Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - 100 miles per week

so my goal is to do 100 miles per week. so far i have ridden the last 4 days for a total of 95 miles. i am so pumped. i am not going to weigh myself for a month. but i started at 278lbs. i hope in the first month i am down to 274lbs. my goal weight is 210lbs. i am going to really try hard to do it by july 4th 2010. i wish i had taken before pics. my wife says she can visibly see a difference already. i would never be able to keep this up without all of you guys posting your struggles and milestones. it makes all of this much easier to know i am not the only one suffering on the bike.

ok enough tootin my horn. tonight i rode 20 solo. after riding with other sunday, monday,and tuesday it was real work to average 17mph for 21 miles. i am truly amazed at how much being in a slip stream helps. i am learning about this cycling thing more every day. i think i am addicted.

Its never too late to take those pictures.

I suspect if you watch what you eat (and drink) and how much of it you eat, you'll lose more than 4 pounds a month. Way to go and keep it up!

Good job! 100 a week is a great goal. I need to stay on my horse to keep the weight down!:D


I can't ride this weekends so I've been riding during the week to make up for it. I've got 175 for this month already and it's only the 5th!:eek:


I like to post my mileage on bikejournal dotcom. Gives me a little motivation to pick it up when I see others pass me!:mad:............:D

It's fun and addicting! Keep tabs of your calorie intake and outtake and the weight should come right off.

Go ahead and do the pictures now. You'll still appreciate them next year.

You kind of get in a routine, and if that is riding 5 miles a day, you feel good about, and don't think about being able to do more.

Weight loss is complicated. Get out there and ride, whether the scales show 1 lb or 50 lb loss. It's still doing you good, whether you can measure it or not.

i was also going to say its not too late to take the before pictures, i take them quite often just in case i lose any:) i'd be expecting more than 4lbs a month with that sort of effort but depends on the person and other things too. good luck with it!

so my goal is to do 100 miles per week. so far i have ridden the last 4 days for a total of 95 miles.

I average about 100 miles a week and most of it is utility riding. I've found that I can't seem to be consistent just riding for recreation because there is not always time, so having a destination keeps me on the bike. Just using the bike for trips to the store, post office or bank 4-5 times a week puts about 75 miles on for me and I manage to work in one recreational ride a week.
Good Luck!

Yep.. Take the photos today. Next week you will have lost another 3lbs and wish you had taken them the last opportunity. I have nasty phat photos of me lurking on my computer from all of my yo yos. The skinny ones are inspirational and the phat ones make me ride longer.

Your numbers are EXACTLY the same as mine. I lose about 5-7 lbs. per month. I set small goals for myself with the larger goal of 210 (funny coincidence!) in mind. So far, so good. Keep it up!

i took pictures last night. in fact my wife took them and i was embarrassed to have her take them. at some point when better ones come along i will post the old ones with a new one. i think at 6 months i will post them. in fact january 12th i will post them. i will take one once a month in between but on the 12th of january i will make my debut. profbob keep posting and let me know how you are doing. i hope it will help keep me on track. in 2 weeks i am going to start lifting weights on the 2-3 days i dont ride.

new garmin edge came today and i am pissed today is an off day! i can not wait to use it!

I have to admit, I'm curious about how everyone fits long rides into their schedule.

My routine for the past couple of months has been crack-of-dawn rides, but as the days get shorter, I have to start later. At the start of July, it was light enough to start riding at 5:30 a.m., but now it's closer to 5:45 a.m.

Once the fall semester starts-- I live according to the academic calendar-- I have to be at work too early, so no more morning rides.

Morning rides have some nice advantages: not so many cars on the road, not so many bugs in the air, and not a lot of wind, typically. Kids are still sleeping, wife is still sleeping, so no-one is inconvenienced.

To do 20-25 miles in a day would be great. But carving out an hour or two in the middle of the day (or in the evening, doesn't really matter) seems to be a little difficult.

