Back In The Saddle....

Got home from the hospital on Saturday afternoon and headed straight for the bike and a nice easy 20 mile ride. What a positive affect getting out in the fresh air doing something you enjoy has on your perspective. I made sure to keep my heart rate at a manageable level and just enjoy the moment.

I did the same thing on Sunday. The weather was not nearly as nice being about 20 degrees cooler but all in all a nice ride. Up until the point my heart went into affib again. It appears that my heart has gone back to its old ways by triggering the affib at low resting heart rates and recovering heart rates.

I went in to affib about 2 miles from the house. All I had left in the ride was a nice easy down hill then a decent climb before another flat stretch to home.I was just starting the downhill watching my heart rate. When my rate reduced to 85 bpm it converted to affib and shot up to 199 bpm. it then fluctuated between 199 and 100 for a while then settled in at around 150 bpm.

My heart converted back to NSR yesterday morning but went back out again just a short while ago. So we will see how long it takes me to convert back to NSR again.

That's a Relief....

Spoke with my Doctor yesterday afternoon. He called to follow up with me on my hospital stay and also my recent affib episodes. He let me know that he had spoken to his associate and that he was totally fine with me seeking out a second opinion. We had a really nice conversation and he offered up his assistance in any way he could to help me find a solution. He thought that my choice of surgeons I had chosen was top notch and referred to him as a Guru.

I actually spoke with that doctors office today and the process for seeing him is underway. They already received some of my medical records and the rest are in process for them to receive. So hopefully that will all work out and I will be going to see him. I will write more about that ast the situation progresses.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

As the title says to you and yours. Was a pretty uneventful day. My wife and  I worked night shift last night so my son spent the night at my moms. I picked him up on the out of the way home. On the way I decided it might be nice for us to meet my wife for breakfast at Perkin's before lumbering off to bed so that's what we did. So needless to say I did not get much done  today. Staying up that extra 2 hours really kicks you in the rump. I did however get a little time Zwifting today.

The Sky

The sky was remarkable this morning and I couldn't help but pull over to take some photos of the morning sky. Living in PA we don't get a whole lot of clear mornings so I tend to take advantage of what we get when I am able too. Speaking of which 6 years ago today the temperature was in high the 60's and when the header photo was taken. I spent that day riding 45 miles with the dentist. 

Hes and interesting fellow and good company on a ride. Especially on a flat riding behind him is like riding behind a brick wall.

 New Toy

Picked up our new bikes the other day and hope to get out for a spin tomorrow. I'm pretty pleased with the purchase but as always the bike industry always comes up a little short. In this particular case I'm not sure if its the bike campy, FUJI, or the components manufacturer NOTUBES.

After much deliberation I decided to move to the next model in the lineup. This is  secondary bike for me but I've learned you can never go wrong upgrading. In this particular case the upgrades included 105 11 speed, hydraulic brakes and stans wheels. Now the issue is with the wheels. 

Part of the appeal to the upgrade was indeed the tubeless wheel-set. Lighter weight and no tubes means quicker spin-up and less flats. So I as I am getting ready to leave the store I asked Russel if the tubeless valve stems were in a bag somewhere. This is when he broke the news to me that the wheels did not include the valve stems. So I now have a set of tubeless wheels that I cant at this point run tubeless. That is until I come up with valve stems.

Needless to say this is very frustrating. I went to the NOTUBES website and they list the valve stems as being part of the wheel kit. Then later state that the valve stems are not included. Which to me makes zero sense. Why in Gods green earth would I specifically purchase a set of tubeless wheels from the best tubeless wheel manufacturer and not run them tubeless? Which takes me back to FUJI and their inability to place tubeless ready tires on the bike. You can bet your last  dollar I have already sent off emails to both companies looking for an explanation on both fronts.

First Ride Of The Season

Got out for a ride yesterday. First cardio exercise since my ablation back in January and it felt really good to be out doing what I enjoy most. It was a LER (Low Effort Ride) which suited me as my fitness is low and being on lopressors and arrhythmic drugs its about all I could muster. I did 20 miles with very little climbing. the skies were cloudy but the temperature was above 60 so no complaining here. I hope to get out again before I have to go back to work on Wednesday. I'm also going to set up the trainer and maybe sign up for ZWIFT.

It's Not About The Bike

I'll never understand the psyche of some cyclist, case in point......

As I was headed out I saw another cyclist turn onto the road ahead of me.He happened to look back so I waved to him. I really had no intentions of riding with anyone nor did I have any plan to try to catch up to him. However, he did slow up allowing me to catch up to him.

Turns out it was not a someone I already knew so I introduce myself to him. He did the same in return, then proceeded to tell me he thought that I was somebody else. At this point I had even less interest in joining him for a ride than I had moments before.He then proceeded to ask me where I was headed. When I told him just out for a short one he then sneered at me and rode off. Normally this woudl be the point I would speed up my pace and just sit his wheel to annoy him but considering my current condition I decided that would not to be a good move. Ill get opportunity again I am sure.

In A Rut.......

Both on the cycling and blogging fronts. My actual riding is ok but my ambition is low. I've been riding well and on a regular basis but have been having trouble finding the motivation to do it and lately I have even been balking at doing longer rides. It is almost as if I am on autopilot right now when it comes to cycling. This however is normal for me this time of year so I will just plod along until everything starts to click again. I'm not sure if it is the coming change in the season, the long miles ridden to this point of the impending hunting season that brings this on.

Even though my motivation to ride is low, my eagerness to ride unridden roads has not. I love the unbeaten path, and over the years I have learned to enjoy broken pavement and the occasional gravel road. "No Winter Maintenance" was the battle cry of a couple good cycling friends of mine and we were always up for the challenge. One has since move away and the other spends all of his time MTB now as he has been soured by the road racing scene. I did one such ride last evening much to the shagrin of my fellow cyclists.

The Road Less Traveled........

For the second day in a row we have chosen to do rides that include the least familiar roads that we can find. Each of us on the rides the past 2 nights have actually been on roads that we have never been on before. And that is saying allot as we have been riding around here forever and have 10,000's of miles logged. Needless to say it makes riding a little more interesting and had made my slump more tolerable.