The weather in Atlanta today is perfect – right now it is 73 and sunny. Humorously, we had a few inches of snow on Sunday. That is Georgia weather for you.

This was my first opportunity to take my new Felt F80 for a decent ride. I originally had planned to head over to the Silver Comet in Smyrna. However, Twitter came to the rescue and saved me probably an hour and a half. How? Simple. About 45 minutes before I planned to leave, I tweeted the following:

Driving nearly 30 miles from #Decatur to go #bike 20(ish) miles on the Silver Comet in #Smyrna. Makes sense, right?

A friend saw my plea and suggested I check out the Stone Mountain Path, which somehow I had failed to realize even existed — despite it only being one mile away from where we are temporarily living!

So instead of having to drive 30 minutes halfway around 285 to get from Decatur to Smyrna where the Comet starts, I just biked down North Decatur Rd. and hopped on the Stone Mountain Path!

I rode out to the Stone Mountain Park, around the mountain and back. Total ride length was 24.66 miles. My speed was a (sort of embarassingly slow) 14.3mph. It took around an hour and forty-four minutes.

While in the park I must have been averaging around 16 mph or higher as you can get a continuous speed going (as compared to various stops and bike path switches that take place outside the park). The park is a lot of fun to ride as there are few cars, and when there are cars, they seem to defer heavily to the bikers and pedestrians. Plus, it’s scenic with the bald granite in view between the trees (probably moreso now in the winter than other parts of the year).

I took a couple of pictures on the way out and back with my Blackberry Curve and twitpic’ed them (out and back). Just to save them down for reference, here they are below.

First was a picture snapped on the way out. You can see the five-way intersection at the base of Stone Mountain Village:

Per my tweet:

8.28 miles out - #StoneMt Path (#biking) #ATL

And then on the way back, snapped this at a major intersection (some highway). It happens to be right next to Sonal’s uncle’s Texaco! Go figure.

My tweet documentation:

18.5 mi heading back to #Decatur loc: Uncle-in-law’s Texaco #StoneMt #biking Path

Was a good, fun ride. Hadn’t done a nice bike ride in awhile.

Enjoy this weather! Be Active!

About 42 hours fasted (a long fast), I did Tabata Thrusters (8 sets of 20 seconds work / 10 seconds rest) using a single 35 lb. kettlebell, alternating arms at each set. Managed 11 reps for all eight sets!

After maybe 10 or 15 minutes of “rest,” I took my new 2007 Felt F80 road bike (grabbed off eBay on the cheap) and took her out on a maiden five mile voyage. I was a bit nervous at first as a few SUVs seemed to pass me a bit too closely, but I soon found a huge empty parking lot wherein I could test higher speeds, turns, etc. Did about 5.3 miles in 22 minutes.

Overall, been a great fast and I feel very good right now. A 40+ hour fast (basically, eating your last meal at night one day and not eating until dinner two days later) seems a bit long, but I’ve had a good experience with it. It may be some sort of fasting sweet spot for me.

About 27 hours fasted, did the C8B300 in 16:39. Rested maybe four minutes or so and did about 23 minutes of “interval” stationary bike cardio, Level 10. This amounted to putting my heart rate around 140 bpm on average (I think peak was upper 150s). Total workout time was approximately 45 minutes.

Around midday today I did the following exercises with my 35 lb kettlebell:

ATB uppercuts 2x10
Single-arm swing/flip 2x10
ATB hot potatoes 2x10
Swing/flip/press/flip/swing 2x10
Thrusters 2x10 (per arm)

Then, I busted out my new 70 lb. kettlebell, that I got for $90 off Craigslist yesterday and did 10x10 two-handed swings with a minute of rest in between each set.

Definitely liking the 70 lber (a.k.a. two poods or 32 kg!). Just to see if I could do it, I managed a snatch per arm. Woot!

Later in the afternoon, I went on a 10 mile bike ride around the ‘hood. I’m pretty sure the cardio circuits have been helping me out because I managed the entire ride in 44 minutes, which is pretty fast on a mountain bike (I think averaged about 13.6 mph). Double-woot!

First thing I did after waking up this morning was:

10x3

- pull-ups
- push-ups
- air squats
- lunges (5 per leg)
- 10 breath plank

Then I just did another 20 pull-ups (yeah, a sort of random, incomplete workout).

After, I went to Cracker Barrel and ate a bunch of very tasty, nutritionally dubious food. Oh well.

And this afternoon, I braved the chilly Sunday afternoon (50s) and went on a 20 mile bike ride (ride time was 1:57 though there were a couple of dismounts in there – maybe cumulative 10 minutes of rest).

About 3 miles of this ride were on the mountain bike trail 3 miles south of the Savannah Rapids Pavilion. This trail, which is just so-so to begin with, has seen better days. A lot of fallen leaves, sections that had been dangerously washed out, four unleashed dogs (!!) and three new fallen trees barring the path (plus a lot of exposed roots that were often hidden) all combined to make for a less-than-ideal mountain bike riding experience.

Of course, when you’ve got FATS, why even bother with this trail, you ask? Well, going forward, I probably won’t.

For a gentle, flat canal ride, though, the Pavilion delivers every time.

The other seventeen miles of my route were pretty uneventful – though chilly.

Today’s jno WOD was a fat-burner (goal):

At the tail end of the longest fast to date (an amazingly easy, no hunger whatsoever, 43 hour fast when it’s all said and done – note not planning on making a habit out of this mind you), I did:

Warmed up with about 200 jump ropes and 10 dips.

On the minute 53 lb kettlebell swings for 10 rounds.

About a 10 minute rest (estimate).

5 mile leisurely bike ride (28:45 - 10.9 mph).

Felt great. Now time for a steak dinner!

Did the following on kettlebells:

• 5 minutes of KB drills using the 18 lb kettlebell (ATB flipping uppercuts, swing to catch to press to swing, single arm kb swings with a flip/catch, ATB uppercuts, AT
• 3x10 double KB (53lb) dead lifts
• 3x8 double KB (53lb) push press
• 3x5 per arm single KB (53lb) snatch
• 5x5 on the minute double KB (53lb) swings
• Stationary biking for about 10 - 15 minutes to cool down

Rested a minute between all sets except the double kettlebell swings.

About 26 hours into a fast, did:

• 2x10 of dips, chin-ups and air squats
• 10 x 10 (5 per arm) on the minute of 53 lb kettlebell high-pulls
• 10 minutes on a stationary bike (it rained today)

Workout today was:

• 5 minutes of alternating KB drills using an 18 lb kettlebell (Martone drills)
• On the minute kettlebell swings using a 53 lb kettlebell - 10 swings per minute for 10 minutes
• About a 10 minute break which involved me reinflating my bike tires!
• A 4.7 mile bike ride around the neighborhood. Took probably 25 minutes

Did a bit of breaking-a-sweat today. It consisted of:

- 10 minutes of kettlebell circuit training (uppercuts, swings, hot potato)
- 5 mile bike ride which took about 26 minutes
- maybe 15 minutes of hacky sack

All of this was in a fasted state. I started working out around 6pm – my last food intake was probably around 10pm last night (so 20 hour fast).