Fatguy Roller Pic of the Week - 3/13/2009

Howdy Ho Everybody!

Believe it or not, I didn't disappear into a vast pile of work, never to return. Although in spite of the way things are going with the economy, I'm happy to say so far I've been keeping very busy. I have managed some good rides in the past few weeks and I have been managing to keep a hold of some of my base fitness even though I'm not where i should be with my weight. The sad (and embarrassing)fact of the matter is that I am only about 8 lbs lighter than I was on November 1st when I started this feature. Whoever said that being in business for yourself will give you all the free time in the world to ride was wrong. I work more now than I ever did before. I'm not complaining, but It's a little disheartening to see the best laid plans got to waste for the greater good. These days racing and training ain't everything. Work has to come first no matter what. That's just the way it is. Like Jim Koch of Sam Adams fame says, "Do something you love and you'll never work a day in your life." Well, that is very true. I love what I'm doing. I'm the best there is in the field and as long as I keep my head on straight I will be very sucessful with this venture.

There is a silver lining on the cycling side. Things have been easing up a bit lately and I hope to put in more time on the bike and less time with a fork in one hand and a beer in the other.

In other news, my team CADD9 came in 2 weeks ago. The parts I needed arrived 2 days ago and next week I should have the time to get it cobble together and get it tuned up in time for Walkersville. I can't wait. It's one of my favorite races. I had targeted it as my "A" race of the spring, but with me scrambling to drop 10 more pounds before the event, I don't hold out hope of a good result. Well see...

In unrelated news, my Ducati is running like a scalded dog. I guess those expensive spark plugs did the trick. Now I need to get belts and shims done before Jefferson Cup. Christ, this stuff never ends.

Cheers,

FGR.

About the face - Ben Spies passed Noriyugi Haga in race 2. That's all I'm gonna say.

Fatguy Roller Pic of the Week - 02/13/2009

Howdy Ho Everybody!

I'm back.

Well, I'm late with the post and truthfully I shot this on Monday the 16th and not Friday the 13th.

I may not look it, but I am in fact in the best shape I have ever been in for a February since 1999. Maybe better, I don't know. In 1999 there was no C race at Tradezone, but the B race then was a 4/5 race like the C race is now and I think the riders were tad slower then too.

I can see that I'm gaining lot of tone everywhere but in the middle. My legs are really shrinking! The middle is getting more obvious as I shrink overall. First on, last off is the cruel rule of weight loss. I think I'll still have a gut even when I reach my goal weight of 175 pounds.

I rode the C race at Tradezone on Sunday the 15th and I had a great time. I didn't do squat but ride the bike and sit in the wheels and stay out of the wind. So basically it was a 17 dollar group ride with 45 strangers and other teammates. Going into it I wasn't sure what to expect as far as pace and how I would handle it. I havn't raced there since the 2006 Turkey Day Cat 4 race and I got dropped 1/2 way thru it. I was in bad shape mentally that summer, so I didnt expect much. The last full race finish I had there was 2005 Turkey Day Cat 4 race. That was the year I lost 60 lbs. The first time.

Back to yesterday. After about 5 laps, I had no doubt I would finish all 16 with the group. I never felt like I was gonna be dropped. There was a time or two where I felt like stopping, my legs were like two bags of cement, but I never thought I was gonna be spit out. On the last lap I was just so glad to not have gotten dropped that I felt like my work was done and sat up. Thanks to wooden legs, I had nothing to contest the sprint with and well, it's a training race. I seem to have bad luck sprinting for inconsequential shit, like training races and group rides. I'll save it for when my season really starts in April. If I'm gonna go out in a blaze in a sprint crash, by gum, it'll be someplace cool like Wilmington or Reston. Not fracking Tradezone. Well not Reston either. I just remembered I'm gonna be a moto ref at that race again.

Fatguy Roller Pic of the Week - 1/9/09

Howdy Sports Fans!

Welcome to another weekly installment of my adventures in weight loss. I've lost the holiday weight and I'm back down to where I was before the holidays. About 202-203 lbs. I was really hoping for 195 by Jan 1st. Thanks to that nasty bug I got for the last week of the year, I had no chance. My new goal is 190 by the Latitude/ABRT 2009 season kick off party in early February. At that weight, I'll be in decent shape for the training races at Tradezone.

