Stronger, Fitter, Faster

Stronger

Twelve years behind a desk does things to your body. For the first time in ten years I've started hitting a gym 3x a week but that doesn't mean I can muster too many pushups just yet.

Fitter

Lose a serious amount of weight. This is definitely key to making everything else work, so I'll be focusing on dropping pounds to get not only into a healthy range of BMI, but to also increase my endurance and fitness.

A Ride with George

This week my George Hincapie documentary DVD showed up and I got to watch it yesterday while flying down to San Francisco and back for a quick one-day trip. I've long been a fan of George because like him I'm a tall guy and he's always been my tall-guy-in-the-peleton favorite and he's great at the spring Classics and those are some of my favorite races to watch. I always root for him when he races and I couldn't wait to watch the film.

I'll sum up the entire review by saying I watched the whole thing on the plane ride down to SF and it was so good I re-watched the entire movie again that night on the flight home. Highly recommended if you are a fan of Big George (even if you aren't watch the trailer and you just might like it as much as I did).

(I also liked it so much I cross posted this to the Buy Local blog as well)

Posted on July 9, 2009 in product reviews | Comments (0)

Big bet update and a new bike team

It seems that the bet described in the previous post is now officially halfway completed, and I'm happy to say that on July 1st, I weighed in at 209.8lbs, just under where I should be in order to hit 200lbs by September 1st. I also rode about 470 miles last month, the most of any month this year and I even took two trips of several days in length each. If I had stayed home all month, I'm sure I could be doing more than 600 miles per month.

On a similar note, I want to introduce a new bike team I've helped get off the ground: Buy Local Cycling. My friend Jeff came up with an idea to showcase local bike frame builders and bike products by riding custom frames with either Oregon and/or American-made products. I chipped in some seed money and we've assembled a rag-tag bunch of low-key (mostly) cyclocross riders. We're expanding the cyclocross series we launched last year and just added a brand-new Short Track Mountain Bike series around Salem, Oregon including one race in the middle of the Oregon State Fair.

It's fun and not too serious, as half the fun has been selecting bike kit designs and picking paint colors on new DeSalvo frames.

Posted on July 6, 2009 in goals | Comments (1)

My Big Fat Bet

As I've been riding and training and playing with power meters this year, I've quickly realized I can put out a lot of power (1200+ watts in a short 5 second sprint) and I can put out a decent amount of power over longer rides (250 watts for 2hrs). I've seen power watt profiles of PRO racers and their numbers aren't terribly off for their typical stage races but it doesn't take a math wiz to realize they're going fast and I'm going slow because I weigh 220 pounds and top racers are frequently down in the 130-150lb range. Watts per kilogram is a good rough measure of cycling speed (here's a post explaining it) and I've just barely hit the 3 watts/kg mark, or the bottom end of a local amateur bike racer.

Watts per kilogram is a simple calculation and I could train harder all summer to slowly inch up my 20 minute thresholds, but lowering the denominator, or my weight, would really improve my total score in a big way. Lose ten kilos while putting out the same effort and I'm suddenly in the 3.3 watts/kg range. If I was down at my college fitness weight, I'd be closing in on 4 watts/kg which would make me tremendously more competitive locally and even regionally.

The Bet Idea

Early on, my bike coach said losing weight before the next cross season starts this Fall would be necessary, and he mentioned that coming up with interesting bets worked well in the past with his riders. He proposed trying to put up a financial bet that was big enough to be motivating towards winning the bet without being too painful of a cost if I didn't. He said typically it's a $1,000 bet, where I give him a check for that much money, we agree on a weight and a date to hit it, and if I meet the goal, I get the check back to tear up, but if I don't, he gives it to a bike-related charity. I considered this for a couple weeks until I stumbled upon a similar idea.

Don't drink and eBay

I scour eBay fairly regularly for deals on hard-to-find parts, recently I came across a pro jersey auction from team Garmin/Slipstream for Steven Cozza's dirty jersey from this year's Paris-Roubaix race. Now, this is my favorite race of the year and the Slipstream team is one of my favorites as well. So late one night, against better judgement I put a bid on the jersey. I figured I could get it for a couple hundred bucks, since Cozza didn't win (he was in an early breakaway and lead for some length of the long course) and he wasn't a famous guy. So I put down $200, and I was outbid. I pushed it to $300, still outbid. I watched it for a couple days and when it was about 24hrs from being done I saw that it was nearing $500. I knew this was madness but I really wanted a Paris-Roubaix momento and I had a bit of money sitting at paypal, so I put in $600 but it wasn't enough to be the top bidder. You can guess how this ended -- I did win the jersey but not until it hit the $1,000 mark.

