September 1st - Summary

That's it, August gone and way too quickly. I had a high goal, again, for my exercise this month but I did not reach it. I did 15 out of 30 hours. However, I have been doing a lot of construction work for the last 2 weeks combined with mowing to a new office location which involved a lot of heavy lifting and carrying up and down stairs. This has certainly giving me extra exercise that has not been counted up in any way. But for certain it accounts for my missing 15 hours :)

For my "diet", things have been going perfectly and it is getting easier and easier each week where it has gotten to the point where I do not have to think about it anymore. It helps that my wife is following the same diet, so that we do not have to make two dinners for example.

So for the interesting part, did I meet my goal for this month? Loosing 5 kg and a total of 10 cm at my measurement points? YES I did. I dropped 5.2 kg and 19 cm in total :). This puts my total weight loss at 22.2kg since January 1st. (see the stats at the bottom of this post)

After finishing Bergen - Voss I had a goal of managing to loose a total of 30kg before we leave for the Canary Islands in November. Deep inside I did not really think I would manage to reach this goal but I like to have something to stretch for and push myself towards. Now, two months away, I have less then 8kg to go so now the goal seems within reach and gives me extra boost to work hard for the next two coming months :) and hopefully I will get there :).

I have also got a new couple of jeans and a new sweater today. I am now a size 40 in jeans (Norwegian size) and the sweater was size XL. Cool to wear a sweater where the size does not contain numbers like, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL and so on :). Also cool to simply pick up a pair of jeans without having to ask them to look at the storage room for a bigger size :)

Weight
	August 1st	September 1st	Difference
Weight:	129.9 kg	124.7 kg	-5.2 kg
Measurements
	August 1st	September 1st	Difference
Neck:	42 cm	41 cm	-1 cm
Overarm:	44 cm	44 cm	0 cm
Breast:	121 cm	120 cm	-1 cm
Stomach:	129 cm	122 cm	-7 cm
Waist:	128 cm	122 cm	-6 cm
Thigh:	80 cm	77 cm	-3 cm
Calf:	47 cm	46 cm	-1 cm
Total:	591 cm	572 cm	-19 cm

20 kg gone :)

Today the scale stopped at 126.8 kg. This means I have lost 20.1 kg since January first :) and is a great milestone to reach :). This gives and average weight loss of just above 0.6 kg a week which I think is a sensible weekly weight loss considering that I want to be able to keep the new weight when I am down to where I want to be.

The success factors so far is a change in my diet. I am eating low carb food but I do not take it to the extreme. Basically I have cut out bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, cakes, and sweets and I am eating much more salads and vegetables.

In addition I have been exercising much more then usual. I am averaging to 6 hours a week and it is difficult to put in more then that being a working father of two small beauties:) Since I am aiming for finishing Bergen - Voss with a much better time next June most of my exercise now is on the bike and I am as usual following the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred routine (now at level 2). However when October hits I need to find something other then bike riding for the winter months.

Anyway, tonight I am celebrating with my wife's home mead chocolate (low-carb) and nuts treat with a hint of chilli :)

Two rides today

Today I had two short rides of 45 minutes, one in the morning and one in the evening. This was a great way to start the day and I will use the new short ride on days where I take a morning ride. The route contains on big hill and I will but up a profile of the this route together with the other routes I am using next week.

I am getting a new HTC phone next week and I can install an app that will use the built in GPS to log my bike rides and then I can get the elevation data out to plot the profile :). I am looking forward to log my rides better using the app on the new phone.

Wet ride

Today I was quite busy but at some point I just had to get away for a short while so I went out on a short ride. However today we had terrible weather with wind and rain so it ended up being a though ride, but although I had a lot of head wind slowing me down especially in the easy parts of the route I still did it in 50:30 which is just 1:30 behind my personal best. I am certain on a nice weather day I can now set a new personal best :).

Goals for August

Exercise:
My goal for August is again to get in 30 hours of exercise. This month I will focus on interval training in a steep hill close by to improve my performance when climbing hills on the bike. This is definitively where I have most to gain. The small hill I am using is quite steep and at full pace I could get from the bottom to the top in about 5 minutes. However at that speed I am not able to get all the way up yet before my legs gets to stiff. So I am currently doing 3 minutes intervals and will slowly increase the length of each interval until I can go at full pace to the top of the hill. The goal is to be able to do 4 intervals of 4-5 minutes to the top by the end of August. This might not be achievable but I will work hard to get there (and if the goal is to easy to get to I will not push myself hard enough)

We will also be doing the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred routine Level 2 this month :)

Weight loss:

As for July my goal is to loose another 5kg during August. This will put me down below 125kg. If I manage that it also means I will have lost more then 20kg since January 1st :)

For my measurements it is difficult to set a goal other then to achieve the same as I did during July.

Long therm weight loss:

Fora  bit more long-therm goal we are going to the Canary Islands for two weeks starting November 4th. Which is now 3 months away. My goal is to by then be below 115kg which might be to ambitious, but again I want a goal to stretch against and to keep me pushing myself. I will set up a chart here on the blog where I will add my weight every Sunday morning to keep track of my progress.

