Well me again. Time for an update.
So, STILL closing in on being 15 stone something as I seem to be a little stuck at the moment. When I weighed myself this morning, I was 101.9 lg which is half a pound or so over 16 stone. Not best pleased that weight loss as slowed down but then I suppose I should really expect it; especially as CBH has brought a really really nice tasting spread which I could pounds after pounds of. Sigh.
On an exercise side...managed 123 miles on my bike last month including one ride of 20 miles and one combine ride (two rides out to a football match and back) of 23 miles. I really need to do some longer runs but the weather has been rubbish (windy and wet) and at times, I can't be arsed. Oh...and I had a fall last week then I was too busy looking at the traffic to notice the kerb which I hit square on and went flying! No damage done but it will teach me to look where I am going!
Swimming...well its coming along slowly.... I seem to have my arms correct and when using a float my legs are fine. However, putting the two together is near on impossible! However, I did pass the first two tests so that's good. Oh, must ask if I get a badge to sew onto my trunks!
What do I want from Feb then...well I would like to up my mileage to over 150 miles with at least one 30 mile plus ride... I doubt it will be too soon as this week looks like yet more rain and 40mph winds. In the pool I would like to get my breast stroke together and then start working on front crawl.
Finally, would anyone like a cold? I seem to yet another one...:-(
Sunday, 31 January 2016
Tuesday, 19 January 2016
Closing in on 15 stone something
Afternoon, me again...sorry.
Well time for an update I feel. Firstly, it seems I am closing in on being 15 stone something, a weight I have not been since 1988. My weight this morning was 102.6kg which works out at 16 stone 2. So, a rush and a push and the land we crave is ours...it has been before, it shall be again. Oh sorry, slipped into Morrissey there!
Once I get to 15 stone something that will be a total loss (no, not that type of total loss) of four stone in around four months. I know that would NOT have been possible without the gastric band which simply does stop me over eating. It doesn't however stop me having snacks, something which can be a right pain such as last night when I couldn't sleep so got up and had a slice of toast. That was a real mistake as it got stuck meaning I burpped for half an hour to clear it! I suppose one day I will learn!
Thinking about the loss of four stone, I note that quite a few of my clothes no longer fit: its a bit embarrassing when your jogging bottoms want to fall down as you walk! Also, I note a cycling top I brought ages ago now fits! The thing with cycling tops is that the sizing is all over the place so an XL for one supplier will be small for another, while there is Italian sizing to worry about....Italian sizing equates for most people to children sizes! No idea of the size of Italian cyclists but they won't be fat!
Oh, something else I have noted is that now that my face is less padded out with fat, it seems I have more lines than previously... I prefer to say they have formed as I am now laughing more, although CBH says they are yet to see any evidence of this! A little disappointingly, although my belly has decreased in size considerably, I do seem to have grown a pair of breasts! I do hope they disappear when I lose more weight but currently, they are massive..... and no, its not a good look!
Moving on to exercise this week...for a change the rain stopped and was promptly replaced with a frost and ice! This put an stop to cycling for a couple of days but I did do half an hour on the turbo on Sunday whilst listening to the Arsenal and that lunchtime today when I did the Penkridge and return loop (11.4miles) at an average speed of 13.02mph! Now I know its minor, but the 0.02mph makes me feel very happy! I could have done the ride a little quicker but the road in Acton Trussell is closed at the moment so I had to get off and walk for 50m! My next speed target is 13mph plus over 20 miles and then on to an average of 15mph per ride by the end of the year.....lets see if I can do that!
Swimming.....had some more coaching last week and while Coach Carol says my arm pull is improving, my kick is still terrible. I am trying to work on it but in the pool on Sunday morning: who on Earth gets up at 7am on Sunday to travel to the pool to swim for an hour...oh, that would be me then....doh.... it still wasn't coming together. So, I did what I always do when I am upset...went shopping buying a float and a pull buoy so I can practice the drills Coach Carol has shown me. Oh, and I also brought some ice tyres from my German supplier so when the ice returns, I have no excuse for not going out for a ride....although I am sure I will find one!
What else...well I am considering going to the pool this evening for a swim...there is an adults only session at 8pm and then on Thursday I note that my line manager is away so I would like to go out for a couple of hours on my bike....while the cat is away etc! Talking about cats, it seems we have attracted another one! This one is ginger and white like Jamise and moans a lot! Thus, we have taken to calling it "Charlie says" after the 1980's public information film. Oh.... while it is a nice cat it hasn't been doctors so SMELLS. I don't see him being allowed in the house anytime soon...well not with his nuts still attached!
Okay, I feel that's enough for now so I'll say later and let you get on with something less boring instead.
