With the blizzard of 2012 upon us, all my hopes for another ride this year has been dashed. Now I can only wait till it warms up next spring. With any luck it'll be a short cold snap, and I'll be riding again fairly soon.
List of firsts for me this year:
Over 1,000 miles in a single month:
1,070 miles in September
1,037 miles in July
Over 5,000 miles in a year:
Yearly total at 5,267 miles (over 5,100 miles in only 8 months)
My previous record was 3,700 miles made last year
Over 300 miles in a single week:
318 miles in the first week of July
396 miles in the second week of September
Over 120 miles in a single ride:
July 27th my first ever 200K ride (127 miles)
September 13th my first ever 300K ride (187 miles)
I now have close to 9,000 miles on the Musashi, in under 2 years with an average overall speed greater then 18 MPH. The bike has gone through two chains, two front tires and three rear tires.
I'm looking forward to putting even more miles on in 2013.
Thanks for all your support by reading my blog, the page hits and comments help to keep me motivated to ride more. I'm now around 6,700 hits.
I had a week off from work and it had a great biking weather forecast. It seems like the perfect combination to do some serious bike riding. I started off early in the week with some of my canned 50 miler rides but felt like I needed to do something different, I had a great opportunity here that I needed to take advantage of.
Planning
I had ridden an unplanned double metric in July and had felt fairly strong afterwards. So that got me thinking of doing an even longer ride, but where to? The bank I work at is purchasing a branch at Shelbyville Kentucky. I looked on Google maps and saw it was around 91 miles one way. But it was in Kentucky. That meant I would have to ride up both of the very large hills on either side of the Ohio river in Madison, IN and Milton, KY. Plus ride through the hills of Kentucky once I got there. I have often considered riding to downtown Madison just to see if I could ride back up the hill, but I have always been well, a bit chicken. Now I am considering riding up both hills on either side of the river on a 180 mile plus bike ride? My wife is right, I am a nutcase.
I checked the weather for the week and decided that Thursday was my best bet, it was predicted as the coolest and driest day of the week and had the least amount of wind at around 5 mph. The wind also had a bonus though, it was blowing from the SSE which meant that I would have a tailwind on the trip back.
Looking at the Google maps biking option I saw the best route was to take highway 421 from Greensburg to Bedford Kentucky then take highway 42 and some other roads until I magically appeared 30 miles later in Shelbyville. The route was complicated enough that I decided I would need to setup my trusty Garmin 705 to show me how to ride the last 30 miles.
Mapping tool
I found a great website that lets me map a route then shows me an elevation map of the route and convert the route to a garmin course that can be loaded on my 705 This is great! I won't have to try to remember all the turns and get lost in Kentucky somewhere.
This is the site: http://bikehike.co.uk/index.php it also lets you easily reverse your route so I can put in the return trip as well, a very cool tool.
Options and Goals
My primary plan was to get up early and cross the river and head to Shelbyville, KY and back. In case I didn't feel that great once I got to Madison I would simply head back home and make this into a Century ride. In case I chickened out and didn't want to go down the hill since it meant I would need to climb back up the hill on the other side, my next plan was to head towards Hanover and Scottsburg then up towards Columbus and Shelbyville, IN before heading home. That would be around 150 miles but no big hills. I also of course had the option to head back at any time if I started to have any problems. I had a bonus option in case the primary objective was completed: after getting back home ride on to Shelbyville Indiana to make this a Shelbyville Indiana to Shelbyville Kentucky ride, now that sounds neat, a Shelbyville to Shelbyville round trip. That would add an extra 40 - 50 miles to the trip.
The ride
Sunrise was at 7:15 on Thursday so I set my alarm clock to 6:00 to make sure I had enough time to eat, drink and poop before I rolled out. I waved goodbye to my wife at 7:30 into an overcast and slightly chilly morning. There was only a 10% chance for rain both at Greensburg and Shelbyville. I took it easy as I headed towards Madison planning on keeping my average speed at under 18 mph.
At my first option point at the top of Madison hill, I felt great and didn't even take time to weigh my options, I was speeding downhill towards the river before I could change my mind. Turns out they are doing some major maintenance to the bridge across the river and had an alternate route through a temporary ramp. The very tall and large steel bridge looked very intimidating. Dang this ramp is steep, I already have the bike in low gear just getting on the bridge and I haven't even seen any of the real hills yet.
