Week three is in the books

The good news is that as a team we have a net loss of 11 lbs. this week. The bad news is that a couple of our team members struggled and gained a pound each this week. As a team we have already surpassed our total team weight loss for the team in last year's competition.  Personally I lost 4 lbs. This week for a total of 15 lbs. so far. I am very happy with my loss and feel very positive that we will all continue to lose weight.

I heard the news this week that once again the Viva Bike Vegas event has been cancelled.  Apparently the negotiations between the organizer and the various municipalities and regional transportation commission stalled and there is no funding for the safety teams for the event.  That is a shame.  I thought that this was an awesome event.  I'm starting to feel like my participating in an event is a curse for the event.  3 major events I have participated in have all been cancelled:  Viva Bike Vegas, The Tour De Cure and Ride: MS. Its getting to the point where there are very few large, charity rides available in the area.

Postponed until 2015

Well I am disappointed.  Went to the Viva Bike Veags site this morning and this is what I saw:

We have been looking forward to participating in this as a family.  Now its time to look around for some other, short, family friendly events.

Get on your bikes and ride!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will it happen

This is the question I keep asking myself. 'Will it actually happen?'  What, you may wonder, am I talking about?  The Fun Ride at the Viva Bike Vegas Ride coming up in less than 3 weeks on September 13.  I keep checking the site, looking for the registration information and for the last 4 weeks or so it has said check back mid August.  Well, we are now into late August and the form still is not there.

I even emailed the event coordinators and their response was the same - it will be there soon and they will even email me a copy of it when it is available. They said there was an issue with the start/finish line and as soon as the new arrangements were confirmed the form would be posted.

I really hope this does happen as we will have the full crew taking part.  Every one of us - all 7, will be riding in the event.  Because of this I think we will ride the 5 mile instead of the 10 mile route. This is something I really want to do - have all of us ride together!  I hope they do get it all straightened out and we can do this ride.

A note posted on the site over the weekend indicates that the finish line for all the rides has been moved to the RTC building in downtown Las Vegas.  The maps have not been updated to reflect this change as yet.

In order for us to all ride I have to get to work on putting some bikes together.  Right now I have the first one about 90% done.  The wheels are trued, the handlebars are adjusted and the brakes are working.  The last piece to work on is the shifting.  Right now it shifts through about half of the gears.  Time, patience and adjustments are needed.  As for the other bikes, unfortunately one is lacking usable sifters as the grip shifters are broken, completely.  Another may have a bent derailieur. Its time to dig in and work on them.

Get on your bikes and ride.

90 days in a row

Its hard to believe that I've actually ridden my bike at least a mile every one of the last 90 days.  Besides eating and sleeping, when was the last time you did anything for 90 days in a row?  I know its been a long time for me.

While I haven't been riding very far on any given day, I have been enjoying the ride. Of course this is only the halfway point in my personal challenge. Here are some interesting stats as pulled from DailyMile:

# of rides:     90
Total Distance:     201.95 Miles
Total Time:     16 hours 24 Minutes
Total Calories burned:     24452

From these numbers I calculate the following:
Average pace:     12.31 mph
Average ride length:     2.25 miles
Average ride duration:     10:55

I find it interesting that my average is under 11 minutes per day. That doesn't seem to be very much time out of my day.  Then again this is only measuring the actual moving time on the bike.  I figure a good 11 to 13 minutes additional time per day with changing clothes, pumping tires, waiting for the Garmin to find the satellites, etc. Still not a large amount of time.

All of these statistics will be increasing as I increase the distances ridden per day over the next couple of months to prepare for and participate in the upcoming events like the Viva Bike Vegas Fun Ride and the Pedal to the Medal.

Get on your bikes and ride!!!!!

I've taken on a project to get the family rolling

Well, I've certainly done it to myself again. See, I have been looking for a bike for my oldest grandson. He's been wanting a mountain bike so I've been watching the list of craig to see what might be available and I'd seen a few decent deals but something kept me from pulling the trigger. Then, yesterday, I saw an ad that said 5 mountain bikes $50. Here is one of the pictures included with the ad:

Now, the ad did say that they were in need of some TLC, but I figured that I could handle the minor issues these bikes might have. On top of that the seller was willing to deliver then for a small fee.  I figured it was worth the gamble so I contacted him to see if they were still available.

