Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 338

Day 338 2 nights in a row of solid sleep. I'm really hoping this trend continues. It's so nice to wake up not feeling like a zombie. Even with the darkness of a December morning I was alert and ready for work when I got to the gym this morning. I'm not sure if it's the UV light or the supplements I've been taking lately, but I'm going to continue with my regimen.

For my workout today, I decided to spend a little bit of time doing some upper body strength work, before doing a charity bike ride for the Glencoe's annual fundraiser, Project Angel.

Today's Workout:

Exercise 1: Barbell Bench Press 5 sets / 8 - 10 reps / 2 min rest Set 1: 185lbs x 10 Set 2: 185lbs x 10 Set 3: 185lbs x 8 Set 4: 185lbs x 8 Set 5: 185lbs x 8

Exercise 2: Barbell Inclined Press 4 sets / 8 - 10 reps / 2 min rest Set 1: 135lbs x 10 Set 2: 135lbs x 10 Set 3: 185lbs x 6 Set 4: 155lbs x 8

The first part of the workout was a quick chest focused session. My buddy Harrison was giving me the gears about not going heavy enough. I've been going a bit conservative with the upper push movements to spare my shoulder, but things have been going really well, so I think next week I'm going to try and push the envelope. Besides I can't let Harrison get away with busting my balls like that.

The Wings on Wheels Charity Bike Ride was held today at the Glencoe club to raise funds for the Boy's and Girl's Club of Calgary. Starting this morning at 7am, and continuing for 12 hours, club members and employees kept 2 stationary bikes going all day. Every 30 minutes a new employee and club member would replace the previous pair on the bikes.

My partner on the bike ride was a great guy named Dick Seville. Initially, he wanted to donate a dollar for every calorie burned in 30 minutes. However, when we got to the bikes we were told that there was a bit of a competition going to see who could cover the most distance. Not wanting to be left out we decided to join in.

Wings on Wheels Charity Bike Ride:

Keiser Spin Bike: 30 minutes / Gear 7 - 11 / 130 - 140 + Avg RPM

Dick and I ended up setting the new record for distance, finishing just under 20 kilometres in 30 minutes. The thing is the competition was pretty flawed. The distance on our particular bikes was not very realistic. On most other stationary bikes, your distance is calculated as factor of your cadence and your resistance. On these bike the distance is calculated simply by cadence. The faster we went the farther we went. I started off with a somewhat medium resistance but then realized it wasn't making a difference if I had a higher gear or a lower gear at the same tension, so I decided to drop my resistance and try to maintain the highest cadence I possibly could. It was still a tough 30 minutes but I think If we decided to measure calories expended in 30 minutes it would have been much more difficult. Anyway, regardless of the flaws in the competition, the bike ride was a success. On the whole we raised a ton of money for a very worthy cause.