Month: May 2020

#deanslife · covid19 · dogs · fitness · walking

Sam’s pandemic day off and rainy day dog walk

Sam B

May is usually the month when academics get to catch our collective breath. Grades are submitted. Conference season is about to begin. And even for administrators it’s quieter with fewer faculty and students on campus. But this year isn’t like most years. We’re not on campus. We’re all working at home. For all of us this has been a long semester with unrelenting long days of video conference classes and meetings.

I’ve been reminding staff and faculty of the need to take holidays. We’re all getting worn down. Me too.

Thursday I posted to social media: “I’m taking tomorrow off as a holiday. I’m not going anywhere but I’m also staying off Zoom, WebEx, Teams etc. We need vacation days even during the pandemic. Maybe especially. I just realized recently that I was supposed to have a week’s holiday in California this April, after the conference in San Francisco that was cancelled. I’m going to take Cheddar for an extra long walk. And maybe bake banana bread. Read a novel. Just chill at home. It won’t feel like holiday holidays. But it will feel like a day off and that’s enough.”

How’d it go? Well it wasn’t holiday like exactly but it did feel like a good day off work and that’s pretty good. I slept in. That was an excellent start.

I sat on the sofa and finished Matt Haig’s The Humans which I enjoyed.

It was very rainy and so I was leery of the long dog walk idea initially. Cheddar, however, was not. Luckily it was warm and rainy and so it was actually nice being out there. Cheddar dragged me into the woods to see a dead raccoon. That wasn’t so nice but he didn’t touch it. He just needed me to see it apparently. I have a photo but I’ll spare you.

The nice thing about the rain is that I didn’t have to pay much attention to physical distancing. I think we were the only ones out walking along the river.

While walking I listened to Trevor Noah’s memoir Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. It’s a terrific audiobook. I haven’t been listening to books lately while walking because of the need to chat and coordinate the six feet rule with fellow path walkers. Today was different and I’ve decided I’m going to embrace rainy days.

On our return from the long wet dog walk, Facebook memories reminded me that two years ago I was in Bremen and four years ago I was Innsbruck, Austria.

Scenes from Innsbruck

I was in Innsbruck for the Austro-Canadian Medical Ethics Workshop, “Man at the Heart of a Modern Medical Ethics: Challenges and Perspectives” and my talk was,
“Making Decisions for Children as if Childhood Mattered: Reflections on Medical Decision Making and the Goods of Childhood.”

These days I’m spending some time racing in Virtual Innsbruck as it’s one of Zwift’s cycling worlds. It’s remarkably realistic. Sadly, especially, the hills!

Oh and 12 years ago I was in Canberra, Australia where I was a Visiting Professor in the Philosophy Department at the Australian National University where I also spent some time riding and racing my bike.

Here’s me on the Stromlo Crit Course.

Thanks Greg Long for this photo of women’s C racing.

So Germany, Austria, and Australia. So much travel, all impossible now. As academics begin what’s our usual summer conference season, it feels extra odd not to be travelling. Usually I head out to the west coast once or twice and go to a conference or two in Europe as well. This year I’m pretty settled in Guelph. It’s all been cancelled.

But I am also feeling happy to be home, with family and Cheddar, the dog. I’m enjoying our rainy day walks. I’m impressed that my knee is holding out. These are longer walks and more regular walks than I’ve been able to do for a few years now. I notice that in my post about Bremen, two years old, I was talking about being unable to walk to campus from the hotel.

I’ve been nervous about my knee surgery being put off in these Covid-19 times. But it looks like that will be okay. I’m doing fine. It’s not all bad news. And it’s good for all sorts of reasons, the climate chief among them, to get used to less summer conference travel.

Cheddar, for one, is happy to have me home.

covid19 · fitness · habits · yoga

Towards a new “routine”?

bettinathenomad4 Comments

I don’t know about you, but two months into lockdown I feel like I’m starting to settle into the “new normal”. Getting up in the morning and “going to work” across the hallway doesn’t seem outlandishly strange anymore. People at my workplace are settling into automatically logging their intermittent visits to the office on our online building log without me chasing them, which pleases me no end (I’m responsible for coordinating our Corona measures at work). Even as we ease lockdown measures where I live, at least partially remote work will stay with us for another while, so it’s just as well.

