Fifty Plus (50+) - My tightwad ride today...

:thumb: well, I'm cheap by necessity...but I always get the best I can afford. Today I bought a "jersey" made of 100% recycled polyester. It was $6 @ walmart and I can say it is a very comfortable shirt for a short ride like the ones I'm doing for training. No, no pockets or zipper, and no style whatsoever, but in basic black, I was cool as a cucumber in 97 degree sunshine on the katy trail for an hour. I also stopped at dolar tree for a $1 bag of dried fruit trail mix and big lots for a 75 cent Jones energy drink. I was inspired by the $1 glove thread and decided to do a little shopping.

My ride was great, did one interval all the way to muscle failure, and recovered in about 2 minutes. The rest was pretty easy, with a few lesser intervals and an overall increase in average speed of another 10 percent. After a very (very,very) easy 5.5 miles yesterday, and 10 miles the day before...followed by 12 hours at work...I plan to rest tomorrow before work. I am feeling great, and progressing nicely. Slowly but surely I will get whatever I can out of this old bod. I am being very careful not to get injured and am doing some upper body calesthenics and stretching all around to keep limber. Being on night shift these next three days (wednesday-friday) makes it a little tricky, but I plan to ride next on Thursday after some sleep. Friday will be the same, with Saturday and Sunday for rest at My wife's 50th birthday bash up north in Missouri.

As I close in on 200 pounds from above, I am seeing the reality of my goal weight by January (170). I'm feeling encouraged and more so every day as the bike gets more and more comfortable...the way I remember it. When I hit 180, I'm back on the cilo! Thanks for reading.

God bless!

-Ron

As I close in on 200 pounds from above, I am seeing the reality of my goal weight by January (170). I'm feeling encouraged and more so every day as the bike gets more and more comfortable...the way I remember it. When I hit 180, I'm back on the cilo!

Be careful not to loose to fast, you will run the risk of loosing muscle and slowing your metabolism.
Slow and steady - I shoot for about 1lb/wk

Thanks. I'm using fitday to try and keep it real....do you think 1.5-2lbs/week is too much with proper nutrition? Or maybe that for a time then slow it down for the remainder? I'm not really trying to control it too much, but it seems like the waistline is shrinking about right at 1 inch this month. Any extra info is appreciated. I am @ 204 from 218 since the first of the year with about 8 pounds of that since the middle of June.

God bless!

-Ron

here's the shirt:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v398/ronboskz650sr/bikes010.jpg

basic, and comfortable..it's called dri-more.

You're doing good. You didn't put it on in a year and you can't take it off in a year.

My weight stays the same but I have taken 5 inch's off my waist in two years. I lift and cycle.

8 lbs since mid June is about 1lb/wk. Everybody is different - but it sounds like you are right on track!

very good. This is new territory for me. Actually, I DID gain it in about a year, then kept it there for about three or four more. I know that probably doesn't matter, just saying. I'm pretty happy about the muscle memory I am experiencing. The riding porition and legs are really feeling exactly the way I remember feeling on my road bike all those years. The speeds are lower, but I'm also on 7000x35 tires on a rails to trails conversion. Most of my miles were on 700x23 road tires on superb NY roads. I switched to 700x25's for these lousy roads and may need to actually go to 28's. I love it..really is taking me back! Thanks for the replies...especially the muscle mass reminder. As you might be able to tell in the photo, I need my arms for work. My forearms are larger than my 23 year old son's calves. Can't afford to lose any strength because of what I do.

God bless!

Here's a little history. On leaving the Air Force, I bought a small solid waste disposal business. I operated it alone for the first three years and added another with employees. The entire period of a ten year total, I drove a truck and got in and out of it several hundred times a day. Most days I had no additional help on my truck. Anyway, the weight obviously didn't come on during that period. When I sold my business in 1996, I went to work for my current employer. The first six months were very physical, followed by a job running a machine with way too much sitting time. Although there was lots of muscle activity, no aerobic workout, and the 12 hour shift exhausted me too much to do any more workouts. This spring, I switched to a new machine...brand new actually. It is layed out in such a way that I can get some aerobic activity, and the nature of the machine is not as physically exhausting. So now I can actually do the riding on my days off instead of just sleeping them away and aching in my chair. SO I actually gained the weight pretty rapidly and then fought to keep it in check.

God bless!

-Ron

Ron, congratulations on your progress. My suggestion is to keep it at 1 lb. a week to preserve your muscle and metabolism. I lost an average of 1 pound a month for 4 years -- I know, painfully slow by most people's standards but I've had no trouble maintaining the loss. I'm glad I didn't rush it -- the 4 years came and went whether or not I would have lost the weight, so I just took my time. It wasn't evident though until after 30 lbs. so it took a LOT of perseverance.

We've chatted about these types of shirts before. I own about 7 or 8 of them. You can get them from Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Shopko, and many other stores. I find them very comfortable.

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