Comments on: Resolved

By: david

david — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 03:32:15 +0000

Sometime back about 9 or 10 years ago, I was feeling rotten, so I went to see a physician. I had a real appointment, something I’d never done before. I was 212, cholesterol over 300, triglycerides like 200, LDL high, HDL low, B/P 190/96, resting pulse 87, 1 + protein in my urine. I was smoking and a big fat mess. I’m 52 now so I must have been 40 something.The physician raised hell, threatened to put me in the hospital, and scared the shit out of me. I gave him my smokes, and I’ve never had another. I started compulsively walking, and walking when I was wanting a smoke. Then I walked some more, pretty soon I was up to 5 miles a day, sometimes 8 or 10 on weekends. I was getting further and further from the house, out walking the country roads, out walking in the strip pits, out road walking in the State Parks.Sometime in ‘97 or ‘98, while out walking on a dirt road in the strip pits with a friend, I had a moment of clarity, "You know what? I think a guy could ride one of them fancy mountain bikes out here!" So I went and bought one, and it was true! I could ride one of them fancy mountain bikes out there, and on roads, and everywhere else.The day I stopped smoking, I also changed my diet; no meat, no cheese, very low fat, I drank skim milk, ate egg whites, beans, fruit and veggy’s, high carb, low fat vegetarian, light beer, lots of exercise.Well, it worked, my weight dropped to 176. The Dr. started me on statins, and B/P medicine, now my cholesterol is like 130, triglycerides are under 100, ratios are good. B/P 118/72, resting pulse 61.I now weigh 183, which seems to be where I stay if I’m not careful. I went vegetarian for a couple of years, but I fell down one day and broke a couple of ribs. I couldn’t get them healed up, and I was miserable for weeks, then when I finally got then half healed up, I took a big header on my bike, and re-broke them. I started eating some meat, and they healed right up.I also tried to give up the statins, I quit them for 3 months, and didn’t eat a bite of cholesterol containing food, but my numbers jumped right back up to 210, so I’m back on the statins (Lipitor and Zetia.)I’ve maintaind a detailed training log since November of 1998, and have logged over 15,000 miles walking, hiking, and biking. This does not include hours and hours spent on trainers, treadmills, and Spinning bikes.Now I’m 183, I went out and rode 34 hilly road miles yesterday in the cold and the wind all by myself in 2.5 hours, after having not been on the bike outside since 11/04/05, I only unclipped once, at the high point of the ride, to put on a rain jacket, I was kinda gassed the last 2 miles, but that was uphill and into the wind, and I was cold and hungry.I eat whatever I please, (although I’m pleased to not eat fast food except for Subway,) and drink regular beer. Now here’s the deal, I want to drop off about 20 or 30 more pounds. I got the beer belly. I don’t need it, and it’s slowing me down on the bike. I’m only like 5′7”, and all my extra weight is in my belly, I got no butt, (according to Carol and the girls,) my waist is 34," so all my fat is a spare tire.I am addicted to potato chips. If there was no such thing as chips, I’d weight about 100 pounds. I don’t eat real potato chips, and still have a problem.I went to the library Friday, and got The Zone diet book, and The South Beach diet book. I know I need to make changes relative to carbs and bread and beer.But’s heres the thing, when I go on vacation, I lose weight. Me and my buddy went to Quebec in August for a week of riding. I ate like a pig, whatever I wanted, stuff I usually don’t eat, bacon, eggs, pizza, (or what they call pizza in Quebec,) hot dogs, (the staple food in Quebec campgrounds,) potaine (greasy French fries with cheese curds and gravy,) bread, and we swilled beer. I lost 4 pounds. Now it’s true we were riding, but my buddy is not exactly in the best shape, and I train everyday harder than we rode there. But we camped, and I didn’t snack, and didn’t eat at night.So here is my plan;1. Go on the two week, South Beach, Phase 1, carb clear-out/sugar withdrawal/cold turkey. I’m sure that’s good for 10 pounds, I’ll probably burn off that much having seizures and running around pulling my hair out.2. I know I can’t give up bread forever, I don’t want to, and I won’t, but I can restrict it, (I’ll eat only good real whole wheat bread,) I can give up potatoes and rice, if I have to have some pasta I can eat whole wheat pasta. I can have 5 bread servings a week.3. Snacking is banned, that include the very problematic tasting the food on the tray line at the facility.4. No food after 6pm. By this I mean, no food after 6pm. This means I will not eat after 6 pm, food, I’m giving up eating after 6pm, so if I want to eat something, it better be before 6pm, or I’m SOL.5. Beer, I don’t think I want to live without beer, but I can restrict it to week-ends. I will switch to red wine, 2 glass limit during the week, after the two week plan.6. I’m going to go back to a limited weight lifting program, but no more than 1/2 hour a day, if I put too much time into weight training, I slack on my aerobics, which is more important to me.Sorry for this long blog post, but I got no blog. I wanted to get it down to make it real.

