Today was a 1.5 hour endurance pace ride and I waited until this evening to do it because tomorrow is a rest day. I arrived at White Rock Lake at about 6 PM but ended up having to fix a flat on my front wheel before I could even start. Very frustrating. The tube was one that I had patched before so I should have expected it. I put in my last new tube which means I need to hit the bike shop tomorrow to pick up a couple. Another good reason it’s a rest day tomorrow.

By the time I got rolling, after having problems with my pump, I wasn’t in the best of moods and in the interest of time shortened my warm up to 15 minutes vice the normal 30. After the warm up I picked it up to 15 mph and did my best to hold it steady. After 30 minutes I didn’t feel too good and thought it could be contributed to either not hydrating enough, the bad start or the shortened warm up.

I eventually settled down and kept the pace up for the next 30 minutes until I stopped to refill my water bottle. It was a short stop but I think I may have drank too much water too fast because for the next 10 minutes or so I felt like throwing up. I never did and I eventually felt better.

One hour into the endurace part of the ride I completed my second loop of White Rock Lake and had planned on just riding another 15 minutes and then turning around to ride back to my car to complete the 1.5 hours at endurance pace. The only problem was that I wouldn’t get a cool down in. After 15 minutes I was actually feeling good and decided to go ahead and continue on around the lake to make it three loops.

The final 15 minutes of the endurance part of the ride saw me picking up the pace. I was probably cruising along at 17 mph or so and I hear that familiar hum of aero wheels approaching from behind. A guy literally blows by me like I’m standing still. I’m not kidding. It was like he had a rocket tied to his back. I’d seen him riding before, on the same bike, but never at that speed. I was totally envious.

With the 1.5 endurance ride complete I took a nice slow pace back to my car to cool down. After the rough start it ended up being a great final ride to my first week of training. Here are the numbers:

Total Ride Time: 1:51:13 (including 15 min warm up and 6 min cool down)
Total Distance: 27.5 miles
Avg MPH: 14.8

I’m sure you’ve all seen the Rock Racing kits and the out of this world prices they want for them. I actually think the designs are pretty cool even though I don’t necessarily care for the team or their prices. I’ve seen one person actually wearing one of their jerseys but today there was a guy wearing a full Rock Racing team kit. My guess is that he paid more for that kit than I paid for my bike 15 years ago.

Since it’s Day 1 it means it’s Monday which is sort of anti-climactic since it’s a scheduled rest day. Because it’s a rest day I’ve decided that Monday’s will be the day I update everyone on my progress as far as measurements. And since it’s the first Monday we need to establish a baseline for comparison later. In truth, I probably should have established this baseline several months ago so I could measure my progress to date but hindsight is 20/20. Establishing a baseline now will allow you to see how my body is changing during this 12-week training plan. Without further ado, here are my measurements:

Weight: ? (I meant to weigh yesterday since I don’t have a scale…look for my weight update in 2 weeks)
Neck: 17.5 in
Chest: 46 in
Left Bicep: 14.25 in
Right Bicep: 14.5 in
Waist: 48.5 in
Left Thigh: 28.5 in
Right Thigh: 28.5 in
Left Calf: 19.25 in
Right Calf: 19 in

My waist measurement is disturbing. It was measured around the largest part of my stomach which is a horizontal line around the body that bisects the navel. This is how the military measures your waist size and includes your love handles. Most people don’t wear their pants that high so your pant size is usually smaller than your actual measurement. I couldn’t believe that number when I first took it.

My neck size has been as high as 21 but I know in the last couple of months it’s decreased dramatically based on doing some test buttoning of the top button on my dress shirts. I’m pretty sure I’ve lost at least six inches in my chest as well based on a normal jacket size of 52 and some of my suits are fitting so good now. I have a wool overcoat that I wore last winter (didn’t get much use for it in Florida) that I couldn’t button. I put it on the other day and can now button all three buttons and have plenty of room to spare. A great feeling.

I guess one way to look at it is that those numbers should only get smaller.

Next week I’ll add in accumulated ride time and mileage for this week.

