The Fit Nation

https://ift.tt/2FMgnVO Yesterday my group rode into the hills West of Morgan Hill, first south on Santa Teresa Boulevard to Day Road, then on Watsonville Road to Cictatic-Adams County Park. From there we did an out-and-back on Redwood Retreat Road to its end at the Fernwood Cellars winery. We then returned via Watsonville Road to Morgan Hill, for a total of just under 40 miles. There were some significant climbs so this was a good test of my recumbent. I was able to get a good enough lead on the flatter sections to give me a head start, then the group caught back to me on both Day Road and Redwood Retreat Road. It was fun playing cat and mouse like that on a pleasant country ride. Taking a Break at Kirigin Winery’s parking lot (top of Day Road) The parking lot at Chictatic-Adams Park The last stretch of Redwood Retreat Road Entrance to Fernwood Cellars My recumbent leaning against a tree out in front of Erik’s Deli where we had lunch

via Love Sweat Fitness https://ift.tt/uqpsIOz

via Love Sweat Fitness https://ift.tt/8qTSJsm

https://ift.tt/FZvm9jA https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-health.htm A recent study at Iowa State University showed that various important mental health indicators are significantly improved by voluntarily limiting the use of social media to no more than 30 minutes a day. This was reported in an article in Neuroscience News : “ Key Facts: Participants who limited their social media usage to 30 minutes a day demonstrated a significant reduction in anxiety, depression, loneliness, and fear of missing out. The study found that striving to reduce social media usage, even if occasionally exceeding the limit, still yielded positive mental health benefits. The researchers suggest this self-limiting method of reducing social media usage, which could be more practical than strict abstention, may serve as an effective intervention against rising mental health issues among young adults.” Since 45% of US teens are online “almost constantly” (a num...

https://ift.tt/5FQAB8C http://www.Amazon.com/books Jump Start – The Science of Exercise Therapy for Anxiety & Depression, by Benjamin Kramer, is a well-researched 29-page book reviewing research on exercise and its effects on depression and anxiety. The book reveals that multiple studies have shown the benefits for exercise on depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders: Exercise is a powerful preventative for mood disorders. Exercise has about the same benefits as medications for treating mood disorders. Those that use exercise for treating mood disorders are much less likely to relapse than those using drugs. It can be problematic starting an exercise program while depressed because it is harder to find the motivation. An interesting approach mentioned by the author is to start out with medication, which will alleviate symptoms. Then it might be easier to get started with exercising, and the drugs may not be needed longer-term. This is something that should be discu...

https://ift.tt/nqS5L8C Yesterday my bike group started their ride East of Gilroy at the Mendoza ranch entrance to Harvey Bear County Park. This is 12 miles from my house so I decided to take my e-bike to the start. Google Maps predicted 1 hour and 24 minutes for that ride, which seemed like an overestimate to me, plus I figured I’d be faster with electric assist. Fortunately, I left plenty of time, because it ended up taking 1 hour and 21 minutes. I think this was because the climb up Roop Road to Mendoza Ranch was slow, and I didn’t want to use too high a level of assist, I needed to save my battery for the trip back: I’d be riding from Mendoza Ranch back to our lunch place in town, about 11.5 miles, and this would be against the wind. The main part of the ride was up in the hills, out to the end of Gilroy Hot Springs Road and back, and then two other out-and-backs further south on Jamison Road and Canada Road. I headed back before the last regroup. I needed a head start since the gr...

https://ift.tt/e1DnRuW I finally got to the top of the leaderboard for the 70-74 age group on Strava for the segment I created . This goes from the visitor’s center on Coyote Creek trail, out to where the trail is closed off due to flooding just past Bailey Ave. My first attempt on this segment took 58:34. As I mentioned previously , I got a good improvement by taking several measures like using stiffer cycling shoes, eating breakfast, and making sure my tires were firm, which resulted in 51:30. Yesterday was the fifth attempt since then, and I think the further incremental gains were due to improved fitness. This feels good as validation that my training is going well. This is a good length of effort, kind of equivalent to a 10K run. I’ll be tired for a couple of days then feel fine.

