I'm still quite a bit off my usual pace on the bike. While sleep and humidity are major contributing factors it seems I've just lost fitness somehow. I think the main cause was attempting to see a dietitian during a period of chronic depression back in November when I was in a "quitting" state of mind. Her suggestion at the time to back off the exercise was probably the worst thing I could have done whilst in that state and only made my depression worse, which of course then led to a very quick 5kg weight gain.
That in itself didn't slow me down though. I felt physically great with the extra rest and recovery time and put in some great performances during that period. However, just after that as I lost that 5kg again and the weather turned hot & humid it all took a turn for the worse. I'd start a ride feeling ok at about 80 or 90% of my usual self but then I'd only last 30 minutes or so before I'd be down to 50% or less of my usual performance. Hills that I'd normally clean with relative ease became just way too hard. Muscles were aching like lactic build-up, except the sensation didn't pass when I eased off or rested, and I just didn't seem to be able to get enough air in. At the top of some hills I'd be feeling genuinely distressed trying to get my breath back again.
This has been going on now for about three weeks.
Over-training wasn't a likely cause so I decided to just persevere with it and increase my training volume but at a lower intensity and bit by bit it seems to be working. I'm still not completely back to normal but I'm seeing a gradual improvement almost on a daily basis so there's light at the end of the tunnel. In the meantime I'm enjoying my rides even if my pace is still a bit down.
My New Year's resolution will be to lose enough weight and gain enough strength to clean all of my local trails with a 32 x 18 gear instead of the 32 x 20 I'm using now on my single speed 29er. The bike came with a 32 x 18 which feels a lot livelier to ride but it was just a little too tough on some of the hills around here so I dropped the rear back to a 20t. It's a better compromise with my current level of fitness but I miss it on the flats and downhills in particular.
The latest Bicycling Australia magazine has a "Lose Five Kilos in 28 days" diet plan that should help me achieve that goal. The plan is very similar to what I've been doing except the portion sizes and overall calories are a bit less. My current diet plan hasn't been completely successful for me because I tend to stray from the path all too frequently so having set meals should hopefully sort me out in that regard. However, with far fewer calories than I'm used to it's going to be tough, but I just need to HTFU and deal with it if I'm ever going to achieve my goals.
Their suggested training plan generally alternates rides with weight training sessions and the rides vary in intensity and duration over the course of the week which is very similar to the Body for Life and Hussman principles I've been a believer in for some time.
Anyway, it's Christmas Eve and tomorrow is going to be filled with enough food and drink to last a month. Thankfully I'm taking a week or two off over the Christmas - New Year period so I'll be able to fit in a few longer rides to burn some of that off. :)
Merry Christmas!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
New bike parts
With my recurring freehub problems on my single speed I've been researching alternatives. Mind you the latest replacement performed by my brother in law (who works at the shop I bought the bike from) has been going fine and I think the reason for that is he absolutely crammed the thing full of grease. You see, another riding buddy of mine runs the same hub in his bike and he also recently broke it and he's only a lightweight so we've concluded that it's not just me and these hubs must just be susceptible to water and other crap getting in there and drying out the palls and bearings. However, I expect the extra grease is really only going to extend the life of it by a month or three and sometime in the fairly short term it's going to break again.
At first I looked at alternatives like Hope or Chris King that still use a mini-cassette type system to hold the cog on (ie there's a spline and a lockring to hold the cog in place. However, these proved to be way too expensive and I wasn't confident I'd be getting value for money, or something that would be easily repairable should I break it and/or once it wears.
Then I thought about going to a freewheel instead of a freehub. The advantage here is the ratchet mechanism is part of the cog and they're fairly cheap and come in a wide range of sizes and levels of quality. So if I break one I can easily upgrade a notch or two without having to change my whole hub.
One possible disadvantage is that they screw onto the hub without a lockring and pedalling tightens them, so with my weight behind it, it might be a biatch to get off again one day when I need to...
If you'd like to know more about the differences between freewheels and freehubs check out Sheldon Brown's site.
So I settled on a Surly Hub. These are reasonably priced at around AUD $150.00 from USA online bike shops (at the time of writing) and come with such niceties as "sealed, adjustable cartridge bearings... so you can adjust play as the bearings wear so you don’t have to replace bearings as often".