The heat this week has been pretty bad with temps at or near 100F with heat indexes over 100F. Yesterday was no different. Knowing this, I’ve been very conscious to drink water throughout the day and have a bottle of G2 in the afternoon. I’ve also delayed my evening ride by about a half-hour so I’m starting around 6:30 PM and religiously doing a slow six mile warm up. This combination seems to be working for me right now as I’ve had no episodes like last week when I was obliterated after 15 miles. One good thing was that some later afternoon clouds moved in which helped with the heat some yesterday.

I rolled away from my car and made it about 200 feet when I realized I forgot my sunglasses. I immediately pulled a u-turn and headed back to get them. It’s interesting to note that I’ve had these particular sunglasses for about seven years. They aren’t even ‘cycling’ sunglasses. They were given to me while I was still in the Navy and are actually safety glasses. You can buy them at Lowes or Home Depot and come in a number of designs. I’ve always carried them around and they seem to work OK. I’m probably missing out on some design benefits by not having cycling sunglasses but never pulled the trigger to spend the cash on some. If any of you have recommendations for a good set of inexpensive sunglasses for cycling I’d like to hear them.

My warm up went pretty good with no issues. Those first six miles were again strictly to get warmed up, settle in on the bike, and allow the heat to dissipate some before I really cranked up the speed. Me, cranked up and speed actually don’t below in the same sentence together but you now what I mean. I did have to stop during my warm up and tighten two spokes. It’s the same two spokes every couple of rides that keep coming loose. They’re the ones that straddle the valve stem on the opposite side of the cassette on the rear wheel. I think I’m having this problem for a couple of reasons. I think the main culprit is that this isn’t the original wheel that came with my bike. The original had to be replaced last summer and the bike shop only had one rim available that would accept my 7-speed cassette (having a 15 year old bike sucks at times like that) so I got it. I believe this replacement rim isn’t as ‘beefy’ as my original Mavic rim and therefore is succumbing to my ‘beefiness’ (i.e. my weight is a little much for the rim and works the spokes loose).

At the 6 mile point I ‘cranked’ it up to 16 mph and maintained that for one full loop around White Rock Lake. Sure, my speed dropped down a little here and there but I did my best to maintain it right at 16 mph. The downhill sections allowed me to recover where I dropped below 16. When that loop was complete I began the second. To be honest I was going to do the second loop at 17 mph but wound up starting it much faster. I looked down and I was cruising along at 20 mph. I maintained this pace for a couple of miles and dropped down to around 17 mph. At this point I entered into the section of the loop at the South end of the lake that has a couple of hills. I maintained my speed as well as I could (above 15 mph) and kept on pushing it. With about 3/4 of the loop complete I started to fade some and wound up struggling to maintain 15 mph. I relaxed for a mile or so and then picked it up again to around 17 mph all the way back to the car.

Overall I was really happy with that ride. I felt like I pushed it pretty hard and if I hadn’t gone out gang-busters on the second loop I probably would have maintained a solid 17 mph for the entire second loop. I hope this is telling me that my fitness is improving. I rode the 6 mile warm up at 12.7 mph and finished with an average speed of 14.7. That means I road miles 6-23.5 at 16.7 mph. I’m happy with that.

The one big problem I had yesterday was with my bibs. They’re the Nashbar Gel Ride Bib Short and have served me pretty well. They have a gel chamois with a cloth covering over the gel. I think they are now too big for me and fitting too loosely (which is a great thing) but I believe this is causing them to not fit properly and rub me the wrong way. Literally. I was very uncomfortable yesterday (and have been for several rides in these shorts) and when I took a look at them after showering it looks like the cloth covering the gel is now loose and the folds developing in it may be what’s causing my problem. All that said I think it’s time for a new set (I actually need about three sets). I’m considering the Performance Elite II Bib Short because they were the Bicycling Editor’s Choice for shorts under $100. If you have a set of these I’d appreciate your comments below.

I started off OK and wanted to ride something a little bit faster than my planned century pace of 15 mph. I targeted an average of 16 mph for the ride. Once I got down off the trail and on the loop around White Rock Lake the wind was blowing pretty good with gusts to 20 mph. I was still able to maintain a good speed but was frequently below 15 mph.

