Tag Archives: Exercise

Our World – Tour de Tulsa 2019

So Saturday morning found me in Tulsa’s Tour de Cure, a benefit ride sponsored by the Tulsa Bicycle Club. They have five rides varying in length between eight and 101 miles. This is a ride rather than a race. So there is no competition or awards or any of that. I’ve run literally dozens of runs but this was only my second ride. There starting gun. Everybody is just standing around talking and then they start going.

Today’s ride was a ride of left turns in traffic starting right away. At least the first one we had traffic control with the police. The rest of them we were on our own.

So we cruised down Southwest Boulevard (aka Route 66) for a bit, taking up both lanes.

And then turned right over the railroad tracks and got on Avery Drive heading west past the refineries, trash to energy plants, oilfield fabrication shops. Avery Drive is a popular ride for bicyclists which is great but some of them get run off the road or hit every few years but angry or distracted people. My prayer was just to survive it.

No worries though. The motorists were courteous and gave us lots of room. So I’ll live to ride it another day. My problem is that I ride almost exclusively trails on my own. Roads make me nervous.

I got stressed when Avery drive ended and we had to do two left turns to negotiate the very busy high 97 and 51 intersections. No choice but to get in the left turn lane and ignore the freight truck behind me, twice.

So after all that we got to a rest stop. Time to get something to drink and a snack and rest a little bit. That’s me, the fat guy with the white over blue shirt or jersey.

And here is my old bike. You don’t see too many hybrid bikes on rides like this. Or bikes with rear view mirrors and a bell. Don’t you laugh at me!!

And then back to it and we ended up winding our way through downtown Sand Springs. I was able to keep a few riders in front of me and they seemed to know the route because I didn’t see any obvious course markings or signs or anything.

And we ended up on the Katy Trail that went most of the way back to Tulsa. No more city streets except the last mile or so.

The end is pretty low key. Since they don’t time or have awards, you just end your ride. Get something to eat and drink and go home.

I really enjoyed myself. Thank you to the sponsors, and organizers, and the army of volunteers who make these things happen.

I am linking with Our World Tuesday

Our World – Thoughts on a Turkey Mountain Ramble

I have run by this a bunch of times and never noticed it. A big trunk with several wraps of barbed wire. Turkey Mountain used to have farms on it and was an active oilfield back in the day.

Sunday morning I went for a walk on Turkey Mountain here in Tulsa. There was a running group that was leaving at 8 am but I didn’t join them. I have not run since I injured myself during the Route 66 Half Marathon in November. Since then I have been walking, cycling, rowing, walking, elliptical machining and a lot of resistance training. I still don’t feel like I should be running. My knees are popping a lot and I don’t know if I will ever run again. (sniff??)

This was a wire fence, almost decorative starting from the tree in the first pic. In fact, if you go back and look at the first pic you will see that it is this fence that is imprinted in the tree trunk! It makes me wonder if there was a house here at one time. Turkey Mountain has a history, and a lot of ghosts. I can sense the ghosts when I run here at twilight. Again something I never saw before. Maybe walking and hiking will give me a new perspective on things?

So I have been thinking about why I started running in the first place. I started running a little late in life. I am not a natural athlete. I was 37 years old and had found out that my cholesterol was sky high and my cholesterol ratio was terrible. The exercise guy I consulted said that running was the most bang for the buck. So I started running and really never stopped. I entered races and eventually ran a couple of marathons and a whole bunch of half marathon and 15 to 25k races and countless 5 to 10K’s. I loved the hopeless feeling of being 5 miles from the finish and exhausted and then somehow making it to the finish. I didn’t care that I finished 57th out of 62 in my age group. Finishing was the goal, and I always finished, one way or the other.

A base for an oil well pumpjack from way back. There was a geocache here that I never could find and it is no longer active.

So that was then, and this is now. I can see me hiking instead of running the trails. I can see my biking a lot more. If you can’t do what you want, do what you can. So my doctor says “… your tread is running a little thin.” So I am going to save my tread for hiking and maybe the occasional trotting 5K. I’ll be on my bicycle a lot more and in the gym a lot more. Taking care of my tread.

I collect trees. Here is one on Turkey Mountain. It seems a little here and there and perhaps unstable? Do you know unstable trees? Do they make you nervous? This one makes me nervous.

I can deal with it. Circumstances change, you have to change with them. My goal is to be as active as I can for as long as I can, however I can.

