This is my second log. My first:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/85...28/index2.html

In that log I set several goals, and really only accomplished the big one, to ride the Hotter than Hell 100 mile bike ride held every August in Wichita Falls, Texas. I've started and finished that ride twice, in 2013 and 2014.

At 54 years old, I feel the clock ticking on doing epic (for me) bike rides, so I've set a goal of completing the 2016 Triple Bypass Bike Ride in Colorado.
https://www1.triplebypass.org/Route.php

To accomplish this 120 mile ride, with 10,000 feet of ascent I will finally have to get my weight in order, which was a goal I always failed on in the other log. This time I'm serious, damn it.

Current weight: 215
Lowest in last 5 years: 198
Highest in last 5 years: 238

Goal weight: 180

Wish me luck.

Since I am giving myself 18 months to accomplish my goal, I am setting intermediate goals:
1. 200 pounds by May
2. 5/17/2015 Santa Fe Half Century http://santafecentury.com/The_Rides/...ide/index.html
3. TBD
4. 5/2106 Santa Fe Century
5. July 2016 Triple Bypass

I lost 40 pounds in early 2010 on a 1500 calorie a day diet. This time around I am going to eat ~ 1800 calories a day. What works for me is using a food log, it seems to be the only thing that makes me responsible for what I eat. I am going to use myFitnessPal which is linked to my Garmin account. So far it is really easy to use. It looks like the tablet and phone app have a barcode scanner, which should come in handy when eating packaged foods.

I generally eat reasonable meals, my biggest problem is snacking on junk food in the evening. Having to enter that crap in a food journal helps me make better choices. It's weak minded, I suppose, but I am going to make it work for me. It's the same idea as doing a log here at 2+2, even if no one reads it, it is out there, so now I have to make my goal happen.

I'm reading, although I don't have any interest in cycling. I like kayaks.

You didn't mention how tall you are. How tall are you? Are you going to lift? WHat are your macronutrient goals? What is the best late night junk food? IIFIYM you might as well. 1800 cal with a lot ofbicycle riding seems pretty damn low.

I am 5'11''. Without giving it a lot of thought, I would have said my macronutrient goals were 50% carbs, 30% protein, and 20% fat but I wasn't going to sweat it too much. I certainly could eat better but I don't eat terrible, as far as meals go. Your post made me think about it, so I did some google searches and found a macronutrient calculator.http://macronutrientcalculator.com/

I selected moderate exercise 3 to 5 times a week and 1.5 pounds a week weight loss, and it gave me ~2200 calories. I changed it to 2 pounds a week weight loss, and it gave me 2028 calories. I will stick with the 50/30/20 split as being reasonable.

I think I will leave my goal at ~1800 for now, for two reasons. One, I think it is easy to underestimate what you are getting so undershooting should give me some room for mistakes. Two, my main exercise right now is riding an indoor bike, and it is tough to do that for more than an hour. When I get back outside and the rides get longer I will probably increase to 2000 calories.

Lifting. I have joined a gym, so I have access. I have been using some of the machines which I know are pretty hated in this forum, but without much of a plan. I will check into the free weights and see if I can come up with a plan that makes sense. A stronger core would be good for me, for sure.

What is your best late night junk food? My biggest weakness's are chips. I love the Kettle Sea Salt potato chips.

I'm not quite as old as you but I am north of 40 and I don't lift as much weight as anyone else around here, but 2-3 days a week of basic compound lifts following GSLP or another beginner's linear progression plan will give you moderate improvement in strength. Don't expect miracles while cutting weight though.

Sea salt kettle chips are solid, but I prefer the sea salt and vinegar or the cracked black pepper chips. My real weakness tho is target food court popcorn. $1.50 for a bag, 300 calories. I think the secret is that they use coconut oil to heat the kernels and copious amounts of salt. So good.

Those are all very good choices, IMHO. Cracked black pepper is a big favorite. I don't really crave Target popcorn, but popcorn in general is a big fav.

Great OP

Popcorn is by far and away my guilty pleasure. I can eat a whole bag of it a night, easily. The Mrs. switches me over to these 100 calorie single person packs that we share when I'm cutting.

Thanks for the comment. I can eat a lot of popcorn as well. Sometimes I add some parmesan cheese and black pepper instead of butter. Real cheese, not the powder from a can, unless that is all that is handy.

