Just two quick notes about inspiration on the weight loss front.
First is the Fat Cyclist, Kenny. He’s got before and after photos posted. It’s inpiring to see what he’s done and all the while helping his wife battle cancer. He’s an guy like I hope to become and I enjoy reading his posts.
Second is a reality show on ABC, Shaq’s Big Challenge. The finale was tonight and watching how much the kids in his pilot program changed is amazing. That Shaq cares enough to push this and take it to the state level to make a change for all children is impressive. Certainly he’s a better role model than other sports figures being dogged in the news these days.
So, Polly got sick and went through a lot to get better. She’s still growing all her fur out, but now she’s a changed cat. She’s friskier. She runs around all the time. She’s really social now. She’s a leaner version of herself before she got sick.
I’m really happy that the worry and the operation and the many, many trips to the vet were worth it.
On another note, here is another kitty that looks like a lot of fun (and is cute), Charley:
Over the summer I obtained two wool cycling jerseys, the first as my Team Luxo jersey for AIDS/LifeCycle and the second an ALC edition jersey I bought on the ride. The Team Luxo is from Swobo and it’s fantastic. We were highly complemented on the sharpness of our team this year. The ALC jersey is from Woolistic and it too is great. Last night Keeth (the evil one) showed me a jersey from Earth, Wind & Rider, I’m going to order a couple from them real soon now.
I’m going to slowly convert my cycling jerseys over to all wool. I’ll still have a few synthetics around, but the wool is the way to go. They are more comfortable, breath naturally, and actually don’t stink when you’re done riding or after a few days in the clothes hamper.
Swobo is also making a polo and t-shirt from the same high-quality New Zealand wool. I can’t wait to try them out. The wool gear will be more spendy for sure, but I think it will be more worth it in the long run. I can carry fewer jerseys on the ALC next year if they’re all wool. I’ll just have to be careful getting near my mom with any of this wool gear as she’s allergic to wool, sadly.
04:42 - a 4.2 earthquake rocks you awake1. It’s the “natural” alarm clock. It was about 8 miles or so to the South-East on the Hayward fault. Now I try to get back to sleep, heart pounding and all that.
Footnotes:
Of course, being on the landfill part of the county tends to accentuate the shake a little. It seemed like it went on for about 7-10 seconds↩
There an article in the New York Times titled The Bicycling Paradox: Fit Doesn’t Have to Mean Thin. It’s a short article with an interesting conclusion that a person’s size isn’t going to be indicative of their cycling performance. Sure, me and my gut don’t climb as well as if I was 50 lbs. (22.7 kg) lighter, but I can still climb.
“When I first got into cycling, I would see cyclists and say, ‘O.K., that’s not what I perceive a cyclist to be,’ ” said Michael Berry, an exercise physiologist at Wake Forest University. Dr. Berry had been a competitive runner, and he thought good cyclists would look like good runners — rail-thin and young.
But, Dr. Berry added, “I quickly learned that when I was riding with someone with a 36-inch waist, I could be looking at the back of their waist when they rode away from me.”
Hopefully one day I’ll have people staring at my 36-inch (91.4 cm) waist as I pull away from them. I mean, I’m pretty sure I pulled away from people on the ride, but it’ll be nice to be passing people a little more than I do now1.
Update: As Chris has put it: “Ayup. Clydesdales rule.”
I went out on Saturday and this morning for a short ride to the top of Old Tunnel Road. Today I road with Chris who hadn’t ridden since ALC 6. We both did fine and spun easy to the very foggy top. Sadly I felt very nauseated by the time we got to the top, but I was much better after I got home.
These rides will continue. They must, I’ve got to keep up my riding up and try to improve1.
Footnotes:
although the best way for me to improve is to drop body weight↩
Somewhere along the way on the AIDS/LifeCycle I broke one of the retaining pads on my left cleat1. It would have been great had I not been a dum-dum and left my spare, still in the wrapper, cleats at home. As it was it wasn’t so bad, I just had trouble pulling up on the pedal on my left side. I’ve ridden a few times since then, but tonight I finally replaced my cleats with the spanking new ones. The reason? I intend to be up early tomorrow morning to ride. I’m actually looking forward to it.
Footnotes:
you can see it on the left side in the picture above↩
Sometimes you hit on a song that will make you want to buy an entire album. “What’s A Girl To Do?” from Bat For Lashes has done that for me. To bad I have to wait a couple of weeks to buy it here in the USA. It’s also a great video, I love the bunny-hopping masked BMXers (notice how responsible everyone is with a light on their bike!).
I am now the proud owner of a very sleek single speed bike1. I was going to convert an old 26er MTB that we have, but the cost of the new parts for it were nearly the cost of the entire bike. The other benefit is that the bike is a road bike so it’s more similar to my other bikes than the 26er would have been.
I’m using it to commute to and from work mostly, but now that I’ve bought a lock that can’t be picked by a cheap plastic tube I’ll start running errands with it too (I made sure to get a lock that’s going to be able to lock up any bike I want, thus it’s heavier, but I don’t care).
It’s been fun so far. There are occasions where I will still need my car, but for the most part I won’t have to drive or wait on the bus, I’m on my own schedule. I just need to get some fenders before it starts raining (that’s a while off) and I’ll be good to go.
Footnotes:
Not a fixie, although it does have a flip-flop hub so I could make it a fixed gear if I were nuts. It’s made by Fuji via it’s brand SE bikes. It’s not a high-end bike at all, but it’s solid.↩
A few years ago I finally got off of my rather large butt and started working out. It was a combination of gym and bicycling that did it for me. I went from 310 lbs (140.6 kg) to around 230 lbs (104.3 kg). At that point I stopped working as hard. I could still do long bike rides and snowboard and be active, I just wasn’t as concerned about my weight or eating habits. As a result I went back up to 250 lbs (113.4 kg) and I’ve stayed right around there for the last two years or so.
Well, no more. I’m doing a restart on the weight loss component. I have the will power to do it, I’ve done it before. I’ll be keeping updates going on here. Feel free to ask me if you don’t see one for a while.
