Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - 1/3rd of the way through 2012

So now that we have 4 months under our collective belts, how is everyone doing? How are you doing with your training, nutrition and other goals? Are you keeping to your New Years Resolution? Feel free to post a status update on your journey through 2012 thus far. What have you accomplished? What have you learned? Where are you going from here?

Personally, I'm fairly happy with my performance so far this year.

I began weight lifting again toward the end of last year, which resulted in a slight weight gain, though I'll never complain about pounds in the form of lean muscle.

I have been doing alright with nutrition, though not as disciplined as I know I should be. Lately I've been making a conscious effort to only stock healthy foods around the house, though there always seems to be baked goods sent home and other such temptations that just mysteriously show up.

I set a goal for 2012 to be more consistent in my training, rather than worrying so much about mileage. So far, I'm doing well with that. I've been mixing up my efforts and shown much more even results since the new year. I'm finally finding a life balance that allows me to do what I need to do.

I have run a few 5ks so far this year. My results (despite not running competitively in about half a year) have been right where I left off. In fact, I very nearly set a new PR this past weekend. So my competitive fire is burning as hot as always.

Looking forward, I plan to really push the next 4 months. I'm hoping to do some really long endurance events in the fall and winter months, so I'm going to try and take advantage of the summer weather for as much hardcore training as possible. I want to start looking into more crossfit training, as I don't want to limit myself purely to cycling and running. I'm continuing to refine my diet into a sustainable eating plan that meets all my nutrition needs. Other than that, it's more of the same for me.

I'll throw in,

So far i am happy. Have had a few set backs with my personal life changing, but i am working towards the right balance of Excise, Reading and computers .

As of late i have taken up walking, when i was in high school i use to be able to jog around with barely a whisper of complaint from the Body now days if i try to jog i think half my body takes up legal rights to sue me :p

Eating wise i have changed a lot , gone are the days of eating a whole family block of chocolate in one sitting :o. Although i still have my indulgences like tonight is pizza night at my dads house :p . The biggest part was just learning to do fortnightly food shop with out buying the rubbish.

I am happy to maintain this pace in regards to eating and riding, but i am looking to step up the walking in to jogging , this is also to compete with the needs of my dog who seems to think if i can't jog for 5 hours straight i am not worth her time ;)

The good: Riding to work all the time. Mileage looks great on a consistant bases. Learning to ride on longer weekend rides with limited breaks unlike a lot of breaks like I used to. Changed riding groups which was great. Increasing my miles on weekend rides and now longest ride I have done is 83 miles. Weight loss looks good and so far this year I am down 45 pounds (just this year). Bike fits better and I can use the drops. Wife started riding last weekend.

Stuff to improve on: Gotta decrease the sweet tooth. Tough to get past the 45 pound mark. I need to get more hills in.

HILLS! I am absolutely convinced this is where it's at for me, all I have to do now is convince my legs and lungs of this fact. 730 miles year to date towards my 2500 mile goal. Tour de Cure coming up in Philly next month, my first long organized ride. Set Crush the Commonwealth as a personal objective for next April, and started modifying my regular training plan towards this. Weight loss steady at 42 pounds (damn you Chef! 3 pounds more!!!!!) Most importantly: enjoying the living hell out of every minute in the saddle!

I'm finding myself seriously lacking in motivation for anything but cycling so far this year, including weight loss. I regained about 15 of what I'd dropped over the past 2 years, and I'm having a hell of a time trying to get rid of it, and then move on to the remaining 25 or so after that. My coworker is still pushing me to tri this year, and the swimming classes I took went well, but I can't seem to find the time to ride, run, lift and swim, all while convincing my wife that I still love her and enjoy spending time with her. I just don't see it happening. Plus I've always been a stress eater, and I've recently had a bunch more dumped on me at work, with hellacious, if predictable, results. I'm kind of at a loss.

I am doing great, Dropped 5lbs, getting faster.
Just about to pass 4,000 miles ytd.