30 Days gone - Status and measurements

So, 30 days have gone and time to look at what I achieved during July.

I managed to do 23 hours of exercise out of my goal of 30. I am slightly disappointing in that even though it included 5 days where the whole family was away on vacation. However my weight went down with 5.9 kg and I am now officially below 130 kg for the first time in, well I do not remember the last time the scale showed less then 130 kg. This is a BIG boost for me and I am very happy with the weight loss during July.

I also did my measurements on July first and I have just redone them. As the table at the bottom of the post shows I lost a total of 10 cm during July. Initially I was a bit disappointing in that but thinking about it I do not really have a realistic impression as to how much I can expect to change in a month, so based on my weight loss I have decided to be happy with the measurements changes :)

Yesterday, Sunday, I went through my closet and got rid of all clothes that no longer fit. That was an extremely positive exercise and again gave me quite a boost to keep the good work going. However, it left me with a much smaller wardrobe, in more then on way :). I can now finally wear some clothes that have not fitted me before but that I have bought for this moment :).

I could also go out on my bike on Sunday and use a proper bike jersey that my wife bought me. Up until now there was no way I could squeeze myself into the biggest sizes I could buy at the local sport shops. But now I do fit nicely. I know, sounds silly but it truly was a great feeling taking the first bike ride finally dressed properly :)

Weight
	July 1st	August 1st	Difference
Weight:	135.8 kg	129.9 kg	-5.9 kg
Measurements
	July 1st	August 1st	Difference
Neck:	43 cm	42 cm	-1 cm
Overarm:	45 cm	44 cm	-1 cm
Breast:	123 cm	121 cm	-2 cm
Stomach:	131 cm	129 cm	-2 cm
Waist:	129 cm	128 cm	-1 cm
Thigh:	83 cm	80 cm	-3 cm
Calf:	47 cm	47 cm	0 cm
Total:	601 cm	591 cm	-10 cm

Back from vacation - Status

Tonight we got back from 5 days vacation. Usually I gain weight while away from home and out of my normal routine, but this time however I did not. I think there is two main reasons for this.

First, I more or less "managed" to keep a low carb intake although I did have ice-cream with the kids at three occasions. Since both my wife and my sister in law (we went on vacation with her and her family) it was not hard to stick with it.

Second, we had quite an active 5 days with a lot of swimming with the kids as we spent two days in a water-park at Hovden and a lot of walking and activities in an amusement park, Mikkelparken, in Kinsarvik. We also spent half a day walking in the mountains with the kids.

Finally, the last evening I decided to get a real workout as well and I did a hard track up the slopes of Hovden ski resort. Starting at 795 meters above sea level and ending up at 1250 meters above sea level. The route I took went straight up a steep hillside and it took me 40 minutes to get to the top and then another 30 minutes back down so I got 70 minutes of exercise done.

This puts my total for the 30 days at 21 hours and 40 minutes which puts me way behind my goal of 30 hours. I will try to catch up the next couple of days but I doubt I will reach the goal. However, I am still happy with it considering we had 5 days of vacation within the 30 days.

Slightly behind schedule

There have not been many posts lately as I have been very busy. However, I am still working out and following the JM30Shred routine. I am now on day 23 and I am looking forward to taking my measurements again in 7 days :) Hopefully it will show some improvements.

Some of the last days I have onle done the JM30Shred routine and therefor I am behind schedule on getting 30 hours of exercise in 30 days, but I will give it a last hard push the next 7 days and I am certain I can reach my goal. Like yesterday I did 1 hour on the bike :)

Day 16 - 25 km bike ride

Today we had a family gathering so we did not do the JM30Shred. However, I managed to get a 25km bike ride as I took the bike to get to my parents in law place, so I still got my 1hour exercise as it took me more or less 60 minutes to get there.

Day 15 - Half way

So today I am at day 15 of my 30 days of hard workout. My legs felt very heavy today so I decided to only do the JM30Shred routine today.

Anyway, I am on track to my goal of 30 hours of workout as I have now done 16 hours and 5 minutes for the first 15 days :). I am really happy with that :)

Today the new scale we got for free (from points earned on one of our groceries bonus cards) has arrived. This is an advanced scale that in addition to the weight also measure percentage of body fat and muscle mass. This way I can keep track on these values and make sure I do not loose to much muscle mass as my total body weight goes down :).

I know, if it was free how good can it be? Well we have looked it up on Google and the reviews are ok for a cheap version as this is. As long as it is consitent it will give me an idea as to how my body changes. Once I get use the it I might put some of the statistics out here on the blog together with my other measurements.


It is very tempting to do my measurements today, as I am half way through my regime, but I have decided not to, that way I will keep pushing to get the best results possible by August 1st :)

Day 14 - Outfoxed by a group of 60+ retired people

Today I went on an hike up at Tveitevarden again. My legs felt extreamly heave today so I did not do any running on the way up, I just walked quickly. Because of this I was certain I would not get a very good time, however I was only 2 minutes behind my personal best, and still below 50 minutes, as I did it in 48 minutes. I take this as a good sign that I am getting in better shape, even on a not to good day I get an ok time :)

One reason the end time was not to bad today might be that I walked very fast up the last 1/3 of the hike. You see, as I passed around 2/3 of the way up I met a group of nice ladies and gentlemen, all retired, all 60+, out on their weekly trip. Today they had chosen Tveitevarden as their hike of the week. There were about 20 of them and a couple of them had to use a walking stick to balance themselves.

