Umair Yasin

A popular cycling route from Morgan Hill is to go out Oak Glen Ave past Chesbro reservoir, then continue on until Uvas Road, turning left which eventually takes you past Uvas reservoir. Then you continue until Watsonville Road which takes you back to town. I’ve been wanting to do this because I heard both reservoirs are higher than they’ve been in years, so I had a great time riding it yesterday. It was a nice sunny day to enjoy the results of all our recent rains. Looking Across Chesbro Dam Chesbro reservoir from the dam. Chesbro Ave is on the right aaa Looking the other way towards Paradise Valley. A controlled spill from an outlet pipe Uvas Reservoir from the dam Looking Across Uvas Dam Looking downstream. The dam was spilling a lot recently causing Uvas creek to overflow, so people downstream were evacuated It’s still spilling a little. Note the orange barrier holding back large debris like logs and branches from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/dI3ZBs7 via IFT...

Today was my first ride of the year with my local group. My SI joint has healed enough that I can now do longer rides on an upright bike, so I took my Vado (electric assist) since they would be doing a lot of climbing. It was very enjoyable. I like long solitary rides as well, but it is nice to have company sometimes. Some Pigs On a Little Farm we Passed. The Boy Was Trying to Wake Up the Girl But She Wasn’t Interested Looking Southwest Towards the Gavilans, which are the Southern extension of the Santa Cruz Mountains. There were some Llamas in the field below Looking Northwest with the Santa Cruz Mountains in the distance We paid Aladdin the camel a visit while we were out his way from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/KUJTpFe via IFTTT

Meditation teachers talk about a silence within us in between thoughts, and tell us to think of our minds like the screen in a movie theater. Our thoughts and emotions appear on the screen, but in between thoughts, the screen is our true nature, pure unconditioned awareness. Another analogy is that our awareness is the sky, and thoughts are just clouds appearing in it. I’ve gotten a taste of this, when my mind gets quiet during meditation (sitting or moving), or spontaneously in nature , and it is very relaxing. This awareness is completely nonjudgemental so it feels unconditionally loving. Yoga teacher Lilias Folan called it the “witness within that observes everything and judges nothing”. I feel I am making progress in self-transformation when I can cultivate this feeling. So I was happy to come across two books recently that talk about it. The first is Silent Awareness : The Revelation That Changes Everything by meditation teacher Cynthia Overweg . This book is full of essays to...

The recent long bout of storms is finally over, so yesterday I went for my first long sunny ride. I do ok riding in the rain as long as it is not too severe, and I can also get by indoors when needed. But I must say that riding in nice weather is good for the spirits. I went for a couple of hours out and back on the Coyote creek trail and it was beautiful. There is still plenty of sign of the recent downpours, though, the creek is quite high and floods in low-lying areas have not yet receded. This scene with an old farm in the foreground and the Santa Cruz Mountains off in the distance is one of my favorites from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/9FXcxHm via IFTTT

This is the first hardback book I’ve read in a while, I usually do ebooks on my kindle, but this was a birthday present. There are a lot of good tips in this book by James Clear on effectively forming new good habits or breaking bad old ones. www.Amazon.com/books An atomic habit is a small change that will lead to a small improvement. But these fit into a larger system that will add up over time to large results (James uses the analogy of compound interest). The book has down-to-earth explanations of the psychology behind habit formation, and also a lot of good real-life stories that illustrate the author’s points.It contains four simple steps for forming new habits, which are explained in detail throughout the book. The timing of reading this was good for me as this is the time of the year when I, along with many others, am trying to make some self-improvements. I’m pretty competent at forming new good habits, but less so at breaking bad ones. I’ve mentioned in the past that I ...

