episodic

My little updates. Been biking since beginning of July.

My starting weight was 340. I am 303 as of this morning. Limiting myself to no more than 2000 calories a day, no matter what. At first I was working on distance, but the reality of work / family vs free time kept cropping up.

My area is nothing but hills - rollers they call them. There is a 15 mile loop through some of the large rollers around here and lots of long steady climbs (gentle slopes up that make clydesdales cry at first hehe). When I started doing this loop 2.5 weeks ago, it took me 1hr 50 minutes, and I stopped several times to get my breath.

I've been doing it every other day for this time, and today I went the loop in 1hr 5 minutes - with no stops. I managed to drink from the saddle. This included an up hill sprint away from a rottweiller. . . . .

I'm trying to break an hour. Since I've lost weight, I've even started climbing standing up, although I admit I'm scared to death the chain will snap. . . My heart rate monitor catches me in the 170's frequently - so I know I'm working. I've cooled down for 10 minutes now, and I'm still at 110. . .

My resting heart rate has fell from 80 something to 60 something in this time as well.

So, I'm getting good results. . . hope this inspires someone.

Crazydad

Thanks, it does inspire me. I was doing really well on my mtb riding a 14 trail almost everyday and then doing some real trail riding on the weekends since May. While I haven't weighed myself, judging by clothes fitting I have have probably lost about 25lbs (275 to 250ish).

But this week it all started unraveling. I have 3 kids and their activities are starting up. Soccer for one, cheerleading for another and football for the oldest. On top of that, my wife volunteered to be the treasurer for the booster club (I have no idea why...). So between the practices, fundraisers, team meetings, etc. I have no been able to get on my bike since Monday and now that school is starting, that leaves me having to get up at 5:15am to try and squeeze in a 30-45min ride before work/school.

While I know that eats into my sleep (I have never been a morning person) I know that if I don't do it then, I'll lose everything I have worked for. Then I just have to take the rides I really want to do (off-road trails) when I can. I guess my point is, for those with kids who have a lot of stuff going on this fall, find the time to STAY ON THE BIKE! Don't let your gains go to waste....

Seve

Thanks episodic that inspires me as well.

You are both losing weight and gaining in fitness, which is great stuff IMO.

FrenchFit 

Couple of years ago when I started getting serious about riding I'd wait until after dinner and when things quieted down in the house I'd do a night ride to another local town, have a decaf at a coffee shop and ride home getting in 'bout 9:30-10pm. I missed alot of TV, but those miles I got during the week really added up. Riding at night was terrific for a bunch of reasons, and it works with a hectic schedule.

Wogster

You don't need to have kids in order to have your ride schedule unravel, everything starts up again this time of year, although around here, stuff usually starts up after labour day.....

jonathanb715

Same boat, only better - I'm a single parent. My kids are into soccer and swim team, and both are working hard at it so I'm encouraging them to stick with it - which means practices of some sort 5 days a week at times. My boys are old enough to leave alone for 1 -2 hours, so I'm taking that Carmichael Time Crunched Cyclists approach - make up for lost time by bumping up the intensity with lots of intervals, basically. Even Carmichael notes that his program will not set you up for a PB on a century or longer ride, though, so I'm must looking to muddle through my two autumn rides that I'm looking to do.

We'll see how it works in 3 weeks - I have a double century coming up with a pretty serious initial climb.

JB

jcinnb

Post is very inspiring. i have really improved on riding in 5 weeks, but not eating good enough yet. I know the two have to go together. Thanks.

Crazydad

Best of luck on the double JB! I am truly in awe of the single parents who can manage getting all the kids to their various stuff, much less finding the time to do anything for themselves.

My main point is that even though it may not be the rides I want to do, if a 30-45 minute ride at 5:30am is all I can do then I am doing it. And then be really thankful when I can sneak in the occasional 2-3 hour off road ride. I need to look into the Carmichael approach, never heard of it.

jcinnb - I know what you mean, I am still working on that. But, the coolest thing is I have really noticed how the more I keep riding, the better i want to eat. I ate too much pasta for dinner one night this weekend and felt like garbage afterward. We just have to keep working at it.

jonathanb715

Chris Carmichael is Lance Armstrong's long time personal coach - he's written tons of stuff on cycling training, nutrition, etc. However, in the past it was mostly aimed at serious competitors with 15 + hours per week to train and in most respects was consistent with Joe Friel's approach, etc. His latest book explores what can be achieved if you have a lot less time to train - his cutoff is below 8 hours, where the traditional approac breaks down and stops getting results in his experience.

He outlines a 12 week plan designed to get an athlete to peak at the end of the plan. The big gotcha is that without the long endurance training, you don't get the endurance base. He claims that this training can work for up to a Cat. 3 looking to peak a couple of times a year for a few big events. His caveat is that since the athlete built up to the peak so much more rapidly than under a traditional program, and did not build up the aerobic base, the fall off after the peak will be steeper, too. He recommends at least a 4 week break of non-intensive riding before starting a new 12 week cycle. It can also work for those of us non-racers looking to improve in longer events - although he acknowledges that if you are used to setting fast times, this program probably won't give much if any improvement in longer endurance events. It really helps for the first 3 hours of riding - if you are going longer, you have to really throttle back and manage your reserves since you don't have that aerobic base.

I read the book under the theory that more info is good, but have had plenty of time constraints lately so I've been putting it into practice. A double is probably way beyond what he intended, but I'll be taking the slow and steady approach and see how it goes.

JB

dbikingman

For the busy dads can you take your bike to practices and ride while JR is at practice?

I talked to a guy the other day who has rode a 200 mile two day ride several times. I asked him what he did to train. He says nothing special, but tried to keep his mileage up. He said when he was working and had limited time you would go to a local path and ride about 20 miles as hard as he could and then a 50 mile ride on the weekends. He said it probably wasn't the best method, but it is what he had time for and he completed the rides.

garethzbarker

anyone can ride bike around town like I do. I takes balls and character to ride hills all day everyday.