I don't get the miles some do around here, but commuting by bike helps me. Depending on when I leave in the morning, I sometimes go for a bit longer on the ride home taking different routes so long as I don't make my dog wait too long.

i ride in the evening. i am on the east coast and start at 7 and get home by 830 to run upstairs and help the wife give our newborn a bath and put her down. then the group rides are on the weekends and we take off at 730 and i am home by 10-11. i can do 22 miles in my neighborhood by doing 3 laps. so when it is winter and dark early i can still ride in the dark without traffic fear.

Keep up the good work, and yes take some pics now. I've jiust started to ride again after a 15 year break, and I'm trying to get in 60-70 mi per week on our neighborhoood area. The killer is there ar no flat roads here, Just rolling hills with long 2-3% inclines. They feel like mountains to me, and the avg 40 min ride seems to be 35 min of slow climbing and a coupe of gee-whiz down hill blasts.

I know...i know it's a zero sum game on a round trip, but by time-per-section, it seems I'm spending 85% of my time going up hills slowly :)

I too started out at ~280 (years ago) , and now am hovering around 185 with another 10 to go by thanksgiving. The riding has helped, and I treated myself to a new bike last week (Trek FX 7.6) If I hit my goal I'm going for the carbon version.

Time is on you side, and my diet rules were simple No Alcohol, no fried stuff, lower quantities, and only occasional sweets in modest amounts.

Best of luck and keep riding.

Dude that's awesome. You're motivating me.

I have to admit, I'm curious about how everyone fits long rides into their schedule.

Define long :)

My typical week includes three commutes (MWF) of about 28m round trip, two mountain bike rides (not sure how far) one of which will be with my wife, a few evenings just tooling around the neighborhood with my kids on their bikes, at least one recreational only ride (which tends to be solo, between 30/40 miles), and one or sometimes two destination oriented family rides which range from 10 to 15 miles (stopping to wade in the creek, get ice cream, etc.)

When the kids have soccer practice, my wife and I will put the bikes in the car and take a quick ride instead of sitting there watching practice -- that's what coaches are for!

It helps that my wife likes to ride (but hasn't yet gotten passionate about it), and that the kids are enjoying it too (9 and almost 11). If my master plan goes well in a couple years we'll be doing 25 mile rides together a few times during the week and longer rides on the weekends : ) In between paddling trip. When we're not skiing.

Keep up the good work, and yes take some pics now. I've jiust started to ride again after a 15 year break, and I'm trying to get in 60-70 mi per week on our neighborhoood area. The killer is there ar no flat roads here, Just rolling hills with long 2-3% inclines. They feel like mountains to me, and the avg 40 min ride seems to be 35 min of slow climbing and a coupe of gee-whiz down hill blasts.

I know...i know it's a zero sum game on a round trip, but by time-per-section, it seems I'm spending 85% of my time going up hills slowly :)

I too started out at ~280 (years ago) , and now am hovering around 185 with another 10 to go by thanksgiving. The riding has helped, and I treated myself to a new bike last week (Trek FX 7.6) If I hit my goal I'm going for the carbon version.

Time is on you side, and my diet rules were simple No Alcohol, no fried stuff, lower quantities, and only occasional sweets in modest amounts.

Best of luck and keep riding.


i am from charlotte and know what you mean. in fact my inlaws live in concord and i took my bike up there 2 weeks ago and was surprised how many hills there were compared to living here at the coast. next time i am up there i am going to bring my new bike and try to ride some bigger hills since i dont get to do that here. i will ride around the davidson area where i was born and raised. there are some awesome hills out davidson concord road near river run.

as far as diet goes i eat out twice a week. where before i would eat out 7-9 times. i am packing my lunch and keeping my calories under 2200 every day accept Wednesday when i eat lunch out (3500) and Friday night with my wife (3500). i would cut those 2 days but i want to see how i do like this. i am not in a panic to lose weight but i dont want to slow it down anymore than i do already with those 2 days. below is some info from a web site i found. do you all think the calories burned is any where near accurate?

