I think I need to make a re-commitment to some of my goals... some things I'm doing OK in and some things I'm not even trying or not trying hard enough... If I had to give myself a report card, it would probably look something like this:
Cycling: B-minus... I'm riding, but not nearly as much as I could, and if I'm not careful I will
not reach my goal of 2,011 miles for this year... today I could have went
out, but I stayed home and missed a big opportunity to ride, considering
Hurricane Irene will probably keep me off the bike for a few more days.
German: A I give myself an "A" because I'm doing my lessons faithfully every day.
I don't know how much I'm learning, but the "A" is for doing it.
Nutrition: C I eat healthy about 75% of the time right now... and part of that other
25% is not keeping track of what I'm eating or how much... and this
is making my weight slowly creep back up to near 200 lbs.
Strength
Training: D FAIL!! Although I do get in 100 to 250 push-ups and 5 or 6 sets of
pull-ups a few times a week... I don't think it's enough, I need to get a
few complete workouts in every week.
So I know where my problem areas are, now I just need to fix them... I will start on that right away, but I will have some clear and definite goals posted soon... I have 4 weeks of vacation that I need to use and the first set starts in 2 weeks... I will definitely work on this then... and I will catch up on a lot of riding then also...
So Stay Tuned!!!
Friday, August 26, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Anybody Miss Me?
Hey everybody!! I'm sorry about the lack of updates lately, there wasn't much new to report anyway. Mostly, I just ran out of time at the end of the day. Not that this blog isn't important to me, but I do need to sleep some times. I'm off today so I have some time.
I also have time because I did a shorter ride than I had planned, because of a forecast of rain that still hasn't happened yet... I hear it's raining in Manhattan now, so it should be here any minute. But I could have stayed out there another hour or so.
Anyway, after checking the forecast this morning I made the decision to go for speed instead of distance, so I cycled to White Plains and back for a total of 25 miles. The biggest surprise of the whole ride was my new personal best average speed of 17.17mph... 1st time ever that I've been over 17 mph for a whole ride, not only that but I believe this was the biggest jump for a new personal best.
There's probably a few reasons for the new PB... I had 3 days off the bike, I did do an easy ride yesterday, but I didn't go overboard, so my legs were well rested... another reason that I rode so well, is that I fueled up for hours beforehand... lots of carbs... and now that I think about it, I had whole wheat pasta yesterday, potatoes & broccoli last night and a bowl of oatmeal with a banana a half hour before my ride. So carbs, carbs, carbs... keeps the motor running. I didn't eat all carbs, I did have some protein with the meals, but carbs made up the bulk of the calories.
I've been keeping up with my push-ups and pull-ups and I've also done my German Lessons faithfully... So now you're all caught up... I'm off to play some games as my reward... have a great day all.
I'll write again soon,
I also have time because I did a shorter ride than I had planned, because of a forecast of rain that still hasn't happened yet... I hear it's raining in Manhattan now, so it should be here any minute. But I could have stayed out there another hour or so.
Anyway, after checking the forecast this morning I made the decision to go for speed instead of distance, so I cycled to White Plains and back for a total of 25 miles. The biggest surprise of the whole ride was my new personal best average speed of 17.17mph... 1st time ever that I've been over 17 mph for a whole ride, not only that but I believe this was the biggest jump for a new personal best.
There's probably a few reasons for the new PB... I had 3 days off the bike, I did do an easy ride yesterday, but I didn't go overboard, so my legs were well rested... another reason that I rode so well, is that I fueled up for hours beforehand... lots of carbs... and now that I think about it, I had whole wheat pasta yesterday, potatoes & broccoli last night and a bowl of oatmeal with a banana a half hour before my ride. So carbs, carbs, carbs... keeps the motor running. I didn't eat all carbs, I did have some protein with the meals, but carbs made up the bulk of the calories.
I've been keeping up with my push-ups and pull-ups and I've also done my German Lessons faithfully... So now you're all caught up... I'm off to play some games as my reward... have a great day all.
