Halfway Home

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Joe Johnson

A little over 26 weeks ago I posted my first blog in a new challenge. It was titled, appropriately enough, “The Challenge” and it detailed the idea and rules behind my new undertaking. I was about to attempt to write 52 new blog posts in 52 weeks. They could be about anything, but must be a real post with a main idea and they must post each Monday for 52 straight weeks. I wanted to have a theme and I chose my journey into weight loss and cycling, but as part of the rules I wasn’t allowed to only focus on those two topics. So far I have been doing fairly well abiding by the rules, both the letter and spirit of them as I post each week.

This is post 29 of 52. I had wanted to write a sort of “State of the Blog” post for week 26 but some other things happened and I cared more about writing about my failed ride and some of the lessons learned while they were still fresh in my mind. I also wanted to post about the Tour de France at least once while it was still ongoing. That pushed this out until week 29 but the other topics seemed more interesting and important in the long run.

I also put off the post a couple of weeks because I hoped to have reached another milestone in my weight loss journey. I had wanted to report a nice round number for the post and I almost got there. I managed to hit 88 pounds lost but I wasn’t able to get the last two off. Not yet. I am actually a little ahead of schedule in that I am still losing weight at a great clip and I haven’t struggled with too many plateaus. I have reached the point where I am starting to have to change my routine because my body had adapted to the last one so it was becoming less effective. It is time to add running, a little bit of strength training, and a whole new focus on nutrition. I had been focusing too much on drinking a Slimfast and not enough on learning how to eat right, that needs to change.

There needs to be a change on the blog as well, but more on that in a minute. First I want to look back a bit and see how far we have come from first signing up and starting the challenge. This is post 29 of the challenge, but according to the WordPress Statistics page this will be blog number 42. It’s fitting that I am looking back now as this number is important to any Douglas Adams fan. 42 posts are more than I had thought about writing, and really I am as surprised as anyone else that we have gotten that far. Both the blog and the weight loss have gone better and further than I had dreamed when I started. Somehow there are over 25 fellow bloggers following this blog, and I would like to thank each of them. Knowing you have 20 readers each week is pretty amazing. Speaking of amazing, each week the blog gets publicized each week to an astounding 669 followers and 383 people on Facebook that have like the blog’s page. I really can’t thank everyone who takes the time to check in each week enough. It is a good part of the reason that I write a post each week.

There have been some popular posts and there have been some that have struggled to get views, and that is okay. It’s hard to see on the stats page which was the most or least viewed because the most recent always shows up as the home page and that page is always listed with the most views. It seems like my best month was back in February and we have been holding pretty steady since then. There has been a dip since March but that is when I went back to work. I think that has had the biggest impact as I used to spend a part of each day writing or trying to publicize the blog. Now I concentrate on getting my weekly post written and hope that you come and read it. It’s not the best set up for success.

Now there are a few challenges left in the year. I would like to get to 100 or, even better my ultimate goal of 135 pounds lost. I am running in the Rugged Maniac New England race, riding my first century, riding two more charity rides, and still writing another 23 blog posts. I also want to try to push the blog to new heights, or at least get it off the ground. I need some feedback but I have a few ideas on how to do this. The first idea is that I want to know how people would feel about posting “reruns” on Thursdays. These could be posts from 6 months ago or posts written for other blogs. I also want to see if I can find someone to work on the visual theme of the site. Ideally this would be done for free, barter, or cheap. This is something that I am not very adept at but I would like something personal to the blog and fairly professional. I also need to find a way to promote the blog better. I have tried in fits and starts since going back to work but it really needs a more focused approach, even if it is for an hour or two a day. Heck, even if it were for 15 minutes a day!

Finally I am thinking about what to do next. We are more than halfway through the challenge and I am learning a few new things. The first is there are a ton of people on the same type of journey that I am on. People are blogging about losing weight and having various degrees of success. There are another group of writers that are bigger athletes trying to get back into shape. All of share the common issue that most of the fitness blogs are focused on people who are fit or are most of the way to finishing their journey. There are very few places to inspire those of us who are still on the heavy side of the journey. I would love to change that. I would like to get other bloggers who are sharing this journey to write for or contribute to one site where we could start a positive community for all of us who are overweight and working to lose it. Would anyone be interested in something like that?

So, that’s where we are and where we are going. Anyone have any thoughts? Any ideas of what you would like me to write about? Feel free to let me know in the comments if you like the idea of the motivational community site or if there is anything else about the blog you want to talk about! It’s the halfway point and a great time to talk about all of this.

Most importantly, thanks for coming by and reading what I have to say each Monday!

Posted in challenge, Cycling, life skills | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Under the Dome of Doping

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Joe Johnson

Steph King books and cycling? In one blog? How is this going to work? I love Stephen King books. I have been reading and enjoying each story as it arrives for most of my life. I hate movies based on Stephen King books. I have been looking forward to them for most of my life and then been bitterly disappointed in the outcome for just as long.

I can remember attending one of my first sleep away camps. I was staying at a college and each camper had their own dorm room. I was 12 or 13 and I was just starting to read the book It. It wasn’t the first Stephen King book I read, but it was the first of the really scary ones. I had read The Tommyknockers before that and it was engrossing but not all that scary. It was much more science fiction than horror although it was plenty scary in its’ own way. It was completely different in that it was true horror. A psychotic clown monster that hid in the drains and fed on your fears as well as bullies and adults that wouldn’t listen or believe the main characters were just the start of the terror. Reading it at night I truly scared myself awake. There were nights when I had to sleep with the lights on and the doors open if I could sleep at all.

