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Treadmill, you are mine.

From what I’ve learned, the body loves its fat. When it senses that it is losing its fat stores, the human body will adjust your metabolism to compensate. It’s a survival mechanism — fat has historically gotten us through the lean times. Unfortunately, I have a lot of fat still on me, due to years of cheese danishes and Burger King Whoppers. Also, after months of eating so little, and seeing good progress, you start to slide, snacking a little more, eating a little more, justifying it all. So what to do? I looked through the iTunes store for some good calorie counting apps, and found a few, but the two best I’ve seen are the Livestrong app (associated with the Livestrong website/group), and something called MyFitnessPal (screenshot below.)

The MyFitnessPal app

After inputting my profile info in these apps, you input what you ate, what exercise you did, and track at the daily and weekly level how well you’re doing to reach a specific weight loss goal. I found that the best apps to use allow you to search and find/identify a wide variety of food, whether you bought it at a restaurant, or you made from ingredients found at your local supermarket. I paid for the Livestrong app, which has an excellent food repository, but I primarily use the free MyFitnessPall app (available for both iOS and Android OS) to track my consumption and exercise. I especially like the features where you can:

1. scan the barcode of a particular food, and it pulls the name & nutritional data for you automatically.
2. input exactly what you ate, whether it was a partial serving or not.
3. easily find and add in calories lost during a particular cardiovascular activity (I’m not bothering trying to calculate calories lost through strength-training exercises yet.)

I had initially tried the Calorie Count app from About.com, and while it was the most aesthetically pleasing app, it was buggy and not accurate. Too bad.

This may all seem a bit much, but after one week, it’s been a good set of tools to help get me to the next level, and to keep me on the straight and narrow.

I decided to try out some of my route from last week’s Clarksburg Ride that I attempted but got lost during. Since it was late afternoon / early evening, the sun wasn’t beating down and there was a nice breeze. I didn’t get lost this time around, and ultimately decided to follow as much of the route I could in the time allotted.

It took me about 3.5 hours to ride about 43 miles, and I worked on sprinting and keeping a strong pace. I ran out of water towards the end, but soldiered on. I now have 218 miles on the odometer. I’ve got that 600 mile goal in my sights.

Two more pounds this week? Four pounds since last week? That’s brilliant, mates! Six more to go to make my doctor happy, and 16 more to reach my personal target weight. Gym and the bicycle this weekend, so let the good times roll.

Saturday morning, I hit the gym, then my wife had to run some errands. While she was out, Lily and I picked Josh, who had spent the past two days/nights hanging with his maternal grandparents. When she got back, we hit the animal hospital to check out some kittens up for adoption. Afterwards, we did some shopping. I made what some might call a Chinese dinner: chicken fried rice with veggies sautéed in a General Tso’s sauce. Next time, I’ll plan ahead, and have some scallions on hand for garnish!

Sunday was proving to be one packed itinerary. I planned to go cycling in the morning, then we would take the kids to the neighborhood pool, lunch at home, then get ready and go to my father-in-law’s *last* church service. I use the word “last” loosely, since he’s retiring from his primary church, but he’s not actually “retiring.” Ah, I’m not going to get into it again. Whatever.

Cycling

6/19/2011 - my Father's Day ride -- 40 miles

Sunday morning, the kids were sleeping, and my wife was working on her speech for later that evening. I got ready in my cycling clothes, made myself some eggs and stuff for a hearty breakfast, and mapped out a decent ride around the area. I used a book that my wife got me for my birthday last year with routes all around NJ. A little after 8 AM, I was out the door.

I rode for a little while heading up to Cranbury, when I realized that my cyclocomputer wasn’t registering any mileage. It still said 0.0! Argh, I said, and stopped to figure out what was wrong. Now, I figured that the magnet and sensor got jostled on the bus ride back from Tuckerton Seaport last month, but I took the bike for a tuneup last week, and specifically told them it may need alignment. It seems they never bothered to check this out. Speaking in the 3rd person, I will say that Joel was annoyed. I messed around with the sensor, and it started registering, so I got back on the road heading up to Cranbury, NJ.

