End of Month 6

Today marks the end of 6 months of weight loss.  I'm pretty happy with where I am right now.  I still have a little more weight to lose to get to my goal, but I'm oh so close.  I have about 8 more pounds to lose to get to my goal of 165 lbs.  I had planned to hit that target by July 13, but I just don't think that's going to happen.  But that's ok.  My main reason for setting that goal was because I knew I needed to drop a lot of weight in order to complete the Triple Bypass ride on July 13.  But after recent rides, I feel pretty comfortable with my fitness at this point, and think I'm ready to do the ride at my current weight if I have to. My goal is still 165 lbs, but I'll get there when I get there.

Did a ride with Lifetime Fitness this morning.  It was a nice 50-mile ride on some roads I haven't been on before.  It was pretty nice, with some great views of the foothills.  I was really happy with the ride.  My average speed was 19.5 mph, which is pretty awesome for me.  I pulled ahead of the main group with a guy named Alex, and we never saw the main group again.  I was pulling most of the ride, with Alex right behind me.  I was always worried that maybe I wasn't riding fast enough for him, so that motivated me to just push it the whole ride.

The Lifetime Fitness group this morning, before we headed out.

After relaxing at home for the afternoon, I also managed to squeeze in a run after dinner.  My legs were pretty tired after all the riding this weekend, so it was a pretty slow run.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  A couple tamales
• Dinner:  Spaghetti squash with italian sausage, pepper and onion.  Much better than I expected.

Exercise:

• 50 mile ride with Lifetime Fitness.
• 3.1 mile run around the neighborhood this evening.

Today's weigh-in:  172.4

Golden Gate Canyon again

Another climb up Golden Gate Canyon again, with a couple guys from work, Brian and Matt.  I was the only one who drove to the starting point, so I was pretty refreshed when we started.  Brian rode about 20 miles from downtown Denver, and Matt rode maybe 10 miles, I'm not sure.  But Matt had a rough morning, and was hurting pretty good when he showed up.  Brian was ok, but had already ridden 20 miles.

Matt on the climb of Golden Gate Canyon.

Matt, still looking good.

Heading up Golden Gate Canyon.

 

It was a good start to the ride, but Matt didn't last too long.  He was hurting, and ended up turning around about halfway up Golden Gate Canyon, heading home.  I got a text from him later, saying he managed to make it home, only puking once.  Nice.

Brian on one of the tougher climbs of the day.

He looks like he's having fun!

Brian and I did the full ride, with a stop at a convenience store for some refreshments.  Later, the weather was looking ominous, so we stopped at the Stage Stop in Rollinsville, in case it rained.  It did.  We stuck around long enough for a beer, and Brian had a sandwich, and the weather blew over.  Back on the road, we made our way to Coal Creek Canyon, with a decent climb, and a great long descent.  Although we had some more rain on the way down, it wasn't too bad.

Brian looking relieved as he tops out the last climb of the day.

Relaxing at home tonight before a ride with Lifetime Fitness in the morning.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  I never really ended up eating lunch.  Does beer count as lunch?
• Dinner:  We had a Parent's Night Out tonight.  The kids were at Lifetime Fitness while my wife and I went to see This is the End, and then had some Marco's pizza.  Mmmmm.....

Exercise:

• 56 mile bike ride.  Route shown below.

Today's weigh-in:  172.4

Swimming, no biking

No bike ride today.  I had a meeting in the morning, so I couldn't ride to work.  But this evening we went to Lifetime and I cranked out some laps in the pool.  Feeling pretty refreshed and ready for my bike ride in the morning.  Heading up Golden Gate Canyon again, this time with a couple other Triple Bypassers from work.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Chipotle, steak fajita burrito
• Dinner:  Qdoba, steak salad

Exercise:

• 1,200 meters in the lap pool.  Farthest I've ever gone.

Today's weigh-in:  174.4

Another ride to work

Rode the bike to work again today.  Pretty nice ride in the morning, aside from the bugs in my face and getting stuck in my arm hair, and the horrible stench of the South Platte River just outside of downtown.  The ride home is a littler worse, though.  Then, you don't have the bugs, but you still have the stink, and it's like 100 degrees outside.  Ugh.

Won't be riding tomorrow.  I have to go to a meeting in the morning.  This will give me a bit of a rest before my big rides this weekend.

Watched a movie tonight called "100 Years of the Tour de France" or something like that.  It was really interesting, and cool to see video of what the Tour looked like back when it started.  Can't wait for it to start in a couple days.  Already have the DVR set.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie.  Made the smoothie with some cantaloupe today.  We were out of avocado, and the avocado at the grocery store was pretty miserable.  Decided cantaloupe might be a nice change, and I was right.
• Lunch:  Cheesesteak
• Dinner:  Couple tamales, still from the farmer's market last weekend.