Oh yeah, the kit? It's what I had left that wasn't in a dirty pile on the floor. I need to get on that this weekend.

Cheers,

FGR

Fatguy Racer Roller Pic of the Week - 1/2/09

Happy New Year!

Here's the first pic of the 2009.

Right about now I am 8 weeks into my 2009 training season. Unfortunately I only have ridden for 7 of those. From Dec. 25 to Dec. 31 I had been off the bike completely battling some kind of cold/flu bug that seems to be the talk of the town. I am feeling much better now and have resumed training. However, I have had to put off my first all out TT test until my next rest and reco week.

The bad new is that I have not lost any weight in the last 2 weeks. I gained a pound of two instead, thanks to the holiday cooking and parties.

Now that the new year is upon us I look forward to making it a better one than last year. I didnt think anything would top 2006 for suckitude, but 2008 was right up there. I hope every one else had a good 2009.

Cheers,

FGR

First Test of Fitness for 2009 Season

Here it is. My first E-wang chart of the 2009 season. I did this ride yesterday. These tests will pop up every three weeks on my training schedule. This one was a Sub-Threshold 3 mile TT. Not much, I know, but interesting to me none the less. For periodic 3 mile TT testing I use the flattest stretch of road I know in AA County, near my home in Crownsville. It's a stretch of Paxtuent and Conway Roads between Piney Orchard and Crofton. I was surprised to see in my results, viewed using WKO, my avg. speed and avg. watts were as high as what was recorded. The whole test only rated about a 6 to 7 on the perceived exertion scale. I guess that's why they have you do these things on rest and reco weeks. I was pretty fresh to say the least. I've also got a solid 6 weeks of base in right now too. There in I think lies the key. My HR max is 194 and my last tested value for FTP is 265, but that was back in April. I suspect it's higher now. My avg HR for the interval was 4 beats lower than my lowest zone 5a number. The interval called for it to run at 10 beats below, but believe me when I tell you i was not as miserable as if I were doing a 30 min all out test. That's the next test, 3 weeks from now. So in this test I'm only cranking out 85% of max HR. I'm thinking that when I do that next all out test I will find my FTP being closer to 300 watts.

My weight is down another pound to about 205. It's slow going, but it's going.

(Edit 12/15/08) Correction. Weight down to 203 as of this mornings weigh in.

Cheers,

FGR

Fatguy Roller Pic of the Week - 12/12/08

Howdy Ho!

Well here it is 6 weeks into my 2009 training season and I've only managed about 10 lbs off. I feel like maybe I'm 4 lbs behind. I know what the problem is. Too much idle time. I do hate this time of year. The shorter days mean more time lounging on the couch in front of the big screen, which means unnecessary snacking. I wish I could fall asleep really early like my wife does. She's out like a light by 9pm on most days. If I could do that I'd cut out 500 more calories every day.

It's hard to tell if I'm looking fitter than I did 6 weeks ago. I think it shows mostly in my face. My gut is still there. I cant complain too much, my feelings on the road are improving with each ride. I'm getting plenty of rest and I'm not stressed. Each new day I feel like a tightly wound spring. Especially so on this rest and reco week. It's very hard to hold back. But I've got very good discipline and am managing very well so far. Now if only I could get that kinda handle on my extra curricular eating.

I've also managed to keep a hold on my gains with the free weights. This in spite of not lifting a anything more than a beer glass for the last 2 weeks.

In case anyone is really wondering what my routine is here is Wednesdays workout:

Leg Ext: 33x12 50x12
Leg Curl: 33x12 50x12
Squat: 135x12 155x12
Calf Raise: 155x12 155x12
Dead Lift: 135x12 155x12
Bench Press: 95x12 115x12
Bent Row: 70x12 70x12
Seated Mill Press: 70x12 65x6
Triceps Ext: 50x12 50x12
Bicep Curl: 55x12 55x12

Back in 2000, my last real full season where I did anything worth talking about, my squat and dead lift numbers were in the 300+ lbs range. I could probably one rep close to that, but it's too soon to be in the hospital with a wrecked back. I should be up there come April/May.


