2024 Back to Fitness

 

In years past, I looked at this plan and moved on to something more challenging. Yet, here I am.

There's no way around it, I am old, fat, and slow.  I've known this for awhile but now I have data.

Baseline stats, June 2024:  Weight 250, FTP 153. Longer version follows.

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This is the baseline, ground zero post to log some stats for later.  It's also about accountability and maybe some bitching and moaning.  I'll confess that I had forgotten that I had this little blog tucked away, so let's knock the cobwebs off after ~30 months.

I'll do this through bullet points.  Bullet points are cool.

BACKGROUND:

• I've mostly been off the bike the past 14 months.
• Some of this is the stress of the new job and focusing on getting enough sleep as the first priority.
• Some of this was all the travel that my job had me on (almost 50% on the road at some points this year).
• Some of this was just plain burnout on the Zwift platform.
• Some of this was moving from a wide open space in my DC apartment to the tiny (and HOT) little room that I bike in now.
• But, I've seen down the road I'm on.  With my parents and relatives struggling with the effects of obesity, I don't like the script of this particular movie.  That's not my story.  It's time to make a change.
• I weighed in this morning at 251.4 and I've seen 253 and change on the scale recently.  In my weight loss journey, I topped out at 285 in the late 00's and was about 250 in 2010. So I've stepped back in time about 14 years.  Not awesome.
• I've put on ~25 pounds in the past year. That's a sobering number and lots I could type about it, but it's true.
• Numbers aside, clothes that I own are now running tight, and ultimately my choice is spending several hundred dollars on suits for work, or some lesser amount on changes.
• This morning I did a Zwift FTP ramp test (read: calibration test) and scored a dismal 153 watts. 
•  I dread this test but it's necessary so that all the workouts that follow are tailored to me/my ability.  
• I went easy. Some might call it sandbgging.  But I know that the ramp test has overstated results for me before.  Also, this isn't about max effort. I'm not 23, training for the Olympics.  I just needed a better frame of reference than the guess I put in earlier.
• Strava shows my FTP history as follows - also some sobering numbers.

Sigh.

GOALS

• I'd really like to be under 225 again.  This is the breakpoint where some of my older suits will fit well on me without my daily ware suits being too big.
• I'd like to kick over some long-coveted Zwift goals.  Getting back to that 211 FTP or better would be awesome.  Being able to participate in Zwift events (Fondos, Zwift Academy, etc.) and not being last-place-granny would be nice. Gaining levels, unlocking game stuff, being able to hang with the big dogs on pace partner rides. That all sounds pretty good.

GETTING STARTED

• I'll start the Zwift Back to Fitness plan tomorrow. It requires 2 rides a week and I'll have to zag around my travel schedule.  It's a 12 week plan, and will end in early September.  
• I needed the structure of a plan; it's too easy for me to waive off a single ride, but the accountability of a plan helps shift my mindset.
• I need to pair this with a better regimen in the kitchen.  My diet has been all over the place lately, and I need to be realistic about that as well.

Anyway, that's the initial update.  Cya in a week.