Targets

A line was drawn in the sand back after Thanksgiving and my vacation that week.  To say that I felt miserable might have been an understatement.  Fatigue, headaches and aches populated my days at various times and each occurrence was easily correlated to something I put in my mouth.  Some folks might roll their eyes and just say I'm being silly or imagining it - but I really believe those folks just don't want to admit that maybe they don't need that pastry.

Another marker in the negative column was a group ride I did where I got dropped off the back of the lead group - straw/ camel's back and all that.  

The day after Thanksgiving was when I knew I either had to get serious about NSNG. I've been chasing the dragon since 2012 when I had the best 6 months on a bike I've ever had and probably felt better physically & mentally than I ever had before.  I want to get back there, but I kept fooling myself thinking a taste here and a bite there were okay.  That anything I ate my cycling would take care of.  But that is a strategy for failure.

In the last two weeks I've had two minor slips, but otherwise I've done well with the whole NSNG thing.  I'm starting to feel different and have noticed some slight changes already.

I'll end the year about 1.5k short of my target of 4,000 miles for the year.  Some of that is down to personal choices not to ride on a given day or days.  But a lot of it is down to illness, which looking back on I know a good deal of it was induced by bad choices and putting garbage down my throat.  

The year started strong in January and I ended the month with 300 miles ridden, which is awesome given a lot of it was on the trainer.  And then it all began to unravel.  A broken toe, a lack of miles, gear & kit problems, illness, feet issues, weird face rash things and then came September.

We moved during Labor Day Weekend and maybe I scratched myself on something or maybe it was the accumulated fatigue and stress of the last few years finally coming to roost, but something odd happened.  I got hit by a virus that caused all my joints to feel as though I had just started out powerlifting at full Olympic weights.  I hobbled around for about a week and then required another week to get back to normal.  My immune system was flatlined and I got a cold.  Because of the previous issue the cold lingered longer than it ought to.

With 3 kids, aged 6 & under it is easy to get something from them, but also kind of easy to avoid getting sick from them - that is unless your youngest sneezes in your face and you get covered in gunk.  As a result of that another 2 weeks were lost and an additional 2 weeks of just plain coughing ensued.  September & October were gone, but I did still get some miles in, just not a lot.

Today being Dec 11th, there are only 20 days in the year left and while I'd planned to get a 40 miler in the forecasted temperatures just won't cooperate.  I can ride in the mid 20s F but anything lower and I end up with a lung sear induced cough that hurts and isn't worth it.

That's life.  My hope is that when I do get back on the bike that I'll notice a performance difference as I'm getting closer to the minor year end target I set myself the day after Thanksgiving.  

Little steps, each one like the ingredients of a recipe getting me to the desired end result.

Sick as a dog, what's your story?

It's been a lousy, just lousy couple of months.  If it isn't one illness its another.

Back in mid September a virus of unknown origin took hold in my body.  This mystery virus was brutal in that it reduced me to an infirmed old man.  Just as that passed, I got a cold.  Like any cold it came and went in about 7 days time.

And then my daughter sneezed in my face.  She'd had a cold too.

She's turning 2 next month, so she gets a pass on that sort of thing.  My immune system did not get a pass and now 2 weeks later I finally went through the night and morning without doubling over coughing and producing nasty mucus.

My oldest son started Kindergarten this year.  When he was very young, between 3 - 6 months he went to daycare and then later before his brother was born, he spent time with my wife at a home she nannied at.  So on the one hand the kids never really got sick and got all the bugs their peers in daycare got.  That isn't to say they never got sick.  Bugs were picked up at the supermarket, Target, Walmart, etc. or I'd bring them home from my work.

So now I give myself one week to recover fully and get my strength back and then it's back on the bike/ exercise.  I've been down & out for nearly a month and a half with sporadic riding in that time so I'm at the low ebb of my fitness right now.

The plan is to just ride at lunch outside and ride myself back into something over the next month or so.  I'll ride at lunch until my vacation in January hopefully.  Once vacation is over, I kick into 2017 training full time and more importantly - Mt. Washington Hill Climb training full time.  I'll have more on that last nugget soon.  I don't plan on attempting it in 2017, but I do look to do it in 2018...

Anyway, I'm (fingers crossed, salt tossed, etc) on the mend and that's all I care about right now...

Bonus points to those who recognize the song whose lyric is the post title.

