The Fit Nation

https://ift.tt/otM4ekLA5 I rode to the park at Calero reservoir and met my hiking meetup group there. I was going to take my electric-assist recumbent but had a last minute malfunction with it, so I had to go with my upright. That put me behind schedule so just getting there on time was a serious workout. Then we went for a little over two hour hike with a good bit of climbing in the park. I was able to take it somewhat easier on the bike going home. A great workout overall, my legs were ready for a rest afterwards. Our group. A friendly passerby took the photo. Turkey Vulture Ready to Take Off View of Part of the Reservoir Some Interesting Fungi

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https://ift.tt/3Gbyvvk This is the title of an article by Alex Hutchinson in his column “sweat science” in Outside Magazine. He looked at recent research on how different types of training contribute to improving our aerobic output. The bottom line appears to be that longer more moderate efforts, like brisk walking or slower running, cause more “central adaptations” like improving your heart’s pumping capacity. Shorter more intense efforts, like sprint intervals, cause more “peripheral adaptations”, like improving the ability of your muscles to take up oxygen. So overall the ideal type of training is- both. Years ago I remember Clarence Bass commenting that “I walk and I sprint, I don’t do anything in between”. It seems like he was onto something. Following Clarence’s lead, I do mostly easier efforts at what I consider a “brisk but comfortable pace”, such as biking or hiking. A couple of times a week I throw in 8×30 second intervals at what feels like sprint pace to me. At my age, ...

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https://ift.tt/3u67jMe I need to transition to using my uphill walking and hiking muscles more to prepare for my vertical K challenge in June. So today I did a little over two hour workout, spending the first part standing up to pedal continuously on my bike, which uses similar muscles. Then I climbed up the hill on the Thomas Grade , walking and pushing the bike. This is a nice and steep local challenge. A good workout, with leg muscles a bit sore afterwards from using them in a way they’ve not been accustomed to lately. So I need to do this type of thing on a regular basis now. Looking up the hill at the bottom of the Thomas grade. It’s misleading from here, it has a lot of switchbacks and is further than it looks. It’s just about a mile with 260 m elevation gain, 8.7% average grade. View out over Morgan Hiil from partway up Back home, the Magnolias are starting to bloom. It’s a nice time of the year around here when the weather is nice, it can feel like late fall and sprin...

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https://ift.tt/3rO7id4 I just read The End of Cravings by Mark Schatzker which has an interesting new theory (and data to back it up) about what causes overeating. As you know, I’m an advocate of eating whole foods and avoiding overly-processed foods, and have presented evidence such as in Dr. Michael Greger’s book How Not to Diet , and the Pleasure Trap , by Drs. Doug Lisle and Alan Goldhamer. I also talked about the book Salt, Sugar, Fat , by Michael Moss, that describes how food industry science search for the “bliss point”, the combination of ingredients that make food irresistible. A common theory is that these processed foods are overly tasty, or hyperpalatable, and fool our brains into craving to eat too much of them. But Mark Schatzker shows some fascinating pieces that don’t quite fit that theory, plus some new evidence. This doesn’t change the bottom line that it’s good to eat mostly whole foods and avoid overly processed foods, but it adds some nuances to the reaso...

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https://ift.tt/3tMb09K Today I did my first really hard ride since my recovery from my vertigo incident in December. I rode at a fast tempo standing up to pedal of an hour, which kept my heart rate at a brisk aerobic pace (for me) of 120. Then I did a bunch of fast sprints standing, followed by on-bike strength training and a cooldown. It all felt great. Tempo, mostly standing for an hour Heart Rate Fluctuations during standing sprints For motivation I signed up for the “vertical K”, part of the Broken Arrow Skyrace series, at Palisades Tahoe in June. This is about a 7 km running race with about a km of vertical, hence the term vertical K. I’ll be power hiking the uphill sections. There are only a couple of short downhills, and I can get away with running on them. I’ll be interested to see how I do compared to others my age. Last year’s overall winner finished in just over 45 minutes, I’ll probably take more than twice that (last year’s fastest finisher my age took 89 minutes). ...

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https://ift.tt/3fHdSfX I took a long ride down to South San Jose and climbed up Bernal hill to Santa Teresa Park. I was dressed for the occasion so it was quite pleasant. Of course when I say “cold” it was by our standards in this area… The Santa Cruz Mountains are blurry off in the distance

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https://ift.tt/3AaiSD6 Martin Luther King Day fell yesterday this year. It is celebrated between January 15th-21st, on the Monday closest to his actual birthday (January 15th). I am a big fan of Dr. King’s. I was ten years old when we saw him on TV giving his “I have a dream speech” from the Lincoln memorial, with 200,000 people, black and white, who had participated in the peaceful march on Washington in attendance. It made a huge impression on me. He and Mahatma Gandhi were two great leaders of the 20th century that achieved lasting change with nonviolent means. Gandhi called the determined but nonviolent resistance to what is wrong satyagraha, or “soul force”. We need more of it in the world. On Monday night the Los Angeles Rams and Arizona Cardinals had played each other in an NFL playoff game. They wore this on the backs of their helmets in tribute to Dr. King , which I found very appropriate. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/buddha_140929