Exercise:

• Ride to work, and  . . .
• ride home from work.  These rides are going to be basically the same every day, so I'm going to stop posting them.

Today's weigh-in:  172.4

Bike to Work Day!

Today was Bike to Work Day in the Denver area.  The rest of the country seems to do Bike to Work Day in May, but for some reason, we do it in June.  Who knows?  My company, Davis Partnership Architects, rocked today.  I haven't seen the parking lot that empty on a work day in a long time.  I think official results of the Business Challenge will be announced tomorrow, but as of now, Davis Partnership ranked first in our business class, first in the Design Firm category, and first overall in Denver County!

The Bike to Work crew from Davis Partnership.  Photo courtesy of Brian Grimes and Davis Partnership.

Aside from biking to and from work today, I also managed to swim at Lifetime, and squeezed in the P90X Ab Ripper X workout.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Went to lunch with a product rep.  Had a chicken caesar salad.
• Dinner:  Buffalo/pork bratwurst from the farmer's market.  Awesome.  Also a couple Tru kosher dill pickles.  Oh man, those are good.  Spicy.

Exercise:

• Ride to work, and . . .
• ride home from work
• 900 meters in the lap pool at Lifetime Fitness
• P90X - Ab Ripper X

Today's weigh-in:  172.6

Riding to work!

Tomorrow is Bike To Work Day in Denver, but I got started early and rode to work today.  First, though, I had to get the kids to their day care.  So, the kids and I had a nice morning ride to day care, until they realized they both forgot their backpacks.  My wife had to stop by later and drop off their backpacks.  But after that little hiccup, everything went smoothly.

Well, almost smoothly.  Turns out, I hadn't thought ahead about shaving.  I got to work and took a shower, but hadn't planned on how to shave.  I didn't shave at home before I left, and didn't have a shaver or razor at work.  So, I was a little scruffy today.  Tomorrow, I'll probably shave at home before I head out the door.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Cheesesteak.  I figured I deserved it for riding to work.
• Dinner:  Zucchini pizza boats.  Awesome.  We had these a few months ago, too, but haven't been able to get a hold of big enough zucchini lately.  Finally, we got some big zucchini at the farmer's market, so we were able to make these again.

Exercise:

• Riding to work, and . . .
• . . . riding home from work.  Looking below, you'll see that the distances are a little different.  This morning, I forgot to turn on my bike computer until I left the kids day care, but this afternoon, I had it turned on until I got home.  That's also why the average speeds are so different.

 

Today's weigh-in:  173.4

Ready to ride to work

Not much to say today.  Went for a run during my daughter's gymnastics class.  Didn't get on the bike at all today.  But that's ok, because I'll be riding to and from work tomorrow, and possibly during lunch.  Going to get up early and ride with the kids to their summer day care program, then head to work from there.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch: Cheesesteak.  That's gotta stop.
• Dinner:  southwest salad, with some chopped steak.  Pretty tasty.

Exercise:

• 3.9 mile run during my daughter's gymnastics class.

Today's weigh-in:  175.6

Riding with Lifetime Fitness

Got out for another nice ride today.  I met up with the Lifetime Cycle folks at 8am this morning for a ride over to Superior and Eldorado Canyon.  There were a few of us in the "A" group, unfortunately depending on me for directions, since I had the route on my Garmin.  Unfortunately, we missed a turn and ended up doing a slightly different route than the "B" group.  We followed another popular route, and were able to include a climb of The Wall into today's ride.  Instead of heading to the top of McCaslin via a different route and only riding down the wall, we took a route that let us climb The Wall, turn around, and ride back down.

One of our riders, near the top of The Wall.

After heading back down the wall, we rode over to Eldorado Canyon and another turn-around point.  We hung out there for about 10 minutes or so, and the "B" group showed up.  After a quick group shot, we got moving again.

Lifetime Fitness Cycle Club, "A" and "B" groups on this morning's ride.  A quick break in Eldorado Canyon.  I am basically right in the middle, with the red-and-black jersey.  Photo courtesy of Jonathan Knight.

After leaving Eldorado, we took our usual route back to Lifetime Fitness (Cherryvale to Baseline).  The nice thing about riding from LTF is the awesome pool waiting for you when you get back.  My wife and kids were already there.  I quickly changed into a swimsuit and went swimming with the family for the next couple hours.  There was some kind of kids swim meet going on, so I couldn't use the lap pool for most of the time.  But I managed to squeeze in a half-hour of laps before we left.

