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Bicycling for health

in September of 2014 I started cycling for my health to combat type 2 diabetes, and I put a few hundred miles on that year. 2015 I rode January on an aluminum frame bike, and from February to now I have been on a 2013 Orbea Orca carbon fiber bike (now with 2000 miles on the odometer), and put out 1004 miles. This year on the Orbea I have 1096 miles ridden.

All miles are combined outside and on the trainer inside. I ride a BKool Pro smart turbo trainer that automatically adjusts resistance based on the road grade of the programmed route. The trainer is a stand I can put my bike in for inside riding.

So far I have gone from 406 pounds ( I stand 6'3") to 355 pounds and kept of the 40 pounds for over two years), quit taking Metformin (an oral medication for diabetes), cut my daily dose of insulin in half down to 40 units, and I have changed blood pressure medications and cut the dose of that to a very low dose.

I have participated in the Tour de Cure in Airway Heights, WA in 2015 when I completed the 25 mile route in 2.5 hours total time and two hours moving time, and in 2016 when I completed the 50 mile route in 5 hours total time 4 hours moving time.

Please do yourselves a favor and move: Walk, run, swim, bike, any other exercise as I could have prevented much of my condition had I stayed active.

15 years of a sedentary lifestyle is darned hard to overcome and undo. Hey I was at 27 years old 225 pounds, but I let myself go. Now I am 46 and trying to get back down to 250.

I hope my action has encouraged my sons to be active, and I hope my actions are inspirational to someone who needs that little extra push to get off the couch and move.

So if you are in my area and see a fat guy with long hair levitating through town with his legs pumping furiously don't worry there really is a bike under me.

My ride from today can be viewed here https://www.strava.com/activities/752905584/segments/18447445489

Thank you for reading this, and I hope you are blessed with health, prosperity, and a nice shave.

Dave
 
I applaud you.

I bicycle for health reasons a couple of times a week. I am 48, 6'2" and stay between 205 and 210 lbs. My equipment is very budget friendly. I have two very nice 90's Trek chro-moly steel , rigid, 21 speed mountain bikes. A seat change and set of semi-slicks turned them into the equivalent of bikes marketed as hybrids or comfort bikes today. I paid 100 bucks for the 820 and 40 bucks for the 800. Each looked nearly new and shifted flawlessly.....At 48, I can still wheelie like I did when I was 14 on a Mongoose BMX bike....lol.
 
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Extremely well done, Dave. BIG kudos to you for getting up off the couch and taking your health and weight into your own control. That takes a lot of commitment.

Keep it up.
 
Thank you all. I am behind in my miles by about 30 for this month (had some motivation issues), and about 100 for the year.

But I am ahead of last year's mileage already.

Also it is so great to tell the VA to stick it where the sun don't shine as I won't take their prescription (the Metformin), and when they tell me I have to take their pill I just hand them three months of glucose records and ask "Do I now?"

Here is a short "Relive" video of my ride today. Relive takes your route and data from Strava.com on rides over 12 miles that are outside and makes a short video: https://www.relive.cc/view/752905584

And this was just a recovery ride trying out a new saddle position as I had moved my saddle forward to try to quit causing muscle fatigue and issues with my sciatic nerve. Guess what, it worked :)

oh and tonight I had four slices of Domino's pizza and a beer, and I am not worried because what I burned calorie wise today and what I will burn tomorrow will still have me with a total of under 2000 calories for a day (closer to 1400 calories intake for a day after subtracting the caloric burn).
 
Fantastic job!

Late summer in 2013 at 41 I needed some type of exercise that was sustainable, something that was enjoyable for me to keep doing. I've done this and that all my life with none of it actually being enjoyable to keep up. I ended up cleaning up the old $99 Walmart mountain bike that was buried in the garage from when I taught my oldest how to ride. Spring of 2014 had me in the bike shop buying a Giant Escape hybrid.

I sit and hover around 220 lb for the past 2 years. I had an initial loss of about 35 lb but then got back up a little to where I sit now. I have to admit, I need to eat much better. I'm terrible about the diet.

Aside from the poor diet though, I was borderline high on all my numbers. Cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, and blood sugar. Riding almost daily for about an hour to hour and a half dropped everything into normal range even with my still crappy diet.

This year I have expanded a lot from riding 15ish miles regularly and 25 miles being a long ride for me into I'm terribly disappointed if I can't get together with a little group I've gotten in with from Meetup.com and a coworker and riding 60ish every Saturday and Sunday. I have over 1700 miles this year.

Next year's goals are trips. I didn't make the Pittsburgh to DC trip my coworker rides every year. Next year we plan to ride Buffalo to Syracuse, maybe Pittsburgh to DC, and a lot of 3 day camping trips on the bikes.

I ride trails and on the road. Here in western PA, it's nothing but hills. I welcome the hills. The more you ride them, the bigger they come that you can conquer. We've developed a nice little core group from Meetup.com of some great folk and ride all day on the weekends. It's a blast.
 
Awesome!!

