And the cold wind blows...

I want to start this post by mentioning I was born and raised in southern Michigan.  We had winters with cold and snow and I enjoyed them.  It was expected to be cold and you bundled up and got on with life - no big deal.  Then 6 years ago I moved to the desert.  Now I had visited before, at various times of the year and thought I had pretty much experienced all of the "seasons" here.  My first trip here was in December of 1994 and I didn't wear a coat the whole time I was here.  It wasn't unseasonable warm or anything, in fact it was a bit below average, but compared to what we had left it felt wonderful.

You might be asking yourself why am I going on about this?  Well, its because now that I have been here for 6 years, and I have experienced the highs of summer and the lows of winter, I have realized that my body's tolerance for cold has changed.  Add to that the fact that I no longer have cold weather apparel (hey I live in the desert!) and it makes me not want to ride when the temps are below 45 degrees.

Now I know those that are still out there in the Midwest (I'm looking at you Steve, fizzhog) are thinking what a wuss! In my defense I have to say its all relative.  I may not ride when its below 45, but then again I have ridden when its 110.

Now I could invest in a bunch of cold weather riding gear, but I really don't think its that good of an investment.  Sure we are finally coming out of one of the coldest 2 week stretches in the last 20 years, but this weekend its going to be in the 60's.  I just don't see that I would get enough use out of the cold weather gear to make the investment worthwhile.

By now you are wondering if there is really a purpose or a point to this post.  The answer is yes.  The point is that I have not been on the bike but twice so far this year. This is due mainly to the unseasonable cold weather.  This is about to change and for the next few weeks, I have set myself a goal of riding at least 4 days per week.  As long as mother nature cooperates, this is certainly a manageable goal.

Get out there and Ride!!!

Registered - 2013 Tour De Cure

I've just registered for my first ride of the year - the 2013 Tour De Cure - Las Vegas.  The ride is on April 27th and I've elected to do the 30 mile option being my first big ride of the year.

There are several reasons why I have chosen this ride.  My biggest reason is that my mother and 2 aunts are all living with diabetes and I want to do what I can to stop this horrible disease.  Knowing that these close family members are afflicted adds another strike against myself and makes it that much more likely that I will get, or possibly already have diabetes.  I know my weight and poor diet are huge risk factors as well and that's why I have undertaken this journey to a slimmer and healthier me.

I can't do this alone, though.  I have set myself a goal of $1,000 in fundraising for this cause and have contributed $79 myself towards this goal.  I ask that if you have the means, please donate here at my personal page.  If you are unable to donate, how about riding with me?  The weather in April in Las Vegas is wonderful!

Weekly Update 1/11/13

Trying to be a bit more timely with the weekly updates.  One good thing is that I actually got out and rode twice this last week.  The bad news is that since I've been off work I haven't been as vigilant with my diet, but that should improve.

Here is my FitBit data for the last week:

Steps: 28626  (up 1413)
Miles: 14.25  (up .69)
Calories Eaten: 15668  (down 1384)
Calories burned: 26006  (up 386)
Net: -10338  (up 1770)

Cycling this week: 13 miles
Total 2013:  13 miles


Fortunately the weather is supposed to be improving towards the end of the week and I do hope to get out for more rides.

The good news is that since 12.1, I am down a total of 33 pounds.

Weekly Update 1/4/13

I realized this morning that I never finished and posted last week's weekly update.  I will strive to be more timely in the future.  Anyway, now its time for this week's update..

Here is my FitBit data for the last week:

Steps:  27213 (up 2071)
Miles:  13.54  (up 1.03)
Calories Eaten:  17052  (down 671)
Calories burned:  25620  (down 219)
Net:  -8568  (up 454)

As you can see, this is not bad, but it can be better.  The good news is I did increase my steps, distance and burn.  I'm feeling pretty good about these numbers considering these are the holidays and I am away from my routine.  I'm hoping to pick up my activity and actually get back on the bike in the coming week.

The good news is that since 12.1, I am down a total of 32.8 pounds.

Looking back..and ahead

As we all often do at this time of year, I have been reflecting on what I've accomplished over the last year and then I start thinking ahead to what I want to accomplish in the next year.

As for what I did in 2012:

I rode a total of 566 miles in 2012. (this may change if I can get out there in the next day or to).

I competed in the corporate challenge bike race in May.