Following the pool, we made a quick trip to the local farmer's market for some veggies.  We also picked up some more tamales, which ended up being tonight's dinner.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Wendy's chicken caesar salad (with grilled chicken)
• Dinner:  Two tamales from the farmer's market.  Mmmm.....

Exercise:

• 45 mile ride with Lifetime Fitness
• 600m swim in the lap pool at Lifetime

Today's weigh-in:  174.6

Big ride today

Got in a nice ride today.  This was a climb of Golden Gate Canyon out in the foothills.  Really happy with the ride.  I did this same ride last August, and my results today really blow last year's results out of the water.  The main portion of this ride is an 18-mile climb up Golden Gate Canyon.  Last year, I made the climb in 2 hr 17 min.  Today was 1 hr 48 min.  That's huge.

The other climb of the day was a 3.3 mile climb from Pinecliff to Wondervu.  Last year was 27 minutes.  Today was 18:54.  Another huge jump.

Self-portrait, on the way up Golden Gate Canyon.

This is why I love Colorado.

I've got another ride coming up tomorrow, with the Lifetime Fitness Cycle Club.  It's a 44 mile ride in town, without any real huge climbs.  That's why I wanted to get in a good climb today.  I'm looking forward to riding with the club again, but a little annoyed that they weren't doing a really hard "A" ride.  I really need to get in some good hard rides before the Triple Bypass.  If I can't get those kind of rides from Lifetime, I'll just have to go out on my own.

Oh, and remember when I mentioned I did the P90X Ab Ripper X video the other day?  Oh man, that is still killing me.  It's actually getting worse by the day.  I thought it would be getting better, not worse.  Ugh.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Subway on the way back from my morning ride.  6" spicy italian.
• Dinner:  Buffalo Wild Wings, after taking the kids to see Monsters University.  OK movie.  Wings were delicious.

Exercise:

• 54 mile ride, with some good climbing.  Really nice training ride.

Today's weigh-in:  175.8

Ready for a good weekend

Quick update tonight.  I want to get to bed.


I have a couple rides coming up this weekend.  Good climb tomorrow, up Golden Gate Canyon.  Then a ride with the Lifetime folks on Sunday.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Cheesesteak
• Dinner:  Steak salad at Chipotle

Exercise:

• 850 meters in the lap pool at Lifetime

Today's weigh-in:  175.6

Busted out some P90x

I had a meeting up in Estes Park this afternoon.  Since I basically drive past my house on the way home, I just came home instead of going back to work.  I came home, did a quick clothing switcheroo, and jumped on the bike for another 20 mile ride.  I felt a lot better today than I did yesterday.  My average speed yesterday was 17.6, today was 19.0.  Much better.

After a good dinner, and a walk with the dog, I decided to get out the old P90x videos.  Because of my still-recovering arm, there wasn't much I could do.  But I figured I could crank out a quick Ab Ripper X.  It's probably been at least a year since I've done that.  Oh man, that was rough.  I really need to get those muscles back into shape.  I could barely do half of the reps in each set.  And right now, my core is spent.  I can't even sit up straight; I'm just falling over.  Ugh.

That's not me.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar on the way back from my meeting
• Dinner:  Some lamb chops we picked up from the farmer's market last weekend.  Awesome.  Salt/pepper/garlic/oregano marinade, cooked on the grill, and served with some mint-apple jelly.  It was fantastic.

Exercise:

• 22 mile bike ride
• 15 minute ab explosion with P90x Ab Ripper X.  I'm definitely going to be feeling that tomorrow.

Today's weigh-in:  173.8.  Awesome!

I'm back in the saddle (again)

Finally!  It's been about 5 weeks, but today my arm finally felt good enough to get back on the bike again and go for a real ride.  And to top it off, I did some lap swimming, too!

I had a meeting this afternoon, and got out too late to go back to work, so I came home and hopped on the bike.  Went for about a 20-mile-plus ride and felt pretty good the whole time.  I was going a little slower than before, but I think it may have been the headwind more than the lack of training.  We'll see how I do on some rides over the next week, to see if I've lost any speed.

Then, because it was such a hot day today, went went to the pool at Lifetime after dinner.  My wife was in her usual class, the kids were playing tag together in the pool, and I decided to swim some laps.  I managed to get in 800 meters of swimming, which is more than I'd done at one time before, but I was swimming quite a bit longer than my previous times.  I was definitely going slow, to take it easy on the arm.  But it was nice and relaxing, and I enjoyed it.  My speed will pick up over time.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Had a meeting right around lunchtime.  Probably should have eaten a protein bar in the car, like usual.  Instead, I found a Chipotle nearby, and had a steak fajita burrito.  Definitely tastier than a protein bar.
• Dinner:  Some sausage kabobs.  Cajun andouille sausages, green and yellow peppers, and red onion.

