Continued weight loss.

I weighed in at 247.0lbs today. Down 13 pounds (52 sticks of butter!!)

Energy...

The chart presented in this link is indicative of the need for a new domestic energy dyanmic. I ride my bike to and from work for the health benefit and the opportunity to save money. One of my vehicles is a 1989 Chevy pickup. This old POS does not get the best mileage; however, I use it primarily for its utilitarian value.

Looking back at 1989, gas prices were around $1/gal. At best, gas prices are now near $3/gal. If someone did not change their driving habits, their gas expenses would increase three times. This is a hard pill to swallow given that wages have not risen at a commensurate pace with gasoline.

Oh goodness! What to do! You hear people kicking and screaming about how they can't afford this or that and that credit card delinquencies are on the rise due to rising fuel costs. My take? Shut up you big baby and do something about it. Ride a bike to get around for trips less than ten miles. Buy a used compact car or just get a car with better mileage.

What my grand visions includes is this:
Solar panels on every roof connected to a plug-in hybrid/electric vehicle. (This will likely take time, but I know that I will be making my investments this concept in mind)
Investment Focus
*Altenative Energy (Solar focus - The sun shines everywhere, the wind does not blow *everywhere)
*Chemical Storage (Batteries - New NiMH and nano applications)
*Electric Automobiles (Toyota - already a reputation for reliability and the first to the market with hybrid vehichles)

Hydorgen economy? Maybe in my great-grandchildren's lifetime.

Kudos to all that bought SUVs with GMs employee discount in face of rising gas prices! It reminds me of the consumer reports that indicated that the Number 1 and 2 complaints of Hummer H2 owners was the poor mileage and the wind noise. I can wait to see someone compain that their new suburban costs too much to drive.

Remember: Ghawar is dying; Cramer from Mad Money indicated that Saudis are buying new oil field production equipment at an increased rate because their existing wells are no longer producing! (Buy NBR and THE)

Some may say we have plenty of oil in oil sands and oil shales. You'd be better served to believe in the effectiveness of cold fusion over the hype on oil sands and oil shales. We will be producing these when gasoline costs $10/gallon or more. Return of Energy for these is approimately 1.5:1 vs. 20:1 in the stressed mideast oil fields.

I need to stop now, I am breaking out in a sweat.

Still Riding, and very busy

I haven't been posting nearly as much as I would like. My job and grad school havw kept me very busy lately. I was hoping that I would use my ride time to set goals for riding to and from work. However, the ride time is controlled by the number of red lights that I stop at. Today, I was riding very hard and my total ride time was 25min 43 sec.

I was happy to weigh in at 249.5lbs over the weekend. I can push my weight down about 5lbs easily through water weight loss while riding. This weight was over the weekend and I hadn't rode my bike for a day-and-a-half.

Too many days off of the bike...

As a quick recap of the last 6 days:
On Friday I rode my bike to Naperville and had to pick up a bunch of equipment for field work on Monday. I had the bulkiest and heaviest pack of stuff that I have ever carried on my body while biking. Thankfully my wife picked me up after I had completed 10 miles on the return trip.

My weekend was gluttonous. I enjoyed myself too much with both food and drink.

I couldn't ride my bike due to the field work on Monday. On Tuesday, I chose not to ride my bike with all of the heavy equiptment that I carried on Friday.

Back to the present:
Riding today was brutile. My legs were strong, but my lungs and heart were weak. Today, I changed packs from my messenger bag to a standard backpack because of school material, night riding gear, locks, and other crap. The backpack sits a lot higher on my back than a messenger bag and it makes riding much more difficult. Unfortunately, my view over my left shoulder is obstucted by backpack when I ride with it on.

I need to stay riding!

Weight from Friday: 249.5 lbs

Cycling Electronics

I have the say that having a lot of things to look at and short term targets to set. Before today, I had only been using my cyclometer and my heart rate monitor. I strapped on the HRM and It was nice to see that my heart rate was not at the usual 190-200 beats per minute (bpm).

I noticed that my max heart rate this morning was ~175bpm with an average heart rate of 160bpm. I am glad that I am the fat burning range and that I was within my target heart rate zone for 27min30sec. As you can see below, I was going fairly slow this morning. This was due to the fact that I pushed myself really hard on my ride home from school last night.

School To Home: (Last Night)
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 7.5 miles
Time: 22min 11sec
Gallons of gas saved: 0.25 gallons

To Work: (This Morning)
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 8 miles
Time: 28min 56sec
Gallons of gas saved: 0.25 gallons

USGS Identified as Government Pork?