Again, I'll admit that I know that was crazy and way too much for a mid-pack rider's jersey and I never intended to pay anywhere near that amount but at some point I really wanted to get that jersey and I did what was necessary to get it.

The Actual Bet

When I woke the morning after and realized what I'd done, I also remembered the coach's idea for a weight loss bet so I proposed the following: I'll frame the jersey and give it to Seth my coach around May 1st (at the weight of around 220lbs), and if I can get to 200lbs or below by September 1st, I'll get the jersey back, and if I fail to reach the goal, Seth gets to keep the jersey on his wall.

The photo to the right shows the jersey fresh from the frame shop, where it cost several hundred dollars more (!!!) to mount in a custom frame. I got a copy of Graham Watson's amazing photo of Cozza leading the race wearing the jersey itself.

Weight Loss Diary

I've put a bit of an uptick on my mileage in an effort to burn some more calories, but after watching my morning weight for the last six months I'm really finding that portion control is the key to weight loss. No matter how many miles I ride or hours I spend in the gym, I'm staying about the same weight unless I scale back on sweets and the amount of food I eat at dinner. So while I stopped eating most junk food years ago, I stopped eating red meat almost two decades ago, I rarely drink, and I reduced my intake of bad stuff like soda, the key is really keeping my dinners as light as possible.

In order to hit my goal over four months, I have to lose just over a pound a week and so far I'm about on track. Last week I hit an all time low that was already over 25% of the way to the goal weight, but I think it was mostly dehydration because I bounced up shortly after. At this point I'm optimistic as I'm down a couple pounds in the first couple weeks but there is always a chance I might not make it, because I've been stuck in the 220-230lb range for the past four years.

Now that I'm knee-deep in the bet I have to admit the size of the bet definitely helps motivate me to say no to cake at birthday parties and I'm trying to cut down on soda to only once in a while. I know if I'm not halfway down by the halfway time point, I'll definitely be working frantically to reach the goal and possibly freaking out a little because damn, after all the time, effort, and money I've put into training and the money I blew on that jersey, I better get to keep it.

Posted on May 20, 2009 in goals, weight | Comments (3)

Winter 2009 Bike book reviews

To get through the long gray winters here in Oregon, I've taken to reading every book I can find about cycling to keep me motivated and wanting to ride when the weather is cold, rainy, and windy. The following are all the books I picked up and read since about October and I included a short review of each.

Of course, it goes without saying the best cycling book ever written is The Rider by Tim Krabbe and none of these books can hold a candle to it, but a few have their moments and aren't half-bad.

In no particular order:

Major by Todd Balf -- a pretty straightforward biography of the fastest man on earth at the turn of the 20th century, Major Taylor. There are half a dozen books on him and I just picked a newer title. Pretty eye-opening look at how hard it was for a man to rise to the ranks of world champion and still struggle with racism in America at every turn.

The Race by Dave Shields -- This is a pretty good fiction book about a rider's rise to the Tour de France and reads like the author really loved The Rider and wanted to capture some of that. There is a lot of racing and cycling and team politics in it and it's great, though I kind of wish in the end it felt more realistic. It'd make a good movie script I bet.

Positively False by Floyd Landis -- I finally got around to reading Landis' book and it's a nice autobiography of how he came up and eventually made it to the big show, but in the end his defense of doping comes off as really nitpicky and reminds me of someone trying to tell you every technical reason why they shouldn't be guilty but none of them are big enough to actually make him innocent. I honestly think most everyone in the pro peleton dopes to a degree, and when people get caught is when they mess up their doses or metabolize it at a different rate. Landis never says why his artificial testosterone levels were more than zero, his defense is that they weren't high enough to be considered suspect by most labs. If he was racing clean, you'd think his numbers would be at or near zero but he never talks about what experimental controls look like in the tests or how the tests work specifically.

We Might As Well Win by Johan Bruyneel -- Fairly silly autobiography that annoyed me by the end. It's basically several hundred pages of Johan Bruyneel telling you how great he is, why he's so great, and even when the discussion turns to failures, it's all about the few times he made a mistake but more about how he turned them around because he's so great. There isn't an ounce of humility in this entire thing. Only recommended to Lance Armstrong fan completists that want to know everything possible about Lance's reign at the top.

Momentum is Your Friend by Joe Kurmaskie -- I wanted to love this because I've seen the author pop up in Northwest cycling circles and I love cross-country cycling diaries, but the writing was just too flowery for me. Instead of hearing what a hard grind of 80 miles the stretch between two Wyoming towns was one day, it's more like all the thoughts in his head while he was spinning the pedals. I guess I'm used to more practical cross-country trip stories that will tell me about adventures on the road but this was more like drinking beers with the author and hearing all the crazy stuff he thought about that day, most of which wasn't at all ride-related.

