Monday, January 13, 2014
Getting Back on the Road...With a Little Help from A Friend (cycling - not about the bike - part 2)
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Have you ever been afraid to take up a skill despite the fact that it interests you, calls to you, you maybe have even done it once upon a time, but changing circumstances have caused you to set it aside? While in your heart though, you still cherish a small hope that One Day Things Will Change and you will once again be able to take up that activity? As seasons pass, well...perhaps that hope grows a little more remote?
Such has been the case for me with cycling. But things can change. That hope can resurge. We can (re)claim the space believed no longer possible to access. Really.
Sometimes we just need a little help from our more intrepid or skilled friends. This is part II of such a story - in my case, a story of getting back on the bike, and said bike back onto roadways - with some help. This is also, in a way, a story of Steve, Randoneur.
Likewise, there are so many communities in such close proximity to each other, it's difficult to move too far without hitting a place to revive from the miles. Pubs, tea shops, cafes are everywhere apparent. Most maintain year-round al fresco seating, too. Indeed, effort must be made to cirumnavigate such watering holes for at least some part of a journey, or one would never get moving for more than a few minutes at a time.
You may have noticed, implicit within this two-wheeled experience is one has both the wherewithal to find these routes, and has likewise the requisite lack of trepidation to attempt such expeditions on not-without-the-possibility-of-death-by-vehicle-roadways in the first place.
If one has a very poor sense of direction or orientation (check: c'est moi) or if one has developed a fear of the narrowness and shoulder-less-ness of many (most?) british roadways (check check, moi aussi) or has both these conditions (well checked again) then being able to take advantage of these beautiful vistas while stimulating one's phyisology becomes an impossible mission. Indeed, this paralytic state with respect to cycling has been me for the past - well - while. Since coming to the UK, my bike has only seen miles on a turbo trainer.
Its use in fact diminished as other tools began to fill the gap it left. Its space by the family hearth grew increasingly under threat "You don't seem to use it anymore; it's taking up space, isn't it..." Indeed, when room became available in a storage shed, it did spend a season dismantled, wrapped in plastic, relegated, retired.
And then, this past summer happened. Due to various circumstances described in my last post Dec 31, 2013 here i was in a safe enough space for a long enough time to explore being on a bike outside again. But how does this get me back on The Road - and dealing with cars and routes - and cars.
Never really as swift as i think i am, my partner asks, "Didn't you tell me Steve bikes? Why not ask him to go out on some rides with you? That could be fun..."
"But he's a serious rider..."
"So?"
So... i asked him if he would be willing to show me some of the more ridable routes he and his club explored - to see if there was accessible countryside around where we are. And guess what? He was happy to do so.
And so out we went. I was really concerned that i would hold steve back and all the joy of the ride would be sucked out of it for him, being sherpa to me. Rides too short, too slow. Yuck.
What absolutely amazed me was how these fears turned out - to the best of my knowledge - not to be realised. Steve says his club rides are like trying to hang onto a train, with one particularly strong rider - so he gets his big training rides there. Our runs - so far of about 25 -40 mile routes, broken in half with coffee stops al fresco - are another type of ride that he says he enjoys, to see the country side and get to show it off, introduce it to someone else, while getting winter mileage up.
I will take Steve's word for it: i cerntainly enjoy these outings. Through the past few months we've been trying to get a ride in a week - per sunny day alerts. We identify a day but have back ups if the weather turns to crap. Essential planning in the UK. We've been really lucky this past fall/early winter. IT's onyl during of course the x-mas break that it's poured - and even here there have been sunny days.
A few take aways from this so far brief but consistent experience where Steve has been a role model.
** There is a rich and enjoyable courtesy to riding together.
- Riding with steve has been my first experience of having someone in front of me on a bike use hand signals not just to indicate a turn for the benefit of a car, but to flag what's coming up for the benefit of a following rider. Signing for "slow down" or "crappy stuff ahead" or "car coming" were hand signs brought out on the first ride i'd never seen before. The leader as path breaker. A quick online check suggest that comms is part of group-riding etiquette, but i was staggered by it, by how thoughtful it is, or perhaps Steve's display of it in particular.
The number of sporting/health/fitness activities i can think of where such signaling would be welcome, and doesn't really exist, well, it's hard to express.
Consider the weight room: how often do we find plates left on the floor, or left on bars, rather than cleaned up and put away for the next person's use? Or "group" classes that are really just about a bunch of individuals who just happen to be doing the same thing at the same time? And sure i guess on a ride there is a sense of comms motivated strongly by the goal to survive, but i wonder, does one reinforce the other? What i take to be Steve's thoughtfulness and courtesy, does at least two things: lets me feel safer and thus lets me feel more relaxed about the ride. It's nice to feel like another person actually cares if you get hit by a bus.
My sense is that done frequently enough, experienced frequently enough, one might find some "skills transfer" - as one puts it in strength and conditioning. Perhaps one becomes more courteous in other parts of one's life. I dunno. Steve is a very convivial colleague - it's one of the things i enjoy about working with him. He makes it easy because he seems thoughtful as well as engaged. Who knows? perhaps his existing style influences his signaling on the bike or they just reinforce each other. Anyway, this is a completely unlooked for aspect of cycling together that, while in hindsight is obviously necessary, has been a revelation of the very enjoyable kind.
I fear to generalise beyond that limited experience. I wonder if people who cycle with groups regularly are saying to themselves,
Don't you just love that (the video?). The gruelling beauty. Anyway,
But, SO far, so delightfully civilised though. For example:
First of all, Steve thinks about what kind of ride i might like to do, and might enjoy at this point of my experience. This is one trait that the very excellent CycleMapsUk can't quite ask yet. That's one.
Also, within a given ride, when it's about to change tempo or type, steve gives me a heads up, usually with options.
We pull over and he says we can now go X or Y.
My algorithm right now is, i think, counting up no. of times word hill is repeated, mapped to hand gestures around heights, and whether or not said hill mentions are associated with stories like "ya we tried that once...sore for days...." divided by number of times "place for coffee" mentioned to get sense of Up for It'ness)
Wonderful.
Sometimes there are multiple options within a given trip. Coffee sooner; coffee later. Which brings us to.
** There are many possible Ways to Ride, with their own Pleasures.
If i believe what Steve tells me, that he's not just being nice, he does enjoy these rambling rides we do where there is some hill-age, some tempo, some cadence, some bimble and lots of communication, checking in and opportunities for the all important el fresco cafe stop.
As Steve puts it, not all rides have to be knock down, drag out efforts where hanging on for dear life. Good to know.
And as such there's a certain pleasure in introducing the sport and the space to a new enthusiast.
And yet so far, so good, so wonderful. Even getting swamped by a car racing through a trough of road water in an act i'm sure was deliberate to see if he could utterly soak me. Yes, but may i say, goodness, technical water repellency is Amazing. That was AMAZING. Ha ha, to you, you noodnick.
And there have been solo espresso pit stops - all good. I'm learning, recovering, repairing, re-skilling.
This effort has taken far longer than it ought for it to commence, but it might still have been far further off without thinking "Maybe Steve would go out for a ride with me..."
I hope you get to be a Steve for someone, the Perfect Pathbreaker, in your Practice of Choice. It's such a gift.
Skillz For example, I have already removed and replaced tires a few times. Patched a tube; fixed a valve (didn't know they were fixable) - that too is a real confidence booster - and will come back to anon. Haven't tested how well i can do this with cold fingers in the rain, but i have learned a few surprising things about tubes and tires i'll share anon.
Gear. There is nothing like stuff designed to do a job that does a job. Like keeping one appropirately warm but not too warm when pounding up wee hill then recovering down wee hill. Keeping toes warm on cold days; dry on others. It's amazing. One of my favorite pieces of gear is a wool toque specially designed to go under a helmet. Cozy, efficient, not too hot. And doesn't look too dorky without the helmet. Ok maybe it does.
But heh, i'm riding here,
Thanks in large part to Steve, le Randonneur. Here's to all the Steves who make riding -- with joy possible.
Somewhat Related Posts
- Part 1 of this story - getting back on a bike that is Outside (rather than on a trainer)
- You call that Failure? - other stories of physical practice exploration
- Kettlebell Swings: complementary training
-
Tweet Follow @begin2dig
Such has been the case for me with cycling. But things can change. That hope can resurge. We can (re)claim the space believed no longer possible to access. Really.
 |
| this van will not kill me; i am not alone; one foot down next foot down move around... (awesome artwork by Mark Fairhurst, http://www.zeitgeistimages.co.uk/) |
Prologue
Biking can be a great way to see (beyond) the local environs. It seems even around urban centers in the UK, it's not too hard to get out into the country. And what country there can be: rolling verdant hills, sheep, cows, picturesque bridges over railways and streams; paths along streams; paths along railways.
