Stress Test

Making some progress on the job for my neighbor. He's getting the better of the deal for fixing my brakes on the old pickup but I'm pretty happy with how things are going so far. I'm building a cover box for a tool box on the back of his work truck. He furnished the stainless sheets, so that had much to do with the design of the project. They are a little too thin to stand alone with out some type of inner structure/armature (threw that last word in there for all the artists out there). The bottom photo shows what I'm working with. The sheets have flanges bent on all four sides and I need to straighten at least one edge out to maximize the size of the box. Stainless work hardens so it's tough to straighten out with out leaving a bump on the corner. I'm getting there, though.

While I'm in sheet metal mode, I made the door for the battery box for the trials bike. Need to get a hinge and a latch to finish that up. Also in the photo is some brake cleaner. It says something on the label I'm not quite sure of. I saw non-chlorinated which is why I grabbed it but then it also has the number 45% on there, like maybe it's only 45% chlorinated. I won't weld over anything that I use it on just to be on the safe side but it was only $1.89 a can. They also had carb cleaner on sale for the same price so I bought a can of that also. I should buy a couple more cans of each while they are cheap and before they get outlawed. Especially since I'm going to be back in the mechanic biz as soon as I finish the tool box for the neighbor.

I had my stress test yesterday. They didn't push me to exhaustion like they've done previously. The nurse asked me how I was doing and I responded in the affirmative that I could keep going a bit but she said we had hit the target heart rate so I bailed. I didn't quite make 12 minutes but I could have easy enough. After that, probably not much more. The speed increases as does the elevation on the treadmill every three minutes and I was going to have to break into a run after the next increase. I need to do some sprint work. My endurance is fine but I rarely push myself at the gym or on the bike to really get the heart rate up. My crazy chest thing seems to have cured itself so I've been skipping rope at the gym using that to get my heart rate up a bit more. Need to do more. I meet with the cardiologist next week and I'll see what he says about the results. I think most everyone in the health industry sets the bar pretty low, however.

I talked to a guy at school the other day who is in another guy's class, so I don't really know him. He was working on getting some additional training and overheard me tell another of the instructors I was having the stress test. Seems he had heart surgery not too long ago. Instead of the traditional open heart surgery, he had a new procedure where they went in through five holes in his side and a robot performed the actual surgery. I've never heard of that before. Pretty wild this new technology. I'm assuming this is a type of Da Vinci surgery but I don't know. The guy says he was surprised by the heart troubles because he did a lot of running and had a decent diet. Says he does a lot of cycling now. He and I sound like two peas in a pod. It was an interesting conversation.