FLCC> Sunday ride notes: Marathon and back

[John Dennis]

As Brenda has mentioned, the Marathon ride had a few spinkles, but not
enough to throw up any dandified rooster tails thickened with that morning's
cow manure.  As they say, the fresher the better!

 

Lacking any more innovative way to be aggravating, I gathered the following
blood oxygen saturation data using my pulse oximeter on riders at the East
Hill Plaza start and again at Marathon and at the cross roads in Virgil: 

 


 

        EHP

Marathon

Virgil


Brenda Smith

99

 

 


Owen Bailey

99

96

 


Sarah Strickland

99

 

 


Eileen Penner

98

100

98


Amelia Habicht

98

 

98


Charles Dietrich

98

 

97


Mike Richter

98

 

94


Gary Hodges

98

96

96


Sam Kolins

97

98

100


Diarmuid Cahalane

97

97

93


Brian Jacobs

97

 

 


Steve Bowman

97

 

 


Louis McDonald

96.5

98

98


Sean McIlroy

96

94

 


John Dennis

95

93

 


Jim Millar

 

 

96


David Sahn

 

96

97

 

If you can ignore the moth-eaten quality of the "data" and the robust
possibility of instrument error,  one might presume to ID three kinds of
riders:

 

The first are those unfortunates (just kidding) such as Owen, Gary, Sean,
Diarmuid, Charles, Mike, and myself whose oxygenation-according to this
flimsy sampling process--seems to degrade under stress.  Charles and I had
gapped up to the lead pack about 3-4 miles before getting to Marathon and
the pace once there was more than I could sustain.  As I recall, the lead
group included Owen, Charles, Mike Richter, Gary Hodges, Louis McDonald, and
Jim Millar.  My O2 status was in pathetic condition by the time I rolled
into Marathon, but before leaving Marathon it had recovered to a modest 96%.
(For comparison's sake, I seem to recall that the O2 saturation threshold
for giving supplementary oxygen in nursing homes is about 89%. You might
call Longview if I'm not at next week's ride-:)

 

The second group (again, apologies for the badly moth-eaten data) are those
whose O2 level showed signs of staying steady during the ride.  Alas, Amelia
Habicht (pronounced hobby) is the sole denizen of this rare group among
those sampled at least twice on this ride.  Perhaps not enough sprinting,
Amelia. 

 

And lastly, there is the elite coterie of riders whose O2 level improves
under stress. Here we find the likes of Eileen, Sam (steady improvement),
Louis, and David.  Eileen was the only rider to score 100% on this ride and
this may help to explain why she is such a formidable hill-climber even
without Ben Gray to egg her on.  I seem to recall that Holly Monkman was the
only rider to score 100% at the Coddington Road time trials last year, and
it's worth noting that for a period of time Holly held the women's record on
that course. 

 

By way of a footnote, I would mention that both Gary and Mike got their
hands pretty filthy with black rubber while changing Mike's tire on the ride
into Dryden, so that could "explain" their subsequent drops in O2 status.
That flat occurred shortly after we passed Jeremy Gardiner whom we found
"biking and birding."  Jeremy had spotted bobolinks in that large open horse
pasture that lies along Six Mile Creek between the George Junior Republic
and Dryden. 

 

I'm afraid this ride was a little thin on details (water courses, anecdotes
and the like) but it happens.  In the flora and fauna department we did note
a comely collection of four or five goats watching the traffic from the
front porch of the farm house at Chase Farm, which lies on the north side of
route 221 on the way to Marathon.  Their composure and bearing suggested to
me they were the rightful owners of the property.  American Goldfinches were
again the most prevalent bird on the verges of the ride or so it seemed.
Fox and skunk were the notable roadkills for the day. 

 

Welcome to Owen, Sarah, Diarmuid, Eileen, and Louis (actually this ride was
at least a second appearance for the last two).   Diarmuid is from Cork,
Ireland, and a grad student in applied math. He was unapologetic about
Ireland's recent nixing of a proposed EU treaty pointing out that only one
other EU country had submitted it to a popular vote. (Sorry, interviews
still pending for the others new to the Sunday ride.)   Louis was using a
Florida dialect of cycling hand signals.  Two fingers held out parallel to
the ground means a railroad track is ahead.  The right hand held out near
the butt, palm down, with the fingers pulsing open and shut in a back-hoe
sort of digging  motion means to shift to the left.  He's good to draft
behind, so ask him for the full glossary. That backhoe signal definitely
needs translation.

 

I've forgotten the name of the recent MBA graduate (Eric?) who on a
Wednesday ride in June recommended to me The China Study by Colin Campbell
of the Cornell Nutrition Dept.  I'm only half-way through this book, but it
is truly the sort of book that can change your life.   While we all "know"
at some level that eating vegetarian is smarter and better for you than
eating a diet with red meat, Campbell lays out 30 years of research evidence
in a most compelling manner.  According to Campbell, eating a protein-rich
diet with considerable animal protein may enable both heart-attacks and
cancer.  These are, he maintains, diseases of affluence that rarely affect
people in poorer countries where rural people still eat diets rich in
carbohydrates but low in protein.   The cancer problem stems, he suggests,
not so much from exposure to carcinogens but from eating an animal protein
diet that enables the growth of cancers.  He thinks that casein, the dairy
protein, may be particularly cancer-enabling.   The obesity epidemic he
attributes to too much dietary fat and protein and not enough carbs.
Published in 2006, the book has at least one negative review at Amazon.com.
David, who is in the CU nutrition department, hasn't read it yet: "I like my
burgers." 

 

Including about 9  leisurely miles total to and from the ride, my friend
Brian and I did about 74 miles at an average speed of 16.5 mph. I was
feeling pretty whipped afterwards and was a little light-headed on standing
up that evening.  Can one week of a veggie diet lower blood pressure?  I'm
beginning to wonder!

 

In the not-on-the-ride dept,  no one seems to have news on what sort of
recovery Stewart Wolsh is making following his crash at the finish of the
Owasco Flyer.  He's not been working at the bike shop.  Anyone up for riding
up to Interlaken?   And-drum beat!-Misty McPhee is not only back in town but
was spotted at Sunrise Yoga yesterday.  And, Radovan Karadzic has not only
been spotted in Belgrade but arrested for war crimes. Finally..who said the
pace of international law was glacial? 

 

 Ride and eat safely,

 

John

 

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