What made the book so scary; and really what makes Stephen King’s entire scope of work so scary; is that I can identify with the main characters so easily and completely. In It the main characters are outcast children. They are all different and “uncool” so they are on the outside of their peer groups. One is fat, another stutters, another is a tomboy, another is a nerd. They end up coming together because no one else will be friends with them. Even if you were accepted as a kid you probably didn’t feel that way all the time. It is easy to find yourself in one or more of the characters. Their peril becomes your own. Even through the terror, the book quickly became one of my favorites. It lead me to read most of Stephen King’s books as soon as I could find them in the library.

Most people dismiss his work as cheap horror but I have always learned something. I either learn something about myself through identifying with the characters and their actions, or I learn something about people in general. King paints his characters so completely and accurately that I am never surprised when I don’t identify with something until years later when I have had an experience that helps me get to that character’s level. Once I became a parent I understood how accurately he portrayed the love between father and son in Cell and From a Buick 8. The books, like all great works of literature, became a part of the fabric of my life.

All of this makes me imagine that Mr. King must suffer from epic rage and frustration each time a movie or television show is drawn from one of his books. Only The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me have been close. Every other movie or television show has been a rough translation at best. It has gotten to the point that I have stopped watching most of them so I am sure that people will be able to think of one or two that they enjoy to dispute this point but watch the television miniseries It and I will rest my case. Every time there is a new movie or television show I realize that it will always be this way. Each time a new project is announced I find myself looking forward to watching, believing that this time it will be better. This time it will carry the theme of the book or even the major plot points to the screen without bungling. Each time I am wrong. At least the show Haven admits that it is just inspired by the story instead of trying to be anything more than that.

The latest project is Under the Dome and it is rough to be kind. The first episode not only left out what were major plot points in the book but also changed the main character from a sympathetic good guy to a murderer. That completely changed the whole tone of the book and if the show shares the climax there is no way it will have the same impact. It’s almost as if the producer and director decided that Stephen King’s name was enough to secure viewers, there was no need to stay true to the source material. King is listed as an executive producer but I have a feeling that is more of a contract stipulation than a creative position.

And yet I watched. And I watched the second episode. And the third is on my DVR waiting for me to watch that as well. I keep watching because I keep thinking it will get better. That this time it will all make sense and the producers will bring it back around. I believe even when there is evidence that tells me I shouldn’t.

How does this tie into doping? The 100th edition of the Tour de France is currently underway. The organizers have said that this will be a clean tour. The riders have all sworn that they are riding clean and that there is no way that doping will be a deciding factor in this years’ Tour. I hope so. I have watched each stage and thoroughly enjoyed them all. Each stage has offered up its share of drama and suspense. There have been surprise winners in the team time trial, there have been amazing sprint stages, and the first day in the mountains was stunning. There was an amazing attack with the favorite to win the Tour, Chris Froome, storming his way up the mountain to the finish.

Within days there was an article (http://www.outsideonline.com/fitness/biking/Analysing-Froomes-Performance.html) that analyzed his efforts against what his body should have been able to accomplish and left it up to the reader to decide if Froome might have doped to attain his win. I am no sports scientist but the article is worth the read.

I am struck that I have the same feelings for the Tour de France that I have for each new Stephen King inspired movie. I watch desperately hoping that this time there will be a different outcome. This time the movie will be good. This time there will be no specter of doping hanging over the riders. This time the television show will be the story faithfully envisioned. This time there will be a hero emerging from the Peleton that will ride bravely and cleanly. Under the Dome has already disappointed me but I am hoping for better from the Tour. There are so many great stories and amazing riders that I am really wishing that we can get through July and the months after without a breaking story of which riders doped and who will be losing stage or Tour victories.

Posted in Cycling | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Further Lessons from the Edge

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Joe Johnson

It’s been a weird few weeks. As I posted last week, I completely failed a ride. That is the first time I have ever failed or given up on the bike. I had to bail out of a 62 mile ride and only ended up completing 35 miles. I have also had some very strange days at work, dealing with some more complex projects than I anticipated. It has been satisfying but also unexpected work that has taken a lot of my focus. I have also been spending a lot of time thinking about the blog; what it is and where it’s going. Coupled with the extra work and the obvious need for more training I have been thinking about what to do with it.

Most of the existential blog thoughts are based on the failed ride. I am not trying to dwell too much on the ride, but while I was out suffering I tried to think of something other than the heat and leg cramps to get through it. I chose the blog. It seemed fitting as I knew I was approaching the 26th update and that would mark my halfway point to 52 entries in 52 weeks. I still don’t know what I am really trying to accomplish here other than I want to tell my story. I want people to be able to follow along with me as I attempt to get in better shape and go on a few cycling adventures. I want to make a few people chuckle along the way. If you can’t laugh at yourself or make a few other people laugh, what’s the point? I also want to inspire a few people. I don’t know how inspiring my story is in a conventional sense, but I would like people to think that if I can do this, than they can too. I posted a quote picture on my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/bigjoessoapbox) about that and it seemed pretty arrogant, but I don’t mean it that way.

Losing weight is a struggle, at least for me. I don’t think I have the same issues a lot of overweight people deal with. I don’t eat to make myself feel better. I might not like the way I look, but I have never eaten anything to help me feel better or distract myself from my self-esteem either. That’s not to say that I don’t have issues with self-esteem, I just deal with them differently. I feel like my real issue has always been portion control. I eat what I like; which isn’t often the healthiest option; and I eat as much as I want. That is often far too much of whatever I have in front of me. I think this goes back to middle school. I always played sports and worked physical jobs. I never had a big issue burning off calories so I ate whatever I wanted and never had an issue. After college I got better and better jobs that required less and less physical work. I expanded. I also stopped playing sports. I didn’t stop eating. I didn’t even slow down. Now I am spending a lot of time dealing with that habit.

