Blood pressure update

I need to offer an update on my blood pressure issue--high blood pressure readings having been a major factor in the development of my current exercise regime and in the institution of this blog. But before getting to that matter, I'll need to address another health issue that I've suspected might be related to the increased blood pressure--insomnia--as well as a new medication I've been taking in response to that issue. Follow me?

I finally decided to see a specialist this past summer about my insomnia issue, i.e., a doctor who specializes in sleep disorders. I described my problem and what I'd done so far about it--mainly, that I'd used zolpidem with limited success. She decided to offer a new medication; Lyrica.

Long story short, Lyrica has been fairly effective in resolving the insomnia issues. It's not the "silver bullet" by any means. I still have difficult nights on occasion. But it is the most effective sleep aid I've tried to date, and compared to life without Lyrica, the old "night and day" adage applies: I am sleeping much, much, better.

No more rising after only 3 or 4 hours in bed because I can't get back to sleep after having awoken for the 10th time. No, on almost any night I take the Pregabalin (Lyrica) I am in bed for at least 7 hours. I may not sleep as deeply as I should, and may still wake up a few times during the course of the night, but I don't have much problem falling back to sleep when that happens. So, the quality of sleep I'm getting has improved markedly over the past few months.

Now, back to the blood pressure issue. I'm no longer taking blood pressure readings with any regularity, as anyone who's looked at my blog entries on this subject over the last 9 months or so will know. But I do still get measurements taken when I have a doctor's visit or some medical procedure. And I stopped taking some time over the course of the summer when we were doing a lot of biking, the medication (hydrochlorothiazide) I'd been given for high blood pressure. I've taken that only a few times over the last several months.

The last few times my blood pressure has been measured, it's been pretty close to normal--systolic from about 122-132 and diastolic in the lower 80's. And that's a great relief, i.e., to be heading into winter, when my blood pressure usually goes up, with blood pressure pretty close to normal despite being off hydrochlorothiazide.

I hope what's happening here is that my supposition that chronic insomnia was causing my blood pressure to rise is correct, and that the Lyrica, which has greatly increased my quality/quantity of sleep, is what's brought this about. While I don't like the idea of taking Lyrica long-term, it seems at the moment the lesser of two evils: it might keep my blood pressure in check while allowing me to go off hydrochlorothiazide.

I remain on the lookout for alternative sleep aids. But that's a subject for a future entry.

13-14 miles over the weekend . . .

Our cycling mileage has definitely gone way down now. We're hoping we might get in 10-12 miles today--still waiting to see if the weather holds out.

Ok, so if we might get in 10-12 miles today, why am I crowing (in this entry's title) about having done 13-14 miles over the whole weekend? Well, here's why: because we didn't do that on the bike. We walked 13-14 miles--about 6.5 on Sat. and about 7.5 on Sun. We even carried packs and hauled home a few groceries on those trips.

Granted, there's nothing "sexy" about that kind of workout. But you still feel it, and I have no doubts whatever that it is a good fitness activity. After all, walking's been nearly the sole form of human fitness activities from the dawn of human history--which, as some would tell us, began when man "left the trees."

So, we're back to mixing in some walking now that the weather's not too favorable for cycling. And we love it. I recommend you give it a try.

Instead of jumping in your car to drive to your local fitness center, why not walk, then cut your workout a little short? Or even replace your cardio workout altogether with a good, long walk--and do some errands along the way to convince yourself that fitness and practicality don't have to be polar opposites.

I could go on a good, long rant about that, i.e., about segregating fitness from other life activities, something done in isolation from them--some sort of fitness purist attitude, I suppose. But, maybe I'll rant some other time.

Try walking! We have, and we love it!

New phase begins soon

We'll be ending our alternate modified P90X phase soon. We started it back in May, I think, as a new experiment in changing up our routine over the course of the year. It was intended to allow us to focus more on cycling, and a little less on the upper-body strength training we do to augment that.

Alt-Mod-P90X was to last for as long as we could put in decent mileage on the bike outdoors, and that time is pretty much here. The daylight hours have shortened considerably, so that limits riding time. Though the weather so far has been fairly mild--and we got in some nice, shorter rides this past week, there have been periods when we've had to resort to the stationary bikes indoors. All that spells the impending end of this Alt-Mod-P90X phase for this year, and back to one of our other, twice-weekly upper-body workout routines.