Likewise, there are so many communities in such close proximity to each other, it's difficult to move too far without hitting a place to revive from the miles. Pubs, tea shops, cafes are everywhere apparent. Most maintain year-round al fresco seating, too. Indeed, effort must be made to cirumnavigate such watering holes for at least some part of a journey, or one would never get moving for more than a few minutes at a time.You may have noticed, implicit within this two-wheeled experience is one has both the wherewithal to find these routes, and has likewise the requisite lack of trepidation to attempt such expeditions on not-without-the-possibility-of-death-by-vehicle-roadways in the first place.
If one has a very poor sense of direction or orientation (check: c'est moi) or if one has developed a fear of the narrowness and shoulder-less-ness of many (most?) british roadways (check check, moi aussi) or has both these conditions (well checked again) then being able to take advantage of these beautiful vistas while stimulating one's phyisology becomes an impossible mission. Indeed, this paralytic state with respect to cycling has been me for the past - well - while. Since coming to the UK, my bike has only seen miles on a turbo trainer.Its use in fact diminished as other tools began to fill the gap it left. Its space by the family hearth grew increasingly under threat "You don't seem to use it anymore; it's taking up space, isn't it..." Indeed, when room became available in a storage shed, it did spend a season dismantled, wrapped in plastic, relegated, retired.
And then, this past summer happened. Due to various circumstances described in my last post Dec 31, 2013 here i was in a safe enough space for a long enough time to explore being on a bike outside again. But how does this get me back on The Road - and dealing with cars and routes - and cars.
Enter Steve
Steve is a colleague. Steve is from Wales. That's important when you're in England. I'm a foreigner and Steve is Welsh. IT's not clear whom would get shot first on a dark night. You may be surprised by that, however, some Irish folk at a conference once claimed there was still a law on the books in England that (1) men of a certain age must practice their archery (discussed here) and (2) it's ok to shoot welshmen after dark (see note 3 here). There must be more to it than that, but i'm not so sure... Anyway. Steve.
Will Serious Cyclist Bike with Beginner?
Steve cycles. A lot. For miles. Many places. He cycles on weekends with a real cycling club. He also mountain bikes. Sometimes in converted mines. In Wales. All last year i heard just fleetingly about Steve's various rides. So in the back of my mind, late summer, i was indeed thinking "Steve rides... But he's a serious rider. But maybe he wouldn't mind. No no, you'd just be holding him back..."Never really as swift as i think i am, my partner asks, "Didn't you tell me Steve bikes? Why not ask him to go out on some rides with you? That could be fun..."
"But he's a serious rider..."
"So?"
So... i asked him if he would be willing to show me some of the more ridable routes he and his club explored - to see if there was accessible countryside around where we are. And guess what? He was happy to do so.
 |
| This is Steve. Making sure i'm still there. Isn't that nice?? i think that's nice. |
What absolutely amazed me was how these fears turned out - to the best of my knowledge - not to be realised. Steve says his club rides are like trying to hang onto a train, with one particularly strong rider - so he gets his big training rides there. Our runs - so far of about 25 -40 mile routes, broken in half with coffee stops al fresco - are another type of ride that he says he enjoys, to see the country side and get to show it off, introduce it to someone else, while getting winter mileage up.
I will take Steve's word for it: i cerntainly enjoy these outings. Through the past few months we've been trying to get a ride in a week - per sunny day alerts. We identify a day but have back ups if the weather turns to crap. Essential planning in the UK. We've been really lucky this past fall/early winter. IT's onyl during of course the x-mas break that it's poured - and even here there have been sunny days.
A few take aways from this so far brief but consistent experience where Steve has been a role model.
** There is a rich and enjoyable courtesy to riding together.
 |
| Wow look - hand signals for drivers |
The number of sporting/health/fitness activities i can think of where such signaling would be welcome, and doesn't really exist, well, it's hard to express.
 |
| and hand signals for me about up ahead |
My sense is that done frequently enough, experienced frequently enough, one might find some "skills transfer" - as one puts it in strength and conditioning. Perhaps one becomes more courteous in other parts of one's life. I dunno. Steve is a very convivial colleague - it's one of the things i enjoy about working with him. He makes it easy because he seems thoughtful as well as engaged. Who knows? perhaps his existing style influences his signaling on the bike or they just reinforce each other. Anyway, this is a completely unlooked for aspect of cycling together that, while in hindsight is obviously necessary, has been a revelation of the very enjoyable kind.
The Very Civilised Ride
Beyond the courteous comms around route conditions, there are two other parts to pal'd up cycling that are even more delightful. These are adaptive route planning and cafe stops. In my limited experience, they seem to go together, and each add to the cycling experience as "civilised."I fear to generalise beyond that limited experience. I wonder if people who cycle with groups regularly are saying to themselves,
ya right wait until X then you'll see what it's really like. Until you're suffering you're not riding. What do you think this is? Cyclocross?(Fade in beautiful but suffering footage of rapha continental rides here - eg scroll to about 1:10 below in particular).
But, SO far, so delightfully civilised though. For example:
Route Planning
Again perhaps all experienced riders do the following, but Steve's the Male Model of practice here, so i say again, Steve's approach to guiding a ride is lovely in its thoughtfulness.
Also, within a given ride, when it's about to change tempo or type, steve gives me a heads up, usually with options.We pull over and he says we can now go X or Y.
Where X or Y are described as a variant of "...Go This Way that has these kinds of hills and goes over to Village Name of Something ....(and then as he names places that i don't know my head just hears LA LA LA... kind of a big hill LA LA LA... a bunch of hills LA LA place for coffee LA LA LA LA LA .. back to home base."
My algorithm right now is, i think, counting up no. of times word hill is repeated, mapped to hand gestures around heights, and whether or not said hill mentions are associated with stories like "ya we tried that once...sore for days...." divided by number of times "place for coffee" mentioned to get sense of Up for It'ness)
Wonderful.
Sometimes there are multiple options within a given trip. Coffee sooner; coffee later. Which brings us to.
** There are many possible Ways to Ride, with their own Pleasures.
 |
| cafe transfer (where's the angst) |
As Steve puts it, not all rides have to be knock down, drag out efforts where hanging on for dear life. Good to know.
And as such there's a certain pleasure in introducing the sport and the space to a new enthusiast.
Complementary Kettlebell Work with that Carbon, Sir?
I'm also happy to say that Steve in a desire to get a little stronger, a little more efficiently and esp when not able to put on the miles in this inclement UK weather has picked up a kettlebell from me, along with some swing tuition. Good bike flexibility showed great form with the swing. Sample KB Swing Plan for Hill Workouts hereStarting to go Solo
Of late, thanks to Steve's trail breaking (and some technology to support the directional hippocampus building), i've been retracing some of our routes on my own. These micro Departs make me a wee bit nervous still - will i find the path? get lost how many times? have a break down?
And yet so far, so good, so wonderful. Even getting swamped by a car racing through a trough of road water in an act i'm sure was deliberate to see if he could utterly soak me. Yes, but may i say, goodness, technical water repellency is Amazing. That was AMAZING. Ha ha, to you, you noodnick.
And there have been solo espresso pit stops - all good. I'm learning, recovering, repairing, re-skilling.
This effort has taken far longer than it ought for it to commence, but it might still have been far further off without thinking "Maybe Steve would go out for a ride with me..."
I hope you get to be a Steve for someone, the Perfect Pathbreaker, in your Practice of Choice. It's such a gift.
 |
| Thank you, Steve |
Future episodes: about the Gear; about care of the Gear; more confidence instilled
Another part of cycling practice is the skillz around maintaining the machine and one's self. And that means Gear and Skillz.Skillz For example, I have already removed and replaced tires a few times. Patched a tube; fixed a valve (didn't know they were fixable) - that too is a real confidence booster - and will come back to anon. Haven't tested how well i can do this with cold fingers in the rain, but i have learned a few surprising things about tubes and tires i'll share anon.
 |
| winter subhelmet chapeau. good for the ride; great for the chill at the Café |
But heh, i'm riding here,
Thanks in large part to Steve, le Randonneur. Here's to all the Steves who make riding -- with joy possible.
Somewhat Related Posts
- Part 1 of this story - getting back on a bike that is Outside (rather than on a trainer)
- You call that Failure? - other stories of physical practice exploration
- Kettlebell Swings: complementary training
-
Tweet Follow @begin2dig
PDF
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Moving Back Outside (not about the bike, part 1)
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This is the story of reconnecting with the outside by reconnecting with The Bike. Perhaps you've had this experience? Do you spend time moving out doors? i mean, outside a gym set up? And not a walking, running, biking commute, where the goal is transportation, a to b.
