BeSelfPropelled

It's December, the holidays are coming and I'm thinking how am I going to keep from gaining weight over the winter as seems to always be the case for as long as I can remember. Yes I know, it's about exercise and eating right but if it were just that easy it wouldn't be a problem. I know what to do, it's just difficult for me to get my butt in gear to do it. What I need is motivation. I need a challenging cycling goal for 2013 that I feel pressure to train for. It has to be tough otherwise I'll just put it off until it's closer and I need peer pressure to keep me from backing out. I wrote a blog post last night to get my thoughts down, pick my challenge and figure out how to find the peer pressure I need. You could be that peer pressure. Heck, you could join me if you want to. Check is out at Set a Cycling Challenge That’s Difficult and Use It as Motivation. Are you up for a challenge?

SlimRider

Just stay away from starches and you'll be alright. Just stuff your face with veggies and meats. Don't drink beer!

Limit your alcohol intake to only a glass of wine or two per day.

Limit higher proof liquor to only a couple shots every other day, until January 2, 2013.

After that, take a month of everything in moderation without any alcohol at all until February. Then it's back to normal (whatever you were doing back in October)...

fuzz2050

Why is beer so bad? The primary source of calories in all alcoholic beverages is the ethanol itself. Beer will have a few stray carbs, but unless you're still an adherent to the Atkins fad, they aren't anything to worry about.

Cyclebum

What you say you need are others as gung ho as you for getting beat up on the Parkway. Good luck.

When do you want to run(race)the Parkway? Not before May, right?

Machka 

1. Quit drinking your calories (especially alcohol)! Just look at the number of calories you consume in your beverages. If you're on a 1500 - 1800 calorie per day diet, and you drink 500 calories per day, that doesn't leave much for the food.


2. Don't keep high calorie snacks in the house (i.e. no big bags of potato chips "hiding" in the pantry). Make it so that if you want high calorie snacks, you either have to make them yourself (i.e. bake the cookies from scratch) or walk or cycle (not drive) to the grocery store to get them. I lived without a car for almost 6 years. My grocery store was a 2 km round trip walk. I did the trip about 3 times a week to buy "essential" groceries, which also included food and supplies for my cats. If I couldn't carry the groceries 1 km home, I didn't buy them. Therefore, I had to make the decision in the grocery store whether I wanted the snack food or whether I wanted something I could have for dinner. And if I wanted the snack foods, I had to walk to get them. Made a big difference in my calorie consumption, and my weight.


3. Exercise consistently. "They" recommend exercising 60 minutes a day (420 minutes or 7 hours a week) to maintain your weight, and 90 minutes a day (630 minutes or 10.5 hours per week) to lose weight. So do that. Consistently, every week, aim to get at least 10.5 hours of exercise. It could be an hour on the trainer 6 evenings a week, plus 30 minutes of walking at lunch 5 days a week, and 30 minutes lifting weights 5 evenings a week. Or maybe 1.5 hours in spinning class twice a week plus an hour on spinning class night jogging around the track and doing some light weights, plus an hour on the trainer 3 nights, plus a 30 minute walk at lunch 5 days a week .... or whatever works for you.


4. Mix it up a bit ... include some other sports (snowshoeing or skiing), try a different type of cycling (snowbiking) ... add some different things into the mix to keep it interesting over the winter.


5. Pick several goals ... or a year long goal. One of the things I like about Randonneuring is that you can work your way up ... complete the 200 km, complete the 300 km, complete the 400 km, complete the 600 km (get award), complete the 1000 km or 1200 km ... etc. That's one type of challenge that keeps leading you on to the next and the next so that you're not just going for one thing. Another idea that has often worked for me is the Century-A-Month ... ride a century (100 miles in one day) each month of the year throughout the entire year. Every time I think about slacking off, I know that the century next month will be harder if I do, but will be easier if I keep exercising consistently now. You might have a browse through the Long Distance forum to get some ideas.

k_randomfactor

That.

Haven't biked the BRP, would absolutely love to, but have driven it plenty. Just let me say, the Parkway in a 72 VW Bug? Think I'd rather have had a bike. Prolly woulda been faster!

Good luck bud. If my big tour doesn't come about this year, I'll keep you in mind.

BeSelfPropelled

Yes, I am looking for others that would be interested in the Parkway ride. Once I've got others involved I'm committed and it's more fun and probably safer than going solo. I'm looking at May or June. Last year I spent 3 days riding in rain and mud on a 6 day ride. It wasn't terrible but certainly not preferred. It's cooler on the parkway and it gets fog so no matter what I expect it to be an adventure.

