My RAGBRAI 2009 training started in Jan 2009, when I started the "south beach diet". which emphasizes reducing carbohydrates in your diet. I'm about 6ft tall, long waist, and weighed about 225 lbs. I stuck with the diet for several months. In the first few weeks, I suffered from some dizzyness, and during the whole diet period, I felt "weak" -- low energy. Whenever I exercised (mostly on my treadmill), I got tired very quickly, and lacked strength. I lost about 10 lbs on the diet in 3 months.
In March, I started exercising more, and adding carbs back into my diet. I walked/jogged on my treadmill more often. I also taught my 5 year old how to ride a bike, which involved a great deal of running for several weeks until he felt confident enough to ride without me holding his shoulder. When the weather warmed up a bit in late March, I started getting some riding miles in.
As of this writing (2 weeks before RAGBRAI 2009), I've got about 800 miles on my road bike, about 100 miles riding on my tandem with the kids, and additional, uncounted miles riding my bike to work. I should be able to get in another 100 miles or so this next week before tapering off for the ride. Compared to a couple of friends also doing the ride, I feel I'm relatively well prepared. I'm down to 205 lbs, which will help make the climbing in hilly southern Iowa a bit easier.
