Yesterday my bike group started their ride East of Gilroy at the Mendoza ranch entrance to Harvey Bear County Park. This is 12 miles from my house so I decided to take my e-bike to the start. Google Maps predicted 1 hour and 24 minutes for that ride, which seemed like an overestimate to me, … Continue reading Long Group Ride on a Sunny Day →

I finally got to the top of the leaderboard for the 70-74 age group on Strava for the segment I created. This goes from the visitor's center on Coyote Creek trail, out to where the trail is closed off due to flooding just past Bailey Ave. My first attempt on this segment took 58:34. As … Continue reading KOM On Coyote Creek →

https://neurosciencenews.com/aging-social-participation-23413/ "Social Participation Paves the Way for Successful Aging", a review article in Neuroscience News, discusses a study that followed 7000 older Canadians over a three-year period. Those with more social participation (volunteer work or recreational activities) were more likely to remain in good health over the three years. This fits in with the concept … Continue reading Social Participation and Successful Aging →

We had a great turnout of 17 people for our group ride yesterday, on a nice spring-like sunny day. We headed Southeast towards Gilroy then toured around in the east foothills. There was a significant headwind from the south that we fought against on the way down, but it didn't bother me as much on … Continue reading Beautiful Ride in the East Foothills →

https://www.mbctmbsronline.com/free/2/sitting-meditation.html A recent article in Neuroscience News reviews various ways that meditation helps with memory function: An area of the brain known as the hippocampus, critical to memory function, tends to shrink with age. Reducing stress, to which meditation contributes significantly, slows down this process. a longer-term Meditation practice tends to make the thickness of … Continue reading Meditation Enhances Memory Function →

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37457-1 Most nutritionists would probably agree that eating more whole foods and avoiding overly processed foods is healthier for us. The problem is defining exactly what we mean by "processed". I tend to use a fairly loose definition, I count canned beans or frozen peas as "whole", and reserve "processed" for things like cookies or … Continue reading Detecting Processed Foods With AI →

My group ride was supposed to start at 10 this morning but there was an unexpected forecast of possible showers, unusual for us this late. I decided to put some rain gear on and ride anyway, I was pretty sure the group would cancel but I could just keep riding on my own. I headed … Continue reading Riding in Late Season Rain →

A friend of mine has been diagnosed with some regurgitation in a couple of his heart valves. We don't know the seriousness yet, and whether he might need replacements. This made me look into the state of the art in non-invasive procedures. When I was having my aortic valve replaced, there was a non-invasive procedure … Continue reading Update on Non-Invasive Heart-Valve Procedures →

Our friend Bob is rehabbing from his knee replacement about 5 weeks ago. So yesterday my group rode to see him. While we were there we visited (and fed carrots to) his two adorable donkeys, whose job is to mow his grass. This was a pleasant ride of just over two hours, with some challenging … Continue reading Riding To See The Donkeys →

No wonder it is tough to retrain our brains to like healthier stuff!