Monday, March 30, 2009

Weight Goals.

I have decided to set my next goal weight (My last one was 285) plus I am setting a minimum goal weight for Dragon-Con 2009. I worked out how many weeks till Con (23) and figured out if i can loose 2lbs a week and giving me 3 weeks of plateau I want to lose 40lbs.

So Goals are:
  • Next level Goal by When I can but hopefully within 5 weeks :- 275lbs
  • Dragon Con Max weight (I hope) :- 245lbs

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Weekly Weight Update

Ok so I was hoping for around 3lbs of weight loss for this week imagine how surprised I was to weigh myself at 7am this morning an be 8lbs lighter. Think its a combination of the couple of bike rides and eating healthier, making conscious decisions on my eating and also not eating enough *LOL* (i have only been eating about 1000-1200 calories each day....not through choice its just what I end up with at end of day.

Weigh in for this week taken today 7am :- 285lbs

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Update from ride

Sorry I forgot to mention 2 things. As commented on the last post Jen did indeed get chased by biiiiig dogs.... I don't know why they didn't go for me, maybe I was just too darned slow *LOL* The three times I encountered dogs it was first when stopped and they got patted and went on their merry way. 2nd a dog came out to look and was bored and went back. Last time they barked and ran with me *LOL*

I also forgot to mention I was surprised I made the 20 miles. Not cause I thought I couldn't make it but because at mile 5 when I got back on the bike after a break my shorts caught, I tried to right them on the bike and next thing I know my bike is swaying every where and going left and right like a pendulum. I knew I was heading for the ground and a very nasty fall with possible broken bones. It didn't happen somehow I righted myself and was able to stop and reset my shorts and my nerves.

Ok that's it I'm done *LOL*

Cycling Milestone

Today's Cycling has been suspect all week. The weather forecasters had been calling for a good chance of storms today and as I sit here posting they couldn't have been any more right. Thunder, lightning, hail and rain all in about a 30 second period *LOL*. That's just now though. For most of this morning it has been dry and at about 1.30 pm it was dry enough for us to go for a ride. I had kept saying that I thought I could do a 15 - 20 mile ride and kept wanting to do one.
*Trumpet Blaring* Yup that is right We did a Kirkwood to Guthrie run. approximately 20.5 miles of cycling goodness.
Stats for the ride:
  • Distance : 20.5 Miles (from Reggie's computer)
  • Ave Speed : 13 mph (approx for trip)
  • Ave Cadence : 67 (cadence worked)
  • Top Speed : 27.85mph (another new P.B. may have been faster)
  • Time Taken : 1hr 30mins (approx)

As noted from the stats I had computer issues again. We ended up moving the computer onto the bar going from front to seat rather than the handle bar and it looks like it has resolved the computer issues, we shall see. Below are pictures of our accomplishment of reaching 20 miles *grin*



We are all going for a long nap now *grin* Cycling and Ruby Tuesdays makes for tired peeps.

Laters Steve

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Thursday Ride

Our nephew Adam had been staying with us for spring break (and didn't see daylight thanks to WOW and WII) and was dropped of back home by Jen. This in turn meant an early departure for me from work. In celebration Reggie picked us and our bikes up at 5.30 and we headed over to the Sango area for a ride. This was harder hills than we have been doing but was fun. Due to lack of light we cut it short also.

Link to route on gmap-pedometer

Stats are a bit rough as all 3 of our computers acted up. Reggie's was the worst as the band holding the speed sensor went flying as did his sensor. some work will have to be done on the systems.

  • Distance : 7.33 Miles (from gmap-pedometer.com)
  • Ave Speed : 12.79 mph (for the 3 miles it registered - really closer to 10)
  • Ave Cadence : 68 (cadence worked)
  • Top Speed : 24.82mph (new P.B.)
  • Time Taken : 40-45 min
The evening was finished off with Reggie making bean burgers and a cucumber sour cream dish with Jens assistance, the burgers were served on lettuce instead of bread and had blue cheese dressing, tomato slice and pickle. Extremely yummy and cant wait till he does them again *LOL*

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Tuesday Ride

Got home from work and went for a Ride.

