Thursday, June 24, 2010
"Z" Squad
Today was race practice day. Apparently Tuesday's hills did a number on my quads. I was crap today. I couldn't stay in a group for more than 5 laps, and I didn't finish a single race. A real bummer of a day, but at least I burned a lot of cals. That's it for today.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Getting Things Started Right
The Weigh In:
So I woke up this morning feeling refreshed from a good night's sleep and feeling motivated from a marathon post on the blog last night. I got on the scale this morning and weighed in at 202 lbs. No bad, and I was still carrying a large meal from the night before. When I got home today after work I was at 200 even. Things were looking up!
The Ride:
I've decided that Tuesday and Thursdays are going to be my build days. Mondays, Wednesdays and the weekend are for working on endurance (the weekend is for racing if there is one that I have the stone to try). So being that today is Tuesday, it was time for hills! The hardest part about starting a tough workout on a hot day is to get off the couch. Someone I got myself off the couch, put on my gear and headed out the door. If you weren't outside in Columbus, OH today, it was hot, but once i got going I was also determined. I do the Grandview Classic www.tourdegrandview.com/race course for my training. It consists of one nasty but kind of short climb and then rolling terrain for the rest before a big downhill (my favorite part). So I warmed up and started my first lap. Now usually when I do the lap, it takes me about 4 plus minutes, usually between 4min and 5sec - 4min and 20 sec. Fist lap today: 3min 50 seconds. I ended up doing 10 laps today and all but 1 were below 4 minutes! Quickest lap was lap 6 at 3min 44sec, oooo yeah! I ended with doing and 11th climb up Elmwood, a shorter but much steeper hill. I climbed it like I still had something left in the tank, so it looks like next weekend I'll be doing 15 laps.
The Final Weigh In:
I stepped on the scale just before I stepped into the shower and I lost 2 pounds of water on the ride. 198lbs. Only 8 more pounds to go before I complete Goal#1. So all and all an awesome day for me and my goals. Can't wait to see how I stack up on Thursday for this: www.team-cobc.com/pdfs/2010_summer_crit_flyer.pdf .
That's all I got today folks. Goal #4 - Still working on posting more... we'll see how long this lasts. Be on the lookout for one after the practice race on Thursday. Stay classy.
So I woke up this morning feeling refreshed from a good night's sleep and feeling motivated from a marathon post on the blog last night. I got on the scale this morning and weighed in at 202 lbs. No bad, and I was still carrying a large meal from the night before. When I got home today after work I was at 200 even. Things were looking up!
The Ride:
I've decided that Tuesday and Thursdays are going to be my build days. Mondays, Wednesdays and the weekend are for working on endurance (the weekend is for racing if there is one that I have the stone to try). So being that today is Tuesday, it was time for hills! The hardest part about starting a tough workout on a hot day is to get off the couch. Someone I got myself off the couch, put on my gear and headed out the door. If you weren't outside in Columbus, OH today, it was hot, but once i got going I was also determined. I do the Grandview Classic www.tourdegrandview.com/race course for my training. It consists of one nasty but kind of short climb and then rolling terrain for the rest before a big downhill (my favorite part). So I warmed up and started my first lap. Now usually when I do the lap, it takes me about 4 plus minutes, usually between 4min and 5sec - 4min and 20 sec. Fist lap today: 3min 50 seconds. I ended up doing 10 laps today and all but 1 were below 4 minutes! Quickest lap was lap 6 at 3min 44sec, oooo yeah! I ended with doing and 11th climb up Elmwood, a shorter but much steeper hill. I climbed it like I still had something left in the tank, so it looks like next weekend I'll be doing 15 laps.
The Final Weigh In:
I stepped on the scale just before I stepped into the shower and I lost 2 pounds of water on the ride. 198lbs. Only 8 more pounds to go before I complete Goal#1. So all and all an awesome day for me and my goals. Can't wait to see how I stack up on Thursday for this: www.team-cobc.com/pdfs/2010_summer_crit_flyer.pdf .
That's all I got today folks. Goal #4 - Still working on posting more... we'll see how long this lasts. Be on the lookout for one after the practice race on Thursday. Stay classy.
Monday, June 21, 2010
A New Direction of a Directionless Blog
So I'm sure that a lot of people have done this before, and probably have done it much better than I ever could but I thought I should give it a try. I'm also hoping that the new direction of the blog will cause me to post a bit more often then I normally would. "What is this new direction and why should we care?" "Can a blog with previously no direction change direction?"
