The Strassburg Sock

Northcoast Footcare directed me to remove the post on their product. Rather shortsighted, gentleman. As you wish, good day to you!

Red Cheeks

I went to the dermatologist today. I've had a couple of little skin things kind of bugging me, nothing major or scary. A bump on my chin that i cut a couple of times this month, and a mole or mark on the front of my right thigh that seems to get irritated by my cycling shorts.

What made me finally take action and call for an appointment? The Super Bowl halftime show, and specifically Bruce Springsteen and his public service announcement for The Danny Fund. Read more about it here. Danny Federici was the E Street band organist and recently died of skin cancer.

The bullet points you should take note of:

• Be aware of the dangers of the sun
• Take precaution, like sunblock and staying out of the sun
• Have yourself checked out regularly by a dermatologist from head to toe.

The full body check took no more than 15 minutes. I had a female doc and nurse present, but I suppose if you aren't comfortable you could ask for same gender. I kept my underwear on. I had a silly paper gown on, but really this exam was not a big deal. We all should have it done annually.

The doctor suggested i have rosacea, a reddening of the skin on my face caused by broken capillaries. I don't know, i think I might have been blushing just a little. And it is 20 degrees outside. She gave me a script for a cream to use. I will try it. She also told me to use sun block. Yep, I want to do that too. Every day, even when its cold out!

Thallium Stress Test Results

I had my Nuclear, or Thallium, stress test on Monday. The whole test took about 4 hours and the staff at Winthrop Cardiology Associates couldn't have been nicer or more professional.

For the exercise part of the test they had me hooked up to an electrocardiogram and wearing a blood pressure cuff. The goal was to get me around 80-90% of my estimated maximum heart rate, which they calculated using the old fashioned and somewhat dubious 220 minus your age formula. I am 50, so that puts my estimated max around 170, and my target for the test around 136-153. I am not sure, not having done a max heart rate test recently, that my actual max is higher. My training is based on percentage of functional threshold power on the bike and pace on the track.

My resting heart rate is around 58, and measured 60 at the start of the test. I beleive my blood pressure was 130/50, not exactly sure of that. The physician assistant raised the incline and started the treadmill and i walked. The plan was to increase incline and speed every three minutes until i cried uncle. At that point they woudl inject the isotope through my IV, then have me stop and rest a bit before more photos.

I got up to about 4.2 miles per hour at a 16% grade before they stopped me. I could have continued, but my blood pressure had risen to 214/90. They seemed concerned by this. My heart rate was 150, or about 90%, so technically the test was completed.

Results came back to my primary care doc, who had his nurse call me to say everything was fine. I asked her about the blood pressure issue. She had no idea what I was talking about, so I asked to have the doc call me back. Later in the day we connected and he took a little more time to read the report. While my blood pressure is usually perfect when i am sitting still, apparently I am about ready to pop 6 days a week when i am doing my interval training.

For now I am doubling my Diovan HCT dosage and have an appointment to discuss in a couple of weeks. Still good to train as far as I can tell.

Oh one intersting thing, when i was in the scanner machine, its kind of like a MRI machine that lowers over you and slowly turns as it takes pictures, makes some noises but not as loud as an MRI. I actually was able to take a nap in that thing both times, 15 minutes each. I think thats the perfect amount of time for a power nap. Need to work that in somewhere.

Name This Photo

9.5 mile run at Rockefeller this morning, with Coach Adam. Any idea what I am doing here?

UPDATE

I like all the answers. It did feel good on my quads for sure. And I almost could feel the curvature of the earth as I imagined myself hugging the world. Good thing I didnt try to taste the ice, or i might still be there!

There is no answer, really. I do not know what I was doing. Perhaps "dancing naked in the rain", as Roshi Richard Hart recommends, best describes it. Except it was too cold to be naked and the rain had frozen into a sheet of ice on the trail.