By: Unknown

Unknown — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 01:48:16 +0000

My GoalsTo get there a bit faster, particularly if there is up a hillTo convince one daily communter to buy panniers and regularly go grociery or other shopping To convince one recreational rider to commuteTo stop laughing at well appointed, recreational cyclistsTo either learn how to true a wheel or stop tryingUltimately, to continue to insist that while no one can ride everywhere, everyone can ride somewhereyrs in the holiday spiritalas

By: TIMOTHY

TIMOTHY — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 23:00:35 +0000

My wife and I just found out the week before Christmas that she is pregnant with our first child. She is also in the Air Force and we are scheduled to move a mere couple months before she is due in August. This knowlege, as you can imagine, seriously changed my goals for 2006…Goal #1: Upgrade the fork and rear shock on my mountain bike. Chances are I won’t be in the market to purchase a new bike for quite a while (do you think that in 20 years my 2002 Enduro will be considered "classic" or "retro-cool"?). I figure I better do this while I can. Christmas and my birthday are only a few weeks apart, I will ask for cash…Goal #2: Find a place to live and a job in a new city. Luckily much of this can be done on the internet, while working at my current job. And I mean literally "while working at my current job."Goal #3: Prepare for having a pregnant wife in the summer and a new baby. My plan here is to randomly bang my head against a wall or other hard object – during the night I will sleep no more than 2 hours at time, in between which I will attempt to negotiate obstacle courses and do long division. Any other advice in this area from those with experience?Goal #4: Try to find times to ride my bike and race without seeming selfish. Before my wife was pregnant this was easy – she’s a competitive runner and understood when I needed to train or had a race. While she’s still running, she won’t be doing as much so this is going to be more challenging. I’m going to train as hard as I can, whenever I can. We have a local road race in May that I would like to do well at, and I hope to do the 24 Hours of Rapelje here in Montana again before we move. Other than that my racing plans are extremely flexible since I don’t know when we’re moving, what my work schedule will be, etc., etc.

By: Yokota Fritz

Yokota Fritz — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 18:30:36 +0000

We need to have a mashed potato cook-off, because I’m also known to make the best mashed potatoes on the planet. People rave about my burgers, too. I’m not a dessert man — that’s girly stuff — so I’ll leave the cream pies to you.Happy New Year Fatty. Thanks for the enjoyable reading over this past year.

By: Unknown

Unknown — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 18:22:08 +0000

Tayfur, as someone who has completed 8 sprint distance triathlons, I can confidently say that I am the exception that proves your rule.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 17:14:34 +0000

I hereby withdraw my entry for the duffel bag. While I would like it and give it a good home, I must say that my New Year has all the yummy goodness of … ummm… things that are yummy and good because you commented on my site. Is blogasm the correct word here? I shall check with MuMo.I’ve had all the boob comments I can handle and they keep getting funnier, but I’m glad you joined in anyway. Thanks. Made my day, Fatty. Truly.Happy New Year!Kellyp.s. You really are ok with us calling you ‘Fatty’? I feel weird when I do it. That reminds me of my cousin Boochie. Sounds funny when I say it, then I remember his real name: Grover. After the president. Middle name is Cleveland. Boochie sounds pretty good now, huh?

By: tayfuryagci

tayfuryagci — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 10:32:49 +0000

tri-athletes are a bunch of REALLY over-trained people who just couldn’t decide which sport they want to do. swimming? running? cycling? and they said: "hell, we’ll do all of them and usually better than people doing just one of them" :)

By: Lindsey

Lindsey — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 07:00:52 +0000

My daughter Amelia was born 8 weeks ago, which at first blush makes any biking-related resolutions fade into obscurity. But then I think about the kind of role model I want to be for my daughter as she grows up, and being a dad who can find time to go out and ride a bicycle around doesn’t seem so bad.So no big races this year; I’m still unsure what travel’s gonna be like. But I’m gonna race every Wednesday and Friday at the track, and every Thursday at Seward Park, and Lindsey and Amelia will be there (via bike & trailer) to watch. Bike racing puts me in a better mood than almost anything else, and I can’t wait to be tired and sweaty and elated and go home with my beautiful daughter and beautiful wife.

By: Unknown

Unknown — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 04:25:30 +0000

Woo hoo, another contest! Ok, you asked for "entertaining, honest or otherwise compelling goals" – so here we go:1. Between Jan 1-April 8 = lose 7 lbs (according to Tanita) (this is my sorta boring goal).2. Complete Ironman Arizona on April 9 – within the 17 hour cutoff time. 3. Complete IM AZ on April 9 – WITHOUT CRAWLING any part of the way.3. Complete IM AZ on April 9 – WITHOUT the need of any outside medical assistance – before the finish line. (med assist after the finish line is all good!)4. Complete IM AZ on April 9 – WITHOUT PUKING – on myself. Puking on others could be fine with me (but probably not with them).5. Convince all the stars in the universe to align so that I DO NOT NOT NOT HAVE MY MENSTRUAL CYCLE on April 9.6. Convince my work managers that between Jan 2- April 8, my work schedule should be COMPLETELY FLEXIBLE around my Ironman training.7. Figure out all the features of my CompuTrainer that I currently don’t know how to use.8. Fall in love.9. And finally, convince the Fat Cyclist that we triathletes deserve equal respect as "regular" cyclists…

By: Unknown

Unknown — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 04:25:12 +0000