I wanted to make the change this week, but I got really sick last weekend. I'm still recovering. So we're taking a week off before beginning the new phase--it'll start next week. At that point, we'll go back to our modified Power90 phase.

I continue to think about ways in which we might further vary our upper-body strength training. I've considered kettlebells, but no immediate plans for that--other than a huge design improvement in the equipment that I'd like to make (soft instead of hard kettlebells). Maybe I'll post some details about that plan later.

Other than that, what I'd really like to try is some basic heavy lifting--something along the lines of geriatric power-lifting. It looks interesting and various things I've read recommend incorporating heavy weights. Problem is, the equipment. I don't want to buy a whole bunch of weight to keep around: I'd certainly only use it for a very small part of the year--and maybe not even every year. Likewise, I'm not too hot on paying to use the weights elsewhere. Having an (admittedly modest) exercise facility right in the building where you live kind of spoils you: no expense, no travel time to and from the gym, etc.

So those remain abstract ideas for now. I'd like to try them, but it's gotta fit into our schedule and budget, and at the moment I can't see how it would. And we've got something that seems to work pretty well for now.

End of season conditioning

We managed to get in a 50-mile day, about which I was pleased. We even managed to get in a 60-mile day, about which I'm even more pleased. So I think I can truthfully say that we're pretty much where we were at, fitness-wise, prior to going on vacation at the end of the summer.

The signs are all there. The lactic acid build-up that occurs when riding really hard up hills and that makes you wonder whether you can still keep your legs moving when you're near the summit, becomes less bothersome--you feel some soreness but the pain is not such that you wonder whether you can keep moving. I wonder, by the way, what is the explanation behind this aspect of fitness? The weight is still down: by the way, I've been hovering at right around 200 since toward the end of summer, sometimes a pound or two below, sometimes a pound or two above.

I think this signals that the end of cycling season is just about here. We won't have too many more nice days for riding. If we'll see another 50, I don't know. But I hope so--at least maybe one last day this season.

And probably around the beginning of November is when we'll go back to our twice-weekly strength-training workouts (the modified Power90 phase). Less time for cycling, more time--and energy--to work the upper body.

Where I'm at now

This is a follow-up to my post about resuming exercise after vacation, having not done much intense exercise for about 3 weeks. As a means for providing you with what I hope may be helpful information, what were the effects of the 3-week break? And how long has it taken/is it taking to get back to my previous level of fitness?

First, a couple of caveats. Our most intense exercise season is summer, and it's more intense because on some days we're spending 6 or 7 hours exercising (long bike rides). And when we're not spending that long, we're spending at least an hour, and oftentimes more, on the bike. Compare that to the half-hour to 45-minute stints we do in winter. We can expect a big difference in terms of conditioning in those two seasons, right?

Well, when we left for vacation we were pretty close to the peak of that intense exercise period--maybe just a little on the downhill side of it. And now, having arrived back from that 3-week break, we are really beginning to wind down the more intense part of the fitness year: the days are growing shorter and cooler, so the opportunities for long bike rides are dwindling.

How wish we could get in another 70-mile day this season! But we'll be lucky if we can get in one more 50-mile day, I think.

I think that covers my caveats. The salient point to draw from all of that is that we're winding down our intense physical activity season, and so are beginning the portion of the year in which our fitness level is correspondingly lower. What I'll say, in a nutshell, then, is that we won't be getting back soon to the level of fitness we had prior to going on vacation: we'll be aiming for that middle of next summer, instead.

So, how are we doing in terms of getting back into the fitness routine after our 3-week break? Pretty good, I'd say. Those first few bike rides I did not at all have the feeling I had prior to vacation, when I had plenty of strength to get up hills and then recovered quickly afterward. No, it actually surprised me what a struggle it was to get up those hills the first few rides, and how winded I felt. Likewise, that first alternate modified P90X workout was tough, and I felt like I was functioning at about half capacity (lingering jet lag didn't help, either). I was slightly worried.

But we've now gone for our eighth ride or so--including a 34-mile day--and I feel my conditioning coming back pretty good. Likewise, our last alternate modified P90X session went pretty well--only a few "sissy push-ups" during the second half of the routine.