Miles way up over last year. Like Sayre, last winter I hit the weight room really hard. Overall strength is right where I want to be. Just doing some fine tuning now to be able to ride in the drops for longer periods. Diet wise I did well until Easter. April wasn't a good month as I allowed stress to side track me. I kinda saw this coming so it wasn't a complete surprise and I'm not down on myself because of it. I just need to learn not to let other peoples problems become my own.

The Surly Cross Check build program is back on track. I had allowed a LBS to talk me into headtube machining that wasn't necessary. After 6 weeks of their excuses for not completing the work I'd had enough. So I got the frame back and did the work myself. This project is rather important to me as I want to be able to explore backroads this summer. Don't get me wrong I love my Madone but it really isn't up to day long trips on rough roads. The Cross Check should fulfill those requirements.


So with the meat of the cycling season beginning I feel really prepared. It's kinda neat that people refer to me now as "The bike guy."

I think I messed up my winter training by focusing too much on base building in zone 2, and not long extended periods at Z3 and Z4. Trying to make up for that now.

On the other hand, I've seen a massage therapist who has recommended a number of stretches that has helped knee problems. Also lifting weights 2-3 times a week, which my body has always responded well to. And as Sayre Kulp says, lean muscle is better than fat.

Weight wise, I'm at my low weight for 2011, due to some hard work. Once the high mileage days hit I could be down a lot. We have had a weight loss challenge at work, with a fitness consultant who has done two body fat measurements, showing a 4% loss. If you want to be humbled, get your body fat measured with calipers.

I'm near a completely different person than I was last year, and it really all started at the beginning of this year. I'm down about 40 lbs. (60 something from this time last year), working up to a 8-10 hour a week riding schedule, and eating (and not drinking) way better than I ever did. I hope I don't get burned out, though I doubt I will. I've been logging all my food, and in order to drop the weight, applied a calorie deficit to my diet. It's helped tremendously, though I'm now at that magical ten pounds from my 'goal' weight, and feeling I may need to start really analyzing what I eat or I'll risk losing muscle and bonking on these longer rides. Goals to get to 170, improve my strength, ride the Pan Ohio Hope Ride (382 miles in 4 days) and the MS 150 Pedal to the Point (150 in two days) this summer. I've got my work cut out for me. April was my month with most mileage yet, and that was topped off at 303 miles... oi vei. One step at a time.

Overall, I'm happy ... and that's important to me.

Training/miles-wise ... I have a LONG ways to go. I'm managing my youngest son's little league team, and serving as my oldest son's assistant Scoutmaster, so a lot of my free time has been whittled away at, but it's temporary.

Nutrition wise, I'm doing ok ... not great, but not bad. My weight has remained the same despite a lack of training.

Overall, I'm happy ... and that's important to me.

.

Me too, at a nice even keel of contentment. That is more important than all the other crap I posted.

I'm not losing any weight. I am getting miles in and feeling pretty good. The biggest accomplishment is on my wife's part. She's embracing the bike more, suggesting we go out on rides and stuff. Rides with her (3-10 miles typically) aren't particularly taxing for me, but the more she rides, the better.

Two photos tell the tale.... one year ago this week:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395848_2750954665521_1607271639_2482627_957617778_n.jpg

A couple of weeks ago:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/523370_3438455292607_1607271639_2750005_407749282_n.jpg

I spent the first two months of 2012 in a holding pattern as the date of my surgery was pushed back. Once I underwent the 5.5 hour procedure on March 8 that replaced my damaged knees and straightened my legs I started at zero - literally. I couldn't stand until 4 days after surgery. Over the 8 weeks since surgery I've gone from being bedbound and unable to feed and clean myself to walking with a cane, driving, taking care of personal and daily tasks.... I found losing weight in 2006 to be, at times, difficult. Ditto for learning to ride a bike in 2007. What I'm doing now is beyond "difficult", it's tough.

