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Drop a pound: Check!

• Last week: 183.2#
• This week: 182.4#

I'm not going to quibble over the .2#.

Ride the "hard climb" three days: Check!

Monday, Wednesday, Friday, like clockwork.

And on Wednesday I took 36 seconds off my PR up Skyline the Hard Way, the "hard climb" I've been using for a lot of my training rides lately. To me, that's evidence that the training I'm doing is working & I'm recovering well.

I feel like it's time to take the intensity on that climb up a notch. I've been intentionally not using my bottom cog on this climb. If I feel solid on Monday, I'll step up and not use my bottom two cogs.

Ride 3+ hours

Final time: 5:26, well beyond what I planned.

Thursday's ride turned out to be much longer and harder than I planned, so I intentionally backed off the intensity on that ride, and for Friday's "hard climb" I concentrated on getting a solid warmup and cooldown, and staying out of the red zone on the climb. So I was much slower on the climb than on Wednesday, but still did fine and got the training in.

When Janell goes to Zumba, do a GB workout: Nope.

Work interfered with this plan, and when it became clear that I was going to be able to ride all five days this week, I let this go.

Next Week's Checklist

Same as ever:

• Drop a pound
• Ride 3+ hrs
• Do the "hard climb" three days

This weekend is going to full of family stuff, so the training is in the books. Let's see how I did.

Drop a pound: Check!

• Last week: 184.6#
• This week: 183.2#

Ride the "hard climb" three days: Uh... sort of.

This week ended up being something of an oddball. I hit my saddle time and climbing targets, but I did it on routes I haven't done before. I'm confident that I got my training in, and it's nice to switch things up a bit. But I have to admit it's hard to methodically incerease the training intensity if I'm not hitting the same routes regularly. Next week I'll get back to the usual rhythm.

Ride 3+ hours: Check!

Final time: 3:21

Three rides in new places. Awesome.

Do 2 Gymnastic Bodies workouts: Nope.

I did a short run/push-up workout on Wednesday, so I did some cross training, but that doesn't count.

When I do push-ups and planks, I can feel that my core isn't what it was. I've got to figure out how to get some GB workouts into my normal weekly rhythm.

This Week's Checklist

• Drop a pound
• Ride the "hard climb" three days
• Ride 3+ hours
• When Janell goes to Zumba, do a GB workout.

Lemon Loop

Drop a pound: Check!

• Last week: 186.6#
• This week: 184.6#

Everything running on schedule.

Ride the "hard climb" three days: Check!

Building climbing volume has been good, and I'm getting stronger. I even set a new PR on this climb without using my bottom cog, which is awesome.

Ride 3+ hours: Check!

Final time: 3:56. Solid.

Do two Gymnastic Bodies workouts: Nope.

Just ran out of time. I need to figure out how to incorporate some general fitness work into my weekly routine.

Miscellany

I finally made a proper spreadsheet to track my saddle time, climbing total, and weight. As expected, it's showing consistent progress, which is great.

Recent rain has affected my workout schedule, so I'm really trying to establish that my expected volume is just 3 rides, ~3500 ft, and 3 hours. Working in some running & calisthenics on wet days will really help keep things on track.

Next Week's Checklist

• Drop a pound
• Ride the "hard climb" three days
• Ride 3+ hours
• Do 2 Gymnastic Bodies workouts

Don't gain weight: Check!

• Last week's weigh-in: 186.4
• This week's weigh-in: 186.6

That's within the margin of error. I'm calling it flat.

Ride 3+ Hours: Check!

Wanted this to be something of a back-off week, so just did 3 days, at one hour each. (Total time: 3:03.)

This week, I plan to ride all five days if I can, and do the "hard climb" three days this week.

Next Week's Checklist

• Drop a pound
• Ride the "hard climb" three days
• Ride 3+ hours
• Do two Gymnastic Bodies workouts

I've been badly neglecting my general fitness. Time to re-incorporate the GB workouts into my normal routine.

Drop a pound: Nope.

• Last week's weign-in: 185.2 lbs.
• This week's weign-in: 186.4 lbs.

With the weight coming off as fast as it was, I was bound to hit a plateau at some point. I also suspect that I simply had too many sweets this week. I was having a single break & bake cookie with lunch, but I didn't get a chance to bake those this week, so I've been eating the cookies from the cafe at work. I think they probably count double, maybe tripple.

And I had a helping of my mom's leftover birthday cake on Wednesday, which I'm sure didn't help.

I'd love to believe that I'm putting on a bit of muscle from the tough climbing I've been doing, but I know that's most likely not the case.

This week is Thanksgiving, so I expect it'll be tough to really stay on the straigh & narrow, but I'll do my best to at least avoid gaining.

Ride 3+ hours: Check!

Finally tally: 3:47 hrs, 3930 ft, 44.8 mi.

Clean & lube bike: Mostly.

The problem from a couple weeks ago returned on Thursday with a vengeance. I noticed the freehub catching a little bit early in my lunchtime ride, but it was fine as long as I was pedaling, so I decided I'd get my workout and deal with the problem when I got home.

Unfortunately, the innocuous catching got more serious, and eventually (I still don't really understand how) the missing link on my chain popped, leaving me chainless.

Luckily, the chain caught in my rear derailleur, so I didn't have to go back and hunt for it. A few minutes of fiddling with a replacement link had me moving again, but I had to baby the bike all the way back to the office.

I didn't have time Thursday night to repair the rear wheel on my mountain bike, which forced me into some road exploration. I've been driving some of the roads south of City of Industry on my way to work each morning, so it was fun to finally get to ride a few of them.

Still, my heart really is in trail riding. So I swapped out the bearings in my rear hub for new ones on Friday after work, and did some general maintenance on Sunday night. I'm all set to ride.

Unfortunately, wrenching didn't leave a lot of time for cleaning, so while my drive train is shiny, the rest of the bike needs a bit of love. I'll try to get that in this week.

Weight Loss Goals

I'm steadily dropping weight, and that's awesome. My goal is to get under 180 lbs, and I'm just a few pounds away from that.

My stretch goal here is to get under 175 lbs. If I do that, I've promised myself something nice. (New jacket/jersey, etc.) I havce my eye on a jacket from Twin Six, but I may change my mind.

Next Week's Checklist

• Don't gain weight
• Ride 3+ Hours

It's Thanksgiving. Keeping it simple.