Back

I’m back.

I had to turn in my final feedback for the RyR contest at Pure Austin, and I decided to send a picture in with my text to nail the point home. So I figured what better way to jump start the blog again but with this:

Anyway, I’ve lost 25 lbs, gotten a lot stronger, and have surpassed my stated cycling goals. But goals are made to be met, and it’s time to set new ones.

Things To Do This Week

We leave for the cruise Saturday before dawn. I need to submit my paper on Friday. Oh, and I need to rock this week’s crit. So here’s my todo list for the week:

1. Survive.
2. Tell Carrie “I love you, and thank you” more. She has been a huge help not only during the Resolve Your Resolution time period, but specifically as I have been working more. I love you, Carrie, and thanks!!
3. Get my bike rides in. As the stress ramps up, can’t drop off the exercise. That has always been my downfall. 
4. Stay on wheels and stay near the front in the race. I am confident that I have the legs to stay in it. I need to work on my positioning and race smart.
5. Finish this paper strong. We have 5 days, need to work hard and put out a quality submission that will hopefully get accepted.
6. Pack for the cruise. Carrie is already packed. Me… eh, not so much.

I guess that’s about it for the moment. When we step onto that boat I will be ready to relax.

What a Growing Body Knee-ds

The pun is for Lynn.

Saturday did a great 70 miles out and back to Elgin. The nice thing about riding to Elgin is you get to get some barbecue to break up the ride. While my ride companions chowed down on brisket and sausage (oh, to be 22 again) I had the chicken. Still quite tasty, by the way.

Felt great the whole ride… except for the part on the way back when my knee started to feel a little catchy every now and then. I didn’t think much of it as it really didn’t hurt, it just was there. We stopped in Manor, and I stretched. But as we got closer to home I still felt it.

Then it started to really hurt. Not constantly, but anytime I stood up or did more of a forward mash than a supple spin, pain. And clipping in was unpleasant. 

When I got home I actually felt great. I felt like I could have kept riding. 

However, on Easter Sunday, I didn’t feel so hot. We got up to go to 9 AM Mass, as I was supposed to be riding three hours at some point. I also wanted to watch the Ronde on TV and we had to eat our celebratory Easter pizza. (We gave up cheese for Lent.) The ride didn’t happen, because I felt beaten down. I took two naps, and still went to bed early. After alerting Drew of the knee issues, it was decided to be careful and make this week extra resty.

So far, so good. I did an easy spin on Monday, and there was no pain. Today I did two hours in zones 1 and 2 and again there was no pain. It feels a little tight, but the painful catch has not come back. The inner quad right above my knee is tight and tender, so I have been hitting it with ice and the TP quad-rolller. 

Considering I went from sedentary to riding a lot pretty quickly, I am not surprised something eventually was annoyed. Saturday’s ride was also the longest ride I’ve done yet, and definitely the longest ride of “not my own pace.” I feel confident that this easy week will be good for things. I have the Driveway tomorrow (it’s the full two-mile course going down the corkscrew, should be interesting) and I am bringing the bike home with me to Baton Rouge for rides this weekend.

On that subject, we are going to Baton Rouge this weekend to celebrate my grandmother BeBe’s 100th birthday… crazy! It will be a quick trip and jam packed. Riding, family, friends… the camera is coming with me so I hope to have lots of pictures when I get back.

Finally, my experiments finally seem to be making some notion of sense (thanks Allen!). It sort of took one of those moments where you realize you were kind of an idiot, but you have gone so far down the rabbit hole it takes somebody else to snap you out of it to see it. But alas, the Lagniappe paper seems to finally be taking shape after all these years. Whew.

With that being said, I’m going to switch back over to my terminal windows and see how those experiments are going.

The Weekend

We had a nice weekend.

I went for a ride yesterday out east. Made it out to the New Sweden Church and the Manda schoolhouse. The nice thing about riding out that way is that you get these long uninterrupted farm roads with little traffic. No stop signs, so lights, just road.

I got some work done yesterday afternoon, and then we headed to El Chile for supper. Delicious as usual, including the micheladas.

Afterwards we went see Hot Tub Time Machine. The movie is ridiculous, but I laughed a lot, and at the end of the day that makes me a happy movie goer.

