On November 30, 2011 I was let go from my job as Systems Administrator at Six Feet Up.  Thankfully I rather quickly landed a job working at HP Cloud Services, by way of Modis Consulting.  This new role brought my family and I to Austin, TX.

I’m now working third shift, and as a result will be starting to put myself into a new routine.  This will include hopefully getting to the Gym at my apartment complex at least three times a week.

I’ll update this blog more frequently as I start to work into this routine.

Where to start….

September 10, 2011 was the first day of the BikeMS “Cruisin’ The Crossroads” which is a two day bicycling event to raise money and awareness for the National MS society, and it’s local chapters.  The first weekend of August I rode a Metric for the Wisconsin Chapter in “The Best Dam Bike Ride”.  Between the two events I raise just over $1200 for the society which feels pretty good.

Earlier this year I set out to ride RAIN (Ride Across INdiana) which is a 160 mile bicycle ride that starts in Terre Haute, Indiana and rides to Richmond Indiana.  I completely ran out of gas at 93 miles.  Which was impressive as it was 7 miles short of a century (which would have been my first) and was within 11 miles of tripling my previous longest ride ever!

I set out on the ride with the intent of riding a full century.  Brad, another IT consultant who rents out an office in the back of the building I work in was also signed up to ride this event, and wanted to ride his first Century as well.  With that in mind Brad and I set off together Saturday Morning at a little after 8am.  The first half of the ride each rest area was between 11 and 13 miles apart.  This made for an easy ride across Hamilton and Hancock counties.  None of our stops were longer than necessary to refill water bottles and maybe grab a half PB&J or banana.

When we left our fourth stop we had to decide if we were doing 75 or 100 miles.  We turned right to follow the 100 mile route and from that turn forward we didn’t see another person on a bicycle for over an hour and a half.  That section of the route had us riding on a busy highway, into the wind which wasn’t the most fun portion of the ride.  It was also 26 miles to the rest area rather than the 11-13 miles we had been expecting.

In all we did eventually make it to the finish line.  Total moving time was 6 hours 37 minutes.  Time including stops was 7 hours 41 minutes.  We averaged 15.5 miles per hour on the road which is pretty awesome considering we travelled 102.5 miles.  There may have only been three riders to finish after us, but we finished!

Crossing that Century mark was a big accomplishment, and I’m glad I finally pulled it off.  Brad, if you read this thank you for being there silently encouraging me to keep going, and for cutting the wind on that first busy highway.  I’m glad I could return the favour when we were running parallel to I-65.

Ride Data Below as always:

On Labor Day my neighbour Mike and I headed out for our second ride in as many days. I took the opportunity to take him through my bicycle commuter route. The total distance is 16.74 miles and we averaged only 14.6 miles per hour. Again this was more about getting out and putting a few miles on my legs than it was about trying to set a new personal speed record.  This ride was a lot colder and resulted in putting on the long sleeve Jersey.  It was good to get out two days in a row and put some miles in.

Ride Data Below.

Over the holiday weekend I got out to ride with my neighbour Mike for a ride. On Sunday September 4th I followed him through a 25 mile route he setup around Hamilton County. I hadn’t ever ridden this route before and was surprised with it. In general it’s a good route, and I’ll likely use it for some solo training in the spring. It was a little chilly when we got started so I wore my wind breaker on this ride for the first time since summer rolled around. We averaged 15.6 miles per hour over the 25 mile route. Not one of my fastest rides, but enjoyable with good company and a great mix of town and country riding.

Ride data below.

On September 1 I went out to Nebo Ridge again for another of their Thursday night rides. This week I was able to hang with the group until we were about 23 miles into the 26 mile ride before falling out. The overall average speed was down a little bit from the week before which might explain why I was able to hang longer. Overall I think if I can keep coming to the Thursday night rides It will do a lot to improve my overall speed and level of endurance.

Ride data below.

At 8:00am Saturday morning I met James at his house in Noblesville.  We went out on a 20 mile fun ride.  This was my first ride after getting the last of my fitting done at BGI North with Frank Radaker.  The new stem did relieve a lot of the back pain I had while riding, and reduced the pressure I have been feeling in my wrists on longer rides.  It’s still going to take a while to get used to the new position but I think in the long run this is a huge improvement.

James and I rode from his house up to Potters Bridge.  From there we followed the Dan Henry’s labeled “A” and specifically “Short”,  Including getting to and from his house this results in a 20.33 mile ride.  We averaged 14.9 miles per hour which isn’t super fast, but it’s also not horribly slow for a morning ride, before breakfast.

