Category: Jim M.

Actually just shy of a year. The last months have been consumed by my volunteer activity and having to travel every week.

In any case, two days ago I pulled out the trusty Optibike and cranked out (with the help of the MBB) 25 miles in an hour and five minutes with an average cadence of 84. When peddling I tend to stay between 90 and 100. Strong headwind on the ride out then the joy of the tailwind returning. Lots of juice left so headed up the hill just to extend the ride and enjoy the decent at a touch over 40 MPH without an assist. Just an amazing amount of fun.

Today I did a quick tour of the downtown area to scope out a market then rode the hill the other direction with a decent of 45+. About 15 miles just playing. I’ll go out again in a bit.

While I won’t meet my objectives in the year timeline I certainly will meet them as the year unfolds and couldn’t be happier with the Optibike. Just need to get out there on a regular basis. Let’s see what we can do with the remaining few days then go from there. I’ll be in Boulder at the end of the month and will stop in on the good folks at the factory.

Also a big congratulations to Eric. Amazing stuff.

On Monday I did tests for Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) and Max VO2. Also a pretty full panel of blood work. The tests for RMR were right down my alley. I’ve been practicing for this for a couple of decades. The Max V02 test is exactly what I haven’t been training for over the same decades. So as I rested in a comfortable position wearing a mask my air intake and CO2 levels were read and then analyzed. The VO2 test had me pulling out my vintage Serotta (yes I’ve had it that long and when the doctor is checking it out and commenting on the collectability…) and warming up for about 25 minutes. Then I put on another mask, again hooked to the analyzer, and went through a calibration set to get all the machines working. With this done the test began. Its a progressive resistance test where my job was to maintain a regular cadence until I was told to stop. The were tracking power output, the air I was breathing in and out, and heart rate.

What the tests confirmed is that I’ve got some work to do. Now I knew that but putting some metrics on yourself is a bit more eye opening. On the Doc’s scale I weigh in at 181 lbs. That’s effectively the same as when I started. I’m not training (following a pre-specified program) and I’ve made not other changes to nutrition or lifestyle. And frankly I haven’t been riding much either. Certainly not durations that are going to be taking pounds off. So going forward consistency in my getting on the bike, doing my rides against a plan, and putting my nutrition inline with my goals and needs are what’s required. And this can be a lot of fun too!

Here are the basic metrics:

— Weight 181 lbs.
— RMR is 1270. What I burn sitting on a couch all day.
— Vo2 Max is 31.3 ml/kg/min. That’s on the border of Below and Well Below average. Moving oxygen has never been my strong suit. Mostly this rumored to be mostly genetic but some improvement might happen with training. I can only hope!
— Aerobic Base (AB) was measured at a heart rate of 154 BPM. With a of 7.1 Cal /Min total with 3.6 KCal. The is the maximum heart rate where I burn fat as the dominate fuel. Improving my AB is a primary goal over the next several months. Along with improving by AB is the side benefit that I be spending a lot of time training where I will also burning a higher ration of fat to carbs.
— Anaerobic Threshold (AT) was measured at 170 BPM with a total of 9.2 KCal/Min with only 0.4 KCal/Min being burned.
— BMI (Body Mass Index) is 31. BMI isn’t the final say on body fat but it still puts me in the obese range. Having someone tell you that you are obese and having that supported by the image in the mirror provides confirmation that some work is really required. Yes these pointed discussions can be motivating.

So, Moderate exercise will burn about 750 calories. With moderate exercise and an intake of of 500 calories less each day than I burn and I’ll lose about a pound a week.
This program with Optibike runs another 32 weeks, so 32 weeks for me to reach my 1 year goal of 158 lbs. Piece of Cake. Right? Well there’s the challenge. I need to get my diet on track with my goals. And my diet needs to provide the nutrients to support my training (load and recovery). And I need to perform against the plan. And I need to not take off too much too fast, overtrain, undereat, or get injured.

So I have to be motivated, stay motivated, and track against my plan. Below is the basic plan for this week. I’ll update it with more specifics as this goes along.

Monday I did the tests, started tracking my food, then attended a Yoga class in the evening.
Tuesday I recovered, payed attention to my food, and stretched.
Wednesday, today, I visited the Doc to discuss my blood work (more on this later), then I got cold weather cycling clothes, lunch with friends, then did a 20.5 mile ride in about 54 minutes which felt great.
Thursday the plan is to go out for about 2 hours then visit family and friends for the holiday.
Friday I’ll use as a recovery day with a walk.
Saturday I’ll again go out for a couple of hours.
Sunday an hour or so.
etc.

This will be refined a bit and I’ll report in again this Monday with the results.