I mean - moving outside for the sake of? because it's OUTSIDE. in the elements.
Ya, i haven't much.
Beyond occasional/seasonal pick up frisbee games (they're too unskilled to call them "ultimate" - more like "initial"). Once upon a time in grad school, i ran x-country. Prior to coming to the UK, i also rode a bike in Canada all the time everywhere as a commuter. Thinking about it, that's been a lifetime practice, from high school to real world work. Oh Canada.
It was around this time that my partner suggested exploring the finer points of turbo trainers. Bike on blocks. I kept cycling, but it was all happening indoors. It became "cardio" instead of commuting and certainly not cycling.
In the intervening years, i've focused on working with weights; working on movement, learning more about same. My outdoor movement is that i walk or run to work. A kind of commuting. Not nothing, but not a Thing in Itself. You know? Going outside and moving across space for the sheer heck of it, that had rather been suspended.
And then the summer happened. I had a summer gig in a bike friendly UK town - i did not bring my bike because it was only supposed to be a month's stay, in and out, and work was another quicky run at about only 1.5 miles each way. Not worth a bike ride. Kettlebells, yes, brought a few of these. Natch. Bike. Nah.
Then 1 month turned into four. The summer was lovely. For the UK this means not pouring more than three days in a row. Bikes were everywhere. Like everywhere. When not in motion, many were parked on streets with signs on them beckoning to associated shops.
I recalled in grad school a guy in res being into cycling talking about fixed gear training in the winter. This was not the winter, but the training idea sounded good to me: i hadn't been on a bike on a real road in a long time; not worrying about gears, just focusing on getting better at this practice again seemed worth considering. And i kept hearing about fixed gear bikes. There seemed a lot of web pages and places that built these things. There was a fixed gear bike shop a stone's throw from the flat. The bikes were on sale.
Reader: i got one. These can be i've learned super expensive; but they can also be very reasonable. They are perhaps the quintessential bike. Two wheels on a frame with pedals. The bike moves when you move. There is no spinning of freewheel. Very Yoda. There is no spin; either pedal or do not pedal. Goodness. Very simple. Very Steel. Which, i was told, like my road bike back home, was real.
And amazingly, to complement this reintroduction to the simplicity of movement over/through space, the area was flat, too. Prairie flat. Given to much flatness. In other words, if you're gonna have one gear and your goal is to roll rather than suffer at odd intervals with hills in re-introducing yourself to an ancient practice, it seems i'd hit the sweet spot.
And what's even more - this was not only a cycling kinda town (bikes v.much everywhere - many of them ridden by "people on bikes" - not "cyclists" - the ones who give cyclists a bad name for effectively mowing down pedestrians...i blame town planners, really, but that's an aside) - the UK it turns out has an incredible network of roads designated as cycling routes - this seems to mean they are perceived to be slightly less life threatening than the main drags. This routing may be utterly useless for most commuters, as getting from a to b is not it seems the point, but if one has the inclination simply to cycle, there are routes that will accommodate this in various guises.
One of my routes happened to be a tow path, with a good chunk being pretty narrow track. I raise this point as again, for someone trying to get back into road riding with as little conflict with other moving bodies as possible during a period of acclimatisation, this route felt like a gift from - well from something. And with kevlar in the tires, the bike handled these chalky, bumpy gravelly, thorny very solo paths with verve.
I was cycling for the first time. again. Benefits galore.
i love to ride my bicycle
it's just really nice to reconnect with biking again. That first test drive with this one gear bike was "oh yeah, this is it! this feels great...i think i can still do this."For whatever reason, i enjoy this strange way of being in space, rolled over and in the drops going up and down. I also enjoy the pedalling or not. Not sure why yet, but it's a kind of skill/awareness thing.
traffic - you ain't all that - sorta
To be in an environ with so many other cyclists that when i ventured out onto the roads for short commutes, i was not ever the sole cyclist was very helpful as threat inoculation to get my on a real road legs back.
spatial map building Being on a bike - just to ride - is helping me develop a new cognitive practice. In order to find places that will let me cover x miles at a time, i have to figure out where i'm going: i need to get a sense of the space. THis is no small thing for me. I am what i could be considered directionally impaired. Zero sense of direction.
That said, in just about any other area of life, it seems most awarenesses are skills-based, or are skills accessible. Perhaps navigation and spatial awareness can be developed? Even Rats can learn dead reckoning. There are i'm learning payoffs for being a spatial map builder (rather than a landmark user). Apparently people who do spatial map building have more hippocampus activity when engaging in way-finding. Hippocampus activity is a good thing. More on this anon. Pragmatically, better coordination in space would be, personally, a very good thing.
bikes go nice with kettelbells. Biking can be very interval-ish. Endurance is an important part of strength. Working at 85% HRMax for most of a 60-90min ride or more can be very interesting.
It was delightful to have bike rides at a reasonable HR complement the strength workouts. Leaner, stronger, faster. Dialing in cycling to support strength or vice versa. Up to you. Oh ya, and it's wicked fun. Which leads to the next point.
Goodness, this makes me, er, happy. Fourth, but perhaps first: what my partner and i realised quickly is that i came back from rides in a better space than when i left. This effect lead to me being encouraged to ride more frequently This had not been the experience so much after a workout. I'm always glad to have done a workout, but that feeling of euphoria - no that's too intense - but just pleasure - dealing with a variety of threats to get to pleasure/joy - is just kinda exhilarating.
No one who's been following any of the reports in London about five deaths in a row in city cycling traffic and the various die-ins there can can be so naive as to take travelling on city or even country roads as not on some level taking one's life in one's hands.
Then there's the cost of missing something in the road. There's a reason that there are helmets in pro racing. It's not about the cars. Check out on wikipedia when and why helmets started at the tour de france for instance. A helmet won't save me from a car for pete's sake - but it may help me from my self.
Also there's getting lost.
Some people are fine with this. Men, for instance.
I'm not great with that. I am a frequent visitor to "where am i"? I am guaranteed when in doubt to turn in the wrong direction. I'm not kidding. So for me there's a sense of risk that if i go out i might not get back - with things like phones with maps, i'm learning to calm down a lot on that one, but it's a stressor, ok?
And there's machine failure far away from aid
Having some basic bike skilz and a spare inner tube and pump, in an area that i knew, and a working phone tracking my ride, i felt pretty safe. The very worst case was a few mile drag to somewhere to get a taxi. Nothing was unpopulated.
In other words, dealing with these experiences - taking the risk; achieving the reward of experiencing things like cows in the path (some commons in the UK are still used as commons) or dealing with Swans on the path (they can be so fierce) - or being in bucolic spaces - the outside! even though the highways sounds were never too remote - it's wonderful. I don't know why - it's just a different wonderful from pressing heavy bells overhead. Variety is good.
And then there's the bike. Really, a road bike is pretty durn sagittal, isn't it? My current consolation is that it is very demanding of peripheral awareness and of balance, and when riding with others, awareness of them too. It's also a machine; an intervention. And while it's hugely efficient as a machine for people, it's just not natural to be in that position for hours is it?
And yes, i like it. Rather a lot.
Later i'd like to share some stuff about getting to the next level:
Best wishes for the New Year
Here's to your excellent health, strength and joyful practice - inside and out.
-m.c.
Some Bike-ish Related Posts:
Tweet Follow @begin2dig
I mean - moving outside for the sake of? because it's OUTSIDE. in the elements.
Ya, i haven't much.
Beyond occasional/seasonal pick up frisbee games (they're too unskilled to call them "ultimate" - more like "initial"). Once upon a time in grad school, i ran x-country. Prior to coming to the UK, i also rode a bike in Canada all the time everywhere as a commuter. Thinking about it, that's been a lifetime practice, from high school to real world work. Oh Canada.
The Rational Rationale of Making a Bug a Feature
And then i moved to the UK, and what passed for the roads freaked me out. I went from messenger cyclist rider crazy - where my goal was to get as far away from traffic as safely as possible, and as quickly as possible (love to pass other cars, cyclists, anything moving - terrible, eh?) - to kinda terrified of the perceived lack of anywhere to ride. Where are the shoulders and sidewalks? Hell, cars seemed to go both ways at once in one lane. It didn't help really when one of my first colleagues showed up rather wrecked from a failed encounter with a bus. |
| recent london cyclist die-in |
In the intervening years, i've focused on working with weights; working on movement, learning more about same. My outdoor movement is that i walk or run to work. A kind of commuting. Not nothing, but not a Thing in Itself. You know? Going outside and moving across space for the sheer heck of it, that had rather been suspended.
