Nice ride today

[bill_schubert]

My longest ride in a while. I revisited a route I used to ride and it is still available so we'll redo this one. But not today. I listened to Beethovan's 9th during the whole ride and damn if the chorus didn't kick in at the bottom of the longest hill doing their best to help. Very nice of them. My butt is a little sore. I've not been riding enough. Couple of days off and a couple of short rides will fix it. [image: Capture.JPG]

Comments

[thestainlesssteelrat]

Am I right in thinking that's on roads? How are drivers there, respectful of cyclists? It's all a bit too busy and narrow here, at least locally, to have an enjoyable ride.

[bill_schubert]

Yeah, this is road riding. I've always had good karma with cars. Only once in 35-40 years of being on roads can I say that someone tried to do something bad (teenager drove really close trying to clip me with his mirror). Just today I had a car wait for me and give me room to cross ahead of him when I needed to be on the other side of the road. I waived, he waived. Everyone nice. I'm pretty good at putting myself in the position of controlling the interactions and I always stop at lights, etc, acting like a car and giving room for them to get by. Plenty of room for both if everyone plays together.

There are a bunch of cyclists around here (north of Lance Armstrong's Austin) so people are used to them. So far, so good.

[alefy]

That is an impressive hike!

Good to see that you are as good as new after your surgery :). Do you still do Noom?

[bill_schubert]

My subscription to Noom ran out and I made a deal with me. I can do what I want unless/until I hit what I consider an upper limit. If that happens, I go back to logging everything. At the moment I just keep track in my mind. I go up a pound or two then back down staying around 210 which appears to be my current set point. I'd like to lose another 10 pounds but am, for the moment, practicing maintenance and using the Noom principles. So far, so good.

[alefy]

Oh nice! That sounds like the way to go for long-term.

[bill_schubert]

Yeah, I'm a fan of the Noom school of living. They don't really have a diet although they recommend tending towards this rather than that, mostly based on caloric density (chocolate and red meat = dense, raw vegetables = not dense). They strike the middle path in all things, lifestyle rather than diet, very long term (as in the rest of your life) rather than a six month or six day or whatever purge. It works for me. I've got the rest of my life.

[alefy]

Noom focuses on satiety, I think... and that is very important- perhaps the most important in the early stages of one's weight loss journey. Like if one is going to do emotional/fog eating, why not on something that has less calories?

I did Noom some time back, and have only good things to say about it. The lessons were informative and 'spoke to me', but I did not renew it after 2 months- because by then the lessons that were especially useful (to me) were done; and I figured- that Noom had done all it could do; and that it was up to me now.

At that time, the stage I was in- I thought it was the best route forward to focus on food tracking, and MyFitnessPlan is better (IMO) for that purpose (i.e.- you can track macronutrients in MFP); I have been using it since. But The mindful/conscious/intuitive eating practices that I still follow, I have Noom to thank for that.

I am very firmly against crash dieting; so yes, I hear you. Glad it's going well for you :)

[msconduct]

Puff puff puff FREUDE!!! Amazing how motivating music can be.

[bill_schubert]

I frequently listen to books when I ride but sometimes the day just lends itself to music and I typically ride harder and with more joy when I go that direction.

As I was going up the hill and the chorus was starting I had this vision of being in the audience for the first time the 9th was ever played. I realized that I'd had this thought before. The 9th is the rock and roll of the era (Wagner is heavy metal) and the idea of having that ensemble of people come on the stage and sing that extraordinary music for the first time with an audience has always been a powerful image for me. It was good to ride on a sunny day in perfect weather with that in my brain.

[msconduct]

Wouldn't that have been amazing. I used to be a choral singer and the 9th was always one of the most fun things to sing. I'm still giggling at the idea of Wagner being heavy metal.