That said as I continue to improve and my stamina returns I should be better functioning than I was before. My "normal" was a series of workaround defective parts. I can't wait to test my new "normal" to its limits. If it has limits.....

I am not at all happy with my progress this year, but there's a silver lining.

At the end of last year my office closed and transitioned my job into a work-from-home position, and that severely derailed my established routine. I was biking 40 miles a day to/from work, and there was no food at work, so I was losing weight like crazy by being able to avoid food all day, and exercising a lot on top of that. But now that I work from home, food is always around and available, and since I don't have to go anywhere to get to work anymore, my cycling mileage took a nosedive.

In the 3 months of December, January, and February I gained 40 pounds back, and hit 400 pounds again. I hit rock bottom at the beginning of March, at which point the weather turned nice and I started cycling again. Over the winter I had limited my bike rides to 20 miles at a maximum, and with only 60 miles in each January and February, my fitness had definitely escaped me. I managed to hit 250 miles in March, and felt like I was beginning to get back into the groove, so I resolved to join at least 3 group rides this year:

1 - LBS's 50 mile ride on May 20th
2 - Ride For Roswell Cancer Benefit, 44 miles, on June 23rd
3 - Bike MS event, 50/50 miles over 2 days, in September

Unfortunately my training schedule was destroyed in early April when I crashed on my knee several times within a few days and it developed a baseball-sized inflammation, and the doctor ordered 3 weeks off of my feet. So by April 1st I still had only gone a maximum of 20 miles, and those rides still wore me out, leaving me uncertain about being able to hit 50 miles by May 20th. In the last week of April, the doc gave me the okay to start biking again, even though my knee was still inflamed, so I really started my training in earnest. Bumped my daily fitness rides to 25 miles, and my weekend training rides will be of ever-increasing length. Last week I did a 35 miler, this week I did a 40 miler, both without stopping. So that's a good sign I think. Just disappointed in that I could do 50 miles just 6 months ago without feeling tired, but now 50 seems daunting again.

I suppose the extra 40 pounds is a lot of weight to carry on the bike, which might be making me feel like hills are 10x harder than I remembered and making me feel slower than I should be. Wish I could drop it faster, but alas that has yet to begin happening. I've really tried cutting back on the food again, even going as far as moving my grocery shopping from every 7 days to every 8 days, but so far I've only dropped about 10 pounds, and I suspect the majority of those were fluid. In addition my blood pressure spiked again, and the doc put me back on beta blockers, and I've never cycled long distance on beta blockers so I have no idea if those are affecting my performance either.

Really disappointed in myself, nowhere near where I wanted to be this year, but as I said before there's definitely a silver lining:

* I've still got the resolve to do better this year than I did last year. Even though I'm already far behind in weightloss, I'm not so far behind that I cannot catch up.
* I hit 550 miles this year, which is good news. Last year I didn't even start cycling until May 7th, so I'm already 550 miles ahead there, and since I've got a week still, I'll probably be over 630 miles ahead when the 7th rolls around.
* I can already do 40 miles without stopping for a break. My speed on those rides is nowhere near what I'd like to see, but I think this shows that I've still got a base level of fitness. My first 40 miler last year required about 7 or 8 breaks, for reference.


I've given up on cycling more miles than I drive in my car. I'm already near 2000 miles in the car, and only 550 on the bike. I can surely catch up if I eliminate the car entirely, but that's still not realistic for me at this point in time, I live too far away from everything to make that happen. My 5000 mile goal for the year seems somewhat lofty at this point as well. I think 4000 is a more realistic goal based on the past 4 months. Next week I'm going to hit try to hit 45 or 50 miles, and then switch to regularly riding hills, and see where that takes me.

