Category: Cycling/Health

Anything health or cycling related

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My Constant Inner Companion

I have a constant inner companion, inside my head. I’m not talking about the Holy Spirit (although He is a fantastic companion!), I’m talking about my not-so-friendly friend, Mr. Tinnitus.

Tinnitus is defined as non-auditory internally perceived sound. In other words, you can hear things (whooshing, ringing, chirping) that aren’t actually there. It is closely associated with hearing loss, and almost always accompanies hearing damage.

I recently watched a great video by Chords Of Orion (a.k.a. Bill Vencil) about how his hearing loss and tinnitus had progressed over the last few years. And of course, his experience mirrors my own. I have a constant 24/7 high-frequency buzzing/ringing in my ears that never goes away. It’s very faint most of the time, as I’ve trained myself to partially tune it out. But it permanently affects my ability to hear sounds in a certain frequency range. I’m constantly asking my wife to repeat herself if there’s any kind of noise around. I can only hear her clearly if it’s quiet. (Doesn’t help that she’s soft spoken.)

How has this affected me musically? Well, I’d like to say it hasn’t, but I’m pretty sure it has somehow. The problem is, I can’t really tell. But I know something’s up because I can hear some things clearly through noise, and others I can’t.

Is there anything I can do to treat it? Not really, unfortunately. Hearing is a finite resource, and once you lose some of it, it doesn’t come back. But there are a few things you can do to cope with the constant ringing: Continue reading “My Constant Inner Companion”

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The Nine Laws: Part Four

If you haven’t read them, start with my review of The Nine Laws, and subsequent part One, part Two, and part Three.

The Fourth Law is Endurance.

The word “endure” comes from the Latin root word “indurare” which means “to harden.” To Endure means to go through something “difficult, painful, or hard.” As opposed, of course, to not going through it, i.e. giving up.

Endurance is what separates good athletes (or warriors) from great ones. Most people have the capability to run, or to lift heavy things. But when you can do it repeatedly, or for extended periods of time, then you have endurance.

There are millions of websites that can show you how to develop physical endurance. It’s not that difficult, actually- the human body is phenomenal at adapting to a repeated exercise. If you progressively push yourself longer and longer, your body will gradually learn and adapt.

What there isn’t much information on, sadly, is Mental Endurance. And the most tragic thing about this is that without Mental Endurance, your physical endurance is practically worthless.

The principle of Mental Endurance can be embodied in the trait of Psychopathy: a complete removal from emotions. It is acceptance: not wishing things were different, but accepting them as they are.

Let’s ponder on this for a moment. Continue reading “The Nine Laws: Part Four”

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Intermittent Fasting

Not too long ago, I was struggling to get back down to my ideal weight. You’ve probably been there: not starving yourself, but still working out, and can’t seem to lose any more fat. And much like we talked about recently, I was already doing portion control to keep my calories within reason.

I wasn’t too sure about it at first. I was already eating pretty healthily, and I felt like if I cut back my calories more, I wouldn’t be getting enough nutrition. I wasn’t working out as much as I’d have liked, but I couldn’t change that, either… so I was looking for something, some way to change my diet to lose weight and stay healthy.Then I stumbled across a phenomenon called Intermittent Fasting. I first heard about it from Danger and Play, but something about it intrigued me. What if you could lose weight just by something simple… by just by changing when you eat??

What is intermittent fasting?

Basically, it’s changing your eating schedule to optimize how your body burns food. This is not a diet, in that it’s not changing what you eat, or how much. (I’m assuming you’re already eating fairly healthy food.) But most people never take into account that our bodies were designed to process food in different ways, based on what our needs are. Continue reading “Intermittent Fasting”

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Becoming The Character: Sun Wukong

Over the last few months, I’ve been sucked into the show RWBY, produced by Rooster Teeth, the same guys who made Red Vs. Blue and Lazer Team. In essence, the show takes place in another world where monstrous Grimm roam the countryside, and evil threatens to rip the world apart.

Besides it being animated, the fight scenes are extremely well done. Most of the fighting was choreographed based on actual martial arts skills, which gives the show a wonderful real-world quality. Several of the martial arts scenes were actually motion-captures of the show’s creator, Monty Oum. There are several excellent heroes and villains in the show, but when I was thinking of candidates for whom to emulate, the first one that came to mind wasn’t one of the main characters, but a supporting character: Sun Wukong.

Sun is a laid-back kind of guy (a large part of why I like him) and is also a faunus, which are part-animal humanoids. He’s a bit of a scoundrel, but we also see him being very devoted to his friends. He fights with at least two distinct martial arts disciplines, and executes several slick parkour and gymnastic moves as well. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that he’s got killer abs and nice hair. He’s mischievous, but not rude or mean. He’s confident, smart, and loyal. The area he hails from isn’t big on dressing up, and he’s not overly concerned with impressing people. He’s comfortable with who and what he is. In short, he’s the kind of guy I would want to be. (Some would say we have a lot in common: sadly, abs and nice hair aren’t among those things). Continue reading “Becoming The Character: Sun Wukong”

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Does God Want Us To Be Strong?

There are tons of websites, books, and shows about self-improvement. It’s a billion-dollar business. Everywhere you look, there’s ads for someone offering to help you become a better person.

Is this what God really wants of us?