Turkey Mountain is an urban wilderness and is maintained mainly by volunteer labor. It is not groomed like a city park. The trails are kept clear. Many of them by people showing up with their hand saws and power saws and cleaning things up on their own initiative. The cuttings are tossed to the side. They are not hauled off. So the woods show the cumulative effect of windstorms, ice storms, and tornadoes. We vounteers pick up the trash but leave the organic material to rot on its own. It works. No way could anybody afford to come clean everything up. The people who love Turkey Mountain don’t want them to do so. I’ve had friends say, “It is so icky up there, why don’t they clean it up.” And I would never tell them but my thought is, “Turkey Mountain is not for you maybe?”

The ironic thing is that all this running didn’t do crap for my cholesterol levels. It lowered it by about 10%. Now drugs, drugs knocked my LDL’s in the butt. At $7.50 for a month’s worth, I am sticking with that. Of course, with statin drugs, deaths from heart attacks are cut but total mortality doesn’t change!! Huh!! Yep, true fact. I am going to continue taking them anyway. In the long term, the mortality rate is 100%!! You can’t argue with that.

What about you? Are you having any changes lately?

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday

First Bike Ride of the Year

My employer had a few events during Earth Week and one of them was a presention from a couple people from the The Tulsa Hub (check them out, they do lots of good stuff. They are trying to change lives through bicycling) about basic maintenance on bicycles. I’ve had mine for a few years now and have not done anything so I paid attention and even asked a few questions about several things especially, chain maintenance. I’ve had my bike for several years now and have not done anything besides air up the tires since. So I went to the store and bought the degreaser and the chain oil and got some rags and cleaned and oiled both my bike and Heather’s. Last Sunday I decided to go out for a ride. Heather couldn’t go so I went by myself.

We live within a mile of a part of Tulsa’s extensive bike path system so I rode my bike from the house over there and made my way east to the Liberty Trail in Broken Arrow paralleling the Creek Turnpike Extension. The Liberty Trail passes very close to my MIL’s house and I have walked over to her house about three times so far. It’s about seven miles so it is not a bad walk at all. One of these days Heather and I will ride our bikes to her house.

I only stopped to rest once on my leg out. I liked this tree and I liked the water fountain. A miscalculation on my part was not enough water. I brought a water bottle but I thought there was more water available along the path than what there turned out to be. I have a hydration pack that holds 1.5 liters. I might bring that, in addition to a bigger water bottle next time I ride this route. I also was reading about leppardlaw.com in case in got into a bike accident.

And here is a shadow selifie of me at the halfway point. Tired and thirsty.

I did a little more sightseeing on the way back. I stopped to take a photo of the horse. He (I guess it is a he) walked up to me seeming pretty friendly. He let me rub his nose for a little bit.

Nice horse but I had to go.

And I saw this little thing out in the middle of nowhere. I have no idea what it is about. There are lots of roadside memorials in Tulsa in memory of people who died in car accidents involving negligence or reckless driving but they generally have some information about who the person is. Try to investigate this site to find out about the best injury attorney who will help you claim injury compensation for the injured or the deceased member to provide a good life for their family. If you need lawyers for medical malpractice claims, it can be checked out here!

Stopped near the end to take this photo. I have taken this shot many times but what I liked about this was that the sun was low enough that the reflections actually illuminated the bottom of the bridge. Yeah, sorry, I like stuff like that. People can check out Moore Injury Law for the best injury related cases.

Anyway, I got home very tired and thirsty. Just shy of 25 miles. Not bad for an old guy who hasn’t ridden since September. Time to rehydrate with a couple craft beers and a gallon or two of water.

I am linking with “Our World Tuesday“

Weekend Update

Too Early!!!! We saw this last night in a department store. ugh

Heather and I ate at a new brew pub in town Elgin Park in the Brady District. Oklahoma is slowly digging out of the dungeon of liquor laws in the country. Brew pubs are one benefit. It was just the two of us and we ordered a medium pizza. That is the biggest medium pizza I have ever seen.

After the beer and pizza we went down to the river and walked (I actually waddled) a few yards and encountered these ladies doing an exercise class with drum sticks. I think Heather said it is called “Pound.” It looked very high impact. We got exhausted sitting on the picnic table just watching them. Heather is taking a class all day Sunday on how to be a BollyX instructor. What happened to jumping jacks and pushups is what I say. We took a water exercise class together Friday at our gym. It was fun!

Earlier Saturday I went for a run on the river. I’m trying to get ready for the Tulsa Run 15K in the end of October and I’m trying to not to aggravate a sore knee. Poor me. This is what I call hidden cove on the river. I think it is actually a boat ramp for the police and fire department. Nobody seems to know about it but me, and now you. Don’t tell, okay? Oh by the way, across the river there is my much beloved Turkey Mountain.

And speaking of not noticing. I have been running the Tulsa River Trails for 24 years now and yesterday and just noticed this for the first time near the rugby fields. I swear I have never seen this thing before. What’s up, with me? It looks kind of amateurish and not some early day remnant to me.

