Calorie restriction...it's a rough life.
Before I start training in November I am going to try to drop 15-20lbs, so this week I am on a liquid diet keeping my calories below 500 till Friday, to get the system flushed out. Then I will go to 1500-1800 calories a day for October. My mileage is going to go down to about 50-85 miles a week during the phase. I am at 209 lbs and I have got to lose the weight. My friends say I am crazy that I am good for my size but they don't have to race against 155 lb riders up a hill. They are brain washed that muscle weight is good. Again who wants to carry that weight up a hill? When it comes to going up a hill; weight is weight. It's going to be all about power to weight ratios next year. The weight is keeping me out of touch with the Cat 3 riders that I want to compete with.
When November starts I am going to sign up at Trainright.com to get some coaching and accountability and my mileage should approach 300miles per week by late November thru January.
My "cranky" factor has gone up a bit which makes some situations interesting. I have fasted before and it gets easier after a few days.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Friday, September 16, 2005
A break from cycling. My legs are used up and I am going to go spend some time at our family's cabin for a few days. Maybe I will get some good recovery and be stronger next week. Maybe next weekend I will do the American Cancer Century. This week I started using a reel mower to cut my yard and I am very happy with it. No noise, no fumes, no allergies. Of course you can't let the grass get very high or allow weeds to get out of hand, and you need a trimmer.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Monday, September 12, 2005
Solo Masochist Century Club's new member
I guess I will start with how I got to the decision. I missed the ride from ProBike Saturday morning by 5 minutes and took it as a sign that I needed to go home and clean up my yard from the hurricane and mow it. This took 5 hours and I was pretty tired especially after borrowing my friend Kevin's reel mower(old timey human powered mower). At 5:15 it struck me that I could finally do a 100mile solo ride Sunday morning on the North Trace since I didn't have orchestra at church Sunday morning. I rushed to the store to get some Powerbar Tangerine gel(mega caffeine) and a couple of Cliff bars. That night I got my bike ready and changed the battery in my bike computer but couldn't figure out how to get it powered up so I just took the computer off my mountain bike and put it onto my road bike.
Sunday woke up at 4:45 and cooked a couple of eggs and rice, let it settle and finished my morning routine and was on the bike at 6:14 when there was enough light to ride without a headlight but I did have my rear blinky on. The bugs were horrible and I couldn't take deep breaths or I would suck them in and head to keep my head down to keep them out of my nose and eyes. They were bad until full light which was around 7:45-8:00.
My goal was to average 18-18.5 mph and I was really struggling to maintain 18.5mph. At a known 20mile mark I looked down at my computer and it said 18.4 miles and it dawned on me that I didn't reset for the wheelsize difference. I back off the pace and stopped at mile 26 which was Choctaw Boundry stop and ate a banana and some gel and tried to reset the computer but couldn't.
At Hwy 16 the chip-seal pavement was rough but after a few miles, I stopped noticing. I turned around at the rest stop near Kosciusko and ate some M&M's and another banana while the mosquitos feasted on me . *scratching leg now* I reloaded my bottles and camelback and headed back. How wonderful it was when I got back on the smooth asphalt. I stopped at RiverBend to reload water since I had a constant stream of sweat running off the whole way, but the fountain was cutoff. I check the bathroom and the sink had running water so I gulped down 2 bottles before I started wondering why was the fountain off but the bathroom wasn't. "Was the water ok for sanitation and not drinkable? Am I going to get sick?"
The last 15 miles was where the struggle began. Everything up to that point was fine. Back got sore and when I stood up to rest my seat my legs felt like they wanted to cramp. I know I passed a few riders looking tired. I was.
I made it home though and by my watch I had ridden for 5hours and 26mins...excluding the stops. 18.9MPH!!!!!!!
Items of interest:
Wildlife:
1 fox(dead)
3 raccoons(dead)
1 6ft smake(thankfully dead)
2 tom turkeys
15-18 hen turkeys
Food:
2 Powerbar Tangerine gels
2 Cliff Bars
4 homemade secret recipe gels
2 bananas
1 bag of plain M&M's
powerade to reload water bottles
I guess I will start with how I got to the decision. I missed the ride from ProBike Saturday morning by 5 minutes and took it as a sign that I needed to go home and clean up my yard from the hurricane and mow it. This took 5 hours and I was pretty tired especially after borrowing my friend Kevin's reel mower(old timey human powered mower). At 5:15 it struck me that I could finally do a 100mile solo ride Sunday morning on the North Trace since I didn't have orchestra at church Sunday morning. I rushed to the store to get some Powerbar Tangerine gel(mega caffeine) and a couple of Cliff bars. That night I got my bike ready and changed the battery in my bike computer but couldn't figure out how to get it powered up so I just took the computer off my mountain bike and put it onto my road bike.
Sunday woke up at 4:45 and cooked a couple of eggs and rice, let it settle and finished my morning routine and was on the bike at 6:14 when there was enough light to ride without a headlight but I did have my rear blinky on. The bugs were horrible and I couldn't take deep breaths or I would suck them in and head to keep my head down to keep them out of my nose and eyes. They were bad until full light which was around 7:45-8:00.
