Bicycle Insights

This morning I had a bunch of early meetings and then headed out on my daily bike ride of 16 miles. I didn't mind waiting a bit as the morning started cold and I prefer to ride when the temperature is at least 68 degrees Fahrenheit. While out on my ride I remembered the story of my dad at the beginning of his cycling obsession.

For some reason my dad thought it would be good to take a bunch of boys from Sandy, Utah all the way down to Lake Powell. Naturally he came up with the idea during winter and began training on an indoor bike in his basement. Every day he would watch a little television and pedal at a leisurely pace. When the snow finally melted and he headed out on his first outdoor ride, he went 7 miles. He put two large water bottles on his bike and drank both of them on his short ride. He didn't know how he could ride more than a few miles without carrying gallons of water. Only then did he realize that his indoor training did not have the intensity required to build up conditioning for a 300 to 400-mile bike ride over several days. To make a long story short, he increased his training and made it all the way to Lake Powell with a group of Scouts and their leaders.

Yesterday I had a lazy day and opted to ride indoors instead of outside. Fortunately I usually ride outside and know the level of intensity required to benefit my training goals. Without real-world experience it is difficult to know the right level of training required.

I am currently working on a project with some new software and services. Unfortunately I don't have any of that real-world experience and all I can do is look at documentation and simple examples. I think I have things figured out but I know I need to put my knowledge into practice and test it with real-world scenarios. To do so, I reached out to my technical team and will start working with them to configure the software for our projected use cases. Only then will I know if my book knowledge is enough.

I Miss My Smartwatch

A few weeks ago I noticed that my watch was having difficulty holding a charge for any length of time. A quick Internet search revealed that the rechargeable battery probably needed to be replaced. I boxed it up and sent it to the Suunto service center in Ogden, Utah. Suunto even provided me with a UPS label so I didn't have to pay for shipping. At least not yet.

The service center has had my watch for 3 weeks now and probably will for a few more as they have a large backlog of devices to fix. I really miss my watch. While it is helpful for telling time, it actually does so much more and so I eagerly await its return.

A lot of millennials don't wear watches because they just look at the time on their smartphones. I figured I would give that a try until my watch is sent back. All I can say is that pulling my phone out to check the time is kind of a hassle compared to looking at my wrist. I don't check it enough and find myself being late to quite a few appointments. For this reason alone, I am thinking of picking up a cheap watch to use until my Suunto 9 is returned. Fortunately a lot of the millennials that have refused to wear a watch have fallen in love with Apple's Smartwatch and have started wearing them. This doesn't explain why they are still always late but let's hope that gets better.

The second thing I have noticed is that I am not exercising as much as I did when I had my Smartwatch. I still try to get out for my daily bike ride but I have stopped taking as many evening walks. The exercise feature of most Smartwatches allows you to track distance walked, steps taken, and pulse. These are all great indicators of how much exercise I am getting and something I track daily. I really miss this information and am thinking about getting a cheap Smartwatch with these features until my primary one is returned.

I used to constantly check my sleep quality when I first started wearing my Suunto 9. Fortunately I have learned what habits contribute to good sleep and don't check it nearly as often as I am sleeping very well. When I don't have quality sleep at night, I know it and adjust my habits to fix it. I guess that is something I don't need in a temporary replacement watch.

My wife is probably tired of listening to me complain about my missing watch. Last night she suggested that I find a temporary replacement until mine is returned. I guess I had better set a budget and minimum features I can't do without. If I use the health features on my phone, I can probably just get a simple watch that is waterproof and tells time. Time to go do some research.

Work From Home Tips: Daily Exercise

I am a huge fan of daily exercise and enjoyed using my company gym while working from the office. For those that are not familiar with my work setup in the Bay Area, I live on my sailboat during the week. Using the company gym is also how I showered daily. While my marina has a nice shower facility, the one at the office is much better. Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I would ride the 3 miles from the marina to the office, use the company gym, and then clean up for the day. That all changed when I started working from home because of COVID-19.

It is impossible for me to look forward to exercise unless it is fun or required transportation. I claim that I have to trick myself into exercise or I won't do it. Skiing is fun and so it is easy to wake up early every morning and spend an hour or so on the ski hill. Sometimes I am up long before lifts even start running so I can hike to the top of the mountain, ski down, and still make an early-morning meeting. Other times I will ski for an hour on the lifts and then rush home to start my day. It helps that Snowbird is only 15 minutes away and that I work California hours so I don't have to be in the office until about 10:30am local time.

