Quabbin Ride with Jeff
I met up with Jeff for a gravel ride on old dirt roads on the northeast side of Quabbin; the huge reservoir that supplies Boston with its drinking water. There's an old town you can still bike/walk to. All the homes are gone, so there are just stone foundations remaining. They need to update the photos they had posted of the homes, the Sun had faded all the photos pretty severely. I'd guess the photos get replaced every Spring; we were just there too late in the tourist season.
Jeff was on his new Lectric ebike with big 4.5" wide fatbike tires https://lectricebikes.com/products/xpeak-high-step-ebike, and I was on my "acoustic" fatbike (no electric motor just me) with the narrower rims I bought for it with still cushy, but faster 3" plus size tires. So if power output and rider weight were equal, my bike would be faster.
It was a good match. Jeff actually slowed his ebike assist down to just level 2 vs level 4-5 he's been riding solo. Level 2 made him put in a little more effort, which he said he liked. He worked up a good appetite for lunch after we finished our ride. Also, the battery range of his ebike greatly improved. I had to ride faster than I normally would to keep up with him. We did a big loop and some out and backs. Had some surprisingly good climbs. There was one long climb where I headed out 5 minutes early while Jeff took more photos and ate a snack. Worked out well. I was able to do the climb at my normal slower speed and not blow my legs up.
The terrain isn't that flat near the reservoir, which I suppose makes sense with the reservoir being man made. It was a more challenging day than I'd expected; I had a blast. Jeff had fun too. We'll ride together again. Jeff was even talking about getting headsets for our handheld GMRS radios so it'd be easier to communicate when riding.
On the final leg back, we had 3.5 miles of two lane, paved road heading North to the green arrow square in the map below (where our vehicles were parked) Jeff hates riding on roads where cars pass at high speed; I just tune it out. So, I told Jeff to just crank up the assist mode on his bike and do that last stretch speedy. He dusted me, lol. Splitting up was the right call. My bike computer has a return to start feature, so Jeff doesn't have to worry about me getting lost. Separating, I was able to do the climbs slower and just relax to my music, which was good, I was riding on fumes at that point. After getting back, I devoured my healthy lentil-based shepherd's pie. Truck Camper Microwave ftw! I can't explain to you how awesome food tastes when you've finished a ride, your body's exhausted, and you're sitting in a comfy camping chair. Heaven!
Next time, I'll pack more snacks for sure. I packed enough for when I ride solo, not enough for pushing hard. Actually, I really enjoyed the motivation to ride faster than normal. I just need to pack more "fuel" when I ride with Jeff, so I don't bonk. Having as much riding experience as I do, I can tell when my blood sugar is low, so I just slow down so my body can convert body fat to fuel and keep my muscles going. Avoids bonking unless it's also super hot out and I sweat out all my electrolytes. It was only 50F/10C out so sweating wasn't a problem.
More ride photos at bottom of this blog, but here's the map of our ride. started and ended the ride at the green arrow marker. Forgot to completely end the ride until i heard it beep in the truck, so ignore the red marker. Also that's why it was a weird straight line to the red marker. I didn't fly there on Jacqui's broom .
Finally! Weight Loss Hiccups Breakthrough
I think i finally figured out why my weight jumps up for a couple days after a long, hard bike ride. I finally googled the right question. I guess the body will retain water on its own to help your muscles heal. I thought it was from ingesting salty stuff while riding, but I've been careful to not drink Gatorade or eat super salty stuff when riding. Now I know my body's going to retain fluid just to repair muscle tissue. Who knew?
Friday after the ride, I was super careful to not give into the greasy pizza cravings I was having after having a beer with Jeff at the Stone Cow Brewery. I just made myself a slightly larger than normal (for me) home-made hummus wrap and ate some air-popped popcorn for a snack when I was still super hungry later that night. So as you can imagine, I was bummed to see my weight jumped up from 256.5 to 257.7 Saturday morning AFTER being careful to not pig out after the ride.
Making things a little more frustrating, I also made some diet changes last week before the ride (eat more fruits and veggies, eat less "healthy" home made cookies and slightly smaller lentil soup/curry portions). It worked!!!! I finally had broken out of the 258-260lb rut I was stuck in during all of October.
Saturday, I just rested all day. I was pretty worn out after the ride Friday. Was happy to see the weight dropped a little to 257.4 Sunday morning after a do-nothing, sit on the couch rest day. Still felt a little bummed. After all, I had woken up hungry Saturday morning and STILL my weight was up over a pound. Sunday I just did a leaf cleanup session around the house, which did involve walk-behind bagger mowing everything, and lots of walking for a couple hours, but nothing that strenuous.
Imagine my shock to see my weight dropped back down to 256.1 lbs this morning. Apologies if TMI, but I had zero constipation issues; everything was fine over the weekend. If anything, I peed a lot last night. Which finally prompted me to google the right question, "retain water for about 2 days after intense exercise" and VOILA! See below
I finally understand now. This has been a frustrating pattern
all Summer since I started cleaning up my diet and riding my bike a lot
more. When I'd do the occasional long ride (3 hours plus) to the point my body would
want to just lie still for a couple days, my weight would oddly go
up 1-2 lbs for a couple days to then suddenly drop to
lower than before I did the ride. Now I finally understand why!
Anyway, enough weight loss blather. Here are some photos from the ride. Remember you can double click on the photos below to start a slideshow view. Arrow keys on keyboard to scroll, or tap on thumbnails if using a phone/tablet.
I envy this guy's resting place. He has a gorgeous view of the reservoir. The scenic shots are right near him.