Happy Holidays
Monday

I’m really excited. For those who have read my profile you might have noticed that I raced many many years ago. Over the last 3 months I’ve really enjoyed riding the Optibike. Up to now the riding has been casual and frankly a bit fleeting. I feel great when I ride but I’ve been doing so without much direction other than to be riding again. But along with riding again is the objective related to this blog which is improving fitness and weight loss, both of which I continue to need. I had the opportunity to talk with John aka lowco2 at an unrelated event last week and along with a discussion about Rohloffs and tubeless tires he was sporting his latest belt buckle from Leadville. It really got me thinking about how much fun I used to have racing. It got me thinking… Then I remembered the training I was doing at the time that I’ll sum up in one word, brutal. But I started wondering what if?

On Monday I’m scheduled for a series of tests to establish a baseline for a training/nutrition program that I’ll be executing. The tests will establish my resting metabolic rate, max Vo2, body fat, etc. From this a solid training plan using modern methods will be designed, put into practice, and reported on here. The methods I used 30+ years ago were modern then but I’m thinking there might have been just few advances. Its been my intention to take advantage of modern methods from the onset and the timing for me is perfect. However I didn’t start with any thoughts of ever considering racing at any level again. But now this consideration is taking shape. I’m not yet committed to it, but its grabbing hold.

This is a challenge for myself as I’m quite sure that the baseline numbers won’t be flattering. I’m trusting that the structural tension between my current reality and my vision will move me to a new and improved level. I’ve been discussing this with Craig and continue to be impressed with the enthusiastic and unwavering support from Optibike in this endeavor. Thanks!

So expect to be hearing a lot more from me as I enter stage two of this pursuit.

What the heck is up with the adventure commuting. OK so Craig takes his dog for a ride and its an “adventure”. I’m thinking that I should start commuting with my cats. Get me a Burley and throw the cats in and go for a spin. I could even put another battery or two in there to extend the ride and obvious enjoyment.

I’ve got some off-road that I can hit on the way to my volunteer gig, and few hills to get yelled at for cheating, or was that yelling I heard about animal endangerment? Then there is the sight of a few cats doing everything in their power to escape the confines of the Burley. Or are they just enjoying the “adventure”. If they do escape herding them back in the Burley is sure to help me lose a few pounds. Now that would be an “adventure” or a more likely a very bad idea. I guess that’s one of the differences between cats and dogs.

So maybe I’ll just go ride. {Seriously I really love and take care of my cats and would never do such a thing. The neighbor’s cat who thinks she lives here and eats the food, that’s another story}

In any case it has been a crazy few weeks. I have to admit that today was the first ride I’ve had in about two weeks. I love riding but the “convenience” of the car can quickly take over when time seems to be an issue. But an objective view shows that riding the bike in this town is almost always faster, well if its an Optibike.

— With the bike parking is a snap. No cost, no tickets, no looking for a spot, no walking from the parking spot that I hope to find.
— With the bike I get exercise.
— With the bike I see and experience my commute.
— With the bike I meet and talk to a variety of people who I wouldn’t otherwise have the pleasure of meeting.
— With the bike I just have a better day.

So the bike is cheaper to run, faster, more fun, healthier, more sociable, and makes the day better. Especially without the cats.

Welcome Bruce! Eric you are an animal…

The annual balloon races were held here in Reno just a few short weeks ago. Some friends suggested that I join them for the dawn patrol. So the next morning I was up at 4:30AM getting ready to ride my Optibike down for some fun. I’m not a morning person but the early morning ride was just beautiful. Working my way through the traffic near the event was a joy in itself and then enjoying the early morning light show was a blessing.

Once the sun was up the Optikbike started getting a lot of attention. Even standing still it really is a remarkable machine. And with the balloons as backdrops it really stands out. I spent over an hour or so answering questions. Everyone was very interested and impressed. If the crowds were smaller I would have done a lot of demo rides.

Once I left the races I was off to a great ride down the river, past my home, and off for breakfast. I love the fact that my Optibike replaces over 90% of the ways I’d normally use my car. Its a lot more fun and to paraphrase an old ad, “You meet the nicest people riding an Optibike.”

I had a wonderful ride this weekend during our labor day visit to the cabin on the South fork of the American river in California. I decided to do an out and return ride from the river up to the ridgetop and back. Its about 1000 ft of vertical climbing over about 8 miles. Not something I’m even close to ready for on my road or mountain bikes, but on the Optibike I enjoyed the ride up and the workout that went along with it. In all, according to the handy dandy computer on the bike running in Fast Mode, I covered 17.24 miles at an average speed of 17.16 MPH in 59 minutes and 8 seconds. Average cadence was 80 (too low) and a maximum speed of 45.3 MPH. Finished the ride with the Red and Yellow LEDs glowing. Past the statistics is was a lot of FUN!

