The Fit Nation

https://ift.tt/BXhuLwN Our weather has gone back to sunny but still cool and delightfully springlike. I took advantage of this with several recumbent rides. On Saturday I did an easy recovery ride. Sunday was a hard day: I did a 27 km time trial to the southwest of Morgan Hill at a pretty brisk tempo. I followed that up with some shorter intervals and sprints. Pretty challenging workout, but enjoyable on a nice day. Yesterday I did my upper body workout followed by another recovery ride, which was very relaxing. Saturday’s ride is posted here , Sunday’s here . Monday’s upper body workout is here , and the ride is here . Vineyards heading East on Main ave Heading North on Cochrane road The ford is open on Coyote Creek trail just north of Bailey! The second ford a little further north near Coyote Ranch road is also not flooded The Foothills East of San Martin while turning onto Center Road On Columbet Ave northbound in San Martin Yesterday

https://ift.tt/OA8Zb2X On Thursday I did my upper body strength training workout then did an easy ride on my recumbent. Friday I tried out the recumbent with a 28″ rear wheel and 20″ front. I did a little better on my two local short time trials, the digital loop and the “New Morgan Hill criterium” (that’s it’s name on Strava). These are good tests because they are shorter (one is about like running a quarter mile and the other like running a half mile) and easy to get to, so I think these will be my go to speed tests in the future. Thursday’s upper body workout is posted here , the ride is here . Friday’s rides are here and here . 28″ rear wheel/20″ front. This is a little bit less aero than the 28″/28″ combination because during part of the pedal cycle the foot drops below the level of the bottom of the seat, leading to more frontal area. I don’t think that affects my speed too much as my times with 28/20 were not much slower than 28/28 on time trials. Maybe my nerdy engineer brai...

https://ift.tt/OakHIYB Tuesday was cool and mostly cloudy and we even had intermittent sprinkles, which were not forecast. It was also in sharp contrast to the warmer sunny weather we’ve had lately. I went with my group Southwest of Morgan Hill and up into the hills out Redwood Retreat road and back. There were only four of us, making for a nice intimate ride with good companions. Yesterday I rode my recumbent, trying out the higher-performance carbon seat combined with 20″ wheels front and back. This was easier to ride than the stock configuration (two 28″ wheels) but a bit slower. Later this week I’ll try 28″ rear/20″ front wheels. I’m hoping that If I lower the seat a little to maintain the same angle, this will be as fast as 28/28 but still easier to ride. Vineyards along Redwood Retreat More scenery on Redwood Retreat. One of our riders had not been out here before, and would like to come back on a sunnier day I’m very interested in the continuing fast evolution of AI tech...

https://ift.tt/DakpFVT Saturday I took my upright bike on some local dirt and gravel trails nearby for some fun riding on a nice day. Sunday was hard day so I took my recumbent for a fast tempo ride down in San Martin with some intervals and sprints on the way back. Yesterday was hard upper body day. I modified my routine to work around my carpal tunnel diagnosis, because I noticed that my wrists flex and extend while arm-cycling. I could modify the grips to fix that, but for now I just omitted it. Instead I did a warmup walking with light hand weights, then did strength training with resistance bands. I followed that with sprints on my kayak simulator that uses resistance bands. I then did my resistance band canoe simulator, and low punches (that are effectively the opposite of the canoe motion). I finished with a cooldown with light resistance on the kayak simulator, and some more walking with hand weights. This was a challenging but enjoyable upper body workout. I then went on a 45...

https://ift.tt/9wAl1Yj http://www.Amazon.com/books Live to Ride: Finding Joy and Meaning on a Bicycle is a book by Peter Flax, a former editor of Bicycling Magazine. It is full of stories that celebrates the various kind of experiences we can have on bikes. It is also describes the diverse sub-cultures among bicyclists, such as casual riders, serious road riders, bmx riders, mountain bikers, gravel bikers, e-bike riders, etc. Peter argues for these groups all to be accepting of each other, with which I thoroughly agree. Throughout the book he also sprinkles tidbits of bike history, and descriptions of bikes and accessories. My only regret was that he never mentioned one of my own “subgroups” (recumbent riders). But I found the reading enjoyable.

https://ift.tt/GaTBHMs On Tuesday my local group went on a nice loop ride on a beautiful spring day. I led this one, pinch-hitting for our usual leader Kris. We did a counterclockwise loop around Chesbro and Uvas reservoirs, with an extra out-and-back on Casa Loma road to Rancho Canada Del Oro open space. Because I was leading I took my e-bike which made it easier for me to be in the back or up front as needed. I also used enough assist so I didn’t have to push too hard, so this counted as an easy day even though we rode more than 30 miles. On Wednesday I did a solo ride on my recumbent. I experimented with leaving the 28″ back wheel on, putting the 20″ wheel back on up front, and putting my more upright cruising seat on. With this configuration I re-rode my 19K San Martin time trial!!. I was 10% slower than having the bike in my performance set-up (28″ wheels front and back, more reclined seat, and headrest), as expected. But my time today of 45:13 was a bit faster than my previous f...

