I don't really have anything of import (as far as `training' is concerned) to say in this post but I guess I just wanted to emphasize and/or record this for posterity.
I'm in `crap' shape!
Last year at this time I was doing back to back 140 mile training rides for the Race Across the West. Now, after doing 55, 25 and 18 miles over the past three days I'm shakey in the hand afterwords. This is the consequence of not training over the past seven months.
I don't know to what to attribute the stark contrast in level of fitness. Some people say that it is a natural consequence of being and older athlete. We're less resilient. But I really don't have much to compare it with. When I was in my late twenties and thirties I did lots and lots of miles as a runner, completing more than 8 marathons.
I'm inclined to conclude that it is less `age' than it is not training.
I do know that this has been one of the most inclement winters in my memory for Chicago. And I've been much more conservative with my time and effort, not wanting to haul the bike 100 miles round trip in order to get out on the open road.
It will be good to have the time, weather and terrain that will offer no excuse for not getting out there to train.
I just HATE that steep climb into some mid-level of fitness every spring.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
I'm Lucky
Five weeks ago I went for my annual check up with my doc. We've known eachother for the past 25 yearrs and we've always enjoyed keeping one another current about events in our lives: kids, work, vacations, etc. My doc as tight as a drum when it comes to being both `professional' and personable. Exceptionally thorough.
So, the doc finds I got a lump on my prostate. WHAT!!?!!! Me?!!! I'm an ultra endurance bulletproof pain machine athlete!!
Doc has that `serious' look on his face. A week later my doc's concern is confirmed by a top notch urologist. I'm scheduled for a biopsy.
In the meantime I'm talking very confidentialy to a few others while on a laser-focused information gathering process. All of them confirm that early diagnosis is the key to successful outcome. All of them praise my doc for being so diligent in literally pestering me to come in every year.
Went in for the biopsy last week. Took all of 15 minutes and was utterly and completely painless. Half way through the procedure the urologist says "How you doing, Dan?" I reply: "Fine. You?" He looks up and says: "Well, I'm a little behind right now." Me: "Is that supposed to be a `pun.'" And we share a little grave humor.
Today the urologist calls me. I see his name on my phone caller ID and gird myself for `whatever.' He starts out with: "Good news, Dan. No cancer!"
I was less impressed with the fact that the biopsy was negative for cancer than I was with the urologist's sensitivity to what must be going through his patient's mind when he gets such a call. He didn't beat around the bush, give me a 5 minute preamble about medical this and medical that. No. First words out of his mouth: "GOOD NEWS, DAN. NO CANCER."
My advice to all reading this.
So, the doc finds I got a lump on my prostate. WHAT!!?!!! Me?!!! I'm an ultra endurance bulletproof pain machine athlete!!
Doc has that `serious' look on his face. A week later my doc's concern is confirmed by a top notch urologist. I'm scheduled for a biopsy.
In the meantime I'm talking very confidentialy to a few others while on a laser-focused information gathering process. All of them confirm that early diagnosis is the key to successful outcome. All of them praise my doc for being so diligent in literally pestering me to come in every year.
Went in for the biopsy last week. Took all of 15 minutes and was utterly and completely painless. Half way through the procedure the urologist says "How you doing, Dan?" I reply: "Fine. You?" He looks up and says: "Well, I'm a little behind right now." Me: "Is that supposed to be a `pun.'" And we share a little grave humor.
Today the urologist calls me. I see his name on my phone caller ID and gird myself for `whatever.' He starts out with: "Good news, Dan. No cancer!"
I was less impressed with the fact that the biopsy was negative for cancer than I was with the urologist's sensitivity to what must be going through his patient's mind when he gets such a call. He didn't beat around the bush, give me a 5 minute preamble about medical this and medical that. No. First words out of his mouth: "GOOD NEWS, DAN. NO CANCER."
My advice to all reading this.
- Avoid the typical meat and potatoes, high fat western diet;
- Don't do what I did and eat the worst of everything in the deluded belief that `if I'm a monster cyclist I must not be subject to any of the laws of mortality.'
- Be vigilant about medical attention and care; especially if you've got a genetic (family hx) vulnerability and/or if you're an older person.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Lance v Goldman Sachs
The government dithers over whether or not cycling is dirty (grand juries, subpoenas, etc) and whether Lance doped. Of course, nobody likes cheaters.
But when the Secretary of the Treasury (Paulson) gave banks $700 billion without any direction as to what they were to do with it ... where are the grand juries, subpoenas and indictments for the Wall Street thieves who took the money and gave themselves millions of dollars of bonuses?!
