Today February 2012
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StuAblett
Posts: 1,141 Member
I thought that we could start a monthly thread were you can just put down your thoughts, or your experiences for the day in your cycling and your goal for fitness as well, be that weight loss, fighting the skinny fats, or just better overall fitness, kind of a catch all for us cyclists, to keep in touch, kind of a daily chat over coffee if you like :drinker:
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I got in a good 28 minutes on deliveries today, that is the actual rolling time on my bike with the trailer I use to deliver beer etc to my customers here in Tokyo.
That is my bike and trailer set up.
It is really windy here today, and cold, for Tokyo with a high just above freezing. I was bombing down a nice road on a delivery when this gust of wind hit me, it was incredible, slowed me from 33Km/h to 22Km/h in about 5 meters, I had to shift down two gears just to keep going!
At least it was bright, sunny blue sky winter's day!
How was it for you?
Cheers!0 -
Hey Stu! Great idea. And as usual, great photo to go with your delivery story. Today's my first anniversary with MFP. I'm trying to use that milestone as a kick in the pants to get back to logging my food and making better choices. I'm 40lb down from where I was a year ago, but almost 10lb up from where I was in November. Where I am with my weight right now is where I have been for most of my adult life, so the next 30 lbs are going to be hard hard hard. Just looking for a little bit of "buck up camper, get back in the game"...0
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Hey Stu! Great idea. And as usual, great photo to go with your delivery story. Today's my first anniversary with MFP. I'm trying to use that milestone as a kick in the pants to get back to logging my food and making better choices. I'm 40lb down from where I was a year ago, but almost 10lb up from where I was in November. Where I am with my weight right now is where I have been for most of my adult life, so the next 30 lbs are going to be hard hard hard. Just looking for a little bit of "buck up camper, get back in the game"...
I'm right in the same place as you are, things are a bit wonky right now in life, huge changes going on for the family, nothing bad, just changes, and I too am up a bit from my lowest weight, but I'm just keeping on keeping on for now. I figure if I do my best to log, and not cheat too much, as well as keep in the habit of being here, when things settle a bit more I'll be in the right place to take this farther.
Cheers!0 -
Hey Stu! Great idea. And as usual, great photo to go with your delivery story. Today's my first anniversary with MFP. I'm trying to use that milestone as a kick in the pants to get back to logging my food and making better choices. I'm 40lb down from where I was a year ago, but almost 10lb up from where I was in November. Where I am with my weight right now is where I have been for most of my adult life, so the next 30 lbs are going to be hard hard hard. Just looking for a little bit of "buck up camper, get back in the game"...
Happy 1 year! Buck up camper, get back in the game! Seriously, you can overcome that last 30. Keep your positive attitude and you'll bust it out!
As of my weigh in yesterday, I am 5 pounds away from my goal of 125. That doesn't mean I am anywhere close to my strength and endurance goals. I have about 2 months to train for my first metric century and then another two months after that is my first 100 miler. Living in Colorado, it is pretty tough to do any actual outdoor training. I am trying to do at least 1 hour on the trainer twice a week and a spin class on Saturdays. I am breaking that up with circuit/strength training and yoga. I am starting to feel the effects on my body in both positive and negative ways. I hurt all the time but I can see and feel the difference. I am most worried about my mental strength for these upcoming rides. I am terrified I won't have the speed to be able to complete 100 miles. Oh, and I'm turning 35 at the end of the month and my doctor recently used the term "middle aged" with me. I know 35 is young, especially for cycling but it still seems to be a mile marker that makes me cringe.
