The Master Cleanser Day 7 (part 2)

I caved in and broke the fast. It is nice to have made it 7 days, but it is even nicer to be back and eating food again. This week will be back to normal with workouts and such then. That will be nice.

Now I will have no problems with going out with John and getting some riding in this next weekend. We are also thinking about doing Levis/Trow Mounds Trails during Labor Day weekend. That would be cool since I haven't been up there before and IMBA has classified it as an Epic.

The Master Cleanser Day 7

188 pounds....

Nothing lost yesterday. I guess that happens when all you do is sit around and do laundry all frackin' day.

The body is somewhat better but still not happy. I think things will be better once I can get back on the bike and do some hard exercise.

The good news is Trans Iowa is on again for next year.

More rain, which the grass is loving, but the NASCAR race is hating.

The Master Cleanser Day 6

188 pounds....

Another day, another pound. The body is still feeling it. My head has not been happy with my sinuses. I still am having cravings though. I almost went out and got myself a Starbucks coffee today, but in the end I just got one for Barb instead.

At this point I will only be doing this for 10 days. I need to get back to training and getting ready for the Cheq 40 in September. Hopefully this will help out with sugar addiction issues.

Surprisingly, it is raining here. I wonder what Don at WORS has done to Mother Nature to have her be so pissed at him. I do believe that there has only been 1 race so far that hasn't seen rain.

The Master Cleanser Day 5

189 pounds....

Now that's how to take off 10 pounds in 5 days. Whew.... I really could go for a bagel or something for breakfast. But not today. Not for at least 5 more days.

The body is still passing mucus and such. My knee joints ache some and the body is doggie. Hopefully this will go away in the next few days. I'm not as cold as I was during the first one of these. Not sure what's up with that. Maybe it's because that one was during the winter and this one is during the summer. I don't know.

Barb and I have ordered tickets for the Harley 105th birthday bash. I figured what the hell, since it will be here in town we might as well go and see what it's all about. Tickets were cheap at only $65 considering all that you get. You can find out more on the Harley website.

The Master Cleanser Day 4

191 pounds....

The pounds are coming off which is nice. The body is not happy today though. My head and various joints ache. I think things will get better as the day goes on, but it sucks big time when the day starts that way.

Visited Dave today for my Thursday massage. That is really what the body needed. I also visited my chiropractor and again, that is really what the body needed. So day 4 continues and hopefully things will go well.

The Master Cleanser Day 3

193 pounds....

I guess the first day was just a teaser. The second day went ok but I really could have gone for some oatmeal with blueberries and peanut butter. Otherwise I made it through ok.

Today is the same. I get some food cravings and then I remember why I'm doing this and drink some more lemonade to help kill the hunger. Oh, I did cheat on the first two days by having some Maple Valley Maple Syrup candy. Is that a bad thing? Then today I had one stick of gum. Just needed something to chew on.

Work is work. Left wrist is still sore, but tomorrow is massage and chiropractor day so that should help some.

The Master Cleanser Day 2

194 pounds....

I lost 5 pounds in one day. Whoa! Overall yesterday felt pretty well. No big real issues. No headaches or sinus issues. Does that just mean today is going to be sucky instead? I guess I will find out as the day goes on.

Overall things are well. My body is still sore from the race this past weekend. The left wrist is still yelling at me and my neck and shoulders are stiff. Otherwise just kinda lazy and slow. As most people would say about me, that's pretty normal.

The Master Cleanser Day 1

199 pounds....

No wonder I feel the way that I do. I weigh more now than when I detoxed last time. Yuck!

We will see how bad the headaches and withdrawals are today. I have a feeling this is going to be tougher than the last one that I did.

The Night Before the Master Cleanser

I have no idea what I weigh at this moment. I haven't checked in a few days.

Tomorrow will be the start of the Master Cleanser for at least the next 10 days. Time to break the sugar and caffeine habit again. If nothing else, this will help me get things back in check.

Ore to Shore was a tough one. I have never seen so much fucking sand, let alone ride thru it, in my entire life. Except for maybe standing on the beaches of Florida. I went off the trail at a high rate of speed into the brush. I helped a downed rider until the EMT guys got there. I helped another guy with a flat. He was out of canisters so I let him borrow my pump. I fell down in the sand more times than I can remember. One time over the bars and like me, put my hands out to stop my landing. Needless to say, my left wrist is letting me know that I was there today. Otherwise, things went well. I also needed to stop once and refill my Camelbak. Cramped slightly along the way, but just upped my doses of Endurolytes and that fixed that. I finished in 4:48 at a whopping 10mph. Whew!