I stopped at a gas station in Milton to refill the water tanks, empty the bladder and grab something extra to eat. Once I was back on the bike I called home to let the wife know where I was and where I was heading next, I did this at all the stops along the way. That way if I disappeared they would at least have some idea of where to look for me (assuming my wife wanted them to find me). I had a handful of Powerbars on hand to eat along the ride but would also grab something extra like pop-tarts at the water filling stations.
Google maps recommend cyclist take the School Hollow road up the hill instead of US 421. This is the hill I have been the most concerned with. It started off OK then hit a long 10% grade, I started walking when it switched up to a 13 percent grade. I'm not too proud to say I had to walk up this hill, it is a very challenging climb.
Once up the hill the road turned back to US 421 which I followed to Bedford. At this point I headed down US 42 into all the various roads and highways that would lead me to Shelbyville. At first I tried to simply use the GPS find option to lead me there but it was wanting me to go down 421 instead of 42 and didn't seem to eager to recalculate a different route. So I loaded up the course that I had imported from the web tool I used the night before (as mentioned above). Then started the timer. I didn't know it at the time but when I started the course timer it created a new TCX file which meant I now had two separate rides instead of one long ride. I ended up with three separate rides total for this one single ride since I also used the course option for the return trip, that's why there are three separate rides linked down below.
An hour and a half later at 1:30 I was in Shelbyville, I can't believe I made it! I stopped to refill and call the wife then rode around the bank branch that was the inspiration for this ride. Then I headed back home. I was expecting a rough and more uphill battle on the way home. Surprising it was actually a very nice ride, I think mostly due to the tailwind that I had.
The ride down the School Hollow ride was very fast I had to ride my brakes since it was a narrow and very curvy road. I decide not to stop at the Milton filling station, I still had 2 full water bottles and plenty to eat with my next stop at Versailles only 25 miles away. I was starting to get concerned with the time, I wanted to get back before nightfall. I have lights but I prefer not to use them since I always fear that I would hit something that would take me down, it's sometimes hard enough dodging obstacles when there is plenty of sunlight. The Indiana side of the river had a lot longer climb then the Kentucky side If I have to walk it could cause me a good 40 minute delay walking up 3 - 4 miles of hill. The bonus side of such a long climb was a lot lower grade climb, the max grade was around 7% for a very short time. It started with a very long 2% grade then escalated into a long 5% grade then near the very top it briefly hit 7%. Then there I was at the top, I couldn't believe it! I rode all the way up the hill without a problem even though I just rode 130 miles. I maintained a speed around 7.5 mph up the hill.
Flat tire
I'm doing great on time, I would defiantly make it home before dark and could possible add enough miles to make this into a double century (200 miles). Then I noticed something didn't feel right. The bike seemed to be very wobbly for some reason. I stopped and discovered as I suspected the rear tire was flat. Great, this will only add to the adventure, although I could definitely skip this part of the adventure. Inspecting the tire I found a small piece of glass stuck in the tire and had poked a hole through to the tube. Now I remember seeing a beer bottle smashed along the road as I was climbing the hill. At least it waited till I was finished with the hill before it went flat. It probably took around 15 minutes to swap out the tube with a new one, I didn't feel had enough time to try a repair. This also took up some of my valuable bonus ride time.
Finish:
Between Madison and Versailles a moped started following me I wasn't sure what he was up to but then he yelled that he was riding behind me so "I wouldn't get hit" I wasn't sure what I thought of that comment. I wonder what he would have thought if he knew I was finishing up a 186 mile trip across two states? He finally turned off to whatever his destination was.
My last stop was at the filling station at Versailles. The attendant said something about how I looked very tired, which I thought was strange, since I didn't feel tired at all. Twenty miles later and I was pulling into Greensburg still feeling great and strong. Dusk was falling as I pulled into the yard with all my lights flashing.
All in all this was a great trip and I am actually looking forward to another long trip, but perhaps not as hilly. This has really helped my confidence for doing longer and hilly trips.
Ride Summary:
Since the ride was broken into three sections I will have to give a manual description of the summary Riding time: 10:42:50 hours
Distance: 186.95 miles
Avg speed: 17.45 mph
Total time: 12:05:59 hours
Elevation gain: 7844 feet
This image is for the return trip only with the elevation map, can you guess where the river is?
Here is a video of me crossing the Ohio river valley on the return home. It Starts from the School Hollow road in Kentucky and finishes with having a flat tire on the Madison Indiana hilltop.
