The Fit Nation

https://ift.tt/2ZEGSso I recently read two interesting books on Yoga by Alistair Shearer, an expert translator of Sanskrit and historian of Yoga. The first is his translation and commentary of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. This is often used as a justification for Hatha Yoga, which in the West has evolved mostly into what Shearer calls “body yoga” with emphasis on stretching and other physical exercises. There is little emphasis on “mind yoga”, with the exception of a short guided meditation at the end of classes, usually while lying down in the “ corpse pose “. This is not to say this type of class is not valuable, I have taken many of them and found them very useful for stress relief and staying limber as we age. It is just that there is pretty much no mention of the type of poses used in Hatha Yoga classes in the Yoga Sutras. http://www.Amazon.com/books The Sutras are a series of short sayings which add up to essentially a meditation manual. Eight limbs of yoga are taught. The firs...

https://ift.tt/BQEHWhg I mostly got over the shin splints mentioned in my last post by Friday (although they are still a bit sore if I try to stretch them). So since last Friday I’ve been able to go harder on my rides, with both Friday and Sunday being hard rides including intervals and on-bike strength training, while Saturday and yesterday were hard upper body workouts. It felt great to be able to go faster again. Sunday’s ride included an enjoyable visit to Bernal-Gulnac-Joice Ranch park in South San Jose.This week it was again hot but still cool in the mornings so I got all my workouts in early. Some of the outbuildings with various farm animals at Bernal-Gulnac-Joice Ranch park The trail heading to the right gets steep very fast, heading up into Santa Teresa Park. This used to be a favorite hiking spot for me, and I’m looking forward to getting back to that.

https://ift.tt/MIigFfa This was an easy training week because we went down south for a wedding over the weekend so I took a couple of days off from riding. I still got a couple of hard days of riding in with sprints and intervals, as well as two days of upper body training. The wedding was our friend’s daughter who we’ve known and loved since she was a toddler. The bride and groom bought a house on a good sized lot with a very nice setting in their backyard in Woodland Hills, and that is where the ceremony and reception were held. It was a beautiful ceremony, the first Jewish wedding I’ve attended, and we had a nice time at the reception. The weekend wasn’t quite perfect, because of some travel woes. Neither my wife or I have been doing too much walking lately aside from activities of daily living but this trip required a lot. First we had to park very far from the terminal in San Jose, then it turns out that at Burbank airport there’s a long walk from the terminal to where you pick u...

https://ift.tt/lMLExZz We had summer weather again this week, not too bad, highs in the high 80s and low 90s F (around 31-34 C), but these were later in the day so morning riding is still pleasant. And it’s nice that it cools off at night for sleeping. I did several nice long rides including up in the hills, and three arm-cycling workouts along with two upper body strength days with resistance bands. Yesterday my group rode down the country roads through San Martin to Gilroy on the East side, and in the foothills East of Gilroy. It was just getting hot as we finished the ride, so we were glad for air conditioning when we stopped for lunch. At the entrance to Paradise Valley at the Southern end of Oak Glen Ave on Monday In the Foothills East of Gilroy on Bridle Path Drive With My Group. This is the ride on which we used to visit Aladdin the camel, but he and his family have moved. We still do the route for old times sake.

https://ift.tt/IWSs3Co We’re going through a bit of a warm snap right now, not too extreme but it is reaching highs in the 90s F (33 C or so). This occurs in the afternoon, and it stays a lot cooler in the morning. So I’ve been doing all my strength training and riding earlier. I’ve had several good rides including up in the hills East of Gilroy and out and back on Coyote Lake Rd with my Tuesday group. I’m pleased to be able to do longer rides on my upright with no SI joint or sciatica issues, including standing up to pedal for longer. I’ve also been taking my recumbent on some longer cruises. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago I am concentrating on “base training” during my riding and had been bumping up the volume a bit. I did some rides of 3 1/2 to 4 hours and decided I don’t enjoy exceeding 3 hours (which I now do once a week) so I’ve cut back a bit. But I still get plenty enough riding in to “build a base”. I’ll keep this up for a couple of more weeks and then repeat the MAF te...