I can't wait to test my new "normal" to its limits. If it has limits.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_speed#Upper_limit_on_speeds

I started cycling again last summer, and within the first 4 or 5 months managed to gain nearly 20 lbs by just riding and not worrying about my diet. By the end of the year, I was a good 35 lbs into the obese range of the BMI scale. I made my New Years resolution early - actually in early December, saying that beginning on January 2, 2012, I was going to get things back on track, lose weight, get in shape, and finally figure out how to maintain the weight loss after a lifetime of yo-yoing between really skinny and obese and everywhere in-between.

So far, I've lost over 47 lbs since the beginning of the year. At 180 lbs, I'm still in the middle of the overweight part of the BMI scale for my height, but I expect to be "normal" by July and at my target weight, 155 lbs, by sometime in August.

As far as figuring out the magic that allows me to maintain the weight loss this time, the jury is still out. I have developed a few tools in Excel that allow me to track and project my progress, and have derived my own body's "transfer function" - the mapping between calories in, weight, and calories out. One of the tools is a pretty decent "detector", that predicts my weight 30 days out. So far, it's been accurate to within a quarter of a pound. I hope to be able to use this tool to keep me honest after I've reached my goal - you can't lie to the tool, and it won't lie to you. It should detect even minor gaining trends, and give me an opportunity to nip them in the bud before they become habits or problems.

As far as riding is concerned, I've acquired a couple of new (old) bikes that I'm modifying in various ways, and have just invested in a professional fitting for my old road bike - this process resulted in new handlebars, a new stem and a new saddle, and should make it possible to ride for hours on that bike the way I used to years ago. I hope.

Overall: Pretty happy with the progress so far. I don't think I've ever kept to a New Years resolution so well before...

After bing injured for most of the year with back issues from playing volleyball I am just starting to get my mojo back from last year. By this time last year I was riding 70-80 miles like it was a walk in the park. Furthest ride this year so far was 30. Back is feeling great but have something going on with my ankle. Trying to get more active and stop drinking soda which is is how I lost most of the weight last year. In Aug I was down to 222 from 206 on 1/1. This year I am currently at 235. I really want to get down into the 2-teens by August this year. Finding time to run and bike has been difficult. Weather this year so far has been funky which hasn't helped. Already signed up for the Bicycling Open in June 3 which is 3 trips up the Manayunk Wall riding a tandem with my daughter. 43 miles if time permits. Also, signed up for Philly Livestrong 100 mile ride in August. Thinking about doing the ACS ride in July with a friend of mine.

I don't make New Year's resolutions.

Have been stressing quality rides over quantity. Have led three of my own so far. Relatively small groups of no-nonsense riders. Have lost nearly all tolerance for high maintenance people and their goofiness.

Honey and I did a nice three-day bike weekend with camping over Easter. Assuming my replacement credit card arrives tomorrow as expected, I will be renting a car and driving to Port Jervis, NY on Thursday to start a 3-day solo tour back home to Philly on Friday. Not sure of the mileage. Maybe 170 give or take. Camping and cooking all three nights. Hoping to see a bear on the first day of riding and maybe downing some drinks with an old friend who lives near where I will be camping Saturday night.

Looking forward to leading a 76 miler with 6,900' of climbing on June 2nd and then partying the next day on Lemon Hill during the annual pro race in town.

Looking even further ahead to New Hope-Brooklyn Labor Day weekend (4th anniversary with the GF), followed closely by Cycle Oregon, which will include Crater Lake and Mt. Ashland.

So now that we have 4 months under our collective belts, how is everyone doing? How are you doing with your training, nutrition and other goals? Are you keeping to your New Years Resolution? Feel free to post a status update on your journey through 2012 thus far. What have you accomplished? What have you learned? Where are you going from here?

Well, I hit my weight target at about the time I was hoping, lost a bit more than 40lbs total, taking me to 205 (210 was goal), and have been able to hold my weight between 200 and 210 which is the current objective with regard to weight. This is every bit as tricky as expected, given that I didn't change my diet to lose the weight, and instead simply took my [calories out] side through the roof. If I ease off the throttle, the weight will surely come back, but eating to match the [calories out] is tough without leaning on evil things like ice cream, peanut butter, and sweetened condensed milk. But at least this time I have a lot better understanding of what is going on; did the same about 12 years ago and crashed the weight to far, got sick, stopped biking, got depressed, "woe is me!!!" poof, instant recliner blob. lol.

