More Thrust, Less Drag

Project More Thrust, Less Drag has begun.

Yes, this photo is stolen. I purchased prints so I feel entitled to the electronic rights. I made no effort to remove the watermark and I cropped it. It was taken by Greg Sadler Photography. They shot photos at the Tour de Cure and are selling prints online (proceeds go to the ADA). Their pictures are really nice, even when the subject looks like an overstuffed sausages on a bicycle.

Yes, I confess, that's me. I honestly didn't realize that I look like such a lard butt on my bicycle. Ick! That was taken at the finish line of the Tour de Cure. It was a hard day so please ignore my poor form (by that I mean the shoulders that are crawling up into my ears and the elbows pointing sideways instead of turned back and relaxed).

Now, I've known for quite some time that my "got married and quit smoking" weight gain wasn't particularly healthy or attractive. And I can definitely feel it when I'm trying to pedal those extra pounds up a hill. But it really hit home when I saw this picture. I'm not just a little chubby here, folks. This is downright disturbing. A small part of me is actually a little bit proud because I don't know anyone that's anywhere near my size that can ride as fast or as far as I can, but still, it's disturbing. This photo is the last straw. Something must be done.

You see, I worked really hard to lose a lot of weight several years ago. I got my lazy tush off the couch, I swam, I biked, I joined a gym, and I did Weight Watchers. At one point I had lost a full 100 pounds. My lifestyle had done a 180. Through most of my 20s I was a grumpy, sarcastic, overfed couch potato. I worked too many hours, smoked too many cigarettes, and ate way too many nacho cheese combos. One fine day in May of 2003 I decided that enough was enough and I turned the corner. Over the next year I discovered that I kinda liked exercise, especially bicycling, healthy food can taste really good, my life and my job are NOT the same thing, and it really is possible for me to lose weight. I became healthy, happy, and, for the first time in my life, I really liked myself.

Weight Watchers (henceforth known as "WW") was a huge part of this. See, I love to eat. I love little snacks. And I love to sit down at a meal and try a little bit of everything and have seconds of my favorites. I love going to Morgan & York (if they're not the best cheese mongers in the US then their right up there near the top) and tasting a dozen different cheeses and bringing home a decadent snack to share with Buster. I don't mind cooking and I like to try my hand at new recipes and taste as I go. From cheesy poofs to grilled asparagus, from sushi to prime rib, I just love food. If I don't pay careful attention to what I'm eating, no matter how much I exercise, I will gain weight.

WW held me accountable for everything I ate. It's really a very good program. You track what you eat using a "points" system. The number of points for a given food is based on its calories, fat (bad), and fiber (good). I did WW for so long that you can hand me any nutritional label and I can calculate the WW points in my head in a few short seconds. I can also give you a fair points estimate for most food items without a nutritional label. WW really worked for me, but somewhere along the line I just plain burned out. Buster and I got engaged and my commitment to WW started slipping. Then we got married and a few months later I quit smoking and decided to give WW a break while I recovered. I never really got back on track. I tried a few times, spent the money, went to the meetings, kept the points journal for a few days, then I'd fall off again. I backslid, bad. I've managed to gain back over half the weight I worked so hard to lose.

Other than simple burnout (after three years, can you blame me?), I had only one real problem with WW. It wasn't designed for people that do intense exercise. Road biking isn't for slouches. I wear a heart rate monitor when I ride so I know that I routinely burn well over a thousand calories on a weekday evening ride. WW would give me 12 extra points on a day when I burned 1200 calories. 12 points represents somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 food calories. That system works when you're burning fewer than four or five hundred calories a day, but 1200? That's too much deficit. WW also wants you to eat those extra calories all on the same day you burn them. If I rode hard and took the next day off I would get very hungry on the off day because my body is still recovering.

So, when I saw that sausage photo above and knew that biking alone wasn't going to peel off those excess pounds or make me ready for DALMAC (Lansing to Mackinaw on a bicycle, 5 days, 340 miles, at the end of August) I decided that project "More Thrust, Less Drag" must begin. I'm a geek remember? And I studied aerospace engineering in school so thrust and drag are painfully familiar concepts to me. I need to get stronger - more thrust, and weigh less - less drag.

I knew that WW wasn't going to do it for me this time around. A friend of mine signed up on SparkPeople not too long ago and she told me a little about it. So I decided to sign up and see what they have to offer. It's part social networking site (think facebook or myspace), part fitness and nutrition site. I've mostly been ignoring the social networking part and using the food and exercise trackers. It's actually pretty similar to WW.