Our multiple storm “ atmospheric river ” continues, probably until next Wednesday. I went riding yesterday in a dry interlude that turned out to only last 20 minutes and ended up getting soggy since I did not have my full rain gear on. I still enjoyed it after a couple of days of indoor riding. “Lake Kenny”. The park across the street is recessed for flood control with a drain at the low point. It has only flooded like this a few times since we moved here in 2008. Some neighbors had a lab named McKenna (nickname Kenny), and whenever we had one of these floods his instincts would kick in and he’d get all excited and dive in. We’ve called it Lake Kenny ever since. I’ve had two PT sessions for far plus two pages of homework exercises I do in between. I think my sore SI joint is coming around. The stretches they’re having me do are similar to what I was already doing, so I guess what is different is they are targeting ab strengthening a lot, especially the lower abs. I think this might...

These tips are from dietician Sharon Palmer’s blog. https://sharonpalmer.com/ How to Increase Metabolism from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/Qe8h1Wu via IFTTT

Yesterday I turned 70. I intend to stay as active in this decade as I was in my 60s, we’ll see how that turns out! My recent setback with injuring my SI joint has caused my fitness to decline a little. But two days ago was my first PT session for it and it went well so I am hopeful. It is time to start ramping my training back up as the SI joint permits. Yesterday we actually got some sunshine so I got in a two-hour brisk ride and it felt great. 70 and still moving,,, Recent rains have flooded this ford on the Coyote Creek trail. This has happened before but I’ve never seen it this bad, from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/419wXdI via IFTTT

We continue to get a lot of rain due to an “atmospheric river” in which storms are lined up in the Pacific Ocean, waiting for their turn to reach us. This is supposed to last another 10 days. According to my rain gauge, we’ve gotten about 16 inches of rain this season, so we’re closing in on our expected yearly average of 21 inches. This is great for ending our drought, but it is happening in a short time period so is causing flooding. We can’t complain too much because other parts of the country have had much worse flooding in the recent past. Yesterday was especially rainy so I got my exercise on my indoor bike. I took this picture on my bike ride on the bridge in Anderson Dam county park a couple of days ago. This is Coyote creek near the outflow from Anderson Dam, normally a pretty placid stream. https://morganhilllife.com/2022/12/09/breaking-news-big-weekend-storm/ This is yesterday after a lot more rain on the West side of town. Little Llagas Creek should normally be not m...

We had a mostly cloudy day yesterday but a break in the rain so I went for a recumbent ride outside. I was a bit time-constrained so kept it under an hour. But I was happy to be able to go harder with some on-bike strength training (climbing a hill in high gear) and short fast intervals. My legs felt great and the workout didn’t flare up my sciatica symptoms. Heading up Diana road East of Morgan Hill from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/zdwrpeE via IFTTT

Yesterday was sunny again so I took advantage of it with my first long ride in some time. I’ve been taking it easy because I have continuing pain in my right leg . In my last post, I mentioned my Doc suspects it is SI joint pain, so I decided to see if I could get away with a longer and brisker ride as long as my position supported the SI joint well and there was no discomfort in the joint. I rode for two hours, out and back on the Coyote Creek trail. I would have gone farther, but the trail was blocked at the ford north of Bailey ave, which was flooded due to recent rains. The ride was great and I was even able to sneak in some intervals on the way back. Sunny out but remnants of the last rain storm are obscuring the top of Loma Prieta A lot of egrets have made their home next to Coyote creek. None of this aggravated my leg pain. This leaves me in an unusual rehab situation. Usually, when I managed to injure myself, it interferes with my training. In this case, I can train just...

I went for my first sunny ride of the new year yesterday. It was a pleasantly cool hour-long ride on my recumbent. We have a lot more rain coming, so I have to take advantage of the sun while I can. I have been working out in my indoor gym or using my exercise bike on days with heavy rain. In light rain, I still go outside with my rain gear and my utility bike which has fenders. All the rainfall has made it nice and green around here. Sciatica Follow-up https://www.spine-health.com/conditions/sacroiliac-joint-dysfunction/sacroiliac-joint-dysfunction-si-joint-pain I saw my Doc about the pain down my right leg late last week, and from a combination of poking, prodding, and seeing what movements cause pain, she came up with a preliminary diagnosis that this is a problem in the sacroiliac (“SI”) joint. This can cause pain radiating down the leg similar to sciatica. She’s sending me for x-rays and an MRI tomorrow for further evaluation and to rule out other possibilities like spi...