The Fit Nation

https://ift.tt/a3qZTDi I have always been a fan of breaking glass ceilings, whether based on ethnicity or gender. I think it started because I was raised by a single mom. She struggled to make ends meet working as a secretary, but gave us a good life. Back then it was very hard for a woman to rise past secretary. But by the late 1970s more opportunities were becoming available, and at the age of 47 Mom broke through the glass ceiling and became manager of the customer service department at Hunt Wesson, a position at which she performed superbly. So I very much enjoyed reading Better Faster Farther: How Running Changed Everything We Know About Women , by Maggie Mertens http://www.Amazon.com/books This book chronicles the history of women’s running, and societies perception of how “fragile” woman are in general. This was a notion that seemed to start as soon as there were upper class women who did not have to do manual labor. There was the widespread belief, including in the medic...

https://ift.tt/9A07SGw I took it easy with my riding on Sunday and Monday and my back continued to improve, so yesterday I was able to go on a longer group ride. Sunday I did an out and back to Gilroy on the backroads through San Martin on the east side of our valley, for a pleasant 80 minutes. Monday I started out with a session of 20 minutes of arm-cycling, followed by a brick cruise of 1 hour 40 minutes on the Coyote Creek trail. Both these rides were on my recumbent. Yesterday I rode with the group. I first rode to my friend Kris’s house and carpooled to the start at the Mendoza ranch entrance to Harvey Bear county park. From there the group did an hour and 40 minutes up in the hills. Counting the ride to and from home this was a bit over two hours for me. My back felt fine through all of this, so I am encouraged that I can now (carefully!) get back to my usual training. Sunday’s ride is posted on Strava here , Monday here , Yesterday here . Climbing Up Gilroy Hot Springs Road ...

https://ift.tt/9GlAxBu The back problem I reported on Wednesday has gotten a lot better, I think it was just a muscle strain. Wednesday I was able to do my hard ride with intervals without disturbing my back. Then Thursday I was able to do my upper body workout. I did modify it to leave out the exercise that messed me up when the exercise band handle’s strap broke, since the same muscles are covered by my arm cycling. Then I did my easy day recovery ride on my upright bike, and was pleased to be able to do a lot of standing pedaling. That’s been a problem the past few months because of soreness in the area of my Sacroiliac (SI) joint, but that has mostly gone away at least while stand-up pedaling. It still bothers me if I walk or stand around for too long. Yesterday I went for another hard ride with intervals, this one longer (3 hours), and it felt fine. It’s nice to be able to go hard again after a setback clears up. Wednesday’s ride is posted on Strava here , Thursday here , Yester...

https://ift.tt/3Nwb6OE On Monday I did my upper body workout. Everything went fine except during the horizontal pull with resistance bands, the strap attaching the bands to the handle snapped while under a lot of tension. This sent a twinge through my lower back. It felt fine at the time so I finished the workout, and went on a bike ride with no issues. But later in the day my back got sore and stiff. I think it is just a muscle strain, as it got a little better overnight. I’ll take it easy over the next few days and see how it goes. I replaced the handle and this time I backed it up with a rope. I occasionally inspect my bands because they can snap when they get old and worn, but I’ll now add inspecting the handles. Things had been going well up till this setback. Saturday I did my upper body workout and then an easy ride. Sunday I did a long hard ride, with intervals, and it felt great. Yesterday I just did an easy 30 minute ride. Saturday’s ride is posted on Strava here , Sunday’s...

https://ift.tt/a9XqjUb Tuesday I rode with my group to the Southeast of Morgan Hill. I had really bad luck with flats. I fixed a rear flat but could not find the reason. Then the replacement tube went flat after a couple of miles. This is on a Schwalbe marathon plus tire, which has almost 12 mm of a flat protection belt. After scrutinizing the tire I finally found and removed a staple over 15 mm long that had worked through the belt. Fortunately I had a second spare tube and was ok after that. It was good to have friends around to keep me company but a bit embarrassing to be holding up the group. Wednesday I did my upper-body strength workout early in the morning. After that I went with my friend Ted, a retired police officer, to a shooting range to try my hand with pistols. I had only shot a pistol a few times in my life, 54 years ago when I joined a club at West Point that used 22 caliber target pistols. I was pretty bad at it so gave up after a couple of weeks. This time I tried ou...

https://ift.tt/OitRk9H It has been pretty hot this last week, a lot of days in the high 90s and even one over 100. Fortunately it’s been better earlier in the morning so hasn’t been too bad if I get out soon enough. On Tuesday we moved our group ride, which normally starts at 10:00 AM., to 9:30. Wise choice as it was just starting to approach unpleasantly warm at the end. For the first time I got to try out my recumbent with it’s electric assist kit, which I described in my last post, on a group ride. It performed superbly. I am able to keep up with the group easily on the flats without assist, but it really came in handing during climbing. Also, we went through town for a bit before the route turned rural. In the past I would have dreaded getting stopped with the group at a traffic light because I’m so wobbly starting out, but this was no problem because I get help from my throttle now. Because of the assist this counted as an easy ride. The next day was a hard ride, starting out with...

https://ift.tt/GxPYosI I mentioned recently that I had put an electric-assist kit on my recumbent from Swytchbike . I’ll go into a little more detail how it works here. The front wheel gets replaced by a wheel with a hub motor. The control unit, into which the battery clips, mounts on the handlebars. After installing these two, the only remaining necessity is to mount a cadence sensor so the control unit can tell how fast the pedals are turning, which makes the assist kit in. This involves a ring of magnets near the cranks. Swytch came up with a clever split ring for this that can be snapped on without removing the crank, then a retaining ring holds it firmly in place. Very easy installation. I also ordered a throttle for mine which allows you to get the motor to kick in without pedalling. This is very handy starting out on a recumbent. A disadvantage of recumbents is starting out from scratch. You have to put one foot on a pedal while balancing on the other. You push off with say the...