Mount Ponte Vedra – Again

This is a dual purpose post… primarily, to test the way I am posting this ride, in addition I just thought I would check out the ride I did last friday. I went up the *OTHER* side of the mountain… it was good, hard, but good.

Tonight is track racing and that should be cool. Well, it may actually be cool, as it is like 38 degrees outside! Brrr…. It’s supposed to get up to 70ish today, that is acceptable. I mean, WTF, Mate? It’s 14 degrees warmer in Colorado Springs than it is in the ATL. It’s not right, but it’s okay. I’m gonna make it anyway. Pack your bags, up and leave…. ACK! I randomly broke into song. Maybe I shouldn’t post this stuff before 6:00 am.

Ya’lll come back now, ya hear?

GREAT RIDE … bummer at the end!

I will start at the end.  I got a flat.  I hate flats.  I knew it was coming when I hit it… I couldn’t do anything.  I was cooked.  I was going uphill… so I was going medium pace, I was driving hard and I didn’t see a manhole cover.  I realized I had 3 choices, 2 involved crashing, one involved jumping… I got ALMOST over it before my rear wheel hit the lip and I lost my rear tube.  DOH!  These things happen.

On to the GOOD stuff.  My ride in was excellent.  For the first time in 2 years, I got on my bike and my buttock didn’t say “Why are you doing this to me again?”  That is a feeling I am used to, it goes away in a mile or less, but today… golden!  That is the sign that life is getting better in the saddle.

From there, my new way to work was peaceful, serene and faster than a bullet shot from cannon!  I was flying!  It was great.  No traffic.  The Comet…. that’s it, it was as fast as a SILVER COMET!  Wow, I have gone to new levels of lame humor in my blog.  Seriously though, it was very nice to just relax, enjoy my ride and go fast.  The ride home will be similar, I imagine, but at the same time there will be more pedestrian traffic on the comet.  That is only problematic in that you are riding straight into the sun, you don’t see them all that well.  Must be careful.  I imagine they hurt!

An interesting note completely unrelated to anything in this post… I walked out of work the other day, to go on my bike ride and the building engineers and 2 guys were looking up at the building entrance.  There is a big “dent” in our building.  I said “Let me guess, a bike on a bike rack?”  They said “Yeah….”  I said “That’s why I got my hitch rack!  I am TRULY glad I did that right the first time.  I’d hate to kill my car, my bike and my office all in one stupid maneuver!

That’s all I have to say about that….

One long night!

So last night started like most any other nights… well, not for Max.  Max was cooking up a storm of poop and dinner loss!  His mood was terrible, he felt terrible and he was giving his mother a run for her money.  It was Wednesday so I was off at the velodrome racing.  I got a call right as I finished and was told I needed to get big-boy diapers and gatorade.  Max has explosive diarrhea.  By the time I got there, it had progressed to vomiting and all that.  Being WIDE AWAKE from racing and rushing home, I was the obvious choice for the trip to the ER.  Mental note…. take ipod next time.

Anyway, we get to the ER at 10:59… the doors to the kids ER closes at 11:00.  We might have made it, but Max lost everything in his little belly right *AFTER* I got him out of the car.  What do you do?  Seriously, you are in a parking lot, you are covered with “Little Man Lunch”… you grab the backpack and walk into the ER.  Look upset, sad and be nice.  They check you in fast, they carry your bag for you and get you a new shirt.  Max’s mood improved REMARKABLY when he threw up.  I later reflected that maybe we should have just left.

We stuck it out, got everything sorted out and he had a stomach virus.  He is doing MUCH better today.  He has eaten, drank, no issues.  Played with is sister (you know, the bulldog).  We have watched Elmo 3 times.  Long night, but ultimately everybody made it through it without too much of an issue.  Max was pretty good at the ER.  No complaints.  The ER is always a good source of people watching stories, but most of the ones from last night are more “run of the mill redneck” type stories… nothing too crazy!

Mount Ponte Vedra?

Now, those of you who have been to Jacksonville, Florida understand that there aren’t many mountains in the vicinity (none to be exact). My Uncle and his family live in a small town south of Jacksonville called Ponte Vedra Beach. It’s not really known for it’s mountains either. It’s pancake flat as well…. so imagine my surprise when I am riding my bike. Working VERY HARD climbing a hill and I come upon Ponte Vedra Drive! Yeah, thats right… here in the ATL, we have a Ponte Vedra Drive.  Check it out! It is on the side of the “loop”.

Ultimately, I will likely give that a shot more often.  If you check out the motionbased

You will see the 3 trips over Mt. Ponte Vedra…. she is not an easy hill!  It’s not that long, but holy quacamole it’s steep!

Scott

Getting beaten by a 50 year old woman!

So the other day, I went over to the Column’s drive Tri-geek loop for some intervals.  There are always tri-geeks over there.  Always.  It’s okay, it is the only road in the US that you are SPECIFICALLY forbidden from riding on 2 abreast on the shoulder… whatever!  It’s safe, flat, good for intervals… and it’s 1 mile from my office!

I get over there, warm up a bit and do a 2.5 mile interval.  I mean I am going as hard as I can… I see one person on a tri bike… looks like they know what they are doing, looks fast.  Well, I am recovering and rolling back 2.5 miles to do another and this woman passes me like a freight train.  Wow… initially I figure “I should jump on her wheel.”  Well… no.  I quickly convince myself I am “on a rest” and continue my spin.  On the way back doing my next 2.5 mile interval, I chase her… I chase her hard!  I catch her just as I finish.  I roll up and say “Thanks for giving me somebody to chase!”  She says “Oh… I am cooling down, I wasn’t going hard!”  (yeah… thanks, next time just kick me too).  I make a joke out of it and say “Oh come on, admit it, you were hammering!   Harder than you have ever gone before… “  We chuckle and chat a bit in preparation for my next 2.5 mile battle with the wind.  She tucks in behind me and about 1.5 miles in passes me and drops me.  I shatter mentally, can’t focus… damnit.  I should be able to keep up!

