Sunday, November 01, 2009

First Of November! Monthly Update



My poor suffering neglected blog. It just does not garner the attention it deserves especially heading into the off season. In the survival of the fittest struggle of the personal media world it is finding Facebook a formidable opponent(wink).

October has come and gone as the cycling season winds down although I ended the month on a high note with a nice balmy club ride on Halloween day. The last couple weeks I have found my comfort on the Giant road bike wanting. Last week the club ride was terrible with me doing minor adjustments on the ride which just resulted in more discomfort.I was not sure if it was my loss of bike fitness of if my bike fit needed some tweaking. Yesterday I took out my venerable Devinci and it was nice(like putting on your fav old sneakers)and translated to a much better effort.Since I could now determine it was not just my lack of bike fitness that determined my lousy cycling efforts of the last couple weeks and knew I needed to revisit my position on the Giant.

Returning home I immediately compared the bikes(which are surprisingly similar in size)and determined that the only difference that could(would)affect my comfort was the bar-stem combo. On the Giant the stem was at -8 degree which resulted in the bar being a full inch(+)lower that that on the Devinci. By flipping the stem to +8 degree it copied the setup on my Devinci. Now I just need to road test it and gauge my position on the new bike and how well it translates into comfort and performance.

My running is improving again as I have been able to get out at least twice a week and is now part of my winter training schedule. Since I gave up my gym membership my offseason training plan is based on home training;running(cycling when possible),strength training, ball hockey(twice weekly)and core work.

I have also flipped over to my winter nutrition plan after I jumped from 207 to 212 pounds in less than a month.(yikes).The plan is similar to last year in that I will monitor my consumption based on activity(carbs in,carbs out),cut down or cut out certain foods(ie;beer),watch portion size and eat basic(natural)foods while limiting highly processed food. The difference this winter is I am eating the bulk of my carbs earlier in the day(prior to 2pm) while eating lean proteins and veggies later in the day and attempting to not eat after 7pm. On October 21 I weighed in at 212.4 pounds(6AM). October 30 I weighed in at 207.5 pounds(6AM)so following my plan is paying some early dividends after only ten days.Factor in my exercise plan and a renewed concentration on home core work with the purchase of a Swiss and Medicine ball I hope to keep my winter weight gain to a bare minimum.

Ball hockey is proceeding well after the first month of the season. Thursday night I primarly play defense and after four weeks I find my skills are returning after a hiatus of ten years. My floor vision is returning,the body is responding well to the rigors of stop/starting on a hard gym floor and my ball handling skills are getting smoother.

Sundays I play goal and I`m off to a good start although my win/loss record(2-5-1) does not show my decent early season form.Since the teams are randomly determined each Sunday it`s not uncommon to have the teams unbalanced. Some games you just inherit the weaker squad and get shelled....lol.(wink)

Chelsea was all keyed up for Halloween and dressed up as a Goth Princess. I,on the other hand,was dreading the day as I know I will be sorely tempted by all the chips and chocolate bars around the house. Halloween Day was my free day. I sampled the goodies while watching hockey last night but will make a concerted effort to avoid the treats going forward and sticking to the plan. Wish me luck.

1 comment:

Cari said...

nice to see a post! chelsea's costume was awesome!:)