My return to cycling has been an interesting one, I have realized just how out of shape I am since last year when I was in the gym every day. I recieved a set of Exustar SR930 road shoes from a friend on Bike Forums and wow, I paid $22 including shipping. These shoes were used about ~10 times and so comfortable. Riding clipless compared to toe-clips is a huge difference for me, with the solid base on the shoe and the cleat under the ball of my foot it gives me perfect application of power. When I purchased these pedals I was 14 so the release tension needed was much less then I need now. This causes a few problems, I have about 12 levels of tension on each pedal and at its tightest setting I found myself releasing by accident a couple of times. I wish I had the money to buy a new set and make myself a custom bike. I have greatly enjoyed the rides I have gone on despite how short they have been.

On a sad note it appears I lost my cyclecomputer. I placed it on the trunk of the car as I was putting my bike in the back seat and forgot about it. I drove two miles to my house before I remembered. I will be going up in the morning to try and find it, but my hopes are not very high. Since it has been 10 years buying a new one might be best, but I have bills and I also really liked that computer. The colors pattern matched the bike, it was compact, acurate, and still in perfect condition. I really hope I can find it.

My last few posts have been about my attept to get back in shape and this is going to fall into that category also. I just got home from another short ride and I believe one reason I only go on short rides is because it is so easy for me to get in the car and come back home. When I went to the gym in Lexington, which is 30 minutes from my house I left at 5:30 am and did not have to be at work until 8. This forced me to stay occupied until I needed to be there, but driving 5 miles away to go for a bike ride doesnt force me to do anything.

Tonight I went out to try to increase my cadence, and to my suprise it was easier than I thought. I am used to a big gear and low cadence to get me where I am going a little faster, but reading the recommendations on Bikeforums.net I was encouraged to increase my cadence making the ride less taxing on my muscles. My legs got kind of rubbery towards the end, but that is because I have not used those muscles for quite a while. Even if I was in the gym working my legs cycling is going to use muscles other activities dont. It is discouraging because I used to do 30-40 minute sessions on ellipticals which is one of the best calorie burning piece of equipment available and being so weak in the legs is depressing. I know that if I keep riding and increasing my rides every time I will eventually get back into good riding shape. I am looking into getting a trainer so I can ride every day while a watch a movie or something. This will allow me to kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

This morning I drove up to the elementary school for another ride. This time I took a detour around a friend’s grandparents house, which loops back ground to the school. The hill I had to climb was not very big, and I was able to climb in a seated position, but my lungs just couldn’t handle it. I did complete the climb, but my recovery time was longer than it should have been. Last year when I was in the gym everyday I was able to complete 40 minute sessions on the eliptical machines. I feel so far away from where I was, at that time I was still overweight, but in much better health and I could keep up with the best of them in the gym. It is ashame there are so many hills here, which would accelerate my progress, but shorten my rides. If I could find a relatively flat place to ride I think 15 miles could be done without too much headache.

Right now I am using toe-clips because the shoes I used years ago do not fit. I need to get a set of shoes soon because I seem to ride with my feet on an angle which is going to effect my ankles.

I found a post on Bike Forums talking about phpBikeLog and how members wanted to revive this project. I considered joining the team, but in the end it will hinder my development speed. I recently looked into a number of sites that are providing logs for riders and all of these sites are lacking one thing or another. One has functionality, but the the design is horrible. Another has style, but lacks functionality. We will see in the next couple weeks just how much progress I can make with a functional beta.

In my last post I described how I brought my road bike home from storage and planned on starting to ride again. Of course when I try to do something a delay comes roaring through. I went on my first ride on the 29th, while short it was just to see where I was at and make sure everything was working properly. I have planned on riding every single day since and it has been raining. I can’t blame it all on the rain, I could have gone out tonight, but I didn’t.

I try to be structured, which is why everytime I begin a new workout schedule or training I start on significant days. This time I tried to start on September 1st, but with the rain I not have to wait until either tommorrow or Monday. The only reason is because I want to make it easier to stay on track. If I start on the 1st I know that on the 8th I need to weigh in again, but for me a Sunday or Monday works out better being the start of the week.

I really am very excited to start riding again, I have started reading through posts on Bike Forums and doing more research on even more recent ways to cut fat. Most of the research is just to refresh my memory, I learned an enormous amount of information on cutting and gaining last year, what suppliments to take and what foods to eat. I look forward to seeing how I progress this time around.

When I moved to California I was not able to go to the gym everyday like I was in Virginia. With my current situation with the bearing on my car and living so far away from everything the gym is not an option right now. When I was younger I used to ride a road bike with a neighbor, but in this area people did not seem to care too much about the safety or right of way of cyclists and being 13 or 14 it was not safe for me to ride alone with that driver mentality.

I recently picked my bike up from my storage unit to see about replacing the tires which we thought had become damaged from dryrot. Not the case. I purchased a new pump that will handle a tube with a presta valve and went on my first ride tonight. While I did well, it really let me know just how out of shape I have become.

Tommorrow night I plan on riding 10 miles, but considering riding to exhaustion so that when I ride in an area that is not a circuit I know I can get back. I’m really excited though. When I worked out I had a blast and when I would ride all the time I was excited so the two should put me in a better place not just physically but also mentally.

P.S. I have felt like crap today which hasn’t helped much

I never update this damn blog, I’m not sure why that is, but I would like to update it more often. Anyway, it’s Monday and I have been nicotine free for 6 weeks, simply amazing, I think in the past 4 years the longest I ever went without nicotine was 1 day and that did not occur very often. The trick I used this time was to keep a pack of smokes around all the time that way if I crave one I can just fight the urge. When I would try to quit before I would smoke my last one or put in my last dip and say I was done with it, but when I would get the craving for it buying a pack of cigs was so easy, because I could say it was for emergencies. Once you cross that line it is so easy to start again because you have already gone that far might as well finish. I’m sure some of you say that it is just will power and for some it might be, but for me it was always more. I HATED smoking, I hated second hand smoke, but I still smoked, because I get that kinda nervous feeling in my skin even when I’m not, so it was always physical for me. Some people who smoke get the shakes when they don’t smoke, I never did, but it is similar to the shakes only I don’t shake. If you say quiting smoking is easy you don’t know what you are talking about. My dad quit 10 years ago and still wants to smoke, my mom’s father was sick with lung cancer and still wanted a cig all the time. I really don’t know what is worse, dying from it, or the suffering from not having it.

This year has been the worst year for me in terms of being sick. I first got sick before the new year and have been sick off and on since. It seems that I get sick with a week of getting better. First I had the flu, then I had who knows what, then something else I didnt know, couple weeks ago it was Bronchitis and the starts of Pneumonia. So the weight I had started to lose has started coming back, which means I have to start running.

On a positive note, I QUIT SMOKING!!!!. I quit dipping a couple months ago because I overeacted and thought I had cancer, which was probably a good thing. With the recent Bronchitis, I quit smoking and have been nicotine free since March 22. This is pretty impressive since all of my other attempts lasted no longer than 1 day and I have been going back and forth from smoking and dipping for 7 years now.

Hopefully the site will be updated more often, more and more visitors are reaching it and I would prefer to actually have some content for them to look at.

Peace….