How was your ride today?

That’s the way you see it only because you haven’t reached Buddhist enlightenment yet.

While there’s no landscaping reward at the end. Bad weather (not awful, dangerous weather, just not good) has its advantages. Datun is very exposed to sun and it can be very hot on a sunny day. Then there’s the traffic. With good weather there can be lots of hikers and cyclists going up and down, potentially dangerous sometimes.

Yesterday I had the road almost for myself only, being able to choose my lanes and pace freely. I find a wet road more predictable than a family+dog or a cyclist climbing on their limit.

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Ha… I used to say the same about roads and motorcycling. Fellow riders would stay at home because of the rain and I objected that rain would give you free, almost empty roads.

My heart says otherwise. I like flat, straight, unpopulated roads and paths, of which there are many near me. Hills are a fair jaunt before I am within riding distance.

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Yeah, that’s why I pushed myself to go up last week: not hot yet, and one of those days with enough cloudiness to dim the sun a bit, not enough to threaten rain. I’ll be mildly surprised if I climb up there again before fall.

I definitely wondered how foolish I was being on the climb, swinging way over to the “wrong” lane to make climbing easier, especially at turns. I don’t do that if I see many (or perhaps even any) other cyclists. Of course I keep a very close eye on anything that may be coming down the hill at me.

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Man o man last time I did this ride to Sausalito I was 20 years younger

Being away from the saddle until very recently had taken its toll

I had to get off the bike and walk many inclines but so did my friend joe

Who did better than me and is 8 years older but he’s in better shape

Didn’t have to dismount 20 years ago both to and from Sausalito

Went down to 41st and went down to the park then past the buffalos to 36th and then over to el Camino del mare past sea cliff and baker beach a really nice stretch with awesome views over to GG bridge then over the bridge itself down to Sausalito
About 11 miles
About 800 feet elevation gain
BPM 110 to 198 average 145
At about 4.6 mph

Took the ferry back to embarcadero
Make sure to get a clipper card and pay 7.50 instead of 14 dollars each way

Watch the schedule only bout five runs each direction a day

Bikes welcome

Was planning to take MUnI light rail to Judah and sunset Blvd but found out only folding mikes allowed in light rail but luckily could take BART which we took to balboa park and the it’s 4 miles home from there

Was a. Blast

Lots of people. Rent bikes in fisherman’s wharf and the ride across the bridge and take the ferry back

A very scenic ride indeed

On the bridge

Ferry past Alcatraz

Show at Yoshis

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Worth it.

Said no one. :laughing:

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Summer has come, as George Martin will never say because he’ll never finish those darn books.

Gorgeous skies today, very low pollution count, lovely views, but it’s hot. 7:30am was probably too late to set out for a four-hour ride; 10:30am was definitely too late for me to start the 北7 climb. I needed to get off the bike twice and walk, despite probably being in better shape than a few months ago, when I didn’t need a break. I don’t think that’s happened since the first couple of times I climbed that road a few years ago.

And highs today of “just” 33 (feels like 37, says my phone); there’s at least five or six more degrees of heat to come.

Plenty of packs of cyclists. They passed me. At first I thought “No, I can keep up!”, then thought, “Eh, screw that, I’ve already done lots of climbing and I’m also a couple decades older.”

But wow the colors are lovely at this time of year.

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Wow! Stunning clarity, with the typhoon lurking in the neighbourhood—impressive!

Guy

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My GPS topped at 42ºC on Friday, around 12:20h. Not meteorologic temperature because it was under the sun and over tarmac, but it wasn’t nice anyway. Average temperature for the ride was 31ºC, there were moments when it was almost nice thanks to the developing clouds.

I’m not looking forward to the next 3-4 months.

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Ouch! I finished teaching at 2pm on Friday, and often I head out for a ride after class. In the air-conditioned classroom, I kept looking out the window and thinking the weather looked promising. Then I stepped outside. Nope.

I don’t think I’ll be starting anymore afternoon rides for the next few months, unless it’s a lazy one along the riverside to head somewhere for dinner. The food available at Dadaocheng isn’t anything to write home about, but I do enjoy sitting there for a sunset dinner.

It’s that time of year when I’ll be trying to go to sleep at 9pm, in order to wake up at 5am, and my wife will once again make jokes about how I’m getting old. (She’s not wrong!)

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Yeah, wouldn’t it be something if everybody started out life at 90 years old and you are bored, you don’t have any friends and family and then as the years go on you get younger and younger and then you meet friends and then you meet your family and then you meet your mom and your dad and then you become younger and younger till suddenly you’re a baby And then you disappear back into your mothers womb wouldnt that be something?