I purchased a new bike in 2012 and am happy with it after the trials and tribulations with the spokes/wheels and pedal issues.

I completed the Viva Bike Vegas 17 mile ride in September.

Along the way I've gained and lost a bunch of pounds and have rededicated myself to improving my health and losing weight.  I've picked up a fitbit tracker to try and motivate myself to move more and it seems my wife and daughter are joining me on this journey as they have each gotten the fitbit for Christmas.

As I sit here I'm thinking about the events I want to do in 2013.  Those events include:

Tour de cure ride - April 2013

Corporate Challenge - May 2013

100 mile of nowhere - June 2013

Viva Bike Vegas - September 2013

Bike MS - November 2013

As you can see I'm hoping to accomplish much more int he ride department in 2013.  I also am looking to ride at least 2013 miles in 2013.

With this much riding and watching my diet, I'm planning on also getting below 300 lbs. by 12/31/2013.

I hope to see some of you on some of these rides in 2013!

Weekly update 12/21/12

Well, it looks like the Mayans were wrong and the world didn't end today. :)  That being said its time for a weekly update.

Here is my FitBit data for the last week:

Steps:  25142 (up 2472)
Miles:  12.51 (up 1.23)
Calories Eaten:  17725  (up 1716)
Calories burned:  25839 (up 1227)
Net:  -8114 (down 489)

As you can see, this is not bad, but it can be better.  The good news is I did increase my steps, distance and burn.  The bad news is I also increased my consumption.

Now comes the challenging part of the year.  I am off work for over 3 weeks and it is the holidays.  The tendency for this time is to slack on the activity and gorge on the food.  I am going to pay close attention to make sure things don't go too awry.

The best news is that since 12.1, I am down a total of 23.3 pounds.

A Long Overdue Update

For anyone who does stop in to read, I must apologize for the time that has lapsed since my last post.  We all know that the best of intentions don't always end up with the best results.  Frankly there hasn't been a lot to talk about.  I haven't been riding, I have been watching my diet, through.

I joined a challenge on FitBit.com to lose 50 lbs.  The challenge is simply - whoever loses 50 lbs. first gets the first place prize, second gets second place, etc.  This challenge started on December 1st so I weighed in for the challenge the evening of November 30, after dinner of course.  I couldn't believe what the scale said: 464.4 lbs!  That's the heaviest I have been in almost 3 years - up 80 lbs from my lowest when I did Pumpkinman 2 years ago.

This was an eye opener for sure.  I was glad I had already decided it was time to get back into the process of getting healthy because this was unacceptable.

That was 2 weeks ago and I have to say that combining a bit more walking with truly watching what I'm eating and going back to the low carb diet has paid off.  As of this morning my weight is 441.8!  That is a 22.6  pound loss in only 2 weeks.  Yes I know this is not truly a sustainable trend and that a large part of the initial loss was fluids, but still it is definite progress in the right direction.  I also has me in first place for the challenge as well by a significant margin.

With this in mind over the next couple of weeks I'm going to try to stick to the every Friday updates and monitor my progress on here for even more accountability   Along the way I'll look back over the year to see what I've managed to accomplish and set the stage for new goals for 2013.

Also, here is a picture of me at the Viva Bike Vegas event back in October:

This is my before picture.  Never again will I be this size.  I am hoping to have another picture from this event in 2013 and there will be a dramatic difference between the pictures.

That said here is my FitBit data for the last week:

Steps:  22670
Miles:  11.28
Calories Eaten:  16009
Calories burned:  24612
Net:  -8603

As you can see, this is not bad, but it can be better.

Weekly update 11/9/12

Today is my first weekly update.  I'll be working with the format for the next few weeks to figure out what works best for me and what information I want to share.

I first want to say that I love the FitBit ultra that I have.  Its small, unobtrusive and it is helping to motivate me to be more active which is its goal.  I love that it wasn't very expensive, that it updates wirelessly, fits easily in a pocket or on my belt and best of all I don't have to subscribe in order to view the data.

Here is a snapshot of my results for the last week:

Activity

 30150 steps taken

 55 floors climbed

 15.01 miles traveled

Total Burned	Total Eaten	Deficit
27648 cals	20212 cals	-7436 cals

Now let's compare this to the previous week's numbers before I decided to get moving at all:

Activity

 23855 steps taken

 17 floors climbed

 11.87 miles traveled

Total Burned	Total Eaten	Deficit
25998 cals	27476 cals	+1478 cals

As you can see from the above, there was a deficit in calories this week, where there was a surplus in calories the previous week.  Thi will be my baseline week to measure future activity against.

