July 9: Did my outdoor ride today…and just had to go longer. Man, the weather was just perfect, with 70-degree temps and super low humidity. Met up with Laurie on her fixie, and we rode to Kent to hook up with Judy. The whole time I was cognizant to keep the HR below my prescribed zone because I knew from the get-go that I was doing my longest ride since surgery. Man, just couldn’t pass this day up.
So I was really nice and below my HR zone on the way to Judy’s, save for this little winding climb through a neighborhood where despite the climbing I ended up in the middle of the zone. Seems as though my riding is getting stronger, my speed is increasing, my power is up, and best of all my HR zone is getting such that I can do all of the above and still keep that HR way lower than when I first started out. Used to be that particular hill sent me above my HR zone WITH me trying hard to go easy. On that climb today I pushed just a tad and still was 6bmp off of the top end of the zone.
Got to Judy’s, where she suggested that we ride the Freedom trail from Kent into Akron. Done. Again, HR stayed low despite my pulling in the front. Only occasionally did the HR get into my zone, and this was just on the low end. Most of the time up front I was below my lowest end while pulling into a headwind, which is exactly what I wanted what with increasing my ride time to almost 3 hours. Flipped it and rode with a tailwind the rest of the way back on the Freedom Trail. I just felt amazingly great, and I remarked to Judy that I sure felt good NOT having that ischemia thing going on between my shoulder blades. Ahh…for the little gifts in life!
Finished up with a ride of 2:50 hours with probably no more than about 20 minutes inside my prescribed zone. And all of that was piecemeal in bouts of 1-3 minutes at a time. I just can’t say how good it is to now push harder and not see that HR skyrocket up right from the gun. This really makes me wonder if my cycling just 7 weeks out of surgery is actually better than my cycling prior to surgery. Three weeks ago I’d have said no way, but today, with this ride, wow, I’m really beginning to feel different. Now I have to admit that I’m a good ways off from riding with the “big boys”, but this really gives me optimism that I’ll have some good fitness down the road without having to tap into the Z5 areas that Dr. Phelan had told me I should stop short of due to those peripheral blockages.
Felt great the rest of the day, and since I’d done way more cycling than was prescribed, I really made an effort to not do any additional working out. Hell, I really wanted to take Pepper for a 1 or 2 hour hike, but opted to work at my desk the remainder of the day. Now I am entering a new era here in that Kim is on a well deserved vacation for 12 days and I’m back to my full-time gig with pop. We’ve had a few moments here and there, but I’ve been able thus far to not implode. My biggest challenge in all the changes I’ve needed to make, as I’ve detailed before, is to de-stress in tense situations with my dad - hell, to de-stress in LIFE!
Been constantly working on the Mediterranean Diet thing, and I’ve found some great recipes online. Hell, I’m even staying away from fried chicken, fried shrimp, and fried anything, which I was just a fool for in the past. I used to make Bang Bang Shrimp and Avocado Eggrolls in the good old days, and I’d devour the stuff as if it was an entree. Today I made a Greek Cod Bake with Tomato and Onion, in addition to a veggie stir fry with fresh green beans and broccoli. Judy joined pop and I for dinner. And lately my drink of choice is a nice Red Zinfandel wine instead of 4-6 beers!
Eating a lot of fruits for snacks, Raison Brand cereal with Almond Milk for breakfast, and Greek Vanilla Yogurt with mixed berries for dessert. I am allowing myself a “cheat” day each week, and man oh man am I getting close to one. I am working on my “98 Days” book on my ride 6270 miles across Canada, and I just had to share this with you. THIS is how I used to eat as pulled from my August 2009 TransCanadian blog:
“I’m all about BUFFET. So what happens? I fill up a plate with eggs benedict, fatada, fish cakes, bacon, baked beans and sausages, and Barney…granola, yogert, fresh fruit and a grapfruit. I looked at his plate and was totally disgusted with myself…NOT! Zipped through that and then went for more fish cakes, two blueberry pancakes with blueberry sause and maple syrup, and then finished off with 2 plates of danishes. Add to that some great black coffee and I got my 17 bucks worth all right.”
Yea, that was me 7 years ago. My, my, my how life has changed!