The Fit Nation

https://ift.tt/rQgF4U2 We’ve had better luck with sunshine the past several days, with some gloomy mornings mixed in. On Tuesday my group did our “Taco Tuesday ride” out and back to Metcalf Park and then to Rosie’s downtown. Wednesday I did a 2 1/2 hour ride at a brisk pace with some on-bike strength training and intervals at the end. Afterwards I did my upper body strength training. This was my hardest recent session and was well-tolerated. I did a shorter recovery ride on Thursday and another longer brisk ride on Friday. Yesterday I recovered again, throwing in some indoor kayak exercises. I am encouraged that I seem to be able to go longer and at a faster pace without feeling badly later in the day. I had my yearly wellness check-up (we used to call them “physicals”) with my GP on Thursday and all was well. She did think a mole on my face needs further examination so I’ll see a skin doc about that in June. The big check I’m waiting...

https://ift.tt/Cpwln85 I have been doing well in meditation lately, achieving an important first step of “calming the default mode network” (which I discussed here ). But something seemed missing. I would sometimes feel calm and quiet but a bit dull or empty. I had seen meditation teachers talking about linking the mind and the heart, and thought that might be what’s missing, but had not make much progress on it. I got some tips on it from the book “The Heart of Centering Prayer” by Cynthia Borgeault. I’ll discuss that book a bit more later. But the breakthrough for me was when Cynthia discussed neuroscience ramifications of the mind/heart connection. I had often thought “heart” was meant metaphorically in this connection, but she insisted that is was physical. The book was written in 2016 so neuroscience research on this was sparse but still compelling. It has since exploded, and there is now a whole field of “neurocardiology...