After the Tree City Rolling Tour I decided to add a new route to my 'canned' 50 mile rides. I ride a lot of 50 milers either after work or on the weekends. One reason is I'm trying to meet my goal I set on bikejournal.com of 50 fifty milers for the year. If I would have thought a little I think I should have set the goal at a much more reasonable 40 instead of 50 of them. This ride is only my 35th 50 miler for the year and it's getting harder to do these after work since the days are getting shorter. It will soon be too cold for me to ride, so we'll see if I finish all 50.
This ride is a challenge since it has all the hills on Hamburg road. I feel this ride really helps build me into a more powerful biker since it gets me used to climbing hills on a recumbent.
As always the Tree City Rolling Tour is on the Saturday during the 3rd weekend of August. This year it fell on the 25th. This tour has a 60, 30 and 13 mile rides all starting at Rebekah park in Greensburg IN. Both the 30 and the 60 miler tour the nearby Lake Santee. The 60 miler (the ride I completed) is advertised as very hilly, I can attest to that!
I was a bit apprehensive about doing the hilly route. It had been three weeks since I had been on my bike, I was still working on getting over a cold and I was worried over the hills. Recumbent bikes are supposed to be terrible hill climbers. You can't stand up to give it an extra boost, plus they generally weigh more then an upright. I knew ahead of time that I would need to use the front derailer granny gear, which would be the first time this year.
It turns out , I had nothing to worry about. I rode fairly quickly and ended up finishing in 3 hours and 8 minutes from the minute I started till I finished, I didn't stop at any of the sag stops. The hills were definitely a challenge. The three tall rolling hills had a 22%, 20% and 18% grades, but they were all short and sweet. The most difficult hill seemed to go on for a couple of miles with grades up to around 15%.
There were plenty of Sag stops, everyone was friendly and the weather was great. They also had a cookout with hamburgers and pork plus an added bonus I haven't seen at any other ride, they had a chiropractor and a masseuse on site ready to attend your needs after the ride.
I felt great after completing this ride. The Hope Ride had always been my favorite ride before, but it has been toppled by the Tree City Rolling Tour as my favorite sponsored ride.
I have now added the Hamburg road as one of my weekly rides. It's very challenging and I figure will help me become a better biker.
August was a very low mileage month. I went three weeks without riding at all. I ended up doing a very low total of 302 miles. A total of six GPS rides for the whole month!
I ended up with an average speed of 19.37 MPH.
The highlight of the month is the Tree City Rolling Tour which I'll cover in a separate post.
Hey, I'm still here and riding, I put over 1,000 miles in July counting both the GPS and non-GPS tracked rides. When I ride to work I don't track the rides with GPS. It's a short ride to work and can add up to 20 miles a week.
The average speed for the month was 19.28 MPH over 1,037.63 miles.
The longest ride was 127 miles, my first ever 200K. It was not a planned ride, When I started that day I was only thinking of doing around 50 miles max. The weather was perfect, very little wind and cool.
Somehow I got a little motivated and added enough for 75 miles on the first loop. I then took a break at home and decided that since I was so close to a century, lets add another 25 miles. Then somehow was motivated again into adding even more miles. I ended up going 127 miles without really going anywhere! I did three loops around the Greensburg area.
Hard to believe June is almost over, seems like 2012 is flying by. I've mostly been riding 50 mile loops that include riding around Lake Santee. I actually seem to like the 50 milers a little too much, perhaps I'm getting addicted to them. I admit to feeling a little ephoria after the rides.
50 mile rides seem perfect, they can easily fit in after work, I can carry enough water for the entire trip (three large water bottles), they are fast, and I still feel great the next day at work.
It started with a bikejournal.com forum entry titled "2012 FIFTY MILE club" in this 'club' you set a goal of the number of 'fifty milers' you are attempting for the year. I put down 50 as my goal. They also have other clubs within the forum some for longer or shorter rides. There are some for the number of days ridden in the year.
If you ride a bike and you aren't already a member of Bikejournal, I would highly recommend it. It has a journal that is very easy to fill in your daily rides and keeps track of your rides year after year. It also has a great forum for keeping up with other bikers. I also signed up for the 1,000 mile a month club, I put down a goal of 1 for the year. The most I have ridden in a month so far this year is around 800 miles. I don't think I have ever ridden over 1,000 miles in a single month. I use the name of Musashi at bikejournal.
I have really been surprising myself with the avearge speeds I am getting on some of these rides.
I'm now over 2,100 miles for the year and almost 6,000 miles on the Musashi.
June 24th: I think this is my fastest 30.