And then the summer happened. I had a summer gig in a bike friendly UK town - i did not bring my bike because it was only supposed to be a month's stay, in and out, and work was another quicky run at about only 1.5 miles each way. Not worth a bike ride. Kettlebells, yes, brought a few of these. Natch. Bike. Nah.
Then 1 month turned into four. The summer was lovely. For the UK this means not pouring more than three days in a row. Bikes were everywhere. Like everywhere. When not in motion, many were parked on streets with signs on them beckoning to associated shops.
I recalled in grad school a guy in res being into cycling talking about fixed gear training in the winter. This was not the winter, but the training idea sounded good to me: i hadn't been on a bike on a real road in a long time; not worrying about gears, just focusing on getting better at this practice again seemed worth considering. And i kept hearing about fixed gear bikes. There seemed a lot of web pages and places that built these things. There was a fixed gear bike shop a stone's throw from the flat. The bikes were on sale.
Reader: i got one. These can be i've learned super expensive; but they can also be very reasonable. They are perhaps the quintessential bike. Two wheels on a frame with pedals. The bike moves when you move. There is no spinning of freewheel. Very Yoda. There is no spin; either pedal or do not pedal. Goodness. Very simple. Very Steel. Which, i was told, like my road bike back home, was real.
 |
| Pedal or Pedal Not: there is no Spin |
And what's even more - this was not only a cycling kinda town (bikes v.much everywhere - many of them ridden by "people on bikes" - not "cyclists" - the ones who give cyclists a bad name for effectively mowing down pedestrians...i blame town planners, really, but that's an aside) - the UK it turns out has an incredible network of roads designated as cycling routes - this seems to mean they are perceived to be slightly less life threatening than the main drags. This routing may be utterly useless for most commuters, as getting from a to b is not it seems the point, but if one has the inclination simply to cycle, there are routes that will accommodate this in various guises.
One of my routes happened to be a tow path, with a good chunk being pretty narrow track. I raise this point as again, for someone trying to get back into road riding with as little conflict with other moving bodies as possible during a period of acclimatisation, this route felt like a gift from - well from something. And with kevlar in the tires, the bike handled these chalky, bumpy gravelly, thorny very solo paths with verve.
 |
| frighteningly bucolic and flat. Singlespeed/fixed gear, tough tire joy |
"Go blow the stink off you."
In terms of getting outside again, and moving in the real world, across space, there have been many rewards from this chance extended stay in a bike-opportunistic space. |
| bicycle...bicycle...bicycle races |
it's just really nice to reconnect with biking again. That first test drive with this one gear bike was "oh yeah, this is it! this feels great...i think i can still do this."For whatever reason, i enjoy this strange way of being in space, rolled over and in the drops going up and down. I also enjoy the pedalling or not. Not sure why yet, but it's a kind of skill/awareness thing.
traffic - you ain't all that - sorta
To be in an environ with so many other cyclists that when i ventured out onto the roads for short commutes, i was not ever the sole cyclist was very helpful as threat inoculation to get my on a real road legs back.
 |
| Off to London to Visit the Queen (that's SW1, right?) - thanks to cyclestreets.net |
That said, in just about any other area of life, it seems most awarenesses are skills-based, or are skills accessible. Perhaps navigation and spatial awareness can be developed? Even Rats can learn dead reckoning. There are i'm learning payoffs for being a spatial map builder (rather than a landmark user). Apparently people who do spatial map building have more hippocampus activity when engaging in way-finding. Hippocampus activity is a good thing. More on this anon. Pragmatically, better coordination in space would be, personally, a very good thing.
bikes go nice with kettelbells. Biking can be very interval-ish. Endurance is an important part of strength. Working at 85% HRMax for most of a 60-90min ride or more can be very interesting.
It was delightful to have bike rides at a reasonable HR complement the strength workouts. Leaner, stronger, faster. Dialing in cycling to support strength or vice versa. Up to you. Oh ya, and it's wicked fun. Which leads to the next point.
Goodness, this makes me, er, happy. Fourth, but perhaps first: what my partner and i realised quickly is that i came back from rides in a better space than when i left. This effect lead to me being encouraged to ride more frequently This had not been the experience so much after a workout. I'm always glad to have done a workout, but that feeling of euphoria - no that's too intense - but just pleasure - dealing with a variety of threats to get to pleasure/joy - is just kinda exhilarating.
Threat, what's the threat of getting on a bike and going, some may say?
Well, there's death.No one who's been following any of the reports in London about five deaths in a row in city cycling traffic and the various die-ins there can can be so naive as to take travelling on city or even country roads as not on some level taking one's life in one's hands.
Then there's the cost of missing something in the road. There's a reason that there are helmets in pro racing. It's not about the cars. Check out on wikipedia when and why helmets started at the tour de france for instance. A helmet won't save me from a car for pete's sake - but it may help me from my self.
Also there's getting lost.
Some people are fine with this. Men, for instance.
I'm not great with that. I am a frequent visitor to "where am i"? I am guaranteed when in doubt to turn in the wrong direction. I'm not kidding. So for me there's a sense of risk that if i go out i might not get back - with things like phones with maps, i'm learning to calm down a lot on that one, but it's a stressor, ok?
And there's machine failure far away from aid
Having some basic bike skilz and a spare inner tube and pump, in an area that i knew, and a working phone tracking my ride, i felt pretty safe. The very worst case was a few mile drag to somewhere to get a taxi. Nothing was unpopulated.
 |
| Uncommon Common Cow En-cow-ter? |
 |
| oh sure they look lovely now... |
Moving - out of the sagittal plane?
One of my constant quests with movement is to ensure that i'm not getting stuck in the sagittal plane that is the most common path in the gym. up and down, up and down. Very little side to side. Likewise, challenging peripheral awareness and responsiveness to others. Sport, five a side football, that kind of thing where one has to strategies with one's own team while out manoeuvring another team seems the ideal combination of strengths.And then there's the bike. Really, a road bike is pretty durn sagittal, isn't it? My current consolation is that it is very demanding of peripheral awareness and of balance, and when riding with others, awareness of them too. It's also a machine; an intervention. And while it's hugely efficient as a machine for people, it's just not natural to be in that position for hours is it?
And yes, i like it. Rather a lot.
What enables a Beginning: Making Skill Building Possible
This part of the story is about the circumstances that enabled what in zhealth is called threat reduction: making the space safe to explore and threat inoculation: building up skills so that one progressively can up the demand on the system and still perform at the same level.Later i'd like to share some stuff about getting to the next level:
- getting off the tow path and onto the roads again
- the inestimable value of a path breaking buddy who is sufficiently confident in their own skills, self, and opportunities to workout at their pace/level that they're there for you, enjoying themselves, not making you feel like they're coming down to your level.
 |
| next time: randoneur buddy spirit |
Best wishes for the New Year
Here's to your excellent health, strength and joyful practice - inside and out.
-m.c.
Some Bike-ish Related Posts:
- - Specific HIIT intervals on bikes for fat loss - esp around the gut amazingly enough
- - When you can't do bike HIIT everyday... how keep up the lean burn? on a bike?
- - Getting lean/fasting increases Power on a bike
- - 6 minutes a week workouts - the research: bikes again
- - and 6 minutes research - in plain language
Tweet Follow @begin2dig
Friday, September 13, 2013
Why (Not) Try Something New? Finding Optimal
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Tweet
Have you ever tried a new diet - not because you perceived you needed to, but just to find out what it might do for you? Have you tried that change for at least two weeks? Or how about a new sleeping pattern just to see how it makes you feel? Or a different kind of social activity than what you normally do?
Why would you do that? You might feel like you have your eating, socializing or sleeping dialed in - so why change it?
We are very good at finding routine (overview by Agre here). We develop our own patterns of routines quickly (there's even organizational routines - nice overview pdf here). Routines are part of our survival - we can only process so much information at a go suggests Agre- so having routines to fall back on can be very important.
We tend to work from a place of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" because - my bet is - we have other stuff that feels like it is broken, or at least needs our attention. Why add more demands to that attention?
If we don't test options, deliberately break our routines, how do we know what better is?
We may find, for instance, that if we go a bit more towards less gluten we feel better; we may find if we have liver once a week, we feel better; we may find that having a bit more bread in the morning we feel thick, but if we have some at night we sleep better. It may be that if we add fish oil into our diet for a couple weeks to a month we see our weight change a little more easily, or we don't creak as much, or we're feeling sharper at work.
We may also find that being on a bike or playing football once a week instead of just lifting weights opens up a whole new feeling of joy and physicality to us.
