A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

[IlliniDave]

While what I have been doing in the spin classes is not strictly REHIIT, I can say for sure that after the third class on Tuesday I was absolutely gutted to the point where I decided to skip it today and allow my body to acclimate to the new modality. Over the past year of travel I have not done any short burst, all-out sprints, so it will take time for me to adjust. The classes are at 6am. After the classes, throughout the day I felt a mental and physical twitchiness that I have not felt since my days of doing running track workouts, and at night my legs were twitching as if I were still pedaling. I think this is due to some neuromuscular stress from the short bursts of effort that is not present in the lower intensity work. ... but then again, what do I know? So, while I cannot say exactly what it is doing, I can say it is doing something different that anything else I do.

Thanks, that's interesting to know. Honestly, I'm a bit intimidated by the prospect of using a stationary bike for REHIIT because aside from occasional use of a stationary bike in Crossfit more than a decade ago (like maybe a half dozen times spread out over 2 years), I haven't done any sort of cycling since I pedaled around campus as an undergrad. It would probably be excellent as a lower body strength builder for me, and I suspect there would be a period of adaptation in that regard before I'd really get into the heart of the metabolic/cv benefit. But along with the dread comes the allure in pushing myself.

In my attempt to approximate REHIIT on my C2 rower I didn't really feel any affects outside the activity like you describe. I suspect that could be because what you're doing is a better approximation. It appears that the idea of REHIIT has been around in academia for 50 years or so already. The original studies required a copilot of sorts to adjust the bike's tension in real time while the subject just focused on the sprint. Apparently it's taken the advent of "AI" and auto-adjusting equipment to replicate the studied protocol. Because of what happened with my so-so approximation I'm a believer that even approximations are beneficial even if they don't achieve the same level of bang-per-minute as the laboratory (or high tech) implementations. I'm very interested to learn how it goes for you if you decide to give it time. Sorry if you've mentioned this here or over in your journal, but are you intending to do the sprints 3x per week?

One thing that has recently occurred to me is that the period of time I was most diligent about quasi REHIIT rowing coincided with my best 4 month stretch of sleep, especially if I look at REM and Deep numbers. There were several changes that broke in at the same time so it's hard to say whether the quasi-REHIIT had any bearing whatsoever. But it's something I'll be watching in the fall once I decide what my program will look like and I get started in earnest.

[jacob]

It appears that the idea of REHIIT has been around in academia for 50 years or so already. The original studies required a copilot of sorts to adjust the bike's tension in real time while the subject just focused on the sprint. Apparently it's taken the advent of "AI" and auto-adjusting equipment to replicate the studied protocol.

More like, it's taken "AI hooked into a couple of cheap servos" to be able to charge thousands of dollars for what could also be done by reading the original paper and having a set process for cuing up the manual switching the gears on the handlebar---like a $10 Troy Jacobson DVD. A lot of basic "human stuff" keeps getting reinvented and hyped up with new terms. For example, Silicon Valley seems to keep reinventing the city bus. (What if there was a fleet of large autonomous vehicles big enough to take multiple passengers between specific locations with regular stops no further than half a mile apart?) Recently TikTokkers discovered "water-based cooking" which is hyped for its revolutionary skin benefits. Yes, they've reinvented soup and tied it together with some specious beauty enhancing arguments. What an amazing world we live in. What will they think of next?

[IlliniDave]

More like, it's taken "AI hooked into a couple of cheap servos" to be able to charge thousands of dollars for what could also be done by reading the original paper and having a set process for cuing up the manual switching the gears on the handlebar---like a $10 Troy Jacobson DVD. A lot of basic "human stuff" keeps getting reinvented and hyped up with new terms. For example, Silicon Valley seems to keep reinventing the city bus. (What if there was a fleet of large autonomous vehicles big enough to take multiple passengers between specific locations with regular stops no further than half a mile apart?) Recently TikTokkers discovered "water-based cooking" which is hyped for its revolutionary skin benefits. Yes, they've reinvented soup and tied it together with some specious beauty enhancing arguments. What an amazing world we live in. What will they think of next?

Okay, jacob. This is your site. I'll take my health and fitness pursuits elsewhere.

