Misc Thoughts

[kramday]

I told Christine that I was in shitting distance of 200lbs!

I see from the latest weigh-in thread that you didn't get enough fiber last week to actually make it.

[kramday]

Touch the Rim
One of the things with volleyball is that we always need to move the basketball hoops. A lot of nights, I'll end up helping moving them away from the courts at the beginning, and then move them back at the end of the night. Yesterday, I only had to help move them back at the end of the night. Anyway, after we moved the last one, I decided to see if I could actually jump up and touch the 10 foot rim. I have never been able to do that before, but I have felt like I have been jumping well the last couple of weeks during the games. Sure enough, on the second try I managed to get the rim. So, that was a pleasant, and surprising, way to end the night.

[amerigoV]

The reach of the Hand of Mark just got longer!

[kramday]

LOL. Next week I am going to try for the rim before I actually play. I am interested to see how the jump is when the legs are fresh.

[kramday]

Given the money in pro sports (maybe not cycling) and how much a ticket is, I believe we deserve the best that sports science can produce. I say the leagues should be supporting performance enhancing drugs, not curtailing them!

There is a pretty good article on this at ESPN.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=klosterman/070319&sportCat=nfl

[amerigoV]

Interesting article.

Trauma IVs are what emergency room doctors give to people dying from car accidents.

I do have a question: for Dugger and/or the ER docs that frequent the board, what goodies are in a Trama IV?

[Carlo]

Not exactly sure what they mean by a 'Trauma IV'. When I use an IV in a true level I or level II trauma situation it means I try to obtain a large bore needle IV (16 or 14ga angiocath needle) from two sites (usually large vein sites like AC's or external jugulars) and use blood tubing on the set up for at least one of those.

Normal field protocol is to use a crystalloid solution as the initial fluid of choice(.9 normal saline, or lactated ringers depending on where you work, we use .9). We do not carry blood in the field as we do not have the capacity to type match on the fly. The military does not carry some synthetic volume expanders so they can carry less fluid with them (oversimplification: we have a big truck, they walk & carry everything).

The idea behind two sites with large needles is to be able to provide significant amounts of replacement fluids for lost blood volume. In the field we typically shoot to maintain a blood pressure of 90 systolic. (This is a change from the old days where they used to say give lots of fluid regardless. Short answer to a complex process is too much fluid equals too much pressure which make you bleed out faster leaving you with veins full of "cool-aid" (ie: little blood, lost of .9) which sucks at doing what blood is supposed to do).

That's what happens before you get to the ED door.

The only other reasons I can think of off hand to use large bore 'Trauma IV's' is for volume replacement for severe burns or volume replacement for dehydration.

[kramday]

Fitness Assessment
I did the fitness tests again tonight, with the trainer. It was bittersweet, as the numbers are really good, but she is moving so it was the last session with her. The numbers in parenthesis are the numbers from the Jan 30th test. And yes, I did do the sit ups again this time.

Weight: 208.5 (219.5)
Body Fat %: 26.1% (29.1%)
BMI: 29.4 (31.1)
Waist: 103.5 (110)
Hips: 107( 113.5)
Chest: 102 (107.5)
Right Quad: 59.5 (55.5)
Right Bicep: 28.5 (33)
3 Min. Step Test: 86 (101)
3 Min. Step Test (1.5 mins): 75 (86)
Sit and Reach: 19.75 (21)
Push Ups: 28 (29)
Sit Ups: 22 (21)

A few of notes on the tests. The weight is obviously in pounds. The BMI is just a number, I believe. The girth and caliper measurements are in centimeters. The two heart rate numbers are beats per minute. The 3 Min Step test is where you step up on a 12-inch box for three minutes and then get your heart rate. The 1.5 mins is taking your heart rate again after the test is completed. The sit and reach is a number on a scale that the YMCA came up with. Push-ups is just the number of push-ups that you can do before you have to quit with no time limit. The sit-ups was the number of sit-ups that you could do in a minute.

[BigDog]

Nothing like hard data to help reinforce your sense of progress. Too bad she's moving on, sounds like you had a good working relationship there.

[kramday]

Thanks. It was especially nice to get the numbers this month, since the actual weight loss has slowed. It is still there, but not at the rate of Jan and Feb. So, it was nice to see the numbers that had changed. The percent body fat and BMI especially, as both were easily the lowest since I started measuring it.

I will definitely miss the trainer. It has been interesting, because there have been a lot of days that the only reason I went to the gym was because I had that appointment. I am going to try to not get a new trainer, as I'm in the habit of going and during the summer I'll be riding a lot anyway. I might try to work something out with one to review everything with though.

[amerigoV]

Thats some good work there Mark. I could really tell you had lost weight when I saw you on Monday.

[kramday]

Thanks. I'm definitely feeling pretty good about it.

[kramday]

Crappy Weather
I have to admit that the weather lately is putting me in a funky mood. I am ready for the sun to come out, and this wind and rain is kind of a downer.

[kramday]

April 100 Challenge
While I imagine the answer will still be silence, I figured I would ask once again if anyone is interested in doing the 100 Challenge with me next month. I'm planning to set the thread up sometime tomorrow.

[BigDog]

Too much for me, although perhaps just taking the time to respond will plant the seed with me or something. Took "Biggest Loser" to take off the first 10 lbs and I'm struggling to keep it off...