You are a 29 year old man, 6ft 2in / 188cm tall, with a current weight of 275.0lbs. You lead a somewhat active lifestyle, and participate in the following exercise:
75 minutes of bicycling, 16-19 mph no drafting or >19 drafting


Body Mass Index (BMI)
Your BMI
35.3

BMI is a standardized ratio of weight to height, and is often used as a general indicator of health. The "normal" BMI for an adult man of your height is 18.5 to 24.9. This translates to a healthy weight range of 144 to 194 lbs.However, BMI does not take body composition into account. A weight above this range could still be considered healthy if your percentage body fat is less than average. For more accurate determination of body fat levels, consider using a body fat caliper.
Calories Burned
Your Calories Burned
Daily Energy Expenditure: 3625 kcal ( 15177 kJ)
Additional Calories from Exercise: + 2296.0 kcal ( 9613 kJ)

Estimated Energy Requirement: 5921.0 kcal ( 24790 kJ)



lets say this is only 50% accurate in the total calories burned it should kill 1000 calories 3 days a week riding solo and then atleast that on 30-40 mile group rides on saturday and sunday. i figure 50% because solo rides i average only 16.5mph and it says 16-19 mph. with all that said i feel like the 1 lb a week is attainable. i would think it could be more but better to be pleasantly surprised than disappointed.

142 in last 7 days. also have a new one day milestone of 46 miles. i am going to try for 25-30 tomorrow. this cycling thing is alot of fun.

100 miles/week sounds like a good schedule. I've been riding about that since early June, and at last visit to the doctor I've dropped 22 lbs since mid-May, from 231 to 209.

Keep up the good routine, and I hope you find yourself, as I did, losing quicker than you planned. :)

Just keep pedalling, I have 94 miles in this week and I weigh in at 251lbs, thats down a total of 85lbs. I just don't like the peaple who say if you just close your mouth you'll lose more. I like to eat and it has taken me years to get down this far.

Statelax3, I've been working on it since Apr. 1 or so. I started at 278 and yesterday, dipped to 249. I think I was a little dehydrated, because I was back up to 252 this morning. However, the 100 miles per week and trying to stay at 2000-2500 calories is really doing the trick for me. I'm also needing to drink a LOT of water, which is good for me in any case, but since I sweat a lot, I need the hydration. The goal, like you, is to be at 210 by next summer.

i think i am on track for my goals. i did 26 this morning and it was a lot more work than yesterday as we still averaged 18.8 and there was only 2 of us. i really learned alot about pulling today, my legs are strong enough to pull for 1 mile at a time. after that i need to wheel suck for about 2 miles to recover. luckily the guy i rode with as in much better shape than me and could pull for 2 miles at a time. i am 2 weeks from weighing my self. i can not wait to see what the result is. i feel like i am kickin butt right now.

I have to admit, I'm curious about how everyone fits long rides into their schedule.

My routine for the past couple of months has been crack-of-dawn rides, but as the days get shorter, I have to start later. At the start of July, it was light enough to start riding at 5:30 a.m., but now it's closer to 5:45 a.m.

Once the fall semester starts-- I live according to the academic calendar-- I have to be at work too early, so no more morning rides.

Morning rides have some nice advantages: not so many cars on the road, not so many bugs in the air, and not a lot of wind, typically. Kids are still sleeping, wife is still sleeping, so no-one is inconvenienced.

To do 20-25 miles in a day would be great. But carving out an hour or two in the middle of the day (or in the evening, doesn't really matter) seems to be a little difficult.


motivating thread, as others have said.

I had the intention to go for morning rides, but I have simply not been able to get out in the morning, mainly due to my lack of motivation.

I am doing commutes when I can, and recently started extending the commute to add miles. Saturday and Sunday are major rides, with the occasional evening ride during the week. Finally, I find myself still taking the bike downstairs onto the trainer on rainy days, or days when I'm home with kids. The kids love it, as they sit on the treadmill beside the bike and hand me drinks, etc. "towel, daddy?" "pretend you have a flat front tire and I'm the mechanic, ok daddy?"

I'm still working towards a solo metric century in September. 1600 km so far this year, 63 km longest ride.

You have to make time to ride. My during the week riding is early in the morning. Lights are good for that. Today I got out for a quick 30 miles.

Over the weekend, I do one day. Typically Sunday. Distances are anywhere from 80 to 120 miles, pending the route and the amount of time I have. I'm usually home between 1 and 4, pending the distance.