I feel like changing my eating habits are as hard as quitting smoking. I really struggled to quit smoking for much of the same reasons I am struggling with losing weight. I loved to smoke cigarettes. I loved the taste and the physical act of smoking. I loved the way it gave me something to do with my hands when I was bored. I loved the way a cigarette could mark the passing of time. It took about 5 minutes to smoke a cigarette. I loved smoking outside on my deck; either with the day’s first coffee or the night’s last smoke. I loved watching the tip flare cherry red as I inhaled, listening to the crackle of paper as the flame moved of the cigarette. It was a tactile habit that scratched many itches, not just the nicotine addiction. Yes, it was bad for me. Yes, I could tell that it affected my breathing and general health. Unlike other smokers, I didn’t quit because I hated it, I quit because I didn’t want my son to see me smoking. I didn’t want him to think that it was something that I was telling him not to do even while I was doing it myself. That is never a good message. It was hard to put away a habit that I enjoyed, but it needed to be done. That is exactly how I feel about diet changes. I don’t want to change, but I have to.

That’s why I want to be an inspiration. I am going to fail again and again. I have failed at things I love like cycling; I know I am going to fail at something I don’t like. I will hit plateaus in my diet and I will gain weight from time to time. I will eat poorly. I will continue to tell you the good and bad that it happening as I try to lose weight. I want you to see that someone with questionable will power can succeed. I want you to see that you can do whatever you want to do, just like I am doing what I need to do. I don’t want anyone to think that my story should inspire them in any other way. I want them to think that they almost quit, but I didn’t so they didn’t quit either.

That is something that kept going through my head on my ride. I kept thinking that I was out there alone. I was sure that I was at the end of the line and that if I fell in the bushes no one would notice until the ride was over and I didn’t check in. It was a little depressing to think that no one noticed my effort even as it fell short of what I was hoping for in the outcome. All of a sudden a group of riders rode up behind me and asked how I was feeling. They were a group from the cycling club that organized the ride and they saw me struggling. They rode the last mile or so into the checkpoint with me to make sure I made it. I wasn’t as alone as I thought I was.

I think the same thing applies to this blog. For a while I have felt like I was writing for a few people and that most wouldn’t notice if the blog fell into the proverbial bushes. One look at the blog stats would show that I need help promoting the page if nothing else! My traffic would make a small town wonder if it overspent on the one stop light. Part of me was tempted to give up on the 52 Updates in 52 Weeks Challenge but I decided against it. A funny thing happened. All of a sudden people started “liking” my blog on WordPress. Not a lot, but enough to encourage me to keep writing. I am not as alone as I think there either.

Too that end, I would like to say that I don’t know how alone I have ever been when it comes to writing. My family has always supported me to the point of asking why I don’t write more. I have also made some great friends in the blogosphere including www.iwearspandex.com, www.cyclerecycleuk.com, Must Be The Moon, www.iloveyoumorethanicecream.wordpress.com and others. They are all extremely good writers and I am always grateful and humbled when they include me amongst their own ranks.

Maybe that is the lesson in the last few weeks. Keep going. Don’t quit because other people have been down before and they kept going. You really can’t do any different. More importantly, look around, you aren’t alone. People are watching you and they are interested in your journey. Finally, entertain them as best as you can.

See you next week with a wrap up of the first 26 plus posts and where we go from here.

Posted in challenge, Cycling, life skills, Weight Loss | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Failure as a Teacher

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Joe Johnson

I should have known I was in trouble when I went to my local bike shop for a tune up. I told Bob that I was going to ride the Seven Lakes Ride, a 65 mile charity ride for cancer patients in Eastern Connecticut. It started and ended in Stafford Springs. Very hilly Stafford Springs. The ride meandered through hilly Ashford, Willington, and then proceeded into Massachusetts and then back to Stafford Springs. Bob said “You know there are some killer hills out there”. I said yep, but I checked the route and cue sheets and nothing looked too bad. Bob chuckled.

I should have thought more about the people I was riding with and realized they were far more serious and capable than I was. The day of the ride was hot and humid. I drove out to the start point at the Stafford High School and noticed that all the riders had some type of serious cycling jersey or full on local team kit. I figured they needed a break from all the racing and 65 miles in the country on a charity ride would be a nice change for them. I did realize that I was way out of my league but I thought that the other lesser experienced riders would be sticking to the 25 mile ride today or starting later. We all started off at 8:00 am and I actually kept up with some of the slower riders in the beginning.

I should have also known I was in trouble when the first five miles of the ride had five major hills. I was huffing and puffing way earlier than I normally do on my training rides. I thought it must be the heat and humidity. I was keeping up with the back of the pack. Heck, I even passed a few riders on long downhill stretches. The beauty of hauling all this extra weight up hill is that it pulls me downhill. I was hitting 35 to 40 miles per hour on the descents.

I finally realized I was in trouble when people were passing me asking if I were okay. I had to get off and walk a couple of hills by mile 15. One hill in particular was miserable and I couldn’t catch my breath. Even walking up the hill was a struggle. I ate another protein bar and thought I might be bonking. Normally that means that you bonked a while ago. Bonking is when you ride through you stored energy and you don’t eat enough to keep up with what you are expending. You get a little light headed and disconnected. It’s almost like feeling drunk, but only the bad parts. I ate my bar and jumped back on the bike feeling better, right up until the next hill. I had to get off to walk again, but by now it was feeling routine. But then I couldn’t walk. Both of my quads locked up in some of the worse cramps I have ever had. For ten minutes I stood on the side of the road trying to get my legs to unlock. It looked like I was flexing my muscles for all I was worth but I was just standing there. They spasmed until I could finally bend both legs enough to walk. Even then I looked like a pirate with two peg legs stumbling up the hill.

I carried on riding the flats and downhill sections and walking the hills until I got to the first rest area. I went through two more rounds of cramps in those 8 miles. Each time the pain was blinding. I was so relieved to finally get to the rest area and sit in the shade. The Rider Support Wagon offered to give me a ride back to the starting area. I agreed. I had fought them off when they offered twice on course, but I was out of energy to fight at this point. Then someone mentioned it was only ten miles back to the school. There wasn’t enough room for the riders that needed a lift so I volunteered to ride back. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy, but I had an idea in my head.

