Hey there fellow Steemians. Welcome to another cycling blog, in which I'm documenting my journey in returning to competitive mountain biking. Since I haven't posted for a few days, I don't think it makes sense for me to continue naming my blogs as "Days".
And unfortunately, since I have returned to University for the next 10 weeks to complete the final part of my degree, I won't be able to post on my daily progress. It would be more realistic to post every week. Hence the change of nomenclature to "Cycling Blog". (if you think of anything better, please let me know...)
So how have I been going? Not too bad, I don't think...
This blog is about how I plan to measure my progress, each day through each week.
Measuring weight, anthropometry & body composition
I'm fortunate enough to be the proud owner of a Tanita Innerscan BC-1000 Body Composition scale (pictured below).
Image source
It communicates with my laptop via ANT+ and tells me just how fat (or skinny) I am. What I believe it really does is it sends a tiny current out of one electrode, through the skin and flesh of my underfoot and into another electrode and measures the resistance.
The more resistance to the current, the fatter I am. Simple. I believe the computer program then matches the measured resistance to normative values for body composition for a given age, height, etc. So you've got the take the results with a grain of salt. It's a good measure of progress nonetheless.
The output summary it prints out is concise and fantastic. Here's my progress over the last week...
Output from Health Edge Lite software for Windows
I've dropped about 1.7kg, which is quite a lot in the 8 days since I last posted. I'm not sure if this is due to scale error, but more recent scale measurements are showing consistency at 73.5kg.
My body fat % is also heading into the right territory, which I'm very happy about.
My waist circumference is steady at 93cm.
Measuring cycling fitness
My current outcome measure for cycling fitness is a time-trial of the 2.3km Mt Coot-Tha climb. This is a very competitive climb on Strava for Brisbane cyclists. For me, it is a real leg burner (even with 34-28 gearing)!
There are at least 3 similar segments mapped out on Strava for this climb, so the particular one that I'm using is called "TK MtC4: KOM (The Back)".
Screen shot from Strava
The elevation profile for this segment as shown on the Strava screen capture above is not accurate. This is a constant uphill battle with 13% gradient kick ups at many turns and the final for the 100m to the top - ouch!
I currently ride this segment at least 3 times per week, and my times have been steadily decreasing since the start of this year, as plotted below..
Created with Google Charts
Today I completed this climb in 12:10, which is a whopping 46s faster than yesterday. I put the general improvements down to my recent change in diet to being predominantly plant-based and high in carbohydrates.
But I had some competition today too! I passed one rider up this Mountain and was determined to stay in front of him!
As good as today's improvement is, it is still over 2 minutes slower than my PB of 10:07. I want to set a new PB this year.
I want to be a better climber! I want to fatigue less on longer climbs as I believe this will make me a more competitive endurance cross-country competitor. If you have any tips, please comment below.
Well, that's enough rambling about me for now. Thanks for reading. I'll be back in a day or two with another report.
My return to MTB racing blog series so far...
- Day 1: 2018 re-igniting my passion for mountain bike racing
- Day 2: Where I am now
- Day 3: My road map to returning to MTB racing
- Cycling Blog #4: How am I measuring my progress?
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Wow you're already getting results! 2 minutes off a whole climb is a serious accomplishment so far 👍🏼 I'll keep watching on Strava
Thanks @bananaskin. I think the current weightloss and diet changes have definitely helped. It's still hard has hell. I'll keep inching faster.
@masterwu I am glad U are burning some fat. In my experience, high body fat levels can be a precipitating risk factor to some diseases. Especially diabetes and Cardiovascular diseases. Its good u are staying fit. thanks for sharing
Thank you @osmansnr. I'll be avoiding those chronic diseases at all costs.
Looks like you're definitely progressing!
One thing that may help is if you take a week off of that specific hill and hit some other hills for a week then come back to your original hill. Sometimes we get set in a groove on a hill and it takes a break from it to bring that cycle.
That's an excellent suggestion @jeremiahsvaren. There is another local mountain here which I'll have a crack on.
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