I keep meaning to write more often, about all the interesting training and riding and other such stuff I do. But then I get busy or forget or want to sleep instead. Sleep is very important. If I get enough sleep then I can ride more, which I like! I try to get at least seven hours of sleep every night. This week that did not go so well since I had an all night experiment to attend one night. It was rather amusing though. I arrived home about seven AM Thursday morning. After eating and checking email I couldn't keep my eyes open any more so I went and laid down and fell asleep almost instantly. It was about eight AM at that point. Exactly at ten AM I sat upright in bed and proceeded to get up and wander aimlessly around the house. I later realized that I had not been really awake when I got up. After doing mostly nothing for an hour I went back to sleep for another two or so hours. I was still tired, but I managed to enjoy the rest of the day and get to bed early.
Saturday I needed to be at work all day again, so I took my long ride Friday morning. I went out to Uinta National Forest and climbed up to Tibble Reservoir. From the base of the climb to the reservoir is about six miles. This took me an entire hour to climb. It doesn't seem all that steep, but it is steep enough. I also didn't really want to go anaerobic during the climb so I kept to an easy pace.
I did not have my usual fuel to drink while I rode. This is not a problem for rides under two or so hours, but after two hours of just water I start to bonk even if I have eaten a large breakfast. I did not eat a large breakfast Friday but I did stop at the Bagelry to nab a bagel that fit nicely in my jersey pocket. Along with the bagel I took a baggie of trail mix and a plastic wrapped energy bar concoction I had made. The three of these enabled me to finish my ride although I was still fairly hungry by the end since I only finished off the bagel, and I didn't touch the trail mix. The energy bar was tasty but since I had to squeeze it from the plastic wrap it was not so easy to eat as quickly as I needed the calories. I ended up eating about half.
And my new MP3 player arrived today. It is great!
Showing posts with label Research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Research. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Monday, January 01, 2007
Happy New Year
Cycling
So it has been awhile since I last wrote but I was having fun visiting family, watching Michael graduate, enjoying Christmas and taking time off from school and work. It was all quite entertaining.
However, after two weeks off my bike, I decided that I should not try to race the 500 mile portion of the Heart of the South. Fortunately I found a replacement race that will accomplish the same goal but it occurs in a much more reasonable time frame.
The Race Across Oregon occurs at the end of June. It is approximately 540 miles, 40,000 feet of climbing and it has a 48 hour time limit. Michael said he will crew for me, as will Dawn-Marie and likely my dad. The race will cost at least $1500. Anyone want to sponsor me?
I am looking to find a coach but I doubt I will be able to afford to hire a coach, but who knows? It doesn't hurt to look. My website has my training mileage goals and achieved mileage on the training page.
Perhaps Michael and I will join Gold's Gym in the near future and I will add weight training and swimming to my routine. Currently, since I don't like riding in the cold, I have been doing the last week or so of mileage indoors on my rollers. I usually watch a movie while I ride. Action movies are best, but not those that have really fast camera work. That makes it hard to stay balanced in the middle of my rollers. And I hate falling off my rollers.
For Christmas I obtained a book called Bicycling Medicine. It was really great. I enjoyed reading it greatly. It had a lot of good information about nutrition and injury prevention and diagnosis. During the Adirondack 540 one of my knees started to hurt. This book gives good information on how I can change my bike's set up to prevent that occurring in the RAO.
Another book I recently enjoyed reading was Slow Fat Triathlete. The author's writing style is really quite funny and down to earth. Even though I feel no need what so ever to try triathlons, I very much enjoyed the book and it is a great resource for any beginner in any endurance sport. In my opinion at least.
Research
I have recently re-read the A. Branner 2004 paper. It is quite interesting and I encourage you to read it. Meanwhile, research continues in the lab and I continue to learn new things and how to use the programs and equipment necessary to work in my lab. I have started to create a database to hold some of the data that we obtain from our experiments so that we will better be able to manipulate and view the data we obtain.
So it has been awhile since I last wrote but I was having fun visiting family, watching Michael graduate, enjoying Christmas and taking time off from school and work. It was all quite entertaining.
However, after two weeks off my bike, I decided that I should not try to race the 500 mile portion of the Heart of the South. Fortunately I found a replacement race that will accomplish the same goal but it occurs in a much more reasonable time frame.
The Race Across Oregon occurs at the end of June. It is approximately 540 miles, 40,000 feet of climbing and it has a 48 hour time limit. Michael said he will crew for me, as will Dawn-Marie and likely my dad. The race will cost at least $1500. Anyone want to sponsor me?
I am looking to find a coach but I doubt I will be able to afford to hire a coach, but who knows? It doesn't hurt to look. My website has my training mileage goals and achieved mileage on the training page.
