Week in Review 10/20 -10/26/14

What a sad week this was and to be honest if things keep up the current week looks about the same. Only thing I can say about it is that the days have gotten suddenly colder and shorter which makes me less inclined to ride before or after work.

Numbers

Miles: 8.6
Elevation: 98 feet
Time: 39 minutes

Wow when I look at it like that it really drives it home.
I am maintaining my indoor workouts regularly. My knees sadly are not cooperating with the idea of running, but I am still getting out there a little bit. Not sure how long it is going to last because to be honest I just don't get any enjoyment out of running like I used to, I think it may be the level of discomfort I have to deal with every time I go out, things are just a bit less enjoyable when they cross over from the sore muscle to the sharp pain region.

I have decided to keep at it for a month and see if it gets any better but if not I will be looking for something else to keep me going through the cold months. With any luck by that point I will be able to wrangle an indoor cycle trainer so I don't lose too much conditioning.

So what else is going on in my world in relation to this last week? Not really a whole lot, mostly work and home. I am taking a look at some nutrition books and a variety of cook books in order to work up a good selection of easy to prepare meals and snacks that are healthy and fit my requirements.

Diet is quite possibly the most difficult area for me to work on at any time of the year. I like what I like and honestly have no desire to not eat an entire pot of chili on a cold day while I wash it down with a nice Porter or Stout all while playing D&D with my friends. What I do need to do is to keep in mind that this is exactly what has lead me to where I am now...sigh.

Anyways not too much to include in this update, going to work on making the next one an improvement both in activity and content.

As always comments, rants and questions are always fun to read so have at it. Until next time, keep it rubber side down.

The "Off Season" Begins

The off season has begun and currently my ride time has slowed with other pursuits in exercise increasing. This doesn't mean sitting on my butt eating Oreos (man I love Oreos too) playing on the computer and spending the day sampling and chopping up beats or trolling players on Xbox Live. No instead it means a shift of focus to other kinds of exercise to keep in shape and even increase condition through the winter.

What is your exercise routine John? You may ask...and I am glad you did.

Well it is a mix of things I have picked up here and there but mostly based on what is known as "prison workout" exercises which focus on strength training using body weight, need a very limited amount of space and what little equipment may be needed is usually already in your house (chair, table edge etc.). The exercises tend to be simple in nature and can be done as fast or as slow as you like, long breaks between sets or short breaks and any number of variances of motion.

Anyways on to my personal routine:

Sit Ups
100
90 second break
80
90 second break
60
90 second break
40
90 second break
20
This gives a grand total of 300 Sit Ups although my number has gone up this is always my minimum and my breaks have also gotten shorter between sets. I also use a slightly modified version of the Sit Up which involves only going back towards the floor about 3/4 of the way instead of full flat to floor. I have found it very effective so far, but time will be the true test.

I also realize there is a lot of back and forth regarding Sit ups vs Crunches and how Sit Ups are bad for you and so on but if done properly one is no worse than the other. Most of what I have read and understand discusses past injuries, weak lower abdominal strength (ironic) and poor form when doing these exercises...use your own discretion.

Mountain Climbers
100
90 second break
80
90 second break
60
90 second break
40
90 second break
20
Again my numbers have changed a bit and I have shortened my rest time but as before this is the minimum regiment I stick to. This gives a very similar workout to the crunch but also adds in a bit of trapezius, deltoid and pectoralis work due to balancing and weight positioning through the movement though not as intensive as a push up would be for the same region.

Push ups
5 sets of 20 with 60 second break between sets.
I keep these a bit lighter on my workout. I tend to bulk up in the chest and shoulders quickly and it is not what I want...the perks of being slightly barrel chested I guess. I do however vary the type of push ups I do and have come to have a love/hate relationship with "Spiderman Push Ups" which are pretty intense and add some core zones worked during push ups, well worth trying if you are a glutton for punishment.

Soon to add in running as a part of my off season fitness schedule. I will have to take that slowly as I have to be careful of my knees, but I am hoping to at least make a 5k a couple times a week part of my routine. I used to do this distance on a treadmill 4-5 times a week with no issue but I know that treadmill running and real world running are very different...and it has been a few years since I even did that. This will be reflected in my Strava feed as well so if you are following along hopefully we will be able to see improvement together.

Still saving for a trainer, hoping that I will have one as a gift to myself for Christmas which would be great but again time will tell on that as I have other things I have to pay for as well.

So that is my winter schedule in a nutshell though there may be some changes to it as things go along, having built in flexibility to a workout schedule/routine is important. To me it allows a person the ability to add or remove items as needed and to miss a day or days without unnecessary guilt which can cause a person to throw the whole thing out the window. Missing days is allowed, sometimes you don't have the time or are just burnt out or need to rest and sometimes you have to push through that feeling, only the individual knows what their body is saying so listen to it.

