Virtual Bike Riding

Deborah's and my new smart bike trainers are fantastic. These are going to be a game changer for exercising during the Wisconsin winter when it's too cold to go outside and too zombie apocalyptic to go to a gym. We canceled our gym memberships over the summer and spent the early fall debating what to do for winter exercise, in between walks and bike rides outside in the uncharacteristically mild fall weather. Mid-level smart bike trainers were what we opted for. These will pay for themselves in about a year in money saved on a gym membership, not including the $15/month membership for the smart bike trainer ride apps that connect to the trainers and simulate actual real world bike rides (riding our own actual bikes, which attach to the trainers). $15/month definitely beats the $90+/month we were paying for a family gym membership. Plus, we can have multiple family members on one membership in the cycling app called Rouvy, which is what we'll likely use, having expired at least one of our free Zwift (another app) trials as of this writing. There's also an app called RGT Cycling, which is indefinitely free and works well (although it's limited to just a handful of routes and training regimens unless/until you upgrade to the paid premium membership). This morning, we participated in a group ride on RGT Cycling, which included me, Deborah, and my buddy Brian from California, all of us transported to Europe, virtually and instantly, for a ride through some computer rendered Italian countryside. There were about 20 other cyclist on the ride, who all pretty much lapped us. But we didn't care. It was our first such virtual group ride, and thus very much experimental. No matter what cycling app we end up subscribing to (probably Rouvy), it will be nice to have RGT Cycling available for free.

I think that's about it.

A Fortnight of Fitness: Day 2

Veganism is tough. I won't lie about that. Last night for dinner, on Day 1 of this current fitness challenge to adhere to a plant-based, whole food diet for a fortnight (two weeks in the vernacular), I made a vegan chili and some black beans and brown rice, accompanied by a salad. I wasn't my best work, flavor-wise. Part of this could be the fact that my taste buds have been neutralized by the awful tasting zinc lozenges I have been sucking on due to a recent cold. In fact, that's probably a big part of it. That being said, Deborah did not seem too impressed with my culinary skill either, although she said she thought the food was overly spicy, rather than flavor-less. Perhaps I was overcompensating for my own lack of gustation. Hopefully, my vegan cooking skills improve over the next 13 days. But if they don't, at least this is just a short term challenge that will be over soon enough.

This morning, I weighed in at 220 pounds, down two pounds from yesterday. That was not unexpected given that yesterday's weight was artificially inflated due to the birthday pizza we ate the evening prior to starting this fitness challenge. Still, it is trending in the right direction. My blood pressure was a bit elevated at 133/79.

Qualitatively, my mood is not great. Part of that is my disappointment that my vegan cooking attempt was not more successful yesterday. Also, the weather outside is dreary and the forecast indicates increasing dreariness along with plummetting temperatures over the next couple of days. On the bright side, I got to walk one of my favorite dogs this afternoon, for a neighbor client. It's an Australian shepherd puppy, full of energy and incredibly bright. I also got to the gym for a decent workout, although I spent some of my time on the exercise bike shopping for textbooks for this semester of grad school, which was financially a bit demoralizing.