Today I was not able to complete my bike ride because of a snapped derailleur cable. Brought the bike in this afternoon to Austinbikes, and I am having the guys there basically replace all the parts that wear out. With the amount of riding I’ve been doing, the bike needs some TLC.

Most of last year the bike got ridden maybe once every month, if that. Now, I’m riding 6 times a week for 10+ hours. Yeah, surprise surprise parts need replacing. My nice wheel should also be done at the same time as the bike, so by the end of this week the bike should be clean, tuned up and ready to go.

Today we also went see Phantom of the Opera at Bass Concert Hall with Lynn and Johann. We had fantastic seats (thanks Lynn for tracking down the tickets!) It was fun to see the show, and I am always impressed by the cool stuff you can do in a theater production. 

Overall, a great weekend. Looking forward to having a productive week.

Tired

Ever since I started the Resolve Your Resolution program, I have been really sleeping hard at night. I am having to get a decent amount of sleep every night. Obviously, the exercise is causing this. 

I don’t mind exactly, as I really like the results that are really starting to show. I am oh so close to crossing the 200 pound border. My official starting weight was 213 (thought that was two weeks into the program, I clocked in myself at home at 215 right before it started). The 200 barrier is a big thing for me. Once I see that 1 again in front of my weight, I will be very excited. I am trying to get down to 175. Every pound that comes off makes going uphill easier. :)

What I find is amusing is that I still don’t fall right to sleep when I get in bed. It still takes a little while. But to be able to get up at anyway a decent hour, I have to get to bed at a reasonable time. This exercise is causing my body to be aggressive about not getting out of bed until enough sleep has been had.

Tomorrow is week two of the driveway. Let’s do it!

Update

The riding continues. Last week I put in a good bit of hours on the bike, along with a killer strength workout at the gym with Drew. This week is even more hours on the bike. I believe I am in the thick of base mileage.

I feel pretty good on the bike these days. The new saddle is fantastic. I also think my backside is getting used to being on a bike seat. The combination of these two things is leading to much more comfortable bike rides.

I do think I may be to low, however, the new saddle is a little bit shorter rail to top than my old fizik, so I probably could use a centimeter bump up. I don’t think that I need massive enough adjustments to go get fit. However, with spending this much time on the bike I feel getting the fit right is very important.

I’m also noticing several things that probably need your normal periodic maintenance. The bottom-bracket squeaks something terrible. I need to change my brake pads. I still need to go and get my nicer back wheel fixed. I need new cleats. All the stuff that just needs to be dealt with over time.

On the weight front, I’ve lost a little bit. I do think I’m a little smaller. In the past I’ve always had slow weight loss at first, and then it kicks into gear. I’m hoping that “kick into gear” is coming soon. My two casual sport coats seem to hang better when buttoned now, so I am taking that as a good sign.

With our anniversary this weekend, I am saving my cheat day for Saturday. However, we are going to a CM cooking class tonight and Perla’s for Austin Restaurant Week on Wednesday, so I will need to be careful about my food choices.

That’s about it on the Resolve Your Resolution front. Today is a rest day, so no time on the bike. With the weather outside (nasty and rainy), I am okay with that.

The LT Test

I showed up to Pure Austin Quarry Lake with my bike ready to do this. Drew was there along with the guy who was actually administering the test, and they took my bike upstairs while I got changed into my cycling gear.

The setup is pretty simple. They put my bike on a trainer that can measure power output. It’s pretty cool; you set the power, and it adjusts the tension on the wheel based on your cadence so that you are keeping a consistent power output regardless of gearing. I was glad to find out that I did not have to wear the mask. I was going to get finger pricked, however, but that didn’t really bother me as I don’t have a blood issue or anything.

The format of the test is that they increase the power by 20 watts every minute until you want to die (after warming up, of course). At that point they prick a finger and get a blood sample. They then drop the power output significantly and take samples every three minutes, upping the power at each of these three-minute intervals. The initial point represents you at a Lactate Threshold, then you come back down and reach a steady-state where your body can process what’s being produced. Eventually at one of these three-minute periods they should see a spike in lactic acid, and your heart rate at that point is your Lactate Threshold.

The power output at that final interval is considered to be your 1-hour power output potential. Putting everything into a magical spreadsheet, I was given both my power zones and heart rate zones for training purposes. This is really cool: I’ve always wanted to know this information, so it’s really nice to have.