Perhaps Michael and I will join Gold's Gym in the near future and I will add weight training and swimming to my routine. Currently, since I don't like riding in the cold, I have been doing the last week or so of mileage indoors on my rollers. I usually watch a movie while I ride. Action movies are best, but not those that have really fast camera work. That makes it hard to stay balanced in the middle of my rollers. And I hate falling off my rollers.
For Christmas I obtained a book called Bicycling Medicine. It was really great. I enjoyed reading it greatly. It had a lot of good information about nutrition and injury prevention and diagnosis. During the Adirondack 540 one of my knees started to hurt. This book gives good information on how I can change my bike's set up to prevent that occurring in the RAO.
Another book I recently enjoyed reading was Slow Fat Triathlete. The author's writing style is really quite funny and down to earth. Even though I feel no need what so ever to try triathlons, I very much enjoyed the book and it is a great resource for any beginner in any endurance sport. In my opinion at least.
Research
I have recently re-read the A. Branner 2004 paper. It is quite interesting and I encourage you to read it. Meanwhile, research continues in the lab and I continue to learn new things and how to use the programs and equipment necessary to work in my lab. I have started to create a database to hold some of the data that we obtain from our experiments so that we will better be able to manipulate and view the data we obtain.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Residue Nerve Stump Function
So this morning I went into work to help with the experiments being run this week. So I did that instead of riding. I also have a good bit of homework to get done; such as reading the Residual Function... article linked on the left. This article is a few years old, but still has a good bit of significance. We know that when a limb is amputated the brain area associated with the amputated limb is reassigned to other tasks to some degree. Also, because of disuse, there is some nerve degeneration that will occur in the nerve stump. Because of these problems it was unknown whether or not the nerve stump could be used to move a prosthetic limb or relay sensory data to the brain.
This article relates an experiment that showed that the stump could relay motor and sensor information from and to the brain. Further experiments need to be done as to the longevity of this ability, since this experiment was limited in scope. Furthermore, this experiment used a very few electrodes per amputee, many more will be needed for true functionality. Also, the electrodes used in this experiment, as is the standard with such experiments, used percutaneous (through the skin) connectors. More permanent solutions are being pursued in many laboratories including telemetry, percutaneous carbon connections and osseointegration. My website has a bit more information about this subject.
This article relates an experiment that showed that the stump could relay motor and sensor information from and to the brain. Further experiments need to be done as to the longevity of this ability, since this experiment was limited in scope. Furthermore, this experiment used a very few electrodes per amputee, many more will be needed for true functionality. Also, the electrodes used in this experiment, as is the standard with such experiments, used percutaneous (through the skin) connectors. More permanent solutions are being pursued in many laboratories including telemetry, percutaneous carbon connections and osseointegration. My website has a bit more information about this subject.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
In the beginning (of this blog) ...
Cycling:
This weekend my husband and I will be traveling down to St. George so I can ride in the Tour of St. George. I wanted to do the 65 mile ride, but after struggling up a not-really-steep hill for 1/4 mile, I've decided that the 30 mile route might suite me better at this point.
Last week I rode a total of 20 miles. At one point my heart rate hit 240, so I need to give myself more time to acclimate.
Research:
This week there was a very interesting seminar on biosensors. The sensor is a partially bound double DNA helix attached to a gold electrode that has a fluorophore bleacher associated with it. One strand, B, of the DNA has a fluorescent end that, while bound in the double helix, is held away from the bleacher. Strand A of the DNA has a strong affinity for the target of the sensor. When the target is present, the double helix unbinds so that strand A can bind to the target. Strand B then falls into close contact with the bleacher so that target presence can be 'seen' by the absense of emitted electrons. See this page: http://www.chem.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/plaxco/index.shtml for more information.
This weekend my husband and I will be traveling down to St. George so I can ride in the Tour of St. George. I wanted to do the 65 mile ride, but after struggling up a not-really-steep hill for 1/4 mile, I've decided that the 30 mile route might suite me better at this point.
Last week I rode a total of 20 miles. At one point my heart rate hit 240, so I need to give myself more time to acclimate.
Research:
This week there was a very interesting seminar on biosensors. The sensor is a partially bound double DNA helix attached to a gold electrode that has a fluorophore bleacher associated with it. One strand, B, of the DNA has a fluorescent end that, while bound in the double helix, is held away from the bleacher. Strand A of the DNA has a strong affinity for the target of the sensor. When the target is present, the double helix unbinds so that strand A can bind to the target. Strand B then falls into close contact with the bleacher so that target presence can be 'seen' by the absense of emitted electrons. See this page: http://www.chem.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/plaxco/index.shtml for more information.
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