Am I Reading Your Blog?

We are in this together! Please share a note about your weight or fitness blog in the comment section of this post. We are in this war on fat to fitness together! I’d hate to thinkI was missing checking out your blog. Now the disclaimer if we need one… Foolsfitness doesn’t “endorse” any products (I don’t do any magic diets or super suppliments) nor will I offically endorse blogs per say I don’t think but I do want to share in reading your trials, ideas, adventures, and journey into better fitness and a healthy weight ... I draw a lot of inspiration from you, as well as encouragement and ideas from your comments! So share a link to your weight/ health… even Art blogs! ( But please *don’t* put up links to porn thanks.)



So the current adventures have me off with the Granite State Wheelmen for a ride a couple of days ago for 23 miles with them. After I casually did another 4 to cool down and stretch. (that tank picture was taken along the ride)The day after I tried doing a rail trail in Derry NH I had done last year.


If you’ve followed my blog somehwere last year I think I posted a picture of this little tunnel from the other side. I always think of a hobbit hole. The pond area was also taken along that ride.
Things I learned on a group ride. I need to bring extra-extra water! I’m thinking having a gallon jug in the car might not even be over kill. Of course over these couple of days I did see temps at 95 degrees at 4pm too (OUCH!) My first ride with the GSW was good. I even held my own with the “Turtle group” (Slowest group), didn’t come in last, and even helped someone fix a double derailed chain.

Right now I’m unoffically hovering about 4 lbs up from last weigh in… I’ve been extremely active but not watching what I eat at all. I’m attempting to get back on track with that. In the last 7 days I think I went over 80 miles total. Of course for “real” bicycle riders that could be a day but I think it’s a pretty big accomplishment. I’m also slowly repairing and upgrading my 12 speed frienze whioch now is a ten speed because the used rear hub was 5 cogs and not six. I’m nicknaming the blue bike “frankenstein” as it’s got three other bikes parts on it now. I bought a new tire but am trying to build up the courage to take the other one off.

Don’t forget to leave a comment and mention your blog, leave a link (I think they let you?) if I find it goes to spam I’ll try to restore it. Maybe this post can be an unoffical link hub? Again please no links to something you wouldn’t want your mother to be seeing!

Foolsfitness… the emerging cyclomaniac!? - Alan

Fools Fitness Adventurer Extraordinaire

As promised the picture with the tiger written about in last posts, but now on to the next adventure! Firstly, some neat number’s lately. Last official weigh in 298. Last weeks bicycle riding over 60 miles with the biggest single total over a day ride (lots of stops and breaks though) over 31 miles! My weight still fluctuates in such a large range so I think I can really only say that I am flirting with the 290’s. I actually got stopped on the street today by someone who said, ”I’ve been meaning to tell you that you have dropped a lot of weight and are looking good.” As odd as it sounds sometimes those compliments make me a bit nervous. I’m not totally sure why.

(in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s this area was known for being a mill town area getting it’s power to the mills by waterwheels… this I think was what was left of a paper mill that burned down long ago) I love old places and things. Maybe thats why I love old bicycles? It's like I can almost hear whispers of the past.

This is not just about a number on a scale though. It’s about gaining the ability to be able to do new things… and sometimes the courage to do them. I found a local bus that you can take a bicycle on and rode it as far away from my home as I could. Then I took about riding through three towns for an 11 mile or so ride, popping into a couple of flea markets, a library, and then to the main event of the trip… a river bike/pedestrian trail that was an old railroad bed. I didn’t factor one thing though… I was traveling upstream!!! Most of the hills were very mellow but for future reference if you’re following a river downstream might be a bit easier! But if you’re anything like me with dealing with weight you might chuckle as it’s symbolic as it’s an upstream battle getting more fit and healthy. I didn’t ride completely back home on my own peddle power, the last few miles I got a lift back into my town as there is a patch of road that is very busy, narrow, twisty, and has zero shoulders on the side of the road. I’m not sure if I will ever try that stretch, if I did I’m thinking there is small a chance I would end up a hood ornament for a tractor trailer.

