Damn I'm Slow

After my wardrobe malfunction, I've had a series of alarm clock user malfunctions. I kept forgetting to turn my alarm clock on. My morning is pretty busy and about a half hour delay in getting going in the morning can ruin my schedule.

I was due for another mile time trial today and I guess considering it's my first jog in about four days, I guess it's not too bad. I wish considering how hard I thought I was running that my time wasn't in the high 7's.

Six Runs and Wardrobe Malfunctions

It's interesting to see what kind of wear running takes on your body. After my second run I realized that one of my toenails was rubbing on the adjascent toe which left me with a small but moderately annoying scratch. The annoyance lasted for five days. Now, not only am I trimming my toenails really short, but I'm finding that I need to tape some of my toes to protect them.

Today I found something more annoying than a scratched toe -- a misplaced seam. All of the compression shorts (BOXER JOCK from Under Armour) that I usually wear to run were dirty, so I wore another shorter pain of compression shorts. Whoa, did I learn my lesson. The chafing on my upper thighs got to the point after about 3 1/4 miles that I just stopped and walked home. First thing I did when I got home was put the Boxer Jocks I usually wear into the wash. Tomorrow after call I'm headed straight to the UA store to buy more.

I was aware of pulling muscles in the gym and the bruises from football. Now I've learned the hard way about the dangers of being a runner.

Run was pretty good today otherwise. Happy about my overall pace over the week. Six runs in seven days. Total of 16.84 miles.

Mambo Run #5

My attending said something funny to me yesterday after rounds. She told me that contrary to what she had heard about me, I was actually a really good intern! Compliment? Well, I took it that way. I'm uncertain who told her bad things about me. The only two attendings to formally evaluate me at the VA gave me all superior and excellent markings on my eval. Instead of losing sleep over who raked me over the coals, I'll just try to be pleased that I've impressed her. (But at the same time not forgetting that I've pissed someone off...)

Had my longest run today with the Nike+ system. My pace could have been better. I didn't realize until I finished with another half a mile at the best pace of the run, that I could have run the first part so much harder.

I'm still hesitant to drop shift early in my runs.


My newest research project is moving along very nicely. I had a talk on the phone with the Assistant Director of Coriell Cell Repositories yesterday morning. This is a branch of the National Human Genome Research Institute and is responsible for establishing, maintaining, and distributing cell cultures and DNA derived from the cell cultures. The AD didn't think my project was a strong fit for the CCR, but did think it was an interesting project. Pretty cool to get a compliment from a scientist at that level.

Five Total Runs

I didn't feel much like jogging this morning. It's probably because I broke my self-imposed rule against napping. Yes, I was weak yesterday and fell asleep in the afternoon for about 3 hours. Then I had trouble getting to sleep at night. Then I had trouble waking up in the morning.

I had a light warm-up jog with the dogs today and then dropped them off before I set out for my two mile solo jog. The pace was crappy -- 9'06".

I guess it's a victory of sorts even if my pace today was weak. I've had five total runs and only bought the kit six days ago. I'm going to increase my run length this week and plan on running two mile trials to work on getting my speed up.

Here's the run:

First time trial

Went out this morning for my first "time trial." I set a goal for myself when I bought my Nike+ system to run five time at a pace of under 7'44". Today was my first one at a distance of a mile... I think.



I realized that calibration of the Nike+ system wasn't really optional, but encouraged. I'm not really sure how far or fast (or slow) that I've been running, because I haven't calibrated yet. Tomorrow is a good day to go down to Tempe Town Lake after rounding in the morning for a nice calibration run.

Better get cleaned up for work now.

Running Post Call

My second call this month at the VAMC was pretty tolerable. I only took two admission and cross-cover was only moderate. I had three vets who decided to have chest pain last night - one of which was actually having a heart attack.

The chest pain patients won't be as memorable as the cancer patient who threw me out of his room, told the entire nurses station and my attending that I "need to work on my bedside manner", then proceeding to bad-mouth me to everyone who entered his room for the rest of the day. Prior to this explosion I had consulted mental health for issues with the patient's depression. I ended up being immortalized in the consultation note as "the clown..." Oh well.

Had a good run this morning. Not really sure what was going on with my pace for the 3/4 of a mile. The Nike+ calculated it as a 5'34"/mile pace. Heck, if that's true maybe I should do my time trials post call!


I'm hoping this lighter jog will loosen me up for a time trial mile tomorrow. I'm going to try for a mile under 7'44". If today's first mile was accurate then, that shouldn't be a problem. I don't want to set too lofty of goals just yet. I'm not yet accustomed to running on pavement.

