Rested Legs are Fast legs

Just as I suspected, my legs needed rest... that's why my times kept getting slower and slower. After 2 days rest, not only was I faster again, but I had the best average speed of the year so far... 15.5 mph. At one point half-way through the ride my average speed read 16mph... I knew I couldn't sustain that because the last half of the ride always consists of climbing the hills that I descended on the first half. I'll have to go over my records to see what my top average speed for a ride was when I was riding regularly a couple of years ago.

Tomorrow, I'll probably go for a longer ride and not worry about speed.... just to get out there and put some miles into my legs... and get some sunshine... and most importantly, start my one week vacation.

OK off to make some lunch... see you peoples tomorrow, ciao

Curve Ball

Just when you think you have it all figured out, life throws you a curve ball. I had it all planned out today... get home from work, throw on my cycling clothes and be out the door by 8:45AM... But when I leave work it's raining, not showering, but raining... so, no ride... 2 days now... my legs will really be rested now, I should be back up to or close to my top speed again when I finally get out there.

It did stop raining before 9AM, but the streets were soaked and all that grit and grime winds up in my gears, that stuff wears everything down prematurely and I wasn't in the mood for a major bike clean-up afterwards either. So far the weather looks good for tomorrow... so far.

Unfortunately, I've been eating normally as if I'd been riding, but that's a lot of extra calories that I didn't need... I can see my weight creeping up slowly day by day... and right before the wedding...  arghhh. It's only a couple of pounds, but enough to make my tux a little tighter.

Nodded Off

Well, my body took care of my decision of whether to ride or not today. When I got home this morning I sat down for a minute and decided to rest my eyes a bit... a bit turned out to be close to an hour... I really must have needed a break.

So now I can ride tomorrow with fresh legs, I'll see if I can do a medium length ride of about 20+ miles... of course for some people that's just a warm-up... but I'm not there yet, and probably by the time I'll get there it'll be winter time again, LOL.

OK, now to take care of some chores then take a shower and get ready for my 7 hour nap.
Good Day to you all.

Short Ride, Short Update

I wrote a whole blog update already and Firefox decided to quit on me, so i lost it before I could publish it... so here's the short & sweet version.

I intended to ride to White Plains today, a 22 mile round trip, but after about 5 miles I realized my legs were not having it... I was struggling just a little bit, so I did my hour loop around the neighborhood... all my stats were way off...  way below normal, maybe not "way" below, but they were similar to my stats from around the end of April... my legs were dead... I might need a day off soon... I'll go out and ride tomorrow and see how I do... I'd love to ride at least Sunday & Monday and then take off Tuesday if I have to....  then Wednesday morning is the beginning of my week off, so I could take a longer ride then with fresh legs... I'll see.

OK I gotta get going... enjoy your weekend everybody.

It's Getting Hot

75°F for my ride today... I'm not complaining, this is what I've been waiting for all Winter & Spring and here it is... right now I'm waiting until 9AM to start riding, after rush hour... but soon, maybe next week, I'm going to start riding at sunrise on my days off... it's such a beautiful part of the day to start my rides... there's very little traffic and I can ride up the main thoroughfares without hassle, of course by the time I turn around to come home there will be plenty of traffic and I'll have to use the back-roads and quieter streets.

Today's ride was a little over 26 miles... I just did some loops around my neighborhood... average speed was 15 mph... average heart rate was 139 bpm... my heart rate before the ride was 62 bpm and I got it up to 164 bpm on my ride, so I did a little work.

OK, my weekend is over, I gotta eat something and then relax a bit after that... back to work tonight... then I got a week off starting Wednesday morning until the following Friday night... I have my daughter's wedding next Saturday... everybody's getting excited... and busy... it's gonna be a great day.
Ok I'm out.

Longer Ride Today

Today's ride was to increase my endurance and distance... I rode for 2 hours and logged in 30 miles... on another beautiful day. It was my longest ride of the year but not by much... on May 12th I rode 29.75 miles... and I rode it at a faster pace. A couple of possible reasons for this could be, I rode hard yesterday when I set a new personal best average speed record.... and on the 12th I rode on 4 days rest... I think today I also made the mistake of going out with not enough calories in me... I had breakfast at 2am and an ounce of walnuts and 2 apples at 6am and then I rode 3 hours later at 9am... I have to plan my pre-ride meals a little better.