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https://ift.tt/3qy7iOX My Doc had me do some follow-up blood work. Last June all my “lipid panel” results had been great. Since then, pretty much all is well except my LDL crept up. I had a six-month follow-up with my cardiologist also. Both he and my GP want to check this again in 3 months. I must admit I’ve let my diet slip a little, especially over the holidays. I don’t believe in “forbidden foods”, but try to keep them in two categories “healthy, eat on a regular basis”, and “special treats”, and I try to keep the treats to under 20%. That can be a slippery slope, and my treat consumption definitely crept up over the holidays. Eating healthy is part of an overall “healthy aging lifestyle” I try to follow. As I mentioned in a recent post , I sometimes emphasize some aspects of this more than others- it’s easier to emphasize the things I enjoy more! So I’m working on doing a better job on all aspects, including healthy eating and some facets I sometimes tend to give “lip service”...

https://ift.tt/320Wtvo I took my recumbent on the Coyote Creek trail a few miles, then got stopped where the trail crosses a ford and was flooded out. So this ended up being an out-and-back. Today was “hard day” for legs so on the way back I did some intervals and on-bike strength training (hill repeats in a high gear). It was an enjoyable workout on a nice day. View of the Santa Teresa Foothills and Santa Cruz Mountains in the distance from an overpass on Bailey Ave after turning around. Coyote Creek Visitors Center A Meadow at the start of the trail

https://ift.tt/3ttstDI I mentioned recently that one of the “wake-up call” lessons I took away from my recent health scare was to make my training more balanced overall. This includes a good physical mix of aerobics, strength training, stretching, and balance, as well as mental training like meditation and mindfulness, and healthy eating. I did a bit of all of the above today to celebrate my 69th birthday, and it was a great day. Ok, I did party a little also! After doing my strength training I rode my bike to the bottom of a steep local hill, Barnard road, and walked up. View from about halfway up. Some of my balance exercises: Tandem stance, one-legged on a firm surface, one-legged on a flexible surface (balance pad). With the balance pad, you can see I still need to “cheat” with a finger. But these are all improving every day.

https://ift.tt/3I0lBSg I went for my first two-hour ride since my vertigo incident today and it went fine. It was nice to be back out, especially on a sunny day with the hills green. We have more rain coming (thank goodness) but I’m enjoying the sunshine while it lasts. Rural area and hills southwest of downtown Morgan Hill

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https://ift.tt/33o3YNg https://www.cbass.com/success_stories18.html Clarence Bass’s website has a couple of inspirational role models this month for healthy aging. The first is Professor Dan Mandelker, a 95-year-old professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. He has just retired from teaching, after 72 years, not because he can’t do it well anymore-he still gets top reviews from his students. But he wants to have more time to devote to his writing. He is mentally sharp as ever, and physically also still in good shape. He had to cut back on his exercise, which includes stretching and strength training focusing on functional movements, because he’d been having problems with falls. But that has thankfully been traced to a balance problem with his inner ear (which struck close to home for me) that is under control with medication. So now he is as active as ever. He works with a personal trainer for his strength training, and makes sure he moves around a lot on all days, g...

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https://ift.tt/3JZrkK7 Another favorite activity I can do again is walking or hiking in the hills that are too far to get to from my house on foot. So today for the first time in weeks I rode my bike to West Morgan Hill can walked some of the hills over there. That went great, so my next adventure will be to return to my favorite local hiking trail, the Arrowhead loop in Coyote Valley Open Space. Wright Avenue and the lower slopes of El Toro View from the top

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https://ift.tt/33mrnik I saw my Doc again for a followup, and things are looking well enough that she Okd riding outside and driving. I haven’t had a repeat of the vertigo symptoms that hospitalized me about 3 weeks ago, nor have I had any other signs of dizziness. Unfortunately we can’t be sure there won’t be a recurrence in the future, so I still have to be careful. In retrospect I had a pretty strong warning the first time. My vision got blurry a couple of hours before the actual vertigo attack, If that had happened while riding or driving I would have been able to safely limp home. So, for now, it’s driving or riding locally, and we’ll bump up the distance as I get more confident. I’ll also revisit my status on Jan. 25th when I see an ear specialist. Today I took advantage by going for an easy local ride on my conventional bike, minimizing exposure to traffic by taking quiet local roads with good bike lanes over to the Coyote Creek path. That went fine for about an hour, so I cam...

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https://ift.tt/eA8V8J Mauricio Leonardo Fernandez contacted me about translating one of my posts into Spanish. He chose “ Transitioning to Healthier Eating- Advice From a Mediocre Cook “. I was honored to see the result on the site http://www.ibidemgroup.com which posts “ideas worth translating” in Spanish. The link to the results is here . In addition to being pleased to see something I wrote translated, this is also great for me because I am trying to learn Spanish with Duolingo and this is something for me to practice on (admittedly at an advanced level for me). Thanks Mauricio!

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https://ift.tt/3pZAspQ I’m not sure when I’ll be cleared to ride on the road again, I need to first be assured that reoccurrence of my recent severe vertigo is unlikely, or that there’ll be some sort of warning symptom. I think that will have to wait until I see an ear specialist on Jan 25. In the meantime, in addition to walking outside for enjoyment, I’m looking into ways to make indoor cycling more fun. It’s already an enjoyable workout when I do intervals, but that is only a couple days a week (“hard leg” day). https://www.verywellfit.com/do-recumbent-bikes-provide-effective-workouts-4177280 I needed something else for easy days. The craziest thing I tried was an Occulus VR headset. I figured I could find videos of cycling in beautiful places I could immerse myself in. That didn’t work because it drove my eyes crazy and gave me a headache, despite the fact that I’d tried everything they suggested to adjust them properly. I should have known this might be an issue because 3D mov...