I also decided to upgrade my Avid BB7 brakes from 160mm rotors to 203mm while I had the credit card out. My pads have glazed over again after only a couple of months so I figure I could use some extra stopping power. Incidentally even with the exchange rates as poor as they are at the moment I can still get these for under AUD $100.00 from USA shops compared to $230+ from bike shops here!
That's my Christmas stocking full now anyway. :)
I've also been thinking about other bikes I probably need in my stable sometime soon. :)
I've been wondering for quite some time about a second mountain bike and what form it should take. At first I thought I'd take all the things I like about my 29er but add gears and suspension to make for a cruisier ride. I was thinking about things like Rohloff hubs (a truly awesome over-engineered hub gear system for bikes) but at around $2000 fitted it was hard to justify, particularly when I can buy a pretty respectable whole bike for that kind of money. Then I also considered that I didn't really want another rigid or hard tail bike anyway. Rigid steel frame + Single Speed + 29er is what 29ers are all about as far as I'm concerned. To change any aspect of that would destroy the magic.
No, what I actually wanted was something quite different to my current bike. I'd want a dual suspension bike with at least 5 inches of travel front and rear and the extra agility you only get with 26" wheels. If I can't have a Rohloff (which probably wouldn't be ideal on a duallie anyway) I'd want at least an LX - XT group set to stand the best chance at longevity under my punishment and air suspension I can adjust for my weight. Easy peasy as it turns out. There's a bunch of bikes that fall into that category in the $2500 - 3500 price range like the Giant Trance X3 or X2, or Specialized Stumpjumper FSRs. Hopefully if business stays anything like it has been this last month I'll be able to grab one later in 2009. (Fingers crossed).
I still intend to ride the single speed most of the time. This bike would come out mostly for longer group rides, rides in hillier areas or if I'm ever confident enough with my fitness to enter an enduro event like the Insomnia 24 hour which is just down the road from where I live.
That's the dirt covered. Now I also want a single speed road bike and a geared road bike, but I'll be buying those second hand (unless I win lotto). ;)
At first I looked at alternatives like Hope or Chris King that still use a mini-cassette type system to hold the cog on (ie there's a spline and a lockring to hold the cog in place. However, these proved to be way too expensive and I wasn't confident I'd be getting value for money, or something that would be easily repairable should I break it and/or once it wears.
Then I thought about going to a freewheel instead of a freehub. The advantage here is the ratchet mechanism is part of the cog and they're fairly cheap and come in a wide range of sizes and levels of quality. So if I break one I can easily upgrade a notch or two without having to change my whole hub.
One possible disadvantage is that they screw onto the hub without a lockring and pedalling tightens them, so with my weight behind it, it might be a biatch to get off again one day when I need to...
If you'd like to know more about the differences between freewheels and freehubs check out Sheldon Brown's site.
So I settled on a Surly Hub. These are reasonably priced at around AUD $150.00 from USA online bike shops (at the time of writing) and come with such niceties as "sealed, adjustable cartridge bearings... so you can adjust play as the bearings wear so you don’t have to replace bearings as often".
I also decided to upgrade my Avid BB7 brakes from 160mm rotors to 203mm while I had the credit card out. My pads have glazed over again after only a couple of months so I figure I could use some extra stopping power. Incidentally even with the exchange rates as poor as they are at the moment I can still get these for under AUD $100.00 from USA shops compared to $230+ from bike shops here!
That's my Christmas stocking full now anyway. :)
I've also been thinking about other bikes I probably need in my stable sometime soon. :)
I've been wondering for quite some time about a second mountain bike and what form it should take. At first I thought I'd take all the things I like about my 29er but add gears and suspension to make for a cruisier ride. I was thinking about things like Rohloff hubs (a truly awesome over-engineered hub gear system for bikes) but at around $2000 fitted it was hard to justify, particularly when I can buy a pretty respectable whole bike for that kind of money. Then I also considered that I didn't really want another rigid or hard tail bike anyway. Rigid steel frame + Single Speed + 29er is what 29ers are all about as far as I'm concerned. To change any aspect of that would destroy the magic.