Stats for the ride

  • Distance : 5.1 Miles
  • Ave Speed : 10.34 mph
  • Ave Cadence : 57
  • Top Speed : 23mph
  • Time Taken : 29min 37secs

Didn't eat enough calories today, I'm about to head to bed and have only had 1000 calories. Net Carbs are at 51 though due to the spaghetti dinner. I'm not to concerned with that due to the exercise.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Weekly Update

Ok so this week has been a figuring week for me. I know I need to eat more carbs when I exercise but I think I have the problem that I don't know when to say ok I have had enough carbs. As you can see from my weekly posts I did 3m, 10m, 5m on the bike Wed, Thur, Fri. On Wed Jen Made Chili and after the ride we made some Frito chili pie. One bowl would have been fine, I had two, 2 portions of chips, 2 portions of chili and 2 portions of cheese n sour cream. Thursday it was O'charleys and if I hadn't ordered the wrong side I woulda been fine, as it was I ended up with 39g of carbs for one meal (15g for the salad and 17 for the broccoli cheese casserole).
Friday It was spaghetti and once again I had two bowls. Add to this mix that we ended up with a couple of people at the house Saturday and did a BBQ (not one of our usual cookouts just an oh people are here so we'll do a cookout type thing), I ended up eating a couple of chips, from a couple of bags, had some potato salad and then had some of the desert that was brought (damned cheesecake type desert its my weakness) I think I had carbs in the hundreds. I woke up Sunday and I just felt fat. This was confirmed with the fact that I was 294 on Sunday morning.
I changed my outlook Sunday I looked at my mistakes and saw what I have to do. Yes I can have a little more carbs on days I exercise to assist in the delivery of the proteins to my muscles (per Jen) but I need to know how many I am having. I also know I can have bad days (to visit the old friends I still like) but they will be when I reach goals. I focused Sunday, had some carbs but I think I kept track on, although I was unable to mark them down. I woke up this morning not feeling so fat. and reweighed myself. This week I will have 2 official weigh ins.
  • Fat Sunday weigh in : 294lbs
  • Not so fat Monday Weigh in : 293lbs

So no weight loss for this week. Depending on which day to look at I even gained *grimmace*

Otherwise This Sunday we went for a mountain bike ride on a rails to trails trail down at Ashland City. It was 8miles in total and was a fun relaxing ride. It took us about an hour to do.

We also visited 2 Cycle shops. Trace Bikes and Halcyon bikes, halcyon being really cool in that it is all used bikes and range to 80's styles. Jen picked up a super cool pair of gloves for the bargain price of 10 dollars.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Grilltastic

Our first cook out of the season and here is the pic to prove *grin*

Friday, March 20, 2009

Fridays Bike Ride

So we decided to go riding before the sun set. This time we decided to ride around the school just at the corner of 101st and Peachers Mill. Man were my legs tired from this week. I wanted to stop after 2 laps but kept going for 5. Its still a buzz.

Stats for the ride
  • Distance : 4.7 Miles
  • Ave Speed : 12.09 mph
  • Ave Cadence : 67
  • Top Speed : 23mph
  • Time Taken : 23min 20secs

Tomorrow is a rest day.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

cycle of life

So we finally got out and did our 101st run, from just about Ft. Campbell Blvd down to Dover Road and back. I have noticed that I am going to have to raise my seat about every 20-25 miles as it is slowly slipping down (causing the upper leg muscle to cramp). Not a fault in the bike, more a fault of my excess weight, so I will deal with till the weight is off.

Stats for the ride
  • Distance : 9.89 miles
  • Ave Speed : 10.67 mph
  • Ave Cadence : 65
  • Top Speed : 19,98 mph
  • Time taken : 55min 39secs

Linky to the route (almost added about 0.5 of a mile to turn around by the road, we just crossed the median heh heh).

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Cycling update

I swear the fates are conspiring to stop me from getting a good bike ride in after work. 15 minutes before the end of work and our main server blows a gasket (read dead HD and files not opening, thank god for Raid 5, 1 reboot later and they can open files but still have the dead drive till tomorrows 4 hr turnaround). By the time I get home and Reggie is here we had approx 20-25 mins of ride time. We opted (Jen, Reg and I) To do circuits of the sub division which is approx 0.75 miles.

  • Distance 3.04 miles
  • Ave Speed : 9.54 mph
  • Ave Cadence : 53
  • Top Speed : 23.61 mph

We ended the night by eating some Frito's chili pie and watching Transporter 3. I liked the first one, the 2nd and 3rd were just ok. I especially hated the camera work for fight scenes in the 3rd.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Is this a Monday

No Personal Training. Day seems to have went to pot. Personal Trainer was a no show and I have now had an 8 hour headache.
  • 5 loops of the Foy indoor circuit walked

Ate left over chicken, cold meats and cheese for dinner, headache didn't make me want to do much else. Finished night with V for Vendetta.

