Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

Posted December 8, 2010 By Peter and has no comments yet.

The diet is coming along well. No hunger pains. No sugar or caffeine withdrawals. Down 2kg. Lots of energy.
Enough energy to get me out to training tonight.
Only 2 other guys and I did 5 laps by myself then 2 with the speedsters then a few again by myself. Felt alive for a change.
Even though I hadn’t ridden in 2 weeks the energy levels seemed to make up for any loss of fitness.
The weight training (daily) has also helped a bit with warming up the metabolism. Ca.n feel the extra strength in my hamstrings already.

Lots of salad today. Vegetables for dinner. One apple as a snack. Forgot to eat my 2 tomatoes. Ginger and hot water. A cup of green tea. Peter Rabbit.

That was the good news.
The bad news being I was told today my main job are cutting back from April. Of the 3 foreigners working there, one of us will lose his job, one of us will lose 13 hours and I will lose 8 hours a week. It’s a big dent in the bank account. Not very motivated either to help this company out anymore either. Have some other work lined up but it’s rob Peter to pay Taro all the time. Seems impossible to get ahead of the cycle. Luckily I still have eggs in baskets and I can turn up the volume in a few of them.
Hoping it’s a blessing in disguise.

Last Week: (shopping bicycle- it all counts) 4km
Tonight: 31.17km
Yearly Total: 4232.64km

Categories: Cycling, dieting, Health, Training
Tags: , , ,

December Detox

Posted December 6, 2010 By Peter and has no comments yet.

Have sworn off end of year Christmas parties in order to get a head start on New Year’s Resolutions.

For the last 3 days have been on fruit and veggies. (except for a little salami for dinner day 1 & 2).
Lots of apples, pumpkin, spinach, tomatoes, onion, eggplant, hot water with ginger, garlic…and a bit of salami to wean myself. No processed food is the rule from now.

Have had no energy lately, bad skin and in a slump. Can feel the release of energy already from this and got a lot of things done today that I hadn’t been able to do for a long time. Done a lot of cleaning, sorting my winter clothes, washed the dogs, fixed up some banking… things I had just been too lazy to do for months or weeks.

Did some leg work to try and build up my sprinting muscles again. Dusted off the old bar bells and went outside to step up and down off the entrance into the garden. Like a big heavy pedalling motion. Left leg up, right leg up, left leg down, right leg down…then in reverse.

With 30kg it was a good warm-up for more to come over the next few days. Did about 30 of them.



Haven’t ridden for a long time…maybe tomorrow night, definitely Wednesday.

Categories: Cycling, dieting, Health, Training
Tags: , , ,

Amino Acids

Posted September 25, 2010 By Peter and has no comments yet.

Have bought 3 different brands of amino acid tablets to try and take in the morning. One bottle by the PC at home, a packet in the car and another by the PC at work. The idea being to take them in the morning (with or without breakfast) to give me a good start to the day as well as suppress my appetite for later in the day. Especially at work where I tend to buy the poor selections of food available at the work cafeteria. I try and bring a good lunch but don’t always.

Amino acids are the building blocks of protein . The body has twenty different amino acids that act as these building blocks. Nonessential amino acids are those that the body can synthesize for itself, provided there is enough nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen available. Essential amino acids are those supplied by the diet , since the human body either cannot make them at all or cannot make them in sufficient quantity to meet its needs. Under normal conditions, eleven of the amino acids are nonessential and nine are essential.

I’ve also been slipping a lot of them into my water drink bottles during training.

Eight aminos are considered essential amino acids, meaning that the body does not synthesize them, so they must be supplied in the diet. These include: phenylalanine, valine, threonine, tryptophan, isoleucine, methionine, leucine, and lysine. Four others—cysteine, tyrosine, histadine, and arginine—are required for infants and growing children.

Some amino acids have demonstrated an ability to markedly suppress appetite.

Categories: Cycling, Health, Training
Tags:

Barcelona Olympic Fujita Kozo

Posted September 12, 2010 By Peter and has no comments yet.

Today’s training was at Narita’s friendly park with two Bridgestone riders along to give us some tips and lessons.
Our own Mr. Idei, who was the captain of Semas Racing when I first started riding and Barcelona Olympic rider Fujita Kozo.

I took some footage on my iphone and listened intently to his advice. All good stuff.

Forgot to switch on the garmin till about half way through the riding part.
Rode about 30km then had question time. You’d think somebody who trains as much as this guy does he’d be able to eat a bit more…but he has to keep his weight down, being a hill climb specialist and really eats very little to keep his body fat in check.
Doing lots of exercise it seems is no excuse to pig out. Noted.

Video coming as soon as I figure out the best way to edit and send from the new iphone.

Saturday:

Sunday:

Thursday Night: (late start)
Saturday: 67.92km
Today: 30km (13.74 on Garmin)
Yearly total: 3410.52km
Daily average:?
Daily average goal: 33.71 km

Categories: Cycling, Training

New Course Asahi Beer factory Moriya

Posted July 11, 2010 By Peter and has no comments yet.