No, what I actually wanted was something quite different to my current bike. I'd want a dual suspension bike with at least 5 inches of travel front and rear and the extra agility you only get with 26" wheels. If I can't have a Rohloff (which probably wouldn't be ideal on a duallie anyway) I'd want at least an LX - XT group set to stand the best chance at longevity under my punishment and air suspension I can adjust for my weight. Easy peasy as it turns out. There's a bunch of bikes that fall into that category in the $2500 - 3500 price range like the Giant Trance X3 or X2, or Specialized Stumpjumper FSRs. Hopefully if business stays anything like it has been this last month I'll be able to grab one later in 2009. (Fingers crossed).
I still intend to ride the single speed most of the time. This bike would come out mostly for longer group rides, rides in hillier areas or if I'm ever confident enough with my fitness to enter an enduro event like the Insomnia 24 hour which is just down the road from where I live.
That's the dirt covered. Now I also want a single speed road bike and a geared road bike, but I'll be buying those second hand (unless I win lotto). ;)
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Sleep
Well, I seem to have found the cause behind my recent lack of mojo - sleep!
Not enough means I don't recover properly so my muscles feel sore and burned out even if I exercise less, and it also slows the fat burning processes and can trigger hunger, especially for bad (junk) foods.
It seems getting adequate sleep may be the very cornerstone to health, fitness, weight loss, muscle building, blood pressure, coping with stress, beating depression and general feelings of well being. (Pretty much everything.)
A couple of good 8 hour nights and my power came back. I then followed that up with a sub-6 hour night after a night ride last night and I'm back down to around 80% of my normal power (which is still better than the sub-50% levels I've been experiencing for the last 2 - 3 weeks).
But too much can be just as bad and cause many of the same problems as well as migraines and other nasties. The rule of thumb seems to be somewhere between 7 and 8 hours a night which is about spot on in my experience.
Diet wise I'm taking a leaf out of Jon Gabriel's book and focusing on eating "live" foods at the moment. That is, anything that can be picked off a plant or cut from an animal. ;) And the fresher, the better. At the same time I'm avoiding, or at least minimising, "dead" foods. That is, anything processed, baked or manufactured. And yeah I've lost a little weight, but I'm not getting too excited until I get below my old 120 kg nemesis without relapsing. However, I'm feeling quietly confident that I'm going to get there this time.
Another issue is water. Over-hydrating seems to trigger fat loss, while inadequate hydration seems to inhibit that process. The other beauty about over-hydrating (or perhaps this is one of the main factors) is you feel full so it's difficult to over-eat.
80% of people misinterpret thirst as hunger. Being an ex-smoker I sometimes even interpret thirst as the desire for a cigarette as well.
At the moment whenever I feel like eating, whether it's genuine hunger, a craving or the desire to eat* (or even the desire to smoke) I go and have one or two glasses of water and more often than not the sensation passes.
*"The rule of thumb is that true hunger is what you feel when you’ve fasted for several hours and your stomach is empty; a craving is a physiological and emotionally intense urge to eat; and the desire to eat comes when you are not particularly hungry but eating because there is food around." (Beck)
I find there's four main levels of performance and wellness and all are related to how much sleep and water you're getting:
1. Feel great and performing great = adequate sleep + adequate hydration.
2. Feel great and performing terrible = (usually) adequate sleep but poor hydration.
3. Feel terrible but performing ok = (usually) insufficient sleep but adequate hydration
4. Feel terrible and performing terrible = insufficient sleep + poor hydration.
Sleep and water. Ignore them at your peril...
Not enough means I don't recover properly so my muscles feel sore and burned out even if I exercise less, and it also slows the fat burning processes and can trigger hunger, especially for bad (junk) foods.
It seems getting adequate sleep may be the very cornerstone to health, fitness, weight loss, muscle building, blood pressure, coping with stress, beating depression and general feelings of well being. (Pretty much everything.)
A couple of good 8 hour nights and my power came back. I then followed that up with a sub-6 hour night after a night ride last night and I'm back down to around 80% of my normal power (which is still better than the sub-50% levels I've been experiencing for the last 2 - 3 weeks).
But too much can be just as bad and cause many of the same problems as well as migraines and other nasties. The rule of thumb seems to be somewhere between 7 and 8 hours a night which is about spot on in my experience.