Stumbling Uphill

Well the last week was not good.  There was quite a bit of mindfully eating food I should not.  I'm not happy about it and with each bite I swore this item and that item would be the last.

Sigh, such is life.

Today I'll reboot and start over again.

In other news it would appear based on sunrise, available light and wanting to leave work at close to my normal time that I am done riding in for the year.  While I am a bit let down about that, this fall I was able to ride in for a month longer than normal.

The Wednesday Night Ride in South Berwick is also done for the year due to the available light issue.  We had the last ride last Wednesday and it was a fun 20ish miles.

So what now?  Well, beginning on Tuesday I'll bring my bike & kit to work and head out for a lunchtime ride and try to squeeze in at least 18 miles.  And I'll probably do that until the snow flies.  Not much else to report this week.

Stumbling, but not falling down.

Since discovering Paleo aka Ancestral Health aka NSNG back in 2012, I’ve yo-yoed between a strict adherent to an adherent in name/ desire only.  Often what would occur is that I would fall off the wagon and then spiral out of control for weeks.  And or I’d sneak something as a means of coping with stress.

Thursday of this week I fell off the wagon.  However for once it wasn’t due to stress, it had everything to do with being sick for 3 weeks and overdoing it on the bike while going NSNG and having my body transition to burning fat and not carbs for energy.

See when you go NSNG or Paleo, your body has to rewire itself to burn fat, which is a more efficient fuel source.  It takes about two weeks and in that time, the sugar/ carb cravings can be rough.  What usually transpires is that by the end of the first week your performance in any sport will begin to suffer and by week 3 the upswing begins.

All of that would have happened like normal had I not been sick for 3 weeks.  The virus that affected me for two weeks really took a lot out of me physically.  Apparently more than I realized and then having a cold/ sore throat just after meant I didn’t recover that much.

Monday I was excited too and felt good when I rode in and then back out that day.  Wednesday was when I rode again and it was a group ride.  Thus the effects on my body were different then if riding alone.  Thursday morning I rode in and felt great.  It wasn’t until the afternoon that the wheels fell off the wagon.  The first thing to happen was that I bonked/ experienced a hunger knock because I was out of energy and not fat adapted yet.  This happened about mile 9 of 13 and my legs became like spaghetti.  I could have called for my wife to come get me, but instead opted to take those last 4 miles really easy.  It was rough, but a bad day on the bike is still better than the worst day in a car.

When I got home, I destroyed a chocolate chip cookie and about 7 Mr. Goodbar Hershey miniatures.  I knew what I needed, which was a quick carb fix and those and sitting for a bit did the trick.  Bonking like I did was a stark reminder that I was sick for 3 weeks and the first 2 really took a lot out of me.

That was Thursday and between Friday & Saturday there were 3 other incidents of non NSNG eating.  In the past when the wheels came off and I fell off the wagon it would be a week or more before I got control of it again.  Not so this time, I’m back on track. 

Transitioning to this way of eating isn’t easy.  Temptation exists all around and the proponents of it all have one thing in common.  Sugar & grains are not healthy and we are better off without eating them.  However the by-products of them – pastry, donuts, bread, and chocolate are delicious and there is no disputing that.  All I need do and I know this from past experience is get through those 2 weeks to start feeling better and then after 1 month the longer I go, the more noticeable the benefits will be.

I look forward to when I’m 2 months in and feeling fantastic.  A topic I’ll address when I get there.

Reboot

Is it possible to write a blog and not come off as a pretentious jackass?  Or does the fear of appearing as a pretentious jackass instill an inner limiter on the author?  Perhaps I’ll find out as I try to update this blog on a more regular basis than once or twice a decade.

2016 has been a year of change and seemingly being behind the 8 ball on a near continuous basis.  The changes we’ve experienced have been for the better.  However it feels like all year long when I have dealt with one ailment, something has come along shortly thereafter to take its place and I am fed up with this cycle.

4 years ago I was in the parlance of cycling – “flying.”  Meaning everything pertaining to my physical being was at a level that I had never experienced before.  My weight was at a place it had not been since my teens.  And as result of my weight and time in the gym the power to weight ratio meant I could do anything I asked of my bike and body and I put out effortless exertions.