All that to say that, when it comes down to it, it's taken me about 3 weeks of our regular workouts to get somewhere close to where we were before taking our 3-week break. Pretty sensible, when you think about it: a break of X days will require X days of re-acclimation.

I don't know if this formula is age-related. Would I need that much time if I were, say, in my twenties, to get near the condition I'd been in before the break? I would guess not, but that's just a guess.

But this blog is for people around 50 who are getting into, or sustaining fitness, so I'm not really interested in figuring out the recovery-to-age quotient. It suits my purposes to say "hey, if you're around 50 and you take a break from fitness of X days, you'll need about X days to get close to the fitness level you were at when you started your break." I hope that proves helpful to someone.

Sometime soon I'll offer another entry mulling the purpose of this blog, it's direction, and what I intend to do with it as contrasted with other blogs. Stay tuned.

Kinda like starting from scratch . . . well, almost

Three weeks away from our exercise routine. It's not like we just laid on our butts all that time, though. We at least put in many miles walking.

But getting back to our alternate modified P90X has gone slowly. That first session was a killer that had my arm muscles trembling all evening afterward. And I took it pretty easy during the workout since jet lag has not yet worn off and I was feeling kind of out of it (bad headache). I'm feeling soreness today, too, but it's not as bad as I thought it might be. It'll be interesting to see how long it will take to get "back to form" in terms of upper body fitness.

And we've taken a couple of shorter rides as well. Hope to get in some miles this weekend--hopefully 30-plus each day.

So three weeks off is a definite fitness setback. It was a needed break and I'm glad we did it. But we'll be playing catch-up now for a bit.

BTW: The wife gained 5 lbs. on our vacation while I lost 2 lbs. One of the grave injustices of life!

So we're going along . . .

Sadly, we had to cut way down on mileage on the bike recently owing to a writing deadline I was trying to meet. But we've kept at it, getting in 5 - 10 miles on biking days or, worst case scenario, a half hour on the stationary bike.

We also had to cut in half our alternate modified P90X sessions a couple of times since we got started too late. But only twice.

Last week we did the full session we had scheduled. And over the weekend we managed to get in a couple of 25-mile days.

We'll have to make a break soon, since vacation is coming up. I'm torn about whether to just stop exercise routines during that time: I know we're bound to do a lot of walking, so it's not like we'll be just laying around all day.

Somehow a total break seems the right thing to do. I know I'll miss exercising. And that should help us to get back to it with a vengeance after we return from vacation.

Just a few thoughts . . .

Just another update . . .

Well, my weight has come down, as I expected it would. That could be due in some measure to some unusually bad stomach issues I've had lately, though. In any case, I'm down to about 200 lbs. now.

We've continued riding and doing strength training pretty regularly--just a couple days off recently. We rode almost 50 miles just a couple of days ago. I was so sick the next day, though (unrelated to the 50-mile ride, I think), that I didn't exercise at all.

But plenty of activities lie ahead. I don't know if we'll manage to get that 100-mile day this summer--it's looking a little doubtful now.

I'll close this entry with a little musing: why is there so little information available, both in terms of technical studies, and in the form of more mass-consumption sites (like this blog) on aging athletes? In case you need a hint, well, aging athletes are not very sexy now, are they? Perhaps more on that later.

How to pace yourself (and maybe why?): new use for the heart-rate monitor

Another long-delayed entry. We did almost 70 miles the other day, so cycling condition is nearing its peak now. I really hope to be able to put in a 100-mile day this year, though that may be unrealistic. We'll see.

Also, DVD 9 (chest, shoulders, and triceps) from our alternate modified P90X is rough. My triceps are still a little stiff from our workout last week.

In this entry, I'd like to talk a bit about a subject I've brought up previously--pacing oneself. I've blogged about not overdoing fitness so that it doesn't become a burden. I alluded to how I would get burnt out on training back in my bike racing days because I was always trying to go all out whenever I was on the bike: I didn't vary training intensity enough.

Well, I find that I'm doing a little of that now. I want to ride hard when we go out for a ride. And I end up sort of gauging my output by whether I can catch someone ahead of me, or whether we get passed--not such a good idea when you're on a tandem where one rider is quite a bit stronger than the other (you're actually getting a whole lot harder workout than whomever you're trying to catch, since he is probably not essentially towing his partner).