Diet wise I'm taking a leaf out of Jon Gabriel's book and focusing on eating "live" foods at the moment. That is, anything that can be picked off a plant or cut from an animal. ;) And the fresher, the better. At the same time I'm avoiding, or at least minimising, "dead" foods. That is, anything processed, baked or manufactured. And yeah I've lost a little weight, but I'm not getting too excited until I get below my old 120 kg nemesis without relapsing. However, I'm feeling quietly confident that I'm going to get there this time.
Another issue is water. Over-hydrating seems to trigger fat loss, while inadequate hydration seems to inhibit that process. The other beauty about over-hydrating (or perhaps this is one of the main factors) is you feel full so it's difficult to over-eat.
80% of people misinterpret thirst as hunger. Being an ex-smoker I sometimes even interpret thirst as the desire for a cigarette as well.
At the moment whenever I feel like eating, whether it's genuine hunger, a craving or the desire to eat* (or even the desire to smoke) I go and have one or two glasses of water and more often than not the sensation passes.
*"The rule of thumb is that true hunger is what you feel when you’ve fasted for several hours and your stomach is empty; a craving is a physiological and emotionally intense urge to eat; and the desire to eat comes when you are not particularly hungry but eating because there is food around." (Beck)
I find there's four main levels of performance and wellness and all are related to how much sleep and water you're getting:
1. Feel great and performing great = adequate sleep + adequate hydration.
2. Feel great and performing terrible = (usually) adequate sleep but poor hydration.
3. Feel terrible but performing ok = (usually) insufficient sleep but adequate hydration
4. Feel terrible and performing terrible = insufficient sleep + poor hydration.
Sleep and water. Ignore them at your peril...
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Well, I'll take that back...
Last week I posted that I'd put on weight so I wasn't overly impressed with my dietitian's advice. However, when I did my Monday morning weigh-in it turns out that that I'd actually lost half a kg! The reason I was so surprised by this was that I knew I'd put on about 5kgs in the fortnight following my first visit to the dietitian and then lost at least 3kgs in the week following, my pants still felt tight so I assumed I'd gained weight again.
But I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong.
My skinfold reading was also down indicating a decrease in body fat percentage, but the weird thing is my waist measurement hasn't changed. That to me can only mean bloating so I'll work on what might be causing that. (probably dairy).
Another problem is a noticeable lack of mojo which a few of my MTB buddies also seem to be suffering from so it's either some sort of virus or the extreme humidity in the air at the moment. The weird thing is I feel fine. It's only apparent on the bike or in the gym when I try to exert myself. I just don't have my usual strength. However, endurance appears to be fine as long as I don't push it too hard. If I avoid sprinting and walk the bigger hills I seem to be able to plod along indefinitely.
Excluding humidity or viruses, another possibility is I stopped taking a multi-vitamin a couple of weeks ago and I have tended to feel a bit washed out in the past without these. I went off them on the dietitian's advice because she didn't think they'd be necessary with the improvements in my eating, but with the amount of exercise I (like) to do maybe they're necessary. Oh well, they're cheap and can't hurt anyway so it's worth a try.
Here's hoping the weight loss continues anyway. :)
But I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong.
My skinfold reading was also down indicating a decrease in body fat percentage, but the weird thing is my waist measurement hasn't changed. That to me can only mean bloating so I'll work on what might be causing that. (probably dairy).
Another problem is a noticeable lack of mojo which a few of my MTB buddies also seem to be suffering from so it's either some sort of virus or the extreme humidity in the air at the moment. The weird thing is I feel fine. It's only apparent on the bike or in the gym when I try to exert myself. I just don't have my usual strength. However, endurance appears to be fine as long as I don't push it too hard. If I avoid sprinting and walk the bigger hills I seem to be able to plod along indefinitely.
Excluding humidity or viruses, another possibility is I stopped taking a multi-vitamin a couple of weeks ago and I have tended to feel a bit washed out in the past without these. I went off them on the dietitian's advice because she didn't think they'd be necessary with the improvements in my eating, but with the amount of exercise I (like) to do maybe they're necessary. Oh well, they're cheap and can't hurt anyway so it's worth a try.
Here's hoping the weight loss continues anyway. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