Distance: 30.35
Avg Speed: 21.1
Time: 1:26:22 Ride details
June 25th: Easy joy ride spent looking at roads to chang my main 50 mile route to avoid the downtown miles.
Distance: 16.52
Avg Speed: 18.1
Time: 2:32:3854:53 Ride details
This is a great Century ride that starts at the Shelbyville high school. They had four rest stops stocked with homemade cookies, peanut butter celery sticks, bananas, etc. They even had the 'White River Sound Chorus' singing at a couple of the rest stops. The ride was hot but I was doing great, I brought an extra water bottle and some power bars to make sure I had plenty to eat and drink.
I had hit a pot hole pretty hard around the 25 miles mark. It was hidden by some tree shadows on the road. I had almost lost control of the bike and a water bottle bounced off onto the road. I had already been thinking of replacing the front tire, it has over 5,500 miles on it and begining to show its age. I'm sure this pot hole didn't help it any.
Around 40 miles later I noticed a thump, thump, thump sound, I wasn't sure if it was the road or something on a wheel. This sound went on and off for a few miles. I convinced myself it was just the way the road was constructed and forgot about it.
Then there was a very loud POP! sound.
Just as it was beginning to register that a tire must have popped, I was down on the asphalt. Closer inspection shows the front tire had split open and the inner tube had popped. The tire must have been ready to pop for a while, and making the thump sound every time the weak spot rolled around. If only I had listened to what my bike was telling me! The wreck also ripped off the side water bottle cage and the mount for the air pump. I ended up wire tying the air pump to the handlebars once I was ready to leave.
I ended up with some cuts and scrapes, nothing very bad, Lucky for me, I wasn't going very fast, although I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow. I always carry some repair supplies with me, including a thick rubber boot for repairing busted tires. If I had noticed the problem before I allowed it to pop, the repair boot would have worked without an issue. But this tire rip was a few inches long making it unlikely a repair would work at all. I ended up putting in two boots. The inner tube also had a long rip in it so I replaced it as well.
I pumped up the tire lower then normal. The repair looked good, but I was going to be cautious, I didn't want to be flying down a hill and have it pop again. After 9 miles I started hearing the thump, thump again and knew the tire would most likely split open again. The next sag stop was about a mile away, so I rode the last mile to the sag stop, then called it quits for this Century ride.
I want to thank everyone that stopped and asked if I needed any help, this includes the church goers that offered me tea and fresh water. I'm sorry about the loud word I hollered when I crashed in front of your delegation...... not sure how that slipped out, but at least the videos audio wasn't working very well at the time.
Ride details (I forgot to turn off the GPS before I hitched a ride, so I had to manually cut off some of the ride, I ended up losing about 5 miles of the trip.)
Ride summary below:
Some videos:
The White River Sound Chorus at a SAG stop
The actual wreck, not sure what happened to the audio here.
Went for a little ride after work. The wind was blowing from the East. Excellent ride with a great average speed. The average dropped by .2 mph when I hit three red lights in a row as I hit downtown.
One of the highlights of this loop are the rolling hills a couple of miles before Lake Santee.
I've uploaded a video of the red lights and the rolling hills below:
Great morning for a ride, there was some constant wind from the West. Half way through the ride I had an average speed of 20.9, I think I could have hit 21 if it wasn't for the slow traffic around Lake Santee.
First there was a truck only going at 17 mph and driving left of center, I was behind him for 5 minutes before I could get around him. Then there was the golf cart that took a while to get around. I don't have any problem with the golf carts, Lake Santee is a golf cart community and you expect them, but I wasn't sure what to think of the truck, I started to think he was purposefully trying to block me.
It still turned out to be a great ride with an average speed of 20.1 MPH over a 50 mile loop with no breaks.
This is becoming my favorite loop this year. Usually the ride through downtown Greensburg will slow my average by 1 to 2 tenths of an average mph but this time I hit most of the lights when they were green.
End of May stats:
Total May miles 801
Total miles for the year so far: 1,409
Total miles on the Musashi: 5,1476 (since last April)
Goals:
I'm at a crossroads, I haven't set any goals yet this year and I've already hit all of the speed goals that I 've completed last year. I'm not sure whether I'm going to try for speed, distance or a combination of the two this year.
Distance:
I like the idea of riding 200+ mile long trips. I may not like it at all, once I try one. That would mean a different style of riding where I try slowing down to speeds below 17 mph so I can last longer. Then there is the issue of the sun beating down on those really hot days. I'm not sure if sun screen is very effective if you keep reapplying it every couple of hours. Perhaps I should try the RAIN (Ride Across INdiana) 160 mile ride.
