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.

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