This following was taken from Ramesh Ponnuru. He has compiled this list of Government Pork posted on the National Review:

• Washington spends tens of billions of dollars on failed and outdated programs such as the Rural Utilities Service, U.S. Geological Survey and Economic Development Association.

This is among other things that are not qualified with a specific failure or specific outdated program. This is irresponsible conjecture as I have professional interaction with USGS and I use information from the USGS with some regularity. As with the USEPA, the USGS performs valuable functions and information that professional firms do not provide such as the National Map. Can someone indicate why the National Map is a "failed and outdated" program? Both the USEPA and USGS do not execute their respective charges well. Who cares: Anybody that needs a permit from the USEPA or information from the USGS, or if one needs information from the USGS required for a USEPA permit.

Why is this information like the National Map important? It provide GOBS of information at one central location that allows the business that I do to occur more efficiently and profitably. This allows site developers/insurers/all kinds of people to rapidly make decisions with respect to their profession.

Sorry Ramesh, you have not qualified "Government Pork" with this bullet point. This type of blanket generalization does not fly with me or other critically thinking people.

Rainy Morning

This morning was the first in over a month that I had to ride through the rain. I don't mind the rain nearly as much as I mind the crap that my wheels spray all over me. Arriving at work with a thin layer of grime is always a treat! I sometimes think that people have two differnt driving modes. One when the weather is okay and they drive normally, and the other is when wheather conditions bad and people have driver dimentia. By some people being over-cautions they do strange things like slam on their brakes and change lanes when they see a cyclist in their rear view mirror. This has never happened on a clear day, and only on poor weather days.

To Home: (Last Night)
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 8 miles
Time: 24min 55sec
Gallons of gas saved: 0.25 gallons

To Work: (This Morning)
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 8 miles
Time: 25min 37sec
Gallons of gas saved: 0.25 gallons

2,000 miles by the end of the year

Last year I was hoping to pedal 1,000 miles for the year but I ended up with a total of 770 miles. This year, I have already pedaled 410 miles on my mountain bike and 480 on my road bike. By the end of this season I hope to fill the void left from last year plus 1,500 miles for a total of 1,730 miles.

I hope to be able to clear this goal and maybe reach 2,000 total miles by the end of the year.

To Home: (Last Night)
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 8 miles
Time: 26min 12sec
Gallons of gas saved: 0.25 gallons

To Work: (This Morning)
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 8 miles
Time: 25min 30sec
Gallons of gas saved: 0.25 gallons

Looking Foward...

Goals are critical to keep your mind focused. As I mentioned in my first post (see Sept. archive) I rode my bike to Florida from Minneapolis, MN. As I decided to go on this trip in the fall and planned to execute the ride the following summer, this was great motivation over the winter.

I feel as though I need a new target to set my sights on, and a reason to keep myself motivated through the winter. I have decided that I will travel from Mpls, MN (my old home) to Chicago, IL (my new home). I would like to conduct this ride with a partner; however, I think that it may be difficult to roundup any willing participants. My plan is to do this ride over a long weekend plus a little PTO. In the past, I completed this leg of my trip in 4 days (pedalling approximately 100 miles/day).

The tentative plan (although I need to check with the CFO) is to begin on Friday May 26th and finish on Monday May 29th (memorial day). This schedule is subject to change. This ride contemplates 100 miles per day and would be entirely self contained; that is, tenting on the side of the road, bringing own food, etc.

Any takers?

What a difference a day makes

What a difference a rest day makes. I was worried that I would be really sore this morning, but the bike felt like an extension of my body, and I was able to pedal with ease.

Now I just have to keep pushing myself to get stonger and faster.

To Work:
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 8 miles
Time: 24min 06sec
Gallons of gas saved: 0.25 gallons

191 Miles This Week!

I am so exhausted! Today, I rode to Wheaton for one of my classes to finish my Masters Degree. Wheaton is very close to Naperville and is on the same route that I took to work yesterday. Needless to say, my legs are in desperate need of a break. My legs feel like dead weight and the 90 degree heat did not help. It is time for a break, that is , until Monday.

I mentioned I would not weigh myself as frequently, but I hoped on the scale today and I weighed in at 247lbs. So far, that is 13 pounds in 9 days. This rate of weight loss will slow down. The easy pounds fly off (the pounds for which I am tragically overweight). Earlier I mentioned that diet soda makes you more hungry. I still believe this, although I have found that ICE COLD Diet Pepsi does not make me more hungry. It must be ice cold otherwise the same effect occurs.

