I’ve continued to lose weight over the last few weeks, but the final couple grams proved to be the hardest. After Waitsburg, I mentioned that I lost about 4 pounds of body weight. This put me right on my target for body fat, and I’ve maintained that very well since then.
My next step was to make some bike changes. A new fork, crankset, and saddle dropped my bike well below the UCI minimum. And, it is riding very nice right now. Body weight, check; bike setup, check; where do I look to next to drop some weight?
It wasn’t until my dentist mentioned the potential for weight savings that I actually anticipated getting my wisdom tooth pulled–something I had been putting off for awhile. I rate a trip to the dentist higher on the pain-o-meter than any bike race. Even a routine tooth cleaning puts bike race pain into perspective for me. I know cyclists love to brag about how much pain they endure as if they’re some sort of heroic figure that can endure hardship. Wimps. Try walking daily for hundreds of miles around mountains in sandals and a G-string like the Tendai monks. Try surviving a POW concentration camp. Even worse, try gutting out a session with the hygienist as she mutilates your gums and then heaps on coals by laying a guilt trip on you for not flossing. Perhaps I’m overreacting from a phobia rooted in getting 12 teeth pulled as a youngster and then have it followed up with metal in my mouth for a couple years. In any case, enduring a trip to the dentist is a display of insufferable willpower unmatched in the bicycle world.
Nevertheless, the thought of losing some non-function weight trumped the thought of the pain. It was over quickly and soon I was at home with tooth in hand and the pain starting to kick in, but I eagerly went to my scale. The tooth only weighed 2 grams. The dentist was postulating that ounces were a possibility, but he had duped me. They’re professionals at that. So that would make my 12 teeth pulled only about 20 grams of weight loss. For how strong teeth are, they’re fairly light (is Calfee getting any ideas). Since they’re so light, cyclists that are into weight loss might want to look at removing some other non-essential body parts like fingers, arms, toes, or feet.
I managed the pain fairly well with Ibuprofen just to avoid Percocet. The next day the pain subsided but my stomach didn’t feel good. All of this had me on a soft diet and feeling really low. Eventually I conceded that doing the state road race would probably be a waste of travel, which was a disappointment for me. I did end up feeling more normal on a ride Saturday and Sunday was even better. I’ve been climbing a lot lately and feeling fairly confident about Helkorn this year, especially if we get another storm like last week.
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