November Birthday

I celebrated my birthday recently. For several days leading up to the big day, I was not feeling healthy or strong. I did a treadmill run (my first run in 11 days) last Thursday and again on Monday. But I cut short the Monday run because my back hurt and I had an abdominal cramp. Last Saturday I hurt my shoulder simply by angling my arm awkwardly while taking off my shirt. It had not fully healed by Tuesday when I tried doing a swim. Freestyle was out, but I could do breaststroke and backstroke. But I cut short the swim because my feet were cramping up. I was really fatigued and felt like doing nothing. So on Wednesday I went into the office for a couple hours and then came home to rest. I figured I had a virus that was affecting my joints and muscles. As I lay on the couch watching a movie (Contact by Carl Sagan), I realized that maybe I wasn't sick. Instead, maybe I was worried about my birthday and turning a year older. Yep, that was it.

I am another year older. The aforementioned shoulder injury is chronic and while I can be pain-free for months at a time, it keeps coming back several times a year. The muscle cramps are sometimes harmless, but sometimes not. If my calf cramps up, it does so with such great force that the muscle is damaged and it takes a week for the leg to heal and for the pain and stiffness to go away. My mother has this problem, too, so there isn't much hope that I will avoid it as time goes on. My body is aging and I can't stop it.

I also feel left behind by my age. Given my love for and skill in swimming today, I wonder what I could have been had I started swimming at a much earlier age. I seriously feel that I could have been an All-American swimmer or maybe even an Olympic swimmer if I had gotten the training as a boy. My body is made for swimming. I've also started doing triathlons this year. I love them! My training partner and I have somewhat joked about doing the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii before we reach the age of 40. He and I can dream about it, but neither of us has the time to train for something like that. As hard as I work to keep to a workout schedule, my job requires me to work at odd times of day and on weekends, and so I can't make fitness part of a weekly routine. I just do it when I can fit it in. This is perhaps the most frustrating thing of all, because one big motivator for me with regards to being an athlete is that I am in complete control of this aspect of my life. I direct what activity I will do and how long I'll do it. If I want to get faster, stronger, thinner, or bigger, I know what I have to do to make the goal happen. But that darn job gets in the way. Or an injury. Or foul weather. Or the end of daylight saving time.

All of the above were the thoughts that crossed my mind as I lay on that couch earlier in the week. Woe was me! Of course, as soon as I realized that I was feeling this way, my mood improved. Obviously I was being silly. Age 37 is not the end of life or any limit to reaching fitness goals. Sure, my responsibilities at work will get in the way of training. Or an injury. Or foul weather. But all these are temporary set-backs. I have the love of fitness now. I love triathlons and swimming and riding my new road bike. A birthday will not take this love away. In fact, a steady progression of birthdays is what has allowed me these opportunities. At age 32 I had never commuted to work by bicycle. I do that now. At age 33 I had never lifted weights. I do that now. At age 34 I didn't know how to swim. I compete on a swim team now. At age 35 I had never ran a 5K race or competed in a triathlon. I run on a regular basis now, and I've done three sprint-length triathlons. The swim team and the 5Ks and the triathlons have helped me make new friends. If I had died at age 32 I never would have experienced these things. So now as I look forward to my upper 30s and 40s, I wonder what amazing things I'll get to do. It's a grand journey and a little shoulder injury, muscle cramp, backache, late night at work, or snowstorm will not get in my way for long.

My most recent 5K race took place in an October snowstorm. Clearly I'm now addicted to athletic competitions.

So what will age 37 (technically my 38th year) bring? I am a little wary to make predictions, but I know I'll be running longer distances, cycling over steeper hills, and swimming faster. I plan to do a 150-mile bike ride with my friend Dan. He and I will also sign up for at least three sprint triathlons, and I really want to do an Olympic-length triathlon, too. If I accomplish any one of those goals it will be enough to brag about a year from now when I celebrate my next birthday.

For the record, as a 36-year-old, I:

ran  98 miles,

biked 476 miles, and

swam 105 miles.

These totals include two competitive bike races, two sprint-length triathlons, two 5K races, and eight competitive swim meets. I plan to do more than this as a 37-year-old!

