My 2014 plan is going to be a little different than 2013. For one thing, I weigh a lot less. In 2013, I started at 226 lbs, got myself down to about 172 lbs. I've also gotten more into running, so I'm planning on some easy-ish running events this year. But the biggest change is that I joined a bike racing team, which really effects the type of events I'm going to ride this year.
Weight:
As I said, I went from 226 to 172 lbs last year. Unfortunately, I've managed to get back up to 190 lbs since my low back in July. I have a couple problems: 1) I love cheesesteaks, and there is a fantastic cheesesteak place about a block from my office. 2) I love Coke. Nectar of the gods. Once I completed my goal cycling event last year, the Triple Bypass in July, I wasn't as focused on keeping my weight down, so I started to indulge in my cheesesteaks and Coke again. Bad, bad, bad.
I am planning to skip going out for lunch all the time, and try to bring lunch to work or eat a protein bar at my desk, probably while I'm writing this blog. I like to get out of the office, so I may just walk during lunch, and come back and eat something quick. (Hopefully I won't walk past anything too tempting). I may also start riding at lunch again, which takes up all my lunch hour and keeps me from going out. Like last year, I will treat myself to a delicious cheesesteak for every 10 pounds lost. That seemed to work, and made the cheesesteaks taste even better, in my opinion. I'm also planning to skip the Coke, and stick to water. I don't carry cash, so I can't be tempted by the machine at work. I've just got a water bottle at my desk, and I plan to drink tons of water every day.
While I like to think I have some measure of willpower, I don't completely trust myself, so I hope my various measures of "keeping myself busy" will help prevent some of the temptation of delicious sandwiches and sweet, sweet Coke.
I also run into the problem of going out for dinner. The family typically goes out to dinner once a week, maybe twice. Depending on where we go, I may or may not have good options. Fortunately, water is always an option. For food, I am basically aiming for high-protein, low-carb, which may or may not be easy. I usually look at salads first, to see what kind of salad I can get with some chicken on it. Sometimes I'll have them double the chicken, too. If they don't have anything that looks good, I'll try to aim for salmon or something, and probably some broccoli.
As for exercise, I am not too worried about exercise for weight loss. I am focused more on nutrition. The exercise part will come naturally as part of my training plan for the cycling season.
Training:
As I said, I have a lot planned for this year. Although I am not training for a specific endurance event like I was last year, I am now training for a full cycling season with a team. And besides the racing team, I will also be participating in a number of longer endurance cycling events, as well as the occasional running event, usually with my daughter.
After road-biking season last year, I quickly turned to getting ready for this year. That meant October and November base training, and a really hard December. I train using Spinervals training videos and a training plan provided by Spinervals. Last year, I wrote a post about Spinervals on this blog. They have a huge library of videos available, and I own most of them. They also provide training plans. As a paid member, they provide me with a really good off-season training program.
The Spinervals Super6 program is a 6-month training plan that runs from October through March. The first phase was a 6-week base-building program, just to keep up your fitness after the season. In December, they amp'd it up with a full month of really hard work. I'm currently in the middle of 6 weeks of aerobic-endurance and strength workouts. This consists of a lot of harder aerobic-level work mixed with really difficult strength, speed and power work.
For every phase of training, I am given a training calendar on TrainingPeaks.com, listing my workouts for each day. The workout calendar is carefully planned with the right amount of effort at the right time, with rest days when I need them. For my current phase, I typically have two workouts per day, which is rough. There is generally a cycling workout along with either a strength or cardio workout. They are a little more flexible on these other workouts, and they are mostly a supplement to the cycling work, which is the main focus. I'll talk about the workouts in more detail on my daily posts.
Right now, my current plan takes me to about mid-February, a week before my first race of the season, which is perfect. I can do some recovery rides during the last week and be ready for the race.
PSIMET/Zilla
As I said, I'm now on a bike team. I wrote about finding a team last summer. At the time, the road racing season was basically over, any everyone was gearing up for cyclocross and mountain biking. So, I did some training rides with them, but haven't been all that involved yet.
I am currently a Category 5 (newbie) racer for a local team called PSIMET/Zilla Racing. The team is officially based out of Westminster, Colorado, but we have riders from all over the Front Range. It is currently cyclocross season, which I'm not involved in. We are gearing up for the road racing season to begin around the end of February. The season's racing calendar is set, but only one event is currently open for registration, the Gebhardt Automotive Cycling Classic, more commonly known as the Carter Lake Road Race, on February 22nd. I am currently registered for that race, and eagerly awaiting registration for additional races.
The team seems like a really great group of people, and very welcoming to newcomers like me. They are very focused on training, not just riding. I have done a couple clinics with them so far, learning a lot of the skills needed for actual racing. I am hoping that we are doing more than the other teams out there, so come race-time, we are much more prepared. I am actually heading out for a ride tomorrow with some of the other Category 5 riders, to do a little team-building, preview the course, and practice riding as a team. Stay tuned throughout the year for updates on this whole racing thing. Wish me luck!
And now for the boring stuff...
I'm going to start regularly tracking a lot of things like I did last year. Logging daily activities, what I ate that day, and daily weigh-ins. I'll also have links to activity logs on Strava, if anyone wants to check those out. Maybe it will be interesting for you, maybe not. But it's good for me. Last year I found myself going back to old posts quite a bit, maybe for dinner ideas, or trying to remember "that one time I crashed", and stuff like that.
Food:
- Breakfast: Fruit/protein smoothie
- Lunch: Naked steak taco salad from Qdoba. Already breaking my rule about eating in the office, but maybe I can just start that next week. But it's a salad, so that should be ok.
- Dinner: Buffalo chicken salad, with double chicken.
Exercise:
- 45 minutes on the elliptical when I got up this morning. 4.8 miles.
- Spinervals 39.0 - Aerobic Base at 10,000 Feet, after-dinner workout. I really like this particular workout. Not incredibly difficult, with plenty of variety for an aerobic base workout. And I know a few of the people in the video, which is cool.
Today's weigh-in: 190.6
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