This is the title of an inspiring book by Laura Clark. Laura, a single mom in her late 30s (at the beginning of the book), living in the Colorado Springs area, started by hiking or climbing all 58 of Colorado’s “Fourteeners” (peaks with an elevation over 14,000 feet). She did all of these solo. I had thought there were 53 of them, it turns out there are 53 “official” and 5 “unofficial, as described here. The … [Read more...]

There is a large fog bank that hangs off the coast of California that meteorologists call the marine layer. Often in the summer, the pattern is for hot air to rise in inland valleys. Cooler air from offshore rushes in to replace it, and often brings some fog with it. This cool onshore breeze is our natural air conditioner, and it switched on nicely today. I actually needed a jacket on my ride. The fog was breaking up a bit after 10:00 am, but … [Read more...]

The high for yesterday was 87 F, a lot better than the 103 last week. We went out into the hills southwest of town, to the end of Redwood Retreat Road and back. It was still in the low 80s by the time we finished with a pleasant breeze, so it was actually cool enough to eat outside for lunch, something we could not have imagined last week. Temperatures are expected to be in the low 80s for about a week now, we will continue to enjoy the … [Read more...]

I did a four-hour combination bike and hike today. I rode down Santa Teresa Boulevard to Bernal road, then climbed Bernal road to the top. I then entered Santa Teresa Park and hiked up the Coyote peak trail to the top. On the way up at a couple of steep sections, I got to try the “walk assist” mode on my Vado SL. It gives just enough assist so you don’t have to push the weight of the bike, a nice feature. I made it to the top by … [Read more...]

https://www.clearinghouseforsport.gov.au/kb/reds I’ve discussed the concept of overtraining and “how much exercise is too much?” previously. Another harmful phenomenon among exercisers is undereating, now called “relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S)”, which I discussed here. It used to be called the female athlete triad, because it appeared to be more common in female athletes, but is now known to affect … [Read more...]

I try to work out hard twice a week for the upper and lower body. A do hard lower one day, hard upper another day, and on Thursdays, I do both. That was yesterday’s workout. It was supposed to get hot again so I got the workout in early. After a warmup, first I did about 30 minutes of Heavyhands walking, then my upper body workout in the garage. Then I went for my ride, and stood up to pedal for 90 minutes, which counts as an aerobic tempo … [Read more...]

I just read Alistair Wilson’s autobiographical account of his life as a paddler. He has done sea kayaking, competitive flat water kayaking, and some exciting expeditions, including running the Colorado River and its rapids through the Grand Canyon in an open two-person canoe. www.amazon.com/books He was also the founder of Lendal paddles, which he ran for several decades. He started with wooden paddles and later transitioned to … [Read more...]

It was forecast to reach 103 F yesterday (at 2 pm), and to be already 97 F at noon, right around the time our ride would end. So only myself and four other intrepid (or foolish?) souls showed up for our weekly ride. It turned out to be not too bad, we got a couple of hours riding in before it got overly hot. But we were definitely glad of the air conditioning at the cafe where we stopped for lunch. I had to ride home at about 12:45, and it was … [Read more...]

I went pretty hard on Friday so took it easy Saturday, just cruising around on my ‘bent. The Weather was nice with interesting clouds over both the hills to the East and West. I felt great after. This often happens with a good recovery ride, I feel tired or sore at the start but I guess the blood flow from gentler exertion helps. Clouds to the East Clouds to the West. One nice thing about Morgan Hill being a small town is that it gets … [Read more...]

I’ve been intrigued by the success of the Peloton company, which sells indoor exercise bikes (and now treadmills) with sophisticated displays that allow users to take virtual classes over the internet (either live or on-demand). The bikes are not cheap, and the subscription price is $40 per month which seems high compared to other subscriptions like say Netflix. And I have a very inexpensive exercise bike that works great and is quiet. I … [Read more...]

Today was a relatively short easy day, I stayed local in town and did mostly standing pedaling on my Sirrus upright (which has no e-assist). I had a pleasant ride of about 90 minutes. which included crossing over US 101 on Main street and using the bike path next to the Santa Clara Valley Water District canal. This runs for several miles, pretty much the whole length of town north to south. Unfortunately, the budget did not include enough funds … [Read more...]

http://www.Amazon.com/books “Going the Distance” is the story of George Thomas. In 1984, he was struck and severely injured by a drunk driver. He spent several months rehabbing from that incident, got in great shape, and was working as a ski instructor in Oregon. But in 1989 he started having seizures, which were eventually diagnosed as a result of brain scarring caused by the trauma. This can cause epilepsy as a delayed reaction. … [Read more...]

Yesterday was my regular Tuesday group ride. I wanted to get a bit more mileage in so I started earlier, and headed over to do some off-road riding at the Coyote Creek Trail. The only problem with starting early on a weekday is that my normal route to the east side goes right by Live Oak High School and the traffic is bad right before school starts. But I realized there was a back way I could take that avoids this, which worked great. After some … [Read more...]

Sunday I did a ride that started out urban in Morgan Hill, then through rural roads to the West and northward up to San Jose, then urban again in San Jose and back home, for a total of 48 miles. The high for the day was 84 degrees, and I was done earlier than that, so it was pleasant the whole way. This was another good test of my e-bike. I’ve mentioned in the past that I like to stand up to pedal a lot. I was against the wind heading … [Read more...]

I got going about 8:00 this morning so I could beat the heat. It was still about 90 F when I finished up my three-hour ride, which is not too bad on a bike because you are generating a breeze. Like yesterday I ended up heading back towards the north against the wind, but that was fine because it helped keep me cool. Also today I had my e-bike to help fight it. There are two pretty vineyards across the street from each other at the corner of … [Read more...]

Today, after a warm-up, I started out with “double-poling” with six-pound weights, then nordic walking with poles. For both of these, I threw in intervals of higher intensity. Then it was back to the garage for work with bands and weights. First intervals at several stations including kayak simulator, “ski erg” simulator and its reverse with hand weights, chest press, row, shoulder press, and pulldowns. I described some of … [Read more...]

I went for about a 42 mile ride yesterday, starting early because it was supposed to get hot later in the day. It was a nice outing, a little bit on the rural roads of the east side of San Martin and Morgan Hill, then an out and back on the Coyote Creek trail. It was “Taco Tuesday” at the Coyote Creek Golf club’s restaurant, which they do once a month and we enjoy going to. By lunchtime, it was in the low 80s but still pleasant … [Read more...]

www,Amazon.com/books Dynamic Aging is the title of a book by Katy Bowman, a movement expert. It is filled with good exercises to keep us limber and moving well as we age, including working on balance and joint mobility, and practicing walking on uneven surfaces. These are easy to do at home with little or no equipment. I was already doing the equivalent of some of these, for example in my stretching routine, but I definitely picked up some … [Read more...]

When I first took my recumbent for a ride after removing the electric assist kit with the unbearably noisy motor, I noticed how slow I felt. Part of it is that I really am that slow without a motor helping me. But part is that I had gotten lazy because of the motor and wasn’t pushing as hard. So today I tried a long brisk cruise, and was able to get my speed up a couple of mph. Electric assist is great, but I need to avoid it being a … [Read more...]

Yesterday I put my e-bike in medium assist mode (“sport”) and was able to ride 45 miles on 60% of the battery, which would work out to 80 miles on a full battery. On lighter assist (“eco”) it could probably go about a third further, over 100 miles. Active Transportation Here We Come This is great for recreation if I want to go on long rides in the country, but it is even better news for active transportation. I … [Read more...]