This past weekend, I did 40 with my wife on Saturday, but it had a LOT of climbing, 3100 feet. Sunday I rode 73. Left at 8 and home around 1:30. That included a couple of water stops and one lunch stop. Just make the time.

My own weight loss journey wasn't nearly as much as some of you. End of April '08 I weighed in at 210. I'm a smidge shorter than 5'7" tall and had a 40 inch waist. This morning, I was 143 and I checked my waist yesterday at 28 inches even. I've been pretty well maintaining this weight. But I'm still not used to being skinny. And I'm worried about putting it back on. So I try to keep meals small and drink a lot of water. And I ride a lot. I'm over 4000 miles on the year, and about 290 so far this month.

I have to admit, I'm curious about how everyone fits long rides into their schedule.

All depends on what you consider a long ride. I commute to work and that gets me about 30 miles per day between 2 rides. On the weekends if I want to do a long ride (200k or more) then I have to run my schedule past The Girl. That was our agreement: I can do all the centuries and randos I want, but I have to plan them out at least a couple weeks in advance so we can work out who's taking care of the dog, and if she will be heading off and doing stuff with her friends, etc.
I built my long-rides schedule in January and had about 14 rides of 100 miles or more in there. We have some friends who watch our dog for the weekend when I'm gone (The Girl can't walk the dog) and that gives her either a) a nice quiet house to herself or b) time to take off with her friends.
If it's just a quick 4-5 hours I want to get in on the weekend, I'll wake up early and hit the road at 5:00. Roll out a 100k and still be home in time to go get brunch.

ok guys i have a new milestone as of yesterday. Yesterday was the 4th full week of riding. I weighed myself for the first time. I started at 278 and weighed in yesterday at 265 1/2 lb. I am very pleased but know that may not happen again. 13 lbs in 4 weeks is insane and i doubt will happen again. aim still going to keep shooting for my 1 pound a week. i am very proud of my first chapter. dont give up if you are just starting. cycling is so much fun and so rewarding once you make it a habbit to ride. tonight i wont ride and i feel bored and i want to ride. but i need to save my legs for tomorrow and the weekend. i am going to shoot for 55 miles on saturday and a nice easy 30 sunday.

i only rode 17 last night as it was raining and i figured 1 hour in the rain was better then nothing. keep riding and fighting.

good ride today. i was able to hang onto the back of the 21-23mph group for 15 miles before dropping back to the 18-19 group for the last 17 miles. i am finally able to pull 1 mile at a time in the 18-19 group. progress.

You kind of get in a routine, and if that is riding 5 miles a day, you feel good about, and don't think about being able to do more.

Weight loss is complicated. Get out there and ride, whether the scales show 1 lb or 50 lb loss. It's still doing you good, whether you can measure it or not.

I took a health class recently in school, and we had to do a lot of assessments and whatnot. One of the coolest things to see was how much my heart rate dropped during the cardio step test. Before the class, I hadn't ridden my bike in maybe 6 months because of a series of family tragedies. I started up again for the class, and after two months or so of riding my bike and walking, my step-test heart rate went down about 40 beats per minute!! I think I lost less than 5 pounds, but my test heart rate, resting heart rate and blood pressure went down. Oh and I lost an inch or so around my waist. Really cool :)

good ride today. i was able to hang onto the back of the 21-23mph group for 15 miles before dropping back to the 18-19 group for the last 17 miles. i am finally able to pull 1 mile at a time in the 18-19 group. progress.

PS: That is *@$(*(#$ awesome!

Pound for pound you are working much harder than smaller people. That is amazing. !!! Nice going!

This is an inspiring thread. I keep making a goal for myself to do 150 miles in a month and haven't made it yet :/ (ok, granted, I seem to take up these challenges when I'm going out of town for two weeks, but sheesh).