Cheers,

FGR

Fatguy Roller Pic of the Week - 12/05/08

This weeks photo is totally bogus (but was taken today). So is the fact that I have not ridden my Ducati for 2 months. Believe it or not, my training is getting in the way of a good moto ride.

I've been riding outside all week, so the rollers and my motorcycle have not been getting any love. Nor has my weights. For some reason I just don't feel like lifting. So 12 hrs cycling will have to do. Next week is rest and reco, So I'll do some lifting and motorcycle riding then.

As of this morning I'm down to 206.

For what it's worth, i didn't last 4 days until I had to have a beer. Those Spaten Oktoberfest were screaming out to be drank. So I did. And I bought more yesterday. I went to my local to get a 12 of Yuengling (my favorite budget brew) and saw they still have Oktoberfest. So I grabbed a six of that too. Unfortunately in my zeal I didn't realize I picked up Yuengling Light Lager. It's not bad for light beer, but I'll never make that mistake again.

Gimme a shout James! I ready for some drinking. We could do Max's Taproom during the afternoon next week!

Cheers,

FGR

Fatguy Roller Pic of the Week - 11/28/08

Well, better late than never. It was a busy week and I never got much free time since my wife had the whole week off from the ice cream factory(Dreyers, where they and she specifically make Haagen Daas). It was a great week. I had off too so we spent a lot of quality time together in spite of me reffing at 3 cross races and doing 12 hours of training during those 10 days.

The payoff?

I'm down 2 more pounds to 207. Woo Hoo! That's 8 pounds from 11/1 to 12/1. I feel great and my clothes make me look like I'm malnourished. I'm shooting for an even 10 from 12/1 to 1/1/08. That will keep me on schedule for 170-175 before my A race, Walkersville Mas 35+ 4/5. While I don't expect to duplicate my old high school buddy, Marc Lefkowitz's win in this years event, where I got dropped on the hill by the barn, I will not be dropped in 2009.

To do this I am swearing off beer and ice cream for a while. I told Dana to not bother ordering ice cream for a while. It'll be tough giving up those pints of Dulce Le Leche, Vanilla Bean and the Dark Chocolate/Chocolate bars on a stick, but a mans got to do what a mans got to do. It'll be Skinny Cow ice cream bars (80 calories per) indefinitely.

Cheers,

FGR

211

That's what my trusty doctors office quality analog Health-o-Meter scale read this morning. I'll forget what Kyle's fancy digital scale was reading in the D'ville parking lot after we got done riding for 2 hours on Sunday afternoon.

I was expecting the worst as I dreadfully pulled the scale out into the middle of the bathroom floor. I really expected to see the weight go up, not down. It was a pleasant surprise to see 2 more pounds off from the week before. What ever I'm doing, I need to stick to it. I've lost 4 lbs in about 2 weeks since I started my 2009 season training on Nov 3.

What I've been doing is lots of zone 1, 2 and 3 riding and lifting weights. One the rollers during the week and outside on the weekend. On the dieting side I've been keeping track of food using the meal log feature in Training Peaks. I've been down the dieting path more than once, so using it is nothing new. Staying with it is the hard part. It does get tedious after awhile. In the past, whenever I have used a meal log to track food is when I've lose the most weight consistently. There is something to be said for accountability. It does keep a person honest. To a degree, of course. I can always omit something, but what good is lying to myself? The problem is sticking with the log. I should have done it all year. Maybe the fourth time will be the charm.

Week 3 is a rest week, so I have to eat light. I use the Virtual Coach feature of training peaks also and since I'm over 40, 45 1/2 to be exact, the training cycle reverts to 2 weeks on 1 week rest. I thought this was odd, so when I made my 2008 schedule I lied about my age so it would do the traditional 3 on, 1 off schedule. Looking back over the season and how effective my training was, I have to say I shouldn't have lied about my age. 2 on, 1 off may give the extra recovery time I need to keep from burning out.

On an unrelated note, Ratebeer.com has gone tits up. Seems they got hacked pretty viciously (from what I've gathered) and they will be down for quite a while. I was 8 beer reviews short of reaching the 100 beer club (not to shabby for being a member for less than 1 year and not turning into a real fat bastid) when they went offline. So I've got to keep track of them somewhere. Well why not here? Here's what I've sampled this week.