BeSelfPropelled

Excellent advice. I've been thinking about the Randonneuring and found some groups not too far from where I live. The Century a month idea does works well. When I lived out west we'd start with the Santa Fe Century and work our way north as the weather improved to do the Iron Horse Classic in Durango then other rides near Denver, Ride the Rockies and finish the season with the 24 Hours of Moab. It's been tougher in my current location as the roads just aren't as bike friendly and the trails aren't as abundant but I'm working it out. - thanks

Tourist in MSN

Buy the tightest pair of pants you can find. Then when they are too tight, eat less.

I was partly joking and partly serious saying that. For years I decided not to break down and buy a larger pair of pants. That helped me from eating too much. But, will power on caloric intake is best.

The key is that everybody has their own caloric requirements and that varies for differing amounts of exercise. I try to keep to a 2,700 to 2,900 calorie per day range which works for me on avoiding weight gain during summer, maybe 2,600 calories per day in winter. A lot of people will gain with these numbers, I think my basal metabolic requirement numbers are closer to 2,200 calories per day but I am active enough to burn the rest thru exercise every day.

There are several on line sources of calorie tracking data on the internet. I do not keep track of my data on the internet, but I know some bikers that do. It is getting easier to do that now that smartphones allow people to update their data almost anytime and from anywhere.

I have a friend that will sit in a restaurant and update his data on his phone before he orders a meal, that helps him decide what to eat. But, he was in the emergency room for some heart work recently so I do not know if he will stay that obsessive on his food tracking months and years from now.

I have used this site to look up calorie data and it also can track your calories.
https://www.livestrong.com/myplate/

bikenh

Why put all of your focus on one event/trip. Make it a year long goal. How many miles do you want to ride this year, how many centuries do you want to ride this year, etc.

Let me give you an example from some of the stuff that has kept me on the bike year round here in New Hampshire, where it gets cold and snowy during the winter.

The craziness all started for me knowing I wasn't driving anymore, now I don't even own a car. My family all lives in western Ohio. I had no other way to get back there other than biking. I hadn't seen my mother, brother or sister since 2004. I knew I had to get use to riding high mileage days. I didn't realize at the time it would be feasible to 'easily' build up the mileage base while on the trip. I was figuring I would be riding 100 miles a day on the trip. I couldn't ever remember riding 50 miles back to back days. Sure I had ridden 200 miles in one day even 192 miles solo in one day way back in 1995/94 respectibly. I rode 7-7.5K miles in 1994. Still I hadn't been doing any kind of high mileage days back to back. I knew I needed to get back to doing high mileage days and needed to start making them happen daily.

My first goal was to see if I could ride at least one 100 mile day each week for 52 consecutive weeks.

Prior to starting my way toward that goal I had started riding a lot more miles and even doing it back to back days, but I still wasn't anywhere near 100 miles a day. The first of my 52 consecutive weeks, July 27, 2011, I rode 202 miles on a ride I thought I had to be crazy to even try given how late in the summer it was and how hilly the ride was going to be, 13,000 feet of climbing. I was surprised I made it with 45 minutes of daylight left. This was a solo ride. The following week I rode another 206 miler. The next few weeks I was out doing 100 milers.

Early in September I started looking back at the Excel spreadsheet and I was noticing I was doing a crapload of miles. I decided to add them up and found I ended up riding 1529.3 miles in August. I thought that was a fluke. I also noticed my 60 day average was 47 miles a day. Heck prior to July I hadn't ridden any 50 mile days back to back and now my average was 47 miles a day over the past 60 days. I decided to see if I could catch the 50 mile a day average. I figured it wouldn't last long, OOPS!!! I caught it on September 21, 2011. I figured it wouldn't last long since I had the 202 and 206 mile rides from July 27/August 3 coming off the 60 day stretch shortly. I figured I might have the 50 mile mark for a couple of days. I put in one weeks effort:

September 21: 125.08 miles
September 22: 23.42 miles
September 23: 62.46 miles
September 24: 120.36 miles
September 25: 48.24 miles
September 26: 71.21 miles
September 27: 127.03 miles

At the end of that stretch I had just removed both 200 mile rides and replaced them with nothing over 127 miles. I now realized I may very well be able to hold onto this 50 day average stretch for a while. Now my September mileage ended up being 1704.28 miles. I knew their was no way I was going to hold any of this through the winter. I would be lucky to hold the 100 mile day each week through the winter yet alone hold everything else through the winter.

La Nina came and tamed out the winter weather, at least snow wise, I still had the cold but didn't have the snow to help take me off the bike more than one day a month.

Spring arrived and I still had all streaks in tact. I still had the 100 mile day once a week, 1500 miles a month(actually ended up riding 1606 in December), and still hadn't fallen below 50 miles a day average. I knew I should have no trouble holding onto them.

