I was uncertain whether to title this report “Small Wins” or “In Familiar Territory”, so let’s kick off with my thinking behind the latter option. Doing regular interval training takes me back to the years of training for, and participating in, the Absa Cape Epic.

The foundation is that there is work to be done, and it must be done. Not negotiable. Over the past couple of weeks, this commitment got me out on my bike in truly horrible conditions. All of it is familiar territory that is weirdly comforting. In the column alongside, you’ll see reference to “4 x 4 at 90% of max HR”. The whole thing takes an hour, including warm up and warm down, but the magic happens in the middle section, which comprises four repeats – each lasting four minutes – of riding uphill at 90% (or slightly more) of maximum heart rate. You may think it’s torture, but somehow it isn’t. And it results in a special kind of fitness.

So, even though I’m harbouring a condition that could have potentially dire consequences if left unchecked, I’m feeling amazing.

The ‘small win’ is that on one day in the past week I’ve had a blood pressure reading that was within sniffing distance of 130 over 80. Also, the diastolic number has often been in the 80s.

Coffee has entirely been replaced with cocoa drinks, and wine is off the menu for most of the week. I had a very social evening on Friday, with seemingly inevitable consequential elevated blood pressure on Saturday morning. I should mention that it dropped significantly after relaxing on the couch with my morning cocoa drink.

My blood pressure was also elevated on Sunday morning. For that, I blame a tense Springbok versus Ireland game the evening before (with calming red wine!).

A friend who read last week’s report shared a link to the Netflix documentary, Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut. We clearly have loads to learn about the routes to health.

Blood pressure didn’t feature as one of the conditions being addressed through the gut health of the subjects being followed. Having said that, since switching to cocoa drinks, my gut seems to be telling me that I need to increase the amount of fibre in my diet, if you get my drift.

The next step would be to get the systolic number to head in the same direction as the diastolic. I hope this doesn’t end up being too much like herding cats.

The Week in Numbers

Sunday
BP: 164/93
Bike: 4 x 4 mins at 90% of max HR

Monday
BP: 152/87

Tuesday
BP: 150/90
Bike: One hour in zone 2, with a four-minute sprint

Wednesday
BP: 137/81

Thursday
BP: 153/90
Bike: 4 x 4 mins at 90% of max HR

Friday
BP: 152/84

Saturday
BP: 160/92
Bike: 2:13 on trail, mostly zone 2 and 3

Low expectations are a good starting point. This is kind of the default setting for Stoics, which strikes me as being a generally good life strategy.

I wonder if Stoics suffer from hypertension.

One of the variables that I have needed to address is alcohol, seeing as it was flagged by my GP. So, no wine from Sunday to Wednesday. While I didn’t experience any physical withdrawal, I was certainly triggered when seeing characters sipping glasses of red wine on whatever series I was watching.

From a BP perspective, the week was marked by a higher degree of consistency than previous. However, it was also the highest series of readings since I started this exercise. This was not what I was expecting. I really need to work harder at being a better Stoic.

Disappointed by this outcome, I joined the household in red wine from Thursday to Saturday (although obviously not in a solid multi-day binge!). I’ll give it another go this week. By “it” I mean abstinence.

Seeing as I didn’t get a result from sobriety (if anything, the opposite), I decided to go full metal jacket, by withdrawing coffee from Thursday. This also happened without any physical effects (i.e. no head ache etc).

What made the transition super easy is that I switched coffee for a cocoa drink (two heaped tablespoons mixed with a bit of hot water and a teaspoon of honey, topped with steamed milk from the coffee machine). I can’t say I’ve even craved coffee in this time.

There was no apparent drop in my blood pressure, although it did not increase post-cocoa as it does immediately post-coffee.

These days, no human activity is complete without AI, so I asked both ChatGPT and Perplexity if increased blood pressure could result from withdrawal of either alcohol or coffee. Apparently it is possible.

On the subject of AI, these answers strike me as being a little like the output of astrologers. They all toss such a large range of options into their answers that it’s possible to latch onto any part of it as a confirmation of something one wanted to believe was true.

Exercise was heavily rain affected. I forced myself out for just one interval session on Wednesday afternoon. I wonder if I can apply the Duckworth Lewis method to my week’s cycling?

I donated blood for the first time this week, partly as an experiment to see what it would do to my blood pressure (nothing, it turns out). Other than getting the admin done, as a first time donor, the whole experience was actually very pleasant. I’ll be back.

I have been given a list of natural supplements that could have an impact. One of these is Q10, which is presumably not the spray oil for dealing with squeaky hinges. If it comes down to a choice between a single pill prescribed by my GP, or a handful of capsules comprising lecithin, garlic, krill oil and Q10, I think I may lean in the direction of the single pill.

At the moment it’s looking very much like lifestyle adjustment isn’t the cure.

The Week in Numbers

Sunday
BP: 151/86
Bike: nil

Monday
BP: 153/94

Tuesday
BP: 151/94

Wednesday
BP: 156/94
Bike: 4 x 4 mins at 90% of max HR

Thursday
BP: 154/98
Bike: nil

Friday
BP: 159/92

Saturday
BP: 155/89
Bike: nil

Cacao vs cocoa tripped up my Wordle journey somewhere along the line. The latter, more obvious version, generally springs to mind first. I’m hoping that the former, denoting the natural powder derived from the unprocessed beans, will be a useful addition to my natural anti-hypertension remedies.

At this point I’m unable to draw any conclusions as to the therapeutic benefits of a daily 25g dose of cacao. What I can trumpet is the mood enhancing benefits of having a massive dose of ‘chocolate’ in the morning. Just the flavour is enough for the feel-good factor.