We know that God can use the weak things of the world to defeat the strong. We know he uses the simple things to confound the world’s wisdom. So where is there room for us to want to become stronger, wiser, and better?

I know it sounds preposterous at first. “Why would God not want us to become stronger?” But there are people who, by their actions, believe exactly that. They have become so weak, that they fear any kind of strength.

David, the second King of Israel, was a strong, fighting man. And yet, we see how God used not David’s strength, but his devotion, to defeat his enemies. Does that mean it was wrong for him to be a strong fighter? Certainly not! It is who God intended David to be. David’s strength was useful in all areas of his life, not just the battlefield. And in the end, he still had to fight battles.

One of the interesting things about training to become stronger is that you have to come to grips with how weak you currently are. You can’t focus on eliminating weakness unless you can spot it. This applies to mental and spiritual weakness as well! And everyone- everyone– has weakness.

Is Weakness Bad? Continue reading “Does God Want Us To Be Strong?”

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New Bike: ’82 Peugeot

Anyone familiar with The Rules of cycling knows that the proper number of bikes to have is “N+1” where N is the number you currently have.

My first real 700C road bike was a used 12-speed Peugeot I got back in the early 90’s. When I think of old-school road bikes, that’s the first thing that pops in my head. It’s French, it’s classy, it’s fast… what’s not to like?

And thus I’ve procured an ’82 Peugeot 12-speed. Well, most of one. The picture is from Josh at Simplicity Vintage Cycles, who sold me a different, but identical bike (sans wheels). Mine will look very similar, though with a different crankset, and other different small bits and pieces.

This particular model is an ’82 PH-12 Centennial Edition, which was to commemorate Peugeot’s founding in 1882. Everything on the bike was French, including the “Carbolite” steel tubing and Michelin tires. This bike is interesting not only because of that, but also because it’s aero.. like, really aero for the 80’s. Brake levers, downtube shifters, ovalized tubes, water bottle, and brake calipers were all specifically made to be aerodynamic.

So I guess what I’m going to do is build it up and see just how aero it is, compared to a modern swoopy-tubed bike. This will be my go-to bike for club rides where my heavy, slow Surly would be a liability.

I’m pretty stoked about it, really. Can’t wait to get it on the road!

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Keep Moving Forward

I haven’t really talked about it much this time around, but last week (July 12) was the 5-year mark since I was hit by a car and hospitalized while bike commuting.

It’s been an interesting 5 years, I have to say. The first year was strictly physical and mental recovery. Year 2 was me proving that I had recovered, so I trained and did a 75 mile bike tour. Years 3-4 were mostly me being too busy to do anything bike-related. Year 5 was the year of the Comeback, with me starting to bike commute again, and eventually, getting my son into cycling as well.

It’s been a very good process of therapy. I’m still not commuting as much as I’d like, but my situation is such that it’s not really possible just yet. I am now riding group rides with Andy and building up a new (to me) legitimate road bike. I’ll post a story about that on Friday, it’s pretty exciting to be building bikes again!

I feel like I’m transitioning into a different era. I am juggling lots of responsibilities, and I’m trying to make solid choices. I’m spending a lot of time playing and working with the family. I’m laying aside most of my extracurricular stuff, and focusing on my health and my family: two things which can’t be pushed off till later.

So, that means I’ve spent a lot of time riding my bike on the trainer, or in group rides, instead of commuting. This rubs my sensibilities the wrong way, but I don’t have much choice.

I think this will be my last annual recap of the accident, though. The fact that I didn’t even think about posting about it last week means I’ve officially moved on. From this point forward, my focus will be on where we go from here.

Get out and ride. Doesn’t matter where.

Just ride.

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Goodbye, Google MyTracks

Today is Groundhog Day here in the States… and for some reason, it seems very familiar…. as if this has somehow happened before….

In yet another stunning move that kills off something very productive that people actually use, Google has decided to end support for its MyTracks fitness app:

After April 30, 2016, My Tracks will no longer be available. We apologize for the inconvenience this might cause My Tracks users. We’ve made the tough decision to invest our efforts into other, more wide-reaching, mapping projects.

Of course, the reason they’re killing it is because MyTracks doesn’t make Google any money. I can understand not maintaining it, but just EOL’ing it (End-Of-Life, fyi (for your information)) is something I don’t see as a smart move. There are more than 10,000,000 installs of it, and over 200,000 reviews of the app… something tells me they could have done something with it if they really wanted to. Continue reading “Goodbye, Google MyTracks”

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Is Being Fat A Sin?

I believe that God expects us to physically take care of our bodies.

I also believe God expects us to seek Him, first and foremost.

When I first met God I didn’t understand a lot about theology, prayer, or the Great Commission. I just knew I was a sinner in need of forgiveness. As I grew and learned, I came to struggle with a lot of things in my life that were causing me (and my friends) to stumble. I gradually changed a lot of my habits, and learned how to walk closer to how Jesus walked- not that I’m an expert, mind you.

I didn’t get interested in my health until about 5 or 6 years ago. Before that, I was overweight, out of shape, and a typical Cajun guy. I ate everything fried, double helpings, with tons of sugar and junk on the side. High cholesterol, high blood pressure, borderline diabetic. I felt like crap and my mental health began to suffer because of my self-inflicted physical hardships. Continue reading “Is Being Fat A Sin?”