So I think that covers everything I had on my mind today, if you have questions, feedback or rants you want to get off your chest about anything I have said then feel free to post below and say it.

Until next time keep it rubber side down.

Week in review 10/13 - 10/19/14

Low number week for me this time around. Had a busy work schedule this week and between that and the weather change I slacked a bit, but that is ok once in while.

Numbers for the week:

Half mile of dirt riding on a road bike? Bring it on

Miles - 53.2

Time on bike - 3hr 19min

Elevation - 1,191ft

Overall not bad for the amount of riding I did but I also missed a couple small rides being logged in trying to sort out tracking services again. As I mentioned before I have been shopping services since Strava does not and has no intention of supporting ANT+ in their app for Android. So I got a little pissy about it and decided I was going to move myself to a new service and found Sportstracker which had everything I wanted...until they let us know they are closing on November 1st of this year.

So back to searching and in the process I decided to actually try out IPBike more in depth and play with the settings to see what services it uploads directly to...well would you look at that, it loads to Strava. So this becomes a work around to get the ANT+ support I desire and still retain the metrics platform I (and so many others) enjoy. 

Aside from that not a lot else has been going on. I went on a good ride yesterday after about a week of not really riding much and had a good time with it, even did about a mile on the dirt which was kind of fun on a road bike. I should have probably ended my ride earlier or eaten a bit better before heading out, still trying to figure out which one. Basically I ended up with muscle cramps in my quads, I was pushing decently but nothing I would consider out of the norm for me, so my best guess is poor fueling. 

Speaking of fueling I have dropped a few pounds once again and am now at 200lbs as of this morning. (insert image of me with big goofy smile), this brings my total weight loss since I started riding again to 20lbs in about 2 months now. I need to go back and double check the start date for my records, but that is pretty good and just goes to show that it takes a little work to have a lot of fun and make big changes.

As for actual diet it has been a lot of fruit and vegetables through the day, mainly bananas to be honest. I can stop at the store on the way to work and pick up a dozen bananas for right around $2 (USD) and munch on those through the work day. I don't feel hungry in the least and my energy levels are easily maintained this way. I mix it up a bit with some melon, apricots, pluots, an apple here and there but mostly stick with bananas. 

I do a breakfast smoothie pretty regularly as well which is really simple:

1 banana (I sometimes use 2)

6-7 whole strawberries

1-2 spoonfuls of plain yogurt

Blend until smooth and enjoy

Takes a total of about 5 minutes in the morning and if you wanted you could even blend it up the night before and store it in the refrigerator. I toss mine in one of my cycling water bottles and enjoy it at work while setting up for my day. If you need a bit more substance to it then I would suggest a scoop of instant oatmeal, the plain kind, which makes it nicely filling and adds a texture to it as well.

Well I think that about covers another week on the bike so until next time keep it rubber side down and thanks for reading.

Week in Review 10/6 - 10/12/14

This was a decent week overall and got some good miles in, in fact I am pretty sure this was some of my strongest riding so far and that makes me pretty happy.

The numbers:

Miles: 132.9

Total time: 8hrs 24mins

Elevation: 2054

Not too shabby, would have had more but I had a mystery noise that stopped me early on Saturday and then I spent Sunday detailing the bike and doing some light tuning on it as well as spending some time with the family. The mystery noise by the way ended up being a dirty seat post *look of confusion* but at the suggestion of a few people I removed the seatpost, wiped it down and cleaned inside the seat tube. I then took it for a bit of a spin and not one noise from her, what a strange source for such a loud noise, the ride to work today was also silent.

So after posting about the change of tracking services I got a couple suggestions that I figured I would pass along to you.

First off this service is a nice way to synchronize your data across multiple tracking services, I have no doubt we all have more than a single service we use for any number of reasons and it is tough to manually manage them all. to solve this issue it is Tapiriik to the rescue which handles all that for you. One thing it does not do though, and I think this is a Garmin Connect thing, is upload of distance, route, speed and elevation to the Connect site. I have seen this with other programs that sync to it and have never seen distance, route, speed and elevation carry over. My guess is with a Garmin device this would not be an issue. 

As for my migration to a new tracker it is done and as you can see on the right I am now using SportsTrackLive which does everything I need it to including ANT+ integration. It is going to take a bit to get used to the app, it is solid but not entirely as intuitive as the ones I have used before, figuring out how to get it to pause the ride if I stop for a snack is something I had an issue with on my test ride to work today. I stopped at the store and thought I paused it but apparently not. The plus to this is that you can set a minimum speed to be included in your moving average, so it doesn't ding you for user end ID10T errors from what I can tell. 

