worn by the leaders. Blackbottoms Cyclewear has the official Tour of Utah leaders jerseys available on their website. All five are made from 100% microfiber polyester for superb moisture control properties. Here are the jerseys available:

• Yellow - Commemorative 2008 Jersey and overall leaders jersey
• Green - Sprinters Jersey
• Red - Best Utah Rider
• Polka Dot - King of the Mountains
• Blue - Best Young Rider

Images of the jerseys graciously provided by Blackbottoms Cyclewear.

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Friday I had called around looking for a new set and getting some prices for comparison. I had been to a shop ‘A’ earlier in the week and they had some Bontrager Selects for $18 per tire. I called shop ‘B’ and they had the Bontrager Select K for $19. The difference between the Select and Select K is that the Select K has a kevlar belt to help with flat protection. While my gut told me to go to shop ‘A’ (because I liked that shop better, the people were nicer, and the prices good) I decided to go to shop ‘B’ to get the Ks. I was willing to pay the extra $1 for the kevlar belt.

I show up at shop ‘B’ and tell the guy at the counter I need a pair of Bontrager Select Ks in 700×23. The guy leaves and comes back a couple minutes later. He asks me again what I need. I tell him and he proceeds to look at me like I’ve got two heads. I tell him again. He leaves, can’t find’em and gets another employee to help. I walk over and they’re looking at tubular tires that are folded up on a rack. I think some of them are even MTB tires. They turn around and ask me again. I tell’em again and emphasize that it’s the one with the kevlar belt. The room immediately became brighter as two light bulbs came on. They turned around and headed to the back where the clinchers were hanging on the wall. While they’re gone I head over to look at the new Trek Madones and Cervelos. I’m sure I left a puddle of drool on the floor.

A few more minutes has gone by and one of the employees comes up to me with two tires. They’re the Selects not the Select Ks. He proceeds to explain to me that even though the computer says they have six in stock that, in fact, they don’t have any. He asks if I want the Selects or if I want them to order the Select Ks and I tell him, “No. Thanks.” I head over to Shop ‘A’ and pick up the Selects from them. I show up at Shop ‘A’, tell the guy what I want, he’s back less then a minute later with exactly what I need and I’m done. Amazing.

Why didn’t I just go ahead and buy the Selects from Shop ‘B’? Well, because this is the second time Shop ‘B’ has demonstrated themselves to not be organized or helpful. The first was a couple of months ago when I went in to have myself measured for a new saddle. The guy that came out to help made me feel like I was interrupting him, he couldn’t figure out how to make the sit bone fitting tool to work, and I left with having wasted 30 minutes. I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and gave them a chance at redemption with the tires. They again showed they weren’t ready for my business.

I’m now committed to shop ‘A’. Why? A few days ago I was in there and found CO2 cartridges that were half the price of another shop (call it Shop ‘C’), last week they treated my wife good when she was in there to surprise me with some new tubes, their customer service is good, and they have in stock what they say they have. They take care of the customer. That’s 99% of running a successful business in my book.

Well, now I have two new tires that I’ll install today and be ready to ride come Monday.

(Jaxgtr, Shop ‘A’ (my favorite) is the same one we talked about via email.)

I’d be interested in hearing your stories about choosing your favorite LBS.

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Now that I’ve replenished my seat bag, changed tubes, and healed, I should be ready to start riding again. I’m going to shoot for tomorrow.

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