So, here I meet this group coming down as I was going up, and I started a race in my mind, that I would reach the top and then catch up with them before they reached the end of the track. So I walked as hard as I could for the top and did quite a bit of running going back down again.

I never saw the group again!!!

I am telling myself over and over again that they have had to take a different route then me back down!!!

Well, well. now I am waiting for my wife to get back from her hike, she left after the kids had gone to bed, and then we will do the JM30Shred routine together.

(Not trying to be cool or anything, it is just to long to write Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred so I shortened it to JM30Shred)

Day 13 - 32 km bike ride

Today I did only one session of exercise as I went on a 32km bike ride. The speed was good in the beginning but passing 1 hour on the bike my legs starting to feel very heavy. I guess I started to feel the hard session on the spinning bike yesterday. Anyway, I finished in 1:33, a whole 8 minutes slower then my personal best on this route, but still it was a good workout :)

Day 12 - Spinning bike - intervals

Today it was raining heavily so I decided to do a 4x4 interval session on the spinning bike. I did 4 minutes hard intervals with 3 minutes easy riding in between.

I interchanged the hard intervals doing sitting position with high resistance for interval 1 and 3 and doing standing position with a medium resistance for interval 2 and 4. In both positions I was going as fast as I possibly could and still keep the speed for 4 minutes (I have to use a medium resistance in standing position in order to make it through 4 minutes).

I have a feeling this will be a much used type of workout throughout the fall and winter to improve my endurance and ability to climb hills and hopefully it will also help on my overall speed.

Today I did not wear my heart-rate-monitor so I do not know my average HR during the intervals but I will use it during my next 4x4 session.

As usual we finished the workout doing the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred routine :) and today I could really feel that I have improved the last 2 weeks and the routine went much easier today :)

Sunday off

Today Sunday I will not do any exercise. I was late home from a bachelor party last night. I drove my sister in law home afterwards and was not in bed until 03.00 in the morning, and as I have some work that I need to do today I will take the day off. But tomorrow I am back for full.

P.S

Yesterday I managed to put in 50 minutes on the bike before the bachelor party :) and then we did 30 minutes of playing football during the bachelor party :)
 

Spinach soup

I have truly fallen in love with this soup. A big thanks to LCHF-bloggen for introducing me to this simple yet so great soup.

Ingredients (two portions): 

2 tbs butter
200g fresh spinach
4 cloves garlic
1-2 red onion
4 dl water
1.5 dl double cream
Maldon Salt
Ground black pepper
Cheyenne pepper
Ground dried chilli

Day 7 of 30 - Spinning bike again

This afternoon we had terrible rain so I decided to do today's exercise on the spinning bike instead. Before I started I put on the heart-rate-monitor to see what effect I would get on the spinning bike. I also placed the bike in front of my desk and turned on the xXx action movie starring Vin Diesel as it is a bit more boring to exercise alone on the spinning bike.

I did 1 hour and I had an average HR of 145 so it turned out to have a good effect. I also spent a lot of intervals standing on the bike as this is a position I need to improve on when going up those real hills on the road bike. There is no doubt I will spend a lot of time on the spinning bike during the winter.

As usual we finished the day with the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred routine. Today I went straight from the spinning session and upstairs to do the J30Shred routine and that was hard, however I feel that the routine is easier to follow now then 7 days ago so it seems to have an effect.

My total number of workout hours so far is now 10 hours. As my goal is to do 30 hours of workout in 30 days this means I am on track so far :).

Tomorrow, Friday, we are going out for dinner with some friends and then to a movie. So we might not get the workouts done tomorrow. This means I need to put in a long bike ride Saturday morning to catch up :)

Day 6 of 30

So today I was suppose to go on a 90 minutes bike ride. However because the weather was so nice I went out to chop some wood that has been piling up at my fathers place for way to long. My wife and kids joined and I chopped 15 60-liter bags today in about 2 hours. That felt like an exercise and when we got home there was no way I was going out on a 90 minute bike ride.

However, we DID do the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred routine and although it was very hard today, I felt that I actually followed the full routine better today then the 5 previous days and that felt quite good :) Looks like the routine might start to pay of! 

Day 5 of 30

As my wife was working late and going straight to the gym from work I decided to dig out the spinning bike once I got the kids to bed. It has not been used for ages so I decided to wash it and oil it up and it worked just as good as last time I used it.

So today I put in 45 minutes spinning and then as usual I did the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred routine with my wife when she got back from the gym :).

I am looking forward to going on the scale in the morning and have a sneak peek at what the first 5 days has resulted in.

After the exercise today I am feeling really tired so I am going straight to bed.