I am a stage 4 cancer survivor and swear by the bike. I ride A Giant Defy Advanced 2 almost daily and believe that without this routine I wouldn't be alive today. I also have a very close friend I ride with with who has very severe Diabetes - severe enough that he has an insulin pump attached to his chest to administer doses when things get sketchy. BUT, he rides more than both of use combined and has his Diabetes very much in control and we both just laugh and ride as though we were 20 years old again!

And just my 2cents - I got professionally fitted for my bike/shoes/pedals/seat/etc and it's made all the difference in the world. I can ride all day/night without any undo pain and feel more comfortable than ever.

So yes - get out and walk or run or bike or hike or something because it will improve everything you do!

:sailor:
 
Well done and thanks gor sharing your experience.
Biking is, imo, one of the best possible ways to get started into sports.
Keep it up.
 
Thank you all for the encouragement. I have told other diabetics about my journey only to hear "That's great, but I won't exercise because I don't like to do so".... at that point I shut my mouth before I say something to the effect of "exercise is better than death".

Sure I hurt, but I would rather hurt because I did something than hurting from doing nothing (like I used to).

When I have neuropathy issues in my feet it is due to not exercising enough an the muscles pain caused from the muscles and ligaments contracting and then getting stiff.

I ride my bike using a heart rate monitor (Mio Fuse), Power meter (Stages), Cadence sensor and my Cateye bike computer that records my routes, speed, and such so I can upload each activity to Strava which is where I can see the data in regards to improvement.

I started with a heart rate monitor as when I hit a heart rate of 150 beats per minute it felt like my heart was going to jump out my chest and I was feeling the effects of oxygen depravation due to high blood pressure. Now I hit 150, back off a little and hit 160, back off a little and sometimes even push to 170 beats per minute. And my blood pressure has gone from a 150/90 down to a 112/68.
 

Legion

Staff member
Great stuff!

I commute by bike every day, so that cardio, plus some weights at the gym, keeps me at about 200lbs, at 6'3.

It is great for your health, except I cycle in traffic, so the health benefits only last until you get squashed by a truck... Don't do that.

Keep up the good work.
 
Health isn't my number one reason for biking, but it's certainly in the top five. I try to keep myself as active as possible, as work is pretty laid back and I'm in an office long time periods. I bike most of my errands I can get away with until I have to drive to town, and really enjoy biking around the village just to keep my mind clear.
 
I am in Boardman, OR a town of 3300.. we do have a grocery store, but they can't compete in price with the stores in Hermiston (a town of 40,000 that is 30 miles away). So most of the errands have us driving as the only way to Hermiston is via the I-84 Freeway or HWY 730 to HWY 395.

I will ride the freeway for short periods (like exit to exit) if there aren't surface roads to get from point to point, and I will ride HWY 730 as it has a nice wide shoulder (except for two small places I have learned how to avoid by going out of my way on other rural roads).

I like to ride from Boardman to Irrigon, then sometimes on to Umatilla and my workplace on a Saturday (if I start early enough) and get in some miles as my house to the McNary Dam is about 25 miles (I can make it 32 miles and usually do), but so far I haven't left early enough to get home before dark (I have stopped at the 45 mile mark and called my wife for a ride).

I also ride from my house to the Irrigon Shell Station and refill waters and get a snack there and ride home (I can make this round trip a 34 mile ride).

So yes I took my parents advice to me when I was being a snotty kid and now I go play on the freeway... :)

So far this weekend (Fri and Sat) I have put just over 30 miles on the bike with 16 being outside and the rest being on the trainer.
 
I bought a bike a year ago, with the intention of riding my bike to work every day (5.5 miles one way). I did it off and on, but due to schedules after work, I found it difficult to do it consistently. This year, I haven't even ridden it to work once. It's just been a bad year for me. I hope to get active on my treadmill this fall/winter and be able to start up again on my bike next year.
 
I bought a bike a year ago, with the intention of riding my bike to work every day (5.5 miles one way). I did it off and on, but due to schedules after work, I found it difficult to do it consistently. This year, I haven't even ridden it to work once. It's just been a bad year for me. I hope to get active on my treadmill this fall/winter and be able to start up again on my bike next year.

Get a smart turbo trainer for riding in your house during the winter. You can put your bike in the trainer and ride as long or as short as you want.
 
Get a smart turbo trainer for riding in your house during the winter. You can put your bike in the trainer and ride as long or as short as you want.

I don't like stationary bikes. That's no kind of fun. Treadmills aren't much more fun, but that's what I bought for indoor exercise.
 
I don't like stationary bikes. That's no kind of fun. Treadmills aren't much more fun, but that's what I bought for indoor exercise.

The nice thing about the smart trainers are the interfaces that can control them (Zwift and BKool) which automatically change resistance of the trainer based on road grade of the simulated route, and some have racing and group rides (both Zwift and BKool) have these options.

So I can ride my bike in the house and be riding with a group of up to 125 people and have voice communication with them if we are close enough on the route.

I also couldn't sit and pedal while reading a book or watching a movie, but man I can go when there is a bit of competition even if it is just competing against myself (one of the programs I use puts a translucent me as the representation of my last ride on the route, and I get to try and beat that ghost).

Even with a regular trainer and some sensors you can use BKool or Zwift.
 
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