The Weekends Activities

Weight update for the week : 268lbs a loss of 2lbs.

It was a busy weekend as Gabe and Em came into Town. We went for a 10 mile bike ride with them Saturday and generally hung out and partook of a few alcoholic beverages (Reggie and Jenn there also), I would go into more detail but the creative juices as rather dry at the moment. Once everyone had gone home Jen, Reggie and I went for what we call the Clarksville Hangover 1/7th Century *LOL*. We finished off by acquiring some subway and eating it at McGregor Park.

Saturday Ride: Link to Gmaps


Stats for Ride:

• Distance : 10.83 miles
• Time Taken: 54 mins 26 secs
• Ave Speed: 11.95 mph
• Ave Cadence: 50 rpm
• Max speed: 30.57 mph

Sundays Ride: Link to gmap Stats for Ride:

• Distance : 14.68 miles
• Time Taken: 1 hr 01 mins 28 secs
• Ave Speed: 14.36 mph
• Ave Cadence: 62 rpm
• Max speed: 26.94 mph

Gmaps is not very accurate for the last ride due to a road not being shown so I have approximated. More to tell but I will wait till tomorrow. Ok I'm going to lie down *grin*

S.

A wheely Good time

Today Jen, Reggie and I completed a major milestone in our cycling lives. I think it is not just a red letter day but a neon, blinking red letter day. Today we accomplished riding 50 miles in one ride. We did this not on the easy, pretty flat Clarksville Metric century route but took a route that Jen picked for us. Our location you ask, none other that Land between the lakes. We cycled from the south welcome station, up past the Golden Pond welcome station (to hit approx 25 miles) and then back to Golden Pond for a 30 minute break (good time to do it as a flash thunder storm hit us just as we returned to the welcome center). After our break we then proceeded to return back the route we had just came. To explain this route is simply and perfectly summed up by Jen. Just before we started the route she talked about how she had seen a cyclist doing the route a while back and thought to herself that he was crazy and she would never think about doing this road *LOL*. Yup guess what she picked this road for today *LOL*. All joking aside, this was a difficult route but I feel the better for it, especially after eating yummy Mexican, a sonic blast and getting two hours sleep when we returned home *grin*. It was a route that challenged both our mental and physical endurance. Each hill we took we thought only of it and of reaching the top. At about the 40-45 mile mark when exhaustion had set in each of the hills encountered was a personal battle and felt all the sweeter when accomplished. Reggie reached the end and drove back for us thinking we were 5 or so miles back. He found us on the last hill, half way up, drained but refusing to give up, not one hill did any of us walk up. On the last couple of hills if anyone had to stop, they stopped, rested for a minute then got back on the bike to get to the top.

It will be a few days before I go near the bike. I hurt and I realised that as well as the numbness I encounter on hard rides my saddle is just damned uncomfortable. One of my major problems because of it on this ride was I had to stop, get off and rest at times because my rear just hurt so much.

Linky to Gmaps

AS you will notice the route was so long I had to split the elevation graph *LOL*

Stats for the ride:

• Trip Distance : 50.46 Miles
• Trip Time: 4 hrs 9 mins 30 secs
• Ave Speed: 12.05 mph
• Ave Cadence: 60 rpm
• Max Speed: 39.35 mph

Time to go relax again.

s.

Saturday Ride and Weigh in

Weigh in for this week is 270lbs which is a loss for the week (short week also) of 8lbs. I think it was because I rode so much this week and ate healthily.

Ride for today was from the house to Waffle house at riverside dr (*grin* yup healthily), I ate within my diet which was a 3 egg omelet with ham, cheese and jalapenos....YUMMMM

linky to gmaps

Stats for Ride

• Trip Distance: 11.07 miles
• Trip Time: 45 mins 24 secs
• Average speed: 14.61 mph
• Average cadence: 60 rpm
• Max Speed: 32.39 mph.