I'll write again soon,
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Walk, Bike, Pull-Ups & German
A 30 minute walk, an hour bike ride, 4 sets of Pull-Ups & my German lessons, that is all for today... I couldn't get any Push-Ups in, maybe tomorrow... Enjoy your weekend.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Digging Deep
I really wanted to do a 40 miler today... I rode down to the Bronx first and back around my neighborhood to start off with a few miles before I headed up to White Plains... I should have done a few more loops before heading North... I rode to White Plains and back and wound up at my house with only around 30 miles... and I was beat, I really wanted to go inside and rest... I think yesterdays ride took a lot out of my legs.
But after I gave myself a good talking to, a little self-motivation, (I promised myself some chocolate, works every time, LOL) I stayed on the bike for another 10 miles... so I was in the saddle for 2 hours and 40 minutes and I did just over 40 miles... and at a reasonable pace also, 15.1mph... I checked my previous long ride and it was at 14.1mph... so maybe that was another reason for me wanting to quit early, I set the pace too high.
I'm beat now, I gotta go eat and then do my German lesson, Later all
But after I gave myself a good talking to, a little self-motivation, (I promised myself some chocolate, works every time, LOL) I stayed on the bike for another 10 miles... so I was in the saddle for 2 hours and 40 minutes and I did just over 40 miles... and at a reasonable pace also, 15.1mph... I checked my previous long ride and it was at 14.1mph... so maybe that was another reason for me wanting to quit early, I set the pace too high.
I'm beat now, I gotta go eat and then do my German lesson, Later all
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Cadence
Someone asked me where my blog update was yesterday... some days, like yesterday, I just run out of time... other days I have nothing to say, except for the same old boring, "rode my bike, did push-ups, learned some German." stuff that I usually blog everyday... I'm surprised I still have a reader or 2, LOL So if you don't hear from me for a couple of days, it was probably for one of the reasons above.... but I will try to update as often as I can.
Today I would like to bore you with cadence, or pedal revolutions... some say that the most efficient cadence when you're riding a bike is somewhere around 90rpm (revolutions per minute) or turning the pedals over 1.5 times every second... I usually average between 65 and 70 rpm's for most of my rides... so today's ride I concentrated on keeping a high cadence throughout the entire hour and 38 minute ride... I didn't focus on the speed as I usually do, but the cadence... my average cadence for today's ride was 81rpm, so I did spend a lot of time near the 90's... but guess what? my average speed was also one of the highest I've had 16.04mph, so maybe there is something to that bike ride efficiency theory.
But there are always a dozen or so factors that go into the results you get for any single ride... the wind, what you ate before the ride, your energy levels, tire pressure, how many hard rides you had earlier in the week, etc... so you take it all with a grain of salt... it's not like I'm a professional rider or anything... I just love seeing results... speaking of which... I'm at 999 miles for the year, almost half way towards my goal of 2011 miles... but the year is more than half over, so I might have to ramp it up a bit.... where's my cheerleaders and motivators?
Today I would like to bore you with cadence, or pedal revolutions... some say that the most efficient cadence when you're riding a bike is somewhere around 90rpm (revolutions per minute) or turning the pedals over 1.5 times every second... I usually average between 65 and 70 rpm's for most of my rides... so today's ride I concentrated on keeping a high cadence throughout the entire hour and 38 minute ride... I didn't focus on the speed as I usually do, but the cadence... my average cadence for today's ride was 81rpm, so I did spend a lot of time near the 90's... but guess what? my average speed was also one of the highest I've had 16.04mph, so maybe there is something to that bike ride efficiency theory.
But there are always a dozen or so factors that go into the results you get for any single ride... the wind, what you ate before the ride, your energy levels, tire pressure, how many hard rides you had earlier in the week, etc... so you take it all with a grain of salt... it's not like I'm a professional rider or anything... I just love seeing results... speaking of which... I'm at 999 miles for the year, almost half way towards my goal of 2011 miles... but the year is more than half over, so I might have to ramp it up a bit.... where's my cheerleaders and motivators?
Monday, August 8, 2011
Week Off
I took an unscheduled week off, actually 6 days... I wasn't feeling too good... but I think it was a combination of things... I was feeling run down and I had no energy, I think a couple of days of bad eating did that, but I also might of had a bug of some kind... but to be totally honest the last couple of days was just laziness, that I called recovering.
I did do my German lessons faithfully... which just goes to show you were my mind is... I haven't even gone on this years vacation yet and I'm already totally thinking about next years. But if you could see Germany through my eyes, you'd understand.