I think doing that could not just get me burnt out on riding, but it could actually stress out my system. I've noted previously how one intense chase session sort of put me out of commission for a few days. So, how to put a governor on the effort?

Well, it might seem pretty obvious to others, but it came as kind of a revelation to me. First, I decided I might try doing some walking in place of cycling, since it's pretty hard to overexert yourself walking. So I did one day of that. But then I got to thinking, why don't I wear my heart-rate monitor and use that to curb my efforts a bit?

So I tried it. And it turns out to be a really ideal way to do it. What I did was to decide on a certain heart rate as a sort of upper limit: I'd try not to exceed that amount.

150 bpm works well for me. At around that rate I'll get a decent aerobic workout, but it really doesn't stress me in any way. It helps me to hold back a bit on the physical output, but at the same time I know I'm getting a good workout. So I'm very happy this simple solution finally dawned on me.

In fact, I used it on our 70-mile ride. I tried to keep the heart rate at or below 150 with the idea that, if toward the end I felt I still had energy to up the pace a bit, I would. So I did for a few miles prior to the end of the ride (I sustained 160-165 for probably 15-20 minutes). Seemed to work really well.

Then there's the matter of pacing yourself, and why and how you should do it if you're not a competing athlete. Ok, athletes--or at least smart athletes--follow a training schedule that aims to get them in peak form at a certain point, in preparation for a certain event. So they take it easier at the beginning of their preparation, gradually increasing intensity. Then, not long before the event for which they're preparing, they often taper off the intensity.

Well, all that doesn't really apply to me, since I'm not preparing for any competition. I don't need to "peak" physically at any particular time. What I need to do is just to keep active.

Anyway, I'm still puzzling out how I should approach that. I'll offer further thoughts on that later.

We both agree . . .

Gotta get over some blogging inertia, so here goes . . .

There're actually a number of things I could have been blogging about. We put in a little over 50 miles in one day a couple of weeks ago, so that's worth writing about. It was a tough ride, made tougher by the fact that rain finally hit about 3/4's of the way through. And as fate would have it, the hardest rain, where we got almost completely drenched, started about 5 blocks from home. A very slight amount of consolation was provided by the fact that the new bike at least has fenders: I guess we could have gotten very slightly more soaked had we been riding a bike without them.

Then, we did almost 40 miles about a week later and were also hit by some rain. But the rain was less intense and didn't last too long, so we dried out quite a bit by the time we reached home. That ride was not memorable for either the mileage or the rain, but rather for the intensity.

There was a rider ahead of us that I was determined to catch. It wasn't too hard to catch him, but he decided he didn't want to be passed and overtook us, riding harder to try and stay away. I wasn't about to let him out of our sights, so I kept chasing. We eventually caught and passed him again.

Now, that was an intense ride--it took a lot out of me. I'd say it was several days before I got fully recovered. This year it seems to me age is really catching up in terms of how hard I can ride and how long it takes me to recover. Or it could be that long-standing health problems, not the least of which is insomnia, are taking their toll. But I'm still at it.

But none of that has anything to do with the title of this entry--those are not things we agree about (not that I really checked, but . . .). No, the title of this entry refers to our strength training, and specifically to the alternate modified P90X we're now doing.

We've now completed a full, 4-week cycle and are two rounds into our second cycle. And what we (the wife and I) agree on is that the modified Power 90 routines we do are much more intense than the alternate modified P90X we do.

I've previously blogged about how I don't get nearly as winded when doing the P90X routines we use. That's because there are lots of breaks interspersed, meant, in part, to allow you time to write down reps/weight information. And as you'll note from previous blog entries, we don't record any of that stuff. So we use all these mini breaks for ballistic stretching and recovery.

I'm still sweaty at the end, but not completely winded as I am at the end of the Power 90 routines we use. No, I'm much more wasted after those--they provide much more of an aerobic workout.

I was really, really sore after the very first round of our alternate modified P90X this year, though. I think that was due largely to the fact that I'd not done any pull-ups/chin-ups since last fall. I think those are what got me really sore (I actually do the sissy variety, by the way, meaning assisted). The second cycle of alternate modified P90X did not see me nearly as sore for as long, though.

I'm beginning to miss our twice-weekly strength-training workouts. I'll probably keep up the current, once-weekly, regime throughout the summer, but am already looking forward to when we can go back to the twice-weekly schedule.