My first ride for the month was on Monday the second. This would be the coolest day we would see all week. I saw 36°C at the high point and started the ride at 23°C. It was hot ride on paper, but thanks to the wind off the ocean, even inland it wasn’t too bad. I definitely felt the heat when stopped and out of the breeze. I’ve set myself a goal for the month. I’m going to try to hit 1,610 kilometers or about a thousand miles. The idea is to build endurance and saddle time for a full 100 mile self-supported century before the end of the year. This has been a thing I’ve set myself many times. Back in my racing and harder training days, decades ago, I would regularly pull off a century with the team on a Saturday. In fact most team rides were around a hundred miles. Sometimes further if we got diverted off course with construction or road closures.
The first week of September was a hot one. I decided after seeing 40°C to abandon the inland routes with their heat and climbing for the coast. More time sitting in the saddle and battling a headwind along the coast, but 15°C cooler as well.
Ended the first week on Friday with a very hot ride with a neighbor. Shortened the ride because it was so taxing. 384km for the week. 400 is doable without the heat.
The second week was off to a very rocky start thanks to wild fires nearly surrounding our location. Three large fires within about a 100 mile radius.
The second week ended with no riding at all. Barely any moving around outdoors at all. The air quality has been bad enough my lungs have been very unhappy little wind bags indeed. It is getting better as the fire gets contained and burns out. The weather has likely helped with higher humidity and much cooler temperatures and less wind. People are slowly being. allowed back from evacuation for this closest fire. The other two large fires further north are still quite bad.
The. third week has begun. The weather is cool enough we may need to close up the house a bit more at night to ward off the overnight chill. After two short rides out the park and back, I’m struggling to get back up to speed. Not so much speed, but just effort and I suppose drive. Day one I was still dealing with breathing and sinus drainage as well as a watering eyes. I suspect the air quality was less good than the weather predictions indicated. It is clear I’ll miss this weeks goal as well as this month’s, but I have time on my side. I’ve used a base layer twice and while it is a tiny bit overkill, even for me, it has not been an unwelcome addition.
This third week, I managed to get myself back into the. effort. Wednesday was a gran fondo. Cool weather made for comfortable riding. I’d used a base layer each day I rode. Then an old problem flared up and I’m off the bike for the rest of the month.
While resting at home, I found this video from GCN,
The video struck a chord with me because I’m of a certain age of course, I do enjoy wine and the occasional cocktail, beer once in a while. But, I am trying to lose weight and the video had me recalling to my mind when I was working and using an app to track calories and workouts called: Lose It!.
Two important things I learned while using the app were first how many calories were in a typical drink and how far/long I had to walk or ride to brunch off a single beer or glass of wine. Or for that matter, bagel or favorite pastry. This led me to now, pause my. alcoholic intake. How long? I don’t know. I’ve not set a real date, though I am considering through at least the end of the year. But, my real goal is to lose weight and alcohol coupled with the stings I like to eat while enjoying a glass of wine. A double barreled assault on empty calories. I got to thinking about this a bit before when a friend showed how many. beers a bike ride had earned him. I had a similar app a long time ago that calculated how many Fat Tire beers I could drink after riding a distance. The app returned funny little comments on the. number of beers and how I might want to invite some friends to help. Anyway, all that got me to thinking that pausing my intake until I dropped weight, might be a bit more help. I’ve already found I can increase my distance and intensity. Changing my diet slightly is even easier. Plus it is a money saving technique when you consider the price of a good glass of wine out is around $12. A double shot of a good single malt is around $20 or more and a good pint is about $8. So more bicycle money to be had.
Officially I started on this little part of the lose the extra weight adventure a little more than a week ago. I’d been hovering around 172lbs or 78kg. I need to be around 155lbs or 70kg. Not a lot of weight to drop, but still weight to drop and keep off. Hence the changes in habits. I don’t have high blood pressure or high heart rate but like most in the US the doctors say I need to lose weight. 35 years ago when I was still a training bicycle racer, I weighed 142lbs or 64kg. The big incentive here is not just increasing my watts/kg, but to maintain the fit of the clothes I own I haven’t yet worn out. Yet more money saving. Plus being lighter means it will be easier to lift myself up those pesky hills.
So, the end of another week, but a week of no riding thanks to some issues. Nothing too serious, just can’t be on a bicycle or working out. Anyway, what to do? I know, order bicycle spares! KMC chain and some spare links direct from KMC took two days from order to toolbox. Next up is tire choices. I’m thinking of making the switch from my year after year favorite Continental Grand Prix 5000 folding tube types to Pirelli P Zero Race folding tube type. Both cost almost $90 here the Pirelli is slightly lighter in 28mm. I’ve been considering TPU tubes, but not excited about paying twice the cost of latex. Four tubes and two tires would run to around $314. Tires are roughly $180. TPU tubes run around $38 each. I cheated out on the tubes and just went with the 28mm Pirelli P Zero Race tires. I’m hoping only a few more days and I can get back to the bike. I need to wear out the GP 5000’s on it so I can try the new 28mm Pirelli P-Zero’s.
The diet changes are holding up fine. Without much exercise my weight isn’t really changing, but my biggest dietary changes are only a couple of weeks old. I am hoping I get good enough to ride before the end of the first week in October. Then I can inch the effort level back up to a where I can do a 100km day a few times a week. That should begin to peel pounds.
Totals for the month:
Distance: 581 kilometers
Climbing: 3,631 meters
Time: 25 hours
Along The Way 