Day 4 of 30 - 3 hours and 30 minutes of exercise

So, today was day 4 of my 30 days of hard work and as this was Sunday I put in 3 hours of exercise. I started with a 45 minutes bike ride around 10.00 in the morning to get to my parents place. We were going to chop wood there for 2-3 hours so I decided to use the bike ride as a warm up :).

Then at 13.00 we went on a mountain hike up on mount Brakstad with the kids and my family in law. My 4 year old was a bit hard to get started and he constantly complained that his feet were to tired. However once we got of the road and on to the track the hike suddenly became more fun for him and from here on he was running up the mountain side. He was pushing his father to the limit as I was struggling to keep up with him especially as I was carrying a 15kg backpack/carrier with the lunch and my 18month old daughter. I could feel that the 15kg of extra weight added to the effect of the exercise so I might do some hiking in the future wearing a heavy backpack.

The hike took about 2 hours and 15 minutes and the kids did great.

Then in the evening we did the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred routine. I was certain I would have trouble following the routine today as I felt a bit stiff, but after the initial warm up the rest of the routine went ok. Today we did not start the routine until 21:30 which was a bit late so tomorrow we aim to start as soon as the kids have gone to bed.

Day 2 of 30 - doing my measurements

Day 2 of my 30 days of hard workout done.

Today I only did the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred routine and frankly that felt enough. It was very easy to understand that I have not varied my exercise regime enough since March with predominantly doing road cycling. So today my muscles were quite sore when starting the routine but I managed to finish it at least with some dignity, and as the body got warm it did not feel as terrible as I thought it would do.

I have also had my body measurements done today and I have debating with myself whether I should publicize them here or not. Unfortunately for me, as this is a bit embarrassing, I have diced to put it out there.

Measurements
Neck:	43cm
Overarm:	45cm
Breast:	123cm
Stomach:	131cm
Waist:	129cm
Thigh:	83cm
Calf:	47cm
Total:	601cm

As I said, these measurements are a bit embarrassing to put down in writing not to mentioning putting out for all to see, but then I have never taken myself to seriously. Hopefully this will help me set a goal for my workout for the next 30 days and I am looking forward too redo them on August 1st.

Hiking and Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred routine

Today I decided to let the bike rest and instead I went for a hike up on Tveitevarden. This was a very positive experience as I did the hike in just above 46 minutes. The last time I did this hike, last fall sometime, I did it in 52 minutes. The trail was also muddy after the last days of rain so I think on a dry trail I will do the hike in less then 45 minutes.

This month, July, I have a goal of putting in at least 30 minutes workout EVERY day and to make sure I do not get to fed up going out o the bike I will vary my workouts between bike riding, hiking, and Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred routine. We have borrowed The Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred routine from a friend that was very happy doing the routine and with the results. We will do the routine everyday and on days where I do hiking or bike riding this routine will come in addition. I say we here because I will do this routine together with my beautiful wife :)

So tonight after my hike we did Day 1 of the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred routine and I can already tell this will be a good addition to my normal cardio exercise. The workout routine is a very good mix of cardio and weight training and at least on level 1 you do not need more then two hand held weights. I am no expert but I think I am getting a very good fat burning effect of this routine especially after doing cardio before I start it like today.

Looking forward to follow the routine and to see improvements :)

Got inspired

We have been away at a family reunion since Thursday and had a great time :). The family reunion was in Brummundal which is one of the towns that Norway's toughest bicycle road race goes through. The race is 540km long from Trondheim to Oslo and the riders has been on their bike for about 400km when they reach Brummundal.

We saw a lot of tired riders during our stay in Brummundal but they all seemed to glow as they all knew that they where getting close to the finish line. This inspired me tremendously and it has planted a seed of desire to finish this race myself one day :)

Congratulations to everyone finishing "Den store styrkeprøven 2011". I am impressed!

http://www.styrkeproven.no/

Back on track

So I am finally back on track after Bergen - Voss. I have been out on the bike twice the last 4 days and I am going back out tomorrow. Hopefully I will be joined by Terje and/or Beathe.

I can definitively notice that I am back on a low-carb lifestyle as I did not feel I had the same power as earlier but once the body adjusts again I will hopefully be fine. It will be interesting to see next weekend how I perform on a longer ride as I will do a 55km ride then.

Salmon salad

Here is a simple recipe for using leftover salmon in a salad for lunch.

Ingredients:

Salmon(as much as you want/have)
Iceberg lettuce
1/4 small red onion
1/2 small red pepper
5-6 walnuts
1 clove of garlic
1 ts chilli past (or to your liking)
Ground black pepper
Maldon salt


Chop lettuce, red onion and salmon and add to a bowl.

Chop the red pepper into strips and pan-fry together with a little oil (for example sunflower oil), small lump of butter, chilli past, salt, and ground pepper. When the red pepper is soft and golden mix it with the rest of the salad.

Coarsely chop 5-6 walnuts and add them to a dry frying pan and sprinkle with Maldon salt. Fry the walnuts until golden and add to the salad.

I really like this simple salad and use it for lunch the next day after we have had salmon for dinner.