Today our club went on its new course across the Tone river and into Ibaraki.
I mis-timed the meeting point at Tone Canal by about a minute and as I approached I could see our club riding off about 1 minute ahead of me. It took me about 15km before I could catch up to them at the Jusco department store intersection. Luckily a red light slowed them down enough for me to make contact. I was toast before I got started. From then on there were rolling hills around the Asahi Beer factory. I wanted to stop and do a tour of the factory but this was training and everybody had other plans. As we came around a bend the Rinkoubou Apex team were riding in the opposite direction. I’m sure they were a little surprised to see us training on their secret Sunday haunt. I hope they don’t mind as we’ll probably do it every Sunday now. The reason being is that the Edo river is getting more and more crowded and we can’t train on it as fast as we used to.

My thighs haven’t felt bloated like this in a long long time so those rolling hills really put pressure on me to make it to the peaks at the same time as my lighter team mates. Also my solo TT just to get to them probably took its toll on them as well.

Got an Omron blood pressure checker a few weeks ago. Strokes run in the family and my BP does get up there when I’m stressed out. After today’s ride.

120/74

Today 71 km
Yearly total: 2558.77km
Daily average:?
Daily average goal: 33.71 km

Categories: Cycling, Training
Tags:

Double Trouble

Posted June 23, 2010 By Peter and has no comments yet.

Tuesday & Wednesday training data.

Tuesday: 10 starters. Slow start. I found myself sneaking away on the second lap and tried to see how long I could stay away without letting my heart rate go over 170bpm. I lasted exactly 4.5km before I was easily caught by the peleton who were upping the tempo. Found the young guys putting on too much pace in the dangerous corners which put me off a bit. After a few hard attacks off the front at about the 15km mark, I found myself falling off the back. Battled on by myself and finished a lap early.
Not much power in the legs possibly due to Monday’s ride still lingering.

Tonight:

I arrived late on purpose as I was not keen to even attend at all. I started about 4 minutes behind the start time and did a warm up for 2 laps until they caught up with me. Then it was pretty full on for the next 15km. Took one short cut. Didn’t challenge any sprints and also sat out the last lap taking the short cut route again.

Not interested in the sprints at the moment but more concerned about burning fat and keeping my metabolism on a high. No need for me to sprint until Saiko in November if I attend that race.

Tuesday Warm up: 8.34 km
Main: 28.55 km
Cool down: 2.38 km
Wednesday night: 35.73km
Yearly total: 2387.99km
Daily average:?
Daily average goal: 33.71 km

Categories: Cycling, Training

Tuesday Thursday

Posted June 17, 2010 By Peter and has no comments yet.

The guys who couldn’t ride Tuesday due to rain and also didn’t ride last night wanted to ride tonight.
Nine of us turned up and did our usual Tuesday ride. I got dropped at the 18km mark after chasing down a breakaway at 56kph.
Didn’t feel like going up the hill at break neck speed and sat out a lap. The 2 guys managed to break away again and I picked them up when they came around for the last 2 laps. After they finished I battled on alone for the last lap.

Felt good but a bit flat after last night and I had more steak in my stomach again from dinner. Not the best energy food before a workout.

Today 32.73 kmkm
Yearly total: 2196.89km
Daily average:?
Daily average goal: 33.71 km

Categories: Cycling, Training

NNC Wednesday

Posted June 16, 2010 By Peter and has no comments yet.

Haven’t been riding with these guys for a long time. Much faster as usual than the Tuesday training. Rump steak for dinner 30 minutes before starting didn’t help much. 3 starters, 7 finishers.

Today Warm up: 9.34km
Today Main and cool down: 34.44km
Yearly total: 2164.16km
Daily average:?
Daily average goal: 33.71 km

Categories: Cycling, Training

Japan

Posted June 7, 2010 By Peter and has no comments yet.

Hayaku: A Time Lapse Journey Through Japan from Brad Kremer on Vimeo.



________

Categories: Cycling, Training, Travel
Tags: , ,

Aprico アプリコ

Posted June 4, 2010 By Peter and has no comments yet.

Today I had a day off due to mid term tests at the high school.
Morning cleaned the car.
Noon to the driving range to hit 200+ balls.
Afternoon and night I went to Aprico
An Italian styled cafe for cyclists (and anybody else).

Owned and operated by Mr Mukai a great rider in his own right. The shop only just opened early May is already attracting a lot of cyclists who gather there to chat, drink wine, beer, and eat nice Italian dishes.
Tonight was my first time there and I’d like to go once a week. It’s a bit hard for me to get to by public transport for me but although far it’s an easy straight ride for me straight down the Edo rive towards Disneyland.
The shop is a short walk from Ichinoe train station on the Toei Shinjuku Line in Edogawa-ku.

I rode there against a very strong headwind and had forgotten to fill my water bottle.
To alleviate the dehydration I had about 3 beers and 3 wines. To soak up all the alcohol I munched on egg plant, broccoli, chicken, salmon, bread and liverwurst, and didn’t bother with a full meal as I was too busy talking with all the other cyclists at the bar. Next time, I’ll probably go for lunch when there are less people there for the drink.

The ride home was not bad. I wasn’t drunk, the Edogawa I know like the back of my hand and there are

〒134-0015
東京都江戸川区西瑞江４－２７－３６
カーサエム１０１
（一之江駅A2エレベーター出口より徒歩５分）

TEL 03-3654-3549

営業時間：
Caffe　12：00 to 16:00 （ランチは14:00まで）
Bar 18:00 to 23:00 （ラストオーダー22：30）

定休日：日曜日、月曜日、祝祭日

Today 73.9km
Yearly total: 1963.23km
Daily average:?
Daily average goal: 33.71 km


Categories: Cycling, Golf, Health, Training