One percent of Americans own 95% of American wealth. Predatory mortgage lenders, supported by impossible to understand derivatives traders, remain employed, well paid and have happy future prospects. The rest of Americans think that they can be Wall Street investment bankers and consider critics of Wall Street `socialists.'
Democracy is `on the books' in America. But `Capitalism' impoverishes all but the few oligarchs.
Lance, please keep doing what you do for cancer research. If I got caught every time I broke the speed limit I'd be in a prison ... receiving socialized medicine until my last day.
But when the Secretary of the Treasury (Paulson) gave banks $700 billion without any direction as to what they were to do with it ... where are the grand juries, subpoenas and indictments for the Wall Street thieves who took the money and gave themselves millions of dollars of bonuses?!
One percent of Americans own 95% of American wealth. Predatory mortgage lenders, supported by impossible to understand derivatives traders, remain employed, well paid and have happy future prospects. The rest of Americans think that they can be Wall Street investment bankers and consider critics of Wall Street `socialists.'
Democracy is `on the books' in America. But `Capitalism' impoverishes all but the few oligarchs.
Lance, please keep doing what you do for cancer research. If I got caught every time I broke the speed limit I'd be in a prison ... receiving socialized medicine until my last day.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
10 Minutes of Terror
Stage 14 of the Giro d'Italia - Saturday, May 21, 2011
As it turned out the Race Organizers concluded that this section of Stage 14 was too dangerous and they developed a less dangerous and more safe route. Wise decision.
As it turned out the Race Organizers concluded that this section of Stage 14 was too dangerous and they developed a less dangerous and more safe route. Wise decision.
Our new location ...
Starting in the early '80s my wife and I were drawn to the idea of living among a community of people sharing our values. Knowing, however, the dismal history of `utopian communities' we were cognizant of the dangers of cultism. (Look it up).
The cohousing experiences in Denmark really appealed to us. Read more about cohousing at this link: Cohousing
Returing, in 2002, from a week long conference in Seattle we took a side trip to a location we'd visited in the '80s in Arizona. We found a fledgling cohousing community in Prescott that really appealed to us. We were there for a day and a half. Just before we left to fly back to Chicago from Phoenix we had coffee with a few cohousing residents. In 15 minutes we decided to purchase a house in the community and get serious about moving there as soon as possible.
As it turned out on our return to Chicago I had a once in a lifetime opportunity to join a community based group private practice of psychologists ( Hoover & Associates ). My `dream job.' My wife's enjoyment of her own work as a geriatric social worker ( CJE Senior Life ) would have been a major loss, too. And then there was the fact of our boys, grandchildren, family and friends. We decided to stay in Chicago and rent out our place in Prescott.
Now that we're both retired (wife last year, me this June) we're making the move to the remarkable community of people in Manzanita Village ( Link ).
We will sorely miss our children, grandkids and friends in Chicago. And we are intent on having them come and stay with us often, frequently, for long periods of time and lots and lots and lots more :)
I'm chomping on the bit to have more time to train on the bikes. There are so many new and interesting people, couples and families who have moved to the Village that we're both excited to have more time to socialize, share and work towards the values of `community.'
I will not miss the misery of Chicago traffic, congestion and weather. My wife, though, has a capacity for appreciating Chicago that I simply can't match. We will both miss our family.
Another page in life to turn.
The cohousing experiences in Denmark really appealed to us. Read more about cohousing at this link: Cohousing
Returing, in 2002, from a week long conference in Seattle we took a side trip to a location we'd visited in the '80s in Arizona. We found a fledgling cohousing community in Prescott that really appealed to us. We were there for a day and a half. Just before we left to fly back to Chicago from Phoenix we had coffee with a few cohousing residents. In 15 minutes we decided to purchase a house in the community and get serious about moving there as soon as possible.
As it turned out on our return to Chicago I had a once in a lifetime opportunity to join a community based group private practice of psychologists ( Hoover & Associates ). My `dream job.' My wife's enjoyment of her own work as a geriatric social worker ( CJE Senior Life ) would have been a major loss, too. And then there was the fact of our boys, grandchildren, family and friends. We decided to stay in Chicago and rent out our place in Prescott.
Now that we're both retired (wife last year, me this June) we're making the move to the remarkable community of people in Manzanita Village ( Link ).