If you are out there and are just starting out or on your way in this journey of weight loss and getting fit I hope I can encourage you with this. I have a long long way to go. But in a couple of years even with the ups and downs I’ve gone from barely being able to ride a bicycle for 3 miles to over 30 miles in a day, and over 40 lbs (actually twice). My only special superpower I’ve found so far is the ability to strike fear in the owners of Chinese Food Buffet restarants… If I can do this, just maybe you can too!!! Do it safe and all (have a doctor check you out) but don’t miss out!!! Life isn’t in the fridge. Life is out there, go and see.


(This is not part of the miles you count when you take your bike out for a ride!)

Foolsfitness will sign off for a bit and see what next adventure awaits!- Alan

I Joined the Circus!

I couldn’t resist a photo of my race bike with the side show booth. You got to admit a 300 pound guy on a road bicycle might just be a bit of an oddity?!

My trip to the circus included me being daring enough to get my photo taken with a real live tiger… Hopefully I can post a copy of it soon (I need to figure out a way to scan it). That tiger and I looked into each other’s eyes, and I was pretty excited, I mean how often to you get to stand next to a tiger less than a foot away?! It was odd. I thought about fear and how it holds us back from so much… sometimes it can protect us, but it also needs to be managed like a adviser, taking it’s suggestions and considering the options.

It was odd in the end that the fear was overcome with excitement, at least for me with the tiger. It’s almost like after we had locked eyes he looked away deciding something. I’d like to think that I had established alpha male or he understood I was no longer a slave to fear but becoming a wild eyed predator of life too! Of course in reality it was likely just bored by all the people for so long over the night and just wanted a cat nap!

As I mentioned to briefly in last post I actually sat in one of those plastic one piece lawn chairs. At the circus you could “upgrade” your ticket for $2 and get ring side. I sat in the bleachers for a long while and saw an empty chair right in the front row… just under the 300 pound mark I decided on courage instead of fear. During the show I was concerned as it wasn’t feeling totally rock stable but it held with no crack or bang or anything.

It was a sweet success to sit in the plastic chair, face a tiger, and just smile and say “no thanks” as vender after vender guy walked by trying to convince me of the need for popcorn, cotton candy, or peanuts.

I think tonight with be an “official” weigh… not sure, I’m thinking over the last couple of weeks I’ve gained and lost again… I predict somewhere around the last weigh number.

At Foolsfitness the circus is always in town!- Alan

Laconia Motorcycle Week Pictures + MORE (Part II)

Happy 4th! As promised some more pictures from Laconia Motorcycle Week are below. As we celebrate July 4th (Independence Day in the U.S.A.) I’ve been thinking about the freedom from about 45 pounds of fat I am experiencing. It’s all about freedom. It’s called “weight” for a reason. All that extra baggage weighs you down and you just can’t experience some things at certain weights. I think about this new freedom of zipping up a flight of steps, bending over tying my shoes without being completely dizzy, and *YES* riding my bicycles!!! I wonder what the next 45 pounds off will let me do?

Several people have pointed out my evolving love affair with the bicycle. It’s a new freedom, I remember that first time going up one of the steeper hills in my town and having to stop. I couldn’t even keep up with a lady pushing a stroller up the hill… I’ve got a long way to go but I’ve already traded in my double chin for sort of a turkey gobbler neck! Finding bones here and there that are starting to emerge from under all the excess…

Yesterday I did something daring. I joined the circus! Well, not exactly… but in my next post I hope to share and incredible experience of the emerging freedom to be able to do things I just couldn’t plain do 50 pounds heavier. It ends with a real live tiger, (yes I’m serious) that I will tell next time but let me start with this…

Anyone who is big knows the horror of seeing one of those plastic lawn chairs. I’ve even broke one in the past. But not yesterday. I wanted that seat and a little nervous I sat… and… it held. Wait till next time to hear about the real live tiger! Oh, and also my obsession with bicycles that continues!

Yes, at Fools Fitness we bought *another* bicycle! (One was traded as a swap and one was given away to a person in need… now the “fleet” is at 4, that’s two functional and two very close to functional!) Details next post!!!

