FLCC> Sunday early ride notes: Moravia revisited

[John Dennis]

Four of us, Ruth Sherman, Amelia Habicht, David Sahn, and I departed my
house about 7:15am under cloudy skies, high humidity (about 87%), and with a
light tail wind from the south.   This was ostensibly the early beaver
rain-avoidance ride, but frankly it might as well have passed for the
incipient-geriatric, heart-health neurotic,
let's-not-over-stress-our-hearts-and-die-sprawled-on-the-roadside ride.
Ruth, who had already ridden 15 miles from home, was willing to put up with
our tepid pace of 14.6 mph over 42 miles with Long Hill being the only
challenging hill.  We rode down Long Hill, the women both getting up to 47
mph while more timorous men kept their descents capped out in the low 40s.
I did however get my heart rate down to 74 on the Long Hill descent, clear
evidence that I had been dawdling along until then.  We refueled at the ca.
1824 Old Creamery in Moravia, Amelia having a peach smoothie, Ruth black
coffee, coffee au lait for me while David looked on tugging at his Gatorade
from home. 

 

My present ride nutrition MO is to "leave the Gatorade at home", so this
morning I left home with a bag of nuts and dried fruit, a small flask of
Hammer Gel Expresso in case I needed a sudden energy fix, and my Camelback
filled with filtered water.  Similarly, Ruth had filled her water bottles
with sugar-free SRP energy drinks at home.  She carries Hammer Gel e-tabs,
and sometimes purchases Gatorade at refueling stops. 

 

Before leaving my house, I sampled a few biometrics and found the humid air
seemingly conducive to high O2 saturation rates: David 99%, Ruth and I at
98%, and Amelia at 97%.  Blood pressures (with me the only one who had not
exercised) were 118/85, 100/82, 118/78, and 120/82, respectively.  At the
Old Creamery, we checked on how our pulses elevated when going from a
sitting to a standing position: 65->102, 72->88, 66->88, 71->98,
respectively, with Ruth getting points for the lowest increase of only 16
beats per minute and David for having the highest increase. 

 

After passing Grisamore Farms, we had gone north much of the way on Townline
Road.  This road had two Alpaca  farms on it.  The first farm seemed to me
to have OCD written all over it. Lying within a grove of trees on the west
side of the road, we first saw a recently-built mortarless stone wall.  The
presenting front surface of the wall was remarkably flat and erect, a stone
wall with military posture.  The side and rear walls of the-at that
time-alpaca-less compound were built of stacked firewood, and here-again,
these wooden walls were built with  an incredible military precision.  They
should have been in a farmyard in the middle of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Then there was the Federalist white frame house dating back to the 1830s
(I'm guessing of course), then the barn, and then more military-precision
stacks of firewood, hemming in several out-buildings.  I looked in vain for
a "firewood for sale" sign.  Was this some sort of avocation?  Something to
do on hot, sleepless summer nights lit by the full moon?  Do alpacas chaw on
dried firewood when more palatable feed runs low in mid-winter?  

 

Eventually, we came to the T with Long Hill Road about 0.5 miles east of the
turn onto the usual FLCC south-bound route. Approaching the descent down
Long Hill, I noticed a large, bright red bra lying on the shoulder,
suggesting that at least one person had tossed caution to the wind during
the preceding night.  Probably, one of those over-sexed city people who
summer in green clapboard cabins on Owasco Lake and drive in red
convertibles on sultry summer nights with the top down. 

 

The gold finches were out in full force and the corn was mid-way between
knee-high and an elephant's eye, recalling for me those Rodgers and
Hammerstein verses from the musical Oklahoma: 

 

There's a bright, golden haze on the meadow
There's a bright, golden haze on the meadow.
The corn is as high as an elephant's eye
And it looks like it's climbing clear up to the sky.

Oh, what a beautiful Mornin'
Oh, what a beautiful day.
I've got a beautiful feelin'
Everything's goin' my way.

 

Heading back into the headwind, at 10:20am we encountered a soaking rain
about halfway back, but the rain had ended by the time we turned from Asbury
onto Warren. 

 

In closing, I'll just mention that my own "healthy heart project" seems to
have hit a snag at the HDL cholesterol waypoint.  Despite months of oatmeal
for breakfast, avoidance of transfats, natural peanut butter, red meat once
a week or less, regular cycling rides, and those trendy dietary supplements
like fish oil, folic acid, and soy lecithin, I keep testing out in the low
40s, when I'm aiming to get HDL cholesterol of >60 mg/dL. (I've run the HDL
quality control panel on my CardioChek device and it's calibrated.)  As you
know, HDL is the "good cholesterol" that helps to scrub plaque from artery
walls.  My on-line heart attack risk profile (click
<http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3003499>  here)  or
(here) <http://hp2010.nhlbihin.net/atpiii/calculator.asp>  stays at about
5-8% in the next ten years, while my wife, who has a total cholesterol more
than twice mine, reportedly has a 1% chance of a heart attack in 10 years.
That's because her HDL last tested at 77 (and she is a woman).  A cyclist
friend who recently had a heart attack and who is still in his 40s, advises
me that "one capsule of fish oil is not enough; you have to take at least
two."  At this point, I'm tempted to ask my GP for a prescription for
Niaspan.  That's the extended release form of Vitamin B-3 that raises HDL
without causing the risks of flushing of the skin or  liver damage that is
sometimes associated with over-the-counter immediate release B3.  

 

A soothing soaking rain has just started. 

 

Rice safe and heart-healthy,   John

 

 

 

 

 

 

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