Tag: legs

R&R

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

Today I decided not to go bike riding because I wanted to give my legs a chance to rest since I’ve been going such a long distance.  Tomorrow I will be going out again.  I’m just not sure if it’s worth riding 17 miles a day while I’m still in this stage of still getting used to riding a bike at all.  I mean it’s only been a month and even though I’ve seen 8lbs of weight loss so far I’m not seeing very much weight loss even with 17 and 18 mile days.  It’s nice to go a long distance to really step it up and everything but I just don’t see the results.

Now I realize that by me saying that I’m saying that I’m giving up on going such a long distance and I don’t want to say that but at the same time I think I can just do the 11 miles and get away with it for now.  I want to burn calories but not at the expense of causing myself pain and possible injury to my muscles.  I’m probably going to notice no weight loss at all this week and that’s possibly because I’m building too much muscle in my legs causing me to gain muscle weight so I don’t see the fat weight disappearing.

The first month was only 8lbs and normally I would be upset by that because 7lbs isn’t a lot to lose in a month, that’s 2lbs a week but at this point I’m just happy to not be in the 240’s anymore.  Being in the mid 230’s makes me feel that if I can get there then I can get to 220’s and so on but it takes time, a lot of time.  I need to stop worrying about the scale and stop thinking about it too much.

Tonight I decided that since I was weighing myself as 238 which is more than last weeks weigh in by 1 calorie that I would start eating salads for dinner, just to give me smaller calories for that meal of the day.  Breakfast I’ve been eating toast and a yoplait, lunch a peanut butter and jam sandwich or a ham sandwich.  Actually I’ve been eating 2 sandwiches but I’m going to limit myself to just 1 from now on and as soon as I get more yoplait’s on friday I’m going to limit my breakfast to just a yoplait.  I love coffee but I’m going to try to limit that too.  Darrin bought me this whole big thing of creamer so it’s going to be difficult to not be able to enjoy it.  I’m thinking for now coffee every other day.  I have been drinking a lot of water though so that helps big time.  Not the sparkling bottled water with flavor that Darrin has been buying from Albertson’s but just plain filtered water.

Well, I’m blogging this just before bed, I’ve taken my ambien already so I’m gonna go do the litter box then get in the shower and go to bed.

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.

9 Miles

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

These are what the cyclo-computer says.  9.014 miles, maximum speed reached (mxs) 27.0, average speed (avs) 10.7, time 50:35, calories 436.6, fat calories 43.5.

Boy are my legs swollen lol.  9 miles is the longest I’ve gone so far and I plan on breaking that record too.  What I did was I rode to Beach Park which took about 16 or 17 minutes (not including the times I stopped at the lights and had to stop to drink water) then once I was there I sat on a picnic table and rested my legs for about 10 minutes.  Then I got up and went on the bike trail and rode for about 9 minutes.  I was going to do 10 minutes but my legs were just killing me.  So what I did was I stopped and stood there for a few minutes and watched the 2 people on the 2 horses and waved then watched them pass me.  Then I got back on it and went back to Beach park where I sat on the bench at the trail entrance before going back home.

I just can’t believe that I finally started riding my bike again.  I think this is so cool.  When I was a kid all I had was the bike, I didn’t have the helmet or water cage with bottle or the frame bag with the tools or the computer.  It was just me on the bike.  Not even any protective gear.  And I also didn’t have the extra baggage that I do now with all this weight.  That’s one reason why I don’t recall having any pain and swelling in my thighs.

Well, I just have to wait until I can do this all over again tomorrow and just hope that I go further.

Todays Ride

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

I decided that since I got a new cyclo-computer that I would go out today even though I went out yesterday.  I like to give my legs a day’s rest normally but I was too excited not to go out.  I wanted to see the exact amount of time I would ride along with the exact miles per hour and the exact amount of miles that I rode.  Before I would have to go to google to map out my ride so I can get an exact number of miles that it takes to go from the house to there and then back but this tells me all that information.  Also google maps doesn’t let me map out the ride on the bike trail so when I start riding on the bike trail I won’t know how many miles I went.

Well, today when I got to Beach Park the ride was only 16 minutes.  Normally with my other stop watch the ride is like 22 minutes but that’s because whenever I pull over to get a drink of water or to rest my legs for a minute I don’t stop the timer.  This new computer turns the timer off when you stop riding so I’m getting an exact reading of how long it takes me to get there.

I’ve been putting in the SparkPeople website that I’ve been doing 14-15mph and I was riding 12-15 mph today but it showed my average speed at 10mph so where it shows my calories that is reflective of me going 10mph.  So, when I added todays bike ride to SparkPeople I had to tell them I went 10mph.  I want to be as accurate as possible.

