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 update #1

OK, so we are now 5 days into the month of September and I've ridden 3 of those 5 days for a total of 31 miles.  Not bad, but I have a long ways to go to get to my monthly goal of 240 miles.  Looks like its time for a longer ride or two this weekend.

I am happy with my rides so far.  Both yesterday and today I got in a nice 12.5 mile ride.  Yesterday it took 53:29.  This morning I pushed it a bit more and did it in 52:06 with a 14.4 mph pace.  I feel really good about that.

One other notable item from this morning is that I've passed the 700 mile mark for 2013.  That is a pretty good total, but not nearly what I'm hoping for in 2013.

August Challenge Day 29 Ride 29

Well, the month is almost over and I'm happy to say that I've ridden 29 out of 29 days so far.  I was up and out at just after 4:00 am and had a pleasant and pretty unremarkable ride.  No wildlife.  No inconsiderate drivers.  I did see the honeydew wagon, but he must have done his job right as I didn't smell him.

One thing I want to mention is that I've registered for the Bike MS Las Vegas challenge ride in November.  I hope you will help to raise funds to fight MS, but I'll post more on that later.

Today's stats:

10.4 Miles
44:39 elapsed time

Month to date:

29/29 rides
216.7 Miles
17:09:22 Elapsed Time

Get on your bikes and RIDE!!!!!

August Challenge Update - Rides 23, 24, 25, and 26

I have been remiss in my updates and for this I apologize.

Its been a rather busy few days and the good news is I have gotten in a ride everyday. I am still on track to ride all 31 days in August. The bad news is my oldest grandson went home to Michigan on Saturday. It was really tough this year as he has grown and matured so much. We were going to do a last ride on Saturday morning before he left, but it didn't happen as he slept a bit later and then had to get to the airport.

Friday's ride was a ramble to look at all the streets in the subdivision and the one next door. Sad to say after 3 years of living in the house there were streets in our small sub I hadn't been on. One interesting note, one of the bordering street has a single house on it, all alone. The other houses around it all face into the subdivision and are accessed off the internal roads. A nice, private oasis.

Saturday was a couple of laps around the block with Dillon, Nick and Ceanna, who only made it part way up the block and was too tired.

Sunday Dillon was the only taker and we re-rode most of the streets in the subdivision since he hadn't been down them.

This morning it was back to the usual 4:00 am ride of 10.4 miles. It was nice seeing the 2 women who were walking last week were back and they had a third woman with them. We exchanged greetings on one lap. 2 laps later the woman who seemed to be the leader was jogging while the others were walking.

So, month to date we have:

26/26 rides
183.4 miles
14:44:44 elapsed time

Hope you are able to Get On Your Bikes and RIDE!

August Challenge Day 20 Ride 20

Warm, humid start to the day.  I checked my tires before the ride as usual and was concerned when I found my front tire at less than 40 psi.  It seemed the issue was with the valve and not with a puncture.  I tightened the inner valve and pumped up the tire and it seemed to be holding air, but I didn't have faith in its staying inflated so I stopped a few times during the ride to check it out.

Overall it was a good ride.  It was interesting in that there were very few cars, but there were several pedestrians this morning.  Two women were out walking laps.  I passed the 4 or 5 times.  A gentleman was walking his dog and on the last last there was another man out for his morning exercise.  That's more people out and about in one morning than I've seen the rest of the month combined.

This morning's stats:

10.4 miles
48:33 elapsed time

Month to Date:

20/20 rides
146.6 miles
11:44:09 elapsed time

Heading into the home stretch of the challenge.

Get on your bikes and ride!!!!

August Challenge Day 19 Ride 19

The rain persisted on and off until about 3:30 this morning.  I know because it was raining at 10:00, it was raining at 2:00 and it was still sprinkling at 3:20 when I looked at the radar loop on my phone.  I was thinking that I would wait until after work to get my ride in today as I lay back down to try and get some sleep.

I kept thinking about how yesterday's ride was so short and mainly a token effort.  I thought about how the weather forecast was for more thunderstorms this afternoon and in all likelihood I would end up making only a token effort today.

I decided that for good or bad, I was getting up and riding this morning.  I am glad I did.

The roads were still wet when I got out there a little later than usual, but I decided to just start out nice and easy and see what I could do with the time I had.  There was a lot of sand and grit on the roads, especially on Quarterhorse by the construction site.

I did my first lap and thought to myself, "this isn't too bad."  The temperature was 73, and although a bit humid, it was nice riding weather.

I know I was slower than usual as I was taking it easy, but I decided 4 laps in that I could make the scheduled 10 laps in what time I had.  And that's what I did and I am happy.

Today's stats:

10.4 miles
48:31 Elapsed time

Month to date:

19/19 rides
136.2 Miles
10:55:36 elapsed time

Get on your bikes and ride!