My performance culminated in my best & one of my worst days on the bike.  Amongst my group of friends doing the Hurricane Mt climb, I was the first one to summit the climb.  And that year I did it without walking the climb at all.  In year previous I had to walk the steeper sections due to my weight and lack of gearing on my bike.  What a difference riding up the climb in its entirety made to my enjoyment of the ride itself.  And then it all came crashing to an end when I crashed out doing 25 mph.

My entire goal that spring had been that ride and specifically the Hurricane Mt climb.  In one sense part of the goal had been completed but I never knew how well I’d have done over those 80 miles in the White Mountains.  I maintained my fitness and form for the Trek Across Maine a few weeks later and stunned some folks who I had ridden with the previous years.

That spring of 2012 was the best I had felt physically in a long, long time and it only existed until the Trek.  I slumped after that and have never gotten back to that place and only chased it.  What allowed me to reach that goal was diving into and adhering to the paleo or ancestral health movement.  Not only did I feel great physically that year but all my other health markers showed me in stellar condition all because I eliminated sugar, grains, legumes and most dairy.

Today is 02 October 2016 and yesterday was the last day for the foreseeable future that I ingested grains or sugar.  I’m tired of being tired and sick.  I’ve tasted and seen bike nirvana and want to get back there and can if I really want to.

The journey begins anew today.

Rain

Springtime in New England is a wonderful time filled with the promise and rebirth of spring.  The fragrant aroma of freshly mown lawns and flowering daffodils permeates the air.  Cyclists like myself also face the near daily conundrum of what's the weather going to have on offer today?  This question also opens the door to a whole other set of problems in what exactly to wear?


Now having to decide what to wear for most folks can be a rather sticky dilema.  For a cyclist in the springtime there are a whole slew of variables to consider.  What is the weather for that day and what is the temperature forecasted to be?  What time are you rolling out?  How long will you be out?  See it isn't quite as simple as, is this a family style restaurant or a classy restaurant, which would entail casual or slightly more dressy apparel.  The problem is that cyclists have a limited amount of carrying capacity.  Our jersey pockets are often filled with mobiles, food, identification & money and for some tubes, co2 and tire wrenches.  So having an over abundance of clothing that needs to be stripped off means stuffing it into a limited space.  If only our jersey pockets were like Hermione's bag in the Deathly Hallows or the Doctor's TARDIS.


Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about having to work out complex formulas and become an amateur meteorologist, which is something most cyclists are based on the observation of cloud cover on overcast days.  In fact, the weather this spring in particular has been quite nice if you don't mind getting wet, really, really soaking wet.  A little rain never hurt anyone if they are properly equipped that is.


There is something about riding in the rain, on a regular basis that hardens a person I think in much the same way that riding through the winter does.  Moreover you appreciate the sunshine that much more.  Rain much like the cold is not a cyclists adversary, it is more like the friend who needles you, which is their way of showing they care about you and like you, i.e. it makes you stronger and more resilient.


Last year I was on daycare duty for most of the spring and thus do not recall if it was as wet as this spring has been.  Nor do I recall the year before that either.  I do remember the spring of the year I got married was very wet and I rode a lot of miles that year in the rain.


Finally, one thing to note on a personal level is that after the accident last July, I'll take any day on the bike even in the rain and cold.  They truly make the days where the skies are blue, the air warm and the wind at your back that much more enjoyable, knowing that that is your reward for suffering in what you enjoy.

Motivation is nothing new

What motivates you?

For me the answer to that question has changed as I’ve gotten older and had more responsibilities added to my life.  The two biggest motivators for me are my wife & son.  When I got into cycling, neither was in my life and would not be for another 3 and 5 years done the road.  At the beginning cycling was about fun, it was a stress relief and a way to escape the shithole that was my life at that time.

Later and to this day, cycling became a way to manage my cholesterol.  To date I’ve never been put on any sort of medication, my doctor trusted that cycling would with changes to my diet, take care of things and it has.  How the determination of my high cholesterol came about is a tale for another time.  I will provide a tantalizing hint and that hint?  Hydraulics.

Since 9 July of this year, I’ve had another motivator constantly rattling around inside my head.  On that day we (as in the wife, son & I) were headed to a cookout.  I on my bike and they coming along a little while later in the car.  Whenever I get the chance, I always ride to family gatherings or events, so long as there is a place I can change and wifey can meet me there.

The day was beautiful and because the house we were visiting had a pool, I was looking forward to a refreshing swim after the ride.  I’d passed many small ponds on my way, which only served to make my potential swim that much more enticing.  However, the swim and cookout weren’t to be part of my agenda that afternoon.