We are heading to Ren Faire today so will maybe post with Pics. depends if I take my phone out *LOL*

Ouch Ouch Ouch (Wednesday Ride)

Well we headed out for another ride tonight and my body was not happy. From the start I was lagging behind. What started as a 20 mile route ended up having to be an 11 mile route. My legs were so tired that every time I needed them to put some pressure onto the pedals they would not respond to my need. I am not sure if it was just riding for 3 days straight but Jen thinks it might be due to me not eating anything of substance before coming home to ride. I think tomorrow will be a rest day (read doing lawn work *LOL*)

Linky to Gmaps

Stats for the Ride:-

• Distance : 11.77 Miles
• Ave Speed : 12.5 mph
• Ave Cadence : 61 rpm
• Top Speed : 30.57 mph
• Time Taken : 56mins 29 secs

Time to rest my weary legs *LOL*
S.

Tuesday Ride

So I did a first today. I had a solo ride. Well I think its my first solo ride *LOL*. Jen didn't want to ride tonight and Reggie wanted to, got here with his bike then realised he was sans shoes and with locking pedals he was S.O.L. I was tempted to not go for the ride but Reggie pushed and prodded and I headed off on my merry little way.

Linky to Gmaps Route

Stats for Ride:-

• Distance : 9.8 Miles
• Ave Speed : 14.46 mph
• Ave Cadence : 68 rpm
• Top Speed : 23.61 mph
• Time Taken : 40mins 49 secs
  
  
  

Weight Update

Weighed in this morning, not as much gain as I expected but not as little as I hoped. I put on 3lbs due to last week. But Hopefully with focus (and lots of exercise *LOL*) It and more should come off this week and next.

Weight for this week :- 278lbs

Monday cycling

Ok so as believed we got an approx 20 mile ride in tonight. It was fun and I felt great doing it.

Linky to Gmaps

Stats for the ride as follows :-

• Distance : 19.56 Miles
• Ave Speed : 15.04 mph
• Ave Cadence : 65 rpm
• Top Speed : 29.97 mph
• Time Taken : 1hr 18mins 22 secs
  
  

New Week, New mindset

It is the start of a new week and I am ready to face forward and get myself going. We have a bike ride scheduled for tonight and even though I had to eat out at lunch Mike and I walked down to the location and back so it negated some of the caloric input from lunch.

Due to being out of town etc I will be weighing in tomorrow morning before work and I am cringing at the thought. I have the feeling that I have gained 2-5 lbs but that I am not worried about it because I feel that I am out of the funk I was in all last week. It was a carby weekend with rolls for the burgers we had. I made sure they were whole wheat and avoided chips like the plague and generally tried to be good but I just have a feeling about the weight gain.

On the funk, I do think I was just having an "I cant be bothered with this carb diet" moment and by getting through it without going wild it has made me a bit stronger. If I have gained weight my goal for this week will to be to purify myself of evil carbyness *LOL* and to get the weight back off I gained.

We bought a Tomato plant to go into our tomato hole in the back yard and plans are afoot for a herb garden also so I am hoping to get that done tomorrow night or Wednesday before the chance of rain appears. Either way it is hopefully gonna look kewl and provide us with herbs etc whenever we need it.

ok Posting for now, more later with ride stats and tomorrow with weight. Peace out.

Wednesday ride and thougts

Thankfully we got out for a short ride with the last of the daylight. It was only Reggie and Myself as Jen was otherwise engaged (to the couch... cant really fault her after a 34mile ride yesterday). We did the 101st 10 mile route but cycled up to peachers mill and then up and over the pedestrian bridge, fun fun fun. From there we went through the brentwood sub division to ringlold and into northwind subdivision, finishing of with 3 laps of this division to get us to the 15 mile mark.

