Happy Thanksgiving

Finally getting back to normal. Came down with a cold after setting the clocks back so I spent more time off the bike. Rode and ran this morning for the first time in a week and a half and felt really good. I decided to start doing some legwork in the power rack as well.

My friend and coworker, Jim Regan, turned me onto powerlifting in the "tradition" of Westside Barbell. Serious cyclists that train with power meters will discount this as meaningless, pointless, and largely counter-productive, but I'm keeping these techniques in my arsenal. I've become a big fan of box squatting. I'm not going to describe the technique here, if you want to know more, follow the link and read Louie Simmon's articles. Anyway, it felt good to load up the bar and crank out a few sets. I need to pick up a rackable cambered bar for my home set up.

Indoor training

Well the first week of indoor-only training is behind me and wasn't horrible. On the down side, rolling the clocks back knocked the crap out of me and I just wanted to sleep all week. I was starting to think I was sick but a bunch of people I work with reported feeling dog tired as well. On the upside, I feel pretty good being on the trainer for short workouts of an hour. I need to ramp up the intensity this week and push the duration out. Also, I jumped off the trainer and right onto the treadmill. Starting off doing a mile at a slow pace and it felt pretty good. This week I'll stretch the time out a bit. I also am going to start fencing lessons pretty soon, so I've been drilling the basic footwork and bladework. My blade control seems pretty good but I about crippled myself practicing balestra.

Mmmmmn, nutrition

Note: This post is a work in progress. I'll come back and edit/add as I have time. Meanwhile, please forgive erratic content, incomplete thoughts and misspellings.

Wanted to take a few minutes to talk about nutrition. Actually I want to talk about food. I really love to eat and learning to eat well has been the key to my weight loss. I have a few goals that I keep in mind as I shop, plan meals and cook.

Minimizing fat intake and avoiding saturated fat.
Avoiding heavily processed and refined foods.
Include fresh fruits and vegetables.
Choose a variety of foods.
Include whole grain items and legumes.

My goals will not necessarily be consistent with anyone else's certainly, but mine are driven by my medical history.

• What foods to choose.

Start at the beginning and learn to shop for the right foods at the grocery store. Avoid shopping on an empty stomach so you don't buy crap on impulse. Try to go with a rough meal plan and perhaps a list developed from a recipe or two (see resources). On successive trips, try to add the occasional new item. This keeps your repertoire of food prep choices ever expanding and (if you eat the new items) helps avoid boredom at mealtime.

As you gain confidence choosing and using healthier foods in a grocery store, you'll start being able to make better choices in restaurants. Actually, I think you just become more aware of what is used in different dishes and you should find yourself asking questions and asking for substitutions where needed. Things like, "hey, can I get the tzaziki sauce on the side?", or "could you go easy on the cooking spray when you make my omelete?", or "hmmm, those aren't sauteed in butter are they?"

Some specific food items that have become pretty standard for me are;
Whole grain breads, pasta and cereal.
Dried beans including pintos, black, lentils and Anasazi.
Egg whites.
Fat free yogurt and skim milk.
Soy-based cheese.
Romaine hearts and mixed greens.
Peppers and more peppers. Bell, serrano, cubanelles and jalapenos.
Smart Balance butter spray
Fruit, all kinds
Seasonal fresh vegetables
Sweet Potatoes.

Spices! This is where bold taste begins and ends.
Curries
Cumin
Cinnamon
Cardamom
Powdered Chipotle
Smoked sweet paprika
Emeril's southwest seasoning

• How to prepare meals to avoid boredom.

Learn to cook! Find some style(s) of cooking that you like and immerse yourself. Variety and big taste will keep your palette entertained. You don't need to resort to fast food and packaged snacks for food enjoyment.

• Portion sizes and other bad habits to avoid.

Learn to measure. Buy a food scale, keep it close to your food prep area and use it. Learn how big/small a 2 ounce portion of pasta is. Don't graze, when you're hungry, prepare your planned meal and eat right. Learn how much non-stick spray to use, know what condiments you can use with impunity and which need to be used with restraint.

One of the principles Dean Ornish discusses in his books is choosing foods with low caloric density. Eating these foods allows you to get filled up before you've taken in so many calories that you accumulate a calorie surplus, i.e., gain weight. Dieting sucks because you feel like you're starving yourself. Eating foods with high fiber content combats this directly.

• Meat or no meat?

I don't eat red meat because it's loaded with saturated fat and cholesterol. For the same reason I don't eat egg yolks. Some nutritionists like to point out that no connection has ever been proven between eating eggs and heart disease. Here's my view. High cholesterol (LDL) levels have been proven beyond argument to lead to CVD. 1 egg yolk contains 250 mg of cholesterol. That's 10 times what I shoot for in a day. There is no question that good quality meats are loaded with nutrients. I choose to avoid them for their negative qualities and get the good stuff from other sources. I do eat lean chicken, turkey, fish and egg whites, the first 3 sparingly. Animal proteins tend to be calorie dense, so portion size becomes a bigger issue. Just to reiterate, please review Dr. Dean Ornish' materials on this subject for more information.

• Resources.

Food for Fitness by Chris Carmichael is a great starting point for the athlete (or anyone) that wants to make better nutrition choices. Full of great recipes too!

Foodnetwork.com
Recipes, food prep information of all types. Also check out the food network on cable TV.

Every time I mount the bike on the trainer I swear I'm going to learn to like riding in the cold. The last couple of rides have been in 40 degree temps with lots of wind. The colder air temps are bad enough but the wind always sucks. I was a bit disappointed today as I only managed 17.0 mph over 20 miles and 182 watts average/ 199 watts normalized. I'm down to 215 or 216 lbs so I'm still making progress.

