Things never go as planned.

At the beginning of every year most Americans take the opportunity to reflect on the previous year: what went well, all the good things that happened, or what went wrong.

Basically it's the "what the hell happened?" moment or "it's got to get better this year!"

The next thing we do is make lofty promises to ourselves and if we have no sense at all to others about some wish, task, or commitment we want to make. These are known as New Year Resolutions. Generally, things like:

I'm going to be nicer to everybody I meet this year, or...
I'm going to spend more time with family and friends, or...
I'm going to enjoy life more, etc.

If you are really unrealistic things spout out like:
I'm going to quit smoking, or...
I'm going to quit, er, um, reduce my drinking, or the most popular of all...
I'm going to lose weight this year, yeah right.

Historically statistics say that we tend to make these promises to ourselves and our loved ones and begin the year really well at accomplishing these tasks. However, they re generally out the door by the middle of February.

Well last year I did just that. I made some New Years Resolutions. Two in fact. Lose Weight and ride more. Now I know what your thinking. These are pretty simple. However, there are a couple of additional pieces of information that you need to have.

My office decided that they would have a Biggest Loser Contest. Three months to lose as much as you can or gain as many fitness points based on the Weight Watchers scale of activity.

Added to this was the desire to ride 5,000 miles on a bike. No. Not all at once! That was my intended yearly total. Now some of you might might think that the effort was either monumental or minuscule depending on your annual activity level, but for me this was a big time commitment. My usual average was bout 1,200 or so with my best effort being about 2,500 miles or roughly a flat version of the Tour de France over the period of a year rather than 23 days. Hey, it works for me.

Well, I lasted through he whole three months and won the office contest riding off into the sunset, literally. I rode away with the activity points and lost 35 pounds in three months. In their infinite wisdom, the office pool even dropped the activity level of bike riding to keep me from winning again. Funny how the mind works when it comes to exercise: If it seems easy, it can't be true. I must run until my knees ache, spend hours on the StairMaster, etc. in order to lose weight. Or, thee are he ones who want to either starve themselves or take a magic pill, anything not to have to exert effort.

When it comes right down to it, riding is the easiest, safest, less demanding on your body form of exercise there is. But main people refuse to see the benefits. (I will elaborate more on my exercise/weight loss process in a later post)

Bicycling Magazine has actually profiled five riders who each lost more than 100 pounds getting out of their office or home and riding a bike. Some started commuting to work. Others rode in their neighborhoods or local parks. All, however, started with whatever they could muster, 1 mile, 5 miles, 30 min., 1 hour, etc. Each increased their distance or time as they were able. Nothing more nothing less.

My friend Fred started by forcing himself to ride just a little more than the last time. Sometimes that would be a few miles, other time nothing more than a few feet. He will tell you that it saved his life.

Well, I did last past the Feb 17th normal un-success date, but I only lasted until Dec. 11th. It was then that I realized I would fall about 800 miles short of my stated goal of 5,000 miles. Preparing a house to be sold, negotiating on the new (old) house, as well as packing, moving and unpacking all combined to overtax my resources and hampered my efforts to get to the final mileage total. Still, for me 4,200 miles was nothing to sneeze at and I had attained a higher level of fitness and comfort on the bike than I had ever had previously, all at the age of 41.

Some of these stories including my best ever Hotter 'n Hell Hundred are guaranteed to show up in future posts, generally when I have nothing better to write about.

So long for now.

It's all in a name.

Ok. There comes a time when things must be explained, such as the title of this page: "All things Skippy".

Well we all have a youthful past. If you knew me you would know that I pretty much have never met a person who was not my friend. I am a very lenient person that pretty much gets along with everyone I meet until as the song goes, "he done me wrong". It takes a bit of effort to get on my bad side. With that said, in my youth, that being high school...(insert dark age remarks here)...I had friends from all over town. Many of whom I spent more time with than those from my own school, which happened to be well know for kids with a privilaged upbringing. So much so that it was locally known as "the bubble". Therefore, many of the kids were a little stuck up and the epitome of the preppie attitude that pervaded a certain part of the city at that time. For many of my contemporaries it was a source of pride, one that set us apart from the rest of the kids in town.

Though I am proud of the education that the school provided me I was not too much onto driving the right car or wearing the right clothes or having the most poplular friends at the expense of being friends with other people whom I enjoyed. Therefore, I hung around with lots of different people.

Well, I started playong softball in a league about this time. It was an all guys squad, but we had a number of girls, ranging from girlfriends to just friends, that would come and cheer us on. Well, they had the bright idea of having our knicknames added to our jerseys instead of our real names. I had never gotten a nickname before...

My name does not lend itself to easy alternatives such as: Roho for Rozales, Arod for Alex Rodriguez, Mighty Mo for Mike Madono, etc.

Or my physical stature such as: Too Tall, Manster, Chubs, or thankfully, Shorty, Little Big Mouth, etc.

And since nicknames are never created by the individual but are given by their friends, or sometime detractors, (One famous example in the cycling world would be Marco Pantani, who wanted to be called "il Pirate" by the media for being a Pirate on the bike. Instead, he was know by many as "elephantante" or "little elephant" for his rather widely projecting cranial appendages...his ears.), I could not give myself one.

Therefore, for the lack of better options and from my schools reputation, I got the name Skip (much better than Biff or Buff) and it translated into my other passion, sailing, as Skipper. However, kids being kids, it degenerated into the girls calling me Skippy.

There it is. Good or Bad. I still have freinds that in weak moment or drunken stoupers still call me by this name. And, I am still freinds with the two girls that initiated that name. Oh well. Terms of Endearment, I guess.

Back in the saddle again.

Well, I haven't exactly bee good at keeping this up. Time for a belated new years resolution, to write on this thing a little more.

I had a great year last year on the bike. The year 2008 started with a bang as the office started the year witha biggest loser contest. I prepared well for it ahead of time by pigging out during the holdays while begining to ride nearly everyday to get my legs in shape before the sart of the contest! I know rotten, huh. Well, it allowed me to start with 208 pounds and five hundred miles or so in my legs. So, I began with an edge. However, I was determined to win. I did it all. I removed all of the high sugar, carbohydrate rich foods from my diet. Cokes only on occasion and NO Pasta! No pasta? Yes. I forced myself to ride often without the pasta. This allows the body to find its nutrition where it can instead of quick burning carbs, it looks for the fat in the body and pulls from there.

I snacked on natural almonds and low sodium pretzels. However, I allowed myself a treat once a day. A Skinney Cow Ice Cream Sandwich. Every now and then I would also eat a couple of squares of Ghirardelli Chocolate. Dark with no additional flavors.

Three months and fifteen hundred milesw later, I had shed 35 pounds. This was en route to my best cycling year ever. It was great! All the hard work was definitely worth the effort as not only did I lose all of the weight, but the benifits on the bike allowed me to push my buddies on every ride...

More about dieting in the next post.

Until then, GET ON YOUR BIKE AND RIDE!