Random thought and progress on goals.

Today I noticed that I am now wearing at least one medium shirt. I am finally starting to shed the large sized clothes. I am still XL in athletic fit cycle jerseys but cyclists are the most weight obsessed athletes anyway. The last few days I overate but it is nice to see that my belly at least seems to be shrinking.

I haven't made any real progress on my randonneuring goals but there are some summer 200k routes coming up and I will schedule one of them. I needed more time than I thought to get into century shape and wasn't ready for the March 200k run by SIR. This weekend DKW and I will be doing 120 miles. Our plan is 2 laps around the Lake Washington Loop route both with an extension over to Marymoor and using the 520 trail to get back to the loop trail. Our estimate is 120 miles but we haven't ridden it this way and I suspect that our estimate of 60miles/lap is high. I'll bet it drops down to 110 miles give or take.

Miles and miles of riding has been helping my weight, it provides a nice buffer zone when I go off my diet. I haven't had any real swings in my weight and I attribute that to the riding. I also want to remember to do a bit of maintenance to the bike tonight, I had the chain slip off since it is a bit loose after the switch to a 13T cog. I am going to remove a link which should tighten it up a bit, I might remove two but if I do, it will be one at a time.

I also updated the blog to have links to my Flickr photostream. I have been taking more pictures and Kristin and I just ordered a new camera since the old canon we have is starting to fail. I have completely made the switch to Flickr and now use Picasa only for derivative or copied photos.

Sick

I am coughing up mucas and feeling like crap. I didn't ride in today because of it (and the fact that I had an extra 10 lbs of crap to carry in today).

Feeling like crap gets me thinking a bit about how we are sick today as a country. We need to get better and that means changing our lifestyle to allow us to get better. We need to wean ourselves off of our car-focused lifestyle. We need to fix our health-care and transit. We need to move to non-oil based energy sources. Otherwise we will all be sick for a good long while.

Week 7 training results

Week	Weight	Avg HR	Elevation Gain	Minutes on Bike	Mileage on Bike
10/12/2008 – 10/18/2008	230	139	1641	141	28.44
10/19/2008 – 10/25/2008	230	139	1127	83	8.73
10/26/2008 – 11/1/2008	230	122	3741	413	71.2
11/2/2008 – 11/8/2008	227.8	139.7	2493	262	40.12
11/9/2008 – 11/15/2008	223.6	111.5	3931	207	31.87
11/16/2008 – 11/22/2008	224.2	142	4648	339	56.89
11/23/2008 – 11/29/2008	222.6	140	4354	502	98.61

The weight loss slowed down but given that this was Thanksgiving week and my Father-in-law was here I am not unhappy. I did eat out a lot more this week and that always plays havoc on any diet. I broke 100 miles/week though which is nice. Overall a successful week.

Week 5 progress

Week	Weight	Avg HR	Elevation Gain	Minutes on Bike	Mileage on Bike
10/12/2008 – 10/18/2008	230	139	1641	141	28.44
10/19/2008 – 10/25/2008	230	139	1127	83	8.73
10/26/2008 – 11/1/2008	230	122	3741	413	71.2
11/2/2008 – 11/8/2008	227.8	139.7	2493	262	40.12
11/9/2008 – 11/15/2008	223.6	111.5	3931	207	31.87

Not bad, I am happy about the 4lbs. My milage needs to go up but I had a rash of mechanicals this week and rescheduled my larger ride for Sunday vs Saturday.

Organizing

I want to get more organized about tracking my weight, cycling mileage, etc. So I am going to keep it all in a spreadsheet and summarize my progress. I think I will use something like this format.

Exercise and Weight loss log
Week	Weight	Avg HR	Elevation Gain	Minutes on Bike	Mileage on Bike
10/12/2008 – 10/18/2008	230	139	1641	141	28.44
10/19/2008 – 10/25/2008	230	139	1127	83	8.73
10/26/2008 – 11/1/2008	230	122	3741	413	71.2
11/2/2008 – 11/8/2008	227.8	139.7	2493	262	40.12

The differences in mileage between this and the post below is due to how the gps statistics are read by motionbased and the garmin fitness tools.

Health update

Today I weighed in at 227.8, which is 12.2 lbs down from my high point. The commuting has helped. I checked out my milage totals since I started using the gps as well.

week	milage
10/12 - 10/18	28.36
10/19 - 10/25	17.40
10/26 - 11/1	78.87
11/2 - 11/8	39.93

It is creeping upward and I just need that number to go up. There were a few days where I didn't commute in there as I was running errands after work in the city. If I push up that mileage I believe I can also work on my weight loss.