I'm at 278 now, and I think that if I commuted, it would be somewhere around 30 miles round trip (uphill there, mostly downhill on the way back). But the kicker is that there aren't exactly any safe routes to take, so I'm really nervous about biking all the way into work.

i am glad some of you like this thread. i will keep updating.

tuesday and thursday i rode a 21 mile loop with 3 others and on flat ground i can hang on at 21-22mph and faster on the down hill. i still can not pull in this group. but up hill, flat, or downhill i can still stay on their wheel. i have been working hard at getting out the pedals and working hard after a turn when we have stopped or rolled through a turn. then i get up and pull the group as fast as i can back up to speed. this has helped me get to where i can pull my 18-20 group on the weekends. my avg heart rate with the weekday group is 150-154bpm so i am working hard. i spend a lot of time in the 170's with the weekday group. my weekend group i only average 135-138. but there is a 8-10 person pace line with them and no one pulls more than a mile at a time. when i solo ride i still only average 145bpm on a solo ride and cover 20 miles in about 1:10. in 6 weeks my cardo level has improved dramatically. also my quads have grown leaps and bounds. 6 weeks ago if my heart rate hit 170 i felt like i was going to fall over. now i can sustain that comfortably for 4-5 minutes/ 1-1.5 miles pulling. i am riding my first metric on the 26th of next month. this should not be an issue. i may even make it a real century if the training rides on saturday keep up around the 50-60 mile mark.

this bike has changed my life. i even read an article about people who exercise gaining weight because they feel like they can eat those extra calories. now that i am aware of that i try to eat lighter and better at every meal. i keep telling my self it will pay off. 6 weeks in and i need new shorts as well. this morning i noticed my belt is going to new notches and my pants bunch in the front. i am going to try to get another month out of the ones i have and then go shopping. also my wife loves me exercising 4-5 days a week. and when momma is happy i am happy. all in all if someone who is just starting to ride to lose weight reads this i hope they will see that it works. but it is not a miracle pill, you have to work hard on the bike and off the bike. eating right is just as important as the exercise. and when you think you are done for your ride go an extra mile just because you know inside you can. pretty soon those extra miles will add up and pay off huge.

today was hell on wheels. i cracked at mile 29 of this mornings ride. the group was riding 21-24 and only dropping below to turn on other roads. i really felt fine until it was time for my 4th pull. i pulled at 21 so slower than others and when i pulled off to drop to the back of the pace line i cracked. i was 12 miles from home so i knew i was going to suffer hard. i called my wife to see if she would meet me some where to pick me up. she was in town and grocery shopping so no dice i had to pedal in. luck would have it that we had just passed the slow group that rides 14-16mph. i was able to get onto their wheels and ride in with them. at 15mph my heart rate was in the 150's. i may have been dehydrated but i think i was not recovered from tues and thurs. i think i have been over training during the week so longer rides like today with the fast group will just not happen for a while. i am going to ride with the 18-20 group for the long rides. bad day but i will recover the next 3 days.

I am still waiting to see 100 miles role over on the speedometer for the week. I keep breaking spokes and have to switch to the mountain bike to get me back and forth to work.

I am planning to sign up for the Ride for Rapters 2009. I know it might be a ways for you to drive to ride. But it is a great ride. www.ride4raptors.org There is pretty nice festival in town that weekend too.

I just hope my spokes quit breaking by then. They are rebuilding a new wheel now. I should have the bike Monday afternoon.

This is an inspiring thread. I keep making a goal for myself to do 150 miles in a month and haven't made it yet :/ (ok, granted, I seem to take up these challenges when I'm going out of town for two weeks, but sheesh).

I'm at 278 now, and I think that if I commuted, it would be somewhere around 30 miles round trip (uphill there, mostly downhill on the way back). But the kicker is that there aren't exactly any safe routes to take, so I'm really nervous about biking all the way into work.

Unfortunately, there aren't any REAL "safe" routes anywhere. If I hadn't learned to commute, I would never have time to ride. Now I ride between 4 and 5000 miles a year.

ok update time. i took all of last week off after last weekends bonk. i think i was over training and hope the week off will give me fresh legs. i am going to ride the tuesday night ride tomorrow and i am going to ride with the 18-19 group and not the 22-23 group. i am going to save my hardest ride for saturdays. i will report back tomorrow night.

ok update time. i took all of last week off after last weekends bonk. i think i was over training and hope the week off will give me fresh legs. i am going to ride the tuesday night ride tomorrow and i am going to ride with the 18-19 group and not the 22-23 group. i am going to save my hardest ride for saturdays. i will report back tomorrow night.


good luck with it:) and thanks again for the inspiration. i have a goal of 50 miles a week which is half of yours but at the moment 100 seems too much. at the mo i'd be happy to get for an hour each day;)

Great Thread.