6/19/2011 -- I've racked up 175 miles so far this year

I didn’t quite follow the route listed, as I decided to not go all the way to the “starting point” marked in the route. Instead I thought I’d try to find one of the streets, and just go from there. Unfortunately, using the route and my iPhone’s Google Maps, I still had issues trying to find some of these streets. I eventually found my way, but I wasted a bit too much of my morning trying to find my way back to the route. I was probably better off just going to the specified starting point. As the morning drew on, it got progressively hotter, but I rode decently. In hindsight, I’m very glad I went for the 2nd bottle cage and water bottle, as I finished both on the ride, and then stopped at the Clarksburg General Store to get another large water bottle for a refill. I was only eight miles away from home, which would get me at about 38 miles in total, so I figured that was pretty good for today. I, of course, after using Google Maps, still went the wrong way, and had to backtrack again. I reached home a little after 12 noon. In total? 40 miles for the day, and 175 miles on the 2011 odometer. I think I can hit 200 miles next ride, which I hope is very soon. Since my personal best is just short of 600 miles in 2004, I’d like to beat that this year. I’m 1/3 of the way there now.

Surprise Father’s Day Gifts and Pool Time

The family had a little surprise for me, with cards and gifts, which I appreciated. I can’t wait to try out my new Swiss army knife. We had a short but closing window to hit the pool, so my wife got the kids ready for the pool before I got there, and I showered and got into my swim trunks. We hustled over to the pool, and swam around for the a while. My wife stayed out of the water, enjoying the rays. In too short a time, we had to get back and get ready. I picked up a quick lunch from 7-Eleven for the kids and me, and then we raced to get everyone showered and dressed.

Some of my Father's Day gifts and cards. I like the Star Wars card a lot!

Sunday Evening’s Church Service / My father-in-law’s Retirement Service

Naturally, we out of the house a little later than expected, and still had to get gas for the car. However, we now had less than an hour to get up there and get seats. I won’t mention all the details, but… the good news is that we made it there before 4pm, and the bad news is that I certainly made some enemies on the northbound NJ Turnpike that day. It was hot that day, but the kids were mostly behaved. After all the speeches, we went downstairs to eat and talk. We got out of there around 9pm, but then we had to get a few groceries (and pool shoes for Josh), so we hit ShopRite around 10:15 pm with the whole family. By the time we finally got home and got the kids to bed, we were all very tired.

1. My wife is on the search committee for church as we (as a church) evaluate candidates for the permanent rector. As a result, she’s been gone entire weekends travelling and visiting. I’m home with the kids, so that doesn’t leave any time to go out for a few hours of pedaling. Such is life. Sometimes I have to cover for her, sometimes she has to cover for me. It’s teamwork!
2. Our weekends have been packed with soccer games, parties, and general running around.
3. In the interests of full disclosure, my left knee has been a bit achy since May 21st. I never truly let it recover in May, so I think I’m paying for that now. I’ve been to the gym twice now, as that is my primary mechanism for getting in shape.
4. My bicycle was a little banged up while it was loaded and transported back from the Pinelands school after the ride, and I never had a chance to have it checked out after the ride was over. A turnaround time of a few days is to be expected, but I wouldn’t want to go out again until I knew my bike was in good shape.

Two new water bottles

Thursday evening, I dropped off my bicycle to one of the two bike shops I use for a quick tuneup to ensure everything is in working order, and it will cost me about $34. I got the bike back Friday evening, and it’s in pretty decent shape, including the tires. I also purchased an additional bottle cage and two 20-oz. insulated bottles for my bike. They had to move the bike lock to the back, but now I have two cages to hold two large bottles. Hydration is important, and apparently, I was told that I really need to have two bottles. I can also use a bottle when at the gym, which would cut down on the use of plastic water bottles. When in Rome….

So when am I going to go riding again? Yeah, I don’t know. This past weekend was packed, and next weekend isn’t looking too good either. Sigh. Around the 18th and 19th, I think I get some free time. Also, that would give me the four weeks of time off from the bike that my general physician recommended to me in April, which I ignored. Maybe it’s all working out in my best interests anyway.

Last week, I realized that I’m driving myself myself a little bonkers by weighing myself every other day. It was supposed to be weekly, but I started to obsesses and checky myself too often. I didn’t take into the fact that body weight will fluctuate 2-4 lbs even within the same day. When I last weighed myself, I was 192 lbs. I swore that I wouldn’t check again until June 1st. I forgot June 1st, but remembered around lunch time today. I was rather worried that my weight had stayed constant or increased during the past seven days. I have only worked out once (last Wed May 25th) since the MS Bike event, and that is the usual recipe for me to gain weight, even with dieting.

