Things That Scare Me: Solo Road Rides in Unfamiliar Territory

I've been road riding for the better part of three months now. This has become a very important and enjoyable part of the weight loss routine. I started riding a cheap mountain bike last year, but upgraded to a 2008 Giant FCR 1 fitness cycle this year. For the record, I can tell you that riding a road bike on the road will change your life if you're used to riding a mountain or hybrid bike on the roads.

Generally speaking, my exercise routine involves 8-12 laps around a section in my neighborhood. It's a good course that provides an opportunity to get the benefits of interval training when ridden correctly. Today though, I decided that I wanted to get out on the open road around some of the gorgeous horse farms that are practically in my back yard...
Thankfully, I didn't have to go out blind! I've recently become addicted to MapMyRide.com, an online community of cyclists (also available in a running flavor) that has an amazing set of tools to find ride paths, track your workouts online, interface with your Garmin GPS, and other tools that are just damned cool! So I found a track called "Bethel Beginners 12.25". This seemed like the perfect course and it seemed doable:




So I loaded my bike onto the top of my car, called the route up in Garmin Edge 305 (the coolest toy I've bought for my bike to date), and headed off.

The first thing I had to find was a place park, which didn't seem to be as easy as I would have though. The area is littered with almost nothing but beautiful, sprawling horse farms, and I didn't want to park in someone's yard. While seeking parking, I decided to take the opportunity to drive the full course so I could be familiar with it. When I got 1/3 through it, I was forced to turn on to a fairly hilly (for me) two-late road that actually had a fair amount of traffic. This road accounts for almost 50% of the total ride. I finished my survey and decided to stay on the secluded farm roads instead, figuring if nothing else, I could just double back to attain the mileage I was hoping for.

Too bad I'm a wimp...

While I had the best of intentions to ride something close to this, I got nervous because of the challenges I still face when mounting and dismounting my bike (a whole other story in and of itself) and the surprising amount of traffic I encountered tonight. So what I actually wound up with is this:



To be fair, this was my first time attempting a full "road ride" by myself, and I have only ridden one other full road ride (13.5 miles) with a very experienced rider (friend, coworker, and mentor Jeremy Williams. So, I need to do some more exploring. I need to get my "road legs", and I need to ride like I got a pair!

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Apple TV 2.1 and Remote.app for iPhone/iPod 2.0: Accessing Shared Media

Dear Apple

Thank you for releasing Remote.app for my iPhone. It works wonderfully for my iTunes library. I had high hopes for control of my Apple TV, but am unfortunately disappointed. Since I don't store any of my music, movies, or TV shows on the Apple TV directly, I am unable to play any content using Remote.app since all of my content is shared via my iTunes library. Please add shared media playing abilities soon.

Love
JK

[UPDATE 2008.07.24] I discovered last night that you can in fact use the remote to play shared content on the Apple TV. I will post a write up soon about how to make this happen. The short and sweet version is that you add your Apple TV as a synchronizing device rather than a sharing device. This puts all of your media into the "My (Movies|TV|Music)" category rather than the "Shared (Movies|TV|Music)" category.

[UPDATE 2008.07.25] By popular demand, here are the instructions on how to make Remote.app access your iTunes shared content. I am on a Mac running Leopard, so YMMV.

1. In iTunes, select 'Preferences', then the 'Apple TV' pane
   
2. Highlight your Apple TV, then click the 'Remove Apple TV' button.
3. Click OK
4. Go to your Apple TV and from the main menu, select 'Sources'
   
5. Select 'Syncing'. The Apple TV will now display a unique pass code.
   
6. In iTunes, you should once again see your Apple TV in the devices list on the left side menu. Click your Apple TV.
7. iTunes will prompt you for a pass code. Enter the pass code from step 5.
8. If desired, provide a name for your Apple TV and click the 'OK' button.
9. Voila! Whether you elect to actually sync content between your computer and the Apple TV, you will now be able to access your iTunes content under 'My Movies|TV|Music|etc' on the Apple TV, and selecting those categories in Remote.app will now allow you to access your iTunes content.

[UPDATE 2008.07.29]: To the person who commented about syncing media. When you have an Apple TV in sync mode, it appears in iTunes just like an iPod. If you do not wish to transfer media to the device (which I also do not do), simply open each tab (Music, Video, etc) and remove the check box for "Sync media" on each tab.

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On Losing Weight: Dieting vs Living a Healthy Lifestyle

This morning I weighed in at 294.6. I haven't weighed that much in almost three months now. That number is quite a shock, but I think it's a good thing.

But Jeremy, how could gaining all that weight back be a good thing?

It's a good thing because it brings back perspective. It brings back purpose. It brings back focus...

Now, let's take a look at what's happened in the last three weeks. The major thing has been getting my wisdom teeth removed. That took me out of the cycling game for a couple of weeks due to pain and lack of good nutrition. But if you look at my weigh log, you can see that I had only gained back 5-7 pounds from that time period. What in the world has jumped me up another 9-7? That would be camp, of course! I just returned from a wonderful weekend at Camp:30 with my friends, and had absolutely no regard for the food I ate or the beverages I drank whatsoever! I have also historically used the days prior to camp as an excuse to eat whatever I want.

So the causes are quite clear. A complete and utter lack of exercise (it's hard to bike while on narcotics) combined with poor dietary decisions (McDonald's cheeseburgers, FTW!) lead to weight gain. The lesson here is that when you actually stop to keep track of your weight and your behaviors, it's quite easy to follow what happens to your body. All of the poor decisions made during the last three weeks were conscious. No one was shoving Wendy's down my throat, nor had anyone stolen my bike. I simply chose to take a break from healthy living for a while by using events in my life as an excuse. All the while I was conscious about what it would do to my body. I will admin that I am about 4 pounds heavier than I was expecting, but this may very well be due to water retention.

Now that I see what's happened, I must resume the behaviors that can undo the damage that's been done. It's Monday, the day after camp. I am eating correctly again. I will be back on my bike this evening. It's as simple as that! In the past, I would have used this gain as an excuse to stop eating well and exercising. Now I realize that I've gotten to enjoy some of the food that I enjoy, and that I have to do the work to get back on track. No biggie.

2008 has been a monumental year from me because this is the year that I finally stopped dieting and started living a healthy lifestyle. It seems that the social collective believes that dieting is something that starts and ends. The fact of the matter is that if you don't learn anything about your behaviors while losing weight, and then attempt to resume old patterns once you've hit your goal, you'll gain the weight back. I realized that the changes I've made this year are something that can never go away, and that's a great thing! When I started, I had a goal of hitting 280 and stopping. When I was halfway there, I changed that goal to 250, then to 220. Most recently, my girlfriend has actually gotten me to believe that I may be able to hit my BMI recommended weight of 189 (that's literally cutting my weight in HALF from where I started). I've really taken the attitude of I'll keep living healthy and see where I can get. I have intermediate milestones that I look forward to (my girlfriend promised to throw me a party when I hit 266.4, signifying a 100 pound weight loss), but I'm not trying to get to a weight. I'm trying to change my lifestyle so that I am healthy. Weight loss will follow by doing that.

Continue reading "On Losing Weight: Dieting vs Living a Healthy Lifestyle".