In the summer, I try to get up and ride a bike. I have a loop that is slightly over 16 miles. It takes me a bit less than an hour and includes a significant amount of climbing. With Snowbird shut down for the summer, I have started riding my bike. I miss the skiing but biking seems to be better for me. I also make sure to get my 10,000 steps in daily. All of this amounts to a significant amount of exercise.

There are a lot of others that frequently used company gyms and working from home has led to the meaning that COVID-19 actually refers to the 19 pounds gained during the pandemic. It also refers to 19 pounds lost for a lucky few people. While I have not lost that much weight, I am down about 10 pounds from my weight before working from home.

Daily exercise is a great way to start your day. It gets the blood flowing and helps clear your mind so you are prepared for the day. Others may find that evening exercise suits them better. The important takeaway is that you shouldn't neglect your physical health while working from home.

Work From Anywhere

This morning I got up and headed to the gym before work. Now it just happens that my gym is Snowbird Ski Resort and I skied for an hour. Ski resorts are great places to work out as you pretty much social distance and have the benefit of being outdoors. I did take a bit of a risk though and rode a chairlift with a stranger. Don't worry, we wore our face coverings and sat on opposite sides of a 4-person chair.

I usually ask where someone is from and this morning's guest is from the Boston area. He confessed that he hasn't spent much time there though because of COVID-19. Instead he is taking advantage of being able to travel and work from anywhere. This week he is here in Utah and next week he will head up to Big Sky, Montana. I don't think he wants to go back to the way things used to be before this pandemic.

My wife was talking with one of her close friends this evening and the conversation turned to one of the neighborhood kids who recently graduated from college and landed a job in the Los Angeles area. Since he can work from home, he and his wife boarded a plane and are living in Hawaii until he needs to go back to work. He is someone else enjoying the ability to work from anywhere.

My wife's friend asked me where I would like to visit as I am also working from home and have the luxury of going anywhere. I confessed that I am exactly where I want to be and enjoy my morning workouts on the ski hill. Normally I would have been in the Bay Area if not for COVID-19. I hope I don't have to go back to the office as much as I did before the pandemic.

So this brings up the question for you. Do you have the ability to work from home and where would you be? Think about it, you can easily put your home on AirBnB and rent it out while you go live somewhere else. It could be for a short time or it could be longer. You just have to ask yourself if you are where you want to be right now. If not, do something about it.

Addicted to my Smartwatch

Recently I made two changes in my life and now find myself losing weight. One is a stricter control on how much sugar I eat. The second is my smartwatch. It is the Suunto Baro 9 and has the primary function of helping me to exercise more regularly. Yes it has a number of smartwatch functions such as displaying my text messages or letting me know who is calling without having to pull out my phone but its real strength lies elsewhere.

It has 2 alarms that I try to trigger every day. The first is the 10,000-step alarm. I always try to get 10,000 steps every day. Sometimes that can be difficult as often I only have half that many by dinner. That means a long walk in the cold-dark night after my evening meal. Several nights ago I ended up walking for 2 miles just to ensure I get my step goal for the day.

The second alarm I try to trigger the number of calories I have burned during the day. Just breathing and minimal activity burns a significant number of calories and so my watch prompts me to try and get an additional 500 calories. I usually exercise daily and don't have much trouble hitting that number. On occasion my evening walk will push me over my goal.

My watch has another feature that I didn't think I would use but do: sleep monitor. Every night my watch tracks my heart rate and movement to determine my sleep quality. Some nights I know I have not slept well but every morning I check how I did. I enjoy seeing how long I spent in deep sleep or just the overall general quality.

My most favorite feature of my smartwatch is that it tracks my ski runs. The GPS does a great job and overlays my path over a map of the ski area on my smartphone log that it syncs with at the end of my ski day. It tells me how many miles I have skied as well as many other statistics. Naturally my favorite stat is my maximum speed. For the past week that number has held steady at around 50 miles per hour. That surprises me as I didn't think I went that fast all the time.

My son who recommended the watch asked me today what I think of it. I have to report that I really like it. I highly recommend one, especially if you are trying to lose a little weight or increase your daily physical activity.

Does a Smartwatch Help You Exercise?