Longest riding day so far was this year about 50 miles; got my bike+fishing combo gear setup and have picked a few more locations in the 80 and 100 mile range, with the hope of bagging my first gear-loaded century by July.

I haven't posted in this sub-forum in quite a while. So here goes. Feel free to skip.
This year has basically sucked for me thus far. I started off riding well and then hit a mental wall after early February. My weight bounced back up nearly 30 pounds over the months of Feb thru Apr and my energy levels dropped to Mariannas Trench depths. I also got attacked while on a bike ride including being hit in the knee with a baseball bat. Mentally, I just didn't want to ride any more.

Part of the mental issues had to do with randonnuering, believe it or not. The local group tends to ride together and I'm not very sociable when I'm not feeling or riding well - and I end up feeling guilty about that. So, I've decided to lay off the official rando rides for a while, which brought its own mental issues.

About 10 days or so ago I decided that enough was enough and came up with a self-challenge to get my butt out of my computer chair when I'm not talking care of my Dad. Today I started that challenge - rode the first of an intended 100 Imperial Century rides over a period of under 110 days (will be documented in the Long Distance sub-forum if you're interested in following). Not fun but I feel physically well after it. Mentally, I'm more energetic than last week but nowhere near "normal" - hopefully that'll change.

I never make NY's resolutions. This year I made two: 1. To organize all of my crap so I can find things easily and 2. To deal with my back which has been a real bugger the last couple of years.

I'm happy to say that the back is showing remarkable improvement from losing 11% (so far) of my previous body weight & increasing my finess. Number 1 I'd sort of forgotten about, until your post reminded me. Well, there's 8 months left, yeah?

Looking forward to leading a 76 miler with 6,900' of climbing on June 2nd and then partying the next day on Lemon Hill during the annual pro race in town.


If you happen to notice a guy and his kid in red, white, and blue matching jersies on a tandem in the ride before the pro race, feel free to shout words of encouragement to help us make it up Lemon Hill.

I haven't posted in this sub-forum in quite a while. So here goes. Feel free to skip.
This year has basically sucked for me thus far. I started off riding well and then hit a mental wall after early February. My weight bounced back up nearly 30 pounds over the months of Feb thru Apr and my energy levels dropped to Mariannas Trench depths. I also got attacked while on a bike ride including being hit in the knee with a baseball bat. Mentally, I just didn't want to ride any more.

Part of the mental issues had to do with randonnuering, believe it or not. The local group tends to ride together and I'm not very sociable when I'm not feeling or riding well - and I end up feeling guilty about that. So, I've decided to lay off the official rando rides for a while, which brought its own mental issues.

About 10 days or so ago I decided that enough was enough and came up with a self-challenge to get my butt out of my computer chair when I'm not talking care of my Dad. Today I started that challenge - rode the first of an intended 100 Imperial Century rides over a period of under 110 days (will be documented in the Long Distance sub-forum if you're interested in following). Not fun but I feel physically well after it. Mentally, I'm more energetic than last week but nowhere near "normal" - hopefully that'll change.

That's rough, but I'm glad you're finding a way o work through it. Sometimes that's all it takes - a goal to focus on.

I haven't posted in this sub-forum in quite a while. So here goes. Feel free to skip.
This year has basically sucked for me thus far. I started off riding well and then hit a mental wall after early February. My weight bounced back up nearly 30 pounds over the months of Feb thru Apr and my energy levels dropped to Mariannas Trench depths. I also got attacked while on a bike ride including being hit in the knee with a baseball bat. Mentally, I just didn't want to ride any more.