I was brutally disappointed in myself. I wanted to keep going, but it wasn’t wise to risk serious injury on this ride and miss some of the others I had planned. At the same time, it was making me sick to think that I was giving up. I decided that I could salvage some dignity by riding back. I was quitting early, but I would get myself back. My 65 miles would be cut to 35 but it was better than coming back to the school on the Support Wagon. I am still mad at myself for quitting, but it did make it a little better to ride back.

The final ten miles were as bad as the ten I struggled through to get to the rest stop. I had to walk up the hills and I had to stop twice as I suffered through cramps. I got a little lost and I struggled to eat my last protein bars to keep from bonking. It was humid enough that I thought I was going to be sick, but I made it.

When I made the choice to go in early I was mad at myself, and I still am angry. I feel like I should have done more, even though I know I couldn’t have. One more round of cramps would have seen me lying on the side of the road instead of standing there. At the same time, as I rode I thought about my options. I could pretend that my failure never happened. It takes me so long to write about a ride most people would forget that I tried it. I could just scale back the rest of the season so I didn’t fail again. Neither of those two options really made me happy and they really aren’t who I want to be. I decided that all I could do is train harder and be more prepared. I needed to tell everyone I failed so I would never forget how it felt to fall short like that. I need to train harder to avoid that feeling again. I need to find more hilly rides so I learn how to climb better. Most importantly I need to make sure that I give my best effort each time and live with the results, even when I don’t like them like today. Take the failure, learn from it and move on.

I also think it is time to set a new goal. Perhaps a century ride? Maybe a larger success with make me feel better about this failure? What do you think?

Posted in challenge, Cycling, Epic Rides, fitness | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Disparate Sports, Common Themes

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Joe Johnson

I follow a few sports these days. My level of involvement is nothing like when I was younger and started every day with SportsCenter. I used to pay attention to whatever sports were in season and make sure that I was following every story and knew what was going on. Which teams were leading, who was being traded, and whatever else was going on. These days I tend to pay attention to some of the league finales; the Super Bowl, the NHL and NBA finals, the World Series. Other than that I really don’t pay that much attention, with two exceptions. I have recently been drawn into cycling and I have always followed auto racing.

It’s been a strange year in cycling. There have been some great stories. Going back to last year’s Tour De France win by Bradley Wiggins, TeJay van Garderen’s emergence as a premier rider, Jens Voigt’s recent stage win in the Tour of California, and so many more great stories. There have been some dark times this year as well. Lance Armstrong. The further doping scandals and the never ending stream of riders confessing to past transgressions. It almost seems like every time there is a great story there are two more doping confessions. Just this week the celebrations start for the 100th Tour de France at the same time that another former winner, Jan Ullrich admitted to doping.

Auto sport has had a miserable month as well. Jason Leffler died while racing at a New Jersey dirt track. He was a talented driver that won driving NASCAR cars and trucks. He had also raced on dirt and started one Indianapolis 500. Saturday Allan Simonsen of Denmark lost his life after a crash in the first hour of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He had made seven other starts at the race as well as countless starts in all forms of European endurance and road racing. Two other drivers lost their lives on track as well. Just like cycling, there are so many great stories as well, but the cloud of tragedy has overwhelmed the positive lately.

So, with all of the dark clouds hovering over these sports why do I sit here watching the conclusion of the Le Mans race? Why am I looking forward to the Tour de France? It is the way that the two sports carry on. Simonsen’s widow specifically asked that Aston Martin continue racing. The race organizers hung his nations’ flag at half-mast behind the podium in memoriam while the race continued. Other racers around the world offered their condolences as they walked towards their own cars, set to strap in and race. The drivers are saddened each time one passes, not only for the driver’s family, but each passing forces the memories of other drivers that lost their lives as well. Earnhardt, Weldon, Petty, and so many others that have lost their lives racing. Yet each time the drivers get back in their cars, racing again. They do not race as if nothing is wrong. Far from it, they race knowing that something is very wrong, but they race anyway. They get back into their cars and they go back to work knowing that moving forward is the only way race cars can go. It’s the only way life goes as well, you have to pick up your grief and move forward. You can carry it with you, but you have to move forward with life.

The riders offer a similar lesson. Doping is the past of the sport. It’s the recent past, but it is the past. The riders that will embark on this year’s Tour de France will be the cleanest riders ever. They will also be the most tested riders. There have been lessons learned from the doping scandals. There are new testing procedures that far improved from the past. There is a Biological Passport, a medical thumbprint, of each rider’s blood. Any deviation will show an attempt at doping. Even as the sport’s leadership struggles with the past it has taken steps to ensure that the future will be more secure. None of that matters to the riders once race day arrives. They will have spent their year getting to that start line of the first stage and they won’t be worrying about doping, public relations problems, or Truth and Reconciliation committees. They will be worrying about the race and how they will ride each stage. They will be thinking about the strategy and the execution of the team plan for the day. The past is over. The extra drama around their sport doesn’t matter. The next peddle stroke matters. Covering the next attack matters. That’s a good lesson to carry over to life as well. The past happened, but it doesn’t need to distract you from what you need to do next. You need to concentrate on the now to succeed.

I think that’s the most important reason to care about any sport, the reminder of the life lessons each provides. Each fan finds a sport they can identify with and can find these lessons if they wish. It is why I love my two favorite sports. I love to watch the drivers and riders push themselves farther and farther. I love watching the race strategy of each play out over the contests. Mostly I love being reminded of these lessons on life. Ride like the past doesn’t matter. Race through the grief. Start the day knowing what you have to do and find a way to do it even if there are circumstances trying to prevent you from finishing. Do it anyways.