Rouge Dead Guy Ale - Awesome deep translucent amber color that was almost pearlesent. Big fluffy, merange like butterscotch head that unfortunately disappeared quickly. Aroma of sweet hops. Crisp and dry on the palate with a nice bitter hop aftertaste that didn't linger longer than necessary. Malt undertones are welcome presence. No trace of grassyness like you get with an over hopped ale or IPA. This is one very well balanced ale. One of the best i've had in a long time. A pleasant surprise for me, as I have avoided buying it for the longest time. I've often dismissed Rogue brews just because the bottles and beer names seemed too gimmicky. I glad I was wrong

Rouge Dry Hopped St. Rouge Red - Its a wonderful red ale. One thing I've noticed about Rogues brews is how great they look in a glass. And this one is no exception. It pours a pretty reddish copper color with a reddish creamy head. The carbonation is pretty high and the bubbles were beautiful as the climbed up the side of the glass. The aroma has a subdued hoppyness and the that carries over to the palate. Unfortunately the taste is average. It's not a bad brew by any stretch but the taste doesn't match up to the appearance. If Rogue could combine the appearance of St Rouge with the knockout taste of Dead Guy, I would be a fan for life.

Cheers,

FGR

Fatguy Roller Pic of the Week - 11/14/09

Well another week goes by and maybe I've lost another pound or so. I feel better, so that's got to count for something. Last week I managed to put in 8 of the scheduled 9 hours of training. I only missed out on a 1 hour ride on Sunday. It was my wife Dana's birthday so we spent all of Sunday together. This coming Sunday is my Dad's birthday. He's in Texas staying with my sister Nancy, husband Kurt and the grand kids, Hank and Bill (Henry and William). I like to call them Hank and Bill 'cause it annoys the heck outta my sister and probably my brother in law too. Kinda funny the sophomoric crap you engage in with your sibling even when your both in your 40's.

Anyway, this ones for you guys. Happy Birthday Dad!



Extra lift pic. This week, the Bench Press.




Cheers,

FGR

Fatguy Roller Pic of the Week - 11-07-2008

Another week has gone by and I've managed to do seven hours of training since last weeks picture was taken. Seven hours in one week in November is pretty good considering my track record with off season training. Although I don't look any better, I do feel better and with 2 lifting sessions done for the week I am not nearly as sore as last week.




How about that shot? I took it doing a warm up set of squats. No one ever looks pretty doing squats do they?

My weight on 11/1/08 was 215. Great. This is gonna be much harder than I figured. One of the things I may be doing is skipping club rides until 2009. I've been doing a little reading about base training and I have come to the conclusion that for myself they might be counter productive right now. In the mean time I will more than likely ride with one of the slower groups that meet at Davidsonville or ride by myself. I will definitely be giving Big Jim a call for some winter LSD once he's done racing cross.

Cheers,

FGR

Fatguy Roller Pic of the Week - 10-31-2008

"Has it been an hour yet?"


I'm going to intro a new feature on my blog today. The Fatguy Roller Pic of the Week. The idea here is to post up a new pic of me riding my rollers to chronicle my weigh loss over the next 16-20 weeks. My first planned peak is Walkersville at the beginning of April. A race I didn't do so well at last year. In 2009, I'd like to be able to finish in the front group of the Mas 35+ 4/5 race instead of riding tempo off the back like I did this year. Prior to this years race I had only been training for 7 weeks and weighed 216 pounds.

In this photo taken last night (10/30/08)I am hovering around 210 lbs. The lightest I got to this year was 198 lbs. My goal for 2009 is 175. I don't think my frame will carry much less than that without looking awful. If I only make it to 185 in the next 20 weeks I'll be happy, but 175 is the goal. Looking at the picture you can see that I am carrying too much upper body mass. Mainly in the gut, the shoulders and upper arms. I'll be working hard this winter to get rid of that.

Once the 20 weeks are up and I didn't fail in my task, I'll throw up a montage animation that shows how I shrank.