We will sorely miss our children, grandkids and friends in Chicago. And we are intent on having them come and stay with us often, frequently, for long periods of time and lots and lots and lots more :)
I'm chomping on the bit to have more time to train on the bikes. There are so many new and interesting people, couples and families who have moved to the Village that we're both excited to have more time to socialize, share and work towards the values of `community.'
I will not miss the misery of Chicago traffic, congestion and weather. My wife, though, has a capacity for appreciating Chicago that I simply can't match. We will both miss our family.
Another page in life to turn.
Monday, May 16, 2011
The Athlete's Delusion
One of the delusions that ultra athletes typically entertain is that of being `bullet proof' because of the intensity of our physical training. We delude ourselves into assuming that we `burn up' anything that can negatively affect us. We conclude that we generate untouchable health benefits with our activity. We compare one another's `resting heart rate' or `recovery time to lowest heart rate' after an all-out effort. Some of that is accurate. But some of us purposely try to push the limit, caring little about what we eat and drink.
I'm one of the latter. Or, at least I was until last month.
My taste buds have always been pretty much non existent. That is, I really don't care what I ingest as long as I'm not hungry and have energy. The things that I would eat would make Annie and our kids roll their eyes and shake their heads. The only criterion I had with regard to food is that it didn't try to eat me back.
My genetic heritage predisposes me to atherosclerosis and high blood pressure. As the intensity of my summer training falls off the Chicago winters see me gaining 20 - 30 lbs, with all the associated risks. My eating, drinking, work schedule, exercise and sleeping habits are completely erratic 6 - 7 months of every year.
Some good friends related to me the wisdom of changing my eating habits:
One thing that has made a dramatic difference to us in the past couple of years is learning of the need for greens in our diet. In reality we should be eating about 1-2 lbs. of greens a day but we can't eat that much salad, so we make and drink two fruit/green smoothies a day. We learned this from reading the book GREEN FOR LIFE and THE GREEN SMOOTHIE REVOLUTION by Victoria Boutenko.
Since we've been eating this way, we've both had more energy, lost weight, no longer suffer from constipation, have clearer skin, sleep better, feel lighter and have lowered our cholesterol significantly. Mine dropped from 230 to 189 in a matter of months, with the other numbers falling into place as well. (Husband's) is even lower, having dropped about 40 points as well and he is now off virtually all his heart and blood pressure medication! Doc says he doesn't need it.
We take a few supplements: B12 (to make up for lack of meat), D3 for sunshine, Calcium Citrate for bone strength, Fish Oil to help keep cholesterol down, 1 baby aspirin for heart health, and a multi-vitamin. We used to take more, but have cut back as we've learned which whole foods give us what we need.
Since getting some borderline blood test results last month and finally being scared into recognizing my mortality - in spite of my athletic `prowess' - I've elected to eliminate meat and dairy products from my diet. It's been almost a month since I've been all vegetarian (with some tuna fish in water) and I've not missed it at all. NOT AT ALL.
Being the cheap Scot that I am it is also gratifying to note that our food bill has been cut almost in half.
Just sayin'.
I'm one of the latter. Or, at least I was until last month.
My taste buds have always been pretty much non existent. That is, I really don't care what I ingest as long as I'm not hungry and have energy. The things that I would eat would make Annie and our kids roll their eyes and shake their heads. The only criterion I had with regard to food is that it didn't try to eat me back.
My genetic heritage predisposes me to atherosclerosis and high blood pressure. As the intensity of my summer training falls off the Chicago winters see me gaining 20 - 30 lbs, with all the associated risks. My eating, drinking, work schedule, exercise and sleeping habits are completely erratic 6 - 7 months of every year.
Some good friends related to me the wisdom of changing my eating habits:
One thing that has made a dramatic difference to us in the past couple of years is learning of the need for greens in our diet. In reality we should be eating about 1-2 lbs. of greens a day but we can't eat that much salad, so we make and drink two fruit/green smoothies a day. We learned this from reading the book GREEN FOR LIFE and THE GREEN SMOOTHIE REVOLUTION by Victoria Boutenko.
We start with 3 cups of water, 3 cups of any kind of greens (kale, chard, spinach, leaf lettuce, beet greens, etc.) pushed down into the water in the Vita Mix blender. Then add 2-3 pieces of cut up fruit (Usually banana, apple, pear, orange, melon, etc.) Top off with a cup or so of frozen berries (black, blue, straw, rasp, etc.) to fill the blender to the top. I sometimes add a little Agave sweetener or some dried raisins, cranberries, prunes or apricots. Blend until smooth.