These are the lessons I try to keep with me as I struggle to lose weight and get in shape. These are the lessons that help me change eating and fitness habits. The past doesn’t matter. I failed to change before, but I will do it today. Regret at over eating yesterday doesn’t matter; I just need to eat better today. The past doesn’t matter and I need to keep moving forward.

Posted in challenge, Cycling, fitness, life skills | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

5 Boro Bike Tour

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Joe Johnson

I thought a lot about how to write this ride report. I almost wrote it as a magazine article and tried to get it published but I decided against it for a few reasons. The first is that I started this blog as a way to share a journey with you. I wanted to take you along from where I started as a writer, cyclist, and man at the beginning of the year to where I end up in December. Leaving out a major point on that journey seemed to be missing the point of the blog. I have done a decent job of letting you in and I want to keep that going. The next reason I decided against writing this as an article is that I would have to focus on some facts of the ride and not how it impacted me. I would have to tell you why it was organized and what it benefited as well as some of the numbers associated with the ride. I really don’t want to do that. The final reason is connected to the previous one. I don’t care. I love that it was a charity ride. I love that the money raised funds inner city bicycle education. I love that I was part of 30,000 other cyclists. I also don’t care because this ride was much more about me and how I got there than what was accomplished. I know that sounds selfish, but from my limited point of view I only know how it impacted me, not how it impacted everyone else.

When I started cycling I heard about the 5 Boro Tour. I still don’t know why they insist on misspelling it, but they do. I heard about the lottery to get in and the amazing ride through the 5 boroughs of New York City. I hear about cycling on closed roads and over iconic bridges and I truly thought that I would never do it. The route is about 40 miles long and to a beginning cyclist, especially an overweight out of shape newbie like I was, it might as well been a trip to the moon. I didn’t even think of going, I just thought it sounded pretty amazing. I did start to increase my mileage and start trying small charity rides, but I never even thought about the tour. A year later a friend mentioned it to me again and I thought I might try to register but the deadline for the lottery passed and I didn’t really mind. I was up being able to ride 25 miles, but never 40. I pushed hard all summer and registered for a metric half century in the fall and amazed myself by finishing it. It was only 35 miles, but it was a start. I also realized that 35 wasn’t that much harder than 25. 40 should be possible.

I spent the winter doing my best to derail myself. II became depressed as my unemployment dragged on and on. I gained back some of the weight I had lost. I became angry at myself for gaining weight and became even more depressed as the holidays came and went without finding a job. I decided it all had to change around Lent. I was inspired by a great friend to use Lent as a 40 day refocusing on fitness. I found a new job. I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I decided that I needed something huge to help focus all of this renewed energy and to keep myself moving forward. What better way than to vow to do something I was sure that I couldn’t? It was time to try to ride the 5 Boro Tour.

I started going on the Bike New York (www.bikenewyork.org) website to see how the registration worked. I was excited to see that the lottery system had been replaced by rush registration. I marked the date on my calendar and recruited a friend to ride. He was one of my inspirations to get on the bike and start changing my life. He went through a similar process a few years ago so I knew it could be done. He agreed to ride with me. This was going to happen.

Registration day dawned and we both got in without too much difficulty. My friend even found a great hotel. Everything was set for May 5th. We trained and prepared and met in Manhattan on the 4th. The hotel he found was amazing. It was blocks away from where the ride would begin right in the financial district. It was also right across the street from the Irish Potato Famine Memorial. It is a little Irish hill in the middle of Manhattan. The other side of the hotel looked out onto one of the harbors. It was amazing.

The view from the hotel lobby.

The view from the hotel lobby.


The day before the ride all participants have to go to the Bike Expo New York to pick up their registration packets. The Expo was a mad crush of people and vendors all jammed into Basket Ball City on the East Side. We got there and picked up our packets and checked out some of the vendors. We went to Trek and I was sold on what would become my next bike, a Trek Domane 2.0. I also shopped a little and picked up two new water bottles to celebrate the next day’s ride. The expo was a blast and a great addition to the ride; I just wish I could have had some more money to spend! The vendors offered many great ways to blow through your budget.

After a rough cab ride over to the expo we decided to take a subway train back to the hotel. We quickly learned an important truth for getting around in New York. If you aren’t from New York, ask for help in the subway. It took a while for us to find our way back to the hotel, but it is definitely a memory I will hold onto for a long time. I had a blast riding the trains and listening in on random conversations. We also heard a small jazz band playing on one of the platforms. We finished the night off by eating amazing Italian food in a little restaurant right behind our hotel. As I lay in bed that night I couldn’t help thinking how different life could be. In five months I had lost 35 pounds, found a job, pushed myself to the point where 40 miles was a challenge but not impossible, and I was on the adventure of my cycling life. I wouldn’t say that the 5 Boro Tour changed my life, but it certainly motivated me to get back on track and stay there.

The next day I choked down the leftover food from the night before and got ready to ride. We made our way to the hotel lobby and I was stunned. There were hundreds of cyclists getting ready to ride. Local bike shops had employees helping people check tire pressures and make final adjustments. This was just the first amazing site of the day. We left the hotel and rode towards our starting point. 30,000 cyclists can’t just up and leave as one so the organizers had split the group into three 10,000 rider waves. We thought we were going to be early but 6:00 am had us in the middle of our pack. The view forwards and backwards was more cyclists than I had ever seen in my life. At 7:00 the opening ceremonies started and we were able to see none of it. We could almost hear the speeches but we were too excited to really notice. We waited for something to happen, someone to move, anything to show we were on our way. Slowly the people in front of us edged up a few inches. Then a few feet. Then we started walking. It dawned on me that even a third of the total group couldn’t just ride away. We walked. We went blocks until we saw the starting line. We walked through there. We walked for the next half mile before we could even start to move. Slowly the group loosened up and we were able to peddle. It took almost a mile before we could ride at a pace that allowed me to clip into the peddles.

The view towards the start line.

The view towards the start line.