Shower time. I stink.

2nd Run with Nike+

I improved my time a tiny bit this morning. I'm really liking my gear. The nano is a much better running partner than the Video iPod. It's hilarious to think of any of the iPods as being too big, but I could never get the Video comfortable on my arm for running.

Here's my run.

Since I'm on-call tonight, I'll probably have a lesiurly jog tomorrow. After I get into the swing of running again, I'll start taking Virgil with me. He'll like that. "Why not Dante, too?" you ask. Because he's not great on the leash and doesn't like running on the leash. Stubborn. I don't know where he gets it from. Probably Karen.

High Tech Running

Philosophically I had a problem with the idea of paying for a new iPod nano ($149 - $249) and special Nike running shoes ($99 - $129) to get back into running. That was until Karen got a Nike+ kit to use with the nano I bought her for her birthday. Man, did that thing seem cool. She showed me online the detailed graphical representation of her run. She showed me the tracking of the goals she had set for herself. Neato!

It was then clear to me how freaking cool this Nike+ system was. Don't get me wrong -- I was annoyed that the Video iPod I already owned wasn't compatible with the Nike+ system. I also wasn't happy that I couldn't (well not exactly) continue to use the New Balance brand of running shoes that I've been wearing for about four years. But hey, this setup is cool and I've got to exercise.

The LA Fitness thing has been going pretty well, but a continued problem is the extra time and energy it takes to drive to the "meat market" and get my gear situated. You might be thinking that the 4 mile drive is trivial, but only if I'm working a 40 hour week -- a rarity. This month when I'm working 70-90 hours a week that extra time really cuts into my motivation. Running is a nice alternative where instead of spending time driving I can spend it breaking a sweat.

I wanted to try to save a buck or two by keeping my NB shoes and getting a sock for the Nike+ sensor. The reports I read on Amazon.com concerned me about this idea. There were a handful of reports that the sock didn't allow the sensor to read properly causing the distance of runs to be shortchanged. I sure wouldn't want to take a chance of ruining my enjoyment of the new product by having my runs belittled by an aftermarket workaround to the Nike+ shoes.

As you can probably guess, I went ahead and bought the whole setup. Pretty sweet. I bought my Video iPod about two years ago and forgot how easy it was to setup Apple toys. I just had to plug it in to my Mac Pro and add some music to my new toy (I got the red 8gig one!). It took nothing to pop the sensor into my new Nike shoes and it instantly was communicating with my new nano.

I couldn't wait to get running so that's what I did (despite the sun was falling). And here's my first run...

I'm excited about this device. Now despite Karen being in Vermont we can both see each other runs. I just can't share Virgil with her. I've set some goals that I can track and also have already challenged Karen too see who can run the most miles this month -- too bad she's hurt her leg.

I'll give an update soon enough! Got to get some rest for my run in the morning.

Talking Japanese

Konnichiwa!

So far this trip has been great! Brandon got me to the airport in a breeze right through rush hour traffic. We even had time for a classy breakfast at Filliburto's. Nothing like starting the day ordering breakfast from someone who doesn't speak the same language as you; definitely a great way to prepare you for international travel.

Things were really smooth at the airport. Security was straightforward; although, I did learn that my new pants have metal in the clasp that bought me a hand wanding in PHX, but not SFO. United was great to San Francisco and then onward to Narita (NRT) which is about an hour train ride outside of Tokyo.

On the flight to SFO, I moved into the exit row for the extra leg room and ended up sitting next to an oncologist from Mayo Scottsdale who was traveling to Northern California to give a talk about breast cancer -- his specialty area. We decided that we should set up our own comprehensive breast care center due to his frustration with Mayo, my thinking it's a cool idea, and our mutual love of women's breasts. He gave me his business card and I spent the next hour planning our future attack on breast disease.

For the 10-hour marathon flight to NRT, I had another window seat and had Taku, a Japanese college student, sit next to me who studies in Northern California at a small college near Berkley. This was great because not only did Taku share my love for Jack Daniels (I had one, he had two) and beer ( we both had three -- hey they were free, we didn't have anything else to do, and I definitely wasn't driving anytime soon!), he also speaks Japanese as his native language. He helped me with my pronunciation of the three or four phrases I decided I needed to know how to say. I took his email address and invited him to come and visit the Arizona night life scene. He gave me some great tips on where to visit and reminded me how close I would be to Hiroshima and that I would be amiss to not visit.