To achieve this, I have managed to cycle 3 days this last week for a total of just shy of 27 miles.  Not a lot of miles, but it is a new start and it is chipping away at my revised goal of 1000 miles this year.  My total is up to 566, only 434 to go.

Relaunch

Today is relaunch day.  I took advantage of the time change to get my butt out of bed and on the bike this morning.  After the ride I realized that I hadn't ridden in 33 days.  33 days.  How quickly we can fall out of the habit and let our old, bad habits take over.

My best guess is that in those 33 days, with the complete lack of exercise and the total poor eating, that I gained about 10 lbs.  Not a good thing at all.  Definitely moving in the wrong direction and its time to get my life back on course to a fitter, healthier me.

Towards that end I purchased a FitBit Ultra tracker to monitor just how active I really m on a daily basis.  I've actually had the tracker for 2 weeks now and have worn it every Day just to get a baseline reading of how inactive I truly am.  let's just say there isn't much place to go, other than up in the activity department.

My goal is to go back to weekly updates with my weight and activities for the week starting this coming Friday.  I'll be pulling numbers from my fitbit as well as listing how many miles I've traveled and how far to get to my revised goal of 1000 miles in 2012.

Viva Bike Vegas 2012

Saturday was the 2012 version of Viva Bike Vegas and it was a blast. There were 4 distances riders could choose from, 122 miles, 105 miles, 75 miles or 17 miles.  Since I haven't been riding as much as I would have liked/needed to for the longer distances, I opted for the 17 mile route.  This route started at Town Square at the south end of the strip and headed north on Las Vegas Boulevard to downtown Las Vegas and then made its way back south to the starting point.

I woke up early on the day of the event and got ready to head out.  I visited the restroom twice before leaving home as my stomach prepared for the day. On the way to the event, I stopped and picked up a couple of Powerades in case I was thirsty.  I had opted to not bring my camelback as it was only a 17 mile ride and I figured at most it should take 2 hours.  I've ridden almost as far without hydration so I figured it was no big deal especially since we were starting in the absolute cool of the day.

On Friday night as I was reviewing my packet I found out that the 17 mile ride was going to be a mass start at 6:00 am.  This was different from what they said online which was that the event started at 5:00 am.  The longer distances started at 5:00 with waves leaving every 7 minutes or so.  Part of the reason for this was to control traffic on the strip for the event.

I arrived at Town Square at 4:40 and started going about preparing my bike for the ride.  I inflated the tires, checked my lights and made sure everything looked good.  I hadn't ridden the bike since i had gotten the rear wheel back from being trued on Tuesday.  I figured that if the spokes were going to loosen again, I wanted to make it through the ride so I didn't want to take any chances.  While I was preparing I heard the first wave leave the start with much fanfare and even some fireworks.  I then decided to go and investigate where I would line up for my wave.

As I rode around to locate the rear of the staging area it struck me just how many people were actually there for the ride.  They were lined up all the way to the center square of Town Square with many more milling about.  One look told me that I need not get lined up yet as there was plenty of time before I would leave.  So I did what many others were doing, I located the restroom for one more PRP.  As I walked into the restroom, it struck me that as a group we cyclists were a pretty trusting lot.  Everyone was leaving their bikes unattended while attending to their bodily needs.  Anyone could have walked up and ridden away with multi-thousands of dollars worth of bikes.  Happily that didn't happen!

After attending to my business, I headed back towards the start corrals and decided to grab a picture of the sea of cyclists.  It came out a bit dark, due to the lack of light since it was pre-dawn, but it does show how many people were there:

Instead of standing in line for 35 minutes waiting for the start, I decided to go and find a bench to relax.  While I was watching the mass of people heading back and forth towards the restrooms, Mary Jo from work stopped by to say 'Hi'.  Her and I had ridden in the Corporate Challenge and were close to the same pace.  We decided to do most of the ride together.  Her husband had already left with one of the earlier waves as he was doing one of the longer distances.  She went to find our corral and I said I would look for her in a few minutes as the start got closer.

