Six years of riding, one accident setback and thousands of miles of riding. That's been my cycling story. About a year ago, I read Selene Yeager's book Ride Your Way Lean and learned that eating is part of the equation with cycling to lose weight and riding, of course, is another element. She also emphasizes strength training and stretching too. These are not eye-popping epiphanies. But, the one thing she does spend quite a bit of time discussing is the value of interval training with regards to helping melt more pounds off.
When I was just beginning, I was told that intervals were an excellent way to improve one's speed. Who doesn't want to be a faster rider? There have been times that I thought to myself, what the heck? I never plan to race so who cares if I make it to the bagel line a little later than the others? But there is something to be said about the satisfaction of remaining at the front of the group feeling comfy and finishing strong. (Yeah--it's underrated, giggle). But seriously, I just really didn't mind if I was at the tail end of the group ride.
So when the words of intervals being a key component of riding off pounds, I thought to myself UGH! Really? First of all, I like riding with others. So imposing one's interval training on a group is not going to happen with the recreational groups I ride with. And, I rarely ride alone and when I do, I get so bored that I have to keep self-talking going to keep me in the saddle.
I have been cutting my already healthy diet in half and have been losing about a pound every ten days. It's painfully slow...Adding more miles is helpful and lifting some weights is too. But I'm determined to give this interval thing a try. So today, I rode 11 miles--about half as much as a typical pre-work ride. It was tiring and I was as shiny as slippery trout when I walked through the garage door in the 90-degree morning. I decide to do half-mile increments of full, balls-out craziness and I could feel the fire raging in me as I pushed it remembering to keep my legs circling and thinking about using my whole leg.
So, I don't know if the intervals are going to strip the extra pounds off, but for the next six weeks or so, I'm going to give a go. Stay tuned....