He replied that they were and he would be happy to deliver them.  We set up a time on Wednesday (today) and that was it, I thought. When I got home last night, however, there was a text from the seller that he had forgotten a previous engagement he had on Wednesday, would tonight (Tuesday) work? I let him know that it would, indeed work and we set up a time.

He had underestimated how long it would take to get to my house from his, but eventually he arrived and I took all 5 bikes off his hands.  After we had unloaded them he let me know that he does home cleanup and they had been working on a short sale house and as they were cleaning out the yard they found these 5 bikes in the weeds.

Looking at the bikes I see that they are not high end, but not the cheapest either.  They are one or two steps up and they appear complete. Every tire is currently flat but the tires themselves look to be in decent shape.  Over the next few weeks I'm going to see what I can do to get them back on the road so that the grandkids, and my daughter, will be able to ride them since we need to get some miles in before the fun ride on September 13.

Get on your bikes and ride!!!

Decisions made

Going to take the Diamondback into my LBS on Friday to get it serviced.  I weighed the pros and cons of self servicing vs professional servicing taking into account a lack of appropriate tools, a skills and knowledge gap and the fact that with just a little effort I can get my Schwinn rideable, it was a no-brainer. So I'll get in a quick ride tomorrow morning on the Diamondback then transfer my lights and possibly the seat to the Schwinn and take the Diamondback in for service.

                      

I know I am faster on the hybrid than I am on my cruiser.  Exactly how much I don't really know.  I guess I'll find out over the next few days.

I've been looking ahead and there are some interesting rides coming up in the near future that I really need to increase my mileage to get ready for.  The Viva Bike Vegas Fun Ride is a 10 miler that the grandkids (at least 2 of them) will be doing with me.  That's only 6 weeks away.  The Pedal 2 the Medal is 2 weeks after that and I'm eyeing the 25 mile route.

The last ride I am looking at is the Honor Ride for the Ride 2 Recovery.  That is on November 8 and it is a 40 mile ride.  The good news is I have lots of time to prepare for that ride. the bad news is my longest ride over the last 3 months is only 12.5 miles.  I definitely need to start increasing the mileage on a daily and weekly basis.

So, what are your plans for up coming rides?

Even if you aren't doing an organized ride:

GET ON YOUR BIKES AND RIDE!!!!!!

VIVA Bike Vegas is Back!

I was so happy over the weekend when I was reading an email from Lisa over at Biking Las Vegas (http://bikinglasvegas.com) in which she shared the good news that a new company has picked up the Viva Bike Vegas Ride and it will be back again this year!

From the website:

Thanks to Perimeter Bicycling Association of America (same ride organizers that host the popularTour de Tucson event), for picking up the ride, and for continuing on the tradition of hosting a well organized and fully supported century ride that is sure to be the largest and most popular ride of the year!  Perimeter Bicycling has developed collaborative partnerships with the RTC, city of Henderson, city of Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) to help support and promote the ride.

The event is scheduled for Saturday September 13, 2014 and the main rides are a 100, a 50 and a 25 mile ride.  Their rides are unique in that all 3 distances will finish at the Discover Children's museum by starting at various locations along the same course.

There will also be a 10 mile, and a 5 mile fun ride.

I was talking to my daughter and it looks like we are going to do a family ride of the 10 mile route with myself, my daughter and 2 or 3 of the grandkids depending on who feels up to it.  It should be a blast!!!!

Here is the website for the event:

http://www.perimeterbicycling.com/las-vegas/

Get on your Bike and RIDE!!!!!

Sad News - Viva Bike Vegas cancelled!

I have enjoyed riding in the Viva Bike Vegas cycling event the last 2 years - once solo and once with my dad.  You can read about the rides here and here.  I was just looking at the calendar and wondering when the ride was this year, as I am planning out my training for Pumpkinman, and I was having trouble finding the date for the event.

I finally found their FaceBook page (of all things) and it listed there an apology that they are not doing this ride anymore, preferring to focus more on local community events.  I am really a bit heartbroken!  I am certainly glad I got to do this event with my father last year.

Now I have to start looking around for other cycling events to help keep me motivated in my training.  Its such a long time until Pumpkinman that I know from experience I can lose my focus and stop doing all that I should to prepare for the event.

So, any local events here in the Las Vegas area that you might reccomend?

