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.

Upon setting out my hamstrings felt pretty tight and it took several miles before they started to feel good. As I neared my normal weekday turnaround point I just wasn’t sure how this ride was going to turn out. I felt tired already and just was having a hard go at it. I reached the church that’s my turnaround point and had to stop for about 10 minutes to rest. I drank some water and had some Jelly Belly® Sport (ENERGY) Jelly Beans. After resting I felt a bit better and set out again.

About 5 minutes later I crossed an intersection and saw a group of three riders approaching the same intersection from my left. About a mile later they start to overtake me (I’m going approx 17 mph). The lead rider pulls up next to me and says, “We’re lost and hope you know where you’re going because we’re just going to follow you.” I said, “If you follow me, you’ll just wind up at my house.” They laughed and kept on going. I caught up to them again about 2 miles later at a stoplight. The light changes green and I’m ready and take off. They seemed to be taking their time getting across. They probably thought I was a tool as I passed them. Once across the intersection the road climbs for about 200 feet and then descends back down on the other side. I let my speed carry me and I’m riding along at about 20 mph. I see some guy operating a leaf blower up ahead next to the road. It looks like he was fixing to step out into the road, saw me, and thought better of it. I’m still pushing 20 mph, get within about 10 feet of the guy and he turns to step out in front of me. At the last second he sees me and jumps back. That would have hurt. About a 100 feet later I’m still pushing 20 mph (just to see if the three riders were going to catch me) and here they come just cruising by me with a girl in the lead. They must have been moving along at close to 25 mph. Wow. I hope to be able to ride at that pace some day.

After these three passed me again they left me behind pretty quick and then I turned to start heading back home. The effort over the past five miles was starting to get to me. It took a huge effort to keep pedaling over the last stretch home and by the time I got home I was hurting pretty bad. I’m not sure what caused me to crash so bad yesterday and then to not be able to ride at my best today. I’ve wondered if it was some kind of bug but I don’t feel sick. I’ve also wondered if it’s perhaps my diet and if I’m not getting enough of something. I’m not sure. I welcome anyones opinion.

Here are the numbers for today: 24.22 miles, 1:34:01, 21.7 mph max, 15.4 mph average

Once I got started and warmed up I started to feel really good. Now that I’m riding the Crotch Rocket (Cannondale R-300), I felt like I was flying. To me it was flying but to a more experienced rider I’m sure it was a crawl. Regardless, I could tell I was making good time. My brother-in-law was not at our meeting spot so I kept on going.

As I neared my turnaround point I decided to go ahead and extend the mileage a little by going to the next median turnaround point. Once I turned around I kept mashing it all the way home.

Nothing too terribly exciting for this ride. I saw one runner and that was it. I figured there would be more for a Friday. There was little traffic as well which was nice.

I wasn’t kidding about a special day for a ride. This was the first day I could really open it up with the Cannondale and I did. Here are today’s numbers: 12.17 miles, 47:05, 18.7 mph max, and 15.5 mph avg. Those are all new records for me (except max) for my morning ride. The perfect weather conditions and road bike made all the difference. Being able to get the avg speed up let me ride about 7 tenths of a mile more but do it 2 minutes faster. Awesome!

Now, after getting back home, getting ready for work, and leaving home with my daughter (whom I take to school every morning), things became interesting. The exit from our neighborhood turns onto a service road that leads to a stop sign. There is a large, divided six-lane, road just off the service road. As I approach the stop sign I hear a very unnatural sound. The kind where the hairs on the back of your neck start to stand up. I’m driving so I look over my left shoulder and see a car spinning across three lanes and begin to enter the ditch that seperates the large six-lane road from the service road. He’s coming right at us. The car hits the ditch and throws up a ton of dirt and grass. Luckily (for me, not the driver of the spinning car), there’s a light pole about four feet into the ditch and the car hits it broadside right in the driver’s door. I immediately throw my car into park, put on the hazards, and run over to the wrecked car. The driver (the only passenger) is conscious and asks me to call 911. I call 911 and explain the situation. By the time I get off the phone someone else has stopped and the driver of the wrecked car is out walking around. He seems fine. I have no idea what caused the accident. His was the only car involved and my guess is that he was speeding and lost control of his car.

After leaving the scene I had a chance to think about the whole ordeal and realized how lucky my daughter and I were. There’s no doubt in my mind that if that light pole hadn’t been there that his car would have either slid straight into mine, or, hit the ditch, started to roll, and rolled into my car. Either scenario would have been ugly. Luckily, that light pole was there. Even luckier, he hit the lightpole square in the drivers door. I’m confident, that with his speed, if he had hit the pole on either the front or rear fender that he would have been thrown into a spin and hit me as well.

