The Long Road Back

xc62701

Well-Known Member
sorry i did not reply to your recent recaps, but hearing that no shirt guy is still out and ripping ST is inspiring.

your weight loss is interesting, the scale says i have gained weight but my pant size is still the same. maybe i got some quadz? still cant get focused enough to eat healthy EVERY single meal...

Yea still ripping for sure!

Yes the healthy thing every meal is tough. When I was dropping weight I was super strict. Since I've now stabilized in the 160's I'm enjoying eating again. I will have some bad stuff and some good stuff. All in moderation eh. I want to go lower and I know that will take some more discipline and eating clean for a few weeks straight. That will be tough but doable if I really want it.

I find it tough to eat really well when I'm racing. I want to eat a lot before and after events so that actually makes it harder to lose weight. I'm sure it's healthier to repair and get calories before and after events but it doesn't help the scale go down. I'm happy with how I feel and what I weigh now but there's always that question of how much faster would I be if I dropped 5 lbs, no matter how heavy you are. Then there's the law of diminishing returns - lighter isn't always faster if muscle is being sacrificed.
 

Pearl

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
thats how i feel now, i'm telling myself i've gained muscle since i don't ride for very long anymore and not burning whatever i have in my system... i still feel strong on the bike, not a slug, so i think where i am weight wise is just a number... hard to tell since i do not have something to base it off of!
 

Gnick

Active Member
This weekend does look promising. Good news is the fatty is back! That and I dropped off my epic to get ready for LM this weekend. I am working out a fork swap so I have a fork with a lockout for those sprinty bits. The brain fork is nice but I really miss the remote lockout. That will be fixed shortly.

On the weight side of things I was good last week but life and the end of the school year have left me eating more than I should. Things are still holding in the mid to upper 160's which is awesome but I REALLY want to get into the high 150's for Wilderness. That will take some effort and discipline but it should be doable. There is 5 weeks left to drop 8 pounds. It's manageable.

I do have to say I attained another amazing goal. Since losing 30 lbs this year I did it concurrently with eating a 6.6 lb tub of Nutella. I'm not quite sure how that worked but man that stuff is good. Maybe that's why I'm having trouble shedding a few more pounds. Well that and I don't want to drop too much and suffer a performance loss. View attachment 53542
just curious - how tall are you? I'm hovering right at about 180ish at 5'8" and am working towards a low 170's goal. down from about 205
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
just curious - how tall are you? I'm hovering right at about 180ish at 5'8" and am working towards a low 170's goal. down from about 205
5'10.5" I started off the year at 196. Keep up the good work! Every day is a battle.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member

That's not a jar of Nutella. This is what I took down.
3kg_nutella__09144.1439062775.1280.1280_1_1.jpg
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
Took the fatty out for a nice shakedown ride last night and it felt good. Something is still off though. I may have a bent pedal spindle cause it feels odd when pedaling but I can't put my finger on it. I'll have to check that out more today or tomorrow as I'm jumping on it and racing Sunday. It must have been somewhat ok as I hit one of my favorite climbs that starts as a chunky fire road and then turns right and the business is on. I got the KOM on the full deal and the hard steep part of the climb I was 3rd by a second. There's a tree down too that I had to bypass as well so once that's out I need to make a run at both segments again and also get on my xc bike. It's funny that after not riding the fatty for 3 months I always forget how low the BB is and I smash my crank arms on everything for the first couple of rides. Once I remember what bike I'm on it usually gets better.

Weight is at 167 this morning. I'll probably get closer to 165 for the race Sunday which is right where I want to be. Well I'd rather be in the 150's but for now that's right where I want to be. I'm hoping that for Port Jervis and the W101 I'll be cranking in the 150's. I just need to limit beer, chocolate, and cheese. If I could do that I'd be there in a hearbeat. But it's all so good!!!
 

Steve Vai

Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
A Power Meter will help you better see where the point of diminishing return is. Also could seriously help with pacing and knowing Kj output during races to help with fueling.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
A Power Meter will help you better see where the point of diminishing return is. Also could seriously help with pacing and knowing Kj output during races to help with fueling.

That's why I've got one on my cross/road bike. I won't use one for the mtb. Mtb is just too erratic for that.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
IMG_4673.JPG
And now more issues. I finally have the fatbike working again which is nice. Damn I forgot how bad the pedal strikes get on the low bb for that thing... Anywho...