Speed:
I also like riding these fast 20 mph trips. I could push my speed goals to 80 and then 100 miles at 20 mph. I could also advance my speed goals to a 21 mph average. I already have a start since I've already completed a 20 mile trip at 21 mph, the next goal would be 40 miles at 21 mph.
Combine speed and distance:
I could also combine the two goals and use the shorter speed goals to help me prepare for the longer endurance rides.
A fourth option?
I'm currently enjoying the rides as they are, and I'm very happy with the speeds for now, especially since I can ride a fast 50 miles one day and then do the same the next day. The only time I haven't enjoyed myself this year was by trying to do too much. So perhaps I'll set no goals at all this year, only time will tell.
May 27th ride:
Distance: 54 miles
Average speed: 19.4 Ride Details
May 28th ride:
I've been really enjoying this trail. I can easily make it into a 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60 mile trip. It can pass through Clarksburg, around Lake Santee, Greensburg, Greensburg park and then Adams. It has a couple of spots with some really nice rolling hills. My definition of a rolling hill is where you can ride down one hill fast enough and it will almost take you to the top of the next hill. Most of the boring parts of the ride are in the first 15 miles.
May 29th ride:
Distance: 43 miles
Average speed: 20 mph Ride details:
May 30th ride:
I took it easy on this trip, my goal was to go over 1400 miles. There was a strong wind from the North.
Distance 31 miles
Average speed: 19 mph Ride details:
I'm a bit behind on my posting.....
I'm now over 1,200 miles for the year.
Highlights from this group:
May 3rd solo century and May 14th 60 miles under 3 hours.
Almost all average speeds are over 19 mph, even with the windy days.
April 18th ride:
26 miles with an avg speed of 19.4 mph. Ride Details
April 26th ride:
31 miles with an avg speed of 18.0 mph. Ride Details
April 29th ride:
36 miles with an avg of 19.3 mph. Ride Details
May 3rd ride, first Solo Century of the year:
This is an all state highway ride.
Starting with US421 South from Greensburg, then taking US 62 through Madison, then US7 through North Vernon and ending up with US3 back through Greensburg.
May 8th ride:
40 miles with an avg of 19.8 mph. Ride Details
May 9th ride:
10 miles with an avg of 20 mph. Ride Details
May 10th ride:
26 miles with an avg of 19.8 mph. Ride Details
May 11th ride:
50 miles with an avg of 20.1 mph. Ride Details
May 14th ride, 60 miles under 3 hours with no breaks:
Great ride! Even better then last years, since last years was all smooth highway miles. This trip had some slow downtown miles, while the rest were county roads.
The wind has finaly settled down a bit average wind speed 6 mph with gusts at 12 mph. It was overcast and a little chilly though, so I wore my jacket and long johns.
Another very windy ride, when will it stop? Its good training, and I did push today, unlike yesterdays easy ride. Average wind was around 9 mph with 38 mph gusts.
You know its windy when you have trouble going down a hill! On this one nice down hill section I would normally hit close to 30 mph. Today I couldn't hit 19 mph, and I was trying hard!
I still got a decent average speed of 18.7 mph on a 35 mile trip.
The sun was out, temps were in the mid to high 60's and the wind wasn't blowing too bad. Sounds like a great combination for a Saturday ride. Rode around Lake Santee then down towards the Greensburg park before heading home. The ride was excellent and fast with an average over 20 mph.
The heart monitor stopped working, so I'll try a new battery before the next ride; although I have been contemplating getting a newer style monitor.
I bought the Musashi one year and 4,000 miles ago! I'm still excited about riding this bike! I definitely made the right choice. I've ridden around 350 miles so far this year, thanks to the unusually warm weather we are enjoying.
Here are the details from my very first at home ride on the Musashi: Ride Details
I remember being disapointed in the speed ( I averaged 14.6 mph over 30 miles), I was facing a strong wind from the West and wasn't quite used to the new ride.
Below is a catchup listing of the rides so far this year. I started a new 'motto' on the last couple of rides: Sprint up the hills. It has really made a difference as you can see on April 3rd, my first ever round trip with an average over 21 mph. I've had longer trips with higher averages, but never a complete round trip at this speed.
I haven't decided on any goals for the year yet. I'm just happy for the early warm weather.
February 29th: Ride Details
20 miles with an average of 17.0 mph
Hard to believe it was above 60 degrees in February!