Different practices are associated with different benefits. For instance practicing breathing is supposed to help us feel more calm, reduce certain stress hormones, improve focus and potentially sleep as well. One could find a breathing practice description online and just do that for two weeks, as many times per day as the program says, and just check in gosh i feel a difference no i don't feel a difference.
Or one could look for targets to check: if the claim is better sleep, there are smart phone aps that let us measure how disturbed or not our sleep is, how many hours we get, just by putting the phone on the mattress. That's one way to see if two weeks without the habit vs two weeks with the practice makes a difference.
If gluten free or paleo is supposed to help shed fat and improve energy, well we have measures for fat shedding like waist, hips, neck. Measurements for energy can be checked by tests like stroop tests and general feel or alertness. Blood work is good here, but we'll skip that as out of most of our reach. Main thing is: have a reason to run the test and some way to check if there's a difference there.
Or perhaps there's a surprise unanticipated difference.
For instance, a couple of years ago, after a blood work assessment, it was recommended that i add essential amino acids and greens to the start of my day. I did. Within a month i felt a lot calmer. People commented. Now that may be because of other changes i can't put a finger on, but i'm pretty sure that ingest facilitated those changes. And considering how much amino acids have to do with hormone performance, i'm not surprised, and considering how much greens have co-factors for metabolic reactions, again, not surprised. Disappointed that my diet wasn't quite as dialed in as a i thought. (Here's an overview of some other surprises from change in my experience in terms of cholesterol)
So have a target for the change - what do we expect to see from the break? What are we surprised to see from the break that maybe wasn't planned? This can be really fun - and can help bulletproof us should an unexpected routine break happen.
To try to leap into change suddenly is fun for some of us; threatening for others. Make the break safe. Lack of planning can sometimes just doom something.
If the change is to explore intermittent fasting twice in the coming month to get that two week experience, this one may mean preparing some practice time to reduce the threat to the system and make it successful. This shift may mean that it takes some practice to get to the full test
If the idea is to explore endurance work rather than resistance work for awhile, what's the plan in terms of the activity and where it can fit in to complement what you're doing already and not fatigue you out? If you're not sure how to execute your plan, reach out to a coach. We're here!
Why Breaks Usually Happen: IT is broke
Most of us only break our routines if something else breaks and we have to figure out what's going on. Like i'm seeing my weight crawl up - what's with that. Oh heck, it's the dam desert that's been getting a little bigger or longer each night from the wonderful summer market. I have to pull back. And that's going to hurt. Dam. How do i make this valuable to me change to my current routine so i can succeed and not break myself in the process.
Why Breaks CAN happen: a little better here can have lots better effects everywhere else
If we do take the leap to explore something different - to break our routine to try something new, not because we have to but because we're curious to find better, it's important to get that a SMALL change/break in one place can have much larger side effects elsewhere. A little better sleep - slightly more sleep - can lead to completing an entire sleep cycle - it may be just 15 more minutes and you'll be able to wake up without the alarm - and that apparently has HUGE benefits for performance throughout the day.
It's amazing however how much energy it takes for us to think about exploring even a small change to routine like that - a change to our beliefs and practices of Good Enough to find out if we can be Even Better and if Even Better is closer to Optimal.
But sometimes, if we initiate the exploration rather than waiting till something breaks, we can get ahead of the curve, and add real delight to our lives.
It's really awful to meet folks who are not well, not healthy and you ask "have you ever felt better than you do now" - and they say "no not really" - and you know that they could. How do i know i'm not in exactly the same place? What haven't i checked? And why would i? If i can find a tactic to make it easier to perform better, have more joy, then i can be more present to my life, and to the people in it, and perhaps to the great people who could be in it if i were more effective, open, energized, present, etc. And that's a good thing, right?
Have a great weekend. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
Why would you do that? You might feel like you have your eating, socializing or sleeping dialed in - so why change it?
 |
| Tried Liver Lately? |
We tend to work from a place of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" because - my bet is - we have other stuff that feels like it is broken, or at least needs our attention. Why add more demands to that attention?
Finding Optimal
Part of an answer may be that by occasionally taking PLANNED breaks from routine to explore something new we can FIND an even better practice that leads towards a more OPTIMAL performance, a better us, a better capacity to enjoy life.If we don't test options, deliberately break our routines, how do we know what better is?
 |
| Lift Weights usually? How about swapping in some field work? |
We may also find that being on a bike or playing football once a week instead of just lifting weights opens up a whole new feeling of joy and physicality to us.
Strategies For Exploration: What are Expected Changes?
 |
| we can measure effect of change |
Or one could look for targets to check: if the claim is better sleep, there are smart phone aps that let us measure how disturbed or not our sleep is, how many hours we get, just by putting the phone on the mattress. That's one way to see if two weeks without the habit vs two weeks with the practice makes a difference.
If gluten free or paleo is supposed to help shed fat and improve energy, well we have measures for fat shedding like waist, hips, neck. Measurements for energy can be checked by tests like stroop tests and general feel or alertness. Blood work is good here, but we'll skip that as out of most of our reach. Main thing is: have a reason to run the test and some way to check if there's a difference there.
Or perhaps there's a surprise unanticipated difference.
For instance, a couple of years ago, after a blood work assessment, it was recommended that i add essential amino acids and greens to the start of my day. I did. Within a month i felt a lot calmer. People commented. Now that may be because of other changes i can't put a finger on, but i'm pretty sure that ingest facilitated those changes. And considering how much amino acids have to do with hormone performance, i'm not surprised, and considering how much greens have co-factors for metabolic reactions, again, not surprised. Disappointed that my diet wasn't quite as dialed in as a i thought. (Here's an overview of some other surprises from change in my experience in terms of cholesterol)
So have a target for the change - what do we expect to see from the break? What are we surprised to see from the break that maybe wasn't planned? This can be really fun - and can help bulletproof us should an unexpected routine break happen.
PLAN for Taking a Break
While it's likely awesome to break a routine deliberately and spontaneously from time to time, it may also be useful actually to PLAN a break to a routine.To try to leap into change suddenly is fun for some of us; threatening for others. Make the break safe. Lack of planning can sometimes just doom something.
If the change is to explore intermittent fasting twice in the coming month to get that two week experience, this one may mean preparing some practice time to reduce the threat to the system and make it successful. This shift may mean that it takes some practice to get to the full test
If the idea is to explore endurance work rather than resistance work for awhile, what's the plan in terms of the activity and where it can fit in to complement what you're doing already and not fatigue you out? If you're not sure how to execute your plan, reach out to a coach. We're here!
Why Breaks Usually Happen: IT is broke
Most of us only break our routines if something else breaks and we have to figure out what's going on. Like i'm seeing my weight crawl up - what's with that. Oh heck, it's the dam desert that's been getting a little bigger or longer each night from the wonderful summer market. I have to pull back. And that's going to hurt. Dam. How do i make this valuable to me change to my current routine so i can succeed and not break myself in the process.
Why Breaks CAN happen: a little better here can have lots better effects everywhere else
If we do take the leap to explore something different - to break our routine to try something new, not because we have to but because we're curious to find better, it's important to get that a SMALL change/break in one place can have much larger side effects elsewhere. A little better sleep - slightly more sleep - can lead to completing an entire sleep cycle - it may be just 15 more minutes and you'll be able to wake up without the alarm - and that apparently has HUGE benefits for performance throughout the day.
It's amazing however how much energy it takes for us to think about exploring even a small change to routine like that - a change to our beliefs and practices of Good Enough to find out if we can be Even Better and if Even Better is closer to Optimal.
But sometimes, if we initiate the exploration rather than waiting till something breaks, we can get ahead of the curve, and add real delight to our lives.
TAKE AWAYS
- A little Better can Go a Long Way None of our routines may be broken and so may not demand a fix, but most of us could likely explore a deliberate change in a routine to see if that enhances our lives - can we go from Good Enough to Really Great?
- We can choose the size of break: We can explore these changes in small ways (add fish oil and sufficient vitamin d pills daily for a month) or more challenging ways (learn to swim)
- We can measure effects: No matter the size of the exploration/tweak we can look for the effects: this is supposed to make me sleep better and help me lose weight - i'll measure now for two weeks; then measure doing it for two weeks.
- We can target what we want to optimize and choose where we want to explore: for instance, if we want more energy, we could explore changes in food or movement or sleep or social engagement or cognitive engagement. We are complex systems: there are many paths that interrelate and can get us closer to Optimal.
- WE can plan our routine break and limit it: one month from now i mark on the calendar i'm going to try a whole day fast and then do it again a week or two later. To prep for that, in two weeks i'm going to do a half day fast next week, then a 3/4 day fast the week later. To prep for all that i'm going to read eat stop eat or check out other trusted people's experience of different approaches to IF.