Instead of riding every other day I’m going to try everyday.  I figured maybe I could do 2 days on, 1 day off but I think that my legs are getting used to it enough that I can start going everyday.  This is my 4th week of riding the bike.  My first week I only rode to California ave and back which was 4 days in that week.  My 2nd week I only rode to Oak and Truxton and back and that was 3 days.  My 3rd week I made it to Beach Park and rested then came back and that was only 2 days.  Now my 4th week I’m getting to Beach Park and without resting going straight onto the bike trail but I only went a little distance before deciding to go back to the park and resting for 10 min before going home.

Now that I’m getting better I would like to spend 20 or more minutes on the bike trail (maybe 10 min out then 10 min back) then resting before heading home.  I’m actually really excited that my legs are getting better and getting more used to riding because as I’ve said before, I’d eventually love to ride for 2 hours a day.  The weight will definitely melt off when I’m riding for 2 hours a day.  Also I’d like to get to the point where that is 2 hours straight.

I’m actually excited about losing weight for the first time in a long time because I know that if I ride the bike on a daily basis I will definitely lose the weight a lot faster.  Now I just need to start eating better to make this weight loss go faster.  I’m trying my best.

Edit: Yes, I realize I was rambling lol.  I edited out some of the redundancy lol.

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.

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.

38 Minutes

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, ExerciseLeave a comment

I went bike riding this morning just as the sun was coming up.  I don’t recall the time, it was before 7am though.  Instead of stopping at California Ave and turning right and going back home, this time I decided to keep going to Truxton and turn left to go to Oak St. which is the way to get to Beach Park where the bike path is at.

I went to Oak but had to turn around and come back home because I’m so heavy that as I was riding my bike I could tell that my seat was going down because my legs were no longer straight when my pedal was all the way down.  They were bending still and when I left the house they were straight.  So I’m so heavy that I’m pushing my seat down which is not good.  Next time I go on a ride I have to raise the seat again.  I have a feeling that until I lose this website I’m gonna have to keep raising the seat every time.

That’s ok I guess.  I’m just happy that I rode a longer distance than before.  38 minutes is a lot longer than 14 minutes.  I also rode for 4.2 miles total.  I checked it out on Google Maps.  Go me!

By the way, I was so close to Beach Park, like 5 blocks from it.  I was so close I could have tasted it.  I had no idea that I was that close either.  If I knew I was that close I would’ve tried harder to get there.  At least they had water so I could have refilled my bottle lol.  I ran out just as I was getting closer to the house.  That only tells me I need to bring the bigger bottle next time lol.

Edit: I went to Spark People to add my cardio for today and 38 min at 10 mph (I don’t know what my speed is as I don’t have a bike odometer and 10 mph is the lowest they have so it’s my only option) and that is 342 calories burned.  The total for the whole week is 87 of 90 min that they require you to do and 783 of 780 calories burned.  They only want you to do exercise cause they are there to tell you what you need to do to get thin.  You aren’t “required” to do anything you don’t want to in which case you don’t have to sign up on their website.  But anyway, my point is that I exceeded the amount of calories for the whole week but I was still 3 minutes shy of the amount of time.  That’s fine though because next week will be double because I was so close to Beach Park that next time I will actually make it there and maybe even get to ride on the bike path for a little while.  I might end up doing the entire 90 min for the entire week in just 2 sessions.

High Seat

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, ExerciseLeave a comment

When I came back from my ride the day before yesterday I raised my seat up a lot but I guess not enough because today I rode my bike and I was still in pain when I got home and I noticed that my leg was still bending as I was riding.  Your leg is supposed to extend fully when it gets all the way down.  If your seat is too low it can cause an injury to your back and/or legs.

Well, when I lowered my seat I lowered it all the way then I realized how to raise the handlebars but I never raised the seat again.  Big mistake.

So anyway, this morning I thought it was high enough but it wasn’t and I came home from my ride in a little bit of pain in my legs.  Not as much as before but I raised it even higher and got on it and it was perfect.  My legs straighten completely.  Hopefully tomorrow I can keep going past California Ave instead of turning right.

My goal is to get my muscles strong enough to where I can ride the bike for long periods of time but having my seat so low was counter productive to my progress.  The longer I am able to ride the more calories I will burn and then I can just go back on with my life.  When I was a kid, teen and young adult (in my 20’s) I was very active.  Either running from bullies (junior high) or riding my bike to and from school, to and from work, to and from Hollywood via North Hollywood, to and from Simi valley via Canoga Park.  Point is I was active and active means skinny.  I never gained an ounce.  I could eat and eat and eat and believe me, I was a hungry guy and I never gained any weight.  So, hopefully, I can keep my eating habits but exercise it all off with the bike.

I also wanted to add that I am so excited to have my Dell DJ back.  I went too long without it and I’m so excited that I got that battery for $10 + $7 shipping.  I nearly bought the same battery from another retailer for $25 and another was selling the same thing for $50.  I almost gave up until I went on eBay.