I dropped off both my lynskey and my epic to get the epic ready for Lewis Morris. I swapped the forks to get a lockout on my epic last week and when I did I had to switch lowers because of the wheels and it made both 100mm fork turn into a 120mm and an 80mm. So I'm working on fixing that so I have my predictable 100mm back on the race bike. With that I wanted to switch wheel sets and I get a call. No can do. My rear hub on my stans wheelset is cracked. Sure enough. So now I'm scrambling around to make a wheel work for the race Sunday. Hopefully I'll get this sorted out today.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
wow, thats a new one!

you know enough people to score a wheel for sure.

If need be I have a crest at home and might be able to switch some endcaps. I'll have to see what I can make work. The best part is I dinged up my other rear wheel and this was going to be the one I was swapping too. F it. Maybe I'll just do the Cat1 race on my fatty.
 

Magic

Formerly 1sh0t1b33r
Team MTBNJ Halter's
View attachment 53670 And now more issues. I finally have the fatbike working again which is nice. Damn I forgot how bad the pedal strikes get on the low bb for that thing... Anywho...

I dropped off both my lynskey and my epic to get the epic ready for Lewis Morris. I swapped the forks to get a lockout on my epic last week and when I did I had to switch lowers because of the wheels and it made both 100mm fork turn into a 120mm and an 80mm. So I'm working on fixing that so I have my predictable 100mm back on the race bike. With that I wanted to switch wheel sets and I get a call. No can do. My rear hub on my stans wheelset is cracked. Sure enough. So now I'm scrambling around to make a wheel work for the race Sunday. Hopefully I'll get this sorted out today.
The same thing just happened to one of my friends on his Flow. Apparently they had some issue in a batch where the hub material was too thin. They shipped him a free MK3 Flow upgrade within a week.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
Well Lewis Morris came and went. I know this place is all about horsepower and I like to ride the rocks. I usually can't hold the effort of the top riders in this type of course. I signed up hoping I could get a decent result but who knows. I also figured I'd do the fatbike race too. I did the same with. Oth races last year and suffered. I was DFL by 5 mins in cat 1 and worked really hard to get into the 5th spot in the fatbike race. I was hopeful for more this year.

The cat 1 race went off and I could not ride for crap. My legs just wouldn't go. I immediately got spit out the back and didnt know how this was gonna go. It usually takes me too long to warm up so maybe by lap 3 I'd be better. Sure enough little by little I was picking off riders on the climbs. By the end of lap 1 I was feeling better and lap 2 I was charging much harder. I passed more guys each time it went up. I started to see Steve E. and I clawed my way too him on one of the last climbs before the end of the lap. Then of course I flatted AGAIN! This is my 4th flat in a race this year. I tuned it and my tube was flat. FML my race was over. I even debated running the 1+ lap with my bike just to finish and I would have if I didn't have to race the fatbike. But since I did I did the walk of shame out and DNF'd. This is my first DNF EVER! 230+ races... I am still pissed about this. Oh well that's bike racing. I figured I'd take my frustrations out in the fatbike race.

For the fat race I went out ok and definitely feeling the effort from the cat 1 race. Up the first hill I was in 6th but by the top of the next I was in third. By the top of the next inwas in 2nd chasing Nick Lando. I knew I couldn't catch him but I wanted to stay close. I was a few seconds off him on lap 1 but then he must have stopped his recovery ride and rode a little harder to put a minute on me for the final lap. I finished second and happy i rode as hard as I did for the fatbike race. At least I was able to turn a tragic race day into a good one with a hard effort in the fatbike race.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
It's looks like I have a couple of weeks - week and a half - until my next race. It looks to be port jervis. I'm hopeful that I can stay on top of the weight control and push it a bit lower now. Last week was kinda crazy as I was finishing the last days of school and there wasn't much concentration on eating well. I still hovered in the 168's. But I want to see lower for the next race an especially with wilderness looming that will pay to be super light. I know I probably sound like a broken record but for these endurance races light is key.

So I made the decision to do a shake cleanse so to speak for 2 days to see how my body would react and then eat clean until port jervis. I survived day 1 on less than 1000 calories and did 60 mins of spinning. Today is day 2 and I'll be curious to see how the energy is today. So far so good. The thing I keep thinking of is that eating clean would be so much nicer than this. At least I have options and you can chew stuff. I'll be back to that Thursday. As for today the scale did move a bit. 165.6 this morning. 6 pounds and I'm in the 159's.
 
Top Bottom