Lots Going On

Not much new on the heart front. Only a few eptopics hear and there but nothing sustained. I've been getting to the gym, Zwifting, riding my bike and working on the falcon.

I got out on the bike 3 days last week. First day was cool, the second day in the 70's and the third day back to the 50's with wind gusts in the 30's. That third day wasn't a whole lot of fun. I ended up with almost 80 miles over the three days. I hit the road the first 2 days and took my gravel bike on the third. Ended up in whites woods for the tail end of Fridays ride.

Tanoma Road

 

Five Points

Coal is alive and well in Pennsylvania. They have been talking about putting this coal loading facility in for a long time now. They finally got it up and running last year. Since I was unable to ride last year this is the first time I have been past it. They bring coal out of the mine on the right side of the road the convey it across the road to load trains.

  

Coal loading facility

 

Coal pile waiting to be loaded

Third days ride ended up in whites woods. Was supposed to be a recovery ride but the high winds put a quick end to that. The woods weren't much better since the trails are still soft from the spring thaw.

 

Soft ground

 

WHAHOO

Me and a tree in Whites Woods

Monitoring My Every Move

My heart rate monitor arrived last week and its unlike any I have ever had in the past. Its called the ZIO Patch. It is the smallest monitor I have ever been prescribed by a doctor. It's pretty simple in design and has no wires. The only issue I have encountered is the adhesive does not tolerate showers and exercise real well. So I had to come up with and alternative to help hold it in place that has worked out real well. I have been using Kinesio Tape in addition to the manufactures adhesive and it is working out real well. The other issue with the patch is there is no way of knowing if it is actually working. It will flash orange if it come unattached, which it did when I removed it. I should have taken a photo of that as well as it is very noticeable when this occurs.

I have thought of some other design changes I would make as well that are geared to those wearing it who are more active. These ideas would also benefit those with skin sensitivity as it would allow for re-positioning of the device every couple days. I may send them a suggestion or two as this is what I used to do for a living at one point in my life. I also verified that my addition of the Kinesio tape was successful as when I removed the tape it basically fell off and started blinking orange. The Kinesio tape was also less irritating to my skin.


The time frame for me to wear it ended Wednesday. I will then send it back and the results will be sent to Dr. Natale for review. If all is well I will come off of the metoprolol and be scheduled for a return trip to Austin for a TEE (Trans-Esophageal Electrocardiography) to check the function of my left atrial appendage. If that is ok then I will be able to come off of the Elequis.

Cycling In Place

I finally got the trainer set up the other day. I also purchased a Smart TV and a Lightning HDMI adapter for my I-pad so I can mirror the screen to the TV. It makes Zwifting allot more entertaining. I'm not a huge Apple fan but I got the I-pad for free last year so I'll use it for now.

I' been sick now for the past several days so really haven't had much chance to use the new setup but I'm feeling better and should get back to it this week. I also start my seven day break this coming Wednesday so I'll have lots of time to focus on this as well as some other outstanding projects I have been neglecting lately. 

Dagnabbit......

Well all was goo until Sunday evening when I went back into affib.
This weekend was our short turn and I did not get much sleep at all so I'll blame it on that. So that was a 5 day run in NSR so I'm still hopeful.

I converted back to NSR Monday afternoon and remained there until Wednesday evening. I converted sometime during the night. I remained in NSR until yesterday evening. The affib episode only lasted a couple hours though. But then this morning back out of rhythm again.

My sleep patterns the past couple days haven't been too good either. Was in bed both nights before 2200 but awake before 0200 both nights. That's got to stop.

Normalcy....

There has been some normalcy in my life though. Gabe and I hit the Hoodlebug trail on our new FUJI Jari bikes. Still need to make a couple adjustments but these are going to be great bikes for us. I was worried about mine as I had calculated some numbers wrong and thought that maybe I had bought a bike one size to large for myself but all is good. I doubt we will get to do our trip this summer due to my heart issues but should still be able to get some riding in for sure.

Worked outside all day yesterday. Got my garden started. Lettuce and onion sets are in and I'll get the rest of the plants in next week.

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.

Al ls Well

Nothing earth shattering on the heart front. Still taking the Flecanide,metoprolal, and magnesium. Heart hasn't missed a noticeable beat in a while now. Should be getting the event monitor in the next couple weeks. I'm hoping it will allow for me to still where my HRM when exercising.

UGH

As you may or may not know I am a control room operator at a power plant and to say that the last 7 days were the worst would be an understatement. Both units were off for repairs and we ended up putting them both back on line over the past several days. One of them twice.

The physical stress in the control room is marginal at best but the mental strain creates a different type of tired for sure. And you don't even realize it until you get home and hits you like a ton of bricks.