Soon we were zooming north towards Central Park. It was truly surreal to ride on the streets of Manhattan with no traffic. The only cars we saw were police cars blocking the intersections. We were being watched by police the entire route and there were even a few helicopters. Some were new helicopters, but at least one was the police. We quickly came up to the first rest area and were stunned yet again. There was a huge park full of cyclists. There were hundreds of tables for food and water and more porta-potties than I cared to count. This scene would be repeated at each rest area and a few mini stops along the way. At each mini stop there were bands playing to cheer us on. People came out and watched us ride by in each borough. The thought kept creeping into my head that if the people of New York City, who have seen everything, stop to watch something; it must be special.
Some of the 25,000 riders behind us.

Some of the 25,000 riders behind us.


The surreal nature of the ride almost became ordinary. Almost. Each time you thought that things were starting to be normal you rode through another part of the city that amazed you. We rode south down FDR Drive and over the Queensboro Bridge. From the top of the bridge we could see most of the way north along the length of FDR Drive and it was full of cyclists. Tens of thousands of cyclist.

The highlight of the ride was our trip down the BQE highway and over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. The climb was brutal but the view of New York Harbor from the top of the bridge was something I will never forget. From there it was a blast of a decent straight down the bridge and off the highway into the finishing festival. There was a ton to do and eat there but we didn’t stay long. We still had the last few miles to ride to get to the Staten Island Ferry and back to the hotel in Manhattan where our cars were waiting.

Stilt walker at the Finish Fest. She was amazing!

Stilt walker at the Finish Fest. She was amazing!


The ride and weekend have been the highlight of my cycling career. There was no better example of how friendly cyclist are and how much fun it can be to ride than those 40 miles. I cannot recommend this ride enough to anyone that can make the trip. I am planning on going again next year, maybe we can get a bunch of people from the blog to go and meet up the night before. Anyone interested?

Posted in challenge, Cycling, Epic Rides | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

I Almost Quit Today

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Joe Johnson

Today’s blog is the first one since starting the 52 posts in 52 weeks challenge that I really thought about missing a week. It has been a long weekend. To be honest, it was a long week followed by a long weekend. My amazing new job has been going really well. After a great week they decided to put me on call for the weekend. This is great because it shows that the company is gaining faith in me. Well, being on call comes with the possibility of being called into work, hence “on call”. Nothing happened Friday night and I thought I might be in good shape until Saturday morning. I got called into work at 8:00 am and I didn’t get home until 10:00 at night. I missed Katie’s uncle and aunt’s 40th anniversary party which I feel pretty guilty about. He works in the same industry as I do so he understands, but I still feel guilty.

Sunday has gone pretty well so far, though as I write this there is plenty of time for that to change. I basically crammed all of my weekend into today, complete with my weekly laundry and yardwork. I did have to work for about an hour, but that was no big deal. I also got to spend a little time with Katie’s family including my sister in laws that live too far away. I also got to see their significant others so I did get to see some of the people that I missed the day before for a little while before they all have to go home. I still missed a bunch of others that I would have loved to see.

After running a few more errands Katie, Brennen, and I got home and I was thinking about bed when all of a sudden it hit me. I still hadn’t written a word for this blog. I have a couple of great ideas for future blogs that I thought about as I mowed the grass, but nothing on paper. Worse, though the ideas are pretty good, or at least I hope they are, I don’t have the time to do them justice tonight. Both ideas need more than an hour or two to be written well. I want to do a recap of the 5 Boro Tour of New York and I want to talk about motivation again. I almost wrote that one tonight, but I wanted to take a little more time with it, even if it does tie into this post.

I’ve been pretty open about why I started blogging and trying to find a focus for what I am writing. Cycling seems like an obvious choice as it has quickly become my main hobby. I am getting a tad obsessed with it as I am even reading about how to ride better and more efficiently. If that isn’t the ultimate nerd move, I don’t know what is. The idea of reading a book to refine a physical discipline is a little over the top. The fact that I have four or five of these books along with a repair book and a couple of miscellaneous books is definitely over the top. The upside is I am learning more and more about my new favorite pastime; the downside is that I see how far I have to go to be able to write about it from any perspective other than hopeless newbie. I also want to write about fitness, or at least what I do when I try to be a little healthier than I am now which isn’t that hard. The difficulty here is that what works for me might not work for you, or even be safe for you. Or really, it might not even be safe for me. Or a good idea in general.
This lack of focus makes it difficult to write something when I am short on time and short on ideas that don’t require pictures or research. I end up writing about the process of writing a blog and I am not sure how entertaining that is for anyone. It can be fun to break the fourth wall once in a while and today is going to be one of those days where you get to see into my office.

I can honestly say that I thought about skipping this week. I thought about posting a quick update tomorrow that said that I had to work all weekend and that I would make it up to you later in the week. I realized that I would be cheating the people who look for an update on Mondays and it would be cheating me. I made a choice to post 52 blogs in 52 weeks. I wrote rules, most of which I have either broken or will probably break, but I can’t break the important one. A blog must post on Monday. That is really the only important rule.

That is part of how I motivate myself to attempt the things that I have been trying lately. I set an unrealistic goal but I try anyway. There will be more on this in the motivation blog, but with the blog I read about other bloggers taking the once a week for a year challenge and decided that I had to try. It was more realistic when I was unemployed, but I have been making it work for a couple of months now. It hasn’t been easy, but a challenge shouldn’t be easy. It should be something that pushes you to go a little further than you planned on going. It should be something that offers you the promise of accomplishing something big if you are able to succeed, or you should be able to be proud to have tried your best if you fail. That is part of why I try to stretch and go for goals that are just out of reach. It wasn’t always like that, and again, that is something for my motivation blog.

