Long Story Short

This blog website has been up for many years but quite neglected recently. It’s one of those things (a website) for which a person should take action to use it or do something to lose it. So this is an effort at doing something to use it.

The main reason for lack of activity posting to this blog has been problems of the heart. Atrial fibrillation, a couple heart attacks, atrial tachycardia, almost blacking out a couple of times….stuff like that.

A couple of heart surgeries happened and now one result is that I’ve switched regular aerobic physical activities from indoor rowing and the other Concept 2 ergs, to simple daily running. For the time being, at least. It’s sort of a take-one-day at a time thing.

So I’m done doing Zwift rides and sharing their screen recordings…mainly because I decided to save money by canceling the Zwift subscription. Still have the Concept 2 BikeErg though but, as stated in the first paragraph, the daily aerobic activity has been limited to outdoor running. If it rains, I don’t run. But it doesn’t rain much here in the ongoing drought.

If the temperature is too cold, which it seldom is…I may avoid outdoor running. But there is no temperature too high for outdoor running, because my runs are usually somewhere around 30 minutes.

https://youtu.be/uk5M7FCS5JQ

The above link should display a video of part of the trail on which I usually run.

That’s enough writing for now. It has been so long since I’ve posted here, that I’m going to let this be a sort of test to see if it is readable.

The comment/contact link access has been removed because there was just too much spam sent to it, no matter how “bot-proof” my dear website builder made it. But here’s an email address at which you can write to me. It is a disposable address, so if it starts to get too much spam, it will be deactivated. It is [email protected] and if you send actual email to it, specify how you would like for me to respond to you, if you would like any response. The two options are 1. to post your question and my response in a subsequent post here or 2. to reply to you directly via email (though if I do that, I’m pretty sure I’ll have to respond from a different, non-disposable email address, so we’d have to establish an understanding about that in advance.

Jesus is Lord.

We Are Spirits

Heard this song whose lyrics follow, among the music in a random play list recently, while using the erg:

“Spirits In the Material World”

Song by The Police

Oh!

There is no political solution
To our troubled evolution
Have no faith in constitution
There is no bloody revolution

We are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world

Our so-called leaders speak
With words, they try to jail ya
They subjugate the meek
But it’s the rhetoric of failure

We are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world

Where does the answer lie?
Living from day to day
If it’s something we can’t buy
There must be another way

We are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world

Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world

Songwriters: Gordon Matthew Sumner. For non-commercial use only.

The reason I’m sharing it is simply because I was surprised to hear that true statement (the “we are spirits” part) in a pop song by a band that (as far as I know) had no reputation for writing songs that were spiritual or protest songs or otherwise particularly meaningful.

It is true that we are spirits. Though it is easy for a person to think of himself or herself as a physical being composed entirely of atoms and molecules… we only “inhabit” our physical bodies and we depart from those physical bodies when death happens. Dying is a word for the separation of a person’s spirit from that person’s body. The body remains behind, at death, and the spirit goes elsewhere.

So… Thanks to Gordon Matthew Sumner, for a few words of “food for thought” in an otherwise not-worthy-of-fame song.

For anyone who sincerely wants to comment on this or any other post, you can reach me through the email system of the concept2.com logbook if you yourself also have a logbook account.

Cheddar Gorge on Zwift

When I saw the name, “Cheddar Gorge,” for today’s Zwift ride, I immediately thought of cheddar cheese.

Besides the indoor bike ride, there was about 30 minutes each done on a SkiErg and a rowing machine.

For anyone who wants to ride their own indoor bike while watching the screen recording of what I saw on Zwift today, the video is at this link: Cheddar Gorge on Zwift.

Watopia’s Waistband with Zwift

This is NOT Watopia’s waistband.

Today’s ride on Zwift was called “Watopia’s Waistband” and it was supposedly about 17.1 miles but by the time I finished, the distance showed to be about 18 miles.

For those who’d like to see the ride, a screen recording of it is at this link: Watopia’s Waistband Jan 15 2024.

Happy workouts to you.

Champs Elysees via Zwift

This photo was supposedly taken on the Champs Elysees in Paris.

Today’s workout was after 2 days of rest. It consisted of about 5K each, at an easy pace, on SkiErg and RowErg plus some riding on Zwift. Part of the riding on Zwift was called Champs Elysees and this link is to a screen recording of it.

Because the first Zwift ride was so brief, I did a second easy ride on Zwift using the Paris Letuce Express route which you can access in this link: Letuce Express

Happy and healthy workout activities to you.

Yorkshire, Queen’s Highway on Zwift

Though I searched for an image of “bicycle queen’s highway Yorkshire,” the only photogenic one among the results was this one, called “Bicycle, Queen’s Square,” which is sufficiently lovely.

Today’s bicycle riding was less than 30 minutes because I felt a bit tired.

The Zwift app says I should take days off from riding, but I think that’s only necessary if a person does higher energy riding. My rides are low or lower energy and they seem fine, as far as the results.

The total workout also included about 3,000 meters each, on RowErg and SkiErg, while listening, for the first time ever, to a reading of The Book of Enoch.

Here’s a link for any who are interested to view a ride on the Zwift Yorkshire Queen’s Highway.

Healthy and happy working out!