March 6th: Ride Details
23 miles with an average of 18.2 mph
March: 7th: Ride Details
31 miles with an average of 19.2 mph
March 11th: Ride Details
40 miles with an average of 17.8 mph
March 13th: Ride Details
28.38 miles with an average of 19.0 mph
March 14th: Ride Details
21 miles with an average of 17.4 mph
March 18th: Ride Details
22 with an average of 17.7 mph
March 19th: Ride Details
20 miles with an average of 17.6 mph
March 21st: Ride Details
21 miles with an average of 19.3 mph
March 22nd: Ride Details
18 miles with an average of 19.1 mph
March 24th: Ride Details
29 miles with an average of 19.8 mph
March 29th: Ride Details
21 miles with an average of 20.5 mph
April 3rd: Ride Details 21 miles with an average of 21.2 mph!
Not much wind to slow me down today, and I powered through the hills for a real workout.
"You are obese"
I still remember the very moment the nurse said that to me. I was participating in the annual work place physical put on by our insurance company. What? Did I hear her right? I see obese people practically everyday, and I'm not one of them. Sure I'm overweight, but obese? No, never. My look must have given away my thoughts, as the nurse then added this to send the message home: "You are obese, there is no such thing as borderline or a little obese, you are either obese or your not, and you sir are obese." " You're also a borderline diabetic"
It took a while for that message to really sink in. At first I was like right, and your most likely part of that crowd that says Arnold Schwarzenegger is overweight. How can anyone say he's overweight? I then started to research it a bit myself. I found many online weight charts. They all seemed to agree, that my ideal weight should be around 135 to 167 pounds, depending on whether my frame size is small, medium or large. I weighed in at a little over 245 pounds! That meant I was as much as 110 pounds overweight.
How could this have happened? I remember back when I was growing up, my mom took me to the doctor since I would eat everything she put in front of me, and was as thin as a rail. I had to actually gain weight before the Navy would accept me back in 1982. When I left the Navy in 1990, I was still in great shape and riding my Cannondale road bike for great distances at some fast speeds.
Now fast forward to 2005 and I'm 100 pounds overweight and OBESE? This can't be, I am to limber for an obese person, I can touch the palms of my hands on the floor when I touch my toes. I can stand on my hands with my body parallel with the floor. I can ride a bike for twenty miles without any issue.
Then it started to hit me, I haven't really ridden my bike since the mid 1990s. There were also other little clues, I couldn't see my toes when I looked down at my feet.
I remember the first time I took my future wife to see my wonderful grandma, may she rest in peace. It had been a while since I had last seen her, and what was the first thing she said when I walked into her home? "Terry!" she exclaimed in shock, "You got big!" My wife and I could barely hold in the laughter.
Then there was the time my wife bought me some sweat pants that were one large size that fits all. Before I tried them on I grabbed their waistline and stretched them out with both hands, they must have stretched out over 3 feet across,
"How big do you think I am?!" I asked in shock.
"Just try them on, they are suppose to fit your size" She said.
"Do they look like they could fit?!", "You can fit two people in here easily.",
"Just try them on, I can return them if they don't fit."
So I tried them on, and to my horror, they fit very snugly and comfortably.
"Ne-ver mind" I sighed.
We still laugh about those times.
Little by little I began to realize the nurse was correct, I was in fact obese, even though none of my co-workers or my wife would believe it, yes they believed I was a little overweight, but not obese. Being overweight seemed to be the norm. After some searching on line I found that since my BMI was over 36, I was actually counted as a class 2 obese, or morbidly obese. Here is a simple chart to check your own BMI using height and weight: BMI Chart.
It has taken a while to get my weight in check, I still have a little way to go. At the close of 2010, I weighted in at 173 pounds, by the end of 2011, I weighted in at 199 pounds. I went backwards a few pounds last year. But 2011 was my first entire year under 200 pounds, so it was still a banner year for me. That was significant for me, since I had tried for years to get my weight under 200 pounds and never could until 2010. I never dieted at all in 2011, so riding the bike is the only thing that helped keep my weight down.
This year I made a new years resolution to be under 180 pounds by the end of March and then stay under 180 pounds for the rest of the year. So far I'm on track, at 178 pounds on the last day of March.
It wasn't a single motivation that helped me get my weight down, it was a combination of items. The largest contributor was the "Biggest loser contest" that my workplace held in 2010. I'll go over the different methods and motivations I have used to lose weight in future posts.
I've been a lazy poster so far this year. With all this great weather, I have already put on over 300 miles so far. I'll have to do a catchup post on all the rides.
