If John Can Show his Bike, So Can I

On John Durant’s personal blog, John shows off his new bike,and trust me, its worth talking about. John recently got a Madone SL 5.9 from Trek. This is basically the bike that Lance Armstrong has used to win the Olympics of all biking events, the Tour de France. John is an amateur racer who is slowly and progressively increasing his speed, distance and climbing power.

I on  the other hand just want to lose weight. I hate excersize. Well over a year ago John D was trying to convince me to get into biking because it is so much fun. He never mentioned the weight benefits, but as a friend I’m sure he knew it would help.

Well it just so happened that I loved biking as a kid, so I began to think about it and decided in the late part of the summer of 2003 to get a low-end Trek bike. On my first outing on my new bike I could only handle riding for about 20 minutes. The next day I was in so much pain (my butt really hurt and had swelled from the seat ), even so I figured I’d give it another try the next day. I hopped on the bike and rode for about 5 minutes and could not go any further. I turned around and parked my bike in the garage. I was so discouraged. I thought I had wasted my money and also my self-esteem was now running on low.

After a few days my ego slowly started to inflate and my swollen butt began to deflate. It was time for another try. I got on my bike and started to peddle. To my surprise there wasn’t the pain I experienced a few days earlier. I decided not to push it and just went for about 20 minutes then returned home.

Steadily over the next couple weeks I went out about 3 to 4 time a week and steadily increased my distance, time on the bike and speed.

Slowly the weight began to come off and I started to add muscle. A year later, I had lost 20 pounds and put on some muscle mass. My guess is if I took into account the weight loss and muscle addition I’ve netted a 25to 30 pound difference in my overall body.

I’ve got to lose about another 35 pounds to be at what I consider an optimal healthy weight for my body. I’m giving myself another year and a half to reach this goal.

By the way, since I loved biking so much I went out and got a mid-range performance bike, and it’s the most amazing ride. It’s like gliding on velvet at high speed.

My Bike, the Trek 2200.