Similarities:

• both are more "lifestyle changes" than "diets"
• you have to record everything you eat
• there are no off-limits foods
• both strongly encourage exercise
• both have online message boards, recipes, motivational articles, etc.
  

Differences

• WW uses points. Spark tracks calories along with fat, carbs, and protein (these are by default, other values, like fiber, sodium, and calcium can also be tracked).
• WW gives "activity points" for exercise. Spark asks you to enter a goal for calories burned in a week, then spreads extra calories over the whole week to cover your needs.
• WW can be done on paper or online. Spark has to be done online.
• WW encourages you to go to weekly support meetings (but also has an online only option). Spark has no meetings available.
• WW strongly encourages a weekly weigh in. Spark tracks weight and measurements, but doesn't suggest how often these should be measured (at least not that I've seen so far). [ETA: Found it. Spark wants weekly weigh ins also but they're less stringent about it.]
  
• WW costs money. Spark is free (their site is full of ads but it's not overwhelming).

I just started a few days ago and, so far, I like Spark. It gets around my WW burnout without sacrificing the things I know work for me. It tracks meaningful nutritional stats and I really like the way it handles exercise calories. I don't know if I'm going to miss the WW meetings. I met a very dear friend going to those meetings and, for a while, they helped me stay motivated. I'm also not sure how I feel about being tied to the computer for tracking. I don't mind it so far and I think it's all gonna work out.

My short term goal is to ride every mile of DALMAC -- no sag wagon for me! The photo on the right represents my long term goal. That's me on a beautiful natural beach in the Bahamas in February of 2005. That was my first vacation with Buster. We spent most of the vacation fishing and I loved every minute of it. When I get back to that size I think I'm going to ask Buster if we can go back to that place. They say you're supposed to reward yourself for reaching a fitness or weight loss goal. I think another vacation in a remote part of the Bahamas would be a perfect reward! I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Success! Pain! Victory! The Tour de Cure, 2008

The Tour de Cure is a once a year cycling event to raise money for the American Diabetes Association. This year's Tour de Cure was held yesterday in Brighton, MI and it was my most difficult Tour yet. Some of it was the new route, most of it was the weather.

I set an ambitious fund raising goal and thanks to some very generous, wonderful, and amazing people I was able to bring in just over $500 for the ADA this year. Huge thanks to everyone that sponsored me. You all rock! Success!

Registration started at 7am. I hauled my carcass out of bed before 6 to get some breakfast, pack up my bike and gear and get to Island Lake State Recreation Area by 7. If you know me you know that I find 6am to be an ungodly wicked and horrible hour for any human being to be pulled from a peaceful slumber, especially on the weekend. It was an act of sheer will combined with love for my cause and my bicycle that got me to registration on time.

That photo was taken after the lines had died down. The start time for "50 and 70 mile" riders was 7:30am. There were a lot of "50 and 70 mile" riders this year. I put that in quotes because the "50 mile" route was only 48 miles and the "70 mile" route was just shy of 63 miles. This discrepancy was noted on my comment card along with a note that the ride is getting too big for a group start.
The group start meant long lines at registration and a peloton at the start of the ride. A peloton (big bunch of riders all packed together) might look fun on tv, but it's actually super scary and dangerous, especially when you're sharing the road with cars and most of the riders have very little experience with cooperative riding.

Having aired my complaints, I must tell you, the volunteers and organizers really did a wonderful job. The route was challenging (which is usually a good thing if the weather isn't terribly hot, muggy, and windy -- something they certainly couldn't have predicted) , the rest stops were well spaced and well stocked, and the volunteers were friendly and helpful and all around wonderful.

The ride began with several miles of rolling hills through Kensington Metropark.

A pretty way to start the day. It was still under 80°F and the wind hadn't kicked up yet but the big rain storms Saturday night left the air heavy and wet.

Kent Lake (above) is the main attraction at Kensington Metropark. It's very pretty in the morning.

After Kensington we headed up past the GM proving grounds, then north and west to Highland State Recreation Area. Then we turned south toward Proud Lake and west, back again to the proving grounds. And then we headed further south returning to Island Lake where an out-and-back in the park brought us to 63 miles and the finish line.