Exercise:

• 21 mile ride before dinner.  Woo hoo!
• 800 meters in the outdoor lap pool at Lifetime.  First time I've used their outdoor lap pool.  So nice.

Today's weigh-in:  177.4

Ready to ride

This evening, I decided to take the bike out for a spin around the neighborhood to see how it felt.  Everything seemed really good to me, and I think I'm ready to get back on the road.  I've got some things going on at work for the next couple days, but I hope to be able to ride my bike to work later this week.  We'll see.  I really want to get off the trainer and back outside.  The trainer is great in the winter, but the weather is too nice right now to spend all my time riding in the garage.

My legs have been killing me for the last couple days.  Another reason to get back on the bike.  That 10k I ran the other day really did a number on my legs.  I haven't been taking my glucosamine lately, so I'm sure that's a part of it.  When I hopped on my bike yesterday for my training ride, my knees hurt really bad, but I pushed through it.  This evening, I went for a run during my daughter's gymnastics class, and once I was done, my legs hurt even worse.  I figure if I stick to less than 4 miles, a couple times a week, I should be fine.  But beyond that just won't work for me.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar at my desk
• Dinner:  Couple chicken tamales that we picked up at the farmer's market yesterday.  Yummy!  Man, I love tamales.

Exercise:

• 3.4 mile run during my daughter's gymnastics class

Today's weigh-in:  177.0

Spinervals 26.0 - The Hardcore 87.1

Spinervals 26.0 is actually called The Hardcore 100, the idea being that if you ride the entire 5 1/2 hours at a speed of about 18 mph, you will end up riding 100 miles.  I was only able to manage 87.1 miles, but I'm still pretty happy with that.  87 miles on a trainer is nothing to sneeze at.  My actual average speed was a little faster, but I didn't pause the computer during my breaks, and I had a really long break where I was with the family opening some Father's Day gifts.

I'd rather be out on the road, of course, but I really needed to get in some serious miles before the Triple Bypass next month.  I'm feeling pretty good, and should be back on the road before you know it.

I'm not too confident in my weight today, despite riding almost 90 miles over 5 1/2 hours this morning.  After the ride, I drank a ton, and had a big lunch and dinner.  We'll see.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Bowl of Special K with half a banana.  Didn't want to run the blender since it was early and everyone was sleeping.
• Lunch:  Steak fajita burrito at Chipotle
• Dinner:  Some pizza at Old Chacago
• Dessert:  Jolly Rancher Popsicle.  The best popsicles ever.

Exercise:

• 87 miles on the trainer.  Spinervals 26.0 - The Hardcore 100.

Today's weigh-in: 177.8

10k today

Ran a 10k this afternoon.  Actually closer to 11k.  And managed to get a bunch of PRs, too (1/2 mile, 2 mile, 5k and 10k).  And at the same time, I pass 40k of running for the month.  Actually almost at 50k.  Should be able to pass 50k very soon.

Can't write much tonight.  Want to get to bed a little early.  I have an early morning tomorrow.  I plan to attempt the "indoor century" with a series of training videos from Spinervals.  Since I can't be on the road, I want to get in a really serious distance ride, but in the garage instead.  It's going to be a little over 5 1/2 hours, I think, so I want to get on the bike really early.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Was out running errand with my son, and ended up at McDonalds.  Yuck.  Had a burger.
• Dinner:  Parents Night Out at Lifetime Fitness tonight.  Unfortunately the only movie that fit into the schedule was "Now You See Me".  My wife liked it, I thought it was terrible.  Had some Marco's pizza after.

Exercise:

• 10+ k in just under an hour.  Pretty happy with my pace.  Even more so, considering it was a lot warmer out than I thought it was going to be.  Would have preferred to run in the morning, but we had swim lessons, and then taking my daughter to a birthday party.  Only available time to run was mid-afternoon.

Pizza made me thirsty.  I'm not expecting a good weigh-in.  I've been sucking down water and Sobe since I got home.

Today's weigh-in:  176.8

Looking forward to a hard weekend

Just finished a good ride on the trainer.  Spinervals 43.0 - Aerobic Engine Builder.  I looked at my past results on Garmin Connect, and it looks like I've only ever done this workout once before.  I think I may have tried it one or two other times, but have been cut short.  Last time I did the complete workout was in February.  Comparing the two results, today I did one more mile than I did in February, in the same amount of time.  My average speed was 16.9 mph today, compared to 16.5 mph in February.  I think that's a great sign of progress.  So, I'm pretty pleased right now.