I have had the exact same watch for the past 15 years and never had to change the battery. The watch face contained a solar panel and I just used ambient light to keep the watch running. When I got the watch I knew that eventually the battery would need to be replaced and so it didn't surprise me when the watch finally died. Most people would be excited at the prospect of replacing 15-year-old technology but I really loved that watch and actually looked at getting another one exactly like it. I also had the option of just replacing the battery and keeping my old watch. Instead I decided to take the advice of my sons and look at some of the new smartwatches on the market and see if there is one that I liked.

One of the problems that I have with most smartwatches is that they require charging on a nightly basis. With all of the traveling that I do it means carrying the charging cradle with me on every trip. Sure I could get a second cradle but that adds expense and so I set my first requirement at having a watch last a minimum of a week before recharging. That eliminated quite a few products and brands including anything from Apple.

Next I looked at available features. There are very few smartwatches that don't integrate with your phone. In fact, that is one of the requirements for being a smartwatch and so I didn't have to worry about that. I did have to worry about built-in GPS or if I was OK using the one in my smartphone. I also needed to decide if I cared about size. I am not a fan of large watches but I do like being able to see the watch face as my eyes seem to be aging with the rest of my body. I carefully reviewed everything that matched my stringent battery requirements. Ultimately I decided on the Suunto 9 Baro.

I have had the watch since Thursday of last week and am trying to learn at least one new feature about the watch every day. Let's just say it is a bit complex. It seems to do everything. It will even tell me if a storm is quickly barrelling in so I have time to get my sailboat back in the marina (a feature I really could have used last weekend). When I start my morning ride on my indoor bicycle trainer, I tell the watch I am riding indoors and it keeps track of my time and calories burned. It also keeps track of my normal steps so I can see if I reach the suggested daily goal of 10,000. While you can, I don't recommend lowering that number.

After having my watch for just a few days over the weekend I have to say that there are a lot of features I didn't realize I was missing in my old watch. Does my new one help me exercise more? I have to say that it does. I looked at my watch last night and noticed I had yet to hit my daily step-goal. I had not and so I went for an early evening walk with my wife. Then I looked at my watch today during lunch. I was nowhere near the middle of my step goal and so I took a short walk after lunch. I also see how many calories I am burning during the day and am more conscious about how much I eat. While everyone says we burn about 2,000 calories a day, my watch is telling me I am sometimes below that number. I shouldn't need to tell you what happens when you eat more calories than you burn (hint: you get fat).

While I enjoy the Suunto 9 Baro it may not be the right smartwatch for you. I found mine on sale at 40% off for only $359.40 directly from the Suunto website. I feel that is a great price for all of the features included. Now we will see if it keeps me exercising.

So Happy to Hear an Ad on Pandora

I had a really tough time waking up this morning. Normally I get up at 7, eat some breakfast, and then spend some time on a bicycle. This morning I ate breakfast and then fell asleep on the couch before getting out on my bike. I still have to exercise every day and so I had to find time later in the day. I finished a meeting and then jumped on my indoor bike for 30 minutes.

Riding a bike outdoors and listening to music are two activities that should never be mixed. I see a lot of people on the bike trail listening to headphones and it is dangerous. On a bike, you need all of your senses to keep from having an accident. However I enjoy listening to music while riding a stationary bike. Sometimes it is the only way to get through a 30-minute bike ride. In the United States, my streaming service of choice is Pandora. As Pandora is not available in Japan, I use Spotify there.

Lately I have grown rather disenfranchised with Pandora. I am one of those people that really likes to curate my music. If I like a song, I will give it a thumbs-up. If not, it gets a thumbs-down. There is no middle ground. The problem with Pandora is that it is always showing annoying ads. I will go into my phone to give a song a thumbs-up or down and have an ad appear right above both of the thumb icons. I try to click the appropriate thumb and get taken to an ad instead of rating my song. Most of the time it is fairly harmless. Today I went to rate a song and didn't see what ad I clicked. Nothing happened on the screen and I feared I just agreed to sign up for a free 30-day trial of premium Pandora. Then I would have to figure out how to cancel the premium service.

I worried about figuring out how to remove Pandora premium from my account for 3 songs. Then I heard an ad and was happy. I still don't know what ad I clicked on, but at least I am not signed up for something I will end up having to pay for later.

Those ads really annoy me but paying for streaming music annoys me even more. I don't mind listening to an add every once and a while during my music. After all, that is what happens on a normal radio station. However those visual ads are bothering me enough that I may give up on Pandora and start using Spotify instead.

