Only way to go is up!

After a few weeks of treatment, my chest pains are less frequent.  That is good, but I am still tired and winded walking up the stairs!

I struggle with getting older and heavier.  I understand exercise reduces stress and weight, yet I am tired most days to the point I do not want to work out.  I try, yet I fail.  The best way to get a workout is by riding a bike as my means of commuting.  I have extreme pain in my left ankle often, and walking any distance hurts.  I do not get similar pain from the bike.  I like to ride a bicycle, but it is more challenging each year, especially when we get those headwinds.  The ride is 18 miles one way with an overall climb of about 550 feet.

Now that the Old Cedar Bridge is open, my ride to work should be just under 13 miles one way, five miles less one way.  However, it also has an extra 200 feet of climb (about 750 feet total).  It may not seem like much, but when you are fat, and in the ’50s, it seems like riding over the Rockies (I know what that takes!).  Even with my 5-year-old Bionx PL250, it was a hard ride to work that left me exhausted and the battery totally spent!

So I took the plunge.  I purchased a Surly Long Haul Trucker and had it upgraded with the 2017 Bionx D500 DV.   The D500 produces twice the power and range with a 48 V battery and almost four times the nominal torque.  What destroyed me was the PL250 was only a 24-volt battery with the Torque (Nom./Max.) of 7.0/25.0 Nm.  The system added 16.1 pounds to the bike.  I needed half the battery and occasionally overheated the motor, getting my fat bottom up the big hill.  The most pressing hill is 0.4 miles and climbs 175 feet, a continuous slope of 7 to 8 percent.

The D500 DV has a Torque (Nom./Max.) of 25.0/50.0 Nm, four times the nominal and twice the max torque.  Although it adds three more pounds to the bike, the Long Haul Trucker is about the same weight as the Cannondale Quick 5.  Should it make the hill much less taxing?

   OLD VS NEW SPECS    

	PL250	D500
Watts	250	500
Est Range (miles)	40	80
Battery Volts	26	48
Batter Amps	9.6	11.6
Total Wh	248	555
Torque Nom.	7	25
Torque Max	25	50
Weight (lbs)	16.1	19.2
Low Assist (%)	25	35
Max Assist (%)	200	300

                     Range Comparison                   

	PL250 New       (rated)	PL250 Me (new)	PL250        (me 5 years)	D500    rated
Level 1	40 Miles	40 Miles	26 Miles	84 Miles
Level 2	30 Miles	30 Miles	17 Miles	58 Mile
Level 3	20 Miles	20 Miles	9 Miles	38 Miles
Level 4	10 Miles	10 Miles	5 Miles	26 Miles

                                 D500 Range Chart                                   

If you are interested, a solid D500 review can be read here or view the video below:  https://electricbikereview.com/bionx/d-500/

We will see the results once the weather cooperates and I get on the bike.  I look forward to exercising and hope it gets me back on track to a happier and less stressful life.

Carry on, my friends, carry on.

Life could be short?

I had my echocardiogram, I had my consultation, and I received the news that I am at a point in my life when stress is killing me, literally.  This happened during what most would think is a very “successful” period in my life.  I am financially secure and have the freedom to enjoy activities I could only dream about decades ago.  However, the 70-hour work weeks and not having a single day off this year make that impossible.

However, it is a very stressful time at work, and how I handle that stress severely impacts my health.  I am at the point where my vitals are near life-threatening levels.

So, I must start systematically reframing my work and stress or die.  This does not mean quitting my job, but I must approach work differently.  The one significant change is to find successful ways to remove stress.  I have read that if I get stress and anxiety under control, I could be more effective at my job.

However, I have internal issues. I carry a deep sense of responsibility for my team, which is internalized and transforms into tremendous stress. I need to solve every problem and ramp up my focus and intensity. No problem was insurmountable if I could think harder and work harder. However, what I didn’t realize was that continuously ramping up my intensity was compounding severe adverse effects on my health. Again, it is near the point where medical professionals say it is killing me.

So there needs to be a change, and that process needs to get underway.  I am so exhausted.  I need to gain the necessary awareness, intelligence, problem-solving skills, and effectiveness to know where to start.  One is the workload.

Beyond stressing about my general workload, if I dwell on the related risks and get wrapped up in thoughts of what could go wrong, I generate patterns of fear that start to seem reasonable.  I have become accustomed to being afraid that I begin to accept it and lose the reality of the primary issue.  I work harder.

I grew up with overly ambitious people who think of life as a series of high-stakes projects.  I have become such a person, which is a dangerous thought process.  I need to rewrite that entire dynamic.  I need to look at all those situations that I have stressed about as opportunities to express love and creativity.  That sounds touchy-feely, but it’s concrete and scientific.  The creative mind is the opposite of the fearful mind in many ways.  The innovative spirit is expansive and parallel; the fearful mind is reductive and linear.  So, being mindful enough to shift some of the time I spend being anxious into a more extensive, relaxed, creative mode tends to produce better results.

Moreover, things will surely improve if I change my mind that way.

Carry on, my friends, carry on!