Tomorrow, the kids have swim lessons, and then my daughter has a birthday party to go to.  After that, I'm going to try to knock out a 10k run.  Not sure if I'm going to do any riding tomorrow.  But on Sunday, I have a big plan for riding.  Well, riding on the trainer.  Since I'm still staying off the road as I nurse my arm back to health, but I need to get in some training for the Triple Bypass, I'm going to try to ride an indoor century.  For my video-of-the-month from Spinervals.com, I picked Spinervals 26.0 - The Hardcore 100, a 5 1/2-hour set of 3 videos.  If ridden at an average speed of about 18 mph, it should end up being about a 100-mile ride.  I'm interested to see how I do.  I don't want to waste all of Fathers Day in the garage, so I plan to get up super-early to start riding.

As you have seen on earlier blog posts, I post all my activities to Strava, as well as to Garmin Connect.  I like them both, but I show my ride data on this blog using Garmin Connect, just because they have a better embedded widget to show the data.  But I really love Strava, too.  One thing Strava does is monthly challenges where you can run or ride to try to meet some goal, or compare your results to other participants around the world.  For example, every month they have a mileage challenge, which is pretty straightforward:  Ride as many miles as you can.  Sometimes they have challenges that are tied in some way to major professional races that are going on at the time.  With my busted arm, I was out-of-luck for the cycling challenges for May and June.  So, I signed up for the running challenges instead.

Currently, I am signed up for the Any Way 10k, which challenges you to run 10k on June 15 or 16.  Hence my plan to run a 10k tomorrow afternoon.  I actually did this last weekend, because I thought you had to do it any time in June.  I didn't realize it was limited to just this weekend.  So, last weekend was practice.  Tomorrow is for real.

I also just signed up for two cycling challenges in July:

• Powerbar Take on the Tour:  This challenges you to ride half the distance of the Tour de France (1,680 kilometers) from June 29 (start of Le Tour) to July 31 (10 days after the Tour ends).  We'll see how I do.  I'll put in a lot of miles on the Triple Bypass, but we'll have to see how much my arm hurts afterwards.
• Rapha Rising: La Centième: This challenge is to climb the combined elevation gain of the major climbs in this years Tour de France, for a grand total of 7,235m from July 14-21.  Unfortunately, this challenge starts the day AFTER the Triple Bypass, so my 10,000 feet of elevation on Saturday won't count, since the challenge starts on Sunday.  Ugh.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Kind of a weird day.  Had some meetings in Estes Park, then just came home instead of going back to work.  Had a late lunch at Chipotle on my drive home.  Steak fajita burrito.  But I made up for it . . . 
• Dinner:  Just a protein bar.  Was still full from my lunch burrito.

Exercise:

• 2 hours on the trainer.  Spinervals 43.0 - Aerobic Engine Builder.  I like this one.  It's pretty simple, but is a great workout and burns a ton of calories.  10x2 minutes, high resistance, low cadence.  4x5 minutes, high resistance, low cadence.  10x2 minutes, low resistance, high cadence.  5x4 minutes, low resistance, high cadence.  Trying to keep the heard rate in Zone 3 the whole time.  I spent more time in high-Zone 2 instead of Zone 3, but spend a fair bit of time in Zone 3 as well.  This is more of a muscular endurance workout than some of the aerobic endurance workouts I usually do.  Pushing a lot more power today than usual.

Today's weigh-in: 175.2

One month to go...

Today is June 13.  Triple Bypass is July 13.  I plan to be ready.  I'm feeling pretty strong, despite my recently-broken arm.  It's been 4 weeks since I broke it, but I'd rather think that it's been recovering for 4 weeks.  I bought a jacket for the ride.  It showed up today.  It's pretty awesome.  Super-thin and super-light.  Assuming it works as designed, it should be perfect for what I need.  I don't plan to wear it much, but the Triple Bypass is known for some crappy weather, particularly on the high passes.  This should keep me warm-ish and dry for any rain or snow (yes, snow) we might encounter.

Also today, I got my monthly download from Spinervals.  This month, I selected The Hardcore 100, an indoor century video.  Basically, it's about 5 1/2 hours of training video, and should come out to about 100 miles, if ridden at an average pace of 18 mph.  I'm planning to get up early on Sunday to do this.  Kind of a crappy way to spend Fathers Day, but I really need to get in some long rides, and I'm still not comfortable on the road because of my arm.  I'll probably do this twice prior to the Triple Bypass, but I'd like to get back on the road, too.  Maybe about a week before the ride, I can test my arm a little bit out on the road.  We'll see.