https://ift.tt/d4U0PvT https://neurosciencenews.com/aging-social-participation-23413/ “Social Participation Paves the Way for Successful Aging”, a review article in Neuroscience News, discusses a study that followed 7000 older Canadians over a three-year period. Those with more social participation (volunteer work or recreational activities) were more likely to remain in good health over the three years. This fits in with the concept of social support, which I had previously listed as one of the “four pillars” of healthy aging. I liked this quote from the article: “‘Social prescribing’, a practice where medical professionals prescribe social activities, is gaining traction as a non-pharmacological intervention to support health in older adults.” That sounds like a great idea to me!

https://ift.tt/eijL6Qz We had a great turnout of 17 people for our group ride yesterday, on a nice spring-like sunny day. We headed Southeast towards Gilroy then toured around in the east foothills. There was a significant headwind from the south that we fought against on the way down, but it didn’t bother me as much on my recumbent. I knew we’d be doing some climbing so tried to stay at the front on the flatter sections since I’m slower climbing. This worked out well and I managed to stay with the group. The last part of the ride was really fun since we had a tailwind. It worked out to be a three-hour, 37-mile ride for me, at an average heart rate of 116, right in the range I want for a good aerobic workout. Visiting the pigs and goats at a little farm on Crews Road View to the West From Crews Road. It’s usually a perfect summer’s day for us here when the fog is just creeping over the Santa Cruz Mountains The gang heading up into the foothills off Roop Road We went to visit...

https://ift.tt/8QDSc4C My group ride was supposed to start at 10 this morning but there was an unexpected forecast of possible showers, unusual for us this late. I decided to put some rain gear on and ride anyway, I was pretty sure the group would cancel but I could just keep riding on my own. I headed towards the start of the ride and no one was there. I got rained on quite a bit around 10 but then it stopped, At about 10:20 I ran into a friend from the group who said the ride was postponed till 10:30 (which I’d also received a text about but didn’t hear the notification because my phone was hidden away). The postponement turned out to be a good choice because the rain did not return. It was mostly grey the rest of the ride but we did see some periods of sun. One odd occurrence was seeing hundreds of baby frogs crossing the trail, heading towards a pond next to it. We had a nice lunch afterward in downtown Morgan Hill. This turned out to be an extra-long ride for me of 4 hours and 20 ...

https://ift.tt/bV0Wwie A friend of mine has been diagnosed with some regurgitation in a couple of his heart valves. We don’t know the seriousness yet, and whether he might need replacements. This made me look into the state of the art in non-invasive procedures. When I was having my aortic valve replaced , there was a non-invasive procedure available called Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (Tavr), but at that time it had been only approved for patients who were at higher risk of complications from conventional heart-valve surgery. It has since been approved as an option for the general population. However, that would still not have been an option for me because I had a congenital condition known as a bicuspid aortic valve and Tavr doesn’t work for that. It turns out that in the six years since my surgery, there has been considerable progress, and trans-catheter procedures are now available for all four heart valves (shown below). https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/artic...

https://ift.tt/bxc0GDr Our friend Bob is rehabbing from his knee replacement about 5 weeks ago. So yesterday my group rode to see him. While we were there we visited (and fed carrots to) his two adorable donkeys, whose job is to mow his grass. This was a pleasant ride of just over two hours, with some challenging hills plus a pretty good headwind on the way back to lunch. I was tired after but feel great today. We ran into Princess as we turned into Bob’s driveway. We had to climb this hill, max gradient of 13%, to get to the house up the driveway. Quite a challenge on my recumbent. But the view from the top made it worthwhile Bob also has two beautiful labs. He and his wife Connie have lived here for 47 years. The group with our eager customers