OK, now I have to go replenish some of my calories, but I'd still like to stay in a deficit... I hope everyone is enjoying beautiful weather like we are... ciao.

It's a Beautiful Morning

WOW, these are the mornings I have been waiting for... Sunny, 75° and a little breeze... you know I went out for a ride. I cycled almost 19 miles, I wish I could have stayed out there a little longer... but I was getting hungry, not having eaten anything in 5 hours. I set a new personal average speed record for this year... 15.2mph, so I'm improving even with my limited riding... soon I'll have to incorporate some hill training into my week. Oh joy, Hill Repeats!!

I hope we stay with this weather for awhile... tomorrow & Friday looks great... scattered thunder showers for Saturday and then a few more days of sun to close out the month of May. Finally!

Yesterday, I was having trouble with Blogger, that's why there was no update... I was having trouble with it today also, but I finally got it to come up... looks like the URL that I had saved in my Bookmarks got corrupted somehow and when I clicked on it, all I kept seeing was "Redirecting" over & over again... I might have gotten some Malware from somewhere, but it seems to be ok now. 

Another Dreary Day

Lots of cloud cover today with on and off rain... needless to say another ride-less day... this has been a lousy Spring for a fair weather rider like myself... I might have to leave my comfort zone and start riding in all kinds of weather. Like a friend of mine keeps telling me... "There are no bad riding days, only bad riding clothes." or something like that...  yea, yea, yea.... whatever!!  LOL

The good news is that after today it looks like the daily high temperature will stay in the 70's except for tomorrow when it will hit 81°... unfortunately there could possibly be showers, rain and/or thunderstorms in 6 out of the next 7 days. But June is just a week away, that's bound to be a better month for riding... didn't I say that about May? LOL

Chilly Post- Apocalyptic Sunday

It's only 56° outside today and cloudy... no ride for me... sad, but it's not the end of the world... oh wait, that was yesterday... I must have missed it...  how did it go?

Oh well, we're still here, I guess we'll have to keep eating right and working out... we'll still have to do our chores and take care of our responsibilities. I was so looking forward to an excuse not to take care of myself anymore, to drink beer for a reason, to pig out on all the bad food that tastes so good... but it just wasn't to be.

Time to get back to living and stop worrying about the end. Our individual ends will get here soon enough.

Saturday Morning Bike Ride

Did an hour ride this morning, it started out sunny and in the 60's, so off I went... I stayed mainly in my neighborhood, just touching the tip of The Bronx before heading back North. A few laps of that loop and the hour just flew by. I covered 15.5 miles in 65 minutes. After about 45 minutes the sun went away and now it's cloudy.

No spectacular numbers or stats, I just went out for a ride, just to ride. So now I'm going to replenish my calories, my bike computer says I spent 1,284 calories on my ride, but I think that is way too generous, it's probably only half that.

Anyway, have a great day everybody... I'm out

Weekend Went, Work Week's Back

Seems like I just wrote about beginning my weekend and here it is over already... oh well... 2 more weeks until my daughters wedding and a weeks vacation for me.

Tomorrow looks good for a ride... temps in the lower 60's and mostly sunny... sounds good to me... so I'm cutting this short and I'm going to enjoy the last 2 waking hours of my weekend.

Have a great day everybody and a great weekend also... I hope that wherever you are located, there's plenty of sunshine. Ciao.

Hans the Hermit

Another miserable day, cycling wise... This morning it was real foggy outside and although it's not really raining at the moment, and it's in the 60's, and the wind is negligible... the streets are just wet enough to keep me indoors.

More TV and movies for me... and a few Poker games... what a rough life, LOL... I am looking at vacation options in between the fun stuff... so I'm being semi-productive anyway.

But seriously, my right arm will venture outside today, but just long enough to reach for the mail... there's no chance of a sunburn, it's real cloudy and could start raining at any minute.

Hello Weekend!!

It's Wednesday, so that means my weekend has started...What to do... What to do... there's rain in the forecast for both days... can't ride, don't wanna work-out, so I guess it'll be a real weekend off... good time to catch up on some movies, I guess.

I'm also gonna check out some options for my vacation later this year... I'll probably stay within driving distance, maybe spend some time in the Big Apple and definitely get some riding in... a Yankees game or 2 maybe... Hey it's New York, there's always something to do... right?