ZWIFT

Part of my recovery this time will be making an effort to both keep a good training regiment while keeping my heart rate in check. So Ill be using Zwift on days I cant get outside and a WAHOO Ticker HRM.

I did my first ZWIFT ride this afternoon and I think its going to work out just fine. I definitely is better than just siting there spinning the wheels.

Still Feeling Good

So I suppose that the first part of this post confirms the second. I do feel good these days even with the meds. Don't get me wrong I'm more than ready to toss them to the side and put this stage behind me, but I can wait.

The Doc got back to me the other day following up on my little setback last week. He didn't seem concerned and we talked for quite a while. Ill have some more questions for him in May at my next followup appointment. He will also be sending me a HRM recording device to wear here in the next couple weeks. He wants me do make sure I get some riding in during this time to see if there is anything there to catch.

Ill also have some questions for him myself. As he did do Cryoablation this time around I will be asking him if there were any other trigger points he might have not been able to address this time around and Cryoablation does limit the ability to hit some trouble points that I may or may not have. This second part is one I am not 100% sure on as the technology and techniques are always changing.

My other sticking point is my insurance. I now have BC/BS and my doctor is UPMC. And as you may or may not know these to entities do not play well together.

Anyway here is a link to a great article on Ablation and what you should look for when seeking out an EP to do it and increase your odds of complete success.

http://www.livingwithatrialfibrillation.com/3137/successful-afib-ablation

And here is another link to another great resource to those new and continuing to live with the beast.

http://www.afibbers.org

Follow Up

Had my 2 month follow up appointment with my Electrophysiologist 

today and we reviewed what he found and did during my procedure. Apparently Atrial flutter showed up during the procedure just like it did in 2009. So he was able to go back and touch up the area he did back then. Its amazing, and in this particular case annoying, how the body heals itself. That is exactly why I found myself back in the Electrophysiology lab. 

He is very pleased with where I am right now and wants me to stop taking the blood thinners tomorrow and taper off the antirhytmic drugs over the next week. At that point I'll be med free and in sustained NSR.

Beautiful Day

For a bike ride. You don't get many 70 degree days this time of year and blue sky days happen rarely throughout the year so you don't dare pass them up if you can help it. I pieced together a loop and ended up with about 34 mile according to strava but I think its off a little bit.

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.

Sketchy decents, lots of single track, mud

And stream crossing with water almost up to your chest. Now that's the way to put on a Mountain Bike Race......

So after many years of conflicting events, work and who knows what else, I finally had the opportunity to participate in the "Dash For Cash Mountain Bike Race". All I can say is if you have never done this one you are really missing out. Doug Crytzer is race promoter and as an avid mountain biker and adventure racer he knows what it takes to layout a challenging and fun course.

Everybody had a really good time and I got to talk to a bunch of people that I have not seen in a couple of years as I have not been racing due to my former heart problems.

The race itself was a blast

The race is set up in a time trial format, riders leaving in pairs in 60 sec. intervals. Which is pretty cool as it really eliminates any real congestion on the trails. There are three different categories. Beginner (5 miles), Sport (14.4 miles) and Expert (19.4 miles). I did the Sport as I haven' raced in a couple of years and I have not been on the MTB for quite some time so I figured my skills were going to be pretty rusty. I also had heard allot about this course beforehand and figured to do the 14.4 miles was going to be a pretty good challenge and I was not disappointing. Lots of great single track, sketchy descents and enough rocks, roots and logs to keep you busy and on your back. I started with a fellow teammate, Richy, without a warm-up. Neither of us were sure if this was a good idea but what the heck. I let Richy get in front and set the pace and just sat on his wheel. It has been several years since I have done any type of racing so I figured this would be a good way to start. Richy had done this race in the past, and has been mountain bike allot this year so I figured I would just follow his lines for as long as I could.
We were rolling along pretty good, passing some p[people that had started before us, and I cant remember how it happened but all of a sudden Richy was on my wheel. I was feeling much better than I though I would and just set a steady pace. My goal for the race was to try to keep my heart rate in the 165-175 range, as I still have not relined myself to this point.I looked at my HRM, 170bpm, Right where I wanted to be. So we kept rolling along. This first part of the course wasn't the most technical part of the course but it did have its share of rocks, roots and mud, and was pretty slimy. All of a sudden we come into this section with a bunch of rocks and I find my self on my back. As I got up Richy rode by. I got back on rode a short distance and back on my back. This happened one more time as I was approaching Richy's wheel and I never did get back on.
I decided at this point my technical skills were waning and that I should just set a good rhythm and forget about trying to catch Richy's wheel again. So I settled in and just kept pounding. We eventually came to the first Hair raising decent and I decided to just sit back and hang on. As I was descending I saw several riders walking their bikes. I even caught a glance of Richy again and probably would have caught him but as I approached one of the other riders there was not enough room for me to get by , got hung up , and had to dismount. I got past him and down the rest of the way to the first water crossing and saw Richy just getting out of the water. This was first and worst water crossing of the day. It had rained allot leading up to race day and water levels  were still rising. They had heavy cables stretched across the stream to hold onto so I grabbed hold of one and jumped in. Unfortunately I was on the downstream side of the cable and should have been on the upstream side. So when I got to the other side I had to maneuver myself and my bike under the cables before I could get out of the water.
Once out of the water, and started to remount my bike, I came to the realization that I probably should start thinking about a new pair of mountain bike shoes. The fast current had undone the Velcro Straps, so I had to take a moment to reattach everything. This happened a couple more times during some of the other water crossings as well. So back on the saddle and into my rhythm. As I started back my legs felt like anchors, this happened after every water crossing that we had to dismount for. It must have been due to the current and the colder temperatures of the water.

