Well, this year pretty much sucked ass for me bicycle-wise.
I rode a whopping 460 miles all year. This has been, by far, my lowest mileage year since I started riding again back in 2004, when I started this blog.
I got hit by a car on my first commute this year. I was laid up for 2 months from that, and I never really got back into the groove. A few changes at work made commuting problematic for most of the summer. Excuses, Excuses.
The lack of bike riding has made me fat. I don’t have exact figures, but I’ve put on at least 20 pounds this year, and the extra weight makes biking less fun, especially going up hills, and I wasn’t exactly thin to begin with.
Every new year’s eve, I throw out some mileage number as a New Year’s Resolution. Usually it’s around 2000 miles. Then, when the end of the year comes, I act all surprised that I didn’t hit my number.
So, for 2011, I’m setting the bar low, and breaking the goal(s) into 52 pieces. I want to ride at least 35 miles a week, and lose at least 1 pound a week.
If I can manage that, by the end of the year, I’ll have ridden at least 1820 miles, and lost at least 52 pounds, and that will be nice.
To keep things on track, I’ll be reviving the long forgotten Weekly Summary Category of the blog, with a stupid weekly post that says “This week I rode X miles, and lost Y pounds.” Even if X =0 and Y = -10.
I think public humiliation is a great motivator.
Anyhow, 35 miles of bicycling is probably not going to be enough to burn off a pound of my flabby arse. So, I’m going on a diet also. The bicycle blogosphere has been burning up lately with people talking about the advantages of cave man style diets. Paleo Diet, The Primal Blueprint, the Jim Thill Meat-Rope Diet, whatever you call it, it’s all pretty much the same thing, and so that’s what I’m doing.
These diets are not very compatible with my vegetarianism, so I’m not going to be vegetarian anymore. Saving the environment and saving the animals is great and everything, but, well, I just don’t give a shit anymore. I want to be able to fit into my MUSA shorts again, and I want to make it up the big hill on my commute without having to get off to push. If a few cows get hurt in the process, so be it.
So, Tallyho, onward and upward, happy new year, and all that.
If I missed the sarcasm tags at the end I’ll have to tell you that I lost 13kilos by turning vegan. Read “The China Study” to see the health benefits, and don’t try any senseless diets you’ll only regret afterwards. You can also email me, if you’re interested in some book recommendations.
Happy mapping in the new year though 😉
It sounds like you’ve got a good plan. I can help with the public shaming. Get off your ass and go ride! (Am I helping?)
Seriously, here’s a suggestion. Find a good 10 to 20-mile route, leaving from home. Preferably an easy route, if possible. Make yourself ride it at least one evening per week — especially if you miss a commute. You can do variations on the route to keep things interesting, but the idea is to go ride whenever you get a free hour or two, with no real planning or thinking about it. It’s a good way to make yourself get out there. Add more distance or hills, if you feel like more of a workout.
If that won’t work, maybe you can make yourself commute more. No excuses, just do it. Commuting is where most of my base miles come from.
There are probably drawbacks to an all-meat diet, so sometimes I supplement with nuts, cheese, and eggs as non-meat protein sources. Eggs, in particular, are easy and fast to cook in a variety of different ways, and they’re pretty cheap, even the organic free range eggs are under a dollar/mealsworth. I eat a lot of eggs. Nuts are a quick snack that fills me up pretty quickly and lasts awhile. Also, I do eat vegetables and fruit – don’t tell anyone.
@Jim,
It seems to be working for you. I didn’t think fruit was expressly forbidden anyways. I found a local Amish guy who does pastured beef and pork for not much more money than the factory stuff at the supermarket. So far, it’s working for me, I think. This is my 4th day and I’m down 6 pounds. Not sure what the margin of error is on my scale though, and a good poop could probably swing that plus or minus 2 pounds.