At 5:45 I decided ti was time to get ready and find the group for the start.  I had been thinking that the larger number of riders would be doing the shorter distance, but that wasn't the case.  There were maybe 200 riders doing the 17 mile course and some of those had signed up for a longer distance but decided to do the shorter distance that morning.  I moved through the corral and found Mar Jo towards the front of the group.  As we were waiting I decided one more trip to the restroom was in order so I hurried back and took care of business.  I wasn't gone more than 5 minutes, but when I came back they had moved the group up to the starting line.

As we waited for the time to count down the announcer went through the crowd asking where people were from and if it was their first time doing the event.  There were several people from California, someone from Portland, someone from Seattle, someone from Arkansas and several from Las Vegas.  Finally it was time to go and we headed out onto Las Vegas Boulevard and headed north.  I was glad to be riding as the anticipation was getting too much.

We set out at a fairly good pace.  Not having done many group rides, especially with so many people in such a tight group, I was a bit tentative at first not wanting to get too close to anyone else.  Within a half mile or so the group seemed to stretch out a bit and there was a bit more room to maneuver.  Since I had made the last minute restroom stop, Mary Jo had ended up towards the front of the group and I was at the back.  I started working my way slowly through the pack and caught up to her just past Tropicana.

 I loved riding up the length of the strip in the pre-dawn light.  Most of the hotels were still brightly lit and there were even a number of tourists walking along watching the 2000 or so crazy cyclists riding along.  The temperature was around 70 with a light breeze so it was a very enjoyable ride.  I especially liked having the police escort with the intersections blocked so we didn't have to stop all the way up the strip until we hit Charleston.

Thee was a bit of confusion as our route directions had us bearing left onto 4th street just past the Stratosphere, but there was an officer there with the turn blocked off with cones and he was forcing several riders who had ridden through the cones to turn around and continue down Las Vegas Boulevard.  We then decided that since we would have had to make a left from 4th Street onto Wyoming, when we got to Wyoming and Las Vegas Boulevard we made a left.  There were no signs or route markers at this turn.  As we got to Main Street, though, there was a route marker so we knew that had been the right move.

Once we left the strip, we left the part of the ride.  As we continued on we went through some commercial and industrial areas of the city.  We also lost the police escort and blocked intersections.  This meant stopping for lights many time over the last half of the ride.  It also meant that our essentially flat ride also had some hills as we went under the I-15 freeway and up along Dean Martin and Industrial Dr.  In fact it was on the uphill just past the I-15 that I dropped my chain.I hadn't really gotten the shifting of the front derailleur dialed in since I had the cranks replaced and I was trying to downshift to my middle ring heading up the hill.  I clicked the shifter but it didn't shift so I hit it a second time hoping it would go to the small ring.

It didn't.  It went past the small ring and right off into space.  Leaving me with a dropped chain.  No big deal except there went any momentum I had and now I had to get greasy putting the chain back on.  Of course I shifted back to the big ring, but that didn't help so I got off and place the chain back on the big ring, but then it was off on the rear.  SO after moving it around and telling the 15 people who asked that I was OK, I was back in business, except I walked up the hill because I wasn't going anywhere in the gear I was in.

That was my one and only issue for the day.  A little grease on my hands was the only casualty.

As we worked our way along Valley View I realized that there was a bit of elevation difference between where we were and the starting line, especially when we turned onto Sunset and I realized this was where we were crossing back over the freeway.  The overpass was high, but there was a slight downhill leading up to it.  I got up a good head of steam and used my momentum and 4 gears to get to the top.  Unfortunately there was a light at the bottom of the other side of the overpass where we had to make a left and no police to stop traffic for us so we couldn't take advantage of any gravity assist.  We of course hit the red light and as we waited we weren't enough to trigger the sensor in the left turn lane so when we got the chance we had to ride through the red turn arrow.

We then made out way around, under the overpass we had just crossed and into the rear of Town Square and into the finish chute. I received the finisher medal and was very happy to have ridden the 17 miles in just over 1:30.  There was a lot of tents set up in the finish area, but most of them weren't really ready for finishers yet.  Outback Steakhouse was there to provide lunch for all of the riders, but they hadn't started cooking yet.  So after a brief look at the tents I decided it was time to head home.  I was home before 8:00.

All in all it was a great event and it pushed me over the 500 mile mark for miles ridden this year.