Summer came and things got even crazier. By July 17th my 60 day average was 85.4 miles a day. I rode 2000+ miles in each of May, June, July and August. Yes, I finished off the 52 consecutive weeks as well. Now it was on to trying to see if I could keep the 1500 miles per month alive for one calendar year. I had to change things up slightly. I did lose the 52 consecutive week streak right after week 52 due to a trip I took to Texas where there was no way the bike was going to be able to go with me so I ended up with 15 straight days off the bike, almost doubling my time off the bike over the past 14 months.

I did, briefly, lose the 50 mile per day streak thanks to the the stomach flu while on a bike trip out to St. Louis and back right at the end of the year long stretch. It has come back up over 50 miles a day after only being slightly below for two days.F

inally in October I tallied up the number of the feet I had climbed this year and saw that I had climbed 892,000 feet. I thought why not try for 1 million of elevation gain for the year. Then the idea hit, why not try for 200 miles of climbing and add another 200 miler to your belt for the year, only this one is a vertical 200 miles. I've popped up and over the 1 million foot mark already and after today I should only have another 4-4,000 feet to go to make the 200 mile mark. Then the big idea came...the challenge for 2013.

The next big thing after 200 miles. What can you think of that is over 200 miles up. The International Space Station. The target/goal for 2013, climb enough vertical that I would be at ISS by the end of the year. I deemed it trying to join the ISS Bike Club. Simple goal, look at any of the website that show the position of ISS, n2yo.com, nasa.gov, etc on January 1. While ISS if flying over the United States see how high up it is flying. That is high many miles of elevation gain you have to ride by the end of the year to join the ISS Bike Club. Currently for example ISS is flying 265.5 miles above planet Eareth give or take slightly. That means I would have to climb 265.5 miles. Here around New Hampshire, typically 50-55 feet per mile of climbing is the average around here, that means I would have to ride 26,000+ miles next year to join the ISS Bike Club.

See, the problem with most people is they try to set a goal that has short period of existance and that is why they give up so easily on their activity. My goals last all year and generally will take all year to complete if I can even pull them off.

One other thing about my goal for next year. I plan on doing it without ever riding a single 100 mile day all year long. I plan on making it a goal that anyone, including those that are working can achieve. I don't plan on cheating and going out and doing a bunch of 200 mile days, or even 100 mile days. I plan on being on the bike 4-5 hours a day on average next year. Even though I have been unemployeed for almost 3 years now, I want this to be something where with a little bit of creativity anyone could do...granted they would need to live in someplace that isn't flat. I want this to be an inspiration for other people to set high goals to show them that all it takes is some creativity, not only to come up with the goals but also to come up with ways on how to achieve the goals. I have several things next year I need to get done and need the time to be able to do them. This year has been a year where I have spent so much time on the bike that it hasn't left me any time to get anything done other than biking. Next year will be different.

Set yourself some challenging yearlong goals and not just goals for one particular day. It will keep you on the bike all year long and will help spur on more goals that will help support the goals you have already set for yourself.

Oh and my goal is all outdoor riding. I do no indoor riding whatsoever. I climb real hills not make believe hills.

I do plan on keeping a blog throughout the year to show my progress and give daily reports on the rides I have did with maps/elevation profiles/gains from ridewithgps.com. Since I don't own a car and don't have internet access at my house I always end up posting a day after the fact.

You don't need other people to be involved if you make yourself accountable for the goal. I figure the blog will be a way of doing that and also a way of inspiring others. Use a blog. This naturally only works if you have a long term goal and not just a short term one day/one week goal like rando-ing, riding BRP, etc. Everyone can watch your progress/lack of progress throughout the year and it will make you more likely to stick with the goal rather than putting it aside and go watch more tit-television. By the way my blog will be: www.issbikeclub.blogspot.com. Their isn't anything there yet. Granted it isn't 2013 yet either. I do plan a couple intro posts in the next couple of weeks but the real action should be starting January 1st.

You can use my example to help you set better goals for yourself. Their is plenty you can do, even when employeed if you learn to think outside the box and not follow the crowd. Remember to ask yourself this question: Would this be something I would want/want to do if I was the last person left alive on the planet? If the answer is yes, then proceed, if the answer is no then rethink your goal/rethink the purchase of the product in question. Why do you really want it?

Cyclebum

High weekly mileage takes a lot of time and discipline. I've reduced my time on the bike and am now visiting the gym more for upper body work. Cal intake, <2000/day. Balanced approach that is working nicely. For me. As a tour date approaches, I do up the weekly mileage a bit.

Motivating the restricted intake is weight and bp control.