Note: I am still sore as hell from lifting weights for the first time this season on Tuesday. I skipped them last night, but still rode the rollers for an hour with some tempo efforts mixed in. After the Saturday group ride I hope to feel well enough to get a session in.

Tonight I'm going to a Halloween party with Dana at her girlfriends house. She's designated driver and I'll be throwing back some Paulaner Salavator. I know some kind of pumpkin ale is the proper Halloween brew, but I'm not a big fan. One another note, I hope everyone else on the team gets hammered tonight too so tomorrow's 3 hr group ride will be sedate.

Cheers,

FGR

(Photo: Me-Nikon D70 w/wireless remote)

Down in the Dungeon

One of the things every man needs is a place in the house where he can get away from everyone and everything. Since my house doesn't have a garage yet, that place is in the bowels of the basement where my wife, Dana, and I keep all our years of accumulated flotsam and jetsam. I keep telling her that one day soon I'm gonna get a rollback plopped down on the driveway and we are going to really clean house! The beauty of this setup is that I have everything I need for an extended stay if need be. I also have everything I need to do my winter training too. I have no excuses for why I cant get it done. Here are a couple of pics of where it will all happen. So when I'm kicking ass next season, remember it all began here. If I'm not kicking ass next season, then remember it didn't happen here but it should have.

Here is the view from the general direction of my rollers. I have a a couple old TV's (the 25 incher is hooked to basic cable), some old stereo gear, some newish stereo gear, a VCR and a DVD player. Everything I need to keep me occupied while I grind away on the rollers and *sigh* the trackstand too. I am a pack rat when It comes to bike stuff. I could get rid of half of what you see and I would still have too much.



This is the view looking back toward where I set up my rollers. On the left is the beer fridge and on the right is my free weight workout setup and about 350 lbs of Olympic plates, bars and lots of solid dumbbells. I have a routine that I've been using forever and like it very much. There is nothing exotic about my routines and in a later post, I'll share. The beer fridge doubles as my bulletin board where I put up workouts to follow for the rollers or trainer. The rollers are a set of Performance Travel Trac Technique's. They work quite well and if I put it in a huge gear and spin at 110+ rpm I get enough resistance to do VO2 max intervals. But since it's early, I'll be skipping those for a few months.



Since Tuesday night was cold and windy, I wimped out and worked out down in my little indoor cycling paradise. I started with 35 min on the rollers, then changed shoes and did weights for about 75 min and finished with 15 min cooldown on the rollers. The workout was long enough for me to watch a short movie that I've got from Netflix and had laying around forever, Good Night and Good Luck. The movie was meh at best, but the workout was great. I'm still very sore since it was my first attack of the weights this season. Tonight I'll just doing it all over again. The last Thursday ABRT ride is tonight, but i'm skipping it. Thinking about how to work recoveries in I may change my weight lifting nights to Monday and Thursday. My hard on the bike days will be Tues/Thur. Wednesday will be an endurance type night and Friday will be recovery spins on the rollers. That leaves Saturday for the group ride and Sunday for a 1 1/2 to 2 hour long LSD rides to enjoy the outdoors or an hour on the rollers at night if I have to work a race. I guess we will see how all that works out. My only goal right now is knocking off 25-30 lbs by Feb 1. Totally doable.

Here's one more picture. My squat rack is a real multi-tasking piece of equipment. When not working out it's a perfect hanging rack for all my wet kit. Speaking of, does anyone really need that much kit?



I told you I was a pack rat for cycling gear.

Cheers,

FGR

(Photos: Me and my Nikon D70)

One Week To Go To "Go Time"

Well damn time flies when your having fun doing nothing. As I get closer to my 'official' date for starting my 2009 season training, I find myself getting a little nervous about it all. Will I stick with it or will I be 30 pounds overweight on March 1st? My biggest weakness is staying motivated in the bad weather months. It's always been my biggest weakness and I hate myself for it. Every year it's the same thing. Get fat in winter and waste fair weather months getting in shape just in time for the season to be over. I've got to break this repeating cycle of bullshit behavior. The reason I started doing a blog this year was to keep my head in the game by being accountable to something a little more concrete than a pipe dream of upgrading to Cat 3 (I've been a Cat 4 since 1998) in my head.

