Say What?

I've been in a funk. While I'm managing to get to the gym most mornings for about an hour, walk Oscar and Rudy 20+ miles (32 km) per week, and get in a few rides (mostly on my indoor trainer this time of year), I'm struggling with motivation. I can admit to my fair share of doomscrolling.  I think back to when I was employed and living a more structured life where every hour of my day was spoken for. I was motivated to stay on task to tick off items on my to-do list before I had to leave for work. Or when I returned home from work, I tried to squeeze as much out of the remaining daylight as possible by taking a few-hour ride. Good or bad, it seemed I was always on the move, and I took pride in that.  These days, I'm more inclined to remind myself that there's a benefit to downtime—to allowing my body to more fully recover between workouts. My Garmin Epix Pro 2 is good at letting me know when I've been too active, and it's mostly right. Having said all that, ...

In my last blog post, I talked about aging in relation to my physical performance on the bike and during my walks. Perhaps it's the Virgo in me—the meticulously organized side that tracks meaningless stuff, such as performance—but the numbers don't lie. The stats tell me I've been slowing down for many years, but a big part of my drop-off was due to my arthritic right knee. Now that I have my knee replacement rehab mostly behind me, I'm beginning to turn up the effort on my workouts, and it feels so nice. Knowing that my days of setting PBs (personal bests) are behind me, and have been for many years, I still know there's a chance my next ride may be one where I put in an effort I haven't seen in years—a solid effort—and that motivates me. I did that yesterday . It may seem like a typical ride to most other fit cyclists, but to me it was a breakthrough. After years of struggling to hold 14 mph (22.5 kph) on a gravel ride, I went out yesterday (on a mixed surfac...

I jynxed us in my last blog post when I spoke about our mild winter. A strong depression came through Saturday night and into Sunday morning, bringing with it about 15" (38 cm) of snow, single-digit temps, and winds gusting in excess of 40 mph (65 kph). It's pretty out there, I'll say that! But a warmup is on the way! My WeatherBug app is forecasting 68°F (20 °C) for Saturday, just two days from now.  As someone who charts the progress of my rides and walks, and has for decades, I've occasionally pondered how I'll cope with diminishing returns as my pace and distance both ebb with age. I'm 68. With respect to cycling, I've mostly moved beyond the pondering stage and to the acceptance stage. I'm not the rider I was just a few years ago. But having said that, it's possible, and likely, that I'll gain speed and distance on my rides compared to recent years now that I've mostly recovered from knee replacement surgery. I'm looking forward to ...

Tammy had surgery on her foot last week to remove bone spurs and bone chips. Her doctor said it was a much-needed surgery for her. Over the past two years, especially, she hasn't been able to work out or walk very far the way she used to (because of pain), so we're hopeful this will give her that ability again. She was supposed to have the surgery last fall, but had to put it off for six months after her cardiac arrest experience last August. She's wearing a protective boot on her surgical foot and must avoid putting weight on it for 6 to 8 weeks. Our goal is to get her fit for a full day at the state fair in August! We're in the waning weeks of another relatively easy winter. Nearly all of our snowfall is gone, and the long-range forecast has us well above freezing. Our last three winters have been nearly identical in terms of snowfall, with each recording less than half our usual amount (between 51 and 54 inches / 130 and 137 cm). There's still a chance that we c...

I've watched my share of Olympic coverage from Milano Cortina, Italy, over the last two-plus weeks. I mostly enjoy watching curling, but also figure skating, snowboarding, and ski jumping. I love the winter Olympics. It's been a nice distraction from our dysfunctional country. I was in a curling league two years ago and became fascinated by the sport. There is so much strategy involved. I still have much to learn about it. I've been going to the gym (Planet Fitness) 4 to 6 days a week. It's nice that it's less than a ten-minute drive from home. I've been working on strengthening my quadriceps muscles in my surgically repaired knee, but I'm also focusing on my core—something I've neglected my entire adult life. I'm pleased with the progress I've made. I see the gym as a regular part of my workout routine for years to come. It's such a good value, too, at only $10 per month. I wish I had begun years ago, but better late than never.  I was putti...

I've had enough. Like many people, I've toyed with the thought of deleting my Facebook account. Earlier this week, in a spur-of-the-moment decision, I decided to toy no more and did it. More accurately, I stopped short of deleting it and deactivated it instead. Not deleting it gives me continued access to Messenger, where I can still connect with friends. Perhaps it was the algorithm I had cultivated, but maybe not. I used to manage a Facebook page that I started a while back as a tribute to a lighted oak tree in Bloomington. I let the page go dormant for years and was shocked when I looked at it a few months ago and found that it had been overrun with hard-right propaganda accounts. I've heard of this happening before. A quick search shows it's not uncommon  for that to happen.  My experience of late on the platform shows a trend toward more racist and hateful comments, especially on pages for local TV stations, where the comments are primarily from residents of the me...