NRT airport in retrospect was easier to figure out than many American airports mainly due to its layout, but it didn't hurt that all signs were in both English and Japanese (I think maybe Chinese, too but sumimasen for my not reading kanji). And boy was that a CLEAN airport. Everything was shiny, clean, and neat. Even the bathroom was spotless (more about the cartoon depicting which stall had a bidet later).

Immigration was a breeze -- they just took my visit card, verified my length of stay, and stamped my passport. Piece of cake (I should learn how to say that in Japanese). By the time I visited the restroom my bags were riding around the carousel. Customs was a cinch as I had nothing to declare and they were nice enough not to search my bags to make me prove it.

It took about fifteen minutes in line for me to get my Japan Rail Pass voucher exchanged into the real thing, but when I got to the head of the line the process was painless. They even reserved me seats in the Green car (like business class on Amtrack -- I paid about 15% extra for this.)

The train ride was relatively uneventful, but unfortunately there was some fearful excitement between my train to Tokyo and the train to Kyoto. I couldn't figure out where the hell my train was departing from. Tokyo's railway station is huge (like Grand Central Station) and the only English on the signs is typically one word which is the name of the rail line. Disappointingly, my train's rail line wasn't' listed because it's a subtype of the shinkansen (bullet trains) and I guess everybody just knows that in Japan. Finally, I found someone wearing a uniform and they pointed me in the right direction which was great until I got to the next intersection and had to repeat this. I got into my train with about 90 seconds to spare.

It was amazing riding the train through the city and countryside. The Japanese architecture, the neon lights, and all the action through Tokyo was very exciting. The train ride from Tokyo to Kyoto took about 3 hours and I think I slept about half of it. Once I got to Kyoto Station I was exhausted and about 30 minutes later I was unpacking in my hotel room. The traveling day is at a close.

Stop 'medicalizing' bad behavior

It may be hard to recall, but once there was a time when people took responsibility for their behavior, without recourse to the psychiatric and psychological communities.

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The major fallacy in the article and many of the comments is the assumption that "medicalizing" an issue equates to relaxation of personal responsibilities in the diagnosed individual. Diabetes, HIV, benign essential hypertension, glaucoma, migraine headaches, epilepsy, claudication are all real diseases. Everyone reading this should know at least one person with each of these disorders. The key to treatment and alleviation of symptomatology in each of these diseases is personal responsibility which typically includes appropriate medical treatment. Proper treatment and education of all disease necessitates an INCREASE in personal responsibility.

Don't take your anti-hypertensive medication = die of stroke
Irritable bowel disease, eat chili = flatulence and diarrhea
Don't take your herpes meds = give girlfriend VD
Don't follow your diabetic diet = dialysis, blindness, amputation of lower limbs, death
Xeroderma Pigmentosa patients, don't stay out of sun = death
Got PKU and don't follow diet = mental retardation
ADHD; don't receive proper behavioral treatment and/or medication = 3x increase in emergency medical services, lower than expected grade level in math and English, lower likelihood of enrolling in college, lower expected lifetime earnings

The number one problem with treatment of common disease is that patients don't take their medication and/or follow their treatment regiments. THAT'S RIGHT!!! THE TRUTH IS PEOPLE DON'T TAKE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY OR TAKE THE PILLS. Study after study have shown that people are typically non-compliant with medications unless there is an uncomfortable adverse side effect to non-treatment (e.g. broken leg & pain pills). Do you think Americans are fat because doctors forgot to recommend diet and exercise? Do you think people with hypertension are given bad drugs?

IED is a slightly different issue. Nearly all people who drive have been a victim of road rage and IED raises a fear that the asshole who cut you off and forced you into an accident is going to get away with it with a letter from a shrink. That's probably the only good thing an IED diagnoses could be hypothesized to do; such a diagnosis would likely increase health insurance rates, make people hate you, increase auto insurance rates, cause workplace discrimination (it might not be legal, but do you think they'd hire someone with IED if they could avoid it), and is comorbid with most DSM-IV mood, anxiety, and substance disorders. Sounds crappy to me.

Ok, since all of you holier-than-thou Digg-nation fans are lucky to be perfectly healthy and unmedicalized, remember this (USA anyway) is a capitalist, keep what you kill society. Do you really want to encourage all these people to get out of traffic court, go to college, stay off the shrinks couch, diet, exercise, and get black belts? I didn't think so! On average the fat sloths with poor interpersonal skills, who won't stop sharing needles or wear a condom and with reckless driving habits won't be rising the corporate ladder and taking your job (and place in line for a Prius) anytime soon. So relax.

Unless you have IED and in that case don't get mad at me, it's not my fault either!