For a cyclist, watts per kilogram of body weight is an important measure. The other measure associated with that is time. I mean, I can put out 300 watts, but only for about 30 seconds, lol. I did a test yesterday based on Chris Carmichael's book the Time Crunched Cyclist training guide. I don't have access to a power meter on my bike, but I joined LA fitness as a family Christmas present, and their spin bikes have built in watt display. I did the test on their spin bike. The main test consists of two 8 minute efforts 10 minutes apart. You are supposed to go as hard as you can for the entire effort, but hopefully without a big drop at the end. Unfortunately, the built in meter doesn't calculate an average for the length of the effort, so I have to guesstimate an average based on what I see on the display. My guess is I averaged about 145 watts for the best of the 2 8 minute efforts. A real cyclist would laugh at that number, but it is what it is, and I would like to improve it.

My current weight is 97 kg. My watts per kilo ratio is 1.5. Sadly, that is less than an "untrained" rider based on Andrew Coggans chart:
http://www.cyclinganalytics.com/blog...he-power-curve

If I get to 180 lbs (81kg) my ratio would improve to 1.8, provided my power output stayed the same. It is my hope that as I lose weight my power output over time actually rises some, as I should theoretically become fitter. Time will tell.

So far I have met my calorie goals this week. We are invited to a Super Bowl party, so Sunday will be a challenge. I think I will just try to keeps things from getting out of hand that day, rather than be perfect. We are bringing a veggie tray and BBQ ribs. If I eat two ribs instead of four, and round it out with a few veggies I should be in good shape. Might even have a beer.

I hear ya on the Super Bowl party situation. Planning on a 2-3 hour Cross Country skiing session on Saturday and maybe on Sunday as well. Deplete all my glycogen, and then refill is on Sunday night

^ I should have done more, but I did get in a 90 minute outdoor ride on Saturday. Earlier in the week I did 3 sessions on the spin bike for 3 more hours, total.

My calorie counts until Sunday were good. I tried to account for Sunday, I think I ended up with somewhere between 2800 and 3000 calories. Not great, but probably better than last year. Weigh in tomorrow morning.

Just saw this. I think it's a cool goal, I'd love to do the triple bypass myself one day. I know a guy who is going to try to do a double-triple this year. That's going both directions. I don't remember if he's going to do it in one day or 2 though.

If I remember right, you live in Dallas. You need a way to get climbing training in, this is gonna be tough for you. You need to do both short/steep/repeated climbs and longer shallower climbs. 5% grade is not much, for example, but there will probably be places on TBP where you go at 5% for a looooot longer than you'll be used to. Exercise bikes can simulate this to an extent.

Follow the time crunched cyclist plan and you'll gain a lot of the strengths you need.

I really am a data freak and could not live without a power meter. They ain't cheap though. I got a (used) powertap off ebay for about $400 with a wheel. I bought a stages power meter last year for $700 new, that's the cheapest I know of. Hm, actually I do remember there being a new one out this year that is *similar* to Stages, except you put it on yourself with epoxy, and it costs like 300-400.

Getting up steep inclines is mostly mental and technique, if you don't care what your speed is. Getting up long shallower grades is different though, that's a physical skill that needs developing.

Oh, hey, if you haven't done the Easter Hill Country Tour, you should. It's in Kerrville on easter weekend. 3 days of riding in the hill country, rides of varying distances. The "long" day has like 60 80 and 100 mile routes. I think the elevation gain on the 100 mile route is around 5000 feet.

The reason I mention it is that I was gonna tell a story. There's a long stretch in the area that is not real steep but brutally long. The first year I went I actually had to stop and lay down for 10 minutes. Someone finally came along and was like DUDE THE TOP IS LIKE 100 YARDS AWAY so I got up and WIMed my way to the top.

The next year I came back and I kept looking for that section and worrying about it. I finally figured out that I'd done it the day before and just not noticed it at all.

i don't think the watt-displays on the spin bikes are useful, just ignore the numbers completely, they have (probably) nothing to do with reality.
just use a heart rate monitor and train based on that and RPE (and the time crunched cyclist program).

Weigh in this morning at 213

Thanks. The double triple from the ride organizers is ride one way on Saturday and ride back on Sunday. If he can do in one day he is a true stud. Heck, if he does in two days I'm really impressed. I will be stoked if I can do it one way.

