Happy Hallowcane

Well Hurricane Sandy is past, but left us with a few days of nasty weather.  In fact, we have been a week without the sun!!  All the rain has meant riding the trainer, Sufferlandrian style.  As I mentioned in my last post, I am using the Sufferfest videos when riding the trainer.  They are great!!  They almost (almost!) make riding the trainer fun.  And it is important that I stay active through the poor weather.  Since racing season ended I have been eating so badly…having to eat and drink everything I wouldn’t when training.  And of course, this week was Halloween…the candy really helped my dilemma.  If you didn’t notice this year Halloween somewhat coincided with a full moon…which made for some ‘squirrelly’ behavior around our house.

If you have pets, you may notice how they tend to go a little nutty during a full moon.  We have a couple of cats, and a local squirrel decided to torture them through our patio door this Halloween (OK maybe it was because I tossed a stash of peanuts outside the patio door).

A couple of blue jays also got in on the action.

Anyways once the cats realized that I was getting a good laugh out of their torment they got me back. 

It wasn’t only the animals that the full moon and Halloween were having an effect on.  For some reason my friend DickBall (aka Richard…yes this is the same Richard that lent me his bike to race with while mine was ‘gone’…Thanks again Richard!) thought that it was not at all inappropriate to send Lois (aka my wife) this fancy pic of him in his Halloween costume.

 

So of course, I had Lois take a pic of me in my costume, and promptly sent it to Christine (aka Richards’ wife).

 

It wasn’t so much a costume, though, as it was my ancestors’ traditional garb.  I probably, still shouldn’t have handed out candy in that costume though.  Ah well, it was all good since I think the display on our front step kept most of the kids away.

 

Anyways…I am getting so woefully off track here!!  As I mentioned, due to the weather this week was all on the trainer…until today (Friday).  With no rain today (and the sun actually peaking through!), I managed to get out for a real road ride.  I chased my friend Rod around on his new S-Works Venge.  That man can ride a bike!  He is a bodybuilder turned cyclist; which means he is a powerhouse!!  Anytime he stands up to go, you have to be ready…or else he will drop you!  It made for an excellent workout.

As I mentioned earlier, I have not been training with any structure, and have been eating whatever is in front of me (or beside me...or anywhere near me)…and I have been getting soft (as you can tell by my Halloween pic above).  So I weighed myself this morning.  200 lbs.  That is my trigger that it is time to get back on the discipline. 

So this is my plan; I will not yet start a structured training plan at this early point…I will just continue to ride as often as possible, and lift weights at least twice per week.  However, will start a cutting nutrition plan, to lose the bulk (fat) and get back as lean as I like to be.  My plan is to get down to 190lbs in November and down to 185 by Christmas; and maintain that into the new year when I will start a structured training plan.

I will keep you posted on that progress!!