Road Bike Racing - Being fat and out of shape well, sucks....as evident tonight....

So.....now that I've been back on the bike for a grand total of a week, I figured I'd jump back in with both feet. What better way to do that than with climbing repeats you say? Well...maybe some V02 barfervals, but I only do those on the trainer. Soooo.....email went out yesterday from the club to meet up for some climbing repeats today.

Awesome. First real intensity work of the year, AND after 2 lengthy layoffs in the last 6-7 months. I had a feeling this was going to be a rather humbling experience....and I wasn't disappointed.

Oh, and I gained 15 pounds since December. Not exactly muscle, either. Just weighed myself...151 pounds. Ugh.

I got my ass handed to me today. I had to stop after the second time up....not sure how many more the group was going to do. There were six of us, and people I would've (and had) routinely destroyed last year, dropped me. Granted, the first time up, I had dropped my mini-pump out of my rear pocket on the descent to the start of the climb, so I had to catch back up to the group on the way up (and got up to the first 2 guys by the top), but the second time, I was 4th up, and my legs were gone.

Completely and totally out of gas. Loafing along up a 10-11% grade in my 36x26, slumped over my handlebar, entire body rocking, sucking wind, just trying to push a little bit more. Well, this is not good.....

Looks like racing is definitely not in the cards anytime soon :(. I know I can sometimes bounce back quickly....but tonight was a real eye-opener as to how much fitness I've lost since last fall.

I haven't weighed 151 lbs since I was a sophomore in college in 1978 or so.

I think my dog weighs that much now.

151 i'm soooo fat...please dude. when you start losing races at 180 lbs then we can talk.

^^^ Whatever. I haven't weighed 180 since my sophomore year either. But in high school.

Then my junior year I spent six weeks eating 1000 calories per day and running five miles before my two-hour wrestling practices, and when the six weeks were up and you could count my ribs and my nose was bleeding all the time and my coach was worried about me, I got under the 191 I needed to make.

You 180-pound skinnies piss me off. Try losing at 230.

Race fat GW. Why wait for life to arrive?

I was 180 pounds when I killed my shin a few years back and had to stop running. Did nothing for a year and gained 30 pounds.....then went back to cycling.

I was 136 pounds in December.....so yes, 151 is a bit of a gain, combined with the fact I only have like 1,500 miles in for the year. I was nearing 160 actually a month or two ago. I also have a pretty small frame too, so back when I was "lean and mean" in my late teens/early 20's (before I got a desk job), I was 130 pounds or so.

So yes....I am fat.

And out of shape.

Race fat GW. Why wait for life to arrive?

That would be "ok" for a flat crit, except I would die and get spit out the back in about 20 minutes or less.

"A man's gotta know his limitations"

It's all good. Riding with the group will get me where I need to be.....in time.

A guy came out on our team ride last week talking about getting back to his race weight of 104lbs. my reply: wtf.

Ummmm......I'd look like a concentration camp prisoner at that weight. The lightest I would realistically want to "be at" would be 135 pounds, but that requires dieting on my part that I don't really want to do at this point.

Ummmm......I'd look like a concentration camp prisoner at that weight. The lightest I would realistically want to "be at" would be 135 pounds, but that requires dieting on my part that I don't really want to do at this point.

People are giving you grief about 15lbs at 151? That's a gain of more than 10% from race weight of mostly fat. You 180lb guys add another 20+. Now go climb something. Fun, non?

A smaller rider also doesn't have the same engine a bigger rider does. It takes longer to drop the weight.


GW, I feel your pain.

I'd have to loose a major limb to drop under 180. At 150 I think it'd be medically impossible to remain alive without assistance.

^^^ Whatever. ...

You 180-pound skinnies piss me off. Try losing at 230.

"Hear, hear" says the 215# lardass as he drops anchor 100 yards into the 1st rise.

At 240 all I can say is that for most of us, the head is ten pounds of useless weight that we could probably do without if we were really serious about this sport. Especially for those of us with our brains up our okoles seeing the world through a plexiglass belly button.

What the hell? I only think with the lower brain anyway.

People are giving you grief about 15lbs at 151? That's a gain of more than 10% from race weight of mostly fat. You 180lb guys add another 20+. Now go climb something. Fun, non?


Non, as I can vouch for for first hand, absolument pas une partie de plaisir.

A 10% gain in body mass SUCKS to carry up a hill or sprint out of a crit corner.

Yep. I think I peaked at 155 pounds last month.

It's a sobering experience. I'm sure all the pizza, burgers, and other crap (including downing a box of 50 munchkins in a couple hours) haven't helped much either :D

i havent weighed under 160 since i was 12 years old.

if you want to drop the weight quick, may i suggest smoking 2 1/2 packs of cigarettes a day?

combined with regular riding, smoking was an amazing tool to keep the fat off.


Was? So did you quit, or did the PBR overwhelm the...whatever cigarettes you get over there?

So.....now that I've been back on the bike for a grand total of a week, I figured I'd jump back in with both feet. What better way to do that than with climbing repeats you say? Well...maybe some V02 barfervals, but I only do those on the trainer. Soooo.....email went out yesterday from the club to meet up for some climbing repeats today.

