Well, the Palm Springs ride didn’t go as planned. Some of my team members feared that it would rain during the ride and cancelled out on us. I went to “plan B”, a ride with another group friends that wanted to travel the Manhattan Beach bike path. After finding out that the ride leader was sick that day, we went to plan “plan C”. Since I was determined to ride that day, I talked my wife and another friend of mine to ride the same path, from a different riding location. My family has a place about 2 miles from the Manhattan Pier; we thought it best to rendezvous there as parking at the beach is a pain. We road from the house to the beach then over to Marina Del Rey, once we arrived, I come to realize that I wasn’t wearing my camelback, I left it at a restroom about 5 miles back. Since I had my wallet, keys, and phone there, I figured I should ride back and hope that it was was I left it. My wife and I raced our way back to the location, while our friend stayed and rested up. I was very fortunate to find that my hydration bag was right where I left it, will everything still inside. We quickly road back to where our friend was and took a small break. Soon we road back to the house, finishing our ride with round trip of about 25 miles.
Later that same evening, our friend who wasn’t feeling well called to see if we all were interested in riding on Monday, I accepted the invite. So on Monday, me and my two co-workers road the path, but starting from a different direction. Since I knew the ride wasn’t going to be of a great difficulty, I decided to use my fixed gear bike on that day. Since the ride was fairly flat with only a few rolling hills, the fixed make the easy 20 mile ride a bit more challenging. I love riding that bike when terrain permits, as I get a great leg workout from it.
Though Palm Springs didn’t turn out as planned, I did manage to get in about 45 miles this weekend just the same. I was supposed to spin for an hour on Tuesday, but I think I will do some weight training instead, work the upper body a bit and giving the legs a rest.
Right now, I am training for the Rosarito Ensenada Fun Ride in www.rosaritoensenada.com/. This is a 52 mile ride that I have previously done once before. My first time riding this course, took me five and a half hours to complete. That was six months ago, this April I hope to shed 30 minutes off that time. I have decided to use Lance Armstrong’s “7-Week Success Plan” to help accomplish this task.
This plan requires that I first do a 3 mile “field test” to determine my level of fitness. Using my indoor trainer, I did the test and determined that I will train in the “intermediate” category.
Tuesday was my first ride using this program; I rode for one hour on my indoor trainer. The first ten minutes was in a low gear with easy pedaling. The next ten minutes I geared up and rode harder concentrating on breathing, round pedaling, and maintaining a steady cadence. The rest of the ride I focused more on maintaining a steady but comfortable speed.
Wednesday I did a 30 minute recovery ride which means that I stayed in a fairly low gear and spun steadily giving the legs just a little exercise.
Thursday and Friday will be rest days; I may just lift weights on those days. This is because on Saturday I will be riding in the Tour de Palm Springswww.tourdepalmsprings.com/. I want to make sure that my body is well rested and all muscles healed come that day.
I will post again probably on Monday to talk about the ride.
When I was young, I used to do sports like boxing and wrestling. Such sports have weight classes, each week I was trying to "make weight" so that I can participate in my chosen weight class. It was easy to accomplish these goals, not so much because I was young and fit, but because the goals were short term. I had learned early in life, in order to achieve long term goals, one must first reach the short term goals.
Right now I am 180.1 pounds, and my current goal is to loose 10 pounds by April 21. I choose that date because that is when I will be cycling the Rosarito Ensenada fun ride. It is my mission this year to cycle in as many organized rides as I can. I see it all as a way to have fun visiting different places, being charitable, and getting into shape at the same time.
This coming weekend, February 10, I will be cycling the Tour de Palm Springs Charity Ride.
It was a couple of years ago, I was forty years old and the heaviest I have ever been. I had completely let my self go in the health and fitness department. It was around that time that I had pancreatitis and was diagnosed as having type-2 diabetes. I was over 200 pounds then and have since lost about 20 through diet and exercise. I found a way to make this journey fun for me, and have decided to share it to all who may like to ride along.
