The Fit Nation

https://ift.tt/4GMQRXn Yesterday I did a brisk ride West of Morgan Hill with my Sunday riding buddies. We went around Chesbro and Uvas reservoirs and threw in an out-and-back on Croy Road to the county park at the end. They are all serious road riders, a bit younger and a lot faster than me, but they don’t mind me tagging along with my electric-assist bike. This was a pleasant two-hour outing and we finished just when it was starting to heat up. The entrance to the Swedish-American community Sveadal on Croy Road, with someone’s cabin nestled under the redwoods to the left . Sveadal maintains a one-lane road through their property, but the County has an easement to allow access to the park on the other side . Looking Down Croy Road in the direction we came up from, with an impressive stand of redwoods . At the entrance to Uvas Canyon County Park .

https://ift.tt/TBhzXJG Yesterday was one of my two hard day rides a week. I headed south on the back roads in San Martin, switched to the West side of the valley on East Middle Road, then went north for a bit. The hard part is that I try to keep my heart rate up in the “ zone 2 ” range for most of the ride, then at the end, I throw in some sprints. If I do this right I’m pleasantly tired but not overly so afterwards. I got it right yesterday and felt great later in the day. The last of the fog burning off on the foothill east of Morgan Hill Approaching the Model Air Station on the Coyote Creek trail, with the Santa Cruz Mountains in the distance

https://ift.tt/vrx0GZT Yesterday my group rode up into the hills Southwest of Morgan Hill, then south to cross Hecker pass highway, where we picked up the scenic bike trail that goes all the way to the Gilroy Sports Complex. We returned to Morgan Hill via Santa Teresa boulevard against a headwind, which was welcome because it was cool and the day was heating up. I was able to give some of the riders in the back a draft on my recumbent. This is a nice route, with beautiful scenery, both on Burchell road and along the bike path. Climbing Day Road. This was challenging on a recumbent. I made sure I got a good head start on the flats leading up to the climb, but most of the group still caught and passed me. Regrouping at the end of Day Road at the entrance to Kirigin Cellars Starting down Burchell road A very wooded area further down Burchell road provided welcome shade On the bike path with with the foothills of the Gavilan mountains in the distance and Uvas Creek preserve ...

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https://ift.tt/qZ6KI2t I wanted to get some pictures of new scenery so decided to head for the local hills on my e-bike. The fastest way to get up in the hills from where I live is Llagas Road which winds up fairly steeply. I continued on to Oak Glen Ave and also investigated some side roads off both Llagas and Oak Glen that I had not been on in a long time. This ended up being an enjoyable ride of just under 90 minutes. I was also pleased I was able to stand up to pedal for longer periods. This had been a favorite activity of mine on upright bikes, but there is still some residual soreness from the injury I sustained several months back in my SI joint . I’ve been mostly riding seated with short standing stints interspersed for breaks from the saddle. But yesterday I was able to stand for several minutes at a time with no discomfort. I will work on improving this gradually with time. Glen Ayre Road, off Llagas, Takes You Into a Rural area with some nice homes Shade and Scenery on...

https://ift.tt/0OLDHbt Yesterday after my morning upper body workout, I went for a ride with my hybrid e-bike. This has fairly fat tires (38 mm) so it does well off pavement. I took a back road with lots of gravel shoulders (Dougherty Ave) to Palm Ave to the Coyote Valley Open Space preserve , then did some more off-road riding there. The high was 95 F (35 C) but it was still reasonably cool at the time of my ride so it was enjoyable. Start of the Arrowhead trail in Coyote Valley Open Space End of the Arrowhead trail Scenery near Llagas Road, El Toro hidden behind the trees

https://ift.tt/BJlosSM This is from the title of a good introductory book on e-bikes by Dave Hogan http://www.Amazon.com/books Dave does a great job of motivating how e-bikes are good exercise, are more likely to get people to ride, and are especially good for older adults. Each chapter ends with inspiring profiles of happy riders, on a variety of different bikes like small folding bikes, conventional upright bikes, and recumbent trikes. For some of these folks their e-bikes were life-changing, allowing them to get active again despite serious health challenges.

https://ift.tt/z6v1fYE Yesterday was forecast to get to 100 F (37.8 C) so I got on the road early at 7:30 for a longer ride. I rode out to the Hellyer Velodrome and back in delightful cool temperatures. By then it was warming up a bit as I finished up with some cruising in San Martin. By the time I got home at 11:00, it was still only 82 F (27.8 C). This was a nice morning workout. The trail was pretty busy, I think a lot of people had the same idea of getting it done before the heat. The fog just breaking up over the Santa Cruz Mountains. Getting ready for Saturday beginner class at the velodrome. I’ll have to try it sometime. They throw in a track bike rental for a reasonable rate.