https://ift.tt/7s2P0ki On Sunday I took it easy because I was sore from using unaccustomed muscles working the rest stop Saturday, so I just went for an hour-long easy spin. Monday I did an upper body workout for 40 minutes (only 18 min shows up on Strava because I didn’t remember to start my timer at first). I followed that with a hard 90 min ride, with multiple sprints of 90 sec, 45 sec, 20 sec thrown in. That was a very enjoyable workout. Sunday’s ride is on Strava here , Monday upper body here , biking here . On Santa Teresa Blvd- Green dinosaur preparing to eat bus

https://ift.tt/ro8eCK4 Each year my bike club, Almaden Cycle Touring Club, puts on the Tierra Bella Bicycle Tour , yesterday being the 45th annual version. The weather around here has been superb lately, springlike and sunny. Until yesterday, when Mother Nature decided to have cold rain all day. I was volunteering at the Gilroy Hot Springs rest stop, which CalFire lets us put on at their fire station way up on Gilroy Hot Springs Road. This remote stop is reached only by riders who do either the 74 mile (120 km) or 100 mile (161 km) routes. As we were setting up in the rain in the early morning, I thought to myself this was an exercise in futility as we would probably have no customers! I couldn’t have been more wrong, as at least 50 intrepid souls fought their way out our way in the pouring rain. Fortunately we had propane heaters and hot drinks, and they could warm themselves for a while before having to go back out into it. We gave out a lot of plastic gloves because their bicycling ...

https://ift.tt/2hzJG0n I’ve gotten the headrest position dialed in on my recumbent, so I can ride it with it’s fast 700c wheels and the carbon seat in a pretty reclined position comfortably. For the first time this has made a notable performance difference. On Wednesday I road the Digital loop near home. My previous record was 94 seconds, and it is now down to 87. Then I went south to San Martin and did a 19k loop down there. My previous best time had been 45 min 17 secs and it is now 41:04. I rode an easy ride on Thursday, then in the afternoon I did a little tweak on the headrest adjustment and tested it on my trainer. On Friday I felt the need for some more speed and did two more of my time trials. One is the shorter “around the paradise block” loop and the other was the out and back on Coyote Creek trail from Anderson Visitor’s center to where the trail is blocked at the flood, just past the Bailey bridge. These felt like good efforts but did not beat my previous bests. My best tim...

https://ift.tt/hf8W3ea Lately I’ve been having a bit more problems with arthritis in my fingers. They’ve had osteoarthritis for more than 10 years, but it is now progressing in the ring finger of my right hand. This can cause problems typing when I try to type with that finger and it doesn’t bend properly. My right hand shows osteoarthritis in the bent joints. Neither the forefinger nor middle finder straighten properly Then yesterday I got a call from my neurologist’s office about a recent cervical MRI I had, which uncovered arthritis and bone spurs in my neck. My Doc sent me for that test because a follow-up MRI of my head after my October bike cras h showed some symptoms which are probably age-related but she wants to rule out other possibilities. So now I need to do a test of upper body nerve response in case anything might be getting pinched in the cervical area. I don’t have too many symptoms in the neck, I have good mobility (I do some stretches every night), and I don’t h...

https://ift.tt/xTkrKFn We got a good bit of rain last Thursday, and it was still doing scattered showers on Friday morning when I rode. It had been cold while raining overnight, so there was snow on the mountains which was unusual for us. It cleared up later that day and we’ve had sunny weather since, for enjoyable for riding. Friday’s ride is on Strava here , Saturday’s here , Sunday’s here , Yesterday’s here and here , Yesterday I did an upper body workout in the morning followed by a short ride, then I checked out a minor adjustment on my recumbent with a short PM ride. These rides were all on my. Today I’ll take my neglected upright out on our group ride. Loma Prieta and Mt Umunhum in the Santa Cruz have snow near there peaks, around 3500 feet and above (close-up of Loma Prieta, lower left, and Mt Umunhum, lower right) I was surprised to see snow on these hills East of Morgan Hill, which are much lower, below 2000 feet Looking East Past San Martin to the Santa Cruz Mountai...

https://ift.tt/0GAE3Ko On Monday I did my upper body workout then a shorter ride on my e-bike. Tuesday was supposed to be my group ride but it got cancelled because the leader couldn’t make it. So I did a long cruise in the hills West and Northwest of Morgan Hill instead. Yesterday was a hard day so I after a warmup on my recumbent, I did a brisk tempo ride to the Southeast, then some intervals on my way home in the morning for a total of two hours. That was a relaxing but invigorating workout. In the afternoon I had to go get an MRI of my cervical spine (a follow-up my neurologist ordered) so I took the e-bike there and back. Monday is posted on Strava here , Tuesday here , Wednesday here , here , and here . View of El Toro from an off-road trail on Monday

https://ift.tt/l3Fbo9d With all my recent emphasis on high mileage, I thought I might be scaring some people away. But I do a lot more exercise than is necessary because it is my hobby and I enjoy it. For people that may be a little less nuts about exercise than me, how much is enough for healthy aging? I think this is pretty much answered by the typical recommendations, which is about 150 minutes a week of moderate activity like walking or equivalent, or 75 minutes of more vigorous activity. I also think it is a good idea to keep up your strength and work on balance . If you find something you enjoy, more is fine. https://ptsolutions.com/blog/how-much-physical-activity-do-adults-need-per-week/ And it is never too late to start as Patty Branch, who started exercising at 66, demonstrates . https://longevity.technology/lifestyle/how-a-70-year-old-woman-defied-aging-and-disease-with-exercise/

https://ift.tt/va1hzQ0 I completed my monthly mileage challenge on Strava yesterday. The target was 600 km, and I finished with 1359 km (843 miles). Correcting for the riding that was done on my e-bike (see “” Note on e-bikes and recording mileage” here ), which is about 20% of the total, this is equivalent to about 1305 km unassisted (810 miles). This put me at 17,530 out of  280,312 who completed the challenge, or 285 out of 17,533 in my 70-74 age group. It feels good to be in the top 10%. To put things in perspective, though, I rode less than a quarter of the total put in by the leader (6,633 km), or even of the total put in by the leader in my age group (5802 km). Nevertheless, this is a lifetime PR for me, I don’t think I’ve ridden much over 600 miles in a month previously. With that challenge over, I think I’ll cut back on mileage a bit and focus on getting a little faster on my cruising speed. The last 3 days of the week went like this. Friday I did a recovery cruise becaus...