Winter Training & Watching Your Weight
I’ve spent the entire season riding more & faster than ever before and, according to my handy-dandy Garmin 705 calorie-counter and multi-tool, I’ve burned off enough energy to shed one or two of me this season. But I’m still here, trust me.
In fact, all year my weight has remained in the same 175 +/-5 pound range — regardless of whether I was being good about my dietary habits or trying to prop up the Guinness company single-handedly. At various times I did both, mind you.
Anyway, I weighed in today at 178.4 pounds, then promptly set a goal to get down to 169.0 by December 1, 2008.
That’s a leisurely seven weeks to shed nine pounds. On The Biggest Loser, they’d drop that between breakfast and lunch. But I’ve got a bodyfat of about 14% according to my Tanita Ironman scale and body analyzer, so I don’t have quite the cushion they do. In my case, a 14% body-fat result means I’ve got 25 pounds of the fluffy stuff - more than enough to enhance all the thin-lipped women I know. But I digress.
To get to my target weight, I’ve got to shed more than a third of my body-fat during these upcoming seven weeks.
However, having ridden approximately 3,000 miles so far this year without any weight change, maybe trying to ride those pounds off isn’t going to be the best strategy. It seems my body has simply acclimated to the riding it expects me to do, and no matter how much I do of it, it isn’t going to budge further.
So, I’ve never really enjoyed running, but a little cross-training will certainly improve my odds. With that logic, I started the week by pounding out three 10-minute miles on the treadmill (at 2% incline) to launch my journey toward a newer, lighter me.
With all those cycling miles under my belt, there was absolutely no problem finishing the run, and I felt fine afterward, for the most part. until the next morning. And aside from being unable to walk down stairs, stand up from sitting in a chair, stand having anything bump into my quads, I’m getting around okay. As a matter of fact, I’m about to hop on the spin bike to get the sweat-glands working again, and hopefully to stretch out some uber-tight quads.
To make sure there’s some skin (and not just cellulose) in the game, I told my family and certain cycling pals of my plan, and so far I’ve had one person sign on to match me. So that’s two of us climbing on the scale on December 1 to see who’s got the discipline and self-restraint to shed enough fat to fill a gallon-jug.
So how about you? When it comes to keeping form and fit through the winter months, what’s your off-season goal?
Gain A Few Pounds of Muscle?
Hold On To What You’ve Got?
A Little Nip-N-Tuck Around The Edges?
Shed Your Unborn Twin Sibling?
Whatever the case, put it in writing and you’re more likely to stick with it. So go to the veloforum to weigh in on this topic: http://bicycle.net/veloforum/index.php?topic=13.0, and let everybody know what you intend to do in the colder months ahead.
Categories: Coaching and Training, Health, Hub, Nutrition, Rider Diaries, System6
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