BugDude is back, and has a plan

dudeitstime said:
Hey BugDude, you're kicking ass and amping it up a bit. I love it. I'm curious what a typical rest day is for you. Are you completely off of exercising or are you doing light exercises? I might have missed if you answered this before. Was just curious if you stay active even on the down days.
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If I put "Rest Day" I'm not exercising. I may be doing yard work, golf, etc. if I'm doing a light spin day on the bike I list it as I do any other exercise day it's just slower and or shorter. I'm planning to work in resistance bands and or weights but I'm not enthused about it yet.

I could be more consistent and do 30 min each day at a moderate pace and burn as many calories but it would be less dynamic and effective training for biking purposes. You gain more in term of performance with varying levels of high intensity and longer endurance rides. And those both require rest days due to muscle fatigue.

I could also be more consistent by doing every other day. But I don't really want to be exactingly structured at this point. I'm just going with it and listening to my body. Pushing hard when I can and resting when I need it.
 
3/25 Rest Day

I had an early morning meeting out of town today so no time for biking this morning. Then just did a casual family ride in the neighborhood this afternoon (very casual). I'll jump on it again in the morning. My legs felt good today, so should be fine in the morning. De-wobbling accomplished.
 
Nice, thanks for the answer. I only ask because on my "Rest day" I just don't want to rest so I still do light exercising/working out how I can. Feels a bit empty if I don't. Figured since you were killing it you weren't really taking a load off. But that is good you can just kick back and enjoy some down time. I need to probably do that myself. You'll make up for the out of town and casual riding tomorrow. Enjoy it!
 
dudeitstime said:
Nice, thanks for the answer. I only ask because on my "Rest day" I just don't want to rest so I still do light exercising/working out how I can. Feels a bit empty if I don't. Figured since you were killing it you weren't really taking a load off. But that is good you can just kick back and enjoy some down time. I need to probably do that myself. You'll make up for the out of town and casual riding tomorrow. Enjoy it!
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I'm going to experiment with different things as my weight goes down and my strength and endurance on a bike go up (and muscle fatigue decreases). I'll do different routines for a while (like 3 intense 10 mile days in a row, rest day, low intensity day, the long endurance day ; then high intensity 10 mile every other day with a long endurance ride once a week; then some moderate distance endurance rides every other day with one high intensity day; then maybe alternate 1 day 10 mile intense and one day 5 mile easy, with 1 long endurance ride per week with 1 day of rest after that day). This mixes things up which accomplished several goals:

1) Keeps it interesting
2) Trains different muscles / respiratory in different ways
3) Keeps your body from adapting and getting too efficient with the same recurring routine which reduces effectiveness
4) Pushes different types of limits and concentrates on different aspects of biking in terms of speed and endurance

I'm not going to stick with just one routine. I'm going to give myself enough flexibility to stick with it over the long haul. I'm not in any particular hurry like training for an event. I've got the rest of my life to enjoy biking at whatever level I happen to be at any particular time. I learned my lesson running. I NEVER took rest days. I ran every day for years. It took it's toll and now I can't run at all. Once I get a significant amount of weight down and my legs and respiratory built up I may try to work in some light running once a week or so...but not paying attention to fatigue with running ruined it for me. I want biking to be a big part of my life from here on out. It would be nice on my off days if I could get back into resistance and weight training for the upper body. As much as I got burned out on it, I am trying to convince myself to just start it. Not there yet.
 
Wow!!!! Your biking progress is really inspiring! I've been wanting to get a road bike for some time now and trying to incorporate it into my exercises (I have a goal to maybe finish a triathlon one day). Congrats on your progress so far! You should be really proud :) Mixing up your routine sounds like a great idea as well. Do you use an exercise bike or trainer at all?
 
le_squish said:
Wow!!!! Your biking progress is really inspiring! I've been wanting to get a road bike for some time now and trying to incorporate it into my exercises (I have a goal to maybe finish a triathlon one day). Congrats on your progress so far! You should be really proud :) Mixing up your routine sounds like a great idea as well. Do you use an exercise bike or trainer at all?
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Thank you squish, I am ecstatic over my progress in such a short time. I don't use a stationary or trainer at all, just a Giant Hybrid (Sedona DX medium frame). As I progress I may add a road bike later, but for now the hybrid is working out really well for learning, training, and growing.
 
3/26....10.08 miles....46 minutes....13.3 mph....1251 calories

My fastest average speed yet by far. First time I'm gotten into the 13s over any stretch (I've had individual miles there but not an entire ride). This week I am doing every other day and it seems to be working out well in terms of energy. I'm also experimenting with seat height. I raised my seat 1 inch and it seems to have increased leverage and the power of the stroke, although I felt uncomfortable in my left hip. I'm going to keep experimenting with that, and it works muscles in a slightly different angle.
 
Goes without saying that mixing it up is good for too many reasons.

Regarding seat height, I've always followed the guideline that your leg should be almost straight at the bottom-center of the crank. You also might want to mess around with seat angle and lateral positioning (forward-backward) - that made a huge difference for me. And if all else fails, experiment with different seats, I tried a few different types before I got one that worked.
 
3/27 Rest Day.

Early morning meeting and today is my 22nd Wedding Anniversary. So no time today. And I'm doing every other day for a little while and is working good with my schedule.
 
:party: Happy Anniversary BugDude! :party:
Have a great day.
Hope you have many more anniversaries!
​

 
Thanks cate. It's better at 22 years than ever. We started dating as teenagers in high school and been together ever since.
 
3/28....10.4 miles....53 minutes....11.3 mph....1176 calories

Just didn't have a lot of energy this morning, especially after the first 5 miles. Some days you have it, some you don't. I pushed through.
 
If it weren't bad enough that my get up and go apparently got up and went today while biking, I blew out my calories today too. I've been doing 1500 per day and sticking to it religiously. Well, today I had about 2200. But, it was our anniversary date/dinner tonight and I had drinks with it and we split a desert. Oh well, can't let a bump in the road turn into a mountain. Do better tomorrow.
 
3/29....7.51 miles....37 minutes....12.0 mph....875 calories

It was supposed to be a rest day today, but it was nice out this afternoon so I did a shorter moderately paced ride. I still didn't have a ton of energy today for some reason. Not sure what's going on. This offsets my calorie bust yesterday though.
 
It's great that you are working out a balance & that you enjoyed your anniversary dinner. I like your idea of a shorter moderately paced ride BugDude! 875 cals? Pfft!
 
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