Trike Ride today

From September photostream

I road 30 miles this morning on the trike. It was a great ride though I did suffer from acid reflux the entire way. I ran into 3 recumbents. The break down is 2 Bacchetta Stradas and a Trice Q (see image to left). The Trice rider and I stopped and chatted for a while. Eugene and I will probably get together again to ride. It is nice to meet people on the trail. I also stopped and helped a guy with a flat, he was 10 miles from home so it would have been a sad walk for him. A sharp rock had pierced his tire straight into his tube.

The garmin estimates 2400 cal spent, which is nice. My weekly totals today are:
71.2 miles, 3741 ft of elevation gain, 6:52 hours of riding. Since my idler on the Vivo is still missing a nut, I rode the trike mostly this week.

I love how riding is a social activity even if you start out solo. I ran into a lot of people and waved, nodded, and chatted over my 3 hour ride. The fall colors were amazing too but I was a slacker and didn't bring my camera.

Morning Ride

From September photostream

I am going to ride the trike today. It looks like rain but I need the miles and training so I will do 2-3 hours on the trike give or take. The Vivo is out of commission since the idle fell apart on my last ride. I am putting off repairing it as I don't want to invest in the parts when the Corsa should be ready by Nov 8th. There was a delay on the parts for the Corsa so I have to wait a bit.

2009 Cycling Goals

While reading the Bacchetta forums I found a thread about 2008 accomplishments. This got me thinking about my 2009 goals and I realized I hadn't written them down. I am going through a period of introspection and refocusing my activities and desires to meet my goals. I do this periodically. In 1998/1999 I did something similar where I changed career tracks and focused on quality of life vs the NYC rat race.

I get obsessive about certain things, so I find it useful for me to focus my obsession on healthy activities rather than self-destructive habits. Recently I gave up MMOs because my obsession was not good for my health, my relationships and my work. To replace that I decided that it would be better to focus on cycling, cycle maintenance and politics. All of these activities are ones I have had a lifelong interest in so they are natural fits. I am giving up my old hobby of rock climbing as it is harder to get into shape and keep climbing without a regular partner you trust. Plus cycling works well with cycle commuting as training.

So without too much ado, here are my 2009 goals.

• Hill training, must ride more hills
• Cycle commute 200 days in 2009
• add morning training rides to my commute three times a week (20+ miles, and major hills combined)
• 2500 miles (I hope to beat this but this works out to an average of 208 miles/month, 48 miles/week)
• 2009 STP (202 miles over two days)
• Training century ride before STP, probably Flying Wheels Summer Century
• Attending any nearby recumbent rallies or get togethers
• Lose approximately 40 lbs (50 lbs from my high)
• Crack 100 miles per week averaged over 1 month.

Training Ride Oct 26

View Larger Map

I did a 26 mile ride today on the West Samammish River Trail connecting to the Burke Gilman and the back. The ride was great, I fought a light headwind to start (6.5mph) but warmed up after 6 miles or so and the ride went smoothly. My heartrate was happily in Zone 3 for the entire ride so I feel very good about that. If I keep these rides up on the weekends I will be in shape for the STP without any issues.

Stats:
Time: 1:50:54
Distance:26.22 miles
Avg Speed:4.2 mph
Avg HR:138 bpm
Ascent:589 ft.

Target HR

 
One thing I was pretty happy with was that I managed to keep my target HR pretty much the entire ride today. That middle dark band was my zone and I kept it up for 90 some minutes. I really like the Vivo.

Training Ride

So with my goal to ride the STP in July I need to bump up the miles. Additionally I want to get a new bike in February, that means I need to be more confident and fit on the recumbent. So I took out the Rans Vivo for a spin.

From Garmin305

My goal was 30 miles. I did 22.4 miles since I had a mechanical problem at 11ish miles. Here was my route (It is an out and back):

View Larger Map
I rode 22.53 miles in 1h 46min, according to the heart rate monitor, I averaged 138.5 bpm. I was in "zone 3 - aerobic zone" the entire ride, apparently I burned 1777 calories according to its computation.

I view the ride a massive success. I felt great and could have gone 30 miles instead of 22.5, but I was worried about the bent hanger on my front derailleur, my chain popped off during aggressive shifting and got wedged. A few minor repairs and I was off again. I will get the derailleur fixed this week. The Rans Vivo is definitely faster then the trike. I don't think I could have averaged 14.5 mph on the trike. All in all a great test ride for the Vivo and the Edge 305.

UPDATE: I managed to repair the derailleur and replaced the broken mirror. The Vivo is raring to go. I hope to do some testing on my climbing ability with the Vivo.