Today I was back on my regular Push-Up/Pull-Up Routine and my hour long bike ride... now if I could only get my diet back on track... my main meals are clean, it's the in between snacks that kill me and the pre-bedtime snacks and my terrible cravings for chocolate.
Oh well, I'll get it all together some day... when I really want to.
I did do my German lessons faithfully... which just goes to show you were my mind is... I haven't even gone on this years vacation yet and I'm already totally thinking about next years. But if you could see Germany through my eyes, you'd understand.
Today I was back on my regular Push-Up/Pull-Up Routine and my hour long bike ride... now if I could only get my diet back on track... my main meals are clean, it's the in between snacks that kill me and the pre-bedtime snacks and my terrible cravings for chocolate.
Oh well, I'll get it all together some day... when I really want to.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Two for Tuesday
Two as in Two-hundred push-ups today... sets of 25 might be getting too easy for me... I'm going to keep doing them though... I'd add more, but it would take more time per set and I really can't sneak them in then... maybe I'll find a spot where I can elevate my feet and make them a little tougher... or keep one foot off the ground, alternating legs... or put my hands closer together to work more of my triceps... I have a few options without taking any more time than usual.
Still doing the pull-ups, I'm on my 4th set and more to come... German lessons right after this update and I already did my hour long ride, slow ride today... 2 miles less than yesterday in that hour... and one incident... I was riding in the right lane but I needed to get over to my left... I look behind me and I see a car approaching in the left lane with his right blinker on, so I start slowly moving to the left part of the right lane and signal left, figuring we'll do a mutual swap of lanes... I'm still in the right lane and looking back to see if he's moving over, he's not... so as he's coming up behind me he's honking his horn, thinking that I'm trying to get in front of him in the lane, but I'm holding my line in the right lane... and as he passes he throws up his hand, no one finger salute, but I got the whole hand.... as luck would have it, the light turns red before he gets to the corner and I stop by his passenger side window and I said "Hey." he looks over and he turns down the music... I said, "I thought you wanted to move over because your right blinker is on."... he looks at his dahboard and says... "Oh, sorry." LOL... I really need to stop confronting people, I might catch up to the wrong one one day. I don't even know why I do that because I only do that on the bike, no where else... maybe because I'm a little more vulnerable riding a bike... maybe I feel I have to be more assertive.
Oh well, see you tomorrow
Still doing the pull-ups, I'm on my 4th set and more to come... German lessons right after this update and I already did my hour long ride, slow ride today... 2 miles less than yesterday in that hour... and one incident... I was riding in the right lane but I needed to get over to my left... I look behind me and I see a car approaching in the left lane with his right blinker on, so I start slowly moving to the left part of the right lane and signal left, figuring we'll do a mutual swap of lanes... I'm still in the right lane and looking back to see if he's moving over, he's not... so as he's coming up behind me he's honking his horn, thinking that I'm trying to get in front of him in the lane, but I'm holding my line in the right lane... and as he passes he throws up his hand, no one finger salute, but I got the whole hand.... as luck would have it, the light turns red before he gets to the corner and I stop by his passenger side window and I said "Hey." he looks over and he turns down the music... I said, "I thought you wanted to move over because your right blinker is on."... he looks at his dahboard and says... "Oh, sorry." LOL... I really need to stop confronting people, I might catch up to the wrong one one day. I don't even know why I do that because I only do that on the bike, no where else... maybe because I'm a little more vulnerable riding a bike... maybe I feel I have to be more assertive.
Oh well, see you tomorrow
Monday, August 1, 2011
Monday, Montag
It's Monday again... busy day at work, but I got 100 push-ups in anyway... I got 4 sets of Pull-Ups so far, but I ain't done yet... and of course an hour bike ride... at a good pace I guess, I got a mile further than yesterday.
Yep, still doing my German lessons... I hope I'm retaining some of the lessons and if all goes well, maybe I'll be able to use some of my German next year... we'll see.
OK Das ist alles für Heute.... Hey maybe we can all learn together, LOL
Wiedersehen
Yep, still doing my German lessons... I hope I'm retaining some of the lessons and if all goes well, maybe I'll be able to use some of my German next year... we'll see.
OK Das ist alles für Heute.... Hey maybe we can all learn together, LOL
Wiedersehen
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