The Fat Guy David Crowell :: Losing Weight

I left a little earlier than normal. I took my time, and stopped for pictures. I also stopped for a donut, diet be damned.

I have a lot of housework to do this weekend, and was considering not going for much of a ride. Having a new bike really makes me want to ride, but I figured I should do something more productive.

I got a text message from Tim asking if I’d like to squeeze in a ride this weekend. I call him, and we planned for this morning.

The temperature started out at about 40F. I tend to overdress, so I opted to go without a jacket. I wore a new jersey that my wife got me with a compression shirt under it. I wore cycling tights, wool socks, and my cycling shoes. I finished it off with a hat under my helmet and leather gloves.

I was worried I get cold, or that it would start raining, so I used bungie straps to tie my jacket and reflective vest to the front rack. I never needed those.

Tim came to my house with his Rivendell Bleriot. It’s a beautiful bike, but too small for me.

Our route took us out Tunnel Mill Road through rolling hills until the steep descent into the Fourteen Mile Creek bed. Then the steep climb out made me thankful for the low gears available on my new LHT.

We then turned on Marion Martin Rd. I used to live out on that road, and I knew there would be a beautiful view of Fourteen Mile Creek and a small waterfall. We stopped for a few pictures before continuing up through New Market then to New Washington for a store stop.

The ride from New Washington to Marysville was remarkably flat. We had kept up a good pace for most of the ride so far, but we were running out of steam.

Our flat riding continued to Otisco where we had another store stop, and I ate some chicken strips.

We took Leon Prall Road out of Otisco and into hillier terrain. We were in very familiar terrain now. Tim and I had ridden these roads quite a few times, though usually in the opposite direction. It was along here somewhere that our climbing ability faltered, and we would crawl up the hills at 4-5 mph.

It was a pretty straightforward ride back home with only one big climb along the way. We finished up at around 38 miles, but that number is just an estimate. Tim and I both need to do a roll-out calibration on our computers.

I rode my Surly Long Haul Trucker to work today.  The bike now has fenders, front and rear rack, and a computer installed.

I picked up the bike last night and was itching to ride it today.  My panniers wouldn’t easily mount on the rear rack, so I put them on the front rack.  My trunk bag would block my tail light, so I also put that on the front rack.  The bike did handle differently with the weight on the front, but it was still very stable.

I stayed up entirely too late last night, but was excited enough to get up and ride to work today.  Now I’m looking forward to the ride home this afternoon.

I’m still trying to come up with a name for the new bike.

I figured a 35-mile ride with the SIW would be a good way to spend some time on a Saturday.  The ride started in Sellersburg, so I figured I’d ad another 15 miles by riding to and from the ride.

I rode to Sellersburg, and met up with the other riders.  I had only ever met one of them before.  For the first few miles I kept up with the fast group.  I started losing ground on them, then rode alone.  I was going to finish the ride, but I was hungry, so I turned for home.  I got in a total of 30 miles, and I really feel like I put the new bike through it’s paces.

The ride seemed to turn out similar to my first group ride, which was with the SIW also.

Ignore the ugly, horribly mounted rack in the picture.  I borrowed that one (spray painted!) from my daughter’s bike until I get my new rack.

I had a lot of fun on last Sunday’s RCCS ride.  I didn’t have time to write about it until today.

Four of us were there for the ride.  I don’t consider that to be too bad considering the late notice.  It was cold, but we were dressed for it and enjoyed hot coffee from Heine Brothers and Sunergos.

Ben, Dominic, Tim, and I followed the route westward to Shawnee Park and back.  It was never meant to be a long ride, just an enjoyable one.  The planned route was about 20 miles, but Tim and I put in about 26 or so for the day.

We are planning another ride for this coming Sunday.  Check the RCCS site for more information.

Tim and I met up on the first of January (yesterday) for a hilly 40-mile route through Hoosier National Forest.  The ride started with temperatures in the teens, which later climbed into the low 20s.

