A Year of Training

October 09, 2013

Last October, to help reach my goals, I bought a book to help me figure out how to train. Honestly, I didn't know I didn't need it, but I still bought it. It gave me information about a training plan, and types of training to do, both on a bike and in a weight room. Maybe it will be of more help now that my main goal isn't weight loss. That book: The Cyclist's Training Bible It also came with a nice chart on how to schedule what things you wanted to do, where to set your races (because, everything in cycling is geared to race I found out), and how many hours and what types of training to do to peak for those races. So I did a chart. I put in my goals. I put in the "races" I wanted to peak for, and plugged in the hours of training to do. And I started. Now, I tried to keep honest to the cycling training, but I never did; I just got out on my bike and rode. I did allow myself some rest days, as I needed to give my muscles time to recover. I tried to do some of the drills and skills, but I think for me at the time I just needed TITS... Time In The Saddle. The weight room exercises I followed very rigoursly, until I stopped going to the gym outright and just started riding more and doing some core work in the house. It's amazing what a 16 pound bowling ball can help you out with. I added some columns to the sheet, to keep track of my measurements as I lost weight. The chart is on google docs. The reason I mention this now is that I'm done for the year. I started with the 10/8 week last year, and I just filled in my last row tonight. My tallys... Are just insane, in my opinion. From 10/8/2012 to 10/7/2013: I went on 254 bike rides. I rode 4,664.16 miles, in 386 hours, 16 minutes, 17 seconds. I climbed 232,269 feet. My average speed was a meagre 12.1 mph. I burned 191,571 calories. The fastest I've ridden a bike is 43.7mph. My average ride was 1hr 31minutes. My longest single ride was 107.3 miles, and I rode 3 "english" centuries, and 11 metric centuries. The most feet I climbed in a single day was 8,196... And that was in the US, though the longest single climb I did was the 5,254 feet in 14.4 miles up Mont Ventoux. I've lost 95 pounds. I've put back 5 pounds from my lightest, and this seems to be muscle rather than fat. 2.25" from my Neck. 8.75" from my Chest 10" from my Waist 6" from my Hips. IMG_5194 So when people ask me how I did it, I tell them:
I logged everything I ate, and I stopped eating crap. By watching what I ate, I traded crap for good whole foods. When you're logging everything you eat, and I mean everything, you realize what crap you're eating. But you HAVE to log everything, because if you don't, do you know who you're lying to? Yourself. Not the dietician, not your trainer, you're lying to yourself. And if you have to lie to yourself, you have something else you need to deal with. I also bought a bike and started riding. Well, that's a lie, more like I fell in love with cycling again. I got lucky. I found the thing that clicks for me. I feel so free, happy, and full of life when I ride a bike. Even when I'm riding up a mountain; actually especially when I'm riding up a mountain. The mountain, when you're riding up it, bluntly, sucks. It's the worst thing ever. That voice in your head says "This is the dumbest thing you've ever done. Stop now, turn around, no one will think less of you. You're never doing anything this dumb again. When you get home back to the US, you're riding on flats for the rest of your life." Then, you get to the top, and all that melts away. So, stop eating crap, and find something you love to do. Do that thing. Invest yourself into it. Don't do it half arsed. Find others that feel like you do. Ask them questions. Become their friends.




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