There are two versions of the app for your Android, the first is a free demo version, it works with limited usage as would be expected of a demo. Then there is a one time fee paid version for $4.99(USD) which includes everything except end of period reports, not too shabby a deal and if you need the extra then it is possibly the most affordable annual fee I have seen yet (max price is $14.97(USD) a year) Also this does not connect to Tapiriik at this point so I am starting from scratch again.

*Edit 10/14/14*
It looks like SportsTrackLive was too good to be true and has announced that it is for sale and if no buyer comes forward they will be shutting down November 1, 2014. Here is a link to their announcement in their blog

I will have some updates on overall impression with this program as time goes by. Just to be clear I am not getting anything for mentioning or linking to their site so this is not meant to be an advertisement of any kind.

If all goes well I should be on my way to having my heart rate monitor and my cadence/speed sensor by the end of the month. Need to sort out my pennies and check the priorities but I think this can be done. This will mean more data to share with you folks along with improved training and results.

I think that covers everything I can think of so until next time keep it rubber side down.

Tracking program decisions

There comes a time in every persons training where they come to the realization that they have to commit to a format that will work for their situation, and I have reached this point recently.

I have been researching multiple platforms and checking sites, prices and features of membership to these various tracking sites. Being slightly on the poor side price is a huge consideration for me as much as I hate to admit it but that is reality at this point in life.

So far as I have noted multiple times I have been using Strava since I got back on the bike earlier this year, and I love it. Really intuitive features, good data tracking and the segment feature really makes it a stand out for pushing yourself just a bit more than you would otherwise. I want to add more data to the equation so I can visualize where I am making and losing power, so this led me to finding a hardware solution on my end that is also affordable for me.

My research has led me to a connection protocol known as ANT+, for those unfamiliar with what it does and how it works here is a link to thisisant which will get as technical as you may need it to be, I just know it works very well and from everything I have read it functions more efficiently than Bluetooth does. Whether this is true is really a bit moot but the final and most important reason is because most heart rate monitors, cadence, speed and power monitors are being built using ANT+ technology at this point while they are still working all the bugs out of the next implementation of Bluetooth...which has been slow in coming. ANT+ technology is available now, is affordable and will interface with my phone with the purchase of a dongle (Galaxy S3 user here). If I upgraded my phone it would be built in and just that much easier.

So here is where it leads me to a change of tracking programs. Strava, who again I have been very happy with, has made it clear they have no plans to incorporate ANT+ into their Android app but instead are working on a BTLE inclusion according to their comments here in on their forums. So whether it is with an adapter or native if you own an Android it will not interface...however they do interface if you are using an iPhone and a Wahoo dongle conveniently available through their website and not native to the iPhone.

This I find very frustrating as it limits options to either purchasing an iPhone (not gonna happen) or spending the money on a Garmin cycle computer plus sensors and manually upload ride files, when the simple answer is to buy the sensors and a dongle for far less, spend the savings on a premium subscription and get on with your ride.

So I have decided that is just what I shall do, but I will be making one more change and that is to migrate back over to Endomondo who has support built in for the ANT+ sensor data. I will lose a lot of data doing this but it is better sooner than later and since my account is still active I can look back and laugh at my old records I set on my mountain bike. 

I am set at this point to make my purchases and upgrade my account by the end of the month. I will also be looking at options (if any exist) to transport my rides from Strava to Endomondo although I am pretty sure it is not possible.

I did look at one other option that impressed me overall called IPbike which will track all the data from the sensors and compile on the phone for you to view, can be uploaded to multiple sites or you can create a custom program or site to manage from and even upload to existing sites. I like it and have it on my phone to play around with but not going to take the extra steps to upload the files into a tracking site, maybe down the road I will reconsider.

I realize this may come off as a bit of a rant or sour apples on my part to put this out there like this, and it kind of is I guess but I feel my money is better spent in a place that develops for users of a variety of technology and not just single platform users. If things change I may be back, but at that point I may be too invested in something else.

Comments are welcome especially if I missed something obvious in my research. I know that I only mentioned the currently most prominent two sites for tracking and that is mainly because they have the most to offer from what I have seen, but if I missed an awesome site to manage data from with a reasonable fee please mention it and I will take a look.

Until next time keep it rubber side down.

This post comes with a warning

I am going to preface this post with a warning so understand this:

I am not a doctor, nor am I a health expert. I am simply some guy on the interwebz who writes a blog based on what he does and the results he gets from trying different combinations. I am not suggesting anyone do what I do or use me as an example of what to do. I listen closely to what my body tells me and I adjust according to it's needs and desires....again, I listen closely to my body and adjust to its needs and desires, this includes cravings because cravings are a need of sorts.

So with that out of the way lets get on with it.

This post is about diet and exercise and tracking them together(see why I needed the warning?)