Salmon with fennel

Decided to try something new today. Salmon with fennel, and it turned out great :)

Ingredients:

Salmon 400gr
1/2 Fennel
1 Red onion
1/4 Red paprika
8 Cherry tomatoes
Salt (I prefer Maldon salt)
Ground pepper
Ground dried chilli
Olive oil
Garlic (I am a big fan and used 6 cloves)

Start by slicing fennel into 1 cm slices the red onion into wedges
and the red paprika into strips and mix them into the roasting pan together with the cherry tomatoes.

Mix together olive oil, salt, pepper, chilli and chopped garlic and pour it over the vegetables. Mix well.

Place the roasting pan in preheated oven at 180 degree Celsius. Roast until golden.

Just before the vegetables are ready, pan-fry the salmon. Serve hot with a cold glass of water with a bit of lime.

Low carb at T.G.I.F Fridays

As we went to Oslo for the Bon Jovi concert from Wednesday to Thursday we at least tried to eat low carb food when going out eating. On Thursday we decided to have lunch at T.G.I.F Fridays at Karl Johan Gate in Oslo.

I decided on a hot chicken salad that was clearly marked "New - Low Carb" in the menu. You can imagine my surprise when it arrived with a BIG garlic white toast, which I found a bit ironic.

I know, I did not have to eat the garlic toast, and I did not. Still, why serve it on a dish that they had clearly marked as low-carb? The salad itself was great and it lived up to the "hot" keyword :)

P.S

Bon Jovi was fantastic :)

3.6 kg lost last week

First week in induction over and I lost 3.6kg. I am getting close to the lowest weight I had before I changed to a high carb intake 7 weeks ago. I can already feel all the good changes in particular my stomach is back on track once I got rid of all the carbs :)

I was suppose to go on a bike ride Yesterday but we took a long road trip Yesterday showing some guests we have here the beautiful Nærøyfjorden and Hardangerfjorden and we were not back until 21:45. That was a bit late for a bike ride and I was quite honestly a bit tired after 400km in the car.

I will try again this afternoon.

Back in ketosis

Today is one week after Bergen - Voss and I have done no exercise this week. No particular reason, I just did not feel like it at all this week.

Today I will finally go out on the bike again for a 35km ride.

I have used the past week to get back into ketosis and I am now eating < 20 carbs a day so it will be interesting to see how I perform this afternoon.

The plan for the next 4 weeks is to get at least three workouts every week where I try to stay at a heart rate of 140 to try an maximize fat burning. I will also make sure I vary my exercise routines to include some hiking in the mountains in the vicinity of our home.

Tomorrow I will do my first weighing after starting ketosis. Last Sunday after Bergen - Voss I weighed in at 138.8kg and I hope I have lost quite a bit when I step on to the scale tomorrow.

Low carb

So I am now back on the low-carb diet. I had to go off it 6 weeks before the Bergen - Voss race because I felt I did not get enough energy without the carbs. There are probably people out there claiming I could have done it on a low-carb diet as well, but for me it did not feel right, and for me that is how I manage to stick with the training and diet program, it has to feel right.

Now that I am back on the diet I will exercise by taking shorter bike rides of 30-50km and I will do a lot of hiking in the mountains close to home.

I will set up a separate page on the blog to keep track of my diet and exercise as making it public for all to see helps me stay on track.

Thanks for all nice feedback I have got from everyone after the Bergen - Voss race. I appreciate it.

Bergen - Voss 2001: Pictures

See Anders and Tom Guldbrandsen's pictures from Bergen - Voss 2011 here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvaRdKYCPFk

Tom and Anders followed the riders that started between 07:00 and 08:00 from Bergen and I think they have captured the race perfectly :). They also stumbled upon me on their way to Voss :)

Thanks

Bergen - Voss 2011

First of all I want to quote what everyone call this race “Vårens vakreste eventyr” which in English translates to “The springs most beautiful adventure”, and after 9 hours on the bike riding through some of Norways most beautiful scenery through the Fjord of Hardanger I fully appreciate why people refer to the race this way.

Second I want to praise all the volunteers from the start in Bergen through all the feed stations at, Gullbotn, Kvamskogen and Kvandal. Everyone was in a very good mood and cheering us on.

The race

I started out from Grieghallen downtown Bergen together with Beathe. We started in the second group of the day scheduled at 05:03 in the morning. We arrived early at 04:30 and I had time to take one last stop at the toilette before start. 5 minutes before the first group started at 05:00 it started raining quite heavily but it only lasted for a couple of minutes and then it calmed down to a light rain for when Beathe and I started.

I made it to Voss

I made it to Voss. 165km, 8:58.

I will write a detailed resume of my experience of the race tomorrow, today I am relaxing and nothing else!!!

Follow Bergen - Voss on SMS

It is now possible to follow Bergen - Voss on SMS:

The service costs 3.5NOK pr SMS and there is a total of 5 SMS's pr rider.