September review and October Goals

The month of September was awesome.  While I didn't hit my mileage goal of 240 miles for the month having only ridden 160 miles, I'm OK with that. There were other, more important goals that were met.

My dad and I rode Viva Bike Vegas 2013 together which was awesome.  We also got in some other, quality rides after the big ride while they were visiting.  As he said, its too bad we don't live closer so that we can ride together more.

Besides a quick ride around Long Lake with my dad and my brother in 2011 when we were up at my brother's cabin, this was the first chance we had to ride together in over 30 years.  30+ years ago we had ridden in several Bike-A-Thons for the March of Dimes, the last a 100 miler.  Funny how we never "trained" for those rides, but just did them as a matter of course.  They were easy since we were riding everywhere back then.

So, while I didn't make my mileage goal for September, I've decided to set a new one for October,increasing the mileage for the month.  Leaving room for missed days and with hoping to get in longer rides leading up to the Bike MS back to back 30 milers, my goal is 300 miles for October.

Decided to start off strong and I was planning on putting in at least 12 miles this morning, but it seemed the fates had other plans for me and I decided to listen to them.  I woke up about 10 minutes before the alarm was set to go off and my stomach was having issues.  After attending to that I got dressed and headed downstairs.

I got ready, put air in the tires and turned on my Garmin.  I grabbed my helmet, turned on the lights and was waiting for my Garmin to Sync with the satellites.  I looked at it to check the progress and noticed it was off.  I thought maybe I hadn't turned it on so I tried again.  Nope it turned right off.  For some reason the battery was dead.  I always download and charge it every time I use it so this was a mystery to me.

I still had my Fitbit so I could time the ride, I just wouldn't have the file to upload to the various sites.  So I started the timer and set off.  The first couple of laps went well with nothing remarkable happening. On the third lap I noticed my front light getting dimmer and dimmer and within a half mile it was out.  Now with the crazy inattentive drivers and the early morning I knew it wasn't safe to ride without a light for visibility.  I headed in when I got back to the house, found the new package of batteries an changed them out.  I turned the light on and it was nice and bright.

The strangest thing happened then.  I turned my bike around and prepared to head out to put in some more miles and my light turned itself off.  No matter what I tried, it refused to turn back on.  SO I recognized the fact that someone or something didn't want me to ride this morning and put my bike away and came into the house, calling it a day.

So, to summarize, my October riding has started with a mere 3 miles today.

Hope you can get on your bikes and ride!

Reflections on my 51st birthday...

Its been over 3 years that I've been posting to this blog and honestly, I've not made much progress towards my title's goal of losing weight and getting healthy.  In the last 3 years I have done some thing I never would have imagined.

I've completed a very challenging triathlon, I've ridden more miles than I can count, I've completed several group rides including Last year's Viva Bike Vegas, a metric century for Fatty's 100 MON 2013 and The previous year's Corporate challenge bike race.

Over the last 3+ years I've lost and regained over 200 lbs.  I've restarted my efforts numerous times and am restarting again.  Today.

More importantly I've figured out a few thing about myself and made a few friends through this wonderful medium of technology.

I've ridden along with so many other riders who have accomplished significant, awe inspiring things.  I've also re-ignited my love of cycling fro when I was a kid.

As I reflect back on the these things, I also have to look forward and start to shape my future plans.

This Saturday I'm looking forward to an awesome ride with my dad in the Viva Bike Vegas.

Beyond that I'm doing the Bike MS Vegas Challenge in November, the Tour De Cure Las Vegas next April and I hope to complete Fatty's 100 MON next year as well with a true Century.

While those are personal goals, I have others as well. I want to encourage my grandchildren to ride more and take them on longer and longer rides.  I am going to look into adding a different form of riding to my repertoire - Mountain Biking.  As I become at least a little proficient in that, I'm going to look into the local MTB scene and possibly look at starting some type of MTB team in the local schools.

There is so much more I want to accomplish and I recognizer that I need to be healthy for many years to do it.  Riding is just not enough.  I need to tackle the food demon that has me constantly eating more than I should.  I need to keep away from those foods I know that are bad for me and focus on the good.  I need to also focus on portion control and impulse control.  I can and will conquer this.