[jacob]

If me not being overly impressed by the ROI of REHIIT will keep you from talking about it, I can stop commenting. Others are interested.

[Stasher]

Building on Jacob's perspective, I don't really have anything constructive to add to the conversation other than much with the simple financial foundation of ERE, we are often getting in the way of our own selves by overthinking things too much.

Find a set of huge outdoor stairs when on a walk, run up and then walk down a bunch of times.
Go for a bike ride on a section of road/trail will lots of rolling hills, hammer the uphills, roll the downs and chill on the flats.

Money stays in your pocket, no technology required, health and fitness improved plus the mental health benefits of being outdoors.

[Scott 2]

I think the AI potential is the coolest part of the Carol bike. Provide confidence that the protocol is implemented as designed, and any requested intensity is attainable. As the user, you just hop on and go. That removes so many potential variables for error, as well as reducing willpower drain.

Every ounce of energy can go directly into affecting change. No worry about over or under doing. It's brilliant. One step closer to reliably dosing exercise as medicine.

The REHIT protocol is a lofty gateway solution too. If a bike can handle that, almost any training protocol is viable. One can confidently experiment in their N of 1, without questioning if they've misunderstood key details.


I'm priced out of the tech, but if my gym picked one up, I'd enjoy playing with it. I think we'll see costs drop over time, with the technology eventually becoming commoditized.

[suomalainen]

fwiw, I didn't take Jacob's commentary as dumping on you and your thought-process, idave. I read it more as a broader commentary on the SV "geniuses" who think they are "changing the world" ... by making extremely modest "improvements" to existing products that largely equate to selling convenience. In any event, I appreciate the discussions on health and longevity and healthspan, which have inspired me to add back some higher-intensity intervals into my usual lolly-gag biking.

As it relates to REHIIT and technology, one thing does come to mind is that sometimes I have sought technological "solutions" around exercise to what effectively is the problem of: I don't like exercising. I don't know if this applies to you or anyone else, but I wanted to highlight that oftentimes in the health and fitness industry, it seems like people are selling these shortcuts to avoid or distract from the discomfort when it's really the discomfort that is the thing that drives any health and fitness gains. Generally speaking, the technological solutions have only ever provided that "neat" pop, but once that wears off and the drudgery of suffering comes back to the fore, the only solution has been to embrace the suffering with purpose. ymmv.

[Ego]

I'm very interested to learn how it goes for you if you decide to give it time. Sorry if you've mentioned this here or over in your journal, but are you intending to do the sprints 3x per week?

One thing that has recently occurred to me is that the period of time I was most diligent about quasi REHIIT rowing coincided with my best 4 month stretch of sleep, especially if I look at REM and Deep numbers. There were several changes that broke in at the same time so it's hard to say whether the quasi-REHIIT had any bearing whatsoever. But it's something I'll be watching in the fall once I decide what my program will look like and I get started in earnest.

I did two modified REHIITs last week and one this week. I believe once per week or even once ever two weeks would be ideal. In place of the REHIIT yesterday I ran, but I was very sluggish. It will take time for me to (re)build. Today is a complete rest day.

WRT sleep, my sleepscore for the past two weeks has been "fair". For me, "fair" is exceptional.

[IlliniDave]

... I'm priced out of the tech, but if my gym picked one up, I'd enjoy playing with it. I think we'll see costs drop over time, with the technology eventually becoming commoditized.

Yep, early adopters of any technology pay a premium.

[IlliniDave]

I did two modified REHIITs last week and one this week. I believe once per week or even once ever two weeks would be ideal. In place of the REHIIT yesterday I ran, but I was very sluggish. It will take time for me to (re)build. Today is a complete rest day.

WRT sleep, my sleepscore for the past two weeks has been "fair". For me, "fair" is exceptional.

Sorry for my density, exceptional in a bad way, or in a good way? I'm thinking bad because I have a fuzzy memory of your sleep scores being average for your cohort at the tail end of your travel, but maybe I'm mixing it up with something else or you with someone else.

[Ego]

I should have said that my sleep score improved. I also felt like I got better sleep.

[IlliniDave]

2025 May Update

Cash outflow was back in line after a spendy month of April. The stash is pretty healthy. May concluded with the highest month-end balance on record. Makes me wish I'd have been bold enough to buy the dip, but as my grandparents used to like to stay, you've got to dance with the one you brought with you.

