Category: Exercise

17 Miles

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, ExerciseLeave a comment

Today I did the same route but only did 17 miles.  The reason why is because yesterday before I went on my bike ride I rode the bike to the post office then back.  It’s just 3 blocks from my house and I wanted to count that time that I rode because I’m greedy lol.  Anyway, here are my stats for today.

Distance 17.527, max speed 27.3, average speed 11.1, time 1:34:32, calories 813.7, fat calories 85.2.

Since this is going to be my route from now on this is going to be the last time I put my stats.  That is unless I decided to go further.  I’d like to just keep this as my current route just so I can lose enough weight so I’m lighter on the bike and I will go faster.  Once I’m faster then I can go further.

18 Miles

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, ExerciseLeave a comment

Today I have broken my record of 11 miles by going 18 miles.  Here are the numbers from the computer:

18.290 miles, max speed 26.8, average speed 10.7, time 1:42:33, calories 835.7, fat calories 81.2.

My max speed could go up but as I’ve said before, the weight is what is slowing me down.  I’m 236lbs and that’s a lot for the bike to carry.  As it is even with 20.7 pressure in my tires which is what it’s supposed to have (Edit: WRONG!  It’s supposed to be 60 I believe) , they look like they are going flat when I am sitting on the bike.  That’s definitely heavy lol.  And I feel that my weight is what is holding me back from going faster.  But as the weight goes down my speed will go up.  I have faith that it will.  When the speed goes up then I will be able to go longer distance.  For now the 18 miles that I rode today will be my bike route.  I won’t go further than that.

11 Miles

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, Diet, ExerciseLeave a comment

Wow I thought 9 miles yesterday was awesome but today I surpassed that by going 11 miles.  I was riding for 62 minutes total.  That’s awesome.

My legs aren’t getting as tired as fast as they usually are.  I mean there were some points where I had to stop because I was going slower and so I knew if I stopped, got off the bike and drank some water and gave my legs a rest for a minute or 2 that I would recharge and it worked.  I’d get back on the bike and go 12-14 mph again.

I don’t know where I was this time.  I will have to look it up on google map.  I saw a bunch of mobile homes.  There was a stop light ahead.  I just looked at the google map website and it was Manor st. where I stopped and started going back.

Anyway, here are the stats from the computer.  11.231 miles, 29.7 max speed, 10.9 average speed, time 1:01:54, 536.2 calories and 53.5 fat calories.

Tomorrow is my official weigh in day and I will update the image on the Spark page but I weighed myself and I was 236lbs.  I was 244lbs.  But it isn’t official until I weigh in tomorrow after my bike ride.

Frustrated

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, ExerciseLeave a comment

I’m probably checking my weight too often but it just doesn’t seem like I’m losing any weight.  This has been my problem though, I check my weight and I don’t lose then I get frustrated and then stop exercising/dieting and go back to my old eating habits and idle behavior.

I do realize that since I’m building muscle with riding the bike that I probably am losing fat but just building muscle.  And since muscle weighs more than fat then that is probably why I haven’t lost any weight.  I just have to stick it out for a bit longer and just not think about my weight.

Biking is Easier

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, Diet, Exercise, HealthLeave a comment

Riding the bike is getting a lot easier.  I rode the bike from my house to Oak and Palm before realizing I didn’t stop for water once so naturally I stopped for some water.  I got all the way to the park in 19 1/2 minutes this time which is I think 3 minutes faster.  Probably because I didn’t stop to take a water break so many times.

I also didn’t sit on the picnic table for that long either, on Monday I think I sat there for 20 minutes before heading back home and this time I think it was like 10 or 15 minutes.

When coming home I didn’t turn right on H st. going on 21st st.  Instead I went further down to Chester Ave. because H st. has no bike lane in downtown Bakersfield but Chester Ave. does.  I think it’s easier to ride in a bike lane than cause an accident, don’t you?

So, I went a further distance and it was only 40 minutes this time.  The last time it was 45 minutes and this time I went a further distance which tells me that 1 I’m going faster and 2 my legs are getting more used to riding that I don’t have to stop to take a break for them.

I can remember not too long ago that I could only ride up to California Ave. and back and that was like 12 minutes and when I came home I could barely walk because of the stiffness in my legs.  If I am able to go faster and further than that just means that I will start to lose weight a lot faster.  I can already see it in my face that the fat is starting to come off.

If I can just keep doing this 3 days a week it wont be long before I’m thinner.  Oh and I need to start following the SparkPeople food plan again if I’m going to be successful.  The food they have is low-calorie and very good for us especially for Darrin because he has borderline diabetes now so whatever I make for myself I can make for him too then before you know it he will be losing weight too (but just on food, he doesn’t want to exercise).

To Beach Park

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Exercise, HealthLeave a comment

Well, I finally made it to Beach Park today.  I feel so good about myself that I actually did it.  I also noticed that I’m riding a little faster because the time it took me to get there and back was a lot shorter than it took me to go less distance.

Ok so according to SparkPeople that is 5.4 miles total (to there and back, I mapped the directions out on google) and 720 calories.  The minimum amount of calories that I should burn in 1 day is 260, I mean for my diet plan, so I’ve exceeded that.  Which is totally awesome.

