Challenges

So far so good

Wheel full 70px Well, 1,435 air miles/2,300 kilometers down.

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Wheel full 70px The flight to Orlando boards in about two hours.  It gets in at five in the morning tomorrow.  What are they doing, driving the plane there?

Wheel full 70px So, before I start addressing substantive stuff, I need to rant.  It is clear that the WordPress app and the iPhone 6 Plus hate each other.  Images are just about impossible to insert without causing huge consternation, the cursor jumps around randomly, saves are sometimes a roll of the dice, cutting and pasting  anything simply doesn’t work most of the time.  Those sorts of things.  I could go on, but I’ll bet you get the picture.  I’m looking at 10 or so weeks of this sort of frustration, but I’ll do that without complaint for you folks who are so kind as to read and even follow this blog.  Some issues are created by my slow progress up the learning curve, but others indicate to me that the app is seriously broken.

Wheel full 70px Anyway, rant off. I need to go and enter the contents of Alaska Airlines’ wretched “Tapas Box” into MyFitnessPal.

David Edgren

And the Countdown Resumes!


days

to

Atlantic

Beach!

Wheel full 70px Well surprise, surprise!!

Gomer Pyle

Wheel full 70px I’ll be on  a plane mid-day Friday for Florida and plan to start the ride on Monday, the 25th.  How we got to this point is a long story, and there will be a few changes…

…heh!

I have an early appointment with a cardiologist this morning to get final clearance, which I am confident that I’ll receive.  I’ll post later today with the whole story of the past few days, plus some, err… updated maps.  Don’t worry, the ride is still Beach to Beach.

Later.

David Edgren

 

T Minus 10 and Holding


days

to

Atlantic

Beach!

Wheel full 70px Friends, there’s no other way to say it. I’m in the hospital and the start of the trip is necessarily on hold. I can’t leave for Florida on Monday and have had to defer my ticket. I’m pretty down about this, but confident that things will work out in the long term.

Wheel full 70px Thanks so much for following along. More info soon.

David Edgren.

Glad I got that haircut… (Pre-ride Weigh In #3)

Wheel full 70px This week’s weigh-in.

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Wheel full 70pxStill in the 340s,  but it’s up just over a pound from last week.  I am still eating about 1,500-1,800 calories per day and have never busted the absolute limit of 2,000 that I set about four weeks ago. It’s been a week that included a birthday party at Golden Corral for one of my kids- I think I ate totally Paleo there.  Meat.  Meat!  More meat!

Wheel full 70pxAnnouncement coming up.  Stay tuned.

David Edgren

 

 

Well, [expletive deleted]!

Wheel full 70pxIt’s been a pretty tough day.

Wheel full 70pxYou’ll recall from yesterday that today was the second day of my cardio stress test.  The treadmill day.  I was a little apprehensive, as I really do not like the device, and stay as far away from them at the Alaska Club (the fitness gym Heather and I belong to) as I can.

Wheel full 70pxThe day started innocently enough.

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“Come in to my parlor…”

Wheel full 70pxRich, the nuclear med tech, started out the day as yesterday, with a gamma ray emitter injection.  A short wait then it was off to the treadmill.

Wheel full 70pxThe object of this day of a cardio stress test, in case you’ve never had one, is to crank your heart rate, measured in beats per minute (BPM), most of the way up to the max exertion you are supposed to be able to tolerate, then watch EKG readings for any abnormalities.  The max BPM is calculated according to as follows:

Now, a doctor will tell you that this formula is just a guide.  For a young athlete it may be adjusted upwards.  For an old geezer like me, it will almost certainly be lower.  Per the formula, though, my max BPM is 220-63 (my age, unfortunately), which is 157.  So the test was likely shooting for a BPM of 130-135 or so to take measurements at.

Wheel full 70pxThe short story is that I made it to 130 or so and was doing great.  My EKG waves started and had stayed picture perfect.

