This past Saturday, it was going to be a cold one, and I knew it, but looking at the trainer sitting there, I knew that I better find some warm clothes, because me and that thing do not get along for very long…It is kind of like the loud mouthed uncle at Chirstmas…You know, Hey, how’s it going? Yeah, really? I am going to go over here now, so don’t come and try and talk to me…That is me and the trainer.
So Friday I was in the local bike shop and noticed they were hosting a ride out of there on Saturday morning. Ride leaves at 9:00…Let me think…It is supposed to be freezing, literally, and the high is supposed to reach a balmy 45 degrees, and that is usually reserved for latter in the day. NOPE!
I called and talked to my buddy Alan Tripp who has moved from Greenville, NC to Sparkle city South Carolina to see what he was doing, I knew he would be up for riding, and as soon as I gave him an excuse not to get up early, he was in.
We left the house at lunch…The warmest part of the day, and it was still 40 degrees. It was cool though, it is amazing how just having someone there makes you willing to go out. We made a short loop around the lake just to check the clothes to see if indeed what we had on was enough or too much, and we were off.
We were going to me Joey and Michael at the library at 1:00, so we had a goo hour in before we met them.
We kept the pace easy, since it was cold, wind chill was a problem, especially going downhill. Things worked out well though, we had a good ride, got in 4.5 hours, and got home late afternoon to a warm house.
Hopefully the weather will be better this weekend.
I am off work for Thanksgiving, so I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving, remember to think about how much you have, and don’t eat too much turkey.

Later,
HUMP

I say there’s not much, but that is what it is this time of the season, Thanksgiving is just around the corner, so I have some vacation time from work coming next week. Christmas is just around the corner, and if I had my wish, the new team bikes and kit would be under the tree..

Looks like we will be rolling pretty well when it is time to start swapping paint, Gary Fisher road bikes, Hincapie Sportswear, Barkley, not to mention all the other sponsor that helps throughout the year. I just got finished ordering some more drink mix from Taylor’s Nutrition.

The nutrition plan is going better than I expected.  I knew Rick knew what he was doing, but I did not know that it would this easy. I use easy, but really, Rick lays everything out for me.

Check this out, this was dinner…Does it look like I am starving myself? Not to me and the belly.

I have come to the conclusion that next season, I am going to pass on some help to someone else. I have not told my wife this, but I hope to have our finances to a point where I can give some back to someone who needs it.  I thought that I would pick one person each year, as long as I am able and Rick and I are working together, set them up with Rick for period to get them on the right path, then they can take over after the time is up and then I pick another person the next year.  Simple really. I have some people that I work with that have dieted all of there lives and they are on the yo-yo, up and down, lose some gain more.  I want them to see that it is not about dieting or a points system.

So that is that. Until next time, now that I can post pics better, I will be posting more.

HUMP

This week marked the beginning of the new nutrition plan with Rick, and I have to say, it has been rather eye opening.  It is not that I was eating the wrong things, just the portions.  Rick lays the days meals out, so really there is no guesswork, just pantry stocking is in order, but I find that if I go in and write out the meals, most of the stuff I had already, or had been buying already..I think I said before, this is not me going and eating grass and roots, this is real food, the same things I have been eating, just portions…A subject that the majority of the USA cannot seem to put their hands around.

Kolbie is even eating better now, he loves my baked potato wedges.

I just cannot wait to see what it will be like once the racing starts.

HUMP

Next week starts my journey toward getting as lean this season as my body will allow, and I am looking forward to it.  Rick has laid out the next two weeks, and looking at the meals, it is really nothing that I have not been eating, which is good, since it is not like I have been eating fast food and drinking sodas. I watch what I eat, and try to make the right choices.  Rick refined it, made sure that the portions were correct for me and also made sure that on the bike nutrition is going to be of utmost importants.

We all know the feeling of just not having the energy on the bike, or feeling the bonk! You know it, you are tooling along, then the monkey jumps on your back, you feel like you cannot work, if you have anything in the water bottles, you start downing it trying to make yourself feel better.  It is rough, and we all know it.

I have been a user of Cytosport products for the past season, on the recommendation of a teammate Geri Mewett.  He let me try some Cytimax mix when we were in Belize this past season, and I loved it.  It mixes fast, has numerous flavors and I can drink it and like to drink it which is a key component of a sports drink.  If you do not drink it, what good is it?

Now back to getting lean.  During my Cat 3 season, I reduced my weight, at my lowest I was 143 lbs.  That is pretty good, considering I am 5′-9″ tall.  I felt great, and won a lot of races, did a great time at the Bridge to Bridge challenge, where I climbed better than I have ever climbed.  Over the next winter, I lifted weights more than I had th previous winter and gained some weight back, but I felt strong.  I did however stop looking at my nutrition as closely. I think it was that I am here now mentality, I do not have to work at it, in laymen’s terms, I got lazy.  I had upgraded to the Pro 1-2 level, and I thought I could afford to lay back a bit. 