I'm here, but not here.......

Too heavy to tell....

The weight has been coming back on and staying. So needless to say after this weekend's race I'll be back for a 10 day detox.

Ore to Shore this weekend and we are getting ready. I'm feeling good and hopefully the race will be ok for me.

Cheq 40 is now a GO!

190 pounds....

Yup, still keeping it on. Hopefully I can get this back under control. We will see what happens over the next few days.

Barb and I have made it in to the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival. To all of you who scoffed at my essay, who's laughing now.

Working on my RAGBRAI base

188 pounds....

The weight is there and as soon as I start eating better, it will come back off. Or at least I think it will. It might be possible that I have finally started adding muscle and that weight won't come off. hhhmmm....

I have ridden more road bike in the past couple of weeks than I have in quite some time. It has been over 11 hours on the bike/tandem and over 170 miles. At this rate, the new Brooks B17 saddle should be broken in on the tandem before RAGBRAI.

I have some rides recorded from my PowerTap, some not. But in general, I'm doing at least 2 hour rides with the longest being 4 hours and hopefully this weekend I will add another hour to that. The one thing that I did learn from riding RAGBRAI in 2005, it is not the mileage, but the time on the saddle that will pay off. Those 5+ hour days on the bike take their toll.

I have turned into one of those bike riders that wears an iPod. I know, I should be shot or something. But in my case, since I'm so deaf to begin with, there isn't a big change in how I ride. Without my hearing aids in, I can't hear all to well, so having some music in my head, isn't much different. I still hug the white line on the right and have a tendency to look over my shoulder a bunch. It is sweet to have tunes though when you are grinding out miles against the wind. I wish I had bought one sooner. I only use it when I'm solo at this point. I didn't want to upset or be rude to Dave when we rode yesterday, so I left it at home.

I guess the next thing to get might be a mirror that attaches to my helmet so I don't have to worry about looking back. I'm not sure how well that would go over when I'm out on the mountain bike trails. hhhmm......

Wednesday is Tandem Day

188 pounds....

At least I broke that 190 pound barrier again. I will be working on my diet again the rest of this week. The key things are eating good foods and not eating way late into the night.

Yesterday was a good workout day. I did about 3 hours on the tandem solo. I know, you're thinking, yeah, so what. The tandem weighs in at about 42 pounds. The other thing is that it has a new Brooks B17 saddle on it. I rode out in the Holy Hill area so I did some climbing, just what the legs needed. It was also hot and humid, so that I get ready for RAGBRAI. The new saddle didn't kill me too bad, but I can tell that it's new compared to the one that is on my Roubaix. Probably the funnest part of the ride is some of the looks that you get when you are solo on a tandem. People do double takes.

Off to work and riding later with Barb on the tandem. I got her a new iPod Shuffle so that she can listen to music while on the back.

Oink, Oink

190 pounds....

I am a pig and I am feeling it. Hopefully I can get this eating back under control and at least get back to under 185. This week will be an interesting one.

I did get out and ride this morning. I put about 2 hours in and rode up Hillzilla. The big hill in our area. It kicked me pretty hard and I was able to make it through though. I thought my head was gonna explode for a bit, but it didn't. It did hurt like hell though. He's the Cycling Peaks from the Power Tap data.


Otherwise things are well. The NASCAR races this past weekend were good. Hopefully will have a picture of my Dad and brother from the Victory Club soon.

Getting the Lead Out

184 pounds....

Down some, good eating habits help in that area. I'm also wondering if I was holding a bunch of water after this past weekend and doing the Liquid Endurance load for the HHHs (Horribly Hilly Hundreds).

I did get down to the bike shop on Tuesday and Alan checked out my rim, tubes and tire. He put new rim tape on and replaced the tire and a tube. Overall, once again they were very nice and worked with me on this.

I'm also getting a rear rack ordered up for the tandem. And a Yakima tandem bike rack has been put on hold for me down at the bike shop here in Brookfield.

Yesterday morning I ran 3 miles in under 35 minutes. Which is pretty good for me. I did this before work. Then after work, Barb and I put in about an hour and 30 minutes on the tandem. We are getting better on our starts and stops, but we still have some communication issues. Hopefully we will be able to work through those.

Today I got out and did some bike riding with Dave before my massage. Here is what the ride looks like in Cycling Peaks.


Overall, not a bad ride. My legs were heavy and sore, but that was to be expected. I tried to keep up with Dave as best as I could. He climbs much faster that I. So I have a tendency to be in catch up mode quite often. There were times though, I stayed with him and I think that took him by surprise.