I've been off the bike for most of this year and recently decided to get back into the grind. Started at 225 this week with a goal of 190 or less. In order to achieve this I've set a goal of at least 1200 miles by Thanksgiving ( got to make room). Anyway I've found that for me the best time to ride is longer routes in the morning starting at around 4:30am and trying to get in around 20+ miles before work and another 16 or so on the way home. It's worked so far and in rural KY there is NO traffic at this time unless you count the opossum that was on a suicide mission this morning and nearly ran thru my wheels.

I ride to work everyday so that gets me about 75 per week. I try and take a little longer route home a couple times a week to get near 100. My days off (which rotate monday thru saturday) and Sunday I try to get the wife and at least some of my kids out. While they all kind of enjoy it, they aren't like me. I have been doing this every May through September for the last 5 years and every year I stop for the season I balloon back up in the high 200's. This year I hit 300 so I went and bought a new bike in February and I plan on commuting all winter this year. I have found commuting, especially with a family and busy schedules, to be the most effective way to keep me on my bike.

I am down to 245 or so without changing much about my diet. I eat a little less, cut out fast food for the most part, cut down on my beer and changed from drinking a gallon of iced tea a day to a glass or two, the rest of the time I drink ice water.

The longest rides I can get in are never more than 35 or 40 miles. I just don't have time to go any farther, but I haven't dipped below 100 per week since April. If commuting by bike is an option for you, I would look into it. It has helped me alot.

Two (2) consecutive 100+ mile weeks. The new cyclocross wheel seems to be holding up well! FINALLY. I feel great tonight and look forward to a weird 15 mile, one way ride into downtown Anderson, SC. They may ferry some of them back to the starting line, but I plan on a scenic route home. I hope to meet other enthusiast to help with an awesome Bicycle Rodeo I'm organizing.

After reading all these postings I want to go out and ride tonight! Do you ever find your weight just staying the same? I lost a little over 50 pounds over the last year or so and my weight just stays the same no matter how much I ride now. Maybe I need to go on a diet! I just love to eat.

My weight levels out from time to time too. I just change the way I eat a little, or cut back on the beer a tad and I start losing again. I love to eat as well and I don't think that is going to change. Also I just passed the 250 mark for the week, I think that's my first 200+ week since I was 15 or 16, 16 years ago.

You can do it. I weigh the same as you. I am 6'1" and I've lost 2-3lbs a week regularly going 20 miles. I don't mean going terribly slow though. I like to see how fast I can take that 20 miles. I'm keeping up with the bike teams now more often. Which makes me happy. It's all about how hard you work it. If you tool around it'll take longer to lose the weight. If you push yourself you can drop the weight fairly quick. You will gain muscle weight first, so it won't appear like you're losing weight, but after you've gained the muscle you'll start dropping weight fast. I've done the up/down weight cycle before. Dropping the weight is my punishment for too many chips I guess. lol. Anyways, 2-3 lbs is my average. I keep that up for months. I like to bike in the evenings when it's hotter in Sacramento on the river trail. Once it gets cooler I just put a jacket on and a headlamp and continue. Btw in the cold the long shorts/pants are very worth the money.

Figured I would post my pic since you seemed shy too. Don't feel bad. We're all in this together.
:)

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i139/valiantjedi/IMG_0341.jpg

Bonus points for background calendars ;)

Now that the fall semester has started, I'm busy, and starting early, so I can only do crack-of-dawn rides two days per week. My weekly mileage has fallen off from about 75 to 30 or 40. Too, the weather has been quite hot here until just a few days ago, and we have a big fire that has made the air very bad at times. But I went on a group ride Friday and achieved a new personal best: 23 miles, though there was a 20-30 minute break in the middle.