WRONG! This is when I needed the best nutrition the most, I needed to fuel and refuel correctly if I was going to be able to compete.  I had my moments where I did well, where I started feeling good and leaning out, and then I would have a set-back.  Mentally it was tough, but I kept on pushing along.

This season is going to be different.  I know this, because I have already told myself this.  I have two great coaches, taking care of both aspects of the training part, and I have full support with my family.  I also have a great team of great friends to race with.

Right now my weight is staying consistant, but my work load now is not as strenuous as it will be once I start getting on the bike more.  I am ready….Are you?

Stay tuned, starting next week, first official weigh in and photos to come…I am putting myself out there for all to see, and for all to see how vital a good nutrition plan is for competition and health.

HUMP

This week, Rick, with my help is going to monitor what I am putting in as opposed to what I am doing.  This will help him in determining what I eat now compared to what tweaking he will be doing.  Last time I told you that I had bought the scale, so I am using it.  Throughout the weekend, I checked my Body Fat % and Body Hydration levels every evening, and my body weight in the mornings.  The BF% is staying right around 7.8%, Hydration is right around 61-62%, body weight is staying in and around 157-158.  I think that this is pretty good considering what time of year it is.  I have not made any changes in my eating, and that is what Rick is wanting, for me to just let him know what I am eating…One thing I noticed about the scale, is that it will calculate based off input that I have in there for my height and age and activity level what my daily caloric intake needs to be to maintain where I am…It has consitantly read 3,000-3,800 calories per day, not including what I would do on the bike.

I am looking forward to getting things dialed in, especially on the bike nutrition, because in the past I would think that to lose the extra fat I have, I should not eat, but let my body use what is there, and that was a fault in my thinking.  I did 3.5 hours on Saturday at Endurance pace, ate one Powerbar, and two bottles of Cytomax, and still felt like I needed more before I got home.  I felt it worse on Sunday, with the last 30-45 minutes of the ride really feeling puny….possibly bonking.

HUMP

Well, this past week went well as far as training goes, I started my weight routine, and got in some good riding this weekend.

I have thought many times that I would like to promote a race in my area.  There are numerous roads that we could wage two wheeled battle on, and only one time I know of that they were ever raced on.  I have spoken to my local riding buddies, and I think we are all in agreement that we are going to go for it.  We could really put on a classics type of race, not a crit, a true classic road race. What I want to do is mimic the European calendar in a way.  Over in Europe as we all know, there are classics guys and there are tour riders.  The classics guys relish the bad weather, the messed up roads, the one day long races.  In America, we do not have these types of races, most of our early season is spent at training races, and do you remember who won those??? Unless you are that person, I figure you didn’t.

What I want to do is create that type of race where guys train for it, they put an “X” on the calendar for that race.  I want that race to have the prestige that will carry that winner to the next season.  I want people to remember that winner.  So in saying this, we have some things in the works that will be coming hopefully this season.  I will keep you posted.

Now onto my other part of this post, renovating. I spent the better part of Saturday and Sunday afternoon working on our bathroom…(After getting in the training of course).  We had intended on pulling out our old cracked toilet and replacing it, plus putting down some other floor treatment..Well, what we didn’t know is that the floor (sub-floor), was rotten around the toilet, and some of the other parts had water damage…Well, after spending all of Saturday afternoon ripping stuff out, all of Sunday afternoon putting new back in, all of Monday finishing the floor treament, and caulking every place that I thought may get a leak, we finally had the plumbing work finished today, and I am happy to say that I actually feel proud about doing most of this myself.

Oh yeah, sniffling…..I have a cold, that time of year I guess.

Unitl next time, keep your eyes and ears open for the updates on my training as well as the racing.

HUMP

I am going to start the records today. First thing first, I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond last Thursday to pick up a scale.  Not just any scale, a body composition scale. One that will read weight, Fat%, Body Hydration, and the one I got, since I am a nerd, also has muscle mass and bone mass.

November 6-PM: Body Fat 7.8% Body Hydation level:61.2% November 7-AM: Body Weight 157.0

Alright, looks okay I suppose, I think that I am in a good spot seeing as it is November. My weight is about where it should be, I am lifting and not riding as much during the week.

Until Next time,

HUMP

I typically do not post things like this, but this just needs to be read.