The massage afterwards was well needed. My quads are sore to the touch so I guess they will be getting stronger. What's the old saying, No pain, No gain. If that's the case, I should be gaining a ton.

Well off to finish up the day. This weekend is the NASCAR weekend at the Milwaukee Mile. Tim and Vinnie are heading down for the races so that should be fun and interesting.

Horribly Hilly Hundreds Recap

187 pounds....

I must stop the sugar train that I am on or I will have worked to lose all this weight for nothing. Time to get off the train and back on the wagon.

The Horribly Hilly Hundreds were this past Saturday in Blue Mounds. I was able to convince Barb to let me stay over Friday night in Mount Horeb. Which worked out well, the place was a dive, but it was nice to be able to get up at 5:00am, get ready, pack the gear and drive over to the park. At this point I was feeling good. All prepped up and ready to go. I grab the bike off the car and start putting things together. I get to the point to air up the tires and I finally notice that the rear tire is flat. shit.... I hit it with the air pump and nothing. crap.... a fucking flat. No problem, I tear it all apart and think I find the hole. Check the rim and tire and find nothing. Replace the tube and put things back together with no problems. I ride down to the start, still all prepped and ready to go. But at this point, I only have 1 tube left. No problem, the rear has been fixed. So nothing to worry about.

Stage 1: 7:00am comes and off we go. I'm starting in the middle so as not to be a problem. The start is great, no issues. The first major climb comes, a 3 mile grind and that pretty much thins out the group. All I know is that it is a long climb and things hurt all over. But I'm still in it. This is the type of stuff that we ride through for the next 25 miles until the first rest stop. 45mph downhills with twisting, bending roads. It was really nice. The first downhill was touch and go because of the people around me. Too much brake being used by everyone. Once I got around them and out in the open, off to the fast descents I went. 15 miles or so in, John calls on the cell phone. While going to answer it, I didn't notice that my Brooks saddle cover goes off into the wind when I opened the Bento Box. Needless to say, I was kicking myself later on this. The first rest stop has water, food, the usual stuff. All I was after was water since I was on a Hammer Perpetuem/Sustained Energy fueling strategy for the entire ride with Hammer Supplements on the top of every hour. Overall I was still feeling pretty good at this point.

Stage 2: The next section added in more grade. I was still moving along pretty well. Some of the hills were requiring me to climb out of the saddle since they were steeper than my body wanted to do sitting down. Getting up, out of the saddle really let me know how hard I had been working my legs so far. The first up and out hurt pretty bad but I was able to work through it. The second and third time, was just just plain nasty. I hit the water stop to stretch and make sure I have enough water since the temps are in the high 80's. Before I know it, I'm at the next water stop which is just up the road from the second rest stop. I stop and top off my water and stretch some.

Stage 3: I blow through the rest stop since I don't really need anything there. At this point we are about 3 hours in. I ride up to the next road to go down and go straight instead of turning. I was confused about the last minute detour that the route would be taking due to construction. After riding about 2 miles and coming up on a road that shouldn't yet be on the route, I dig out the map and see that I should have turned back there when I didn't. crap.... I turn around and start heading back. I notice the ride isn't quite right and sure enough, I have a flat back tire. So I tear it all apart and think that I have found the hole in the tube again and still can't see anything on the rim or tire. Maybe next time I'll bring my glasses too. The last tube goes in and away I go. Guess what, the next stage has hills on it, too. The next out of the saddle hills really sucked. Hurt like hell, but I didn't give up and was able to climb them and not have to walk them like some riders were. There was a section of gravel on one of the roads that I gladly walked since my legs and back needed the stretch. I was able to do the dreaded long climb into Barneville and then guess what, the rear tire was flat again. So at that point, I decided to call it a day. As my father would say, I came in on the hook. The SAG guy came and picked me up and hauled me back to my car. He was really surprised to see that I had a Brooks saddle instead of one of those gel ones. I told him that I had tried many different gel ones and I ended up on a Brooks. So while in the SAG wagon I crossed the finish line at 5 hours, 32 minutes.

I'm not sure if I could have made the final 2 monster climbs or not. The 3 mile climb that we started out with was coming back up and then the final monster into the park that is probably the steepest climb of the day. I guess I will have to go back on another day and do this ride again and prove to myself that I can do it.

After packing things up and changing clothes, I enjoyed the food that they had for us. Also talked with some people that I met along the way. Even a mountain biker or two that was there. I guess I could always try this ride on my Epic to see how it would climb those big ones.

