A 55 mile day before June!

Just a quick announcement. I've already blogged about how we're much better conditioned this cycling season than last, owing to a fairly minimal indoor training regime (stationary bikes) over the winter. I also blogged about how it seemed almost easy to ride our first 35 mile day this year. On that note, it turns out the distance is closer to 32 miles--we got a new odometer that indicates that, anyway.

Well, we were looking for a day to up the mileage yet further and that day turned out to be yesterday. Saturday shaped up to be a really beautiful day, though there was a warning about the possibility of thunderstorms. I mapped out what I thought would be about a 50 mile route. We ended up having to take a detour but, when all was said and done, that we did 55 miles. And that before the month of June even started! Had we not taken the detour, the trip would likely have been even a little longer.

I wanted to blog about this since it has some significance and might even provide a sort of benchmark for future years. I also needed to make at least one blog entry during this month!

As far as future entries go, I've begun to think a bit about body fat levels and health. The basic line of reasoning I'm following is that there is an obvious connection between one's level of body fat and one's health--generally, the lower the body fat level, the better one's health will be. But I'm curious about what the threshold is: where is the tipping-point?

I've become curious about that after doing some more reading on P90X. They recommend a low-fat diet which, obviously, can help one lose weight. As I've previously written, though, I don't need to lose any weight. I'm right at about 200 lbs. right now and I think that, were I to lose any more weight, I'd start to become skinny. So, to what extent should I consider following a particular diet--whether the P90X diet or any other?

It's true that I have a higher body-fat level now than I've probably had at any other time in my life (evidence the rudimentary love handles I've mentioned in previous blog entries). But is it any unhealthy level? Also, reading on the P90X forums has convinced me that a lot of the folks posting there are trying to lower body fat levels not for health reasons, but for vanity reasons: they want their muscle definition to be more pronounced. But is there any net health gain in getting body fat levels down to that point? I have my doubts, but do need to explore the matter further.

An example from competitive athletics may be helpful to underline the point. We generally have the impression that professional and competitive athletes are in excellent health. And in certain respects this is true. But my years of bicycle racing brought me to the realization that competitive athletics can actually worsen your health. How? One example from bicycle racing is the risk of accident: and cycling accidents run the gamut from minor, to those that result in serious injury, to those that even result in death (professional bicycle racers do occasionally die as a result of their injuries). Then, there are stress injuries incurred by basketball or football players that can result in an early end to a career (think Sandy Coufax or Dick Butkus). And the suffering associated with those injuries surely only increases with age. So, the equation of health with elite athletic pursuits should not be made facilely.

What, then, is the story with body fat? Could, for example, competitive bodybuilders, who attempt to lower their body fat levels to the extreme, actually be harming more than helping their health in the overall? And what about the average joe, who engages in training and fitness activities primarily to improve health? What is the appropriate body fat level in this case?

I hope to blog about this and more soon. Stay tuned.