Tuesday, November 29, 2011

It's cold and wet and I might wake someone up and....

So far my excuses are keeping me not riding in the morning.  I need to fix that.
I rode this evening however.  A short hard 10 miles in the dark, in the wind and rain and it felt good.  My numbers were so-so but it felt good.

I did better with food today.  Less cravings, less hunger feeling and good numbers there as well.
I had a deficit of over 500 calories with 40%carb / 18%fat / 42%protein (nearly a gram per pound of body weigh).

I'm going to take another try at riding tomorrow morning...

Monday, November 28, 2011

and then....crap

I could run to the scale and do a weigh in, but it probably hasn't changed since yesterday so I won't bother until next week.

I had a great day food-wise.  At least I mostly did.  I was WAY under coming into my last meal of the day, which really isn't good, because it means that I either have to eat a big meal to get my calories up, messing with my metabolism or not eat enough, messing with my metabolism.

The worst thing you can do is eat a big meal and make it mostly fat and carbs.  Especially if when I haven't done any riding that day.  So here is how my day ended:
1924 calories (1204 previous to the "crap"; more on that in a second)
50% carb/ 24%!!! fat/26% protein
no deficit

So my wonderful Trisha has been on a dairy free diet while nursing to make it easier on the baby.  During her visit to the doctor,  it was suggested she try dairy at this point.  Trisha really wanted it to be the right thing after her hiatus, especially if the baby was still sensitive.  Knowing this I planned on bringing her a treat and probably because I was so hungry got one for myself.

Yup a Dairy Queen, Peanut Buster Parfait has 720 calories!!!  I would like to say there was horrible guilt, but honestly it was good.  Not something to do everyday, but definitely a good treat to share with my wife.

I will be riding in the morning...

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Didn't fall off the face of the planet

I'll have to backtrack and figure out how many miles to enter into my log.  Not many.
Amazing what job loss and new baby will do to your ride time and motivation to ride.  Here are the up-sides as of today:
I've ridden consistently 3 days in a row.  Short but hard and more importantly IN-A-ROW!  I haven't had hard rides back to back like that for a number of months.
I'm not sore.  This is a pro and con.  It means I haven't completely lost my conditioning, it also means I'm not riding hard enough or far enough for now.
Family is healthy and stable.  This is important to my continued riding.
I have a job.  This is also important to my continued riding and motivation to ride.
I have a wind trainer.  This is also pro and con.  Pro because it was free and because I can ride regardless of weather.  Con because it is noisy and boring and not the same as riding outside.

Now the downsides:
I'm fat.  20lbs over what I should be.  Not changing my eating habits and not riding was not good.
My job is great and...only 4 miles from home.  This is a pro and con, it means that I can to and from work quickly to do riding but it also means that I don't have a required daily commute by bicycle.
It's winter in the Pacific Northwest.  Enough said.
I am coming into this winter with far less fitness then I should.

As the Pros outnumber the Cons, I now know what I need to work on.  The other great thing about recent news is the announcement of the "Coup de Cascades".  It is a RAAM qualifier for our area and while I'm not in a position to have to worry about qualifying at this point it is very exciting to know that I will be able to race against some of the strongest ultra-cyclists in the world in a local race and see how I stack up.

Don't get me wrong.  I hope to be within a 20% time gap of the leaders, not challenging them.  Riders like Chris Ragsdale, Mick Walsh, and Ian Fillanger to name a few.  Will they race?  Probably.  It will still be exciting even if they don't.

The route starts in Redmond and goes out to Hwy 20, catches up to Hwy 2 and back to Redmond.  Its about 420 miles and 15,000' of climbing.  It's a test and a challenge and I anticipate that I will need to finish within about 33 hours to be remotely competitive.  With 2 hours sleep that is an average speed of nearly 14mph.  Ya I need to get some training.  The good part is I have nearly 10 months before the race to get into shape, work out my on bike diet and make sure it's bulletproof and figure out how to coordinate a crew.  Plus learn a new work place, go to school, be a good dad and most importantly a great husband.  PIE!

First things first.  Get some training miles in and get my weight down so I'm ready to go hard core in the spring.  I will work on posting at least the ugly stats here everyday so I have a record of it somewhere for some reason.

Here's the ugly:
180lbs
30 minutes/8 miles/302 calories on the trainer
1416 calories/795 carb/158 fat/442 protein
650 calorie deficit

I have used a combination of this specific diet and training before to drop nearly 20lbs so I know it will work. I just need to stick with it.  I'll be around to let you know how it turns out.