July 14: I’ve noticed that my blogs are starting to get shorter and shorter. I think…and hope it’s a sign of me getting back to a normal life again. Like I’d said several times earlier, I’m not just going to do some kind of droning on blog about my freaking boring life. Once I think I’m pretty “back”, I’m pulling the plug on this until the next adventure, which will be the final state and a half’s worth of American Dirt. And after that, well I have a little “hit list” in my desk, that contains more than a couple lives worth of adventures left to do. I love writing and blogging, but only about something worth writing and blogging about!

Ok, so I know I have a few more kind of like “milestone” visits to the doc’s coming up which are still blog worthy, one just two weeks away, where I’m hoping that my progress is sufficient to deem me able to continue to a higher degree, higher intensity of rehab. My sister tells me I should be back to some semblance of normal about 6 months into this. I can definitely tell you this, no way am I going to continue this puppy (blog) for 4 more months. 

So I got in a 3 hour ride today, doing all of it well under my prescribed HR zone of 118-132. And I did this so as to not totally disrespect my rehab parameters. My justification is that I’ll ride longer below the zone so as to not stress the heart too much. When I ride in the zone, I try to keep the rides shorter. No matter how I cut it, I’m still riding more than they want. I WILL come clean with my cardiologist when I see him in two weeks! And I have hopes that he’ll take pity on my cycling obsession and maybe even give his approval to my longer/harder riding sessions. 

Most of the time I was like in the low 100’s for today’s ride. Nice thing was that I felt like I was riding at a good clip. So the heart seems to be getting stronger by the week, and hell, I’ve only been on the bike for 3 weeks now. Judy was with me, and as usual we rode bike trail - but man…I almost suggested that we ride some Kent backroads today. I’m getting bike trail burned out right now. So we took it into Ravenna to the end of the Portage bike and hike. The first two hours were great where I had that low HR going on, but as the temp and humidity climbed up so to did my HR. By noon I noticed my HR did not match my effort. HR was going up while my effort was remaining the same. 

And by the end of the ride it was tough not to get my HR into the low end of my zone on virtually any acceleration or little bump in the trail. I really think I’m totally good for like a 4-5 hr ride, but under the right temp and dew point conditions. Right now I’m still concerned that the heart is getting a bit “too” stressed when riding in high heat/dew point. Anyway, once home I did notice the HR went right back down to my daily activity HR with no problem. 

Got home and had about 2 quarts of water and electrolytes, then ate fruit and two veggie sandwiches. And you know what? I’m really beginning to dig veggie sandwiches. Really! I use good, sprouted oat and wheat bread, then put slices of avocado on the bottom, with english cucumber, red onion, and bean spouts on top. Made the hummus today, so I’ll begin to use that as a spread.

Finally, a bit more on the healthy cooking front: for dinner I cooked some ahi tuna fillets in olive oil and had an Indian dish with potatoes, lentils, zucchini, carrots and onion in a thick tomato sauce flavored with cumin, coriander, turmeric, ginger paste, lemon, shredded coconut and yellow mustard seeds. Came out really good and healthy. BUT I think I’m going to have one of those “cheat” days this weekend. I feel some seafood and heavy creams coming my way!