My Annual Totals

Since I'm now on the disabled list for the rest of the year, at least, here are my totals


I was on my way to the best month of the year too!

I'm in the hospital

It seems my behind wanted to imitate a party favor yesterday. I suffered a Rectal Prolapse, and am in the hospital waiting for the kiester to heal up enough to have them scope it and then fix it.

Needless to say, I'm getting some pretty good drugs, and am not really feeling much pain right now. Home Hospital has wireless internet so at least I can go on line and have some social life!

If you want to email me or whatever, most of you have my various email addresses. :D

Thanksgiving Images, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving!

While you travel, and see family for Thanksgiving, give a little thought to what you have to be thankful for. I have a lot, myself!

1. My life itself! Back in 2005, this was in some doubt!
2. My Wife: She had to really toughen up,because I was pretty sick!
   
3. My family: They have supported me in my obsession with health and have put up with my zeal.
4. My friends: They've been a great support over the last couple of years, right alongside my family.
5. My Professors, particularly my Dept Psychology Chair, Colin! He, along with Stan have opened my eyes to whole new vistas.

So, what are you thankful for?

Meanwhile, I'm going to go and enjoy my holiday and ride my bike, weather permitting!

The Trainer Blues and My 2008 Summer Goals

The Trainer Blues are a normal thing this time of year. Weather is getting colder and the roads are heading toward icy, and you really don't want to go out for a ride, so you have your bike on the Trainer Stand.

Personally, I hate riding the trainer. It makes me feel like I'm riding in a Gerbil Wheel. It's the lesser of two evils though, as compared to not riding. I have some goal rides for next Summer to train for.

The first major goal is to turn a high speed Century on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during Tour de Cure, 2008. Ideally, I want to turn the 100 miles in about 5 ½ hours. This means I'll need to be able to hold a 20 MPH average to make it and still get a 5 minute break hourly for nutrition and bottle restock and possible output breaks.

My second goal for the Summer is a lot more ambitious and I've been hesitant to talk about it for obvious reasons! I've been struggling with the whole idea as to whether it's within my physical abilities, but I decided it's better to try and not succeed than to not try and always wonder.

I am planning a route right now for a ride starting in Michigan City, Indiana at the Michigan State Line, and ending at the Indiana/Kentucky line by Owensboro, Kentucky. It's a 310 mile route, and here's the catch. I want to do it in a day! It's going to be a fully supported attempt, with a SAG van and support crew, ala RAAM. All I need to do on that end is recruit crew.

Now, I'm sure you're asking yourself.....”Is he insane?” The answer to this is a resounding YES, but in a good way! To achieve this goal, I'm going to have to train, and train hard! When the pain hits, I'm just going to have to “take off my skirt, cancel my manicure, grow a mustache and harden the f*ck up”, to quote one of my favorite funny men, Ronnie Johns, aka Chopper, down in Australia!

My roughed out route

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/in/lafayette/743009585

This ought to be a challenge for me, what do you think?

2007 America’s Health Rankings™ Show a Decline in
the Overall Health of the Nation

Analysis shows Vermont, Minnesota and Hawaii are nation’s healthiest states;
Mississippi and Louisiana rank as least-healthy states

WASHINGTON, D.C. – November 5, 2007 – The overall health of the nation declined
over the past year, despite progress made in several key health indicators, according to a
report launched today by United Health Foundation, the American Public Health
Association (APHA) and Partnership for Prevention™. The 18th annual edition of
America’s Health Rankings™: A Call to Action for People & Their Communities
measures the overall healthiness of states and the nation using a comprehensive and
longitudinal set of related health determinants and health outcomes. The report indicates
that the overall health of the nation declined by a rate of 0.3 percent since last year.
While this report, and others, show there have been modest gains in reducing the rates of
cancer and cardiovascular mortality, these improvements continue to be dwarfed by
increasing obesity, increasing numbers of uninsured people, children in poverty and the
persistence of risky health behaviors, such as tobacco use and violent crime – all of which
have a significant impact on the overall healthiness of the nation.

Read more?
N E W S R E L E A S E: United Health Foundation
What can we do about this state of affairs? It's pretty simple, actually! Get more active! Go out and ride your bike, or take a walk, or a run. The benefits you reap will be wonderful!

What Will Exercise and Lifestyle Change Do for Me?

Surprisingly, or not, depending on how well informed you are about the benefits of exercise, there are several key factors that are going to be benefitted by exercise:

• Depression: Exercise stimulates production of key brain chemicals called Endorphins. These are good in that they help with your mood as well as management of pain in the body. It may also just be an increase in self esteem, though, in honesty. Whether it's an actual physiological effect or just an increase in self esteem, however, a pragmatic view suggests that if it works, use it!
• Clear Thought: Exercise has been demonstrated to stimulate the growth of new neural tissue and to help with clarity of thought. Some of my most creative thinking is done on a long bike ride. To me, it's a Zen process. I fall down inside myself and everything is reduced to patterns and breathing. My awareness of the world is still there, and I can react to traffic, etc, but most of my brain is simply processing in a meditative state.
• Better Cardiovascular Health: Simply put, your heart gets stronger, our cholesterol tends to reduce, and your CV system generally improves
• Better Pulmonary Health: Your lung function improves
• Sex Life: What can I say? It gets better, the healthier you are! If you aren't loaded down with Blood Pressure and cardiac medicines, you generally don't need Viagra! Now, if you do need these meds, don't discontinue them, but if you can get healthy enough to do without them AND YOUR DOCTOR APPROVES, then you too can reap these benefits!

You can change your personal paradigm. Life is what you make it.

By the way, Indiana is ranked at 32! We can do better than that!

A New Resource! The Cycle People!

I just came across this site. It looks to be a very interesting resource in form of a catch all search resource for cycling holidays, shops and everything. As you know, if you read me regularly, cycle touring is one of my things, and a bicycle vacation, to me, is the ultimate! I'll be looking into perhaps using them myself for a trip. I'm going to be exploring the site to see what all they do offer, but their global cycle tour resources really caught my eye! I've also added a permanent link in my resources section below.

Wanna Take a Ride?

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