A Simple Concept

This blog is pretty straight forward, it is about bicycle riding, specifically my progress as a rider.

I have been riding bikes for as long as I can remember, BMX and freestyle until about the time I hit high school, then along came a new kind of riding called mountain biking which appealed to me because it was the same kind of aggressive riding style as I was used to but with bikes that fit me.

Over time life got in the way and cars became a larger focal point in life for me. I always had a bike somewhere in the garage but they didn't get much use. Until about 4 years ago (as of this writing) when the economy suddenly swung it's axe my direction and I had to re-evaluate some things...mostly money. In doing so I realized I had a way to cut some cost easily enough, about a year earlier I had randomly bought a mountain bike off an old roommate who needed to thin out his herd. This was an older hardtail with suspension forks, specifically a Diamondback Topanga SE (unsure of year). I dusted it off and rode it regularly, the more miles I rode the better I felt so I kept doing it.

When I started riding I had just come off a customer support position doing customer service and network troubleshooting as relates to a popular gaming system. I loved the job and the people but lets be honest here, it was the least healthy environment I had ever worked in. No exercise, high fat food at the cafeteria was all that was available, everyone had snacks consisting of sugary goodness...and I have a mean sweet tooth. So needless to say I gained some weight, in fact I went from 209 to 245 in the course of a little over a year and was not happy about it at all. I have always been pretty active in one way or another and here I am becoming a help desk blob.

Anyways I rode and was seeing some benefits in many ways. Then I had to move from Western Oregon where it is either raining or getting ready to, over to the South Eastern corner of Washington which is high desert and rains very little and decided I was making the switch to bicycle only transport (some public transport here and there of course). I commute to work, do my food shopping, pay my bills and also get my exercise and sport by way of cycling. It is a huge change for someone who comes from an automotive racing, off roading and general all around car culture background. Don't get me wrong I still love cars and racing but my priorities have changed.

So after moving here I got a lot more serious about my miles and in my first year I ran up a little over 3,000 miles on the MTB, dropped 55 pounds to hit 190lbs and was keeping some impressive averages (especially for an MTB). Money was tight and sadly my maintenance schedule was slack so the bike was feeling what amounted to "roadie miles". A couple valiant attempts by me to return it to it's previous glory failed and it has been retired at this point to the 1 mile commute to and from work but I had to stop putting any real miles on it over the past year or so.

Until about 2 weeks ago, that is when I had finally saved enough money to get "Lucinda" which is a 2014 Specialized Roubaix SL-4 with disc brakes in 58cm. Found it on Craigslist being sold by a guy who decided it just wasn't for him, he says he had put 100 miles on it and decided to go a different direction. So I test rode it, had the shop inspect it and at the price it was being offered I had the numbers run on it to make sure I wasn't buying a hot bike. The stars aligned and here we are.

OK long winded introduction but I will wrap it up with this.

My goal with this blog is to chronicle my thoughts, adventures, trials and tribulations with being a noob to road cycling. I am not the kind to only talk about the upside of what I have done, I will freely talk about my mistakes, my general opposition to the status quo and where that all leads me. I will also be chronicling the physical effects and diet changes as I am looking to again drop some of the weight that has creeped back due to a minimum of exercise again.

So here are the starting stats:

Age: 43
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 220

At this point I have been on the bike for about two weeks my Strava details are to right in the widget column.

If at any time there are any comments, questions or general banter then post below and I will always listen to reason and reply as I can.