Linky to Gmaps

Stats for the Ride as follows:-

• Distance : 15.3 Miles
• Ave Speed : 12.77 mph
• Ave Cadence : 59
• Top Speed : 29.36 mph
• Time Taken : 1hr 11mins 52 secs

Its been difficult to ride with the weather the way it has been and May seems to be a busy month. I think that apart from the last weekend (30th) every weekend has been accounted for. I have also been feeling tired and not in my grove. It is probably a good thing that I am weighing late this week and going camping/hiking cause I feel like this is going to be a plateau week. I need to stay focused, this is not a fad this is the long haul. As Reggie is fond of saying... TIME TO GET ANGRY!!!!!!!!!!! well as angry as I get. which isn't much.

I'm tired time for me to get off here!

Carb Frustration

So as usual today is my official weigh in. But just to highlight my frustration at times let me explain. I checked my weight Friday to confirm that what I was doing for the week had been working and I had a weigh in of 274lbs. As it was not my weigh in date I did not record it. Yesterday I had the Big Hill challenge and because of it I ate carbs just before, during and just after. I get back onto low carb for the rest of the day but guess what it still affected me I weighed myself for official Weigh in day and it is not 276 but not quite 275 Due to the Pre-weigh in and due to it not being 276 the official weigh in for today is 275lbs.

It does get frustrating with the fact that I probably burned a good 2000+ calories yesterday and only ate 1500-2000 throughout the day but I gained weight!!!! Part of it could be the leg muscles gaining muscle mass as they do feel as if they received a good workout and I could have lost some from being off the bike for over a week due to weather.

As I have reached my immediate goal 2 weeks early I need to set a new immediate goal this will be :-

• 265lbs by 14th June 2009
• long term goal is still 245lbs for Dragon con (weigh in for it will be last weekend in Aug)

By maintaining the diet level and hopefully getting plenty of time on the bike I hope its not too hard.

Steve

Big Hill Challenge Update

Reggie and I were unsure if we were going to get to run the 30 mile route for the Big Hill Challenge today due to weather concerns (they were calling for severe thunderstorms during the whole thing at 4am this morning) but we headed out to Watertown to at least get our free T-Shirts. As we got closer to the place we could see washed out roads but the weather seemed to be clearing. After registering and getting our numbers, I got 13 hmmmmm an omen maybe, we headed to the start at the town square.

The event proper was supposed to start at 8am, as we sit about we hear that it was postponed till 9am to allow the weather to clear... I wondered though clear to what? it was dry and looked ok. We start the event at 9am guess what, yup you got it, it started to rain. Ahh well they took the chance.

We were led off by a police escort and as time progressed so did the rain. Within 5 mins it was pouring but we were riding and apart from wiping water from our faces it was fun to be back on the bike. The only problem for me was that my Crank seemed to be squeaking WTH this was my first ride after service and it didn't have this before. I was surprised also that we seemed to be passing people and getting up hills easier than others, I thought we would lag behind. I think if the fates had not conspired to delay us we could have made a good run and finished ahead of quite a few people (maybe!!!). What fates you ask? Well I'm glad to asked *LOL* The first was at the 2nd rest stop, we stopped and I asked the SAG support about the squeak, he took the crank apart and checked out and everything seemed fine. As we are watching him everyone that we had about a 10 minute lead on goes past the stop and don't pull in. I even see one guy that seemed to, like me, have a few pounds extra. He took one look, saw my bike being worked on and pulled straight out of the rest stop, hmm I think he wanted to finish ahead of me *LOL*.

Once again we pull ahead of a few people and are making good time, our second fate was caused by the storms washing debris onto the road. We had just crested the hill when Reggie shouts he has a flat. We pull off and as no one is around we swap the tube for one I had carried. After waiting 10 minutes for people to come up we get a pump and the SAG support arrives. First issue is that the spare we had brought has a puncture probably from removal from Jens or insertion into Reggie's so we needed another tire and after about 20 mins we were off.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful and we came home in a respectable time. Stats of the Race are below the pictures.

