Justin

I went to the Tour of California and all I got was a slight buzz…

For those that don’t know, the Tour of California is arguably the premiere bicycle race in the United States.  I, and a few of the guys from my club, went to watch the penultimate stage finish in Pasadena.  We got there a bit early to enjoy some barbecue (thanks Tom and Pete) and some outstanding home-brewed beer (thank you very much Bill!).  Now, one of the beautiful things about going to a cycling race is the accessibility of the athletes to the fans.  If you’ve never watched a race on TV, let me paint the picture.  Think hundreds of drunken fans on some remote hill that have been sitting all day (some even camping out all night) to watch their heroes ride bikes.  They scream, the clang bells, they even give a push here and there.  The sound can be deafening and seems to almost push the racers up the hill if for no other reason than to get away as quickly as possible.  Some of the most fanatic run next to, or in front of, these racers dressed up like devils, angels, Popes, and, oddly enough, swimmers in speedos (again, thank you Pete, your image will be burned into my brain forever).  They do this to get seen on TV and to, if only for a few seconds, feel as if they are a part of the race.  Yes, at times the fans get a bit too exuberant and get too close to the action.  In which case it is completely appropriate for the cyclist to give a not so gentle shove to the errant observer, removing him from the height of cycling euphoria and putting him back in his place with the rest of the aerobically challenged mortals watching from the curb.  Unfortunately, when the race had reached Pasadena all of the major climbing was done.  So there would be no running next to Big George Hincapie for me.  Also, the place was packed.  Far more than had attended last year thanks to what the commentators are calling “the Lance Effect” (referring to the surge in cycling's popularity since Lance’s return).  Side note, do you think Lance is so big that he should just drop the Armstrong all together.  Just Lance, thank you very much.  You know, like Madonna.  Or maybe he could change his name to a yellow LiveStrong bracelet, like when Prince changed his name to that weird symbol.  “The Cyclist Formerly Known as Lance” has a nice ring to it, but I digress.  After each stage the racers return to their compounds which amounts to a set of barriers around a big RV with each team’s sponsor logos painted all over it like someone had made a really big team jersey and stretched it over the RV.  In the past it was fairly easy to get up close to a team’s barrier and get a picture with one of the racers.  With my new blog in mind, I set out to get my picture taken with one of the racers.  But it had to be someone big.  Lance, thank you very much, Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer, you know…  So, after all of that buildup, here are the prize shots!

 this is the back of Floyd's head

 

and this is the back of Levi's

Alas, the back of the Cyclist Formerly Known as Lance's head was nowhere to be found.

Oh, the numbers:  247lbs. this morning, progress...

First Club Ride (No, I don't expect my friends and family to understand all of this besides the time and distance):  3 hr., 51 mi., Avg. Power 217 Watts, Max Pwr. 1,278 Watts, Avg. HR 147 bpm, Avg. W/Kg 1.91 this is an important number, more on why later (being fat sucks!)

An Update...

 Well, if you read my first post and decided to come back for more, thank you!  I’d like to tell you a bit more about myself.  My beautiful wife and I have two lovely daughters (3 and 1) and live in Whittier, CA.  Yes, it is a fairly short drive away from Disneyland for those that need a frame of reference.  We both teach middle school and for an online university. 

Now, let me give you all a bit of an update.  The first post you read was written about a month and a half ago.  Since then I have accomplished quite a bit.  You see, having the specter of this blog hanging over my head has been just as motivating as I thought it would be.  When I found out I was one of the people chosen by CycleOps I was ecstatic.  Not only because I won, but because I had put some hard work in hoping I’d win.  I was determined to show the people at CycleOps that they had made the right decision by picking me and I didn’t want to let them down.  I also thought about those that may not have won.  I didn’t want them to be sitting there reading this thinking, “look at this knucklehead, he won and is just getting fatter and fatter, I could have done way better.”  I wanted them to be able to see this and know that even though they didn’t win, at least someone that was deserving did.  I have been watching my diet and working out up to three times a day since the beginning of the year.  My training schedule goes something like this: 

Monday through Thursday I wake up at 5:30 AM and do about 40 minutes on our elliptical trainer, I come home at lunch and do some strength training, at around 7:30 PM (after the girls are asleep) I head out to the garage for 50-60 minutes on my trainer or rollers.

Saturday I do my club ride which ranges from 30 to 60 miles depending on whether I ride to the start from my house and if I add on more miles at the end.

Sunday I try to get out on the bike again, either on the road or my mountain bike, depending on what the family has planned.

Fridays are typically my day off from cardio, I may do some strength training in the morning.

Now, the stats:  January 5^th, 2009 

Weight – 269.5 lbs, total cholesterol - 178, taking atenolol to control my blood pressure

February 25^th

Weight – 249 lbs - an 8% drop (yes, I rounded up…), total cholesterol – 145 – a 19% drop, and my doctor has taken me off my blood pressure medication - a 100% drop in my monthly payment to the drug store.

As you can see, I’ve made a fair bit of progress.  I’m still fat, just slightly less so.

My Winning Entry

I’m fat.  As you can see by my photo , I know my way around a buffet.  The problem, besides the very scary health problems associated with weighing 270 pounds (and my obvious love of the comma), is that I love to ride my bike.   For the past couple of years I have been riding with a local club called Team Velocity.  We do a Saturday ride that covers about 30 miles with some pretty decent climbs.   The club has members of all skill levels and while I can keep up pretty well on the flats, once the road starts to go vertical I suffer like a dog.  Phil Liggett would describe it as, “on the rivet.”  I recently got hit by a truck while on my way to the club ride.  Don’t worry, my cushioning flab layer kept the damage to me to a minimum.  The truck and the bike on the other hand did not fare as well.  There were pieces of truck and bike strewn along the road.  The down side is that I spent a few days off the bike.  The up side is that I have a beautiful new Pinarello now.  Which brings me to my point.  I promised myself (and my wife) that if I were going to drop that kind of money on a vehicle with no motor I’d better get myself to a point where I at least partially resemble a cyclist.  My quest, which I will be blogging about for the wonderful people here at CycleOps, is to lose about 50 pounds and to see exactly how useful a power meter can be in helping me reach that goal.  Every time I have tried to lose weight for losing weight’s sake I have failed miserably.  In high school I was a pretty good wrestler and if you’ve ever known a wrestler you know that cutting weight is part of the gig.  Having that goal to compete was my motivation for losing the weight.  So I figured that I should set an athletic goal this time as well.  For the past two years I have dabbled with cyclocross racing.  I competed in the beginner class and did alright.  I really like cross racing.  It is more laid back than some of the other disciplines and I’ll be honest, the fact that most races have a beer stand keeps me very interested in sticking around to watch the real racers go.  My goal is to be one of those “real” racers.  I want to place in the top ten in a legitimate category (not the too fat to compete or too new to know any better beginner class) at a cyclocross race.  Hopefully this blog will be an instrument to help me reach my goal, humiliation and guilt are powerful motivators, and will be entertaining for the readers.  Who knows, maybe seeing what I am going through will motivate others to lose some weight as well…