All I can say is that I’m thankful we made it through ok.

http://www.cyclepig.com/archive/family-on-bikes/

Once outside everything seemed ok. I gave the weather a check by walking out of the garage and I started to have second thoughts. The temp was great but there were some dark clouds being blown from West to East by a STIFF wind. On the surface, though, I couldn’t detect any wind at all. I said, “So what” and proceeded to grab my bike. After only getting two days of riding in last week I wasn’t about to forfeit another ride unless the weather was abysmal.

Once I started everything seemed to go pretty good. The air had a slight chill to it but it wasn’t bad. Traffic seemed a little light, which was nice, and I saw several runners this morning. It’s always good to see other folks out. I didn’t see any cyclists though. I must have been the only with the guts to get up on a Monday morning at 5:00 am to ride.

After feeling not-so-good yesterday I made a conscious decision to not push it too hard this morning. I cruised most of the circuit right around 13 mph. I encountered a little wind on the second half that was coming out of the South but it wasn’t bad. Certainly not bad enough to affect my riding.

Once I turned onto the last straightaway towards home I shifted to the big gear and pushed it the rest of the way in. I didn’t hammer it but I did work up a sweat.

I’m waiting on my youngest daughter to finish up ballet practice so I’m sitting at Panera Bread (sipping a wonderful Hazelnut coffee) typing this post so I don’t have my numbers with me. I’ll post them later when I get home.

The numbers for today’s ride are: 11.52 miles, 52:26, 16.1 mph max, and 13.1 mph avg

5:00 AM came bright and early and I was ready. I had a new set of bibs and a shirt come in the mail yesterday so I was eager to try them out. I’d also installed a new front light to increase my visibility to oncoming traffic. The air was a little chilly this morning but not bad. Once I got to spinning I warmed up quickly.

My first long straightaway I was cooking. I was averaging around 14 mph which is about what I saw on my last couple of bicycle rides. Traffic seemed rather light this morning and I wasn’t complaining. As I neared my first turn I couldn’t believe how good I felt. The bibs felt good, the legs felt good, and I was movin’. The rest must have done me some good. During this stretch I’m pushing along anywhere from 14 to 16 mph. As I neared my turnaround point I slowed down a bit due to a little uphill work and because I wanted to conserve my energy for the second half.

Once past my turnaround point and approaching No Man’s Land, I began to wonder if I could really push it the rest of the way in. I felt that good. I took a good sip of water and settled in for the push. Once I entered No Man’s Land I shifted into my smallest cog on the middle gear and began cranking it. I was flying! I made if all the way through No Man’s Land at 16+ mph! My previous best was between 14-15 mph back on Ride 10. I know, for some of you 16 mph is no big deal but for me it is!

I slow down before hitting the home stretch so I can recover a bit and drink some water. Once hitting the 2 mile stretch back home I shift to the big gear and push it the rest of the way in. It started to burn pretty good near the end but I was able to push through.

Overall this ride was fantastic! The numbers were: 11.54 miles, 49 minutes, 17.7 mph max, and 14 mph average. The 17.7 mph max was achieved while going uphill and the 14 mph average is a new record for my morning ride.

I saw a couple of runners today (one of them new) and another rider. The rider was a large fellow, like myself, heading the opposite direction as I pushed the big gear home. He looked to be new to the bike and struggling some. I saw myself three weeks ago. I’m not saying I don’t struggle now but I know there’s a big difference between me now and me then. I wish I knew who he was. If you’re reading this, and were riding East on Baymeadows Road at around 6:00 AM this morning, please leave a comment or send me an email via the contact form. I know the chances of him reading this blog are microscopic but you never know. Maybe next time I’ll turn around and introduce myself.

Today is 16-Apr.  I plan on embarking on my journey to the new me on the morning of 21-Apr.

Running is out of the question. Ever since I can remember I’ve always had a difficult time running long distances. It always hurt my calves to run much further than a mile and it still does to this day. In high school the max distance I ran was the 200 meter sprint. My bread-and-butter was the opening leg of the 4×100 meter relay. I was fast out of the blocks and a very good sprinter over short distances. In the off-season we would run long distance just to build endurance and I hated it. Even after joining the military I never became accustomed to it. I attended Officer’s Candidate School (OCS) in the mid-90s and was forced to run long distance. I had to in order to graduate. Not to mention that those Marine Corps drill instructors were very motivating! Man I’ve got some stories! Anyway, I left OCS in the best shape of my life but that quickly deteriorated because of my lack of desire to run. About five years later I had to have surgery on my ankle to remove bone spurs and some floating bone fragments. Needless to say my dreams of becoming a long-distance ultra-marathoner were over. Seriously, that was never a dream of mine!

