Lets see… updates… It’s been a while… I got the new Whoop 4.0 which adds a couple of extra metrics to the 3.0 group – skin temperature and blood oxygen level, which reminds me… when I needed the metrics most, I didn’t have them. I got a cold on Monday evening, upgraded my Whoop. Felt like total crap on Tuesday thru Thursday, feel 10 times better today. But, I wanted to check my metrics to see if I had possibly contracted COVID. Don’t think so. I was worried for my wife who as you may or may not know, has a suppressed immune system. It’s Friday and I have no idea where the week went. I felt like the lights were on, but no one was home from a work perspective. I did work from home most of this week and got quite a bit done, but yesterday… I don’t recall most of yesterday – I do know I was listening to music and doing busywork.
Vikash will be heading back home on December 31, which will put quite a bit of pressure on me for most of January. I’ll have to do his stuff, plus my stuff. On the flip side, I am taking the last 2 weeks of this year off – stay-cation. Yay! Ryan is coming home on approximately the 20th. He’s scheduled to stay here. I’m excited to see him and get updates. I really haven’t spoke with him for what seems like forever.
The 4th of December was my last official bike ride of the year (yep, mother nature was kind that Saturday) and rode our typical path – but in the reverse direction. It was like a new path. I knew exactly were we were but the scenery was different! It was kind of weird – I admit. It’s only 13mi but for a weekend warrior, it was enough. I have too get a bike stand so I can change the wheels.
Watercolor class has been fun and interesting. I have done a couple of paintings lately. I’ve been working on smaller paper (8.5″ x 11″), so while color control is difficult, owing to the smaller path on the paper, the paintings are accomplished more quickly.
So yesterday I went on a 33mi ride with some friends, and then went to “Scarecrow Fest” and walked around outside. My whoop reported my daily strain as 18.0 out of 20 which for me was a royal “ass-kicking”. Thank god that I am taking it easy today. After I slept for 8.5 hrs, my recovery was at 46% this morning. As “Dirty Harry” said: ‘A man’s got to know his limitations…’. What I learned is that after a 30mi bike ride, I shouldn’t walk for 3hrs out in the sun at a craft fair later in the day. I should only do a 15mi ride in the morning- max. I need to keep perspective.
Here is a debut of some of my iPhone pix. It was a beautiful morning yesterday.
The quarry at the West end of Cal-Sag TrailThe baby bridge that comprises the logo of the “Cal-Sag Trail”The group, minus Vikash… who slept in… because he was out with his MBA cronies playing darts…Tinley Creek North to Cal-Sag Trail
Can’t believe that we are still riding into October. Saturday (wow, that is tomorrow) we are riding to the quarry and back – roughly 33mi. I had to chuckle this morning since the sun was just barely up and it was already quarter to 8 (7:45am). Sunrise this morning was at 6:58am, it will be the same for tomorrow. So we will be riding in the dark tomorrow almost all the way to the quarry. I think we have ridden 2 days this week so far – Monday 10/4 and Tuesday 10/5. Monday morning was really dark and there was just a sliver of moon in the Eastern sky around 5am.
This has also been a stressful week at work (it always is before vacation) since i had to get so many things completed before I am out of there. In addition, a couple of weeks ago, I got a new iPhone 13Pro. That was actually a mixed blessing since it came with a new set of problems that was unanticipated – the elimination of all my fingerprint associations with a change to facial recognition. All my QR codes via Microsoft Authentication app were garbage. All those needed to be rebuilt.
You know, I am the consummate optimist – trying to keep things in perspective but somehow I feel like I got screwed at work. The only real saving grace is that I tried the managerial path and always despised being a manager. What gets me going in the morning is the prospect of learning lots of new things. It’s what I like about technology, specifically computers. Now I know that I could have chosen the management route, sold my soul, made money and hated my life. However, I chose the technical route and decided to keep my roots fully immersed in software administration and technology. My happy place. It’s not programming – boring. It’s not database administration – also boring. It’s not OS BS – again, also boring. It’s not hardware – lame plus boring. It’s a smattering of all of those plus a “side” of application administration! And, I get the added benefit of Moore’s Law applied to technology – it doubles every 18 – 24 months at this point. Change is good.
