Has the dietitian helped?

Yes and no, but mostly no and that's because I've put on weight. About 5 kgs in fact.

Part of her advice was to decrease my training because she believed it was making me hungry and over-eat to compensate but it turns out that's the only thing keeping my weight where it is. Any less than an hour a day and I put on up to 2 kgs a week. On the one hand I'm ok with that because I enjoy my training immensely but another part of me worries that I'm a ticking time bomb and I'm just an injury or illness away from turning into a blimp again.

I'm eating healthier and eating less so I should be losing weight and I should be feeling great, but I'm not. I feel washed out and tired and the scales are going up.

However, it's probably not fair to blame the dietitian. Her advice has been good and it should work and the only reason I don't think it is, is because of stress. The collapse of the Aussie dollar has caused the Aussie economy to slow right down so on top of the usual amount of daily headaches, I've seen my business turnover drop by more than a third! That keeps me awake at night which makes me feel tired and raises cortisol hormone levels which increases my cravings for bad foods, and this type of stress also causes my body to go into protection mode so it tries to store every calorie possible while making me feel hungry all of the time.

The other issue is depression. Exercise increases endorphin levels which helps keep depression at bay. If I'm depressed, I eat, and I'm less enthusiastic about getting up and doing something, but if I make the effort I start feeling less depressed fairly quickly and I soon find I become enthusiastic about it. Also, the more vigorous the exercise, the greater the endorphin rush and the better I feel.

Things are starting to add up...

Going over my blog posts and measurement records I've been able to pinpoint when I was having my best results and what I was doing at the time to achieve it. That happened around June 2007 when I was doing 30 minute blocks of high intensity cycling in the mornings before breakfast and 30 minute high intensity weight routines straight after work. I'd also follow up with lower intensity mountain bike rides on several nights and on weekends.

So it seems short duration, high intensity exercise is the key for me. The only reason it failed then was due to a severe bout of the flu followed by drinking excessive cappuccinos when I bought a coffee machine. I gained about 7kgs in around 6 weeks due to these two factors.

The dietitian's had me eating more dairy too and lactose also seems to play a part in slowing me down and possibly causing weight gain somehow. For the last few years I haven't been able to handle it as well as I used to. It seems to cause bloating and a general feeling of unwellness, which may explain why those cappuccinos caused such rapid weight gain which I was able to lose even more rapidly just by stopping them. I lost 4 kgs within the week straight after!

The other aspect may be "overreaching". If I push it things too far and don't keep on eye on things like sleep, hydration and nutrition it's easy to burn out.

The solution for me I think is to have two training cycles of around 4 - 6 weeks each.

The first consists of 30 minute gut busting sessions twice daily before and after work with some light aerobic activity thrown in at nights and weekends. My primary focus here is power and strength building. Every training session is about setting records (apart from the light aerobic sessions).

I'll switch to the second phase every 4 - 6 weeks or when I notice overreaching symptoms such as extreme fatigue or a lack of enthusiasm. This training phase is about building base fitness, endurance and aerobic capacity rather than strength. There's fewer sessions and they're longer duration (1 - 2 hrs) at a much lower intensity, and I'll be having at least one full day of no scheduled activity at all so I'm getting adequate recovery.

Diet wise, I do have faith in the dietitian's advice which is basically to eat whole unprocessed foods and keep the animal fat and high GI foods to a minimum. However, I think I might keep the dairy to a minimum too. At the very least my family will thank me for that... ;)

Bunya Sunday Arvo Cruise meets storm

Well, we set off on our usual Sunday Arvo Cruise at 3pm as usual with about 16 or 17 riders. The weather report said possible storms but the skies were clear and a little rain usually wouldn't worry us anyway. Actually, the heat and humidity had been unbearable since Friday so a little rain would have been quite welcome... Little did we know that the storm would turn out to be reportedly the worst in 25 years and leave Brisbane declared a natural disaster area.

Rooves were ripped off and trees were down everywhere wiping out power lines in numerous places leaving thousands of homes without power for days. We got out of it lightly and only lost some outdoor furniture and a freezer full of food after being without power for 24 hours, and the Mrs somehow managed to spill melted candle wax down the spout of the electric kettle making the first cuppa after we had power again taste somewhat ordinary...

It was amazing and terrifying to watch the neighbour across the road as a shade-sail broke free of it's mounting, taking a section of their roof with it.

Yep, a great afternoon for a bike ride...