Adam said he wanted a picture and I just got down on the ground. We both laughed :)

Say Nuclear

I am really going to miss President Bush 43. And I am not intending to open a political discussion, I will keep those opinions to myself (for now at least). Regardless your political bent, you are going to have to admit we have had a great 8 year run of jokes. How long will we have to wait before we can start in on Barack?

Actually what made me think of this has nothing to do with politics, I am just trying to lighten up the mood before I begin what some will consider a very serious post. So mom, as you read below, feel free to go back to the video frequently, it should help to put things in the proper perspective.

On Monday at 7:30 am I am scheduled for a Thallium Stress Test (sometimes also referred to as a nuclear stress test). My physician and I agreed it would be wise to do this test based on an episode of lightheadedness and shortness of breath after my December 21 run and my cardiac risk factors. (I'm a male over 50, taking blood pressure and cholesterol meds, have a stressful job, am 'overweight' and have a family history of coronary artery disease and diabetes).

So out of an abundance of caution we started the process by requesting a preapproval from my health insurance, and after an initial refusal they did relent and authorize the test. Here's a desription of the test from the American Heart Association website:

Thallium Stress Test

What is a thallium stress test?

This is a type of nuclear scanning test or myocardial perfusion (mi"o-KAR'de-al per-FU'zhun) imaging test. It shows how well blood flows to the heart muscle. It's usually done along with an exercise stress test on a treadmill or bicycle.

The thallium stress test is useful to determine:

• Extent of a coronary artery blockage
• Prognosis of patients who've suffered a heart attack
• Effectiveness of cardiac procedures done to improve circulation in coronary arteries
• Cause(s) of chest pain
• Level of exercise that a patient can safely perform

When the patient reaches his or her maximum level of exercise, a small amount of a radioactive substance called thallium is injected into the bloodstream. Then the patient lies down on a special table under a camera ("gamma camera") that can see the thallium and make pictures. The thallium mixes with the blood in the bloodstream and heart's arteries and enters heart muscle cells. If a part of the heart muscle doesn't receive a normal blood supply, less than a normal amount of thallium will be in those heart muscle cells.

The first pictures are made shortly after the exercise test and show blood flow to the heart during exercise. The heart is "stressed" during the exercise test — thus the name "stress test." The patient then lies quietly for 2-3 hours and another series of pictures is made. These show blood flow to the heart muscle during rest.

What does the thallium stress test show?

• If the test is normal during both exercise and rest, then blood flow through the coronary arteries is normal. The coronary arteries supply blood to the heart muscle.
• If the test shows that perfusion (blood flow) is normal during rest but not during exercise (a perfusion defect), then the heart isn't getting enough blood when it must work harder than normal. This may be due to a blockage in one or more coronary arteries.
• If the test is abnormal during both exercise and rest, there's limited blood flow to that part of the heart at all times.
• If no thallium is seen in some part of the heart muscle, the cells in this part of the heart are dead from a prior heart attack. (They have become scar tissue.)

What if I can't perform an exercise test?

Sometimes you can't do an exercise test because you're too sick or have physical problems. In this case, a drug such as dipyridamole (di-pi-RID'ah-mol) or adenosine is given. This drug increases blood flow to the heart and thus "mimics" an exercise test. Then the thallium test is given.

Hey by the way I like the idea of a drug to mimic exercise. Why aren't we all using this every day?

Anyway, I scheduled the test as soon as I got the preapproval. In the meantime I am doing about 8 hours a week of intervals cycling and running, and I feel fine. Actually, I feel great. I am even kind of looking forward to this test, treating it like a race of sorts. Maybe I can get them to give me a max heart rate measurement? I will ask them to snap a few photos and post a report.

The worst thing I can see so far is, no caffeine for 24 hours before the test, and its the day after the super bowl, so I need to go easy on the chicken wings and Toasted Lager Sunday night.