Old Friends..... 

So after the race and post race festivities, which included roasted pork, beef and all the fixings, with good live entertainment in the background. I headed towards home to catch up with some High School classmates. They had decided to have a picnic and hit a local watering hole later that evening. Unfortunately the turnout was small due to the weather and my time I had to spend at the bar was limited. It was however good to see everybody that was there and hopefully the next time more folks will show up.

Torqued.......

So I was working on the "Disenchanted Ones" bike the other evening. He was having what he thought was a problem with his new-used ceramic bottom bracket. So he brought it over for me to swap out for an FSA. Of course the FSA would not work with his SRAM Cranks (STUPID). So I put the ceramic back in and tightened it up. Now, like all new 2 piece cranks they have a torque to which they want you to tighten the crank. The problem I have found though is that, when the crank is new this may work, but take it on and off a couple of times and you can through those numbers out the window. After tightening the bolt I noticed that the crank had a little play in it side to side and I am pretty sure that this is what he was noticing when he was riding. So I tightened it to the point wrere the play was gone, the cranks turned smoothly, and I called it good. I told him to keep an eye on it but I am pretty sure it will be ok.

Speaking of torque..............

I have often wondered about carbon handlebar manufacturers. They almost never publish torque specs for their bars but instead rely on the torque settings recommend for the stem clamping surface. I suppose that they have manufactured their bars to withstand a torque much higher than the manufacturer recommends, but in the end does that relinquish them of any responsibility if you do damage the bars?

That reminds me of a story..........

So a very good friend purchased a bike. The shop built it up and torqued everything to spec. For whatever reason, many months later, he goes to another shop for a "Professional fitting". Now those of you in the bike business please take no offense. Having somebody that is knowledgeable in bike fitting, set you up on your bike initially is a great idea. I cant tell you how many times I have seen somebody sell a bike to a person just because it was on the floor, and they could move product that day. Right or wrong that happens., usually to people buying comfort bikes or novice riders. But even Andy Pruitt will tell you, "Most standardized fit systems will get you within 2cm of this fictional "perfect Fit". At the Boulder Center, we can get a little closer. But over time your body will lead you to make adjustments that will bring you within this "Fit Window" of a centimeter on either side of your virtual "Perfect" measurement." In other words if you have a fitting done and after a few good rides you are not comfortable, you probably need to make a change. So many people get fitted, think that is how they are supposed to be, and no matter if they are comfortable or not, continue to ride that way.
Anyway they recommended that he, a guy that spends 95% of his time on the tops of his bars, should get a narrower set. So he complies and they offer to give him a credit for his old bar. (Good for them),. Except they later tell him that whomever had built this bike had over-torqued the stem clamping bolts and that the bars were ruined. So he went back to the original shop and explained to them what he had been told and that he wanted a new set of bars, which the shop was happy to do for him but not without explanation and calling out the other shop. First of all to tighten something to a point to which ti will not move under force you must first engage it, IE. deform it without damaging the structural integrity of the materials. If you don't it can break loose and spin or just plain break.anyway the shop sent the bars back to the manufacturer. Come to find out, there were some bars that were produced that had arrived a little under the diameter spec, which these particular bars did, and that there was no structural damage done.
Now it was pretty obvious from the start what was going on here. The other shop was trying to gain a customer, not through good customer service, but through misleading a potential customer. In the end the truth was found out but unfortunately many customers are lured away from a shop that truly has their best interest in mind for a shop that is only out to make a quick buck. This happens in all aspects of business so beware.
If I remember, I will someday tell the part of the story where the other shop tried to tell the same customer that his front wheel was on backwards.