One of the really cool things is that based on that predicted one-hour effort number, they extrapolate a 20-minute effort power output. Then, using my weight (or mass rather, in kilograms) the spreadsheet tells me my power to mass ratio. There is this big chart based on values from huge samples of cyclists. They call it the performance prediction chart. From untrained non-racers to ProTour level pros. I currently fall in the untrained non-racer category.

This, not really surprising.

The thing that really killed me in the test was not wanting to vomit or anything like that. It was my legs. I just don’t have the leg strength right now. But what’s kind of cool about the prediction chart, is that I drop weight that number goes up. If I were to not get any stronger, but say get down to 185, I would be in the high cat 5 category/low cat 4. Now, hopefully I both get stronger and lose weight, making the number go up from both parts. I am working hard to make that happen.

The whole process was really fascinating. My science-oriented data-loving brain just ate the whole process up. I am really looking forward to repeating the test at the end of the 4 months and seeing a difference.

Other assorted bike notes:

• I really need a new saddle. Well, I had my saddle pushed back, so I moved it up. But I can’t go beyond 1.5 hours outside or 1 hour on the trainer without … well, becoming quite uncomfortable. I have never had issues like this before. I think the saddle may have reached it’s end time. I plan on taking care of that this weekend.
• I have not spent this much time on my bike for this long of a period ever. Hands down.
• I am sleeping like crazy. My body is probably wondering what the heck is happening. I keep telling myself that the sleep is good because it means I’m getting stronger.
• Not specifically bike related, but the strength workout Drew has me doing is killer. It’s fun, but man… it uses me like a ragdoll. I guess that’s the point.

On the food front, Carrie and I gave up cheese for Lent. So I am actually making an effort to eliminate dairy completely. We have been drinking almond milk at home (delicious!) and I got a soy latte today, and well, found it quite enjoyable. I need to eat more raw fruits and veggies each day… this has always been one of my weaknesses. But now’s the time to make it happen.

This post has gone on long enough, take it easy, everybody!

First Strength Workout

Yesterday I met with the trainer at Pure Austin to go over the first strength workout set. Well, he has a name, I guess I should actually use it: Drew. Anyway, Drew and I went through all the different exercises. It’s basically three circuits of three exercises, all designed to keep your heart rate up.

It’s a lot of dynamic strength stuff, which I like. Lots of stabilizer work. It was fun, in that hard kind of way, and should provide many benefits off and on the bike. Looking at 2 to 3 times a week.

I have spent more time on the bike this week than I have in, seriously, I don’t remember when. The sun is supposed to come out this afternoon, so I plan on getting out on the road today and tomorrow. Sunday I’ll do the strength workout and then go to the restorative yoga class. That class is fantastic, by the way. Lots of stretching, very chill. It will be a good end to the fitness week, and get my body in a good place to start week two!

Resolve Your Resolution

The gym that Carrie and I belong to, Pure Austin is one of the coolest gyms I have ever seen, that’s for sure. We love being members. We noticed that they were having a contest, called Resolve Your Resolution, where they would pick 10 people and over 4 months these people would compete to meet their respective fitness goals. I threw my name in the hat, and amazingly I got picked.

They have paired me up with one of their fitness trainers who is also a Cat. 2 bike racer in town. We met last Thursday and I feel that we understood each other well. For the next 4 months I will be logging all of my food and beverage intake as well as my workouts. My coach at the gym will provide me with workout plans as the weeks go along.

My main goal out of this is to finally cross the line on the bike so that I can actually finish races. Since here in Austin we have the world’s best weekly bike race series, I have a great way to measure my progress. I am also going to be doing LT threshold testing at the beginning and end of the 4 months. The starting one will probably occur last week. I am expecting pain.

I am so excited and feel very lucky to have this opportunity. Today was my first official Resolve Your Resolution workout. Went out on the bike for an easy 1.5 hours. It was chilly, but it was nice to get out on the bike as always.

I plan on meeting and exceeding my goals. The main point is to get myself in decent shape finally, but there is a competition involved between me and the other nine people, so I would love to win. A little extra motivation never hurt anyone, right?

Oh, one last thing: GO SAINTS!!!!