About half-way through this first loop I really started to labor. I want to think it was the heat but it could be several issues.

1. I wonder if I wasn’t hydrated enough. I’m bad about not drinking enough water throughout the day and I think this, combined with the heat yesterday, caused part of the problem. I carried a bottle of water and a bottle of gatorade with me but it didn’t seem to help.
2. I may not have gotten enough food. I had a small romaine salad with a can of tuna and a few mushrooms for lunch. That was it. No dressing or anything. I also had some wheat pretzels in the afternoon but I basically didn’t have anything to eat several hours before my ride. That, combined with the heat, was probably a recipe for disaster.
3. Carrying eight 10 pound bags of potatos while riding isn’t helping. Think about that statement. The next time you’re in the grocery store find a 10 pound bag of potatos and feel how heavy it is. I’m carrying eight of those in extra body weight/fat around while I’m riding. That hasn’t got to help me at all except on the downhill sections where I can really build up some momentum. I’m very surprised that I don’t have knee problems due to me carrying all that extra weight around for years.

So, needless to say, I was totally obliterated after that first loop. There was no way I could make another trip around. I say that but I probably could have but at a much slower pace. As it was my pace was terrible at a paltry 14.1 mph avg speed. That was even slower than my 18 miles on Sunday evening where I intentionally rode slower than my century pace at a 14.5 mph avg speed.

I consider those numbers (avg speed and overweight 80 pounds) quite appalling actually. A guy my age shouldn’t be in this bad of shape. In comparison I have an acquaintance (we actually attended Sunday School together in Jacksonville…we’ve never actually met…only talked via online conversations) that I believe is one year older than me. He recently set a personal record in the 5K at 19:49 and did this after breaking an elbow only a few months ago. Amazing. He tweets about the training he’s doing quite a bit and you can follow him @metamarshall.

What am I saying? Several things actually:

• I believe I’ve taken my cycling and eating seriously but I need to learn how to fine tune it and make it compliment my training. I need a plan for my nutrition, cycling and training. It actually sounds kind of weird to say that I’m in training but I think that’s the mindset I should have.
• Yes, I’m overweight but I’m working on it. At some point I hope to not be carrying any extra potato bags around. I have a long way to go. It won’t happen overnight.
• I may delay starting my evening ride until 7 to allow the heat to dissipate a little. It seems when I finish my rides (7:30-8:00) that it’s actually quite nice out.
• You can accomplish great things if you apply yourself and have the support to do it.

I did have a bright spot this morning after that terrible ride last night. It looks like I may have lost another belt hole. I’d been flirting with it for a week or so but it still felt a little tight when I put my belt on. This morning the belt went on to the next hole with no problems. That means I’ve only got one more hole on this belt and it’s time to pull a smaller one out of the closet.

You may not have noticed but I finally was able to secure REI as an advertiser. There’s a small 125×125 banner over on the sidebar and a 468×60 banner in between each post and the comments. Check’em out if you feel compelled. If you’d like to know when they have sales just let me know. Disclaimer: I earn a small commission if you purchase something from REI after clicking on the banner here on the site. Those commissions will be used to cover the expenses for this site and my cycling.

After some of my recent problems riding down at White Rock Lake (rude cyclists and races) I’ve done some riding around the loop we use for our Monday evening training rides. It is kinda boring but there’s no traffic and the only real hazard is gettingtaken out by an airplane. The picture below is of some of the flowers on the loop. It’s actually quite pretty and is like that for the entire .8 mile loop.

I decided last week that I needed to step up my efforts in my rides because I felt like I was becoming accustomed to what I was doing. The first big change I made was to start riding on the big ring. I’m not exactly sure why I haven’t done this before now. I think I was holding back because of the hills (that I’m not used to). After the Monday evening training ride last week where we actually did some big ring work I felt more comfortable turning it.

Wednesday last week instead of doing my normal hill repeat day I decided to head to the loop and see how hard I could push myself. I did a warm-up of five miles that was probably in the 14 mph range followed by a hard 15 miles where at times I was averaging well over 20 mph a lap. In the end I rode the 20 miles at a 16.2 mph average which is huge for me.