OK back to to reality, the here & now... time to do some chores.... I'll just imagine I'm on a cruise ship, in the Caribbean, hot and sweaty, working in the kitchen washing dishes, LOL.

Rain, Pain and More Rain

According to the 10 day forecast, the only 2 days without rain in them will be Sunday & Monday... very depressing for me... I was just getting into my cycling mindset and forgetting about everything else... I stopped doing my other workouts because my shoulder is starting to act up again... and I wasn't even using weights. I think I just overdo everything, when I'm doing push-ups I always try to top my PR of 500 in one day... when I'm cycling I always try to go faster than the last ride or longer than the last ride... sometimes that's a good trait to have and sometimes it's a bad one.

Of course cycling could be irritating my shoulder also, because as I ride I am leaning forward onto the handle bars, putting some pressure on my shoulders, I'm sure... but it hasn't bothered me while riding... it's my left shoulder that hurts, so I'm going to try and consciously ride putting more of my weight on my right arm, without falling over on my right side.

The other alternative is going to see a doctor, but with me that's always the last option... I'd have to have a real constant, nagging pain. Man, this getting old stuff ain't for sissies... gotta keep on truckin' though.

Car Trouble

Driving to work last night, my dashboard lit up like a christmas tree, the Low Coolant light is always on and it's been on for years, no matter what we do... the Check Engine light came on, sometimes it was just on and sometimes it was blinking... then a few miles up the road the Transmission Light came on... and when I switched lanes I had the blinker going also... the music on the radio had a hard time keeping the beat.

On the way home the same lights were on and on top of that it was raining, so I had the windshield wipers going also, all to different beats... the auto industry really needs to synchronize these things better... anyway I made it home okay... on the ride home I felt a slight vibration, so slight that I couldn't really tell if I was just imagining it because of all the lights or if it was just the normal vibrations from an older car... but there was definitely a reduced response when I stepped on the gas pedal to accelerate onto the highway. So I figured it was best if I brought it to the mechanic today instead of waiting for my day off... don't know when I'm getting it back though... hopefully it's something minor... I really don't need another big bill right now.

Late Riser

I woke up almost an hour late last night, I had no time for a proper breakfast, so I wolfed down a banana with a half a cup of coffee... I forgot to weigh myself and I can't even remember if I took my vitamins... it's been a long time since I've overslept like that... I guess all them 6.5 hour sleeps catch up with you if you really need 8 hours.

I always get up at least an hour and a half before I have to leave the house... this way I don't have to rush, I can eat a good breakfast and enjoy it... a couple cups of good coffee and I can check my emails before I get out the door... I'll never understand people who wake up 15 - 30 minutes before they have to leave the house, they dress in a hurry, they eat in a hurry(if they eat at all), then they have to drive in a hurry... no wonder they're stressed before they even get on the clock.

I'm going to try and make it to bed on time today... I hope there's no good games on TV.
I couldn't didn't ride today because of the rain... and the rain is here to stay for awhile, at least a few days.

Blogger is Back Up

Blogger.com was down yesterday, so I didn't get to publish an update... It could've stayed down another day, because not much is happening here... The weather turned chillier again and there hasn't been any sun... it's cloudy today and it's supposed to rain for the next few days.

So it doesn't look good for cycling... but I'll play it day by day, because forecasts sometimes are wrong and sometimes they do a 180° turn-around. If I can't ride it'll be more indoor work-outs for me... I might even try and pick up some weights that won't bother my shoulder.

Ok everybody enjoy your weekend, see you tomorrow.

Lazy Days and Vacations

I was going to go out for a ride on my #1 bike today, but the wind was gusting up to 20 mph... I just didn't feel like fighting it... I must have been real tired after work because I nodded out for about an hour... I never do that, or I should say I never allow myself to do that. I checked the weather after I woke up and it was about the same 59 degrees with wind gusts up to 18mph... slightly better but not much... so I'll wait until tomorrow.

I wasn't completely lazy, I'm researching vacations for this year... We might just save some money and just stay local... this being New York there's tons of things to do all the time, or we've never done a cruise, that could be a possibility also. We'll see, I still got a lot of researching to do and I won't be able to go on vacation until mid-September at the earliest.

JUST DO IT!!

