July 20: Bike today, and kept all of 2 hours under target HR. Got a late start so we had a bit of heat to deal with, and that coupled with the higher intensity ride yesterday kind of barked at me to just get low intensity volume in today. Did a ride with Judy on bike and hike. One thing I continue to notice is I feel my HR is now lower as I’m riding faster with this below zone stuff. Curious how this next stress test is going to go with that factor. 

I’m hoping so much I’m given the go-ahead to go up a zone into Z4 after next week’s test. That little stint I did with Bill on Tuesday felt so refreshing. Might sound sick, but I just love to get it to that high Z3/low Z4 area and go steady state for long stints of time. The legs feel powerful, the lungs feel good breathing deeply and the heart feels wonderful just pumping away nice and evenly (at least it used to!). 

I’m also noticing the HR I’d feel in my throat, I think I mentioned this weeks ago, well that’s a lot less prevalent. That they’d told me could be because my sternum area is right above the aorta, and since the sternum was healing, it may be more sensitive to the strong HR at the aorta. Used to be really weird feeling my HR in my throat. Every now and again I still do, but it’s a pittance now compared to a month ago. I do still have that “tight collar” feeling at my esophagus, which again they think is because of the healing and sensitivity of the sternum. That second one I really hope goes away, because it’s bothersome as hell sometimes. 

So the ride went well, I’m drinking electrolyte and water, two bottle’s worth for a 2 hour ride, more than I have in I can’t remember how long. The Mediterranean diet thing is going well, as I’m eating a lot of cod, tuna, salmon and veggies. As I’d mentioned I’m working on a lot of Indian dishes now, veggie and fish Indian dishes with some pretty cool, exotic spices. 

Also staying with the unilateral weight training using 15 lb dumbbells for most everything. I’ll ask my cardiologist if I can get to more bilateral stuff next week. I’d also like to get the push-up, pull-up thing going, so I’ll see if I can get an idea of when down the road I could begin to do that kind of stuff.