Bettina’s current universe: a red yoga mat and her home office workstation

I’ve also started noticing a few things that are missing and rather than it feeling too much, I’m doing something about it. (I realise that I’m incredibly privileged to be in that headspace right now.) One of these things is a way to work out my arm muscles. In the before time – which to me right now means both before Corona and before pregnancy – I bouldered (stopped first because pregnant) and swam (stopped later because Corona) regularly. Now that I’m not doing either of those things, my poor arms are definitely noticing the lack of a challenge. That’s why I’ve started doing a bit of arms exercise with dumbbells almost daily. It’s not much, just some sets of biceps curls and some shoulder and triceps exercises, but it’s something. I won’t lie, I don’t enjoy it. I find it a bit boring. But I keep telling myself that I’ll have to carry a baby around soon and I’m reliably informed they are heavy, so I’d better prepare!

Last week, I’ve also started doing prenatal yoga every morning, except on the days I have my online Iyenga yoga class. This is more enjoyable than the dumbbells! I like getting into the movements as my body wakes up, and it’s very peaceful and quiet around me. I’m still trying to understand why it’s taken me this long to get into that routine, and my conclusion is it’s a mix of things both pandemic and pregnancy-related that has messed up my day-to-day.

Let’s see how long it lasts. The one thing both the Corona crisis and pregnancy have in common is that they evolve daily. Soon I’ll be too big to cycle, at some point I’ll have to stop running. But for now, I’m pleased I’ve found a groove.

How about you? Have you found a way of settling into things?

A logo for Zoom vacations Zoom vacation or vacation from zoom?
fitness · holiday fitness

Zoom vacation or vacation from zoom?

catherine w

For most of us on the college and university academic calendar, the disjointed, overwhelming, surreal and non-spatio-temporal spring semester of 2020 is staggering to an end. College administrations have already been frantically calculating about what is possible for fall 2020, with some having declared an all-online semester, and others (like mine) wishing and hoping to include some face-to-face instruction (who knows how…)

But for now, there’s an opportunity for us to take a breath. It’s mid-May, and where I live the flowers and trees are bursting out with new fresh color. Normally I would be heading to South Carolina to see family, and then to Dallas, TX for my friend Matt’s lovely conference on Medicine, Science and Technology. But nothing is normal right now, except for those flowers and trees.

Okay, moving on from that: now that my grades are in (and by now, I mean “just now– like 45 minutes ago.”), I want to do something to mark the space between the end of the term and the beginning of my summer work (academic writing, non-academic writing, course planning, teaching a summer course, among other things).

But what to do?

One of the unexpected side effects of large-scale physical distancing is our new access to just about everything everywhere on Zoom. Samantha is cycling with famous and non-famous cyclists from all over the world, and some of my logic students joined me for a free restorative yoga class. We are working out, tuning in, focusing on our breath, stretching, you name it, all from our individual spaces. Here are some zoom options I’m looking at:

More yoga: I’ve been using this enforced home time to try out Zoom classes by non-local yoga teachers. Many studios offer cheap introductory rates, making it possible for more people to try them out. I’m definitely getting a one-week pass for Nest Yoga studio in Oakland, CA. One of their teachers, Leslie Howard, is a specialist on pelvic floor yoga.

I know, you’re maybe wincing a little. But this is a thing. And we are feminists here, which to me means speaking truth about women’s bodies. Okay, I’m done with that for now. Except to tell you that Leslie wrote a book called Pelvic Liberation, which I immediately ordered. Yes, I’ll be blogging about it.

So, Nest Yoga has a ton of classes that look intriguing to me, and I can partake of one week of them for $25. Seems like a deal.

Also, I can take more Zoom classes offered by my local studio, Artemis. I’d enjoy spending more time with the teachers I know and who know me.

More Meditation: Meditation is something I’ve been doing off and on for a couple of decades now. I’ve been in an off phase for a while, but once we went into stay-at-home mode, I found that I needed the focus and calm and present-here-now feeling that I sometimes get from meditation. My friend Norah told me about this site, Trike Daily, which has live streaming meditation sessions and loads of recorded sessions, all by well-known Buddhist meditation teachers.

