Category: Cycling

I'm trying something a little bit new in my constant lifelong fight against fatness. I'm quite sure that this is something that I will be fighting against my whole life. I've been blessed with a slowish metabolism and I've also been blessed with a love for food. These things combine to make for a very large "me" unless I really work against these two things.

A while back, I posted something about skipping breakfast and how that's a way that I combat being fat. That's probably the reason that between mid-November and the end of December, I actually lost two pounds. For the first Christmas season that I remember, I didn't gain a few pounds.

That still doesn't change the fact that, in medical terms, I'm obese. I'm not overweight. I'm obese.

I've tried a couple of fad diets. They worked for me temporarily. The best thing I ever did was when I decided to ride my first century ride a few years ago. I dropped a lot of weight that summer, ending up under 200 lbs for the first time in many, many years. Yet, over the last few years, I've slowly gained it all back.

It didn't help that the one sport I really really enjoyed has been taken away from me. I loved racquetball. It's not going to ever be an option for me again. It didn't help that for a whole year, I couldn't ride a real bike because I didn't have the strength in my right hand to brake. It didn't help that even when I had the tendon problem in my elbow fixed, I didn't get back on my bike again.

Yet those are all just excuses.

So this week, I started an exercise that has been eye opening. I downloaded the "LiveStrong" app for my iPad and I started tracking my caloric input/output.

I'm sure that there are more accurate methods, but for $2.99 plus tax, this has a lot of bang for the buck.

I put in my height and weight and some other information (such as my activity level--sedentary. I'm a computer programmer, after all) and told the app that I wanted to lose 2 lbs a week and the app told me that I can consume 1702 calories per day.

It's actually not so bad, especially since I skip breakfast anyway. On days that I actually do something more physical--such as ride the spinner--I can eat more, because the 1702 calories are "net" calories--the difference between what I eat and what I burn. 45 minutes sweating away on the spinner can buy my a few hundred more calories.

The app also has a pretty large database of foods. It's not 100% accurate, I'm sure, but it's a lot better than not knowing at all how many calories I'm eating. I plan out what I'm going to eat for the day and I use the app to figure out approximately what I eat in a day.

It's been eye opening. Geez. No wonder I'm fat.

So I started this on Tuesday. I don't know how long I'll continue to actually log every single thing I eat, but I think it will be something that I can come back to if I can't figure out why I keep getting heavier and heavier. I think that when I hit a point where I want to just maintain my weight, I'll count calories for a while to figure out how much I can continue to eat.

So far so good. I'm down about 2 1/2 pounds. I know it's probably not all REAL weight loss, but at least part of it is.

I'm also planning on riding my bike this summer. A lot. I'm going to do multiple century rides and I'm going to do the cycling merit badge with the scouts in my area.

I'm hopeful that I'll be able to drop 30 or 40 lbs this year and this will be one more tool that I'll have to keep from gaining it all back. Again.

Wish me luck. I'll post updates here from time to time.

So what did I do in 2010?

• I tried playing racquetball again.  My elbow didn't like it much, so I realized that racquetball is probably out for the rest of my life--at least, right-handed racquetball
• I slept in a burrito during another "Klondike Derby" with my younger son, then slept in a burrito yet again for my older son's "Denali Base Camp."
• I performed in a benefit concert for the Syd Riggs Scholarship Foundation.
• I earned my Wood Badge beads.
• I left Symantec and started working for the LDS Church
• My older son turned 16 and started driving, causing a spike in both blood pressure and insurance premium.
• I spent a few days on the Green River, canoeing 68 miles.
• I spent a week in San Diego with my family--a very fun family vacation.
• I camped with my scouts at Camp Bartlett near Montpelier, Idaho
• My younger son got a full set of braces
• I was made a development lead at my new job and was given a new project to work on
• I sold the last Saturn I will likely ever own and I purchased my third Subaru.
• I took the scouts to a "Centennial Camporall" in commemoration of 100 years of Scouting in the United States.  Early morning temperatures were lower than the winter campout in January.
• I shunned NaBloPoMo
• I cooked the perfect Thanksgiving turkey.
• I took up smoking--I smoked a couple of chickens.

