Running out of hours...

Today I have proven that you can train over 8 hours on a weekend and still gain weight. I gained 4 lbs since Friday. This morning I was 187.2 lbs and I didn't even drink beer this weekend. Although, I did eat a lot. It just goes to show that eating less is more important than exercising when trying to lose weight.

I went to the bike store at lunch time to replace my seat. I tried the Amado for about 12 hours and it wasn't working for me. It was better than the seat before it, but I think it was too wide for me. It was causing chaffing and made my butt sore. My legs had already started to wear off the silk screening on the sides. I didn't want to wait any longer to replace it because I didn't want it to look too worn and risk the store not wanting to take it back.

The only seat that worked well for me was a stock Quintana Roo seat that I had on my old Seduza. I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier, but I should have just ordered one of those seats. I'm sure they'd be under $100. In any event, I bought the Adamo and felt obligated to work through any issues with the bike store.

I looked at a picture of the Seduza seat and it had a narrow nose and was shorter in length. At the store I tried to find one like that. I looked at a lot and they showed me a Selle Italia Optima. It was full carbon, including the rails and was areo dynamically designed for Triathlon and Time Trials. It's only 130 grams and the price was $550. It was a beautiful seat and it looked very similar to my Seduza seat in size and shape.

The Adamo seat I bought was $300, taxes in, and that was more than I wanted to spend at the time. Coming up with another $250 plus taxes was out of the question. I found another seat and it was only $200, which meant I could try that and they would have to give me $100 back.

The guy I was dealing with went into the back office and spoke to the owner and because the Optima was the last one they had and he wanted to get rid of it, he was prepared to give it to me for the same price as the Adamo. Without hesitation I took the deal. I had them install it and tried it at the store and I liked it. Although, the real test is to do a long bike ride.

I had to replace the seat TODAY because I had a 3 hour plus ride scheduled for tonight and using the Adamo was out of the question. To find the time to get the new seat I had to miss my weight training session at lunch time.

I almost did the weights after work, but once I started doing the math, I wouldn't be able to finish the weights, eat dinner and finish the bike ride before 11 pm. I need my beauty rest. I justified not doing the weights because they are only of medium importance on the MAO program and who knows, depending how the week goes I may be able to fit that session back in.

By the time I finished eating dinner and napping, I got on the bike by 6:45 pm. The seat felt okay, better than the Adamo. For me I have big thighs and I think the narrow nose is better. I also noticed that the seat is designed a little different and in the aero position the sit bones actually sit on the backside of the seat. I watched the demo video at Selle Italia's website and it was intentionally designed that way.

I ended up riding the entire time. No scheduled rests stops, other than stopping once to lower the seat height just slightly and to take a quick bathroom break. The real seat test is going to be on Saturday's long ride, but I'm feeling cautiously optimistic.

Tonight's ride was hard. My legs were flat. Within the first 5 minutes on the bike I couldn't push hard enough to get my heart rate up to my minimum 118 beats per minute. This past weekends training took it's toll on my legs. I thought of quitting or cutting tonights ride short and decided against it. I figured that it's days like this that major gains are made if I work through it.

To help get the heart rate up I put the trainer resistance on the highest level. I used a lower gear and even then I struggled to maintain 85 rpm for the entire ride. Tonight's ride was tough physically and mentally, although I felt good knowing I did it and didn't cut any corners.

I got a real lesson seeing how hard it is to burn 2800 calories on tonights ride, versus, how easy it is to eat 2800 calories. When I finished, I opted for fruit as my recovery snack. It would have been too painful to eat 900 calories of junk. All I would have thought about was the pain I went through to burn those 900 calories.

Mod Bike - 3:15:11 / 95.93 km / 29.49 kph / 122 bpm avg hr

187.2 lbs / 22.5 BMI