To School and Back:
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 42.97 miles
Time: 2hr 32min 56sec
Gallons of gas saved: 1.50 gallons

Ride home: A complete disaster...

As I mentioned in my ride to work my legs were fatigued. The situation did not improve throughout the day. My tank was on "E" because I have been limiting my intake of calories. I ate one powerbar before leaving work and another after 10 miles into my ride. I took a little too much time to leave work which added to my problems. It was pitch black when I had about eight miles to go. At this point in my ride the traffic is really heavy and I did not have a "flasher" (tail light) to let cars know I was around. Because of this I was pushed near the curb and had to ride on the concrete gutter. This sucked bad! Every eight feet or so, there is a crack in the gutter. I was clipping along at about 25mph when I hid a crack that was about two-feet wide and six-inches deep.

Hmmm...guess what will happens when a 250lb. cyclist hits a six inch concrete ledge at 25mph...I'll put it this way: The air escaped from my tire in rapid fashion!

Two flats this week. Maybe my wife is right, maybe I am cursed? If I am cursed, I guess I just need to keep buying inner tubes.

To Home
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 25.20 miles
Time: 1hr 40min 40sec
Gallons of gas saved: 0.75 gallons

Evening Weight!
248.5lbs (Down 11.5 lbs/46 sticks of butter)

Ride to Naperville

Today I rode my bike to my company’s office in Naperville. It is a 25-mile trip one-way and I have been taking IL-38 (Roosevelt Road) from Oak Park to this location. I tried to protein load last night to give my legs a good opportunity to recover. However, this morning my legs were still feeling the pain from all of my riding this week. I tried to focus on “spinning” (pedaling between 80 and 90 rpm) so that I would not overexert myself. I think it helped because I was able to sprint with no problems late into my ride.

When compared to the 50-mile ride I did on Monday, this ride was much more difficult because I was carrying approximately 25lbs. of stuff on my back (work clothes, files, shoes, etc.) and the traffic was pretty heavy.

To Work:
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 25.28 miles
Time: 1hr 20min 9sec
Gallons of gas saved: 0.75 gallons

West Side of Chicago (Random Thoughts)

As I was riding through the Westside on my way home from class last night, I notice a lot of people sitting on the curb. This has to be a cultural thing because, for me, the last place that I would want to hang out on a Wednesday night is on the curb. Also interesting was the number of people huddled outside of the corner liquor stores. It appears as though these corners are places to gather socially.

I lived in Minneapolis for serveral years and have travelled through North Minneapolis (MPLS's ghetto). North Minneapolis is a much nicer neighborhood compared to the Westside. After living next to the westside for several years, it is obvious that the people there do not have the same opportunities to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" as do the people in my current neighborhood or the neighborhood where I grew up.

I would conjecture that the quality of public education is a cause. Funding public education with property tax dollars, like it is done in Illinois, provides a fairly rigid social strata where the opportunity to pull oneself up is increasingly difficult.

School to Home: (Last Night)
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 7.3 miles
Time: 23min 45sec
Gallons of gas saved: 0.24 gallons

To Work:
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 8 miles
Time: 26min 30sec
Gallons of gas saved: 0.25 gallons

Dedication

The number one key to an effective weight loss strategy is to set goals and stick to them regardless of other things that may come up. If there is an interruption that you can't avoid, then you make up your original goal. Without this dedicated mentality, it becomes easy to fall out the routine.

Tonight, I begin the last quarter to complete my masters degree. My class will be from 6-9pm. I have decided that I will use my bike to travel to and from work, and having evening class will not interupt my routine. My ride through the west-side of Chicago is one that many people consider an unecessary risk of my life; however, I need to maintain a workout regimen in the face of a busy work/school schedule.

I have heard some people say in the past (and within the last week) that cycling is not an effective form of exercise to lose weight. I guess this blog will be a measure of that claim. I find it funny that it is those that do not cycle have this perspective.

To these nay sayers:

Have you ever watched the Tour de France? (These guys are very lean)
Have you ever seen "spin classes" at a gym? (This is cycling)
For those that are overweight, there is no better aerobic exercise than cycling and/or swimming that will not wreck your joints. (Imagine running if you are over 300lbs...I have, and it is extraordinarily painful)

This morning:
To Work:
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 8 miles
Time: 26min 6sec
Gallons of gas saved: 0.25 gallons

Last Night:
To Home:
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 8 miles
Time: 26min 0sec
Gallons of gas saved: 0.25 gallons

Weight Fluctuations

I would like to thank my high-school friend John for listing his weight loss tips. In high-school John and I were both overweight (me more so than John). I am thrilled that John lost about 40 lbs. and has posted his weight loss strategy.

