It's been over 2 years since I last posted... and nearly that long since I've been on a decent ride.  While I still intend this blog to be about my mountain biking... I'm expanding it a bit to include my fitness in general.  I'm your typical mid-30's white guy who's gotten way too comfortable finding excuses for eating badly and not working out.  In the last 2 years I've put on about 10lbs... but that includes losing a lot of muscle mass.  I'd say my BMI is up around 32/33 at this point... and I need to lose about 70lbs ideally.

I'm starting a new gym and new diet today.  Gym-wise, I'm focused strictly on toning and fat loss... I honestly feel that if I get on my bike at this point, I'll break the damn thing. Considering it's a Giant Trance X0, and not a Huffy, that would be a crime.  My goal is to trim off the first 20lbs before I get back in the saddle on a regular basis after that to help maintain/improve further.

So - in the interests of tracking my progress, and all the gory details...  I'm currently 35 1/2, 6'3" tall, 40" waist, 50 inch chest, and ~280 lbs (scary, eh?). My biggest problem is the gigantic gut I'm carrying around... that will be the hardest part to burn off.  My calves are in great shape (hauling all this weight around) - but everything else is pretty much shot. I had my last cheeseburger for a while for lunch today... that will be my biggest test of willpower, as I consider hamburgers to be nothing short of Ambrosia and Nectar.

At this point I'm not taking any kind of diet pills or supplements, etc. - just daily vitamins and putting more focus on drinking more water.

Wish me luck...

Went on another ride tonight at Arastradero - this is by far one of my favorite places for my current skill level.  The rolling trail, with hills that are enough to test my limits, but not totally kill/discourage me - along with some of the views make this a very enjoyable ride.  My only complaint is the condition of the trail this late in the summer.  The soil becomes VERY powdery, and doesn't pack down at all, so you're left with the dusty version of loose gravel - no fun at high speeds, in hairpins, etc.  I was literally eating Dave and Dawn's dust at times on the trail (yeah yeah, I know, more incentive to bust my ass to the front).

Today's ride was nothing extraordinary - except for some major crampage in my calves and the backs of my thighs... I stretched, but nowhere near good enough.  Honestly (and ashamedly) I've been spending too much time curled up on the couch working/playing on the laptop while watching TV... and I'm all knotted up.  Add in my usual lack of exercise... you get the idea.  I started off strong and felt very good... honestly felt pretty good the whole ride, with the notable exception of my legs feeling like tree stumps.  Going to focus on doing some good stretching - working through some light yoga to get some flexibility back - and start checking out some kind of diet plan to keep some of the weight off.  I know I have the muscle... my legs are actually pretty well toned and built (from carrying my heavy ass all over day in and day out) - but I'm carrying 70lbs of extra weight... mostly around my belly.

70lbs... that's a small child... a big dog... a couple of boxes of laundry detergent from Costco... I weighed myself before the ride... 268 (put some back on since my accident/being sick). I want to get back down to around 200 (but still have some muscle mass/weight).  The biking will take care of my legs... still need to find a solution for the midsection though... need to find a convenient gym.  None of the ones in the city work - too crowded/too many dirty old men (seriously).  There are none near our house - all are 15-20 minutes away minimum.  Maybe I should order that Chuck Norris exercise machine? HAHAHAHA.

But I digress...

Last babbling note: I picked up a new camera recently - slowly getting into photography, and will start posting pictures soon (only the good ones of course).  Still trying to decide where... the usual suspects (Flickr, Picasa, etc) come to mind as well - will figure that out later.  Open to suggestions...

Well - after being out of the saddle for the last month due to injury, then illness, I finally got back out there and met up with the crew at Arastradero.  Needless to say - I was hurting.  Not so much muscular, but definitely in my respiration (lungs took a hit from the infection I just got over).  Was still fun - and found out I wasn't as bad off as I thought I would be, or as good as I'd hoped.  Just took it easy - plugged along and didn't push too hard/too fast.

The bike ran great - during my downtime I pulled the suspension and re-lubed the whole thing.  The only outstanding issue is to tighten the left pedal clip (still loose from accident) - and to play with the rear brake (lots of gobble on the trail).  Other than that, really getting in tune with it - just feel bad I don't ride it better/more.

No personal notes for this post - will continue to track next time.  One side note: Arastradero needs a good solid rain - the trail has become more and more "powdery" from a summer of dry riding - making for some interesting balancing spots in corners and such.

I did cross the 90 mile mark on my odometer on this bike though... just need to get 10 more miles in before the time change (for my own peace of mind).

"Pride goeth before the fall" - (paraphrased from Proverbs 16:18).

So Arnold, his coworker and I all went for a ride at Waterdog... everything was going well until we hit the bench at the top of the "warm up" trail.  I'm not up for the steeps lately, and prefered to work on my cardio and toning - so as they went up the usual trail to the top of the ridge, yours truly went exploring the streets up above/along the ridgeline.  There's actually some solid climbs up there... along with some really fun downhills... and I rode along a whole other set of trails I'd never seen before (blocked by a mean fence with barbed wire).  There must be a way to get over there... there is a wide, packed dirt firetrail with some serious elevation changes, and I saw a couple walking there - just couldn't find a way in.  I also couldn't find another access point to the Waterdog trail... but the views were amazing and it was nice to get a change of scenery (and to not have to walk so much).

