I missed last week’s entry when I took another weekend off to relax. Out came the card game again and back to the couch I went. What can I say? This time recovery is slow. But the weekend off seemed to do me quite a bit of good as my energy levels started going up over the course of the week. By Tuesday they were good enough to get on the bike for a second time.
This was a fantastic ride. I have one route I do that is three short loops connected in the middle. In total it’s about 23 km. I decided to just do the first of the three loops and go back home. I left just after 5:30 AM when it was still quite dark. With the days getting shorter what I notice is that the night seems to go longer. Traffic at 5:30 AM in June was heavier than at 5:30 AM now. Animals like skunks who were back in their dens by 5:45 were still very active. And so, on this trip I rode for almost 10 km on the road but not once was I passed by a car until the last block. The animals were definitely out, though. I saw my first skunk 5 min in. This guy just didn’t care about me at all. He just stood in the road sniffing around leaving me to pass him with a really wide berth. A few km later another one did the same.
Near the end of the ride I return to the trail near where you can see in the title screen of the video below. 5 min later I saw movement at the edge of the trail and there was a doe just walking calmly. I hoped to get a photo or video but couldn’t get my camera out in time – not because she ran away but just because she left slowly to take care of other deer business she had to do.
Luckily just a few hundred metres ahead there were two more. These two didn’t mind my being there at all either. They just kept eating while I watched them before wandering off.
The only downside to taking photos and videos at this hour is that the lighting isn’t so great.
For the rest of the week I tried to figure out how to get my sleep in order. I didn’t like the routine I had settled in to which was to go to bed and read at 9, fall asleep 20-30 min later and then after using the washroom around 2-3AM, struggle to stay asleep in a light fitful state until 5 when I’d give up and wake up. Thursday, Sage was out of the house and Daegan and I were hanging out and stayed up late watching a movie so I didn’t get to sleep until almost 11:30. While I was pretty tired when I woke around 6, I slept so well. The next night we tried an experiment – pushing the bedtime to ten. That made a huge difference. My sleep has continued to improve. So much so that I felt good enough to get out on the bike Saturday.
The weather is really starting to feel like autumn though it was still warm enough to ride in only shorts and a jersey. Still, I could see threatening clouds and even rain in the distance the whole time. It never caught up to me. I rode to Downsview, a former aircraft manufacturing site and later a Canadian Air Force base. Now it’s an urban park and it’s really lovely spot. I like to ride there for a nice quick pre-work ride sometimes. Today I decided to go to the top one of the mounds, a man-made hill and sit in a Muskoka chair on the top, watch and listen to the world go by. One of these days I’ll bring a small camp stove and coffee maker up. It would’ve been so nice to have!
I’m at a stage I remember from the previous times I had COVID though. After the actual symptoms comes the recovery. There was a point in both times (and now too) where I feel really good physically though sleep is still a bit disrupted. During that time my watch metrics are all messed up. I might feel really good but the watch tells me how stressed I am and the “body battery” metric which is supposed to show how rested and ready for the day you are is nearly empty. The last two times I eventually stopped believing it and just listened to my body. If I felt good and exercising felt good, I did it and quit looking at the data. The exercise helps so much with my sleep and mood that I know it’s really important. So while my watch seems to think I should be sitting on the couch for months (it takes a long time for the data to get back to normal), what I need to do is get moving. Now this doesn’t mean I’ll be doing 100-200 km rides right away, it does mean that I’m going back to targeting riding every other day this coming week and if that goes well, ramping back up further. I would like to get in at least one more 100+km ride this year but we’ll see how that goes. It all depends on how I feel. Right now, 20 km is enough – tomorrow might be 23 km. We’ll see how it goes.
So with this, I’m going to be skipping the metrics (I’ve even hidden them on my watch) and moving from the quantitative back to the qualitative. Rather than talking about how my stress and sleep score are trending I will tell you this: This week was a lot better on all levels than last. I had two great bike rides, feel like I’m sleeping better and am looking very much forward to riding a bit more.
Content-wise I’m still limiting social media but I’ve allowed myself a bit more time, trading off with limiting content through more and better filters. It’s absolutely necessary especially after this week. Rather than attract people I don’t want here, what I will tell you is this: I turned off “auto-play” for videos and gifs on Bluesky. I also added this person’s last name to the “don’t give me content about this” filters at Bluesky and Mastodon.
I think most of you know who I’m talking about now. But leaving the content out to keep the content positive here and avoid attracting people searching for confrontation.
Still with less social media and browsing I’m reading more. Here’s what’s in my reader now:
Thunder and Sunshine – Around the World by Bike #2 by Alastair Humphreys – continuing the tradition I seem to have established of reading fascinating travel memoirs by people I probably wouldn’t enjoy actually spending time with. In this one he rides from the southern tip of South America and at this moment is in the Yukon Territory. He’s had some interesting experiences and describes them well.
The End of the World as we Know It by various authors: This collection of short stories about people living in the world of Stephen King’s “The Stand” is fascinating. What’s happening elsewhere in the world? How about on the space shuttle? Does everyone decide to go to either Boulder or Las Vegas? There are a few duds but mostly this is excellent. It’s a thick read and going a little slow as for some reason I can’t just finish one story and jump right into the next one. I have to take a bit to digest the one story before going in to the next.
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy – Monk & Robot #2 by Becky Chambers: I found out about this series and author from folks on Mastodon who recommended it when I had poisoned myself back in Feb/March taking in too much news and opinion. I wanted cozy and happy and this series delivers. Lovely characters including a nonbinary protagonist and an ecotopian setting. It’s a great read. What I’m finding about this, though, is that I can’t read too much and retain my interest. The books in this series are quite short and very readable. However, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is now “paused”. I loved everyone but felt the story wasn’t really moving like I wanted it to. Both of these books feel like a lovely place to visit and spend time but once I get to know and enjoy the space I’m ready to move on.
As for articles, here’s a recommendation for you: How to Start When You Can’t Find the Motivation. I’m a huge fain of David Cain’s work – very practical life improvement stuff and this topic is near and dear to my heart. Sage also liked it when she read it.
And that’s it for this week. How about you? How are things with you?