To activate the service, send SMS til 2201 (Only available in Norway)

BERGENVOSS SMS  <startnr>

To deactivate the service, send SMS til 2201 (Only available in Norway)

BERGENVOSS STOP <startnr>

If anyone are interested, my start number is 128 :). So to follow me on my attempt to get to Voss send the following SMS to 2201:

BERGENVOSS SMS 128

To get the start number for anyone else you know, search for them at this URL:

https://secure.onreg.com/onreg2/startlist/index.php?id=1114

Bergen - Voss 2011 Route

I found the following link using google and thought I should post it here. This shows the route we will be riding tomorrow.

http://www.bikemap.net/route/978320#lat=60.4755&lng=6.02737&zoom=10&type=2

Total length is 165km and total vertical climb is 2100m.

24 Hours left

The big day is now arriving and it is less then 24 hours left to start. I got up early today to prepare for going early to bed tonight. Tomorrow morning I need to get up around 03:30 as we start at 05:03 in the morning.

The bike and I are ready and I have tried to fill up with carbs :). The weather today is not perfect but according to the forecast we will have an good day tomorrow. As long as we do not get rain and wind I am happy :).

The plan for tomorrow is to get an as easy ride as possible until we start climbing up to Gulbotn. After that I need to get into "my own world" until I get to the top of Kvamskogen. Time will show if I can keep close to Beathe's speed. If I can not, then we will most likely not ride together once she gets away from me up the two climbs to Gulbotn and Kvamskogen.

Once at the top of Kvamskogen I hope to find a group I can ride with as riding solo through Hardanger might be very hard. Luckily I am starting in the second group in the morning so riders will catch up with me all day. Hopefully I can find a group where the speed is not to high for me but time will show :)

I will pack the bike and all the equipment into the car this afternoon to make sure I do not forget anything in the morning.

I am starting to get a bit nervous now but I guess that is a good thing. At least I know that I have prepared as well as I could have. The goal tomorrow is to get to Voss and I truly do not care that much about the time. When we arrive at Voss there will be a small group of family there cheering for us :)

Good luck to everyone else riding Bergen - Voss tomorrow.

Bergen-Voss 6 days away

Today I was joined by Beathe and Terje and we had one last ride before Bergen Voss (I might do a short easy ride on Wednesday as well).

Today we did a short trip with full intensity over 35km. This is the same route as we took about 2 weeks ago and today we finished 7 minutes quicker then last time with and average speed of 23.2 km/h. Considering it was quite windy today this was again very encouraging and I am starting to look forward to the race on Saturday.

I picked up the start numbers today and I have got start number 128. As Beathe and I start in the second group our official start time is 05:03 Saturday morning. The package includes stickers with the start number to put on the helmet in order for the official photographers to recognize all riders. Not sure a picture of me "half dead" riding up Skjervet is something to look forward to :)

Karin's low-carb bread

Freshly baked bread made this afternoon.

My wife and I have been looking for a low-carb bread and finally we found one we really liked:

http://forum.lavkarbo.no/showthread.php?t=25639

I decided to share the recipe here and send a big thank you to Karin for sharing her recipe for a fantastic bread :)

Short ride with Beathe

I have been fighting a cold the last 3 days, today I was much better and decided to take a short ride. I drove out to Beathe's place and she joined me on a ride to Skjellanger and back to her place. Even with the wind and rain we did it in 1:25 with an average speed of 23.2 km/h. This was 21 minutes quicker then last time we did this trip about 6 weeks ago, so the hard work has payed of.

 I had the bike in for service last Tuesday and they changed all the wiring for the breaks and gearing system, breaks both front and back, and new tires. IN addition to the usual adjustments of the gearing system.

Today the bike felt like new :)

We had a minor incident today, we were meeting the bus at a very narrow place close to Skjellanger. I was two meters in front Beathe and I braked hard, with all new breaks I stopped MUCH quicker then her so she ended up driving the bike into the ditch. Luckily both she and the bike was OK afterwards and we could continue after I had helped her back up on the road again. Sorry Beathe, I will be a bit more careful next time :(

Final test prior to Bergen - Voss

At 07.30 I left home to meet up with Beathe and Terje at Takvam. We had planed to start at 08:00 but as Terje had gathered three other friends as well we waited for them to arrive so the 6 of us did not start until 08:30.

From Takvam we took the old road to Trengereid and then continue up Gullbotn, by many considered to be the hardest climb on the Bergen - Voss route because it is quite steep (Except from Skjervet towards the end of the race of coarse).

Going up Gullbotn was indeed tough but with a steady pace I made it in a decent time. After Gullbotn there is a long steep decent and then some easy terrain until we get to Tysse. In this part I took the opportunity to fill up with water and some energy gel to prepare for the climb up to Kvamskogen. From Tysse there is a 10km continues climb to the top of Kvamskogen at 40.5k and 464m above sea level. Again I ignored the fact that the others started the climb at a quicker pace then myself and instead concentrated at getting into a steady pace that I felt I could keep over time, since this climb is, at least for me, very long I felt it was important to not start to hard.

Half way up to Kvamskogen three of the others stopped and decided they had enough and turned around to start the decent back down to Tysse and towards the cars. I think Terje also wanted to turn but my determination to "go all the way" made him change his mind. So Terje, Beathe and myself continued. After almost reaching Eikedalen, about 2km from the top, Terje had enough and he also turned and started the decent down. Again, Beathe and myself continued and climbed all the way to the top of Kvamskogen :).