What am I planning on for 2011?  A lot more of the same.  Scouting will continue to take up a lot of time.  I'm still enjoying it a lot.  However, tomorrow is younger son's Birthday, and he won't be in my troop any more.  I wonder if it will be the same without him.  I'm planning on doing a lot more cycling this year.  I need to get in shape or I'm going to end up on The Biggest Loser someday soon.  So I have several long rides planned, starting in February.  I'm also planning on playing my guitar more in 2011.  I miss making music when I get away from it.

I'm also hoping to learn how to smoke lots of things this year.  Before 2011 is over, I want to feel confident in smoking ribs, turkeys, brisket, and pork shoulder.

This June will be my 20th wedding anniversary.  20 years??  It's crazy.  I was married shortly after my parents' 25th anniversary.  There are a couple of family things that I need to focus on this year too.  I only have a couple more years left and my older son will be heading out on his own.  If I don't focus on the family things now, the opportunity will pass me by completely.

My life is good and I'm looking forward to the opportunities this year will bring.

Disclaimer – The views expressed here are the opinions of DeShawn Smith and do not necessarily reflect the views of Employer Solutions Group or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I've only ever lost a significant amount of weight by ignoring what they say.

I'm on the obese side of fat these days. My excuses consist mostly of health and injury stories. I tore a tendon in my elbow more than a year ago and I haven't been able to do the two things I enjoy most that keep me from getting fatter: cycling and racquetball. Racquetball may be out of my life forever now. I'm pretty sad about that. Cycling is fortunately back in. I now have the strength in my right hand to actually brake, so I have less fear in riding all over the place.

My other excuse is that food just tastes do darned good and I'm too darned good at cooking delicious things. I know I've been eating way too much and what I've been eating isn't really that good for me.

So now I've decided to try again to eat a little less and move a little more. I've actually been riding my spinning bike at home somewhat regularly for a couple of months now and I've been trying to cut back on how much stuff I shove into my face. Nothing. No results. I've been weighing in about the same since I started that.

Since I know my own body better than "they" do (you know, the ones that say that breakfast is the most important meal), I've decided to skip breakfast every day until I have dropped the 50 lbs of fat that are making me obese and unhealthy.

Go ahead. Cite studies if you will. I know me better than those studies. Tell me that I'm stupid, but not all of the 50 lbs of disgusting fat is inside my head. Tell me that what I'm doing isn't right, and I'll tell you to mind your own business.

Most of the people that tell me those kinds of things are skinny people that have no idea what fat people like me deal with on a regular basis. Most of them have been cursed with such things as high metabolisms or small appetites or some combination of the two. Most of them probably have the willpower to exercise every day of their lives, or they have some sort of compulsion to do so that I just haven't found in my life, even though I have tried. If you're not a fat person, I really don't think you understand what it's like and what we go through. You may have found that breakfast is the most important meal of the day FOR YOU. You may know what works for you, and that's great.

I know what works for me. I've already shed about 6% of the weight I want to get rid of in a week.

In case you didn't notice, I've added a widget to my blog that will track my progress towards riding 2009 miles.

Yesterday, I rode 15.56 miles and today I rode 16.01 miles.  Yesterday I thought that the first ride was always the hardest for me.  Today, I remembered that the second ride is much harder.  My legs were complaining the whole time and until I get my rear end in better shape, I'm going to be saddle sore.

I probably won't post something every time I ride, but I'll update my widget every time I ride, so you can see my progress.  I'm already more than 1.5% to my goal!

This morning, I didn't want to quit riding, so I didn't!

I rode from my house to Vivian Park (up Provo Canyon) and back. It's 31.4 miles round trip. I was scouting out (snicker) a ride for the cycling merit badge. I knew how far it is from the mouth of the canyon to Vivian Park, and I probalby should have just turned around there, but I didn't want to! I just kept riding.