Part of the mental issues had to do with randonnuering, believe it or not. The local group tends to ride together and I'm not very sociable when I'm not feeling or riding well - and I end up feeling guilty about that. So, I've decided to lay off the official rando rides for a while, which brought its own mental issues.

About 10 days or so ago I decided that enough was enough and came up with a self-challenge to get my butt out of my computer chair when I'm not talking care of my Dad. Today I started that challenge - rode the first of an intended 100 Imperial Century rides over a period of under 110 days (will be documented in the Long Distance sub-forum if you're interested in following). Not fun but I feel physically well after it. Mentally, I'm more energetic than last week but nowhere near "normal" - hopefully that'll change.

Oh man.

I'm down to 208 after heeding some good advice I got here "you can't out ride a bad diet". I cut back on riding and focused on eating or not eating. Now I'm turning the riding back on carefully.

Started running at 210 instead of the 200 I promised myself. So far so good.

Goals:
Cycle 20 MPH for a wind neutral, no drafting 20 miles. My personal best is 16.8
Continued weight loss. Geeeeeez only 8 more pounds to sub 200. 1.5 years ago I weighed 252.
Finish the Louisiana Triathlon on May 12th.

I'm down from 275 (1/1/12) to 233 (5/1/12). (-42)
I had a goal of 200 miles and 1 organized ride/month.
I'm at 760 miles and 2 organized for the year (Jan/Feb were rained out).
I am starting to commute to work by bike.
Did my first metric century.
I just a got a new Madone 3.1 in addition to my FX 7.2 so thats great.
My wife has ridden every mile with me and is down 43 lbs.
Got my brother into riding and he is starting to really get into it.
So far so good.

No New Year's resolution, started this well before the New Year. Happy with overall weight loss, but it has been stagnant for a couple of weeks (the dreaded last 9 pounds). Also working out at the gym 3 times a week. Biking has me not happy as I have not met my goals for the last 2 months, work or weather (rain) get in the way. That said, going to do my best to ride, hopefully meet both my mileage and weight goals this month.

This year is good, so far. I'm down about 5 lbs, and just crossed over 1620 miles. The dog bite set me back a bit on my training, but I got on the trainer for the first time in over a week just this morning.

Very good year, so far, although I didn't get on the bike until March first after a four month lay-off to due a situation with my back. But I've logged a little over 1,100 miles since March, have incorporated Intervals for the first time, and am planning some trips into Arkansas this year to work on some climbing for the first time. I've also started riding with one of the guys from my LBS and another friend a few times a month and that has really helped me stay motivated. I've dropped 12 pounds during this time but still have a long way to go and much work to do on the nutrition. But, all in all, I'm having a blast. :)

If you happen to notice a guy and his kid in red, white, and blue matching jersies on a tandem in the ride before the pro race, feel free to shout words of encouragement to help us make it up Lemon Hill.

I doubt I will be there before the start. We typically watch the start from Logan Circle. It's fun to see the entire pack fly around the fountain 3 times before they head out onto the full course. Then we'll walk back to the house and pack up some stuff to take to Lemon Hill.

Lemon Hill is not difficult. Very short. Stay to the outside of the curve. Come by afterwards. Our club's (the BCP) BBQ will be there. For a small donation, you can buy into the food. It is hands down the coolest place to watch the race. Lots of groups grilling. Cops get fed and thus don't hassle you for drinking in public. People spread out on blankets. Good music playing. Plus, you can walk down to Kelly Drive and see them ride by, so you get twice the viewing. It's also fun to walk to the descent coming off Lemon Hill and watch the pack take the sharp turn. I would never have the nerve to do it that fast.

In contrast, getting to The Wall is a PITA and the crowd is comprised of a lot of knotheads who are mainly interested in getting as drunk as humanly possible. There used to be a stroll in Manayunk the Friday or Saturday night before the race but it is no longer put on because it got co-opted by morons who engaged in frat party behavior.