Because the holiday weekend was over I decided to head down to White Rock Lake to get a ride in. I, again, wanted to push myself hard to see what I could do around the lake since I was riding a bigger gear now. The wind was supposed to be around 10 mph out of the SSE with gusts to 15 mph but an approaching thunderstorm had the gusts probably close to 20 mph and a steady wind of 15 mph. That’s all headwind on one side of the lake depending on the direction you ride. I rode into the headwind for the first half and pushed myself pretty hard all the way around staying in my 52T ring the whole way. All told I rode about 15 miles with a 15.2 mph average. I believe my previous best average around the lake is in the neighborhood of 14.5. I wanted to do another loop but the approaching thunderstorm didn’t look pretty.

I have to say the biggest change I’ve seen is my riding on the hills. I am now able to ride up them easier and more aggressive (I actually try to think of attacking them before I get to them). In fact, I rode all the hills last night in the big gear which really surprised me. I think I can contribute this to a couple of factors:

1. I’m getting used to the hills.
2. My fitness may be starting to improve.

I expected #1 to eventually happen but I think my biggest surprise is #2. Looking at the speed I was able to carry on the two rides I talked about above, along with the improved hill riding, I think my fitness maybe starting to turn around and be on an upward trend.

One of the biggest changes I’ve seen though is actually on my belt. I have been doing more riding the past 1.5 months (probably averaging about 70 miles a week) and have really tried to control my diet. There are days that my diet lapses but for the most part I’ve been very strict with it. I just need to tighten the belt (pardon the pun) and stick with the diet better.

Like I said, the biggest change I’ve seen is on my belt. I’ve already had to tighten it two holes and only have one left to go on this belt. When I moved out here from Florida I intentionally brought two smaller belts I’ve had for a while with every intention of being able to use them. I might be able to reach that goal in the next couple of months.

Because of the trip to the bike store, and traffic getting home, I didn’t have much time for a ride. In fact, I only got one loop in around White Rock Lake for a total of 9.2 miles. I intentionally tried to take it at an easy pace because its been a week since I’ve ridden. There was a little wind out of the South as well which made a couple spots difficult. I managed the loop in 39 minutes which is an average of 14.1 mph.

For me that’s pretty good. Especially since my legs felt like cement blocks all the way around. On Monday I spent about 10 hours in my yard in Jacksonville taking care of spring lawn care that had gone neglected since I’m not there. Stuff like trimming the hedges, banana trees, and palm trees, pulling weeds (seven trash bags full), mowing and edging. It was a long day. The next day I could hardly move my legs because my hamstrings were so tight. I think I was still feeling some of those effects on my ride last night.

Having the new cleats felt weird. It’s been so long since I had changed them that I think I became accustomed to them being worn down. I use the Look Arc Delta cleats (red) and picked up the ones with the teflon coated surfaces for easy in and out. They feel a lot different than what I was used to but did the job. I just need to put in the miles and I’ll get accustomed to them.

After work today I’m driving up to my Mom’s in OK and it looks like the weather is going to be nice this weekend so I can take my bike. There’s some good roads accessible right from her house that I can ride on and I’d like to get 30-40 miles in on Saturday morning. Monday evening I’m meeting the Team Bikin’ group at their Monday evening circuit training session where they work on conditioning and individual/group handling skills on a .8 mile circuit. Reminds me of a criterium circuit. I’m really looking forward to the group training session so I can ride with a group. I know I won’t have the skills or fitness to hang with them for the entire session but it’ll be good for me.

Finally, to all those who sent the nice emails/tweets during my wife’s surgery I appreciate it. She’s at home recovering now. She’s still in a lot of pain from the surgery but we hope that will start to subside soon. Total recovery time is about 6 months.

Because I basically had to trash my cycling plans last week I’m performing week three of my fitness program this week. That means I’ll be riding 3 workdays at 13 miles each and a 30 mile ride on Saturday. I Shouldn’t have any problems with that at all. Especially after having a week off the bike.