Well time for an update I feel. Firstly, it seems I am closing in on being 15 stone something, a weight I have not been since 1988. My weight this morning was 102.6kg which works out at 16 stone 2. So, a rush and a push and the land we crave is ours...it has been before, it shall be again. Oh sorry, slipped into Morrissey there!
Once I get to 15 stone something that will be a total loss (no, not that type of total loss) of four stone in around four months. I know that would NOT have been possible without the gastric band which simply does stop me over eating. It doesn't however stop me having snacks, something which can be a right pain such as last night when I couldn't sleep so got up and had a slice of toast. That was a real mistake as it got stuck meaning I burpped for half an hour to clear it! I suppose one day I will learn!
Thinking about the loss of four stone, I note that quite a few of my clothes no longer fit: its a bit embarrassing when your jogging bottoms want to fall down as you walk! Also, I note a cycling top I brought ages ago now fits! The thing with cycling tops is that the sizing is all over the place so an XL for one supplier will be small for another, while there is Italian sizing to worry about....Italian sizing equates for most people to children sizes! No idea of the size of Italian cyclists but they won't be fat!
Oh, something else I have noted is that now that my face is less padded out with fat, it seems I have more lines than previously... I prefer to say they have formed as I am now laughing more, although CBH says they are yet to see any evidence of this! A little disappointingly, although my belly has decreased in size considerably, I do seem to have grown a pair of breasts! I do hope they disappear when I lose more weight but currently, they are massive..... and no, its not a good look!
Moving on to exercise this week...for a change the rain stopped and was promptly replaced with a frost and ice! This put an stop to cycling for a couple of days but I did do half an hour on the turbo on Sunday whilst listening to the Arsenal and that lunchtime today when I did the Penkridge and return loop (11.4miles) at an average speed of 13.02mph! Now I know its minor, but the 0.02mph makes me feel very happy! I could have done the ride a little quicker but the road in Acton Trussell is closed at the moment so I had to get off and walk for 50m! My next speed target is 13mph plus over 20 miles and then on to an average of 15mph per ride by the end of the year.....lets see if I can do that!
Swimming.....had some more coaching last week and while Coach Carol says my arm pull is improving, my kick is still terrible. I am trying to work on it but in the pool on Sunday morning: who on Earth gets up at 7am on Sunday to travel to the pool to swim for an hour...oh, that would be me then....doh.... it still wasn't coming together. So, I did what I always do when I am upset...went shopping buying a float and a pull buoy so I can practice the drills Coach Carol has shown me. Oh, and I also brought some ice tyres from my German supplier so when the ice returns, I have no excuse for not going out for a ride....although I am sure I will find one!
What else...well I am considering going to the pool this evening for a swim...there is an adults only session at 8pm and then on Thursday I note that my line manager is away so I would like to go out for a couple of hours on my bike....while the cat is away etc! Talking about cats, it seems we have attracted another one! This one is ginger and white like Jamise and moans a lot! Thus, we have taken to calling it "Charlie says" after the 1980's public information film. Oh.... while it is a nice cat it hasn't been doctors so SMELLS. I don't see him being allowed in the house anytime soon...well not with his nuts still attached!
Okay, I feel that's enough for now so I'll say later and let you get on with something less boring instead.
Tuesday, 12 January 2016
Plans for 2016...
Me again. Sorry.
So, a quick around up of this year so far....its been windy and wet and not really the sort of time you want to spend out on your bike, but out I must go...but only three times this month totaling less than 30 miles! As the boss is away tomorrow and Friday, it is my intention to go out and do some miles...while the cat is away, the mouse will play!
I wonder, does 20 minutes on the turbo last Friday count? I hate the turbo but when its raining, its a way of getting some miles in I suppose.
Anyway, what other things have I been up to? Well, I went swimming.... and yes, I do swim...poorly! Looking back on my records, my last trip to the swimming pool was in Feb 2014 when I managed 1100m in around 50 mins. No, not fast I will agree. On my first trip back to the pool I managed only 400m but have been three times more doing 800m in 36 mins, the same distance in 34 and 750m in around 32mins: so overall I am getting faster. However, my times are still slow and risk me being overtaken by non swimmers!
To this end, I have signed up for some coaching on a Friday night down at Penkridge Leisure Centre. Well, it was interesting to hear the Coach Carols comments on my ability to swim..... actually it wasn't as she said that while I can make progress in the water, I can't actually swim! It seems my breast stroke arms are all wrong whilst for some strange reason, I seem to be doing a butterfly kick instead of a whip kick (and no, not wimp kick as I just wrote!). Well I went to Stafford pool this afternoon...they have an over 50's session I could attend being, er, over 50 (indeed, I was the youngest there!) and whilst my arm pull is better, I completely failed to understand how to do the kick! Youtube is your friend so I am going to try again tomorrow/Thursday morning in the new swimming shorts I brought earlier.... and no, I didn't buy a "g" string pair! Hopefully, with a bit of practice I will be able to get my 800m breast stroke time down to under 25mins.