I didn't get a chance to work out yesterday.  We've got a bunch of wildfires in Colorado right now, and the air was pretty thick with ash and smoke last night.  Didn't seem like a good idea to ride the bike or go for a run.  We hung out at the pool for a little bit, and that's about it.  Since I didn't work out at all, I didn't really feel like posting to the blog.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Cheesesteak again.  I can't help it.
• Dinner:  A pretty tasty little steak.  And some broccoli and a tossed salad.

Exercise:

• 90 minutes on the trainer.  Watched the 2-part finale of Burn Notice season 1.  Really enjoying the show.  Makes for some good bike-riding TV.  I probably should have done a Spinervals workout, but I really wanted to finish up the season.

Today's weigh-in:  176.2

How you feelin'? Hot, hot, hot

Record temps a couple days in a row.  Pretty miserable out there.  Think today's high was 100 degrees.  Definitely too hot to run outside.  Decided to spend some time on the bike in the garage again.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar at my desk
• Dinner:  Kabobs.  Pork and pineapple, and bacon-wrapped turkey with onions
• Dessert:  Nothing yet, but I can hear a Jolly Rancher Popsicle screaming my name right now.

Exercise:

• 85 minutes on the trainer.  Hard workout with Spinervals 7.0 - The Uphill Grind, followed by some relatively easy riding while watching an episode of Burn Notice on Netflix.  If you look at my Garmin report below, you will be able to see the different between the Spinervals ride and the casual ride, based on my heart rate.

Today's weigh-in:  175.2

More indoor riding

Pretty good day for workouts.  It was super-hot (97-degrees, or more), so wasn't great for running outside.  Instead, I did some cardio in the crappy fitness room at my daughter's gymnastics, plus a trainer ride this evening.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Cheesesteak.  Again.  I don't know what it is. I'm just terrible.  I was just too hot to go for a walk today.
• Dinner:  Wendy's on the way home from gymnastics.  Chicken caesar salad.  Got it with grilled chicken instead of fried, and only used one packet of dressing instead of the two that they give you.

Exercise:

• 30 minutes on the treadmill at gymnastics.
• 20 minutes on the crappy Stairmaster at gymnastics
• 80 minutes on the trainer in the garage.  Spinervals 16.0 - Aero Base Builder I.

Today's weigh-in: 175.0

Another milestone

Did get to ride on the trainer as much as I'd hoped today, but I did manage to get in a trainer ride and a good run.  And some swimming with the kiddos at the Lifetime pool.  Beautiful day to hang out by the pool.

As you can see from my weigh-in below, I have weighed-in a little below 176 lbs, which means I have now lost just over 50 lbs since I started this thing back on January 1.  I'm a little behind schedule, but I still hope to be able to hit 165 lbs by the time the Triple Bypass rolls around on January 13, regardless of whether I can ride it or not.  Being below 176 lbs also means this is the least I've weighed in many, many years.  That's a pretty nice feeling.

Also, I ran a little more than a 10k this morning.  Strava is having a running challenge this month, challenging users to run a 10k in a single activity.  I assumed I just needed to run it sometime this month, so I woke up this morning and thought I'd knock out this challenge.  Once I got back and uploaded the run, I was confused about why it wasn't showing up in the challenge results.  I re-read the rules, and much to my surprise, found that the challenge only counts on June 15-16.  So, now I need to run a 10k again NEXT weekend, too.  Oh well.  Now I have a time that I can pace myself against.

Oh, and I just checked my Strava training report for the year, and as of this weekend, I've put in 2,000 miles this year, including riding, running, and my miles on the trainer.  That's pretty awesome, and significantly more miles than I put in all of last year.  Aside from my broken arm, this is a pretty great year for me.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Chipotle, steak salad
• Dinner:  Asian steak skewers and some bok choy again.

Exercise:

• 6.6 mile run
• 60 minutes on the trainer, Spinervals 18.0 - Aero Base Builder III.  Yesterday was a tough hill workout, so I opted for something easier today.  Still a good workout, though.

 

Today's weigh-in:  175.8.  And with that weigh-in, I have finally, officially lost over 50 lbs since January 1.  Yay me!

Back to Spinervals

I decided to make a move back to Spinervals workouts today.  I've been avoiding them, because they typically involve a lot of shifting on the bike, and I am just not really able to do that very well right now.  There is typically a little pain when I try to use those muscles.  But when I went out to the garage today, I realized that both kids were logged in to Netflix, watching whatever crap they usually watch, so I wasn't able to log in.  I could have just told one of them to log off, but rather than deal with a crying kid, I just decided to try one of the files that was stored on my tablet instead.