Yeah, I will do my best, but training at 500 feet with no hill longer than about 2 tenths of a mile around will make it a challenge, no question. The rides I'm looking at start at 5,000 feet and go up from there. My thought is just get in the best possible shape and use a bike with low gears. I have a bike with a 30/25 available. If that seems like it won't do it I can check into putting a different cassette one it, maybe get a 30/27 available. If I have to go lower than that I probably need to find a different challenge.

I've checked on Ebay, and every time I see a power tap I'm interested it seems to go over 6 or 7 hundred.
I am interested in the stages meter. For now I'm still using the heart rate monitor.

That is definitely an area I will make a visit to and try out some of the routes around there.

It is nice when you can see tangible gains like that. My improvement has occurred but perhaps not quite that noticeably. I hoping to increase the level this year.
Hey, I noticed you posted a ride on Strava the other day, with a title something like Give up and take the train ride. I was curious what the back story was? Also, it cracked me up when I saw you got some Kudos on that ride, based on your previous comments about kudos.
Thanks for the feedback. I use my heart strap and compare to the numbers on the watt meter. Even if the absolute value is wrong, it gives me something to compare to over time, ie 120 watts at 145 BPM compared to 120 watts at 140 BPM, for example.
To be honest, compared to what Strava predicts for a given effort and what I see on the spin bike, I think it is closer than you might think.

WTF, I just looked and I don't see any under 700 either, except a mountain bike wheel. There were multiple under $500 when I bought mine.

Oh wait, here's one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Powertap-Whe...item1e99155024

$480

It's fairly pretty as well. Anyway, consider the EHCT - it's very well supported and marked, and a lot of fun.

It was starting to rain. I was gonna WIM it up and ride home 20 miles in it but the temp dropped and it rained harder so I took the train home. After that I still had to ride home 6 miles in the dark/rain. I was pretty ****ing pissed about urban planning by the time I got home.


Strava estimates are not particularly close. It's a fairly difficult problem.

Thanks for the power tap link. That particular item didn't show up in my cylceops powertap search on Ebay, not sure why. I bite the bullet and paid the buy it now price. Not your old one, is it?

I said I was serious this time in my OP. Now I've put some money where my mouth is.

45 minutes spin class this AM, CTS 7x2 PI's 2rbi. Part of the 3 minute hill climb plan from Strava(day 3)

So aside from the powertap hub you'll need a device capable of recording the data - I hope you already knew that? I've used a garmin with decent results. Initially I had a 500, now I have a 510.

The 500 is fine - totally fine. But I love the 510.

I still have (and use) my powertap. It's on my "training" bike. My favorite feature of powertap wheels, which is oddly NOT common at all, is the removable/replaceable hubs. New steel hubs are about 50 bucks and they just slide right off and on. So I have several gearings avaiable. I remove the rear wheel, replace the hub, and put the rear wheel back on. Takes maybe 2 minutes tops.

This means that on a whim I can swap out a "climbing" casette for a "racing" casette.

I have a Garmin 500.

I'm not a great bike mechanic, but I'm learning as I go. Youtube helps. I was not aware you could change the cassette that easily. My rear cassette is a Shimano HG-50 9 speed, 12-25. If I bought a new hub and the 12-27 cassette you think I could switch between them? You don't have to make derailleur adjustments?

OK, good, it pairs with the garmin 500 just fine, same as any other device like a HR or cadence sensor.

I mainly switch between a 9-speed 11-22 and a 9-speed 12-27 these days. When I was using the wheel on 2 bikes I'd also switch on a 10 speed 11-22 sometimes for the other bike. I never had any problems. I don't see any reason you'd need to adjust the derailleur for that minimal of a change.

I wish every wheel manufacturer used this system, tbh. It's so handy.

Of course, if you have a wrench, the little hub tool, and a chain whip thing or wtf ever they're called, it's a 10 minute job at worst. However, I have broken hubs before replacing the casette. Every hub is rated at a maximum torque and if you exceed that it'll be fine, until it isn't.

In my case I changed a cassette, went into another room and 20 minutes later I heard a "ping" where the tension broke the thread off the cassette and launched the lock nut across the room.

Weekly weigh in, 211.2, down 3.8 over 2 two weeks. Keeping my eating reasonable ~ 1800 calories a day. Often go over my sodium and fat allocations, but trying to do better without feeling deprived. Still waiting on my powertap to come in.