What else....well as you may remember from my last post, I mentioned something about running. Well, come March I am planning to join Stafford Harriers in order to learn to run. Back in the day, I used to hate running but was pretty quick over 100 and 200m. Anything beyond that, or down to Tottenham locks (we used to get set to run there and back during the school gym period!) and back I tended to avoid like the plague.
So, why the sudden interesting in running? Could it be for all the nice new shiny kit I could buy like a Garmin Forerunner 920xt....only £250......nice, or as its better running in the cold and wet than it is cycling? Nope, I would like to get fitter and this is a way of doing so. It also opens up opportunities for me to take part in events such as the Gnosall 10k run, or the Ironbridge 4miles. Perhaps in 2017 I might be fit enough to do the Stafford half but then again, do I really fancy running for 13 miles around the mean streets of Stafford? No, not really.
Thinking about it...... I suppose I could add swimming, cycling and running together as one sport? Hummmm..... going back to cycling, I have a few plans for events to do. I think I will do the Katherine House 45 mile ride which comes up in early summer. I've done it once before and it's not a bad ride and it is for a good cause. I would also like to do the Great Manchester ride which is on closed roads: you don't get to use closed roads that often in the UK and perhaps the Manchester to Blackpool ride...well its one of the "big 3" along with London to Brighton and London to Sunny Southend!
As to swimming....don't laugh at the back but I have brought a wet suit in medium....... yes, I know its going to be a right struggle to lose enough weight to get into it (about another 20kg) but if you don't set yourself a target, what is the point? To make use of the wet suit I am planning to go to the lake near Whitchurch to do some open water swimming and then....if I get fast enough, I would like to do the half mile swim which forms part of the Great North swim held in June in Lake Windermere. I know I can do the distance in a pool but in a lake, in the early summer with several hundred others? Hummmmm......
Where is this all going I hear you ask? Well, if you add swimming, cycling and running together you get, er, Triathlon. Yes, that's right, I am considering signing up to do a tri! And No, not as CBH thought, an Ironman but a "simple" Sprint or Super Sprint event. That means, for the shorter super sprint, 400m swim, 10km cycle ride and 2.5km run. The sprint is twice as far. Having looked at possible events (blimey they are expensive!) there is an open water event in Liverpool in August I quite fancy, or a month later a pool based event in Derby. I'll make my mind up closer to the event.
So, I have started training for them...well I have started reading books on doing triathlons....surely that counts as training? I suppose I will make it up as I go along whilst if I do enter one, if I finish last at least I finished and to me, that's all that's important, given that I would not even have thought I would have been able to do so six months ago.
Right, that's enough from me right now. More when I get around to it.
So, a quick around up of this year so far....its been windy and wet and not really the sort of time you want to spend out on your bike, but out I must go...but only three times this month totaling less than 30 miles! As the boss is away tomorrow and Friday, it is my intention to go out and do some miles...while the cat is away, the mouse will play!
I wonder, does 20 minutes on the turbo last Friday count? I hate the turbo but when its raining, its a way of getting some miles in I suppose.
Anyway, what other things have I been up to? Well, I went swimming.... and yes, I do swim...poorly! Looking back on my records, my last trip to the swimming pool was in Feb 2014 when I managed 1100m in around 50 mins. No, not fast I will agree. On my first trip back to the pool I managed only 400m but have been three times more doing 800m in 36 mins, the same distance in 34 and 750m in around 32mins: so overall I am getting faster. However, my times are still slow and risk me being overtaken by non swimmers!
To this end, I have signed up for some coaching on a Friday night down at Penkridge Leisure Centre. Well, it was interesting to hear the Coach Carols comments on my ability to swim..... actually it wasn't as she said that while I can make progress in the water, I can't actually swim! It seems my breast stroke arms are all wrong whilst for some strange reason, I seem to be doing a butterfly kick instead of a whip kick (and no, not wimp kick as I just wrote!). Well I went to Stafford pool this afternoon...they have an over 50's session I could attend being, er, over 50 (indeed, I was the youngest there!) and whilst my arm pull is better, I completely failed to understand how to do the kick! Youtube is your friend so I am going to try again tomorrow/Thursday morning in the new swimming shorts I brought earlier.... and no, I didn't buy a "g" string pair! Hopefully, with a bit of practice I will be able to get my 800m breast stroke time down to under 25mins.
What else....well as you may remember from my last post, I mentioned something about running. Well, come March I am planning to join Stafford Harriers in order to learn to run. Back in the day, I used to hate running but was pretty quick over 100 and 200m. Anything beyond that, or down to Tottenham locks (we used to get set to run there and back during the school gym period!) and back I tended to avoid like the plague.