Funny, but it seems easier to me to ride 100 miles than to constantly focus on what I'm eating.  I guess the reason is that when you are riding there is a set distance and a beginning and an end and the progress is very real and self evident.  In the eating arena and losing weight, there really is no end to the eating right and the progress is so much slower that it is easily doubted.

I am using this occasion to get back on track and into the groove  My goal is that on my 52nd birthday I will be at least 100 lbs lighter than I am right now.

As fizzhog so eloquently puts it.

Eat better.

Ride your bike.

Best laid plans...

As I posted last week, I had been planning on riding in the 3 Feet for Pete ride.  The date of this ride was 9/14/13 which also happens to be my daughter's birthday.  It is also the date when my nephew and niece needed to get to the airport early.  To make a long story short, I was babysitting the grandkids instead of riding on Saturday morning.

I didn't mind not riding.  Its always fun spending time with the grandkids. We had breakfast together and watched some TV and they played.  When my wife and daughter got home, we then got the kids ready and went out for a combined birthday lunch for my daughter and myself.

Now, I didn't ride Friday morning, thinking I was going to ride on Saturday.  On Sunday morning I was plan lazy and didn't get out to ride before the temperature shot up into the 90's so I didn't ride then either.

So the weekend was a bust in terms of getting miles in.  I did get out this morning and put in 10.4 miles so I'm getting back into the swing of things.  I'm planning on riding at least 10 miles per day the next 3 days and then a bit less on Friday as my parents will be here and my dad and I will do a last ride before the Viva Bike Vegas ride on Saturday. This will be a shake down to make sure the bikes are ready for Saturday morning.

So, this morning's ride takes me over the 100 mile mark for the month of September.  In fact I'm at 102/2 miles for the month.  Not bad, but I have to make up some miles to hit my goal of at least 240.

I hope the rain isn't too bad across the country and you are able to...

GET ON YOUR BIKES AND RIDE!!!!!

September challenge

This September I've challenged myself to ride at least 240 miles.  That would be my highest mileage month by 20 miles or so.  That will be quite an achievement.  Along the way I'm going to be riding the 17 mile Viva Bike Vegas Gran Fondo Pinarello on September 21st with my father.

Now, I have to give him big props.  He also met my August challenge, riding every day during the month and beat my total miles by completing 222.6 miles for the month!  Outstanding job!  The important point here is that he turned 71 last week.  I can't say how proud I am of him for doing that.

He is worried about the distance for the coming Viva Bike Vegas ride, but I keep reminding him that he can do it and that its not a race.  We can stop and rest as much as we need to along the way.  I think he would like to take on my September challenge as well, but he will be driving out here to Vegas from Michigan and then driving back so for 8 to 10 days he won't be on a bike.

Now, I would be remiss if I didn't also mention that my mom took my August challenge and met it but in her own way.  She doesn't ride, but she committed to walking at least 20 minutes each day on the treadmill and she did it!  Way to go Ma! I won't mention her age, but she might be 2 or 3 years older than my dad. :)

She is also not taking on my September challenge due to the trip out here this month.  I do know she will be walking every chance she gets, though.

So, anyone else want to commit to a mileage total for September?

Regardless, please get on your bikes and ride!

Registration complete...

Well, now its official.  Both myself and my dad are registered for Viva Bike Vegas on September 21st.



I am so happy and proud of my dad who hasn't ridden more than a couple of miles in the last 30 years, until he thought he might try riding more this summer.  It will be so cool to ride the strip with him that day.  I'm glad its not a race and we can take our time and enjoy the sites.

Anyone else going to be here in September for the ride????

BTW here is the route:

Create Maps or search from 80 million at MapMyRide

August Challenge Day 22 Ride 22

This morning as I got on my bike I decided that I was getting just a bit bored doing the same loops morning after morning.  I had found and ridden a couple of other Strava segments in the neighborhood as I wrote about here, so I decided to see if I could do better on 2 of them.  I wanted to add a bit of variety to keep it interesting.

So I headed out and rode.  I refused to look at my Garmin the whole time I rode this morning.  I really didn't know how far I had gone, nor how fast, nor how long I'd been on the bike.  I wanted it to be a surprise.

I rode those different roads and threw in a couple of laps around my usual loop just to get in the miles.  One interesting note was that the 2 women were out walking again this morning.

When I decided I'd had enough for the morning, I stopped, turned off the Garmin and put my bike away.

