UT Cycling Study, First Session

This morning was my first of two rides for my second study at U.T. As I wrote before, the purpose of this study is to measure Wheaties cereal as a recovery food. The study consists of a 2 hour ride at 60% effort determined by my VO2max, followed by 2 muscle biopsies taken an hour apart.

I started my fast last night at 7:00 and woke up starving this morning. But, I was used to this from my last study. Upon arriving, we got off to a great start. Catheter in - check. Blood draws - check. Bike setup - check. Heart rate monitor working - check. Weight - check. Speaking of weight, I was 4 pounds less than last Friday! Now we're talking!

I was really happy with the resistance level of the bike. 60% was nowhere near as hard as the 75% or 80% I had at the last study. I learned later though that because my VO2Max has increased, my resistance has increased too - so it actually was a bit harder than I originally thought. Anyway, I managed just fine for 1.5 hours. By the last 30 minutes, I was starting to get tired. Two hours is still two hours, and working at the same resistance, at 80RPM, with no breaks and no food/water, is a lot. Luckily, I could look at my watch this time which helped.

As soon as the 2 hours was up, I took off my bike shoes, jumped on the scale (lost a pound!), and then laid on the lab table to have my muscle biopsy done. First Dr. Ivy cleaned my left thigh, and then numbed it with lydocaine. Then he cut an incision and cut out some muscle. Yeah, pretty gross, huh? He bandaged it up and I got to rest on a chair for an hour while they took my blood every 15 minutes. Oh, as soon as I got into the chair, I had to drink 2 bottles of Gatorade. Luckily I could work on my laptop, so I checked work email and IMed Lulu. But they started having trouble drawing blood, and had to mess with my right arm for 30 minutes before they finally just took out the catheter and stuck me with a new needle.

After an hour, I went back on the lab table for my second biopsy. Thank god they numbed my leg again, I was already starting to feel sore. Once my second biopsy was done, I got my instructions on how to take care of my leg, and I was free to hobble back to my car.

My left leg is pretty sore today. I've been making sure to get up and walk around so the muscles don't tighten up too much. I look really funny wearing a pressure pack under my pants. (As Phil said, "is that a pressure pack on your leg or are you just happy to see me?") My arm hurts too, from all the trouble they had drawing blood at the end. I'm not really looking forward to the next session, but at least I only have one more to go.

Besides, I'm sure I'll be proud of my scar in a few days. I love showing off my war wounds!