I bought Sharon Saltzberg’s book Real Happiness, and she has QR codes to downloadable meditations. I will be checking them out.

Strength training: I got started on this before the shutdown of everything, purchasing a 12-week plan rom Bad Yogi. Honestly, it was a little much for me, but I could modify the workouts. However, I didn’t modify them, I just avoided them. But, today is a new day, and I am still interested in strength training. And those Bad Yogi workouts are still there.

One thing I haven’t done is explored live zoom strength training classes. I know a number of the bloggers do this, and others have set up at-home equipment and schedules. I admit to being a bit at sea about this.

But maybe all this is beside the point, re vacation. Maybe it’s time to step away from the computer and refrain from all unnecessary Zooming for a bit. Even with physical distancing and mandatory mask-wearing in public (it’s required in MA, and I encourage everyone to do this all the time), I can still GO OUTSIDE.

Maybe I should just go outside. On foot. On my bike. With my phone camera. With a water bottle and a snack. It’s a thought.

What do you think, readers? If you were taking a week-long vacation, what would you do, given the rules and recommendations for where you are? I’d love to hear from you, and I will report back– both with my plans and with your comments.

covid19 · fitness · injury

Injury-free, at last!

Tracy I1 Comment
Image description: running shoes, yoga mat, metal water bottle, and resistance bands.

Like most people, I have experienced some benefits I hadn’t predicted from the pandemic isolation (e.g. more time with my parents; the transition from asking “what’s sourdough starter?” to churning out perfect loaves on a regular basis; regular family gatherings on Zoom). But the benefit that has snuck up on me the most is that after over a year of struggling with injuries, I am now, suddenly and happily and unexpectedly injury-free.

On the blog, I’ve been fairly quiet about my injuries (one reason for that is that I had a long good-bye late last summer where I more or less left as a regular contributor, and since then have only written a handful of posts). But also, I’m not big on widespread sharing of my own pain (not that I never have), and I have a personal aversion to dwelling on what’s wrong (not that I never do). People who know me were aware of my Achilles’ injury because it interfered with my regular routines. Most seriously, it took me out of my regular running routine for more than a year. Since I ran the Around the Bay 30K last March, the furthest distance I’ve covered was 10K. I did that maybe 2-3 times. Despite feeling good immediately after the event, I experienced debilitating back pain a few days later. And then, within a short time of the back clearing up enough to take a gingerly approach to running again, my left side Achilles started to bother me in June, and by July I had backed way off. Mostly, I’ve been running between 3-5K or not at all.

The thing is, I’ve been continuing to try. Despite my physiotherapist’s advice and other people’s insistence on the risks of running on an injured Achilles, I spent many months backing off and then easing in again. Really, what I needed was to back right off and take a long break. When I was in Mexico for a few months from January 1 to March 18, I settled into some short running for a few weeks and then brazenly added mountain hiking. If you’ve ever had an Achilles issue, you know that uphills are the worst thing for it. So let’s just say hiking in the mountains was ill-advised. I inflamed my Achilles to the point where I had to stop running and hiking again by mid-February. I continued to walk a lot, covering 8-10K on flat ground most days, sometimes limping. My Achilles wasn’t exactly getting total rest and I was still aware of it all the time, but at least I’d stopped stressing it out.

The other part of my regular routine was yoga, modified so as to put no extra strain on my left Achilles.

When I got back to Canada on March 18, I had to go straight into quarantine for 14 days. I was in the country at my parents’ place (we had travelled together), so I could safely go for very short walks without running into anyone. When the 14 day quarantine ended, I added some very short runs, but I walked on the uphills (it’s hilly around here, but I was adamant that I would respect the Achilles). When the quarantine ended, I was able to extend my distance a bit, but mostly I’ve kept it to a walk or a run most days, plus yoga. A couple of weeks ago I added resistance training classes on Zoom.

I’m giving this little rundown of what’s happened since March 2019 because it’s really only since the pandemic (almost a year from the event where this all started) that, without planning it, I have done exactly what I needed to do to tend to my injury. And since I didn’t plan it, I didn’t “design” my approach with the Achilles in mind. Instead, I have stuck close to home and only gone out for shorter periods of activity because it seems (to me) like the right thing to do.

I’ve kept to my commitment to daily yoga because more than ever I’ve needed a way to feel grounded–morning meditation and daily yoga are two ways I manage to do that. Yes, they are grounding in themselves. But along with my daily walks or runs, they have helped me establish a sense of routine that I absolutely need during the pandemic. I don’t know about you but sometimes I feel as if each day just spills into the next and time has taken on a weird quality where it is on occasion almost meaningless.

Because of the weirdness of time lately, I can’t tell you when exactly it happened. But some time during the past two or three weeks it occurred to me that I hadn’t been aware of my Achilles at all of late. One marker of an injury is that it never completely escapes awareness. It’s hard to believe that just a couple of months ago, around the time when I had to stop the hiking, my Achilles was throbbing and aching all the time, even when I was just lying in bed.

Now, I finish a walk or a run and the Achilles just worked the way it was supposed to work. When I’m doing yoga, I don’t have to back off of pushing my heel all the way down when doing Warrior I. In a Zoom workout, I can keep my heels down during the squats and not worry about pain in lunges or chair climbing or anything I’d usually approach with caution.

Because of the pandemic and my inclination for the foreseeable future to stick fairly close to home, I feel pretty confident that I am not about to “overdo it” despite feeling as if I am good to go. Instead, I can enjoy my new injury-free-again state without putting it at risk (as I might normally be tempted to do). It’s amazing and wouldn’t have happened without Covid-19 forcing such major changes in our expectations on all of us. By the time this thing is resolved (I am not optimistic that it will be within a few months), the foot will be strong and be able to support me in a new training plan that can include distance and intensity. Pretty exciting!

So that’s my story of recovery from injury and of one of the good things that pandemic isolation has brought me. If you have an injury-recovery story and/or a good thing you want to share about pandemic isolation, please leave it in the comments.

Meanwhile, may you all be safe and be well.

covid19 · cycling · fitness · habits

Sam is habitual, addicted, and unemployed: Time to add “quarantined,” Zwift?

Sam B2 Comments

As everyone who reads the blog knows, like cyclists all over the world, I’ve been riding lots on Zwift. It’s become a crowded place sometimes Just yesterday Sir Bradley Wiggins, CBE, former professional road and track racing cyclist, led a group ride on Zwift with nearly 3000 other riders.

In the past I didn’t pay much attention to some of the “game-y” features in Zwift like the badges. But then the pandemic happened and in short order I got the habitual, the addicted, and finally the unemployed badges. There’s been a lot of jokes among Zwifting cyclists about renaming them. Maybe we should add one after “unemployed” and call it the “quarantined.” If “unemployed” is riding 14 days in a row, maybe “quarantined” could be 30?

Some people have suggested that since so many people have lost their jobs in the real world, that Zwift’s Unemployed badge isn’t such a funny joke any longer. Mostly I ride after work but sometimes in order to catch rides in other time zones, like the Australian breakfast rides with Chicks Who Ride Bikes, I take breaks during my workday. I was riding with someone from California the other day who was working while riding! Her company encouraged staff to work while indoor bike riding. Me, I’m not coordinated enough for that.

If you want to find out more, here’s this from Zwift Insider: ALL ABOUT ZWIFT’S “UNEMPLOYED” (AND SIMILAR) BADGES: “With many of us riding and running only indoors due to coronavirus-related restrictions, the topic of Zwift’s “Unemployed” achievement badge is popping up regularly. This is the badge awarded when you (as Zwift says), “Ride a lap 14 days in a row”.

It’s true I’ve been riding more. I don’t what May will look like but here’s April.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is strava.jpg
Sam’s Zwift badges including her Unemployed badge.

Me, kayaking in open ocean water on a splendid sunny day. Kayak shopping while fat
boats · fitness

Kayak shopping while fat

catherine w8 Comments

CW: discussion of fat-shaming during kayaking outings and gear fittings.

I’m doing it– I’m finally buying a sea kayak! For years now, I’ve rented boats for paddling in lakes and rivers, estuaries and protected ocean bays. I love love love being on the water.

So why haven’t I bought a kayak before? You can get a used one for less than the cost of a good used road, mountain, cross or gravel bikes. Yes, they’re long– my future kayak will run 14 feet (4.25 meters) or longer. But I can store it in my backyard on sawhorses, with an inexpensive cover. And my car has a roof rack for transporting it. As for lifting a 50+ lb. boat, there are technology aids (e.g. little kayak trolley), that help make the loading feasible for one person.

Little two-wheeled trolley for moving a kayak here and yon.
Little two-wheeled trolley for moving a kayak here and yon.

So what’s been stopping me? Part of it is the maintenance of yet more gear. Also, why buy when you can rent? Here’s why.

Almost every time I’ve rented a kayak for a day trip, or signed up for a kayaking instructional workshop, I’ve been greeted with looks and comments of impatience, frustration, puzzlement and all-around negative vibes about the prospect of finding gear and a boat to fit my size. I’m not kidding. Almost every time. They tut-tut, shake their heads and cast about for everything from the actual boat (let’s look for a really wide cockpit for you), to a spray skirt (no, we don’t have any neoprene spray skirts to fit YOU), to a PFD (aka lifejacket; although to be honest most women complain about how they’re not designed to fit them).

When I did a weekend intensive ocean kayaking course, I found myself chatting with the main instructor– a world-class sea kayaker and long-time teacher and guide. When I said I was looking for a boat and was finding it difficult to find one I was comfortable in, he shook his head and said soberly, “yeah– they just don’t make many boats for people your size.”

Here’s the thing: that is totally false. There are loads and loads of kayaks for people my size. There are not loads and loads of super-high-end fiberglass or kevlar performance sea kayaks for people my size, but there are some. I actually paddled in one that he had in his gear shed– the Romany Excel. And I don’t want one of those anyway, partly because they’re very expensive, and partly because of this ad for them:

Ad for the Romany Excel sea kayak, which uses the phrase "extra large paddler" twice.
Ad for the Romany Excel sea kayak, which uses the phrase “extra large paddler” twice.

Naturally, it’s crucial to know the carrying capacity of a kayak, and they are designed for different maximum weights. It’s in the specs for every boat, so this information is easy to access. I suppose someone thought that aggressive marketing to the “extra-large-paddler” market would help sell this boat. Hmphf.

What really upsets me, though, is that ads like this make me feel like kayak manufacturers think the “regular” paddlers don’t and can’t include me. (FYI: I’m a size 16–18, XL/XXL) Yes, there are plenty of kayakers who weigh less than I do. There are many kayakers who are larger than I am. In sum, regular kayakers come in a variety of sizes and heights.

I want to be a regular kayaker in both senses of the word: 1) I want to be considered just one of the regular paddlers, not an outlier/special case “extra-large paddler” (regardless of my size); 2) I want to kayak regularly. In order achieve 2) I need to spare myself the ordeal of head shakes and “I guess I can see what we’ve got in the back”. So, I’ll get my own damn boat, thank you very much. Stay tuned for updates as the used-boat shopping commences.

I’ll end with some photographic evidence that they do, after all, make boats for people my size.

  • My feet on the deck of my kayak (even though they do fit inside).
    My feet on the deck of my kayak (even though they do fit inside).
  • Samantha, sitting inside tandem kayak, where I am, too.
    Samantha, sitting inside tandem kayak, where I am, too.
  • Ad for the Romany Excel sea kayak, which uses the phrase "extra large paddler" twice.
    Me inside a kayak, outside a mall.
Janet and me (left) kayaking inside our boats.
Janet and me (left) kayaking inside our boats.

Readers: have you had trouble finding gear because you didn’t fit some advertiser’s or coach’s idea of the “regular” practitioner of your sport or activity? If you have something you’d like to share, I’d love to hear about it.

fitness

Is Baking a Sport?

Nicole P,3 Comments

My first thought for this blog post was “Of course, baking is not a sport. Not in the proper definition of the word.” Then I searched the internet for definitions of “sport”.

According to Oxford’s online dictionary, “sport”, as a noun, is defined as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” Baking does, sometimes, involve physical exertion (see kneading dough for 10 minutes, especially if it is made of a tough wheat, such as “spelt”) but it does not involve competition against others (oh wait, Great Canadian Baking Show…or relatives who leave out an ingredient in a favourite family recipe so that theirs is still the “best” version – not that I would ever do that, seriously!).

As a verb, Oxford defines “sport’ to “amuse oneself or play in a lively, energetic way.” I am definitely amused by baking and can sometimes be lively and energetic while whisking egg whites or walking to and fro from counter to mixer to measuring cups. I prefer to think of baking in a happy and soothing way, as opposed to in a rage-full way as Martha describes in this post about Rage Baking.

Even in the before times, before self-isolation became the norm, I have enjoyed baking and cooking. They are a little different in the joy they provide. Both tap into my creativity, provide a comfort that is innate for me, typically end in something tasty and pleasing that I can share with others. However, baking typically provides more preciseness. More concentration. More focus for my “all browsers open, all of the time” mind. I don’t make intricate works of art like some people I know. But I find beauty in golden and shaggy crusts, floury and buttery batters, lemony curds and eggy plumes of meringues. I feel connected to my mother, my aunts, my relatives I’ve never met, who have passed down recipes for mandlebrot, rugelach, jammy thumbprints and challah.

An assortment of Nicole’s homebaked treats, including: bagels. rye bread, sourdough bread, pavlova, rugalech and gingerbread.

Besides the dictionary definitions, how does the action of baking compare to the movement of fitness or sport for me?

Number one, they both provide me with a level of joy. Also, they can both challenge me.

When I am feeling anxious or unsettled, movement will typically help. So will a random muffin bake.

Active meditation, either in the form of a long run, or repetitively shaped cookies, is a great way to deal with “being forced to be alone with my thoughts”.

Both a heavy deadlift and a satisfying bite into a delicious, home baked treat, can be a kick in the ass to diet culture and fatphobia.

I have felt just as tired (and satisfied) from 12 hours of non-stop baking, as from a challenging, long run. It’s just as important to stretch your hamstrings, hips and lower back, before and after both activities.

Sometimes when I am working out, I will choose alternates. I know I need a step vs. a box, for step-ups, for example. Similarly, I know I can choose alternates when I am baking. I don’t have cardamom handy? I can use cinnamon. In both cases, I can choose the alternate that works for me. And, really, I will always add more cinnamon, vanilla, pepper, than the recipe suggests. I’ve never measured a 1/4 tsp of a spice in my life.

I have seen people get all academic with exercise, and also with baking. Not me. I am not going to be the one obsessively checking my heart rate or timing sprints. Nor am I going to be watching several YouTube videos and reading every bit of literature on the subject of making sourdough. I find out what I need (ingredients) and follow a recipe and then use trial and error from there. Both work for me. I use a bit of intuition in both cases. I am a sensory explorer. For example, with running, I have been running long enough, that I know when I am running at an easy pace or when I am doing speed training, without checking a HR monitor. Similarly, I know when bread dough looks right based on sight and feel. I stay close to the recipe directions, but I play around a bit too. I enjoy running and baking (and have good results in both cases) without being too specific about how to do either.

I have never been good at team sports. If I’m at the gym and they decide to incorporate a game into the warm-up that results in teams competing against each other, the 8 year old who feels inadequate, dodging volleyballs and shielding her eyeglasses from an awkward collision, rears her head. But with individual sports, such as running, or weight lifting, I have found ease and confidence. If baking were a group sport, I wouldn’t find as much solace in it. I do, after all, own a dish towel that says, “Get the Hell Out of My Kitchen”. Baking, as an individual sport, provides a similar ease and confidence as running or weight lifting. A solitary respite from day-to-day stresses. Although, I love nothing more than sharing the fruits of my labour with others. Especially if I can see that they enjoy them.

So, what have I learned from this comparison? Baking may not be a sport that will be included in the next Olympic Games. But it provides: a healthy distraction for both my mind and body; challenges and joy; is complimentary to my preference for hobbies that are more solitary than team-oriented; and in these pandemic times, I appreciate it as a “sport”, more than ever.

Does baking feel like a sport to you? Do you have other past-times, not typically considered a sport, that you think should be considered as such?

Nicole Plotkin is busy these days, working from home, enjoying some virtual workouts and some outdoor jogs, and cooking and baking a lot more than usual!
family · fitness · strength training

Backyard fitness and being in this for the long haul

Sam B1 Comment
Heavy bag and big tire

It’s gradually been dawning on us, here at home in Guelph, that fitness-wise, we’re in this for the long haul. I stopped going to the gym awhile ago now. On March 9th I wrote, Sam decides to take a break from the gym. And by “this” I mean working out at home.

If there were a work Covid-19 bingo, for sure one of the squares would be about this being a marathon and not a sprint. I even wrote a Dean’s blog post with that as a title. I hope I wrote that before we all got sick of hearing it. Maybe not. And while I am sick of hearing that phrase too I am only now realizing that it’s not just about work. My personal life has changed too. I won’t be flying anywhere soon.

And the more that I think about it, the more I realize, that even if gyms re-open, I’m not going back anytime soon. I’ve written about my 7 part physical distancing fitness plan and about the missing puzzle pieces of my at home plan. Now the missing pieces are mostly filled in. I’m getting lots of physical activity and it’s helping me with stress and sleep. It’s also a source of pleasure and achievement in these strange times.

I expect I’ll return to the gym if we have a vaccine or if/when we have reached herd immunity without a vaccine or I suppose if we develop effective treatments for Covid-19. Either of those options is more than a year away. Before that I am more likely to go back to our 24 hour discount gym, in the off hours, than I am to the campus fitness facilities.

Maybe I’ll change my mind. But right now I’m thinking if I can do a thing with less risk, I’m going to stick to that path. Hence, the backyard gym.

Inside, we have the TRX and yoga mats and resistance cables. We’ve also got a kettlebell and a lone 8 lb dumbbell. We’re pretty well set up for riding inside too though as things loosen up in Ontario, I’m looking forward to physically distanced rides with friends. Obviously, there’s still some shopping to do. Outside, we now have skipping ropes, the punching bag, and a giant tire. Between those things and the phone tabata app, and a few family members to work out with, it’s a good time.

Usually I envy my big city friends with their boutique gym options and a vast array of theatre, music, and food options. But right now. I’m feeling pretty good about life in my small city where we have a backyard and space to flip big tires. The streets aren’t crowded for walking and running even if the city parks haven’t re-opened yet. Yes, I’m privileged to have these options. I’ll totally understand if others choose differently.

Come winter we may end up with even more indoor fitness equipment in the room that was our livingroom but is now mostly a two person home office which turns into a home gym when we break for lunch, or do yoga after work or before bed. I’m not sure it will return to its pure living room status. On and off, I think we’ll be working at home (those of us whose jobs allow it) for awhile yet.

What fun piece of backyard fitness equipment would you buy if you had the summer ahead of you?

competition · cycling · fitness · racing

Ways of organizing amateur athletes for fair and fun competition

Sam B

I’ve been racing lots on Zwift lately. See Six Things I Love about Racing in Zwift.

It’s fun. I like riding and racing with a team.

One of the things that’s interesting are the different ways races are organized to make racing fun and fair. What do I mean by that? Well, it’s no fun if you have zero chance of winning and not fair, maybe, if you’re competing against younger, fitter, more powerful riders. So bike races use categories to divide up riders to make the competition more even.

Think of it like one design sailboat racing where everyone races the same style of boat. Or car racing where there are rules about what the cars raced are like. There’s less determined by gear and skill is more of a factor. It’s like that bike racing only instead of boats, it’s bodies. Now it’s true that in both real life, and in Zwift, we’re also riding different bikes–Zwift has different classes of virtual bikes and some are more aero, lighter, faster. You acquire them by “buying” them with virtual coinage you acquire by riding lots. That’s an element of the “game” part of Zwift. But the big difference isn’t bikes, it’s rider power, measured in watts. Some cyclists are more powerful than others and Zwift divides riders in various ways.

Here’s three different ways of classifying riders in Zwift races that I’ve experienced. I’m sure there are others.

The most obvious one is by sex. Tonight I’m racing in the Monday Madness series. It’s a team based series across categories A-E. Cats A-D are open to all riders and the differences between them are based on your power output. I started out in D but as I got fitter and faster I got bumped to C. Roughly, C means that I race somewhere between 2.5-3.1 watts/kg.

Cyclists care about power, but what really matters, unless you’re riding on very flat terrain, is power to weight ratio, or watts per kg. Here is an explanation.

Here’s me in the yellow TFC jersey between two men racing in the D category.

An aside: Entering a race in a category below the one in which you should be racing for the purposes of an easy win is “sandbagging.” Zwift has introduced the green cone of shame which appears above your head while riding if you exceed the power limits for the category in which you’re racing. See Zwift takes steps to limit sandbagging. They also notify you in advance. In my case I got disqualified, DQ’ed, after my first race that I won while exceeding the power limits for D, and the next time I registered for C. All good–no cone of shame. Phew!

Image from Zwift Insider, https://zwiftinsider.com/anti-sandbagging-test/

But tonight I’m racing in E, which is the women’s category which is open to all women riders. That means that I’ll be racing against women in all categories. Ouch! I won’t win. I might come in somewhere in the middle. But that’s true for me in C too. I was winning D races but as I got faster it was no longer fair to have me in the D cat. Why race in the women’s cat? Well, it’s a team sport and our team gets points for having riders in each of the categories.

In an ideal world, I think that we won’t need special categories for women riders. Certainly lumping all the women together isn’t fair. But lots of women want to race against other women. In the real world, I can see that, especially in amateur racing.

I’ve also raced in Zwift in age groups. But again that was a little strange. There are some very fast 50-somethings out there! My theory is that lots of people ride and race in their 20s and 30s but by the time you get to 50 only the fast people are sticking with it.

Anyway, it’s complicated but I like that there are a variety of ways of dividing up riders to make racing more fun.


aging · fitness · training

Sam’s max heart rate is slowing down but that’s okay, she isn’t

Sam B3 Comments
A beating cartoon heart

So I’m back training again. I’m riding and racing on Zwift. I’m working with a coach. Hi Chris! And that means I’m paying attention to data.

I’m also paying attention to some comparative data. Because I’ve been riding and using a Garmin and Strava for years, some things are interesting to track over time.

My ftp has gone up. (FTP stands for Functional Threshold Power and represents the highest wattage number you can expect to average over an hour.) All good. It’s fun. I like measuring and tracking progress.

Yay!

Except what’s striking is that my maximum heart rate has gone down, like way down. A lot. Fifteen years ago when I used to race crits, do short distance duathlons and do flying laps at the velodrome, I had a max heart rate of 182.

Here’s younger Sam racing in a crit. Thanks Greg Long for the photo.

Now my max heart rate is 164 or so. I used to do time trials at 168. Now my time trial heart is more like 150. That’s the highest heart rate I can maintain for a good chunk of time without blowing up.

Remember the old formula? 220 minus your age? That’s pretty much right for me now. I suppose I shouldn’t care. My top speeds haven’t gone down and neither has my power output. But what’s it all about?

See Heart rate and age: “The relationship between the heart and exercise has been studied for more than six decades and the research is clear: Max heart rate—the highest heart rate you can safely hit during exercise—decreases with age regardless of lifestyle or level of fitness. Why the drop? The reasons aren’t completely known, but a 2013 University of Colorado Medical School study found that one reason could be slower electrical activity in the heart’s pacemaker cells. Basically, “your heart can’t beat as often,” says Roy Benson, running coach and co-author of Heart Rate Training.
However, a lower max heart rate may not necessarily affect your splits. “It’s not a foregone conclusion that a decrease in heart rate max means a decline in performance,” says Joe Friel, coach and author of Fast After 50 and The Triathlete’s Training Bible. “That’s a very common but unsupported view of athletes who are ill informed about the science behind heart rate. They assume a high heart rate means a high level of performance. Not true.”

I started to go down the rabbit hole of reading journal articles about why max heart rate declines. But really, do I need to know? I am still puzzled about why it doesn’t seem to matter as much as I thought it might.

I’ve written about heart rate training before.

See here:

Take it easy: Why train with a heart rate monitor, part 1

Go hard! : Why train with a heart rate monitor, part 2

Obviously, I need to open up my Garmin/Strava settings and put in some new numbers.

Do you track heart rate while exercising? Have you noticed it dropping with age?

Photo by Nick Hillier on Unsplash