February is that crappy month where you know spring is just around the corner but you are still stuck in seventh circle of winter hell.0 -
Today was cold (-3c), but I had my winter tights on so didn't suffer the exquisite pain of my *extremity* thawing when I got to the office. I did 57.4km at an average 25.5kph. Not bad given I was wearing double everything. Skipped my planned 10km run at lunch as my knees and ankles are hurting since my 10km on Monday, and I didn't fancy a sub-zero run in shorts. But then I saw a portly chap from the office going out in his shorts and I felt like a wuss. Have vowed to redeem myself tomorrow, whatever the weather. Well, so long as the predicted snow doesn't show. Feeling in good shape for my first audax of the season in 2 weeks time. Doing it on fixed, The route is a bit of an a-road out-and-back bash. Should be fun nevertheless. route here - http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/668455440
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Today was cold (-3c), but I had my winter tights on so didn't suffer the exquisite pain of my *extremity* thawing when I got to the office. I did 57.4km at an average 25.5kph. Not bad given I was wearing double everything. Skipped my planned 10km run at lunch as my knees and ankles are hurting since my 10km on Monday, and I didn't fancy a sub-zero run in shorts. But then I saw a portly chap from the office going out in his shorts and I felt like a wuss. Have vowed to redeem myself tomorrow, whatever the weather. Well, so long as the predicted snow doesn't show. Feeling in good shape for my first audax of the season in 2 weeks time. Doing it on fixed, The route is a bit of an a-road out-and-back bash. Should be fun nevertheless. route here - http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/66845544
That is your commute :noway:
What kind of fixed ratio do you ride?
I need to start running again, I have a nice treadmill at my house, I guess I should take all of the wife's plants off it and spark it up again... :blushing:0 -
Well - i've had a day off today - spent it catching up with all the "domestic" stuff plus a little side project with photography. I'm a moderator on a photography Forum (yes, there is a life outside of MFP, Garmin Connect and the Bike...) and last year I decided to mark my Birthday with a "Travelling Camera" thread - I boxed up a plastic fantastic Holga film camera, 5 rolls of film and a bunch of prepaid return envelopes for the film. I then called for volunteers to shoot some pictures on film - a new experience for some of the members
Anyway - to cut things short, the second roll of film finally popped through the letterbox yesterday - so I just HAD to develop and scan the pictures, didn't I :laugh:
To be honest though, I'd had three pretty tough (for me) days on the bike - I've been trying to up my mileage, and the last three days have seen me manage 92 miles - not bad for someone who was averaging maybe 7-8 miles a day last August! Anyway, while I was waiting for the negatives to dry, I spent a while on the computer, going over my calorie burn figures etc. and had a little bit of a scary thought. I've been booking down the calorie burn from the Garmin, as an addition to the figure given to me for food rations by MFP. The problem is, as I understand it, the Garmin's figure is the TOTAL # of kcals burned in that 105 minutes. Which means If I add in this total to MFP I'm double-counting my BMR for that 105 minutes. It's not been over critical, as frankly, I've not been eating back most of the exercise calories - however - as the time on the bike is increasing, as is the number of kcals burned, obviously i'm going to have to begin to do so - otherwise i'm going to end up with the dreaded "bonk" 40 miles from home...
Also, it helps explain the "hole" in my figures - I'd calculated my food shortfall calories, added in my riding calories, totalled the figures up each month and divided by 3500 - the figure my Dr. told me constituted a lb. of body fat. And whaddya know - I was losing a bit less than I should have all the time. However, re-visiting the figures with the "BMR Adjustment" applied, and the overall accuracy improved quite substantially. At the moment, I'm not going to worry about this - it's quite a chunk of extra math/spreadsheet work, but as the miles increase, and the time on the bike goes up, the "buggeration factor" will become more material.
To put a few figures on it - yesterday's ride was 1h45m - and booked as 2116 kcal. My BMR per the MFP tools is 2239kcal/day or (2239/(24*60)=1.55486kcal / minute - or 163 kcal for the ride duration. So - I should have booked the ride as 1953 kcals instead.
So In summary: What We have learned today:
1) It was sunny and dry, and I should have gone out on the bike.
2) Old School film takes too long to dry, and leaves me too much time to think about things.
3) I need to keep busier, or I end up over-thinking things. :laugh:0 -
Big Yin, I totally get that obsessive counting/figuring/counting again thing. It's one of the reasons that I really like doing intervals on the bike. I get to obsessively count minutes and second.
