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Ramping Up

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  Progress has been good since my last check in a week ago. I still haven't gotten in an outdoor ride, but I have been riding a lot in the basement and I'm hopeful I will get out on a trail this weekend.  I actually did my longest and fastest ride of the year (30.02 miles, average speed: 16.2 mph), so that made me very proud. In the week since my last check in, I rode 80.12 miles total. I ended the month of January at 183.6 miles total.  Thanks to a big snowstorm, I was finally able to get out on my snowshoes as well. We did an hour and about 1.13 miles with our dogs. It might not seem like a lot, but it's far more strenuous than just hiking the trail and it was done after a lot of driveway shoveling. We also had a 2ish mile hike last weekend. Additionally, I've kept up my small changes with nutrition. Meals have been reasonable, eating out and carry out have been minimal (almost nonexistent) and alcohol consumption has been left to two days on the weekend with a few dr
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Slow and Steady

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  It may not be anything earth-shattering, but I'm definitely making progress. And that's the idea, right? Inch toward the finish line by making small changes that become habits. Since I last posted, I've been sticking to my small changes pretty well. I've been continuing to take my lunch to work most days instead of going out or getting take out (although I've allowed myself one or two exceptions). Heck, I've even stopped visiting the candy drawer at the office every day, and that was getting to be the wrong kind of habit. My significant other has been knocking it out of the park with home cooking (he's phenomenal with the sous vide and smoker, as well as more traditional means), which has meant we've mostly avoided eating out and getting take out/delivery. And, for the most part, I'm staying away from alcohol except Fridays and Saturdays. (See No Diets post for more info on my thought process here.)  Additionally, I've been riding pretty regula
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Back in the Saddle

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  The struggle is real.  It's such an overused statement, but it gets right to the heart of what a challenge this journey is for me.  As is always the case, I started out with the best of intentions and what I thought was the perfect amount of commitment. Then I used the first convenient excuse to go off the rails, and continued to stay off for most of October, November and December. But all is not lost. As long as we're still breathing, there's time for a fresh start, and despite veering undeniably off course, I managed to accomplish something in the last few months. So I'm not exactly back to square one. By way of bringing my millions of readers up to speed, I offer the following data.  Miles ridden in October: 103.5 Miles ridden in November: 75 Miles ridden in December: 65 Miles ridden so far in January: 23.4 Pounds gained since my last check in: 7 Net loss since October 1: 3.8 Since I last darkened the door of this blog, I also signed up for my first race of 2022, w
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Week #1 Report

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Pounds Lost: 7.2 lbs Training:   10/2/21 36.02 miles, 9.1 mph avg speed 10/5/21 11.87 miles, 9.7 mph avg speed Other Activity: 10/1/21 1.51 miles (walking) 10/3/21 1.69 miles (walking) Big Wins: Successful race; packing my lunch for work every day
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No Diets

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  As might be expected, part of this journey of mine will be getting to a healthy weight. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't self-conscious about my weight or that I don't care about how I look. But more important than either of those things is the fact that the amount of weight I'm carrying is preventing me from being as healthy as I can be and from meeting my goals in terms of activity. Let's face it--it's a lot easier to ride up that hill without taking with me that additional 30 or 50 or 70 pounds. And I may have thoughts about how much weight I want to lose, but I am not going to pluck an arbitrary number out of the air and make it my hard and fast goal weight. I'm going to slowly work toward getting into the neighborhood I want and see how I feel and where my body works and feels the best. Whenever I have talked about this entire journey, I have had people ask me what kind of diet I'm going to use to lose weight. When I say I'm not planning to die
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A Tale of Two Races

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Over the weekend, I rode my bike in a race called Barry-Roubaix. In many ways, it wasn't that different from a lot of races I've done. I started out with the best of intentions, getting some training in early on before quickly petering out and then trying to catch up in the last few weeks before the race. It's kind of my MO at this point.  I have never not started or not finished a race due to undertraining. I always find a way to slog through it. And while it takes a certain mental toughness (which I do give myself credit for) to complete a race you're clearly not ready for, it would definitely be better to have appropriately trained and feel prepared. Considering how little I had trained, I was pretty pleased. I did not beat any speed records, but I did meet the goals I set out for myself: To finish in less than four hours To ride all of the hills  (i.e., not have to get off and walk) except The Wall To ride the entire Sager Rd section of the race without getting off
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15 Months

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  In approximately 15 months, I'll turn 50. I won't go on and on about how I feel about turning 50. Turning 40 bothered me a lot and I imagine 50 will be even more upsetting. But that's not what this blog is about. What this blog is about is finally finishing a journey I started while I was in my 20s--the journey to be a fit person. Up until I graduated from high school, I was what you would call a couch potato. Free time was spent reading, and even as a kid I was reading when other kids were playing outdoors. I was always chubby  and I started worrying about my weight while I was still in middle school. Shortly after college I discovered the great outdoors and began to crave outside time. In 1999, when I was 26, I bought my first mountain bike and began a relationship with a sport I would come to love. Over the years, my weight has fluctuated and so has my level of fitness. I didn't just ride. I did some racing too. And although biking was always a mainstay, I added ru
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