Yeah many people can only ride an e bike because can’t hack a real bike anymore

I probably should get one too so I can do the longer rides

My Apple Watch says my rides my bpm goes from 110 to 200 and near 200 is dangerous for me
I don’t know how long I’m at 200 as I am just trying to keep rates lower

To a certain extent riding is good for people with heart conditions or just older or older and with heart issues. but spending much time near 200 bpm can’t be good for us guys older than 50

I feel a little uncomfortable after a ride so I probably need to pedal back

I have an erratic heart rate so I probably am a candidate for an e-bike

Waiting for prices to soften and still get a good bike

There are bad quality ones out there for 500 bucks but they apparently fall apart

The trek e bike version of my trek is about 2000 dollars even at my bro’s special price

Whereas my non E was 650 all in , lists at 900 plus tax

I can use the E on longer rides and the non E for short lazy ones

The 2k is hard to stomach though

Also I might not want to ride the non E anymore after riding the E and then I have to go three times further to get the same exercise

But it should keep my rate down

I’d like to keep rates to 100 to 150 average 125 that will be good

Currently averaging 135 to 145 but the worry is highs of up to 200

What are you guys rates at ?

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Ok.

You did say it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, San Fran is a dump now…

Do you currently live here ?

I still live part time there, now between San Fran and Taipei. You? San Fran used to be very nice.

I lived in SF from end 99 to 2001 and moved back mid 22

Lived in east bay in the interim

I’m in sunset so I don’t see all the increase in grime and I don’t go downtown much but driving through downtown at night on my way home sometimes there is a big homeless population around civic center and that whole area

I would not go to that area even in the daytime

BART seems to have an increase in homeless people riding the cars and generally more strange characters

I hear downtown is more grimey and union square is worse off

But I guess if you stay or hang out in the nice areas there is not a lot that’s worse than 20 years ago

If you look in the Fitness app on your iPhone, and then select the workout, and then select Heart Rate, you should be able to see a breakdown of the heart rate at different times. That’s with newish devices and software. Or I guess not that new; my watch is almost three years old now. It should also show you the time in different heart rate zones, BUT you may need to adjust those zones - I did, because the default Apple zones were way off for me.

The zones can be adjusted in the hopelessly non-intuitive location on your iPhone of Watch [app] / My Watch / Workout / Heart Rate Zones, and then select Manual.

As for actual heart rates: those vary a lot by the person. I’m a few years younger than you, but I never get close to 200bpm; when I’m swimming, 150bpm is “Oh god I need to rest I’m dying”; when I’m cycling, that’s around 160bpm. (It’s normal for the “zones” to vary by exercise type.) For yesterday’s ride, with 1100m of elevation gain total and 56km, I had an average heart rate of 130bpm; looks like my lowest was around 80, and max 159bpm. (My resting rate is 60bpm.)

For what it’s worth, the iPhone / Apple Watch app WorkOutDoors can give you lots and lots of detail about heart rate, along with “live” maps as you’re cycling. It’s way more useful than the native Apple Watch app.

When you say the high of 200 worries you, how do you actually feel? If you’re managing that and don’t feel like you’re too exhausted, I’m not sure if you need to worry about it. That certainly does sound high - one common formula for max heart rate is 220-age, so presumably you should be in the 160s for your max. But the more I’ve used my own Apple Watch and seen how different my own numbers are from the averages, the less I’ve come to trust the averages as meaning much for any particular individual. I’ve also read that different medications increase heart rate, but I have absolutely no idea how that should be factored into exercise goals.

I remain unsure how much resting heart rate can actually be changed. A LiveStrong page says “Regular exercise often results in a resting heart rate decrease of five to 25 beats per minute” - but “often” and “five” suggests there may not be that big a change! My father, my brother, and I all have similar resting heart rates despite very different levels of fitness and activity.

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Thank you for that I will look into how I can get more information from my Apple Watch. I do have a very good resting heart rate in the 50s so that’s good however I am taking a sodium channel blocker that the doctor prescribed because I have arrhythmia, and which means that my heart could race when it doesn’t have to, and this is in my layman’s understanding, sort of like should I say a chemical in my heart that doesn’t allow my heart to over rev the engine, therefore causing harm

My heart rate variability is high, which is apparently at the same level as a trained atjlete which is good. Um, I do have notifications of irregular heartbeat, which I usually get about 1 to 7 times every 24 hours.

Luckily, these irregular heart rhythms, do not last long only for a few seconds per episode so that’s really good as before when I wasn’t taking the sodium blocker I could have irregular heartbeat for a longer periods but then it rarely happens but if it does happen it’s a longer period of irregularity And now it’s like only a few seconds at a time couple times a day, so I think that medication is working

And yes, my maximum heart rate should not exceed 160 beyond that it’s over, revving the engine so to speak. Hence, my concern that my heart may be nearing the 200 BPM mark a lot more than I would like on my bike rides. I don’t feel bad I don’t feel like I’m out of breath or or like my hearts, jumping out of my chest or anything like that so I don’t think it’s there at that high-level too long but I think that I need to pedal back probably get an electric bicycle to be on the safe side

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