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Get Fit, Stay Fit, Feel Good - 2026

30.1 miles today, 3k of climbing and it felt soooo good….until about 20 minutes ago, cramp on the inside of my leg. I shorted myself on electrolytes. Pickle juice to the rescue.

When I made up my bottles today I even questioned whether I had enough electrolytes but then told myself those famous last words, “you'll be fine.” Stupid me.
 
Mario said:
This was CRAZY to watch! You guys are racing same as a dirt bike but also have to do the work of the motor too? I was going to be really pissed off if that guy won the race after riding this guy's tail. Surprised to see gravel rigs in the mix, do they get massive headaches by the end? That trail wasn't that smooth. The video stabilization on that camera was fantastic too.

I just looked at the rest of this guy videos, his life is all made of successes. I am going to go to bed now and dream of mediocrity.
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Ya the draft is rly important on this course cuz we manage ~18mph avg, especially w MTB bars. We can only go this fast in a pack.

It’s kinda amazing what a gravel bike with 50-55mm tires can do. It is difficult to charge all those rocks and drops without suspension - you just gotta hold on and not brake lol. I rode it today with 40mm tires. It was less fun and a little slower.

I think a MTB w drop bars is the fastest bike on this course. I’ll convert mine eventually to try it.
 
Here's my activity from last week. 13hrs, 180miles, 6900Cal (1kJ in cycling is ~1Cal). It wasn't a hard week, but I was hungry all the damn time. The fridge gets empty so fast! It's infuriating :LOL:

Screenshot 2026-05-11 at 7.24.32 PM.png
 
stangmx13 said:
Jersey pockets!!!
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Easy skittle or phone snackcess.

But it’s not pretty to look at. I felt self conscious every time a car passed. That said, gonna wear one again my next ride. :x
 
Good gym day yesterday. Missed my 4 miles in 20 minutes by 8 seconds... sort of wondering why is does fluctuate. Food, rest, ??

3 additional resistance leg exercises have been added which extends the time frame necessary to do all the PT stuff, ride the bike and get the weights in. Solid 90 minutes now.
Where will it go from here?? I hope I can get to a squat rack at some point.

The added weights are leg press, inner and outer thigh flies which are very pointed to my injury.

My balance continues to improve. Stacked inline feet for a minute is easy. One leg balance is improving, but still a ways to go. Also doing balance on yoga pads to make it a little harder so doing both flat floor and padded effort. (added time).

I can see my retirement gym sessions being two hours one day.

Today is upper body. The shoulder makes it painful, but it HAS to be done.

I am cane free except going up stairs. Tried this AM and the pain is more than I think is beneficial so had to stick with it.
 
two wheel tramp said:
Easy skittle or phone snackcess.

But it’s not pretty to look at. I felt self conscious every time a car passed. That said, gonna wear one again my next ride. :x
Click to expand...

We all suffer from insecurities in spandex from time to time. I use iPhone Photo Clean Up to remove mushroom outlines sometimes, for everyone else’s benefit, and am a little self conscious about it 😅.

If you are happy w the muscle mass gains you’ve made on the skinny leg, you could put effort into calories restriction on your no-activity days. But I wouldn’t start that if you are feeling potato or if you have a big event coming up. In fact, the potato feeling could be a result of insufficient or imbalanced calories. Your current rest week should improve things a lot though.
 
budman said:
Good gym day yesterday. Missed my 4 miles in 20 minutes by 8 seconds... sort of wondering why is does fluctuate. Food, rest, ??

3 additional resistance leg exercises have been added which extends the time frame necessary to do all the PT stuff, ride the bike and get the weights in. Solid 90 minutes now.
Where will it go from here?? I hope I can get to a squat rack at some point.

The added weights are leg press, inner and outer thigh flies which are very pointed to my injury.

My balance continues to improve. Stacked inline feet for a minute is easy. One leg balance is improving, but still a ways to go. Also doing balance on yoga pads to make it a little harder so doing both flat floor and padded effort. (added time).

I can see my retirement gym sessions being two hours one day.

Today is upper body. The shoulder makes it painful, but it HAS to be done.

I am cane free except going up stairs. Tried this AM and the pain is more than I think is beneficial so had to stick with it.
Click to expand...

Day to day fluctuations in performance are normal. The harder the effort, the more you should expect to NOT perform at your best every single time.

One of the slowest ways to train is to do the same thing over and over again. You may be at the point where you’d benefit from doing something other than 4mi in 20min. You could try 5min warm up, 10min hard, 5min easy, 10min hard, 5min cool down. The 10min hard will probably be faster than your 4mi and should build fitness faster. But overall fatigue could be comparable to the 20min, even though you were on there for 35min.
 
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stangmx13 said:
We all suffer from insecurities in spandex from time to time. I use iPhone Photo Clean Up to remove mushroom outlines sometimes, for everyone else’s benefit, and am a little self conscious about it 😅.

If you are happy w the muscle mass gains you’ve made on the skinny leg, you could put effort into calories restriction on your no-activity days. But I wouldn’t start that if you are feeling potato or if you have a big event coming up. In fact, the potato feeling could be a result of insufficient or imbalanced calories. Your current rest week should improve things a lot though.
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I am not doing the fondo this weekend. I am not feeling up for it and not on this bike. It is what it is. I would like to put on some more muscle before I work on the weight loss side of things.

In other news, today is the one year anniversary of being allowed to bear weight, aka walk, again after my accident. My friend bought me this ornament to celebrate the day. It makes me chuckle.

IMG_1291.jpeg
 
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