That's less than a third of the ULCER, which is coming up in only18 days! But I'm getting my strength back quickly. I think I'm going to be ready.

It took a couple of weeks of riding before I finally had a really nice ride.  Finally, a ride that didn't seem to be more painful than fun.  Finally, a ride where I came home, wishing I had another hour to ride.

It's also the longest ride I've done so far this summer - 20 miles.

I think that I'm a distance rider.  It takes me 8, 10, 12 miles to warm up and then I hit my cadence and can seemingly ride forever.

This morning, we did the big 50-mile bike ride for the cycling merit badge. About 5 scouts came along as well as three leaders. We even had a truck that followed us the whole way, so we had plenty of water, food, and mechanical support.

BYU had there homecoming celebration today, so I picked a route that would keep us FAR away from Cougar Stadium. We rode all over American Fork and Lehi.

After about 32 miles of riding, we stopped and had lunch. I SO enjoyed sitting with my son, eating a Gandolfo's sandwich, and talking and laughing. He was REALLY enjoying himself, and it was obvious.

After lunch, we set out again to finish the ride. But my son's experience changed during the next few miles. At about 38 miles into the ride, he started falling back a bit. His legs were KILLING him. He was riding along, tears in his eyes. I was pretty worried about him.

We stopped for a break and he and I talked about what to do. He said his thighs felt like they were tied in knots and that someone was sticking needles into them. I had him drink more water and stretch out, which helped a little bit. We were only about 2 miles from home at this point. Our route would take us within a mile from home before heading away from home one last time. I told him it was his decision--that he could turn for home when we got to the closest point.

And then he made me incredibly proud. He told me that it would be a shame to ride this far and not finish. I told him that I would be right by his side the rest of the way. (I had been in front, setting pace and navigating the route up to that point.) I told the other leaders the route we would take for the rest of the ride and explained that I needed to be there for my son at that time. They completely understood.

The hard part ahead was a nearly-four-mile climb from American Fork all the way up into Highland. I rode by my son, encouraging him the whole way. He was in pain and we stopped a couple of times to stretch out his legs. But he kept pedaling. He made it to the top, and when we turned the corner at the top of the climb, I congratulated him and told him that he had made it and I told him how proud I was of him.

The downhill ride back home from that point was a triumphant ride for my son. He was laughing and joking and couldn't quit smiling.

I still haven't quit telling him how proud I am of him for the decision he made to continue.

It's what every parent hopes for--that their child will see the difference between alternatives and choose the better way, even if it's the more difficult path. It was a learning and growing experience for my son, and a wonderful experience for me to see him grow in that way.

On Saturday, I rode 25 miles with some boy scouts.  Well, TWO boy scouts: my son and one other.

About 7 miles into the ride we had a close call.  A man driving a van didn't see my son.  He pulled out of a parking lot and clipped my son's back tire.  Fortunately, my son was watching what was going on and did everything he could to avoid getting run over.  The back of his bike got knocked about a foot sideways, but there was no damage to either bike or to son.
The van just kept on going.  I don't think he even realized what he had done.

If I had been closer, I would have chased him down and given him a piece of my mind.

I ended up having to hug my son and hold him close to me while the tears came spilling out of his eyes.  I'm sure he didn't want to cry in front of the other boy scout, but the experience freaked him out and the tears helped him relieve the stress of the experience.

It was just the beginning of a ride that didn't go well at all for him, but I'm very proud of him.  Despite the problems, he finished the ride.

Yesterday was a good workout. A REALLY good workout.

When I was riding with friends last week, I decided to ride with one of them again. Every summer, the Bonneville Bike and Touring Club has an event called the ULCER. Yes, the ULCER. It's a stoopid acronym for Utah Lake Century Epic Ride.

