City to Shore 2011

On September 24th and 25th, I will be participating in the National MS Society's MS150 City to Shore bike ride. On the 24th, my wife, brother, and good friend will be riding 100 miles from Cherry Hill, NJ to Ocean City, NJ. The second day, we will be riding 75 miles in the other direction.

The City to Shore is my favorite ride of the year. It's by far the largest group ride that we participate in, it's flat as can be, and it gives us the opportunity to practice drafting and group riding better than any other ride. I've also got a personal connection to this ride.

After graduating college, I was at the beach with my folks and mentioned that I really wanted to do something about my weight. My step dad suggested doing the City to Shore. He had done this ride years earlier and had a great time. Although he would be unable to participate in the ride with me, my good friend who still rides with me came along. We rode 75 miles one way on our first year. I rode my step dad's old trek hybrid bike. My friend rode his dad's 1970's road bike which shifting on the down tube. It also was incredibly too small for him. But we did it.

This ride is the reason I got interested in cycling. It's great because you meet people, talk, challenge yourself physically and mentally (especially when the rain comes and the wind starts blowing), and most importantly, it gives you a goal to set your sights on.

At the end of the ride in Ocean City, my wife (then girlfriend) says to me, "I think I want to do this next year." And she did. So did my brother. But this time, we set our sights higher. We did 100 miles in one day. The first time any of us had ever attempted a century. It was difficult. Especially since my spoke broke on the century loop (an additional 25 mile loop to make the route 100 total). I had to wait for a support van to come fix my spoke. I sent everyone up ahead to the rest stop and ended up waiting about 30 minutes and learning that I was the second to last person left on the century loop.

Needless to say, I wasn't happy with looking like the slow poke. I hopped on my bike, thanked the mechanic, and pushed at 25mph or more up to the rest stop a little over 5 miles up the road. When I got there, huffing and puffing, I handed my wife my bottles, asked her to refill them, and then off we went. Finishing that ride was a great accomplishment. If any of you ride or run, you know how your muscles can cramp up if you rest too long. Just getting back on the bike was difficult, let alone churning out relatively high speeds for the rest of the ride.

For our third year, we decided to do the two day ride. 75 miles in each direction. The challenge here is doing a long ride, resting, and then getting on your bike the next day with a sore butt and tight legs just to complete the same ride, in reverse, the following day. But we did. And it was awesome. Our first day felt a little unorganized. We were not working as a team to draft and pull ourselves along. Day two was entirely different. It felt like everything clicked. Even with the sore legs we managed exactly the same average speed the next day!

This year will be our fourth ride. We'll be completing the longest ride that they offer, 175 miles in two days. I'm extremely excited, however, I do not have the funds raised yet to be able to participate.

In order to participate in this ride, we each need to raise $300. I have currently raised $160. I hate asking for money from people, but if you've got a few bucks to donate to a great cause, I would appreciate your continued support. Please visit my Participant Center and donate.

As a bonus, I'll send an e-mail to the people who donated to me with an update on the ride soon after it's over. Please help me out!

End of (My First) 90 Days

90 days ago I set out to create new life habits to make myself a healthier person. When I reflect back on the goals that I set for myself along with all of the other things that occurred during the past 90 days, I can see a huge change in myself physically and mentally.

Since this blog was founded on the basis that you can create new habits in 90 days, I want to discuss the goals that I set and whether or not they've become habits at this point.

Water - I wrote about this a few weeks into the 90 days and said that this goal was pretty well accomplished. I tracked the goal regardless. I drank 2 liters of water every single day for all 90 days. If you're not much of a water drinker, I recommend you try this for two weeks. Replace the amount of juice, soda, or iced tea that you drink with water. You will feel much better and it may help you lose weight.

Alcohol - Although I accomplished my goal, I did not surpass it. I believe that I have made great strides with reducing the amount of alcohol that I drink. There are numerous days a week where I have no alcohol, but I'm not sure if that's because of the goal or because I've really changed something. I'm still concerned that I will drink more than I should, so I'm going to monitor this for the the next week and see what happens. If I feel like it's become a habit, I wont redo the goal. If it's not, I will continue my alcohol goal for as long as I need to.

