guys like dolls

Last Monday I walked 30 miles.

View in EveryTrail

Because I was on my own, I decided to opt for a hike through the bay area rather than in the hills so that I was both phone and car accessible if I ran into any trouble. This made the route rather flat, so it was much easier than previous hikes and I was able to keep around an 3.8 mph pace. I was still pretty drained by the end though.

I headed from our house to Stanford with a quick stop at Google for lunch with my brother. Through a lot of Google Maps tweaking I was able to keep my route mostly on the various pedestrian/biking paths in the cities – San Tomas Aquino Creek Trail, the SF Bay Trail, 3 pedestrian bridges, Steven’s Creek Trail, 2 Baylands Parks, and even a trail next to Sand Hill Road.

It was awesome.
Resolution done.

The thing that I remember most from a class I took on cardiovascular disease is that atherosclerosis, which is the first step towards heart attack and stroke, is an inflammation process. Luckily, there’s a good marker in your blood which can be easily measured.

“That factor is C-reactive protein, or CRP, a blood-borne marker of inflammation that, along with coagulation factors, is now increasingly recognized as the driving force behind clots that block blood flow to the heart. Yet patients are rarely tested for CRP, even if they already have heart problems.”

Incidentally, I had my cholesterol checked last week and also requested a CRP test. Cholesterol was normal (a big change from a year ago) and CRP was below average, which is good. 

via Personal Health – New Thinking on How to Protect the Heart – NYTimes.com.