In past years, it's actually gone around Utah Lake. This year, for various reasons from traffic to bad roads the entire course stayed south and east of Utah Lake. So we decided that this year, it should have been called the UCCER, the Utah County Century Epic Ride. Of course, we forgot to tell that to the Bonneville Bike and Touring Club.

It was a REALLY fun ride. A couple friends of the friend I rode with work at Altiris, so I was able to get to know a couple of my new colleagues during the ride.

For a little while, I thought that I was going to run into trouble. About 25 miles into the ride, I got into a group that was moving at a really fast clip - around 25 miles an hour. I stuck with them for about a half hour, then the tops of my calves started feeling like they wanted to cramp up. So I dropped off the back of the group and made it the rest of the way to the next stop where I met up again with the group I was riding with. A couple had stayed with the fast group, and a couple had slipped back before I did.

After that, we stayed with a slower group until the halfway point. But after the halfway point, I got my second wind. My friend, his brother, and I were able to maintain 20-21 miles per hour for the next leg of the trip, and I "pulled" nearly half of the time. The leg after that was going extremely well too. We were continuing to maintain a speed around 20 miles per hour, despite a slight headwind.

Until...

We were making a left turn. I had dropped to the back of our group of three after pulling for about 5 miles. As I accelerated out of the turn, I heard a popping noise, then my back wheel sounded suddenly different.

I had broken a spoke. My back wheel was no longer true. It was rubbing against my brake pads where the spoke had broken.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

75.5 miles into the ULCER, I had a mechanical failure. Where was my team car with the spare wheel? Oh yeah. I'm not ON a team.

I limped another five miles to the lunch rest stop in Springville and had the bike shop guy look at it, but he didn't have the right tools to true my wheel, so my day was over. I called my wife and then ate lunch while I waited for her to come and pick me up.

But it was a FUN ride nonetheless. I was feeling strong and riding very well. I'll get my wheel fixed and my next century will be even better!

...of the loop!

Now many of you are saying "What the??"

Well, last year, when I was doing lots and lots of cycling, I decided I wanted to ride the Alpine Loop. I left my home in Pleasant Grove, rode to the mouth of Provo Canyon, and rode up the Provo River Parkway Trail and then continued up towards Sundance. It was about a quarter mile before I reached Sundance that I bonked. I could go NO further. No granny gear would have been large enough for me to continue. There was nothing left in the engine room.

Ever since that day, I've often looked up at Mt. Timpanogos, and every time I looked up, she seemed to be mocking me. MOCKING, I tell you!! She would taunt me as I rode my bike around town. She would taunt me as I drove here and there in the valley. She is nearly omnipresent in this valley, and it was time to either face my latest nemesis or move away. I just couldn't take the ridicule any more!

This morning, I gave it another shot, but this time, I brought a couple of friends along. You see, I could probably continue to take taunting from Mt. Timp, but I would never hear the end of it from these friends if they made it and I didn't.

It took us two hours to reach the summit. It took two hours to bike the 16.5 miles from my house to the top, averaging a wimpy eight and a quarter miles an hour. But the important thing is that WE MADE IT to the top. None of us had to get off and walk. Or push the others. Or hitchhike. The OTHER important thing is that the ride down was AMAZING! We brought our average speed up considerably, hitting 43.5 miles per hour at one point. What a RUSH!

My legs were not unlike hamburger from the climbing, so the ride from the mouth of Provo Canyon back home took a few minutes longer than it usually did, but I noticed that Mt. Timpanogos wasn't smirking at me any more. So if you notice that Timp. isn't as tall today as she looked yesterday, that's not erosion. It was my doing. I took her back down a notch where she belongs and now, FINALLY, she'll stop gloating.

Some statistics from this ride:
Distance: 43.5 miles
Time: 3 hours, 20 minutes
Average Speed: 13.6 miles per hour
Heart Rate Average: 161 beats per minute (My heart beat approximately 32,200 times on this ride.)
Heart Rate Maximum: 183 beats per minute
Estimated Calories Burned: 2,298