Riding Better

I have been having some problems and have been really depressed for a couple of day. I am doing better now but it is hard. I have not had this trouble for over 2 years. So it was a bit of a surprise. Instead of sitting at home in the dark like I did Monday I forced myself to get out and ride and that helped.
The weather was good and I had a good ride - only 12 miles and I was alone but I was riding pretty well and I felt better than I have been feeling riding. Nice to fell better now. I was really nice to fell like I am improving a little. I was climbing the hills a bit easier and it felt good. Also I think I may have figured out why my butt has been hurting so much or at least I loosened the lowest seat strap and it seemed to have helped but I need a longer ride to be sure. I could have ridden longer and should have. I had decided to ride 2 loops so that is what I did but it was not cold and I could have ridden more - Thursday night if it is as nice I will.

My GPS data is HERE

OMG I am a TURTLE!!!

I did the Ride for the Rock. It is a very nicely done ride for a local charity. It was still quite cool. I put on my usually winter kit and assumed I would be pealing parts of it off during the ride. While I never did get cold I never took anything off either. I rode the 50K and I really had a hard time. I was dropped by the whole group and they were completely out of sight within 2 miles of the start. This is so hard for me. Try to imagine if you were a cyclist and you were able to ride at an average speed of 17-19 mph on a 50 or so mile ride in this area and were climbing the hills here at 8 to 12 miles per hour and over night you had to go to averaging 9 mph if I am lucky and climbing hills at 2 to 4 mph and having to drop your mileage for rides back to about 30 miles in distance because of the time it now take to ride that far and see how you feel. I want to do this and I need to do this but it is so hard to be SO slow.
When I first got on the trike the seat felt funny. While riding I had trouble steering the trike on some down hills. I finally stopped and checked the seats lower bolt - it did not seem loose but I put a wrench to it anyway and was able to get almost a whole turn on it. This seemed to fix the funny feeling and the down hill problems. Also I had not been feeling well for most of the ride and when I stood up to work on the trike I almost passed out, I got real light headed and faint. I garbed hold of the faring to stead myself and just waited - it passed slowly but I did not feel OK until I sat back down and not for a little while then. At about 13 miles my butt started to hurt like it has been since I got the chrom-molly seat frame. The pain got worse and worse no matter how I tried to sit, then I lost part of the feeling in my right leg. The calf and ankle did not feel like they were asleep like for loss of circulation it just felt not there and unresponsive but I could still pedal. When I got to the SAG stop, I was surprised they were still there, and when stood up the feeling came back to my leg and my butt stopped hurting. From the SAG stop I had about 12 to 14 miles to ride - since my butt did not hurt until miles 13 I thought I would be OK however it started hurting again after about 6 miles and my legs was numb by 10 miles past the SAG. I really struggled to keep riding - not because I was wore out but due to the pain. I have got to find something I can do about the seat or frame of the trike to be more reclined or something. I did finish the ride and I did enjoy it but I was hurting.

Team CBC - Curse Intervals training

Curse Intervals training - Tim took a group of Team CBC cyclist out to show us a training method which improves both speed and endurance. The training involves riding 5 to 7 miles at ones normal pace to warm up - being warmed up is important. Then at about a 2% upgrade one needs to ride 5 to 7 minutes at 90% maximum heart rate, then turn around and ride at a recovery pace(what ever speed you can recovery at) back to your starting place and then repeat. I am not sure but I beleive he said you could repeat it 3 to 7 times and should do it twice a weak but not more. I of course could not keep up with the group riding the warmup to the place to start the training and I was so far back that Bob came back to find me then rode with me to the start point - I appreciated him doing that but just HATED the fact the he it had to be done. I did need the help and would not have found them if he had not done so. Bob organized the event. I was not sure I would be able to do the training and even asked Bob if I could participate - I forgot that he and most of everyone else did not know I had removed the Bionx and am now a real TURTLE. I tried to tell them about removing the Bionx and how slow I was but I do not think they believe me until we started riding. I was able to do the training - Tim recomended I just try 3 minutes instead of 5 - I guess I looked worse than I felt when I got to the start point. I have two things going for me with my cycling, I have a great deal of stamia - I can pedal a long time and even through I can only climb hills at 2 - 4 mph I have climbed some 9% grade hills and even after that effort I will recover quickly. But I did as Tim suggested and found it to be easy so the next time I went out for four minutes which was also easy. I have a heart rate monitor but the tables I have seen say my maximum heart rate is about 133 but I ride at 135 to 137 most of the time and I can talk with out panting. Tim recommended I try 140 at my target heart rate I found I had to get to 144 to begin to pant so I was trying for 141 to 142 and I did the third session at 5 minutes and was just feeling a burn in my quads at the 5 minute mark. I thought I did OK at the training but I completely lost the group on the return ride - I told Bob not to wait for me because I thought I knew the way back. Well I made a wrong turn and next thing I know I am going down a steep down hill that I did not remember climbing on the way out so I checked my GPS and I was off course several miles. I had climbed the up hill after the down hill before I was sure I was on the wrong road I had to go back down and then do the climb again part of it was a 9% grade. I told the GPS to take me back to the start and it did. I did have the same pain in mt butt and the same problem with my right leg - I have got to find a solution for this. Any way I did a 20.8 mile ride with my little detour and adveraged 9.3 mph. If you enlarge the trace on the GPS map over the lake you can see the three different runs. I do plan to incorprate this into my training rides at Greenfield.

