Tempus Fugit

Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Category: Health

  • Modified Goals

    I read some things about goal setting a while ago that goals should be like a Lighthouse, something to guide you, to help you make course corrections and not as a destination. One analogy was if you had a goal to “run a marathon” that might be considered a “destination”. Once you achieve it you’ve “arrived”. Verses “get healthy” more of a Lighthouse goal, that may well involve running a marathon, but would allow for other options to achieve the goal and for “course corrections”.

    It seems like a “course correction” is in order these days.

    Earlier in the year I set a goal when I was feeling awesome and the world was more normal. Maybe not a pure Lighthouse goal, but something I really wanted to try to do and something I thought was within my reach to achieve. It was about my cycling. 2018 was not a good year for my cycling but 2019 was pretty good. And, over the 2019/2020 I was training indoors quite regularly and doing the Wednesday FROG ride outside through the winter, regardless of the tempertures.

    I was using a combination of Zwift and then some Sufferfest for an additional challenge. Then I discovered Xert (Canadian eh!) and started getting serious with a formal training plan to reach my goal.

    So, what was the goal? “To ride with the FOG “B” group by April 15, 2020, full distance (~95km) and not get dropped on the 206 hills”. That last part was the challenge, “not get dropped”. Once upon a time I could do it, and I wanted it back. With this in mind, I set my Xert training plan to get there:

    Here is the setup for being ready by April 15 for the first potential group ride, which is totally not happening this year. Fairly aggressive training for me anyway.

    And the modified goals thanks to Covid-19 and my current health challenges. A more relaxed training plan that I’m hoping to maintain. More course corrections may be required.

    Basically this is a switch from “peak” training to “maintenance” and planning for some good relaxed group rides late in the season, in town and hopefully around the Kenora area.

    Wishing all my ride buddies all the best during these challenging times. Ride On, and be safe.

  • Tattoo?

    A while back in March 2019, I started to get some ads for Inkbox in my Instagram feed which caught my attention. I’ve never been interested in getting tattooed myself, but this #tattosfornow seemed like a way to experiment without the big commit. So I tried one out.

    The tattoo was fun and it looks quite real and I didn’t tell people it wasn’t, at least not right away. 😉 It faded away in a little over a week. Experiment over.

    Fast forward to March 2020 and I’m doing some bible devotions and come across this scripture.

    This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.

    Hebrews 6:19 New Living Translation

    For many reasons, now is an extra important time to have my hope anchored firmly in Jesus Christ so this scripture really hits home for me. Perhaps for you too during this Covid-19 pandemic. And, as the mind does, one thing leads to another and I remember a song.

    More that 20+ years ago some good friends introduced us to the singer Ray Boltz and his Concert of a Lifetime. In the concert he performs “The Anchor Holds”. The concert was back in the mid ’90s but still worth a watch.

    As a relatively new Christian at the time all the songs in the concert were quite impactful, especially “The Anchor Hold”

    Flash forward to the present day and now I’m thinking about getting some more Inkbox tattoos. On their web site I had previously “favourited” a couple that I thought would be potentially good to “try on”. Here are a few I’ve considered.

    Turns out the with all my thoughts around my anchor, Jesus, I’m test driving this one.


    I’m strongly thinking of making this one permanent when the world returns to whatever the new “normal” will be post-Covid-19 and tattoo parlours are once again open.

    I think it will be a great reminder for me that my hope, faith and trust is anchored in the love, grace and mercy of Jesus Christ.

  • Award

    Out of the blue, and quite unexpectedly I received an award this morning at the FOG AGM (Fast Old Guys cycling club Anual General Meeting)

    Gary Sewel presenting the award
    On my office wall

    The award is for “Focused On Goals, in recognition of outstanding accomplishments in road cycling”.

    The club recognized my cycling in 2018 as I went through cancer and chemotherapy, mainly with pretty steady Wednesday rides with the retired FOG group (FROGs). I only did a couple of the Saturday group rides in 2018 as the ride distance and pace was a little much given the circumstances and wanting to spend more time at the lake on weekends with family and friends.

    It was quite an honour to receive the award and I was quite touched and moved by the clubs thoughts towards me during this period.

    Also, as a result, one of the other riders connected with me to share his very recent journey with prostate cancer. We were able to share thoughts and feelings about he impact on our lives. Again, a very special privilege.

  • Christ came to be our peace

    Extracted from a devotional I’m reading.

    Yet Christ came to be our peace. Everything—our hopes, worries, fears, doubts, dreams—are met by him and found in him. He can put our worries to rest and surround us with an everlasting peace that calms the raging storm in our lives.

    Let’s set aside quiet time with our family and more importantly ourselves to reflect on God’s promises and let his peace wash over us. Through the good and bad, through times of laughter and tears, Christ came to be our peace.

    An encouraging reminder.

     From @YouVersion plan 'The King Is Coming'.