My goal was to average 18-18.5 mph and I was really struggling to maintain 18.5mph. At a known 20mile mark I looked down at my computer and it said 18.4 miles and it dawned on me that I didn't reset for the wheelsize difference. I back off the pace and stopped at mile 26 which was Choctaw Boundry stop and ate a banana and some gel and tried to reset the computer but couldn't.
At Hwy 16 the chip-seal pavement was rough but after a few miles, I stopped noticing. I turned around at the rest stop near Kosciusko and ate some M&M's and another banana while the mosquitos feasted on me . *scratching leg now* I reloaded my bottles and camelback and headed back. How wonderful it was when I got back on the smooth asphalt. I stopped at RiverBend to reload water since I had a constant stream of sweat running off the whole way, but the fountain was cutoff. I check the bathroom and the sink had running water so I gulped down 2 bottles before I started wondering why was the fountain off but the bathroom wasn't. "Was the water ok for sanitation and not drinkable? Am I going to get sick?"
The last 15 miles was where the struggle began. Everything up to that point was fine. Back got sore and when I stood up to rest my seat my legs felt like they wanted to cramp. I know I passed a few riders looking tired. I was.
I made it home though and by my watch I had ridden for 5hours and 26mins...excluding the stops. 18.9MPH!!!!!!!
Items of interest:
Wildlife:
1 fox(dead)
3 raccoons(dead)
1 6ft smake(thankfully dead)
2 tom turkeys
15-18 hen turkeys
Food:
2 Powerbar Tangerine gels
2 Cliff Bars
4 homemade secret recipe gels
2 bananas
1 bag of plain M&M's
powerade to reload water bottles
Friday, September 09, 2005
Friday'g game.... I haven't figured it out yet but having played around with it...It's pretty cool
Try it out http://www.moovl.com/
Try it out http://www.moovl.com/
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Damn Hurricane,
The hurricane has impacted my business(mortgages) a little. I had loans not close or fund because of it. Good News today is that one of my customers from the coast just called and said he was alright but his house was gone. He is not going back to the coast and is going to buy a house in Memphis. Jackson has gotten bigger and some corporations from New Orlean are moving to Jackson as their regional headquarters and that will be good for business.
I have been riding my bike everwhere since Thursday until today and gas stations are back in business. I will still get around on my bike as much as I can now that I have an excuse. But I really love driving my TSX.
Sunday I got a 70 mile ride in by myself on loop that I have been wanting to do for a long time which included a hill that turned out not to be as bad as it looks on the map. For some reason commuting is not the same as training because my back was not accustomed to my road position and the legs didn't feel so hot. Just only a week before I had a great ride with the ProBike team and was feeling strong. Lesson is that I must never skip the recovery ride. Everytime I skip, I end up with bad legs within a couple of days. Maybe I will have recovered some form for todays 40miles ride.
During the hurricane fiasco I have been hanging out with friends at Buffalo Wild Wings watching football and girls or playing cards at some friends houses. Ridgeland which is a city next to Madison has had a curfew from 10pm to5am so there havn't been any late nights.
The hurricane has impacted my business(mortgages) a little. I had loans not close or fund because of it. Good News today is that one of my customers from the coast just called and said he was alright but his house was gone. He is not going back to the coast and is going to buy a house in Memphis. Jackson has gotten bigger and some corporations from New Orlean are moving to Jackson as their regional headquarters and that will be good for business.
I have been riding my bike everwhere since Thursday until today and gas stations are back in business. I will still get around on my bike as much as I can now that I have an excuse. But I really love driving my TSX.
Sunday I got a 70 mile ride in by myself on loop that I have been wanting to do for a long time which included a hill that turned out not to be as bad as it looks on the map. For some reason commuting is not the same as training because my back was not accustomed to my road position and the legs didn't feel so hot. Just only a week before I had a great ride with the ProBike team and was feeling strong. Lesson is that I must never skip the recovery ride. Everytime I skip, I end up with bad legs within a couple of days. Maybe I will have recovered some form for todays 40miles ride.
During the hurricane fiasco I have been hanging out with friends at Buffalo Wild Wings watching football and girls or playing cards at some friends houses. Ridgeland which is a city next to Madison has had a curfew from 10pm to5am so there havn't been any late nights.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Devastation.
We just went through the worst disaster in US history. I live in central Mississippi and we had Cat 1 & 2 winds from Katrina here. There is NO gasoline unless you want to wait hours or days. We are just now getting power. This is some bad stuff happening. I am now going to be commuting on my bike for a while now. Too bad it's so hot.
We just went through the worst disaster in US history. I live in central Mississippi and we had Cat 1 & 2 winds from Katrina here. There is NO gasoline unless you want to wait hours or days. We are just now getting power. This is some bad stuff happening. I am now going to be commuting on my bike for a while now. Too bad it's so hot.
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