As usual for my weekday bike rides, the alarm was going off at 5 AM, and I was rolling out of the garage by about 5:10. The weather outside was near perfect. There was a little humidity in the air but there were no clouds, no wind, and the Harvest Moon was shedding quite a bit of natural light. I hoped the pristine conditions were foreshadowing a pristine ride.

Leaving my neighborhood it was quiet out. There was much less traffic than there was back on Ride 32 but I did see a couple more cement trucks heading out to the new high school. Overall though the roads were virtually empty for me and it was nice. I always feel a little anxious when cars approach me from behind and today there was very little of that.

After a couple of miles I really began to fall into a rhythm and I noticed my speed was a little higher than normal. I was pushing the 52T like I said I would but I think the week off may have had something to do with it. Since my last ride, I had also moved my saddle forward a little bit to try and take some weight off my hands. It seemed to help my hands but I wonder if it also helped with my pedal stroke. I guess I’ll see how tomorrow’s ride goes. I really need to take my bike down to the local bike shop and have the fit checked.

Nearing the half-way point I started to notice several runners I hadn’t seen before. I do see a few over near my house but I’m usually the only person out-and-about near my turnaround point. All told I saw about six runners today and one other cyclist. I saw the bike rider on my home stretch and I’m not sure if he saw me wave. If you’re reading my blog, “Hey!”

Today’s ride was great. I felt refreshed the entire time and had no after-effects from taking a week off. I road my 13 miles in 51 minutes today.

So, why were there dreams of the movie ‘The Rookie’? If you don’t remember the movie, it’s the one where Dennis Quaid plays a high school baseball coach who makes a bet with his team. The bet was that if the team wins the district championship he would try out for a major league team. Well, the team wins and he has to try out. Before he does, though, he’s driving down the road at night and comes upon one of those portable speed display systems that let you know how fast you’re driving. Police usually put these in places as a deterrent to get people to slow down. Anyway, he decided to throw his fastball by it to see how fast it is and if he’s fixing to make a fool out of himself at the tryout. He throws a ball and it registers 68 mph on the digital readout. He’s obviously disappointed and goes to pick up the ball. What he doesn’t see is the display tick up to 98 mph after he walks by.

Well, they had one of these gadgets placed on the long straightaway leading away from my neighborhood. I see it and wonder if it’ll pick me up on the bike. I hunker down (that means getting about as aerodynamic as a brick) and press on. I get within a couple hundred feet and it registers 16 mph. As I get close it flickers to 17..15..16..15..17..16. I go by the radar wondering if it was having a hard time tracking me and it was actually trying to read out 26 mph. I look down at my computer and it says 16.2 mph. I guess I’m not as fortunate as The Rookie and won’t go home and find a message from Garmin-Chipotle on my voice mail. Oh well. You gotta have dreams right?

Today was day 1 and it started at 5:00 AM as all my weekday rides do. I was up, dressed, and outside pretty quick this morning. I was motivated to start my new plan. The temp was fine this morning but it was a tad humid. The sky was very clear with just a sliver of moon in the East. Just to the right of the moon was the constellation Orion. Unmistakable when you know what to look for. I got off at about 5:15.

I noticed in the first mile or so that I felt really uncomfortable. I think I’m still trying to acclimatize to being back on the bike after my 1.5 month layoff. My hands felt very uncomfortable and soon my shoulders were a little sore. I felt better about three-quarters of the way through the ride (about 9 miles) which was good. It should only get better from here on out.

My overall ride was just fine. Because I’m basically starting over again, I intentionally didn’t push it at all. I wanted to say in Zone 1/2 (I’ll be talking about training zones in a future article) so I intentionally kept my pace no higher than 14 mph. This made for a pretty easy ride that wasn’t taxing on my endurance. It was basically a break-in ride. Keeping my pace this slow is very, very hard for me. I’m the type of person that feels like they have to push it hard on every ride. I’m starting to learn that that’s not the case.