I have decided that I am not going to weigh myself in the morning and evening. I think that the day to day fluctuations can be discouraging, and are not representative of actual progress. I am going to post my weight on Friday evening.

When you are as overweight as I am, your weight can fluctuate over 5 lbs. As a percentage of body weight, it is really insignificant (2%). As a note, when I began my first diet, I was focused on NOT weighing myself for the first 2 months of my diet. When I hopped on the scale after that time, I had lost over 40 lbs. That was by far the most encouraging piece of progress of the diet.

Now, I know that I can lose the weight. And, I am going to weigh myself weekly to keep my focus.

To Work:
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 8 miles
Time: 26min 30sec
Gallons of gas saved: 0.25 gallons

Big Ride

To begin with, my bummer from Saturday continued when I discovered that I left my bicycle computer in the pocket of my shorts that were in the laundry. This item went through the full wash cycle and did not miss a beat. There was no moisture under the screen, all of the memory was retained, and it is fully functional. Based on this, I HIGHLY recommend Cateye bicycle computers! Specifically the Cateye Astrale 8 which has a cadence sensor and rear wheel sensor.

Today I went on a 50 mile ride. I had planned on taking three hours to complete the trip and I was very pleased to have completed it in 2Hrs 45Min. (My goal for the spring is to complete the same 50 miles in a little over 2 Hrs.). I went west on Lake Street (US 20) from Oak Park to IL-59 in Barrington. This route is typically very busy, but due to the holiday the traffic was somewhat light.

I left more prepared than last time. I had my arsenal of emergency equipment: The Alien (multi-tool), two tubes, cell phone, 20 oz water bottle, 50 oz CamelBak, and wallet. Every thing was going fine until I stopped at a gas station along the way and picked up a bottle of Gatorade($1.99). I chugged the Gatorade and got a severe brain-freeze. I ran out of water at about 45 miles, which was disappointing. I am not sure why, but after I ran out of water I began coughing viloently at about 49 miles. Maybe related, maybe not...

Stats for the Ride:
Distance: 50.67 miles
Total Time: 2:45:38
Max Speed: 32.3 mph
Avg Speed: 18.3 mph

Lessons learned:
Bring more water! Do NOT chug your Gatorade in the middle of ride, Save it

It is obvious that gas retailers do not make much on gas, given the extraordinary markup on Gatorate. (FYI, gas retailers make appx. 5 cents/gallon, and often less than that)

Major bummer!

Today I embarked on a 30mile ride. I went west on the Illinois Prairie Path which is a very nice trail. It has the typical problems of a Rail-to-Trail route. You have to double-back because there are no good "loops".

The riding conditions are not very good (too many stops) until about 8 miles west of the eastern trail head. As it was Saturday morning, the trail was very busy, but I was able to knock out the first 15 miles with no problem. I began my return trip with a serious head of steam. I was going about 25 mph for a mile and a half when my rear tire blew because I picked up a piece of glass on the trail. A flat is one thing, but not being prepared is quite another. It is the typical case: I have a frame-pump, tubes, and tire levers to service a flat. However, I had only the pump with me!

My wife was kind enough to pick me up. Two things are key while out on a long distance ride:
1) Always have somebody that you can count on
2) No matter what do not forget your cell phone.

Unfortunately, she had to use the car which consumed about 1.3 gallons of gas. Extra Suck!

Time to repair the flat and plan for tomorrow.

Morning Weight: 253.5

Hunger, and fuel shortage

Bad title considering the events in LA, but anyway...

As I have mentioned in my earlier post, part of losing weight is to be hungry. And I am ravenous/famished/hungry-like-a-hostage...take your pick. Couple hunger with pedaling 16miles a day, and the pistons (my legs) do not cooperate well. My legs were/are so fatigued!

Maybe this is just a good way to end the week. Tired and knowing I am kicking my own ass into shape.

No pain, no gain!

Faster, Stronger, Leaner, Meaner!

Work to Home:
Evening Weight: 254.0lbs
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 8 miles
Time: 28min 30sec
Gallons of gas saved: 0.25 gallons

Energy and the President

I was just reading this article and I realized that too many people do not understand the dynamic of the pricing of gasoline. The assertion is that Bush needs to pay more attention to rising fuel prices. Yes indeed, we all need to pay attention to rising fuel prices. The solution is for us to change our fuel consumption and integrate new technologies into our way of life.