Awesome. First real intensity work of the year, AND after 2 lengthy layoffs in the last 6-7 months. I had a feeling this was going to be a rather humbling experience....and I wasn't disappointed.

Oh, and I gained 15 pounds since December. Not exactly muscle, either. Just weighed myself...151 pounds. Ugh.

I got my ass handed to me today. I had to stop after the second time up....not sure how many more the group was going to do. There were six of us, and people I would've (and had) routinely destroyed last year, dropped me. Granted, the first time up, I had dropped my mini-pump out of my rear pocket on the descent to the start of the climb, so I had to catch back up to the group on the way up (and got up to the first 2 guys by the top), but the second time, I was 4th up, and my legs were gone.

Completely and totally out of gas. Loafing along up a 10-11% grade in my 36x26, slumped over my handlebar, entire body rocking, sucking wind, just trying to push a little bit more. Well, this is not good.....

Looks like racing is definitely not in the cards anytime soon :(. I know I can sometimes bounce back quickly....but tonight was a real eye-opener as to how much fitness I've lost since last fall.

I feel your pain. I took 6 weeks to get my fat ass in something resembling shape, for a couple of climbing rides. One was in Tennessee, so upon returning home, I had to work a couple 70 hour weeks to pay for the gas that it took to drive there and back (and since I went from Jersey, to Cary NC, to Asheville NC, to Tennessee, it was a lot of gas). Three weeks later, I finally get back on my bike...and a crappy thirty mile loop that I do damn near killed me. That was yesterday.

How does one recover from what used to be a recovery ride?

if you want to drop the weight quick, may i suggest smoking 2 1/2 packs of cigarettes a day?

combined with regular riding, smoking was an amazing tool to keep the fat off.

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

I'm not THAT desperate. I'll get there soon enough. Although the old guy with the helmet mirror decked out in Pearl Izumi that beat me on the second time up definitely has given me some motivation.

if you want to drop the weight quick, may i suggest smoking 2 1/2 packs of cigarettes a day?

combined with regular riding, smoking was an amazing tool to keep the fat off.

Dude I hear that.

I`m still trying desperately to quit, all the while doing 200+ kms a week preparing for my first race.
There is nothing in the world more embarrassing than coming off a grueling hammerfest and firing up a smoke in the parking lot with the group.:(

*sigh* getting better though, down from a pack and a half a day to around five smokes max.

soon I won`t be in danger of catching my lycra on fire in any way other than the approved body hitting road at full speed fashion.

Speaking of weight, I`m sitting at a svelte :rolleyes: 192. seven more pounds until I`m in fighting shape.

If you're overweight at 151 lbs you must be 5' 6" tall.

Shh. I'm 5'7". 150 at the moment, could stand to lose 10 lbs, but I love food.

If you're overweight at 151 lbs you must be 5' 6" tall.

5'7" if I stand up straight.

I was 135 pounds in December. I hit 156+ pounds around mid April.

Oh, and my bike is out of commission again....I somehow toasted the bearings on a Dura Ace BB I think in only 1,500 miles. At least I hope it's the bearings. Soooo...off the bike until probably next week :).

Sucks only having one bike again.

Hi,

I'm 5' 7" when I stand up straight too and I weigh 154 lbs. I climbed best when I was under 135 lbs but I raced best when I was 138 lbs. Haven't seen that weight since 1990 when I got married. Right now I can hang in pretty much any crit. But I can't hang in a race with a significant hill. I'm pretty much limited to short steep hills. I fantasize about getting back to 145 or so as I believe that I could be competitive in my age group in a hilly race at that weight. However, I think that dropping 10 lbs is really a fantasy at this point. :o

if you want to drop the weight quick, may i suggest smoking 2 1/2 packs of cigarettes a day?

combined with regular riding, smoking was an amazing tool to keep the fat off.

I can vouch for that one. I was 2 years into racing when I gave up Copenahgen for good in 1996. I was also much lighter than I am now. I started dipping in 1980 after I stopped racing as Junior.

My habit was so bad I was dipping regularly on training rides.

I'm so glad to be rid of that habit.

Hi,

I'm 5' 7" when I stand up straight too and I weigh 154 lbs. I climbed best when I was under 135 lbs but I raced best when I was 138 lbs. Haven't seen that weight since 1990 when I got married. Right now I can hang in pretty much any crit. But I can't hang in a race with a significant hill. I'm pretty much limited to short steep hills. I fantasize about getting back to 145 or so as I believe that I could be competitive in my age group in a hilly race at that weight. However, I think that dropping 10 lbs is really a fantasy at this point. :o

Yeah....on the flats, I can do ok. Last late summer/fall when I was at a pretty good weight, I was to the point where if I didn't "push" on a climb during a training ride, anything under 7-8% didn't really get me winded at all. Felt like I was just riding along. Took me 3 years of solid riding to get to that point, and now it kinda feels like it went out the window, which is annoying.