On Sunday I took it easy because I was sore from using unaccustomed muscles working the rest stop Saturday, so I just went for an hour-long easy spin. Monday I did an upper body workout for 40 minutes (only 18 min shows up on Strava because I didn’t remember to start my timer at first). I followed that with a hard 90 min ride, with multiple sprints of 90 sec, 45 sec, 20 sec thrown in. That was a very enjoyable workout. Sunday’s ride is on Strava here, Monday upper body here, biking here. On Santa Teresa Blvd- Green dinosaur preparing to eat bus ..read more

Each year my bike club, Almaden Cycle Touring Club, puts on the Tierra Bella Bicycle Tour, yesterday being the 45th annual version. The weather around here has been superb lately, springlike and sunny. Until yesterday, when Mother Nature decided to have cold rain all day. I was volunteering at the Gilroy Hot Springs rest stop, which CalFire lets us put on at their fire station way up on Gilroy Hot Springs Road. This remote stop is reached only by riders who do either the 74 mile (120 km) or 100 mile (161 km) routes. As we were setting up in the rain in the early morning, I thought to myself th ..read more

I’ve gotten the headrest position dialed in on my recumbent, so I can ride it with it’s fast 700c wheels and the carbon seat in a pretty reclined position comfortably. For the first time this has made a notable performance difference. On Wednesday I road the Digital loop near home. My previous record was 94 seconds, and it is now down to 87. Then I went south to San Martin and did a 19k loop down there. My previous best time had been 45 min 17 secs and it is now 41:04. I rode an easy ride on Thursday, then in the afternoon I did a little tweak on the headrest adjustment and tested it on my tra ..read more

Lately I’ve been having a bit more problems with arthritis in my fingers. They’ve had osteoarthritis for more than 10 years, but it is now progressing in the ring finger of my right hand. This can cause problems typing when I try to type with that finger and it doesn’t bend properly. My right hand shows osteoarthritis in the bent joints. Neither the forefinger nor middle finder straighten properly Then yesterday I got a call from my neurologist’s office about a recent cervical MRI I had, which uncovered arthritis and bone spurs in my neck. My Doc sent me for that test because a follow-up MRI o ..read more

We got a good bit of rain last Thursday, and it was still doing scattered showers on Friday morning when I rode. It had been cold while raining overnight, so there was snow on the mountains which was unusual for us. It cleared up later that day and we’ve had sunny weather since, for enjoyable for riding. Friday’s ride is on Strava here, Saturday’s here, Sunday’s here, Yesterday’s here and here, Yesterday I did an upper body workout in the morning followed by a short ride, then I checked out a minor adjustment on my recumbent with a short PM ride. These rides were all on my. Today I’ll take my ..read more

On Monday I did my upper body workout then a shorter ride on my e-bike. Tuesday was supposed to be my group ride but it got cancelled because the leader couldn’t make it. So I did a long cruise in the hills West and Northwest of Morgan Hill instead. Yesterday was a hard day so I after a warmup on my recumbent, I did a brisk tempo ride to the Southeast, then some intervals on my way home in the morning for a total of two hours. That was a relaxing but invigorating workout. In the afternoon I had to go get an MRI of my cervical spine (a follow-up my neurologist ordered) so I took the e-bike ther ..read more

With all my recent emphasis on high mileage, I thought I might be scaring some people away. But I do a lot more exercise than is necessary because it is my hobby and I enjoy it. For people that may be a little less nuts about exercise than me, how much is enough for healthy aging? I think this is pretty much answered by the typical recommendations, which is about 150 minutes a week of moderate activity like walking or equivalent, or 75 minutes of more vigorous activity. I also think it is a good idea to keep up your strength and work on balance. If you find something you enjoy, more is fine. h ..read more

I completed my monthly mileage challenge on Strava yesterday. The target was 600 km, and I finished with 1359 km (843 miles). Correcting for the riding that was done on my e-bike (see “” Note on e-bikes and recording mileage” here), which is about 20% of the total, this is equivalent to about 1305 km unassisted (810 miles). This put me at 17,530 out of  280,312 who completed the challenge, or 285 out of 17,533 in my 70-74 age group. It feels good to be in the top 10%. To put things in perspective, though, I rode less than a quarter of the total put in by the leader (6,633 km), or even of ..read more

This year “Bike Sebring” was again held at the Sebring Raceway in Florida. This has 6, 12, and 24 hour events around the speedway track, which is flat. Recumbents are expected to do well on this type of course, and they did not disappoint, winning several of the events outright. I am on the mailing list of both high-quality recumbent makers in the US, Bacchetta, and Cruzbike, and got the news from both those sources. Both Bacchetta and Cruzbike races were on stock bikes with no fairings. From Dana Lieberman of Bacchetta -“Our biggest news of the week – Dominic Brownlow leads again on his Bacch ..read more

On Saturday I went on an easy recovery ride because of my tough workout Friday. I cut it short because it started raining heavily, and finished up with some work on my trainer. Sunday I went for a longer ride of a bit over 35 miles. The pace felt “brisk but comfortable”, and my average heart rate was 112. That is very sustainable training for me. Yesterday I did my upper body workout but again took it easy on my rides. Saturday’s post is here and here, Sunday is here, Yesterday’s are here and here. El Toro From the Top of Middle Ave US 101 overpass on Sunday ..read more