"I ain't doin' all that!"... I hear this over and over after someone asks me how I was able to lose 40 lbs. and I tell them how I accomplished it. Why don't they just ask this..."Isn't there something I can do while I'm sitting on my couch, watching TV, eating Cheesy Poofs and drinking 2 liter bottles of soda?"

Nothing is gonna work, unless you do. There are no secrets or magic potions. There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going. If you want something new or different, you can't do the same old, you gotta do something new or different. And it won't get done by just thinking about it, you can't plow a field by turning it over in your mind... or as the Buddhist saying goes, "Do not mistake the moon for the finger pointing to it."  If you really want to do something you will find a way, if you don't... you will find an excuse.

Now that I snuck in a bunch of fitness cliches &/or quotes, here's a final one...  JUST DO IT!!

No Cardio Day

I took a break from cardio today... no walk before work and no bike ride, instead I did Push-Ups, Pull-Ups and Chin-Ups.I did improve on my work-out again, although it was a  struggle to do one more rep than the last time on each set. I also did one Dip and immediately felt a pain in my shoulder, so I guess it's not healing anytime soon. I'll just have to work around it... there's no pain or discomfort doing normal everyday type activities, just when I do certain exercises, especially with weights. I'll stick to the body-weight exercises through the summer and concentrate on my cycling.

Another reason I didn't ride today because I had to bake some more chicken breasts for the week. This time I just dressed it with a Yogurt-Honey dressing... added some minced onion & garlic, some paprika to put some red speckles in the creamy white mixture some salt & pepper to taste and it was yummy.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Wonderful Mom's out there!! I hope your kids and significant others are treating you right today. I went out for a ride today and I saw lots of fathers with their children out riding, presumably to let Mom sleep in... but I presume too much sometimes.

I did my longest ride of the year this morning, 21.5 miles... at the end I had to struggle to keep my average speed above 14mph and I did, just barely... 14.1 I wound up with at the end... at one point I was up to 14.6, but towards the end of the ride with all the hills I had to climb I saw that average go down little by little... I think by next week I'll be on my lighter bike and in my bike outfit... I think it's warm enough now.

OK gotta run and take a shower and quickly fix me something to eat and then it's off to bed, have a great day everyone.

Wonderful Weather

It was supposed to rain this morning, so I had planned to do an indoor work-out. But when I got out of work it was a beautiful day, the sun was shining... a little wind, but not much... so I nixed the indoor work-out in favor of an outdoor ride.

And it was an enjoyable 1 hour ride, I started out trying to be faster than usual but I wound up with an average speed slightly less than yesterday when I wasn't trying to be fast at all....  I can't figure it out... unless it's because I'm going out at a fast pace and wearing myself out early so as not to leave enough in the tank for the last half of the ride. Whatever... I enjoyed the ride just the same, and I was still above 14mph.

It looks like great weather for the next few days, So I'll have to sneak my body-weight exercises in somewhere. Some push-ups here & there... and pull-ups and chin-ups also. Between all of the things you can do for your physical health... Stretching, Strength training, Nutrition and Cardio... if you had to choose only one, it should be Cardio. In a perfect world you should do some of each, but if you can only do one, I believe Cardio is the most important one.

33rd Anniversary Today

My wife and I are married 33 years today, so of course she went to work and I'm going to work tonight. Typical of us, maybe that's the secret of a long marriage, business as usual, LOL. We don't need much, we exchange cards and sometimes gifts on the big anniversaries like the 25th.

This morning, before she woke up I made a special treat for us, I sliced fresh bananas and strawberries and stacked them, alternating each, Strawberry, banana, strawberry, banana.... 4 stacks on a plate with a dab of non-fat whipped topping on top of each stack and a walnut half on top of that then I garnished the plate with piped whipped topping and a few fresh blueberries. It looked a lot better than I can describe it here, but I couldn't find the camera, I don't know where she put it.

I also went for a bike ride, it's getting warmer now. I wasn't trying for speed, I just wanted to go out for a ride and get some low intensity cardio in. But my speed was exactly the same as the last ride when I was really trying to be faster. I guess I'm getting stronger with each ride, one can only hope.

Making Habits Stick

If you want to make healthy changes in your life, you need to adopt healthy habits. Habits don't become habits overnight, you have to do them day after day... estimates go from 21 days to 90 days depending on the habit you are trying to learn. Most likely the stronger the mental resistance to the change the longer it will take.