It didn't work out so well this season but it's been a better year than the last three previous ones that I wasted trying to put it together. I really love riding and racing a bicycle. I am a very competitive person, ask anyone who knows me real well. The thing is, I am not a winter person. And like many of you I hate the stationary trainer more than anything else. Because of these two mental road blocks I just am not motivated to suffer and sacrifice to get to thru winter training.

The worst part about it is that I know that I have the physical tools to be more than a pass/fail racer. I firmly believe that anyone has the potential to make it to Cat 3. What separates those who are from those who aren't is desire, training, level of commitment and a willingness to make the sacrifices to achieve a goal. So using my own self as a example of shit or get off the pot, I am proclaiming that this is the year that I will break the cycle once and for all and embrace as best I can, Winter Training.

I have all my tools together. My plan for next season is laid out. My bikes are in fairly good working order. My rollers are out and ready to go. My bench, squat rack, and plates are set up and ready to go. I should have my new Polar replacement Wearlink strap this week. I'm ready to go!




It all starts Nov 3.

Wish me luck

Cheers,

FGR

Ready to begin anew

It's with no small amount of joy that I've managed to drop about 3 lbs in the last week or so. Riding 5 days out of last 8 will do that I suppose. Now I just hope I can keep the momentum going. My biggest hurdle I feel is going to be fighting the desire to say to heck with it and watch TV. For the next few months I will be doing most of my riding from my office door in west Columbia to take advantage of every minute of daylight available. I have several loops I can do in the area and Ellicott City's hills are a 20 minute ride away.



Sunday was the big end of season ABRT blowout. The day started with a ride from Doetsch's house (that's me, the big dude in the middle), which is about 5 miles from mine. I threw some clothes in a backpack and headed on over for the ride. I made sure to pack my 1 liter beer stein to enjoy the Spaten Oktoberfest that was reported to be on tap. The pace for the ride was predetermined to be slow. Slow being a relative term when talking about a ride with a bunch of hammers. True to their word, it was a good ride and stayed calm. I only had big trouble on St. George Barber and Huntwood Road. Serves me right for leaving the house on a empty stomach. It's serves me even more right for slacking off in August and September and gaining 10 lbs instead of losing 10 lbs. I downed both water bottles and my gel flask, but it wasn't enough to prevent the legs cramps that would keep me from getting dropped on the hills in the last 10 miles of the 35 mile ride. Since it was a no-drop ride, they waited and I got back on. I was OK on the flats, but I had nothing in the tank to get up the short steep rises that are all over central Anne Arundel County. After about 2 hours the ride ended where it started. My only concern was getting to that keg! One thing I know for sure is that beer is a cure for leg cramps. I found this out a couple years ago after a hard and fast Seagull Century ride. The Beer Garden saved my life that day. I never had a single cramp that day or the next. So once we got it tapped it was bottoms up!



Is that a mug or what? I only had one. Honest.

My lovely bride, Dana, came by later after she got off of work from the evil ice cream factory. We both chowed down on the excellent BBQ that was catered by Red, Hot & Blue. I love their food. We've eaten often at the Cape St. Claire location, off Rt-50 before the Bay Bridge. She was tired so we didn't stay long after eating. In fact we kinda scooted out of their with a few goodbyes. On the way home she expressed a craving for a Krispy Kreme donut. I told her to go for it and we went to Glen Burnie and picked up a dozen. She got 9 chocolate creme filled and I got 3 pumpkin spice. I love those. I only ate one and took the other two to work the next day. Once we got home she was sound asleep on the couch by 8 pm.

Today will be the first time I've ridden in the Columbia area in about 4 months. I think the last time was a 3/4 century ride I did with some friends back in early June.

My real program for 2009 begins on November 1st. Right now I'm riding in that period known as a transition. The transition is giving me the chance to get all my gear, goals and routines in order.

Next week I will need to test for FTP. I haven't done a test ride in months. I'm thinking of heading to the Eastern Shore and doing it on the Church Creek TT course. It's not that far from home and it's about as controlled an environment as you can get outdoors. It'll be good to get some hard fast numbers.

Cheers,

FGR