shovelhd

The big gear stuff on the trainer is starting to get a little easier. I'm losing a bit of weight as well. Still a long ways from being an athlete again.

mattm

30 mins on rollers, then 20 minute run in the rain.

aaronmcd

No time to do anything today, but I did eat a ton of ham, potatos, and just enough eggnog. I don't think I'll have to eat tomorrow.

caloso

I think I got half my calories in cookies today.

Wylde06

10x1 low cadence last night on the trainer. Felt good. The last 2 or 3 were a little tough, but I pushed through and finished them

https://www.strava.com/activities/230425792

carpediemracing 

Got on the bike last night "to do an hour". When I looked down it was over 2.5 hours in. Climbed off a few minutes later as it was approaching midnight. Did some minor efforts. Had at least another hour in my legs, maybe another 1.5 hours.

Blood work today so I get to see what my HCT etc is.

Am closing down to 10 pounds of my target weight. 11-12 lbs loss in 30 days.

Wearing my skinnier 2010 jeans now.

Wishing I had a size M or even size S jersey.

Is life for serious cyclists all about chasing calories? Like if I just keep doing this I can hit a caloric deficit of 600-1200 cal per day (currently 2100 = maintain, 1500 target, sometimes I net well under 900 cal which is 1200 under the maintain number). Could I get to a 140 lbs range, like under 10% body fat? I was targeting 160, now I'm targeting 155, but if I could do 145 that would be insane, 30 lbs lighter than 2014, 45-50 lbs lighter than 2009, and 10-15 lbs lighter than my banner 2010 year. Is it just a matter of eating like this all the time?

rkwaki

CDR I will caution you, yes you can continue to drop the weight BUT be very careful as to what kind of weight you are losing. THe easiest weight to lose (besides water) is muscle so trying to get to that sub 10% is achievable but in order to do so you are going to have to maintain your muscle mass.

shovelhd

Not in my experience. I always have to shed a few pounds in the offseason as the reduction in intensity shifts the body metabolism, and the lack of a good reason to say no to things you want. It's all about a balance. I will usually hit a plateau at a certain weight. Getting below that weight costs me in power and stamina. You have to balance the two. I would just keep on going until you feel you are hitting a wall, drive through it, and see how your body recovers. i don't count calories but it's good for you to be doing that as you shed weight. I just watch th balance between carbs and protein and adjust to being hungry several times a day. You get used to it.

shovelhd

Plus if you are doing strength work you may need to add protein which adds calories. I'm of the belief that you cannot aggressively lose weight and train for improvement at the same time. Lose the weight first, start training hard, and then accept the weight gain as your power increases.

mike868y

i'm really struggling to come to terms with the fact that CDR is riding more than me right now.

Ygduf

citation needed!

YMCA

word up
this is why I choose to remain 35 pounds over ideal

grolby

Starting to throw in some Z3 work with the Z2. Going to start adding Z4 soon. Two weeks of vacation approaching. Going to have an awesome late December block. Like pretty much everyone on this thread, it seems, I'm carrying a couple of extra pounds but those should start to fall off as the hours climb.

Duke of Kent

I've been in the middle of a 120 man field when a team like the current UHC crit squad winds it up with 10 to go.

FTP, or at least a nasty 15-20min output, and the ability to get super small, are definitely a requirement to survive something like that.

Bodies everywhere.

rkwaki

And it is very difficult to describe what that 'implosion' is like unless you have actually experienced it. I, unfortunately, cannot get small so I just need to have power...
The first time you follow a truly 'fast' wheel is very humbling to say the least...

carpediemracing 

I'm definitely thinking weight > training. Right now I'm riding only because I am trying to keep my caloric intake reasonable. Yesterday I had 1690 calories, 247g carb, 28g fat, 103g protein. I'm not counting/tracking the carb/fat/protein but that's what the numbers are. Okay, wait, I am sort of tracking fat, but I realized that eating protein and stuff like veggies really makes for an optimal "keep me from being hungry" kind of meal.