And it actually went pretty well.  I learned that I can easily shift into the harder gears.  Not too much pressure required to click the lever.  Shifting into the easier gears is a little more difficult.  I have to push the other lever quite a bit harder, and that causes some pain.  But I found that if I put my hands down in the drops instead of on the hoods, I can push on the very bottom end of the lever, where it requires significantly less effort.  Aside from having to switch hand positions more often than usual, it wasn't that big of a deal.  I'm sure it will depend on the specific workout.  Some require more shifting than others.

Regarding just generally putting weight on my arm, I am typically avoiding that while on the trainer.  Sometimes, I ride with my right arm hanging down by my side, so there is no pressure at all.  Sometimes, I just rest my right hand or forearm on the handlebar, keeping the majority of the weight on my left hand.  It seems to work pretty well.

This afternoon I did Spinervals 24.0 - HILLacious.  I figured I really needed to get in a tough workout to make up for the kind of lazy workouts I've been doing, as I've just been watching TV recently.  I just looked to today's workout compared to the previous times I'd done the same workout, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that my results were basically the same as my other workouts.  Same average pace, same average speed.  My overall calories burned were significantly higher this time, but I think something screwy happened to my Garmin last time I connected it to Garmin Training Center, and I think it uploaded some incorrect heart rate data to my device.

So, while I was pretty disappointed yesterday, I'm feeling a lot better today.  Looking forward to some good training tomorrow, too.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Couple scrambled eggs, with diced peppers, chorizo, and cheese
• Lunch:  Chipotle, steak salad
• Dinner:  CB & Potts, buffalo chicken salad
• Dessert:  Small serving of froyo

Exercise:

• 60 minutes on the trainer, Spinervals 24.0 - HILLacious.  Very happy with my results.

Today's weigh-in:  177.0

Decision time . . .

I'm not sure what to do...

I went to the ortho doc today for a follow-up.  My arm is healing nicely, which was good news.  The bad news is that I'm still restricted, and not supposed to lift anything more than a pound.  And I'm going back to see him again on July 5.  That's only a week before the Triple Bypass.  This means that for the next month, I will most likely not be doing any riding, limited to working out on my trainer instead.  I am pretty confident that I can be back on the road riding my bike by July 13, but I will have missed a whole lot of training in the meantime.

I really don't have a lot of confidence that I can pull off a 120-mile ride, with 10,000 feet of climbing, with no actual training on the road.  Spending time on my trainer will help, but that is just not the same as being on the road.

I have a few more weeks to make a final decision.  But they don't offer refunds for this ride.  My only options are to try to do the ride, or to try to transfer my registration to someone else.  I have until July 7 to transfer my registration, but that means trying to find someone to buy it from me.  If it comes down to that, I guess I'll have to hit up Facebook and Craigslist to see if I can find a buyer.  I'll take a few more days to think about it.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Cheesesteak.  I know, I'm bad.  I really just need to find something else to do at lunchtime.
• Dinner:  Italian sausage and pepper skewers

Exercise:

• 3.25 mile run.  The kids were with me, on their bikes.  Got a PR for the 1/2-mile, 2nd or 3rd best times for other distances.
• 45 minutes on the trainer

Today's weigh-in:  177.2

No run today, just trainer

Decided to give my joints a little break today, and didn't do any running.  Just rode the trainer for a bit.

Back to the ortho doc tomorrow.  Interested to see how I'm healing.  Stay tuned . . .

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  I broke down and had a cheesesteak.
• Dinner:  Asian steak kabobs, and some sauteed bok choy.  First time we've ever had that.  It was pretty good. 

Exercise:

• 90 minutes on the trainer.  Watched another couple episodes of Burn Notice.

Today's weigh-in:  177.2

Week 23, Day 2

Another run and another ride on the trainer.  I am still pretty concerned about my arm, and am looking forward to my visit to the doctor again on Friday.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Oops.  I had a lunchtime meeting out of the office today, and was planning on eating a protein bar in the car on the way there.  But once I was driving, I realized I left the protein bars at my desk.  I ended up at McDonalds, because I didn't have time for anything else.  Damn.
• Dinner:  Sausage with pepper and onion kabobs.  I burned them.  Also, some steamed green beans.

Exercise:

• 3.4 mile run around the neighborhood.  Once again, new PRs on almost all distances that Strava records.
• 85 minutes on the trainer, with 2 episodes of Burn Notice.

Today's weigh-in:  176.6

Week 23, Day 1, I think

I stopped counting weeks and days a while back, because it seemed like it was getting boring.  But I couldn't think of anything to call this post, so I just looked at the calendar.