The last few days have been spent dealing with nothing as fun as interval cycling (funny, no?); my back is all sorts of outta-whack. Chiropractor yesterday, massage today, chiro scheduled again for Monday and hopefully another massage on Monday as well. It's been so bad I have walked to work the last two days instead of cycling. Much easier on the lower back and helps warm it up/stretch it out before being at work all day (I'm a stagehand so work consists of a wide variety of physical activities - imagine a neverending list of housework, yardwork, home repair, that sort of thing. Like real life, only pretend. Including long periods of sitting around waiting for other things to happen). The sitting has been the worst recently. I've taken to lying on the floor with my knees bent when I can get away with it.
The neck was better today after the first chiro visit. Here's hoping the lower back will be better tomorrow after the massage....
Hope everyone has a good weekend.0 -
I told myself when i hit 70lb weight loss i was going to get me a road bike. Well im 2 lbs away so i picked up my new bike.Im going to wait to loose the 2 to take it for a long ride. Iv road several centuries in the north texas area but all on my hybrid. Im doing a 150 mile bike ride in May, hopefully ill be down another 30-50 lbs by may. I got a Cannondale Synapse Aluminum
Cant wait to hit the road0 -
No riding for me today as it was rainy but I did get in 3 days of riding this week and it feels good to be back on the road again. Need to take Fiona (my bike) in to the LBS for a tune up and new handle bar tape. She and I got in over 3000 in 2011 so she is due for a check up.0
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I told myself when i hit 70lb weight loss i was going to get me a road bike. Well im 2 lbs away so i picked up my new bike.Im going to wait to loose the 2 to take it for a long ride. Iv road several centuries in the north texas area but all on my hybrid. Im doing a 150 mile bike ride in May, hopefully ill be down another 30-50 lbs by may. I got a Cannondale Synapse Aluminum
Cant wait to hit the road
That's fantastic and you have a super new bike! Congratulations! And Piccolarj, nice work on 3k in 2011, it is definitely time to get Fiona checked out...0 -
I told myself when i hit 70lb weight loss i was going to get me a road bike. Well im 2 lbs away so i picked up my new bike.Im going to wait to loose the 2 to take it for a long ride. Iv road several centuries in the north texas area but all on my hybrid. Im doing a 150 mile bike ride in May, hopefully ill be down another 30-50 lbs by may. I got a Cannondale Synapse Aluminum
Cant wait to hit the road
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!0 -
I told myself when i hit 70lb weight loss i was going to get me a road bike. Well im 2 lbs away so i picked up my new bike.Im going to wait to loose the 2 to take it for a long ride. Iv road several centuries in the north texas area but all on my hybrid. Im doing a 150 mile bike ride in May, hopefully ill be down another 30-50 lbs by may. I got a Cannondale Synapse Aluminum
Cant wait to hit the road
Might be a warranty issue there...... no front wheel :laugh:
Sorry I couldn't help myself!
Congrats, that looks like a great ride, and you have EARNED it :drinker:0 -
No riding for me today as it was rainy but I did get in 3 days of riding this week and it feels good to be back on the road again. Need to take Fiona (my bike) in to the LBS for a tune up and new handle bar tape. She and I got in over 3000 in 2011 so she is due for a check up.
3000 MILES? fantastic, yeah treat Fiona to a nice tune up, maybe even a nice new set of shoes :happy:0 -
Big Yin, I totally get that obsessive counting/figuring/counting again thing. It's one of the reasons that I really like doing intervals on the bike. I get to obsessively count minutes and second.
The last few days have been spent dealing with nothing as fun as interval cycling (funny, no?); my back is all sorts of outta-whack. Chiropractor yesterday, massage today, chiro scheduled again for Monday and hopefully another massage on Monday as well. It's been so bad I have walked to work the last two days instead of cycling. Much easier on the lower back and helps warm it up/stretch it out before being at work all day (I'm a stagehand so work consists of a wide variety of physical activities - imagine a neverending list of housework, yardwork, home repair, that sort of thing. Like real life, only pretend. Including long periods of sitting around waiting for other things to happen). The sitting has been the worst recently. I've taken to lying on the floor with my knees bent when I can get away with it.