Taking the Stairs Instead of the Elevator

My office is on the 5th and top floor of our building. When we first moved into the space, I took the elevator and didn't even know where the stairs could be found. Then I had someone move to the desk next to me and he always took the stairs. His reason was for fitness. I started following his good example for a different reason: I was tired of stopping at all the floors every time I got in the elevator. I began to see people that take the stairs from the first to the second floor as being lazy. Eventually I started having feelings of hate towards those that held up the elevator for a single floor change. Fortunately I recognized that the problem was not with other people, but with myself. I have been taking the stairs for about a year now and I think it makes me a better person. I am kinder towards others and my legs are getting stronger in the process. I can now get up the stairs faster than most people in the elevator.

Recently I discovered a new benefit of taking the stairs: mobile phones work in the stairwell but they don't work in elevators. An elevator is effectively a metal cage and it can kill all but the strongest radio signals. A stairwell lets in those radio waves and enable conversations not possible before. Now I use my trips up and down the stairs as an excuse to return those calls that have come in during meetings. It is as if I have found an extra 20 minutes in my day.

I have grown accustom to climbing the stairs to the point where I don't sound like I have been exercising when I reach the 5th floor. Recently I had a visitor in the building and she willingly joined me up the stairs. At about the 4th floor, I noticed my her breath had become labored and I realized I probably should have taken the elevator.

Yes the stairs are better for your health and I highly recommend them. Also don't forget your phone works on them and take advantage of the extra time you have. You can even have a phone call without anyone evesdropping on your conversation because very few people use the stairs.

Killing Time at LAX

Today I flew back to the United States from Japan. That makes for a very long day as I crossed the International Date Line. So instead of a 24-hour day, today will be more like 48. This is especially true since I worked a full day at the office in Tokyo before getting on a plane and I have been working in the airport lounge since I arrived in Los Angeles. Throw in a couple of conference calls this evening as soon as I land and it makes for a really long day. I think I am going to take tomorrow off. Oh wait, I have a conference call at 11am.

In any event, I find myself in an airport lounge killing time while waiting for my next flight. I had a 4-hour layover, which allowed for plenty of time to get through customs and immigration. In a rare stroke of luck, my flight actually left Japan early and we arrived in Los Angeles an hour early. Throw in my Global Entry privilege and I practically walked off the plane and through re-entry into the US. So how to best use that time?

Naturally I attacked e-mail and knocked that out pretty quickly. During the course of going through my messages, I worked with my team in San Mateo to upgrade one of our servers. I also put together a survey for a workshop I helped organize in Tokyo this last week. With all that completed, I had some free time. While there is probably more work I could do, I am in a public place and can't do too much research work. I couldn't think of any B-Movies I wanted to watch on YouTube, but I did think about that. I had one movie that a colleague from work loaded onto my computer a few weeks ago. I started watching that earlier and finally finished it in the lounge. The only downside with that is I have been on a plane with access to a large movie library and so I am sort of movied-out. I listened to a few favorite songs but I am really looking for something else to do.

It feels like I have been working on electronic devices for the past 36 hours and so I think I am going to leave the lounge early and walk around the airport a bit. I may just need some exercise and it will be good for me.

Early Morning Skiing

Yesterday was a very busy day, but that means it was also very rewarding. I had a lot of work to do and so it was nice that I was invited to help the Snowbird Ski Team train early in the morning. I had to be at the mountain at 6:30 am and ready to ski. Yes, it was still dark and so it was a very surreal feeling going up the chairlift without being able to see much. My companion on the chairlift was a bundle of 20 slalom poles or gates. There were 2 more bundles being carried by other coaches on other chairs.

It was snowing just a little and the snowcats had smoothed out the hill the previous evening. That meant I got to ski on an inch of new snow covering perfectly groomed hills. It was like flying on a magic carpet.

I wish I could tell you that the sunrise was spectacular. I'm sure it would have been if the clouds hadn't obstructed the sky. I can say that it was nice to finally be able to see once the sun did come up.

I helped the coaches maintain the course while the ski racers had a nice 2 hours of course training before the general public was allowed on the mountain. When 9am came around, I helped take down the course and pack all of the slalom gates back down the mountain.

Several of my neighbors get up early to exercise and I have always thought they were crazy. Yesterday I found it very beneficial to ski for a couple of hours before starting to work. I was able to focus all day and managed to get a lot done. If you find yourself working in front of a computer for most of the day, it may do you some good to get out an exercise before going into the office. You just have to be careful not to over do it. Otherwise you will get to the office and need a nap.