I was busy at work today, so I wasn't able to do anything during lunch.  But I made up for it this evening with a run and a ride on the trainer.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar at my desk
• Dinner:  Steak, sauteed broccoli

Exercise:

• 3.5 mile run.  Managed to get my PRs for 1/2 mile, 1k, 1 mile, 2 mile, and 5k
• 45 minutes on the trainer

Today's weigh-in:  178.2

Trying to get back into the swing of things

Don't feel like writing much tonight.  I just watched this week's "Game of Thrones", and . . . wow.  That was pretty brutal.  What a downer.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar at my desk
• Dinner:  Couple pieces of pizza

Exercise:

• 30 minute walk at lunch
• 3.2 mile run after dinner
• About 40-45 minutes on the trainer.  It shows an hour ride, but I actually stopped for a bit in the middle to help put some groceries away.  Forgot to turn the GPS off, so it just shows me bouncing around my garage.

Today's weigh-in:  180.0

Elephant Rock

Today was supposed to be my first big organized ride of the year.  It's the annual Elephant Rock ride down in Castle Rock.  I was planning to do the 62-mile route with a bunch of people from work.  My wife and the kids were going to do the 8-mile family ride, and we'd meet up at the end.  Unfortunately, due to my arm, there was no way I could ride the 62-mile route.  And, looking back on it now, I probably shouldn't have done the 8-mile route either.  I ended up in a lot of pain, and really regretted it.

All smiles before the ride.

Enjoying a break at the turn-around.

Me and the wifey.

Check out the cool Davis Partnership bike jersey.

After the ride, we went to a co-worker's house nearby for some beers and a cookout.  Unfortunately, we had to miss the cookout portion of the day, because my wife and daughter scored some free tickets to see Taylor Swift tonight, so we needed to get back home.

No time to type anything else.  It's late.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios.  Again, didn't feel like making smoothies.
• Lunch:  Some pretty terrible bbq chicken at Elephant Rock.  Some fruit and a couple beers at a co-worker's house after the ride.
• Dinner:  Smashburger with my son while my wife and daughter were at the concert.

Exercise:

• Not sure it really counts, but 8 miles of riding at Elephant Rock.  And it was a slooow 8 miles.  And I probably did more harm than good.  My arm was hurting pretty bad, and I really should not have done it.  If I was riding, I was fine, but starting and stopping caused problems.  There was just no way to do that with one arm.  And getting the bikes on and off the car was a big problem.

Today's weigh-in:  184.8

June. Time to get crackin'

Quick post today.  We had a lot going on today, and we'll have a lot going on tomorrow.  But I wanted to make sure I posted something tonight.

We kicked off June the right way, with me running another 5k with my 8-year old daughter.  We ran the Taste of Louisville 5k, which was a lot of fun.  And we beat our time from the last 5k by about a minute or so.  Once again, Caitlin posted her fastest times for almost all the distances that Strava measures.  She got her personal records (PRs) for 400m, 1k, 1/2-mile, 1 mile, 2-mile and 5k.  She finished 7th out of 10 in the girls 1-12 age group.  And all the girls that beat her were 10, 11 and 12.  So, I think that is a pretty respectable result.  And she's still having fun, too.

The rest of the day consisted of running a lot of errands, including going to dinner with my wife for our anniversary tonight.  But I managed to squeeze in a 45-minute ride on the trainer.  My arm felt a little better today, and I was able to move the shift levers on the bike a little bit.  Hopefully, I'll be back to doing my regular training videos soon.  And back on the road soon after that.  We'll see.

Tomorrow is the Elephant Rock ride down in Castle Rock.  Should be a fun day out with the family.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios.  It was really early, and I was the only one awake, so I didn't want to wake everyone up by turning on the blender to make a smoothie.
• Lunch:  Steak fajita burrito from Chipotle.
• Dinner:  Anniversary dinner with my wife.  Went to a place called Asti D' Italia.  Had some penne with italian sausage.
• After dinner:  Dinner was really fast, so we had to find other things to do while the kids were at Parents Night Out at Lifetime.  We got some frozen yogurt, shopped a little, then hung out at the bar at the Cheeky Monk drinking some expensive Belgian beers.

Exercise:

• Taste of Louisville 5k.  Running these 5ks with my daughter is fun, but not really much of a challenge.  We run together, so I just go at her pace.  We typically run at about an 11:00 min/mile pace.  When I run alone, I'm closer to 9:15 or 9:30 min/mile.  So, definitely slower.  But I'm not out to win, I just enjoy the time with my daughter.
• 45 minutes on the trainer, watching an episode of Burn Notice on Netflix.  The pilot I watched the other night was pretty long, and was a little over an hour workout.  The regular episodes look like they're all made for 1-hour television, so only about 40 minutes of actual show.  I'd prefer to ride longer, so I may watch two episodes per training session, or maybe an episode of Burn Notice followed by an episode of a half-hour show.

 


Today's weigh-in: 184.4