New Bike!: "Venom"

I finally pulled the trigger and bought myself a new bike! Well a frame. It's a 2009 Fuji D6 Matt Reed Edition. Since my wife got her 2009 D6 Pro, I have had bike envy, I admit it. The old Frankenbike has served me well, but it is time I just ponied up and got a decent bike. This one already received its name: "Venom"!

The Purchase

I missed out on one Ebay auction for one of these frames, as it just went higher than I wanted to pay for a bike frame. This one ended up going about the same but after consultation with the wife, she finally placed the winning bid for me and I won it! 

The bike came in packed in a standard bike shipping box from a Trek Madone. Nicely done by the seller! It even has the original manual and bag of small parts packed in there too. This includes an extra rear derailleur hanger and special cable housings and adjuster for the front brake.

Parts

More Ebay!  Well not all Ebay, but also Amazon.
Here's my current list for the build.

• Front Derailleur: SRAM Red in black.
• Rear Derailleur: SRAM Red in Team Liquigas color. This is a takeoff from a Cannondale team Liquigas bike. It is all back with a splotch of lime green. Not quite the color of the bike, but it is small and the color is close. Photos later.
• Cables: Jagwire cables in Organic Green. This color is pretty close, particularly to the darker section below the seatpost. I ordered the Racer cable kit but that is not nearly enough cable for this bike! I had to order additional rolls of the housing. The rear cable housings run full length inside the bike.
• Brake Adjusters: Shimano inline. The bike came with one adjuster for the front, but I want them to be the same. There is not room for adjusters at the brake on this bike since the brakes are tucked into and behind the frame, so it has to use inline adjusters.
• Brake Levers: I have Vision brake levers on the aerobars currently, but I have already run into an issue. These require special cables! I cut the cables when I took them off my old bike, so I think at least one of them will be too short. For future maintenance I am thinking I should go with ones that use the standard cables. I'll figure this one out later, I may have to stick some old ones I have on there for now.
• Aerobars: Existing Vision fixed aluminum bars. Maybe this will be upgraded to carbon in the future. Maybe sooner if the fixed length bars aren't the right length for me!
• Stem: Existing aluminum short stem. This one also has a high angle... we'll see if it works. Once I find the right length and angle this might go carbon as well.
• Crankset: SRAM Red carbon that was original on Donna's bike. This is 172.5mm where I may need a 175mm though. I will find out for sure when I take the bike for a professional fit after I get it together.
• Bottom Bracket: Another issue here. My new SRAM Red ceramic bearing bottom bracket got scuffed when the tool slipped taking it off my old bike. DOH! But the red color isn't right for this bike anyway. I am thinking I will strip off the anodizing and maybe paint it black. It is SO smooth! For now I had an old black GXP bottom bracket that originally came on Donna's Trek Equinox. Another option would be to upgrade this one with Enduro hybrid ceramic bearings. The holdup here is having to pay $120 for the tool to change the bearings, or come up with my own bearing press. A man can never have enough tools. :)

Knee Pain and Bike Fit

Donna found this excellent article on knee pain caused by bike fit: http://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/blog/2011/11/knee-pain/

I am subscribing to this blog, it looks like it has some excellent info!

The Truth About Meal Frequency: Is Intermittent Fasting for You?

The Truth About Meal Frequency: Is Intermittent Fasting for You?

Interesting article on meal frequency. I have to say, I have been reducing meal/snack frequency myself and so far , so good.

Lift Big Eat Big: Sweat Does Not Equal Fat Loss

"Cardio in excess may contribute to an absence of fat loss, due its catabolic effects, and in some instances may cause actual fat gain." I can prove this with my own training, it's true!

Lift Big Eat Big: Sweat Does Not Equal Fat Loss

Desk Job Diet Tips

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/desk_job_diet_tips.htm

Darren

Weight Loss Tips

I have written this to pass on to people that need help getting started with weight loss. I decided to publish it on the blog and I will update it here as I make it better.

I say losing weight is 80% diet, 20% exercise... but that is probably reversed for keeping it off. Lifting weight in particular, since adding muscle increases your resting metabolic rate and burns more calories all the time. Doing cardio all the time can actually hurt you in the long run by burning up more muscle. The idea is to make your body lose fat but not muscle when it would probably rather do the opposite.

Here's an interesting article on that effect, but it may be overstating it a bit. Some of the pictures on the site are somewhat questionable for work. The content is good though.
http://www.t-nation.com/article/performance_training/dieting_disasters

- Take measurements and go by those instead of by the scale. You can track measurements here, and it includes instructions on how to take each measurement: http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com
- From measurements, you can estimate your percent body fat http://www.healthcentral.com/cholesterol/home-body-fat-test-2774-143.html
- There is a lot of great info in the www.bodybuilding.com forums as well. I particularly like the 'Over 35' board, there is also a diet board.
- Calculate your Resting Metabolic Rate http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/par8.htm (though going to Step 3 is probably not necessary)
- You can start by subtracting 7000 calories per week from your total as a pretty good goal to lose 2 lb/wk (it takes about a 3500 calorie deficit to lose one pound)
- Track food somewhere that splits things down to protein/fats/carbs%. Maybe start with 50% protein, 30% carbs (from whole grains as much as possible, little sugar), and 20% fat (try to get in good fats like almonds, avocado, olive oil, etc)
- If it isn't working, make adjustments to calories or %s and try another week. Shake it up a little every couple of weeks anyway.
- One cheat day a week will help keep you on track and reset your body so it doesn't go into starvation mode and lower your metabolism
- Exercise! Do whatever you can do, and particularly what you like to do.
- Eat more, smaller meals… every 2 to 3 hours to keep blood sugar more stable. Include protein with each meal.

If all of the tracking is too much, an even easier start is to cut out all fried food, sugar, and highly processed carbs like white bread.

Good choices are:
- lean meats like chicken and tuna (light tuna, not albacore… the albacore has 6 times the mercury)
- lots of vegetables
- whole grain carbs like oatmeal, whole grain bread, long or brown rice.. But in moderation
- Good fats like almonds, avacado, olive oil
- Egg whites are almost pure protein, the fat is in the yolks. Some of the fat is good but not too much. I used to make eggs with one yolk and 3 whites, which seemed to work well.
- Low fat dairy is great: 2% cheese sticks, milk, cottage cheese. I eat cottage cheese with Splenda and vanilla at night. Cottage cheese is mainly casein protein, which digests very slowly so it can fuel your muscles while you sleep
- The Men's Health 'Abs Diet Power 12' has a good list of healthy foods to include http://health.msn.com/nutrition/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=100215758&imageindex=1

More good reading here:
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/articles
http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2009/02/the_2_pounds_per_week_rule_and.php
http://www.dailyspark.com/blog.asp?post=finally_the_diet_to_end_all_diets

And if you want to see some of my sample food tracking, you can see my food log here. I haven't done it in a while though. Use the left arrow by the date to go backwards.