The 10 Cannots
By William J. H. Boetcker(wrongfully attributed to Abraham Lincoln)

*You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
*You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
*You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
*You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
*You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence.
*You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
*You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
*You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
*You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
*You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves.

During this past season, 2008, I emailed Rich Hincapie, to ask if he knew of anyone in our area who really knew the stuff when it came to nutrition.  I had heard that George had used someone for some stomach problems, so I wanted to start there.  Rich told me that he had just started talking to a person right in Greenville, and this guy knew what he was doing.  Rich gave the contact info to Rick Kattouf.

I thought, this sounds promising, so I checked out Rick’s website…Holy Cow! Apparently Rick is just about as active a person as you will ever find.

Aside: My last venture into the world of elite level nutrition coaching left me a little jaded.  Let’s just say that when you tell someone that you are a nutrition coach, you should look like a nutrition person.  It is like if someone called me and ask me to coach them in cycling, and I met them, but instead of looking like a lean cyclist, I show up smoking a cigarette, and 30 pounds overweight…That person we be apprehensive even if I had a degree that said I was the doctor of cycling coaching…You get what I am saying.

That was not the case with Rick, or any of Rick’s clients, these people were in shape! And Rick has the credentials, just take a look.

http://www.teamkattouf.com/bio.htm

So I contacted Rick about working together this winter into next season, I wanted to see just how lean I can get, and stay healthy.  After talking to Rick on the phone, he felt, with my past history that it would not be a problem to really dial in the nutrition.  The thing that I like the most, not only is the plan there, but it is day by day, meal by meal, on www.trainingpeaks.com, so I can view it any time, and Rick and Renee (www.simpletrainingconcepts) can work hand in hand so that I am not eating like a bear on easy days, and not eating like a mouse on days when I should be taking it in.  No guess work.

I know what you may be thinking, “Well, you will probably be eating wheat grass, and acorns.” Nope! I will eat regular food, that is the beauty in the plan, this is not a diet, this is a way of life.  All the stuff that I eat now I will eat. Nothing Rick recommends is something that I do not already eat on a regular basis.

This is something that I have been wanting to do for a long time, I want to see just how lean I can get, how it effects my cycling, be it positive or negative, and I am taking you with me.  Starting this weekend, I will be posting my progress, I will log my weight, body fat percentage, body hydration levels, and just how I feel in general.  You will take the journey with me.  Stay tuned, because this is going to get exciting! There will be pictures, possibly even videos.

HUMP

Raise your hand if you have ever said to yourself…”Self, I wished I could get leaner.” “Self, if I could only drop this last ten pounds, I would feel and ride so much better.”  Well, I have asked myself these questions numerous times.  I like to eat, who doesn’t? I was brought up in a family that was not too active, and liked to eat, all my early life I struggled with my weight, my brother on the other hand looked like he hadn’t ate in weeks.  It bothered me, up until high school, and then once I got out, I started taking control of it.  Thing is there is a ton of conflicting information out there.  I did however manage to get lean and put on some muscle just in time for my honeymoon.  After that, I changed jobs, stopped working out, but stayed light, due to the fact that I was working outside on my feet running around all day.  I then changed position within the company to a job that put me on my rear all day….Uh Oh! I got fat.  At my heaviest, I was 194 pounds, and I am 5′-9″. 

Again, I got fed up and went back to the gym…(I was not cycling at all at this time, just wait, I will get to that, bear with me.) I spoke with the gym owner about eating right.  This was the first time someone took me, kept tabs on me and gave me a meal plan so to speak.  The weight came off as I worked out and climbed my way to Everest on the stair climber.  My Dad was working out with me doing the same thing, and we were both seeing results.  My lightest was 143, 4% body fat.  I was feeling and looking great.  I then started putting on more muscle, which bumped my weight up, but I stayed fairly lean.

Then I got into cycling.  It was great, so great that I cannot do the gym anymore, just cannot stand being cooped up.  Competeing came next, and so did the reading and trying to figure out what I had to do to keep myself going, but also to get as light as possible.  When I started racing, I weighed 160. I do not know what my fat percentage was, but I was just starting out, just wanted to race and did not care. Then I started moving up and I noticed that the more I moved up, the more little things mattered.  I got in touch with a nutrition consultant in a neighboring city to see what they could do for me as far as a meal plan.  This person laid out what I needed based off my Resting Metabolic Rate, and I was off.  I lost the weight, got back down to 143, and was flying.  The next season I went back and got a new meal plan, and my requirements had changed, I needed more calories, and that was fine when I was training hard and alot, but when I would take a rest period, my weight would fluctuate again. Something had to give.  I knew that the plan needed to change to accomodate the differing needs, at different times, I needed more or less depending on what I was doing.

That leads me to my next post….