As the day wore on the temperature and humidity climbed and so did the wind speed. It seemed like every corner we turned pointed us uphill or into the wind. I think I drank my weight in gatorade and my brain still felt like a fried egg before we finished. Pain!


We hit this rest stop near the proving grounds twice: once at 17 miles and again at 40 miles. By the second stop here I was sore and feeling dehydrated, though I was drinking water and gatorade by the gallon. And I was pretty sure I'd suffered sunscreen failure -- luckily I was wrong on that front and ended up with nothing more than a darker tan and a pink nose.

There were an unusual number of flat tires on this ride. The gentleman I ended up riding most of the ride with got one (his first flat tire ever), and we passed probably ten other riders changing flats. I wonder if weather was to blame? Or little bit of extra sand and gravel on the roads from Saturday night's rain? Somehow I escaped a flat this time, but I harbor no illusions about my tire luck. I've had not a single flat all last year or so far this season. I'm seriously overdue.

The last rest stop on the tour was at about 58 miles. A volunteer there insisted that we take off our helmets and handed us cold wet paper towels. Ahhh! Yes, the brain definitely felt like an overcooked egg at that point, but the little bit of cooling helped and it felt great to wash the salt off my face and neck. Somehow this, along with more cold gatorade, gave me enough strength to make it the last 5 miles to the finish.


When I finally reached the finish (Victory!!) I stashed my bike and made a beeline for food. Carrabba's Italian Grill provided lunch. They have this chicken and mushroom masala stuff that is super duper amazingly yummy. I think it would still be tasty even if I hadn't just burned 4000 calories (I'm not exaggerating -- that's what my heart rate monitor actually reported) riding a bicycle 63 miles uphill and into the steamy wind.

I headed home for some ibuprofen and a shower. A solid ten minutes under cold spray and I was finally able to stop imagining that my brain aught to be served up with toast and bacon. For the rest of the day I napped and watched tv and knitted socks (there's a blog post about those coming soon) and drank tons of water and ate every healthy thing in my fridge and pantry, and a few not so healthy things, too.

The wind, high temperatures, and humidity joined forces with a hilly route to make this the single most difficult ride I've done since I started road biking. Thanks again to the wonderful people that sponsored me. I'm very proud to have completed such an enormously challenging ride and I'm equally proud to have friends and family that made it possible for me to bring the ADA over $500.

I woke up still sore this morning but I'm feeling better and better as the day goes on. I think I have some work to do before I'm ready for DALMAC (5 days, 338 miles) at the end of August. Hopefully the weather will be more kind!

hello world!

Ok ok ok! I'm blogging. There's the bandwagon, and here's me hopping on.... late, as usual!

So what the heck should I talk about? Most of my blogging friends blog about cooking or about their kids. I'm currently kid free and I'm not all that creative in the kitchen. Most of the blogs I read regularly are about writing science fiction and fantasy. I don't write sff, I read it.

I have no singular great obsession to blog. I have lots of little ones: reading sff, bicycling, knitting, food & weight loss, and my household which currently consists of a husband and a kitty. I don't have any special inspiration at the moment so, quick survey time:

What am I reading? Frostbite by Richelle Mead. Richelle is a friend of mine so I'm a little biased. I read her stuff more because it's her than because I'm into the genre. She writes paranormal romance and YA. Frostbite is the second in her Vampire Academy YA series. Truth is, Richelle is super talented and, despite the fact that paranormal romance isn't really my thing, I love her books. Her style reminds me a bit of Janet Evanovich (another author I go outside of my preferred genre for) -- fast read, highly entertaining, hard to put down, and especially well suited for reading at the gym.

How's the biking going? no riding today. It's sunny, but it's 57°F and windy and I'm feeling wussy (also, I think I'm getting a cold - bleh). I'll hit the elliptical at the gym instead. Also, on the biking front, I'm riding the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure on June 8 -- sponsor me, pretty please!

What am I knitting? I'm working on a top down cardigan. I'm about a third of the way through and it's going surprisingly quickly. pictures later :)

Am I gettin' skinny? The scale is not my friend today.

How are Buster and Alex? Buster, my husband (who's name is not Buster), bought a boat for fishing season and spent the weekend picking up his trailer and assembling his new boat. Now he can add boat trips to his fly fishing guide service.

Alex, the much loved and very aged kitty, got a bath the other day. He's much less stinky and he seems happier for it.

Blog entries are much more exciting with photos so here's a really bad phone-camera-photo of my dearest boys: