I had been thinking about going to The Squeaky Wheel Bicycle co-op’s WTF repair clinic for a very long time.
I also wanted to take my youngest kid and her partner so they could learn some bicycle maintenance skills.
Oh. Right. First off I should explain what “WTF” stands for!
The poster for the October 27 women, trans, femme bike repair workshop.
Turns out my physiotherapist is a cyclist and highly skilled mechanic. We were chatting about inclusive cycling and they recommended I go.
So. I messed up my registration by somehow finding outdated registration instructions. I have a gift.
Jean, Jerica and I showed up with 3 bicycles in various states of needing love.
The volunteers were welcoming and gracious despite my mix up with registration.
We put Jean’s bike on the stand. Her disc brake was sticking and I had no idea where to start. A quick evaluation and our mechanic mentor showed us that it was simply the cable was not seated properly at the lever. Easy!
Second bike was my road bike, Ethyl, I had been mean to my derailer…again. So we went through how to evaluate the range and alignment. I also learned the names of the screws and their functions. After 10 minutes Ethyl was shifting like a dream.
Finally, I had a bike I want to fix up and gift to a friend. The crank where the pedal screws in was stripped. We did an overall evaluation of the bike. It also needs a new chain and brake pads. Totally things I can do myself.
I had a great afternoon learning more about bicycle maintenance. There were other folks working on bikes and I learned from them too.
I really appreciated having a space to try something and become a bit more autonomous with my bike repair skills.
I will definitely be back to gain more skills and confidence to go beyond replacing an inner tube and keeping my chain clean to actually repairing things.
Today in the United States is Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays. It’s wonderful because it involves cooking, eating, and spending time with loved ones. Traditionally, we cook turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, assorted veggie sides and lots of pies. Also traditionally, we eat the Thanksgiving meal with family members.
Not me. Well, I do eat a bunch of the traditional foods, but I don’t spend it eating with family. Why not?
I live 1000 miles (1600km) away from my family
This week is the most expensive, crowded and stressful travel time of the year
I go home to visit family less than a month later for Christmas
I’ve grown to love celebrating Friendsgiving instead
Many of you may know already what Friendsgiving is, but just in case, here’s what Wikipedia says:
Friendsgiving is a large meal eaten with friends on or near Thanksgiving. Those celebrated on Thanksgiving Day generally replicate a Thanksgiving dinner, while those that are additional gatherings may or may not.
Participants are generally close friends who live in the same area; when produced on Thanksgiving Day, the meal is most common in places with many transplants for whom traveling home for the holiday is logistically or emotionally difficult.
Well, Wikipedia got it sort of right. Yes, Friendsgiving celebrations are very common in areas where lots of people are from other places; Boston certainly qualifies on that score. I’ve been celebrating Thanksgiving with friends ever since grad school. I made my first turkey in the mid-80s, having invited three Canadian linguistics grad student friends (all the Americans seemed to have other places to go). We had a lovely time.
Since then, my friends with far-away family and I would band together, taking turns hosting, squabbling amicably over who gets to make which pies, and pressing leftovers on anyone who is willing to take excess stuffing and mash potatoes off our hands. From time to time I’ve joined other friends’ families, and I’ve expressed gratitude for being included in their gatherings. But honestly, my favorite way to celebrate this holiday is with friends and acquaintances and folks I’ve never met.
Case in point: last year I went to my friend Nina’s house for Thanksgiving. I made my usual Southern cornbread dressing (My recipe is proprietary, courtesy of my dad’s 4th ex-wife Alice– but here’s one that’s similar). Everyone brought yummy additions to go with Nina’s turkey and gravy and mashed potatoes. We were maybe 12 or so at the table– a combo of Nina and her family, me, some of her friends and also neighbors.
After we’d consumed all the savory food we could and were waiting for space so to attack the pies and chocolate cake, someone brought up the idea of us sharing when and from where our ancestors had come to the US. We went around the table, each talking about our grandparents, great-grandparents, etc.– how they made their way here and why. Our people came from all over the world, most of them poor and looking for new opportunities, some leaving behind repression and persecution.
I was the only person present whose ancestors arrived in North America in the 18th century, which wasn’t too surprising. As someone from the American South, I knew that the big migrations to my home state took place much earlier than the waves seen in the big Northeastern coastal cities. Hearing stories of these folks’ families and their traditions made me feel part of a richer and more complex story than my own.
Whenever my extended family get together, we share and repeat stories of our ancestors, both near and distant. I love the telling and retelling of childhood antics, frugal housekeeping habits, sharp-tongued aunts or uncles, and reminiscences of what life was like way back when. At the same time, it’s so refreshing and stimulating to hear and be a part of forming new stories with people not from our own family clans.
In a news story this week about New Englanders’ Thanksgiving traditions, one person wrote that their family liked to collect Thanksgiving orphans and give them a feeling of family by sharing their meal with them. Perhaps that was well-meaning, but I say Hmphf! I am no Thanksgiving orphan, thank you very much. I choose to spend this holiday with friends, friends of friends, assorted neighbors and colleagues, and create new experiences, savory and sweet, each year.
Dinner tables at my house and Nina’s house, Nina ready for carving, and a gang of friends at mine, full from a big dinner.
From my friends and family and me, we wish you all, dear readers, wherever you are, a happy and warm and rich Thanksgiving/Friendsgiving!
You are the people who don’t take advantage of your glide in breast stroke. Who walk in the lane rather than swimming. Who do some sort of head’s down dog-paddle. Or who do very short strokes and over-cross your arms in freestyle. Or who don’t follow every movement in aqua fit class. Or take it easy instead of pushing yourself throughout.
But you show up every single session and do your workout, whatever it may be. Already I recognize and expect to see you when I’m lifeguarding.
If I were you, I would welcome coaching or lessons because improving my strokes and speed are constant goals. But you seem happy to be moving through the water, and that’s the important thing.
You demonstrate discipline I don’t have, just by showing up every day.
Older women smiling and laughing during a water aerobics class. Photo from oldldadygains.com
Ok, so it wasn’t any fun but starting my week with two hours in the dentist’s chair sure makes the rest of my week seem very straightforward.
I know a lot of people get stressed about dental work but I’m not all that fazed by the procedure itself, I just hate the cursed chair.
Even though I know I am only leaning back a little, I always feel like I am practically upside down.
How I feel at the dentist. Image description: a black and white photo of a bat hanging upside down from a tree branch with its wings outstretched.
And, to make matters worse, once I am in the chair, I can never get my neck in a comfortable position for the procedure so I often end up getting a headache or a migraine after a trip to the dentist.
So, in the interests of migraine prevention, I made sure to take the day off yesterday so I could rest and take good care of my neck after I got home from the dentist.
And in the course of doing some (very gentle) neck stretches, it occurred to me that since I often have neck troubles, it might be helpful for me to do more preventative stretches on a regular basis.
That’s when I discovered the dilemma in my title.
Are my neck muscles tight because of how I use them (perhaps putting unnecessary strain on them) so they need to be stretched regularly?
Or perhaps my neck muscles are actually weak and they need to be strengthened instead?
Maybe it’s both?
Let’s be real here – it’s almost definitely both.
Luckily, a lot of the strengthening exercises I found are similar to stretches I already do but when you add reps, they magically become strength training instead.
And that makes them feel infinitely more doable.
So, let’s give it some time and see if combining the two will make some of my activities less of a pain in the neck.
I don’t know if it will help at the dentist though, I think that’s going to require a fancy neck support of some kind.
How do you think the dentist would feel about something like this? Image description: A GIF of a small light haired dog lying on her back holding a newspaper over her torso while her head is on a shiatsu massage pillow
PS – Have I talked about my neck before? Definitely!
Have I come to this same conclusion before? It is entirely possible.
Gretchen Rubin: “We explore ways to make each day of the week special by recognizing small pleasures. In episode 506 of the “Happier” podcast, my sister Elizabeth and I realized that I’m a Monday person, and she’s a Friday person. “
I love this idea of thinking about what makes each day special and I confess that with Gretchen, I also love Mondays. I love the fresh start and I usually come at Mondays with lots of energy and ambition. I often ride my bike on the trainer on Mondays–it’s the Herd’s Monday Morning Coffee Crew, an easy paced 45 min ride to kick the week off right. Monday evening I either do a course ride over of the route for Tuesday’s race with my Zwift teammates or I go to physio.
Tuesday is my all out work and exercise day. It’s a Big Day. There’s personal training with lots of weight lifting with Sarah in the early morning and it’s also my big meeting day, a full morning of senior administration, leadership team meetings. Tuesday night is race night with the Zwift Racing League. Go go go! Then crash!
What’s special about Wednesdays? Rest days! I sleep in a little and do some grading and class prep in the morning and teach all afternoon this semester, 230-530 pm. I might commute by bike or walk the dog but that’s about it for physical activity. Wednesday, I’m also often home alone in the evening–Sarah stays in Toronto for the symphony–and I enjoy a quiet night with a book or a favourite TV show, eat simple food, and hop into PJs very early.
Thursdays are my second biggest work days, right after Tuesday, It’s when we hold our Dean’s Council meetings with the chairs and directors of the departments and schools in the College of Arts. It’s also the day when I’m most likely to eat lunch with colleagues and go to academic talks if I can fit them in. By Thursday the work is definitely starting to weigh on us and it’s the day I’m most likely to order in dinner. Exercise is either bike commuting, dog walking, and home physio, or my favourite Zwift race of all, the team time trial. Thursday is the WTRL and Zwift, TTT. I love it.
TGIF! Friday is another personal training day bright and early in the morning. I try to be my Fridays flexible in case I want to work from Toronto. My meetings are usually held virtually and the day isn’t jam packed. I actually get some stuff done. Our Tafelmusik tickets are for Friday nights and sometimes I leave campus early and take the 3 pm train to Toronto, work on the train, and grab dinner before the concert.
Saturdays all depend where we are. Often, in the summer months, we’re camping or travelling or off on our bikes. Sometimes we’re at the farm. But the best weekend days begin with French Toast. I love French Toast so much that, before we had personal training on Fridays, we had French Toast Fridays. We kicked the weekend off early thanks to my friend Tim who first posted about French Toast Fridays. Now they’re back to a weekend treat. Weekends are a mix of indoor and outdoor chores and fun things. The trick is getting the balance right.
French toast with blueberries and “some coffee with the chaos” mug
I confess that I sometimes feel that I’m terrible at weekends. I know Saturday is supposed to be the best day and everyone loves weekends but I also like a plan and structure and sometimes I never quite get into the weekend groove. Saturdays especially can be stressful. I liked them best when I either had Aikido + lunch to kick off the weekend, or a long group bike ride. Or when I’m away travelling. But being at home, without a plan, can be strangely stressful.
A good Saturday thing is the morning base building ride that some Zwift teams have. They’re longish and chatty on Discord.
Sundays we often ride bikes, indoor or outdoors, and then start getting ready for the week ahead. Sundays are good days for long walks with dog. When I’m teaching I often settle into reading, class prep, and grading on Sunday afternoons. I feel like I do better on Sundays than Saturdays. My fave Sundays are when my eldest adult kid stops for Sunday dinner on her way home to London from her job at Trails. Love Sunday big family dinner as a tradition and as a Sunday thing.
Listen to Gretchen Rubin’s podcast and let me know. Do you have a favourite day? Do different things make different days special to you? What’s the rhythm of our week?
CW: mention of body size, appetite and weight loss in studies
Two recent studies have come out touting the benefits of HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, for women. One of them sounds great to me. The other, well, I’m not so sure about.
The volunteers performed the exercise programs twice a week for nine months at four neighborhood community centers run by an NGO. Clinical status, anthropometric [waist circumference] measurements and specific health parameters (cardiovascular, functional, mobility etc.) were assessed before the first session (baseline), at the end of the nine-month intervention, and three months after that.
HIIT combined with RT [resistance training] and moderate-intensity aerobic training combined with RT were equally efficacious in terms of reducing waist circumference (by 3.3 cm on average). This benefit persisted after the end of the training period. However, only HIIT combined with RT effectively lowered systolic blood pressure (7.9 mmHg) and reduced arterial stiffness (0.69 m/s), which remained so three months after the end of the training period.
So, the big differences between HIIT and moderate-intensity training were the reduced blood pressure and arterial stiffness that they saw in the experimental group, both of them factors for lowered risk of cardiovascular disease.
But, is going hard okay for older people? Yes, say the researchers.
Previous studies by his group showed that HIIT has no risks for people with high blood pressure, obesity or diabetes, or indeed for clinical populations in general. “The protocol requires a prior assessment to confirm the absence of contraindications, such as a high risk of heart attack, for example. Generally speaking, it’s very safe,” Ciolac stressed.
Great!
Now to the second study, which measured the effects of HIIT (vs. moderate exercise and a control) on levels of ghrelin, a hormone that affects hunger. Eight males (average age 43) and six females (average age 32) underwent bouts of HIIT and moderate exercise after fasting overnight. Details below:
“We found that high-intensity exercise suppressed ghrelin levels more than moderate-intensity exercise,” explained lead author Kara Anderson, Ph.D., from the University of Virginia and the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, Virginia. “In addition, we found that individuals felt ‘less hungry’ after high-intensity exercise compared to moderate-intensity exercise.”
Female [participants] had higher levels of total ghrelin at baseline compared with males, the study noted. However, only females demonstrated “significantly reduced AG”[a form of ghrelin] following the intense exercise, according to the findings.
What’s the upshot of those results? Well, here’s what one of the researchers says:
“Exercise should be thought of as a ‘drug,’ where the ‘dose’ should be customized based on an individual’s personal goals,” Anderson said. “Our research suggests that high-intensity exercise may be important for appetite suppression, which can be particularly useful as part of a weight loss program.”
Hmmm. I’m not so sure about that. Here are some reasons why:
The study was teeny-weeny: 14 people in total
The study measured hunger but not how much subjects actually ate after workouts (they didn’t provide meals either before or after exercising)
The BMI of the participants was similar (avg 22), but not necessarily the fitness levels, which could explain some differential effects
The study didn’t track weight over time– it wasn’t designed to– so we don’t know if their results would translate into weight loss
Why are we worrying about weight loss effects with HIIT? Isn’t it good enough that HIIT may be great for us in lots of other ways? Hmmmphf.
In case I was unclear above, here’s the thing: HIIT seems like a good option for exercise for lots of people in terms of cardiovascular benefits. Lots of studies are finding benefits for different age, body weight, and other demographic groups. Yay!
]And while it may be interesting and, in some contexts, useful to note the short-term hunger-suppressing patterns of HIIT on particular groups, that is not a reason to say it is a “drug” whose “dosage” can be used for weight-loss. In part because we know that exercise (of all types) provides loads and loads of benefits– physical, psychological, social, etc.- but doesn’t affect weight loss very much. Fine with me.
So, go big, go small, go around the block (with friends, dogs, kids, groceries), and rest sometimes, too. It’s all good for us.
Some women walking together– I can’t tell how fast they are going because it’s a picture. But it looks very nice.
I’ve noticed that a lot more people in my neighbourhood have their holiday lights up early this year and it made me think of that saying – ‘If you can’t make your own serotonin, store bought is fine.‘
Usually I like to wait until December to put my lights up because I like that month to feel extra special but after a full month of rainy days, I need all the light I can get.
An early evening photo of a string of colourful lights on the railing of my (very damp) patio. There are leafless trees, a fence, and a streetlight in the background.
And today I realized that I’ve actually been choosing the (literally) brighter option whenever I can for the last few weeks. (Subconscious self care! I can’t believe my ADHD let me away with that.)
I picked a new desk lamp that gives me a wide swath of light for my desk on gloomy days (ugh) and at night.
A photo of my white desk with my lamp on. The lamp rises from behind my monitor and extends out on both sides casting bright light on my books, my art supplies, and the sewing project I’m working on at the moment.
I chose a new light-up leash for Khalee because the old yellow one didn’t light up anymore. It’s cheery AND it’s useful for walking in the early evening.
A photo of Khalee, my dog, doing a sniff-investigation on some grass on an early evening walk. Her blue light up leash is in the foreground and there is a streetlight nearby. There’s also a 40 speed limit sign but don’t worry we weren’t walking that fast.
And, in general, I have been making sure not to spend any extra time in the dark. There’s no need for me to be sitting in a dimly-lit room unless I choose to.
I know there are a lot of things I need to do to reduce my chances of being fully captured by seasonal depression* but I feel like finding more light – literally and metaphorically – is a good foundation.
Days that include more exercise, good quality sleep, hanging out with friends, and doing activities I enjoy can all be built on top of seeking light and that’s what I intend to do.
How are you dealing with the darker days lately?
Any fun ideas?
*I always struggle a bit but last year was especially bad and I am determined to help myself every single way I can this year.
I am a sucker for peer pressure, in a positive way. I love the mutual encouragement that comes from hanging out with similar-minded people. It is almost always the thing that gets me active.
This week, someone posted a question about why people don’t bike in winter/bad weather. I answered that I used to bike to work all the time, but with the new job I am finding it much more difficult: dark, wet from being in the pool, cold. His response was that the wet part was tough, but I should give it a try.
So I did.
Diane in a very reflective jacket, with her glasses covered in raindrops, with her bicycle in the background.
The verdict? It was totally fine. Fun, even.
Admittedly, it’s not yet really cold, and this was a lifeguard shift so I didn’t get wet. I might feel less enthusiastic when there is snow on the ground and I have been in the water for several hours beforehand.
But I pulled my winter bike out of storage and oiled the chain. I still need to charge all the lights and pump the tires. I want to be ready to try and make that positive peer pressure feeling last.