The neck was better today after the first chiro visit. Here's hoping the lower back will be better tomorrow after the massage....
Hope everyone has a good weekend.
Really sorry to hear about your bad back, it is something that I worry about all the time, we run a liquor shop, I'm 47 going on 48, all of our friends who run liquor shops, and over the years we have had many, all of them, over 50 have bad backs. I think it is because we are constantly lifting heavy stuff, (there is no such thing as "light" beer in my book!!). I try hard to NOT abuse my back but sometimes it cannot be helped. I hope you and you back get better soon!
Cheers!0 -
Well - i've had a day off today - spent it catching up with all the "domestic" stuff plus a little side project with photography. I'm a moderator on a photography Forum (yes, there is a life outside of MFP, Garmin Connect and the Bike...) and last year I decided to mark my Birthday with a "Travelling Camera" thread - I boxed up a plastic fantastic Holga film camera, 5 rolls of film and a bunch of prepaid return envelopes for the film. I then called for volunteers to shoot some pictures on film - a new experience for some of the members Anyway - to cut things short, the second roll of film finally popped through the letterbox yesterday - so I just HAD to develop and scan the pictures, didn't I :laugh:
To be honest though, I'd had three pretty tough (for me) days on the bike - I've been trying to up my mileage, and the last three days have seen me manage 92 miles - not bad for someone who was averaging maybe 7-8 miles a day last August! Anyway, while I was waiting for the negatives to dry, I spent a while on the computer, going over my calorie burn figures etc. and had a little bit of a scary thought. I've been booking down the calorie burn from the Garmin, as an addition to the figure given to me for food rations by MFP. The problem is, as I understand it, the Garmin's figure is the TOTAL # of kcals burned in that 105 minutes. Which means If I add in this total to MFP I'm double-counting my BMR for that 105 minutes. It's not been over critical, as frankly, I've not been eating back most of the exercise calories - however - as the time on the bike is increasing, as is the number of kcals burned, obviously i'm going to have to begin to do so - otherwise i'm going to end up with the dreaded "bonk" 40 miles from home...
Also, it helps explain the "hole" in my figures - I'd calculated my food shortfall calories, added in my riding calories, totalled the figures up each month and divided by 3500 - the figure my Dr. told me constituted a lb. of body fat. And whaddya know - I was losing a bit less than I should have all the time. However, re-visiting the figures with the "BMR Adjustment" applied, and the overall accuracy improved quite substantially. At the moment, I'm not going to worry about this - it's quite a chunk of extra math/spreadsheet work, but as the miles increase, and the time on the bike goes up, the "buggeration factor" will become more material.
To put a few figures on it - yesterday's ride was 1h45m - and booked as 2116 kcal. My BMR per the MFP tools is 2239kcal/day or (2239/(24*60)=1.55486kcal / minute - or 163 kcal for the ride duration. So - I should have booked the ride as 1953 kcals instead.
So In summary: What We have learned today:
1) It was sunny and dry, and I should have gone out on the bike.
2) Old School film takes too long to dry, and leaves me too much time to think about things.
3) I need to keep busier, or I end up over-thinking things. :laugh:
You still use film? Wow cool! :glasses:
I hear you about the calories it is a hard thing to figure out sometimes, I've got a Polar HRM/cycling computer, I use it to set my baselines for city riding or my trailer tugging duties, I wore if for about a week everyday while doing my deliveries and then figured out a baseline of the number of calories burned while doing the deliveries, this really helped as the MFP numbers did not relate at all, even the city cycling numbers, I live in Tokyo, so that is mostly what I do, all the stopping and starting really mess with your avg speed figures, make the MFP numbers very vague guidelines.