Anyways... after getting to the top, I coasted downhill on the neighborhood streets heading back to where I split from Arnold.  I was feeling really good about my ride - approx 5 miles at that point, with another 2 back to the car.  I turned off the city street back onto the firetrail back to the car... a nice, fun downhill all the way back - what could be better?  Soooo... I'm flying downhill, faster than I normally do, feeling cocky about my "mad skillz" - then reality set in.  As I was coming around a corner, I forgot that there was a half-buried corregated drainage pipe in the trail - and I hit it badly (half-leaning at a bad angle).  I went down on my left side... directly onto my hand (right on top of a protruding rock) - got some good shreddage on my left leg, and a nice gash on my right calf.  In addition to all that... I broke my phone (must have taken a rock into the screen through my short pocket).  All in all - not a good night.

Laili patched me up when I got home... fortunately I bought large bandages and neosporin over the weekend (premonition?).  Everything except my left hand (and the phone) was superficial - will heal soon enough.  The hand is swollen/punctured - nothing too serious, I don't think I broke anything - but it's going to be tender for a while.  So - all said, not a bad "first crash" since I started riding again - could have been worse (praying this is the worst I ever have).  Hoping to ride Thursday night - checking out the bike tonight to make sure nothing was damaged/broken.

Personal Notes: 267/33, 0HC, 0N, 70R, ~75T. Weather upper 60's, light breeze, 6:15pm to 7:30pm. Ice water w/5HE. Albuterol x0. 7 miles (86.64 odo). V0. Good sleep/bad diet lately.

Call me the Phoenix :-).  Rising from the ashes of Tuesday's ride, I made it out last night to Mere Mortals' Arastradero ride in Palo Alto, and it was nearly perfect.  I rode MUCH stronger than the last time I was there, only walking an absolute minimum of the trail (granted, it's an easier trail than Tuesday's ride) - a serious improvement over last Thursday's ride here.  I made it past the first switchback (in that series of 4 or 5) - walked the rest (without shame).  Then had to walk a 20 foot section on a steep after losing it on a small log (picked a bad line).  Other than that - it was nothing but feet in the pedals and moving  (except when the group took breaks at the bowls).  I took a run in both the small bowl and the big bowl (much over-rated as far as difficulty goes, but still fun).  I was very happy with my obvious progress.

Arnold and Dave made it out, and while I don't think they were challenged, it looked like they at least had a good time.  Hoping to get Dawn out there soon - I really think she'd enjoy it as much as I do.  Maybe one day we'll get that Benny guy out there too?

This was my 3rd ride of the week - Monday was the short/easy with Ben at Fremont South, followed by Tuesday's challenging ride with Arnold, and of course this Arastradero ride last night.  I'm hoping to do a casual ride on Saturday, as I feel great today and don't want to lose the momentum.  Going forward I hope to ride Mon (Fremont South), Tuesday (Waterdog), and Thursdays (Arastradero) every week.  If I keep that up, and throw in the occassional weekend ride, I'm bound to lose a few pounds eventually. :-).

Starting to get a bit of squeak from the crank/bottom bracket and suspension.  Will give the bike a good cleaning and check lube spots.  Brakes worked great - turkey gobble is gone from rear.

Personal Notes: 264/32, 2HC, 0N, 50R, ~70T. Weather lower 60's, light breeze, 6:35pm to 7:45pm. Ice water w/5HE. Albuterol x0. 5 miles (79.80 odo). V0. Solid sleep.

Today, Arnold, Jon and I rode Waterdog at Belmont - perfect weather again (mid-upper 60's), fairly heavy traffic on the trail - but still very nice.  The initial climb I was on fire (in a good way)- easily could have made it all the way to the junction, had a solid pace and good balance between burning lungs and burning legs :-).  Stronger on downhills, initial climb and overall.  Still challenged on technical steep uphills (reduce rebound front shock further?) - need to really work on balance and clip-ins.  Overall - really happy with my riding on today's ride - especially since I was a couch potato for the last week (and ate garbage).

Mechanically: This ride was breaking in the new brakes - rotors are nice and straight - had no issues with rubbing and could honest tell the difference both up and down the hill.  Got some organic pads at a ridiculously low price (2 for 1 basically) - so decided to give them a try.  MTB forums are right - they suck.  Squeaky and a lot of fade on the downhills.  Will swap them with a new pair of metallics ASAP.  The only significant problem I had was my front derailleur.  On the second downhill - it locked up and wouldn't shift out of the lowest gear.  A quick tap with my shoe and it was fine and functional.  Worked great the rest of the ride, until the end on a street (paved) hill when it wouldn't shift down off the middle ring.  Going to clean it and tune it a bit, shouldn't be an issue (crosses fingers).  Only other thing to note was a sharp squeak when I took off at the end - group consensus was the brakes/rotors rubbing as I torqued the bike a bit to get going. (ie - the ~270lb man was a bit rough on the ~27lb bike).

Personal Notes: 265/32, 2HC, 1N, 45R, ~65T. To-Do: oil chain, tune and clean front derailleur, clean shocks. Weather upper 60's, light cool breeze, 6pm- 8pm.  Used Gatorade - bad call (too sugary) - find alternative. Albuterol x1. Today's diet: Ballpark food (hot dogs, peanuts, crackerjacks - crap).  Solid sleep last night - good stretch before ride.  No pics :-(.