Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Mystery Weight Changes

For the last three weeks I've been on a downward weight trend. I track my weight and calories very closely. By the numbers, and by the scale for the last three weeks I've been losing about 1/2 to 1 pound per week. Suddenly, I've managed to gain almost 4 pounds in 5 days with no changes to my calorie intake or exercise levels. Normally, I'd just chalk it up to daily variability, or changes in hydration. But the trend is completely linear, almost exactly the same gain per day. Four pounds would be (4x3500)=14,000 excess calories. I haven't consumed a total of 14,000 calories in the last week.

Maybe I've gone exothermic. Or is it endothermic? I can't remember. If I do a metabolism calculation on the last two weeks, it's negative! So, I'm gaining weight from calories I haven't eaten. Nice.

Monday's ride was a nice 2-hour tempo ride, with some elevated effort intervals thrown in for fun. Today brought a neuromuscular ride with some fun spinning intervals:

(6X) From a roll, accelerate your spin for 50- yards in gear that has you finishing at 120- rpm. Rest 2- min.
(3X) Repeat above, but after winding out the first gear, shift and wind out that gear, Rest 3- min.
(3X) Repeat above, but after wind out two gears, Rest 3- min.

Power isn't relevant for this workout. Speed, acceleration, and smooth spin are the focus.

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