Cheers!0 -
Talking about tune ups and such I took my trailer into the Dungeon workshop on Friday night, and on Sunday night, about midnight I was finally done the tune up and modifications Tune up wise I took the wheels off and repacked the bearings, one was OK, the other was not good at all, but still serviceable, I also cleaned the brakes on both wheels. They are internal hub brakes as the wheels are from Japanese shopping bikes (called "Mama Chari" which is short for "Mama's Chariot") I then changed the hitch part of the trailer, again, to make it work better and I mounted the new dynamo powered rear lights on the trailer as well as getting them all wired up to run off my dynamo hub on the bike. I also checked the whole thing for cracks I found a couple, not substantial, but I spend the time to fix the cracks and do some more fixes on this and that. I moved the parking brakes for my trailer and changed how it works, I hope to build a new trailer this year sometime, and the new parking brake design is something I'll use on the new trailer.
It all works great, I'm pleased but I did spend a perfectly good Sunday working most all day on this thing, and some family duties, and then today, Monday, it is raining.... :grumble: Oh well, I got it done, and that is good.
Cheers!0 -
It has been cool in Tokyo, they are saying it is one of the coldest winters in Tokyo in a long time, but I have not noticed it this year, I think this is mainly because when I'm out there doing deliveries, I'm sweating on the bicycle keeping myself warm :happy: That and I'm much fitter than I was last year. Like I said, it was cool today, a high of about 8C/47F that is NOT cold in my book at all. I'm wearing a long sleeved drytech shirt, a regular cycling jersey, and a very thin windbreaker, after about 10 minutes I'm unzipping the windbreaker. I have some fleece tights for my legs, regular socks and some nice warm Shimano winter touring shoes. I also have some warm winter cycling gloves. Today was beautiful, 8C/47F sunny with a bright blue sky, I loved it! All these other people shivering on the sidewalk or cooped up in their cars stuck in traffic, I was riding along doing my deliveries with a big stupid grin on my face!
I also did my C25K run this morning, I am now very sure that running uses different muscles than cycling, as my legs were sore in new places :laugh:
I hope you are all staying warm and getting some miles in!0 -
It has been cool in Tokyo, they are saying it is one of the coldest winters in Tokyo in a long time, but I have not noticed it this year, I think this is mainly because when I'm out there doing deliveries, I'm sweating on the bicycle keeping myself warm :happy: That and I'm much fitter than I was last year. Like I said, it was cool today, a high of about 8C/47F that is NOT cold in my book at all. I'm wearing a long sleeved drytech shirt, a regular cycling jersey, and a very thin windbreaker, after about 10 minutes I'm unzipping the windbreaker. I have some fleece tights for my legs, regular socks and some nice warm Shimano winter touring shoes. I also have some warm winter cycling gloves. Today was beautiful, 8C/47F sunny with a bright blue sky, I loved it! All these other people shivering on the sidewalk or cooped up in their cars stuck in traffic, I was riding along doing my deliveries with a big stupid grin on my face!
I also did my C25K run this morning, I am now very sure that running uses different muscles than cycling, as my legs were sore in new places :laugh:
I hope you are all staying warm and getting some miles in!
Good for you for getting the run in! Great work
Thanks also for the good wishes about my back. It is getting better, though not as fast as I would like. I have taken a week off the bike but if the weather forecast is true for tomorrow, it is supposed to be clear and I am going for a birthday ride! I have the day off and nothing says "happy birthday" like some intervals on the windy 5k loop down on the river!
I'm in sort of the same boat as you, Stu, with the work. I'm a stagehand and that leads to an unfortunate combination of heavy/awkward lifting etc. and sitting around.
Hope everyone is having a good week.0 -
Hi Everyone
I did loads of riding last year, the longest was 74 miles shortest about 30. Did well in most of them and then did the King of the Pennines in September and hit a block. Anyways this year has got to be better and easier. i've started using the Tacx now which is helping as the weather outside is pants :grumble: I've been up the Galibier and Marie Blanque and part way up Alpe d@Huez. We're cycling La Marmotte in September and around the Alpes so I need to be able to get up the mountains pretty easily. Having said that, the hills in the Dales and the Lakes are harder to climb as they are so steep. The Alpes just seem to go on forever at a gradient of approx 10/12% so it's more a steady plod.
We've got more bad weather forecast for the next few days so cycling out is a no no and I'm honestly starting to miss it now. The feeling you get when you cross the line, be it in a sportive or just cycling around the block is awesome. x0
