Health problems of the "geek lifestyle"

Hmm, good thing I do triathlons I guess - last winter when I was off work for a few months and spent entirely too much time on the computer, I suffered some of the symptoms apparently "unique to IT workers... insomnia and altered sleep patterns, headaches, back pain, and poor attention span" (don't think my attention suffered at all, but my sleep cycle certainly was out of whack and I had a lot of back pain then).

Tidbits from the Journal

There has been some interesting stuff in our paper recently. The other day, there was a column comparing the excitement over the Edmonton Oilers' Stanley Cup run to a religion:

Watch fans gather in great dancing circles on Whyte Avenue after a victory. Look at their painted faces, their display of sacred icons. Notice their use of consciousness-raising substances, their expressions of rapture. Is this not a religious experience? ... "One definition of religion is a functional one, that says religion is what gives meaning and order to people's lives," says Kent. Hockey, therefore, "comes close to being a functional religion."

And last weekend there was an article about how researchers are planning a study at UBC to determine whether the long shifts (up to 28 hours when I was a resident) that medical residents endure cause a significant number of medical errors.

Ayas considers it a coup that the Canadian Patient Safety Institute awarded his group a $100,000 grant to study the issue.
The institute was formed in 2003 with $50 million over five years in funding from Health Canada and a mandate to support the development of safety initiatives.
One of its goals is to support health-care professionals who want to improve patient safety.
"When you think about it, the people who pay the bills for health care may not want to know the answers to the questions we are posing," said Ayas who is ideally suited to conduct the study since he is also on staff at the sleep-disorders program at the University of B.C. Hospital.

And then after I mentioned the $25 million home for sale in Victoria, there was this article about an almost-completed home in Edmonton rumoured to be worth $20 million - you can see it from Hawrelak Park across the river and it really stands out (but didn't realize it was that big/worth that much).

A Revelation and a breakthrough...

I had a revelation about my work the other day ... I've been off for a few weeks, and was to go back on Tuesday (after the long weekend here) for 2 weeks, to "clinic C" where I was working in April and will be working for July and August. On Thursday afternoon, I got a desperate call from "clinic B", where I worked January to March and where I will be working again from September, asking if I could come in Friday as they were really short of doctors. So, I agreed to help out and worked Friday on short-notice.

All the staff seemed quite happy to see me again, as did the doctors who were in, and not just in terms of "thanks for helping us out". And I got a number of nice comments and thank-you's from patients, eg. "this has been the most productive doctor visit I've had in a long time" was one comment that I actually heard a few variants of, in only one day.

So my revelation was that I really feel appreciated at clinic B (and therefore think I've made a good choice to go back there in September), by both my co-workers as well as the patients :-) . Not that I need or expect everyone to thank me and show appreciation constantly, but I think a little bit of appreciation and recognition goes a long way. I realized that in the situation of clinic A (where I worked for 6 years before) or clinic C, with mostly long-term, chronic patients, I didn't really get a lot of appreciation ever and usually unrealistic expectations, complaints and demands more than anything else - tends to wear on you after a while... (I found it ironic last October in my last month at clinic A, when I seemed to get more appreciation then than in my entire 6 years previously at that clinic - little bit too late). I felt really good after work on Friday ...

Then a breakthrough yesterday, I've really been struggling with my running and with my triathlon now in just one week that was starting to worry me a bit. What with not running much over the winter, then my bike crash slowing me down for a while, I'd only done 5 km runs so far and need to run 8 km for the triathlon. I never seemed to get to the point of enjoying any of the runs I was doing, they all seemed to be struggles where I was focussing on how high my heart-rate was getting or how much my legs were hurting or how hot it was out or how much time did I have left before my walk-break (I follow the 10:1 run:walk scheme taught by the Running Room). So yesterday, I ditched my watch with the heart-rate monitor and interval timer and just went out with my old stopwatch. It was a good temperature (low teens C) and really windy (though it makes the running harder I love windy days in general unless it's minus 30 :-) ), and I just went by feel instead of constantly watching my watch. And I had a great run - was aiming for 5 km and did 7.5 km instead, felt great afterwards, and actually not even stiff today, so I have renewed confidence that everything will be fine next week for my triathlon. I may not beat last year's running time, but I should beat last year's overall time (as well as I'll likely blow away my bike time from last year) :-).

Winter to Summer in 2 weeks or less...

