Stronger, Fitter, Faster
Getting into the gym, getting on the bike, and hopefully winning some races someday
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.
Faster
Under the guidance of a cycling coach, I'm spending more time in the saddle and riding not just longer, but smarter. Power meters, training plans, and intervals will be the order of the day.
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Success
So the big bet diet challenge is officially over today and I'm happy to say I just squeaked in. I wanted to dip below 200 to have it truly be a win, but getting down to 200 was the original bet and for the last few days I've hovered right around 200.8lbs.
It wasn't easy and though I wrote up the basics on my personal blog, I didn't mention that dieting affected my riding and racing more than I thought. Eating light and riding a ton left me feeling exhausted most of the time, with longer recovery times after rides, and an overall feeling of weakness when I raced.
Today on a club ride was actually the first time in several months that I felt fantastic. As I've watched my average wattage on training rides go from 220 to 200 to 180 and even 160 for long slow ones, today was the first time in many weeks where I felt strong, I climbed well, and I averaged more than 200 watts for an hour.
I'm going to stick with my good habits and I hope to eventually fall into the 180-190lb range by the end of the year, and I hope this fall's cyclocross season goes well with my new trimmer self.
Posted on September 1, 2009
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- About Me
- My OBRA race results
- bike coach: Seth Hosmer
- bikes:
- Trek Madone 5.2 (road)
- Gary Fisher Superfly (29er)
- DeSalvo Custom Titanium (cyclocross)
- Trek District (citybike)
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