Here is what the Cycling Peaks of the HHH ride looked like.

I worked on all the tubes when I got home and I have found that they all have a hole in about the same spot. So after inspecting the rim and the tire, I think I have a tire problem. There is a blemish on the inside of the tire that might have been the culprit. I will take everything down to the bike shop tomorrow and ask Alan to take a look at things and get his opinion.

Horribly Hilly Hundreds Tomorrow

186 pounds....

I have been preloading with Liquid Endurance and have gained a pound or two. Hopefully that means I will be ready for tomorrow's ride through the hills.

Things have been busy and I haven't posted much lately. I need to tell you all about the past couple of weeks races and rides. Hopefully I can get that all done this weekend and following week.

Later......

Quick Recap of Some Things

185 pounds....

My weight has stabilized some. I have been working on getting my diet back under control. Sugar and caffeine are my enemies since once I get them I keep on wanting them.

Let's do some quick talking about the WORS race.

This was Barb's first race so we were all packing things up to get going. In my haste, I forgot the spare wheel set with the mud tires on. This proved to be an issue since the weather wasn't looking well. I figured out my mistake about halfway there. Since it was only Saturday, we turned around and went back for them. This proved to be a very smart idea. It added a ton of time to getting to Nine Mile to preride, but I was thanking myself on Sunday. The bad thing about this was that Barb missed the preride for the Beginners. Which I was really hoping she was going to be able to do so that she felt more at ease with the course and race. She did get a lap in on Saturday and so did I. The course had a lot of fire roads and ski trails. Some single track, but not really too bad. There were some climbs that would be challenging, but overall I found it fun.

Life after WORS Marathon #1

185 pounds....

Food, food, food and more food. If I keep eating like this, I will be back to where I was at Christmas time. Yuck.

Sorry for not updating this week, been busy with things.

We did survive the mudfest at Wausau. I will post more this weekend on that.

Otherwise life is good at this point.

I thought I would just let you know we are all alive and well.

More later....

Getting Ready for WORS Marathon Race #1 - Wausau

183 pounds....

This week has been so, so food wise. Been eating too much ice cream and not staying away from things that I shouldn't eat.

Yesterday was a day that won't be forgotten for some time. The Neon tried to commit suicide. The number 4 spark plug disintegrated, leaving only the metal core in the head. The car had been running rough the past couple of days and yesterday morning it started running really bad. The check engine light was blinking on and off and the car was not running real well. After my massage with Dave, I was just getting on to the freeway and all of a sudden something popped under the hood and smoke came out. The car sounded light a Farmall tractor. I quickly got the car off the road and shut things down. First off it sounded like maybe the timing belt was breaking, but luckily it wasn't that. I opened the hood to the find the spark plug wire popped out of the valve cover and steam rising out where it should have been. Not a good thing. I called AAA and got the car towed to the shop I always go to. They replaced the spark plug and wire and it fired right back up. What a surprise. Since they had the car, they did some other checking on the computer codes and did a tune up. Lucky for me it wasn't major or I'd be in a money pain cave right now.

This week I have been doing the Peak In Season Week and things have been going well so far. The race is on Sunday and think I'm as ready as I ever will be. We will be packing things up tonight and tomorrow morning. We hopefully will be to the course by 1pm Saturday afternoon so that I can do a preride lap. Barb will be doing the Beginners Preride at 3pm so that will help her out a ton.

I finally used my Mr. Clean car wash system last night. But not on my car, but on my bike. It worked really well and the bike came out pretty clean. I should have thought of using soap and water to clean it much sooner. It is much easier than trying to spray it all down with cleaner and then wipe it off. The only down side to water is the rust factor. Not a problem though if you lube things and keep an eye out.

Other things this week. I did hit up a regular Doctor about my neck and pinched nerve. X-Rays were taken and you can easily see the vertebrae that is out of place and the area that is pinching my nerve. His recommendation is to take 1 Aleve, twice a day for about a week. So far that has been helping out quite a bit. The subtle pain in my hand and arm has pretty much vanished. And I visited the Chiropractor yesterday and it seemed he got a better crack out of me which could be related to the Aleve.

Barb did the beginners ride this week at Hoyt Park. It is nice to see her excited about riding. The group there took very good care of her and taught her many things about riding. It seems it is easier for her to learn from someone other than me. That might be because I was never taught how to ride mountain bike, I just got on and went riding. Bubba and Coop took care of her and helped her through her falls and such. Hopefully this will become a weekly thing for her.