On my climb up a brown bear crossed my path. At first glance I thought it was a cub but the more I looked, the more it looked at me, and the more I tell the story the larger the bear has grown. I immediately started wondering, and looking, for where the rest of the family was. But no one was in sight so as the bear continued on his/her way I continued on mine. Luckily for me there was no pursuit.

The road was great, 1 1/2 lane improved mountain roads with great vistas. The climb was quite enjoyable. As I stated in my intro I’m looking up at the climbs with a smile. After reaching the summit I headed down the other side for a couple hundred feet of vertical, but wasn’t completely sure where the road headed so turned back up the hill and down the mountain.

The decent was a blast, maxing out at a touch over 45 MPH in one section, and I was being conservative not knowing the road well and having to share it with the occasional jeeps and sightseeing dune buggies headed the other way. The Optibike was very stable, the suspension and brakes working flawlessly.

Before reaching the river I spotted a bunch of ATVs parked at a dirt road going back up. I decided to take a detour and headed up. Loose sand and rocks. Having just (well almost) bombed the downhill on macadam I was curious how the bike would handle the change. I was very pleased to see that the change wasn’t even close to being a challenge for the bike. I was able to just cruise up the road under power of the MBB and my legs. With the MBB I was able to maintain speed in the loose sand and ‘float’ over the top of it. It was a lot of fun. Now this was again not to steep but again more than I’m ready to tackle without the Optibike helping me along.

I should mention that the ride down the dirt road was covered at about the same speed as the ride up. Again completely under control. Jim Turner did a fantastic job working out this bike. With each ride I’m just more and more impressed with the design and execution. His expertise as a designer and his personal experience on two wheels really shows.

Jim M.

Well my Optibike has become my preferred mode of around town transportation. I’ve been using it to commute to a volunteer gig that I just started, to meetings related to that gig, for errands, and just for fun.

And I feel much better for it. Not only am I getting exercise, but getting out into the fresh air and sun and doing a little sight seeing is a great pick me up. Additionally being able to travel on the bike at, or near, the same speed as the traffic around me gives me far more control of my situation than when riding my other bikes at far slower speeds.

OK but what about the weightloss. My approach at the beginning is to build up a base level of fitness to position myself to do rides of greater distance (time) or intensity. But at the moment I’m being kind to myself and getting everything moving again. Once I feel that I’ve got a solid base then I’ll start weighing myself on a regular basis and sharing those and other numbers on this blog.

In building this base one of the immediate benefits of the Optibike is the ability to work on improving my ability to maintain a good cadence to spin vs. pushing the cranks around. No surprise but this is most evident in the hills. I can ride pretty much where I want while maintaining a cadence between 94 and 102 RPM. This works well for me and I can feel that the Motorized Bottom Bracket is pretty happy at this pace too. If I was trying this at my current level of (un) fitness on my road or mountain bike I’d really be struggling. But I can already feel a difference in my ability to spin the cranks.

The more I ride my Optibike the more I appreciate the approach and design. As an example the other day I was headed to a meeting and decided to take the route with the most elevation change. I haven’t worked out the elevation gain yet but its pretty substantial. I was able to maintain about 18 MPH on the climb up while maintaining a cadence of 98 RPM. On the decent my max speed was a little over 43 MPH. The Optibike was very stable throughout soaking up the bumps along the way.

Time for another ride!

Jim M.

It has been a hectic Spring and Summer with a lot of wonderful travel. Tomorrow marks the first day where I have no travel plans for the next month and can really start riding in ernest.

I’ve used the little time I’ve been home to make friends with Opti. We’ve been running errands, taking rides down the river, and just generally exploring. I’m amazed at how well Opti fits my vision of what a human-electric hybrid can do, providing a helpful push to ease me over the hills, facilitating my love for speed (no surprise its really fun to ride fast), and also letting me slowly play. Slowly play? This isn’t something I’ve really ever done much of on a bicycle so let me explain.

Many years ago (this seems to be a recurring theme) I played at motorcycle trials. I can’t say I was any good but I really enjoyed plonking around. Opti’s near silent operation has opened up plonking around my yard and the neighborhood at night. What I’m talking about isn’t the amazing gymnastics associated with blasting up vertical walls or bouncing around on rocks, just riding in very tight areas at little or no speed. Balancing for minutes at a time, picking a line, and riding some easy homemade sections.

I may not be burning many calories with my plonking, but getting out and playing is always a good thing. The ability to plonk around at night and not bother anyone is pretty cool. It sure puts a smile on my face and for me its the smile that will take care of the pounds.

Jim M.