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.

I didn’t ride at all yesterday due to oversleeping, and not feeling well.  I did go to work, but I drove the truck.  I hate paying for parking.

To make up for it, I rode the full commute today, even with the sketchy weather forecast.  I’ll get back to the weather….

The Crash

I rode my alternate route again, which I really like.  There was a bit of a headwind most of the way in to work this morning, but I was enjoying the nicer weather and the nicer route.

Near this intersection, traffic was heavy, there was an upcoming right-turn lane, and some very rough pavement.  I was so busy checking traffic to move left and get out of what would become the right-turn lane, that I didn’t notice the rough pavement.

One moment I was looking behind me for traffic.  The next moment I was sliding on my back across the road, watching the car behind me come to a stop.  The driver of the car got out, and asked if I was alright as I pulled myself up.  Noting no real injury, just a couple of scrapes and a sore wrist, I said, “Thanks, I’m fine”.  I picked up my bike and attempted to walk it off the road.

It was then I noticed the handlebars were completely askew.  A closer look revealed my right bar-end was broken, and the bars had also rotated forward.  My handlebar mirror had also cracked, but my helmet mirror was fine.

Luckily the bike had fallen to the right, as the left pannier had my laptop in it.  The laptop was undamaged.

I was able to straighten the bars and continue on to work.

During a break at work I rode down to Bike Couriers to have them look at the bike and install new bar-ends.  The mechanic re-adjusted the bars properly, and installed the bar-ends, and I returned to work.

More Damage

I left work in the afternoon and was headed home.  I didn’t make it far when my left pannier (with the laptop!)  caught in the wheel and destroyed the rear fender.  Although the pannier fell in the road the laptop came away unscathed.

The rear fender had folded back on itself, and I thought it would be salvageable.  I got out my tools and removed the rack.  The mounting hardware was ripped completely off of the fender, so I no longer have a rear fender.

I took a closer look at the pannier that fell off, and the clips that hold it to the rack are bent up badly (probably from the crash in the morning).  I was able to get it to stay securely by moving it to the right side of the bike (the wrong side).

The Weather

I was expecting a cool morning commute with a headwind, and mother nature did not disappoint.  I was dressed properly, and slogged through the headwind.

I expected slightly warmer temperatures and rain for the afternoon commute and a tailwind.  I got the tailwind, but the forecast was wrong on every other count.  It actually exceeded 80 degrees this afternoon.  When I left work it was only overcast.  I was wearing cycling tights and a long-sleeve thermal compression shirt.  It was a bit warm for that.

I would have made it home in record time had it no been for the fender incident.  My bike computer showed 61 minutes of riding time, but clock time was over 90 minutes.  On the 2nd Street Bridge, I was approaching the 35 MPH speed limit on the second half of the bridge.  Cars were still passing me.  During much of my commute home my speed was above 20 MPH.  Having a strong tailwind is like having an electric motor helping you along.

Previous Incidents

This is the third set of fenders I’ve been through on that bike.  I’ve destroyed several wheels.  I replaced the chain and cassette on my recumbent (just wore the darn thing out!).  The gravel ride I did in July went through three tubes, and caused me to replace tires.  I’m doing another gravel ride on Sunday.

I’ve crashed twice before todays incident, not counting the many times when I was a kid.  I crashed on my recumbent earlier this year, which led to me sliding across the road on my butt.  No real injury then either, just a little sore.  There were some minor scuffs on the bike.  I had fallen on gravel during a low-speed turn once on Nermal before, but there was no injury, and no damage.

Today’s incident was the first time I crashed in traffic.  It was surreal to have a view of moving cars from ground level, especially while I was still sliding along the road.  I’m glad I wasn’t hurt, and I’ll be paying closer attention to rough pavement.

On Sunday, I went on a 40-mile ride from Cape Canaveral to Sebastian Inlet State Park. It wasn’t an unpleasant ride, but the flat terrain, crosswind, and traffic made it less than ideal.

The payoff was supposed to be the beach at the end of the ride.  Kristy drove there and met me.  We were at the beach for only a few minutes when the bugs got bad, so we left in the truck with the bike in the back.

I did notice that my lack of riding recently has affected my fitness level.  The flat 40-miler kicked my butt.  I need to ride more often.

I’m home, and was back at work today.  I drove, but I’ll be on the bike tomorrow.

I had to drive to Niles Michigan over the weekend.  I brought my bike with me, and managed a 20-miler before heading home.  It was a beautiful Sunday morning, there were a number of other cyclists out, including Joe, riding a Rans V-Rex.

The route I rode is here.  I used to live in Niles, and know those roads, but after nine years, and never riding a bike on most of them, it was definitely a bit of an adventure.

The riding was wonderful.  The hours spent driving the truck… not so much.

My 17-year-old daughter is spending the summer with me.  She’s ridden her bike very little this year, but she decided that she’d like to ride at the state park with me for Father’s Day.

We loaded the bikes into my truck (and forgot the helmets) and went to the park.

She picked the route, winding from one end of the park to the other.  There were a couple of big hills to climb, so I was surprised she picked that route.

It took about two hours to ride the ten-mile ride.  She spent some time walking the hills, and we took breaks occasionally.

Along the way we saw turkeys, butterflies, tadpoles, rabbits, and unidentifiable insects.

Tim put together a great ride for the RCCS.  At 70 miles, it’s my longest ride to date, and I rode Nermal.  I would have normally chosen my ‘bent for a long ride, but I enjoy switching it up sometimes.

There were a total of seven of us that showed up for the ride.  It was a good mix of people, bikes, and fun.

The southern-most part of the ride had a few hills, and one big hill, but it was mostly flat other than that.

Tim posted a good review of the ride, and explained where we went better than I can.  I just followed the group.  We didn’t have cue sheets, and that was fine.  Tim explained in the original announcement that the group was to stay together, and we did.

I felt fine during the ride, but required a two-hour nap after I got home.

I had an errand to run in Danville KY today, so I drove there, but brought the bike along.

I managed to squeeze in a 30-mile solo ride, on unfamiliar roads.  Amazingly, I didn’t even make a wrong turn.

The weather was nearly perfect.  Temperatures were in the 80s.  The sky was mostly clear, and there was a nice breeze.  I did get a bit of sunburn, but nothing too bad.

I wanted to cross over Herrington Lake on two different bridges.  Riding along Lexington Road (Hwy 34) was a bit hairy at times, so I cut over to Chenault Bridge Road as soon as I could, and crossed over that older bridge.

After a bit of wandering in low-traffic areas for a while, I found my way to Kennedy Bridge Rd, back across the lake, and into the town of Burgin.

From there, I was in the home stretch to finish the ride.

I didn’t ride enough through the week, so even with today’s ride, I only have 91.8 miles for the week.