We drink one smoothie in the morning before breakfast and another before lunch or mid afternoon. Because it contains so much fruit, it should not be mixed with grains like cereal or toast as fruit digests much more rapidly than grains. If you mix them, it ferments and causes gas. Because the smoothie is liquefied it can move almost directly into the blood stream for quick energy. Then, a half hour or hour later, your system will be ready to digest something else. The color of the smoothie changes depending on the kind of fruit you use. Sometimes they're light pale green, sometimes darker green, sometimes tan, sometimes red or plum or purple depending on the berries. Awesome. When we're traveling, we pick up quarts of Naked Juice or an equivalent from a grocery story. Our kids now know to have them in the refrigerator for us.
Since we've been eating this way, we've both had more energy, lost weight, no longer suffer from constipation, have clearer skin, sleep better, feel lighter and have lowered our cholesterol significantly. Mine dropped from 230 to 189 in a matter of months, with the other numbers falling into place as well. (Husband's) is even lower, having dropped about 40 points as well and he is now off virtually all his heart and blood pressure medication! Doc says he doesn't need it.
We take a few supplements: B12 (to make up for lack of meat), D3 for sunshine, Calcium Citrate for bone strength, Fish Oil to help keep cholesterol down, 1 baby aspirin for heart health, and a multi-vitamin. We used to take more, but have cut back as we've learned which whole foods give us what we need.
Since getting some borderline blood test results last month and finally being scared into recognizing my mortality - in spite of my athletic `prowess' - I've elected to eliminate meat and dairy products from my diet. It's been almost a month since I've been all vegetarian (with some tuna fish in water) and I've not missed it at all. NOT AT ALL.
Being the cheap Scot that I am it is also gratifying to note that our food bill has been cut almost in half.
Just sayin'.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Three Weeks off the Bike
Today was the first day in more than 3 weeks that I've been outdoors on the bike. A series of things that interferred and/or took priority.
I'm struck at the literal sadness I feel leaving the patients constituting my private practice. My sense of admiration and respect for others has literally blossomed over the past decade. Perhaps that is one of the dividends of living through one's own troubles; so that it increases empathy towards others' with their own troubles.
At the same time, there is that phenomenon referred to as `compassion fatigue.' When the `helper' finds that he is too ready to step in and do the hard work that the `helpee' needs to do in order to build stamina and resilience ... it is time to take a break.
I was taking a `power nap' at my granddaughter's birthday party yesterday and was awakened by her giving me a hasty little kiss on the cheek. Then she ran off with half a dozen of her little birthday friends screaming like the happy and fortunate little children they are. Are all little children exploding with joy in the present moment of one another's mischievous presence? That giggly little peck on the cheek seemed to sum up my grattitude to be alive now.
Do people much younger than me experience the warm fulfillment that I feel in my family? My wife, sons, grandchildren, daughters-in-law? I've never felt this before. Is it time, experience? Age?
Perhaps my experiences at this point in my life are tangible proof that one can screw things up, make stupid decisions, behave with blind impulsivity ... and still be graced with simple satisfaction in the love of others. I believe it. But I find it hard to `accept.' Pinch myself awake.
Oh! And it was warm and sunny today when I rode my bike.
I'm struck at the literal sadness I feel leaving the patients constituting my private practice. My sense of admiration and respect for others has literally blossomed over the past decade. Perhaps that is one of the dividends of living through one's own troubles; so that it increases empathy towards others' with their own troubles.
At the same time, there is that phenomenon referred to as `compassion fatigue.' When the `helper' finds that he is too ready to step in and do the hard work that the `helpee' needs to do in order to build stamina and resilience ... it is time to take a break.
I was taking a `power nap' at my granddaughter's birthday party yesterday and was awakened by her giving me a hasty little kiss on the cheek. Then she ran off with half a dozen of her little birthday friends screaming like the happy and fortunate little children they are. Are all little children exploding with joy in the present moment of one another's mischievous presence? That giggly little peck on the cheek seemed to sum up my grattitude to be alive now.
Do people much younger than me experience the warm fulfillment that I feel in my family? My wife, sons, grandchildren, daughters-in-law? I've never felt this before. Is it time, experience? Age?
Perhaps my experiences at this point in my life are tangible proof that one can screw things up, make stupid decisions, behave with blind impulsivity ... and still be graced with simple satisfaction in the love of others. I believe it. But I find it hard to `accept.' Pinch myself awake.
Oh! And it was warm and sunny today when I rode my bike.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)