But now on to those promised pictures of motorcycle week...enjoy! Happy 4th of July to all!!!- Alan
Don't you love it?! I want an M+M motorcycle. Some folks get so creative and the motorcycles are real art
It's hard to really show how many people are in the area... But's it's really elbow to elbow in places. They have rows of motorcycles on both sides of the street and two rows of them right down the middle of the road, (the road is closed to cars in places)
Amazing airbrush paint work on many of them the murals are just incredible!
Again, Happy 4th to everyone!- Alan

Meet Firenze and His Fantastical Tale

Buy a Stereo and get a FREE bike? I did an internet search for my new (used) bicycle curious about their history. If the lore is true it’s got a neat history. Apparently these bicycles wouldn’t make certain safety specs when they wanted to import them into the USA but somehow found out that they could “give them away” as promotions in some legal loop hole. I’m not sure if it’s true, but I did have the bicycle shop go over it to be safe.

I’m not sure when they say taking your bike out for a ride they mean to carry it? I now know what 90lbs maximum and high pressure tires mean. I’m having to make small adjustments…the new (rather old but new to me) bicycle has thinner tires and higher pressure. I apparently put in 91 pounds? I leaned the bike against the wall, put my pump away and shut the door. The vibration was the hair trigger needed to set off what sounded like a shotgun blast, my rear tube popping, or more vividly exploding the seal ripping a 4 inch hole in the tube, proving once again I still need adult supervision? I had to carry the bicycle on my shoulder back to the bicycle shop to get them to put on another tube.

I spent a bit of the morning putting on one of the two water bottle holders (nicely coordinated with the yellow and blue theme too!) I tried with the other but I think they make the little bolts just a tiny bit shorter than what was needed to fit the bar. After fiddling forever I just gave up on the second until I can get a longer set of bolts. Then I’ll have two water bottle cages just like those racers!!! Next stop bright neon plastic rubber lycra outfits and shaving my legs?! (Well, um likely *NO*)

This 12 speed along with having 2 more gear than the black racer I used to race at the speedway last year also is bigger. It’s taken a bit of getting use to being on your tip toes at a stop light however the ability to stretch your legs better as you peddle I think is making a huge difference in power. I don’t have a speedometer on it yet but I’d say it’s dare fast and may be even more so when I can really develop aerobic endurance. I’m actually only in the easiest 3 gears so far. I can’t fathom the speed (or for that matter the effort to peddle) at the top ones!

This last week an a half has seen some unofficial gains in weight (maybe up to 7-8 pounds?) I haven’t been sticking to a decent food plan or in reasonable volumes. Yesterday was the first day in a while I capped the caloric intake under 2000 calories once more. Really bummed I’ve gained of course but who’s the one to blame for eating ice cream and pizza in vast quantities? Today I did better with something high calorie I kept a reasonable serving size. I’m hoping to get back to something with some reasonable nutritional value too. I won’t “ban” goodies but I also don’t think it’s a good idea to make the funny bones and Doritos your two main food groups!

With a couple of days left to the month I’ve bicycled over 160 miles in June! About 30 more than May! The whole year last year I could barely make 200, so it goes to show if you keep on trying you got a good chance at getting better!

Time to get peddling!- Alan

I Admit It. I Killed Her!

I swear I didn’t mean to kill her! I don’t know what happened exactly, it was a crime of passion?! I was trying to fix up the old Irish girl, my dear Green Lady and what have I done!!! Now she’s just laying on the garage floor in pieces!!! Maybe she’s not really dead and won‘t really die? But gee the prognosis doesn’t look good! It doesn’t look good at all! There might be a happy ending somehow, right?! It can’t end like this!
I meant to post Part II pictures of Motorcycle week, but I think that will happen next time. I just had to come clean about it and what I have done. This 70’s era vintage Raleigh grand prix 10 speed was a yard sale find last year and it was in horrible shape. The front derailer was rusted frozen as well as the brakes both stuck. The tires were petrified on cracked with the ages to the point I can‘t even read the size of the tires.
Looking for my next goal I was thinking about doing more serious mileage riding on a road bike rather than just on my hybrid bicycle Boba. So I set to work on the old girl. Half a can of spray oil and wrenching I got the old brake cables front and rear off as well as both the seizing brake calipers. For the life of me I reefed and reefed but can’t get the broken seat off yet to fix it.