I also found that I have less up/down because I don't have a lot of sugar. Last time I dieted (2009-2010) one of my staple foods was jam. It wasn't very high in calories but I could put some on bread or something. I also kept up with the sugar/cream in my coffee. This time jam is basically out, have had it maybe 4 times in 30 days, and I stopped doing sugar/cream in my coffee about 25 days ago. This makes the hunger lump a little less bonky feeling and then I settle into a sort of neutral "I can handle it" kind of mode. With sugar the hunger lump was bonky and I was shaking and dizzy if I didn't eat at that point (and typically I'd have sugar so it just reset the cycle).

In terms of power at least I'm not as weak as when I first started. I was still weaning myself off sugar so bonky/dizzy sometimes on the bike. Now it's much less so. For example I ate at about 7:30 last night (590 cal when 410 would have been ideal). I rode from about 9 to 11:55 or so (had to refill bottles once). Didn't eat until after the blood draw this morning so it was 9:15 before I ate, and I wasn't dying of hunger.

I've seen a dehydrated 164, a "normal" 167, and I started at 179. When I finish a day MyFitnessPal says "if you do this you'll be xxx.x lbs in 5 weeks". At first it was 172 or whatever. Then 168 or whatever. Yesterday I saw 149 for my future weight, first time under 150. I know that's an anomaly but still, to see it made it more real.

Ha. It's cyclical. I did over 10k miles one year, a long time ago. Other years, not so much.

Wesley36

I have found this to be an excellent resource on training and weight loss:
Racing Weight, 2nd Ed.

bmcphx

I've been eating baked goods all day every day for the past three weeks, vendors and customers dropping stuff off at my office, and I'm having a hard time not eating it. Maybe I should just eat it all to get it out of here, because I rarely, if ever, buy the stuff.

grolby

Not that I should be pumping you up (eww...), but I remember the time when you showed up to the TNW and went to the front, with me right behind you, as being pretty educational. Yeah, I hung on, but that ride ended up way more asploded than usual at that point. Thank goodness you flatted on Gosey .

Racecraft is important, but you've got to have the right speed if you want to play in the pool you're in. We do end up pooh-poohing total obsession with FTP around here, that's not the same as saying it doesn't matter.

grolby

As a teammate of mine said: don't worry about what you eat between Thanksgiving and Christmas, worry about what you eat between Christmas and Thanksgiving. Weight loss isn't a major concern for me, as I tend to level off not far above my race weight and the eight pounds or so I'll want to drop will come off easily enough once the miles go up and the booze and pie intake goes down, but it seems like a good philosophy to me.

gsteinb

my perspective is actually different. I started dieting 10/1. I wanted to get as light as I could be Christmas as I'm going on vacation. I find it very hard to lose weight once I start doing high intensity training, so it's useful to me to get down to race weight before I start that kind of work.

misterwaterfall

I have been leaning out a little too quickly lately(I'm nowhere near skinny but I can feel my body start to struggle when the weight comes off). It seems like I have a weird inverse relationship with eating and training hard. When I'm not training hard, I want to eat most everything in sight. When I up the intensity and hours, I'm usually not hungry or too busy to want to eat anything extra so I have to be careful to eat enough. I use vascularity as a scale which seems like a good indicator.

bmcphx

I can understand the theory, but being a former fatty and having finally got myself to skinny ****er, it pains me to see extra fat on my midsection. It makes me feel sad and depressed about myself, whether it's temporary or not which I know it is. It's mentally unhealthy but that's basically who I am lol. I prefer being 135lb with a 27" waist to my previous days of 220lb and a 38" waist, so everytime I see extra flab I think I'm headed back in that direction.

Today I finally felt like holding 200+ watts for an hour was not hard. When I first came back from my wreck 200 watts was hardly attainable for 5 seconds. So, here I am, easy recovery spin tomorrow.

grolby

That's fair. We all come from different places on this.

mattm

Indicator that you're ready to be a body builder?