We noticed a storm brewing around 4-ish but it seemed to pass so we thought nothing of it and continued on. A bit over half an hour later it started to look a lot more serious with the sky taking on a fierce black with a greenish tinge and we started to lose daylight rapidly even though we should have had a couple of hours to go at this time of year.

Approaching the last trail of the day I decided I was going to skip it and make a run for home, but I then learned that a few guys had already gone down the trail so I wasn't sure if I should wait for them at the other end or if they were expecting to wait for me or if they'd already finished the trail and were on their way home or what. Not the best time to be wondering about that sort of thing...

So, hoping they wouldn't be looking for me and that they knew what they were doing, I set off with 2 other guys heading in the same direction for part of the way. Daylight had all but vanished at this point and the wind had picked up considerably.

We parted ways at the edge of the forest and I just had about 2kms to go along the bike paths and then it got very exciting. Dodging flying debris while bunny-hopping fallen branches and getting flash-blinded from time to time by lightening strikes all around me I made my way well in excess of 40 kmh for most of the way aided by a cyclonic tail-wind.

I made it home with seconds to spare as it hit with a vengeance, noting with dismay that my buddies' cars were still here so they were behind me somewhere. I hoped they weren't waiting or looking for me somewhere and thankfully their cars were gone by the time I could stick my head outside again so they must have been just minutes behind me.

Here's a couple of reports from some of the other guys:

Well I think there may have been a bit of rain and hail in those clouds last night!! Jenno, Dan, Banger and I headed down Jurassic and then someone turned the lights out. Managed to complete the track (mostly from memory), then the rain started so we headed home quickly. Then the hail started. Then the wind started. It got too bad to even ride the last 500 metres home so Dan and I ducked behind a fence along Collins Road to get some shelter from the wind and hail. Jenno was a few metres behind on the other side of the road when he decided to run for cover behind a tree. I got concerned for Jenno and ran across the road to try and find him but all I could see were trees and branches hitting the ground in the old remote control car track so I ran for the safety of the SES building to wait out the storm. Finally headed back and thankfully found Dan and Jenno safe. Then we decided to head home. After moving a trampoline and most of the corrugated iron from roofs that littered the main road finally got home to start the mop up. Pretty horrific. Bunya Stu got his Christmas tree delivered early with the neighbours gum landing square on his roof (everyone okay). Driving into work Ferny Grove is carnage. The Gap is a war zone. Still no power on at home so there could be a big bbq on tonight.

arana_mtber

Unfortunately I did not make it home before all hell broke loose. The worst part was not being able see anything, but hearing all the trees crashing down around me, the sound the wind was making sent a chill thru my spine. Luckily I took refuge under someones front veranda until the worst of it was over. Then had to keep detouring due to downed power lines across the roads and stopped twice to help people clear exploded trees off the road. Haven't seen a storm like that for awhile, I hope its not a prelude to the upcoming season.

Trance

Well, the power came back on at 2am this morning. It's been a long 48 hours. After leaving Peace and OzCableguy at meeting place 1, I struggled up the hill and was hit with the initial fury of the storm by the time I crested the top. The ride along Hippy House Road was terrifying. Wind and branches everywhere. Nearly got knocked off by a reasonable size branch about 100m from Dugandan Road. Then it rained. Did I say 'rained'? Technically that's the correct description, but it lacks dimension for what actually happened. I could see as far as my front wheel. But what choice do you have in that area? No places to stop and shelter! Cut through from Dugandan to fire road behind my house. Opened the rear gate just as the hail started. Man its loud when they hit you on top of the helmet! Still, better than on the head. Cat and wifey both terrified and not impressed with me when I got home.

Adrog

Here's some video taken of the ride up until the point it got too dark for the camera. My magnificent arse makes an appearance about half way through. ;)

Seen in the NYTimes

A simple life

I love a good cycling themed desktop background and some time ago I came across this picture:

It popped into my head again today amongst a million other thoughts about the current economic climate and how abysmal business is at the moment.

I want to be that guy.

He doesn't care about making mortgage payments. I bet he doesn't own an alarm clock or mobile phone and I'm sure he doesn't care about 42" plasmas or fancy cars. I doubt he aspires to a double brick home in the suburbs and he probably laughs at the idea of home delivered pizza or Pay TV. The obesity epidemic is beyond his comprehension and he wouldn't have a clue what the current interest or exchange rates are.

Sure, he probably doesn't have the cleanest water supply, an adequate sewerage system or the best health care. Sometimes he probably doesn't know where his next meal is coming from but I bet he sleeps at night and that smile is pretty much a permanent fixture on his face.

I wonder if Zanzibar has an exchange program?