A nice rural ride of about an hour one way takes me to Chitactac-Adams Heritage County Park. This was historically the village of Chitactac, the dwelling site of members of the Ohlone tribe of Native Americans for more than a thousand years. It was later the site of the one room Adams schoolhouse, which was … Continue reading Country Bike Ride and Visit to Chitactac-Adams County Park →

Day to day challenges like fighting off indulgence in junk food and having the discipline to exercise regularly provide plenty of opportunities for working on our willpower, the importance of which I reviewed here. This is a key aspect of training our brains so we can live free from compulsions. For this reason, Eknath Easwaran … Continue reading Training the Senses: Freedom From Compulsions →

About a month ago, I described a visit Mt Madonna park to which I vowed to return. But the fires and bad air intervened, so I did not get a chance until yesterday. Again I rode out the beautiful Redwood retreat road. This time I left enough time to get some hiking in, an out … Continue reading Finally- Return to Mt Madonna →

I recently read Mimi Anderson's fascinating and inspiring account of her ultramarathon achievements. The story is told in an interesting flashback fashion: The main narrative is recounting the 12 plus days of her attempt to set the Women's world record for running the length of Great Britain from north to south, from John O'Groats in … Continue reading Beyond Impossible- Mimi Anderson’s Story →

Most of my local meetup groups are still avoiding group hikes, but one here in Morgan Hill usually has small groups like 5 or less, so we decided we could go again and do social distancing. So yesterday was my first group hike in months. It was very enjoyable, with delightful weather and clean air … Continue reading Hiking With Friends Again (Carefully) →

Lots of Cardio Makes Your Muscles Waste Away and Makes You Get Fat? Hmmm... what about "Ultramarathon Man" Dean Karnazes? The "Too Much Cardio is Harmful" Controversy I promised, in my recent post about shorter more intense training, to talk more about controversies over excess cardio. Much of the discussion is about too much volume of … Continue reading Is Cardio Useless Or Harmful? Will It Make You Fat? →

I recently discovered a book I highly recommend: Strength Endurance: Reflections on the Legacy of Dr. Leonard Schwartz  by Chuck Huckaby, on Amazon. Like me, Chuck is a long time fan of the late Dr. Schwartz's work and the "heavyhands" approach of simultaneously exercising the upper and lower body with hand weights (which I described … Continue reading A Nice Find- More on Heavyhands Pioneer Dr. Len Schwartz →

An example of an isometric exercise Isometrics is a strength training technique in which the muscle being loaded does not actually move, such as if you stand in a doorway and try to push the frame apart. Or you can try to flex your arm and resist with your other arm as shown in the … Continue reading Isometrics Revisited →

Wind is coming from the West today, bringing in nice clean air from the giant Pacific ocean only a dozen miles away. The air quality, at least for now, is good! As soon as I checked the air quality I couldn't grab my bike fast enough. Today's workout was about an hour outside, with lots … Continue reading What a Difference a Day Makes! →

As I mentioned in my previous post, the bad air in large parts of California is persisting because of all the wildfires, and we are advised not to exercise strenuously outdoors. The August Complex Fire In the Mendocino area is now close to 900,000 acres (360,000 hectares) and 28% contained. This is the largest fire … Continue reading Shorter More Intense Training →