IT IS HAPPENING....CAN I MAKE IT STOP!

There is a simple formula that occurs each and every year and it goes like this....

In the spring I start to ride my bike with greater intensity and greater regularity, add a few races and a few long rides and I start to get down to what some call their "fighting weight." Well, I should really be fighting my weight right now as it would be easier to fight my growth now than to wrestle with my gearth later. I am just coming off several seasons of racing and riding and at an only slightly bulky XL Clydesdale Weight. The winter beard is back on and here comes that winter weight.

By January One I may very well make the move from XL to XXL. and It is not pretty!

It all starts with the wind down of the mountainbike season and the start of the over endulgent seasons....first Halloween, then Thanksgiving, of course Christmas and on into New Years. All the days squished between are filled with cocktail parties, family gatherings, and endless treats being passed around the office at work. Each and every calorie adds up, it can never be 'just one.". There is that catch phrase for the ladies..."a moment on the lips......a lifetime on the hips," while they need a similar statement for the men as it all goes from my mouth to my gut. Soon I will be sporting that oh so glorious body by Budweiser. It may sound like I am claiming that this is out of my control, when I entirely realize that it is fully within my control, yet I can not contain myself. I love the over endulgence.....all the chocolates...cookies....deserts....fancy meals....grazing at cocktail parties....MAN! I can not tell if it is Heaven or if it is Hell!

The converse relationship is simple no need for a calculator just listen......
I am riding less thus burning fewer calories.
While at the same time
I am eating more therefore taking in a greater amount of calories, most of those calories being sugar and fat.
Sure I can see it happening....so why can I stop it? or at least slow it!
I have seen this happen every year for years only to shave my beard and start picking up the riding in the spring when I get to hear that, "oh, you look good...did you lose some weight?"

(that backhanded compliment that says you were a fat ass now you are a slightly less than fat fat ass.....thanks for nothing!)

The bicycle does not get hung up for the winter, but I do not race so that removes weekend riding. And it gets so cold that I find it difficult to motivate to ride those post work rides everyday in the cold dark night without the goal of a race immediately in front of me. Yes, I do try to get a minimum of three nights on the bike through the winter with an occassional spin on the trainer (maybe more spins this year than last) But it is hard to stay on the bike for more than an hour in the cold, fingers and toes really feel that winter bite. And for those who did not know.....I am soft.

Cyclocross season has passed and I missed it across the board. I have that sort of depressing feeling like I missed Valentines Day without get a card or worse yet that I stayed home alone because I did not have a date to the PROM!