It's been a mixed bag up here at the hideout.

I've attached an image of the new iDave Remote Executive Command Center which features the rescue desk I partially refinished. As far as I can tell until we get some humid swampy weather, my effort to remove the moldy old wood smell was successful. I opted to only refinish the desktop where somewhere along the way something fairly caustic had been spilled on it which caused the original finish to blister and peel. The wood beneath didn't seem to be damaged, although it had darkened noticeably to a gray shade that unprotected wood gets. The rest is a little beat up but it's a just cabin after all--I consider it OG antiquing. My investment in it was a little north of $50 in total, and I probably could have cut that in half if I'd known what I was doing ahead of time, bought more sandpaper and brushes than I needed. I give myself a B- on the overall restoration of the desktop. The sanding and first coat of stain went on very nicely, but I put a second coat on the mask some of the gray splotches where the wood was exposed for likely a few decades. I tried to cut corners and use an all-in-one stain and poly, and I think I worked the second coat too much with the brush and it thickened quickly so the surface is not perfectly smooth. But it'll work fine for a surface to keep my laptop on and as a small work surface for repair and maintenance of fishing reels and other small items, freeing up my little dining table for food prep and actual eating.



Since I bought it I have taken the Kayak Fitzgerald on a seaworthiness trial each spring before hauling it up here. This year because I was busy with other things I decided I would take a chance and bring it up without a trial. Of course I got it on the water and the little electric motor I use as a GPS-powered anchor was belly-up. The main propulsion motor seemed to work fine, but the steering motor was nonoperational. The division of the corporation that made the motor sold that brand to another corporation who opted to discontinue the line, so I was initially faced with changing over to a new ecosystem. A third company added a kayak sized motor with the same functionality to their lineup once the original went out of production, but it is a less sleek solution and would have set me back roughly $2.3K and meant I'd have to find a way to mount and wire in a Bluetooth compass which was a logistical headache. I did devise a McGyver for it, but in parallel I found out that I could purchase a steering motor/transmission assembly for about $150. The assembly was built in such a way it was essentially impossible to get apart and repair. So I ordered the steering motor assembly and hopefully that will get me back on the water. All I have to do pull a clip off a hinge pin, slide the pin out, lift the old assembly out, disconnect 2 wires, then reverse the process with the new assembly. With luck that will get me back on the water. Even though the thing worked fine up the end of last season, I suspect this might be some sort of latent damage from having capsized two years ago. I didn't find a ton of evidence out there that this was widespread issue with the motors, though I did find a mention or two of other guys doing the R/R and OEM parts are available out there. And of course I was 6 weeks out of warranty.

Fishing has been slow, and of course with the kayak beached I've done a lot less than I normally would during the first 2 weeks of the season. It was arguably a blessing in disguise as I've been much more diligent this year with other chores and projects. And with nearly all of the fishing gear out of the boat, it paddles around much easier so I can range a little further on my cruising paddles. I tried fishing motorless a couple times, but even the tiniest breeze blows me around like a sailboat, and an OG anchor in deeper water is not a viable (i.e., safe) option in such a watercraft.

[IlliniDave]

01 June Follow Up

During May I achieved my highest month-long HRV average. It was 71 msec. I'd achieved 70 msec a couple times in the past 17 months so it wasn't a radical improvement. It's one of the list of things that tends to worsen with age and mine seems to be on the high side for my demographic cohort. The significance of HRV seems to be a matter of speculation still.

June is a month of shaking things up for me. I tend to cue up ideas and wait for some calendar demarcation to start them. June 1 2024 was the point I phased in some things last year so it seemed like June 1 this year was a good time for that. This year the changes are going to be fairly small, at least while I'm at the hideout. The emphasis is going to be consistency in small things. I'm pretty good about achieving 80-90% of my good intentions. But for as long as I can manage it I'm going to shoot for above 95%, hopefully 100%. The emphasis on consistency is meant as a figurative decluttering, if that makes sense.

[IlliniDave]

I should have said that my sleep score improved. I also felt like I got better sleep.

Thanks. Glad to hear of the improvement. And it makes me think my observation from last year might have a little validity.