Exercise - I think I've accomplished this goal pretty well. I exceeded the goal by two weeks, in fact. I love to do all of the sports and cardio things that I've been doing lately. I also have found that I really don't hate to run as much as I used to think I did. Not that I'm good at it or anything, but I feel more comfortable doing it. My wife and I are even thinking about going to a running store to buy some new shoes and have someone check out our gait to see which shoes will be best for us. My current cross trainers are completely worn out.

Weight - I woke up at 254lbs again. That's a 19lb weight loss. 7lbs less than my goal. I'm disappointed that I didn't reach my goal, but I know that my body has changed pretty drastically since I started. Instead of giving excuses about why I didn't reach my goal, I'm going to concentrate on the positives. Here are some side by sides to show the positives.

 

I'll address some of the changes on the front of my body first.  As you can see, my spare tire has gotten a lot smaller. There's more space between my "chest fat" and the top of my belly fat. My belly has also come up a little bit. More importantly, my clothes fit better. I'm wearing polo shirts that didn't fit me 90 days ago and I'm more comfortable in my pants.

Side view is really the most drastic, I think. My posture has improved a little bit, I think. You can also see a reduction in the fat on my lower back along with a pretty serious reduction in my belly fat. My upper arms seem to have thinned out slightly and the roll off fat on my back where my elbow is is gone. There's still a little bit of a crease, but I expect that to go away pretty soon.

I've had some aspirations arise since I started this 90 days as well. I'd already planned on a two day 175 mile bike ride (100 miles on day 1 and 75 on day 2), but I'm thinking that after that, I might want to try a half marathon. If I had the time to train for a full, I would consider that, but it's gonna get too cold outside to be able to train for that, I think. I have talked about doing plyometrics to try to become more explosive, get faster, and jump higher. My wife pointed out that if I want to be able to sustain endurance, that plymo's may not be the best idea right now. Plus, Ultimate Frisbee season is over so I probably don't need those skills just yet. I can concentrate on losing weight right now and then focus on plyo's another time.

Overall I've seen a lot of positive change. I will continue to lose weight with the goals I will be setting for the next 90 day cycle. I've got some thoughts in my head, but haven't decided on anything for sure yet, so I'm not going to put it out there. Look for a new post by the end of next week with the updates.

Day 90

Officially, today is the last day of my first 90 day challenge. I am sorta sad that it's over, but I'm excited to mix things up a bit. Since today is the last day, I will not post a picture until tomorrow morning and I will not post a weight until tomorrow morning. My post today is gonna be about today.

This morning I continued my trend of waking up early. I got up at 6:15am for our end of the year Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. I got to the fields super early and warmed up with my brother who got there not too long after I did. Unfortunately, there's not much to write about in regards to the tournament. I didn't play particularly well, and neither did the team. We lost both games and with that, the "toilet bowl." We came in 12th out of 12 teams. Disappointing.

I'm trying to decide if I really hate this getting up early stuff. I figure if I can get to bed early, waking up at 6 to get a good workout in might not be the worst thing ever. But then again... it might be. Work drains me more than vacation and weekends, for sure.

I currently sit on my sofa with the Phillies game on the TV. I'm bored, which is partially why I decided to write a post today. I used to get bored and eat or throw a video game in or something. What do I want to do instead? Go for a run. Do I think things have changed for me? Yes.

I'm still in the process of planning goals for my next 90 day cycle. I will certainly be taking suggestions, but I'm also going to be taking a break after tomorrow from tracking things. I'll reflect more on this tomorrow.

Stay tuned. Pictures & Reflections tomorrow.

Day 88

I woke up early again this morning. This time, for a bike ride.

I rolled out of bed, brushed my teeth, and threw on my bike clothes. I walked downstairs and grabbed some breakfast while filling my water bottles. When I looked outside, it was a pretty cloudy day and probably somewhere in the mid to high 70's. After the 100 degree heat waves we've had, mid 70's almost feels chilly.