My last workout on the trainer was kind of a bust. For some reason my legs always ache on the trainer and I don't seem to be able to push as hard. If I spend time on the KK every day the discomfort lessens somewhat. Tomorrow looks to be the only day I'm going to want to ride outdoors for the coming week so it will be time to suck it up and get used to it.

I've been keeping track of my weight, resting heart rate (RHR) and blood pressure in a database since June. I wrote a simple .net user interface to input and display the data. I'm definitely a data geek, but it really is helpful to be able to view historic data in order to keep progress and plateaus in perspective. My RHR at this point varies from 45 to 48 and BP has been running around 125/64.

A final note for today. Many of us use HR monitors, GPS, Power Meters, etc., to capture ride data. For anyone that values historic monitoring data and stores electronic files, plan on backing up your data. It's not a question of if but when you'll experience some hardware malfunction and then your historic data is gone. It just happened to me and I really should have known better. Stupid me.

Extended fall riding

Typically daytime temperatures in this part of New York are in the 40s and low 50s. Yesterday was sunny and in the mid 70s so I had to sneak out in the early afternoon for a quick run around a 26.5 mile loop. That put me over my modest goal of 2500 road miles for the season. Today I start indoor training, probably on the tread mill. Later in the week I'll start interval training on the KK (Kurt Kinetic).

My weight is still hovering around 217. I really liked being able to watch 1.5 to 2 lbs. per week drop off but it isn't realistic to expect that to go on forever.

Getting ready for winter

I really hate riding when it's cold, but I'm not quite ready to abandon the roads for the trainer. Indoors, I use a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine. It's a great piece of equipment but it isn't the same as the road. I hope to get somewhat acclimatized to the colder temps and keep training outdoors until the roads get crapped up with snow and ice. A local bike shop is organizing a century/metric century in November that sounds fun, so I'll try to keep my weekly mileage up to be ready for it.

Had to replace another rear tire yesterday. Wore the center of the tread right through the casing and had a blow out 3 miles from home last night. So that's 4 Panaracer Stradius Pros since April. Only getting about 500 miles per tire, which means I'll be going back to Continentals.

Other changes for the winter include a change up to the diet. My cardiologist wanted me to take niacin and fish oil supplements to boost my HDL levels. A 3:1 LDL:HDL ratio is ok, but for documented cases of atherosclerosis they want lipid profiles closer to 2:1. Since my weight loss has slowed/plateaued, I want to jump start things. I've been reading Dr. Dean Ornish' books so I'm going (mostly) vegan for a while. I say mostly because I'm still going to eat egg whites, non-fat dairy, fish and the occasional chicken breast. Fish and chicken will only be once a week or so. I've been eating far more fruit, vegetables and legumes this year and more so in the last month and a half.

I plan on hitting the free weights a bit pretty soon. I firmly believe they helped me bump my speed up this year. I train with a power rack doing box squats, deadlifts and good mornings. In my opinion, Louie Simmons is the source for powerlifting techniques. Check out the details for accommodating resistance work in the rack. A week before my little coronary episode, I was doing 500# reverse band deadlifts and 465# box squats using 160# worth of chains on top of the plate loaded bar. Good stuff. I have to say a quick word also about the Simmons reverse hyper machine. We're fortunate to have one in our gym at work at it is a great way to work your lower back.

I'm going to use a structured approach this year with my winter cycle training. My unstructured approach this year has been, go hard on the medium length days, go harder on the short rides. If the legs hurt a lot, keep spinning and they'll eventually loosen up. So I've been looking at the "canned" plans available from TrainingPeaks and I'm pretty sure I'll try one of these. The price is certainly doable.

I've also been thinking about some things I'd like to accomplish next year, either related to cycling or to fitness improvement in general. I really enjoyed mountain bike racing back in '96/'97 and I might like to try something competitive again. Mountain bike races for sure and maybe some road racing. Not sure what I've got available in the area so I'll have to do some research. Maybe a TT. One event I've got my eyes on that looks worthwhile is the Adirondack 540. There is no way I'm jumping into the whole thing, but 1 lap would be an accomplishment. I also want to try a sprint triathlon or two. My weight loss goal is to get down to 175 and I'd like to get there by June 1st. At a light weight I want to climb Whiteface Mountain. It's an 8 mile climb that gains 3350 feet so I'm sure it's going to hurt.

I'll have some other goals in mind soon but this is good for now.

Beginning at the beginning

I wish I'd had the presence of mind to start writing at the beginning, but that is so long ago that filling in the salient blanks may take me forever.

I am in the best shape of my post teenage adult life, and at 46 that is a lamentable fact but one that I am very pleased with. On January 26 2007 I had a stent implanted to the circumflex artery after experiencing acute cardiovascular syndrome. At the time I weighed 281 lbs and had documented total cholesterol levels from 250 to 300 mg/dL.

Today I weigh 217 lbs and my last blood screening showed LDL/HDL levels of 75/25 mg/dL. I have been logging 100 to 150 miles per week on my road bike and have truly not felt better in a very long time. Yesterday I suited up for a chilly afternoon ride here in upstate New York and I spun through a 25.3 mile out and back loop in an hour and twenty two minutes. At an average speed of 18.5 mph, that is faster than I was riding in 1996 at 210 lbs.

In the last year I've had a few health scares and have had to re-evaluate my priorities. I've made some changes and I'm pretty excited by the results and I want to write about them. I find myself setting some long term and short term goals and I want to write about them as well. Along the way I hope to read some of your comments.