It's really awful to meet folks who are not well, not healthy and you ask "have you ever felt better than you do now" - and they say "no not really" - and you know that they could. How do i know i'm not in exactly the same place? What haven't i checked? And why would i? If i can find a tactic to make it easier to perform better, have more joy, then i can be more present to my life, and to the people in it, and perhaps to the great people who could be in it if i were more effective, open, energized, present, etc. And that's a good thing, right?
Have a great weekend. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
Sunday, September 8, 2013
How do you FEEL? How do you KNOW? - (or the start of What i did with my summer - non-vacation.)
Follow @mcphoo
Tweet
hi guys - thanks for checking in on b2d - so sorry it's been rather quiet over the summer - have a bunch of blog posts in the hopper around fixed gear bikes, amazingly under known clipless pedals, the surprising delights of chamois cream, and how a saddle design can work for men and women even without funny shorts for serious riding. Yes, there's been a bit of biking this summer. and hot sauce. WHo knew, cambridge (the uk one) was a hot bed of hot sauce?
But mostly there's been research. I've been working at a Lab in Cambridge, UK, collaborating on stuff that has my full attention and passion.
SURVEY TIME: YOU CAN PLAY!
The survey i've posted over on facebook is part of that. If you haven't tried it, please give it a go this week. We could use your help. There will be cake.
The research i've been futon wrestling this summer is around the design of wellbeing applications - and asking questions like:
So, health and healthiness
do we wake up at the start of our day and say, i can hardly wait to clock one more step than yesterday?
(Ok i wake up and do some stuff and check my ithlete HRV - it's true...but i'm an uber geek who sees data collection as a kind of organ donation of the future - i wish i'd called it that but that's natasa millic-frayling's categorisation of my data gathering penchant - love it - a math genius who's been bending her thoughts with us to consider models of interaction for wellbeing).
Anyway, part of the question has been - who of us have a weird obsession with sleep data such that when your partner asks "how'd you sleep, hon" - you look at your zeo to find out?
Do we Feel as Great as We Could?
or do some folks just sleep? and wake up?
And is our culture so messed up that the likelihood of doing well on something seemingly so basic - and let's face it - beyond our control; eventually, as the wife of Mithradates said to her hubby, honey, you have to sleep sometime - how do we know we're doing ok? Especially if we don't really know what "feeling better" than we do now - feels like?
and if we do just sleep or eat, what do we wake up thinking?
where do our aspirations fit into our daily practice? do we arise thinking today i'm on step X of my path to aspiration Y? or do we think, sh*t i'm late! gotta dash, and forget to tell our honey and little bees of our love for them?
Where does being in a body (and the brain is in the body) fit into how we make sense of the world?
I ask because if we are going to use all this smart mobile computing power to make a difference to the stats we in my world claim to care about (the effects of sedentary lifestyles, for instance), we might want to know something about ourselves, and how we think about ourselves as well, bodies, in the world.
And there's more: death to change!? how bout just better?
Why do so many people talk about "needing to change" ?? in terms of health goals.
We all eat, sleep, engage with other, think, move. Change sounds like to be better we need to do something other than those things. Like no, sleep is so 1990's; now is the era of standing on our heads. Really?
GRRR.
However.
When not doing that kind of cogitating, and trying to figure out how to fit that into a framework designers/researchers can use to situate wellbeing artefacts, i've been using bands for assisting one arm push up work for full range of motion reps and it's wicked.
I've also discovered when chamois cream can be fun. and that fixed gear bikes with track bars are just an awesome, fun and affordable way back into biking hard outside instead of on a trainer - esp. in a flat land. I am learning both to track stand and skid stop, thanks to Sam at bicycle ambulance in Cambridge. Skilz. i so don't got 'em. but i will!
Thanks for listening, and hanging in. More to come.
let me know how your summer's been.
m.c.
soon to replenish the dearth of cambridge chill sauce co.
ones i really dig - they just taste rich and lovely - not just of heat.
the wee list:
ghost pepper 10, luck (yellow pot) 7, voodoo chocolate habenaro (i think that is my overall fave, having done two bottles of it in two months, with the lucky 7 next; they mix really well too), trinidad scorpion mustard (awesome - really rich, fruity taste from the whole grain mustard) and some smokey scotch bonnet. Wicked that most of these peppers are grown by these guys in the UK.
Sample Application
Morning Ghost Pick Me Up
Here's one way i've been using the sauce like the ghost pepper 10:
with greens i have reheated in the morning - like curly kale cooked for dinner the night before:
i'll put a couple good squirts in a bowl, add in a bit of water and pour that into a hot pan, then put the kale or whatever green into that. Stir it around, let it simmer till the water's gone but the hot stuff is now all over the leaves. Oh wow, there's a kick in the AM - gets those endorphins gearing up.
Again, thanks for your patience over the summer. Do give the survey a go, and let me know of your sumer.
RElated Posts
hi guys - thanks for checking in on b2d - so sorry it's been rather quiet over the summer - have a bunch of blog posts in the hopper around fixed gear bikes, amazingly under known clipless pedals, the surprising delights of chamois cream, and how a saddle design can work for men and women even without funny shorts for serious riding. Yes, there's been a bit of biking this summer. and hot sauce. WHo knew, cambridge (the uk one) was a hot bed of hot sauce?
 |
| m.c. - happy in her summer office thinking wellbeing thoughts |
But mostly there's been research. I've been working at a Lab in Cambridge, UK, collaborating on stuff that has my full attention and passion.
SURVEY TIME: YOU CAN PLAY!
The survey i've posted over on facebook is part of that. If you haven't tried it, please give it a go this week. We could use your help. There will be cake.
The research i've been futon wrestling this summer is around the design of wellbeing applications - and asking questions like:
- what the heck is a fitbit supposed to do? - i mean, really.
- - and for how long?
- i have one i'm using right now. Do i know what i'm doing with it?
(Do you have one of these devices? Do you use it? Please answer the survey - we NEED you.
So, health and healthiness
do we wake up at the start of our day and say, i can hardly wait to clock one more step than yesterday?
(Ok i wake up and do some stuff and check my ithlete HRV - it's true...but i'm an uber geek who sees data collection as a kind of organ donation of the future - i wish i'd called it that but that's natasa millic-frayling's categorisation of my data gathering penchant - love it - a math genius who's been bending her thoughts with us to consider models of interaction for wellbeing).
Anyway, part of the question has been - who of us have a weird obsession with sleep data such that when your partner asks "how'd you sleep, hon" - you look at your zeo to find out?
Do we Feel as Great as We Could?
or do some folks just sleep? and wake up?
And is our culture so messed up that the likelihood of doing well on something seemingly so basic - and let's face it - beyond our control; eventually, as the wife of Mithradates said to her hubby, honey, you have to sleep sometime - how do we know we're doing ok? Especially if we don't really know what "feeling better" than we do now - feels like?
and if we do just sleep or eat, what do we wake up thinking?
where do our aspirations fit into our daily practice? do we arise thinking today i'm on step X of my path to aspiration Y? or do we think, sh*t i'm late! gotta dash, and forget to tell our honey and little bees of our love for them?
Where does being in a body (and the brain is in the body) fit into how we make sense of the world?
I ask because if we are going to use all this smart mobile computing power to make a difference to the stats we in my world claim to care about (the effects of sedentary lifestyles, for instance), we might want to know something about ourselves, and how we think about ourselves as well, bodies, in the world.
And there's more: death to change!? how bout just better?
Why do so many people talk about "needing to change" ?? in terms of health goals.
We all eat, sleep, engage with other, think, move. Change sounds like to be better we need to do something other than those things. Like no, sleep is so 1990's; now is the era of standing on our heads. Really?
GRRR.
However.
When not doing that kind of cogitating, and trying to figure out how to fit that into a framework designers/researchers can use to situate wellbeing artefacts, i've been using bands for assisting one arm push up work for full range of motion reps and it's wicked.
I've also discovered when chamois cream can be fun. and that fixed gear bikes with track bars are just an awesome, fun and affordable way back into biking hard outside instead of on a trainer - esp. in a flat land. I am learning both to track stand and skid stop, thanks to Sam at bicycle ambulance in Cambridge. Skilz. i so don't got 'em. but i will!
