Andy Laub

I’ve made it no secret that I’m a huge bike nerd. I’ve spent countless hours poring over cycling websites and forums, reading about new gear, and just generally obsessing about things that a normal person wouldn’t give a second glance to. I have brand preferences, and I can list off the parts that I would put on my dream bike at any given time, from memory. I’ve cleared well over 3000 miles this year on a bike I’ve only had since March. So why have I only broken 100 miles (nearly all of them indoors) this month? There are a few reasons:

Weather

It’s October, and apparently it’s been decided that good weather is done for the year. It’s cool at best; windy and rainy at worst. I feel bad for not riding to work, but I don’t miss the hassles that it brings in terms of clothing and preparation. I’ll admit it – when you’re used to getting places under your own power, driving becomes one of those guilty pleasures.

Reliability

I’ve been constantly afflicted by a flat rear tire in the past two months. I couldn’t figure out what was causing it, but I was going through a tube every few rides or so. For that reason biking was no longer a reliable mode of transportation for me. I couldn’t justify trying to squeeze in 15 or 20 miles if I knew I’d have to spend a portion of it on foot, hoofing it to a gas station.

Time

I was trying to average 20-25 miles a day when I was riding during the summer. It wasn’t terribly difficult when I was going to and from work twice a day, but no matter how you slice it that ends up being nearly 90 minutes of riding, which is a time commitment that I’m just not interested in making when reason number one comes into play.

Disinterest

When all the reasons above combine it makes for an experience that’s just not enjoyable anymore. One alternative is to train indoors (I picked up a set of rollers earlier this year), but it is seriously boring, and not something I want to do everyday (if at all).

A Solution

With all this in mind, I thought it would be a good idea to start running.

Here’s the funny thing about that. I suck at running… or at least, I did. I couldn’t run a mile to save my life, and if by some miracle I did manage, my lungs would be on the verge of exploding so it may have been a self-defeating act. My very first run (in recent history, at least) consisted of a distance of about 1.5 miles, half of which were walked.

I paid for it dearly. My major mistake was opting to wear the Nike Free’s that I used for Wii Fit. While they were fine for a more aerobic use, they were terribly unsuccessful at dealing with the foot-to-pavement interaction, and my hips were out of whack for two days afterwards.

When I finally did recover (read: when I could walk without being in pain), I decided to give it another go, this time in a pair of borrowed Nike Shox. While I didn’t much care for the feel of them (Shox in general seem relatively heavy) they did a much better job of absorbing the impact and left me feeling much less damaged the second time around.

The fact that I committed to a second run at all is something of a miracle, as I don’t think I’ve ever reached that phase before. Apparently, that’s all it took. I lucked out and found a pair of Nike Zoom Start +, and the deal was sealed.

Nike +

It was no accident that I ended up with a pair of shoes that are Nike + compatible; that was basically one of my only requirements when searching. When it comes to exercise, stats have worked in my favor in the past, so I had no doubt they would work their magic again.

I was right. When base your distance on landmarks instead of hard data, it’s easy convince yourself you’ve gone farther than you actually have, and to feel more entitled to a break. The little voice in my ear told me otherwise, which made the little voice in my brain say “Keep going! You can do it!”

As it turns out, I can do it. In spite of the extremely temperamental weather (which fades to the background once warmed up) and the sporadic pain (which is assuaged by time on the rollers) I’ve found that I actually do love to run. It’s such a simple activity, and that’s why I was always frustrated that it always seemed to escape me before. It carries a lot of the same traits that I enjoy about cycling without the drawbacks. I’ll openly acknowledge that it’s harder on the body, but I’m getting more done in less time (in terms of exercise) and I don’t have to worry about random equipment failures.

And I can listen to music while exercising, which is basically a deathwish on a bike when you’re on public roads.

I get headaches. Migraines. It’s kind of hard to pin down a frequency; it seems there are blocks of time that are months long where they’re a weekly occurrence, and then some shift in life or climate or Daylight Savings Time will happen and they will leave me alone for awhile.

If I had to guess I’d say that boredom, stress, and stale/gross air are all factors. Every so often, the perfect storm of these elements comes together my eyes start to hurt. Then the nausea sets in, I plod through the rest of the workday and head to bed when I get home, hoping to wake up headache-free the next morning.

I was resigned to this routine for years. None of the pain relievers I tried made much of a difference, to the point where I no longer even bothered with them.

But I haven’t had a debilitating migraine since September, and I blame it on exercise. Maybe that’s not entirely the case; after all, it was also around that time that I started using Target’s version of Excedrin. Taking one pill any time a headache seemed imminent has actually been effective, but I’m not willing to give medicine all the credit.

For me, headaches have always been caused as much by mental factors as physical. As soon as I feel a headache I begin to obsess about it, which only makes it worse because it’s all I can focus on. Even when taking some kind of relief, I’m more than halfway convinced it won’t do any good – and I am often proven right.

But factor exercise into the equation and that’s where the magic happens. Take today for example – I was feeling the beginnings of a pretty wicked headache by the time I got home from work. I popped a couple of Fakecedrin and ran for half an hour, and just like that, it was gone. Yes, I’m sure the pills did their job, but they were enabled by my complete preoccupation with something else (which is why sleeping it off usually worked).

It’s because of this that exercise for me has now become something even more than just fitness – it’s pain relief. People have asked me if I feel different after losing weight; the answer is yes and no. I don’t feel particularly light on my feet or anything like that, but it’s little things like this that have made life so much easier.

Yesterday marked day 120 of Wii Fit, so I’ll start with the numbers:

BMI: 22.18 / Weight 167.3 for a total loss of 6.51 BMI percentage points and 48.7 lbs.

Not bad, but it’s slight increase from my all-time low of 21.83 / 164.7 lbs. And the numbers aren’t nearly as impressive as they had been the previous three months. But that’s because I stopped worrying about it.

Two weeks ago, something in me snapped. I had reached the point where I was sitting just around BMI 22, and not losing any more weight. By anyone’s standard, this is a healthy number, but I had become addicted to the process, to the thrill of seeing those numbers drop.

I realized it was keeping me from enjoying food, making me skip the occasional breakfast, pushing me to work 20 more minutes on top of what I was already doing. I decided it was time to let it go, and just enjoy eating again. So I did. I kept working out, but I stopped measuring for a week. And I ate horribly and indiscriminately: Pizza Hut, pasta, cookies (I missed them so), muffins – you name it.

When the next week rolled around, I stepped on the proverbial scale again, dreading the inevitable increase. I figured it was going to be big, regardless of how much exercise I had been doing in the meantime.

I was very wrong. It was two pounds. Two. It was then I realized that I don’t need to worry about this anymore. I’m going to enjoy eating again, and I will keep working out. But to lose nearly fifty pounds (with a video game!) during the middle of winter is a pretty fantastic victory for me.

So with that, consider this my wrap-up review of Wii Fit. It works.