Stats:-

• Distance : 30.56 Miles
• Ave Speed : 13.66 mph
• Ave Cadence : 63
• Top Speed : 32.39 mph
• Time Taken : 2hr 13mins 48 secs

Linky to Gmaps for Route

Blond roots are showing

So I decide to clean the bike last night. Not a bad thing I hadn't done it since I got it and it wanted cleaned. I get to the chain stay on the chain side and I feel a ridge, a ridge that goes down the bike around to the back and back up, it feels raised and I freaked out and took it to REI. I was right there was something there. A protective screen to keep the chain stay paintwork safe...SIGH I hate days like this

Laters

New week

I am glad its a new week. Even with the good weigh in I feel fat this week and its getting to me. I don't want to starve myself but I also don't want to eat stupidly. I need to focus and not eat out this week. I have a couple of lunches this week so I think I will just hang out with the Monday one and possibly eat the Thursday one. Either that or just hang both days.

When we took Jens bike in to leave it "for a week" as we were told by the cycle guy when I called a few weeks ago I was told that with warranty service its actually only a day or two and most times same day if you schedule an appointment... WTH... Jens bike will be ready Tuesday and I am going to try get my Bike into my car tomorrow AM to take it in also. We shall see. If weather permits I may use the rack.

Time to sleep.

Weight update and thoughts

Ok so first things first Weight. As of 9am this morning I am : 278lbs a loss of 2lbs for the week.

We have not had much chance to ride the bikes due to crappy weather, I just hope to get at least one ride this week before Watertown and it might have to just be on a stationary bicycle at the Gym *sigh*

This Saturday Reggie, Jenn(our friend) and I went on a train ride to the Monterey Dogwood festive. All in all we had a fun day. 9 hours in a train and 1hr at the festival. They gave us too long at the festival. Let me explain :-

• The dogwood festival should have dogwoods, I saw none, there was a report of 1
• A festival should have festivities, 6 stalls of which 3 were hotdog vendors and one other was a polish sausage vendor which was just a hotdog for 3 times the cost does not count as a festival.
• A stop where there are two shops and 1 gas station should NEVER be stopped at, deliverance all over again.
• If you are going to open a store and call it Jimmy's toy and bike store (name changed to protect the guilty) and then advertise it for the festival here's a good hint.... HAVE SOME BIKES in your bike store.

Today its time to take Jens bike in for its service while she is on vacation and then we head to Watertown to gauge the route for next week. I gotta get stuff done so laters.

College Stress

So I have officially finished all my School work for the semester and at least 8 months. If I pass the classes I will have a second degree, this time a Bachelors of Science in Political Science. The Big thing is IF I pass. I took 3 classes this semester (as well as doing 12 hr work days) and I know I have an A in one as it finished 8 weeks ago. The other 2 well that's a different story. One of the classes is an RODP class, this one I went into the final paper of the class with a definite C grade even if I didn't turn the last paper in so this means no matter what I have passed the class. My last class, however, has me sweating buckets. In the 15 weeks run up to this week we have only did work to get a max of 33.3% of our grade. I did well there and got a 32% our of the 33.3%, the remaining 66.6% is split between a research paper and an exam. I submitted the paper Tuesday and am waiting expectantly. Jen proofed it and thought it was an OK paper but that doesn't mean the prof will like it or that I will get a decent grade for it. The Exam, gahhhhh, I studied but it is difficult to study when you have to study 4 books and are unsure of what is wanted. He told us get there general stance on things and know about important info so I took notes, thought I was ready and took it. Lets say I think I did bad. I don't mean bad I mean BADDDDDDDDDD. He said he will curve exam but even then I think it will be BAAAAAD. I have to stew for at least 3 days though as the exam doesn't close till Sunday and then its the time till he curves and posts the grades. Till I know if I passed or failed I will be sweating buckets and if I fail lets say I will not be happy with myself.

On Cycling news it is now T-Minus 8 days to the Watertown Big Hill Challenge and Reggie and I are registered and ready to go. So, of course, is the rain. At the moment there is only talk of scattered showers so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It just sucks that I'm finished with school and cant get a decent ride in.

Well that's it for now, just wanted to post while I stress, I will talk to you Sunday with a weight update.

Laters S.