And hey, we had a Harvest Moon this week. Woopee. And a lunar eclipse. I didn’t bother to stay up and see it.

And our refurbished library which has been undergoing a renovation for three years is going to open at the end of September. Meanwhile it has a brand new Starbucks that has opened early. Supposedly it is the first Starbucks in a public library in the US. That’s great, what would be greater would be a locally owned coffee shop.

I went to Philbrook last week. Lots of people there so I took some photos.

I also went geocaching in Mohawk Park one day last week. I love these old picnic pavilions.

I only looked for and found one geocache. This one kind of had a geobeacon leading me to it. I think I had some sort of divine guidance on where it was located.

Anyway, that is it.

River Parks Ride with Heather

Heather and I went on a bike ride today on Tulsa’s wonderful River Parks trails along the Arkansas River.

We started on the east bank and went north a ways. (“A ways” is how we say things in Oklahoma, just so you know.)

That was about a mile and then we went across the west bank across our brand spanking new pedestrian bridge with emergency call stations every 50 yards or so.

And then headed down south past the PSO Tulsa Power Station.

Not as many people on the west side of the river compared to the east side. It is a lot more remote with fewer access points.

Heather kept the pace up even though she said she said her legs were dead. She teaches Zumba classes a few times a week. I’d be dead myself.

I injured myself in a Labor Day run but I guess that I’m cured. My knee doesn’t hurt at all any more. Don’t tell Heather or I’ll have to vacuum or mow the yard or something. Can you keep a secret? Yeah, well I can’t either.

Anyway, we got about 15.5 miles. My garmin shows a half mile less but I didn’t get it started until we started the ride.

You know, I think a 15 mile plus or minus is a good ride. So we celebrated by going to a frozen yogurt place. And then home to watch the Cowboys lose to the Giants. Heather cleaned house because she didn’t know about my miraculously cured knee that you promised you wouldn’t tell her about.

So, what did you do Sunday afternoon.

Fitbit Charge vs Garmin Vivofit

I try and stay active, I really do. I’m 61 years old and I think it is important to keep moving no matter what age you are because once you stop it is hard to get going again. Plus being active is fun. I also love gadgets and there are lots of gadgets out there to monitor how active you are in a very detailed way.

I used to have pedometers and they are okay but they are not connected to anything. Later on I tried various fitbits. They are fun and they interconnect with your phone or PC and you can interconnect with other people and comment on each other. I had to take it easy though. Lots of people have more tender feelings than I do and didn’t appreciate being razzed. At first I razzed people who had less steps than I and then didn’t work and then I razzed only people who had more steps than I and people had problems with that too, so I stopped being a drive-by razzer. I started razzing people by cheering them. I’m evil like that and not a very good person. Just so you know.

But still it was a lot of fun except that Fitbits are easy to lose, very easy. The first one that I lost they replaced free, gratis, and that was great, and then I lost it and I went ahead and bought another one. Then I lost it. Then I bought a better one and I loved it. It would measure vertical distance as well as steps and then guess what I lost it. So I asked fitbit for a discount on a new one and they offered up 25% discount on a replacement and that is great except there website prices are 30% higher than what Amazon and other online retailers sell the same devices for. Sorry, a 25% discount on merchandise overpriced by 30% is not much of a deal. So I decided to leave Fitbit. I don’t blame them. after all I’m the one who lost these devices. I feel that I am the Johnny Appleseed of fitbit devices. My lost gadgets are all over the Tulsa area.

So I ended up with a Garmin Vivofit. It is less than half the price of the Fitbit Charge and doesn’t measure vertical distance but it measures steps just fine and it also synchs with Garmin Connect which is Garmin’s online dashboard which is what my Garmin GPS running watch synchs to also. I tell you it warms my heart to be running and both the Vivofit and the watch are both in tune so to speak and are coordinated on the dashboard together when everything is synched up.

The Fitbit charge had one thing that really irritated me. The low battery life. At first I could get through a whole day plus without charging it and toward the last, which was just a few months of use, it would only make it through sixteen to eighteen hours and was getting less all the time. The Vivofit uses batteries but they only need changing once a year supposedly. They do this by requiring a manual synch instead of automatic and the display is not lit. So anyways I’m liking the Vivofit so far, but I haven’t lost it yet.

But I miss the fitbit dashboard and razzing by cheering. Garmin has a great dashboard but I am the only one on it… It is no fun cheering and razzing myself. Nobody shows up when I do the search for others. Most of my running peeps are on Strava which is geared towards the GPS watches and is fun but not the same kind of fun.

So a big plus for Garmin for their more affordable technology and a big plus for Fitbit and their dashboard and social connections.