Focus on goals

I am a firm believer in goal posts placed firmly down the road. When I get focused I like to imagine where I am going to go with my plans. What will I do with this energy I am focusing on a given task.

Now that I am into cycling again, what will be my focus? Well, I know I am not fast, I am not a racer, I would like to ride fast but I don't have that killer instinct in the corner that a racer needs. So I was thinking, what do I do well while riding. The answer is long distance riding. I have ridden unsupported 100km and 100mile rides on my old mountain bike and my old fuji. I am planning on the STP in July 2009 and a few charity Centuries to get ready for the STP. Those are a good start. But there is a sport that is all about long distance riding, ultra-cycling and randonneuring.

Randonneuring is all about long distance riding. To quote from the Seattle International Randonneurs:

The most common type of event is a brevet (pronounced breh-VAY), referring to the certificate (brevet) the participant receives signifying completion of a particular distance. Randonneur events are 200 km (125mi), 300 km (190mi), 400 km (250mi), 600 km (375mi), 1000 km (625mi), and 1200 km (750mi). The longer events are held over multiple days. Along the course, you check in at various places to show that you completed the entire course. During longer events, sleep breaks are planned at intermediate points. In the end, you get a medal if you complete the course within the generous time limit. If you like going fast, there usually is a group who try to see how quickly they can complete the course. But the results are listed alphabetically, and everybody gets the same medal, so it is not a race. Our long rides are challenging for anybody, but every finisher is a winner.

One of the most famous of these longer events is the 1200 km Paris-Brest-Paris, first held in 1891 and now held every four years.

This is right up my alley, I can do this with proper training. Additionally a recumbent seems perfect for this kind of event. I may not be able to do a 1000km + brevet but with the options to improve on over time, I can sure work my way up and try. With that said, I put up this picture of a Randonneur on a recumbent. (I stole this pic from Vik)

FYI - not me, this is Vik

Personal Goals

Recently I became frustrated with my past lifestyle. I went more than 1 year without riding, I put on 40 lbs, I was spending too much time on the computer and avoiding outdoor activities. To address this I made a number of changes.

1. I stopped all computer games and MMOs.
2. I went on a simple diet, just cutting out soda, healthy snacks instead of garbage, smaller meals. I also added breakfast.
3. I started commuting by bike (or trike) again.
4. I added weekend rides to my routine.
5. I cleaned out the garage to make into a bike workshop, so I can do my own maintenance and upgrades.
6. I started a blog.

At this point I am 3 weeks into my commuting and planning a new bike for the spring. I have lost about 7 lbs and plan on training all winter.

I have set some performance goals.

1. I will do the STP in July 2009, the Seattle to Portland ride is 202 miles over two days. After living in the Pacific NW for 8 years I will finally do this incredible ride.
2. I will work on my riding, specifically on my climbing ability.
3. I will improve my pedal stroke and my cadence aka spinning.
4. I will join the Cascade Bicycle Club in the spring for training and comradery.
5. I will improve my balance and handling on my 2 wheel recumbent.

Assuming I get my cadence up and my stroke improved I should be able to take my Rans Vivo to work this winter. I ride uphill for about 1.5+ miles on my current route, so getting my speed and cadence up for the Vivo to go to work is a big deal. I will have my gps (Edge 305) soon so I can show my route, speed, elevation profile, heartrate and cadence soon. I will work on the trike for more power, and to improve my spinning, the Vivo to prove it out.

If the winter goes well with the Vivo and climbing I will get a new recumbent in January/Febuary. At the moment the Bacchettas are looking really good. In particular the Giro 20TT and the Corsa 24. But the test ride is everything. If the Corsa doesn't work out I may look at lowracers such as the Optima Baron. But given my needs for a bike, the high racers are a better fit. My preference is for the Corsa at this point, but there may be issues of reaching the ground with my short legs (38.5 x-seam). The Giro 20TT is an incredible deal and well equipped. I am going back and forth on the issue. A test ride is needed.


I tried an earlier model of the Giro 20 in 2006, this is a shot of my test ride. I was looking for something different back then and was very new to recumbents so I didn't get it. The Giro 20TT is similar to the one pictured but has disk brakes, better components and an aluminum frame. It should be a good deal and a nice ride to do the STP on. If I get the Giro 20TT or the Corsa 24 I will be selling the trike. I may or may not keep the Vivo. One thing I learned commuting by bike for 8 years is that a backup bike is well worth the investment.

So I have a plan, with a few carrots built into the mix as well. Lets see how well I do.