Do you account for calories earned on the bike?

For now, no. A couple of reasons for that, one is because I figure it is easy to underestimate what I'm actually taking in, and easy to over estimate how much I'm burning. Since I really need to lose weight more than anything, I'd rather be conservative. On the other hand, I did eat more calories on Saturday when I did a 2 hour EM ride, probably closer to 2100.

If I really start riding a lot more I will up the calorie content some.

Yesterday a I did a CTS workout, EM with power intervals in the morning. In the evening, my wife and daughter wanted me to go with them to LA Fitness and try the body shaping class. FFS, I found out just how bad of "shape" I'm in. I've ridden ever increasing miles the last 5 years, and convinced myself I was getting in better and better shape, but all I've done is get my legs accustomed to the workload. The rest of me is in bad shape.
I will continue to do the class and see if I can get in better all around condition. That should help me on the bike, as well. I'm sure I'm driving the SS crowd nuts with these comments, lol.

Powertap wheel came in, I watched some Youtube videos on changing the cassette. Not sure if I will get that done before this weekend though.

Changing the cassette is the same as on any other wheel - you need a chain whip, and a tool that fits into the socket on the lock nut. It takes some force to get off but it's doable. Did it come with a cassette? I guess if it did it's one you don't want. Anyway, congrats, and I look forward to seeing how that works out for you. I can't remember, do you log on strava?

Regarding the calories, I devised my own system. Now that you have a power meter you can consider it, or something like it.

So power, in watts, is Joules/second. So, your power meter allows strava (or whatever other site you use) to figure out how many joules of energy you produced. 1 calorie is about equal to 4 joules. However, the human body is only about 25% efficient at producing energy, so it takes it about 4 calories to produce 1 calorie of work. The net result is that the units nearly cancel and you can say 1KJ = 1 kcal.

This means that when strava says you produced, say, 600 KJ, you can say that you burned 600 kcal, and you're likely to be very close. This is great because it means that you log calorie consumption WAY more accurately than most bike sites do (i.e. by guessing based on your age/weight/heartrate)

So... What I've always done is this: take the number strava says, and subtract off half, up to 600 calories. Here are some examples of what I mean.

Strava says 800 calories: I log 400 (-400)
Strava says 1000 calories: I log 500 (-500)
Strava says 1500 calories: I log 900 (-600)
does that make sense? I subtract off half, unless half is greater than 600 and then I subtract off 600, and I log whatever is left.

This lets me bank up to 600 cal/ride. I ride 5-6 days/week so in general it means that I do, say, 1500-2000 calorie of exercise/week that I don't log. This gives me a buffer that lets me not worry too much about exactly how many ounces of chicken that is, or how many chips were in the handful I took.

I log everything I eat though, I think that's really key. It's much easier to avoid eating a cookie if you know you're going to have to look that ****er up and log it.

Thanks Rusty. We are following each other on Strava. I'm Doug W. The power tap did not come with a cassette, so I'll have to move mine.
The calorie thing does make sense, and is a much more well thought plan than what I was considering. I figured once I ride enough I will have to up the calories, half sounds like a good plan. I am riding now, but three times a week are on the indoor spin bike.
Yeah, so far so good on that for me. I really haven't even been hungry or had a lot of urges. I was just doing a lot of mindless eating in the evening, now that I know how many calories that is for the day it's not that hard to shut it down, so far.

Yeah I figured you you were by looking through strava since you said you rode today and mentioned the intervals. I follow a lot of people and I don't remember who all of them are.

I used to visit Dallas a lot because I had friends there, but most of them have moved away so I don't come up there much. Might be up there a time or two this spring for races if you want to have a beer or ride around or something.

Everyone's different when it comes to diet/weight. For me, I learned that if I stop logging, I'll gain weight. Mostly it comes down to fluctuations in riding volume. Right now I ride a lot and I eat a lot. In the late summer or early fall I ride a lot less but if I'm not careful I keep eating. I hate having to keep losing the same 10lb every year.

Also, and again maybe this is just me, but I waaaay prefer riding outside. Now, I'm lucky in that I live like 2 miles from open country roads, but it's just a thought. For me, the hardest part of a ride is getting up and getting dressed, once I'm outside I love it.