The Journey of 142 miles begins here

Go to http://www.e-griff.com/ someone has a
great sense of humor about a middle age fella
on a bike trying to get fit (Sounds familiar eh ?)
Cartoon copyright to John Griffiths

After finding various excuses for not doing my Saturday morning rides all of this month, I finally just said "to heck with it". All the reasons I have had were just excuses not to haul my ass out of bed at 4:30am to eat and get myself down to Palisadoes to ride to Port Royal and back.

Last night I blew off some co-workers who wanted to go for an after-work drink (they ended up cancelling anyway) dragged my carcass to bed by midnight and was up at 4:40am just before the alarm went off. I had put my bike in the car already and just needed to eat, dress and head out. I left 15 or so minutes too late as Australia was batting in the second ODI v India and I got caught up.

At the intersection of Old Hope Road and Mountainview Avenue I saw about 25 or so cyclists setting off for Port Royal and I continued on, making one stop at the gas station at Harbour View to pump up my tyres. Wilson arrived 10 minutes after me and I rode off before him knowing that if I was going to try and do over 10 miles today, I would have to pace myself. I had half of an orange and some water before taking off, I need to carry a banana and oranges next time to help keep the energy levels up.

The ride was great, there were two rather fetching young ladies on mountain bikes ahead of me and I sure as hell didnt want to stop hacking and wheezing anywhere near them - oh the embarrassment would have been devastating. Wilson caught up with me after the first mile and we talked as we rode on and on. I followed his advice of riding slow and steady as he was of the opinion that I was being too aggressive just starting out and needed to give my body time to adjust to the workload. We kept up a decent pace, passed the rather fetching young ladies and to my delight made it all the way to Port Royal without stopping. It felt great !!

We spent 5 minutes, with me catching my breath, sipping on water and gatorade and then we started the journey back. The sun was up in all its glory and the heat was getting fierce. The ride back was challenging, mostly because some pressure is placed on the arms, hands and shoulder when riding a road bike. On reaching back to the starting point we just continued onwards towards the airport. Now that was an experience - the road is relatively new and smooth like my wife's ......... er, smooth like a baby's butt (yeah, thats it !) and I was able to really sprint down towards the roundabout. Another quick stop for water and to check the if the sausage and beans were ok after being squashed all morning on the seat, and it was back to the vehicles.

Clocking the distance revealed that I had ridden for a total of 12.3 miles over the course of about 1 1/2 hour which works out to 7.31 minutes per mile (inclusive of 2 water breaks). Now that I have finally conquered Port Royal and back I will try to increase my speed a little more every week until I can do it relatively easily, then it would be time to increase the workload.

A quote from the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu (604 - 531 BC) says "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step", my quote is "The Journey to Negril of 142 miles begins with this initial 12.3 miles)

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October 2009

Last Ride - 12.3 miles

Total Ride for month - 19.38 miles

Target Miles for November 2009 - 60 miles

One Year from Now I will Ride in the Kingston to Negril

Is this an unreasonable goal ?

I have gotten my ride and just started back, my first ride was torture and I wasnt able to ride last weekend because my partner's son was sick.

I tried riding up here one morning and got cold feet from all the passing cars, trucks, buses, etc. but I will try again and hopefully will improve as I am still a bit unsteady on the bike.

I am sure I mentioned in an earlier blog entry a friend of mine - Paul Goldson, who was one of the first person in Jamaica to attempt the Kingston to Negil ride and complete it successfully. I know that he's still an avid cyclist and recently came across his website Jamaicabybike.com. On it he promotes the annual Kingston to Negril ride with proceeds going to the Intensive Care Unit at the University of the West Indies Hospital and the Sir John Golding Foundation.

The ride is 140 miles and takes a south coast route through St. Catherine, Clarendon, up the steep hill to Mandeville, down the other side to St. Elizabeth and on into Westmoreland and is a test of man working in tandem with machine, battling against the elements and the limitations of the human body and spirit.




Right now I am putting my stuff together to go riding tomorrow morning and hope to really take it easy. I seem to have a habit of going a bit too aggressively and running out of steam quickly. I need to take it very easy and try to go beyond the 7 miles I did week before last. I can also get additional exercise by going walking in the mornings with Antoinette. She was always a very fit person and walked rings around us once when we went "hill climbing" a couple years ago. she was laid up recently after doing a minor surgery and wants to get back active very quickly.

The Kingston to Negril Ride is my long-term one year goal. My immediate goal is to be able to ride 50 miles 6 months from now. Not unheard of as I have read of quite a few people who have done more than that in less time. Little goals first - tomorrow - 10 miles hopefully.

Make no bones about it, i have to succeed. I have a soda habit to kick, a more active lifestyle to get used to and 50 lbs (mostly around my gut) to lose.

I'm back in the saddle again...........

Yep, I am humming that old Gene Autrey song (or was it Roy Rogers ?) while feeling the aches and pains associated with my first ride in months.

If you have been following my blog, you will know that I started riding back in May and did a few circuits before getting rid of the bike in June as it was too small and I wanted a decent roadie. Well this morning I had my first ride on my road bike and I will probably never go back to a mountain bike type ever again. I was a little unsteady at first but I adjusted quickly and was able to get into a decent rhythm very quickly. My shoulders ached, my hands hurt and my neck complained but I know it will take a while for my body to adjust to the position and the weight placed on my hands and shoulders.

We started off very late this morning. I was up at 4am and made it to Harbour View before 5, unfortunately Wayne's son was sick and he had to look after him before heading out. We didnt start to prepare for the ride at the airport round-a-bout until about 6. Then the pump would not work, we spent the better part of half an hour trying to borrow a pump or use a little crappy hand pump that came with the bike, but no such luck, eventually I went off to the gas station in Harbour View and fortunately one of them had an air hose attached.

It was 7am and already very hot, but I was determined to ride, and I did just that. I clocked 7.08 miles before I nearly collapsed in exhaustion. As usual there were a lot of encouragement from the riders who passed me and while on a stop to get the blood flowing to the sausage and beans, Danville Walker head of the Customs Department rode past and advised me jokingly to be careful of crocodiles as they had been known to eat a cyclist or 2 out there.

I am happy to be back riding and intend to really take it seriously. I intend the first 5-10 rides to be very casual, getting a feel for the bike and helping my body to adjust. The first thing I will do though is to change the seat as my sausage and beans are still complaining about the abuse I put them through this morning.

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October 2009

Mileage Clock - 7.08 miles

My New Bicycle is here

It's here, I just picked it up and I am so excited.

It's about time, my break from bicycling was just too long. I stopped back in the first week of June and had every intention of starting back quickly. I can blame it on my moving house, taking a while to properly settle in, getting Evan to buy it and arrange shipping, etc. Fact is I was busy with all the above plus some serious work that piled up on me. But I was determined to not give up on my quest to get fit and to generally lead a better lifestyle.

I am taking it in to a bicycle shop tomorrow to get it put together and adjusted for my height and on Saturday morning at 4AM I will be driving out to meet up with Wayne to test ride this baby. The longest I had ridden before was 7.5 miles. I dont know how I will do Saturday morning as I have done very little exercising since June and will probably get winded very early. The wheels on this bike is much larger than on my previous bike, so I should get more distance with the same effort.

So here I am again - off on an quest (after an interruption) to get my body weight down from 250lbs to 190 lbs.

Wish me luck, give me your support, encourage me and let us see how much I lose by December 1, 2009


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October 1, 2009

Mileage Clock = 0