Chicago and Weight Watchers

Chicago
Hello Folks. This has been a busy week. I have been keeping up on training though. On Thursday of last week i had to head down to Chicago to go to a convention for work. I thought i got off easy as i was only going to have to be there for a little while on Friday. So i headed down to spend the night on Thursday and was going to head back Friday night. FAIL. They sprung on me at the last second i would need to be there to teach a class on Sat morning. They told me this around 3pm so i had to search for a hotel at the last minute. The nearest i could find to down town that was not $400 for the night was about 15 miles outside the city center. No big Deal. I called Mrs Milkthecow to let her know the good news.

Now on Friday night Chicago had major flooding as did Milwaukee and they shut the Interstate going into downtown. It took me 3.5hrs to drive 15 miles. Not good. I felt like i was living back in London again. Well i got home at 5pm on Sat night. I did manage to fit in a treadmill run as i am too soft now living in Wisconsin too long to run in 85F heat!

Weight Watchers
A lot of people wonder if weight watcher is worth the money. After all you can just weigh yourself every week at home. It does cost about $40 a month for all the meetings and online tools.  seriously considered dropping it. I do not think 40 a month is too much for what you get but i am paying for my wife and myself 40 a month, so my plan was to just keep paying for my wife to go. When i looked at all the benefits i am getting from it i decided it was worth it. I am also paying less for eating out every month too as we do not eat out nearly as much as we used to. It really helps me know the value of different foods and helps me to eat more of the less calorie dense foods.

I lost 3 pounds 3 weeks ago but i have gained 1 pound the the last week so it evens out a good bit. I do know where i am making mistakes though. It makes it very easy to pin point the the little mistakes you make. YES i get tired of tracking all my food but it is just something i am going to have to live with.

Kewaunee 50K Bike ride

I have on purpose not blogged for a little while so more people would see my NSV's Post. But it is time to update.

I did not make a big deal out of it because i wanted to make sure i could make it (and i did) but i did my first ever just bike race on Sat! I have done Triathlons and Duathlons but never just a bike race. I had a great time to.

So it is a small event run in conjunction with a Duathlon that i have done before. I really wanted to try just doing the bike race which was new for this year. It as 50k or about 31 miles total. I really wanted to get in a 50 mile bike ride this weekend and the event was only about 24 miles from my house so i decided to bike to the race. I figured it would make a good warm up too. The weather was beautiful. I left my house at 5.15am on my bike and took a gentle ride up to the race. I got there at 6.40am and got registered. I had everything set up by 7am and was ready to go.

I had money and water with me so i had everything i needed. The race started at 7.30 so i had 30mins to chat with people and rest from the ride up.

It was really really cool to be starting a race on my bike. I loved it! There were about 30 of us doing the bike 50k. For the first 10 mile i took it fairly easy and chatted with some of my friends. Then i decided i need to get on race pace. It was very different knowing i would not have to run after i got done so i could give it everything i got.

It was very hilly but i leaned hard into the hills. My avg HR was 156! This is really high for me on a bike ride. My avg mph came in around 19mph. I pushed really hard the 2nd 20miles.

Wow it was fun. I really enjoyed it. I stayed with a bloke for most of it and we both pushed each other really hard. Amazing event, perfect weather.

I was going to go on Group ride on Monday of this week but i noticed i had broke a spoke on the race on Sat so i must of been pushing super hard!

My time on my watch was 1 hour 36 mins but i am trying to worry less about my race times as i think it makes me enjoy events less so i didn't even look where i had come against my age group.

Group ride, cutting back , NSV's

Group Ride Monday

So yesterday i went on the Monday ride. Generally there are three a week here (yes i am lucky) Monday is meant to be intermediate, Wednesdays is super fast, Thursday are Beginners. Well Monday are really getting out of hand. Maybe it is because everyone is at home watching Tour de France. and getting super pumped up. The average speed now in Mondays is 22mph which is way fast for me. I treat as my one crazy ride when i go. Last night i managed to keep up for about two thirds of the ride then i got dropped. Please do not get me wrong it is not through lack of trying. They are just super amazin. Most of them are cyclist alone and i am a Triathlete. This means they can ride 6 days a week sometimes where i do 3-4 a week. I like the challenge though. Basically my HR sat at 150-160 the whole time i am with them, breathing very hard, and then i get that hang on by the seat of your pants feeling. I am getting tunnel vision and i am all over the road which is not safe trying to keep up.