This was probably the most difficult 40-mile ride I’ve ever done.  The hills were unrelenting.  Even with chemical warmers in my gloves and boots, I had issues staying warm enough.

Tim wrote about it here.  I’m just including some pictures.

Tim came over for a ride today to burn off some Thanksgiving calories.  I really didn’t eat much yesterday, but made up for it post-ride today.

I planned the route, but we missed a turn somewhere near Clark State Forest.  It didn’t take us long to get back on track, and it changed our overall mileage by less that 1/2 mile.

This is the route we actually took:

The first half of the route was just rolling hills from Charlestown to Borden.  We had a bit of a headwind, but knew that it would help on the return trip.

We climbed up Jackson Rd to head out of Borden.  This climb averages a 11% grade and briefly hits 16%.  It was at this point that the wind was no longer slowing us down.

We rode along the top a ridge for a while, which gave some beautiful views.  Eventually we realized we made a wrong turn, but continued along until we came to Pixley Knob Rd.  This led to an extremely fast descent coming out of the knobs.

We rode to Henryville for our store stop, then it was just more rolling hills to get back.

It was quite cold.  This was my first cold ride of the year.  I’ve had rides that started cold, but this one didn’t really warm up.  I was dressed for it, but I’d rather be warmer.

After getting home, I ran a few errands on the bike then over to Charlestown Pizza for a pizza and too much wonderful beer.  After riding, eating, and drinking, I took a nap.

My youngest daughter is nearly an adult.  I’m now balancing teaching her to drive and teaching her to ride her bike.  The “how” is the easy part.  The “which for when” is harder.  She doesn’t have the love of cycling that I do, but she does want to go places that aren’t convenient to walk, and she doesn’t yet have a car or a driver’s license.  She could really use the exercise, but anytime I bring that up, I’m “being mean”.

I’ve lost nearly 100 lbs with my lifestyle change.  She doesn’t yet need to lose that amount, but thinks she can’t lose any weight.

I try not to be too heavy-handed.  She will be 18 next month.  She doesn’t like to wear a helmet.  There are no helmet laws here, so I don’t make her.  I don’t forbid her from eating certain foods, I just try to encourage her to choose the healthy ones. (I don’t always make the smart choice myself.)

I really wish I had fallen in love with cycling earlier, and could have exposed her to it before now.  If she had grown up riding her bike for transportation instead of riding in a car for every 1/2 mile trip, I wouldn’t be struggling with her as much as I am now.

The RCCS had a bit of hiatus. We made up for it yesterday.

We had wanted another mixed-terrain, gravel road, rambling trip through Hoosier National Forest.  I planned the route, printed cue sheets, and prepared my GPS.

Tim and I were joined by Jeff.  Jeff was new to our RCCS rides, but a skilled cyclist, and brought the proper bike for the gravel roads, but probably not the best bike for the route we ended up taking.  None of were prepared.

Either we missed a turn somewhere, or the map was wrong.  Either way, we weren’t exactly sure where we were at.  The GPS was not as useful as I thought it would be.  We did find some great gravel roads.  Traffic was extremely light, and the weather was wonderful.

Once we were back on course (we think we were anyway), we made a left turn that both our cue sheet and the GPS confirmed as the correct route.  The narrow gravel road was rougher than most, but didn’t give away what was lying ahead.

The road dead-ended into a marked trail.  Looking at the GPS, it appeared that we could continue following it to the next part of the route.

The path got rougher, muddier, and eventually were crossing small creeks.  We were mountain biking on bikes meant for pavement.

Remember my last post where I said I’m hard on my bike?  It’s going to take a while to get all the mud out.

We spent hours doing a seven-mile loop in the woods.  The trail just looped back around.  By the time we got back to our parked cars, we had put in a total of 40 miles.  It was a great ride and it kept with the RCCS spirit of an “adventurous” ride.