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My GP doc, Natalie Beyeler, was there, encouraging me along.  When they cranked up the treadmill to the next level, though- steep grade and I was almost running at this point- my BPM went to 135 and then my oxygen saturation levels suddenly crashed, sending the heart readings haywire.  The O-sat level hit 85 and Dr. Beyeler stopped the test, although I was able to continue to walk all the way through about a two minute “cool-down” phase at a slow speed and on a level grade.

Wheel full 70pxThe bottom line is that, while my heart appears to be doing great, my lungs just aren’t (right now at least) doing their bit.  I will probably do just fine on the flat or up mild inclines on the road, but it is clear that my ability to climb real hills and then mountains is in question at this point.

Wheel full 70pxSo my doc has scheduled a few more tests next week.  On Wednesday, the 12th, I’ll have a pulse-oximetry test, an echocardiogram, and a pulmonary function test scheduled one after the other.  On Friday we’ll have the results and Doctor Beyeler and I will confer further.  We’ve known all along I’ve had asthma in the background and my O-sat level usually sits around 93 or 94, which is a tad lower than it should be at my age.  I’ve never smoked, worked in a coal mine, played with asbestos, or done other stuff knowingly that would damage my lungs.  I did have severe childhood asthma, though, and have carried around a rescue inhaler (which expire before they are ever used) for years.

Wheel full 70pxSo I won’t go into options or courses of action at this point, I’m pretty raw still over this happening, and it is no time to make significant decisions, especially since I’ll have much more information by the end of next week.  I did go out tonight and bought, at Wal-Mart of all places, a middling good oximeter- the device that they clip on your finger at the start of a doctor’s appointment- to measure O-sats during rides and workouts.

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The device, which measures continuously, was just a little less than $36.  Over the course of a 45 minute ride on the exercise bike at moderate resistance at a ten mile/16 kilometer per hour speed, it never went below 92 and hit 95 a couple of times right before the end of the workout.  I was more focused on breathing deeply than I had been, but this just confirms my sense that the long almost flat weeks of The Long Warm-Up section of my planned route (The Atlantic Coast to Little Rock, Arkansas) is my friend.

Wheel full 70pxAny thoughts?

David Edgren

 

Bugs!

Wheel full 70pxAnyone from Florida or the Gulf Coast want to clue me in as to what sort of bugs I’ll run into on my ride in the first couple of weeks?  Particularly the biting or stinging kind.

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Alaska’s State Bird (a little larger than full size)

Wheel full 70pxWe’ve had a very rare almost mosquito-free summer here in Alaska.  By the 18th of this month they’d be winding down anyway.  I’d like to have some idea what I’m headed for, having not spent any time at all in North Florida, the Panhandle, or along the coast.  Also if you have suggestions for any kind of bug dope that’s effective and plays nice with copious amounts of sunscreen.

Wheel full 70pxThanks.

Thinking outside the (pill)box

Wheel full 70px I take a lot of pills.  All recommended by my various docs, but “a lot” just about sums it up.  Here’s a week’s worth.

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That box is 9x2x1 inches/22.5x5x2.5 cm.  A month’s worth of my meds in four of these boxes fills about a third of a front pannier.

So two questions:  First, take a look at the list of what is in each day’s compartment.

Daily (prescription)

  • Allopurinol (for gout)- one 300 mg tablet.
  • Atorvastatin (for high cholesterol) – one 20 mg tablet
  • Azor (for high blood pressure) – one 10-40mg tablet
  • Bystolic (for high blood pressure) – one 5 mg tablet
  • Torsemide (for high blood pressure) – one 20 mg tablet
  • Dexilant (for acid reflux) – one 60 mg capsule or Famotidine two E40 mg tablets (alternate every 90 days)
  • Januvia (for Type 2 diabetes) – one 100 mg tablet
  • Invokana (for Type 2 diabetes) – one 300 mg tablet
  • Niaspan (for high cholesterol) – one 500 mg ER tablet
  • Synthroid (for hypothyroidism)- one 200 mcg tablet
  • Fenofibrate (for high triglycerides) – one 160 mg tablet
  • Cyanocobalamin (for Vitamin B12 deficiency) – one 1000 mcg tablet