I threw my shoes on and went out. I started out of Cape May and started to get a little mist from the clouds. I don't think much of it. I roll over the bridge and head towards Wildwood. I climb over another bridge, and this is when things start getting bad.

It's no longer misting, but raining lightly. The bridge has gathered some moisture, and as I cross over the metal grates, I completely lose control of my wheels.

Now. Let me explain a few things about riding a bike for those of you who haven't done so in a while. When your back wheel starts to go sideways, you can still manage to control the bike relatively well with the front wheel. Continue in the direction that you were going, don't turn your front wheel, and the back will eventually recover, for the most part. When your front wheel starts going sideways, you're screwed.

Both of my wheels started going sideways, except I lost control over my front wheel. My entire bike started to the left. Luckily, no cars were coming. My right foot popped out of my pedal. Not sure why I pulled out my right foot, it wasn't going to do me any good, because I was gonna fall to my left.

Luckily, I managed to gain enough control before falling and my right foot being out allowed me to adjust my weight distribution and bring my bike back up to center. PHEW!

I'll set the stage for this portion of my ride. The roads are wet, it's raining pretty hard at this point, and I'm in Wildwood on the other side of a bridge that I have no interest in going back over after what just happened.

I'm not sure if this rain is supposed to get better or worse, but it seems to be slowing down. I got to a road that I knew would take me to the Garden State Parkway. I assumed I could figure out how to get back home from there, so I went that way, avoiding the bridge I had just gone over. Apparently this wasn't the best idea either.

As I went this way, I had to cross another bridge. This bridge was not steep in the least, but I completely lost the shoulder of the road that I was riding on. Fine. Deal with it. As I got to the top of the bridge, I notice the same metal grating that I had almost gone down on. So I slow down, coast over it, trying to maintain my balance. I make it across, and immediately start hearing a "fap fap fap" noise. My tire's flat. I'm in the middle of a bridge with no shoulder and my tire is flat. There is no stopping here, but I don't want to ruin my rim.

Luckily, my tire is still half inflated, so I coast down to a spot where I can stop and do my repair. I flip my bike over, and it almost immediately starts to downpour. I feel like I'm standing under a waterfall. I run my fingers inside my tire to see if I can find anything that might have punctured the tire. Nothing, so I replace the tube and put the tire back on the rim.

The only inflation system I have with me is a CO2 cartridge pump. I know from the past that these things get really cold when they start to shoot air into your tire. Not holding the cartridge is kind of out of the question. I only have one, so if this doesn't go right, I'm 7 miles from home with no way to get back. I let the air out of the cartridge and it immediately starts to freeze. I go to remove the cartridge from the pump, and my hand is now stuck to the cartridge. Think "A Christmas Story" when that kid gets his tongue stuck to the pole.

Once the rain melts the cartridge off of my hand, I put the wheel back on and hope it holds out. I'm now trying to get home as fast as I can without going back over those two bridges again, so I get going.

I finally find a road that looks somewhat familiar, so I get on it and ride.

I eventually make it home. My clothes are completely soaked and all I want to do is get them off and hop in the shower, but I've first gotta wipe my bike down and clean up all of the grime.

What a miserable ride. On the bright side, I guess it makes for a decent story.

Day 87

I'm a little bit disappointed with myself. I haven't been holding to my drinking goal. I'm on vacation, so for some reason, I feel like I can drink what I want when I want. I've held off on drinking before 5:00pm, but I know I'm still drinking too much. In an attempt to curb my drinking, I got a six pack of Michelob Ultra. It's meh... I have less interest in drinking now.

I also haven't been working out as hard as I wanted to on this vacation because my knee has been bothering me since Saturday's Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. I was finally starting to feel better last night, so I figured I'd wake up today and run. And I did. At 7:30am.

I know, I know... 7:30 is what time most of you start your commute (or maybe start working!) But I'm on vacation and I didn't get to bed until midnight. None the less... up at 7:30, out the door for a 4.5 mile run at 8:00. It felt good. I saw a lot of people out for a workout this morning. I also saw people preparing for a lifeguard competition down here in Cape May, NJ.

