I chose work over fitness

2008-06-20 11:03   0 Likes   3 Comments   0 Images

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Since November last year, my business has swallowed nearly every waking hour of my life, causing me to gain 14kg.  I new my fitness gas gone to the pack but nothing prepared me for the ride I did yesterday with a friend.

I want to get my fitness back as every time I look at myself in the mirror or think of my current fitness levels I become depressed.

I went for a 70km ride on Wednesday.  My seed was a lot slower then I was hopping it would be.  Thursday I arranged to go for a ride with a friend.  This ride has become my motivation to get stuck rite back into it again.  My friend has always struggled to stay on my rear wheel every time we have gone for a cycle, but this time he just moped the floor with me.

Many times he had to slow to wait for me as I puff and pant. I really did struggle just keeping a normal speed of 25km/ph. 

At the moment I am weighing in at 94kg and I am aiming for my old weight of 80kg.  The ride with my friend has awoken me from this obsession of work over my own fitness.  Sometimes you need a wake up call to get you going again and I have received mine.

A Hard 106km

2007-10-08 00:17   0 Likes   1 Comment   0 Images

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Yesterday, I drove down to Hobart to participate in “THE BIG RIDE”.  It is 106km very hilly and bloody windy ride through the Margate area.  A mate told me that the ride was hilly and you have to climb a few mountains but I wasn’t expecting it to be as hard as it was.

For the first 50km, I stayed in the first pack and then the hills and mountains started to eat at me and eat at me.  Each hill and mountain steeper and longer then the last.  It was by far the hardest thing I have ever done.  

In the last 20km, I really hit a wall, I had nothing, all I could do is to just stay behind other riders and let them take me back. 

It was a really good ride, I haven’t had to push myself that hard before and I can’t wait till next year so I can have another crack at it.

How I got fit

2007-09-22 11:10   0 Likes   24 Comments   0 Images

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In 2004, I was never motivated in cycling, triathlons or any other endurance sports.  I was the kind of bloke who would say, “Monday, I am going on a diet and I am going to get fit and lose some weight” and by lunchtime, I would be eating a meat pie, until I was with some family and friends and we were all talking about trying to get fit.  I expressed interest that ‘one day I would like to cycle from Penrith to Newcastle (180km)’ every person in the room all had a good cack about this.  I thought then and there that I would show them.

Cause I didn’t have a bike at the time, the next day I went for a run. I couldn’t run 300 meters without stopping and felt like my lungs was going to blow up.  I was very unfit and I weighed over 100kg.

I went out and brought a road bike and started cycling up and down the freeway.  As the weeks went on I started to become fitter and I lost about 15kg in about 2 months.

The feeling I was getting from cycling, running and swimming was better the anything that I had ever experienced (including sex). I thought after I show everyone who thought I couldn’t do the ride to Newcastle, I would give Triathlons ago.

My sister Joe said that she would help me along the way refilling my water bottles, etc.  I remember taking off at about 4am in the morning and before sunrise, I was almost halfway.  After finishing the ride, I did what and good sportsman would do, I sent SMS messages to every person who did not think I could do the ride and rubbed it in there face.

New gears and weight lost

2007-09-21 13:55   0 Likes   3 Comments   0 Images

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I just got new gears put onto my bike and I couldn’t wait another minute.  I through my bike into my car and drove out to Powitena.  I then cycled from Powitena up the mouton to the great leaks.  I love that mouton.  It is 11km from the bottom to the top and with not room for recovery.  There is something about it that I just cant get enough of.  It is a shame I live so far away or I would be up it everyday.

My new gears are a lot harder then I would have liked them to be, but I am looking at it as better and harder training.  I hope to replace my bike within the next 12 months and with my current gearing, I hope to get stronger as the months roll on.

I am currently working hard to lose about 10kg It is pretty bloody hard as I eat for 10 men.  I hate to think if ever I stop training, I will become a big fat bull.   

Cycling in Sydney this weekend.

2007-09-17 10:55   0 Likes   2 Comments   0 Images

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I had to go up to Sydney this weekend for a wedding and I thought that I could do something that I can actually enjoy by jumping in the saddle and taking off on the bike.

My brother in-law who has lost more weight then you can poke a stick at (going from a 6XL to now weighing just 82kg) has just got into cycling and I arranged with him to cycle from Eastern Creek to Springwood, which is about 75km with about half the ride in the Blue Moutons.

When it comes to mouton riding, I really do love it.  I am generally pretty slow but I just can’t get enough.  I love the pain in my legs, the air in my lungs, the pushing of the body.

The roads in Sydney are very different from the roads in Tasmania.  Sydney roads are mostly smooth and flat where Tasmanian roads are bumpy and hilly. 

When finished the cycle with my brother in-law, I then had to cycle to St Clear to where my wife was getting ready for this wedding.  On the ride there I got hopelessly lost, putting an extra 5 or so kilometers on the trip. 

Poor efforts for August

2007-09-11 06:13   0 Likes   1 Comment   0 Images

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In the beginning of August, I set a few goals for myself to lose 8kg and to get my fitness to what is was two months prier.  Looking at my bathroom scales in early September I wasn’t too impressed with my poor little efforts. 

I loosed 2kg and my fitness is creeping back slowly.  Some may say it is due to all the choclet I eat, some may say it is the amount of time I spend at work, but myself, I like to keep it real and say I just planed failed. 

This week I can’t cycle as by bike gearing system has done its self in.  This has caused me to start spending more time in the gym.