The Basement Bike Experiment 2010 - Day 44

Last night took a lot out of me, but I think the worst of my illness is over. I managed some good distance at a respectable albeit slower pace, and I was able to do it without coughing up a lung membrane or something. Nice.

Time: 1:03:49

Distance: 15.28 miles

Avg. speed: 14.3 mph

Max speed: 22.6 mph

Music: Greg Laswell - Take A Bow

Relevant lyric: ". . . go ahead and take everything . . ."

Miles to March 2010 goal: 71.61

Days to March 2010 goal: 15

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Cumulative Experiment stats:

Time: 20:46:14

Distance: 288.51 miles

Avg. speed: 13.89 mph

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**THE GULLET REPORT**

8 AM coffee

12 PM general tso's chicken, fried rice, Coke

7 PM 20 oz Gatorade G2 (during ride)

8 PM corned beef on rye, iced tea

The next ride should put me over 300 miles. It would be cool to hit goal this weekend because I travel for work next week, but that's not too realistic. I'll give it a shot though - I continue to amaze myself during these last few weeks.

I'm out-
KWass

The Basement Bike Experiment 2010 - Day 43

My cold has rendered me useless for the last 3 days, but I am an idiot, so tonight I got on the bike and hammered out miles like a fool.

I would have been happy with 10 miles at any pace, but once I got started, sheer stubborn stupidity took over and I started cranking.

Time: 57:15

Distance: 15.04 miles

Avg. speed: 15.7 mph

Max. speed: 18.4 mph

Music: Howard Jones - Best of Howard Jones

Relevant lyric: "This is an answer to every question, this is a place to begin."

Miles to March 2010 goal: 86.89

Days to March 2010 goal: 16

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Cumulative Experiment stats:

Time: 19:42:25

Distance: 273.23 miles

Avg. speed: 13.86 mph

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**THE GULLET REPORT**

8:00 AM coffee

11:45 AM BBQ chicken salad, iced tea

3:00 PM Diet Vernors

5:30 PM 20 oz Gatorade G2 (during ride)

7:30 PM pizza, bread sticks, & beer

All evil food and beverage will be posted in red to call attention my failures.

It's halfway through the month and I am almost 20 miles ahead of pace to make the goal of 210 miles for the month, and that's with rampant sickness. Not too shabby.

I'm out-
KWass

The Basement Bike Experiment 2010 - Day 41

Today was miserable. My sinus issues have developed into a cold, and I struggled to barely make it as far as I did. But dammit - I rode, a good sign that this is developing into a commitment instead of a hope that it continues.

Time: 48:57

Distance: 11.32 miles

Avg. speed: 13.8 mph

Max. speed: 27.3 mph

Music: We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls

Miles to March 2010 goal: 101.93

Days to March 2010 goal: 18

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Cumulative Experiment stats:

Time: 18:45:10

Distance: 258.19 miles

Avg. speed: 13.77 mph

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No Gullet Report today. As bad as I feel, I won't eat much anyway.

Bleh.

I'm out-
KWass

The Basement Bike Experiment 2010 - Introducing "The Gullet Report"

The Basement Bike Experiment 2010 is going great, at least the actual bike riding part anyway. However, despite my best intentions, I can’t get on track with the other half of the weight loss equation – my diet.

Essentially, I eat a lot of crappy food and drink a lot of crappy beverage. Fast food, sodas (although I have managed to curtail the beast called Mt. Dew by a respectable margin), ice cream, carbs, enriched flour, gas station hot dogs, high fructose corn syrup – you name it. If it’s been blacklisted by some publication somewhere, I eat it.

I am flabbergasted (great word) that I can just flip an internal switch and start cranking out miles, but I can’t reel in my obviously poor dietary choices. So, in the time-honored method of Thoreau and Emerson, I took to time to ponder the situation, and I arrived at a rather stark and simple solution: accountability.

What is it I’m doing with the bike that I’m not doing with the refrigerator? After every ride, I proudly post the results on this blog, whereas after every snack or meal, there is at least some part of it, if not all of it that I wish I didn’t eat. I tout my successes, but I hide my failures. I’m a hypocrite!

The whole reason I decided to publicize the bike progress on this blog was accountability. Good or bad, the world (or at least the handful of people who actually read it) will know how long I rode and how far I went. What they won’t know is that I ate a #6 from Wendy’s and a pint of ice cream when I got off the bike.

Before all this, I was just a fat bastard. Now, I’m a fat bastard who can ride 20 miles pretty fast on his bike. It’s a vicious (albeit tasty) circle. I have no idea how many calories I take in, or even how many I burn during a ride, so who the hell knows if I am burning more than I am consuming?

So, today I announce a new feature to the Experiment called “The Gullet Report”, a daily recap of everything I shoved into my pie hole that day. At the risk of making my blog entries look like a screen shot of CNN, it must be done.

Do I want to admit a trip to the vending machine for a cherry-cheese Danish? Followed by a bucket sized mocha caramel from Biggby Coffee? Hell no. So, if I know I have to fess up later, the likelihood of doing so is greatly diminished or perhaps even eliminated entirely. Vain, yet effective.

I have managed to lose a few pounds, and I did buy new pants a size smaller and took some in to my tailor to get taken in, so this isn’t all for naught. But, it should be a lot more given the physical effort I’ve put in so far. After I turned 40, I vowed to lose 40 pounds by my next birthday in December, and as I have proven, physical exercise alone is not enough.

The Gullet Report will debut tomorrow, because I have already eaten too much crap today that I didn’t write down. I will keep a detailed journal of everything I eat and drink, and you can cheer me or jeer me as you see fit.

I’m out-
KWass