Weekly (prescription)

  • Vitamin D (for Vitamin D deficiency) – three 50,000 unit capsules

OTC

  • Aspirin – one 325 mg tablet per day
  • Glucosamine and Chondroitin – two tablets per day
  • Potassium gluconate – one 595 mg tablet
  • Vitamin B complex – one tablet per day
  • Vitamin E – one 1000 unit capsule every day

Wheel full 70pxI’ll note that my endocrinologist wants me to stop the Invokana when I start the ride, as he doesn’t believe I will need it at that level of activity and he is concerned about its side effect of causing dehydration.  That leaves me on one diabetes med: Januvia.  My GP doc wants me to stop the Torsemide at the same time, based on the same concern about dehydration.

Wheel full 70pxSo what about the others?  I trust my docs (and my GP is an avid bike rider), but I doubt either of them is on any of these meds.  Does anyone reading this have any real life experience with taking one or more of these meds and bicycling to excess?  I’d appreciate your feedback.

Wheel full 70pxQuestion two is: how can I ditch the boxes. I need my meds separated into daily doses, as some of the pills are quite similar in appearance.  I am also concerned about keeping each day separate from a cross-contamination standpoint.  I think it would be a good idea to just handle one day’s worth of pills at a time.

Wheel full 70pxSo small zip-loc plastic bags?  Individual daily packets made with a Food Saver heat sealer?

Food Saver 800px

Something proprietary I don’t know about?  Your recommendations are very welcome- thanks in advance.

David Edgren

Please, sir, I want some more.

Wheel full 70pxDickens is so evocative, but Mark Twain probably nailed it on the head.

Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.

Wheel full 70pxA promise.  This blog is not going to turn into one long diatribe about healthy diet or weight loss.  Neither is a primary goal of the whole enterprise.  If I am successful, mind you, I believe they will be outcomes.  But I am obsessed with neither, and other than an open invitation to be a friend on myfitnesspal [linkie] so you can track what I’m eating if you’re interested and the results of my weekly weigh-in, I don’t intend to bend your ears about this stuff.

n.b. If you’d like to friend me on myfitnesspal you need to have a user account (which is free) on that app.  You can then send me an email here at info@b2bbiketrip.com letting me know that you have signed up and the email you used to sign up under.  I can then send you a friend invite.  Sounds more complicated than it should be, but it’s not my app. -de

MyFitnessPal icon

Wheel full 70pxThat said, I am currently morbidly obese.  The National Institutes of Health (NIH) define morbid obesity as: Being 100 pounds/45.3 kilograms or more above your ideal body weight, or, having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 or greater or, having a BMI of 35 or greater and one or more co-morbid condition.  I’m pretty sure without checking that 357 pounds/162 kilograms has got to be more than 100 pounds/160 kilograms over my ideal body weight, but a few minutes checking on the Internet confirms that as a fact.  Using the “Hamwi Method” [linkie], one of the MediCalc website’s handy calculators [linkie] discloses my ideal body weight to be 202 pounds/~92 kilograms.

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Well, I guess not.  So I’d have to lose 155 pounds to be at an ideal weight.  First NIH criteria: Met.

Wheel full 70pxIt’s “Strike one, you’re out morbidly obese,” but let’s do the others just for grins.  As far as “BMI over 40” goes, I couldn’t tell you what my BMI is, unless it’s on the InBody report I posted [linkie] the other day…

…yep, there it is: 44.7, about halfway down the page on the left…

But 44.7 what?  Butter pats?  Frog’s eyelashes?  Some more looking on the ‘net led to me discovering that Body Mass Index is calculated by using the following formula

Body Mass Index formula

where m is your weight in kilograms and h is your height in meters.  Using the 357.2 pounds from Monday’s weigh-in to convert to 162.02 kg and my six foot four inches to convert to 1.93 meters, then squaring 1.93 to get 3.725, and finally dividing per the formula 162.02 by 3.725…

…following along at home?