If anyone had told me at Christmas time when this whole thing started, that I would go on a ride with 6 others from Takvam to Kvamskogen AND back again, I would not believe them. When I was one of only two who actually made it to the top of Kvamskogen this felt like quite an achievement for me.

After a 5 -10 minutes break because nature was calling and to refill with water we started on the descent down to Tysse. When we reached Tysse I made sure to fill up with energy gel, this time containing extra caffeine to recharge the batteries for the climb back up to Gullbotn again.

As the elevation map below shows, climbing up to Gullbotn in this direction contains two steep climbs with a short plateau in between where one can get at least a little "rest". During the first climb I ran out of water (which is not good I can tell you) and after a short while I got cramps in my left thigh. In the second climb I think the left thigh told the right one to start protesting as well. So these climbs went VERY slowly on my behalf. Beathe was a trooper and waited for me at the top of each of the climbs, thanks :)

Now finally at the top of Gullbotn the second time I was relieved that we only had a steep decent and then 7 easy kilometers back to where we park at Takvam. After stretching soar limbs we got into the cars and drove home.

Arriving at home Janicke was finishing dinner that was ready for me after long warm shower. Thanks, and also thank for letting me go out early and spend the day on the bike, I know you got back home late after partying with your friends and would have preferred to sleep longer this morning. 

Below is an elevation map of today's ride, and luckily during the Bergen - Voss race we do not have to climb Gullbotn twice :)

Short ride today

Today it was hard to get out of the coach and onto the bike. I had almost decided not to when Simen said "I think you are a very good bike rider daddy". After that I did not have much of a choice now did I :)

Since we had a long ride Yesterday I took a short trip today. 20km around Olsvoll and Sæbø and even with terrible wind and tired legs after Yesterdays ride I did the trip in 56 minutes. My personal best from the last time I did this route early this spring was 1:04. So there is no doubt I am getting in better shape.

Tomorrow the bike need some rest and then Saturday morning I will have a short low pace ride preparing for a 82km ride, crossing 3 mountains, on Sunday. I am riding together with Beathe and Terje to see how we perform during the two toughest climbs on the Bergen - Voss route. Since we park the car this side of the mountains we will have to climb one of them twice giving three tough climbs during the 82km's.

I am not really looking forward to it as I am certain it will be painful, but hopefully when we finish I will feel confident that I am getting ready for the race on June 4th.

New record on the 54k route

This afternoon Beathe joined me on my 54k route and we did it in 2:26. This is 9 minutes quicker then my previous best and considering we had a typical Autumn weather today with rain and wind, this was a big improvement. I think Beathe would have done it under 2:20 but she was a good companion and waited for me on top of the steepest hills. I can not match her speed going up, but I am closer now then a month ago so hopefully after the summer I can almost keep up with her :)

Our average speed today was 22km/h which, if we can keep all the way to Voss will give us a total time of 8 hours. I am not sure this is doable, but I am starting to feel that it is within reach.

I know, 54 km is just about 1/3 of the trip to Voss, but I still plan to look at the positive feedback from this trip.

54k route: Hilland-Bøvågen-Manger-Hilland

First trip together

Since the three of us decided to try Bergen-Voss we have actually not had a single trip together on the bike. Today, however, we finally got together for a nice Sunday ride.

We decided to take my usual 34km route and did it in 1:32 with an average speed just above 20km/h. Beathe managed to get away from us towards the end so she did it a couple of minutes quicker.

This trip showed the benefits of riding together, psychologically. As we were half way up the longest climb I usually stop and take a 1-2 minutes break. This time we all pushed each other and with Beathe 50 meters ahead there was no way I was going to stop. So for the first time I did the entire climb in one go.

Hopefully we can get more of these trips together, at least for me, it is a very good way of pushing myself.

Thanks to Beathe and Terje for a nice trip today.

:)

New post, finally

Finally got around writing a new post. Unfortunately I have not been on the bike for two weeks. I have had trouble with the gearing and it has been impossible to get any of the bike-shops to look at it. They are all fully booked for weeks. But I have finally got around fixing it myself.

So today I was back in the saddle and the trip this evening was hard.

I did my usual 34km route and did it in 1:29 which was a great surprise as it was 3 minutes faster then my personal best :). I hope to push this down to 1:25 in the next 3 weeks as that was my goal before the LOOOOOOONG ride to Voss on June 4th.

Hope to updated the blog a bit more frequently the next three weeks.

Interval set

Did my first interval set today. 5 minutes ride from the house there is a small hilltop with a smooth "climb" on each side. Calling it a climb is a bit strong :) but for my purpose of doing a 4x4 interval set it is perfect. I can keep a high speed throughout the climb in both directions and then I can relax going down.

After 4 sets I was more exhausted then I can remember being before, even after a good session in a spinning class. So hopefully this will have a positive effect :).