[IlliniDave]

2025 June Update

It's now approaching the heart of hideout season. One thing that's different this year is that I seem more industrious than normal. I'm still a major slacker compared to many here, so don't make too much of that statement. I attribute some of the change to some brain fitness stuff I've been doing, which is a tough admission for me. My customary western skepticism wanted it to be wooish nonsense. I'm 6+ weeks into a "cognitive decline" protocol that I'll give myself a B- grade for following, and a lot of it is superficially self-helpy to the point of sounding corny in the moment.

I've been on a "save the pollinators" kick. It started with an area the straddles the property line that through thoughtful weeding we've created a wildflower area. Much of what grows in it are essentially weeds, but if the weeds bloom and attract butterflies and bees I leave it grow. My neighbor is a little more selective. And we do have some legitimate flowers in there: daisies, blackeyed susan, what I think are woodland sunflowers, and lupin (nonnative but widely naturalized around here). Last year I added some bee balm in an adjacent area. This year I added some meadow sage which wasn't a great choice because it's nonnative, but it's not a rampant spreader, and some texas sage (which I hope reseeds itself as an annual). My most recent project was filling a hole left when I pulled a stump where a large fir tree had blown down a few years ago and planting a bunch of purple coneflower seeds in it, and scattered extra seed in a few marginal areas to see what takes. Next season I'm going to try again with butterfly weed (sowed some late last summer but they didn't seem to take).

One of my neighbors and I have taken on the task of doing a lot of fire mitigation work on our enclaves common property along with a corner of my lot. That means clearing out a lot of dead wood, diseased trees, tangly underbrush, overcrowded saplings, and limbing the mature trees up to 8-10 ft above ground. That's more-or-less what the USFS prescribes for property owners to do in the vicinity of structures. The counterintuitive thing is that the result is much more natural-looking when you compare it to many areas of the Canadian side of the wilderness area where they let fires burn instead of trying to suppress them the way they do on the US side and throughout Superior National Forest. It's a lotta work for a couple old dudes in their 60s. The chainsaw belongs to my neighbor, and he's older than me by 5-6 years, so he does most of the cutting while most of the schlepping is left to me. I'm getting 2-3 hours/week of Zone 2 out of it as well as a moderate strength work component. It has cut down on most of my walking/hiking time, which is a regret.

Another fun project was repairing a section of the dock I share with my neighbor opposite my lumberjacking co-conspirator. The dock is old and the normal thing to do would be to replace it, but it would cost us roughly $14K to get a new one built and brought out. For $96 in lumber and hardware I bought at least a few years.

Dragonflies are quickly making a case for being my favorite insect. Last summer for some reason the dragonfly population in the immediate vicinity cratered, and we had the most miserably buggy season any of us remembers. This year as the solstice approached the dragonflies returned. To that point it was looking like another biting bug bonanza summer, but add a few dozen dragonflies to the environment and all that changed quickly.

Tariffs did not cast me into financial ruin. Given where I was as of Friday's close and that futures this morning are in the green, I've a high probability of ending Q2 at a high water mark among quarter-ending numbers. And I did withdraw a little from the stash this month, so the high water mark is net of that. It was mostly a psychological exercise to remind me the stash serves me, and that I don't serve the stash. It's going towards "mad money". The biggest single thing it's going towards is a mini-split heat pump for the cabin. About half the cost will be recouped in the form of a credit to my account with the local power co-op and a federal tax credit. There's also about $3K of guitar toys I've been eyeing that I took the plunge on. I guess I let YOLO get to me, lol. To a degree spending the money feels like a loss, but being but a tiny fraction of the stash it doesn't have much in the way of long-term implications. Chances are some biohacking things will be added to the list of how the residual of the withdrawal is deployed.

One of the justifications I soothed my conscience with regarding the heat pump was trying to turn over every stone in the pursuit of improved sleep. Just like last year, by about every measure except how I feel on a day-to-day basis my sleep quality has fallen off since I got here. I still don't have enough to figure out for sure if it's a matter of location, or a time-of-year thing. I suppose it doesn't really matter--it appears that it is what it is with nothing to be done about it. But I've invested enough mental energy into it that I really just want to know the why of it for the sake of knowing.