Sep

9

My Weekend Ride

Post Category: biking 

This was my bike route on Saturday - 57.5 miles in 3 hours and 45 minutes with one 10 minute break.

This was my longest ride yet since I’ve been training and nearly double the distance I rode last week. I’m making good progress as I continue to train and push my endurance limits. While many experienced cyclists routinely bike 50 or more miles at a time, this was a big milestone in my training.

Saturday’s ride really took it out of me for the rest of the day. On longer rides I always allow at least 24 hours for recovery; longer if I can tell that my muscles haven’t healed yet. By yesterday though I was feeling great and knocked out a fairly challenging 20 mile ride in my best time yet.

During longer bike rides the body burns carbs and loses electrolytes so extra nutritional supplementation is required. I consumed 3 PowerBar Gel packets (a highly optimized carbohydrate blend) during Saturday’s ride that help replenish and restores nutrients. Without refueling your body during strenuous physical activity like this you run the danger of “hitting the wall” or “bonking“. I’ve experienced that and trust me, it’s not fun.

Immediately following the ride I take some kind of a protein bar or shake to help my body rebuild the muscles that were broken down during the ride. My protein bar of choice for after rides is the Myoplex Deluxe Protein bar with 30 grams of protein. Following up any workout with protein supplementation is very important for long-term muscle gain and toning - regardless of whether you’re working out to gain muscle mass or training for an edurance event.

Anyway, enough sports talk about me. Summer is almost gone and we’re heading into the fall which is perfect weather for outdoor activities.

What fun or challenging outdoor activities do you have planned before Winter comes?

Sep

4

Help Me Build My Workout Music Playlist

Post Category: Blog Posts, biking 


As you know I’ve been biking quite a bit over the last month. I’m a music guy so I love having something to listen to when I’m working or doing stuff so I just bought a little 1Gb iPod shuffle to clip on while I’m biking.

What songs would you add to my high-energy, workout playlist?

These have got to be songs that are going to give me that extra boost while I’m struggling up that long hill. They’ve got help me dig deep for that last bit of energy at the end of a long ride. I’m talking some reall kick-a$$ songs here. I’ll share the finished iTunes playlist with everyone once it’s done.

What songs would you add to my workout playlist?

Aug

30

My Morning Bike Ride

Post Category: Blog Posts, biking 

This was my route on this morning’s bike ride. It was a total of 31.7 miles that I biked in a little less than 2 hours. Right now I’m saving my longer rides for the weekend and working on strength training and pacing during the week.

Aug

27

The Long Road To Getting Back In Shape

Post Category: Blog Posts, Childhood Memories, biking 

I used to be in decent shape.

When I was younger a group of friends talked about going on a long bike trip and camping out along the way. When it came down to actually doing it only myself and Mark (now my brother-in-law) were the only ones able to go. So we bought all the necessary gear and loaded up our bikes with 70+ pounds apiece of camping and cooking equipment and left our homes for the ride of our life.

We did this trip without any real prior training (kinda stupid) other than a couple 25 mile rides which meant we trained and toned as we rode. The first 3 days were pure pain and agony as we punished our bodies and forced them into submission. By mid-way through the trip we were starting to feel better and by the end we felt like we could conquer the world. All in all we biked 1,000 miles over 12 days, several days of which we biked over 100 miles in one day (known as biking a Century).

Fast forward 12 years. I wish I could say that I’ve kept up with my biking, but I haven’t. Fueled by the excitement of completing our 1,000 mile trip I even invested in custom-building a beautiful Klein road bike with top-of-the-line components. I’ve maybe put 300-400 miles on that bike since I built it.

Lisa has bugged me to sell it for years but I just can’t bear parting with something I spent so much money on (or is it that I hate admitting I was so out of shape I would never use it again?).

Enough’s enough. A few weeks ago I realized that getting back into shape wasn’t just going to happen and I wasn’t getting any younger. So I filled up the tires and got back out on the road. The first couple of days reminded me how long it’s been and how out of shape I really was.

But the consistency of getting out there day after day and improving my diet has slowly yielded results. I’ve been biking 16+ miles a day during the week and longer on the weekends.

Right now I have my sights set on the Hilly Hundred, a 100 mile ride through the scenic hills of southern Indiana. Anyone want to join me?

Last year I turned 30 and I realized my 20-year-old body and energy wasn’t going to just stay with me if I didn’t do something about it. It’s a long road getting back into shape after so long but I’m excited to be on it.

What’s your proudest physical or athletic achievement?

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