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https://ift.tt/4BaPrDU I did a harder and longer group ride on Tuesday, so yesterday was a recovery ride. Just a one-hour local cruise on my recumbent which I found very relaxing. I finished before noon so it was still cool enough. We’re having another hot spell here, it will reach 100 F this weekend, but fortunately, it is still fairly cool in the mornings. A good time to work on getting up early enough to get my workouts in. Local Rural Street With a Good view of El Toro across the field

https://ift.tt/ZkpIGnQ http://www.Amazon.com/books I just read this inspiring book from 2016 by the late psychiatrist Dr. Jerry Jampolski and psychologist Dr. Diane Cirincione (who is also Jerry’s widow). Jerry passed away at 95 in 2020. They are the co-founders of the Center For Attitudinal Healing in Tiburon, California, which has grown into an international organization, Attitudinal Healing International . The “attitude adjustment” referred to in the title is being less judgemental, more forgiving, and more unconditionally loving. My favorite part of the book is a lot of stories of happy elders who live by these principles. I find that the better I can follow these principles the happier I am. As we grow older, we can drag along the accumulated baggage of decades of guilt and resentment. Forgiveness helps dump this load, which is a great relief. And various authors will point out that forgiveness does not mean condoning bad actions, instead, it is a refusal to carry around res...

https://ift.tt/3yA0Osu There is a nice park that gives access to Rosendin Point above Anderson Dam. It is easy to get to from the dam but that is blocked for the foreseeable future because of the seismic retrofit project at the dam. However, there is still a backway through Holiday Lake Estates at the top of East Dunne Ave. So a couple of days ago I took my e-bike up there. It was interesting to see that Lake Anderson is almost empty from all the rain we got over the winter and spring. There was a pond in the park that is not there in normal years, however, due to the leftover rainwater. On the Trail Up To Rosendin Point. The arrow points to the empty Lake Anderson The Bonus Pond in the Park I was curious if Lake Anderson being empty meant the level of Coyote Creek finally went down, which would mean the fords of the Coyote Creek trail would hopefully no longer be flooded. So I checked that out yesterday, and indeed for the first time in months, you can ride the length of Coyote...

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https://ift.tt/XDH6aYh This is the title of Maria Parker’s inspiring book. Maria is an extremely talented ultra-endurance athlete. I first found out about her more than 10 years ago when she started setting ultra cycling records on her Cruzbike recumbent (she has four World Ultramarathon Cycling Association records for 100 miles, 200 miles, 12 hours, and 24 hours). Maria on her Cruzbike quest. https://cruzbike.com/blogs/blog/my-summer-on-a-quest Back then I owned Cruzbike’s quest model. These are unusual bikes, invented by the brilliant Australian mechanical engineer John Tolhurst. Maria and her husband Jim are the owners of Cruzbike . The bikes have front-wheel drive, and the pedals pivot with the handlebars, which takes some getting used to. You have to counter the tendency of the pedal stroke to steer the bike by pulling back on the handlebars. But once you get used to it they are a blast. Experienced riders can ride with no hands and steer with their feet. I never got th...

https://ift.tt/V59Jb1v A recent article in Neuroscience News covers a Stanford study [1] on cell secretions during exercise. These were previously known about but it was not possible to isolate them from the blood for study. The Stanford group came up with a novel way to dive deeper into the blood to isolate these molecules, called exerkines. The study was on mice and had some surprising results. One was the high number of exerkines produced during exercise. “This means that the effects of physical activity are very widespread across many tissues and organ systems,” one of the co-authors of the study said. “We’re only just starting to understand that complexity.” A second surprise was some unexpected healthy changes (anti-obesity, anti-diabetic, and exercise performance-enhancing) related to liver cells. This new approach is promising and I’m interested in seeing it repeated in humans. References Wei, W, et al, “Organism-wide, cell-type-specific secretome mapping of exercise tr...

https://ift.tt/zpaDR8Z Yesterday was an easy recovery day so I did a cruise down to San Martin on country roads to the Southeast of Morgan Hill. It makes the legs feel great to go at an easy pace the day after a harder workout. There’s a little mini-farm on the route with a very inquisitive alpaca that I like to visit. Next time I’ll try to remember to bring him carrots. View to the West of San Martin. The fog looked beautiful crawling over the Santa Cruz Mountains. Unfortunately, this photo doesn’t do it justice with the trees in the way. My Alpaca Buddy and some of his critter friends