Sports Champions

One of my son's favorite games is Sports Champions and is only available on the PlayStation 3. It utilizes the Move controller and is a lot of fun to play. Even though I have never played the game before today, I have seen my son and daughter play it a lot. I have been gone all last week and my son wanted to spend some time with me. We decided to play Sports Champions and he proceeded to beat me like a slow horse.

Eventually I had to stop playing because I was getting a pretty fierce upper body workout. I know that a lot of people use the Wii to help them exercise. I always thought that was kind of goofy but now I am reconsidering that notion. Proof of that is that I have to write about it in my blog today because tomorrow I won't be able to lift my arms.

I hate to exercise and so I have to trick myself into doing it. I like to ride a bike because it is a lot more fun than running and reminds me of when I was a kid. Lifting weights? no, I'd rather go rock climbing. Besides I am one of the biggest weights I know. Now I have another tool in my bag of exercise tricks. If I can keep it up during Christmas break, I might be able to work off all those calories I plan to eat. Ah, who am I kidding, the best I can hope for is not to gain too much weight.

Gamification

I have been hearing a lot about gamification lately. For those that don't know, gamification is using ideas from games in non-game context. The classic example is adding a typing speed display inside a word processing program. Then you can see how fast you are typing and it spurs you to get faster and be more accurate.

This last week I started the Global Corporate Challenge with a group of people from work.  When we signed up, they sent us a backpack, a pair of socks, and 2 pedometers. The idea is to walk 10,000 steps every day for 6 weeks. If you decide to swim or bike, you can enter those distances and it converts them to equivalent steps. The GCC takes a page from gamification in that you compete with other teams around the world. Every day you enter the number of steps along with any biking and swimming and you can see how you stack up against other groups. There is also a virtual trip from London all the way around the world and you can see your location every day, which is another gamification idea.

When I am in the office in California, it is easy to get the minimum number of steps. I have the 4 mile ride each way to work. Also any time I want to get food, I walk. I can hit the 10,000 step mark sometime after lunch. At home it is a whole different story. I only end up walking about 4,000 steps in a day. My office is only 30 steps from my bedroom. The kitchen is half-way between the two.

As I am working from home this week, I had a very difficult time getting my 10,000 steps yesterday. Thursday was easy as I did a 15-mile bike ride, which came close to the 10,000 step requirement all on its own. But yesterday it was raining and I didn't want to ride in the rain. At lunch I took the dog for a walk and cracked off 2,500 steps. Towards the end of the day, I was still another 2,500 miles short and so I started doing laps around the kitchen. My wife told me to take the dog for another walk and that is how I was able to get my minimum steps for the day: walking outside in the dark with the dog.

Once again it is raining and so I am not about to take a bike ride. I'm thinking about connecting the pedometer to a paint shaker to help me get the required steps. That is probably cheating though. Besides the whole point of of the program is to get some daily exercise and watching a paint shaker doesn't count.

Using The Tools You Have

Last week I started a new diet. Recently I stood on the scale and it gave me a really big number. I had slowly been watching the number rise and knew my current diet and exercise plan wasn't working. It was time to do something else. About a year ago, I wrote about an application for my iPhone called Lose It. I still think it is a great tool, I just happened to get lazy and stop using it. Unfortunately, it shows.

I would not recommend my diet for anyone. It is awful and I hate it. Fortunately it is working or I would stop it right now. The diet is one of those cleansing diets where you drink two shakes a day and then enjoy a sensible 400 to 600 calorie meal. Then one day a week, I go without food and drink this nasty concoction that tastes like a cross between apple cider and the dead skin between your toes (or at least how I imagine that would taste). Yesterday was my first cleansing day and my only salvation was that raspberries went on sale at the supermarket next to my office. I know I cheated on the diet, but I figure if you are going to eat something, raspberries aren't going to hurt. It is the only thing that got me through the day.

So far I am down 5 pounds after the first week and I should be able to continue that rate. The only reason I can continue with the diet is because I know there is an end in sight. Three weeks from today I will be done and can go back to eating real food.

The reason I gained weight is because of my ugly travel schedule. I spend 5 days a week in San Francisco and then 2 back home in Salt Lake. I am good about watching my weight in San Francisco but then binge eat when I am home. Being on this diet showed me where I have eating problems and now I know how to fix them. In 3 weeks, I will start using "Lose It" again, which will help with my portion control and regular exercise. Until then I am counting down the days.