I wanted to quit today. I wanted to go to bed and say that 20-something blogs was good enough. I wanted to get that extra hour more of sleep before Monday but I just couldn’t. I am 23 blogs into the challenge, including today’s attempt. That is three short of halfway. I began writing in the cold of January and I am sitting by an open window in June. I can’t quit now, it’s far too late. I have to keep trying to post each Monday to be fair to myself. If something happens out of my control, well, I’ll live with that. I just can’t quit because I was tired or lazy.

Do you guys have something like that? Something you almost wanted to quit but you just couldn’t?

Posted in challenge, Cycling, life skills | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

When Are You A Real Cyclist?

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Joe Johnson

Well, it finally happened. I had a moment that made me laugh (after the fact) and think I think I am finally a cyclist. I was on a ride following a local bike path. It is a paved path that is part of the East Coast Greenway. The path is one of the first projects so the pavement has seen better days. You know when there is a bump coming by the vegetation growing through the cracks. You can almost start to guess how large of a bump it is by the amount or height of the weeds. Almost. I saw one coming up on a fast downhill section and the crack went clear across the entire path. I braced for impact and the jolt was far harsher than I thought it would be. My iPhone went flying out of it’s holder on my handlebars. I grabbed my breaks and started back up the hill looking for it. My first thought was “This is going to kill my Strava time”. I found the phone and thankfully it was intact and functioning perfectly. That’s when I started laughing. I had just watched my expensive smartphone fly off the front of my bike and I was more worried about my segment time than whether or not the screen was shattered. Well, at least at first.

Mounting up I started wondering as I often do, when can you call yourself a cyclist? Do you need to be able to complete a certain distance in a certain time? Is it when you ride your first half or full century ride? Maybe when you ride your tenth one? Do you need to be able to change a flat tire in less than five minutes? Maybe it’s when you don’t need your local bike shop for every little repair? I’m asking because I really don’t know.

I don’t know for many reasons, most of which stem from how I ride. I am, what the Bike Snob calls, a lone wolf. That means I ride alone. Not for any noble reason, I ride alone because I always have and I don’t know if I would join a group if I could. I started off riding solo on the gravel trails near my house. From time to time I would ride with my father in law, but for the vast majority of my rides I rode alone. I would like to say it was for some other reason, but mostly it was because I am fat and I look funny riding in spandex. I have written about it before, but it took a lot of courage to ride in public. I didn’t have the courage to ride with a group that way. It was easier and I was more comfortable riding that way alone. I have grown out of that fear a little, but it is still there. Along with being fat came riding slow. I am still slow. I have gotten a little faster, but it is hard for me to want to ride in a group when I feel like the rest of the riders will disappear over the next hill as soon as we set off.

The final reason that I ride alone is I don’t want to be a Fred. Fred is what experienced riders call That Guy. That Guy is the one in every group that doesn’t know what he is doing. He doesn’t have his bike set up correctly, he doesn’t bring the right gear, and he doesn’t know how to ride in a group. There is probably no real way to avoid being Fred when you start riding, and I am sure that every once in a while everyone is Fred from time to time. The problem is I never learned anything that would help me redeem myself. I don’t know if I could keep up with a pace line, let alone what the rules are for riding in one. I don’t know proper cycling etiquette for, well for anything really.

There are lots of good reasons to suck it up and try to ride in a group. The most important is that riding in a group is a great way to learn not to be Fred. Not only learning road etiquette, but even for simple questions like how to properly adjust your seat or the best way to fix a flat. Thankfully I have a great Local Bike Shop or LBS to help me out. Bob at Manchester Cycle keeps me pointed in the right direction. He answers most of my questions without laughing too hard and has steered me towards the right equipment each time I have shopped there. A good group would have helped me steer clear of the other cycle shops in the area that aren’t quite as good.

Also, to be fair to all the cyclists I have met, each has gone out of their way to be friendly and offer a helping hand without being asked. Cyclists really are some of the nicest people around. Once they see that you are making an effort they will help you in any way that they can. Part of my problem is that in knowing that I want to bother them even less. I feel like you have to learn some things on your own. That’s probably not the case, but it is how I feel.

I have thought about trying to start a new group. A group that would give a home to all of the Freds out there that are too scared to ride with the experienced cyclists. A group where the average speed would be about what a normal group ride would spin while climbing a hill. The only problem is that we would never really learn from each other because no of us would really know what we are doing. The blind would truly be leading the blind in that scenario.

So I am asking you guys, when did you first feel like a cyclist? Are you still waiting to feel like you belong? What do you think could help you feel like you are part of the community? Let me know, I would love to post a follow up to this with some of the best responces!

Posted in Cycling, fitness, Weight Loss | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Fat Guy Fitness

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Joe Johnson

Last week’s blog sparked a different response than I anticipated. Actually, I don’t normally get much of a response at all, so any response tends to be unanticipated. The blog about plateaus seemed to resonate with people, but not the plateaus. It was the perfect fitness people that seemed to stand out. The people at the gym that never seem to have to try very hard to look like they just stepped off the pages of a fitness magazine. They are the people with the perfect bodies; either the stick thin women or the muscle bound men. They never seem to be trying very hard, spending most of their time texting on their phones or grunting as they do a rep, rest, flex, then do another.

Those are the people that helped drive me away from my gym. It wasn’t just them, but they were a part of it. I hated waiting for equipment when people would sit on the stationary bike barely peddling while checking Facebook. The infuriating part was not only were they on one of the four bikes, not only were they not really riding it as they sat there, but they would always look like they were straight off the set of the next big drama on Fox. Impossibly perfect people that were born into bodies that need no real upkeep, they just look that way no matter what.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that most people who spend a good deal of time in the gym work really hard. I know that these people either work their butts off to look like that or they are young and have no idea how hard they will have it when their metabolism starts to slow down once they graduate college and take that desk job. I get that, and I don’t really harbor any ill will towards them. Not really, but maybe a little when I feel like Shamoo the Wonder Whale trying desperately to lose some of this bulk and I know, I just know, that they are all laughing at me when I turn around.