So, why the sudden interesting in running? Could it be for all the nice new shiny kit I could buy like a Garmin Forerunner 920xt....only £250......nice, or as its better running in the cold and wet than it is cycling? Nope, I would like to get fitter and this is a way of doing so. It also opens up opportunities for me to take part in events such as the Gnosall 10k run, or the Ironbridge 4miles. Perhaps in 2017 I might be fit enough to do the Stafford half but then again, do I really fancy running for 13 miles around the mean streets of Stafford? No, not really.
Thinking about it...... I suppose I could add swimming, cycling and running together as one sport? Hummmm..... going back to cycling, I have a few plans for events to do. I think I will do the Katherine House 45 mile ride which comes up in early summer. I've done it once before and it's not a bad ride and it is for a good cause. I would also like to do the Great Manchester ride which is on closed roads: you don't get to use closed roads that often in the UK and perhaps the Manchester to Blackpool ride...well its one of the "big 3" along with London to Brighton and London to Sunny Southend!
As to swimming....don't laugh at the back but I have brought a wet suit in medium....... yes, I know its going to be a right struggle to lose enough weight to get into it (about another 20kg) but if you don't set yourself a target, what is the point? To make use of the wet suit I am planning to go to the lake near Whitchurch to do some open water swimming and then....if I get fast enough, I would like to do the half mile swim which forms part of the Great North swim held in June in Lake Windermere. I know I can do the distance in a pool but in a lake, in the early summer with several hundred others? Hummmmm......
Where is this all going I hear you ask? Well, if you add swimming, cycling and running together you get, er, Triathlon. Yes, that's right, I am considering signing up to do a tri! And No, not as CBH thought, an Ironman but a "simple" Sprint or Super Sprint event. That means, for the shorter super sprint, 400m swim, 10km cycle ride and 2.5km run. The sprint is twice as far. Having looked at possible events (blimey they are expensive!) there is an open water event in Liverpool in August I quite fancy, or a month later a pool based event in Derby. I'll make my mind up closer to the event.
So, I have started training for them...well I have started reading books on doing triathlons....surely that counts as training? I suppose I will make it up as I go along whilst if I do enter one, if I finish last at least I finished and to me, that's all that's important, given that I would not even have thought I would have been able to do so six months ago.
Right, that's enough from me right now. More when I get around to it.
Monday, 11 January 2016
2015 cycling round up.
Sorry, late to the post again....not very good at this am I!
Well looking back at last years stats then, overall from 130 rides including the local ones to the shops and station and back, I did a total of 1 555 miles at an average speed of 11.4mph producing an average of 110 watts each ride. The weather was an average of 10c, although at lot of the time it felt much colder than that!
My monthly totals were:
January: 161 miles
Feb 142 miles
March 160 miles
April 75 miles (had a bad cold most of the month)
May 163 miles
June 130 miles
July 143 miles
August 131 miles
Sept 81 miles....terrible month as I was on leave so should have done more!
October 112 miles.... operation month!
November 103 miles.... not that good really
December 148 miles....getting a little better.
A few more things to note....my average speed seems to be improving given my weight loss, I am now often above 12mph whereas before the op, I would struggle to get to 11mph. I know that's only a 9% improvement but any improvement is welcomed!
So this year I want to double my total for the year and do quite a few 30 mile plus roads. I think I did only one last year. I would really like to do some 50 milers and then perhaps longer. I have a few "evil" plans for this year which do include riding a bike...and having a swim along with a bit of a run but more on that next time!
Oh, and this morning 11th Jan, I was down to 104.1kg.
Well looking back at last years stats then, overall from 130 rides including the local ones to the shops and station and back, I did a total of 1 555 miles at an average speed of 11.4mph producing an average of 110 watts each ride. The weather was an average of 10c, although at lot of the time it felt much colder than that!
My monthly totals were:
January: 161 miles
Feb 142 miles
March 160 miles
April 75 miles (had a bad cold most of the month)
May 163 miles
June 130 miles
July 143 miles
August 131 miles
Sept 81 miles....terrible month as I was on leave so should have done more!
October 112 miles.... operation month!
November 103 miles.... not that good really
December 148 miles....getting a little better.
A few more things to note....my average speed seems to be improving given my weight loss, I am now often above 12mph whereas before the op, I would struggle to get to 11mph. I know that's only a 9% improvement but any improvement is welcomed!
So this year I want to double my total for the year and do quite a few 30 mile plus roads. I think I did only one last year. I would really like to do some 50 milers and then perhaps longer. I have a few "evil" plans for this year which do include riding a bike...and having a swim along with a bit of a run but more on that next time!
Oh, and this morning 11th Jan, I was down to 104.1kg.
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