Today I ran into something that has been happening on a somewhat regular basis, although today was a bit more extreme than it has been in the past. Basically I use MyFitnessPal to track calories, I use Strava to track exercise and a rough approximation of caloric burn. So far so good and I have been ok with the results of both programs and their convenience is a big plus.

This is what todays caloric intake looks like including most of my ride (I had 9 miles that don't show up due to error on my part)

I have yet to add in dinner but I know for a fact I am going to be below their 1000 calorie threshold and get a warning about my caloric intake. This has happened 5 times that I can remember and although it looks bad I question just how bad it really is.

I am not intending to have this extreme a deficit, not by any stretch of the imagination. In fact I eat when I am hungry and when I am not I don't. I listen to my body closely and if it has a craving I tend to indulge it. The issue is not that I am not eating but appears to be that I am exercising too hard for how I eat.

My diet consists of a lot of fruit through most of the day, bananas are a big one and I average probably a dozen or so bananas throughout my workday, a banana and strawberry smoothie with a small amount of yogurt in the morning, the occasional doughnut and maybe a hard boiled egg or two now and again. I never am very hungry throughout my day of moderate physical activity at work (I am a brewer if that helps).

Come dinner time I eat whatever but tend to keep towards a mildly vegetarian diet with occasional meat dishes. Not really intending it this way but I eat what makes me feel best and makes my body perform best, so don't take this as preaching any particular diet...this is simply how I eat. You do you and I'll do me.

So from day to day I will ingest any number of things but as a general circumstance I am consistently under their recommendation of 2340 calories and feel fine with it, once in a while I exceed it but it is the exception and far from the rule as you can see above.

Today on my ride I was stronger than I have been in a while. I had multiple personal bests and had the sun stayed strong for longer I would have been tempted to go another 20 miles or so. As of right now I am getting ready to cook dinner, watch a movie and obviously post this blog. I am not ravenous or even feeling any hunger that is out of the norm.

So my question to you good reader and most likely fellow cyclists is, at what point should there be concern or is listening to your body carefully enough?

Answers, questions, insight and personal experiences are all appreciated.

Week In Review 9/29 - 10/5/14

So another mildly lackluster week for mileage. Just gonna go ahead and blame it on stress at work and a bit of an illness I was fighting, still kind of am but getting better.

Cable Bridge (and my finger)
 Pasco, WA

So the numbers are:

Miles: 74.1
Elevation: 1266 feet
Time Ridden: 4 hours 31 minutes
Scale: 205 lbs

Figured I would add in a weekly weigh in just to show I am making my way towards my goal.

So what is new this last week?
I have been looking for more climbs than before, in fact one day I made a point to hit every climb I could along the way and skipping the easier route. I didn't set any records, but I did feel accomplished for having done it. Some of the climbs were tough, but I know that next time they will be just a little easier and that is enough for me.

Haven't been getting flats as much (knock on wood). I got myself some tire liners for now and they seem to be doing a pretty good job of keeping me from swearing at my tubes. I am going to have to pick up some new tires pretty soon as these stock tires are starting to look a bit on the worn side. I have done some research and it looks like I am going to go ahead and pick up some Continental Gatorbacks when the time does come. They have gotten consistent reviews and are in the price range I consider acceptable for my broke ass.

Got some lights for the bike so I can get around during the short daylight hours this winter safer. Picked up a Bike Planet Beamer headlight which has two settings (strobe and solid) and also got one of their taillights which has the same two settings. They work great so far but I haven't put a lot of time on them yet, a couple rides home from work late at night and I didn't get run over or pulled over so I call that a win.

The bike is doing great overall, probably going to need to look into some brake pads by the end of the month, new bar tape and a light tune up of the cables. I am really feeling at home on it now. When I first got it I was a bit unsure of myself on it as it is my first road bike and was a big change from mountain bike geometry. I think it took me a week on the thing before I actually stood out of saddle on it on a climb, now I am constantly doing sprints both on the hoods and in the saddle without a second thought. I can't say there is anything I would change on it, there are things I want such as a power meter and a Garmin unit but those are really additions to the gear and not a replacement of any gear.

Another thing I have been working on is my diet, not just watching calorie intake vs output but doing my best to eat as clean as I can which is tough for me. This weekend I fell off a bit but I just consider it a bump in the road and am right back on it. I remember someone once saying that it isn't that you slipped and fell but rather whether you got back up and continued on that makes all the difference. I would say that is a pretty good way to look at things so I have adopted that into my life.

This next week I have decided I am going to log every mile I put on the bike whether it is my little 1 mile commute to work, a store run or an actual ride. I want to take a better look at what my weekly average truly is rather than just my longer rides. I know most people don't track it as useless clutter but it is part of my miles and should be accounted for at some point.

Anyways I think that is enough rambling from me for today, I have some vegetable gumbo to go cook up for dinner and some core exercises to do.

Until next time keep it rubber side down