I remember when I first decided to start eating breakfast before I left or work. I did it the first few days and then a few days later I'm at work and I realize I forgot. Sometimes I realized as I was walking out the door, but it was already too late. But I kept at it, I left the oatmeal bowl on the kitchen counter to remind me, or I'd take the oatmeal out of the cabinet before I showered and shaved, so that when I went in the kitchen for my coffee I'd see it and remember. Today, it's automatic I don't even have to think about it.

Exercise might take longer to make into a habit, because there's always something on TV or something to check on the internet or whatever you're used to doing... but you can make it a habit and once you start feeling better physically and feeling better about yourself, you'll be looking forward to the habit.

On Another Note: Awesome Pull-Up/Chin-Up workout this morning... amazing improvements on my first 2 sets, improvements on my middle 2 sets and no change on the last 2 sets... I'll take it... I hope I didn't set the bar too high (no pun intended) for the next work-out... I think not having worked last night gave me a little extra energy, but we'll see the next time.

Rainy Day

Rain today, so no ride for me... tomorrow looks a bit chilly in the morning, plus wind... so it's not looking good either... so I'm thinking back to my Pull-Up/Chin-Up workout. My Lats are still a little sore, but they should be fine by tomorrow.

I just finished lunch... a big fresh spinach salad with tomatoes and carrots, I threw in some walnuts for some more crunch and instead of a dressing I just added some low fat 1% cottage cheese and freshly ground black pepper... pretty tasty, I must say.... I also had Chicken Breast that I baked with a seasoned yogurt topping... it was out of this world... I really should write down these recipes that I come up with so I can make them again, but it's so much fun throwing things together and coming up with something new. Oh yea, I almost forgot, two-thirds of my dinner plate was steamed vegetables.

I think that's about it for today, time to do the dishes and clean up the kitchen... always leave things cleaner than you found it.

Awesome Day

I started my day with my usual 2 mile walk, a sort of warm-up before work... I did my 8 hours of work and somewhere in there I managed 130 Push-Ups and after work it was 57° with very little wind, so I took a 15 mile bicycle ride... and now it's relax time and dinner time.

I always have to specify "bicycle" ride because when I say I took my bike for a ride, people always ask me what kind of bike I got... so after telling them I got a Giant TCRc2 Carbon Fiber Road bike, they still assume I'm talking about a motorcycle.

I guess I passed a milestone speed wise on Sunday, because I was over 14mph again today... on a street ride with traffic, stop signs and red lights, some of which I obeyed, LOL. Now I can't wait to take my good bike out for a spin to see how much faster I am with a lighter and more responsive machine. Maybe by the end of next week.

Pull-Up, Chin-Up Day

It was too chilly to ride this morning, so I decided to do "Pull-Up/Chin-Up Day" instead.... I improved on every set and I even did a couple of extra sets... but of course the actual number of Pull-Ups is still too embarrassingly low to mention here, but I will be increasing them little by little.

It looks like I have to give up my goal of riding the "Golden Apple" 100 mile ride... the quota for vacations that week at my job has been filled and it will be impossible to get that day off... and it's also the Labor Day weekend and that makes it more than impossible... and I'm not the type to call in sick when I'm not.

Oh well, I'll have to find another Century ride... there's the NYC Century Ride two weeks later on September the 18th... that's a possibility. It's all Urban though and also since it's NYC, it will be crowded... I'll keep looking, I can even do the NYC one and another one... and the way the weather is going, I might need a few hundred mile rides to reach my goal of 2,011 miles for the year.

Bicycle Sunday Returns

I did my Sunday Bike Ride... it turned out to be a beautiful day... I was hedging at first I didn't want to go because the temperature was in the 50's when I got home... but by 9am it was pretty close to 60° and the sun was shining... if the sun is shining 55° feels like it's in the 60's.... so I put my bike into the back of my car and drove down to the parkway.

They don't close the parkway to traffic until 10AM and that's a little late for me to start a ride, so I got down there about 9:30 and rode my bike up to White Plains along the streets and by the time I got up there they were just about to close it down... I had to wait through a couple of short speeches and the annual ribbon cutting and the photo ops for the county executive, but about 10 minutes after 10, we were off...

Total distance was 13.88 miles and I have a new speed record for this year... 14.6 mph... It's amazing how much faster you ride when there's other people riding... as fast as I was today, I still couldn't catch up with her, LOL.