Grease the Groove Take Two

Its been about 5 weeks since I posted first about the 'Grease The Groove' training method. It's supposed to foster neoromuscular facilitation, a big name for a simple concept: alot of reps of an excercise, with light enough resistance so you don't reach failure, is an effective way to improve your performance at that excercise.

I am wanting to develop the ability to do pullups and so i designed my little 6 week plan to build up to some minimal number of reps. I started at the most minimal possible number, that being zero.

Now, 5 weeks havng past, I can report some progress. Very little progress actually, as I have just barely completed the first 2 weeks of my plan. I do notice greater strentgh in my upper arms, shoulders, back and lats. However I think I do need to rethink before continuing.

The GtG plan I had received from an online friend involved daily work, with reps varying in number as a percentage of a 2 minute max test, and sets at different time intervals each day.

While the suggested reps were quite reasonable, i found that some of the frequencies wouldnt work for me in my office, where I will be doing this workout. 15 or 20 minute breaks are just disruptive. 60 or even 90 minute intervals make more sense.

Additionaly, because my pull up bar is in my office, i would have to go in every day in order to maintian the 7 day a week schedule. I'd rather not. In fact I have come to beleive that days off are of great value, even from things you really enjoy :). They allow for recovery and rehabilitation from stress. One day off of a specific excercise for each 3 days on, at least for me, seems to work.

So here is the new plan, to start tommorow with 'Australian Pull Ups'

Day 1 test Max reps in 2 minutes. Remaineder of day do 30% of max every 60 minutes
Day 2 50% every 60 minutes
Day 3 60% every 45 minutes
Day 4 OFF
Day 5 25% every 60 minutes
Day 6 40% every 60 minutes
Day 7 20% every 90 minutes
Day 8 OFF
Day 9 Test max reps n 2 minutes. Remainder of day do 35% every 45 minutes
Day 10 55% every 90 minutes
Day 11 65% every 60 minutes
Day 12 OFF
Day 13 45% every 60 minutes
Day 14 25% every 120 minutes

Let's try that and reconvene in 14 days.

Logging

Monty Python - Lumber Jack - More amazing video clips are a click away



Em, no. I mean logging workouts. When I first started running, I would log my workouts, but as my workouts became more frequent and I started to get a good 'feel' for what I was doing, I stopped. When I started doing triathlon, again I started a little online journal to keep track of my work outs and progress, but again, I stopped after a while.

Now I am back to using an online log, and here's why.

• Ironman training is serious! I should probably keep track of what I do.
• I am going to want to look back on what I did this year, because I am already thinking about 2010 and beyond.
• I bought a plan (from Endurance Nation), something I have never done before, and I want to be sure I do all the workouts as prescribed.
• Having work outs to check off, and a place to ad details, adds accountability.
• An online log allows other people to check up on me, another layer of accountability.
• An online log, as opposed to an old fashioned paper log, provides so many more options, is secured from loss and accessible wherever there is Internets excess.

I had a few choices. the EN plan was available for download directly into Training Peaks, saving me all that data entry time. I am training with power and so I am using Cycling Peaks WKO+, which goes hand in hand with TP. However, not all of my pals use Training Peaks. Instead, it seems that the online triathlon world that I live in is pretty well tied in with Buckeye Outdoors. So thats what I am using to log my work. In addition, some neat functinality there include:

Log multiple workouts in a day, including time, distance, heart rate wattage and comments.
Calculates estimated calories for most workouts.
Daily sleep, energy level and hydration record.
Food log including USDA and custom food data.
Can set up coach relationship with access to planned and completed workout data.
Ability to set up teams with exclusive access for team members to view and comment.
Blog widget thingy lets me show my worout log over there on the right --->

There's a bunch of other stuff it does that i dont even know yet. The guys who built the app are triatletes themselves, so really understand whats needed. And while they are providing it for free, they are constantly makign updates, many times at the request of their users.

Oh yeah did I mention its FREE.