Tomorrow I plan to take my first ride home from work and then I hope to continue to do that every Tuesday afternoon. The ride home is 20km and it has a couple of short but quite steep climbs that will get the pulse up. I will try to add a map of the route.

Back in business

Unfortunately there has not been much to write about lately, everyone has been sick the last 2 - 3 weeks and I have been quite lacy and has not done much exercise.

However today I am hopefully back on track again. I did 30km on the bike today together with Beathe. This was the first time we did this route so I was a bit to careful to make sure I would make it back to start :) As a consequence the time was not to good, 1:45, and I need to improve on this for the next time. So I will start doing interval set during the week to improve my speed and then go for the longer rides in the weekends. Hoping to get two interval sets done the coming week.

Back in business, hopefully.

Maiden voyage 2011

Ok, done. The virgin trip on the road 2011 finished. Together with Simen I took the bike out of the shed this afternoon, cleaned it and made sure gears and breaks where ok. Simen cleaned his own bike and was a very happy 4 year old :)

At 16.00 I walked the bike down from the house and saddled up. Janicke reminded me the temperature was below 0 C before I went out, but I was certain I was going to be ok as I was wearing two layers of long woolen underwear, wind resistant jacket and wind resistant trousers. 30 minutes into the ride I realized my Shimano cycling shoes are nicely ventilated for a warm, sunny, summer-day or spinning classes. Today however, I was certain I would freeze my toes of!!

Other then the wrong choice of footwear I got a nice hour on the bike and it felt really good finishing the first ride of the season already. Especially as I need a LOT of hours on the bike before June 4th!!!

For some reason Janicke was laughing her head of when I got home and she insisted on taking a picture for my blog. Not certain what all the laughing was about :)

Trip info:

Distance: 19km
Time: 60 minutes

Spinning

Todays spinning class was good especially since I did not get any exercise during the weekend.

Although the spinning classes are good, I am looking forward to the weather warming up so I can get on to the "real" bike again. Perhaps I should take it down from the wall in the shed and overhaul it. Probably need to change the tiers, at least. Looks like this is a project for the weekend.  

Pizza, got to have pizza!!

So, does a low-carb lifestyle mean I have to give up Friday evening pizza with the kids? No, luckely it does not :)

The problem with "normal" pizza is the crust and I have tried different approaches before I finally found one that works for me. This recipe for a low-carb pizza I actually like a lot. The crust is based on cauliflower, strange I know, but it works.

Spinn/Styrke 90

I know, probably overkill to have 3 posts today. I promise this will not happen every day.

Thursday again which mean a new round of Spinn/Styrke 90 (45 minutes spinning and 45 minutes weight lifting with instructor). I can tell already that tomorrow will not be a good day, but again that mean todays workout will pay of :)

New jeans

Feeling very happy today. Bought a new pair of jeans and this time in a "normal" store. For as long as I can remember now, at least since our wedding 9 years ago I have had to go to the plus size store downtown Bergen for my jeans.

Now not only could I go the the "normal" store to buy them, but I did not even need their biggest size :)

Down from size 46 to size 42 since January 1st :)

Oh happy day :)

Bergen - Voss

For real? Sure! Are you crazy? What did you say!!!

I got a lot of different reactions when I announced that I had signed up for the Bergen - Voss road bicycle race, and quite frankly, I can not blame them now can I. I am not exactly what one would call athletic but you know what, that is the plan, to become a bit more athletic.

I think the best reaction was from my mother in law. She saw my note on Facebook where I said I was signed up for the race.

She sent a text message to my wife asking if "I had lost it" :) .

Her second text message said: "We better have a plan in order and a car to follow him" :).

Well, I am going to prepare well for the race, and my competitive nature will make me work hard the next 5 months to make sure I at least stand a chance to finish the race. This will of coarse also help my with my main goal, loose weight an get a better health :)

Now a little bit about the race.

The race is 170km long starting downtown Bergen and ending downtown Voss. The race will take us through some of Norway's most beautiful areas in Hardanger and across two small mountains. I hope I will be able to enjoy the ride :)

I am signed up to race together with my sister in law and one of my wifes coworkers. He actually signed up first and then my wife sort of tricked me into it as well :) We will start out from bergen at 05:00 in the morning and the plan is to use 8 hours and be at Voss around 13.00. However for me the main goal is to finish and I do not really care that much about the time!

The beginning

During Christmas 2010 I got a real awakening. I did not feel very well and had a lot of headaches. When stepping up onto the bathroom scale it stopped at 146.9 kg. I went to the doctor to get some help with the headaches I was having and learned that my blood pressure was WAY to high.

So I realized that I needed to do some serious changes in my life. First of January 2011, just to have a good starting point I started what I hope to be a life long change for the better. I started a low carb lifestyle, NOT a diet, and I started to exercise. Hopefully I can stick with this and become the healthy father and husband my family needs.

Today it is February 05th and I decided to start a blog to make my weight loss attempt public, I hope it can make me push myself when things are challenging and hopefully I can inspire others in the same situation as me.

As I am new to blogging I am looking forward it and I hope I can do just as well writing on this blog as I have been with my diet and exercise.