May 5, 2006, Mid-Coast TT. Football Coach Meets BikeI've created this blog to chronicle my passion for riding. I guess it's presumptive of me to think that anyone else would care about my riding and training exploits, but I know I'm not the only fanatic out there. So, if you want to check in with me to see what I 'm up to with my training this winter, share some of your thoughts and training experiences with me, or just want to peak into the life of a boarding school teacher obsessed with biking, please feel free. But first some background:
I'm a former college football lineman who, unitll a few years ago weighed 265lbs spread over my 6'3" body. Not quite bicycle friendly proportions. I had been schlepping myself around the roads and trails of Missoula, Montana and then Kents Hill, Maine with my football body. Every ride hurt. I mean HURT! There are no flats in central maine. Lots and lots of hills. In fact EVERY ride I do ends with a mile climb up to my home near the top of Kents Hill. Easy spin day? Finish in the red zone with a climb. Intervals? End in the redzone with a climb, tempo ride? Forgot zone 2 or 3. Finish in zone 4 or 5 with a climb. Recovery Rides? Forgot about it. Climb. So here I am riding my speacialized mountain bike in the granny gear having an argument in my head on EVERY ride whether I should stop, get off the bike and walk. It would happen every ride, these demons in my head, but I never, NEVER got off the bike. Then comes August 2005:
I finally have enough money to buy a decent road bike. A Scott Speedster. I ride a bit through the fall, but never really committ to big miles. Boarding school committments keep me off the bike just enough to keep me yearning for more. Winter comes and I hit the weights big time out of sheer habit. I'm not coaching, so I work out hard. By Febuary I'm a fairly lean (by big man standards) 265lbs, can squat 500lbs and can bench press 225lbs 21 times. I'm Jacked!
I win the KHS winter carnival tug o' war pretty much single handadly and then I come to a pathetic realization: My competitive fire has been reduced to a high school tug of war competition. I quit lifting weights the next day and ride the stationary bike at the YMCA six days a week. I make a goal of loosing 25 lbs by May 5, the Mid Coast Time Trial in Rockport. The winter is mild and I'm able to ride outside by spring break. The pounds start to shedd. May comes and I'm 240 lbs and I feel great. I finsh the TT and am elated. Now I m Hooked. I continue to ride and drop more weight. The upper body muscle mass goes first then some stuborn body fat. By mid summer I'm racing at 225-230 lbs. I do the second midcoast TT in septmeber and finishe 2:30 minutes faster than in May. October comes and I buy a Blakburn Trainer, a training book by Chris Carmichael (I figured he might know a thing or two) and hit it hard over the winter. My competition weight for '07 is now a consistent 220lbs and I'm at least two minutes faster in all my races. Fall of 2007 rolls around and I score a beautiful Kona Kula Primo mountain bike with the help of KHS colleague and pro mtb rider Todd Wheelden bikeracingwheels.blogspot.com and I race a couple of MTB races during the 2008 season and my competion weight is 210 lbs. I'm a thin man at last! Lean and healthy and getting faster. My body image changes and I embrace the idea of being an endurance athlete for the first time in my life. Now, it's not how much I can bench press, but how far and fast I can go on my bike. I am transformed and I love it!
2009 has me as excited as ever. I plan on focusing a bit more on the MTB races and to do a few more criteriums. But first, I must train. Time to clean the basement and dust off the trainer!
I'm a former college football lineman who, unitll a few years ago weighed 265lbs spread over my 6'3" body. Not quite bicycle friendly proportions. I had been schlepping myself around the roads and trails of Missoula, Montana and then Kents Hill, Maine with my football body. Every ride hurt. I mean HURT! There are no flats in central maine. Lots and lots of hills. In fact EVERY ride I do ends with a mile climb up to my home near the top of Kents Hill. Easy spin day? Finish in the red zone with a climb. Intervals? End in the redzone with a climb, tempo ride? Forgot zone 2 or 3. Finish in zone 4 or 5 with a climb. Recovery Rides? Forgot about it. Climb. So here I am riding my speacialized mountain bike in the granny gear having an argument in my head on EVERY ride whether I should stop, get off the bike and walk. It would happen every ride, these demons in my head, but I never, NEVER got off the bike. Then comes August 2005:
I finally have enough money to buy a decent road bike. A Scott Speedster. I ride a bit through the fall, but never really committ to big miles. Boarding school committments keep me off the bike just enough to keep me yearning for more. Winter comes and I hit the weights big time out of sheer habit. I'm not coaching, so I work out hard. By Febuary I'm a fairly lean (by big man standards) 265lbs, can squat 500lbs and can bench press 225lbs 21 times. I'm Jacked!
I win the KHS winter carnival tug o' war pretty much single handadly and then I come to a pathetic realization: My competitive fire has been reduced to a high school tug of war competition. I quit lifting weights the next day and ride the stationary bike at the YMCA six days a week. I make a goal of loosing 25 lbs by May 5, the Mid Coast Time Trial in Rockport. The winter is mild and I'm able to ride outside by spring break. The pounds start to shedd. May comes and I'm 240 lbs and I feel great. I finsh the TT and am elated. Now I m Hooked. I continue to ride and drop more weight. The upper body muscle mass goes first then some stuborn body fat. By mid summer I'm racing at 225-230 lbs. I do the second midcoast TT in septmeber and finishe 2:30 minutes faster than in May. October comes and I buy a Blakburn Trainer, a training book by Chris Carmichael (I figured he might know a thing or two) and hit it hard over the winter. My competition weight for '07 is now a consistent 220lbs and I'm at least two minutes faster in all my races. Fall of 2007 rolls around and I score a beautiful Kona Kula Primo mountain bike with the help of KHS colleague and pro mtb rider Todd Wheelden bikeracingwheels.blogspot.com and I race a couple of MTB races during the 2008 season and my competion weight is 210 lbs. I'm a thin man at last! Lean and healthy and getting faster. My body image changes and I embrace the idea of being an endurance athlete for the first time in my life. Now, it's not how much I can bench press, but how far and fast I can go on my bike. I am transformed and I love it!
2009 has me as excited as ever. I plan on focusing a bit more on the MTB races and to do a few more criteriums. But first, I must train. Time to clean the basement and dust off the trainer!
Pretty cool blog sweetiepie. Have fun;) Cheech
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