G'night all

Happy St Paddys Day

Well tis the day where beer takes a distinctly green tint (well in the US it does) and I hope you are all safe with a piece of green clothing on. Quick update for last night. Cadence Computers installed successfully on both bikes and by the time we were done there was not a lot of time to ride. With the newly installed computer info here is my stats:-
  • Distance : 3.09 miles
  • Average speed : 10.89 mph
  • Top speed : 23 mph (wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee)
  • Ave Cadence : 56

Unless my PT cancels tonight I have my weekly training tonight so no cycling for me *booooo*

Monday, March 16, 2009

Stuff forgotten Yesterday

  • We checked out a bike route in Ashland City. Its an old converted train track. 4miles one way then return. We walked about 2 miles and its good for MTB not Road.
  • Eventually bought the Sigma Wireless units from Amazon. They are in hand thanks to an early delivery from UPS.
  • Changes have been made to the look of the blog what do you think?
  • Logo Pic is a Jen original from our 05 Hawaii trip. All copyright is held by Jen and no duplication is permitted.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Weekly Updates

Well it has certainly been a week to remember. Things seem to have been going at break neck pace and up untill today I had not worked out since Monday. Jen and Reggie came down to Nashville and picked me up from work. First we visited Cumberland Transit, what Reggie would call a mom n pop outdoor store (for us a bike store). Our goal for the evening was to look for a bike shirt for Jen and to look at pedal extras and bike computers (with Cadence ) for our bikes. After visiting here we crossed the street and visited The Bike Pedlar. In both locations we could not find acceptable accessories. No Red bike shirts for Jen and the only Cadence computers we could see were the Catseye CC-RD200 which knowing I could buy them for 34 dollars on Amazon were not acceptable to buy at 50 dollars. Before heading to our final destination we stopped off at the Bombay Palace for dinner. Sad to say I did not keep to my low carb diet on Thursday but that the food was amazing, coming a close second to the Tandoor here in Clarksville (NOTHING has beaten the tandoor in the US for a good curry so far). For our final destination we headed to REI armed with 7 dollars in dividends (a lot less than the 70 odd we were expecting but didn't get because Jens bike was on sale at the bargain price of approx 700 dollars WTF - partially softened by a discount coupon for REI.com) and a 20 percent off 1 item coupon. After a bit of searching I found the toe clips shown below for 5 dollars each (even cheaper than Amazon)
I grabbed two for our bikes. No luck on the Cadence computers the catseye was still 50 and a Sigma wireless I saw for $60 was selling for $90 at REI and damn them if they don't price match. Jen had waaaay better luck though. She hit the Jackpot and found her Jersey. (shown below) and I decided to leave the cadence computers and buy online so we could use the discounts. We saved over 20 dollars on the sale which was excellent.


On this same day as Jen was leaving to go to Reggies we had a visitor. Of the four legged variety. It was a stray puppy and pretty young. We named him charlie while he stayed with us and we proceeded to try first to find an owner then find a home. None of the people we know wanted a dog but we were lucky enough to find Precious Friends Puppy Rescue which is a no kill shelter that will find him a nice home with peeps to love on him (plus I donated 75 bucks to help with his vet and grooming bills). If you want a loving cocker spaniel who is good around dogs and cats get in contact with them cause he is up for adoption people. Who cant love this face



Saturday was a weird day. I forgot to eat till about 4pm... I got up did a few things then studied for a final. Finished studying and took the final (got a 90) by this time it was hitting 2pm and I pottered around and realised and said to Jen I thought I hadnt eaten. Man did she look at me funny. We put the toe clips on the bikes, added the saddle bag to Jens bike, raised my seat and took the bikes out to test the clips. One circuit of the sub division (0.75 miles) later and we were both happy with the result.

Sunday was the big test for the clips though. We met up with Reggie and took the bikes for a 10 mile run. First thing I noticed was that with the seat higher my leg muscles no longer get sore plus it feels more comfortable. Also we were able to do our trip with very few stops. Route taken is shown below.



View Larger Map

Weight for this week :- 293lbs
Total lost since I started keeping track :- 16 lbs

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Commitment

Ok I am either committed or need committed *grin*. I finish a hard days work..well I finish work (leave home at approx 6am get home at 6pm) and instead of going home and relaxing I met up with Reg and Jen for some Cycling (they started earlier). My bike, padded & unpadded shorts, and a tshirt were to be waiting for me at the fairground. Unfortunately only the bike made it.

Did I decide not to bother on account of no padding, or on account of wearing heavy khakis? Hell no got 2 laps in before it was time to go. Not as much as I would like but damn are my legs tired today, think the weekend and Monday has hit me. Glad I will safely be at personal training tonight....WTH did I just say that *LOL*? Actually it sucks that today will be last decent day for a week or two at least.. I hate cold!

Mileage for Monday was
  • Me :- 3 miles
  • Jen :- approx 11-12 miles
  • Reggie :- approx 8-9 miles

We finished the evening off by going to Casablanca for some yummy low carb foodstuffs (which has resulted in the same yummy foodstuffs for lunch today *LOL*).