As I was riding the bike over the very high and very long bridge on Oak St. I was expecting that I wouldn’t make it because the one other time I tried going over I didn’t make it, I ended up having to stop and walk most of the way up.  But it wasn’t so difficult this time.  Also when I was coming home I was riding on H st. on the street under the bridge and what I did was I just peddled so fast as I was going down so that when I had to start coming up I didn’t have to pedal at all because I was already going so fast.

Anyway, my legs are swollen and painful so I’m gonna go lay down.

Tomorrows Goal

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, ExerciseLeave a comment

Tomorrow morning I’m not going to wake up to an alarm clock telling me that I have to get up at the butt crack of dawn to go bike riding.  Instead I’m just going to wake up when I wake up then I’m going to have something to eat, maybe a bowl of corn flakes, then wait a little while maybe an hour, they say to eat 1 hour before exercising.  I wouldn’t want to give myself a cramp.  Then I’m going to do some stretches for my legs and then get on my bike and go to Beach Park.  This time I have a goal to get there and then collapse onto the grass and rest while listening to my music for a bit, maybe call Darrin and tell him I made it.  Give my legs enough time to rest so I can make it all the way back home.

I think this is a good strategy.  See the reason I haven’t made it all the way there yet is because I kinda figured I’d get there then immediately go home without stopping and it was just too much for my legs.  But all I have to do is think about it in a different way and then I can do it.  I need to do this.  Then I can say hey I made it all the way to beach park and I collapsed on the grass and gave my legs enough time to rest before getting up, I looked at how pretty it is and I looked at the bike path but I will save the bike path for another time.  Yeah, that’s what I’ll say.

The one thing I need is encouragement to do it.  Well, on that note I think I shall go to bed and rest up for tomorrow.  This is good because it’s only 11:12pm and not 2am lol.

Getting Ready For Ride

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, ExerciseLeave a comment

Just a couple more hours before Sergio, my neighbor, comes a knocking on my door to go bike riding to Beach Park.  I’m positive that I can make it all that way but once I get there I have to stop and rest before going back home.  I’m actually looking forward to actually making it all that way.  I really don’t know why I always punk out when I do go on my bike ride.  I mean, it’s actually a very good idea to go all the way there, this way I can stop and lay down on the grass for a bit to give me the energy I need to go back home.

I bought a new pair of sunglasses at Walgreens this morning for $10.  They are the wrap around kind, the sports sunglasses.  I’ve had 2 other pair but both have broken and I’ve ended up having no choice but to throw them away.  It’s my own fault for breaking them though so this new pair I plan to keep with my helmet and only wear when bike riding.  This way I’m not  having to hold them while I’m at the store and accidentally break them lol.  That’s what happened to the last pair.  Oops.

I’ve been doing laundry last night and today so I have clean clothes to wear.  Normally when I go on my bike ride it’s in the morning and I don’t ride with anybody so I just put on sweat pants and my hoodie sweater along with thermal underwear because when I go by myself it’s usually when the sun is coming up.  But since it’s a little warmer in the daytime I had to wash and dry my shorts and since I can’t wear my hoodie then I need a nice clean shirt that isn’t too tight, isn’t too loose.

Going to have lunch now before I go.

Edit:  I waited until 3:15 because he said he would come to my door but never did so at 3:15 I went to his house and he said he just woke up and had to get in the shower because a friend called and is on his way so the bike was a no go hehe.

It’s A Green Life

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Exercise, Green, HealthLeave a comment

A few weeks ago we came home from San Diego after only being gone for a few days and discovered that someone had taken our garbage can.  The city wants to charge us $60 for a new one.  It hit me below the belt because it made me think that I do take it for granted.  Trash that is.  We normally just save soda cans and soda bottles and give them to the dumpster divers but we decided to start recycling them for ourselves.

I took it a step further though and instead of just soda bottles and cans I’d look at the back of every container we buy and those cans that food come in are recyclable too and so are milk containers.  Paper can also be recycled.  I set up 2 paper bags with the cans (1 bag for each type of can) and I’m going to set up another bag for shredded paper which I am now going to start shredding the mail along with junk mail and even bad ideas that I’ve printed.  I have so much paper just sitting around in notebooks that have absolutely no purpose anymore so those will be shredded straight away.

I’ve also become green when I shower.  When you live in a trailer or if go camping and have one of those hanging bags of water for showers you have to use the least you can use so you have enough water for yourself and others so you get wet, turn off the hose, lather your hair and body then turn the hose back on to rinse off.  Well, I’ve started doing that at home.  I don’t know exactly how many gallons of water I am saving but I bet you it’s a lot.

I started riding my bike for exercise, not to get anywhere in particular but so I can lose weight and so that’s good that I’m doing that but it really serves no green purpose for me.  But it’s at least a statement.

And we do have to drive our car to the recycling center just to recycle all this stuff.  I can’t carry bags of cans, bottles and tied up newspaper and bags of shredded paper on a bike so we have no other choice.  I feel I’m at least helping.

Below are pictures of my cans bags and a trash bag of bottles which is a new bag so it only has a couple of bottles but you get the idea.

Rain

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, ExerciseLeave a comment

Well I’m sure glad I went out early hehe.  It’s sprinkling a little.  When I left I noticed there were a lot of rain clouds in the sky but I didn’t think anything of it.  If I were stuck in the pouring rain I would’ve been pissed lol.  Although, it would’ve given me the chance to get out of the rain and let my legs heal a little before riding some more.  Good thing I was wearing my hoodie sweater.