Umair Yasin

https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/diseases–conditions/discoid-meniscus I saw my primary care doctor for a follow-up about my knee, after getting MRI and x-ray results. The bump on my knee is fairly benign- there is a lateral meniscus tear which is allowing joint fluid to escape, causing a cyst. That explains why the size of the bump has waxed and waned over the past few weeks- it gets bigger when inflamed. The MRI also showed pretty extensive signs of osteoarthritis in the knee joint. So for now she wants me to ice it and elevate my legs when the bump gets larger, or I have any pain. Then I have a follow-up with my orthopedic Doc on Oct. 25. That will be interesting. Presumably, we can do minimally-invasive surgery to fix the tear. The arthritis is a longer-term issue. Surprisingly, I’ve had pretty much no pain. I remember when my right hip was first diagnosed with arthritis it was already painful, to the point it was aching and keeping me up at night. But by modifying my exercise (...

The bottom line: to maintain a healthy weight, don’t eat junk! Dr. Hall is a well-known nutrition researcher. His study in Cell Metabolism (see the link in the post) clearly demonstrates that without counting calories we tend to eat 500 calories a day less if we avoid overly processed foods. Great post! FOOD, FACTS and FADS What caused the obesity epidemic? What are the consequences?   HOUSTON – When it comes to the childhood obesity epidemic, the prevailing narrative is that overweight children — and their parents — lack the collective will power to put down the potato chips, pick up a jump rope and work at losing weight. “… doctors specializing in obesity and weight loss say certain scientific and societal factors — including genetics, the rise of processed foods that include soybean oil and national overconsumption of sugar-sweetened beverages — are more likely to blame for childhood obesity than lazy kids or indulgent parents. “Obesity is a disorder which, like v...

The Bay Area recumbent group I occasionally ride with did a ride down at my end so I joined them yesterday. They rode the Coyote Creek Trail from South San Jose to Morgan Hill for a lunch stop, then rode back. I rode up to meet them on a different route so I wouldn’t traverse the same route twice. This ended up being a total of 41 miles. It was an enjoyable ride on a nice morning. As always, it was fun hanging out with fellow riders of odd vehicles, and seeing the looks on the faces of passersby as we paraded past. Meeting Point in the parking lot of the Tree of Life Cycle path. This is in the Basking ridge neighborhood of Southeast San Jose, which is up on a rise on the east side so has lovely views to the West Looking towards the West Foothills with the Santa Cruz mountains behind them Our mascot, Pumpkin, ready to ride Taking a break at Metcalf park further South from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/C6zSkKu via IFTTT

The title of this book caught my eye because I’ve been riding bikes for a little over 60 years if you go back to my first 20″ kid’s bike. But Bill Logan’s 60 years included many years of performing well at both road and track racing, going back to the old days of cycling in the US when everyone still wore leather helmets and had wool jerseys. www.Amazon.com/books Because he went to the University of Indiana, he also participated in the “Little Indy” bike race made famous in the movie “Breaking Away”. There are a lot of good anecdotes about the race itself as well as background about the film. The book has many good stories from Bill’s own life and racing experiences, as well as those of his contemporaries. Some of these are famous, like John Howard and Wayne Stetina, others less so, but still talented athletes. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about this period, which predates me by only a few years. from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/NWqHlvV via IFTTT

We had a record-setting heat wave last week, then our first rain of the season (I hope it keeps up). But yesterday was sunny and pleasant, so my riding group headed to the hills west of town for a nice 30-mile outing. It felt like autumn is finally just around the corner. Looking out on the Santa Cruz Mountains from the top of Willow Springs Road Loma Prieta From Rancho Canada Del Oro from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/sd4i23J via IFTTT

This is the title of the cover story in this week’s Runner’s World magazine, about Keira D’Amato, who recently broke the American record in the marathon. She had a disappointing level of success in her early career as a pro and also ended up injured. So she stepped away from the sport for a few years and had two children, was enjoying life, and treating running as a recreational activity. But she found she was still fast. So she got back into serious racing, but now prioritizes family and enjoyment over results. But the results have turned out to be better than ever. I tried this attitude out on a recent ride. In a recent post , I talked about a cruising time trial that I did in about two hours. On that ride, I carefully monitored my heart rate and tried to keep it at around 120, my personal target for my maximum aerobic pace. That wasn’t totally relaxing because I was concentrating so much on the heart rate. For me, when riding solo, it is the most fun when I go at a brisk but rel...