Dog in a Hat by Joe Parkin -- This was a fantastic autobiography about an American racer in Belgium in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Tons of good stories, though I hope I'm not spoiling anything by saying it doesn't have the "and then I won the Tour de France" happy ending. He strives to win but ends up as a pretty good domestique, but you get the feeling from reading it that he wanted to be a team leader for a long time.

Blazing Saddles by Matt Rendell -- a great albeit brief overview of the last 100+ years of the Tour de France. I've only followed the last 15-20 years or so of the race so most of the classic history was new to me. There are just a couple pages written about each year's tour, so it's a fairly quick read that will bring you up to speed on the history of the biggest race on earth.

Heft on Wheels by Mike Magnuson -- This book was close to my heart because it parallels my story a bit. I've never smoked and I'm not an alcoholic, but I am a hefty guy looking to lose weight and get into bike racing in much the same ways the author did. If you can get through a few hundred pages of "I was so drunk that night, I..." stories the riding and racing stories are worth it and I won't be spoiling anything by saying by the end he's totally turned his life around and is kicking much ass. This was probably the best motivational book of the entire lot.

Posted on April 6, 2009 in product reviews | Comments (0)

Punxsutawney Phil lives in my derailleur

Today was only the third day of sun I've seen on my bike since the new year, but looking at the forecast, it's the first time I've seen multiple sunny days in the forecast so I decided to hang up the rain bike. It's officially spring, as I transferred the 9-speed cluster off my Powertap hub and replaced it with my 10-speed SRAM road cassette. I don't have a chain breaker and freewheel tool, so this was done at my local shop which means I'm not going back to the rain bike until next winter. It's been a long winter to me since I've put so much mileage down over the past few months. I've ridden on snow, I've ridden in sleet, but I prefer sun.

As the great ELO once said, hey there Mr. Blue Sky, welcome back, it's finally Spring.

Posted on March 18, 2009 in training | Comments (0)

Winter setbacks, Spring forward

The first couple months of this year went really well. I started to hit a groove and got a ton of riding in (compared to usual January/February riding in the past). By mid-Feb, I was feeling as strong as I usually feel in the summer during prime riding season, and looking forward to some spring races. I was riding six days a week and working out three times a week and feeling great. Then I hurt my back.

I don't know if it was from overly tight hamstrings, poor sleep, or just generally getting older, but for the first time in my life, near the end of February I experienced severe back pain. I was working for a few hours in a weird hunched over position putting some shelves together, and when I was done I was quite sore. This is all normal, but after a day or two it kept getting worse, which never happens to me. Several days passed and everything worsened, to the point where walking became a painful ordeal. This was all new territory.

On the bright side, some quick checks by Seth revealed it wasn't a disc problem and some physical therapy got me on the mend. I spent the past two weeks traveling to see family and attend a technology conference, with my back feeling close to 100% now. I did an hour long ride on Friday and felt great.

Taking 2 weeks off my bike at this part of the year isn't ideal and I definitely feel like my fitness is back where it was in early January, but I'm glad to be recovered and looking forward to getting back into the swing of things.

Now if only this rain and wind would stop...

Posted on March 15, 2009 in training | Comments (0)

NAHBS 2009

I really wanted to go to Indy this weekend to catch the North American Handmade Bike Show. I attended last year in Portland and was amazed by the craftsmanship and design.

This year I'll be watching the NAHBS tag on flickr closely and remotely living vicariously through the photographs. One of these days I'll finally plunk down some money for a brilliantly painted and equipped rando/touring rig like this one pictured here.

Posted on February 27, 2009 in gadgets/bikes | Comments (0)

Tour of California

A few thoughts about the Tour of California:

• I'm amazed that the weather in Oregon is better than the weather in Northern California. I did a three hour ride on Sunday and got a bit of road spray on me, but no rain, while the ToC racers were drenched all day on the way to Santa Rosa. I rode yesterday under cloudy skies while the racers got drenched. I think it's about the same temp today where I live as where they are racing.
• The OUCH team pictured above is sponsored by tire maker Maxxis, but they don't make tubular tires, so the entire team runs clinchers with Maxxis treads (note the aluminum rims on both riders). Clincher rims are usually a couple hundred grams heavier than their tubular equivalents and in a sport where every ounce and advantage matters, I'm kind of surprised they don't run a competitor's tubular tires rebranded as Maxxis.
• The Versus TV coverage has been pretty bad. Given that the network is sort of a catch-all for oddball sports, cycling is pretty far down the list of important sports to the station. Monday's slower rainy stage was only about 2/3 done when my TiVo'd time slot was up (had to read the results online instead of watching them), so I adjusted recordings to add an extra hour to the Versus time slot for a stage. Yesterday they cut off the last 30-40minutes of racing (including an exciting bunch sprint ending) to show a hockey game, which my TiVo dutifully recorded an hour of. The online live coverage is really good, so that makes it better, but it sucks that they can't bring an exciting race to the airwaves properly.