This ride brought my monthly total miles to 194.56 miles.  I might get up to 250 miles by the end of the month if I’m lucky which would be my highest single month mileage ever.

Ride Data Below:

Tonight I went out to Nebo Ridge, a bike shop at 106th and Michigan for their weekly rides.  Last week was my first time out with this group and I rode in their “Fun and Fitness” group which averages around 15 miles per hour, and rides 17 miles.  This week I decided to push myself and ride with the “Bumble Bs” group which is supposed to average 17-19 miles per hour, and travel 26 miles.

17 to 19 miles per hour is between 2 and 4 miles per hour faster than I normally average while I’m out on the road alone but one thing I’ve learned in my year of cycling is you only get faster if you ride with people who are faster than you.  I’m not too proud to get spit out the back of a group so this was a good opportunity to see how long I could hang with the faster crew.

My friend James, and neighbor Mike both joined me in riding with the Bumble Bs tonight as well.  I was able to hang with the group until we were about 21 or 22 miles in at which point I completely ran out of gas and was spit out the back which was honestly a lot further into the ride than I expected to make it.  I found out later that my neighbor Mike bailed out at about 10 miles, and my friend James stopped to talk to a hysterical lady who saw a bicycle accident from one of the groups that was ahead of us.

Below is the ride data from my Garmin bicycle computer.  Please disregard the area between the green and red points, as something went wrong while driving to the ride and my computer gathered at least the wrong start point.  I started and ended at the red dot.  There was also 20 minutes of standing still at the beginning of the ride which lowered my overall average speed.  However my moving average was 17.2 miles per hour, a full 2.1 miles per hour faster than my average moving pace ever!

In the past http://lnoldan.com has served as a test bed for new software technologies I have been working with either professionally or for fun.  No longer!  I now have a purpose for this domain and intend to use it.

The new lnoldan.com serves as a journal to discuss the steps I am taking to get healthier.  Almost exactly two years ago my mom died due to complications after surgery she received.  My daughter was only 2 months old when it happened.  During the following several months I did a lot of reflection on my life as I was growing up.  I realized at 5’10″ and 230# I was not healthy.  Worse still I wasn’t doing anything to improve my health.  The last thing I want is for my daughter to have to organize her dad’s funeral before she’s married and has children of her own. I very much want to experience the joy in grandchildren my mom had for two short months.

May 30, 2010 I rode my dad’s 1984 Trek 520 touring bicycle for the first time.  I hadn’t ridden a bicycle in over 15 years and the ride I took was only about 4 miles.  Within two weeks I was commuting to work on that bicycle 3 times a week.  My commute is only about 7.5 miles each way but you know those miles add up and I feel better even if I haven’t lost a lot of weight so far.

Bicycling started as a way to get into better shape, and that’s still a strong motivation for riding.  However in 2010 I rode in a couple of charity rides.  The first was a 25 mile ride called “The Nifty Fifty” out of the Scottsburg, IN YMCA.  The money received from registration goes towards helping that YMCA chapter operate.  The second ride I rode in that year was “The Hope Ride” out of Hope, IN.  This ride benefits the Hope, IN food bank, and has received over $225,000 over it’s history.  What I realized during these rides is that it feels good to raise money to help others, while also doing something I really enjoy.

In the fall of 2010 I registered for a bicycle ride my dad volunteers as a communication expert for.  The Bike MS 150 “Best Dam Bike Ride” August 6-7, 2011 in Wisconsin is a fantastic event, that raises money for the MS Society Wisconsin Chapter.  I set my personal goal at $1000 knowing I had 10 months to raise funds.  I’m happy to report that on the day of the ride I had raised $1055 for the MS Society.  I also found out as a result of that ride that Indiana is hosting the MS 150 “Cruisin’ The Crossroads” on September 10-11, 2011.  I raised an additional $150 for the Indiana chapter of the MS Society and will be riding in a couple of weeks.

My personal goal is to get myself down to 175#.  To reach this goal I intend to continue riding my bicycle.  I also joined a gym with the intent of getting stronger and faster on the bicycle while also improving my aerobic endurance.  I am also going to take the 30 day Paleo Diet challenge and see how I feel at the end of that time.  If things are good I will strive to make that a more permanent change.

Please come back often to check on my progress, offer advice via the comments, and encouragement.

Thank you!

Lars R. Noldan