I came upon an intersection in East Concord, NH, one that I’d ridden through on at least a half dozen occasions with a local cycling club.  That day I was alone, descending a hill at speed (30mph) and took to the center of the travel lane to make myself more visible to the cars entering and exiting the intersection.

NOTE: Because I was traveling at the posted speed limit, I was/ am able to take the lane by law.

As a cyclist you develop an almost uncanny ability to know which vehicles will try and sneak out in front of you and which will wait for you to pass by.  The car that pulled out in front of me was a case of the former.  Except for one small detail, the driver did not look or if she did it was such a fleeting glimpse that did not allow her to see the guy bedecked in red, white & blue with flashes of yellow on his helmet.  How pray tell do I know this and state this so matter of factly?  She never made eye contact with me.  Even wearing sunglasses I can stare down motorists and give them a shake of the head to indicate, nope bad idea, I am going much faster than you think I am.

Like many I am prone to profanity at times and as you’d imagine this was one of those times.  Except I only unleashed a brief torrent in the seconds I had available to brake.  You see, the motorist in question pulled out in front of me with less than a foot between us.  How exactly she did not see me is something only she could attest to, and possibly only under cross examination; but I digress.

Now physics was never one of my strong suits.  Coasting to pass does not begin to describe my high school physics experience.  But I do know that nothing nor no one but the Flash or Superman could have stopped so short, so suddenly.

The sprinter Mark Cavendish says he can remember every minute detail of his victories as though time slows for him.  That was the case with me, I remember yelling at her.  I remember her reaction and face when she saw me (all too late of course).  I remember thinking what would become of my wife & son.  I remember hitting the car.  I remember the sound of my bike impacting the rear of her car.  I remember thinking this is going to hurt.  I remember being thrown up and over the trunk.  I remember hitting the pavement.  I remember my head bouncing off the pavement.  I remember rolling and coming to rest on my hands and knees.  I remember seeing my bike, lying in the middle of the road, the front wheel not where it should be and knowing it was gone.

The only thing I can’t recall?  How my left knee was gashed open.  Most likely my knee struck the end of my drop bar, but at this point who knows.

The next 10 minutes or so were a blur, between people coming to check on me, EMTs, the police and having to call wifey.  I soon found myself packed into the back of an ambulance.  All the time I sat on the ground assessing my body for damage, the driver a young girl stood off to the side visibly upset – as she ought to have been.

I was lucky that I walked out of the ER that day.  I was lucky that the driver was cited for failing to yield. I was lucky that the officers who responded understood what had happened and that cyclists have rights too.  I was lucky that she has motor vehicle insurance as it is not mandatory in NH.  I was lucky that her insurance company came to its senses when they saw my wrecked bike and realized they got lucky that I was not still in hospital so they paid me the full value of my bike.  Later they would value my life at less than what my bike was worth.  Could I have fought them for more money?  Sure, but I wasn’t after a payday and just wanted it all behind me.  However it does amaze me that they’d value property more than life.

A few days after the accident we went & got the police report.  The officer at the scene had come to the ER to check on me and followed up with a call the day after.  From those conversations I knew that they were citing the driver and I was the victim.  She had failed to yield to an oncoming vehicle – me.  However the statements given by the driver and her boyfriend got me riled up.  As one would expect they lied, blatantly outright lied and tried to put the blame squarely on my shoulders.

 In fact the boyfriend had the gall to be upset that I did not talk to them while I sat there bleeding, my finger swelling and utterly dejected at the thought of losing my bike.  You see often in situations like this, just as with cars insurance companies won’t pay out the full value of bicycles.  And anyone that knows me well knows my bike had been built up overtime and was an expensive piece of gear. In fact I'd hazard a guess that the wheelset on that bike i.e. the front & rear wheel cost more than her car was worth.  That this ignoramus wondered why I did not speak to him or his gal pal is fuckin’ unbelievable.  

Their attitude is what motivates me now along with my walking out of that hospital that afternoon. I was lucky and feel an obligation to do something to educate the masses regarding the value of life.  A bicycle is not just a child’s toy.  A bicycle can be a high performance mode of transport from a to b.  A bicycle can be a form of therapy, a form of medication, a thrill ride.  A bicycle is about absolute joy and sheer pleasure. And above all else a bicycle is a celebration of life.