There is growing demand from China and India for a commodity that has a decided finite supply. Growing demand and finite supply results in increased cost. Does the president need to pay attention to something so basic? (I certainly hope not) Some say the answer is to build more refineries. Okay fine, build more refineries and let us see oil companies try to recover the capital investment required to build these facilities and the resulting increase in the cost of gasoline.

What can Bush do?
The president can help by providing the impetus and national direction to rely upon petroleum as a minority of energy. America can be on top of energy technologies, if private and government investment was directed into solar, wind, tidal generators, etc. Although unrealistic, I'd like to see Manhattan Project style spending to advance alternative energies.

What do you do if you want something you can't afford? (like gasoline at $4 or $5/gallon) Most people make sacrifices (sorry Hummer driver, sorry, there is no equivalent to your gas guzzler in a hybrid). Look at the selection of hybrids when you buy your next vehicle and use this site.

The Big 3 automakers are focusing on Hydrogen as our next step. (Although Ford is bolstering Toyota by licensing their hybrid technology). Getting from A (gasoline) to Z (hydrogen) requires getting through many intermediate steps. Inexpensive hydrogen technology is years from development, not to mention the development for the distribution and the technological barriers for Hydrogen storage. Your hybrid will be rusted to pieces and you'll be driving your second or third electric car before the hydrogen economy is developed.

Review and research the following: Ghawar, Peak Oil, EIA, Oil Sands (which are not economically valuable due to Return on Energy(ROE) of 1.5:1)

ROE = Ratio of energy obtained to energy expended

Day 2 - Leaner, Meaner, Faster...

I am down three pounds since yesterday likely some water weight and fat weight. I like to think of the weight of fat in terms of things that people are familiar with, like butter. If this weight is all fat, it would be the equivalent of 12 sticks of butter off of my body. (That is pretty gross way of looking at it). If I consider that I have about 60lbs of butter to lose, that is 240 sticks of butter attached to my body.

Okay, I only had two near misses today, but I am livin'. I think that having my thoughts available for others to view has lit a pretty intense fire in me. I have pushed myself harder than my past few weeks of riding, and it feels great. It was also very easy to get out bed this morning (having a personal goal is intensly motivating).

To Work:
Morning Weight: 257lbs
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 8 miles
Time: 23min 38sec (Avg. Speed: 20.3 mi/hr)
Gallons of gas saved: 0.25 gallons

I did it once, I can do it agian...

Okay, losing weight has a lot to do with will-power. Going back to when I originally lost weight, I was painfully hungry. I mean PAINFUL. It makes me irritable, and unpleasant to be around. The cure? Stay hungry. It only took two months for the hunger to go away in the past. Hopefully less now.

The other factor with will power is this: Now that I am extremenly hungry, I still have to eat. Eating needs to be based on caloric intake, not satiety. This will come in time (less than 2 months this time, I hope).

Cures to the hunger:
Don't drink diet soda (it makes the hunger more intense);
Drink water;
Eat catabolic foods like celery; and,
Endure the hunger pain (it goes away)

Work to Home:
Evening Weight: 256.5lbs
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 8 miles
Time: 30min 3sec (Heinous Headwind)
Gallons of gas saved: 0.25 gallons

First Post!

I finally have set up a blog and golly am I excited. I intend to discuss the subjects of the title of my blog and track my weight loss. My primary mode of excercise will be cycling. We'll see how the Chicago winter treats me.

As background, when I finished High School, I weighed over 310lbs. After my freshman year of college, I decided that I needed to shed some pounds to be more appealing to the ladies. I set course on a diet whereby I dropped my weight to 175 lbs. Since that time I rode my bicycle from Minneapolis, MN to Daytona Beach, FL. Now I am married and have fallen into complacency. I am a desk-engineer and my weight has gradually increased to 260lbs. This is unacceptable to me, and through this blog, I am going to track my progress to the "under 200s".

I have taken to cycling to and from work, (Oak Park to Downtown Chicago, 8mi each way). Some of the drivers in the west-side do not always see me, and if there is a lot of deadspace in this blog it is likely because I was taken down by a vehicle or otherwise in this area.

To work today:
Morning Weight: 260lbs (Hopefully the highest posted here)
Cannondale Road Bike
Total Distance: 8 miles
Time: 26min 3sec
Gallons of gas saved: 0.25 gallons

Wish me luck!