Thanks for listening, and hanging in. More to come.
let me know how your summer's been.
m.c.
soon to replenish the dearth of cambridge chill sauce co.
ones i really dig - they just taste rich and lovely - not just of heat.
the wee list:
ghost pepper 10, luck (yellow pot) 7, voodoo chocolate habenaro (i think that is my overall fave, having done two bottles of it in two months, with the lucky 7 next; they mix really well too), trinidad scorpion mustard (awesome - really rich, fruity taste from the whole grain mustard) and some smokey scotch bonnet. Wicked that most of these peppers are grown by these guys in the UK.
 |
| sadly empty or nigh empty bottles. |
Morning Ghost Pick Me Up
Here's one way i've been using the sauce like the ghost pepper 10:
with greens i have reheated in the morning - like curly kale cooked for dinner the night before:
i'll put a couple good squirts in a bowl, add in a bit of water and pour that into a hot pan, then put the kale or whatever green into that. Stir it around, let it simmer till the water's gone but the hot stuff is now all over the leaves. Oh wow, there's a kick in the AM - gets those endorphins gearing up.
Again, thanks for your patience over the summer. Do give the survey a go, and let me know of your sumer.
RElated Posts
- Fitbit and 10k - is 10k steps a magic Bullet
- wellness: what's your h2 ratio -the driver for much of the summer's thinking
- one bike piece: weight loss ups power
Saturday, June 8, 2013
A Taste for Lean? A Role for the Senses in Weight Control
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Tweet
Being overweight is not simple. Lest anyone say "just eat less" you have my permission to punch them in the arm (gently, or maybe not so much: use your discretion).
Being Overweight: Complex Interactions. When we get overweight a whole lot of complex interactions happen to make it harder to lose weight.
One of the factors seems to be we become increasingly, hormonally and sensually numb. By hormonally numb, we can think about things like insulin resistance, chronic fatigue, sometimes not being able to feel full, not being able to concentrate (here's an overview of what hormones are).
Sensually numb can be that our awareness of any of our five senses get diminished. At the extreme end, if we think about certain stages of type II diabetes, often associated with obesity, feet losing sensation is a not uncommon side effect.
PLASTICITY: we can be BETTER. The happy thing about our bodies is that they are incredible resilient; we can recover our sensitivity, and often, our sensitivity comes back on line as we get our weight under control. The inverse may also be true. In other words, helping our senses come back on line might just help us modulate our behaviours around food and so help us get our weight back in line with where we'd be happier.
Making Taste work for Lean Advantage:
Knowing more about how we can get at our weight via different pathways can be a great way into addressing fat. In this piece we're going to look at some work connecting smell awareness and obesity, and propose a way to tune that sense up to our advantage for fat loss.
A recent paper proposed a correlation (not causation) between obesity and taste perception. It seems that obese kids and teens had a lessened taste acuity compared with their non-obese peers [1]. Sensitivity to salty, umami and bitter were particularly low for the obese, but sweet was not great either.
TASTE IS COMPLEX. The authors don't go into why some folks have better taste discrimination than others, but the interesting thing? They note that taste sensitivity is multifactorial, that is there are many components at play that inform taste acuity. Culture is one factor: consider what tastes do we encounter? what quality?
Hormones are also influential. Leptin seems to have a taste influence. Intriguingly leptin acts to give a the shut off signal to the brain (the hypothalamus) to say "don't need to eat now."(Nice research overview of Leptin in [2]; lay overview of Leptin here).
WHITE FAT TALKS TO US Leptin is a really intriguing switch because of where this hormone is generated. It is produced in adipose tissue (white fat). Most of us tend to think of fat as rather innert squishy stuff. On the contrary: there's a lot going on in this live tissue, including hormone production. The relationship of leptin secretion to fat is seemingly simple: less fat, less leptin circulating.
Go on a weight loss program, leptin levels decrease as fat goes away. Great that fat goes, but might feel hungry for more reasons than well, hunger. Depending on the speed of the fat loss created, the body may scream a little louder as it rebalances hormonal sensitivity perhaps. Hence the goal of slower, steady fat loss perhaps rather than rapid - which puts more hormonal and emotional stress on the body (and aside: once again, time needed to drop fat and adjust hormonally may help explain why set point theory is crap)
Leptin and Taste: The consequence of this loss of fat/lower leptin levels seem to be an increased taste awareness -- especially (and perhaps not surprisingly) for Sweet tasting stuff - that would be stuff that is usually high in fast energy sources, like sugar, and sugary starchy carbs [3]. On the plus side again, it seems the sharper our senses of taste, we see from the research sited about that we're (a) likely leaner and (b) possibly leaner because sharper tastes which mean not needing to eat of a sweet taste to get a satisfying hit from taste. We can potentially perceive the sweetness better in more nutrient dense calorie lighter foods. Indeed, one researcher argues that if we upped not so much the sweet, but the savory/umami flavour of foods, we'd get better nutrient balanced meals, and better regulation of food intake [4].
But what about when we have a cold, and can't taste anything or smell anything? It may be tastes are muted because less combined with the smell bits and strong associations of smells with tastes (remember taste is multifactorial)- BUT - it may also be the cold simply affecting our taste buds.
According to Brainfacts, when taste and smell come together, we get flavour. Now you know.
Fasting and Heightened Smell Awareness. You may have noticed that if you fast for any period of time, your sense of smell goes up. Recent research [5] suggests this is not us hallucinating from lack of food. When you think about it, it almost makes a kind of sense: hunger may sharpen precision for detecting sources of nutrients. How about that as a story? Love that smell of a bakery in the early morning before one's first coffee? That may be us on the hunt, and keen to source out our Carb Prey.
Another part of getting systems back online is to activate the nerves that communicate with those systems. Taste is a physiological system. Our systems are plastic (overview of what that means): we are use it or lose it systems. The more we practice something, often the better we get at it.
Since taste is multifactorial - influenced by a variety of factors - we can practice of taste as a skill. Consider Chefs who deliberately practice discerning tastes of various kinds of items that are very different and very similar. Or likewise there are various tasting clubs for everything from olive oils to wines to chocolate.
Something more immediate as a practice tool may be to stimulate the nerves that are engaged in taste.
There are three big nerves in the head (cranial nerves) that are involved in taste: cranial nerves VII, IX and X - by convention the nerves are labelled with Roman numerals. You can see how these nerves map on this list.).
Without going into too much detail, these nerves are mapped to parts of the face, to a lot of swalliwing and well, gagging (the epiglotis has taste receptors on it). So we can actually excite taste buds by association of triggering those nerves.
To activate the facial nerves, we can blow up our cheeks as big as possible. Take a look in the mirror and see if one side semms like it's better able to do it than the other - this may indicate a place where we could practice to get better symmetry.
Swallowing is another thing we can check. With our tongue tip pressed to the roof of our mouth, see how many times we can swallow in a row before we have to quit. If after the second swallow we need a break or it's hard, that may indicate that those nerves don't get much work. Practice can be a real benefit.
Swallowing is really important to the brain, too. At some point we can talk about central pattern generators. But for now, if you find that swallowing repeatedly doesn't get better with practice, think about checking in with your doc.
To check effect, we need to do a pre and post assessment. Remember salty, umami, bitter and to a lesser degree, sweet, were the tastes found affected. So, before doing the exercises, try checking something with one of these tastes - in any individual one taste may be more "numb" than another.
Here are some blends (pdf here for more) for preparing some taste tests.
An approach to test salty for instance might be, taste the salty, rinse the mouth out with water; do one of the exercises for about 5 reps; re-taste. Any difference? If not, try the next exercise; re-test. Take a break, come back try another taste.
If one of those movements helped improve taste, think about incorporating it into your daily activities. Do it throughout the day; do some more reps before you eat.
If NONE of the movements help your taste buds, check out how your diet is in terms of zinc foods, and think about upping these for at least two weeks consistently, and retest.
In this post, the suggestion is: let's see if nudging taste may also help with moving towards better awareness, and perhaps therefore better satiety that leads from better appreciation of food in the mouth. IT's easier to enjoy food more mindfully if we can appreciate the nuances of its taste (about mindful eating).
On another high point: there's no down side to practicing the activation of those cranial nerves targeted by swallowing or blowing up our cheeks: doing so stimulates many associated Good Things in our brains. Likewise, zinc is really important in our diet and often quite low.
No matter our body comp, therefore, using nutrition and movement to affect our brains and bodies to help us move towards optimal wellbeing is a Good Thing.
If you try the above tests, please let me know how your taste improves.
You can post here, to @begin2dig on twitter or begin2dig on facebook.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Being Overweight: Complex Interactions. When we get overweight a whole lot of complex interactions happen to make it harder to lose weight.
One of the factors seems to be we become increasingly, hormonally and sensually numb. By hormonally numb, we can think about things like insulin resistance, chronic fatigue, sometimes not being able to feel full, not being able to concentrate (here's an overview of what hormones are).Sensually numb can be that our awareness of any of our five senses get diminished. At the extreme end, if we think about certain stages of type II diabetes, often associated with obesity, feet losing sensation is a not uncommon side effect.