This is the USLA (United States Lifeguard Association)'s National Lifeguard Championship. There are lifeguards here from all over the country competing in crazy events. Apparently it's a 3 day event, so I'll probably try to catch some of it at some point, but for now I'm just sticking to my own thing.

Anyway, I'm proud of my run this morning. I hope to get out for another workout later today... maybe on the kayak... despite my blisters and funny looking sunburn.

Day 85

I figured that since I'm on vacation, I should be able to find the time to make a few extra posts. Also, since it's my last week of my first 90 days, I figured updating more often would be nice for you guys.

My knee has continued to bother me from the Ultimate Frisbee Tournament on Saturday. I wanted to ride my bike this morning, but I need to listen to my body. I preach this stuff so I need to follow my own advice, even though that's extremely difficult sometimes.

Instead of riding or running, I decided to pull out my parent's ocean kayak.

Now, I've been out on these kayak's before. I would venture to say, I've been on kayaks more than 20 times in my life, but not much more than that. I'm not a rookie, but I wouldn't say I'm experienced. Kayaking for me usually looks like this: Get in the water, row out a little bit, rest while enjoying the motion of the ocean, row really fast, rest some more, turn back and try to catch a wave. This whole thing lasts about 15 minutes. Tops.

Today looked different. My brother went with me, so there was some of that competitiveness going on, but I set the bar high to begin with. My brother just wouldn't let me quit. If you've ever been to Cape May NJ (or even if you haven't), you may know that there is a lighthouse. The beach that we go to is called "The Cove Beach." The lighthouse is on the other end of the cove. Over a mile away. A little bit past this lighthouse is a jetty. I wanted to go to the jetty.

 

This image courtesy of TripAdvisor

If you look at this photograph, you can see where the end of the beach is all the way in the background. That's where we went. We launch our boats from about where the two people are looking for seashells to the left of the lifeguard stand. It's far.

So we set out and rowed. It was getting difficult for me because my hands started to hurt. My left hand in particular. I was getting a blister, I had prune fingers, and my left pinky and ring finger on my left hand were hard core cramped.

The current in the water typically pushes with us on the way down to the lighthouse. I was really getting concerned about the current because I figured It would take at least twice as long to get back. When we finally made it to the jetty, we turned around, and found that the current was going the wrong way. Apparently we had been fighting the current the whole first half of our trip, and now it's gonna be with us. SWEET!

So after an hour and a half, we made it back to the beach. We pulled the boats up close to our chairs, opened our books, and enjoyed the breeze.

Oh. And my shoulders hurt like hell. :-)

Start of Week 13: The Final Countdown

Today is the start of week 13. It is also day 84. That means that this coming Saturday, August 6th, will be day 90 and my first 90 day experiment will be over. This is exciting for me, because I've tried to do 52 day challenges before where you set goals and I always dropped out around day 30. I'm gonna make it this time.

I want to reflect on this idea for a second. Why did it work this time? Here's the answer: I made my goals realistic, but still challenging. I feel like I've made some real lifestyle changes that will stick with me for a long time. But what's next on my plate?

I'm trying to decide what kind of goals I want to set for my next 90 days. That's right. I'm doing it all again. I appreciate everybody who reads my blog, because without you, I don't have the embarrassment when I fail. I really do feel embarrassed when I don't do what I set out to do.

So what goals do you, my readers (aka my friends and family), think my new goals should be for the next cycle? I'd like to add a strength goal- pushups, pullups, something of that nature... maybe both. I may keep the alcohol goal, but adjust it some, and I certainly will continue to track my weight. But what else do you think I should do that I haven't thought of yet? I want some feedback on that.

While you think about it, I'll give you some body shot pictures. Also, my weight didn't change, but my body did. Weird, right? I'll save my side by sides for next weekend.

 

I should also say that I'm at the beach, which is why the room looks different. My wife is not here, so my substitute photographer was my brother this week. I like the pictures my brother took, I think they really capture the box my scale travels in, but he's no replacement for my wife. I love you and miss you babe!