The specific elements that make the difference are the flavonols in unprocessed cacao. These are lost, to an increasing degree, the more the beans are alkalised, or ‘dutched’. This process makes the flavour more gentle, as well as making the cocoa more suitable for use in baking. However, it is possible to buy non-alkalised cacao.

Several studies have been done on the therapeutic benefits of chocolate. In summary, white chocolate is of no benefit and dark chocolate is better than milk.

I decided to go straight to source (i.e. cacao) by mixing roughly 25g with a little hot water, then adding a teaspoon or more of honey, completing the mixture with two tablespoons of plain yoghurt. This is an admittedly full-on hit of intense chocolate, but dark is my preference, so this a very happy space for me.

The specific therapeutic impact on high blood pressure is the resulting increase in nitric oxide.

In a few weeks time, if/when coffee is removed from my diet, this could be turned into an effective hot drink substitute, using milk instead of yoghurt.

My summary of the past week would have to be something along the lines of “I just don’t know”. Due to various factors, I was not able to fit in any intervals this week, but the cycling I did do had a good dose of high effort, not to mention volume.

The highest BP readings of the week were recorded after a night of nine hours’ sleep, which is unheard of for me. Perhaps I was suffering the effects of a long drive the day before, along with general fatigue.

One of the week’s discoveries is that the fatigue that results from over-training can increase blood pressure. Clearly a balance needs to be maintained!

This week’s plan is to do just one session of intervals, with a couple of zone 2 rides when weather permits. Cacao remains on the programme, and wine will be removed. If all the wagging fingers are correct, I’ll see changes within a week, or so.

In the absence of any decrease in my blood pressure this week, I’m looking for anything that can denote a step forward. The daily cacao regime I started has to count as an entirely guilt-free way of having chocolate. I’ll take my wins wherever I can get them!

The Week in Numbers

Sunday
BP: 156/88
Bike: 2:31 on tar, mostly zone 2 with 35% in zone 3

Monday
BP: 145/89

Tuesday
BP: 142/86

Wednesday
BP: 143/91

Thursday
BP: 149/93
Bike: 2:07 on tar and gravel, mostly zone 2, with about 40% shared between zones 3 and 4.

Friday
BP: 148/86

Saturday
BP: 148/86
Bike: 2:32 on tar and trail, roughly half in zone 2, balance shared between zones 3 & 4

The second week of my experiment kicked off with two mornings of lowish blood pressure readings, contributing to an early observation that there appears to be some correlation with high intensity exercise on previous days. Of course, satisfying the requirements for causation will take more investigation.

Regardless of the causality, it was nevertheless a little comforting to see numbers within spitting distance of what’s regarded as being ‘normal’.

In the context of several successive days of the systolic pressure having been under 140, Tuesday’s 153 was somewhat alarming, but I had additional information to parse:
– I had lamb chops for dinner on Monday night, having had fish on the previous three days.
– I had a stressful interaction just before going to bed.
– My sleep was interrupted and almost certainly affected by this.

Having had the leftover lamb chops for dinner the following night, I can probably rule them out as a causative factor. It’s hard to control for stress, so it was useful to have an identifiable instance to work with. At this point I’m agnostic about the role of ambient stress, but if it’s resulting in poor sleep quality, then I’ll certainly be paying more attention to how that can be managed.

Seeing as exercise is central to this phase of my experiment, I should dip into some basics. Since late 2023, most of my cycling has been in zone 2, of which Dr Iñigo San Millán is the most visible proponent. At this level of effort it is still possible (just) to speak in complete sentences, so it’s a relatively easy pace to maintain. The thesis is that this level of exercise builds mitochondria, which burns fat, and on multiple levels is also supportive of high performance. Watch this interview for more detail.

Before heading out for my ride on Sunday, I happened to watch this interview with another cycling coach, Olav Aleksander Bu. While not dismissing zone 2, he calls for greater nuance. He makes the point that one of the great benefits of zone 2 training is that it’s hard to mess up. On other hand, training at higher intensities requires more careful management to ensure it isn’t overdone. If an athlete is going to change the training mid-session, it should be to decrease – not increase – the load.

This is relevant to the state I found myself in on Sunday morning. I could feel that I was fatigued, so my intention was to have a chilled ride on the Missing Link trail. That went out of the window when I joined up with stronger riders as I started the trail (in other words, I broke his rule about upscaling effort mid-session). I managed to hang onto them until slightly beyond halfway, but then I blew. I’d put in so much effort – especially on the back of the week’s higher than usual workload – that my Garmin displayed a recovery time of 43 hours! Usually, this would under 24 hours.

This is why my Tuesday ride was at such a low level of effort. I felt that I needed to treat it as an easy recovery day. Normal service resumed on Thursday, with an interval session. These sessions involve four by four minute efforts, each at 90% of maximum heart rate.

As my schedule has worked out this week, by the end of Monday I would have ridden every day for five consecutive days. It will be interesting to see where this takes me.

The question I’m trying to answer is if there are identifiable lifestyle factors that have a predictable impact on my blood pressure. The ideal outcome is to find the ones that reduce it. At worst, to find the ones to absolutely avoid at all times.

The Week in Numbers

Sunday
BP: 135/78
Bike: 1:53 on trail, mostly zone 3 & 4

Monday
BP: 137/85

Tuesday
BP: 153/86
Bike: 1:10, mostly in zone 1

Wednesday
BP: 143/95

Thursday
BP: 153/90
Bike: 4 x 4 minutes at 90% of max HR, plus warm-up and cool-down

Friday
BP: 136/84
Bike: 00:53, equally split between zones 2 & 3

Saturday
BP: 144/83
Bike: 2:00 on trail, roughly half in zone 2, balance shared between zones 3 & 4