Third Round Success

I've had several weight loss targets this year.

I wanted to be 178 before leaving for Vegas, 174 before Christmas, and 170 for my birthday (today).

I can now say that I've hit all three. I'm now just a hair under 170 pounds.

My major goal is to stay there for the next year. While I do plan to lose a few more pounds, my goal is to have "a year of being at a good racing weight" as the present I give myself for my 40th birthday. I figure that if I can spend a year at this weight, that it should re-ingrain the habits in me that let me stay at that weight going into my 40's.

To better quantify my weight loss, I've also tracked my body fat percentage and my body measurements (all measurements are in inches):
 

Date	7/15/12	10/27/12	11/24/12	12/23/12	1/27/13
Weight	193.0	182.0	175.8	174.0	169.8
Body Fat	23.3%	20.3%	19.4%	18.0%	17.8%
Chest	37 3/4	36 2/4	36 2/4	36	35 2/4
Waist	38 1/4	36	35	35	34
Hip	42	40 2/4	39 3/4	39 1/4	39
Thigh	26 2/4	25	25	24 3/4	24 2/4

I'm probably looking to lose another 3 or 4 pounds before the start of racing season in April. That's a much slower loss than I've had so far,  but I'll be ramping up the intensity of my training and I will need the extra fuel.

The Home Stretch

My goal is to be 170 pounds by my birthday next weekend.

As of today, I'm 170.8. I've been pretty consistently losing 1.0 to 1.2 pounds a week, so I'm pretty confident that I can do it.

After that, I'm planning to slow down and just lose 5 more pounds by the end of March, putting me at 165. Given my love of nice round numbers, I might try to hit 164 just so that I can say that I lost 30 pounds from my start at 194 last August.

After three weeks back on the bike, my body is back in the rhythm again. I lost a little bit of power at VO2 max from the weird travel schedules through December, but I should be able to get that back pretty quickly.

The biggest problem I've had is getting substantial rides in. With it being very cold outside, I have not been riding outside at lunch. My lunch time rides tend to only be an hour, but they are usually pretty intense.

My rides on the trainer have been a little shorter due to very early or very late scheduled meetings, which have cut into my riding before and after work. I still get in 2-hour rides on the weekends, but my normal hour to hour and fifteen minute rides during the week have been cropped down to 45 minutes. With the drop in time, I'm not doing as many intervals.

Still, it's January. I don't expect to be at peak racing fitness for several more months.

My biggest worry right now is not getting sick. With the flu really tearing people apart this year, I really don't want to catch it!

Out of Whack

It's really amazing how much of an affect 9 days off the bike can have on you.

We got back on Sunday and I started riding again on Monday.

My endurance is really diminished. Just ten days earlier, I had ridden at 235 watts for 90 minutes. On Tuesday, I barely held 200 watts for 45 minutes. Before we left, I was doing 2 hour training rides both days of every weekend. On Saturday, I could barely stay on for 90 minutes.

My high end capacity is really painful. A couple of weeks ago, I was able to hold 350 watts for 5 minutes. On Wednesday, I could barely hold 300 watts for 2 minutes.

Of course, during all of this, my heart rate is running way above normal.

I know that by the end of next week, my body should be more or less back to normal, but it does not make this any less annoying.

On the plus side, my weight is below pre-Christmas levels. This morning I was 173.0.

Break Time is Over

For the last 12 weeks, I've been gaining fitness and losing weight consistently, which I'm really happy about.

I'm really surprised that I was able to do so, given some of the craziness in my schedule. I was gone for a week in October for vacation, I was gone for a week in November for a conference for work, and I was gone for a week in December to see our families for Christmas.

Add in several days with meetings or rain preventing me from riding at lunch or late meetings that prevented me from riding at night, I had to make sure that my training schedule was as efficient as I could make it.

For the next 12 weeks, I don't have any trips planned. I have some of my bigger goals scheduled, though.

I came back from Christmas at 174.6 pounds. I expected to gain a pound or two, but I barely gained nay weight at all. I'm trying to figure out if I'm dehydrated or something. Despite doing nothing but sitting and eating for 8 days, I only gained 0.8 pounds. My body measurements were the same as they were when I left.

At any rate, I should be able to make my first goal of 170 pounds by my birthday on Jan 27. Once I make that, I will slow down the weight loss so that I can increase my training intensity, aiming for 165 pounds by March 30. Once I'm there, I plan to maintain that weight or maybe drift up to 168.

I plan to test my 20 minute power on February 2. My last test was 282 watts, the best I've ever done. If I can match that again, I'll be happy, but I'd really like to increase it to 285 watts.

My next test after that is March 30 (8 weeks later), when I want to hit 290 watts.

After that, it's racing season! I'm not 100% sure of what races I'll do, but some that I'm considering:

• C-130 Time trial (May, 20 miles, Dover, DE)
• PA State Time Trial (June)
• Church Creek Time Trials (June and August, 40K, Church Creek, MD)
• Lake Nockamixon Time Trial (July, 20K.... I don't have a good history with that race but I realy want to do well in it just once)
• Ernie Simpson (September, 20K, Pine Grove State Furnace, PA)

I know, no crits this year. I'm just not feeling the love for them.