Hard to believe that this is the last day of August 2021. Hard to believe that I hit a milestone birthday this year. I don’t feel or see myself as old as I am. I still think of myself as 20 years younger. Kinda weird. Too bad that COVID crapped on my birthday gathering this year.
I am trying another UDEMY course on WordPress and it’s not PHP oriented. Ha!! It still bugs me that if I go to the latest PHP version that my hosting provider provides, all my stuff breaks. That’ll learn ya… There are not enough hours in the day for me to do all the stuff I want to work on. Damn job always gets in the way 😉 I need to just keep motoring thru it.
I still need to follow up on my old buddy – the Italian, Rad-Tech one. Maybe we can get together and hit the shooting range. Oh yeah, I got my FOID card finally. On another note, I am a step closer getting my road bike fitted with carbon wheels. Well, off to bed… the whoop says i need to rest. I’ll talk about that next time.
So earlier this week, I retired my Fitbit. I have decided I am changing to a “whoop” band. It’s similar but it supposedly has better metrics (at least that is that is what I am told). I discontinued the advanced Fitbit metrics. It was a bitter pill to swallow, since it really gave me my first detailed look at my sleep, activity metrics, and step counts. Those 3 were what gave Fitbit value to me. The rest was fluff. I liked resting heart rate, heart rate variation, average respiration, average heart rate, sleep characteristics (REM, deep sleep, and light sleep), and step count. These to me, are what made Fitbit worth while and hopefully, whoop will be next level better in analytics. That is my hope. I will give it to the end of the year and make my determination if it was worth it or should i go back? One thing I still can’t shake is the damn heart rate strap while riding the bike or exercising due to the “MyZone” commitment. MyZone is supported by my health club and it incentivizes competition within my club. My Garmin won’t recognize the whoop but recognizes the MyZone puck and strap. Today was that first day in a week that everything in the Garmin 530 (sensors) was functional – heart rate monitor, power meter, cadence meter, and speedometer were all perfectly matching. One surprising piece of data that I got today was respiration during the ride. That must have come from my whoop band.
So tomorrow is Monday and another weekend gone. On the positive side, there are a couple of things to report – first, i signed up for watercolor at McCord with John. I can’t wait! I first have to finish up my last watercolor – ugh. The basement is still a wreck, however, I did get a new lamp for my art space. It’s like a surgical suite now. It’s awesome. Plenty of light. At least I can see now in that dingy space. Time to clean things up.
Second, I tried to put the clipless pedals on the airdyne – no dice! First, the pedals were a bitch to get off. Can you believe that they were threaded standard? Pedals are usually reverse threads, it took me almost an hour until I changed my frame of reference and thought “what if these are not threaded the same way”? Voila, pedals came off. Didn’t matter for 2 reasons though, first of all the damn pedals are slightly difference diameter. And, there was clearly as sticker that said “Warning, do not use toe clips or straps”. After a couple of minutes of analysis, there is no way to glide or stop immediately on the airdyne. You’d risk tendon or joint damage if something were to happen. Been there. If you know me, you know the story. I have to bring the Schwinn downstairs and get it set up as a stationary bike. I have 2 Cyclops bike trainers that someone gave me. I think that only one works though. No matter – something for tomorrow night.
So Saturday morning, I rolled out of the sack at 4:45am, put my cycling clothes on and figured I’d be riding 30mi to the quarry. I think of Jocko or Dave (these guys are the epitome of grit and determination) and just say to myself – “Go, get after it”. Now, a few years ago – that thought would be sending me scrambling back to bed and wondering if i needed my head examined. I was supposed to start something for work last night at 1am but I figured a way around it so I wouldn’t have to get up to run a 30s script.
Anyway, I never really gave much thought to bike riding and people who ride thinking that they were just wannabes. Wearing the clothes – lame, riding the racing bikes – lame, wearing the gloves – lame, clipped shoes – lame. People who embraced that crap were in effect – lame. Boy, have I changed my tune. It was a gradual adoption or conversion :p I now ride a Trek Madone 5.1, which I bought used on BicycleBlueBook.com from a guy in South Bend right before the pandemic. Its a biking buy/sell site which my neighbor (who incidentally is a mountain bike fanatic) turned me on to.
