January 2009

You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2009.

Is the cure worse than the disease?

January 27, 2009 in Cycling, Health by CyclistRick | 8 comments

When I was working in Peru, as a field biologist, one of the guidelines we followed was to never camp near sandy river banks.   Sandy areas attract sandflies, and sandflies in most of  the tropical regions of the world carry leishmaniasis.    One of my colleagues did contract the disease, and at that time the only available treatments involved antimony based chemicals.  A tough position: live with ulcerous sores all over your body or ingest relatively large quantities of heavy-metal compounds.  He and I used to joke about the cure being as bad as the disease, though he did go through with the treatment.

As part of the followup to my crash and injuries of last June the orthopedic surgeon ordered a DXA bone scan to check for bone density.   I’ve had the results for 3 months, but her and I just had a chance to talk about them a couple of weeks ago.  Bone density of my arms is normal (for a 30 year old male, the standard, so above normal for someone my age), the lumbar vertebrae are a bit below normal, but still OK, and the measurment of my left femur is in the realm of osteopenia.  That last number is the one the orthopedic surgeon wants to concentrate her attention, and she has prescribed a three part regimen to deal with the ‘problem’:

  1. Take calcium, lots of calcium (at least 1500-1800 mg/day) .  Interestingly, she did not prescribe Vitamin D to go with it.
  2. Walking, at least 30-40 min/day beyond normal ‘maintenance of life’ movement.  Basically this is weight bearing, and the only weight bearing activity she wants me to undertake involving the legs/hip at this time.
  3. A bisphosphonate drug for ‘osteoporosis’.

I can accept #1 and #2, but #3 is where I have a divergent opinion.  I am not a big fan of pharmaceuticals in general, but the bisphosphonates are particularly troubling.  There are high rates of ‘troubling’ side-effects, including but not limited to severe muscle and joint pain, gastric issues including esophogeal erosion, and upsetting the bodies electolyte balance.  More troubling is the increasing association with necrosis of the jaw.   The more one reads about these compounds the more it seems that they are likely worse than what they are meant to cure.  I think I will pass on them.

Buzzing bees

January 22, 2009 in Cycling by CyclistRick | 5 comments

During the first ride with the Velo Bella’s during their training camp, a nice 70 mile loop from San Luis Obispo through the hills of the south county area, a number of folks kept asking what that strange sound was that emanated from my bike. Finally, about mile 60 or so, Meh-wee-uhn pulled about behind me and gave the answer: Chris King hub. Given her experience it stood to reason that she would be the one to recognize the distinctive bee-swarm hum of a CK rear hub.

Finishing off the old, starting the new

January 2, 2009 in Cycle Touring, Cycling, Food, Recreational Cycling by CyclistRick | 5 comments

The Wife does an annual Christmas ‘letter’ (now an email, rather than a standard old-school snail mail offering) to keep friends and family up with what has happened in our lives over the past year. That is a bit too much work for me, given that most of what has happened over the past year has been covered here in blogland. But it has been weeks since I have posted, and though not much has transpired it is time to put 2008 to rest and ramp up for 2009.

The Quest

During our brief trip to Hawaii I was reunited with one of my weaknesses.  Yes, I admit it; I have this thing for cinnamon rolls.  Island Lava Java in Kona does a fitting version.  Since we returnied I have been on the quest to find a local version that stands muster.  Unfortunately, so far all the candidates forget that cinnamon is the operative word.  Some I have tried in the past couple of months have hardly any cinnamon, and try to cover the omission by layering on too much tasteless ‘frosting’.  Others use commercial grade cinnamon that has barely any taste no matter how much they use.   Come on bakers of the world; a good quality Vietnamese, Chinese Cassia, or Korintje is so much better than that flavorless commercial grade Schillings or McCormick’s and not that much more expensive.  I wonder where I can find a ‘cinnamon roll’ worthy of the name without jumping on a plane for Kona, and without breaking out the yeast, flour, etc. on my own.

The Trip

The Wife promised her parents that we would escort them on their first bike tour, a short run from southern San Luis Obispo county to the Santa Barbara area.    That was our major event of the holiday season, a two day, 97 mile journey.   I’ll let her fill in the details, but the genesis of the route selection was my former desire to do the one day version of the trip, returning northward on the Amtrack Surf-Liner.   I now would like to do that one day trip as my endurance and power gets back to normal.  Time to start thinking of when I might be able to pull it off.  I’ll be back in the area on two weeks, accompanying The Wife as she participates in Bella training camp, but I suppose I will have enough to do then working as pack mule.

The Odometers

I finished with 2008 with a bit under 4K miles, total, on the odometers of the various bikes.   The least since I started keeping track in 2001, and only sligthly more than 2002 when I had my last recovery hiatus.   I feel like such a slackard, looking at the chart showing 9K miles two years ago next to less than half that this year.  I will be trying to get back to something more respectable this year, especially since I believe I need to spend some time in the saddle to build back the endurance I have lost since my accident in June.

I Resolve

Actually, I do not resolve.  I am not one for New Years resolutions.   To paraphrase from ‘Treasure of the Sierra Madre’:  resolutions?  resolutions?   I don’t need no stinking resolutions.

So don’t look for me to fall off the resolution wagon.  If you don’t make them, you can’t break them.  Stay tuned to see what does transpire.