Matt's Bike Thoughts

Feels silly to write a progress report more than once a month, but I'm not making great progress. So maybe let's recap weekly. Cycling fitness has stayed in the 80-90 range, as I wanted. So I haven't gotten any stronger. Weight hasn't moved either, really. I'm still at 200lbs. I haven't been riding as much lately, mostly due to snow and bad weather. And I've been eating more, mostly due to social occasions and a failure to adhere to my diet. So let's modify the plan a bit. Why have I been eating more than I need to? Not measuring portions of home-made meals Eating more at social occasions than necessary Compensating calories from bike riding Ultimately, I really want to eat more, and I'll use any excuse to do so. Having MyFitnessPal show me the calorie counts from bike rides encourages me to eat extra on those days, which is obviously counterproductive. Not measuring portions is just laziness. I need to measure  what I eat, even i...

Goddamn Colorado It's maybe the fifth time I've done Waterton Canyon, and it was fun as always. I like Waterton a lot as a testing ground for bikepacking gear, because it's so close to home (22 miles from my house to the campsite), relatively easy getting to the campsite (can do it on a road bike), and it's also the start of the Colorado Trail, and there's good relatively technical mountain biking you can do from there. The sun sets around 5:00pm this time of year. They close the canyon 30 minutes after sunset, which means that I was not  supposed to be climbing up there around 8:00pm. Oh well. An alternative is to take the trails from Roxborough State Park, which are significantly more technically challenging, but don't close when it's dark. I took my Cutthroat with a relatively minimal gear setup: Revelate Terrapin 14L seatpost bag Camp clothes (wool shirt, leggings, extra socks, puffy jacket) Sleep stuff (40F sleeping bag, sleeping pad, i...

Up until now I've kind of just been doing everything hard and hoping it'd stick, all while 'trying' to lose weight! But I'm 31 now, so I probably can't really maintain that. Yesterday, I had to call an easy 50 mile ride short to a meager 30 miles, and I even had a hard time keeping up with my girlfriend on her 35lb Surly Wednesday with 27.5x3 tires - I was on my Fuji Jari! Bike is easily 10lbs less with 35mm Gravelking SK tires. Strava also thinks I'm overtraining according to the heart rate data. I've been 'above weekly range' for a few weeks now. It has no idea that I am also doing some weightlifting. And it has no idea that I am (trying) to be in a calorie deficit. Here's what my plan was: Monday/Wednesday/Friday: 10mi round trip bike ride to the gym Squat/Bench press/Machine seated rows or Deadlift/Overhead press/Lat pulldowns Tuesday/Thursday 1-2hr hard/training ride Saturday/Sunday 4+ hour ride on at least one of the d...