To answer these questions simply, progress tracking, you shouldn't, and no. I am going to be posting my progress for fitness, weight, and other health related things. You might not care, but I said before in here, I hope you can at least get some laughs and since I'm either at work, on the bike, in the basement or in bed, it can be a nice way for some of you to keep track of me... which brings us back to that you probably shouldn't care. And since I was only 4 posts in on the blog and I'm already changing the direction, I guess we could just call it finding a direction. Now for the reason for changing:
Milestones
I've recently hit a few major milestone in my training and in my life. I've been hovering just about 200 lbs for last few weeks and the other morning when I stepped on the scale I did it! I was below 200lbs for the first time since I was poor and emaciated from living like a fucking hippie in Colorado. Since that doesn't really count, we'll say it is the first time I've been below 200lbs since the start of my freshman year of college 2002. Another milestone is that the other week I was on the bike for an hour and covering close to 20 mile and I like to do I final sprint up the slight incline of 3rd ave going West from Olantangy River Road. Well I was able to hit 30 MPH, which going that fast on a downhill feels pretty awesome, but on a flat to very slightly uphill... it felt amazing. There are some other things that seem to be looking up as well in my life and I think this was a great time to re-asses my life and my goals and start working towards some new ones.
Goal #1: Get to 190 lbs. I know I didn't always look it, but through college I was in the 220-230 range, so a total loss of 40lbs over a few years would be pretty awesome. Cycling has been the greatest motivational factor in losing the weight. When I'm getting dropped of the back of the group by a bunch of 140 pounders, I feel fat and slow... because comparatively that's exactly what I am. So I think that with my power to weight ratio as is now, I could do pretty well around 190. More to come on how exactly I'll be working toward this.
Goal #2: Eat lots of fiber.
Goal #3: My hopes for winning a road race this year have been broken, but something I really think I'll be able to accomplish (an important part of setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, I'll visit this later too) is placing top 10 in a cyclocross race this year. Also since I'm not a totally rookie in cyclocross, I'd like to invite some friends to come out and watch/cheer me on and have a nice cold brew waiting for me at the finish. I'll worry about setting road racing goals next year.
Goal #4: ACTUALLY WRITE BLOG POST MORE OFTEN THAN ONCE IN A BLUE MOON. mmmmmmmmmmmmm... blue moon......mmmmmmmmmm.
So that's about all for today. I had a pretty good training ride today where I almost threw up a few times. That's when you know it's good. I weighed in after dinner at 204lbs and I looked soft in mirror. I should have a weigh in tomorrow morning and write about that and hill sprints tomorrow night. Keep reading, I promise I will write more. If you like what you read, leave a comment so I know someone it paying attention. And Brendan, you can look for more spelling errors and grammatical error too. Leave them in the comments so everyone knows where I messed up.
Keep keeping it real.
Columbus Clydesdale
To answer these questions simply, progress tracking, you shouldn't, and no. I am going to be posting my progress for fitness, weight, and other health related things. You might not care, but I said before in here, I hope you can at least get some laughs and since I'm either at work, on the bike, in the basement or in bed, it can be a nice way for some of you to keep track of me... which brings us back to that you probably shouldn't care. And since I was only 4 posts in on the blog and I'm already changing the direction, I guess we could just call it finding a direction. Now for the reason for changing:
Milestones
I've recently hit a few major milestone in my training and in my life. I've been hovering just about 200 lbs for last few weeks and the other morning when I stepped on the scale I did it! I was below 200lbs for the first time since I was poor and emaciated from living like a fucking hippie in Colorado. Since that doesn't really count, we'll say it is the first time I've been below 200lbs since the start of my freshman year of college 2002. Another milestone is that the other week I was on the bike for an hour and covering close to 20 mile and I like to do I final sprint up the slight incline of 3rd ave going West from Olantangy River Road. Well I was able to hit 30 MPH, which going that fast on a downhill feels pretty awesome, but on a flat to very slightly uphill... it felt amazing. There are some other things that seem to be looking up as well in my life and I think this was a great time to re-asses my life and my goals and start working towards some new ones.
Goal #1: Get to 190 lbs. I know I didn't always look it, but through college I was in the 220-230 range, so a total loss of 40lbs over a few years would be pretty awesome. Cycling has been the greatest motivational factor in losing the weight. When I'm getting dropped of the back of the group by a bunch of 140 pounders, I feel fat and slow... because comparatively that's exactly what I am. So I think that with my power to weight ratio as is now, I could do pretty well around 190. More to come on how exactly I'll be working toward this.
Goal #2: Eat lots of fiber.
Goal #3: My hopes for winning a road race this year have been broken, but something I really think I'll be able to accomplish (an important part of setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, I'll visit this later too) is placing top 10 in a cyclocross race this year. Also since I'm not a totally rookie in cyclocross, I'd like to invite some friends to come out and watch/cheer me on and have a nice cold brew waiting for me at the finish. I'll worry about setting road racing goals next year.
Goal #4: ACTUALLY WRITE BLOG POST MORE OFTEN THAN ONCE IN A BLUE MOON. mmmmmmmmmmmmm... blue moon......mmmmmmmmmm.
So that's about all for today. I had a pretty good training ride today where I almost threw up a few times. That's when you know it's good. I weighed in after dinner at 204lbs and I looked soft in mirror. I should have a weigh in tomorrow morning and write about that and hill sprints tomorrow night. Keep reading, I promise I will write more. If you like what you read, leave a comment so I know someone it paying attention. And Brendan, you can look for more spelling errors and grammatical error too. Leave them in the comments so everyone knows where I messed up.
Keep keeping it real.
Columbus Clydesdale
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