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.

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.