Cooler weather will permit me to do some evening rides, so maybe the mileage will get back up to a reasonable level. It's great coming to this forum and reading the success stories.

today was hell on wheels. i cracked at mile 29 of this mornings ride. the group was riding 21-24 and only dropping below to turn on other roads. i really felt fine until it was time for my 4th pull. i pulled at 21 so slower than others and when i pulled off to drop to the back of the pace line i cracked. i was 12 miles from home so i knew i was going to suffer hard. i called my wife to see if she would meet me some where to pick me up. she was in town and grocery shopping so no dice i had to pedal in. luck would have it that we had just passed the slow group that rides 14-16mph. i was able to get onto their wheels and ride in with them. at 15mph my heart rate was in the 150's. i may have been dehydrated but i think i was not recovered from tues and thurs. i think i have been over training during the week so longer rides like today with the fast group will just not happen for a while. i am going to ride with the 18-20 group for the long rides. bad day but i will recover the next 3 days.

I've had some rides like that..... I have learned to NEVER NEVER call the wife. Last time I called the wife because my legs were cramped after riding 65 miles with some big hills she pulled into the garage with my month old bike on the roof. Was not a pretty site for the bike or the car.

I had a good ride this weekend. Left at 5:45 am and rode 55 miles avg 17mph. 2 miles from home had a torrential down-pour with thunder and lightning. I was soaked! Wife was pissed as it was raining with lighting for the last 40 minutes. She thought I rode in that for the same amount of time. Luckily it was only the last 2 miles. Weird to ride the bike through 3inch puddles and hardly able to see. 120 for the week.

you guys rock! i love the posts, keep the updated going.

Tonight i rode for the first time since the 22nd. My wife just went back to work after having our first baby and the time off gave me a new routine with the baby and wife so i can keep riding. i eased into it tonight. i did a 30 minute ride for 9.1 miles. my legs have never felt stronger. my heart rate was right were i expected it to be, 155-162bpm. no doubt i am over my terrible day and it feels good to go out and test my body and get mentally tough again. i haven't weighed my self in 5 days and i was 274lbs. factor in it was at my baby's doctors appt and she weighed in at 10lb 11 oz and i was holding her while i weighed myself. so after the time off i actually lost 1 lb! i wont count the 11oz that are in there because it is not a full pound loss yet.

i am going to do 45 minutes tomorrow and then i wont ride again until saturday with company coming thursday and friday.

keep the posts coming, i am glad to see everyone posting.

Having just spent the past 20 minutes reading this entire thread, I just want to say "thanks" for all the inspiring postings. I started at 245 lbs 6 weeks ago, and am at 235 today. I often ride solo and am trying for 400 miles this month. I have 98 thus far, and even if I don't make it, any time on the bike is beneficial for weight loss and general exercise for this old body. I would love to be able to commute on the bike, but my job requirements just won't allow it. My focus lately has been what people use to extend their riding into the fall and winter months, because as many of you have already said - once you start to ride, it becomes addicting and tremendously enjoyable.

Thanks again for the great postings, congratulations to all of you who are making the effort and good luck in your goals.

Nice work, Statelax3! I too am trying to get the miles up. Seems like I am pushing too hard and keep reinjuring something. Yesterday was only 30, but 1.5 hours were into a 21 knot headwind. That was brutal. Probably would have been a 40+ day with no wind, but seriously bonked about 5 miles from home. Took about 5 off the bike to recover and get home.

Keep it up and the pounds will fall off. My wife says I look better too, but the scale only shows a few pounds. I guess I will keep at it.

As for calories, I am trying to keep mine under 1700 per day. Not sure if that is too few, but we will see. A bit older at 44, so I am sure I don't need as many calories.

you guys sound like you are doing awesome. i got in a good ride on the 9th. i did 45 minutes and it felt good. but last night i did 1 hour and it felt better. i am thinking i enjoy solo riding more than group. in a solo i can push myself on my terms. i enjoy hitting the few hills i have out of the saddle and pumping hard. i had my neighboro go by last night and whistle and yell "nice legs", the best part is she didnt notice it was me until she had passed. when i got home i stopped by her place and told her "thanks". she blushed and he husband giggled like a girl at her. i am looking forward to riding tomorrow.