I did change my route a little this morning. Normally I head out to a certain point and basically do a u-turn and head back home. On one of my previous rides I realized there may be a way for me to loop around at my turnaround point when I saw a rider who was behind me magically appear in front of me about five minutes later. The key was that he took a different route where I made the u-turn. So, this morning I decided to find that loop. I knew where the entrance was and thought I knew where the exit was and I was right. The new loop area is actually quite nice and has a bike lane too. So, it looks like I’ve made a new route for my morning rides. The only disadvantage to this route is that it cuts about four-tenths of a mile off my 13 mile route. To compensate I just took the long way around my neighborhood to my house. No problem. Here’s a map of my new route:

I saw one other rider this morning who I’ve seen before. He was walking his bike from a side road. I called out asking if he needed any help and got no response. I waived and he waived back. I’m guessing he was ok. I also saw a couple of runners I had never seen before and also saw a guy walking his two ankle biters. It was also nice to see that the bike lanes were, for the most part, clear of debris from Tropical Storm Fay.

This was a good bicycle ride and a great start to my new fitness program. Mileage was 13.06 in 59 minutes. Told you I didn’t push it.

The alarm went off at 5:00 AM and I hit the snooze. A couple minutes later I rolled out of bed and got ready. I was worried about it raining this morning because we had had a light rain most of the night. When I opened the garage door it wasn’t raining but it was overcast. The roads were wet and looked slick. All of this, combined with my recollection of the crash, didn’t give me a warm fuzzy but I was determined to ride. Throughout the ride I did get sprinkled on here and there but nothing major. I took all the turns slowly in fear of my bike coming out from under me. I wasn’t going to let the fact that I had new tires on get the best of me.

I got out of my neighborhood and onto my main straightaway without any problems. I could tell pretty quickly that I hadn’t ridden in 6 weeks. My hands, legs, and rear-end became uncomfortable way too fast. It was from non-use and I was paying for my laziness. Do you remember that great golf movie Tin Cup? Remember that scene where Tin Cup and Romeo are on the driving range at the U.S. Open and Tin Cup says, “My swing feels like an unfolded lawn chair!” Well, that’s I felt on the bike this morning. Not to mention I felt like I was sitting on top of a 2×4. I was paying for not riding and I knew it. All I wanted to do was get the mileage in to start creating a new baseline in my fitness. I’m hoping it won’t take me long to get back into the swing of things. Pardon the pun.

I saw a few folks this morning; a couple of runners and one cyclist who was out in front of me. All I could see was the flashing red tail light and I eventually lost that. He either dusted me completely or pulled off ahead of me. I’d like to think it was the later.

I think the one thing that bothered me the most was having to get through the intersection at the end of my ride. Up to this point I avoided this intersection by taking the sidewalk and using the cross walk but the crash back on Ride 23 has convinced me to stay off the sidewalk. I shouldn’t be there anyway. I pulled up to the intersection and it wasn’t too busy. There was one car ahead of me in the turn lane. The light turns green and the guy just sits there. I give him a second or two and he doesn’t budge. I start to go around him, he’s looking down at something, looks up, I slow down, and he takes off. I follow around behind him in the outside lane of a dual turn lane. I make it through just fine. What I don’t like about the intersection isn’t necessarily the traffic. It’s not being able to quickly clip-in to get going. I can’t do it every single time without fail and it slows me down and increases the amount of time I’m in the intersection as a target of opportunity. I guess it’ll come with time but if anybody knows some surefire strategies for clipping in easier/faster I’m all ears. Two minutes later I’m back home and have completed my ride. 13 miles in 50 minutes. Not spectacular but I was just trying to get the mileage in.

Fay Projected Path (courtesy of weather.com

I’m not sure how much more riding I’m going to get in this week. If you been watching the weather you’ve probably heard of Tropical Storm Fay that’s headed towards Florida. It’s expected to become a hurricane soon and run up the west side of Florida and move over Jacksonville (where I live) mid-week. Lots of rain expected. You can see the expected track in the pic to the right.

In light of the rain, numbness, and lack of fitness, it was good to be riding again.

New word: Road Slag – similar to welding slag, this is the asphalt droppings left on the side of the road (the exact place we ride) that forms a ridge, or mountain, of asphalt waiting to catch the inattentive bicyclist unaware and either throws them to the ground in a heap of flesh and metal or scaring them half-to-death by bouncing and jerking the handlebars around until you almost lose grip.