I rode my Vado over to the Coyote Creek trail in the morning to ride on the dirt trails adjacent to it for my easy day ride. These are mostly intended for equestrian use, but I had them all to myself. This made for a peaceful ride of a bit over an hour, mostly standing up to pedal. The goats are “mowing” a new location next to one of the unpaved trails This is the site of an old winery. The house and outbuildings have all been taken down because they were in bad repair so it was a safety hazard. The circular green grove in the center is prickly pear cactus. I went hiking over there once and touched one of the prickly pear fruits with my bare hand, learning to my dismay that they are not kidding about the name. from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/XvKJOcy via IFTTT

https://worldbicyclerelief.org/alt-tour/ While last July the world-famous Tour de France was taking place, cyclist Lachlan Morton raised money and awareness for bicycling for transportation in developing countries by riding single-handedly, with no support, riding a further distance in France than the tour riders, and beating them to Paris! His adventure is chronicled here . I was already donating to World Bicycle Relief , and this motivates me in my further support. from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/5TtxBkd via IFTTT

I mentioned that I am following fellow blogger Lorna’s run, the length of Great Britain from John O’Groats to Land’s End. She has been averaging almost a marathon a day for about 10 days. She is also throwing in the three peaks challenge along the way and is now approaching her first peak, Ben Nevis. https://lornatri.com/ from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/tRZvWrj via IFTTT

www.Amazon.com/books Meditation is great for stress relief (I have called it a “ hot tub for the mind “), and for calming the annoying chatter from the “ default mode ” circuitry in your brain. But if you proceed a little more deeply in studying meditation, you will encounter concepts like “enlightenment” and “awakening”, which can be controversial and confusing. These concepts are well explained in the book Demystifying Awakening: A Buddhist Path of Realization, Embodiment, and Freedom , by advanced Buddhist meditation teacher Stephen Snyder. The book starts with a clear definition of awakening, which I would summarize like this: If we can manage to calm our default mode so that our minds become still for a while, we sense what many traditions call our “true nature” underneath the usual mind chatter: pure, loving, awareness. Further, we feel a oneness with all of life. This can also occur spontaneously, for example, in beautiful natural settings. So going beyond stress relief, m...

I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yDDqO4dH3c&ab_channel=TheRoyalFamilyChannel ) Yesterday we received the sad news of Queen Elizabeth’s passing. Recently, in a biographical documentary about her, I learned how hard she worked on the transition from the British Empire to the British Commonwealth. I think her efforts contributed to the cordial relationship Great Britain and many of her former colonies now have, a shining example of harmony for the world. That is one of the reasons why I admired her. Another is that she kept her vow to be of service for more than 70 years. from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/YeNt2xr via IFTTT

Today it got up to 109 F (42.8 C) in Morgan Hill, and we knew it would already be hot by lunchtime, so my group carpooled over to the Monterey peninsula, where it was still sunny, but stayed in the 70s. We took the Monterey Bay Coastal Trail , a very nice rail-to-trail conversion of a former Southern Pacific line, starting in Marina, and rode about 15 miles to the tip of the Monterey peninsula in Pacific Grove and back, for a nice outing of about 3 hours including a lunch stop. We also stopped for some wildlife viewing. There were Sea lions aplenty (apparently they come into the bay to breed this time of year) as well as birds. A great day and a good way to escape the heat wave which greeted us to start off September. Our first view of the Bay and Monterey peninsula as the trail came over a hill in Marina. The Beach in Seaside, right before we rode onto the peninsula. The waves here are fairly calm compared to beaches along the open ocean. Passing by Monterey Bay Kayaks, where ...

A Good Combination Many people do most of their exercise on the weekends when they have more free time, the “weekend warrior” phenomenon. It turns out that this is still beneficial for your health. But it’s even better if you manage to also do some movement such as walking during the week. Several studies addressing this are discussed this month on Clarence Bass’s website . The first study [1] looked at all-cause mortality of non-exercisers, weekend warriors, and more frequent exercises out of a population of 351,000 adults. There was a significant reduction in mortality risk for exercisers. The most benefit was for frequent exercisers, but there was still a considerable benefit for weekend-only training. The second study Clarence mentioned [2] showed that the maximum health benefit of strength training appears to occur for those doing a total of about 30-60 minutes of it per week. This easily fits in on the weekend, so it also works for weekend warriors. Finally, Clarence descri...

Fellow blogger Lorna is taking on the awe-inspiring challenge of running from John O’Groats (the Northernmost point of Great Britain) to Land’s End (the Southernmost point), a distance of more than 1300 km (800 miles). This route goes by the acronym Jogle . She is also adding the 3 peaks challenge of of summiting Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in England, and Mount Snowdon in Wales along the way. She describes her challenge in her blog here . I will be following her progress on her tracker here . Best of luck Lorna! from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/o0DcO9F via IFTTT

My ankles have been sore lately, hopefully just an overuse injury. I had been hiking a lot so I cut back on that, but I’ve still been doing high-volume biking, like more than two hours per day. So I’ve decided to give my ankles a breather by sticking to shorter rides. This gives me time to bump up my upper body training a bit, which I tried today. It was an enjoyable and challenging workout with multiple stations of dumbbells or resistance bands. I do a combination of isometric and conventional strength training with heavier resistance, and also strength-endurance training (higher reps with less resistance). I saw my Doc yesterday because I have a bump on one of my knees. Not painful, but it didn’t go away after about a month. So she’s sending me to get it x-rayed and an MRI. I also told her about the ankles, and she also thought of overuse injury or possible arthritis, so she’s sending me to get the ankles x-rayed also. She also thought physical therapy might help if giving them some...