My GPS data is HERE

My Pictures are HERE

OMG I am a TURTLE!!!

I did the Ride for the Rock. It is a very nicely done ride for a local charity. It was still quite cool. I put on my usually winter kit and assumed I would be pealing parts of it off during the ride. While I never did get cold I never took anything off either. I rode the 50K and I really had a hard time. I was dropped by the whole group and they were completely out of sight within 2 miles of the start. This is so hard for me. Try to imagine if you were a cyclist and you were able to ride at an average speed of 17-19 mph on a 50 or so mile ride in this area and were climbing the hills here at 8 to 12 miles per hour and over night you had to go to averaging 9 mph if I am lucky and climbing hils at 2 to 4 mph and having to drop your mileage for rides back to about 30 miles in distance because of the time it now take to ride that far and see how you feel. I want to do this and I need to do this but it is so hard to be SO slow.
When I first got on the trike the seat felt funny. While riding I had trouble stearing the trike on some down hills. I finally stopped and checked the seats lower bolt - it did not seem loose but I put a wrench to it anyway and was able to get almost a whole turn on it. This seemed to fix the funny feeling and the down hill problems. Also I had not been feeling well for most of the ride and when I stood up to work on the trike I almost passed out, I got real light headed and faint. I garbed hold of the faring to stead myself and just waited - it passed slowly but I did not feel OK until I sat back down and not for a little while then. At about 13 miles my butt started to hurt like it has been since I got the chromolly seat frame. The pain got worse and worse no matter how I tried to sit, then I lost part of the feeling in my right leg. The calf and ankle did not feel like they were asleep like for loss of circulation it just felt not there and unresponsive but I could still pedal. When I got to the SAG stop, I was suprised they were still there, and stood it the feeling came back to my leg and my butt stopped hurting. From the SAG stop I had a bout 12 to 14 miles to ride - since my butt did not hurt until miles 13 I thought I would be OK however it started hurting again after about 6 miles and my legs was numb by 10 miles past the SAG.
I finished the 31 miles ride with the amazing(because it is so slow) average speed of 7.5 miles per hour. I was still not feeling well but I was not really tired - I beleive I could ride longer distances it would tahe over 6 hours to ride 50 miles. I am going to have to work on keeping up my motivation - riding like this is is not much fun - I do still like riding but it is hard.
One good thing I had a new low weight this morning.

My weight was 341.0 pounds 69 pounds lost.

I am sure it helps all ready but I wonder how much more I am going to have to lose to ride better.

As you can see below I got the GPS back. I did not get many pictures - no one around to photograph.

My GPS data is HERE

My Pictures are HERE

Weighing problem

Seem like since I have been working on getting fit and losing weight the my day is not really bad if I do not lose something but is better when I do. This is likely a problem also but for now I am just working on fittness and weight lose.

I had a pretty good week inspite of the weather over 3 days I rode 67 miles and walked 8.94 miles 4 days.

I have a new low weight this morning.

This morning I weighted 343.0 pounds 67 pounds lost so far.