PLASTICITY: we can be BETTER. The happy thing about our bodies is that they are incredible resilient; we can recover our sensitivity, and often, our sensitivity comes back on line as we get our weight under control. The inverse may also be true. In other words, helping our senses come back on line might just help us modulate our behaviours around food and so help us get our weight back in line with where we'd be happier.
Making Taste work for Lean Advantage:
Knowing more about how we can get at our weight via different pathways can be a great way into addressing fat. In this piece we're going to look at some work connecting smell awareness and obesity, and propose a way to tune that sense up to our advantage for fat loss.
Taste Awareness and Weight Management
 |
| The many hormonal interactions of hunger (image source) |
TASTE IS COMPLEX. The authors don't go into why some folks have better taste discrimination than others, but the interesting thing? They note that taste sensitivity is multifactorial, that is there are many components at play that inform taste acuity. Culture is one factor: consider what tastes do we encounter? what quality?
Hormones are also influential. Leptin seems to have a taste influence. Intriguingly leptin acts to give a the shut off signal to the brain (the hypothalamus) to say "don't need to eat now."(Nice research overview of Leptin in [2]; lay overview of Leptin here).
WHITE FAT TALKS TO US Leptin is a really intriguing switch because of where this hormone is generated. It is produced in adipose tissue (white fat). Most of us tend to think of fat as rather innert squishy stuff. On the contrary: there's a lot going on in this live tissue, including hormone production. The relationship of leptin secretion to fat is seemingly simple: less fat, less leptin circulating.
 |
| white adipose tissue (image source) |
Leptin and Taste: The consequence of this loss of fat/lower leptin levels seem to be an increased taste awareness -- especially (and perhaps not surprisingly) for Sweet tasting stuff - that would be stuff that is usually high in fast energy sources, like sugar, and sugary starchy carbs [3]. On the plus side again, it seems the sharper our senses of taste, we see from the research sited about that we're (a) likely leaner and (b) possibly leaner because sharper tastes which mean not needing to eat of a sweet taste to get a satisfying hit from taste. We can potentially perceive the sweetness better in more nutrient dense calorie lighter foods. Indeed, one researcher argues that if we upped not so much the sweet, but the savory/umami flavour of foods, we'd get better nutrient balanced meals, and better regulation of food intake [4].
Aside: Amusing facts about Smell vs Taste
Smell and Taste? Taste just to be über clear is something more separate from smell than most of us think. These senses are separately wired in the brain. Smell has its own dedicated cranial nerve in the brain (CN I). Taste, however, is fed by several of these cranial nerves. So the brain shares taste accross several important information channels.But what about when we have a cold, and can't taste anything or smell anything? It may be tastes are muted because less combined with the smell bits and strong associations of smells with tastes (remember taste is multifactorial)- BUT - it may also be the cold simply affecting our taste buds.
According to Brainfacts, when taste and smell come together, we get flavour. Now you know.
Fasting and Heightened Smell Awareness. You may have noticed that if you fast for any period of time, your sense of smell goes up. Recent research [5] suggests this is not us hallucinating from lack of food. When you think about it, it almost makes a kind of sense: hunger may sharpen precision for detecting sources of nutrients. How about that as a story? Love that smell of a bakery in the early morning before one's first coffee? That may be us on the hunt, and keen to source out our Carb Prey.
How Boost the Taste for Lean?
Whether or not putting scent crystals on food to tun on smell and so reduce intake actually has about zero research support. Taste on the other hand, as we've seen above, does. There does seem to be a relation between taste perception and dietary intake, where better taste awareness seems to be associated with leanliness. So might their be some value especially if we're overweight in attempting to boost taste perception?
 |
| zinc (and copper) foods |
ZINC CHECK One observation in the literature is that poorer taste acuity is associated with low levels of zinc [6]. Get zinc at healthy levels, both taste AND cognitive function improve. Double win. Just 30mg a day seems to make a taste-y difference. A list of "top ten" zinc foods is here. These include oysters, veal liver (other types of liver have it too), peanuts, and of course, dark chocolate.
Movement Based Taste Assists
Fuel is super critical to our wellbeing. Getting the right nutrients, like Zinc, more of the time takes care of a worls of ills.Another part of getting systems back online is to activate the nerves that communicate with those systems. Taste is a physiological system. Our systems are plastic (overview of what that means): we are use it or lose it systems. The more we practice something, often the better we get at it.
Since taste is multifactorial - influenced by a variety of factors - we can practice of taste as a skill. Consider Chefs who deliberately practice discerning tastes of various kinds of items that are very different and very similar. Or likewise there are various tasting clubs for everything from olive oils to wines to chocolate.
Something more immediate as a practice tool may be to stimulate the nerves that are engaged in taste.
 |
| CNVII aka Facial Nerve (source) |
There are three big nerves in the head (cranial nerves) that are involved in taste: cranial nerves VII, IX and X - by convention the nerves are labelled with Roman numerals. You can see how these nerves map on this list.).
Without going into too much detail, these nerves are mapped to parts of the face, to a lot of swalliwing and well, gagging (the epiglotis has taste receptors on it). So we can actually excite taste buds by association of triggering those nerves.
 |
| The Master of Facial Nerve Symmetry, Jazz horn impresaro, Dizzy Gillespie (Is the left side higher than the right?) Image Source |
Swallowing is another thing we can check. With our tongue tip pressed to the roof of our mouth, see how many times we can swallow in a row before we have to quit. If after the second swallow we need a break or it's hard, that may indicate that those nerves don't get much work. Practice can be a real benefit.
Swallowing is really important to the brain, too. At some point we can talk about central pattern generators. But for now, if you find that swallowing repeatedly doesn't get better with practice, think about checking in with your doc.
Pre / Post Taste Test
Here's the thing: it's great to do these exercises, but even better to check their effect. We can see a difference pretty immediately.To check effect, we need to do a pre and post assessment. Remember salty, umami, bitter and to a lesser degree, sweet, were the tastes found affected. So, before doing the exercises, try checking something with one of these tastes - in any individual one taste may be more "numb" than another.
Here are some blends (pdf here for more) for preparing some taste tests.
- Sweet: table sugar: ½ teaspoon dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
- Salt: table salt: 1/8 teaspoon dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
- Bitter: coffee, brewed or made from instant:
An approach to test salty for instance might be, taste the salty, rinse the mouth out with water; do one of the exercises for about 5 reps; re-taste. Any difference? If not, try the next exercise; re-test. Take a break, come back try another taste.
If one of those movements helped improve taste, think about incorporating it into your daily activities. Do it throughout the day; do some more reps before you eat.
If NONE of the movements help your taste buds, check out how your diet is in terms of zinc foods, and think about upping these for at least two weeks consistently, and retest.
Concept: Better Taste Sensation, More Alive to Food Flavour, Head to Leaner Being?
The authors of the study we started with did not offer a functional application of their findings; they simply noted the correlation between taste and body composition.In this post, the suggestion is: let's see if nudging taste may also help with moving towards better awareness, and perhaps therefore better satiety that leads from better appreciation of food in the mouth. IT's easier to enjoy food more mindfully if we can appreciate the nuances of its taste (about mindful eating).
On another high point: there's no down side to practicing the activation of those cranial nerves targeted by swallowing or blowing up our cheeks: doing so stimulates many associated Good Things in our brains. Likewise, zinc is really important in our diet and often quite low.
No matter our body comp, therefore, using nutrition and movement to affect our brains and bodies to help us move towards optimal wellbeing is a Good Thing.
If you try the above tests, please let me know how your taste improves.
You can post here, to @begin2dig on twitter or begin2dig on facebook.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Research Cited
- Overberg J, Hummel T, Krude H, & Wiegand S (2012). Differences in taste sensitivity between obese and non-obese children and adolescents. Archives of disease in childhood, 97 (12), 1048-52 PMID: 22995095
- Harris RB (2013). Direct and indirect effects of leptin on adipocyte metabolism. Biochimica et biophysica acta PMID: 23685313
- Harris RB (2013). Direct and indirect effects of leptin on adipocyte metabolism. Biochimica et biophysica acta PMID: 23685313
- Mouritsen OG (2012). Umami flavour as a means of regulating food intake and improving nutrition and health. Nutrition and health, 21 (1), 56-75 PMID: 22544776
- Cameron JD, Goldfield GS, & Doucet É (2012). Fasting for 24 h improves nasal chemosensory performance and food palatability in a related manner. Appetite, 58 (3), 978-81 PMID: 22387713
- Tupe RP, & Chiplonkar SA (2009). Zinc supplementation improved cognitive performance and taste acuity in Indian adolescent girls. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 28 (4), 388-96 PMID: 20368377
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