In times before they will split into an A and B Group with the B group avg 19mph or so. I do much better in the B group but all my B group buddies don't show up anymore as it is getting too fast. My B groupers all come to the Thursday night ride which we do 18mph average. Allot of the faster guys call this there recovery ride lol! It is still 28 miles same as Monday but much better pace for me. Thursday are a no drop ride to so i do not have the fear of getting lost.

Speaking of getting lost i am REALLY tempted to but a Garmin Edge 605 or 705 as it is made for bicycling and has turn by turn directions. Nashbar is having a 25% off sale for three days this week on stuff over $100 so that would make it $300. But i just can not bring myself to do it. (Plus Mrs MilktheCow was not thrilled which i totally understand)

I would like to know what my Cadence is while i ride as i want to practice keeping it at 90 which is meant to be the most efficient. Most wireless computers with Cad are at least $70 boo! Guess i will keep it old school for now and count how many strokes i take in 10 seconds and multiply it by 6.

New Training Plan

So i downloaded a training plan that was WAY to hard on me last week. 3100 swims x2 a week etc. So i got a different one yesterday. It is a training plan for intermediate Olympic distance and it seems much more doable. I am going to run through the whole plan and see how i feel.

This weekend there is a local Duathlon. 5k run 50k bike 5k run. This has kicked my butt before as there are allot of hills on it. This year i am thinking of just doing the 50k bike race they offered for it as i am loving biking right now in this weather and running not so much.

NSV's
This week at Weight Watchers we talked about NSV (non scale Victories) These can come all sorts of ways. I know i have had a few after losing 220LBS. Some are i have made as goals but some are unexpected. I think the unexpected ones are the best. They are very important especially when you are at a Plataea or just feeling down about yourself.I am going to list some of them here that you may never have considered.

1.  Less Laundry. Yes this is weird. When i was washing size 6XL shirts it took up allot more space in the washer than my now size L shirts. A weeks worth of clothes could of been 5 loads for me. Now it would be one. Of course all the workout clothes i go through add up but still. It is amazin.
2. Less plane luggage. Also unexpected, with smaller clothes you take less luggage on the plane! Amazin!
3. Laptop can be used as a laptop. Yes i can now seat my laptop comfortably on my lap instead of having to find a desk in an airport!
4. Spare shelf in the car seat! Yes now i have this space between my legs in my car seat that i can actually put things on (Just not hot coffee!)
5. Never worrying about what car to rent or buy. It used to be i would have to seriously consider how far back the seat would go from the steering wheel when i would buy or rent a car. Not anymore. In fact i drive one of the smallest cars available in America (Chevy Aveo). I know it is a bit of a loser cruiser but as a second car to my Honda minivan it is great!
6. NO seat belt extender on Airplanes. I fly allot for work it was SO imbrassing asking for a seat belt extender. I looked at ordering my own on line but they cost allot. When i hear people asking form them now i feel their pain. I no longer use them, and i can get the tray table down no problem. I never have to worry about someone sitting next to me and me being in their space as i hated that feeling.
7. Buy clothes Anywhere. Yes! i can buy clothes at almost any store. I do not have to go to specialist stores and pay tons of money for just OK clothes. I still remember the absolute THRILL of buying a shirt at Old Navy the first time. I was literally shaking with excitement.
8. I can feel my Hip Bone! Did not know i had one.
9. I can see veins in my arms, wrists and forehead!
10. My chin does not hang down. No lose skin below it.
11. I can shower really fast.

OK that is enough for now. Maybe you can let me know some of your NSV's

July already

July 4th we youngest daughter did her first 5k. As you can see by the photo above she didn't quite make it all the way so Daddy had to help her out. But she did great. She is not one to be too fond of getting out there and doing some exercise. We were to walk the whole thing but it still must of seemed long to my 8 year old.

We made it in just under 1 hour :). I carried her via piggy back for some it. She weighs in at about 85-90 pounds so it was a great workout for me. She forgot to eat before the event so part of the race involved me running into a gas station and getting her some food and then running to catch up with her and my wife.

It was a good time. Here is hoping she will do another :)!