OK, I have created this as a challenge on Daily Mile, and so it is now official!
I hope that others will join me, whether for the same reasons or for reasons of your own. You can join the challenge by signing up here (it's free): Daily Mile Challenges: Le Tour de France in 21 weeks
Go on ... join me on those mountain passes!
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Why Cycling Thin?
I'm fat ...
There, I've said it. I have known this for a few years now, and the sad thing is that although I acknowledge that I am fat, I really don't feel like a fat person. I guess the same is true for every fat person.
I used to be really thin (didn't we all?) I was a really thin person until my mid-thirties, and then slowly I started "filling out". Initially people would say to me: "that's good, it's healthier ..." but now I'm 43 years old, and the term "healthy" is not what comes to mind when considering my weight.
It all started (according to my doctor) with my choice of career - I am a live multi-cam TV director, which means that I direct live broadcast TV shows (with multiple cameras). Shows I have directed include Strictly Come Dancing, Big Brother eviction shows, Miss South Africa (I am South African), Miss World (beauty pageants are a speciality of mine), and many others ...
Directing live TV shows is great fun, and a real adrenalin rush. That (according to my doctor) is the problem. If your body produces adrenalin regularly, and you don't respond by removing yourself from the adrenalin-inducing situation then after a while (and it took my body about 15 years ...) one's body stops producing adrenalin (what's the point after all?) and starts producing something called cortisol instead of adrenalin. Cortisol is pretty nasty stuff. Think cortisone ... it has a great pain relieving effect, and it is very calming, but it also makes you fat.
And so for several years I have been a very calm, pain-free TV director who has been growing steadily fatter. And of course the side effects that accompany that: high blood pressure, high cholesterol (of the bad kind), and a plummeting self-esteem.
My doctor advised me to change my career ... and ironically the bankruptcy of the South African public broadcaster provided the perfect opportunity for me to do just that.
And so back to the reason for this blog. I now live in Italy with my wife and 2-year old son, and I have started a software company. TV has become more of what one might call a part-time hobby (which I say with regret because I am still passionate about it).
But I am fat.
I need to do something about it, and that is why I am starting this blog. By "publicizing" my quest I hope to make myself accountable. Even if no-one ever reads this, I am making a commitment to myself. If friends or family read any of it, I will have yet more reason to keep going.
What is my quest? I have set myself a challenge: I need to lose weight, and fortunately there is something that I enjoy doing which can help me do this: cycling. In my twenties I was a good cyclist. I used to race (road racing) every few weeks and train regularly. I earned my university "Blues" cycling ... but that was about 20 years ago!
In August of 2009 I weighed in at 110.5 kilograms ... (I know, that's a bit of a shock). I am 1.83 m tall, but nonetheless ... fat.
I started cycling again, and four months later I am down to 104 kgs. I need to do something to keep the momentum up. And so I am setting myself a challenge:
Here is how:
.
There, I've said it. I have known this for a few years now, and the sad thing is that although I acknowledge that I am fat, I really don't feel like a fat person. I guess the same is true for every fat person.
I used to be really thin (didn't we all?) I was a really thin person until my mid-thirties, and then slowly I started "filling out". Initially people would say to me: "that's good, it's healthier ..." but now I'm 43 years old, and the term "healthy" is not what comes to mind when considering my weight.
It all started (according to my doctor) with my choice of career - I am a live multi-cam TV director, which means that I direct live broadcast TV shows (with multiple cameras). Shows I have directed include Strictly Come Dancing, Big Brother eviction shows, Miss South Africa (I am South African), Miss World (beauty pageants are a speciality of mine), and many others ...
Directing live TV shows is great fun, and a real adrenalin rush. That (according to my doctor) is the problem. If your body produces adrenalin regularly, and you don't respond by removing yourself from the adrenalin-inducing situation then after a while (and it took my body about 15 years ...) one's body stops producing adrenalin (what's the point after all?) and starts producing something called cortisol instead of adrenalin. Cortisol is pretty nasty stuff. Think cortisone ... it has a great pain relieving effect, and it is very calming, but it also makes you fat.
And so for several years I have been a very calm, pain-free TV director who has been growing steadily fatter. And of course the side effects that accompany that: high blood pressure, high cholesterol (of the bad kind), and a plummeting self-esteem.
My doctor advised me to change my career ... and ironically the bankruptcy of the South African public broadcaster provided the perfect opportunity for me to do just that.
And so back to the reason for this blog. I now live in Italy with my wife and 2-year old son, and I have started a software company. TV has become more of what one might call a part-time hobby (which I say with regret because I am still passionate about it).
But I am fat.
I need to do something about it, and that is why I am starting this blog. By "publicizing" my quest I hope to make myself accountable. Even if no-one ever reads this, I am making a commitment to myself. If friends or family read any of it, I will have yet more reason to keep going.
What is my quest? I have set myself a challenge: I need to lose weight, and fortunately there is something that I enjoy doing which can help me do this: cycling. In my twenties I was a good cyclist. I used to race (road racing) every few weeks and train regularly. I earned my university "Blues" cycling ... but that was about 20 years ago!
In August of 2009 I weighed in at 110.5 kilograms ... (I know, that's a bit of a shock). I am 1.83 m tall, but nonetheless ... fat.
I started cycling again, and four months later I am down to 104 kgs. I need to do something to keep the momentum up. And so I am setting myself a challenge:
I am going to cycle the Tour de France!
Here is how:
- I have a great indoor training system (enabling me to cycle indoors) called the "Computrainer".
- It is possible to download true race routes for the Computrainer (all the turns, hills, etc. as recorded by GPS). The computrainer realistically reproduces the route.
- The Tour de France (2008) is available, and so I will be cycling it.
- The Tour de France takes place over 21 days (plus two rest days). I plan to do this over 21 weeks (I have a company to run after all, and cannot spend 6 hours a day cycling!)
- The Tour de France covered a total distance of 3500 kilometers (the 2008 route) . I intend cycling 5 days a week, over 21 weeks, which will be an average of 33.3 kilometers a day.
I am hoping that over these 21 weeks I will manage to lose weight as a result of this exercise (I will be trying to eat sensibly as well ... ) Apparently my ideal weight is 88 kgs (according to a nutritionist), and so I aim to lose 16 kgs over 21 weeks, which is I believe a healthy rate.
And so the challenge:
- Cycle the Tour de France (3500 kms, including some pretty scary mountain passes) over 21 weeks.
- I start on Monday the 3rd of January, and my target for completing the tour is Sunday 29th of May (hopefully I won't be doing the full 143kms of the last leg on that day)
It's as simple as that! Hopefully the weight loss will be a natural result of rising to the challenge, but we'll see (vediamo as they say here in Italy).
Being a complete gadget freak, my posts to the blog will be mostly automatically generated by the various tools I use to make this whole experience more like a computer game than hard work!
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