Neglected Blog, Birthdays, and BMI

Wow, I've really neglected my blog. Wow, it's June already. Wow, my birthday is less than two weeks away. Yes, time flies.

After Cherry Blossom, I took a couple weeks off the road bike - rest week and did some mountain bike races. It was the end of my 16 week training plan, so it was good timing to get the mind right. I got the mountain bike tuned up and switched over to tubeless tire system so I can run some lower pressures. I'm going to really try it out in July on the short track at PIR.

I started a new 16 week plan in the beginning of May. I modified the current plan to focus more on the short intervals. That's my weakness so that's what I need to work on. I really hate the 1 minute stuff, but it seems to be getting better. However, it's got a long way to go.

The big race coming up is Elkhorn. This is another 3 day race with 4 stages. The 2 road stages are much longer than the ones I did at Cherry Blossom. It's also in eastern Oregon in June which means some hot weather. The final stage which is 100 miles with ~7,000' of climbing is on my birthday. I figure I had to do something significant to get my mind off the fact that I'm turning 40. Yes, probably some mid-life crisis thing.

Have you ever heard of BMI, body mass index? I've heard of it, but never really gave it any thought until the other weekend. I was at a barbacue with a bunch of college friends and they were giving me a hard time about being "too skinny". I'm currently the same weight as a my freshman year at OSU (I remember since I was rowing on the lighweight boat and I had to be 170 max at races). Well, actually if you look at a BMI Calculator such as this one, I'm actually "normal" weight for my height. Play around with the weight numbers for your height. It's actually pretty surprising. I think it's interesting how America's definition of "normal" is now actually "overweight". It's definitely easy to move to that category when you get out of college, starting working, have kids, etc. The key is to find a combination of exercise/diet that works for you. For me, I eat like a horse so I exercise like one.

Anyway, just goes to prove as long as you feel good, who cares what others think.