Monday, March 9, 2009

Monday Update

Weigh in for the week taken Sun 8am : 297lbs

In celebration of the nice weather the Bikes were checked out for problems, put onto the back of Reggie's truck and we headed down to Clarksville fairgrounds. Unfortunately Jen was unable to join us for cycling as she had a prior commitment working on some buffalo hides (which I'm sure she will blog about herself). As you can see from the map below (ignore the multiple destination points it was the only way to show the route *LOL*) it is approximately a 1.5 mile circuit.


View Larger Map

Reggie's cycling prowess showed as he was able to do approx 15 miles. My slightly heavier frame (my frame not the bikes*LOL*. It is thankfully light) meant that I only did 9 miles. My main problem, I believe, is that when I pedal my legs are bowing out (Jen noticed this and confirmed what I thought) and it is putting pressure on one of my muscles which in turn is cramping up. I'm hoping by concentrating in keeping my knees in and building up strength in the muscles that this will resolve itself, it may also help that as I lose some weight there will not be as much weight to move *LOL*.

We would have done more but as we were fighting 15-17 mile an hour winds my bike decided to bounce of road while I was taking a break (MY PRECIOUSSSSSSSSSSSSSS) which took a nick out of the end cap and tape of the handlebar so 5 minutes later we headed to the bike shop to see if there was an easy fix and I wanted to pick up a pump for our bikes anyway (the one we have would not pressure my tires which needs between 100 and 130psi, it was lucky to get to 70psi for Jens bike but will be a good emergency pump). I eventually bought the same as Reggie's which turns out is actually a bike shock pump and handles up to 400psi but did not have the right valve adapter.





One presta valve adapter later and I'm good to go *grin*.



On Sunday I am feeling sorry for my poor derriere as it is feeling a little tender from Saturdays ride but at about 4pm we receive a call from Reggie.... the cycling bug had bitten him again and was heading to the fairgrounds. 2 minutes later both Jen and I are getting ready *LOL*.

Since this is the first time we have had to transport both bikes we are wary about using the 30 dollar bike rack that attaches to my car with straps. with about 1700 dollars worth of bikes we didn't want them to go flying. After a brilliant idea by Jen we now know we can fit both bikes in the back of the Jeep wrangler and they are very stable. Next time we do it I will provide pictures.

Mileage for the day was approx 19 miles for Reggie, 10 miles for Jen and 7.5 miles for me (same problem cramping muscle but not as bad as Saturday). Once again it would have been more lileage but when thunder is roaring and lightning is showing on the other side of the river we decided it was time to quit *LOL*.


Movies watched this weekend were :-


  • Shooter - Not bad movie with Mark Wahlberg. Basically a shoot em up action flick .

  • Equilibrium - now I know what Christian Bale did before Batman, not a lot. I sent this back without watching the end. it was duuuuuuull.

  • D-War - This made Equilibrium look good. the two stars netflix gave it were too much.

  • Crossroads - an old movie, what I watch was not bad and I mainly watched as I think I had seen it many moons ago. I think I have seen it but don't remember anything so truly memorable *LOL*.

Ok think thats me for this weekend. Time to get back to work. Laters all.


Steve

Monday, March 2, 2009

Weight and weekend

Ok weight date for the week, measured at 6am this morning :- 300.5lbs
I would say 300 or 301 but it was right in the middle!!!

So I now find that weekends are my true nemesis. I guess the saying about idle hands is true. I had Larry over to have a few drinks and watch a movie or two. We ended up talking more and watching movie less and I drank one or two Gin n cokes (low carb yah know). While im still pretty sober he ordered a texas size pizza(20") and I got 10 hotwings. as the night wound down (and my alcohol level wound up) I had a couple of slices.....damn the gin *grin*.
It wouldn't have mattered much though Saturday I went to 2 places to eat and it was impossible to eat without having carbs, I eat pretty healthily in both places, with the worst being some onion rings.
It still wouldn't have mattered much because the worst was yet to come. Jen and I meet up with Colton and Melinda to have some lunch before studying at blackhorse, I order a Diet Coke and while drinking it I keep thinking to myself *man this is sure syrupy* and *why am I feeling so blech*. Finally I have Jen try it...... she tells me that no it is not Diet, and on top of everything it is not even coke *WTF taste buds at least tell me I don't have the right drink* I had been given Dr Pepper....damn my Scottish accent for getting me in trouble....

Movies Watched this weekend :-
  • Taken - this is a good old fashioned action movie, I loved it, lots of violence and death *LOL*. I would recommend seeing it and i think I might like it for the collection.
  • Superbad - This was a stupid funny movie, the coming of age / trying to get laid type movie. even though the genre has been played to death a good laugh (its on watch instantly courtesy of netflix).

Ok that's it for now..... time for work.

Steve