Get off the Couch!

Sunny Days and Great Fun at the Races!

Greg and I getting ready to go on a ride with Pro Team Inferno Racing and the Time Pro Cycling Team.  The riding in Jersey was beautiful which was a surprise.  I had no idea that it was like that.  It reminded me of Europe with small winding roads in lush greenery.  Team Inferno has 2 national Champions and 2 World Champions.  The Time team are all young riders being developed to move into bigger teams and let me tell you these guys were FAST!

Out for our 32mile spin ride.  It actually was an easy day in between race days so they didn't go hard.  Thank God!  Young rider Andy on the left and Bennet nicknamed the Cougar on the right.  I think the Cougar has a diesel engine hiding in his legs-he can motor hard.


BBQ at Liberty Cycles club rider Jeff Lamb nickname Lambo on the left.  He and Mark next to him were pro BMX racers back in the day now Jeff has turned to road riding.  Thanks Jeff for hosting the Pro race BBQ. 

Greg and some of the guys from the Liberty Cycle Team. These guys can go fast. Our race averaged just under 28mph.  We got up to 38mph on the long back straight every lap OUCH!  Greg is in the lead for the Garden State Cup Championship points series. 

Greg on stage at the big Ricolla Pro race that he puts on every year.  It has a $10,000 prize purse.  The race was full of crashes and riders falling off the back because it was so fast, speeds reached 42mph in this race.  Our friend Jeff  "Hoppy" Hoppkins from Team Inferno Racing crashed, got back up and still got second. (pictured below)

It was great to be around all the racing and get into the grove of staying on the road everyday.  I already miss Greg and his family.  They were great to me and the riders.  Thanks for hosting us and the boys.

OFF TO THE RACES!

I am off to New Jersey to visit one of my best friends and family at their bike shop Liberty Cycle.  I missed the first flight leaving Thursday after getting food poisoning and throwing up all night.  I am back on track and ready to race.  Check out the link for his shop website.  The have been great friends and I can't wait to see them.  I will also be racing 3 races while I'm there.  I will blog with some pics from the trip. See you later.

Don't let yourself go!

I refuse to let myself look like this again.  ARGH! I didn't realize how much extra weight I was lugging around.  Here is another link that might be helpful for logging your workouts.  It's kind of nice to look back at the end of the week and see the total hours or miles you have logged, it's a great motivator.

Go Excercise! And if your going to Eat, Eat right

Ok does that cake look yummy or what.  It was my daughters 13th B-day on the 8th and we happen to remember she wanted an ice cream cake. We went to TCBY and got a yogurt cake instead.  Much lower in calories and less sugar and fat free yogurt.  TCBY is a great place to pick up a sweet snack but only after you are able to Exercise for the day.  Check this link for seeing how many calories you are burning during any given exercise you do. Fitness Calculators are very helpful as a motivator to see what you can accomplish in such a short amount of exercise.  Go to it and remember to have fun.    

Good Nutrition and early morning workouts!

It's Saturday 6:30 A.M. and my honey is leaving for an 18 mile run OUCH!  I am reminded how important it is to have proper nutrition in our day to be able to both lose weight and keep a good energy level.  Our bodies can be funny, if you eat to much you gain weight and if you eat to little you can gain weight because your body goes into "Crisis" mode and grabs onto anything you eat and stores it as fat.  A good starting point to know what your caloric needs for the day is your BMR, or Basal Metabolic Rate, or the amount of energy burned if you stayed in bed all day, click on the link above and you can calculate your BMR with activity level and see what your starting point is.  The next step it to track what you eat in a typical day.  You might be surprised at not just how much you eat but what is in the items you are eating.  Making sure you have a good balanced diet is key in this next step.  I like "Spark People" it is a free website that allows you a track your daily intake and it has an area to track your workouts as well.  Start with those two and let me know what you come up with after a few days.  Till next time.

There's always a "Starting Point"

Okay Here is where it all started again for me.  Our trip to S.D. in Feb. was a great reunion with some old friends, all of which are super fit.  From L to R, Remi Mcmanus pro rider for Inferno, Chris Horner pro rider for Lotto 15th place in the 2007 Tour de France , Kiyomi Waller #1 pro cruiser BMX racer for several years running, Me, Greg Cordasco 46 yr.old east coast masters champ and owner of Liberty Cycle, Steve Zoumaras 55 yr. old west coast masters cat 2 racer, and Dan Rock 55 yr. old former 4:00 min. miler.  As you can see I was in need of an overhaul after seeing these guys.  I borrowed a bike from Steve and went on my first ride in 12 years-pic. below.  It was warm and sunny and thankfully when we returned home to Wa. it stayed warm for about 2 weeks so I decided to keep riding.

Now a little over 2 months later after more riding and eating better  I have lost 24 lbs. and I feel like a new  person.  Coming soon  will be links to great sites for watching what you eat, logging your workouts and some motivational printed articles. Stay tuned for more.

It's time to SPRING into action!

Spring has sprung and it's time to get moving again after a long brutal winter.  The upside is we are ending the ski season with over 200" of snow on the mountain.  This pic is my fam. at the Mt.Hood Meadows GS Challenge, Alexis got 1st and Jessica got 4th.  With such a long winter I had time to reflect on my own life fitness level and decided it was time to make some change.  I am going to start posting both helpful and motivational ideas for getting back into shape and OFF THE COUCH!  Stay tuned for more.