My Training With S.W.A.G.

For those of you that did not read my last post, the definition of S.W.A.G. is Scientific Wild A_ _ Guess. That is my training bible that allows me to listen, read and glean from this and that to make my body work better. The key to this plan is, My Body. Again, if you have been reading my mixed bag of thought wondering you have noticed that I am big on listening to your own body. Thought wondering, I like that much better than what is known around our house as senior moments. Wow, I’m having one now. Bottom line, can S.W.A.G. work?

April (ish) 2008 I was finishing physical therapy for my right wrist being fused together. My Therapist and workman comp. Dr. talked me into bicycling again. I was over weight turned into a couch potato, since I had been in a cast or brace for the better part of a year. I got back on my Trek mountain bike remembering the joy I had had about 13 years earlier. I got in 5 miles and was sucking some serious air wondering what the hell happened. 30 years of being a cop with crappy eating habits couldn’t have anything to do with it. The fact that I was getting ready to, per my son, enter my 6th decade absolutely did not have anything to do with it, I feel like when I was 30, 3 decades ago?

As for today and SWAG, it’s slow but it has worked. I have lost, as of this morning, right at 65 lbs. When I started my training log last August I was averaging 12.1 mph on 12 mile rides. Not very impressive! At the end of this July, I was averaging 13.1 mph averaging 25.6 mile rides. The biggest accomplishment, I believe, is that I have been open to ideas and learned from many different Medias. There are other things in my log that show this. My cadence, last August I averaged 52 rpm, a year later 70. Still not impressive but for someone that was that out of shape I’m still going and having fun, I’ll take it, I’m not planning to qualify for Le Tour De France.

Have I hit plateaus? Yes just like the professional plans but I experimented and broke through in a way that was far from being conventional. I had dropped right at 55 lbs up to May of this year, a pound a week very slow and almost discouraging but an excellent way to lose. From May through the end of July I rode 881.75 miles, remember 17 months ago I was breathing hard at 5 miles. Have I improved? My weight loss, +2, talk about frustration. Yes I have heard all of the stories and pep talks about muscle
weighs more than fat. I hate to break the news but as an x-body builder that only goes so far. Especially with a smart-alecky son that lets me know that a tattoo once was in the middle of my bicep and never wrapped around my arm. So what did I do that was unconventional? Timing is everything, we took a family road trip. A week long road trip then a week in Vegas, with the guys, to recuperate from the family road trip. Bad food way too much alcohol and no riding. I lost 5 lbs and broke the plateau, go figure. Since getting back from Vegas I have ridden 125.8 miles in 6 days, lost another 5, every body is different.

Do I have bad days, Oh Yea I do! Some days I wonder if I will get home or over that next incline but I always make it, kind of like life and that song. “Sometimes you’re the bug and sometimes you’re the windshield”. Do I have bad habits? Yes we all do but I’m trying to work on them. I really need to find someone to ride with that is a speck faster. I need to try to keep up with people rather than just let them go by and watch them get smaller. But most of all I need to start riding some 8 to 10,000 foot climbs. I can not climb for anything, but that fear of what your body will really do for you is always lingering in the back of my mind, sound familiar?

Ok enough of my senior moments, if you have stuck to the end of this, my condolences, but thank you. Now go outside and breathe real air!




Next Post; Changes I See on the Road

Ride Safe Out There, and Don’t Run Me Over (please)

“G”