Speed Bump

Time for a new workout

I took the old geared MTB out for a spin over the weekend for the first time in ages and I didn't like it. For some reason it feels clunky & cumbersome and seems to suck energy out of me & lack efficiency compared to the single speed. In theory, gears should make things easier but in practice I'm much slower and it seems much harder work.

I thought about it and while some of the effect I'm feeling comes back to the suspension taking some of the energy out of my pedaling, the alloy frame having a "dull" feel compared to the steel 29er and I'm not used to the slightly different balance & geometry of the old gearie, but the main reason I think is that to get the most out of a geared bike you really have to spin, spin, spin!

And that's the problem. I just don't like spinning. I know it's supposed to be better aerobically but I find the opposite. It just wears me out faster. My heart rate maxes out, I'm quickly out of breath and my legs go lactic much faster. Plus I get crippling pains in the arches of my feet after 10 minutes or so.

If I stick back around 80 rpm and get out of the saddle and grind the hills I can last for hours, and that's why I like the single speed offroad. (Onroad is a different story though and I'm fast finding that gears are much better there. SSing on the road has me sitting on ridiculous RPMs on the flats and I only last about 10 minutes before my feet are in agony).

Then as I was reading some over 40 transformation stories on bodybuilding.com for motivation, I noticed that the guys that looked the most impressive all had arms 18" or above. I remembered that about 10 years ago (before I entered my depressed and obese phase) I too had arms about that size and could also bench 170kgs on a good day. At the moment my arms are around 16" and I'm lucky if I can bench 120 kgs.

I started thinking about how I achieved it back then and why I wasn't getting similar results with my current training program which is a variation of the Body for Life program with lots of pump sets & short rest breaks. Then it dawned on me. I'm mostly fast twitch muscle fibres which are good for explosive efforts but really crap for long duration, lighter stuff. Just as I've found on the bike, I respond best to slow, short, gut-busting, heavy loads. High repetition, pump type exercises don't really do much except tire me out. I'm a sprinter, not a marathon runner.

So it's time to go old school.

I'll work a basic 2 day split for upper body on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday. (I don't train legs regularly in the gym because they're already humongous from the cycling and good genes).

Day 1 is pushing (Chest, shoulders & triceps)
Day 2 is pulling (Back, biceps & abs)

2 exercises per body part
3 - 4 sets per exercise consisting of one warmup set with a light to moderate weight followed by 2 heavy sets of 2 - 6 reps to absolute failure.

Because I work the same bodyparts twice in a week I'll mix up the second session with different exercises for that body part.

Cycling wise I'll fit in whatever I'm in the mood for which will mostly be 30-60 mins most week days with a couple of longer rides on the weekends. If I start feeling a bit worn out I'll throw a rest day or two in.

Goal: 18" arms, 140kg bench & a serious decrease in bodyfat.

A better mountain bike

When I'm out on the trails a lot of people ask me about my bike. Do the bigger 29" wheels really make that much difference? How do I manage without gears? How do I manage without suspension?

They seem to think I'm trying to make some kind of statement or getting on a "bandwagon", and while I'm fine with the idea of the bike having a certain "coolness factor", I actually made the choice more for practical reasons.

When I first started mountain biking I bought a fairly entry level, alloy framed, 24 speed, hard tail Giant (which I still ride occasionally). It featured a Dart 1 front fork which is supposed to have 80mm travel but with my weight on it is more like 30mm. The only adjustment is preload but having tried it at both extremes I can't notice any real difference. I think it really needs a stiffer spring for me but it still does a reasonable job of taking out a lot of the harshness of the bumps.

It was a great bike to start out on but after about 18 months of riding I'd broken & replaced almost everything on it at least once, including the frame. Dirt, water and lots of bumps take a serious toll on moving metal parts. Stuff just doesn't seem to last long. I'd replace the chain, chainrings and cassette only to start experiencing chainsuck again in less than a month. I was well and truly over it so I started wondering about a better compromise.

It was around that time that I saw my first single speed 29er in the flesh, and I also broke the frame on my Giant so I needed another bike.

I was struck at first by the clean look without the derailleurs and cables and the general stance of the bike. I was also impressed by the cost saving by not having gears and expensive suspension so I thought it was definitely worth a closer look.

I learned that 29" wheels:

• have a longer contact patch than 26" wheels so they have more traction
• the larger diameter wheels roll over obstacles easier
• the longer spokes flex more, taking more shock out of bumps
• the larger tyres have more air volume which takes more shock out of bumps

I also learned that:

• steel frames & forks have a springier feel than alloy so they take more shock out of bumps
• steel has a higher tensile strength than alloy
• steel has a much longer fatigue life than alloy

I also noticed that in the places I ride I spend more than 90% of my time in the same 3 gears (middle ring and 3rd - 5th cog on the back).

Putting all that together I considered that with a steel framed 29er I could pretty much get away without gears or suspension and in practice it works as well as I hoped. Yes, I have to walk up the occasional hill and I might occasionally run out of legs on a long, decending fireroad but I generally don't have trouble staying with a group (being overweight slows me down far more than the bike does), I never get chainsuck and I don't have expensive suspension and gearsets that need constant maintenance and repairs.

For the day to day training rides of 1 - 2 hours I can't think of a better bike.

However, I'm thinking of something (when funds allow) a bit softer for hillier areas, bigger drops & jumps, all day riding and possibly entering an endurance event like the annual 24hr Insomnia (when fitness allows). I can't decide at this stage whether I just grab an over the counter 5" dual suspension rig like the Giant Trance X series, or I stick with the steel 29er theme and customise it with a quality Reba or Fox fork and a Rohloff hub.

