4 Weeks from today, Monday, October 27th, I will
begin training for my first 100 mile, century ride. So why is it called the chubby century? You guessed it. I am a bit overweight. More than a bit. I am 5’10” tall and currently weigh between
215lbs and 220lbs depending on when I weigh in.
My goal is to train for a 100 mile ride, lose some weight, and hopefully
have fun doing it.
Over the course of the past few years, I have tried several
types of exercising regiments, none of which have maintained my attention for
too long with the exception of tennis, and now (hopefully) cycling. I joined a tennis league while living in north
Dallas and really enjoyed it. We played
for over a year and had a great time.
Then I moved to Charleston, SC and haven’t found an tennis group. Also, I am carrying enough weight that my
knees and other joints really aren't happy with me when I play. Typically I need two full days of recovery if
I play more than three sets of hard tennis.
It’s hard to build up solid fitness with that kind of recovery
window. I tried running but again,
chunky dude plus running equals angry knees.
Then by chance, my sister and brother-in-law took me on a 20 mile
weekend bike ride. I HATED it. The ride turned my butt to hamburger, I was
sore for a week, and I didn't understand why anyone would ever do that on
purpose. Begrudgingly, I went with them
another time or two and didn't think anything of it. Then it happened. I was buying a piece of furniture from a nice
lady moving to Seattle. She was about my
height and had a bike in her living room.
A white hybrid, Specialized Vita.
I was looking for some exercise and remembered how much I LOVE cycling
so I made her an offer of $200 and she accepted. The journey begins…
You need to know that my sister and brother-in-law name their
bikes and I didn't want to be left out so my little Vita’s name is Olaf. It’s a white bike and that little snow dude
from the movie Frozen is named Olaf AND my brother-in-law works for Disney,
ergo Olaf it is. We will discuss bike
naming in general in a later post. The
point is that I have been riding Olaf for about 4 months now. IT started with boring little rides around
the high school during summer. Then I
found some trails. Some of those trails
led to downtown. There is a big bridge
here called the Ravenel Bridge which is awesome on a bike. The next
thing you know I am riding all over the place and for some reason I can’t begin
to understand, I enjoy it! I am getting
stronger, going farther, and having a good time. Olaf and I have gone on a couple of 40 mile
rides and one 53 mile ride that literally almost killed me. At least my knees didn't hurt. That’s when I learned fun things like carry
more than one water bottle, replace your electrolytes, people should eat
something during long rides, have a plan, tell others you are doing it,
etc..
Somewhere in the middle of this process I learned that there
are complete weirdos out there that ride 100 miles continuously and that they
call these ride centuries. The weirdos
are also called cyclists. I have always
made fun of cyclists, ridiculed their fashion sense, found myself annoyed when
the block the road, and so on. I am
quickly becoming a convert. I have a new
found respect for what true cyclists accomplish. Cyclists are amazing. They ride faster than I can imagine for
distances I may never reach. Freaks of
nature. All of which is to say that I am
now interested in cycling.
To summarize: My sister and brother-in-law destroy my
butt one weekend, I get a bike, start cycling regularly, taking longer rides,
learning about weirdos, finding out about century rides, culminates in my
desire to take this challenge on. The universe is a funny place.
The other thing going on in my life right now is a super fun
divorce. My wife and I are calling it
quits after 21 years of marriage. We
have two boys, ages 16 and 21. I plan to
stick with the topics at hand for this blog (cycling, losing weight, fat dudes
doing cool things, etc.) but it is important to know that I will be going
through a couple of the hardest things I have ever done in my life at the same
time. Wish me luck on both fronts. I will need it.
In this journal I will document all that I learn as a new
cyclist embarking on an epic journey.
Feel free to make fun of me, laugh at the silly stuff I do wrong, cheer
me on, whatever makes you happy. I just hope
I make it!
No comments:
Post a Comment