It all started about 10 years ago, I bought a pump that I could never use. It had some funky valve that always leaked air (it was for presta valves). I only knew traditional valves – schrader valves. I was too embarrassed at the time to bring it back. Fast forward to a couple of years ago and my neighbor took me mountain biking at the “Triangle“. I found out that we live in a really good place in the Midwest for mountain biking – imagine that? My buddy at work found out that I ride – he rides road, and the rest as they say is history. I had a 1992 Schwinn Woodlands that had tire rot and could never hold air. Its kind of a early hybrid. So I put fairly wide road tires on it and rode with my brother in law on gravel trails. My shifter broke and it was always stuck in a high gear. They don’t make replacement parts for a 28 year old bike. I needed a new bike. I then bought a new Trek Hybrid (Dual Sport), my wife supported my decision (“it won’t be good at anything” my neighbor said…) – did I listen? Hell, no! Actually, its really good for getting you on a bike, off the couch, and incidentally it’s also good for fitness. I bought a new helmet, in which anyone who values their noggin’ would tell you to “protect it”. My Trek hybrid has disk brakes (a nice feature), a noob shock absorbing fork (OK for off road) with a lock out (good for riding streets) and semi (not like mountain bike tires) wide tires – good for riding streets, trails, gravel, anything in the Chicago-land area. I rode it the first year and a half I bought it, took it occasionally off road (dirt – single track, gravel, multi track), rode “Bike-the-drive” and paved trails. It was a good bike and wasn’t too expensive. But riding road long distances was killing me. A hybrid is so inefficient. I will relate it to swimming. If you are not an efficient swimmer, swimming distance is a killer. So I took the plunge and invested in a real road bike – lame (not). There was still no way you’d catch me wearing the biking “get-up”. I wear sweats and a “T”shirt. Riding bike the drive convinced me via thigh chaffing, that there was wisdom in padded bike shorts. OK, but you’ll still never get me in a bib or crap like that! After a few flats, I invested in gator skins. Now if you don’t know what those are, they are a great investment in tough tires. They aren’t the lightest tires, they aren’t the fastest tires, but these are one tuff mutha’ of a tire! Now i don’t get flats. My road bike’s frame is carbon fiber and is quite a bit lighter than my aluminum hybrid. Big difference on hills! The power goes right to the wheels, and it makes the bike more responsive. I have had small bike computersin the past on my bikes – speed, distance, timer (simple). I have been using a heart rate strap since 2002 – i started using it on the bike. My compadre bought me a more advanced bike computer (Garmin 130) after the bike app I was using kept draining my phone. I was hooked! I could see my heart rate, measure my speed, my route, my time, average moving speed. I now know how hard I was pushing myself, or not. It was liberating. I bought a inexpensive power meter so I could measure my power and cadence. I then proceeded to upgrade my Garmin to a 530 which gives me instantaneous power readings, power over time, heart rate, where I’m at on the trail, my cadence, how efficient I’m training, elevation, calories burned, temperature, and weather. Its really kinda cool. I have recently invested in new wheels (again used). I want to see how they stack up to my current wheels. One is carbon fiber (rear) and the other is notoriously lightweight aluminum. Meh, although they ar emismatched, i don’t care. BTW, after all the crying and complaining, I did end up buying a bib. It was a no frills bib and I hate wearing it. Well, not exactly – I don’t like getting in or out. And its not exactly user friendly if you have to pee. I also recently bought clipless pedals and clipless shoes. I haven’t worn them yet. I am going to use them over the winter indoors to get acclimated.
I will admit, I did not enjoy riding the first year. Now, I can’t go a week without it, I’ll even ride the Octane or airdyne in lieu to keep my cardio up I miss riding bikes outside in the winter. I have become the wannabe I abhorred. I’m a bike data junkie! Life is funny that way – you end up eating crow that you prepare yourself, in a way you didn’t expect! Maybe someday I’ll get a fat tire bike and continue to ride in the snow.
My Dutch has been stagnant. I can’t imagine how some of the people on this app get the scores that they get. My meditation is non-existent, my breathing forgotten. Quite frankly, I’ve been stressed out for the last 3 – 4 months. Even my painting is non-existent. Not normal for me. I need to get over a few humps at work, take some time off, and de-stress. A massage would be good.
So I decided to run Windows 11 on my home PC. So far, so good, although I will admit that I have not run any games on it, so its not too stressed out. I must be getting old 😛 I kind of like the interface, it’s not too difficult to find stuff. I’ll have to install something that will give it a hard time so I can see how it reacts.