When we picked up our new bikes less than 2 weeks ago, it was rainy and cold (near freezing) and even a bit of snow mixed in. Yesterday it was 31 C here, a new record for May 17. You just never know around here with the weather, for now it almost looks like we skipped spring entirely ...

(see, it's lack of familiarity with such warmth that led me to go running yesterday in the late afternoon, the hottest part of the day, needless to say it didn't go too well.. actually it was more desperation that I have the Coronation Triathlon in just over a week and need to do more running to get up to 8 km beforehand.)

Interesting how prior to my recent trip to Victoria late April/early May, I remember thinking how brown everything was here in Edmonton - snow melted early, lots of gravel still on the roads from winter, grass not greening up yet and leaves not yet coming out on the trees. Therefore, Victoria was quite the contrast - the friends I stayed with were apologizing that a recent storm had blown all the blossoms off the trees, and that the deer in their neighbourhood generally eat all the tulips. And I'm just thinking to myself, "Green leaves... green grass... flowers... wow... "

But when I returned from Victoria, in just a week there was much more green here - to the point now where it's actually quite green, the lilacs are blooming, and the blossoming trees are starting to bloom as well (including our crabapple). Even the really slow-to-leaf-out ash trees the City planted on our block are starting to turn green ... I have really noticed the change on some of my bike rides recently, now if only they'd clean the gravel off the roads :-)

Bike update - still getting used to the new bike but went 10 km the other day, mostly still using the mountain bike because that's what I'll be doing the triathlon on, impressed with myself that I've made it up a couple of hills this year that I hadn't been able to do before (going north on the old country club road from Westridge to Rio Terrace, going south on the old 184 Street through Wedgewood Ravine), and a few that I hadn't been on before (Keillor Road, bike path beside the Whitemud Freeway down to Rainbow Valley and back up again, going east). So maybe I will get the courage to tackle Emily Murphy Hill, and thus perhaps enter the triathlon in conjunction with the World Cup here in July.

One other comment about Victoria - contrasts! Like between the $25 million house for sale in Uplands that we drove by (or even the Gordon Head area where I stayed one night with friends), and the derelict building and homeless people across the street from the hotel where I stayed during my conference.

Good few weeks for Davitamon-Lotto...

(which is the name of my favourite pro cycling team, btw). First, Robbie McEwen (top) won Stage 1 of the Tour de Romandie, a one-week ProTour stage race in Switzerland. Then Chris Horner (middle) won Stage 2, with one of the most jubilant victory-line photos I've seen. Finally, Cadel Evans (R) won the final stage (an individual time-trial) and thus won the overall race!

Then, the Giro d'Italia started last weekend - this is one of the three "Grand Tours" (the best-known being the Tour de France). There have been 6 stages so far, and Robbie McEwen has won three of them - go Robbie!



(and notice how Nick Gates, another Aussie rider on Davitamon-Lotto, even made it into the finish-line photo sort of, having helped Robbie to the win)



(photos from www.davitamon-lotto.com and www.mcewenrobbie.com)

New bikes! :-)

It had been something we were thinking about for the future, but for a number of reasons we decided to go ahead and both buy road bikes now:
1) taking 2 months off work in 2005 meant I paid too much ahead of time in income tax so I got a nice refund recently,
2) kept thinking we'd need more savings for a "maternity leave" but so far it doesn't look like that's happening any time soon,
3) Ed's thinking about riding to work this summer (save money on gas plus better for overall health and fitness),
4) I'm thinking of doing more triathlons this year and tired of everyone blowing by me on their light road bikes compared to my heavy mountain bike,
5) with road bikes that means we can actually put the stubby mountain bike tires back on the MTB's (instead of the slick tires we've been using) and ride off-road with the MTB's again...
(is that enough reasons?)

Ed was nice enough to wait until my bike came in so we could pick them up together, which we did today. Apparently, it's a really good time for the bike industry these days and Trek is behind in shipments - usually it only takes a few days to order one apparently but mine took two weeks...

Unfortunately, the weather hasn't co-operated so we haven't had a chance yet to ride outside (which would involve initially just going up and down the nearby minimal-traffic cul-de-sac in order to get used to clipless pedals), but hopefully tomorrow there will be some breaks from the rain. (Actually, by tomorrow I'll likely be so eager to try it that I'll go out rain or shine).

Some pics for your enjoyment - Ed's is the dark grey Trek 2100, and mine is the white Trek Pilot 2.1 .