It isn’t that I lost interest in working out after the ride was over. I’ve been busy at work, my knee has been hurting since running on the treadmill last Wednesday, and my body has been feel pretty tired overall. I was motivated, but my body needed rest. Knowing all of these factors, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself two hairs north of 190 lbs.

Wow, 190 lbs. That’s net loss of 16 lbs since February. Cool. Maybe by August, I can lose another 10 lbs, and be down to my circa-2005 weight. Wouldn’t that be something?

I decided to not repeat last year’s late morning start and missing the team photo. No, not again. Friday night, I got my equipment together, and placed it next to the door. As soon as I got ready Saturday morning, I take everything there and put it in the car, load the bike, and take off. Saturday morning, I woke up at 5am, and my wife kicked me out of the bed. I got ready, loaded up the car, and was on the road by 6:20 AM. I unfortunately took the somewhat longer route, but got to Monmouth University in West Long Branch by 7:15 AM.

Everyone was arriving after 7am

There were lots of people arriving in the morning, and I got parking, then walked into the Boylan gymnasium to drop off paperwork at the Team CentraState table. So did I forget anything that day? Yes. I forgot the rider packet they mailed me earlier this month with my rider number and luggage tags. I ended up heading over to the “Solutions” table to get a replacement tags.

Interesting story — Friday night, I got a message from a mutual friend of my wife & me, who has a work colleague/friend who was to ride the 170-mile two-day ride, but a companion backed out. The mutual friend knew I was riding, and put me in touch. I called this colleague/friend, Jacqui, and she decided to ride the one-day Saturday 85-miler with me instead. I figured this would be good, since I’m helping someone out, and it’s nice to have company. We met up in the gym Sat morning after I participated in the team photo, and then got our bikes ready.

8;05 AM, after a speech and “opening ceremonies”, we were off! The mapped route was 85 miles from West Long Branch down to Tuckerton. We had rest stops for stretches and snacks/drinks every 15 miles or so. If you check out the map (previous link), the route hugged the Jersey coast for the most part down to Seaside Heights, then took us all across the water on a long bridge (Rt 37, “Little League World Champions Blvd”) towards Toms River. This part of the ride was cool, as they closed of two lanes on the bridge for us, and I’ve never ridden on such a large bridge before.

Lunch stop

We went inland the rest of the day. Apart from the rest stops, we had lunch at mile 52 at an elementary school in Lacey Township. I don’t believe I was ever so happy to see a turkey sandwich in my life. Lots of food, and a DJ playing music for entertainment. Around 2PM, Jacqui and I hit the road for the next 35 miles. At this point, 50+ miles has been the most I’ve ever ridden on my bike. When I got back on after lunch, my saddle-area was aching very badly, and my legs were feeling the first pangs of muscle fatigue. I’ve never asked my body to go farther than this, so it started to rebel. Still, we went on, and my posterior settled down for the most part. Over the next 35 miles, I started to experience more pain in my neck, my lower back, and a lot in my left wrist. The wrist pain go so bad, I struggled to find a comfortable position for my left hand to hold the handlebar. My knee held up surprisingly well, but the rest of me wasn’t so hot.

Mile 85, 5:05 pm, we pulled into the Pinelands Regional Junior High School, and I was happy to not go any further. There was an option to now complete a 15-mile “power loop” around the school, to make it a full 100 miles for the day. However, since I wasn’t much shape, and it was getting late, I ended my flirtation with trying for another 15 miles. I’ve never done 85 miles in one day, so there’s no reason to be crazy to try for 100. I can leave that for next year!

Jacqui and I just after arriving at the Pinelands school

We loaded up the bikes on the bus, and the bus eventually left around 6pm. We got stuck in traffic northbound on the Garden State Parkway, and arrived back at Monmouth University at 8 PM. I hobbled back to my car with the bike, loaded up, and drove home. I got home at 9:00 PM, and I was pretty tired. Of course, I had plans to go see Thor, but that’s another story.

All in all, I’m happy that I could do the ride this year. I started training back in February, dieting and exercising towards a better, healthier lifestyle. I lost 12 lbs along the way, and my doctor likes my blood test results and weight loss. I like accomplishing a new cycling milestone in my life. I liked riding and realizing that I’m not half bad climbing hills. I like that I raised $1,050 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. I like that I’m now a “Super Cyclist” for MS, and I earned myself a cool 2011 Super Cyclist jersey. These are all good things.

Photos are now up in the May 2011 Photos gallery, so please enjoy.