Quote:
Originally Posted by MMa7
Happy new year!
Going down in waist and shirt size is still a good indicator.
Good luck with your goals this year.
Thanks. Good luck with your goals, as well.
It's funny, I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person, but every so often I read something and its a bit of an epiphany, and then I think to myself, you dumbass, you should have figured that out for yourself long ago.
The nugget I came across recently that has caused me to write the above was "fitness is dynamic, it is either increasing or decreasing" - Base Building for Cyclists - Thomas Chapple.
Now, I'm not saying that I didn't realize that you lose fitness if you don't use it. I have certainly seen that in myself. I guess the revelation is how fast it goes, and the word dynamic is what hit home. I had started thinking there was something wrong with me, age, former smoker, weight, whatever, that made me lose fitness faster than other people. Now I think it was just my really bad habit of not doing anything for 3 months every fall, generally October to early January. That also meant gaining 10-15 pounds over that same time period. I have basically been starting over every for the last 4 years.
This year I have done some activities both on and off the bike and my fitness is higher than its ever been at this time of the year. Hopefully I can build on that and have a good bike riding season.