Posts Tagged "weight loss"

Is cycling nirvana possible?

Posted by Bryan on Jun 26, 2009 in Blog, Uncategorized | 15 comments

I’ve watched cycling for as long as I can remember. It’s thrilling to me to watch men and women push themselves to feats of physical stamina that us mere mortals can only dream of. Though most of us can’t attain those heights of physical performance we still push ourselves to ride harder and lose that extra weight, lower the time on our favorite route by a few seconds or hang with the elite riders on the Saturday morning group ride. Those are our feats of physical stamina.

When watching the pros ride their bicycles it’s amazing how effortlessly they propel themselves and how comfortable they look on their machines. They ride for hours at a time in what appears to be euphoric comfort while trashing their bodies in superhuman efforts. Is the ability to ride for hours at a time actually comfortable to them or do they suffer as much as I do? I’m not talking about suffering from a physical exertion stand point but rather suffering from actually being in the saddle and hunched over the bars for a significant period of time. For me, that period of time is limited to about an hour or so. After that I begin to feel discomfort and wonder if every cyclist feels what I’m feeling or is there something wrong with me or my equipment.

Had a good hard ride last night

Posted by Bryan on Jun 25, 2009 in Blog, Cycling and Weight Loss Report, Cycling Clothes, My Rides, White Rock Lake | 10 comments

I’ve still been riding just about everyday as I near the twelve weeks to go point until my first century (July 4th is the 12-week point). Once I hit that twelve week point I’ll be following a training plan but until them I’m just trying to build base mileage, work on the hills and get acclimatized to the heat here in Texas. Tuesday was a day off the bike so I had planned on riding hard yesterday. That I did.

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.

The tale of the belt

Posted by Bryan on May 27, 2009 in Blog, My Rides, White Rock Lake | 10 comments

I’ve been absent here for a week or so while I launch an affiliate website but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped riding. On the contrary, I rode pretty hard last week and had a good ride last night.

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.

Large Guys On Planes

Posted by Bryan on Apr 16, 2009 in Blog, Motivation | 0 comments

For as long as I can remember I’ve always noticed that I’m usually one of the last people to have someone sit next to me on a bus, airplane, train, or at some kind of event. I have good hygiene so I know it’s not that. It could be my looks because I’m no Tom Cruise. I’m convinced it’s because of my weight. I’ve gotten used to it over time but yesterday, on my flight from Jacksonville to Dallas, I was brutally reminded of it.

When I boarded my flight in Jacksonville I was literally the last person to get on the plane. I was flying Southwest and in boarding group C. Not cool but there’s not much I could do about it. I patiently waited my turn knowing that seating would be limited once I got on. I’m not someone who has to sit near the front so I moved towards the rear of the plane. I found a row where only one guy was sitting (on the aisle) and asked to slide in to the window seat (my favorite). I got settled in and we had the seat between us empty. He was a big guy too but bigger than me. I didn’t think much about it and settled into reading a book.

We stopped in Houston and most of the folks got off. There were maybe five of us left on the plane because it was continuing onto Dallas. I was hoping there wouldn’t be many people get on since I don’t like crowded planes. We were 20 minutes early to Houston so I had a few minutes to get up, stretch and use the restroom. I sat back down in my window seat as folks started to get on.

One of the first ten people to get on was a large guy. He was bigger than the guy that sat on my row from Jacksonville to Houston. With an entire plane to choose from this guy comes and sits on my row on the aisle seat. At first I was pissed because he had the entire plane to choose from and sat on my row. Then it dawned on me why he sat where he did. Then I was embarrassed.

The reason the guy sat where he did was because I was a big guy too. He did it knowing that nobody would want to sit in-between two large guys on a plane. He was right. As the plane got more crowded the seats started to fill up. A couple people looked at the seat between us and quietly moved on. After a while an announcement was made that it would be a full flight with only two empty seats. Great I said to myself. I put my nose in my book hoping to avoid eye contact with folks looking for a seat. Eventually it happened. Somebody needed a seat. Thankfully it was a nice looking guy who has had the self-control in his life to keep himself thin and athletic.

In no way due I fit the airlines description of being an obese passenger. I’m big but fit in my own seat, don’t need a seat belt extension, and have no problems with putting the seat tray down. Still, I’m broad shouldered, large in the middle, and take up some real estate. Do I harbor any bad feelings towards the big guy sitting where he did? No. I just feel embarrassed for myself and what I’ve allowed myself to become.

Has this made an impact on me? Absolutely. I don’t know when I’ll fly again but I’m going to do everything I can to make sure I don’t feel embarrassed like that again.

If you have similar stories I’d like to hear them. If you’re uncomfortable sharing them I understand.

How Closely Do You Monitor Your Nutrition?

Posted by Bryan on Apr 9, 2009 in Blog, Nutrition | 14 comments

I’ll admit it. I know virtually nothing about nutrition. Unless you let me count the fact I know that the more I eat the bigger I get. Over the past week I’ve been trying to remedy this problem by reading quite a few articles on cycling nutrition and trying to develop some kind of plan to help me reduce my tonnage. Call it good timing but a couple of days ago I received in the mail the May 2009 issue of Bicycling. I read with interest the article on Big Fat Lies.

After reading this article I’m convinced my diet is totally wacked. Not skewed or slightly off-kilter but totally wacked. I’m pretty sure I’ve been eating the wrong kinds of carbs (high starch) for years and it’s probably a direct contributor to my current size. That and no self-motivation to take care of my body.

I began my research by going over about 20 or 30 articles on Bicycling.com that dealt with nutrition. I copied down thumbrules I found as well as any good recipes. When I return to Dallas next week I’ll be using FitDay to track my daily food consumption in an effort to have a better balanced caloric intake.

As is usually the case, I’ve come up with more questions than answers and am going to post some here in an effort to generate some responses from some of the more experienced cyclists and nutritionists that read my blog (both of them….actually, they might be the same person which would be only them). Here goes:

1. How closely do you monitor the exact portion sizes? My gut feeling is that if you want to be accurate you have to measure good.

2. Do you prepare meals in advance? Tips would be awesome.

3. Where do you get your recipes? Are there any good cookbooks for cyclists or that follow the article in Bicycling? I may look at the one they talk about in the article entitled Flat Belly Dietby Cynthia Sass.

4. What balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are you shooting for?

5. Do you have to take a supplement to make sure you get enough protein?

Over the years I tried to make light of my weight. I even had a saying that went like this, “I can’t stay fat and sloppy unless I eat.” How bad is that? I’m trying to make an effort to turn this around and would appreciate any info you can provide.