  • How I’m feeling

    These days I get asked how I’m feeling a moderate amount, most likely because some folks know about my health challenges I faced earlier in the year. I’m actually feeling quite well physically as well as most “other” ways, but this is about my current physical status.

    The way I’m judging my physical status is basically two ways. The first is just how I’m thinking about my physical status. Are things working OK? Do I have adequate energy? Sleeping well? How am I feeling compared to a prior timeframe like last year or the year before or some other timeframe when I thought things were really, really good. Basically it’s just some sort of overall internal evaluation of how I think I’m doing and generally the answer is “good’.

    The other primary way is by my cycling capabilities some of which is how I feel about the various rides and the other measure is the analysis provided by the various bits of technology that I use while riding like a heart rate monitor and a power meter. 

    Today, I had an experience with both on my ride.

    While doing the ride I noticed that I was able to hold 225-250 watts with a moderate amount of effort. Only a very short time ago this was not possible. Granted, I’ve been riding more frequently to improve my fitness, and it seems to be paying off. While riding I was thinking this was the kind of pace I could hold a couple of years ago while cycling around the Kenora area on the Bypass loop. Feels good to be getting back into better shape. Hopefully, in the summer of 2019 I won’t be hanging on for dear life to the back of the pack on group rides and back into taking my full turns pulling on the front like the “old” days. This internal personal assessment was backed up by the Strava stats. This was one of my better rides in quite some time.

  • Keto becoming challenging

    Ok, the fun of doing something new and crazy, eating keto, is wearing off. In fact I’m having a major “cheat” moment with a raspberry scon at Starbucks! First bread with n two weeks. Need to stay strong. Got to get some more varied “go to” recipes / foods. Bacon and eggs is fun for only so long.

  • New Eats & Drinks

    The Keto saga deepens. Bulletproof coffee is now a daily routine and I’m enjoying it! Actually, after you push by the idea of drinking butter, it’s very good.

    Today’s breakfast (sorry no pictures) eaten after 11am as per the program, was three scrambled eggs and 1/2 a tin of sardines in olive oil! I like sardines fortunately but even I found the initial smell a little “rough”. Thankfully, the tase was much milder that the smell.

    Next up on the new program was an exogenous ketone supplement.

    Keto//OS Raspberry Lemonade

    This stuff is brutally expensive at almost $10/per serving so I’m not sure this will be a regular part of the diet. Today, as recommended, it’s 1/2 a serving to allow my body to adapt and avoid what Keto folks call disaster pants :-). Apparently a lot of exogenous ketone supplements taste pretty bad. While Pruvit apparently has the best taste on the market, there was one online comment that said it tasted like “death”! Fortunately, this seems to be quite an over reaction. The Raspberry Lemonade was quite acceptable, if fact I found it very tasty and surprisingly sweet. I considered the sweetness a “treat” because not much on the Keto diet is sweet. Learn more about the product here. It’s only been a few minutes but I have an inner warmth feeling in my stomach. Who knows what will happen next.

    What’s for dinner? Pizza! S is making a cauliflower/rice crust and I’m going to make the Fathead Pizza Dough crust. Perhaps there will be a post later about how that went.

  • Keto Krazy?

    Well, hopefully not too crazy, but I’m getting into the Ketogenic Diet and doing a lot of reading, listening & research in general. It seems to have some fabulous benefits with the usual problem of making a big change in eating habits, and this will be a big switch!

    I’m not planning on jumping in hard core but more of a gradual adoption of a new way of eating. For sure there will be some major breaks with the plan over the next week or two. For example, we’re committed to an event at
    DeLuca’s where it will be unlimited pasta, bread, desserts and wine, not exactly a Keto friendly environment. 

    So, what have I been looking at and doing so far? Here’s a few lists:

    Books

    Web Sites & Podcasts

    Web

    Podcasts

    Things I’ve tried so far

    • Bulletproof coffee
      • Butter in coffee!?! Sounds weird but tastes pretty good. Plus MCT oil. 
    • Keto Breakfast Taco
      • Proclaimed a success by my breakfast buddy. Chopping up the bacon makes it a little easier to eat without destroying the egg taco shell.
    • Stevia, well actually Truvia
      • Dropping Splenda & sugar for Stevia. Tried this a while back but the taste was uggg! They must have improved the tase or I’m more tolerate now.  Actually in the Bulletproof Coffee, a sweetener is optional for me, it’s good without.
    • Cut the Carbs
      • Bye Bye to bread etc. This most likely will be a little tough to get used to. So used to lots of carbs.

    Planning or thinking about trying

  • Wednesday FROG ride

    I’ve been off the bike for 2 weeks, and this might have been a bit ambitious given the circumstances. I did pretty well until 55km in and then I just had to stop, too tired to keep going. I might have sat around for 15-20 minutes before I could get back on the bike. By that time Rene had looped back around to check on me. He graciously trailed me all the way home to make sure I made it  as I limped back another 10km at 20-24km/hr. Thanks Rene!

     

  • Thought for the Day

    bible.com/116/psa.119.114.nlt