Research results I learned from a conference

I attended a conference this weekend and had a blast. It is always great fun to see what others in my field are doing. I am a biologist. Biology is a broad field, and while I am an expert in one or two areas of biology, I have a lot to learn in other areas. I suppose that is true of anyone, regardless of their type of training. So below is a list of a few random things I learned (or re-learned), which I thought my readers would find interesting:

1. Levels of both testosterone and insulin-like growth factor (IGF) increase in the blood after cardiovascular exercise. The researchers tested blood before and after a 20-40 min session on a stationary bicycle, at different levels of exertion, and found that both hormones increase during the hour following exercise. The researchers did not follow the participants after 1 hour, so I don't know how long the effect lasts. Levels of IGF increased greater following 40 min of exercise compared to just 20 minutes of exercise, and IGF was also higher after intense exercise (at 90% maximum heart rate) compared to more moderate exercise (75% maximum heart rate). These findings are significant, because both T and IGF function to facilitate muscle growth and repair. I knew this before, but this work reminds me that it is not a direct link between exercise and muscle growth; certain hormones and their cellular receptors must be in place and operate efficiently in order for my efforts to pay off in stronger or larger muscles.

2. Exercise moderates the effects of psychogical stress on a person. We all know that exercise makes us feel good, and this research showed that people who had recently exercised (within a couple hours) were better able to cope with a psychological stressor (graphically disturbing images) than people who had not exercised before exposure to the stressor. The investigators used functional MRI technology to measure brain wave patterns while people viewed disturbing images (violence and injured people). Those who had exercised prior to the fMRI had less brain activity in parts of the brain involved with coping with stress. I am pleased to know about this finding and will plan to use exercise both as an outlet for getting rid of stress, as well as a preventative medicine for combating stressors I might encounter after a workout.

3. An injury to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the knee may not always need surgical repair. A researcher presented a case study in which physical therapy was utilized for two months following injury with the objective of strengthening the hamstring and quadriceps muscle groups (actually, I can't remember what other muscle group was chosen besides hamstring). With stronger muscles, the knee joint was stabilized and the patient (a college football player) could go back to playing in games. The researcher does note that the knee stability is dependent on these muscles remaining strong. If the patient stops exercising and the leg muscles atrophy a little, the knee will go back to being unstable and may require surgery in the future. I have never had any serious knee issues, but I expect the same principle would apply to other joints. For example, I struggle with a chronic shoulder injury, and I find that weekly rotator cuff exercises keep the joint strong. If I stop the exercises for a string of days, the shoulder feels weaker and I am prone to straining it.

4. Some cases of obesity is due to mindless eating. Dr. Brian Wansink of Cornell University was a keynote speaker at the conference (see http://mindlesseating.org/index.php). He presented his research that showed that the amount of food people consume at meals is dependent on the size of their plate. He also presented work that showed that the good taste of food (which is why +30% of people say they over-eat) is not as much a function of flavor as it is expectation. If you go to a fancy restaurant, you expect the food to taste better, even if in reality it is the same food served at a less-fancy restaurant. Dr. Wansink showed that people ate a greater portion size of "Belgian Black Forest Chocolate Cake" compared to "Chocolate Cake" when the actual cake was the same but the name it was given on a menu differed. He noted with some humor that the Black Forest isn't even located in Belgium...it is in Germany! This research is fascinating and will hopefully help me reduce my caloric intake on strings of days when I don't exercise (otherwise, I can't get enough calories).



Sudden drop in body weight

I just updated the graphs and descriptions of how my fitness program, started about 2.5 years ago, has changed me in terms of physical dimensions. Please see the full page for considerable details on my body weight, fat percentage, and chest circumference has changed over the years. One big thing I noticed is that in 2010, my body weight reached a peak of 175 pounds in August and then dropped sharply to 171 in December. While 4 pounds is far from alarming, if you look at the trend in the graph below, you can see that the change is nevertheless significant.

What's that unusual drop in body weight in December 2010 about?

I have no convincing explanation for this drop. My stress level at work has been creeping up lately, but it's nothing I haven't handled before. My food intake might have decreased just a little over the last couple months, but so has my average exercise intensity and duration. I'm not sick or injured in any way, and in fact, I'm experiencing just the opposite kind of feelings, as I have recently fallen in love with a great gal. That's got to count for something, and love should not decrease one's body weight!

Of all the explanations above, I've got to conclude that the stress from work has taken its toll. My psyche is usually the last one to know when I'm stressed out. Usually my body gets sick or injured, and then I realize I've been under too much stress. Perhaps this drop in body weight is a signal to keep that stress in check and get back to a more relaxing pace in my work. Easier said than done!