FLCC> Sunday early ride notes: Moravia revisited

[Amelia Habicht]

I'd like to blame my relatively high sitting-to-standing pulse
increase (27 bpm) on the caffeine contained in the delicious chocolate
croissant I ate at the cafe. Mmmmm.  In any case, I enjoyed playing
with the gadgets, as well as the long (down)hill hitting 47.5 mph, and
even breaking my new bike into its first rainy ride!

Amelia

On 7/13/08, John Dennis <jvd at baka.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> 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 here)  or (here) 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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