Biking to Live Week 5 Summary
This was a good week of riding. I managed to get all three of my weekday rides in as well as a longer Saturday ride. The shift to my Cannondale R-300 has dramatically helped me improve my speed.
Here are the totals for this week:
Monday: 11.52 miles, 52:26, 16.1 mph max, and 13.1 mph avg
Wednesday: 11.51 miles, 53:35, 18.2 mph max, and 12.8 mph avg (first ride on the Cannondale)
Friday: 12.17 miles, 47:05, 18.7 mph max, and 15.5 mph avg
Saturday: 25.14 miles, 1 hr 36 min, 20.8 mph max, 15.6 mph avg
Even though Wednesday way my first ride on The Crotch Rocket my average speed was still about the same due to taking it easy. I was riding with my brother-in-law who was riding a hybrid and if I hadn’t taken it slow I would have dropped him pretty quick. On Friday and Saturday though you can see a substantial increase in the average speed.
I also passed 200 miles this week since starting Biking To Live and this weeks mileage puts me at 241 miles total.
I can’t tell you how much better I feel since embarking on this journey. Not only is my biking improving but my health is too. My weight loss has been minimal (less than 5 pounds) but improvements in my blood pressure and heart rate has been dramatic. I had another doctor’s visit this week to follow up on some blood work and my resting heart rate had dropped 3 beats and my blood pressure is normal for the first time in a long time. The doc called my blood pressure perfect. I’m still taking meds for it but by the time I lose all this weight I hope to be able to come off of them. Time will tell.
As I said, my weight hasn’t changed much at all but I am seeing drastic changes in the fit of my clothes. I believe I’m burning the fat off but am replacing it with muscle with riding I’m doing. I talked with the doctor about this and he seemed to agree with me. He also said that losing 5 pounds in a month isn’t bad at all because you should be taking it off slowly (approx 1-1.5 pounds per week). If I follow the 1 pounds per week thumbrule then I’m right on track. He told me that as long as my clothes are getting bigger then I’m doing it right. He just cautioned me to watch my diet (which I am) and to start taking a multi-vitamin (which I will).
Pete over at Cycle Pig has started a new weekly series called The Weekly Oink where he summarizes some of the great content he’s found throughout the week. This week, one of the links he’s shared was a video documenting the construction of a bicycle helmet. Very fascinating. You should check it out.
Read MoreWhy ride a bike?
I’m sure you’re asking by now why I’ve decided to ride a bike to help me lose these 100 pounds. For me the reason was simple. Riding a bicycle is the only endurance sport that I’ve ever been any good at.
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!
Read MoreBiking To Live – a mission to save a life
By now I’m sure you’ve had a chance to think about the title of the blog. Biking To Live. It means what it says. Biking To Live. I’ve undertaken a personal challenge to ride my bike in order to live again. Why? Because I need to. Here’s why.
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.
Read MoreCONNECT WITH BTL
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