Posted on February 18, 2009 in racing | Comments (0)

Tearing and rebuilding

Getting back into the gym this week after a month long hiatus, I'm reminded of the last time I went to a gym regularly back in the late 90s. After a few months of dutifully lifting weights three times a week, I hit a lull in my enthusiasm for it because I felt like I was merely tearing my muscles up every other day, and recuperating when I wasn't working out. I was always sore and never felt satisfied or good about the work I was doing. I did very monotonous and repetitive routines and simply added weight each week to measure my progress.

Luckily this time around I have a trainer and he changes things up week to week and we barely focus on weight (I don't actually even know how much I'm lifting or pushing most times -- we just talk in relative terms of harder or easier). The difference between having a trainer varying workouts versus following a list exactly every day in the gym is night and day. I'm satisfyingly exhausted at the end of each workout and while I might be a bit sore during the in between days (not so sore I can't get hours of riding in), it's nothing like the robotic routine of tear, rebuild, tear, rebuild.

I never thought I'd say it, but I actually like working out now.

Posted on February 14, 2009 in gym | Comments (0)

The dangers of being a roadie

When I was younger, the biggest danger of riding a bike was mostly about what I felt like attempting to do ("he's gonna jump it!!!") or if something happened while riding (like a crank arm breaking in the middle of a trick), but as I get older and ride mostly on public roads, the biggest danger is quickly becoming cars and trucks I share the road with.

Of course, it's not all cars and all trucks, it's mostly the one in ten thousand assholes that feel bicycles should not be traveling on roads, should not be in the flow of traffic, and should not cause them to slow down while they pass you. It happens every spring when the normally vacant farm roads I ride on become crowded on the first sunny weekend. You'll get someone yelling as they pass, or purposely making their truck backfire just as they go by. Sometimes, you get something even worse.

Sunday was something worse. A friend and I were at the tail end of a 90 minute easy ride, and we were riding side-by-side on an uncrowded road outside of town. A few people had passed that day, but this time it was out of the blue, and very close. Usually that's just a sign of a driver being inconsiderate and considering this was not only a full sized truck, but a dually my first thought was he was making a simple mistake concerning how wide the back end of his truck was relative to us riding.

The horn blast dispelled any notions it was an oversight or mistake. What seemed inconsiderate just turned into something aggressive and unruly. My first reaction to things like this is to throw up a hand to say "Hey! What the hell, dude?!" and my friend's first reaction was to throw his hand up, and motion it backwards. This set the driver off as we saw him slam on his brakes. Jeez, what the hell is this guy doing. Immediately, the reverse lights came on and a three ton dually truck is barreling towards us on a public road, backwards towards us. What. The. Fuck. Not wanting to get run over, I moved off to the side of the road and my friend did the same, riding right up to the side of the truck.

What follows was a flurry of swearing from the driver: "Motherfuckers... get out of my way.... motherfucking... didn't you see me coming... motherfucking faggots!" while my friend is yelling "Do you know what the law is? Do you know what the law is?" and after a few seconds I get my wits and start taking my phone out to shoot a picture of his license plate but after the "faggots!" hangs in the air, he slams the truck into drive and storms off.

When I got home 15 minutes later I threw on some sweats and drove around town to see if I could spot the truck and get the plate number, but after hitting the local hardware, farm, and grocery stores, I came up empty.

It sucks that this is supposed to become normal, and has become somewhat normal, happening once or twice a year both when I ride alone and in groups. Given that I'm riding thousands of miles on bike lane-free farm roads, there's no way to know when the next jerk is going to brush too close next to me, blaring the horn and who knows what this guy will do the next time he encounters some cyclists. It sucks that this happens to everyone, all the way up to Lance Armstrong (who has been hit by drivers at least a couple times).

My wife has always bugged me to get an ID bracelet for these kinds of worst-case scenarios. I find the idea kind of macabre, basically making my own toe tag for when I die, but I'll probably end up getting one soon.

Posted on February 9, 2009 in stories | Comments (2)

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