I like swimming but finding the time and resources is difficult. You can’t get much more low-impact that swimming and it’s a great workout for the entire body. I swam for a bit while recovering from my ankle surgery and it seemed to help. Finding a pool and working a swim workout into my schedule isn’t easy though. Because of tha, swimming is out.

That left biking. I think I got my first bike when I was about six or seven. It even had a banana seat. Throughout my teenage years I had several bikes and learned to work on them myself. I always remember watch the Tour de France on TV and had dreams one day being able to race a bike. In the mid-90′s I bought my first real bike. It was a Cannondale R-300. I was in heaven. I bought it to train for a ride from Groton, CT to Akron, OH. I rode to work almost every day and tried to get some “training” rides in when I could. I say “training” because I had no idea what I was doing. Anyway, that trip went very well and since then that bike has been a trooper. Why a trooper? Because I’ve lugged that thing through about five different moves, had it become a professional dust collector, and didn’t ride it again for I don’t know how long. It’s actually quite pathetic to look at right now. Truth be told, I’m too heavy for it now anyway. So, after moving to Florida in late 2006 I had visions of riding again but knew I couldn’t begin with a serious bike. So, I headed off to the local Target and come home with a brand new Schwinn Trailways bike. It’s a hybrid with front shocks, a triple chain ring, index shifting, and reflectors. Sadly, that bike has sat in my garage unused for months save for the occasional spin around the neighborhood. Over the course of the last few weeks though I’ve begun to get it ready to ride. I moved the water bottle cages, look-style pedals, and seat from the R-300 to the Schwinn. Next I dug around in the garage until I found the bag where my shoes, helmet, gloves, and seat bag were stashed. I was set to ride at the time of my choosing.

Is this bike going to get me from 280 to 180? I hope so. I plan on putting a lot of miles on it to make it happen. I told my wife that when I get down to 180 I’m going to want a “real” bike. It won’t be one of those carbon fiber savings account busters but it’ll be something that my new body will be able to power to maximum potential.

There you have it. It’s biking for me. Lookout asphalt, bad drivers, and squirrels because I’m coming to a street near you.  I wonder if I can get my kids to setup aid stations along the route?  I doubt it.

If you read my About Me page you’ll think that I’m your average guy with a job and family.  We have a good life and have been very fortunate.  What you can’t tell from my profile is that I have 100 things wrong with me.  Most people have traits others may not like but they are generally hidden and can only be experienced when you spend a great deal of time with them.  Call them idiosyncrasies.  I, on the other hand, wear my problem in public for everyone to see.  Many people have the same problem I do.  Too many.  What’s my problem?  I’m overweight to the tune of 100 pounds.

I was always on the “hefty” side growing up and this was kept in check in high school through football.  Since those glory days I’ve gradually built myself up over the last 18 years to my current weight of 280 pounds.  The optimum weight for my height is 180 pounds.  I’ve tried to convince myself for years that it’s just genetics and I’m a stocky guy destined to always be big.  I convinced myself that I had lots of muscle underneath the blubber that was causing me to weigh so much.  It’s true that I did lift a lot of weights when I was younger but I haven’t done so in years.  All I was doing was fooling myself.

It’s time to stop fooling and start doing.

 Biking To Live is the intersection of several areas of my life:

1. First, I need to lose the weight.  Being this overweight is unhealthy.  With my family history it’s even worse.  I won’t bore you with the particulars but let’s just say that I was on a one-way trip to a pine box at an early age.
2. Second, I enjoy the Internet as a hobby.  I’ve always been intrigued by blogs and the behind-the-scenes work to run them and thought my mission to lose these 100 pounds through biking would be a good topic to explore that hobby even further.  The blog also serves as my personal diary and accountability tool.
3. Third, I’ve always enjoyed biking.  I’ll expand on this further in an upcoming post but using my bike to help me lose these 100 pounds seemed like a no-brainer.

Has Biking To Live become clearer now?  I’m taking to my bicycle again to help me lose these extra 100 pounds I’ve accumulated in order to live again.  Am I living now?  Sure, but it’s the wrong kind of living.  Getting rid of these extra pounds is going to enable me to start living in a whole different way.  The benefits are almost countless.

Do you have a story, comment, or word of encouragement you would like to share?  If so, please leave a comment below.