It’s a tie is what I say.

Multitasking – Geocaching with some Hill Training

Son Logan rocking the hat and Star Wars shirt.

Part of geocaching is that if you place a cache then you are responsible for it and if it goes missing you have to replace it. I have such a cache called “Little Haikey Creek” located in south Tulsa right in the middle of a giant freeway exchange. I’ve had it for years and hardly anybody ever looks for it because it is a long walk from the nearest parking areas.

So off we went on the Mingo trail that winds through the freeway interchange.

The highest part of the freeway exchange goes right by the Mingo Trail and the resulting hill is popular with runners who want to do hill repeats. Hill repeats are where you keep going up and down hills, repeatedly. It is kind of like hitting your head with a hammer repeatedly, except hill repeats are good for you. Supposedly, anyway Logan and I decided to run up and down the hill just for the fun of it. Really we just walked. But I’m calling it a run. What do you know? You weren’t there.

So anyway we got to ground zero (that is geocacher lingo, for the place where the cache is supposed to be) and placed a new one. Somewhere in the woods above. Then we headed back.

We passed a homeless guys place. This kind of puzzled me. Most homeless guys camp near where they can get food and water. This place is a long hike for either. Oh well.

On the way back, we ran up the hill again!! Just for the heck of it.

There he goes down the hill. I like how he is holding his hat like a cowboy holds his cowboy hat. Logan is a native Okie you know.

And then a cyclist came by and went up the hill by diagonal. No way that Alan Bates could do that.

Anyways a good time was had by all. The cache was replaced, we got some fresh air and exercise and a lot of fun. Logan still hates geocaching but he is starting to run/walk with me a little bit and I’m loving that.

What have you been up to lately?

Shameful or What?

Saturday afternoon, the weather said 91F, my car said 100F. Me and Logan need to get some exercise but he doesn’t handle the heat to well and he is still nursing his ankle. So I said, “Hey, you want to do go mall walking Buddy?” He kind of did the “Sure Dad, and so off we went.

When is Sears ever going to learn about merchandising?

The plan was to park at the upper floor of Sears at one end and walk on down to Macy’s and back while going through the two big stores in the middle, J.C. Penney’s and Dillards.

Logan couldn’t get out of Sears fast enough.

We weren’t really prepared, neither one of us was wearing Hush Puppy’s for instance.

Red Cross was there taking people’s blood. I used to give blood many moons ago but things got worse and worse. One time they backflowed the heparin into my arm. Now that was painful. The last time I gave blood my wife had to come get me. So sorry guys. You can’t have my blood today. Logan didn’t feel like it either.

Outside Eskimo Joes. If you are from Oklahoma you have probably heard of them. It is a restaurant that also sells a lot of clothes. I bought a nice Route 66 themed shirt on sale. The lady asked me if I would like to join their club. No thanks, last time I was here was in 1992.

I think it was in Penney’s, I offerred to be Logan a Cars themed back pack. He didn’t seem that that would be okay for a high school senior. Besides his Mom does all his school shopping.

The food court. Neither Logan can stand loud crowd noises. So no thanks, we’ll go elsewhere.

Macy’s had a great dish display.

The old carousel. Not the same one as eon’s ago but he rode one just like it around and around and around.

We were walking not shopping but this window scared me. Those super heroes look pretty angry to me.

And what is up with this. Since when is ice cold equal to 37 degrees. For pure water it is 32 degrees. For sugar water it is probably a lot less than that is what I say.

What is up with all the hat stores. I have never actually seen anybody buy a hat in one of those stores. What is up with that?

And what is up with all the sports logo merchandise? The University of Oklahoma, Okalahoma State, it just flies off the shelves. I’ll tell you though that one good thing about being a Dallas Cowboy fan is that they discount the merchandise pretty heavily about three games into the season.

At about 75% of the way through the mall. I’m getting kind of tired of it all. But the AC is working great.

Logan outside the Apple Store. He is an Apple man through and through. I’m cheap, I have an Ipod touch and an Android phone. I can change the battery for $7 and have a big old cheap 32 Gig memory chip to help out the 16G built in. Try that with your Iphone.

Logan and his cool new friends. Say goodbye dude, we have to go.

About 2.25 miles and DON’T YOU JUDGE ME!!!

YogisDen.us

Welcome to my world

Tag Archives: Exercise

Our World – Tour de Tulsa 2019

Our World – Thoughts on a Turkey Mountain Ramble

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday

First Bike Ride of the Year

Weekend Update

River Parks Ride with Heather

Fitbit Charge vs Garmin Vivofit

Multitasking – Geocaching with some Hill Training

Shameful or What?

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday

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