I get just a smidgen under 43.5.  So still well over 40.  I’m morbidly obese times two.  Let’s go for three out of three.

Wheel full 70pxI see my endocrinologist tomorrow to talk about, mainly, my Type 2 diabetic condition and how my trip will impact it.  Fortunately enough, my diabetes is manageable through a combination of oral meds, but I have been concerned from when I started planning the trip that the change from a sedentary to an active lifestyle might upset the balance we have reached, with my A1C at or below 7 going back a good little while.  But diabetes is diabetes, a serious co-morbid condition, and my BMI is over 35, so…

[cue somber music]

I’m three for three.  Out for the count.  Morbidly obese by every measurement.  Well, that sucks.

Wheel full 70pxI’ve fought the scales since the 70s.  The then in force Army Weight Control Program, which if I recall correctly allowed me first to weigh 232 pounds/105 kg max, then 238/108 as I got older, was an every six-month bogeyman just waiting for me to trip up.  This was despite what would be objectively found to be a higher than usual physically active lifestyle.  I ran (ugh!), I backpacked, I biked.  A lot, actually. My little vanity piece here [linkie] describes in sad detail what happened as that slowed down then more or less stopped altogether.  The short story: my weight ballooned to just under 400 pounds/181 kilograms, at which point I considered bariatric surgery (which one of my daughters had, and is, 15 years later, a poster girl success story for).  I went through the six month period the insurance company (well, my insurance company, anyway) makes you go through to see if you can’t just lose the weight on your own and lost 40 pounds/18 kg.  I decided not to do the surgery based on that and other considerations, and have never looked back.  My weight has bumped around in the 360s for a few years short of a full decade now.  It’s been higher at times, mainly in the winter (which is hell for the sedentary here in Alaska) and at times of stress.  But I’ve eaten and drunk what I’ve wanted to and in the quantities I’ve felt like.  Shame on me for saying it, but sometimes, given the state of my health overall, that really hasn’t been such a bad trade-off.  I love to cook and I love well-prepared food.  I adore wine.  A gin & tonic or two are just what hot days are made for.  So I get 40 years of indulging myself in, but I’m beginning to realize that can’t go on.  You just can’t do that and dodge bullets forever.

Wheel full 70pxAnd, if it’s time to go, I’d rather go pedaling a bike than eating a steak.  Saying that required a closer call than I was comfortable with, so there is all the more reason to know that it is time for a change.

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I can do this.

David Edgren

 

 

So it is way cool to be proved wrong

Wheel full 70pxA couple of days ago I posted more or less to the effect that I believed that shoe manufacturers, and bicycle shoe manufacturers in particular, were not being straight with us folks up in the “Bigfoot” sizes [linkie].  It is my pleasure to admit that the Specialized company [linkie] makes an EU 50 size shoe that fits me like a glove.

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Wheel full 70pxYeah, I have to fudge my applause a little.  According to Specialized, the shoe was supposed to fit a US size 15.5

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Nuh-uh, I would say not.  My size 13 foot is just perfect in there.  I had an EU size 49 of these in the store to try on too… not even close.  I would have had to have cut out the toe on each shoe.

Wheel full 70pxSo I am so happy, in any event.  After trying on numerous EU size 50s and even 52s that did not fit properly, I found what I think is the perfect pair of shoes to start the trip in, and far enough in advance to break them in a bit.

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I’ve been stationary biking every evening with them all week for six or so miles a shot at a challenging resistance.  No hot spots.  No pinching anywhere.  No sore toes.

Wheel full 70pxI think I’m good to go, shoe-wise.

David Edgren