We regroup… chat a bit and it’s my final hoo-rah!  Can I hold off this woman?  Game on… 2.5 miles in the pain cave.  I left EVERYTHING I had on that road!  I even mustered a SPRINT at the end that was semi impressive.  I was proud of it.  She is headed back to her car, the same way I am going… we chat a bit more.  She had mentioned ironman so I asked her if she had ever done that Hawaii.  She says “Yes, I have finished 17 times”.  Okay… that explains a bit of it!  In her next couple of sentence she says something to the effect “I have won my age group 10 times”.  People under 30 don’t talk about age groups, heck, I don’t really even think people under 40 do…  so I go home and do my research.  I know her first name… her team… etc… Not only is she a 10 time winner…. this woman holds the world record in her age group.

Anybody that can finish an Ironman Hawaii in 10:39 is a stud(ette) in my book!  Seriously!  I am 110% sure she could kick my keister in just about anything she wanted to.  She did push me in my training, so that was cool!  Removal of false pride and/or unnecessary ego is sometimes necessary!  Good day on the bike!

7 Day Cycle

Okay, so I have to remember something as I go though life. Weight Loss is tracked LONG TERM… not since yesterday. Some people advocate not weighing yourself too often, but I am crazy so I weigh myself a lot. I cant stop. If I do, I gain weight.

So what about 7 days? This is my new thing. I probably shouldn’t even blog about it, as well… somebody will steal my idea, write a book and get rich. Yesterday’s weight is “important” but when you are losing, my thing is look at your 7 day cycle… what did you weigh 7 days ago? What do you weigh now? Pay attention to that. If you are working out and doing the right thing, it is probably less. I took a semi-random spattering of my 7-day splits and this is what I came up with:

As you can see, in all cases, I have lost some weight. I was depressed this morning because I hadn’t lost weight (yeah, called obesessive, I know). But after looking at what I weighed last week, this week is a better.

Now, that means if I have another naked celebration on the scale tomorrow, I have to remember that I can only really subtract it from last thursday’s weight, not from todays.

What I am learning is that all the obsession in the world seems to keep me focussed. If I had a 7-day reminder scale, with a 1 day reminder as well, that would be groovy, but then I would want 20 days and 30 days…

The Seven Day Cycle of Weight Loss Motivation – maybe that could be my break! I need to find a gym to advocate it to make it popular, and get Jared to eat the book! Yeah, he did wonders for subway! He can eat my soon to be written book!

BTW… I ran over 5 miles at lunch today, that hurt! really bad… I am not sure it was good for me. I am so hungry. Pass the popcorn!

Please remind me I wrote this

Someday, I will need somebody that reads this to tell me to go back and read this. You see, I am in a great mood. I have a great job, a great family, I am working my ass off and getting recognized at work and in addition my health/fitness is great. It’s very rare that you have home, work and personal all in line. I have achieved that. I can deal with work stress. Home stuff, well, it comes, it goes we work it out, that’s good. The health/fitness thing …. we don’t always work out so well together! So… why will I need a reminder, cuz I might need to remember the feeling I had the other day.

I woke up after racing the night before (which went GREAT!) I woke up for my morning ritual. I weigh in after I pee… then I get coffee. I weighed myself and I was on the BORDER! 250.4… but I was wearing a long sleeve shirt. OFF! 250.0. (Yeah, I am going to stretch your comfort zone a little). I still have my underpants on! Off they go! 249.8! HOLY MOTHER OF PEARL! I broke the barrier! 30 pounds! below 250! I was so excited I yelled “YES!” (note, when I typed that I got a chill). Sarah 1/2 wakes up and goes “Below 250?” I said “Awwwyeaaaaaa”. I did it! I have worked SERIOUSLY hard for these 30 pounds. I have *gulp* at least 60 more to go, but I did it the “right way”. I worked out yesterday with a sense of peace, happiness, confidence and enthusiasm. I set a new Ellipticator world record! I leg pressed mad weight… I just felt GOOD! The high is still here today. Scroll back a few weeks when I was depressed about only losing 1 pound or something… its amazing how much this affects me, but I am trying. I have tried to lead a healthy lifestyle and it seems to be helping!

In AA they have a saying … “This too shall pass…” The people have been sober for a while will always tell you that when you are in a great mood. Partially cuz they are old, bitter and probably don’t any action any more, but partially because it’s true! If you are in a really crappy mood, it will get better. The same can be said about a good mood! If we didn’t have cloudy days, we wouldn’t appreciate the sunny ones…. (wow… how much random philosophy can I cram into one blog post?)

BTW… I’ve set my season goal.  I drove over some of those last year working the Tour de Georgia.  I want to rock the house… besides with my new Garmin Edge 305 it will give you all a really cool file to look at.  I will wear my HRM…. if you see a flat line, that’s probably bad!  From the looks of it, it’s only about a 80 mile hard ride and then a love fest on the band wagon!  The ride in late September.  Little over 5 months… If I could crank the soulja-boy @ 199.9… that would be kick ass!  I don’t want to be the fastest fat guy any more!  I think I have lost my mind!