At around $2000.00 just for the Rohloff, the over-the-counter duallie's looking pretty good but when I think about how fast I'm going to wear out a standard derailleur setup and that damn chainsuck, maybe the extra dollars for the Rohloff is the cheapest option in the long run...

Stop motion with wolf and pig

Sweet Poison

I just finished reading David Gillespie's Sweet Poison. The book is a huge eye opener and a must read for everyone but especially anyone who has struggled with weight issues.

David has a similar story to mine, even starting out at a similar weight to mine at the moment, with plenty of diet failures leading to the conclusion that it wasn't about willpower. Something had gone wrong with the human machine in modern times and he set out to find out exactly what it was.

His conclusion is fructose, the other half of sucrose (table or cane sugar) which has been added to the modern diet in increasing amounts since the turn of the last century until the present day where we have an obesity epidemic, all manner of related illnesses and we even have to add fluoride to the water supply to cut back on tooth decay.

It's not so much about the calories. Fructose is like a catalyst to obesity (and a string of other problems). It stimulates appetite, encourages us to eat more, stops us feeling full, makes other foods in our system more likely to be stored as fat and it's addictive. If you suffer from an inability to feel full and/or dreadful cravings that make dieting impossible then you're addicted to fructose.

The solution is simple. Don't eat anything that tastes sweet. Unfortunately that's often easier said than done. Firstly you've got the sugar withdrawals to deal with (which can last anything from 3 days to 3 weeks) and then you'll discover that sugar is added to just about everything these days so it's easy to eat it without realising. Apart from the obvious ones like biscuits, softdrinks and most breakfast cereals, I was surprised to discover huge amounts of sugar in tomato & BBQ sauces, most mayos and some even in (flavoured) potato chips!

While I'd already reduced sugar considerably in my diet over the last few years I still found it tough going to cut it out completely for the first couple of days going cold turkey but then it got much easier. Then to my surprise I started to notice I was feeling fuller on less food and the night time cravings were almost completely gone. I dropped a couple of kgs in a fortnight but I kept it to myself because I'd gained a couple of kgs recently and wanted to wait until I started dropping below my 120 kg nemesis before I got too excited.

Then disaster. Third week in and I checked my weight and discovered to my absolute horror that I'd gained 4kgs in a week!

Why?

Well, when I thought it about it it was obvious. I was substituting.

For starters I'd increased my milk consumption recently, possibly in an effort to make teas & coffees a little less bitter. I also wasn't sticking to my one cappuccino a day rule, letting that creep up to maybe 3 or 4, possibly to substitute deserts or snacks. Together those would add up to at least 1 litre of milk per day, possibly more, and I know from past experience that I gain weight quickly with milk.

The second problem was an increase in salty snacks and adding salt to my meals when I normally wouldn't. Salt causes fluid retention.

A third problem was I was expecting better appetite control without sugar. I'm sure that will happen and I see very promising signs already but I may have rushed in & trusted that one a bit too soon. Related to that is the recent bad weather keeping me off the bike. I know that losing weight isn't about exercise but I expected less activity should mean a lower appetite. Again, a bit too soon for me to trust my appetite completely I think. While I am excited by the changes I have seen in my appetite and craving levels, I know I can still manage to overeat with relative ease at this stage and have managed to do so on many occasions.

Lesson learned.

While I'm convinced sugar has been my main problem all along I have to watch I'm not substituting with other foods. Plain old overeating will still cause weight gain even without sugar. My cat is a case in point...

Flood pics

Click here for some amazing pictures of the recent floods in my corner of the world. It absolutely hammered down without relent for two whole days so it's little wonder it made such a mess.

The Courier Mail is calling it the "worst flash floods since 1974" which is really saying something.

Thankfully we weren't too effected but it could be a while before I get to take the mountain bike out again... :(

Our First Family Camping Trip

We decided to use our Rudd Bux stimulus package on camping gear and finally do something outdoorsy and family-like to get us all away from our usual humdrum weekends. Pizzas, PayTV & video games are starting to get old, even for the older kids who seem to do nothing else but these days.

For our first trip we decided on Elanda Point due to its close proximity to home which would allow us to get our feet wet and work out everything we'd inevitably not thought of or considered. First up I think we're going to need a bigger car, which is something I never thought I'd say about our old land barge.

With camp set up I decided I'd check out some of the bushwalks while the kids paddled in the lake. However, I hadn't ventured more than a couple of metres into the trees when I was set upon by swarms of mozzies. The rotten blighters weren't even put off by a thick layer of aeroguard so I had to give that idea away and settle for lazing around in a fold out chair. (What a pity...)

I grew up not far from Lake Cootharaba, visiting frequently and cannot recall a mosquito problem so I'm hoping it's only temporary, perhaps caused by the recent floods in the area.

The next problem we discovered right after the sun went down. We weren't prepared at all for how cold it became. Holy crap! I only had jeans and a hoodie and had to sleep with the hood pulled over my face snuggled down into my sleeping bag which was a little too small for me to fit my shoulders into. The sleeping bag did turn out to be warm though, unlike the poor wife who basically shivered all night and got very little sleep. One of the first things we did on arriving home again Sunday night was to google Long Johns.

Another disappointment was that fires aren't allowed in the camping area, but aside from that the scenery is truly beautiful and the place packs out in summer when the prospect of hiring a canoe to paddle up the Noosa everglades might be a bit more inviting.

I didn't take the mountain bike this time but it turned out there wasn't really anywhere to ride anyway. (Too much sand and the damn mozzies).

The Neurum Creek Bush Retreat has mountain bike trails on the property and in the nearby Mt Mee State Forest. Plus they allow campfires (which are vital in my opinion for the proper camping experience) so it's looking pretty good for the next one. Just as soon as we've sorted out the long john situation...