Why I Ride

So I am sitting on the deck of my cabin in the mountains on a breezy Sunday morning looking out into the wood. My daughter is still asleep and the only sounds are those of the wind pushing through the leaves on the trees and the birds chirping.

One cannot help but to think about life.

I had this stray thought "boy would I love to be on my bicycle right about now". That thought lead to a whole line of questions. Am I obsessed with cycling? Should I ride less?

I road 50 miles in 90 degree heat yesterday and I put at least 90 more miles in over the last week. I ride as much as I possibly can. In the steep hills of Pittsburgh, I log well over 100 miles a week. For a pro cyclist, that isn't a lot of miles. but for 44 year old guy who works far more that he should, it's a heck of a lot of time. Add prep time and my incessant tinkering on my bicycles, it adds up to even more.

So why do I ride?

• I really enjoy it. I get a great sense of accomplishment from it. And, I feel good.
  
• Bycling keeps me young. I remember reading a survey some time ago that asked the question "why do you cycle? The number one answer was "to stay young". At 44 years of age, I honestly believe that cycling keeps me young. Not only do I get a great sense of accomplishment hanging with the younger riders, but with a body fat content below 15%, a blood pressure of 110 / 70 and a resting heart rate of 46, I think my body is younger.
• Cycling reduces stress. There are far to many days when I will come home from work stressed out or pissed off. I will often get on my bike to "think", only to find that 2 hours later, I haven't thought about a damn thing. Regardless, I feel a whole heck of a lot better.
• Cycling meets my need to tinker. I love to tinker. Simply maintaining my bikes is enjoyable. There is something about the fusion of exercise and technology that also gives me enjoyment. Plus, if I have a bad day on the bike, I can blame the bike. Its like fishing, if I don't catch any fish, it was simply because the fish weren't biting (and not that I suck at fishing).
• I cannot run. I have flat feet and at 44 years of age, running simply destroys my body.

So, do I ride too much? Am I obsessed with cycling? Probably. But, cycling serves me well and until either my wife or boss complains, I ain't changing a thing.

The Size of Dinner Plates

My wife likes to buy antiques. A while ago she bought a set of antique limoge china. One thing I found interesting was the size of the dinner plates. The antique plates are far smaller than any dinner plate that you would buy new today. I would estimate that the plates are at least twenty-five percent smaller.

So, what is the point? If you haven't noticed, there is an obesity epidemic in the United States. Over sixty percent of the adult population of the United States is either overweight or obese. The fact that dinner plates are so much larger today is an artifact of the epidemic. Portions are larger; people eat more often; the server at MacDonald's is shocked that I don't want fries or to super-size my grilled chicken sandwich.

I read an interesting article on diets and dieting. The author asked a number of well known nutritionists to comment on dieting. The point of the article was that there is really little difference between the different types of diets in the long run. You need to consume less calories than you burn to loose weight. Further, in the long run, you need to make life style changes if you plan on keeping the weight off. Too often people look at weight loss as a goal to achieve. Once they have achieved that goal, then they are done (and proceed to put all the weight back on).

Chucking bicycles...

How many time would I have loved to have done this....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqTKaDmUr1w

Since I just stopped riding of my Felt, I shouldn't feel so bad. In fact, maybe I should give the old frame a good throw myself. It could be therapeutic.

But then, I talk to my bikes. I don't want for them to get mad at me and give it back to me on a ride (I hate a broken chain or a mis-aligned dérailleur).

Your Legacy

One of my basic truisms is "You know when you were born. But, you don't know when you are going to die."

While I believe in working hard, work is a means to earn enough money to allow you to experience life. Work is itself not an end in and of itself. Rather, it is a means to an end.

For those who believe that they are going to work hard and create some lasting legacy or impact on the world, I would suggest you do the following:

• When you can devote and hour, sit down with a pen and pad of paper.
• Write down the names of any persons that you can think of who died more than fifty years ago.
• Once you have completed your list, look at it. You will likely find two things 1) there are not that many people on the list; and 2) it is nearly as likely that you will find infamous people on your list as famous people on the list.

The purpose of the exercise is make you realize that if you expect to leave some lasting legacy , it is likely not to happen. With over 6.5 billion soles in this world, there is a lot of competition.

In the end, I am trying to make two points: 1) you need to enjoy life - as that is really the purpose of living; and 2) you should try to leave the world a better place than when you came.

But, please do expect that people will be talking about how great you were for hundreds of years to come.

Ya gotta float them boats....

So my friend (who owns a bike shop) convinced me to replaced the Speedplay pedals on my bikes a few weeks ago. I had the original Speedplay pedals on my bikes and my friend convinced me that the Speedplay Zeros were the way to go.

Easier to go get into and out of, float control, yada yada yada....

In what I thought was a totally unrelated issue, my right knee started to hurt. I blamed cross training, then I blamed seat height. Then I realized in the middle of the ride that my heals didn't periodically rub on my crank arms. When I examined my cleats, I realized that they were set by the factory to significantly limit the float.

As soon as a adjusted the cleats to provide adequate float, the pain in my knee went away. So, the morals of the story are:

a) You shouldn't overlook even the smallest changes to your bike set up; and

b) proper lower leg alignment is critical to pain free riding. Even slightly rotating the heel outward is sufficient to disrupt the normal motion of the leg.

Buy a Really Good Scale

Obesity is like Debt; it creeps up on you. Once you have it, it is neither quick or easy to get rid of.

I am a firm believer in owning (and using) a really good scale. It is really the only way to know where you stand. My personal scale measures weight, body fat, muscle mass, water weight and bone density. Now, some people will say that these scales are not accurate. I would agree. But, they will give you a relative measure that can be used to chart your progress. If you are trying to loose weight, these scales will also help ensure that you are not loosing muscle mass (rather than fat).

Personally, I weigh my self each morning. I also weigh my self both before and after I ride. Now you may say that weighing oneself before and after riding is obsessive. I beg to differ. The purpose of checking my weight is to determine to what extent I am dehydrated. The more weight I have lost during a ride, the more fluids I will force afterwards. It also helps me to understand how much I need to hydrate during future rides.

One week out of each month I chart my body fat, muscle mass and bone density. I then average these numbers and compare them to prior months' averages. These averages give me a good trend line that I can then use chart my health. In the end, my goal is to never get too far off track.

On Death and Dying

I had the sad experience of meeting a work colleague yesterday who is probably dying from lung cancer. He is a really nice "salt of the earth" guy. But, he smoked his entire life. This is the 3rd person I have known at work to have died (or is dying) over the past few months. One person was only a few years older than I and frankly he put his life on hold for his career (thinking that there will always be a tomorrow).

Not to be morbid or morose, but it makes me realize that there are three things that we should never loose site of:

1. You know when you were born. But, you don't know when you are going to die.
2. If you were to be told that you have only one day left to live, could you say that you were satisfied with your life? If not, you damn well better get started living.
3. Life is meant to be a participation sport. Turn off the TV, get off of your ass, get in shape and play!