A trip to my trusty friends at the bicycle shop for parts didn’t go so well. Adding in new tires, replacing the cables, rewrapping the handlebars… I had hoped to do neon green theme to highlight the beautiful green of her paint… the price kept going up and up near the 200 dollar mark. What to do?! To a vagabond like me that’s a serious bundle of cash that isn‘t easy to come up with! Not to mention the couple of races I hope to ride in coming up are going to need entry fees and travel gas…

So I end up sitting on the curb next to the local corner store with a coffee, and trying to work out the plans and goals and praying what to do… if the goals are worth going for. I asked God quietly out loud “How am I going to pay for this?” Then I look down and find a penny and another penny… I laughed, apparently God gave me his two cents about what He thought of my plan?! Then I found another two cents and a dime… coincidence? Perhaps, but I took it as a sign not to give up just yet.

So I went to another Bicycle shop to see if he might have some cheaper supplies from different sources. I saw an old bike in far better shape rust wise with the same old style brake set ups kind of just leaned haphazardly in the corner. Out of curiosity I asked if that one was for sale and how much. He said he’d part with it for $30 then a moment later said, “Naw, actually just take it. The bike needs a bit of tinkering though.” I had to ask him four times *Really*?! She's below... Isn't she pretty?

I’m not sure how this story ends yet because it’s still playing out. The bike shop is doing some very basic stuff to the newer 12 speed including hopefully finding an old junk seat to refit it with or fix it because the other was broken. Hopefully there isn't anything major they find. I’m not sure if the wheels might actually transfer over to the old Raleigh size wise and gear wise. But I also have a basic set of bell cables I got at the department store to try to replace on the old Raleigh. I haven't given up on the Raleigh! Hopefully with all the tinkering one of the two will be ridable and I will have a true skinny tire race bike to replace the old black “shade” that I used last fall to race with, the one with fat sized tires.

Actually since I promised, I will post two pics from motorcycle week to give you a little something till next time. My favorite sign above I spotted at a vendor, “unattended children will be given a shot of tequila and a free puppy” and a shot of a custom bike build modeling show below.



Till next time Fools Fitness Fine Friends- Alan

Laconia Bike Week 2011 Part I

Going into the Weirs Beach on Lakeside Avenue in Bike week I (perhaps like many celebrities?) got a personal police escort by two bicycle police! I’ve got a few photos to share in this and the next post…This photo was taken on the go as I rode my bicycle behind them via my cell phone camera… gee technically isn’t that distracted riding? Well, anyone who refers to himself as “Fools Fitness” likely needs a bit of adult supervision anyways right?

Today (June 20th) I hit about mile 112 for the month so far on “Boba”, the 7-speed Raleigh Venture… It works out to be about 55 for April, 130 for May and with now I’m around just a touch under the 300 mile mark for the year! Originally, I figured since I did a touch over 200 miles last year to shoot for 300 or 50 miles per riding month this year. At the start of the year that seemed huge, now wildly it was apparently a pretty low figure! I figured 150% of last year would have covered it! Guess not!!!

Keeping on with my bicycle wanting it’s picture taken everywhere possible here is a row of “bikes” I think you can click on the picture to enlarge it. Bike, bike, bike… wait a minute? Hey, they said BIKE week! I can’t help but think of that old Sesame Street song they use to play when I was a kid, “One of these things is not like the other…”

Stay tuned within the week I hope to get some general Motorcycle week photos up. Some of the motorcycles were true artworks. Moreover I tried to get a few shots to get you a feel of how many people were in the area. Stay tuned for more on Laconia Motorcycle Week, hopefully by the end of this week on Foolsfitness!

Now getting back to my riding goal. I think goals are important in what ever it is you do. To have a vision of where you want to go and a future you are working toward. To close your eyes and be able to really envision yourself at a point is critical. It makes walking away from the extra helpings easier.

Last year I had a goal of doing a bicycle race, and a bicycle marathon fundraiser that helped me stay on track… this year was the 300 mark. Now I’m thinking about what’s next. I know there is a neat bicycle race event coming up in September but that is more for serious pros. I’d like to go see it though and maybe have a goal of bringing a bicycle along for a goal of a ride. I’m even pondering about trying to get the “Green Lady” my old yard sale find of a Raleigh 10 speed from the 70’s ready to ride again and back on the tar. She's going to need a lot of TLC.

This last week has been horrible eating choices, and perhaps its time for more of a Zen spiritual goal like bringing back the spirit of that old bike. Without a goal in my mind I drift. What that goal will be I'm not sure yet... but it needs to be there.

At Foolsfitness it’s time for a goal. Then the attempt for the extra point after too?- Alan