BugDude is back, and has a plan

Wow I am impressed! I can do about 5 miles in 30 mins on my bike (though I do have to stop and walk up a really steep hill, the thrills of living in the country, hills everywhere and not a single one on my usual route ever seems to go down lol).

Do you often set yourself challenges like this? It seems a really cool thing to do! Ii may have to borrow this idea once I finish Insanity and really start my Zombie Runs (and not just the couch to 5k training), see how many kms I can do in a month!

Yyour fitness must be way up! I am impressed!
 
Paladin-Cleric said:
Wow I am impressed! I can do about 5 miles in 30 mins on my bike (though I do have to stop and walk up a really steep hill, the thrills of living in the country, hills everywhere and not a single one on my usual route ever seems to go down lol).

Do you often set yourself challenges like this? It seems a really cool thing to do! Ii may have to borrow this idea once I finish Insanity and really start my Zombie Runs (and not just the couch to 5k training), see how many kms I can do in a month!

Yyour fitness must be way up! I am impressed!
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Yes, I set goals for myself and that really motivates me. I started out with goals for x miles for a week. Other goals were an average of x miles per hour for a certain distance or x average for a week. Or to be able to average x mph for a certain distance by the end of the month. Creative goals using MapMyRun app to track my distance, totals, average speed, etc. I put it all in a spreadsheet to track too.

My fitness level is way better than it was when I started in February, but I still weigh 293 lbs (down 33 lbs since Feb). My strength, stamina, and speed have all increased significantly. I can't wait to see what it is by the time I get a lot lighter than I am now. I imagine at 220 or 200 I could go a lot farther and faster than I do now. My resting heart rate when I started was in the 80s. It's now 50.

Biking has improved so many aspects of life for me both physically and mentally. It's literally a life saver. I can't imagine my life without it ever again.
 
I could never have imagined myself thinking like that about exercise. lol. But it's clearly doing you some awesome good! I'm really hoping to get myself into a place where exercise feels like that, I believe it is something that is really important for wanting to continue doing it.

I like biking, I do, I have one sitting in my garage that I really need to pull out again, and I loved my exercise bike before I broke the pedals using it so much. I'm hoping it'll come for the whole running/walking thing.

Good luck with your challenge!
 
BugDude said:
I also got my other Volkswagen back today. It's been off the road over a year having the bottom part of the car refabbed. It's a 62 Bug with 60s flowers and peace signs, 60s sayings, and 60s rock band logos painted all over it. I've been working on it for 8-9 years. It's far out.
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I would so love to see a photo of it, please Bug! G's first car was a 60's beetle & I have always loved them!
 
5/25....22.67 miles....102 mins...13.4 mph....2576 calories

The first half of the ride my legs felt a little fatigued and my pace was less than I wanted. The last third I had a burst of energy and brought my average speed up quite a bit.
 
cate said:
I would so love to see a photo of it, please Bug! G's first car was a 60's beetle & I have always loved them!
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Sure thing. I've got 2 of them. A 63 Herbie the Love Bug replica and a 62 Hippy Flower Power Bug. The Herbie my Dad bought in 1966 as the second owner. My parents brought me home from the hospital in that car when I was born. It was out family car growing up. By the time I got it there was nothing left of the car. 3 year restoration back to original condition then I put the Herbie decals on it a few years later.

The 62 I was going to build a custom street rod bug but somewhere along the way my inner hippy came out. I started hand painting graphics on it just for fun as I was planning on stripping and putting a fancy paint job on it. I liked it so much I kept going with it. I love 60s music, pop culture, art, etc. so this was a natural fit.
 
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Here's some pics of my Herbie, and the 71 Super Beetle Convertible I bought, restored, and sold last year.

I don't know why those pics are upside down and I'm not technically inclined enough to be able to fix it.
 
I guess this explains my screen name, "BugDude" and my avatar. 15 years ago when I was restoring my Herbie, the buys at the body shop that painted it never could remember my name so they started calling me The Bug Dude. They'd see me riding around town and they'd yell out "BugDude." Well, the name stuck. People often bring VWs by my house wanting to know if I am interested in buying them. A guy brought one by a couple weeks ago, but I don't have room for any more. Could have gotten a good deal on it too.
 
As of this morning, I have eclipsed 1,000 miles on my bike. And I started biking February 6th (3.5 months).
 
Thanks Bug! They are gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. You are incredibly artistic. Congratulations on reaching 1,000miles in 3.5 months. That's awesome! Cheers, Cate.
 
Hello BugDude! I was just perusing through your diary and wanted to say good job. And definitely congrats on the 1000 miles. That's a big accomplishment.
 
5/26....6.38 miles....34 mins....11.3 mph....644 calories

Intentionally did a very slow and short recovery ride today after yesterday's long ride. Just enough to say I rode but not enough to exert noticeable force on my muscles allowing them to recover. Back to normal ride tomorrow.
 
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5/27....12.06 miles....57 mins....12.7 mph....1329 calories

Still felt pretty fatigued this morning after my recovery ride yesterday, so my pace was lagging a bit. Still on pace for my May mileage goal of 375.
 
5/28....10.16 miles....41 mins....14.7 mph....1218 calories

14.7 mph is BY FAR the fastest average speed I've achieved to date!!! My previous fastest on a ride of 10+ miles was 13.9. I don't know why this morning I had so much more strength and energy, other than I went to bed early. I guess that could be it. I'm stoked. I've got to finish my goal for May so I've got several more days and at least one 22+ mile ride in there but in June I'm going to focus on shorter high intensity and higher pace with more rest time in between.
 
5/29....6.31 miles....30 mins....12.6 mph....692 calories

Slow short ride today resting up for long ride tomorrow.

I've got a Doctor's appointment Monday June 1, just a routine visit. I had my lab work done several days ago and I saw my Doc at lunch today in the cafeteria at work. He mentioned to me that he had received my lab work and everything looked fantastic!!! I'll get the specifics on Monday, but I appreciated him looking at it and telling me that today. I told him I'd ridden over 1,000 miles on my bike since the last visit and if it hadn't looked great I would have been highly disappointed. He said every single lab value was outstanding. That's not only encouraging but very motivating for me. My lab work wasn't looking so good a couple years ago.
 
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5/30....22.23 miles....1 hr 39 mins....13.5 mph....2537 calories

Nice longer ride this morning on a bike trail, a fairly fast pace for a long ride. I only need 6.6 miles tomorrow to reach my May goal of 375 miles. Should be a piece of cake.
 
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