I don’t think I am alone in this. I have seen other people just like me. Sweating their way through their workouts, stealing glances at the pretty people, secretly wishing the weight machine would fall over on them as they grunt and strut their way through three bench presses. We count the seconds until our hard interval is over and we can start to breathe and gasp our way through the two minutes of easier peddling before it gets worse again. When we are done we get the added pleasure of hearing words of encouragement from Workout Ken and Barbie at the reception desk where they will tell us how hard we are working and how great it is that we are trying so hard.

Don’t you just want to go somewhere else? That is the biggest reason I gave up the gym and started riding. When I first started going there I was over 365 pounds. It doesn’t matter how well you think you carry the weight, in a gym everyone knows you are fat. You stick out like a sore thumb and you feel self-conscious. Even when people aren’t looking or laughing at you, you feel like they are. Once I realized that the gym would never have enough stationary bikes to go around I canceled my membership and got back on my real bike. I went back to riding on my local rail trail, happier by far to suffer alone than in front of everyone else.

After hearing a similar response to my last blog, I had an idea. There are many people that have found fitness and weight loss on the back of a bike. Some have gotten fairly well known by writing about their stories, others have blogs. I have written about a couple with web sites that are particularly well done before, Ernest Gagnon and Brian at IWearSpandex.com are two great examples. Mike Magnuson and Selene Yeager have both written books and articles about weight loss and cycling. All of these people are much more like me than any of the perfect plastic people I met at the gym. Although I hope I didn’t offend any of them by saying that, they are all much further along than I am. They are all part of the inspiration I had for my idea. Let me present:

Fat Guy Fitness

Okay, maybe not present, maybe propose is a better way to say this. I want to create a website where people who have struggled with fitness and weight loss can offer advice to the rest of us. I am not thinking of a “How To” as much as a “When I was There”. It would be great to get a bunch of writers who have all been through this life style change to offer some advice, personal stories, and maybe a little humor as well to help the community find their way. I have this vague idea of a web site community where we call all support each other and offer a smile to help the inevitable setbacks as well as a great place to share success stories. No perfect plastic people, just us real people that are trying hard every day. The ones that know they need a complete rearranging of the mental furniture to go along with the physical to get back to a healthy lifestyle.

What do you think? Anyone interested in reading something like that? More importantly, anyone interested in being involved? Let me know, I would really love to get something like this started!

Posted in Cycling, fitness, Weight Loss | 1 Comment

Death, Taxes, and Plateaus

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Joe Johnson

How do you deal with plateaus when it comes to fitness or riding? I ask, because I really have no idea. I think we all know what the experts say. We parrot is back to each other when we have a friend that gets stuck on one. We know we will hit one, they are like flat tires. Plateaus happen. There is nothing you can do to stop them from happening. You are going about your routine, steadily progressing, adding mileage or losing weight when all of a sudden, you aren’t. You start working harder and you actually move backward. So you work even harder, and you fall further behind. The same workouts that used to be effective are now hard to complete. You do extra work even though you don’t want to. You push even harder because you feel guilty about not wanting to do the work. Then you step on the scale and you gained two pounds.

There are probably people that don’t hit plateaus. These are probably the same people that you see at the gym, barely working out but weighing in at 125 pounds soaking wet while you are killing yourself on the bike or treadmill trying not to have an aneurism in the heart of the most intense interval you do. They are probably the same people that complain about the fact that no matter what they eat they just can’t seem to put on weight while you are choking down your three leaf salad secretly hoping they get hit by a bus. Just a little one, maybe just winged by it. Nothing too serious.

These non-plateau suffering people will tell you that the best thing you can do is change up your routine. Try a new workout or vary the pattern that you have established. Just confuse your body and the pounds will just fall off again. These people have never had to fight each ounce of weight as it clings to your body. The weight never just falls off and just changing your routine won’t shake you lose of the death grip of the plateau.

The only thing that has ever worked for me was not trying to outwork the plateau, but to outthink it. Well, not outthink it, much more the reverse of that idea. To not think about it at all. Really, to not think about anything you are doing for weight loss at all. I am not going to tell you not to worry about it, or to not think about what you are trying to accomplish, but I am going to tell you not to fixate. The last time I got stuck it was at 300 pounds. I had been there before and I fixated on finally breaking through that number. I worried about it and when it didn’t happen right away I started to fall back into old habits. I would eat when I was bored and tell myself I was hungry or that I earned an extra treat. I would blow off training rides because in needed rest days, and then I would take more rest days. Then I would weigh myself and find out that I gained weight. Then the cycle would repeat. Too much stress and not enough work turned the plateau into a setback. That particular setback sent me all the way back to 365 pounds.
I started over. I tried to retrain myself again, to eat better and move more. It was working great until I stepped on the scale and saw 302. I started to fixate again. In a week I was back to 307. This time I tried to change my approach. The Thirty Days of Biking had just started and I fixated on that instead. I stopped worry about what I weighed and worried about getting in some type of ride. I thought I would sign up for the challenge and then quickly lose my way. Once I focused on it I did whatever I could to get a ride in, even if it were just on the trainer. One night I rode at ten thirty at night to get the ride in. I stopped worrying about my food intake and had a few more cheat meals. My lent challenge ended so I indulged a little.

I kept the 5 Boro Tour in my mind as well. Forty miles through all five boroughs of New York City was something worth training for to do well. I kept thinking of just about anything but my weight. May first I weighed less than 300 pounds. This week I weighed myself and for the first time since high school I weighed less than 290 pounds. It was two tenths of a pound less, but it was a start into the 280s.

Fixating on something other than the plateau worked for me this time, but I would love to know what has worked for you. I know there must be other tricks to get past plateaus and setbacks and I would love to know them.

Posted in challenge, Cycling, fitness, life skills, Weight Loss | 3 Comments