I then headed inside to see exactly what I had done.  I was pleasantly surprised when I plugged the Garmin into my laptop and Training Center showed that I had ridden 9.66 miles in 41:59 this morning.  I really had thought I had only done about 7 miles.

I then uploaded the data to Strava and learned that I had set a PR (personal record) on both of the segments this morning.  I am very happy with that.

So for the month I am now at:

22/22 Rides
166.6 Miles
13:09:52 Elapsed Time

Oh, one more thing.  I officially registered my dad and I for the Viva Bike Vegas Gran Fondo Pinarello 17 mile rides on September 21.  Anyone else want to join us???

As the very wise Freddie Mercury said:

Get On Your Bikes And RIDE!

Goal Oriented???

I'm starting to think that I am more goal oriented than I thought I was.  It seems without some goal for some event my motivation is lacking.  Sure I love to ride and have fun, but without a goal of some event, that doesn't seem to be enough to get me out of bed at 4:00 AM.

I have a goal to ride the RTC Viva Bike Vegas 2013 Gran Fondo Pinarello in September and I am stoked that my dad is training to do it with me, but at 17 miles I don't have a need to really do a lot of training to get ready for it.

I'm also looking to the Bike MS: Vegas Challenge 2013 on November 9 & 10 of this year. I would do the 30 mile ride on each of the 2 days.  This will take some training and will be tough, but its far enough away that I don't feel the urgency to help motivate me at the moment.

So, I have been looking around and realized that the Pumpkinman Sprint Triathlon will be happening in October and that is something I can work towards.  Since I haven't done any swimming and very little (OK none) running since I last did this in 2010 (read about it here) I have a bunch of work to do if I am going to do this and beat my 3:30 time from then.  While this is certainly motivation to get out there and do the work, I'm still not totally committed to doing this event.

So I am going to continue to weigh the pros and cons for doing the Pumpkinman and see how that would mesh with preparation for the Bike MS event and decide over the next week or so whether or not to commit to it.  If I do, I will have to adapt the C25K to may 16 weeks to the event to work on my run, I will need to start scheduling time to get in the pool and get my swimming back up to an OK level, and I'll need to work on climbing on my bike in order to conquer the climb up to Boulder City.

Even if I don't I need to get back on my bike and get fit.  Its as simple as that.

Easy or Hard????

How should I push myself - Easy or Hard?

I am looking ahead to a couple of organized rides this fall.  The first is put together by our Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) and is called Viva Bike Vegas.  In the past it has been held in October, but this year they moved it up to the Middle of September to coincide with the Gran Fondo Pinarello and Interbike, and it is being held on September 22.  What attracts me to this ride is the opportunity to actually ride the Las Vegas Strip.

The second organized ride is BIKE:MS Vegas Challenge  which will be held November 10 & 11.  Thee are ride options on both Saturday and Sunday and the proceeds of the fundraising go to the National MS society.

Both rides look to be well organized and well run.  They both offer options as to length of ride as well.  Viva Bike Vegas has 4 options 17, 75, 102and 122 miles.  BIKE:MS has 3 options on day 1: Century, Metric Century or 30 miler, and 2 options on day 2: 50 and 30 miles.

This is where the question comes in:  Do I go the easy route and look at the shorter options, or do I really push myself and try for a longer option?  My first instinct has been to ride the 17 mile route for Viva Bike Vegas and the 30 mile on Day 2 of the BIKE:MS. Of course that was before I read some of the recent blog posts by Fatty, Sarah, Fizzhog and Steve.  Now I am starting to question if I should push myself harder.

One huge consideration is my current fitness level, likely quantity of riding to prepare for the events.  Another is whether or not anyone is going to be accompanying me on the ride(s).  I would love to have some company!

OK, I’ve made up my mind and will shortly be putting my money where my mouth is as I actually register for these 2 events.  I am going to do the 17 mile route for Viva Bike Vegas.  If they had a 50 mile route, I would be tempted to do it as it is just after my 50^th birthday, but I think the 17 miler will do nicely.  I’ve also decided to do the 30 mile ride on both days of the BIKE:MS event. (watch for more information so you can donate to help support this great cause)

So, I now have a plan and will ride fairly easy, but tending towards hard as I get more miles under my belt.  Anyone want to join me at either event????